Re: [backstage] iFiddlingDetails
On Wed, 2007-07-04 at 18:30 +0100, Frank Wales wrote: + no mouse-over events There's no mouse! Many AJAXy sites use hovering or mouse-overs to disclose extra options, previews or menus that don't seem available otherwise, so this will potentially break many trendy sites. Not only is such discriminatory behaviour illegal in many nations under disability access legislation it is poor web design, not good business-sense, and very bad manners. [iow javascript-only menus are a bad thing] btw if you want a telephone that you can browse with with Flash (or Gnash), Javascript and Java support, the Neo1973 from FIC should be available in the UK at about the same time as Apple's effort :-) - Richard -- Richard Smedley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Technical Director, www.M6-IT.org M6-IT CIC+44 (0)779 456 07 14 Sustainable Third Sector IT solutions. PRINCE2[TM] Project Management Web services * Back-ups * Support * Training Certification * E-Mail M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee. Registered in England Wales, Registration No: 6040154 11 St Marks Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7DT Northern Office: 4, Hollins Green, Bradwall, Cheshire, CW10 0LA. Welsh office/Swyddfa Gogledd Cymru: e-mail / e-bost - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Southern Office: Bristolcontact [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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iFiddlingDetails
Hello Dom, On Wed, 2007-07-04 at 21:27 +0100, Dom Ramsey wrote: Many AJAXy sites use hovering or mouse-overs to disclose extra options, previews or menus that don't seem available otherwise, so this will potentially break many trendy sites. Not only is such discriminatory behaviour illegal in many nations under disability access legislation it is poor web design, not good business-sense, and very bad manners. [iow javascript-only menus are a bad thing] Nobody was suggesting *javascript only*. Actually Frank's e-mail clearly said ``extra options, previews or menus that don't seem available otherwise'' Which I took to mean Javascript-only. Otherwise, yes javascript is great (I have the Rhino book on my desk, as I type), and used in the fashion you suggest below can be a good thing. I just think you missed the point in Frank's e-mail about sites with features only available in Javascript (and I'm afraid that there are some, and from people who should know better). Javascript can be used to provide useful visual feedback for all kinds of elements. And it's quite common for AJAX to be used to enhance the usability of a site, rather than restrict it. Providing intuitive, interactive feedback is *good* design, great business sense and extremely good manners. :-) (As is writing code that degrades gracefully.) Cheers, - Richard -- Richard Smedley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Technical Director, www.M6-IT.org M6-IT CIC+44 (0)779 456 07 14 Sustainable Third Sector IT solutions. PRINCE2[TM] Project Management Web services * Back-ups * Support * Training Certification * E-Mail M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee. Registered in England Wales, Registration No: 6040154 11 St Marks Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7DT Northern Office: 4, Hollins Green, Bradwall, Cheshire, CW10 0LA. Welsh office/Swyddfa Gogledd Cymru: e-mail / e-bost - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Southern Office: Bristolcontact [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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] OpenMoko -- was: Re: iFiddlingDetails
On Wed, 2007-07-04 at 22:53 +0100, Frank Wales wrote: I'll be intrigued to see what the iPhone turns into by the time it lands on these shores, and indeed whether or not the Linux phone from FIC actually gains more traction that the rest of the promising-but-discontinued Linux-based handhelds did. Many previous `phones have used the Linux kernel - but none of them have been about Free Software, unfortunately. The manufacturers all add proprietary stacks to the kernel :-( FIC use an entirely Free GNU operating system stack on their Neo1973 (OpenMoko) :-) The company are right behind the idea, as can be seen from this: Original Message Subject: New Oceans Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:20:13 +0800 From: Sean Moss-Pultz [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: OpenMoko To: community [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Community, Andre Gide once said, Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. Sexism aside, I can't think of a better way to describe our adventures this past year. Around the end of March, we were three months behind schedule. Critical hardware bugs were being discovered almost weekly. I had just returned from an exhausting trip around the world. Harald landed in