The Kriptonomicon
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The Kriptonomicon, Dont read everything you believe
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Sun, 23 Nov 2008
Survivors
on BBC tonight. Didn't suck. Colour me surprised!
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Patterson Joseph for Doctor Who!
I thus declare my allegiance. He would be great, in my opinion.
BBC news article, if you don't know what I'm talking about
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Tue, 01 Jul 2008
Dr Horrible's Sing-along blog
What hath the Writers Strike of America wraught?
this
Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Mon, 31 Dec 2007
Shadow In The North
Talking of cracking adaptions of Philip Pullmans work, did anyone see 'The Shadow In The North' the TV adaption of his Young Adult novel, carrying on from 'The Ruby In The Smoke'? Cracking stuff. Bearing in mind that he's writing for the YA market, he manages to write in a way that doesn't talk down, but covers all kinds of subjects. If you haven't see it, go do so (especially as you can do so for the next week via the flash based iPlayer).
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sun, 29 Jul 2007
Reboot back?
Glitch! Export to Movie!
Come on, you konw you want to say "I don't think so.."
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sat, 30 Dec 2006
Ruby in the Smoke
A BBC adaption of a Philip Pullman novel, starring Billie Piper of Dr Who fame. The program was really made by the excellent Julie Walters, who really seemed to relish her role as the arch enemy. Quality british drama, this - an excellent bit of work by the BBC - take a quality book, and cast it well. Another point for the license fee!
I've no idea if it was a faithful adaption of the book, but I intend to find out, especially as it seems to be something of a series he's writing (four books so far?). Ages 11 and up indeed!
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sun, 14 May 2006
Did you watch Dr Who last night?
More importantly, did you video it? Go check - 'come dancing' was deemed more important, and overran for 30 mins. So, if you have the last 30 mins, I'd appreciate a copy...
Oh, Human 2.0? I think so;
http://www.plasticbag.org/images/extra/world_conquest_hacks.jpg
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sun, 26 Feb 2006
Replaced By CGI Please Help
Via JWZ
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Mon, 06 Feb 2006
Kermit..what are you doing?
Oh, how the mighty have fallen...
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Thu, 12 Jan 2006
I have a bad feeling about this
The I.T. Crowd is a new 'satirical' sitcom from C4.
" The high-rise towers of Renham Industries are full of go-getters, success stories, and winners... apart from in the basement. While their beautiful colleagues work upstairs in fantastic surroundings, the I.T. department - Jen, Roy and Moss - lurk below ground, scorned by their co-workers as geeky losers"
Although to be honest, I'm amazed we've escaped this long. Yay.Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Mon, 28 Nov 2005
Dalek Porn
Oh yes, you saw this in your RSS reader and just had to look, didn't you? Disgusting!
Actually, I'm linking to a BBC article;
"They chase the girls around their spaceship and grope them with their plungers," the paper says, before quoting a spokesman for the estate of the Dalek creator Terry Nation: "The reason the Daleks are the most sinister thing in the universe is because they do not make things like porn. They weren't ever intended to be sexual creatures. It's simple, Daleks do not do porn."
So, its official. The Daleks do not do porn. You heard it here first.
Update The Register
has more
details. Article is SFW, the article it links to, not so much. Now, if
you'll excuse me I need to go and do some discrete editing on our web proxy
log files..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Fri, 25 Nov 2005
Goodbye Mr Miyagi
Karate Kid actor Pat Morita dies.
I'll always have a soft spot for Mr Miagi, as unrealistic and cliched as those films were.
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sun, 20 Nov 2005
A shiver runs down my spine..
'The Prisoner' is to be remade. The first question is why, of course, but a quote from the man lined up to executive produce it makes me worried. "Damien Timmer, who has been lined up to executive produce the show, told the television and radio industry magazine that the new series 'takes liberties with the original'."
Why cant they just invent something original, rather than remake old stuff badly?
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sun, 03 Jul 2005
BBC TV Listings online
Its creator says it best:
backstage.bbc.co.uk launches 7 day TV and radio XML listings.
There's even a
Perl Module ready to manipulate it!
I tend to use the Guardian's guide, or a rather nifty set of active bookmarks in firefox from Bleb.org, but this has potential to 'roll your own' if this stops working..
Another great little service from backstage.bbc.co.uk!
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Tue, 14 Jun 2005
Missing Dalek Found
On Glastonbury,
apparently.
Had it just sloped off for a visit to the festival? Had no-one told it the festival had been and gone? Ah, I can see it now;
"I wil party! Party! PARTY!"
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Mon, 13 Jun 2005
Will someone please think of the children?
Fears grow for kidnapped Dalek
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Wed, 18 May 2005
BBC, Redux
The press release for the BBC's downloadble TV show trial is
here,
including a interesting tidbit for podcasting fans;
"BBC Radio is to extend its own trial of downloading by adding up to 20 radio shows for podcasting."
