Flickr-flaming-reeno Yahoo balls

Yahoo are fed up with my old skool ways and want me to get with the modern era - or else.

I’ve just had a message within Flickr from Yahoo telling me that I have until March 15 to merge my Flickr login with a Yahoo account.

If I decide to stick to my guns and NOT merge - a service I’ve paid for will no longer be available to me.

I’ve avoided signing up for a Yahoo account thus far because, well because I can’t think of a decent reason but I’m sure there is one.

What I don’t like is that I’m being forced to do it. What I like even less is the overly friendly message telling me so - just get to the bloody point for gods sake.

Here is the message:

Dear Old Skool Account-Holding Flickr Member,

On March 15th we’ll be discontinuing the old email-based Flickr sign in system. From that point on, everyone will have to use a Yahoo! ID to sign in to Flickr.

We’re making this change now to simplify the sign in process in advance of several large projects launching this year, but some Flickr features and tools already require Yahoo! IDs for sign in — like the mobile site at m.flickr.com or the new Yahoo! Go program for mobiles, available at Yahoo! Go.

95% of your fellow Flickrites already use this system and their experience is just the same as yours is now, except they sign in on a different page. It’s easy to switch: it takes about a minute if you already have a Yahoo! ID and about five minutes if you don’t.

You can make the switch at any time in the next few months, from today till the 15th. (After that day, you’ll be required to merge before you continue using your account.) To switch, go to Merge a Flickr and Yahoo! account.

Nothing else on your account or experience of Flickr changes: you can continue to have your FlickrMail and notifications sent to any email address at any domain and your screenname will remain the same.

Complete details and answers to most common questions are in our FAQ: Yahoo! IDs, signing in and screen names.

Thanks for your patience and understanding - and even bigger thanks for your continued support of Flickr: if you’re reading this, you’ve been around for a while and that means a lot to us!

Warmest regards,

- The Flickreenos

What’s an arsing Flickr bloody reeno when it’s at home - or in a dune buggy or whatever these surfy types bounce around in.

Anyway back to the subject at hand.

Apparently there are some pretty big new services coming online soon and a Yahoo account will be needed to use them - some like the mobile stuff already require a yahoo account.

So I guess I’m going to have to bite the bloody bullet and do it. I have Yahoo accounts already, I have another Flickr account specifically for band photos that’s tied to a yahoo account jersey_bands, but I don’t want to use that for my general stuff.

There are other things as well, apparently (according to Ben Metcalf) things like Tags will be limited to 75 and friends to 3000.

The friends thing doesn’t bother me because nobody likes me or my photos anyway and to be honest the tags bother me even less.

I can’t think of many photos that will require more than 75 tags to describe it meaningfully.

Plus more tags can actually make it harder to find something and eventually degrade their usefullness across the whole site.

Too many tags make a photo less destinctive - if I have a photo of Big Ben in London and you can see a couple of Sea Gulls in the picture then the best tags would be bigben, london and seagulls.

Current research (at least what I’ve been told at the Beeb) is that having too many vague tags or in fact any vague tags will make the photo harder to find.

So all in all - my complaints about this change stem from the fact that I don’t like being told what to do - I don’t want to sign up for a yahoo account so I can use flickr - so there!

Oh and I’m 25, I never wen’t to SKOOL I went to school where I learnt bugger all - it was a secondary modern comprehensive pile of turd - but at least I never found myself saying ’skool’.

Sphere: Related Content

Yes to the iPlayer

I was about to start writing a post about Joost when something much more exciting jumped into my inbox - the BBC iPlayer. No not the actual iPlayer, I still haven’t used it - but the fact that the BBC Trust have provisionally said “You know what guys - YES go ahead and make it happen” or words to that effect.

In fact you can read exactly what they said by visiting the BBC Trust website and reading the press release for yourself. This is one of the most exciting bits of news since the iPlayer was first announced (when it was still the iMP).

The official, final announcement will be on 2 May 2007 but given that they’ve said yes provisionally, it will take some SERIOUS lobbying from government, OfCom and the commercial sector for it not to go ahead. In fact even then I still think it will go ahead. The only thing that might stop it is if a critical mass of people phoned or wrote to say “we don’t want the iPlayer”.

There will be a couple of changes to the original proposals but nothing so major it makes it worthless. In fact some of them are just plain sensible and I’d like to have seen there in the first place. The changes are:

Storage window for seven-day TV catch-up over the internet should not be wholly excluded because it creates public value; but should be limited to 30 days. The BBC Executive’s application proposed 13 weeks for this feature.