Taiwan the following week. One look at his face and I knew he was in basically the same depleted state I was in. But, we were both dedicated to keep pushing forward. We've come to realize, largely because of your support, that failure is not an option for this project. For the people pushing this project, an open phone is not really even a product. It's the very embodiment of our vision of technology. We absolutely, passionately, believe that something as fundamental to our lives as the mobile phone must be open. OpenMoko has become far bigger than just a small group of people trying to build an open mobile platform. I can tell you for sure, things will never be the same again inside FIC. To their credit, whole departments and divisions have been reorganized to maximize the opportunity for OpenMoko. This is the reason for my absence from this list for so long. The people inside FIC are amazingly open-minded. Our CEO and Chairman are the two greatest supporters inside this company. Earlier this month they did something courageous and support of the communities commitment. The entire mobile communications division was restructured to build devices for OpenMoko. And OpenMoko -- the project will officially become OpenMoko -- the company. This is how much they believe in us. This is how much faith they have that we will be successful. What does all this mean to us as a company and community? In one word: focus. We now have full control over the future of OpenMoko and the resources needed to give it every possible chance of succeeding. Behind us (well actually still in the same building :-) sits an supportive 800 pound gorilla in the OEM/ODM world, eagerly waiting to work with us to make our dreams a reality. OpenMoko -- together with all of you in the community -- will design, from the ground up, open devices and write the free software platform that powers them. FIC will build the hardware and help us set phones free around the world. This is about the most perfect relationship we can think of. Sure there will be rough times ahead. If it were easy, you know who would have done this long before. Making new things is never easy. But we're in this together. This project has changed me, changed you, and changed FIC. Hopefully, one day, this project will change the world. Now that OpenMoko is officially a company inside the FIC Group, blueprints of our office modifications cover the desk and walls where I'm sitting. Writing this letter to you all is finally giving me time to reflect on this thrilling roller coaster ride. Sorry for putting so many bits into your inbox. But I just can't help it. It's been months that we could hardly step back and see things from a big picture. Now, I really don't think I've been this excited since the day I got my first set of Lincoln Logs. For those of us that love to build new things, Taiwan, especially now at FIC and OpenMoko, is a great place to be. So here's the point of this email, finally after more than one year, we're entering into a new ocean. In our factory in China, 400 Neos are waiting for you all. Another 600 will be ready before next week. More are queued up waiting for us to say go. We've had a particularly challenging time trying to setup the online infrastructure and figure out how to ship these phones. Sometime later today or early tomorrow we're going to make another announcement asking for some advice. (Here come the details.) Starting July 9th, we will launch openmoko.com and start taking orders. We're going to have two configurations: Neo Base -- everything the mobile application developer needs to enjoy the benefits of the first freed phone, the Neo 1973: * Neo 1973 (GTA01B_v4)
[backstage] Kreta -- was: Re: Introducing Chipwrapper search for UK newspapers
On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 00:50 +0300, Martin Belam wrote: Yeah, mostly Pipes to process the RSS feeds, and the Google Custom Search Engine. There's also some very crude Perl of my own to add Newspaper: Some newspaper headline into the RSS before it gets passed to Feedburner, and to make the 'headline buzz' feed. Apologies on and off list for delay in replying to people. At the moment in Crete I'm getting 7.2 Kbps online in 30 second bursts. Ho ho ho Not at LBW [1] then? I'm sure they'll have the fattest pipe on the island. - Richard [1] http://lbw2007.hellug.gr/index.php/Main_Page - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iPhone Apple opens up iPhone to app developers
