I’m cheating on my hotmail account

I signed up to hotmail before I even really understood what email was. I was just excited that I could get to use my own name! And I’ve pretty much used that account ever since – it’s a sort of time capsule of my life in correspondence since the late nineties. Sometimes I trawl back through old emails and have a laugh, or cringe, at what I wrote and who I was writing to.

My love affair with hotmail, however, is slowly dying. And it’s for two main reasons. Firstly, I get so much junk mail I have had to set my filter to the highest level, which means I periodically miss important emails that I should be reading. Unfortunately, I learnt a little too late that entering your email address into the world wide web in order to win competitions and prizes doesn’t necessarily come without a price tag. Secondly – and, I didn’t realise it until fairly recently – hotmail has decided to add a signature to each of my sent emails, with a one-line advertisement. Not too big of a deal when emailing friends, but pretty frustrating when you’re emailing your CV to a potential employer.

So I’ve started an affair with gmail. It’s less attractive than hotmail; the interface is strange, and the way it lists emails is confusing, but I’m getting used to it. There aren’t any interactive banner ads, which is great, and the emails seem to be arriving at their intended destination, but I’m still unsatisfied and sometimes I ditch them both to spend an evening with Facebook.

I’m always on the lookout for a better model so let me know if you have any suggestions?

Photography in the Digital Age

I went to see a play on the weekend at fortyfivedownstairs on Flinders Lane in the city. It was a cool little venue and an interesting show; a take on photojournalist’s working in war zones, and the bonds and experiences they share, called Bare Witness.

In one sequence of the dialogue, some of the changes that have taken place recently in terms of digital technology were highlighted. Journalist’s no longer need to rely on physically shipping reels of images from geographically isolated areas with minimal infrastructure. Now, a simple click of a button and images are instantly available on editors’ news desks around the world.

The same is true of the paparazzi, who make big dollars by being the first to sell their images to the tabloids in a fast-paced, high turnover environment. This was highlighted in a documentary I watched, Paparazzi: Next Generation, in which young paparazzi were trailed around London as they stalked celebrities and instantly uploaded and sent off their photographs from laptops in the back of their cars. The only real barrier to the profession seemed to be acquiring the necessary equipment, and possessing the necessary bravado to avoid being muscled out of the next great shot of Paris Hilton leaving a club in Mayfair.

In the digital age, photography can be shared quickly and easily. And it’s not just journalist’s and paparazzi. People are documenting their own lives more and more through social media networks like Facebook, where you could spend an eternity trawling through photos of people’s lives.

Gone are the days where you would drop the film at the chemist and come back in three days, hopeful that some of them turned out ok!

Navigating TV Viewing Online

Living off a laptop recently (that is to say, without a tv!) has highlighted some of the benefits and difficulties in accessing traditional media on the internet.

Below is a link to each of the channel’s online viewing platforms:

• ABC
• SBS
• Channel Ten
• Channel 7
• Channel 9

In some instances the coverage is excellent; for example, the ABC’s iView means that I can catch up on most ABC content at my own leisure, and I find that the iView platform is simple and easy to use. The commercial channels are less impressive, with unattractive interfaces, badly indexed content, and advertising that is frustrating and repetitive (although I recognise that advertising is a necessary component of commercial television). It means that, aside from ABC content, I have had little success in watching tv online in a traditional manner.

I think it would be great if you could access overseas content as well, but unfortunately most overseas broadcasters impose geographical restrictions on accessing their content online. Surely in a world of global advertising campaigns, broadcasters should recognise and incorporate their overseas audiences rather than exclude them.I guess that broadcasters are still navigating the path to online integration.

Nevertheless, I am grateful to be able to access content online and in some instances I will probably continue to watch online even when I’m back in tv land.