Date   : Sun, 31 Jul 2011 09:09:58
From   : heyrick.beebsoc@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: [BeebSoc] Auntie, dear Auntie

On 31/07/2011 00:36, Mick wrote:

> Nonsense! Who developed Teletext???

Granted, the Beeb developed teletext, but IIRC it was intended for 
captioning rather than pages of information; although it did pretty well 
at both tasks in the end.

Just a damn shame there's no accessible data feed on the digital text. 
One of the joys of teletext was in leaving your receiver to pick up all 
the pages. My satellite decoder, a basic little Silvercrest jobbie, 
actually has sufficient memory available to cache an *entire* service, 
and it snapshots it in realtime. So if I tune to a channel, and let the 
page counter roll around, I can then call up *any* static page 
instantly, from memory. The only thing I need to wait on are subpage 
refreshes.

You tell me why a similar cache couldn't be implemented for digital 
text? But it isn't. On FreeSat, at least, it has the unique distinction 
of a service a lot smaller than teletext *and* also a fair bit *slower*.

Okay, granted, they're streaming the entire Sky digital text service 
alongside (compatibility? I've heard of it...) but that's only 
marginally faster!


> Who developed NICAM.

No, the BBC commissioned it for internal networks. It wasn't until the 
late '80s that they began using it for broadcast, and 1991 (IIRC) that 
they announced this - *after* C4 (and possibly ITV?) went public with 
this capability.

I remember in the late '80s, Maplin used to sell a NICAM receiver, but 
there were - at that time - no official broadcasts, though a fair few 
programmes (Beeb and commercial) were broadcasting stereo anyway...


> I love Auntie and always will.

I wish Auntie would stop trying to do ratings wars with commercial 
stations. A bit of saner scheduling and all the good programmes can be 
enjoyed by everybody, instead of pitching them head-to-head. I mean, 
come on, the Beeb is mostly public funded, they ought to step back from 
this.


[btw, did I just see an advert for Big Brother on C5? won't that
  f***ing programme just DIE already!?!?]


> Shame they have such a well paid ejit in charge of her these days though.

Thank about the company you work for while I think about the company I 
work for.

Then remember I taught you The Peter Principle.


> Close down 6 music?

I don't want to sound like an old git (yet), but I never *ever* in all 
my years, "got" Radio 1. Back in the '80s, in the '90s, and listening to 
it for a test yesterday. It seems to be to be a station designed to drag 
up the dregs of music (and in old git mode, I think some of it barely 
scrapes by being called "music") and hyping the hell out of it so smug 
overpaid presenter personalities can.. be.. smug.

I dunno. The station I used to listen to in the UK, back to 2002, played 
*no* rap, *no* metal, and a nice selection of older songs alongside 
modern ones. And presenters that mostly shut up and just played the 
music... Only down side, adverts. Oh well.


Anyway, if I had to cull a random BBC station, I might consider Radio 1 
extra; and start looking at who/what is costing the most money.


Best wishes,

Rick.