On Thu, 2007-10-18 at 16:41 +0100, Jason Cartwright wrote: Yeah, because perfect code is possible - and there is never a version 2.0 of any product. TeX was last updated in 2002 (although it is now at version 3.141592). Should you find a bug you will be handsomely rewarded with Donald Knuth's autograph (on a cheque that you will most likely frame [1]). - Richard [1] http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/abcde.html -- Richard Smedley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Technical Director, www.M6-IT.org M6-IT CIC+44 (0)779 456 07 14 Sustainable Third Sector IT solutions. PRINCE2[TM] Project Management Web services * Back-ups * Support * Training Certification * E-Mail M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee. Registered in England Wales, Registration No: 6040154 11 St Marks Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7DT Northern Office: 4, Hollins Green, Bradwall, Cheshire, CW10 0LA. Welsh office/Swyddfa Gogledd Cymru: e-mail / e-bost - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Southern Office: Bristolcontact [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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Use of Tinyurl in Emails
On Tue, 2007-11-06 at 08:45 +, Peter Bowyer wrote: However that's not always the case. Turnham Green is actually a hell of a lot closer to Chiswick Park tube station, than Turnham Green tube station. ... and if you get a 27 bus to Turnham Green, it stops at the real Turnham Green, not the tube station - a nightmare for integrated public transport planning :-) if you don't get 'em on public transport you'll never turn 'em green;) (I'll get me coat) - R - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] What would you do? (Was: BBC tech chief: You Freetards don't matter)
On Wed, 2007-11-07 at 11:59 +, Brian Butterworth wrote: Various parts of its non-DRM on demand radio proposals (book readings, classical music) failed the Public Value Test due to the BBC Trust's fears over the negative market impact of non-DRM downloads. Yes, more people would have learnt about classical music and read more books This is something that you should be taking up with the BBC Trust. The BBC *wanted* to deliver books/ classical music, and we weren't allowed to. As with a lot of the other issues mentioned, we are regulated by the Trust. £45 million a year is spent on BBC Radio 3. It seems a poor use of this spending to not allow the classical music to be podcasted, I was shocked when the Trust showed a certain myopia on this front. It's not like any of this music has copyright issues, for a start. The BBC has many fine orchestras, and through their concerts, and the broadcast of these, unquestionably enriches the musical life of the nation. However, puzzlingly, Radio 3 has a very small audience. Podcasts could certainly be one way of getting more people listening to and enjoying serious music - it certainly worked with R3's Beethoven event, and the popular download of the symphonies. Hmm - inform, educate, entertain :) I find it puzzling that two of the things I value most are not being supplied in the on-demand service, failing the ``public value test.'' Does it mean that the BBC does not value them - or rather that they are too valuable for the public? It seems to be that spurious commercial interests [1] were put before the BBC's remit :-/ - Richard [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/foi/docs/bbc_trust/trust_consultations/BBC_OnDemand_Proposals.pdf 3.5 Non-DRM audio downloads ``In our consultation, 66 per cent of respondents (4,676) felt that the BBC should be allowed to offer either all or some radio broadcasts of classical music as downloads over the internet. Many regarded the MP3 format of audio downloads as inferior in quality to CDs and therefore unlikely to serve as a substitute for CD purchases.'' ``This view was echoed by organisations representing consumers, such as the Friends of Radio 3 who suggested setting an annual limit on the number of downloads of classical works (an option we considered in our provisional conclusions). The Voice of the Listener and Viewer pointed to the unique role of BBC ensembles in presenting unfamiliar repertoire and new music.'' ``... The Musicians’ Union was against exclusion of classical music and asked the Trust to re-visit allowing some classical music to be included. It pointed out that there is little classical music being recorded by the major record companies, with most new recordings coming from labels set up by musicians themselves – who were also working closely with the BBC to secure their rights in on-demand offerings. The Radio Independents Group suggested the BBC could partner with specialist record labels to co-ordinate free downloads of performances of BBC orchestras and follow-on commercial CDs.'' - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Muddy Boots on Backstage
On Tue, 2007-11-27 at 08:52 +, Michael Sparks wrote: I'd assumed that people would understand the concept of analogy and meme. A generation brought up on Reithian values would, but now it's all East Enders, and other reality shows :^/ - Richard - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Classical music joins the DRM-free trend
