Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

I’ve got an HD ready television. It’s got all the right dillmans and pokolocs plugged in the right way round, yet I can’t get HD programmes on it.

The screen doesn’t even flicker when I try.

And I think I’ve found out the reason.

A Dutch research team recently sat a group of punters down to watch a telly show on an ‘ordinary’ TV set. Then they took them into another room and told them to watch the same programme in High Def. and say if they could see any difference.

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You probably know that there are some pretty impressive video game developers on the Isle of Wight in the guise of Stainless Games.

Well, the Island now has another game developer that it can be proud of – Team Mango, which yesterday, released its game, Dysnomia.

They’re on a very different scale to Stainless, as there is but one in Team Mango – Gareth Williams.

Written on the Island
In an amazing feat of persistence and programming skills, Gareth has created a very slick looking video game, all coded by himself on the Island, from start to finish, in ten months.

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You might remember previous discussions on VB when it was learnt that Google would be including the Isle of Wight in their Street view application.

The service allows you to select an area on a map and look around at street level, as if you are standing in the actual street.

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Residents of Totland who do not have their own computers can now benefit from a free service being trialled by their local Parish Council.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Isle of Wight Rural Community Council (IWRCC) of £2,000, the Totland Parish Council have installed three computer workstations for residents to use at the Parish Office.

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Road traffic accidents are, by their very nature, tragic, as it’s possible that they could have been avoided.

The BBC has gathered data from across the UK showing details of traffic accidents and have put them on an interactive map. It’s a project we’ve been thinking about for a while, so can cross it off our to do list now.

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The Audit Commission has today launched a new Website, OnePlace, that brings the reporting of a local services in an area into one place (wonder how they came up with that name?).

Obviously the first things that people will want to know is how does their local area do?

OnePlace has a number of different sections, reporting on Isle of Wight Council; Isle Of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority; Isle of Wight NHS Primary Care Trust; and Hampshire Police Authority.

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Remember a little while back we told you how the Isle of Wight college was in the running for Best college Website in the UK?

Here’s the update – They’ve only gone and won it haven’t they!

The three members of the IW College marketing team made the journey to the Hilton Hotel in Coventry for the College Marketing Network’s FE First Awards last week, finding themselves heading back with the award that Rachel Smith, the Director of Marketing for The College Marketing Network, told us was very hard to judge as “the quality on entries were so high.”

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We’ve tried to make using Events.OnTheWight as easy to use as possible, but we know when you first hit a Web site, it can take a little while to get used to.

To give you a bit of a short cut, we’ve created an eight minute introductory guide to how you can find out what’s going on over the Island.

The video below is best viewed full screen, so to expand it, click the box with arrows pointing outwards, below the big play button in the middle of the screen.

Video after the jump
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We’ve been meaning to write about the new Website for Isle of Wight College for ages.

It was completely remade a while back by Aaron Bentley, who did a great job, really lifting it.

Clearly it’s not just us who think he’s done a great job, as the site has reached the final two in the College Marketing Network’s FE First Awards.

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If you publish hyper-local news and allow public comment, or even if you allow comment on your blog, there was a significant ruling in the English courts this week.

Regional publisher Newsquest was being sued by a disbarred lawyer for comments that had been left on one of their Web sites by a member of the public.

Previously, the way the law stood, it wasn’t completely certain if the person running a Web site – in the eyes of the law, the ‘Publisher’ – would be responsible for comments made by readers of the site.

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How did we ever live without Google maps is a thought that flits across our minds from time to time.

The ability to type in a postcode or address and find out the lay of the land is invaluable when trying to navigate to a new destination.

We’re lucky on the Island as the Isle of Wight benefits from some of the most accurate coverage of any area in the UK.

Where many places have to make do with inaccurate satellite photos, you can zoom right in to most of the Island, clearly seeing cars and people.

It also, from time to time, throws up some funny anomalies.

We found one today.

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As you will have read earlier in the week, today is National Get Online Day.

The Riverside Centre in Newport are welcoming anyone down today who might be interested in learning the basics of how to get online between now and 4pm.

We popped down there this morning to have a chat with Fraser McDermott who oversees all IT at the Centre.

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This coming Friday is National Get Online Day.

Across the country, UK Online Centres will be helping people get online and the Isle of Wight will be doing their bit too.

As you’re reading this online, it’s probably a given that you’re Internet savvy already, but if you know someone who hasn’t a clue about what the Internet has to offer or any idea of how to get online, then why not encourage them to head to the Riverside Centre in Newport Quay.