Series stacking: The public value of allowing access to free content needs to be balanced against the value of the BBC’s secondary rights and potential for negative market impact. The Trust agrees with Ofcom that there is a need for a tighter definition of which series would be offered for stacking.

Platform-agnostic approach: As proposed, the TV catch-up service on the internet relies on Microsoft technology for the digital rights management (DRM) framework. The Trust will require the BBC Executive to adopt a platform-agnostic approach within a reasonable timeframe. This requires the BBC to develop an alternative DRM framework to enable users of other technology, for example, Apple and Linux, to access the on-demand services.

Genres included in non-DRM audio downloads: Audio-books and classical music should be excluded from the non-DRM downloads. The public value to be created is not, in the Trust’s view, sufficient to justify the potential market impact of allowing downloads of these genres.

Protection of children from unsuitable content: The Trust will require the BBC Executive to present options to ensure this.

Of all of these the platform independence is the most impressive - OK I’m a Windows user primarily but I do use a MAC now and then and am considering one for my next computer - but more than that it’s great that the BBC Trust have acknowledged the importance of platform independence AND a decent cross-platform DRM service.

I wonder if the BBC are a big enough player to convince Apple to let them licence Fair Play (is that the Apple one) for the iPlayer. I have heard they’re thinking about licencing it to third parties - this could be a useful start - especially when the Beeb release a commercial version for the international market.

It’s also nice to see that at least some of the shows (radio/tv) will be DRM free.

The iPlayer is still going to have to go through a few more twists, turns, hoops and tests before it can be released to the general public but this is a VERY good start.

Oh and if you haven’t seen the iPlayer yet - Think Pink!

Sphere: Related Content

The BBC 15

This is probably one of the most blogged subjects in the last few weeks - well among certain sections of the blogosphere anyway. It’s the proposed 15 web principles for the BBC in the 2.0 age.

Originally posted by Tomski who works on the BBC 2.0 team, they outline where and what the Beeb should be doing and what bbc.co.uk should be like in the modern internet, sharing, caring age.

Most of them are just common sense stuff like building products people want and need, doing a few things really well, accessibility and consistent but not ‘identical’ navigation and design across the site.

More interesting things include linking out to discussions instead of hosting them, letting people post BBC content on their own websites and making sure BBC content can be linked to forever.

Other interesting points including being creative with the web as a whole, moving BBC content outside of bbc.co.uk and getting it to wider audiences on different sites and products (my space, flickr, youtube etc).

The one that interested me the most was the last one. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent. The reason I like this, and particularly the wording, is that it puts down in bytes exactly how personalisation should work.

In the past, BBC attempts to let people personalise have been clunky and well wrong … but from what I’ve seen and heard the new 2.0 versions will be seamless and you’ll barely notice you’ve customised the page. Which is how it should be.

With the principles in mind, instead of re-posting the principles here I’m going to say you can read the 15 on the Tomski blog.

Sphere: Related Content

Recording audio

Robin over at Cybersoc has a great review of his new micromemo recorder add on for his iPod. He needed something for recording interviews for BBC Pods & Blogs among other things.

This is seems like a great little device and fairly useful add on for the iPod. But I like to take things one step further.

Personally I use the Nagra Ares-M but that’s because it’s paid for by the Beeb and assigned to me. However I think I’d still consider buying one if I leave the BBC as it is fantastic.

The Nagra is small, lightweight, records to flash memory, you can edit on the move and brilliantly if travelling it uses AA batteries which means you can easily replace them from any shop.

It can record to wav, mp3 or pretty much any format you want.

However it isn’t cheap. The Nagra comes in at around £600 or more depending on where you buy it and what add-ons you decide to have with it - or what size memory you have.

You will also want to buy a decent microphone to go with it as well - the one included is crap and having it connected to the device is even worse.

Overall though, if you’re looking to record audio for your podcast on the move and want it broadcast quality - this is brilliant.

Sphere: Related Content

Top Gear ratings

A week ago I was talking to someone at work about the possible viewing figures for Top Gear - given that it’s up against the Big Brother live final. They thought it would be around 5 or 6 million - a million or so more than it usually gets.

My estimate was a lot higher - putting it somewhere around the 8 million mark and making it one of the highest shows of the night - I was right. I also suggested the same figure on a web forum as well.

I’ve just found out that Top Gear got 7.9 million viewers and a 27.8% audience share on Sunday night. This is amazing given what it was up against and the figure is likely to rise when the full ratings are released - that was just the overnight figure.

Given the shows it had to compete with I expect we could add another million from timeshifter.

It beat everything in its time slot which for a BBC TWO show is impressive, it also came second ALL EVENING only being beaten by soaps - Coronation Street (10 million) and Emmerdale (8 million).

