Gusworld Blog

The Allure of Kidmans

Gusworld — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:05:15 +0000

My esteemed brother is currently filling in as guest editor on Gizmodo, which maximises the already fairly high potential for people to get us confused. Indeed, we kicked off the week by both attending the same Telstra launch (you can read his take on it here).

For me, the Telstra launch of its Ultimate USB modem (read: high speed, high price, business users) was serendipitous on several levels. I wrote a consumer-slanted account of its launch for Lifehacker, and a story for iTnews about the introduction of unlimited plans for business users. Perhaps more importantly, Telstra also handed out loaner devices for people to test. Over the next week, I’m going to visit four states and six major cities, so the ability to test reception at a bunch of locations is going to be interesting and (eventually) informative.

The Tech Ed story well continued to drip, with a piece about Microsoft’s co-operation with the Samba team running on iTnews. This also included a video interview with Microsoft’s head open source dude. I’m quite happy with the questions, but the camera work is an object lesson in why I need to buy a tripod.

Tech Ed was also indirectly responsible for my review of the Jetstar lounge on the Gold Coast, which was this week’s Road Worrier column. As if this week’s manic travel wasn’t enough to be getting on with, it’s also Spring Cleaning Week on Lifehacker. That’s informed several of the lengthier pieces, including a Lifehacker Top 10 on how to deal with clutter and today’s Streaming column on keeping your physical media organised.

Over at Gizmodo, I had a photo tour of the Plantronics lab which I toured in California earlier this year. Despite the appearance of a photo story and a video story today, I’d much rather write. And that’s a segue into the rest of the Lifehacker pieces:

Must-Have In-Car Items For Lifehacker Readers (another Spring Cleaning Week piece)

Build An IKEA Laptop Stand From Handles And Brackets

Ensure Your Twitter Client Is Up-To-Date To Avoid Access Problems

Lunchtime Wrap: Spring Cleaning & Text Recognition

Ask Lifehacker: What’s The Best Scanning Software? (yet another Spring Cleaning Week piece)

Joss Whedon Can’t Write Until The Whole Idea Is Ready

Lunchtime Wrap: Per-Megabyte Plans & Hard Drives

Don’t Get Fooled Into Disabling Gmail’s Free Calls (which got a mention in Lifehacker US’s ‘Remains Of The Day’ roundup)

Welcome To Spring Cleaning Week On Lifehacker

Vodafone, 3 Increase Data Allowances On Contract Phone Plans

ATO Has Finalised 4.5 Million Tax Returns

Last Week’s Top Ten Posts

The lost Stephen Merchant interview

Gusworld — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:35:35 +0000

Back in 2004, I happened to be in London and the Australian asked me to interview Stephen Merchant, co-creator of The Office, ahead of the broadcast of the final episodes on free-to-air TV. At the time, Merchant and Ricky Gervais were working on Extras, though not much was known about it. The interview never got a run (occupational risk with newspapers), but I’m in an archival mood so here it is:

Picture by salimfadhley

Ricky Gervais has achieved international fame — and won two Golden Globes — for his portrayal of shocker boss David Brent in The Office. Yet while Gervais is very much the public face of the most successful British comedy in years, an equal share of the credit (and the Golden Globes) can be taken by his writing and directing partner Stephen Merchant.

Six foot-seven Merchant has mostly stayed out of the limelight, save for a brief cameo as Gareth’s mate Oggy. And although the pair were granted complete creative control over the show, Merchant says he was never tempted to take a bigger on-screen role.

“We were always guided by who was the best person for the role. Also, it’s nice to have someone behind the camera — we’re co-directing but Ricky’s often in the scene.”

In the past, Merchant has commented that Gervais can be a “nightmare” to work with. Surprisingly, he says this situation hasn’t been exacerbated by the show’s two Golden Globe wins.

“He’s much easier to work with now than he’s ever been. He still mucks around, but that’s an important part of the way we work, and where we get some of our best ideas.”

