From the MediaGuardian:

The BBC has pledged to work more closely with technology giants such as Microsoft and Apple as part of a plan to overhaul its website and prepare for a world where programmes will increasingly be watched on demand over the internet.

According to Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s director of new media and technology:

The pace is hotting up … We are already working on a radically different search engine and thinking about how we completely reinvent bbc.co.uk. It’s time to completely redesign it for a web 2.0 world.

It would be remarkable if the BBC outsourced its on demand services, but given cost constraints it would be a sensible approach. Why not give Amazon S3 a go, or Akamai. I’m not sure about the Web 2.0 reference, however. Methinks this is marketing speak: Web 2.0 is all about sharing and collaboration. Are the BBC really going to embrace that? For example, the way that blogs are evolving means that they often precede and ‘out-journal’ traditional news media, so news organisations need to get smarter.

Here’s something I discovered today: if I drag contents from a Windows XP folder window over to another folder window, but that second window is partially hidden, nothing happens. I can’t be sure where I’m dragging to.

Of course, in Mac OSX, a partially hidden Finder window pops to the front so I can see where I’m dragging to. The difference in usability is remarkable.

I had lots more thoughts on Amazon S3 during yesterday. I think it’s a going to be a revolutionary service for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s worth signing up to just to experiment with the possibilities.

People have commented that the API seems fairly restrictive. My initial observation was that there was no support for searching, especially in the metadata. However, S3 is not a database, it’s a repository. You’d use it in conjunction with a database that you manage yourself.

There are code samples written in PHP, Perl, Java and, of course, Ruby.

I can envisage a Rails plugin appearing soon that provides ActiveRecord-friendly integration.

Here, have some Vista images.

I particularly (don’t) like:

#3: the Taskbar

#15: the ‘Additional Options’

#17: the Window-that-isn’t until you hover for it

#18: the Poor Man’s Exposé

#19: the Poor Man’s Dashboard

#24: the Windows System Performance Rating, huh?

#25: the “Startup programs are causing Windows to start slowly” message

#34: Windows Ultimate Extras (!)

#38: the Change icon option for a network

#42: the Solve Problems On Your Computer facility

#47: ZDNet, Bookmarks or what?

#61: metadata; ‘initial active music service provider’

On the other hand, the following is good, but this is IE7 not Vista:

#50: Filtering RSS categories

#51: Phishing Filters

Note to self: There are not sixteen months in a year.