Tuxblog

bbc iplayer drm failiure

2007-09-26T17:17:00.000Z

Haveing downloaded the bbc iplayer a pere to pere based service for catching up on missed programs i have been able to watch only 3 programs in over a month. why? DRM! for all the media companys talk of drm as enabling technology and all that it just doesnt work. you download a program its a bit slow and needs a restart ocasionaly but it works and as its a beta thats forgivable. than i want to play it and thers a 10 minnit wait while wmp trys to downlaod a licence before telling me thers no coonection. this i eventualy relised may be to do with me useing a router not surported by my isp so the old usb moden is fished out and instaled. then this wont coonect because i have some noise on my line and the usb modem seems to be especilay sensitive to this (more than my good qulity router) but coonection is achived after hours of trying and then a message saying i dont have a licenec apperas in the window wher the licenece down load is happening or a mesaghe saying ther is an erore and to redownload so of the 20 programs ive tried to watch only 3-4 have actually been seen and the software has been reinstaled over 4 times and all of these problems are avoided if there were no drm not to mention the other implictions of drm and its limiting factor on choice of os and media player and web browser. So in short this product has been made useless by drm and is not reedy to be in public beta let alone billed as a releas as the bbc did.

Road prceing UK

2007-05-22T11:25:00.000Z

ok just read this artical on the bbc http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6678915.stm basicaly the government in the uk are planing to GPS track every car in the country and use the info to charge you different prices for road use depending on where you are and what time it is. Aside from the civil libities aspect of that which i haven't got time to go into it seems to me to be utterly pointless as way to reduce congestion as planed it will deter unrequited travel at rush hour but the long delays do that already so will serve the purpose of charging you more if you live in a conjested area than in a quiet rural area to me thats fine living in the country as i do when i have a car if this scheem combines with lower fule duty that will be just fine. however asumming thats the intention to redistribute road tax to thouse who cause more congestion and pollution it a nice idea for those on the reduced price side asuuming they do that wil probly just put it up but anyway as a way to reduce congestion it wont work. and here's why the transport systems full. the roads are full , the trains are full and the buses are full or just to painfully slow. Lets assume for a moment that everyone on the road at rush hour are not on public transport due to , cost ,or inconvenience. Now if the train (or buss) is less convenient than the hours stood in traffic they probly arnt going to use it. for those who are on the road because its cheaper the new priceing will probly level that off so they would get on the train but thats full so they cant so even if this would convince people to get off the roads they can't so its pointless. encorageing a deep social change in terms of flexible work hours and home working would work far better or just build more roads or improve public transport. for example more high teck tracking of trains would allow shorter gaps between trains I.e. more trains for more people that could be done and would proberly work (disclaimer not a expert so might not not sure what they have at the min but they got something like that in India where they know her every train is and how fast its gooing in computers so less margin for human error needed. )
So basicaly as transport network over capacity at peek times and people will still want to work road pricing just additional tax.

So very true!

2007-01-30T18:58:00.000Z

hi just had to post this image i saw while stubling through the net.
just thought id put that up there cos i found it funney and makes a chnage from rants on big media as is the norm (btw i probly have one of those sooon on internet stuf i cant watch from outside USA) any way copliments to http://www.xkcd.com/ who must take credit for this image and the rest on her very funney site.

Quicksilverscreen

2006-12-13T22:20:00.000Z

Livving in the uk as i do and without a tv due to the need for a tv license which is hardly worth it given the quality of much of the moder programing i have found myself vewing the website quicksilverscreen.com which has experienced much legal turmoil over the last few months havening to move to non us servers and eventually be given away after fox first issued ceases and desist orders then prevented it being auctioned. While it is true that the linked files were most deffiantly ilegal and that the links themselves were a Grey area, the fact remains that alot of people are willing to put up with the inconvinence of dead links slow buffering and dropouts in videos.

