Nov 18, 2007
BBC iPlayer
Some Related Posts
In a follow-up to my previous post regarding the incompatibility of the new BBC iPlayer I recently found an interview on backstage.bbc in which the developers of the iPlayer and representatives from the Open Source Consotium and the Open Rights Group discuss this very topic. It would seem that the general consensus is that release of the iPlayer to be bound to one operating system was in many ways a demonstration of the problems with DRM (Digital Rights Management) and thankfully just a stepping stone to more open access, initially through streaming and then hopefully to more open access.
Interestingly enough the developers pointed out that it is only a very small piece of the whole delivery system that was written in a proprietary format, namely the bit that goes on your computer. Over 90% of the system is running on Solaris with many of the developers using Debian based systems.
Ok Tony, off you go….
We had a minor technical email at work which my boss forwarded to me saying they may as well be talking Double Dutch. I laughed at him at the time but having read your post I think I know what he meant
Should I add glossaries to my posts? I don’t exactly write according to my audience. Perhaps I should just talk about seeing Margate on the front page of the Sun, or pass comments on the ‘sword of truth’… actually, the second one did make me chuckle when I read him saying ‘sometimes poachers make good gamekeepers’.
I was working like a dog somewhere in london so my apologies in not commenting earlier.
Actually to be honest I’m quite hostile to the BBC iplayer which I feel would be more aptly refer to as the Iwontplayer.
But I see you drop in a few goobledeegook (not sure about the spelling there) words. And I will take a guess that Solaris and Debian are some sort of Hand crafted organically grown GM free bits of software available at all good handcraft shops for free nodoubt and I reckon the reason I cannot get the damn thing to work.
haha, yeah, i expect all these machines are to complicated for their own good. though its worth pointing out that solaris was developed by sun microsystems, who dabble in a little open source and a little propriety.
don’t know what the iplayer is like yet, i still haven’t tried it! we used the itv player for the rugby world cup on my housemate’s computer. that was ok, in a crappy blurry streaming kinda fashion. still, at least they are having a go and there is no other way i would have seen the games unless i spent the whole time down the pub (i did try that, but that also got a little blurry).