____/ Mark Kent on Sunday 21 October 2007 09:14 : \____
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> ____/ Mark Kent on Saturday 20 October 2007 13:50 : \____
>>
>>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>> ____/ Mark Kent on Friday 19 October 2007 20:21 : \____
>>>>
>>>>> [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>>>> BBC Quietly Announces Linux/Mac iPlayer
>>>>>>
>>>>>> .----
>>>>>>| Keir Thomas writes "When the BBC released its new iPlayer
>>>>>>| watch-on-demand service, there were many complaints about the fact
>>>>>>| it was Windows-only -- the equivalent of current BBC broadcasts
>>>>>>| only being watchable on, say, a Sony television. The good news is
>>>>>>| that the BBC has announced a Flash-based player for Linux and Mac
>>>>>>| due by the end of the year. (The announcement is buried half way
>>>>>>| down the page.) The bad news is that it will probably only offer
>>>>>>| streaming, and not the ability to download programs, like the
>>>>>>| Windows client has. Quote: 'It comes down to cost per person and
>>>>>>| reach at the end of the day.'"
>>>>>> `----
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/16/1958217
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The "cost" argument is bullshit. The BBC already uses RealPlayer
>>>>>> technology to provide media, and this already supports DRM (if they
>>>>>> absolutely /must/ use it), so why did the Beeb ever even approach MS to
>>>>>> begin with ... they already had /all/ the technology they needed?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And even now ... rather than use the Real technology that is already
>>>>>> integrated at the BBC, they'd /still/ rather turn to Adobe for a
>>>>>> half-baked solution.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It's just a series of excuses designed to favour their new "partner".
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Because they're recruited some ex-Microsoft people, I would imagine.
>>>>
>>>> Ask Microsoft's Douglas what's-his-surname why Microsoft corrupts the ISO
>>>> with OOXML. He'll just tell you that "it's simply a matter of Microsoft's
>>>> commercial (money) interests!" And yes... he actually said that in
>>>> Malaysia, IIRC. That's one of their most senior people.
>>>>
>>>> Same applies here. The BBC is now built to milk money from people and
>>>> offer 'protection' to the convicted monopoly abuser.
>>>>
>>>
>>> When commercial interests become synonymous with the corruption of
>>> government bodies, then something has gone very badly wrong indeed.
>>
>> Hopefully they'll escape the BBC before they end up grilled by the EC (or
>> worse -- in a jail cell).
>
> For what these guys have done, they probably should be in jail. 2,500
> redundancies, and over £60 millions wasted on Microsoft proprietary
> code which the BBC will never own. Get them in court, or at least, get
> them in front of a parliamentary committee to explain their actions
> here. If serious fraud or mismanagement is suspected, then the police
> should be involved at the earliest moment.
It's not over £60. It's over £130 (or /was/, back in August).
About investigation, apart from the EU (forget about the Trust's supervision
because it's a fork-henhouse thing) you have this:
MPs rap BBC over Siemens deal
,----[ Quote ]
| But public spending watchdog the PAC said BBC executives misled the board
| of governors about possible savings while trying to convince them to give
| the deal the go-ahead.
|
| The committee of MPs found £60m of costs was excluded when budgets were
| put to the governors for approval.
|
| [...]
|
| The PAC said the BBC was failing to manage the contract properly.
|
| [...]
|
| The report suggests the BBC should open up its accounts to government
| officials for proper scrutiny.
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/29/pac_bbc_siemens/
So, it's doable. The MSBBC must go under similar investigation for its abuses
with Microsoft, not just Siemens, which /itself/ is a Microsoft partner
(follow the £££).
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| Who are the people responsible for creating this mess?
>>|
>>| * Mark Thompson, BBC director general (DG)
>>| * Erik Huggers, group controller at BBC Future Media & Technology
>>| * Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.defectivebydesign.org/iPlayerProtest
>>
>>
>
> Yup - those would be the chaps who should explain why they never did
> a proper tender for the iPlayer. The EU law *requires* a tender for
> projects beyond a certain value (about £10,000?), and it seems to me
> that the BBC did not follow the proper rules here, had they done so,
> there would have been proper cross-platform capabilities available now
> from open vendors, not proprietary mono-platform locked-down rubbish
> which is barely functional.
>
> I suspect that EU tendering law alone could be enough to land these
> people in serious trouble, let alone the competition issues and general
> mismanagement of public funds.
They should be grilled like the following man, who was busted.
http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2007/10/07/erik-prince-monopolist/
When corruption costs many, many lives.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Open minds, open source
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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