sushiguru’s blog

The BBC have their public consultation document on change available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consultations/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/intro
Go on - have your say too.

[update] THIS IS WHAT I MEAN! http://www.theonion.com/content/video/breaking_news_some_bullshit?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

The BBC’s strategic principles

Do you think these are the right principles?

Yes.

Should the BBC have any other strategic principles?

To work to regain public confidence, to state that the BBC should act as a global centre of excellence.

Proposed principle: Putting Quality First

Which BBC output do you think could be higher quality?

News. Currently I am continually dismayed by the quality of news programming. Listening to reports it is clear that the BBC now feels that it is speaking to a nation of idiots who will not understand a word being said to them, unless it is accompanied by a large flash graphic which the presenter walks through, and overly-simplistic analogies. I also dismay at the lack of transparency over facts and figures which only leads me to believe that the BBC now seek to mislead the public, and to use editorial ’slant’ to drive public opinion.

To be told that eating x leads to a y% increase in heart attack is, frankly, misleading and alarmist, and these tactics are used in almost every news story. Give base figures. Tell viewers instead what the y% increase takes you from and to. Assume that most users are intelligent enough to understand proportionality. Balance the output so that all sides of an argument can be heard. The television reporting (bar a few isolated examples) is far and away the worse, but radio 4 output is also now going in this direction.

Offering you something special

Which areas should the BBC make more distinctive from other broadcasters and media?

The BBC should not try to ‘compete’ for my viewing in this way. It is this mistaken assumption that has led to a deterioration in standards - especially in the news. The need to get ‘in on the act’, to jump into the feeding frenzy of the 24 hour news cycle has let to a serious deterioration in quality. What would make the BBC more distinctive would be to walk away from the meaningless drivel of 24 hour news-that-isn’t-really-news and concentrate on hourly or bi-hourly bulletins of good value.

The Five Editorial Priorities

Do these priorities fit with your expectations of BBC TV, radio and online services?

Number 5 is unattainable. How would you even go about ‘measuring’ (though the act itself is so nu-Labour that it is offensive). How can the BBC run an event that ‘brings the nation together’. Should the BBC sponsor a war? After all, there’s nothing like a good war to’bring the nation together’. This is a preposterous statement made from a politician, to suit the ears of politicians, and means nothing to the average user.

Proposed principle: Doing fewer things and doing them better

We welcome your views on these areas.

Go ahead and cut it to the bone. I don’t want my fee to be used to pay for services for a diminishing minority. The BBC simply cannot, and should not try to be, all things to all people.

Proposed principle: Guaranteeing access to BBC services

If you have particular views on how you expect BBC services to be available to you, please letus know.

The current formats are fine, and I probably pick up as much content through the iPlayer as I do through live television.

The BBC archive

Please tell us if you have views on this area.

If archived programming is already available in a format that can be delivered online then it should be made available as a public archive, for access on demand.

Proposed principle: Making the licence fee work harder

If you are concerned about the BBC’s value for money, please tell us why.

If the BBC wanted to ensure value for money, then it should move out of central London. Why should such a large proportion of the income the BBC receives be spend on locations that cost so much, when alternative accommodation is available elsewhere in the country for less. It is, after all, the BBC, not the LBC, and the country is not London-centric.

Proposed principle: Setting new boundaries for the BBC

Do you think that the BBC should limit its activities in these areas?

Yes - for reasons already outlined.

Should any other areas be on this list?

News 24 should be removed in favour of periodic quality bulletins. Should ‘breaking’ news occur I can catch the initial headlines wherever, but would switch on to the BBC to receive proper ‘news’. It is lamentable, how 24 hour news stations attempt to cope with ‘breaking’ news: trying to make a story up that doesn’t yet exist; running to be first on the scene to show us images from 10 miles away and tell us what the reporters don’t know. All it shows is soulless news reporting for its own sake - and it costs money.

Evan Davis questions Peter Mandelson.

