Ikea TV

This full HD, LCD, Smart TV which can be connected to your home Wifi network is actually made by Ikea. The stand underneath it comes with the TV and it has an integrated CD/DVD/BLU-RAY player along with a 2.1 speaker system. This is in hope to stop a big bunch of messy wires behind the TV like what most house-holds have at the moment. The stand has compartments at the front which can be closed up but which still allow the remote control signal to come through to reach your sky, freeview or virgin media box.
It comes also with a wireless subwoofer which you can put where ever you like and an iPod and MP3 player dock build in. FM radio is also included.
On the side of the TV there are 2 USB ports and 4 HDMI ports so you will never have to unplug anything to make space for another.
The TV comes in all shaped and the stand comes in all different sizes so no matter how big or small your room is, it will fit.It is called UPPLEVA.

I'm genuinely surprised that this TV has specs like what it does. Whilst big TV brands like Samsung and Panasonic only focus on making TV's smart on the inside, Ikea has focused on the outside of the TV as well like their stand which the TV is connected to and how no matter what size screen you get it in, they all have the same quality and amount of options.
I think the price is going to be the only major issue because I can't imagine all of this coming cheap. The best feature for me will probably be how there is only 1 disk compartment and how it recognises and plays CDs, DVD's and BLU-RAY's.
So as long as the price stays down, I think this is going to be a successful TV which people should take seriously.

Great App Idea

Wouldn't it be a good idea to make an app which writes music for you. You press a button and hum a tune then it works out what musical notes you are making and how long you are holding them for and then it writes music for you and it can play the music back for you on piano or guitar or whatever musical instrument you want. Then if you want to add chords you can select the musical note you want to add a chord to and hum the chord. The app name 'Hum Music?' 'Humusic?'

Passwords!?!?

If there is 3 computers and 2 network ports locked behind a locked door and one of the computers doesn't need a network conection becuase it is only used for video. What is the point of connecting it to the network leaving a computer which does need the internet, networkless! This means I can't now do I job that needs doing urgently because the video editing PC is connected to the network which means someone has password locked it!

Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket

Last night I was watching Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket on Channel 4 and his quest to replace some of Tesco's most popular meat products with free range and high quality meat products. On the first episode last night he was trying to replace Tesco's cheap meatballs made from low quality meat with meatballs made from high quality meat. He failed because in order to use high quality meat, the supermarket would need to increase the price of the meatballs which might turn some people away. When people go shopping only a small majority of people focus on buying free range and high quality meat, they get whatever is cheapest.
I've done some research and I think it must be impossibly to produce cheap free range and high quality meat and eggs. I looked on the ASDA website and I found out that the a single barn egg cost around 13p compared to a single free range egg which cost around 27p.
It's understandable because in order to produce free range meat it means the farmer needs to meet legal requirements of how much space to give the animal which can cost a lot of money and some farmers can't see the point when not many people can tell the difference between free-range and barn eggs or the difference between a pig that has spent it's life in a cramped barn with other pigs and a pig which has lead a happy life in the outdoors rolling around in mud.
Apart from price there might have been something else putting people off Jimmy's meatballs. They contained Veal (baby cow). People don't understand that there have been big changes in the way that baby cows are treated since the 1980's. They need a certain amount of space and they live in and they need to have a good quality of life. Veal is sold because it is a tender meat and inn my opinion I think it must be better them dying at 7 months old after living a little instead of just after they are born so I think people should buy veal.
In conclusion Jimmy is going to have a serious struggle to produce cheap free range meat for numerous reasons however if he pulled it off it would be truly brilliant.

Facebook Phone

It was announced earlier this week that Facebook might be releasing their own mobile phone by next year.
Facebook has been hiring some ex-apple employees to work on the new phone and if the phone is released it might even be a half decent. Hundreds of apps and websites currently give you the option to 'Log in with Facebook' so the Facebook app store will give you a good verity of games and useful apps.
The closest thing Facebook has to it's own mobile phone the HTC ChaCha. It has it's own Facebook button at the bottom of the keyboard which lets you share photo's and video's instantly.
The HTC ChaCha and Windows Phones have Facebook chat integrated so if a Facebook phone was released what new features would it bring to the smartphone market? Most mobile operating systems have been designed around social networks such as Facebook and rumours say that the next iPhone OS will be Facebook integrated.
So although the Facebook Phone might attract some dedicated Facebook-ers I doubt it will be a success because everything you can do on Facebook you can do on other phones plus more. And although the Facebook app store might be big it won't be able to match the application markets of Apple and Android. We still don't know the details of this phone or the price however I think unless it announces something revolutionary we will end up with just another company which has tried and failed in the smartphone market.

Shine Awards

Since we entered the Shine Awards earlier this year we haven't really heard much back from the competition organisers until recently when they announced that we have been nominated for 3 awards.
The three awards are for best commercial strategy, the best over-all content and the most inspirational person (me). We were in the top 43 out of 300 schools.
However on the 22nd May the judges decided which Schools they wanted in the final for the media competition. I'm unsure what category we are still nominated for however we will be going to the final in London on the 25th of June 2012!
Since then we have been featured in 3 newspapers. (The Evening Gazette - Page 12, The Northern Echo - Page 4 and The Advertiser - Front page!

Despite other entered schools being private and grammar schools I'm confident that we will be able to walk away with at least 1 award next month.