It’s closest rival in the timeslot was some crappy ITV drama with 6.8 million and obviously Celeb BB Final with 5.8 million. Oh and this should be my last Top Gear post for a while - promise!

Sphere: Related Content

Mac and PC

Apple make some of the best adverts out there, some are online only but they’re still bloody funny. Now they’re creating a UK version of the best of the lot.

I think it’s a sign that Apple is taking the UK market seriously, or it could just be a sign that they like British humour - either way the adverts are pretty funny.

What am I talking about? The I’m a Mac and I’m a PC adverts. The US versions have been at the centre of much debate since they first started, a debate that centres on whether they actually help Apple or not.

Basically two guys stand on a white backround - one in a suit and one in casuals. The suit is a PC and the casuals is a Mac and they talk about the various different things they can both do.

It usually involves the PC sounding a bit of a workaholic and the Mac a bit of an arse really - but it works really well as long as you get two people with good chemistry.

In the US they use John Hodgeman and Justin Long, two very good comedy actors who work really well together. In the UK they’ve opted for David Mitchell and Robert Webb of Peep Show fame - one of the countries funniest comedy pairings.

The Mac & PC adverts would make for a good podcast - one Apple should consider.

Sphere: Related Content

Top Gear NetGrind

There are a number of events that can bring the internet virtually to its knees. Not many though, the ones that slow a number of the biggest sites on the web to a grind, or bring most of the web to a crawl - have to be pretty spectacular.

The death of a Royal, a major sporting event or important election - a national or international disaster - aliens! All these things have the posibility of making the internet go slower than a snail crawling through a dope crop.

Who would of thought a year ago that Top Gear could bring the mighty morphing power byte train to it’s knees? Yes that’s right, because of a crash at high speed this little motoring show, watched by millions worldwide already - just got epic!

The bloggers have been blogging about it (including me), the forums have been buzzing with it (regardless of topic), chatters in chat rooms have been taking a break from cybersex to chat about it - even diggers have been digging it.

Even the TopGear.com e-mail inbox practically fell over under the demand they created for themselves. Basically they got Richard Hammond to write a blog then told people to post comments for Richard to read.

People did - 500 in 20 minutes (and climbing) but instead of doing the sensible thing and using proper blog software that would handle the comments properly they did the BBC thing and used an e-mail form.

The Richard Hammond Crash. Yes it features, yes it’s spectacular and yes despite the best efforts of the BBC to get it online quickly - it’s everywhere!

You can find it on YouTube, Final Gear, Google Video, Mininova, Daily Motion and many many more. Soon (if not already) you’ll be able to find the whole first episode in all of the above places as well.

Top Gear is already one of the most downloaded shows on Bit Torrent - this series will take that to whole new heights. If I were the BBC I wouldn’t be worrying about dodgy ratings figures (up against 24 and Big Brother final) I’d been looking at the BitTorrent trackers to get an idea of how many times it’s been downloaded so far.

Despite Jeremy Clarkson pleading with the world to remember content creators need to eat as well - people will torrent Top Gear (especially this episode) until the internet falls to its knees pleading for forgiveness and like the workers laying the road - demanding a break.

Well my answer to the internet is - things can only get worse - especially when Top Gear is available for us Brits to legally download from the BBC when the beautiful iPlayer launches - assuming THE TRUST listen to the public and not OfCom and their pro-commercial rubbish.

Oh and I haven’t posted my thoughts in case any ‘international’ readers are waiting for the torrent to arrive.

I don’t want to spoil the experience you’ll get from seeing the brilliant Hammond entrance, the megaphone and chips, the Jagtacular car review or even the almost teary eyed Clarkson.

Enjoy!

Sphere: Related Content

T.. T.. Topgear

Ladies and Gentlement please excuse me while I jump up and down and run around in circles like a giddy four year old on the night before Christmas or a birthday.

The mighty TopGear complete with jezza, a hamster and captain slow will be returning to our television screens this coming Sunday - and it looks set to be bigger and better than ever before.

Well thats if the fantasticly brilliant new BBC Top Gear website is anything to go by anyway. The new site has been designed around the basic BBC Two website wireframes - a pretty background and floating boxes.

It also has a very attractive, all inclusive media player that brings all the various clips together - something other parts of the BBC seem to be moving away from.

The player basically splits the 60+ clips from the eight series so far into one of eight tabs. The tabs include: big races, stunts, challenges, head to head, star laps, shootout, supercars and my favourite mucking about.