This one would assume has nothing to do with wanting to steal content as it is only watched, nither is it in my opinion to avoid advertising as this can easily be done with regular television through a dvr, or even vhs or simply just leaving the room to make a cup of tea. The reason why people watch these programs online is simple they want the content at a time to suit them and even at a place to suit them. I could for instance get my laptop sit in the park in range of the university conection and watch the latest episode of what ever im watching with realitive ease insted of tuneing in at the specific time i am told to watch by the broadcaster.

I have no interest in taking money from the broadcaster or company in question, I am quite happy to watch adds before and durring the program to no excessive levels as on tv if and if i wanted the content on a permanent basis i would buy the dvd. Why then are media company's sticking to brodcast and forcing on demand content to be through illegal up loading. These companys have more than enough resorces to provide content through the internet either add supported or subscription but these sytems are not provided or are done very poorly. For example comedy central's motherload is a very clunky interface that i can only get worrking with IE and the shows provided are devided in to small chunks that buffer slowly and idividualy. The interface could by made into a much similar mor basic approach with easy. Clips of shows ,such as the daily show, could be linked togeather and accessible as a single show (the clips can be kept im sure it dosent take a lot to have them play smothly after one another with adds interspersed) and the whole thing could buffer as one you can leave a tab open in firefox for 20 mins to get a buffer with little problem but waiting a minute wathing 2 then waiting another for the next one is ver inconvenient. Also alot of the vidieo services ofered by company's on the web are only avlible in the US (which im not) if they no wher i am surly they can get advertising for that region surly some third party in the relevant country would be able to provide advertising that could be put into web video feeds. Basicaly the US media Needs to get the act togeather and relise that an ad basied busines model can waork on any distribution platform, the same goes for all other media companies , except the bbc who need to start makeing better programs so some one pays a licence fee, because if wee all wathc tv through the internet thers no tv licence and they are in big trouble

Left in the could at sheffield univercity

2006-12-10T23:43:00.000Z

Ok heer's the deal this blog is basically my pointless attempt to bring atention to stuff that annoyes or inconvineces my in my daily life, this is usually Microsoft or big media but today its the accommodation department at Sheffield's university and their penny pinching form the maintanance budget. Heres my problem i'm at uni i'm in halls and for that last to two days there has been no heating! it freezing here as the heating isn't working and its not the first or last time its happened. Basically the university knows the boiler isn't working but are not fixing it was only a few weeks ago wee got the radiators bled and enjoyed heat for a while. now it would seem its shut down completely as even the pipe feeding the radiator is cold to the touch. Its all because the uni are to cheep to fix the boiler properly as the halls i'm in are soon to be got rid of, but surely they have some obligation to keep comfortable temperatures i shouldn't have to be putting on warm socks and coats indoors really. Bassicly its a disgrace and i really hope its resolved before jan cos its hardly like i can light a nice fire in here.

Ok alttle disjointed as i pasted half in from my other blog but you get the idea im paying good money for acomodation and they are failing to provide basics like heating. If anyone reads this please leave a comement as to if you think its right for a large istitution to have such a blatent disrgard for the comfor of its students.

IE7 triple restart

2006-10-31T19:47:00.000Z

right1 im in a ranting mood now aimed especially at Microsoft! Basiacly im sat her minding my own business listing to infection by scot siglar its his previous podcast novel he's on to the Rockie now but thats all bout American football in a intergalactic way so i dont get that at all. Back to Microsoft they've released IE7 which id ont really care about because i use the far superior firefox but anyway i updated to IE7 2 weeks a go because comedy central uses an active x thing for its mother load player and it doesn't work well in Firefox and i don't really want to have a security hole like that running all the time i brows the net. But basically you cant get rid of IE and its such a scurity hole you want it as new as possible. so basically for that reason and partly out of curiosity i downloaded it the day after it was released. After a restart it was done , a restart that was not needed for fierfox 2.0. And now the point the Microsoft update popped up today and decided to install IE7 so now has removed the previous version (also IE7 minus the 50 or so security fixes that properly been released already) and now has to restart to get rid that then restart again to install it again so thats 2 pointless restarts to archive absolutely nothing. What on earth are Microsoft doing they design the OS surly they at least should be able to install a program while the computer is on but no they tie IE so into the operating system that even they cant do that. thats it really got that out they way btw switch to firefox 2 now its far beter than anything microsoft can manage.

