WHATS NEW?
The crowd has spoken
Posted on: 16 September 2011It has been some time since the makers of Little Britain came up with the show 'Come fly with me'. Dutch televisionmaker, being the unoriginal copycats that they are, picked up on this show. They introduced the dutch version 'Ze ze vliegen' (which loosely translates to 'look at them fly'). The first time I saw the promo, I immediately felt that this was going to be another poorly made rip off of a nice show.
When I read the post on Facebook this afternoon, I got interested. Not in the show, but the reactions. As you can see, most people agree with me. Just a couple of the responses:
Aivaras Aigo: "original ist viel besser!" (Original is way better)
Arjan De Bruijn: "It's a 1:1 copy, but somehow they forgot to copy the humor"
Edward Jones: "i havent seen a worse rip of since Shameless USA"
Kirsten Verstraten: "The Dutch unfortunately do it all the time... you can't copy British humour in my opinion. I stick with the originals. :)"
I guess that the person who did the Facebook post is facepalming right now.
(as he or she should)
The thing I'd really like to know is... what were they thinking posting it on Facebook?
It has nothing to do with the original show. At the most it is an insult to the original show. It's obvious that people will respond in disgust. Anyway... this whole thing only supports my idea that Dutch television doesn't really exist. It's just ripping off and raping a good idea. Just air the original with subtitles or something, but don't do a remake.
2 comments
The Gruen Transfer
Posted on: 12 September 2011I just discovered the serie 'The Gruen Transfer'. It's a show about marketing and advertising which can be seen on ABC (Australia). The items I saw on YouTube made me an instant believer of this concept. Which leads me to think... how long will it take for this concept to reach the Netherlands.
Lots of good concepts have been bought abroad and have been brought to my little country. No problem so far. The thing is that television makers here in the Netherlands seem to have the weird skill to really screw up any show.
One of the latest shows here is the Dutch version of Come Fly With Me. Come Fly With Me is a show that parodies the whole airline world. We Dutch people seem to have succeeded to copy almost everything in the most horrible way ever. It's an insult to the original show.
To get back to The Gruen Transfer. I really like the show and I think it has potential to sell abroad. I'd love to see a Dutch version on the condition that someone makes sure that it won't be screwed up too much.
With this sentiment I leave you with a great clip from the show in which two agencies present their campaign to support child labour. Enjoy!
Nuon E-Manager
Posted on: 01 September 2011I found this article on facebook about the new Nuon E-Manager. It's a cool little device which you hook up to your electricity and gas meter. The device keeps record of the energy consumption, it allows switching devices on and of from your mobile devices and internet.
Finally a smart way of keeping up with your consumption and make energy consumption a fun thing to tinker with.
I'm really curious what the retail price will be for one these things. Most people who know me will confirm that I love gadgets, so... who knows... maybe in a couple of years I will be switching stuff on and off through my iPhone 6. :)
Anway... check out this short clip of you are interested.
If you are Dutch and you want a chance to test the E-Manager you can sign up and win one! Check it out on www.nuonemanager.nl
Layerstyles
Posted on: 13 August 2011Webdesigner Magazine had a great tip!
Check out Layer Styles! It provides an interface similar to the layer styles in Adobe Photoshop, and it gives you the complete CSS code.
It's fun to play around with and its very usefull if you don't want the hassle of googling all the css stuff.
Personalised Digital Television
Posted on: 25 July 2011I've been using DTV for a couple of years now and I must say... I like it. The added benefits of a Digital Video Recorder make DTV even more interesting.
There is one thing that kinda annoys me though.
With the current technology it shouldn't be too hard to offer Personalised Digital Television.
With Personalised Digital Television I mean a bundle of channels that I've picked myself. Untill now, I've always been restricted to a couple of packages from which we can choose. These mostly include channels that I don't find interesting. Maybe this is why I rarely turn on my TV and watch everying I like on my computer.
Wouldn't it be nice though to just pick the channels you want... Somehow I think that it won't be long before we get this option. And why shouldn't we? Most things that we used to do offline are already available online.
Think of listing to music. We used to need a radio, tapedeck, recordplayer, etc.. Nowadays we log into one of the many websites and pick the music we want to hear. Why shouldn't this be possible with television?
I'm very curious about what we can expect in the future and am looking forward to the numerous options that will be at our disposal. We'll see.
Mobile webapps
Posted on: 16 July 2011For quite some time now I've been wanting to build an iPhone app. I haven't really done anything up untill now for one reason. I do not own an Apple computer. For as far as I knew this would pretty much ruin my chances to make an app. Boy, was I wrong...
I'm currently busy making a mobile webapp. The great thing about webapps is that they are... here it comes... webbased! There are a handfull of really good frameworks out there to help you make one of these webapps.
I chose jQuery Mobile to start off with. Even though my jQuery skills are quite limited, I managed to make a really nice webapp. I've been mainly testing it on my iPhone and an Android simulator. At this time I can not tell you what it exactly is that I'm making, but I'm really enthousiastic.
Want to try making a webapp yourself?
Go have a look around on the web and let those ideas run wild! If you have questions you can ask them in the comments.
Be professional
Posted on: 07 July 2011I regularly receive phonecalls or e-mails from people who may have a job for me. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate it if people contact me. It must mean that they like my work or have heared positive things about me. Still most of these messages are left unreplied. The first point of contact can make or break our future relation. You can look at it as a businesscard. If it's not good? Than there's no deal. Here's my top 5 list of reasons not to write or call back.
1. Misspelling of my name. My e-mail address is jakob@jakobtolsma.nl or info@jakobtolsma.nl. It even spells the name out for you! How can you still misspell my name and how am I suppose to take you seriously if you (obviously) don't check your message before contacting me? So check the message and while you're at it... also check for capitols and punctuation.
2. Who are you? I always like some background on the companies or people that offer me stuff. Most of the time the messages just ask me to write back or call back if I'm interested. How can I be interested in a company I don't even know? So... Why should I take time to get back to you?
3. E-mails from a hotmail, gmail, yahoo account.
Come on people... it's the year 2011. Everyone has the possibility to get domain name. With this domain name comes the possibility to create e-mail addresses. If you write to me, saying you're a company.. than why mail me from a hotmail account? Be professional, use an e-mail address that corresponds with your own domain name.
4. "I have some jobs you might be interested in"... Well what are you waiting for? Tell me. What kind of jobs? You have already taken the time to send me a message. Why not send me the whole thing. And how am I to give you an indication of the price for a project, if I don't know what the project is? This can save us both a lot of time.
5. "I found your address somewhere on the internet." Yay, the webcrawlers are doing there job. Nice to know you found me. It might be nice to tell me where you found me. You could be reacting to a message from years ago.
So.. if you are looking for someone that you want to hire. Take the things above into consideration. It just makes a message that more professional. This of course works both ways. If you apply for a job. Be professional. Check your message before you send it out.
Plus One
Posted on: 02 July 2011I just added the Google Plus One button on my website. I have to say that this one went faster than adding the facebook like button. Anyway... +1 anything you like around here!
Make me famous! ;)
New website
Posted on: 22 May 2011Welcome on my new website.
I re-did the previous one to give me some more flexibility.
I will be posting new projects and other stuff here.