Radio 4's 2.0 show back on the air

iPM is back on Radio 4 this afternoon. It uses a blog and forum to generate user discussion for  the show. It is led by Eddie Mair, once an armchair general on a BBC2 wargaming show (not many of them to the pfennig)

Site link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/

Just by browsing the links I find some interesting stuff. A civil servant being taken to task by her employers for her blog, and some "griefers" causing, well, grief, by using javascript on an epilepsy forum. Real life isn't a computer game.

Link 1: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/25/civil_serf_blogger_suspended/

Link 2: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epilepsy

RIP Anthony Minghella

News of the release of the "Nr 1 Ladies Detective Agency" has been hit by the sudden death of director Anthony Minghella today. (news)

I am sure that his final work, due to screen this Easter, will be a tribute to him.

BBC New-look Website

I normally go to the BBC News front page, in fact, my browser starts up to that page. So I didn't take much notice of the new BBC front page, BBC.co.uk. But, this link jumped out at me, so it seems quite user-specific. Of course, it isn't, but sometimes random seems link that.

How To Take Good Photos: Tom Ang presents top tips on how to get the most out of your digital camera.

A series that I'm waiting to come to BBC2 is "The Genius of Photography", which was shown on BBC4. I do not receive BBC4. The website has some information. And a link to the BBC photography homepage. And so, the cycle is complete.

BBC iPLayer

The BBC has relaunched their iPlayer. You can catch programmes from the last 7 days from BBC1 and BBC2, also the digital channels BBC3, BBC4, News24 and BBC Parliament.

Useful programmes for your career range from "World Business Report" to "Panorama: One Click from Danger".

They have also integrated the "listen again" radio features into the iPlayer so you can catch radio shows too. Crossing Continents on Thursday's Radio 4 was a feature on technology, e-athletes and cyber-addiction in South Korea (newslink).

CES 08

The Consumer Electrical Show is on over 7th-10th January in Las Vegas. I didn't get a chance to see the news yesterday, so haven't heard much about it. Here's a mediasplurge.

Official website - complete with RSS feed, and media coverage pages, including Bill Gates' final keynote speech (link to his QnA session on BBC website).

The BBC is blogging the Show, and has a page of gadgets to look at.

FWIW, I'd be happy with a half-hour programme on mainstream tv from each day of the show. If we truly live in a technological age, what happened to our "Tomorrows World" type of programmes? But I suppose it gives people a chance to create solutions and sell you them on dvd or on niche channels. I class Freeview as niche channels, until the digital switchover forces us plebs to update our systems, and forces the 'service providers' to improve the signals and coverage. I foresee a lot of people walking away from mainstream television unless the digital authorities get their act together.

In the meantime, and back OT, the channel that has the BBC scared, YouTube, has plenty of coverage. Here's the results for a search on CES 2008. Share and enjoy.

Bubble2.0: The Music Video

Caught this on Net@Nite: Bubble2.0 by The Richter Scales.

Here's the news as to why some of the links on the page don't work:

A hit YouTube video that parodied Silicon Valley's Web 2.0 gold rush has been taken down, launching a freelance photographer and an amateur choral group into an internet-fueled copyright dispute.

The clever clip, produced by San Francisco Bay Area a cappella group Richter Scales, mixed original imagery with photos found online, all set to the bouncy tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire." It garnered hundreds of thousands of views before it was taken down Tuesday by YouTube due to a copyright claim by a photographer who's image was used in the video.

The source article on Wired.com is interesting. And I concur wholeheartedly with the comments made by the lawyer.

Check the laws dealing with intellectual property rights first - just because a photo is on a photo-sharing site doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want to do with it.

So, you can play the music via the podcast, but don't watch the video (which is why I haven't linked to the video).

They Were Who We Are

"They Were Who We Are". I heard those words on Saturday night when listening to a Garrison Keillor podcast from Lake Wobegon (November 17, 2007). I was so taken by his turn of phrase that I listened to the podcast again.

Then I thought of the sort of post that would go with the phrase: "They Were Who We Are". This is it. Just a collection of links to places where you can see, hear and read about the past of Scotland and the UK. For free.

• BBC "A Nation on Film" archives.
• BBC "Scotland on Film" archives.
• BBC archive of history programmes.
• BFI from their creative archives licence.
• British Library Sound Archive -
• British Pathe Ltd - some free clips for view.
• Film Archive Forum provides information on various other sites.
• Films from the Home Front.
• Huntley Film Archives - some sample clips.
• Map collection from the NLS.
• Moving History - film and television archives. Links.
• National Archives - public information films, treasures and online exhibitions.
• The Open Video Project.
• School of Scottish Studies - listed by type.
• Scottish Screen Archive (from the National Library of Scotland).
• The Word on the Street - Scottish broadsides from 1650-1910.

I've ignored collections that are limited to educational institutes only. it should be obvious why I've done that.

"He who controls the past, controls the future" George Orwell. Look into your own past. It will help you in your own future. For some it will come as a disappointment to realise that you are as fickle or as steadfast as your ancestors. They too suffered and partied. Spoke about their hopes for the future. Had their dreams. Had their problems. Thought they were unique, and of an age that would never come again.

"They Were Who We Are"

In Kautokeino no one can hear you scream

I found this online - I must track down a copy of "Kill Buljo"

”Wouldn’t it be fun to make a north Norwegian Tarantino spoof of Kill Bill?”

More info

Trailer

This and That

This

and

that

Alumni interviewed by SFX writer

A former Aberdeen College student, Mike Clerk, was recently interviewed by SFX magazine writer, MJ Simpson.

• Interview 1: Mike Clark, production design and props chief.
• Interview 2: Mark Stirton, writer/director.
• Simpson's review of "The Planet".

The film included at least one other AbCol alumni, Mike Mitchell (who also got onto Emmerdale).

All of which is fact, and not just copied, unchecked, from Wikipedia.

Saturday Walkabout

From the Father Ted school of photography.

These are small...

...but the ones out there are far away.

Revealed: Council plans to warm the beach-front.

Sun sets behind Broad Hill.

The Links Effect

I start looking for information to help students in a project about Victorians, and find some useful sites:

The National Library of Scotland is great, and I've looked at their maps on many an occasion, but they also have "The Word on the Street"

The National Library of Scotland's online collection of nearly 1,800 broadsides
lets you see for yourself what 'the word on the street' was in Scotland between
1650 and 1910. Crime, politics, romance, emigration, humour, tragedy, royalty
and superstitions - all these and more are here.

Who could resist such an introduction? Not I.
To find out what else is in their growing digital library, click here.

Of course, I can't write about broadsheets without mentioning the Illustrated London News, Conan Doyle published his Sherlock Holmes stories in it, and their reporters roamed the globe for stories. They don't have a complete archive, but enough to whet the appetite.