Commonwealth

The Commonwealth is a group of countries who have Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. Her diamond Jubilee is early in June and she is celebrating 60 years in the throne, all the countries in the Commonwealth will be celebrating. The British Royal Mint will be releasing a £5 coin and people in the Commonwealth will be having parties and days off school and work.
The Song Gary Barlow has released a song after traveling to some of the commonwealth countries. It features people from those countries and the military wives. The money made from the sales will be donated to the queens charites.
Publicity Before her diamond Jubilee there was a Blue Peter competition launched to make an emblem for the day. This will be featured on sides of coaches and one of the official logos for the day.
The Throne After Queen Elizabeth II leaves the throne it will be passed down to her son Charles who is currently the price of Wales. In the last year the queen has passed a restriction stopping the prices to get the thrown before the princesses even if the princesses are older.
The Games Every 4 years there is the Commonwealth games where countries in the Commonwealth get the opportunity to compete at sports. A few years ago it was in Manchester and it started new possibilities for the city. It introduced a new Velodrome for cycling and 50 metre swimming pool. (Hopefully the Olympic Games in London will have the same, if not bigger effect on the city and the country.)

Francois Hollande can talk the talk but can he walk the walk?

Francois Hollande is the new president of France, he is from the French socialist party and his party actually has some good ideas. I was reading through his policies today and below are some of the policies I think are the best.


Francois Hollande Policies
• Foreign policy: supports the withdrawal of French troops present in Afghanistan by the end of 2012.
• Energy: endorses reducing the share of nuclear power in electricity generation from 75 to 50% in favor of renewable energy sources.
• Education: supports the recruitment of 60,000 new teachers, the creation of a study allowance and means-tested training, setting up a mutually beneficial contract that would allow a generation of experienced employees and craftsmen to be the guardians and teachers of younger newly-hired employees, thereby creating a total of 150,000 subsidized jobs.
• Aid to small and medium enterprise, with the creation of a public bank investment-oriented SME's and reducing the corporate tax rate to 30% for medium corporations and 15% for small.
• Recruitment of 5,000 judges, police officers and gendarmes.
• Construction of 500,000 homes per year, including 150,000 small houses for poor people, funded by a doubling of the ceiling of the A passbook, the State making available its local government land within five years.
• Restoration of retirement at age 60 for those who have contributed more than 41 years.
• The provision of development funds for deprived suburbs.


They are good policies however if they can implemented is a completely other story. Earlier this week Germany was telling  Francois Hollande that some of his other policies regarding the Euro and money won't be able to be implemented. So for now I think it is a matter of time before we see if he is a perfect president or a ludicrous leader.

Thoughts on the DSMS TV Studio so far...

The Studio
The TV Studio has now been almost in fully working order for just over a month now (there are still small developments to be made) and I think that it has been an amazing resource for the school to have. There is so much you can use it for! Making music videos, filming drama pieces, producing a news show or just experiencing how a TV studio works.

When I first started working with he TV studio I couldn't believe how many jobs both in font and behind camera there were. For a start you need a good script written, then someone to run it on the auto-cue, someone to set up the camera shots and the set and sometimes even a group of people to sort out the green screen.

The Wyvern
A few weeks ago we released the first pilot episode of the Wyvern TV where we interviewed Jenny Chapman (MP of Darlington). Despite some parts of the show being quite quiet and pauses at some parts I would say they the first episode was a success.

Link to Wyvern TV Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK7KvsE4EQQ&feature=plcp&context=C42505b7VDvjVQa1PpcFOzUAPxUHq1hv9q_iBLVh7PHV9rO05atRM%3D

My personal ideas for future episodes include a section called 'Pupils Perspective' where we ask fellow pupils at the school for their opinion on recent topics happening in and out of school.
Maybe some sort of feature on a teacher where we can ask teachers some questions and find out their view on things (although we do already do this in every edition of 'The Wyvern' newspaper).

Please, if anyone has any more idea's you can leave them in the comments box of the YouTube video or tweet them to us @DSMS_Wyvern 

Thank you :)

The Grand National Overshadowed by Horse Deaths

The horses are getting ready to line up for the start of the 2012 Grand national however one horse, Synchronised, flipped under the pressure of thousands of people watching, filming and gambling on him so he throws his jockey (AP McCoy) to the floor.
After reuniting horse with jockey the race started but before the tenth fence Synchronised has fallen and sustained such injury that he needs to be put down.

Since the 1800's the grand national has been running and since the beginning there has almost always be at least 1 seriously injured horse. I don't know if it is because social networks have been becoming more popular recently or if this has always been a idly spoken about problem but this year there were LOADS of negative status's, tweets and headlines regarding animal cruelty at the grand national. Is it right that horses should be raced so hard that there is a possibility that they might die?

Some people think yes because it is traditional and has happened for the last 100+ years.

Unlike humans, if horses break a bone it doesn't repair it's self, instead it stays broken and causes the horse excruciating pain and pneumonia. This is why horse race organisers decide to put the animals down before the pain gets too bad.

Fortunately, regulations have been made to help horses welfare, like how they made a limit of how many times you could whip your horse. They also changed the grand national course from last year to make it more safe (this didn't work though as there was still horse fatalities).

This raises the question of 'Should horse racing be banned altogether?' However unless something stupidly dangerous happens during a race (which I hope won't happen), Horse racing will continue the way it is now where healthy horses die because of pure human entertainment and greed.

RIP SYNCHRONISED and ACCORDING TO PETE