Gawker: valleywag, bbc

The definitive guide to watching the Olympics online

Jackson West — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EDT

The folks who are bringing you the Olympics online don't actually want you to watch their coverage. NBC and Microsoft are delaying the most popular events by three hours so that it won't interfere with more profitable TV broadcasts. And you'll have to download Microsoft's Silverlight browser plug-in to watch in your browser. But a bird's nest of geography and time-delay restrictions worthy of China's Communist Party government is in place. Thankfully, the anarchy of the Web offers plenty of options for having a crowd of curious coworkers surround your computer as you watch live handball, with varying degrees of expense and difficulty. Rather than being the coming-out party for Silverlight Microsoft hopes for, it may instead be the year sports fans learn a few new online-video tricks.

Online schedules: NBC's Olympics listings takes a bit of work (you have to enter your ZIP code and select a television provider, even if you just want online listings). However, once you've done the work, it'll send you notifications when events you've selected will be broadcast. Jason Kottke has found Google and iCal calendars, which will allow you a bit more flexibility in setting up alerts, and the New York Times has a schedule as well. And of course, there's an official schedule from the organizers in China, with times listed for Beijing's time zone (16 hours ahead of San Francisco, 13 hours ahead of New York) — probably the best place to go for daily updates, as smog and weather may upset the schedule.

Sling Media's Slingbox: For those with more money than time, the best solution might be a Slingbox. Then you can beam your home satellite or cable signal over the Internet to your laptop, desktop, or iPhone, and remotely switch between NBC and MSNBC.
Pros: You can get great quality, even HD, if your home Internet connection is fast. There is SlingPlayer software available for a range of not just operating systems but handheld devices as well.
Cons: Prices start at $129.99 and your selection of Olympics coverage is limited to what's available from your satellite or cable provider, which means missing early heats and niche events and having to put up with tape delays by the networks.

International proxies: It is possible to watch live streams from other countries, such as BBC Sports from the UK or CBC Sports from Canada, by configuring your browser to run through an anonymous proxy. I recommend using Mozilla's Firefox browser with the FoxyProxy add-on installed. Xroxy has a handy list of proxies which you can sort by country to find proxies in the UK or Canada — which must be anonymous, and preferrably running the SOCKS protocol. Your best bet is to get a geeky British or Canadian friend to install a proxy on their machine for you and your Yankee friends. The latency can be frustrating, but once you get a stream started it will work fine.
Pros: Quality streams from legitimate providers, and if you're accustomed to jingoistic U.S. coverage, the charming accents from the Beeb's announcers and the humble mien of the Canadians can be quite refreshing.
Cons: Takes some technical know-how to set up, and proxies come and go. You might miss an event because you're too busy fiddling with your settings or a proxy fails when too many people sign on.

Video on demand: If you're running Windows Vista, you can download events using TVTonic for "Olympics on the Go." Torrent client Azureus works on any system to help download events after the fact, especially the most popular ones like tennis, football, boxing and basketball — Torrentz cross-site search of multiple BitTorrent indexes should make it easy to find the Spain versus China women's basketball game you might miss tomorrow. YouTube's official channel is blocked — even using international proxies — though a reader came up with a crack that works for now. Other less thoroughly policed online video sites like Veoh, Metacafe, Dailymotion and Megavideo will also have videos.
Pros: Torrents will be high quality and work for anyone, while video-sharing sites will be easiest to use.
Cons: Nothing will be live, obviously, and no one knows how long video clips will remain on sharing sites.

P2P Streams: The way I'll be watching online will is through MyP2P, a site that catalogs live sports and television streams from around the Web, listed by event. It helps to run Windows, though not necessarily Vista, because many streams require software downloads — check out MyP2P's beginners guide for tips, including where to find software downloads and optimization settings. I ended up finding live BBC coverage of the opening ceremonies via Justin.tv, which ran just fine in my browser. If you can't find the channel you want in the media format you prefer, check wwiTV, TV For Us, TV Channels Free, Channel Chooser or BeelineTV among others.
Pros: Free and fairly easy once you've installed most of the media players listed by MyP2P. And it's fun to watch coverage from other countries — I'll be watching all my football with spanish-speaking announcers whenever possible.
Cons: Quality is hit-or-miss, stream links come and go, and you have to think ahead in terms of scheduling to make sure you've got all the necessary programs installed. Also, Mac users will want to install Windows XP through Parallels or Fusion for the widest selection of channels.