ED    …the Child Poverty Ligislation is simply going to ensrine the target, which we already have, to eradicate child poverty by 2020 while you’re missing the target to halve child poverty by 2010.  Can you say that any child as a result of the bill you’ll be trying to present to parliament, which is not about politics but is simply about real government, can you say that any child will be saved from poverty by that bill?

PM    We’ve saved, as you say, er, tens of thousands, er, and more of children from poverty…

ED    but by this bill, you’ve done that without a bill, now what are you going to achieve more, what can you do with a bill that is more important that you’ve achieved without a bill?

PM    We have lifted tens of thousands and more of children out of poverty as a result of our social policies, our welfare policies over the last decade and more; we’re not going to abandon those policies nor are we going to abandon that commitment; we’re going to strengthen our social policies, our public services, our welfare policies precisely to do that amongst other things, and I think it’s very important, er, that the government benchmarks itself; only by benchmarking itself and challenging itself in this way will the public be able to decide whether we’ve succeeded or not.

OK Peter, you’ve still not answered the bloody question. Answer it, please?

ED    But you’ve given us the target, we’ve got the benchmark, we’ve had measures, you say they’re succeeding [mumbled interruptions] it almost seems as though you’re just trying to, having failed to meet the intermediate target for 2010, want to, go from the politics of delivery to the politics of intent, by strengthening the future aspiration without achieving the immediate one; I mean: what is the point of the bill, what’s the point of the bill?

PM    And very important too to strengthen that aspiration by which we are prepared to be judged both by our aspiration and by our delivery, by the public; but if you take the other example that you offered to me, er, halving the, er, public financial deficit, by half over four years, I think it’s very important that that discipline, that framework be put in place and be binding on this and future governments; and this is the Queen’s speech, it’s about legislation, er, shortly, before the end of the year, you’ll have the pre-budget report in which there are a combination of measures, including taxation and public spending measures the chancellor will set out how we intend to re-balance the public finances, er, over that period… [interrupted by ED]

Aaaaarrrggghhhhhh

ED    …what is the point of the bill; the question is why you would actually have a bill to do that? Willem Buiter, whom you guys appointed as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, has written in the FT that Fiscal Responsibility Acts are the instruments of the fiscally irresponsible to con the public; you don’t need a bill to halve the deficit, you can just halve the deficit, you’re in government, that’s what you do.

PM    I think the public want a rather stronger and more robust demonstration, both of our will, our determination, and the discipline that we will put in place, in order to do that; you can’t have it both ways you know Evan.  I’ve come on your programme and you’ve sort of, taken a, you know, a stick to beat me about the government [ED laughing in background] needing to show greater responsib…fiscal responsibility…

Is this some sort of innuendo by Mandelson?

ED    …but that’s about measures, not about an act, isn’t it?

PM    …and and and, and about how we need to demonstrate to the public - heaven knows how many interviews you and I have had on this subject [ED still chuckling] - about how we need to demonstrate more convincingly to the public the discipline that we’re going to create, well we’re doing so, so don’t, please, complain now, and you won’t have too much time to wait for the pre-budget report to see the measures, but I can…[interrupted by ED]

ED    …but the point is that it’s the measures that count and the delivery that counts, not the statements of intent…[interrupted by PM]

PM    …let me ask you then: do you really think it’s irrelevant that the government states that it’s going to provide guarantees and other educational entitlements to young people, including the right to an educational training…[interrupted by ED]

Yes, actually.

ED    …it might be irrelevant if you don’t achieve it; the point is, let me give you an example [talking over each other]

PM    …that is for the public to judge; they judge us by our values, they judge us by our policies, they will then, in due course, judge by whether we’ve our delivered on those things.

In other words, piss off and leave me alone, please? I know we’re beaten, just don’t point it out, will you?

ED    Right. Well as you are trying to make, gain political credance and capital by expressing intent very strongly, it is important that we go back and look at previous expressions of intent and whether they have been delivered.  You had a bill to - you passed an act - to eradicate fuel poverty among vulnerable households by 2010, vulnerable households in England…[interrupted by PM]

PM    Are you saying that we’ve made no progress at all in doing that?

