There's a piece in one of the papers today about the "poor quality" of sound on digital radio. I'd best not get involved in all that, but I can tell you my experience of trying to get DAB to work in my car put me off for life. Terrible reception - even when parked sometimes - on almost all stations except ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ7. Got a bigger aerial (well it was more of a mast really) and it was equally bad. Went back to FM, MW and LW.
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The only time I get to listen to digital radio is when my husband wants to listen to radio in the living room - then it's via the TV. The sound's not too bad, but it is very odd and distracting to have an image onscreen while you're just 'listening'. On Saturday, we were listening to Rigoletto in this way. Somehow, because of the image you feel you have to watch the screen ..... but the image doesn't warrant it. Quite bizarre. I wish the Beeb would find a way of cutting out the image, yet still allowing us to listen through the TV (which has practical benefits for us, at least!)
Lovely image of EM sailing along the road with a mast on his car.... Does it have a sail, too, Eddie? With the St. Andrew's cross, of course ....
I can't comment on DAB quality, as I only get digital radio either through my satellite box or Freeview. I would guess that for the home market, that'll be the case generally, nowadays...
An even better question to ask, though, is what'll happen to the pips/Big Ben 6pm bongs when everyone moves to digital??? I'm not sure if everyone knows, but if you watch/listen to the digital version of a TV channel or station, the signal can be up to 2 seconds behind the analogue one. (It's all to do with the time that's taken to encode the signal, broadcast it, then decode it in the receiver) You can get a lovely echo effect by having a normal radio on next to a TV digital version of the same programme. It gets even funkier if you can get a normal radio, a freeview signal and a satellite signal, as the satellite signal takes even longer (bouncing up & down through the atmosphere).
sb1 but won't be....
re Big Sis (1) if you're using Freeview and one of Auntie's stations, you can! I found it by accident. If you press the Red button for more info, you can then press the 0 button to hide the screen. It goes into a kind of screensaver that's low intensity and a lot easier to cope with:)
Ah Fred, you're a Star!!! Thanks for that tip - I'll try it out next time. Glad I'm not the only one who's found this an irritating dilemma, but even more to be given a practical solution.
I think this Helpful Hint should be 'broadcast' (Ha Ha) somewhere as there must be quite a few others who are put off using Freeview (or should that be Freelisten?) as a way of catching up. And, like Eddie, I listen to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ7, which is great for us lovers of classic comedy. (Plug Plug)
Like you, I've wondered how they'll sort out the pips. Unlike you, I don't like the echo effect - it drives me (even) mad(der than I am already)
Fred, I think you're rapidly falling into a male equivalent role of Big Sister - but, of course, I know you're not Big Brother
Well I'm a lucky bunny, my DAB in the car is fab (as sort of fabdab) all because I had a "bee-sting" aerial fitted. Even FM is top.
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 7 is brilliant, all that ancient comedy and old detective series - cheers me up on the way home.
So, beestings all round?
My only experience of digital is also through the sat - which we have because living in the wilds of southern Cumbria - a full hour or more from Manchester - our reception is so bad that we mostly get mush. Up here (or down here to the rest of you), we aspire to being able to receive the mysterious fifth channel that occasionally people refer to. Freeview? LOL
The good thing about the ol' analogue signal is that it degrades "gradually". The bad thing, is that it's rarely "perfect". But what this does mean is that I can drive around the lanes here on a Saturday afternoon trying to listen to the footy commentary on Five Live, barely able to make out the voices amonsgt the crackles and hisses (as you can imagine, Mrs H _loves_ this) - but I can hear something. Digital signals seem to be more "brittle" - they're good, or they go. (I'm sure the techies out there will have real "words" for what I'm describing - language - ain't it great!)
The time thing Fearless refers to is an interesting one. I often deal with the analogue/digital echo as I wander from living room to kitchen when I've got the radio coming through the telly. However, the Time thing is also interesting. I'm sure I remember reading that (in the olden days) "local time" used to "drfit" according to the length of time it took for church bells to register the time and then be relayed by other bells at the limit of hearing. The result was that the "official time" in one place would be different from that in another. The digital delay is certainly there at the moment - I wonder if there are any plans to deal with it, or if we will just be a country of "proper time" and "digital time". I also wonder if there are any practical problems that will result from such a scenario.
Mmmm ... I don't have a digital radio, an ipod or even a television. "LUDDITE" I hear you cry. Doesn't feel like I'm missing much ...
