I had one of these threads before, but I think it got lost in the move.

Anyhoo, I subscribe to a lot of RSS Feeds from Auntie and occasionally there are some interesting, sometimes, infuriating blog posts that I put the links up for, and they needed a place to live, so this is it, I suppose.

If you find some, yours can live here too, if you want Or just chat about them....whatever....

From the BBC Radio Blog

A new series for Radio 2 - Sounds of the 20th Century.

From BBC R4 and R4x


Let's Get Quizzical - Brains, Pickles and Slips

CBBC Children's Website Relaunch

A commitment to Mod'nAdminlyness: I understand that ^{r-e-s-i-s-t-a-n-c-e} _{*i - s*} ^f-u-t-i-l-e.
I shall not be starchy, nit pic, patronize, commit misandry, be economical with the facts or be a pedant, neither shall I whine. I shall endeavour to abstain from gratuitous point-scoring off the comments of other Mods or Administrators and also from engendering a culture of BLAME, remembering too to give the benefit of the doubt. Everything in my power will be done to achieve a modest post count & share my smileys, sources & avatars,

A couple of blog posts I thought might be of interest....or not....your choice

I Did It My Way - Roy Hudd

Radio 4 at The Sony Awards

This is an excerpt from the R&D Blog here. I'd like to know what the heck it means....

The whole team spent Monday in an energetic and excellent day-long workshop with a service design agency looking at some different techniques for low-fi experience prototyping. In a matter of hours we'd identified some real user needs, sketched out some ideas and then translated them into physical prototypes that the rest of the team could 'experience'. Next week we are going to be testing out some of our low-fidelity prototypes with real users; yikes. George described it as 'punk-rock-prototyping' which feels quite apt.

Should I be afraid? Does this sound like they'll be messing with the WMA's?

Should I be afraid? Does this sound like they'll be messing with the WMA's?

Nah, just messing with the English language........and our patience

I'm NOT paranoid......thats just what THEY want you to think!!!

Ha! Catch word of the month J-ru! LOW FIDELITY

Where do they find 'em! I mean what kind of a twit would dream up an expression more likely to draw, ire, flack, hilarity, disbelief,


A commitment to Mod'nAdminlyness: I understand that ^{r-e-s-i-s-t-a-n-c-e} _{*i - s*} ^f-u-t-i-l-e.
I shall not be starchy, nit pic, patronize, commit misandry, be economical with the facts or be a pedant, neither shall I whine. I shall endeavour to abstain from gratuitous point-scoring off the comments of other Mods or Administrators and also from engendering a culture of BLAME, remembering too to give the benefit of the doubt. Everything in my power will be done to achieve a modest post count & share my smileys, sources & avatars,

Janaru Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is an excerpt from the R&D Blog here. I'd
> like to know what the heck it means....
>
> The whole team spent Monday in an energetic and
> excellent day-long workshop with a service design
> agency looking at some different techniques for
> low-fi experience prototyping. In a matter of
> hours we'd identified some real user needs,
> sketched out some ideas and then translated them
> into physical prototypes that the rest of the team
> could 'experience'. Next week we are going to be
> testing out some of our low-fidelity prototypes
> with real users; yikes. George described it as
> 'punk-rock-prototyping' which feels quite apt.
>
> Should I be afraid? Does this sound like they'll
> be messing with the WMA's?

It's simple, dunno why you didn't unnerstannit.

Basically, the complaints about the existing broadcast service (laughingly known as "Hi-Fi" have been drying up (listeners have learnt the futility of moans, if they find anywhere to moan), so the Brave Boys in the Backroom have a wizzo new idea. They'll reduce the quality even further so that the programmes will sound as if they've been to the moon and back several times via a low speed IP link using one of the poorer encoding techniques. [if I could remember which one my managers wanted me to approve for use in our network I'd tell you but it was pretty horrendous]. Testing starts next week. [You must remember the guitar equivalent, waa-waa and fuzz with multiple echoes?]

