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AlexBennee

Listed below are comments made by AlexBennee between Friday, 28th August 2009 and Tuesday, 27th October 2009.

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24 hours with Ubuntu 12:56pm on 27 Oct 2009 I look forward to a future posting after Rory has had a little more time to explore his new operating system. People seem to forget what their first experience with Windows was like because of the subsequent years of familiarity. Having spent many years without Windows I find the same thing on the odd occasion I have to use a Windows machine.

As far as #2's comment about command line instructions is concerned I appreciate why people are nervous of them. However the practical reason a lot of instructions include command line examples is it's easier than talking someone through the GUI steps:

sudo apt-get install firefox

Is equivalent to clicking through:

Software Store->Add/Remove Programs->Firefox

(or whatever the path through the GUI is, I use the command line all the time as it's generally faster than navigating a GUI).

It's part of the Unix philosophy (from which Linux derives a lot of it's design) that functionality and presentation (the GUI) shouldn't be too tightly bound together*. This makes it easy to do a lot of powerful things in the command line should people ever need to.

* Modern all-in-one applications like browsers and photo-editors not withstanding. Even they tend to share libraries that make it easy to embed for example a browser window in your specialised application.
Where next for the BBC iPlayer? 4:09pm on 20 Oct 2009 I've also been using beebPlayer (I assume that was what #1 referred to) although annoyingly non-live radio is the one thing it can't do. According to the developer that is due to lack of appropriate feeds from the BBC.
Digital music - who's making money? 1:26pm on 09 Oct 2009 There are still gaps in the availability in the market. I still can't download a DRM free Beatles track from Amazon so I buy CDs as and when I find them (often second hand).

I can't stand adverts in the streaming experience so I pay last.fm for their recommendation based streaming service which is a lot cheaper than Spotify/Napster. The only downside is you can't listen to whole albums they way you can with Spotify. This is a useful feature for "try before you buy" listening when new albums come out, but I'm not paying £10/month for the privilege.
BBCHD and DRM: A Response to Cory Doctorow 09:54am on 03 Oct 2009 Quick question. When the HD streams are turned on will I be able to put a HD tuner into my Open Source MythTV box and watch BBC HD?
How big is the Coins database? 1:49pm on 24 Sep 2009 What #2 said, 24 million lines of data is nothing these days.

I hope the Tories do follow through on their pledge of opening up the data on government finances. Apart from the improvement in transparency I can forsee all sorts of interesting analysis and mash-ups that could be done with the data.
Freeview HD Copy Protection Update 2:53pm on 22 Sep 2009 So what does this mean in laymans terms? Will I be able to watch Freeview HD on my current HD TV with built in digital tuner?
New version of BBC iPlayer for PS3 now available 1:18pm on 07 Sep 2009 Before the update iPlayer was a little cludgy but workable if you used the browser zoom on the normal playback. However I'm really happy with the Firmware 3.0 update (sans logo, I have a Japanese PS3) and it's nice to know the Flash player is finally taking advantage of the graphics hardware. The new iPlayer screen formatting is also a lot better now with text fitting in boxes and navigation greatly improved.

iPlayer on my PS3 is by far the most popular way for me to watch BBC programmes and it's fast becoming the most popular way for me to watch TV. If only Channel 4 could take a leaf out of the BBC's book and support the same broad range of platforms that iPlayer does.
Question Time and the BNP 10:45am on 07 Sep 2009 I think the BNP should appear on Question Time. It would give a chance for those that voted for them to see exactly what they are about, and hopefully put of anyone who thought voting for them was a good idea.
Why we don't have every BBC programme ever broadcast 10:39am on 03 Sep 2009 @3 jocknroll

I suspect that reflects the cost of logistics to process your request. I doesn't take too many hours peoples labour to add up to £100.
What can music teach telly? 4:02pm on 28 Aug 2009 One thing I've noticed is since iPlayer the amount of commercial TV I watch has dropped down close to zero. I used to watch a fair amount of Channel 4 (not so much ITV) but to be honest the convenience of iPlayer wins out over surfing an old fashioned scheduled network.

Of course Channel 4 do have 4oD however is doesn't work on my PS3. The BBC to it's credit has to try hard to reach the maximum number of viewers through the universal service provisions. I'm guessing PS3 owners are just not a big enough demographic for Channel 4 to bother fixing their site.

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