Yes. They should asterisk that out. St**e J*bs.
Cheers, Rich. On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 8:59 AM, Sean DALY <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Here's The Register on the subject, with an offensive title. > > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/iplayer_linux_stream_download_hack/ > > > > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Andy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 11/03/2008, Ivan Pope <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Thanks. And if I might make so bold - why do they do this? > > > > Presumably it's because they want to send Flash to a PC, and MP4 only to > > phones. > > Unfortunately user agent sniffing isn't really designed to do what > > they are trying to do. > > They would generally have to have a list of all phones user agents and > > whether they support Flash or MP4 and serve accordingly. > > > > There are better ways of doing this. > > For instance the user agent (i.e your phone) can chose itself by being > > given multiple options via a 300 response code. > > > > Or check what the browser/phone actually wants, i.e. check the Accept > > header to see if it wants .flv or .mp4 > > > > Or use the fallback of HTML object tags. > > Present a Flash object tag and inside it put the HTML for MP4. > > If flash is not present the browser should fallback to what's inside > > the tag (may fail if Flash is present but incompatible, or wrong > > version). > > > > Of course most methods fail at some point so provide a link to the > > user to override possible incorrect choices. User Agent sniffing is > > certainly not a good solution if there is no user override for > > correcting it's mistakes. It is certainly bad accessibility wise. > > > > > > > What is it > > > specific about the iPhone that this feed needs to be limited to iPhones? > > > > Nothing, it's just their way of separating "PC" and "phone", if it > > isn't an iPhone they assume it's a PC. Similar to some sites that > > assume if a web browser is not IE it's Firefox/Netscape. > > > > > > > Or, to put it another way, if it wasn't sniffing my phone, could I watch > > > this feed on my N95 (insert any other capable phone or phone app here) > > > > If your phone supports MP4 and HTTP then it should be fine. > > > > For now fake user agent. In the long run complain to the BBC or the > > BBC Trust. (This is NOT platform agnostic as requested by the trust, > > specifically scanning for a certain product and delivering them better > > content is extremely risky). > > > > As I said it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes for the BBC to correct. > > > > If they are doing things server side then just alter there code to > > server MP4 if user agent is iPhone, OR if a certain argument in the > > URL is set. > > > > Something like: > > <?php > > $version = 'flash'; > > if (isset($_GET['force'])) > > $version = $_GET['force']; > > else if (isIPhone()) > > $version = 'mp4'; > > else > > $version = 'flash'; > > > > if ($version == 'flash') > > // serve flash stuff here > > else if ($version == 'mp4') > > // server mp4 here > > else > > echo 'Unrecognised version!!!'; > > ?> > > > > And then add links with force=flash and force=mp4 so the user can > > correct mistaken user agent sniffing. Combining this with some of the > > other above methods would be even better. But unless the BBC wants to > > actually hire me I'm not going to do their jobs for them! > > > > Of course that code may not work, I haven't done PHP for over 3 years > > but it is the basic idea. > > > > > > > > Andy > > > > > -- > > > > > > Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open > > windows. > > -- Adam Heath > > - > > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > > Unofficial list archive: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial list archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > -- SilverDisc Ltd is registered in England no. 2798073 Registered address: 4 Swallow Court, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN15 6XX - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