Eric Schmidt laments lack of Iraq war coverage, while hiring away journalists

Jackson West — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:40:00 EDT

Google CEO Eric Schmidt stopped by Advertising Age's Madison and Vine conference last week, and proceeded to weep incredibly expensive tears over the fate of investigative journalism after Google helped eviscerate newspapers' business. "It's a tragedy for America," Schmidt declares before noting how few resources are going into reporting on the war in Iraq. "We'd spend a little more money to cover it, but our economic system doesn't justify that." Meanwhile, across the pond, Google hired away veteran BBC newsman Peter Barron of Newsnight for the company's public relations machine. Maybe Google will open a new PR bureau in Baghdad and send flacks to the front lines to cover the war. Would certainly be one way to improve Google News.

First 1934 stereo recordings restored

Paul Boutin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:40:00 EDT

The BBC has an early video clip from EMI research engineer Alan Blumlein, who made a series of stereo recordings in the early 1930s after filing a patent for binaural sound technology. Blumlein early recordings include a stereo capture of the London Philharmonic rehearsing Mozart's Jupiter Symphony in 1934. The recordings have been digitally cleaned up to remove the aging effects of the 78 RPM phonographs on which they were stored. Blumlein was a prolific inventor, awarded 128 patents over the course of his life for everything from stereo phonographs to TV to reconnaissance radar.

BBC Trust slams website's weak management

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:40:00 EDT

Think dealing with ADD-addled venture capitalists is bad? In the U.K., the operators of BBC.co.uk have to answer to something called the BBC Trust, charged with making sure BBC media "provides high quality output and good value for all U.K. citizens." The Trust's latest review says BBC.co.uk's "not sufficiently strong" management overspent its 2007 - 2008 budget by 48 percent, or $70.5 million. "This lack of financial accountability is not acceptable," reads the report, which also decrees BBC.co.uk's management has to be out by December. The Trust says the site needs more linking out, better search, better navigation and more caution with its investments. The report does not address our need for Little Britain torrents.

The BBC creates a Facebook app to steal identities

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:20:00 EDT

In order to demonstrate how easy it would be for an malicious developer to create an application that steals private information from Facebook users, BBC television series Click created such an application themselves. Then they set up some spooky lighting and filmed a dude using two computers. "ID theft is a serious matter," the narrator intones. Check it out in the clip.

BBC rolls out absolutely useless streaming TV for iPhone

Jordan Golson — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:10:51 EST

The paid-for-by-British-TV-owners BBC has rolled out an iPhone compatible version of its on-demand streaming video service, iPlayer. Neat, right? Yeah, kinda. It's Wi-Fi only and, oh yeah, available strictly in the U.K. What's the point of all that, then, if I can't watch new episodes of EastEnders?

Ex-Joost CTO "an arrogant, condescending jerk," like most CTOs we know

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:40:26 EST

Joost fired its former CTO, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, when it found out he was looking for a new job. Or he quit. Hard to tell. But according to a new tipster, one thing is clear: Many at Joost were glad to see him depart for a new job at the BBC.

I worked with Dirk-Willem van Gulik at Joost, and I've got to say I'm surprised it took them this long to fire him, the guy is an arrogant, condescending jerk who has a demoralizing effect on anyone that must work with him. In a 20 year career, I don't think I've ever met someone I enjoyed working with less.
For example, in conversation he would pretty-much concoct terms and acronyms on the fly, and then act like you are a moron for not knowing what they mean. On later research you discover that Google has never heard these terms either.

He is the type of guy that non-technical people find convincing, and even if you are reasonably technical, it can take a while before you realize he is full of crap, but eventually you will.

The people here are livid that he was obviously lining up a new gig when he should have been doing his job here, hence going public about the involuntary nature of his departure.

I feel sorry for those at the BBC who must work with him now, but I have one tip — next time he casually throws out an unfamiliar term or acronym to convince people he is smarter than you, Google it, you will
probably find it is wholly or partially made up.