Oh you harbinger of bad news Conion! ... Essential reading though your posts are ... we, or Bert perhaps, could dream up a psycho-drama all about the BBC's Backroom Boys, their works and pomps and bundle in your decoding of their antics thus creating a unique soap all about the plummet ever downwards of our August Corporation.


A commitment to Mod'nAdminlyness: I understand that ^{r-e-s-i-s-t-a-n-c-e} _{*i - s*} ^f-u-t-i-l-e.
I shall not be starchy, nit pic, patronize, commit misandry, be economical with the facts or be a pedant, neither shall I whine. I shall endeavour to abstain from gratuitous point-scoring off the comments of other Mods or Administrators and also from engendering a culture of BLAME, remembering too to give the benefit of the doubt. Everything in my power will be done to achieve a modest post count & share my smileys, sources & avatars,

Truthyness Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh you harbinger of bad news Conion! ... Essential
> reading though your posts are ... we, or Bert
> perhaps, could dream up a psycho-drama all about
> the BBC's Backroom Boys, their works and pomps and
> bundle in your decoding of their antics thus
> creating a unique soap all about the plummet ever
> downwards of our August Corporation.
In the late 90s we were investigating the possible use of VOIP before it was used by SKYPE. We wanted to compare it with traditional communication techniques. so I had a couple of my team leaders set up a realistic trial of VOIP between two suitable phones in the office and using a representative path through the network. It was weird standing a yard or so from someone and watching his lips move and then a second later hearing a low quality version of his voice. There was no way it was going to be an acceptable service.

Mobile to mobile is worse than that and people have got used to it.They'll get used to a degraded version of the BBC, if it's cheaper or free or offers some advantages that compensate to some extent for the disadvantages.

(I'm not going to say anything about the BBC being a degraded version of what I remember and that I watch them for about a couple of hours a week, but Eastenders, The One Show, news, Graham Norton, really. Now I feel degraded.)

It's so boring having to agree w/posters here all the time!


A commitment to Mod'nAdminlyness: I understand that ^{r-e-s-i-s-t-a-n-c-e} _{*i - s*} ^f-u-t-i-l-e.
I shall not be starchy, nit pic, patronize, commit misandry, be economical with the facts or be a pedant, neither shall I whine. I shall endeavour to abstain from gratuitous point-scoring off the comments of other Mods or Administrators and also from engendering a culture of BLAME, remembering too to give the benefit of the doubt. Everything in my power will be done to achieve a modest post count & share my smileys, sources & avatars,

So...I should be worried. Great.

Janaru Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is an excerpt from the R&D Blog here. I'd
> like to know what the heck it means....
>
> The whole team spent Monday in an energetic and
> excellent day-long workshop with a service design
> agency looking at some different techniques for
> low-fi experience prototyping. In a matter of
> hours we'd identified some real user needs,
> sketched out some ideas and then translated them
> into physical prototypes that the rest of the team
> could 'experience'. Next week we are going to be
> testing out some of our low-fidelity prototypes
> with real users; yikes. George described it as
> 'punk-rock-prototyping' which feels quite apt.
>
> Should I be afraid? Does this sound like they'll
> be messing with the WMA's?

I can tell you for sure they have been playing with the file size of WMAs. Just one example, Desmond Olivier Dingle's Compleat Life and Works of William Shakespeare on 4/29 was 12MB while the 5/6 episode has 25MB. In comparison, a Classic Serial episode has 20MB and that's a one hour show compared to Desmond Olivier Dingle which is one half hour. So someone is playing around with file sizes over at the Beeb.

Janaru Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So...I should be worried. Great.


A commitment to Mod'nAdminlyness: I understand that ^{r-e-s-i-s-t-a-n-c-e} _{*i - s*} ^f-u-t-i-l-e.
I shall not be starchy, nit pic, patronize, commit misandry, be economical with the facts or be a pedant, neither shall I whine. I shall endeavour to abstain from gratuitous point-scoring off the comments of other Mods or Administrators and also from engendering a culture of BLAME, remembering too to give the benefit of the doubt. Everything in my power will be done to achieve a modest post count & share my smileys, sources & avatars,

I noticed that! I thought it was just me! Which is really sucky because that's one good thing about the WMA's is the smaller file size, and I can't tell the difference in the quality. Can you? I'm half-deaf, so I don't notice those thing so much.