In fact while I’m writing this blog post I’m watching one of the clips on the media player - the £10,000 supercar challenge from series 7 (episode three) that sees the three ‘lads’ buy a supercar for … wait for it … less than £10,000 and have it complete a series of challenges.

The only problem with the media player is that you can’t scroll through the tabs at the top and carry on watching the clip you’re on - clicking a tab changes the whole screen. Ideally it would just change the clip list.

The reason I know the series and episode of the supercar challenge is that there is another brilliant way of accessing the clips. You can view a description, photos and video clips for every episode from series one to series eight (and I’m sure series nine will be included as things progress).

The player also works much better in Internet Explorer than Firefox. Don’t get me wrong it does actually work in Firefox but looks and functions better in IE.

There’s also a stupidly hard quiz which lives up to it’s name and a very funny team timeline.

TopGear.com

As well as the increasingly brilliant BBC Top Gear site (bbc.co.uk/topgear) there is also a very good commercial Top Gear site from the team behind Top Gear magazine.

There is a very funny photo tour of series nine complete with slightly sarcastic comments on various aspects of the next set of shows, the ones about the Fly Drive challenge are very funny - as is the fat cousin of the Stig.

The online magazine has also shown that they will be playing a bigger part in the TV series this year as well - well connected to the TV series anyway - as a commercial site (owned by BBC Worldwide) they can’t actually play a part in the public service programme on BBC TWO.

The biggest sign that they will be going large on the new series is the fact that Richard Hammond will be blogging after the show on Sunday and taking comments from users - as well as an ‘exclusive’ virtual breakdown of his crash.

Coming up

There’s some REALLY exciting stuff coming up in the new series including making a space shuttle, the flydrive challenge, building a road, a public service film about train crossings and much more.

If posting is thin on the ground for a couple of days the main reason will be the fact that I’m struggling to think of anything but Top Gear.

The problem will pass when the show has gone out on Sunday. The same thing happened to me before Torchwood at the end of 2006 and Doctor Who early 2006. I get over excited, slightly hyperactive and very single minded - the problem goes away when I’ve had my fix.

What I’d really like to see from the bbc.co.uk/topgear site though is a blog by one of the three guys (or all three) along the same lines as the Russell Brand or Chris Moyles blogs and a Top Gear video podcast with the best bits of the last week.

You never know we might just still see it - but I doubt it.

Sphere: Related Content

Virtual CBBC

I was doing my normal evening weblog roundup - I go around the various sites I enjoy reading and see what they’ve got to say - then go through some of the comments and read the blogs of the people posting comments.

It was when I hit Ben Metcalfe’s blog (love the new look by the way) and saw his brilliant analysis of the CBBC Virtual world story that I felt prompted to post.

Actually I started writing a comment but it was so long I thought it would be better to engage in the black art of blog conversation.

One of the main reasons was a couple of paragraphs on moderation.

I’ve so far resisted the burning desire to blog this story. Mainly because I couldn’t think of an angle that hasn’t already been blogged to death.

However the moderation element is worth further examination. I’ve had direct contact with the moderation budget within the BBC and several training courses on moderation and hosting (for children’s and general sites).

Anyone moderating or working on the children’s BBC pages has to have a police check, sign various forms and go on several training courses.

The moderation budget is very large (in comparison to other sites) on bbc.co.uk BUT there is also a LOT of content that needs moderating and the moderators are already pretty stretched from what I’ve been told in passing.

Plus in addition to moderation a project like CBBC Virtual would require a hosts by the bucket load.

Many think moderator and host are one in the same but they are two VERY different jobs. For a start one is a job and the other is just part of a job.

A moderator looks at a comment to decide if it brakes the house rules or not and accepts or rejects it - the moderators are a strange breed of people sitting in a basement in London (and usually Australian backpackers).

Hosts are normally people that work on the related BBC site (so I host the BBC Jersey message boards as I work on the BBC Jersey site) and they do it as part of their day to day work.

Although that isn’t strictly true - they do it as part of their day to day work, they do it when they’re online at home, they will even check in from an internet cafe while on holiday. It’s a passion and addiction - just look at Points of View.

Moderation is a HOT topic on bbc.co.uk with various message boards and services either closing or changing beyond recognition because of server load and moderation cost.

Things are probably going to change even more as well over the coming months and years as the BBC moves towards a Web2.0 format and UGC taking centre stage.

To be honest until I see a press release I’m going to treat this story with the same pinch of salt I’m treating the BBC setting up home on You Tube story.

Both plausible, both desirable, both a relatively good idea but both (the You Tube one might be worked around if done by Worldwide) would require a Public Value Test and given the current climate might not get passed.

Sphere: Related Content

Next Page »