On Tue, 2007-12-04 at 17:18 +, nick richards wrote: Also note that eMusic subscribers in the UK and elsewhere have been able to get DRM free 192kbps MP3s of classical (and other) music for a while now although obviously the label's haven't tended to be quite as prestigious. Linn records offer 96kHz/24-bit files in FLAC (lossless) format :-) http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-downloads-what.aspx On 12/4/07, Christopher Woods [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: They want €44 for 320kbps MP3s of a 1975 recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier... Pisstake? I think so. Most of their other stuff is a little more sensibly-priced, but it's still too expensive - and not good enough quality. shrugs Thirty quid would be cheap enough for four CDs - the main problem is probably that many would prefer his earlier recording ;-) Classical music buffs will stay away, preferring to get the CDs unless there's absolutely no alternative to downloading the lossy MP3s, and it'll be casual listeners who spend the most on there. I'd prefer to pay a premium and get lossless copies, classical music deserves the best quality possible (and, arguably, requires it far more than many other genres). Track them down on LP, and you'll have far better fidelity than any of the digital re-releases :-) However Gramophone magazine have had a column on downloaded music for several months, and also review digital music players (such as those from Linn) occasionally. They even have a podcast: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/podcast.asp Me - I'll stick to live music, shellac, and vinyl :^) - Richard -- Richard Smedley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Technical Director, www.M6-IT.org M6-IT CIC +44 (0)779 456 07 14 Sustainable Third Sector IT solutions. PRINCE2 [TM] Project Management Training * Certification * Support * Networking * Web * Database * CRM M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee. Registered in England Wales,Registration No: 6040154 11 St Marks Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7DT Northern Office: 4, Hollins Green, Bradwall, Cheshire, CW10 0LA. Welsh office/ Swyddfa Gogledd Cymru: e-mail / e-bost - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Southern Office: Bristol contact [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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
On Sun, 2008-02-24 at 18:00 +, Christopher Woods wrote: I buy probably one or two CDs a year, if that, but I buy a barrowload of vinyl every year. I'm a bit odd though. ;) Maybe - I get more vinyl every month, but I haven't bought a CD for ages. SACDs are tempting, sounding far better than CDs, but there are few new releases, so rather than buying a player this year, I think I'll invest in a better gramophone for my 78s :-) - Richard - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
On Sun, 2008-02-24 at 23:39 +, Christopher Woods wrote: Maybe - I get more vinyl every month, but I haven't bought a CD for ages. SACDs are tempting, sounding far better than CDs, but there are few new releases, so rather than buying a player this year, I think I'll invest in a better gramophone for my 78s :-) The ELP Laser Turntable is your friend. I have the demo CD and frankly I think it sounds gorgeous (a lot of preparatory work but the sound - wow!) I've listened to the laser turntables on LPs, but not 78s - they really did sound excellent, though not the best I've heard. I know that on 78s they give the choice of either side of the groove, meaning you can play back the least worn side of the channel - another bonus. However I don't intend to spend a five figure sum on such a beast when I have the chassis of a perfectly good Goldring Lenco, just waiting for me to find time (and the right piece of marine ply) to build it a plinth. Still, I note the ELP is coming down in price - and I can resist anything except temptation. ;-) - Richard -- Morris Minor Convertible for sale: www.goodgnus.org/mmconvertible4sale/ http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/classic-car-page.php/carno/29129 - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Business Reasons To Support Gnash
On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 15:55 +, Jason Cartwright wrote: Pretty much all display advertising on the web is done in Flash (where rather a lot of money is spent, apparently) Yes, I'd noticed other people's computers seemed to carry umpteen more ads than mine on most websites ;^) - Richard - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iPlayer DRM is over?
On Mon, 2008-03-24 at 22:11 +, Tim Dobson wrote: Michael wrote: I thought it was utter tripe myself. Tried so hard it was unfunny. But then humour is incredibly subjective. What mainstream tv with a tech edge, do you find funny? I think HHGTTG was the last, wasn't it? - Richard - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iPlayer DRM is over?
