Re: When are we going to get another list? (was: RE: [backstage] BBC iPlayer Protest tommorow, Tuesday 14th, 10:30AM, White City)
Andrew Bowden wrote: It's also got to be said that the majority of people on a mailing list don't post. I don't know the stats for this list, but I'm on a mailing list of 300 people, about 20 of which post regularly. There's a lot of readers, and occassionally some of them post, but mostly it's reading. Why do people join a list and not post? Well to get the signal. So if there's very little signal, you lose your incentive to remain a reader. Indeed, I've got about 400 unread messages lasting back ages because no-one talks about, you know, XML and APIs anymore. So I don't bother to read, so I'm missing the signal, and it just makes me feel this list isn't cared for. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] www.FreeTheBBC.info
Dave Crossland wrote: The BBC's sack of money contains 3 billion pounds, which is a of sum of money which can make a lot of things happen. It does make lots of things happen. TV, Radio, internet, innforming, educating and entertaining the nation. What percentage of the production costs, including the profit margin of the production company (is it produced by an outside production company?) of e.g. Holby City, which is on tonight, was payed for by the license fee? I would guess, not being a tv person, that it would be all of it. Am I way off? Yes. BBC Worldwide money will also help pay for it - some productions get extra money from BBC Worldwide too as a sort of advance to make a good show they can flog on DVD. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] www.FreeTheBBC.info
Kirk Northrop wrote: Dave Crossland wrote: The BBC's sack of money contains 3 billion pounds, which is a of sum of money which can make a lot of things happen. My apologies, it was in fact Stephen Deasey who wrote this. It appears Thunderbird 2.0.0.4 STILL hasn't fixed all the bugs with inboxes... Sorry about that Dave! -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] A decent editorially-ordered BBC News feed?
Richard P Edwards wrote: You are not alone I tried a couple of years ago to use the BBC RSS, and just found it had little order. That does not just apply to the BBC, I don't use RSS for anything apart from Wired. It's in a good editorial order with the Mac OSX RSS Screen Saver, which is all I use RSS for... -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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 Archive trial
Andrew Bowden wrote: I'm far better on visual artifacts I must say. Interestingly though a colleague of mine from BBC News told me that surveys have shown people are far more likely to put up with a dodgy video picture if the sound is clean and crisp. Yes, it's well known (and proved) that you can do what you want with the picture if the sound is OK. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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 Archive trial
Tim Cowlishaw wrote: True but a slight exaggeration - A certain level of video quality still qualifies as an acceptable threshold, IMO. In addition, crystal clear sound and crystal clear vision are both pretty useless if they're not in sync. Indeed. But as long as the glitches are small and the audio doesn't glitch at the same time as the video (or vice-versa), you'd be surprised what you can get away with. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] OS choice
Jason Cartwright wrote: I've recently 'switched' [1] (damn you Apple marketing dept!) from an XP desktop to a Macbook as my main computer. Its been almost flawless (unlike all the Vista problems we keep hearing about), and a bit of revelation after being a complete Windowsite since 3.0. Sorry, but Me too. Almost exactly the same story. On a Mac Mini though, so it's a bit slow! -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] EMI 'in no DRM deal'
Kim Plowright wrote: You'd pay $30 and up for an album on CD? Are you mad? I suppose you do get a convenient hard copy backup too... Apple won't be changing the album price. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Browser Stats
Andy wrote: I can see how it got Netscape, FireFox is derived from the Netscape code base, but how it got from the word Linux into the word Mac I don't know. And this was for a user agent that was stating it's OS as Linux. Simple - Not Windows probably means Mac OS. In a tiny amount of cases it means Linux, or DOS or OS/2 etc, but even this is a tiny percentage compared to Mac OS, and anyone using such an OS is likely to be tech minded. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Browser Stats
Matthew Lamont wrote: I think that it depends on what your demographic is. If you are talking about people who barely know how to switch on a computer, then you are going to get windows users. For people who actually use a computer for what it is intended, then, for instance in the scientific community, 50% of people use Macs because of the UNIX base, then 30% are Linux users and the rest use Windows. Oh yes, of course. But over the wider population it's all Windows and occasional Macs. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Radio 1 on Twitter
Mario Menti wrote: I hope you don't mind a little self-promotion, but I recently set up http://twitterfeed.com - a service that lets you take any RSS feed and post its updates to twitter. So if anyone here wants specific BBC twitter updates, as long as there's a feed for it, you should be able to create a twitter bot for it all on your own :-) So I can now have any feed text messaged to me for free :) -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Traffic Info
Jason Cartwright wrote: I just want to know the effect its going to have on my journey time. Google's does this with a ridiciously-easy-to-visually-parse colour coding of the traffic speed. This boils down all the one lane closed due to barrier repairs crap into something far more usable. This is, of course, what TrafficMaster have done for years. Someone should surely be able to do the same?! -- Kirk - 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] Percentage of License fee going towards DRM?