BBC wants to know if you're getting any

Melissa Gira Grant — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:00:09 EST

After my first week reporting here, BBC Radio 5 Live interviewed me about Valley sex. Do "geek casanovas" (that's what they called you) have to pay for it? Listen to the archive of the broadcast or download through iTunes for my characteristically delicate response.

BBC and Apple have partnered up to sell BBC...

Jordan Golson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:10:33 EST

BBC and Apple have partnered up to sell BBC programming through the UK iTunes store. [Reuters]

Fired Joost CTO already had new gig lined up

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:41:20 EST

Joost fired its CTO, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, a company flack told NewTeeVee. For a replacement, the Web TV service named Comcast's Matt Zelesko to be the company's senior vice president of engineering. Here's the weird part, though: van Gulik already has a new job.

The BBC's Future Media and Technology Group appointed van Gulik chief technical architect this afternoon.

That news apparently surprised Joost. Joost PR first told NewTeeVee that van Gulik would continue as a consultant for the company. On a second call, the flack told the blog that van Gulik had been "terminated."

What could have caused their story to change so fast? Here at Valleywag, we're on the case, actively searching the Internet for a photograph of van Gulik's girlfriend's boobs or at least a shot of the CTO ripping a bong hit. Because why else does anybody get fired around here? You could, of course, let us know.

Philip Rosedale, master of damage control

Mary Jane Irwin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:19:47 EST

Just when things turn bleak for Second Life maker Linden Lab — CTO Cory Ondrejka recently "left" the company — CEO Philip Rosedale manages to pull a fluff piece out of the BBC. He's previously denied he has anything to do with timing these media wet kisses, but we're skeptical. Perhaps it's his boyish charm and ability to spin numbers — or the fact that these media outlets are easily impressed by the whizzes and bangs of virtual worlds.

Rosedale's first order of business with the BBC is to dispel rumors that Ondrejka was fired because of a shift in the company's direction. Then he blathers on, unstopped, about the untapped potential of virtual worlds, "how we're at the early stages of something very big." (Right. Because we all want to be able to turn to our neighboring virtual Amazon.com browser and ask for purchasing advice.) Thanks to the Beeb. Without your bully pulpit, Rosedale would be left talking to tens, if not dozens of users in a Second Life amphitheater. (Photo by Lane Hartwell)

Everyone's doing the Hulu

Mary Jane Irwin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:02:08 EST

Afraid of being left in the stuffy, old-fashioned world of channel-hosted Web videos, the BBC is teaming up with rival U.K. broadcasters ITV and Channel 4 to develop their own multibrand TV destination. The model is Hulu, News Corp. and NBC's joint venture, which operates as a showcase for its partners' content as well as distributing it to other Web-video sites. The new British "aggregator," which will launch sometime in 2008, will offer content in a variety of formats, including free download, streaming, rental and purchase.

Above-it-all BBC to put ads on website

Jordan Golson — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:27:49 EDT

Who needs subscriptions? The U.K. public pays a mandatory ~~license fee~~ tax to fund the British Broadcasting Corporation. As a result, BBC TV, radio and websites are generally advertising-free. Now, the BBC Trust, the board overseeing the Beeb's operations, has approved a plan to put ads on BBC webpages for international readers. Apparently, users "did not express a strong objection" to advertising. How very commercial of them. (Photo by AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The Beeb to team up with Xbox 360?

Mary Jane Irwin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:15:03 EDT

There's a new battleground for digitally ditributed content brewing in the most unlikeliest of places — home videogame consoles. Last week there was the rather shocking announcement that Sony's PlayStation 3 would soon be home to movie and television content. Not to be outdone, Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has had video content downloads since last November, is now courting the BBC and all of its TV shows and HD programming. While the soothing tones of the BBC are not usually what we associate with xBox, the deal, which Microsoft is "working diligently on," would add some much needed gravitas to a portfolio currently dominated by South Park and UFC Fights.