What he wants to say is: no

ED    I think you’ve made planty of progress; are you going to, are you going to eradicate fuel poverty among households, vulnerable households, in England by 2010?

PM    We will certainly continue to do everything we can to…

Umm - pass. Next question?

ED    …but that’s not a yes!  So what is the point of the bill, what is the point of the act that says you have to do that, if you don’t do it?  Who’s going to go to jail for not achieving it?

PM    Well, take NHS guarantees for patients…

Ahh - I know about the NHS, good news to be found here, everyone loves a cripple…

ED    …no, let’s take the one I mentioned which is the one you got credit for doing all those years ago, when you passed the act, you said it was about enshrining and making important…

PM    …Evan…

Pleeeease leave me alone…

ED    …and you’re probably not going to achieve it and you’re not taking measures to achieve it, what’s the point?

PM    Evan, with the greatest love and respect, I think I’m going to have to take some time to answer your questions, would you mind?

When PM gives you his greatest love and respect, it’s time to really worry

ED    Go ahead

PM    Thank you very much indeed.  I think it’s very important that the government, where appropriate enacts targets, benchmarks, by which it judges itself, but more importantly, by which the public judges its delivery.  That’s why we are providing guarantees for educational entitlements that’s why we’re putting in place national health service guarantees for patients, including the right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks if their GP suspects that they have cancer, that’s why we’re going to lay the foundations for the national care service for the elderly, now, the point I’m trying to make to you is that politics is about spelling out your policies, it’s about spelling out policy differences: what they mean for the public, what they say about the party’s values and beliefs, now that may be all too detailed and too policy wonkish [sic] for the taste and appetite of the BBC, certainly Today, but this is what is important for the public, and whether it be fuel poverty and our ability and determination to drive on and meet our 2010 targets, how we want to enshrine clearer individual guarantees and entitlements, both in our schools and in the national health service, the debate, the very important provision that we have got to talk about in this country, about supporting families who are looking after elderly parents or relatives who need that care, all these things are about politics, they are about policies [ED over: but not about electioneering], they are about what the public is interested in [ED over: of course they are], Even, and what in time they will judge us, and the other parties, by when the election comes.

Blah blah blah, hopefully no one’s listening any more. La la la I don’t care…

ED    As you’ve said.  [rest on social care…]

OK. So, other than Mandelson being PWND by Evan Davis, what he spectacularly failed to do was answer the question: why do we need this bill.

This is just yet another example of the government raising a bill simply because it can. It’s not needed, not wanted, and it’s not actually going to do anything other than weigh down the statute books even further.

Full interview available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8365000/8365766.stm

So I got my new G2 a couple of months ago and haven’t put it down that much since.  Well, last night I installed *something* (game/app) that stopped the accelerometer working.  I was close to tears.  Not really.  But I was bloody irritated and it took a while to find out how to kick-start it again.  Whilst Les watched Moulin Rouge (again), I browser forums and played.  Finally found the answer in a really obscure place (OK combination of places) - the HTC website and the androidforums).  Answer: factory reset.  Nothing else required.

http://androidforums.com/htc-magic/5855-accelerometer-problem.html

http://www.htc.com/au/faqs.aspx?p_id=267&cat=0&id=94110

Problem solved and all working well again.  It does, however, point to the fact that an app can crash the OS, which is not, imho, that good.

Am simply outraged that some clever bugger decided to launch an iPhone app that talls you the name of sushi dishes, and they decided to call it sushiguru.  Had they never heard of Google before naming their product?

Ponders: are they, in fact, infringing my trademark…?