BBC - Radio - Download and Podcast Trial

2006-05-27T15:57:00.000Z

The bbc podcast trial! Why is it still a Trial? It works ther are several good podcasts on here as sad as it may seem Radio 4 has some of the best podcasts with less music to cut out. However the BBC are such sticklers to copyright and licencing isues that you listen to the podcast u miss bit that would have been on the radio. WHY! Are you going to listen to an entier podcast every week just incase u can ilegaly copy a bit from the arces if evre it is made fun of? (not retorical question so please leave me a answer) Personaly im not and it brakes ur listing. This is material they brodacst to everyhome in britan that anyone with a casset radio can record how is letting the few people who listen online here it going to make a difference. Ican see why there never going to let the chriss mnoyls show out with songs in it, thats just asking for trouble but to stop someone hering a parody mix of some of ther own material is plain rediculous.

p.s.
Just found that the bbc offer full version radio versions of the their sowhs online acesible to everyone anyware in the world so why is the podcast cut?

Geek News Central Podcast a Technical Audio Show

2006-05-23T18:41:00.000Z

Just thopught id mention the geek news central podcast on this un read blog of mine. Is a grate thechnical audio show that is just about the best way posible to keep up with all the tech news with out any effort required. Is a very relable podacst with two shows every week, i can only rember him mising one show in the year ive been listing. Runs to hour long show it did used to be bild as 45 mins but noone expects that to happen again. One trick to do if u do find it a bit long is to up the speed to 1.4 (i use wmp) that brings the lenght down and you dont miss anything unless u read one of the liked artiacls. Anyway if ur even vagule in to tech cheek it out and subsribe to the maling list Useualy rather poitless thing to do cos the haveing the show notes in Firefox is far more stable than in outlook but thjer is talk of cash prizes in the next episode so supscribe quick.

Digital switch over

2006-05-04T18:46:00.000Z

On wathing a report on the impeding swich over to digital telvision in britain i though two things: 1 wher are the small cheep digital redy tv's (14'' crts for £60) and 2: why are they still selling anolog TV's . the lack of small dvB redy tv's is going to be one major hasell when swiching to digital, i have digital but because there is no freeveiw in my area i have sky which is only in the livving room as is most digital television. Even when goverment figures show everyone has digital tv it will likly be only onm the large screen tv in the main room so the numerus other televisons (3 in my case) that just runn off ring areials will all sudely swich off requiering about £150 to upgrad with set top boxes and new areials. And backk to the point who waqnts to be running set top boxes takeing up vauble room and a scart socet and not to mention the extra power nedded for a small tv used in a bed room. The answer no one would if given a choice so if anyone out ther knows why i cann not by a chepa digital tv for £20 more (£30 box less materiall costs for power suplys and cases) than an anolgle one please let be know. secondly with digital swich over impending why are alolge tv still widly avalible. surely a swich over would be far esier if when ur old tv broke u just bought one and it was already digital reday which could be achived at very low extra cost. This is in stark contrast to digital camers where even with no pned govermewnt banning of film cammras digital cameras are prolific and i would have to look for a film camera (of any qulity) rather than looking for the digital modle. To ilistrat the chronic lack of digital ready TV's out of 13 TV sould by one onlie supler only 1 surported Freeveiw.
Coments welcomed or emails to contactme@talktalk.co.uk

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2006-04-25T18:50:00.000Z

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Microsoft Windows Media Configuration Utility

2006-04-25T18:38:00.000Z

Ok heres a technical question for anyone whos out ther and know a bit about windows.

