The new season of 24 started last night on Sky One with a double bill. If you haven't seen it yet, be aware that the next sentance may spoil it for you.
It didn't take long to get going with David Palmer and Michelle Dessler being killed off in the first 15 minutes, and Tony Almeda in a critical condition! I reckon it has to rate as one of the best starts to a series I've ever seen.
It's the first time I've watched 24 on the TV. Normally I watch them on DVD (Kate has bought all of the first four seasons). There are two bad points about seeing them on TV. Number one is the adverts, although they do space the episodes out to make them nearer to the real time that they are meant to be. Number two is having to wait a whole week for the next episode. I want to see what happens now!!! (By the way that is not an invitation for those who have already seen the next few episodes to email me and spoil it.)
More work has been going on with my website behind the scenes. It's now directly accessible from bengamblin.com and bengamblin.co.uk as opposed to those address simply redirecting to bengamblin.org.uk.
I've also taken out the part of the url containing /php/ to make individual pages slightly easier to remember if needed.
I've also got a customised 404 error page so people arriving at the site from an invalid search engine link can still navigate around, and I've learnt how to password protect certain areas so my admin section is more secure than before.
I still need to work on getting the images back onto the site and reinstating the Ben On The Radio section. Both of these I've been putting off for no particular reason.
It didn't take long to get going with David Palmer and Michelle Dessler being killed off in the first 15 minutes, and Tony Almeda in a critical condition! I reckon it has to rate as one of the best starts to a series I've ever seen.
It's the first time I've watched 24 on the TV. Normally I watch them on DVD (Kate has bought all of the first four seasons). There are two bad points about seeing them on TV. Number one is the adverts, although they do space the episodes out to make them nearer to the real time that they are meant to be. Number two is having to wait a whole week for the next episode. I want to see what happens now!!! (By the way that is not an invitation for those who have already seen the next few episodes to email me and spoil it.)
More work has been going on with my website behind the scenes. It's now directly accessible from bengamblin.com and bengamblin.co.uk as opposed to those address simply redirecting to bengamblin.org.uk.
I've also taken out the part of the url containing /php/ to make individual pages slightly easier to remember if needed.
I've also got a customised 404 error page so people arriving at the site from an invalid search engine link can still navigate around, and I've learnt how to password protect certain areas so my admin section is more secure than before.
I still need to work on getting the images back onto the site and reinstating the Ben On The Radio section. Both of these I've been putting off for no particular reason.
A little entry from my iPaq.
I've learnt today that one of my favourite cartoon kids programmes that I used to watch on CITV in the first half of the 90's is coming out on DVD in March.
It's none other than The Dreamstone, which will take proud position next to my Danger Mouse DVD!
I've learnt today that one of my favourite cartoon kids programmes that I used to watch on CITV in the first half of the 90's is coming out on DVD in March.
It's none other than The Dreamstone, which will take proud position next to my Danger Mouse DVD!
This is a message to Channel Four / E4 - WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU PLAYING AT!
Less than five minutes into Invasion and they are showing adverts. I thought it was bad enough at 10 minutes past, but this is ridiculous. I was under the understanding that OfCom had spoken to them about this too. Have you forgotten Mr Channel Four Boss Man / Ms Channel Four Boss Woman??? (got to be politically correct so I put both since I'm not sure).
CHANNEL FOUR - SORT IT OUT YOU MUPPETTS!!!
Less than five minutes into Invasion and they are showing adverts. I thought it was bad enough at 10 minutes past, but this is ridiculous. I was under the understanding that OfCom had spoken to them about this too. Have you forgotten Mr Channel Four Boss Man / Ms Channel Four Boss Woman??? (got to be politically correct so I put both since I'm not sure).
CHANNEL FOUR - SORT IT OUT YOU MUPPETTS!!!
I don't like the way Channel 4 are doing their adverts at the moment.
I've just finished watching the third episode of Invasion (which so far seems quite good by the way. I wonder if it will hold my interest longer than Lost did) and their ad breaks were at 8:07pm, 8:28pm and 8:45pm (give or take a minute or two).
That means that the programme has barely gotten started when they break for adverts and the in-programme title hadn't even shown. The 8:28pm break is okay but by the time the 8:45pm adverts had been shown there was only about 5 minutes of the programme left (and on this episode they managed to cock-up half of the final part by showing a static closeup image of a Pirelli tyre on a red sports car).
I'm sure hour long TV programmes used to only have 2 ad breaks at around 20 past and 20-to. Why can't they go back to doing that. It wouldn't spoil the enjoyment of the show as much that way.
Now I'm going to watch the first part of a 4 part mini-series on Sky 1 called "Category 7: The End Of The World". It's got mixed reviews so might be awful. We'll see.
I've just finished watching the third episode of Invasion (which so far seems quite good by the way. I wonder if it will hold my interest longer than Lost did) and their ad breaks were at 8:07pm, 8:28pm and 8:45pm (give or take a minute or two).
That means that the programme has barely gotten started when they break for adverts and the in-programme title hadn't even shown. The 8:28pm break is okay but by the time the 8:45pm adverts had been shown there was only about 5 minutes of the programme left (and on this episode they managed to cock-up half of the final part by showing a static closeup image of a Pirelli tyre on a red sports car).
I'm sure hour long TV programmes used to only have 2 ad breaks at around 20 past and 20-to. Why can't they go back to doing that. It wouldn't spoil the enjoyment of the show as much that way.
Now I'm going to watch the first part of a 4 part mini-series on Sky 1 called "Category 7: The End Of The World". It's got mixed reviews so might be awful. We'll see.
I'm just reading through Digital Spy and a thread on there mentions the "Next" banner on the ITV channels (well ITV 1 at least) that appears on the top right of the screen saying what programme is up next.
This occurs a couple of minutes before the end of the showing programme.
I got quite annoyed at this banner the other day. They were showing the film ET and the banner popped up a few minutes before the end, causing a major distraction from the film. The thing that really annoys me though is that when the credits are rolling, the have the voiceover person saying "Up next on ITV 1..." AND they show a list of the following 4 programmes.
So in the space of 5 minutes they tell me 3 times what is coming up next!
I can understand there being a voiceover person - there always has been as far as I can remember, and I can maybe forgive squashing the credits (although I still find that annoying), but this banner is stupid and not only do they have that, but they also have a press red option that pops up for 30 seconds after each ad break with some sort of competition.
Granted the box is small, but it's very annoying.
There should be rules that say during high profile programmes or films, these on screen graphics cannot be used. Only during programmes like soaps or the "How to make over your garden by giving your home a face lift" type programme can they be shown.
This occurs a couple of minutes before the end of the showing programme.
I got quite annoyed at this banner the other day. They were showing the film ET and the banner popped up a few minutes before the end, causing a major distraction from the film. The thing that really annoys me though is that when the credits are rolling, the have the voiceover person saying "Up next on ITV 1..." AND they show a list of the following 4 programmes.
So in the space of 5 minutes they tell me 3 times what is coming up next!
I can understand there being a voiceover person - there always has been as far as I can remember, and I can maybe forgive squashing the credits (although I still find that annoying), but this banner is stupid and not only do they have that, but they also have a press red option that pops up for 30 seconds after each ad break with some sort of competition.
Granted the box is small, but it's very annoying.
There should be rules that say during high profile programmes or films, these on screen graphics cannot be used. Only during programmes like soaps or the "How to make over your garden by giving your home a face lift" type programme can they be shown.