
Another Pisspoor story from the people
That refuse to publish stories about ACTA in case their own prejudices gets exposed.
Its fair play to the Beeb this morning as it appears to have brought the Pestogate image scandal to an end by giving El Reg a two-finger salute*: The BBC finally sticks its own photo on the piece Splendid. That's a BBC photo of a BBC building all right, and here for the record are some other photos of BBC buildings not by …
I was referring to el Reg not Auntie.
Other IT website have been talking about the latest criticisms of the ACTA forum by non Freetards.
Of which there hasn't been a mention of on El Reg. So its not that there hasn't been important news to talk about more El Reg doesn't want to talk about that news.
The last article el Reg posted about ACTA was titled 'Software freetard demand axing of ACTA' and was clearly biased. A point which was picked up in the many comments.
El Reg has obviously decided to stay away from controversial stories
You know, I have to agree with you. I too wish there was more ACTA coverage around here. Andrew O writes the odd article, but I hardly consider him unbiased. It would be nice to have a few different viewpoints offered about what I personally think is one of the single most important topics not only as regards intellectual property (and thus IT,) but sovereignty issues, the nature of democracy and international politics.
I’ll have to join in here and moan a bit about the lack of ACTA coverage ‘round these parts.
In the meantime, I would like to direct you at Dr Michael Geist’s absolutely excellent blog (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/) which covers ACTA (amongst other copyright issues) in extraordinary depth.
It should be pointed out that Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/) also has fantastic ACTA coverage. With the addition of Mary Jo Foley’s (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft) excellent Microsoft Blog, you have Trevor Pott’s personal list of IT related “morning newspapers.”
El Reg has the best all around and overall tech coverage; they most especially fantastic offer gadget, HPC and startup coverage in a balanced, critical and sometimes cynical view that I simply can’t find elsewhere on the net. Let us not also forget that bootnotes are grand; mocking stupid people can sometimes be a bit of a pick me up after a long day of dealing with users. (Does that make me a bad person?)
Ars Technica offers a more balanced view on intellectual property issues, often attacking it from all points of any debate, though they are for all intents and purposes Apple apologists. I find their technical coverage a little lacking, but they make up for it in the absolutely phenomenal science coverage. The Nobel Intent section is heads and shoulders above anything found anywhere else on the net.
Dr Geist’s blog is the most in dept source of intellectual property information I have found on the net that isn’t a legal website. So much so that even Ars often uses him as a source. He is fastidious about linking to his sources, and I consider him one of the premier researchers and authorities on the subject in the world.
Mary Jo Foley is just plain all out awesome, her coverage of Microsoft is something I find critical to my job, as it helps me anticipate the great beast’s movements months if not years ahead of time. Since I still have a lot of Microsoft software deployed, this is great information. So good in fact that El Reg uses her for a source on a number of things.
So there you have it; while I would love to say that my beloved Vulture Central covers everything, there is no tech website I have yet found that manages to do so. Certainly there is none that manages to cover every topic from a number of different angles and viewpoints so as to offer totally well rounded coverage. (The amount of wetware that would take is probably obscene.) Overall I think El Reg is probably the best out there…
…but even this tech news multivitamin requires additional daily supplements.
Hope that helps source some additional coverage!
Not wanting to piss on your fireworks or anything, Lester, but the image flip-flopping might have more to do with the comments on Peston's blog than your excellent, timely coverage of this saga.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/06/bbc_removes_gold_plate_from_pe.html#P97766479
Wouldn't they have had to pay for the publication of each photograph used irrespective of how long it appeared for? So instead of sticking with the original they had to pay three more times, once to PA, again to Getty and I suppose the BBC photo library has a different cost centre so once to them but nothing for the teaboy.
"The BBC's news and current affairs programmes and news website have annual agreements with AP, PA, AFP, Allsport and Getty Images for image use. This image has been changed six times at a cost to the licence-fee payer of a few pence in terms of man-hours, which will be made up for in overtime."
So, thanks to El Reg, the teaboy has had to stay late.