BBC gets schooled by videogames

Mary Jane Irwin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:16:35 EDT

Simon Nelson, the BBC's new-media guru, is delivering a keynote at next week's Edinburgh Interactive Games Festival. His speech, as described in the official literature, is why "the [BBC] had something to learn from games and how games will figure in the Beeb's new media folio in the future." The Internet interpreted this as a pending announcement of a BBC videogame strategy — the rumor strengthened by BBC's current portfolio of downloadable games based on its TV shows. And it's not like it would be that strange. Even the New York Times has started using newsgames to illustrate everything from the oil crisis to the E. coli outbreak. But the BBC is now denying everything. More's the pity.

Beeb spokesreaders quickly shot down such rumors. The keynote, they claim, will focus on the convergence of media and what games and television can learn from each other — not a new game strategy. Idiots. The fusty Beeb could use something to spice up its offerings. If PBS can run an alternate reality game, why not launch the British Broadcasting Company into the virtual world?

The race to roll-up video content

Chris Mohney — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:00:54 EST

We obviously spoke too soon when calling video tech jobs the object of the online video gold rush. Content deals are where it's at. Big fish like Viacom are going to Joost, while singing their own praises in terms of pushing internal video. Joost in turn is pursuing moderate players like JumpTV. Not to be outdone, Google has signed up the BBC for Youtube, even while it pursues a host of littler deals (and we enjoy how the New York Times likens the NBA to a "smaller media company"). So if you have some video content lying around that no one is bothering to pirate anyway, why not cash in with a little Youtube money? It's a seller's market, at least for the next 30 days or so.

Google Motto: "Don't Be Evil, Now "Don't Be Stealing"

rabruzzo — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:29:15 EDT

BBC News reports on Google being called before British Parliament to discuss online its policy on online copyrights in leiu of the still pending acquisition of youTube. Google Europe vice-president Nikesh Arora told MPs his company would not tolerate copyright violations.

Mr Arora and Andrew Mclaughlin, Google's head of global public policy, were repeatedly questioned about copyright issues by members of the Commons culture select committee but said they could not comment. Mr Mclaughlin said if material infringed copyright on its own Google Video service "we take it down". But he added: "I just can't say anything about YouTube since it's not our company."

What a cop out! Mr Arora and Mr Mclaughlin then pulled out a nice fag, struck a match off the head of a MP, and preceded to puff whilst blowing smoke up the Parliament's ass.

Say goodbye to your collection of Monty Python skits posted on youTube, the days of Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge are over.

Google quizzed over YouTube plans [BBC News]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6087976.stm

How journalism works: A word is worth a thousand words

Nick Douglas — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:27:27 EDT

Words in BBC headline ("Google and Apple 'in video talks'"): 6
Words the BBC quotes from Google VP Marissa Mayer to support headline ("engaged in talks"): 3
Total words in article, including photo caption: 250
Words pulled out of BBC's ass: 247

Google and Apple 'in video talks' [BBC]

Fake Guy Kewney not a cabbie, not that cool

Nick Douglas — Mon, 15 May 2006 15:53:45 EDT

In a disappointing little update to the "BBC mistakes cabbie for IT expert" story, it's come out that the bewildered man mistaken for IT expert Guy Kewney — and then mistakenly interviewed on live TV — is IT expert Guy Goma. According to Kewney, Goma is not a cabbie but a business studies grad who was at the Beeb applying for a high-level IT job.

Guy's expertise is in data recovery, which is still a far cry from music-download expert, and he was shocked at what he thought was a sudden initiation ritual. But still, with all his expertise, the best bullshit he could spin was "You're gonna see a lot of people...downloading...on the Internet." With bluffing skills that weak, how's this guy going to last in IT?

That "Guy" - he really is a Guy, and not a cab driver, either! [newswireless.net]
Earlier: The IT expert cabbie [Valleywag]

The IT-expert cabbie

Nick Douglas — Mon, 15 May 2006 10:00:00 EDT

In case you didn't see the video this weekend: A cabbie being mistaken for an IT journalist in the wake of the Apple vs. Apple decision. Here, the BBC interviews an unwitting taxi driver, thinking he's tech expert Guy Kewney. The cabbie gives one look of shock ("face of horror" on the transcript) and then decides to fake it.

This is actually how Eric Schmidt got hired to run Google.

The BBC's latest star - a baffled cabbie [The Mail]