How to listen again without iPlayer - thanks to the a post on the iPlayer forums

You can listen again without using iPlayer by constructing the RealAudio link manually, and passing the link to the RealAudio player.

The RealAudio link is in the form: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/xxxx_ddd.ra
where ‘xxxx’ is the time the program started
and ‘ddd’ is the day of the week (mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, sun).

Here are a few examples:

Just a Minute - rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/1830_mon.ra
Armando Iannucci’s Charm Offensive: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/1830_fri.ra
Afternoon play from 14:15 Friday rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/1415_fri.ra

To grab a stream and turn it into an mp3 podcast:
You need to download Net Transport from http://www.xi-soft.com/default.htm

Then paste as a new job in Net Transport, and, if you have broadband, you’ll have a 9Mb realaudio file on your desktop in about a minute.

You can, of course, play it standalone, but if you want to play it in the car, the mobile, the mp3 player, you need to get

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
http://winamp.com/
http://out-lame.sourceforge.net/ - a winamp plugin.

Install Real Alternative, then Winamp, then configure Winamp input plugin > Nullsuft Directshow decoder and add ;RA to the end of the list of handlers.

Then test that Winamp plays back the .ra file, and if it does, just go to the output plugins and configure the lame output plugin, then play the file (it will play back silently when encoding of course - don’t forget to re-select the normal audio plugin afterwards!) and Beeb’s yer Aunty.

I’ve checked the terms and there’s nothing against doing this. The terms say:

“3.You may not copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, or otherwise use bbc.co.uk content in any way EXCEPT for your own personal, non-commercial use.”

Which makes this all perfectly legit, for any knee-jerk reactionists out there!

Tags: bbc,freeware,mp3
Categories: tech stuff
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I saw a really good bit of TV last night; the BBC’s Britain from Above. (blog)

Well worth watching the full show in iPlayer if you can (and are in the UK). However, if you can’t, the BBC is experimenting with embeddable video. Hmmm, let’s try the taxi segment..

Tags: bbc,tech stuff
Categories: tech stuff
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Genius b3ta user “Coast of Yemen” made a Goatse-style logo - and the BBC showed it!
As the video doesn’t seem to last 5 minutes on Youtube, here it is:

You can download the original Flash video (3.4Mb), and if you need a player, I recommend FLVPlayer

Note: The BBC felt obliged to issue an apology

More…

I also appeared to have found a French theme park Goatse from a trip to Park Asterix about 12 years ago.

Tags: b3ta,bbc,goatse,video
Categories: funnies
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It wasn’t so long ago that I blogged about Maddox’s great Titanic Conspiracy video, had a chuckle, and moved on.

Then last week, I saw that the BBC had to issue a rebuttal because they’d been inundated with mentals suggested the BBC was in on the plot, and they’ve built this whole bizarre story on the basis that the newsreader said “apparently” instead of “we’ve been told” about some building that fell down 20 minutes later. Interesting reading the comments in that blog to see just how much psychiatric help people need.

I now see WHY the black helicopter brigade are picking on the BBC - I saw a repeat on BBC Four just now of a show broadcast earlier this year as part of The Conspiracy Files season about the 9/11 attack on the USA.
I’m sure there’s a copy on Youtube, but they did a nice job on debunking most of the conspiracies - in particular, one of the theories goes that Flight 93 was shot down. The whole conspiracy is based on the fact that some guy used Google Maps to measure the distance from one side of a lake to the other, came up with 6 miles - even though the map measured the road ROUND the lake, not the flight path distance of a mile!
Here’s a direct link to that particular one, plus all the others in the programme.

This has all been hashed out and thrashed out so many times, but here Alex Jones from Infowars on a rant

Here’s a Youtube Video which attempts to debunk popular mechanic’s debunking of loose change

Here’s the editor of Popular Mechanics talking about their debunking of the theories.

Here’s the original conspiracy video, Loose change (See also Wikipedia article)

And here’s a nice hatchet job on the second edition of the above..
Screw Loose Change

Anyway, if you’re able to read this far without needing someone to wipe your drool (Hawking excluded) and shine the tinfoil on your head, you can probably draw your own conclusion - if in doubt, get Occam’s Razor out.

Tags: 911,alex-jones,bbc,conspiracy-files,Dylan-Avery,infowards,loose-change,popular-mechanics,video,youtube
Categories: Politics, new york
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