I don't notice that big a difference. The sound is sometimes duller than say what I get via Radio Downloader. But the difference between the bigger WMA files and the smaller ones? I don't notice a difference. I haven't tried to see if the volume level is different when the file size is smaller (if the content is softer sounding in the smaller file)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 0314 May 14 2011 by lifeonmarsfan.

I haven't either. Wonder what their puttin' in there then?

My guess is it's the new editing program they are using...I have a couple of audio editing programs and depending on which one I use, the file is either bigger or smaller. I haven't really tested the sound quality to compare one vs the other.

Quote
Eastenders, The One Show, news, Graham Norton,

Apart from the news, THAT is degrading!

. Ivor



The original and real cat with the swishy tail.
Accept no imitations.

It's so boring having to agree w/posters here all the time!

".......agree......all the time!"?

I think not.

Ironeyes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's so boring having to agree w/posters here all
> the time!
>
> ".......agree......all the time!"?
>
> I think not.

Ahhhh! What it takes to get Sweet Fluffy Tender Eyes goin!


A commitment to Mod'nAdminlyness: I understand that ^{r-e-s-i-s-t-a-n-c-e} _{*i - s*} ^f-u-t-i-l-e.
I shall not be starchy, nit pic, patronize, commit misandry, be economical with the facts or be a pedant, neither shall I whine. I shall endeavour to abstain from gratuitous point-scoring off the comments of other Mods or Administrators and also from engendering a culture of BLAME, remembering too to give the benefit of the doubt. Everything in my power will be done to achieve a modest post count & share my smileys, sources & avatars,

I note that a couple of posters have linked the words, degraded and degrading to the programmes, Eastenders, The One Show and Graham Norton.

I wonder how these two critics might describe people who watch and enjoy these programmes.

Is anyone else getting a bit cheesed off that the only topics (apart from crowing about listening figures) that seem to predominate in the R4X blogs are effin' AmEx, effin' Doctor Who and effin' DID?

Russ

I see it's all gone rather quiet over here.

Ironeyes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I see it's all gone rather quiet over here.

Hey maybe there was a rapture and all that's left are us sad Beebotron fans...

Very nice LOM.

You've enabled me to point out a similarity between those poor people who believed in the prediction of the "rapture", and those critics here and elsewhere who believe themselves to be superior to others.

Both suffer from delusion.

Sorry Mate, can't add any grist to the mill ... I never stray over there it's just too damn scary.

Love those posts of yours though

Russ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is anyone else getting a bit cheesed off that the
> only topics (apart from crowing about listening
> figures) that seem to predominate in the R4X blogs
> are effin' AmEx, effin' Doctor Who and effin'
> DID?
>
> Russ


A commitment to Mod'nAdminlyness: I understand that ^{r-e-s-i-s-t-a-n-c-e} _{*i - s*} ^f-u-t-i-l-e.
I shall not be starchy, nit pic, patronize, commit misandry, be economical with the facts or be a pedant, neither shall I whine. I shall endeavour to abstain from gratuitous point-scoring off the comments of other Mods or Administrators and also from engendering a culture of BLAME, remembering too to give the benefit of the doubt. Everything in my power will be done to achieve a modest post count & share my smileys, sources & avatars,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2224 May 23 2011 by Truthyness.

Is anyone else getting a bit cheesed off that the only topics (apart from crowing about listening figures) that seem to predominate in the R4X blogs are effin' AmEx, effin' Doctor Who and effin' DID?

Yes, Russ. I effin' am, too! I've noticed the blogs have been really "Ain't we somethin?'" oriented lately, and that seems to be pretty much across the Beeb.



Hey maybe there was a rapture and all that's left are us sad Beebotron fans.

Looks like we escaped another one, eh, Mars? I guess the next one is December 2012?

(Don't know if y'all across the pond heard about the preacher over here who predicted the end of the world for this week. Can't remember the exact day.)