University Challenge

Just read this article: 'Does University Challenge really test intelligence?'

The BBC is notorious for moderating comments on their website, so mine will probably not get published - but here it is for my blog's benefit. I challenge you to disagree.

I say: "Questions on UC (like Mastermind) are distinctly British and mainly test memory. In today's world, when it has become much easier to access information, people that are truly intelligent put more effort into being able to analyse diverse and large quantities of information than in memorising its detail. University Challenge participants might be brainy, but for this reason, are probably quite un-intelligent."

So in effect, Gail Trimble might be the brainiest woman in Britain, but her success on 'University Challenge' is perhaps evidence that she does not use her capability intelligently enough.

Analysing this in technological terms, it would be stupid to make the CPU in a computer do the graphics processing when a separate graphics chip is already present on the board. 

Rather than admiring such an obvious fault, we should be condemning those that implement it this way. University Challenge is an obsolete concept from an age when information was still only found in print and fifficult to aggregate. We need a 'University challenge 2.0' now.

Brain power is expensive. Machines are cheap. Lets leave the memorization to the machines please and leave us to do higher things - like analysis, or invention. Anybody?

'Click' on BBC - Is it even a Technology program?

Tech Geek or Muppet?

Oh there are no two ways about it, I hate 'Click', even its name sucks! It used to be 'Click Online' and then they probably figured 'oh wait, we can also click on the PC can't we?', so they renamed it 'Click'. Its funny because in tech terms, the word click is usually used as a verb and not so much as a noun...so the name of this program sounds like there's something waiting to happen - and I guess that is the story of the show as well.

So when Click Online started off many years ago, its lead presenter was Stephen Cole, who before his lead role in 'CO', used to present news bulletins on BBC world. I think it was probably late 90s or early 2000s, the time of the tech boom and much excitement around the world about dot coms and the possibilities of the internet. So there we had Cole-man, with his white hair and extremely boring tech talk, telling us what it all meant for us. And this is the BBC's flagship technology program - pathetic!

Tech talk on Click is so basic, worn out, bored and even at times quite dated, that it completely bores the hell out of (nay, annoys the hell out of) a techie like me.

To make a pathetic show even worse, Stephen was replaced with Spencer Kelly, who in the BBC's own words, "studied computer science at Cambridge for three years, before realising that he had not understood any of it".

Right. It definitely shows because neither Spencer, nor any of his wannabe flashy geek co-presenters, know anything about technology. I don't understand it. The BBC does not dumb down Panorama or Horizon for amateur audiences - why then must it dumb down Click with presenters who are clearly not technologists but just a bunch of amateur star wars memorablia collectors?

According to the BBC: Kate Russell, a co-presenter and infinitely more annoying than anyone else on the show, "likes to tinker with her PC, is still hooked on video games and is currently teaching herself computer animation. Yes, that's right. She really is a geek."

Right. And here is proof that playing video games does not qualify someone to talk nonsense on a TV show. In today's program, she was reviewing a website, 'It works on Java, so you will need that function activated to get it working'.

No shit Kate. Where can I download this Java 'function' from? From java.com did you say?

The whole program's like a bunch of roadside mechanics talking about fuel cell engined cars. Its just impossible to understand. If the show was indeed meant for grandparents, why hide it under the tag line 'BBC's flagship technology program' - just admit that its not and never will be! And for heaven's sake, stop broadcasting this on BBC World.