Why does the Microsoft Windows Media Configuration Utility load every time i finish listing to a podcast? Everytime i listen to a podcasdt in Wmp MWMCU as i will refer to it as from now on trys to acces the internet and call home. Y might this be if it were merly trying to find details on my media y would i lo0ok at the end and not the begining or at any random point throughout the day. also y does it not activate at the end of a song music track? So it apears to me that microsoft or some one wants to know what podcasts im listing to if you know who or y pleas let me know. by leaving a coment here or emialing contactme@talktalk.net if its to sensitve to talk about openly.

Microsoft delays launch of Vista

2006-03-22T16:55:00.000Z

On reading the news that microsoft was to delay the lanch of its Vista operating system i imdatly thought about how annoying that was. im off to uni in september and was going to buy a new laptop inorder to get a neww computor with the new vista operating system. But what do i do now? How do i go out and buy a new laptop in september which i need to do and then 4 months later be left with a out of date operting system or the extortionat price to which they will charge for vista when not bundled. Also what specs do i need will they know by then? Actually will there be laptops avalible with the required specs given the amount of RAM and procesor XP needs vista will probly require 512 of ram and a a 1ghz procesor just to run. and u know it will still crash and be full of bugs and security holes. In the Years since Microsoft reeased XP you would hope they built Vista from the ground up but u know that it will be based on the same old flawed windows we are used to. Pehaps thats the answere to my problem , ill get linux based macvhine (not a MAC the users are to fanatical and upgrdes are too expencive) btw sory bout the underline i dont know whats happening.

BBC News Microsoft delays launch of Vista

BBC IMP (will it meet expectations?)

2006-03-21T20:38:00.000Z

The BBC IMP which i am egerly awaiting (as a way to get free tv) is one of these services that could be awsome but given the way the ionternet and media is going probly wont. firstly thers the drm (although because its free isnt quite as bad) Why is it needed (i know content providers wouldnt let it go with out.) but think its all on the telly anyone who wants to record it will just plug in a dvd recorder or dvr or caset if they start with brodcast flags. Anyone who wants a proper dvd will still buy one and anyone who would get it off p2p would do anyway, and those who would put it on will get round the drm anyway. Secondly the P2P delivery system grate in theory losey in pratice. ISP's block P2P , they shouldnt but they do, my isp "bandwith throtles" p2p trafic right down to 1kbs so unless they use some new ports it will be teribly slow. finally 7 day expiery on media your away on holiday for a weak and think grate ill use that new imp to catch up and waht do u know they drm wont let u watch em. However once the hacckers have sorted thess problems out and u have all bbc content frelly avlible on everything , anytime and anyware u want it will be grate.

Legal Note: I do not in anyway surport the breach of coppyright law, or the brakeing of any laws. I do however object to the use of DRM by big bussines to restrict fair use in a vain atempt to exploit their customers and maintain their out dated bussines modles, Record compaie employes u know what u have to do. Please also note opinion so is free speach.

USB/SD Car Stereo from maplin

2006-03-19T17:03:00.000Z

hi if any of you out there are looking at this CD player from maplin and are thinking of buying it dont. Untill uve looked at this it is a similar speced cdplayer being sold on ammazon for £10 cheaper. Firstly if like me u find the similarity in the pics Here and here to close for comfort. Note the same positioning of the buttons and the only difference being the lack of a brand on the mapline version. I contacted maplin about this but they have yet to be back to me. and tell me what you think of the similar photos. And if you have bought one of these tell me what u think of its perfomace does it run as badly as many amzon reveiwers would surgest.

Nothing to say really

2006-02-11T18:23:00.000Z

for some reason i thought i might add somwthing to this blog but cant actully think of anything so uve probly just wasted 20secs reading this or 40 if ur still on dial up.