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We know that there are some of you out there who have more than an amateur interest in gaming and games design.

It’s possible that you might not have heard, but there’s a new PhD being offered by Portsmouth University which could be right up your street if you fancy getting involved in some pretty advanced research.

The studentship aims to explore recent innovations in gaming mechanics, player experience, platforms, content, emotion, AI, audio, graphics and genres to develop experimental games for the public domain.

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Many thanks to lunar boffin Dr Lucy Rogers, who also happens to be Chairman of the Vectis Astronomical Society, for this article on the exciting developments happening in space today. Ed

A spacecraft will plunge into the surface of the moon at just after 12:30 this afternoon.

Four minutes later, a second spacecraft will follow it. This is not accidental.

NASA has sent the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (“LCROSS” for short) and its Centaur booster rocket on a collision course for a reason. The spectacular double-impact is designed to “unearth” signs of frozen lunar water.

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We’re hearing rumours that there may be another Internet radio station launching soon on the Island.

You may be aware that an Internet radio station called WightFM launched with a lot of hoopla, which was further extended when Alex Dyke left Isle of Wight Radio to join it.

Well, all of the presenters (including the owner of the station, Martin Potter) appear to have left WightFM and it’s just automatically playing music these days (although a couple of weeks ago there was a promise to restart the station).

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This weekend we went along to the Talk About Local un-conference in Stoke (a mere six hours away) to talk to others doing hyper-local news about the highs and lows of running sites like this.

While there we met up with an excellent fellow called @CountCulture.

He’s been building a system to make local councils around the UK more open and accessible to all. It’s called OpenlyLocal and provides information about all of the current councillors and committees

Beside giving him a big old pat on the back for the whole project, we urged him to get the Isle of Wight Council plugged into the system.

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Another positive, peaceful contribution being made to the Vestas sit-in is by a collective called Bicycology.

They’ve brought a tandem, a connected dynamo, battery and sound system to it.

To provide music and a PA for people addressing the crowd of supporters, they hop on the tandem and peddle slowly and steadily, charging the battery.

No damage to the environment, just freely-provided pleasure.

Video after the jump
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We’ve been Following what we thought was John Giddings on Twitter. we say “thought,” because at the moment you’re not 100% certain who is who on Twitter (what’s Twitter?).

Chatting to (the real) him at the Festival, we took the chance of asking if JohnGiddings01 was him (more…)

Remember that we let you know that BBC TV Tech correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, was filming on the Island last week?

Well the video has just hit the BBC Web site and will be featured on the BBC News this evening on the 6pm show.

Great to see Andy Stanford-Clark getting more attention for his ground breaking tech.

Have a watch of it …

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Well known BBC technology reporter Rory Cellan-Jones is on the Isle of Wight today, to chat to, interview and film Andy Stanford-Clark at his house on the south of the Island.

Why would that be? Andy Stanford-Clark’s house is rather famous in the world of technology – as it’s on Twitter.

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The Ventnor Carnival Association are looking for a volunteer to design their new Web site.

They tell us that its creator will have a free hand to produce a vibrant and exciting Web site worthy of Ventnor.

The ideal candidate could be any age – either a professional with time to spare, a gifted amateur, or a student in the field wanting to make an impression.

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You’ve got to love it when Twitter has the mickey taken out of it.

The wacky dooods at College Humour have created a video of one of them shouts out Tweets at the top of his lungs while standing in various locations in the middle of a city. Everyone, being cool city-types, doing their best to ignore him. Classic.

Well worth watching.

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The Isle of Wight Council has today published its decisions about the future of the council’s ICT strategy (Computers, etc).

Taken by Cllr Barry Abraham – Cabinet Member for Residents, Resources and the Fire Service – under delegated powers, they’ve gone for Option C, approving the updated ICT Strategy as a final document that we linked to when reporting that the IW Council ICT Strategy was under review.

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Looks like there’s a big review ongoing in the way that the IW Council uses computers and technology more generally.

There’s a 31 page document that’s available to be read by everyone, giving an overview of the wide-ranging proposed changes, including headings for some of the monies that they’re planning to spend over the coming years, totalling around £5 million.

The doc aims to inform the decision on how to proceed, which will be made soon under delegated powers – ie not debated publicly.

Reading it through you get the impression that the IT there has been left to stagnate over the years and it needs a shot in the arm to get it back up to par.

There’s lots in the doc, so we’ve had a quick flick through it and picked up a few bits that are below.

Any Tech Islanders have comment?
The Island is a hotspot for technical tuned-up people, so given this, it would be really interesting to hear what you all think of it.

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