This lack of inflated ego may be because the pair never anticipated international acclaim. “We were surprised that it took off in the UK to the extent that it did, so the fact that it’s been successful in other countries is quite baffling,” he says. “I hope that it’s just because there’s a universality of some of the themes and ideas — the minutiae of office life are broadly the same everywhere.”

While Merchant shies away from comparisons to other classic UK sitcoms such as Fawlty Towers
Merchant pronounces himself pleased with the two newest episodes of The Office — in part because they expand on the existing template for the show. “I think the first of the two in particular is not quite what people were expecting. A lot of people thought it was quite dark — not a lot of funny dances or anything like that.”

The two specials, which find the documentary crew returning to Wernham Hogg three years on, also mark the end of the Office saga. The BBC would happily have commissioned further episodes, and at one time Merchant and Gervais themselves imagined the show running for three or four seasons, but any such plans have now been abandoned.

“I think the truth is we’ve got ourselves in a situation where we always envisaged it as having some sort of narrative — more like a film than a sitcom — and we didn’t want to repeat ourselves. We felt if we kept going we’d run out of ideas.”

The office environment itself, while easily recognised, is also somewhat limiting. “It’s very hard to bring in crazy characters and wild plots,” notes Merchant.

Indeed, he worries that this may already have happened. “Sometimes we wondered if we pushed it too far with the dance, or Brent in an ostrich costume — they’re moments that people love, but sometimes we wondered if we’d got too far away from the original idea. But it’s a sitcom, and sometimes you’ve just got to have jokes.”

In a series filled with memorable occurrences, which one is Merchant most pleased with? “My favourite moment is the one at the end of the second series where Tim unhooks his microphone when he’s talking to Dawn. It managed to use the documentary style at its best.”

For now, Merchant is determined we won’t see an Ab Fab-style resurrection a decade down the track — unless, he deadpans, he and Gervais develop “massive alcohol problems”.

Scarily, the only new Office we’re likely to see in the future is a planned American adaptation. Despite the decidedly mixed record of British sitcoms transferring to the US, Merchant is adamant that he and Gervais didn’t want a heavy level of involvement.

“We don’t really think we’re particularly equipped to write about American offices. They seem to be a lot more politically correct — there’s stuff in ours that they just wouldn’t get away with. And we didn’t want to feel like they had to be tied to our vision.”

The role of David Brent in the US version is being taken by actor Steven Carell, best known for his appearance in the movie Bruce Almighty.

“He stole a couple of scenes from Jim Carrey, which is no mean feat,” says Merchant.

“We’ve given it our blessing. It’s down to whether or not NBC likes it, and network television is very unpredictable.”

If it’s successful, will he become fantastically rich? “I would hope so. I want my own private jet.”

Another disincentive for stateside participation is that Merchant and Gervais are now at a very early stage in the writing of their next comic project. Gervais has said that, like The Office, it will be “another observational comedy about a man who says exactly what he’s thinking”.

However, the pair don’t plan to return to the pseudo-documentary style that made their name.

“I think the documentary thing is a bit limiting,” says Merchant. “What we will still hopefully bring is the naturalism of the performances and that slightly loose, improvisational feel.”

Oh dear, that’s me looking at a camera

Gusworld — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:07:02 +0000

I got interviewed by Steve from AuTechHeads about Tech Ed, Microsoft and my career as a journalist. Topics range from Office 2010 to Plants vs Zombies to why developers are getting slimmer. I really wish I’d taken my jacket off — the collar is a bit distracting.

Whedon the headlines

Gusworld — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:05:17 +0000

One of the things I get to do as an occasional contributor to Gizmodo is write up notable comments from geek celebrities when they make public appearances in Australia. I did that for Stephen Fry a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday I performed the same task for Joss Whedon, who is nipping through Australia on a brief speaking tour.