On Tue, 2008-03-25 at 00:03 +, Fearghas McKay wrote: On 24 Mar 2008, at 23:07, Richard Smedley wrote: I think HHGTTG was the last, wasn't it? Nope that was Radio :-) :-) Well I didn't find the TV as amusing, but then maybe I am being a tad old crusty ;-) Well, if we're speaking of the Home Service too, then The Goon Show was really cutting-edge tech :) [1] And not forgotten either - one of my daughters still listens to several episodes a week (on her MP3-playing telephone, of course, not my valve wireless ;) - Richard [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goons#Music_and_sound_effects - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iPlayer, loved by millions, disliked by a single US citizen
On Tue, 2008-05-06 at 19:39 +0100, Richard Lockwood wrote: If I go to Morrisons this evening to buy four bottles of Timothy Taylor Landlord (other supermarkets and beers are available), do they ask me at the checkout how much I earn before deciding how much to charge me? No. Well then - it's exactly the same with the TV license. But there's no British Supermarkets Corporation supermarket that you are required pay 140 a year to in order to obatain a supermarket licence so that you could legally go shopping at any supermarket (whether it's a BSC public service supermarket or a private one like Morrisons), backed up with the threat of a 1000 pound fine or jail time for anyone who goes shopping but doesn't have a licence. It wasn't the greatest analogy, I'll admit, but it's valid - the British Supermarkets Corporation is irrelevent. If I want to watch TV, I have to pay for it. Once. No matter how much I use it. Also - and this is the point - there's no evidence that rich people use more of it than poor people. If I'm rich, why should I have to pay more for the same level of use of a non-essential good than someone who is less well off? Well, that's how progressive taxation works. People paying higher rate tax don't necessarily use the NHS, the armed forces, or state schools more than low earners - yet we don't have flat-rate income tax (even if Mr Brown has made a strange move in that direction). The problem with the OP's analogy is rather that unlike eating, watching television is a purely optional pastime, and certainly several orders less necessary to well-being than say, listening to music, or going out to the pub and interacting with human beings (to say nothing of a good pint ;) Thus a fixed fee seems not too unreasonable. Admittedly if we were designing the system afresh now, it wouldn't be the most popular option - but like much of the British system it works reasonably well, and there isn't a better replacement waiting in the wings. - Richard -- Free Software: http://www.ubuntu.com/ Better browsing: http://www.mozilla.com/ Free Office suite: http://www.openoffice.org/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] List admin
On Mon, 2008-06-16 at 09:58 +0100, Morris, Nat wrote: Is someone able to get [EMAIL PROTECTED] taken off the list to stop their autoresponder bot flooding the list? Its replying to every post and itself! I thought the reply-to-itself really made this one special ;o) I wonder how many other lists she's on? - Richard -- ... The degeneration of large tranches of television into something between a gynaecological clinic, a freak show and a sewer is the depressing end point of a culture in which anything goes. - Michael Burleigh - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] Make the primary OS used in state schools FOSS
On Mon, 2009-02-09 at 16:12 +, Christopher Woods wrote: Given that many schools' IT infrastructure development was so organic and self-funded throughout the 90s, they are now in the situation where it is almost completely impractical to start from scratch with a FOSS OS and FOSS software, making sure that interdependencies aren't broken, networking works as well (or as expected) as prior to the switch, and students - and staff alike - aren't 'de-familiarised' with the setup. With any major transition such as an OS move, there's a lot of retraining needed for staff and students. When you run to such a tight timeline as most schools do, there just aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish this. You seem to be saying that although the status quo is not good (indeed, it is delivering a second-cless education), there's no easy way out, so let's leave things as they are. If I have mis-characterised your argument, I apologise, but let's sidestep that. After all, you're barking up the wrong tree. The model of maintaining individually-installed apps over several discrete PCs was all very well in the 80s, and possibly the 90s, but how long before schools catch up with the rest of the world. PCs in schools are mandated to teach curriculum areas - this can easily be delivered through 500 - 600 web apps. The whole curriculum. A small investment from government (less than 1% of the UK's annual school IT spend) would get all of these apps written. Released under the GNU GPL, they would be tweaked and improved by thousands of teachers and students. Given web apps, designed to work with standards-compliant browsers, it becomes irrelevant which platform is used to view them, save on grounds of cost and maintainability. The obvious choice then is LTSP. I believe the sad fact is that much FOSS isn't as well or reliably supported where it matters because there just isn't as much money in it. Again, chicken and the egg. Schools are a difficult market for a support company. Maintaining two or three is easy enough for anyone. Beyond that it won't scale well until you're covering all of an LEA :-( How as a FOSS company are you going to maintain a well-staffed callout team and helpdesk if the software you are providing is essentially free? Why is that a problem? My companies have never had a problem charging for support for Free Software. All software needs support. You can't justify far higher support contract charges for that reason alone, and schools will either bring the required talent in-house Schools don't pay enough to attract good suport staff :-( or source it locally - and bingo, just like that, your company is out of business. So think local. How many schols are there within 40 miles of you? - Richard -- Richard Smedley, r...