Had a hair cut the other day.  It’s not an occasion that happens very often in my life; I have little of it left, though my wife did persuade me to grow it a little as by usual home-done buzz-cut was making me look more and more like either:

• A deranged, escaped mental patient; or
• A deranged, escaped convict

Either way, small children would scream if they saw me and old ladies clutched their handbags tighter.  I did, however, like the ‘velcro head’ feeling that the close cut gave.  Anyhow, I had the cut the other day (short back’n’sides and don’t take too much off the top…

At the end of the cut, my life hit an all time low.  The barber got out his wee battery powered trimmer, neatened up the edges around my ears and neck, then stood back and said, in an expectant voice: “eyebrows?”

That’s that then.  Back to home cuts from now on.

Aargh.  Came across an old problem with a spreadsheet today; trying to create and then write values to a dynamic array in VBA.

The position is that I’m trying to write email addresses to a file for a bulk mailing; the mail client particularly likes the local part of the email addresses in a comma delimited list, and the mailing lists are dynamic in nature - I might have 10 on one occasion and 1000 on another.

Problem:

• Excel doesn’t like one dimensional dynamic arrays
• Once you have 1000 rows in a spreadsheet of unique email addresses you need to concatenate them with a comma
  •  This is difficult to do in a single cell as you can quite quickly exceed the char limit for one cell
  • It can be done by splitting the concatted addresses across multiple cells, but this isn’t a sure-fire winner
• Would be much easier to stuff all the values into an array and then simply join the array with a comma.

Found a work-around in amongst google code etc which goes like this:

Open file_to_open For Output As #1
Dim addr As Variant
addr = Sheets("Sheet1").Range(Cells(2, 1), Cells(uniques + 1, 1)).Value
ReDim addresses(UBound(addr, 1) - 1) As String
For i = 0 To UBound(addr, 1) - 1
addresses(i) = addr(i + 1, 1)
Next i
print_addresses = Join(addresses, ",")
Print #1, print_addresses
Close #1


This may not be the most elegant solution in the world, but it works for me (and it’s fast).

By declaring addr as a Variant type it can become a dynamic TWO dimension array, which is then populated with the values of the addresses.  i can then step through the dynamically created array to create a single array of known size, and then join it with the comma.

There’s probably a way to do this without creating the two dimension array first, but I couldn’t find it, or get one to work, so this’ll do for me :)

Since my websites have evolved into 2.0 territory I wanted a nice popup css/js box for displaying things in and completing forms etc.  Unfortunately, most of my ajax driven sites were (and continue) to be based on the excellent prototype javascript framework, and thickbox et al use the jQuery framework.

However, I’ve since found that greybox, together with prototype and scriptaculous (or the combined compressed version protoculous) offers even more functionality and I’m a happy chappie.

sg

It never ceases to amaze me at just how crap I can be at writing.  Honestly.  My last post was March 4th…

It’s a new year, and although I spent the best part of the first week of it off with a cold (and I still have a head full of snot) I’m going to attempt (#4?) to keep up with the blog this year.  Possibly weekly.  Perhaps daily (probably not).  Though it might just be when random thoughts take me.

So what’s new this year? Work is busy; three sites on the go just now.  We have a builder for the house, but have to do the demolition of existing structures and dig out for a new retaining wall ourselves.  I love spades.

Speaking of spades, poker is the new game for me, and I’m getting pretty good (read lucky) at Texas Hold ‘em, having make 7k out of 2k in the first few days.  It’s rather addictive - good job I’m not the sort to actually want to part with cash.   Did you know that casino poker chips are made out of clay?

We’re also now the proud owners of a tropical fish tank, thanks to freecycle, and have a gold gourami and some sort of pleco in it.  Fish are fun

sg.

Of just how damned lazy I can be. Microsoft have this new toy: Windoze Live Writer, which can log into and post blog entries on my own blog.

Why oh why do I need this, when the other way to do it is just to open my browser and enter the blog entry into the blog directly. I guess I just like toys…

I was once in a meeting with my first boss out of university when someone came into the office and asked him a banal question.  I will never forget the way he rolled his eyes and let out a big sigh, sat back in his chair and looked at me.  He stared back at the bit of paper that had been handed to him and said: ‘why do people insist on wasting my life minutes?’

How many times have I found myself asking the same damn question…?

sg.