All in all, this wasn't a great story, was it?
<img alt="The BBC's news and current affairs programmes and news website have annual agreements with AP, PA, AFP, Allsport and Getty Images for image use. This image has been changed six times at a cost to the licence-fee payer of a few pence in terms of man-hours, which will be made up for in overtime."
Somehow, despite not having watched any TV for the last few days, the BBC have entertained me almost every day this week. Thanks, BBC, and El Reg, for this tremendously funny saga. I have no doubt that "Pestongate: The Costume Drama" will be coming to BBC2 before the end of the year.
(I'll bet Paris has let a few teaboys take pictures...)
<img alt="The BBC's news and current affairs programmes and news website have annual agreements with AP, PA, AFP, Allsport and Getty Images for image use. This image has been changed six times at a cost to the licence-fee payer of a few pence in terms of man-hours, which will be made up for in overtime." src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/wood_lane595.jpg" width="595" height="187" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;">
It may not be the greatest news story in the world but it is a mildly amusing tale of a BBC webmaster/editor having a bit of a larf with the Register. As far as costing tax payers money if you think a couple of pence in man-hours is wasting money (the BBC apparently has an all-you-can-eat agreement with Getty and PA so it didn't cost them anything extra for flip-flopping between images), compared to some of the absolute tosh the BBC output (and huge expense), then you are quite clearly stark raving bonkers!
Lighten up guys, its just a bit of harmless* fun, sheesh!
* Except for the tea-boy, but he's back now so its okay.
The last time I worked anywhere with a tea person was about 30 years ago. The last time I saw such a functionary was in a DWP office about five years ago.
If the BBC really has a teaboy it confirms all my prejudices about the public sector. If El Reg has one, I'm profoundly shocked.
I think we should be told.
I'm guessing so many Reg readers are bitter, social outcasts who long to lose their virginity that they can't laugh a light hearted story like this.
Go spend some of your salary on a haircut and some acne cream instead of Star Wars life size replica figures and cheer up.
But we do have a collection of rather attractive - and for some reason, mostly South American[1] - young ladies who do the rounds three times a day with a trolley full of goodies.
No tea though...
But then, the BBC sold us some years ago. It's probably different over there in White City.
[1] Colombian, this week.
(AC - I'd hate to lose this privilege!)
"The BBC's news and current affairs programmes and news website have annual agreements with AP, PA, AFP, Allsport and Getty Images for image use. This image has been changed six times at a cost to the licence-fee payer of a few pence in terms of man-hours, which will be made up for in overtime." - the alt. text
Excellant. Here's to the good Ship El Reg, long may she wind up the establishment!
I like the linkback, the pointless but amusing changing of images, and that even The Corporation has been shown to have a sense of humour.
So maybe it's a slow news day. Better than hearing what the Supreme Court cocks up this time, or the <yawn>ongoing saga</yawn> of the iFans loss of love for the leftie-unfriendly new iGizmo that sheep flocked to buy even before a decent independent review hit The Wired. [oops, gratuitous Apple-dig (iDig?), downvotes ahoy!]
He pastes the pics in as well.
He reads El Reg too, the only difference being he is paid to read it whilst we all read it whilst being paid (supposedly to do something else)
I imagine he read the comment and nipped outside and took the second photo on his own phone, he probably has to fetch his own tea from the machine in the corridor like everyone else.
I have to agree that the BBC have done rather well and made you look like rank amateurs.
El Reg should know that sometimes stock photos are good and El Reg should have made the educated guess, as I did, that a large organisation like the BBC might have some..er.. time-based deal with the big stock-photo provider.. people.
Cheaper and easier to go to http://www.gettyimages.co.uk and search for "bbc building" than to go out and take a picture. Seriously, that took me about a minute. As it happens, lighting for me, here and now, would be piss poor for photos, so if I wanted a picture of my house, I'd sooner use a good one off Getty, of which I'm sure there are many.
I'm surprised more of you didn't go troll the comments on the BBC, I think there was only one other besides me.