Jan 2009
Agatha Christie Radio Mysteries
28/01/09 15:05 Filed in: Personal
In my mind there is nothing so abhorrent as a plagiarist. Although I’m not entirely sure the term is applicable in this particular instance.
Whilst wandering around iTunes attempting to locate episodes of the superb BBC production of Miss Marple, staring Joan Hicks, I came across an intriguing Podcast called “The Agatha Christie Mysteries”.
Now being a Podcast and the work being still under Copyright I considered that the productions must be amateur and therefore perhaps considered outside the normal scope of infringement.
You should note that as well as lesser works, the current list includes;
But what’s worse is the nature of the recordings. Somebody (or some people) called “Humphrey Camardella Productions” have tagged a production credit onto what are in fact BBC Radio production. Apart from the obvious copyright infringement, it’s a TOTAL SCAM! Implying in fact that Humphrey Camardella had anything more than a cursory part of its production.
In fact, that total amount of effort involved is that removal of the BBC copyright warning and replaced it with the incepted message
“You are listening to another premier Old Time Radio program and also a proud member of the Blueberry community. Another Humphrey Camardella production”
Of course, my problem now is that whilst I hate this kind of outrageous credit where no credit is due, I also love Agatha Christie dramatisations.
I guess I’m going to have to be the honest bloke and report it to the BBC. I mean it’s one thing to replay radio plays from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s... but stealing BBC radio productions from less than a decade ago. That goes beyond the pale.
I mean this is a US podcast, so it’s not like they’ve even paid a bean towards the actually BBC production.
Whilst wandering around iTunes attempting to locate episodes of the superb BBC production of Miss Marple, staring Joan Hicks, I came across an intriguing Podcast called “The Agatha Christie Mysteries”.
Now being a Podcast and the work being still under Copyright I considered that the productions must be amateur and therefore perhaps considered outside the normal scope of infringement.
You should note that as well as lesser works, the current list includes;
- Murder on the Orient Express
- Nemesis
- A Murder Announced
- Thirteen at Dinner
- Death on the Nile, and
- Evil under the sun
But what’s worse is the nature of the recordings. Somebody (or some people) called “Humphrey Camardella Productions” have tagged a production credit onto what are in fact BBC Radio production. Apart from the obvious copyright infringement, it’s a TOTAL SCAM! Implying in fact that Humphrey Camardella had anything more than a cursory part of its production.
In fact, that total amount of effort involved is that removal of the BBC copyright warning and replaced it with the incepted message
“You are listening to another premier Old Time Radio program and also a proud member of the Blueberry community. Another Humphrey Camardella production”
Of course, my problem now is that whilst I hate this kind of outrageous credit where no credit is due, I also love Agatha Christie dramatisations.
I guess I’m going to have to be the honest bloke and report it to the BBC. I mean it’s one thing to replay radio plays from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s... but stealing BBC radio productions from less than a decade ago. That goes beyond the pale.
I mean this is a US podcast, so it’s not like they’ve even paid a bean towards the actually BBC production.
.NET driven mad!
27/01/09 13:57 Filed in: Personal
For a solution that is meant to eradicate DLL hell, .NET can be such a pain the ***.
Today’s fun surrounds our use of ReportViewer and how Visual Studio 2008 figures that it’s not needed on the server. Now I’m getting an unrelated refused connection.
You know, some days just go great and others....
Calm... Calm...
“See the pony! See the pony! See his gentle ho-of” - Mighty Boosh Radio Show Episode One
Today’s fun surrounds our use of ReportViewer and how Visual Studio 2008 figures that it’s not needed on the server. Now I’m getting an unrelated refused connection.
You know, some days just go great and others....
Calm... Calm...
“See the pony! See the pony! See his gentle ho-of” - Mighty Boosh Radio Show Episode One
Sky uses Lost in attempt to drive visitors
26/01/09 14:00 Filed in: Personal
In what can only be seen as a vein attempt to drive customers to its less than appealing video content solution, Sky is now forcing Lost fans to endure a web based video instead of it’s previously convenient to receive iTunes based (video) podcast.
Ever since season two of Lost, “The Lost Initiative“ with Iain Lee, has been something of a runaway iTunes success. Both for Channel 4 (who showed seasons 1 and 2) and then for Sky (who aired season 3 and 4). But the fun is over and Sky has now chosen to promote its less than rounded video service by delivering the show as purely “browser only”.