Top Of The Pods

2006-01-13T18:17:00.000Z

just thought id mention Top Of The Pods which is the best UK podcast i can find (i havent really been looking but its still good). Anyway if ur reading this go over to top of the pods and subscribe to the podcast. Is a good show to waste about half an hour when you should be doing work. Dont try and do worrk at the same time cause ull be laughing so much that u wont get anything worthwile done. If any of you dont know wat a podcast is goggle it.

Dun Dun Dun sound effect

2005-12-05T20:48:00.000Z

Hi im not sure how this thing works with the search thing but if anyone finds this this is a request for that dunn dun Dun sound effect that always happens when something shoking is said in a cheasy / comedy fillm. But i cant find it anyware. so if uve found one and somehow landed on this please tell me the adress by sending me a coment . Ok this is a mga long shot but there bust be someone out ther with the effect i need they've probly just called it somthing im not searching for.

Intelligent design?

2005-11-26T08:24:00.000Z

It would seem that i have stubled on to a topic worth some further atention.
To clarifiy where my objection to Intelligent design lies is in the contoversy in america about it being taught in sicence lesons. As my understanding of Intelligent design goes (correct me if im wrong) it says that life is to coplex to have come in to being through a seris of natural events as in evoloution and therfore this complexity must have been produced by some intelegence. This like evolution has no dfinitve proof and is belived is it logicaly explins things with some surporting evidence (like the eye haveing "evolved" in several unconected groupos of animals).
However the problems come when explaining the mechinisum , evolution is explained by a process of natural selction,but Intelligent design as i understand it is explained by the 'guidence of some inteligence'. Simple logic dictates that if humanity is the most inteligent thing known to siscence and our dablings in genectics are happazard at best (cloning for example the numbers of unsucsefull clones out nuber sucsefull ones many times over) then the inteligece must be manny many times grater than ours. Since this inteligence is far grater than any worldly being it must be something beond our sicientific understanding. Be it , aliens , god/s or my personal favoraite the supremmly inteligent inter dimensional creatures that appear as mice and are useing the world as a giant supper computer to find the question to the life the unizerse and everything. And discounting the silly ones (apologies to any ralians or any one whos bible is the hithchikers guider to the galaxy) It seems that this inteligent desiner is some sort of good or other focus of religios worship.
Therfore Intelligent design is religion and so should be taught as such and NOT as sicence.

Evolution debate?

2005-11-23T22:46:00.000Z

Reacently i have heard lots of "debate " in america over evolution and inteligent desing. What debate! Evolution is a widely acepted scientiffice thoery based on observations of the world around. Its been around for hundrads of years and is tought in all sicentificaly advanced countries. Inteligent desing however only exists in america , hear in the uk we have the sence to spot the religious nature of the iteligent desing so it dosent exist and apears to only have evloved in america wher the natural selection of the lack of religion in schools has made caration mutate and evlove in to itelengent design. Why straightforward religious creation (from all major religions) isnt taught in america (if the have RS over there) balfels me. Let em teach creation if they like but dont let them (religious coservitive amerians) call it science!

my website

2005-11-17T19:30:00.000Z

hi if uve not seen my website have a look at it
http://www.tuxworth.talktalk.net/

If u have seen the webpage all the content on ther is free for any use u like as long as u mention me (alex tuxworth) someware near it and if u end up making any moinney off it dont come back sueing me for copying u.

If u are or represent the artist of the songs on there please note that thes are poor qulity covers (not copys) and are distrubuted to a very small audiance of and not for profit. If this is a problem with u big record comanies just emaill me and ill take it down no need for sueing cos it realy aint worth it cos noone has lisened to it.

train broadband

2005-11-04T14:58:00.000Z

just a though i had when i was reding an artical about high speed broadband on trains useing satilites and raidio etc and just though why not use a system similer to that powerline broadband to deliver broadband through the overhead lines. If this idea works and makes anyone rich how about sedding me a few royalties.

getting started

2005-11-01T18:54:00.000Z

hi to noone whos reading this. This is just a blog started cos i thought i ought to set one up to put stuff i want people to see out there so might be intresting might not ill just see wat happens.