Charles, you are so WRONG! ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ7 is great - and you can only get it digitally. I've not really explored the other options (not into sport, get lots of news elsewhere, and can't think of anything else I'd want that I don't already get from Beebs 3 & 4) but the comedy and drama on 7 are excellent alternatives if you hit a 'dry' spot on either of those stations.
One of the reasons I got a DAB in me car was to listen to the great sporting events (like the Ashes fun) in crystal clear digital, not wobbly AM.
Was v. disappointed when I listened to the Radio 5 coverage of one of the last England World Cup games on Radio 5. The commentators kept telling me what the players should be doing, not what they were. Most fustrating.
(actually the phrase "crystal clear digital" is an oxymoron, has anyone listened to a vinyl record recently? Extraordiary sounds when compared with CDs etc. Hobbyhorse rant over.)
Big Sis : you mean between 5 and 6 weekdays and 5-5:30 on Saturdays :)
Actually, does anyone wonder why we have an hours news, followed by half-an-hours, er, news. Gets me goat a bit sometimes.
And my goat isn't easily got.
Hello Big Sister.
I must admit to not trying out ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ7, but on your advice I will seek it out on the inter-web-net-thingy rather than a daby-doodah.
My friend keeps evangelising about SkyPlus (can I say that on the beeb? oops! I'm in trouble with Lissa now.) but she's not managing to convince me yet. I don't have any puritanical objection to TV, it just feels like getting a sack load of junk mail to pull out the one letter that you want. Am I making any sense?
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ R&D would be interested to learn that your DAB Radio received ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ7 better than other channels as the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ services (excepting local stations) all transmitted on the same multiplex and by that virtue the reception (signal quality) would be identical. Having said all that, Freeview offers higher bitrates and therefore subjectively better audio quality.
Yours, an Anorak
Hi Charles and Andy,
Check the listing for 7, Charles, and tune into those that tickle your fancy. You should find some real gems in any given week's listening.
Andy - Well, I have to confess to being a bit of a newsjunkie (so I'm told, anyway, by my other half), so I don't have a problem with Eddie followed by Charlotte (or whoever) and I find the flavours of the two transmissions quite differenty, anyway. But I would have a problem with, say, News24, which I find v. repetitive in format, as well as news. I like the 'textural differences' of, say, Today, PM and the 6 o'clock news. WatO is the one I'm less keen on, but because it is likely to get the 'breaking news' I still listen. What a Saddo!
One thing with WatO, of course, is that we're all now listening out for Shaun to make another bloomer ... Did you hear the classic on Feedback yesterday? Not to mention his Busty Regulation, as previously blogged.
John H - I've been thinking about your comments and fully back a call for 'Proper' time and 'Digital' time. We could allocate tasks to different time zones in this way, which could be a good copout for the things we don't really want to do. E.g. when the boss asks 'Jones, Did you get X task done? I can't see any evidence of it ...' Jones would be able to answer: 'Yes, Boss, I did it in digital time'. Thus Jones would gain a space slot in which to get the loathed task done in Proper Time and evade the risk of being sacked.
Now the one problem with all this might be that some ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ presenters could use the two time zones to confuse us even further. And we all know where that might lead with the 'mischevious' Mr. Mair!
To BigSister
If you have a Freeview Box, plug the Audio output into the Hifi. Then you can listen to the radio with a decent set of speakers rather than those naff things TV's have. You can then also switch the TV off! Problem may be lack of Hifi near the TV of course.
As for DAB. Mine works well but I live on top of a hill!. I can't get a DAB signal at work without standing on an chair with the aeriel pointing at the window. Not a productive way to listen!
I like your thinking, Big Sis. Unfortunately, I'm not absolutely sure that the current (I don't know what it is, about a second?) discrepancy is going to be a great deal of use in the situation you describe.
Now, I didn't intend to make a serious comment, but I was asking myself where could such a difference be useful, and that got me thinking that if you took things down small enough, you might eventually get to the stage that a second was enough of a gap to be exploited for some nefarious purpose. And then it dawned on me that there is probably something whizzy to do with computers where the difference between "Proper Time" and "Digital Time" could successfully be used - by somebody clever 'n' stuff.
Do you feel a bit like you're sitting in your favourite pub but things are a bit quiet because hardly any of the regulars are in?
