You know you're good at something when you can't find any courses that teach something you don't already know.

The only course I can find on advanced T-SQL and extended stored procedures in SQL2005 requires someone from Microsoft to fly down from the USA to teach it.

Yay me.

Massive blow to free-to-air TV [The Age]:

THE longstanding walls protecting free-to-air TV continue to crumble, with the announcement that the commercial networks will make their jealously guarded electronic program guides available to all manufacturers.

The decision, announced by the peak networks body FreeTV, dilutes an agreement reached in May between the Seven Network and TiVo, an American personal video recorder company.

The recorders are digital set-top boxes that enable viewers to record shows using information from electronic program guides.

How is this a "massive blow"? And how does it dilute the TiVo deal?

I was under the impression that the new TiVo technology was smart enough to record a "show" and not a "timeslot" so if I said "record House" it would record House whenever it was on, even if it moved or was late or was a special movie length episode and went for two hours. That was what made it cool. It looks like I was wrong. It looks like the whole TiVo deal and the "agreement" with all the free to air channels was simply to allow use of their TV guides. How insanely lame.

That isn't any better than G-Code and look how well that went.

It effectively makes the new TiVo boxes coming out no different at all to any other PVR I could pick up for $400 at Dick Smith Electronics, except it has labelled timeslots. Labelled timeslots are not worth $10 a month.

If all of this comes down to simple TV guides I think television as a whole is in way more trouble than I could have imagined. It's obviously all run by complete morons.

More from The Age article:

Electronic program guides are not simply an electronic version of a TV guide. Coupled with a personal video recorder, they allow viewers to choose what they watch and when.

The advance means less couch potato sprouting and more "appointment viewing". Critically, it also means viewers can fast forward through advertisements.

Free-to-air networks and many advertisers have been fearful that video recorders could undermine the annual $3.4 billion TV advertising market.

Just like VCRs. That everyone has had. For THIRTY YEARS!

This reminds me so much of all the hysteria around iPods, like portable music devices are a new thing.

The only real difference is space (typical cheap PVR will record 30 hours vs. 10 hours max on a VCR) and a better interface for scheduling recording.

I suppose that's all the difference.

But this is nothing new.