Interesting Stuff 2009-06-15
We're expecting a surge of blogging activity after the Digital Britain report tomorrow, but before then it's time for a quick round-up of what's been going on.
It's been a lively week for the 91Èȱ¬ iPlayer. The 91Èȱ¬'s Rory Cellan-Jones set blogs fluttering with his post about BT supposedly "throttling" iPlayer access. , also noting that Friday saw some unexpected (but now resolved) downtime:
Some 91Èȱ¬ licence payers struggled to access the iPlayer yesterday due to problems with the Corporation's network connections.Several readers contacted The Register to tell us that the online telly catch up service was on the blink.
"On Thursday 11 June 2009 there was a problem with our network connections. We worked hard to restore normal service as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience caused," said the 91Èȱ¬ on its iPlayer website yesterday.
The .
Rory has posted a follow up post about the iPlayer here:
Now while other ISPs have grumbled about the impact of the iPlayer on their costs, I could not remember BT ever making such an forthright call for cash. And when I called the company, a spokesman made it clear that this was a new stance, and BT was happy for the world to know about it.
If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, .
Elsewhere, editor of the Radio 4 Blog, Steve Bowbrick, stumbles across the latest unconventional approach to security at Television Centre:
We haven't heard from Steve since.
Thanks to all of you who followed our posts. with the news that the iPlayer is now available on their handset.
with our live-tweet session with Jason DaPonte, but is left frustrated by DRM restrictions:
My next little bugbear is downloading of TV shows for offline viewing. This is supported on only a small subset of phones, and the iPhone's not one of them. This is because the Beeb has opted to use OMA 2.0 Digital Rights Management. In order to use this, a certificate has to be installed on the phone when it's built - apparently it can't be retro-fitted once the phone is on the market. Unfortunately the iPhone is not one of the phones that can use this sort of DRM; they use Apple's own Fairplay DRM instead.
Regular readers of these Interesting Stuff posts will know I like to highlight new minisite launches -- but this has to be one of my favourites: Transmission Impossible, with Ed and Oucho.
Dave Lee is co-editor, 91Èȱ¬ Internet Blog
Comment number 1.
At 15th Jun 2009, Squirrel wrote:The 91Èȱ¬ iPlayer Messageboard (part of DNA) does not seem to be working today.
Have you downgraded it so that it does not run with IE8 (the latest version of the most popular browser, which the 91Èȱ¬ seem to be unaware of!) or is there a problem with YOUR servers AGAIN?
Maybe the problems with 91Èȱ¬ servers are all caused because people outside the 91Èȱ¬ keep USING them?!
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Comment number 2.
At 16th Jun 2009, johndfisher wrote:All the media interest on Digital Britain so far is self interest . Is no-one concerned about the third of UK adults who don't use technology? At a time when the country needs to be competitive we must ensure that everyone has the basic digital skills. Just think hgow much you would complain if someone took your internet access away. According to Ofcom Most of the unconnected just don't understand the benefits of being online. Access to information is a basic human right and by not helping those who are a bit scared of technolgy we are denying them that right.
Good starting point for funds is the £1/2 billion of our money the 91Èȱ¬ have squirelled away for digital switchover but are unlikely to use for that purpose
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Comment number 3.
At 16th Jun 2009, The Phazer wrote:"Have you downgraded it so that it does not run with IE8 (the latest version of the most popular browser, which the 91Èȱ¬ seem to be unaware of!) or is there a problem with YOUR servers AGAIN?"
Nah, it's always intermittently broken. Same with Firefox or Opera or Safari.
I am baffled as to why it switched to this new logon service which has never, ever worked properly - or at least why when it was clear it doesn't work it wasn't either fixed or switched back to the old version. Especially given the new system delivers precisely zero benefits to the user - it breaks the "your comments" list the rest of DNA uses, and does nothing else.
Phazer
Phazer
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Comment number 4.
At 17th Jun 2009, Wyrdtimes wrote:Can someone explain what these figures are about? And out of interest, who paid for them?
They looks suspiciously EU to me.
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Comment number 5.
At 17th Jun 2009, krishnamurthi ramachandran wrote:The bbc iPlayer (message board)is not opearting on my system.
Really it is confusing.
Please enligen it for better usuages.
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Comment number 6.
At 12th May 2010, U14460911 wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
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Comment number 7.
At 20th May 2010, magic1001981 wrote:According to Ofcom Most of the unconnected just don't understand the benefits of being online. Access to information is a basic human right and by not helping those who are a bit scared of technolgy we are denying them that right.
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