At least the weather is improving
29 07 07 - 12:44As some have probably noticed, the much heralded BBC Online Player has been launched. Unfortunately it is Windows only. For a corporation such as the BBC to launch a platform dependant solution is simply unacceptable. They have a duty to serve their license fee payers, and launching a service that excludes Mac and linux users is simply not acceptable. The solution should ideally be platform agnostic, but as well all know The BBC are pretty much a Microsoft Shop.
I got rid of my TV more than a year ago after and argument with the License collectors about whether I had or hadn't paid. Despite the fact I was paying for several months in each installment (you can't do the £11 a month option unless you have held a license for a year) they cancelled my license as soon as a payment was missed (I told them it would need to come out a few days later than normal) and saw fit to wait three weeks to tell me that watching my TV was now a criminal act, as of the date of the missed payment. I phoned them to ask what was going on and was told I would have to start the installment plan again, I got rid of the TV and the license instead.
Given recent developments I cannot say that I have ever been more glad not to be paying the BBC any money, in fact with the release of this software I would probably cancel the license at least until a platform agnostic situation is released. I do miss watching Top Gear, but other than that I am quite happy to watch DVDs on the computer or just read a book.
The unfortunate fact is that you have one choice - own a TV and pay the BBC, or don't own a TV and don't pay the BBC - you don't have the choice of switching to another company, because you will still have to pay the license fee. Choosing not to watch BBC channels is not enough, they are still receiving your money for it. Unfortunately the close relationship with MS will not be picked up on by the government because (as the article above shows) Labour are MS buddies too.
For any who have the time/transport I would suggest supporting the Defective By Design action and showing up for a (peaceful) protest at BBC Headquarters on Tuesday the 14th August 2007. If you plan on doing so then please register for Defective by Design so that they will have an idea of how many are going.
In other news, the Government is considering reclassifying cannabis as a class B due to the strength of "super skunk" and the issues it is suspected to cause users. My question on this point is fairly simple, if I can go out and buy it in the street what difference will it make what class it is? Ah you arrest the dealers and they get longer terms. Hmmmm no dealer, I know I'll grow it (or pick it from the wild). In comparison to other drugs Cannabis does very little harm, and there is little evidence to suggest that it is a 'gateway drug.' Superskunk is certainly potent, but you can do similar damage to your brain by taking aspirin too regularly.
The simple fact is that whilst we like to pretend otherwise, we humans actually have very little idea of the benefits or consequences of most of what we pump into our bodies. The news often shows reports that X has been shown to lead to X cancer, then months later that self same food is touted to benefit some other part of our bodies.
Sadly all humans are born with a cancer, it manifests itself differently in different people, and (I believe) there is very little you can do to influence whether it will manifest itself or not, there probably are things that raise the likelihood and there are things that may lower that likelihood. If you spent your life avoiding the former and seeking the latter you may still get cancer. Our lives are a lottery, some people will end up with cancer, some with a permanent psychosis and some will get off scot free. As Human beings we need to realise and embrace this fact, only then will we be free from this constant debate on natural things.
There is a lot more in life to worry about than whether secondhand smoke will give you cancer, whether the guy down the street is smoking pot and whether house prices are going to rise or fall this summer.
As many of my readers will know, I am a smoker. Although some may argue it is because I have grown used to tobacco smoke, I still find the ting that constricts my throat is the fumes from rush hour traffic as I walk up the side of it. How can people be concerned about tobacco smoke in a pub that they never visit, when they sit in that soup of carbon monoxide everyday? People seriously need to get their priorities straight, and to realise that some people (myself included) simply will not be preached to. We are all individuals with our own rights, and our own (supposed to be) free will. If you want to convert someone then you are speaking to the wrong person. I will happily listen to someone else's argument, I may even lean more to their point of view at the end of it. But it has to be a reasoned argument, like most human beings I do not react well to "you must(n't) do this."
One day, One day perhaps there will be a world that we can all enjoy living in, but until the current fashion of vilifying everything passes that world will not exist.
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