Andrew Bowden wrote: That means they won't come to my DVD store [2]. Boo! They might never have come though. -- Kirk - 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] Ad Blocking
vijay chopra wrote: As a final note, as a result of this conversation, I decided to check out the subscription price at slashdot, at $5 (£2.62) I ended up buying one... decide for yourself what that says about me. It says I reply to every single e-mail on this list with an inane and largely useless point which is like 'Me too' but slightly more wordy Sorry Vijay, but it's just bugging me now. -- Kirk - 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] A couple of things including Arrington
Richard Hyett wrote: He raises perhaps inadvertantly the old point about why we haven't done many good 'Situation Comedies recently and when we do why they only run for a fairly limited series. You can't imagine Friends or Cheers or MASH closing after two series. But Two series and out is a very UK way of working. Life on Mars being a recent example. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Movies Data
I wonder if there is any update on the film times data? Just that I really ought to get back to my contact one way or another. -- Kirk - 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] Movies Data
Robert Kerry wrote: UCLAP has been put on hold after someone from the PA contacted me and is currently looking to make their cinema listings available to us. Apparently he's in talks with Ian or someone else at backstage, although UCLAP can be restarted if the deal falls through. Cool, let us know as soon as you know something Robert, so I can get back to my contact. -- Kirk - 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] Movies Data
Kim Plowright wrote: BTW - stumbled across this last night http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/ftvdb/ Might be useful, or at least somewhere to poke to open up their data, too? (Did the Movies Data list get set up?) Yes, the list was set up. http://groups.google.com/group/uclap?hl=en -- Kirk - 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] Movies Data
Robert Kerry wrote: I'll probably have to start off by crawling cinema websites - then start emailing them and requesting some sort of feed or data source. Would be helpful to start creating a list of cinema sites and cinema contacts. If anyone's interested in this project, please email me off-list and I'll create a discussion group for it. I had a quick chat with the Marketing Director at the company conference today, and he sounded positive. But then that's his job :) -- Kirk - 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] Movies Data
Peter Bowyer wrote: Good luck with Odeon - having had the world's worst Flash-only interface for several years, and had a well-publicised PR nightmare when they leant on one of this list's members who got so fed up with it he proxied it to produce a minimally accessible version, they've replaced it with a new, modern up-to-date but still completely un-navigable Flash interface, which does at least have a text-only option but without some of the functionality. However the website is now, effectively, UCI's old website with a different design. As for the flash thing - it's provided by Clarity Pacer Cats, who supply the box office software. Empire also use it, as do many other cinema chains throughout the world. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Movies Data
Andrew Bowden wrote: Re the Times/Listings - I'm 99% sure that it's PA data and hence not available for redistribution, sorry - but I'll still check the contract position. I can add the extra 1% to the equation - it is data supplied to the BBC by PA. Ah well, fair enough. It's a pity, because I know the cinemas want the data wherever they can! -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Movies Data
Matt Chadburn wrote: Would love to hear from anyone with interesting ideas on what they might do with the information or any pointers on improvements we might make. I presume the data on showing times at each cinema is provided by and therefore under the licence of the PA? -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Five Live Partnership - get your idea commissioned.
Brian Butterworth wrote: Each line of teletext is broadcast on a line of the TV screen. Do you mean magazine? -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Five Live Partnership - get your idea commissioned.
