brit foot - one old lady, two old men, and young guns (ENG)

On my way to Heathrow and Rome monday I had the most charming and touching chat with an old cab driver, huge Arsenal fan.

‘-Where are you from?
-Isn’t it obvious?
-No. (and here I feel very flattered and decides a generous tip - maybe he was lying)
- I am afraid I am French
- Don’t be ashamed, you beat us in rugby, won the tournament.
- I am not so much into rugby. More a football fan.
- Arsenal huh?’

And there we go. He was sad and sorry that they are going to destroy Highbury and build yuppie flats instead. He fears with the new stadium it will become even more expensive for 'ordinary people' - the real supporters - to get tickets. Many executive lounges in the new stadium you know. Because of executive guys like us... But he wasn't bitter, nice man. I was French, I was wearing a suit and earning the kind of money that raises prices for rents and football tickets in London, and still he was nice to me, contrary to anti-French stereotypes. But as an Arsenal fan you can't be anti-French, can you?

24 hours later on tuesday evening I watched Arsenal v. Juventus in a bar on Via Nazionale in Rome. Little interest for the game in the bar. Roman did not really care, I surveyed cab drivers. There was a bunch of Chelsea jerks who did not give a shit either.

Despite their name, Juventus was overwhelmed by Arsenal’s Youth in its full glory (2-0). Again Fabregas (18) was just magnificent. One paper headlined ‘Who needs Vieira?’ Fabregas makes a terrific season and seems to raise his game when playing the best European teams, how promising! Highly symbolic moment when Pires tackled Vieira, passed to Henry who transmitted to Fabregas, who scored first goal.
Also very warm and moving welcoming from Highbury Vieira at the start.

Henry was fantastic in second half. Drove them mad. Camoranesi and Zebina lost their nerves and Juve finished with nine players. Sadly, Vieira received a yellow card that will deprive him from second leg.

Near to me was a lonely old tiffoso of the Old lady, very dignified gentleman. I felt a bit sorry for him after second goal but young guns were just too good yersterday.

At least another old man was happy back in London.

telly for dummy - hype definition (ENG)

Whilst technology is set for the launch of high definition (HD) services in Europe, the consumer appeal remains a big question mark. Do we really want higher quality? In consumer studies, people always say they want ‘picture quality’ above all, but the success of flat panel TV has nothing to do with picture quality.
Actually, LCD and plasma display technologies, although continuously improving, are still way behind the good old CRT technology on several quality criteria (colour, contrast, brightness, viewing angle, response time). But people don’t care, they go for flat. Slim, designer 16:9 flat panel TV are trendy, must-have gadgets, and the best ever argument given to husbands helping them convince their wives into buying a new, big TV before an upcoming football World Cup. Dad’s telly is no longer an ugly bulky box—and housewives can spare precious square feet for the replacement.

What does history tell us about quality? Was VHS a better format than Betamax? Of course not. Did CD and DVD succeed because of their better sound or their higher usability? Probably more of the latter. What became of SACD, once promoted as a ‘high definition’ music format? A complete failure. Instead consumers fell in love with a low-quality yet portable format: MP3. Many examples show that ‘superior quality’ per se is not a guarantee of success. People love it in theory but are not always able to recognise it, let alone pay for it. And design or flexibility are often a more powerful driver. Samsung is launching high definition CRT models in Europe. Though a little thinner than traditional CRTs and much cheaper than flat-panel display, we don’t expect them to become more than a niche category.

Besides, can we tell high definition television when we see it? Can we detect the difference between standard definition (SD) and HD? The theoretical answer is yes. It has been said that whilst HD is a big quality leap in the US NTSC context, the HD improvement would be barely visible in a PAL/SECAM European environment. But our visual accuity can allow us to see tinier details than the pixels of a PAL image on an SD
screen viewed from a typical distance. Lab trials showed that on a 37-inch screen or above we can see the difference between SD PAL (576 lines) and HD (720 lines or more). But we are close to visual limits. Beyond 1080 lines any higher definition would result in no perceivable improvement in normal living room television viewing. In practice, in comparative screenings, most consumers would not see a big difference. But, of course, you never watch comparative screening in retail. You just watch an HD source from a demo feed and the result can be breathtaking.

To conclude: the hype about high definition being the biggest thing in television since colour is simply not true. Flat screens or even mobile TV are the bigger things in terms of revolutionising TV consumption. But anyway, whether we are aware of HD or not, whether we want HD or not, the beauty of consumer electronics marketing is that we will get HD-ready sets when migrating to flat panel displays. Then broadcasters and European pay TV operators will have an opportunity to try and differentiate with this feature, just like they are already doing in the US.
And even if the quality improvement is factually small,with time our eye will get used to HD sharpness, in sports and movies. We will watch SD in sports pubs or at friends places, so that within 10 years, SD will suddenly become ‘unwatchable’, and all other genres and channels will have to migrate to HD quality.
The words ‘high definition’ will disappear and HD will become standard television.