I’m a properly tragic Stephen Fry fan boy, while my acquaintance with Whedon is much more casual. But while the two articles use a similar format, the Whedon piece is much longer. I’m not sure whether that’s because my detachment made it easier to write, or whether he’s just a more natural Gizmodo subject. Guess I’ll go with the latter.

Lifehacker’s big post on Friday was the Planhacker column looking at how much you pay per megabyte for wireless broadband. Boy, that was some Excel work. And here’s the rest of the Lifehacker stuff to round out the week:

Ask Lifehacker: Why Does Mobile Signal Dry Up?

Ice TV Android App Goes Into Beta

Lunchtime Wrap: XBMC Blu-Ray & Loan Exit Fees

Why Are Workplace Help Desk Systems So Rarely Used?

Telstra Outlines Its Future Windows Phone 7 Hub Plans

JB Hi-Fi Has Two $20 iTunes Cards For $30

An eventful life

Gusworld — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:53:26 +0000

Apologies for not updating for a week, but I’ve been at a lot of events. When we last met, I was at G-Force, which turned on the usual OTT entertainment at the Gala Dinner on the first day:

This week, I’ve been on the Gold Coast for Microsoft’s annual Tech-Ed conference, which has been the source of quite a few stories. On the strictly enterprise front, there were a couple of interesting stories for iTnews:

On the consumer front, there have been a couple of pieces looking at Windows Phone 7 for Lifehacker and Gizmodo, the latter of which includes an obviously unwarranted reference to ejaculation:

Hands On With Windows Phone 7 Down Under(which also got cross-posted at Gizmodo)
Telstra Previews Windows Phone 7 Apps
Windows Phone 7′s Pubic Hair And iPhone Ban

And of course if a week has gone by, there will have been a bunch of regular columns for Lifehacker:

Loaded: Don’t Get Caught By Home Loan Exit Fees
Lifehacker 101: How To Manage Disposable Email Addresses With Gmail
Streaming: Why We Can’t Easily Get Uncapped Online TV
Road Worrier: Road Worrier Tries Out Swype
Planhacker: Planhacker: Call, Text, Voicemail And MMS Charges
Loaded: How Your Wages Changed This Year

And now (brace yourselves) the short posts:

I am feeling the G-Force

Gusworld — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:23:33 +0000

The above picture (of me asking a question at last week’s TechLines event) is included for no other reason than to prove yet again I am not photogenic.

Today: Lunch may have led to me spraying the word clusterfuck across Twitter a tad liberally, but G-Force did deliver the goods story-wise. For iTnews, I wrote up how Telstra will use remote workers for its planned 24-hour call centres, along with some of the technology challenges those centres will face. The emphasis this year on using social networking tools as part of the customer response mix also informed a long-ish piece I did for Lifehacker on the rights and wrongs of using Twitter for customer service.

The regular Lifehacker 101 column looked at lesser-known tricks for getting more from Word. And then (as ever) we have the shorter posts:

Aldi Has Cheap HD Set Top Box Tomorrow

iiNet Increases Broadband Download Limits, Starts Counting Uploads

Lunchtime Wrap: TV Recording & Word Pasting

Ask Lifehacker: Can I Read PDFs Using Kindle For Android?

OzRecycle Lets You Give Unwanted Stuff Away

Apple Free iPhone 4 Bumper Offer On Australian Site

Feel the G-Force

Gusworld — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:27:44 +0000

I’m in Melbourne for the next couple of days for the G-Force 2010 conference, which means lots of call centres and IVR and social media and executives rocking out to Aussie classics. The Twitter experience is bound to be better than last year, when the hamster movie was stealing focus.

Today’s Streaming column for Lifehacker looked at how time-shift ratings are calculated and why the process is a tad dodgy. Other hints on hacking your life from my virtual pen:

Is My Blog Working? Ranks Your Site’s Performance

DIY Hanging Garden From A Bathroom Basket

Ask Lifehacker: What Should I Do On A Sydney Staycation?