All of which reminds me of the audience shrinking steps made by the actual Lost producers. For the first two series they got fantastic viewing figures from Channel 4 (in the UK this is a free to view channel) and when they moved over to Sky One (a subscription satellite channel) they have lost over half their audience. Now that Sky is forcing people to its video site (and perhaps to register) I think they are doing the same again. What a bunch of muppets!
I expect in the next few days that Episode 1 of Lost Season 5 will appear on iTunes (if it has not already).
I wonder if it would be cheaper to purchase Lost via iTunes than pay for a Sky subscription. I’m still not convinced by the BT Home thingy solution. “Why pay for channels you don’t watch?” I suspect it’s because Sky starts at £15 and BT charge £2.50 per WHAT EVER!
Rant over!
Ever since season two of Lost, “The Lost Initiative“ with Iain Lee, has been something of a runaway iTunes success. Both for Channel 4 (who showed seasons 1 and 2) and then for Sky (who aired season 3 and 4). But the fun is over and Sky has now chosen to promote its less than rounded video service by delivering the show as purely “browser only”.
All of which reminds me of the audience shrinking steps made by the actual Lost producers. For the first two series they got fantastic viewing figures from Channel 4 (in the UK this is a free to view channel) and when they moved over to Sky One (a subscription satellite channel) they have lost over half their audience. Now that Sky is forcing people to its video site (and perhaps to register) I think they are doing the same again. What a bunch of muppets!
I expect in the next few days that Episode 1 of Lost Season 5 will appear on iTunes (if it has not already).
I wonder if it would be cheaper to purchase Lost via iTunes than pay for a Sky subscription. I’m still not convinced by the BT Home thingy solution. “Why pay for channels you don’t watch?” I suspect it’s because Sky starts at £15 and BT charge £2.50 per WHAT EVER!
Rant over!
Shiny Happy Toilet Paper - The explanation!
22/01/09 08:25 Filed in: Personal
After 20 years of pondering why it was that certain facilities came equipped with shiny (happy?) toilet paper. I now have the definitive answer... and from the oddest place.
So I was talking to a colleague today and the conversation somehow (and for reasons I’m not entirely sure) drifted towards what I described as “Municipal shiny toilet paper”. I was basically pondering its use when George came up with the answer.
“It’s for health reasons” he said.
“In what way?”
“The paper is non-porus and bacteria cannot pass through it. So if people don’t bother or can’t wash their hands, they don’t walk around with bacteria on there hands.”
The army uses it exclusively for this reason and its standard for kitchen staff in the MOD.
So there you have it. That’s why municipal toilets in the 70’s / early 80’s used shiny toilet paper. It was a means to improve public health in the absence of people having the brains to wash their hands.
So I was talking to a colleague today and the conversation somehow (and for reasons I’m not entirely sure) drifted towards what I described as “Municipal shiny toilet paper”. I was basically pondering its use when George came up with the answer.
“It’s for health reasons” he said.
“In what way?”
“The paper is non-porus and bacteria cannot pass through it. So if people don’t bother or can’t wash their hands, they don’t walk around with bacteria on there hands.”
The army uses it exclusively for this reason and its standard for kitchen staff in the MOD.
So there you have it. That’s why municipal toilets in the 70’s / early 80’s used shiny toilet paper. It was a means to improve public health in the absence of people having the brains to wash their hands.
Funny old month
21/01/09 11:20 Filed in: Personal
It’s been a funny old month.
What with Gordon Brown PM suggesting that the entire nation would understand and accept Prince Harry’s racist comment. Firstly, I don’t think the entire nation didn’t. But then should we be surprised that Prince Harry has racist tendencies, what with his father Prince Charles calling a fellow polo player “Sooty”. “Sotty” is a non-white polo player.
Still, the biggest racist gaff-meister has to be Prince Philip who has done as much for diplomacy as Hitler did for world peace. The list is endless and I won’t go into it here... but there’s got to be a website of his greatest hits.
Well, that’s my two-penneth.
So, now for something a little lighter.
I have been trawling the iTunes music store (after a friend generously gave me a £15 voucher for helping out) and decided to have a listen to the original “The Mighty Boosh” radio show. It’s now prompted me to check out the TV series (shown on BBC Three) via my LoveFilm account. It’s hard to come up with an adequate description for the show. Essentially the first series (in Radio and TV) is centred around the surreal adventures of a couple of zoo keepers (if that’s not overstating a case). If I like them, I’ll buy the box sets (perhaps even from iTunes). Sadly, I missed out on getting the first TV show for just 99p an episode!
What with Gordon Brown PM suggesting that the entire nation would understand and accept Prince Harry’s racist comment. Firstly, I don’t think the entire nation didn’t. But then should we be surprised that Prince Harry has racist tendencies, what with his father Prince Charles calling a fellow polo player “Sooty”. “Sotty” is a non-white polo player.