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
BBC To Offer 7 day repeats - via P2P download!
As the entire Blogsphere
appears
to
be reporting, the BBC is trialling a
interactive Media Player which
"enables users to download programs from bbc.co.uk and watch or listen to them for seven days after they have been on TV."
Unfortunately, some DRM is involved. Given the BBC's Creative Commons endeavors of late, I imagine this is more to fulfill its charter obligations, not to mention the rights of programs not made by the BBC.
Having said that, I fully expect the DRM to be broken within days if not hours of its full release, and I expect the BBC to know this, the cunning devils.
On the downside, theres no Mac or Linux support. yet.
Again, given that they are developing their own OS codes for this, I don't expect that this will go on for long either.
Happy days. I'm actively enjoying paying my license fee. You go Auntie Beeb!
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Mon, 16 May 2005
Daleks
"I asked a Dalek (politely of course) if I could take his picture, and suddenly I was surrounded by three Daleks, threatening to exterminate me if I didn't include them in the photo!
I quickly took the snap and slowly backed away.
"Where. Are. You. Going?" they demanded.
"Away - you're too scary," I admitted.
"We. Are. Supposed. To. Scare. You. We Are Daleks. We Are Daleks," they chanted.
Fantastic!
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sat, 16 Apr 2005
BBC Creative Archive
As pointed out in numerous places across the Blogsphere, the BBC has launched their
Creative Archive
Yet again the BBC justify their licence fee.
No old Doctor Who yet, however, as
NTK points out, there is the interesting
UKNova should you want to use BitTorrent as your
personal video recorder..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Thu, 31 Mar 2005
Microsoft beats Apple to Video Download Service?
It would seem so, according to this
Slashdot article..
What with the PSP being heavily debuted as a video/TV platform in addition to
the games (heck, I had a Nintendo Gameboy I don't use, and I still want one),
it looks like the legal TV download battle is about to begin.
Is it me, or is this not screaming out for a Linux based solution? I mean,
we have MythTV and similar Linux PVR's, that are legendarily hard to setup,
why doesn't someone make a Knoppix type bootable CD that works with X different
types of TV tuner card?
There aren't that many TV tuner PCI cards out there, after all, and Knoppix et
al have shown they can get a good looking desktop to work on most hardware -
if you locked the functionality down to just PVR stuff initially, it would
cut down on development time..
Hell, I'm sure you could get it to run on a flash based device, and then you
could plug it into an ITX style mini box with the hard disk size of your choice,
and blam! Instant PVR.
Well, its a thought.
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Nooooo!
New Dr Who Star quits..
What Already?
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sat, 26 Mar 2005Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Tue, 22 Mar 2005
I should have finished reading the BBC article..
The BBC has already run trials with what it calls its Interactive Media Player (iMP), which lets users download programmes for free for up to eight days after they are on TV.
It did? When! Man, I'd love that. Combine it with an RSS feed, and you'd have TVCasting (ala podcasting).
Boy, that would be sweet..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
A Taste of Things To Come?
Channel 5 is going to offer TV episode downloads, as reported at
Slashdot
and
BBC News Online...
I hope this works well for them.. I'd really like to be able to download TV episodes.
The price of 1.50 is probably right - I'd be happy to pay that for the odd 24 or Nip/Tuck, or Simpson's I'd missed.
OK, I know they're all US shows, but if it works well here, maybe the BBC will start doing it also - they appear to be looking into it already from assorted comments round the blogsphere (and at ETech recently), and the BBC has tons of archives I'd pay for..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sat, 12 Mar 2005
Batman fan?
You have to checkout
this
quicktime short film!
Created using Lego (no, trust me, its better than you think), and
starring Adam West and Mark Hamil!
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sun, 06 Mar 2005
DivX and MPEG
When I wrote
this
I knew I was missing something...
It turns out (thanks, of all places to macUser magazine), that if I bought the
DivEx
codec I can plug it into quicktime and export quicktime movies as DivEx, read DivEx in
quicktime etc.
As far as I understand, anyway..
Actually, given that I have an iPaq and XDA on text at work, I can try ripping a DVD (with
D-Vision or similar.
I think ffmpegX may do it) to play on one of those devices just to see what all the fuss is about..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
The Muppets!
..Have a
new home!..
Check out the Swedish Chef's Kitchen..
Warning, Flash intensive.. :-(
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Battlestar Galactica Podcasts!
As pointed out by
_sjm_ (now of the
misleadingly named rarelyUpdated 2),
and making its ways rapidly around the techie blogsphere damn quickly..
Battlestar Galactica Podcasts!
At last! A good use for podcasting!
Worthy mentions;
Raelity Bites
Ben Hammersley's Dangerous precedent
BoingBoing
Ok, so I wish the BBC would podcast all their shows.
