Monday 5th May - 2.00am

Promotion 12 months ago

Being a Blackpool FC supporter in New Zealand takes some commitment. As I post this blog at 2.00am in the morning, nerves in this part of Tauranga are tingling.

It is the final day of the regular Championship season and Blackpool need a draw to guarantee Championship football for another season. Arsenal are playing Everton live on Sky Sports, but everything else in the house is focused on Bloomfield Road.

I have five browser windows open as I follow the minute-by-minute action on BBC Online Sports. Because every live commentary seems to be able to detect my NZ IP, I cannot access live commentary. So in a surreal 90 minutes, I am surrounded by silence, but no lack of fellow sufferers. Over the past 45 minutes, I have blogged with fellow 'Pool supporters from Los Angeles to Sydney. Sad, but true.

It is half time, so I have a few moments to post. These are the current scores that will determine Blackpool's fate in the next 45 minutes:

Blackpool 1-0 Watford
Charlton 2-1 Coventry
Sheff Wed 1-1 Norwich
Southampton 1-1 Sheff Utd
Stoke 0-0 Leicester

As things stand, Blackpool are safe. Having said that, this is Blackpool and having supported then since adolescence, the word 'safe' is a concept only. So there we have it and by 3.00am we will know the result.

Time to get back to the browser windows and refill the glass. The next 45 minutes are in Bill Shankley's famous words 'approximate to life & death'.

(3.00am Report: Unbelievable. I managed to get an International BBC radio feed just after I uploaded my half-time blog, so I hooked into the last 45 minutes 'live'.

The 'Pool secured the draw they needed. We are in the Championship League next season. Sympathies to the Foxes. Leicester are down. One last time to refill that glass. Then to bed.)

Disruptive Technologies Defined

An interesting article in today's BBC Online by the co-founder of net telephony service Skype, Niklas Zennstroem.

For him, a disruptive technology is only worthwhile if it gives people something they didn't have or couldn't do before. Sounds simple, but it hits the nail on the head. Too often, the 'hype' surrounding a new technology does a disservice to both the technology itself and its potential users.

As Niklas explains, the ones that fail tend to be too hard to use and impenetrable to the average consumer. And they fail because the benefit is often overshadowed by the hype. Many potentially great technologies disappear because, quite simply, they do not give people what they want.