Andrew Bowden wrote: However, the stories do still move around ;0) But do they move around more than they used to? I mean, in the olden days, if a big story was on 104 and a bigger story came in, it wouldn't necessarily go on 104 - but the big stories would be 104-110 and the smaller ones from then on. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Five Live Partnership - get your idea commissioned.
Brian Butterworth wrote: Any page, therefore, that has dropped out of the Ceefax list could comprise of a single line (with the 'double height' character in front of it) with the message see news.bbc.co.uk/NNN.So even if there was 300 'pages' that hit (for Ceefax and Digital TV red button) users this would take the space of 12 Ceefax pages in terms of bandwidth and a few bytes each for digital TV. Do you not have to transmit the whole page, including blank characters? -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] RSS feeds of the BBC TV subtitles?
Tom Loosemore wrote: if you want to play in private, and you're feeling quite hardcore, you *could* extract the subtitles from a DVB-S MPEG2 stream (aka a satellite stream) where they're still in there somewhere as ASCII. On DTT (Freeview) the subtitles are transmitted as bitmaps, so are hard to get-at (a friend tried to OCR them out, and Failed with a capital F) Or, of course, it's fairly easy to extract them from old fashioned teletext. -- From the North, this is Kirk - 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] Funny Story
Davy Mitchell wrote: Looks a bit broken? What's wrong with it? -- From the North, this is Kirk www.noisetosignal.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] Publishing TV listings? BDS are after you...
Adam Leach wrote: This is another point of data collected and gathered using tax/license fee payers money, yet we can't access it without paying substantial fees. The BBC data seems to be fine, someone said. Remember the days when the Radio Times had BBC and the TV Times had ITV? It's like that, all over again... -- From the North, this is Kirk www.noisetosignal.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] BBC TV API to Nabaztag Wifi Bunny
David Burden wrote: Using the Nabaztag Wifi bunny to read out what's on TV tonight using the new TV API (thank goodness I can finally stop downloading those TV Anytime files). What new TV API? -- From the North, this is Kirk www.noisetosignal.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] BBC TV API to Nabaztag Wifi Bunny
David Burden wrote: May 3rd I think it was launched. A lot easier than TVAnytime, and no files to download. Excellent, thanks. It seems I totally missed that announcement. -- From the North, this is Kirk www.noisetosignal.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] Hourly news flashes via IM
vijay chopra wrote: Yeah, I've seen the breaking news alerts thing, it's a bit bloated and intrusive, that's why I like the look of this IM bot. When all the bugs get ironed out, maybe the Beeb could look into making it official? The bot doesn't seem to work for me - always offline? -- From the North, this is Kirk www.noisetosignal.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] Hourly news flashes via IM
Mario Menti wrote: That's odd, they all seem to be online OK.. which network are you trying, and which client? The bots should be set to auto-authorise new contacts, and should automatically show their status. If anyone else can't see them online, please let me know.. It's the [EMAIL PROTECTED] one that isn't working. The News Flash one does. I'm using MSN Messenger 7.5.0322 on Windows XP Pro SP2. -- From the North, this is Kirk www.noisetosignal.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] Presenting the TVMap!
Thomas Scott wrote: Whew. Talk about cutting it fine. 40 minutes until the competition deadline, but I've just managed to finish my first prototype! That is a simply excellent idea! (And execution, I hasten to add) Whether you win or not - you certainly get a massive pat on the back from me! -- From the North, this is Kirk www.noisetosignal.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] Mood News 3
Davy Mitchell wrote: As MN is getting a fair number of hits for its early stage in development, I have posted an update as it has moved on greatly. It's using much the same rating system. I've spent the time on reorganising the code, some DBase work, presentation and the client side stuff. It's an excellent concept, and very clever, however there are a few odd things there. For example, City agree Wright-Phillips fee. Now this is good news for Mr Wright-Phillips, and for Chelsea, but not good news for Manchester City. Therefore it should either be neutral, or does the system work on utilitarianism? Not a criticism, just more something that there may be a way of working round in the future. Although there probably isn't... -- From the North, this is Kirk www.broadcastingsights.org.uk - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html.