@m6-it.org Technical Director, www.M6-IT.org M6-IT CIC+44 (0)779 456 07 14 Sustainable Third Sector IT solutions. PRINCE2[TM] Project Management Web services * Back-ups * Support * Training Certification * E-Mail M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee. Registered in England Wales, Registration No: 6040154 11 St Marks Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7DT Northern Office: 4, Hollins Green, Bradwall, Cheshire, CW10 0LA. Welsh office/Swyddfa Gogledd Cymru: e-mail / e-bost - cy...@m6-it.org Southern Office: Oxford contact matt...@m6-it.org - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Make the primary OS used in state schools FOSS
On Mon, 2009-02-09 at 19:15 +, Dave Crossland wrote: 2009/2/9 Richard Smedley r...@m6-it.org: curriculum areas - this can easily be delivered through 500 - 600 web apps. The whole curriculum. A small investment from government (less than 1% of the UK's annual school IT spend) would get all of these apps written. Released under the GNU GPL, Affero GPL ought to be used for new web-apps :-) Good point. Although I had in mind putting the apps on the school's intranet server, in which case GPL would be adequate. However there would doubtless be a market for remote delivery. - Richard -- Richard Smedley,www.m6-it.org PRINCE2[TM] Project Management. Interactive Websites. GTD seminars. OpenOffice training and certification. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] Make the primary OS used in state schools FOSS
On Mon, 2009-02-09 at 23:15 +, Christopher Woods wrote: different in its model, aiming itself as it does as a social enterprise for the voluntary and educational sectors. How many schools do you serve in your locality? (just curious...) Your model obviously works exceptionally well for what you do, but I wonder how big your client base is versus how big it could potentially be if you supported every school in the area - you could get very big, very fast, or the ground could open up for competition and aside from lower costs to the end users, there might be an even greater disparity in levels of support or the kinds of solutions delivered. As I said in the previous e-mail, school support doesn't scale well. We work through schools to reach families on the wrong side of the digital divide, and also to work with local community organisations, but don't bother offering IT support to the education market - it simply isn't worth it :-/ The model of maintaining individually-installed apps over several discrete PCs was all very well in the 80s, and possibly the 90s, but how long before schools catch up with the rest of the world. PCs in schools are mandated to teach curriculum areas - this can easily be delivered through 500 - 600 web apps. The whole curriculum. A small investment from government (less than 1% of the UK's annual school IT spend) would get all of these apps written. Released under the GNU GPL, they would be tweaked and improved by thousands of teachers and students. Given web apps, designed to work with standards-compliant browsers, it becomes irrelevant which platform is used to view them, save on grounds of cost and maintainability. The obvious choice then is LTSP. Personal opinion: 95% of web apps just don't cut it. If you're talking about I'm suggesting 500 or 600 wholly new web apps, designed to cover the whole curriculum. A framework would be specified, and commissions given to *UK* developers - including bids from schools. Of course the EU won't let us do it, but there's probably a creative way to frame the tender process. After all, other countries manage. If I was a teacher I would hate it hate it hate it if I couldn't teach a class because the main host server was bogged down with too many intensive tasks, or it fell over or lagged out or needed to be failed over for some reason. Look at some real world LTSP in schools. Skegness http://schoolforge.org.uk/index.php/Skegness_Grammar have multiple application servers, and seem to have experienced zero downtime so far. to be desired. If I was speccing a school's IT, I don't think thin clients would get much way past the first round of planning unless some incredibly well-designed thin client solutions were brought to my attention (and then you're talking equivalent prices for thin clients as you would for regular MiniATX desktops). As has been pointed out elsewhere in the thread, thin clients have a long life (average 8 to 9 years). A point used by Sun in its sales - and the result can be seen in at least one high street bank, and many other large businesses. I'm still personally very sceptical of thin client solutions, I don't think their capabilities ar sufficient to satisfy all the potential