Still, the biggest racist gaff-meister has to be Prince Philip who has done as much for diplomacy as Hitler did for world peace. The list is endless and I won’t go into it here... but there’s got to be a website of his greatest hits.
Well, that’s my two-penneth.
So, now for something a little lighter.
I have been trawling the iTunes music store (after a friend generously gave me a £15 voucher for helping out) and decided to have a listen to the original “The Mighty Boosh” radio show. It’s now prompted me to check out the TV series (shown on BBC Three) via my LoveFilm account. It’s hard to come up with an adequate description for the show. Essentially the first series (in Radio and TV) is centred around the surreal adventures of a couple of zoo keepers (if that’s not overstating a case). If I like them, I’ll buy the box sets (perhaps even from iTunes). Sadly, I missed out on getting the first TV show for just 99p an episode!
More email blues
14/01/09 11:39 Filed in: Personal
I’ve got a serious techie blind spot. It’s email. There is just something about the way email works that conspires to make me change settings blindly or find solutions with issues.
So far in the last six months I’ve moved from Yahoo, GMail, various solutions and now I’m looking at Apple’s MobileMe. Actually, to be fair, it’s not just the email that appeals. For a £150 I can get 5 machines backed up online, and so forth. It’s quite a neat solution (we are all Apple at home) and that really appeals to me.
The bottom line is that while I’ve got it up and running on my MBP and even accessed my email remotely via a PC... I still cannot send email directly from my iPhone.
So far in the last six months I’ve moved from Yahoo, GMail, various solutions and now I’m looking at Apple’s MobileMe. Actually, to be fair, it’s not just the email that appeals. For a £150 I can get 5 machines backed up online, and so forth. It’s quite a neat solution (we are all Apple at home) and that really appeals to me.
The bottom line is that while I’ve got it up and running on my MBP and even accessed my email remotely via a PC... I still cannot send email directly from my iPhone.
As if it couldn't get worse....
05/01/09 08:24 Filed in: Personal
OK... Its official, the banks own everything.
I’m not sure how much money Norwich Union got out of the Government hand out. But here is the latest ad campaign.
Which stars (in no particular order).
Bruce Willis Driving Himself Mad in the Latest Norwich Union/AVIVA advert
They even show computer edited clips from Die Hard 3. Amusingly, they introduce Alice Cooper.
So... what’s that thing the media are telling us about the banks being totally poor and having not got two pennies to rub together?
The motivation for the advert is that Norwich Union is changing its name to its parent companies title AVIVA. So we have Bruce asking where Walter Willis would have become famous etc etc
I’m not sure how much money Norwich Union got out of the Government hand out. But here is the latest ad campaign.
Which stars (in no particular order).
- Bruce Willis
- Ringo Star
- Alice Cooper
- Dame Edna Everage
Bruce Willis Driving Himself Mad in the Latest Norwich Union/AVIVA advert
They even show computer edited clips from Die Hard 3. Amusingly, they introduce Alice Cooper.
So... what’s that thing the media are telling us about the banks being totally poor and having not got two pennies to rub together?
The motivation for the advert is that Norwich Union is changing its name to its parent companies title AVIVA. So we have Bruce asking where Walter Willis would have become famous etc etc
Sweet J****s the world is over!
04/01/09 22:27 Filed in: Personal
The world is over......
Iggy Pop is now hocking Car Insurance for less than middle of the road insurance company SwiftCover.com
If there was ever a sign that the world was on the way, this would be.
I mean how the hell did the snake of punk get rolled up with this. I mean I can see Johnny Liddon doing adverts for Anchor Butter because, lets face it, he was ALWAYS a sell out.
BUT IGGY POP!
Think about it, the mouth that uttered the enigmatic and ground breaking songs;
No Fun, The Passenger, Lust for Life and Search and Destroy
Is now talking utter BS about how he looses his insurance documents!
Iggy Pop is now hocking Car Insurance for less than middle of the road insurance company SwiftCover.com
If there was ever a sign that the world was on the way, this would be.
I mean how the hell did the snake of punk get rolled up with this. I mean I can see Johnny Liddon doing adverts for Anchor Butter because, lets face it, he was ALWAYS a sell out.
BUT IGGY POP!
Think about it, the mouth that uttered the enigmatic and ground breaking songs;
No Fun, The Passenger, Lust for Life and Search and Destroy
Is now talking utter BS about how he looses his insurance documents!