Lunchtime Wrap: Frequent Flyers & Windows Mac

HopShopGo Ships From US-Only Stores

Niggle It Organises Warranties And Reminder Dates (promptly picked up by the US Lifehacker site)

The not-quite-complete Tracey Ullman

Gusworld — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:53:44 +0000

One of the many sections hiding in the text-based archives of Gusworld is Gusworld Records. The idea of this “fantasy reissues record label” was to come up with theoretical CD reissues for material I thought needed to come out in a digital format. It seems a quaint idea in this download-driven age, and my usual over-reaching means that there’s only two artists featured on that section (though I did prep work for at least three or four more, which I really should upload one day).

Anyway, the most developed compilation on the site was They Don’t Know, a complete archive of everything Tracey Ullman released during her relatively brief musical career. Oddly enough, in early September there’ll be an actual compilation, Move Over Darling: The Complete Stiff Recordings, which aims to fulfil exactly the same charter. It even includes a previously unreleased track, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, which is the kind of detail I wasn’t likely to know about.

But is it complete? It took me a while to work this out. I heard about the reissue through Remember The Eighties, but that didn’t offer a track listing. Neither did the Amazon entry. Eventually, a pointer on Popjustice led me to a Play.com listing that revealed all 36 tracks.

The compilation does indeed include every single number Tracey released (even the spoken-word ‘The B-Side’, which is often ignored), and the aforementioned newbie. However, it doesn’t cover all the extended mixes, particularly from her first album. There’s no 12″ versions of ‘Breakaway’, ‘They Don’t Know’, ‘Bobby’s Girl’ or ‘My Guy’, though such tracks exist. When I was “compiling” my version, I spread it across three discs to make sure there was space; that may have been a factor here, but I still think the compilation could squeeze in a couple more long versions. Of course, I’ll still have to buy it, if only for the remastering.

Conference call confessions

Gusworld — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:31:35 +0000

I don’t like conference calls — the sound quality is often poor, there’s not always an obvious system for chiming in and asking questions, and they never start on time. But I sat through iiNet’s results announcements call yesterday, and ended up writing a story about them for iTnews. iTnews also featured a piece from me about the challenges Human Services faces in finding IT graduates, largely because there’s not enough people taking tertiary IT courses. This feast-or-famine scenario has been going on as long as I’ve been a journalist.

At Gizmodo, I had a brief piece noting that Apple’s attempts to block jailbreaking of in-store phones don’t seem to have fully extended to Australia, though the comments suggest it’s an even bigger issue in various JB Hi-Fi branches. As ever, Monday’s main Lifehacker column was Road Worrier, critically examining a survey ranking how easy it is to actually get seats on various frequent flyer programs. Elsewhere on Lifehacker:

Migrate Your Nokia Sports Tracker Data Before August Ends

Exetel Dumps Prepaid 3G Broadband Plans

Lunchtime Wrap: Fibre Networks & Brain Sabotage

ESTA For US Travel Will Now Cost You Money

Last Week’s Top Ten Posts

The rest of July and half of August, as written by me

Gusworld — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 22:35:45 +0000

Clearly I’m too slack/busy to do this in mega-detail. So apart from noting that I’ve finally recorded an appearance for Letters & Numbers, I’ll need to be brief. Let’s make some lists of what I’ve had published online since the last entry.

iTnews

Gizmodo

Lifehacker: The rest of Mastercheap

Lifehacker: Road Worrier

Lifehacker: Streaming

Lifehacker: 101

How Fibre Networks Can Increase Speed Really Quickly (also cross-posted at Gizmodo)
Best Google Search Tricks And Easter Eggs
Back Up Your Email Account By Forwarding To Gmail

Lifehacker: Loaded

Lifehacker: Planhacker

Lifehacker: Features

Lifehacker: Everything else

Phew!