"In our Time" is not what I had in mind, though v good..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sat, 05 Feb 2005
Television Episode Downloads
I've never been entirely comfortable with BitTorrent and downloading TV episodes, so I was interested to see a service called CinemaNow has signed deals to offer
per-episode downloads of TV shows.
No idea if it will make it across the pond, of course, but I'd really like the option of legally obtaining Tv episodes I miss.
Do you hear me Hollywood?
I want to give you money!
Just don't take the piss, OK guys?
Of course, if this takes off, it means that there will be a legal way to get Tv episodes, which will remove the objection by Apple to a TV based iPod.
Then they could sell the episodes via the iTunes store.
Given the market penetration of that into downloadable music ATM, that would be huge, and it would amaze me if they aren't working on something like that..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sat, 29 Jan 2005
Two Golf car ads.
No, I don't care a whit about cars. These ads, however..
This
one looks a more official ad for a Golf. Some fantastic digital re-editing of a classic.
While
this
one is very, very wrong.. Not, I think, an official VW ad, somehow..
Warning both require quicktime.
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sun, 02 Jan 2005
Converting mpeg's to VCD's
So, I finally got somewhere with this. If I'm really lucky, I'll have got the DiVX->MPEG stuff down, as well, but that's another post.
So, HOWTO encode MPEG files to VCD's using MacOSX and
Toast:
You can probably do this using the OS tools built in, or available via Fink, but Toast has most of the stuff you need, and is a lot easier..
1. If you have an MPEG file that hasn't been pre-sampled for VCD; you can do this from within Toast with the Video tab and VCD or SVCD options.
2. If you have an already sampled MPEG, do not use Toast's built-in VCD creation tools, as this will re-sample, and either fail outright, or will only allow you to create a SVCD that the audio slowly gets out of sync on.
Apparently this is because Toast is re-sampling it when it creates it, and it gets it wrong.
When you encode audio for VCD's you have to do so at a lower (speed? frequency? can't find my notes..), as CD's can't spin as fast as DVD's and the DVD player can't keep up with both the video and the audio..
This is where I was a couple of days ago.
Since then, I've had more luck.
I downloaded
VCDToolsX (very hard to find, as he doesn't have it listed on his
main page,
and this provided the wrapper for vcdimager, which creates a .bin disc image that Toast can write as an image file from one or more MPEG files.
Some testing later, and voila! A working VCD, with no audio problems. Only took me two days..
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Mon, 16 Aug 2004
Mind, Body & Kick Ass Moves
this
documentary is all about martial arts, and covering the martial arts masters of the present.
It supposedly carries on from a superb 80's documentary called "Secrets of the Masters", which, if anyone can get me the video's, I will pay you whatever you ask..
Anyway, I cannot get it, since its on BBC 3, which, NTL have decided is a digital-only channel, and I still have analog, and don't wish to pay an extra 10/month for their pleasure..
So, if anyone sees it on any, say P2P networks, please let me know.. I'm willing to buy the DVD's but as the season hasn't finished, I doubt they're out yet..
grump.
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Sat, 03 Jul 2004
Firefly News!
Firefly the movie;
"Slashdot brought the website down faster than Fox took down the tv show!
Now I still can't get my Joss fix...."
Quote from Nathan Fillon's Blog;
"Morena, of course, is Morena. One look is never quite enough. It is easy to imagine the high class she occupies in the 'verse of Firefly. Gina fuses supermodel and badass in an outfit tailored to her physique. She's been working out, you'll see."
From Joss When's Blog;
"The real news, and you heard it here first, is that Universal has thrown down an official release date! So mark your calendars, Browncoats, 'cause if you're planning to get married on April 22nd 2005, you better change the date. Seriously. Who gets married in April? Just change it."
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link
Fri, 14 May 2004
Blake's 7: The Quotes
So, I was talking with a friend about Blake's Seven when I decided to check out the memorable quotes.
They are way cooler than I remembered, so I'm going to post a few highlights here;
Vila Restal: This is stupid, Avon!
Kerr Avon: When did that ever stop us?
Kerr Avon: I am not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going.
Kerr Avon: If you didn't want the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.
Vila Restal: Don't leave me here! At least leave me a torch. I don't like the dark. I like to see what I'm scared of.
Vila Restal: I hate personal violence, especially when I'm the person.
Vila Restal: I'm entitled to my opinion.
Kerr Avon: It is your assumption that we are entitled to it as well that is irritating.
Vila Restal: I've got this shocking pain right behind the eyes.
Kerr Avon: Have you considered amputation?
Roj Blake: Hang on everyone, this is going to be rough!
Vila Restal: I don't mind rough. It's fatal I'm not keen on!
Vila Restal: I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life.
Orac: It is unlikely. I would predict there are far greater mistakes waiting to be made by someone with your obvious talent for it.
Posted at: [/tv] permanent link