uses for educational machines. Music and video editing obviously need their own high-power PCs. And I wouldn't like to have all that total reliance on just a handful of extremely powerful servers; it's bad enough when the Internet proxy server goes down or the network drive can't be accessed because the Active Directory is having a fit, but to have a classful of children sitting in front of dumb terminals when the primary host server for that classroom's client machines goes down? Wuh oh. Last year Salford University moved its School of Computing to thin client - it's saved them no end of problems. Single-point-of-failure risks are easily addressed, but 100s of individual machines will always be a pain :-( In many (most?) of the school labs that I have visited, half of the (Windows) PCs are not working properly - e.g. CD tray will not open - due to creative play from the students (e.g. constantly opening and closing the tray). A malfunctioning PC is an expensive piece of junk. A broken thin client at Skegness Grammar goes in the recycling, and a new one comes out of the cupboard: 30 seconds later it's up and running. There must be some reason other than bloody-mindedness that makes schools keep on going for full-PC solutions time after time though... When you don't know enough to make a purchasing decision, you just buy what everyone else does. Going any other way takes a brave Head Teacher, and Heads have enough on their plates. I do aim to do more work in the educational sector as my own business gets going in the next few years, and I want to offer all kinds of viable solutions as long as they work well for everybody. Do you really think that setups like the
RE: [backstage] Make the primary OS used in state schools FOSS
A postscript: Anyone interested in helping to improve the IT situation in schools (through FOSS) may be interested in membership of Schoolforge-UK. http://groups.google.com/group/sf-uk-discuss/about The website contains many case studies, and the (low traffic) mailing list a number of interesting threads on the subject. SF-UK is also involved in organising events such as FLOSSIE (Free Libre Open Source Software in Education) - the next one takes place in July. Cheers, - Richard - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Fwd: [Autonomo.us] Skype, out?
Alex Mace wrote: I compressed the run time on my toaster and now it won't shut up about grilled bread products. Lister Waffles, anyone? - Richard - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iPlayer - encoding from broadcast rather than master tapes
Gareth Davis wrote: Frankie, I can't speak for the domestic BBC, but no online World Service content is transcoded from broadcast transport streams. All our radio comes straight out of the audio router at Bush House into our encoders, with a touch of limiting applied to prevent clipping if an SM/self-op goes over PPM 6. Persian and Arabic TV are encoded directly from the uncompressed SDI feeds. So there isn't any potential loss of quality with this approach. We also run strictly to the clock, so automated capture works for us. Many of the R3 R4 progs I've downloaded have snatches of news bulletins or other programmes. - Richard -- http://twitter.com/RichardSmedley - food gardening tweets displacing occasional bits of techie talk. http://twitter.com/hsNW - #hackspace tweets for NW England N Wales -- *Gareth Davis* | Production Systems Specialist World Service Future Media, Digital Delivery Team - Part of BBC Global News Division 8 http://www.bbcworldservice.com/ + 702NE Bush House, Strand, London, WC2B 4PH *From:* owner-backst...@lists.bbc.co.uk [mailto:owner-backst...@lists.bbc.co.uk] *On Behalf Of *Frankie Roberto *Sent:* 10 September 2009 13:19 *To:* backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk *Subject:* [backstage] BBC iPlayer - encoding from broadcast rather than master tapes Hi all, Apologies if this has been answered before, but is there any reason why the BBC iPlayer seems to only encode programmes from the live broadcast stream, rather than, say, using the actual master tapes/digital files? Sure, it might be simpler, but long-term it'd be great to use the original source. Some reasons for doing so: * occasionally the live broadcast has errors (eg loss of signal, or playout error) * you could trim the programmes more precisely - no more having to skip the last few minutes of previous programme * no more credit squeezes and continuity announcements trailing programmes that you can't actually watch * you could even produce a slightly different edit of a TV show - for example, with dramas like Doctor Who you wouldn't have text at the end saying Next week... Are there any plans for this? Seems like it'd be the obvious next step in improving the user experience of iPlayer... Frankie -- Frankie Roberto Experience Designer, Rattle 0114 2706977 http://www.rattlecentral.com - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iPlayer - encoding from broadcast rather than master tapes
Phil Lewis wrote: If you ever watch the iPhone iPlayer streams they are not the same edits as the flash based iPlayer, they always appear to be from broadcast - Ah - that explains it. I use get_iplayer, which grabs the iPhone offerings :) you sometimes even get completely the wrong programme if the broadcast schedule changed at the last minute! Too true - numbers allocated to downloads seem to change by the minute :-/ - Richard - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
