From about 5pm GMT, (9am local time), there was a sudden surge in Network Traffic through 70 different ISP’s in North America. Traffic peaked at about 9:30pm GMT, (1:30pm local), at a staggering 700 Gbps. That’s 500 Gbps more than usual.

Because the play-off went ahead on a Monday, most people were at work and watched the action streamed live over the Internet. The spike in traffic was so big that some engineers thought that they were witnessing a new form of DDOS, (Distributed Denial of Service), attack.

Arbor Networks have a graph of the huge traffic spike, along with a time-line of play in the US Open. They’re calling it the Tiger Effect, which would seem to be the opposite of the Slashdot Effect.

At the moment, the iPlayer Download Manager is a Windows only program, although the BBC states streaming service will work with any browser capable of using the latest Flash plugin. Even when it does go online, the iPlayer will only be available to users based in the UK, though there is a BBC Worldwide version of iPlayer slated for release “as soon as possible”.

Discover the name of your one true love!

was the phrase that caught my attention. Not because I want to know the name of my one true love, but it’s the type of phrase that immediately brings up my bullshit detector. Alarm bells were ringing, and the ad was less than a second old.

Send a text to [our premium cost number] and we’ll text you back with the name of your one true love.

Now I was laughing. Who in their right mind would believe this rubbish? Then came the kicker:

This is a subscription service, €3 per text, three texts per week.

So even the company providing this pseudo-service thinks it’s rubbish, otherwise why would they need to hedge their bets by sending three names a week. That’s a whole load of loving!

I watched the first season and about 2 episodes of the second season. Then I gave up. It wasn’t going anywhere, and the promise held by the program rapidly dissappered. Every episode just raised more and more questions, with very few of them being actually answered.

Given that the ratings have been dropping around the world, it seems strange that ABC have announced that Lost will run until 2010. That means that there will be 6 seasons in all, and the question comes to mind, when are they going to stop creating doubts, and start providing answers? Considering that it’s been 3 seasons already, they’d want to start fairly soon.

There’s only one small annoyance: Chorus recently changed their channel numbering scheme, but it hasn’t been updated on the XP Media Center Guide as of yet. At least the Media Center Guide allows you to edit the channel numbers, but it’s a pain in the backside to re-number each channel. I’ll have to do some research and see if there is an easier way to do it.

I’m not so sure about digital television. It means investing in new equipment, and it’s going to cost. It also means new DRM schemes, and new ways for the content companies to make money by selling you multiple copies of the same program/ DVD / music. The content companies want you to buy a separate copy for your computer, your DVD player, and your personal jukebox. Who’s to say that with the advent of digital television that you’ll have to pay an exorbitant fee just to record your favourite program? Or worse, that you’ll be prevented from making any recordings? With digital broadcasts these are a possibility.

If implemented properly, digital television services promise a much better viewing experience. Better quality reception, more channels, and better integration with the Internet. Convergence is the name of the game, with all your media and network requirements available at the touch of your television remote. There’s a lot of hype to live up to, and we’re reliant on the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to do the job properly. Hopefully they’ll handle this better than the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government handled the electronic voting fiasco.

Digital TV is coming and there is no way to stop it. Analogue services will be switched off in 2012 whether we like it or not. I just hope than when it does, we’re not going to be held to ransom by content providers.

Speaking of Family Guy, I recently bought the first 4 series and got my hands on a copy of the 5th season, and have spent the last few days watching as much as I can. Considering the amount of work that I have to get done, I’m really putting my time to great use. At least, I have a new bunch of catch phrases to use.