Stewart M - not very productive, no, but still a great image!
(Just got the door shut in my face for trying to post too quickly.)
Poor reception on DAB?
I can only think of one Anagrammatic solution to DAB.....
Stewart - What a great suggestion! I'll give it a whirl if I can get a long enough lead.
JH - What a spoilsport! I'd like a bit of third dimension in my life sometimes just to make a bit of mischief here and there. As for doing something whizzy with computers .... That would be going TOO far!
Know what you mean about quiet pubs. I think the others are all down at the boozer where you have to wait ten minutes to get your order in. They'll catch up with us, just you see.
Thanks, Stewart, for the advice. If I can set it up I'll let you know what I think.
It's worth hooking everything up to the HiFi if possible. I've got the DVD player, Digital TV, and S*y box all hooked up to the surround sound systyem. All of them sound far superior to anything the TV speakers can put out. The only time I use the TV speakers themselves is in the morning when I'm catching Breakfast (other early morning shows are available) in the 20 minutes between getting up and leaving the house....
Even if you've only got a stereo with one spare set of inputs, you can always buy switch boxes that allow you to connect more than one input to the hifi....
Oops! I've gone all techy!
The time zone, 2 second delay has been dealt with by Classic FM.
I'ts a bit complicated though. First of all the delay the FM audio by 2 seconds, which brings Freeview and DAB into sync with FM. Then they wind all of their clocks forward by 2 seconds.
It works well though as when driving and listening to DAB the car radio switches between FMand DAB and vica versa with no noticeable effect. With the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ stations you either hear a repeated 2 seconds or loose 2 seconds when the radio shifts.
AndycraBBBZZZzzzzz - what is a "bee-sting" aerial??
:O)
SB23??
Cor, Fred, now we're to hook up everything to our HiFis! Well, speaking personally, I don't have 'surround sound' (and would probably always prefer to have the odd corner that was sound free - but I know what you mean......
I did invest in some of those cordless earphones, which are great when a 'certain party' wants to get an early night (well, I think 9.30 is when children go to bed and that the night is for catching up on life, not sleep). What other techy gadgets do bloggers recommend? (not too complicated, mind!)
I've got a frivolous hangover from last Friday, so I'll take EM up on an earlier blog:
Robin Day was bloody brilliant.
It's just a suggestion, Big Sis, honest! I know my Brother-in Law is almost as techie as me, but he doesn't want to go to the bother of all this as he would have to move the TV out of the corner and the sofa would also have to move...
I must admit that when I travel I'm lost without my mp3 player (NOT the famous brand, but a better quality, cheaper one), and my handheld sudoku is fun. And in the gym it's my little mp3 player, so I can get decent music, not just what's on MTV!
Do you use a i-stream, Fearless? And a move-o-ver there, you in the gym?
Mmm, I like the sound of the handheld SuDoku, but then I probably spend too much time doing the paper ones. I haven't got an MP3 player yet, but will doubtless go down that route in time.
Thanks for the suggestions, Fearless!
All this talk about technology! I've just had to spend 20 minutes sorting out my Internet security, which decided to do a wobbly for no apparent reason. Then, when the instructions for recovery came up (along with the advice to print said insts out) I discovered the printer was out of ink, which led to a discovery that the so-called compatible replacement cartridges didn't fit ............ Agggggh! Talk about time for a nervous breakdown!
Anyway, back on line now (well, all except the printer. A trip to a wellknown stationers and a few well aimed words to the hapless assistant will follow shortly).
It must be Monday!
BTW no sign of GBs speeches yet. I noted the comments on another thread but declined to comment.
That is why I listen to my shortwave radio.
I can’t add anything about digital broadcasting, but do have a couple of related observations, or similar pointless interjection(s).
Most of my neighbours appear to have satellite television - or else they have bought dishes for decorative purposes. I get cable television. Next door they had the set turned way up during one of this summer’s big sporting events, and it was clear to me, although not to them, that their signal was about two seconds behind my own.
Recently I bought a cheapo mini FM radio, to listen to those all important programmes when going to the usual place on foot. Sadly, both getting and retaining the R4 signal are decidedly difficult, and this of course means not getting the whole story. I did manage to catch Shaun Ley’s gaffe last week, though, in a fleeting moment of connection.
Has anyone got their newsletter yet? I certainly haven't.
Is Eddie asleep?
hmmm, I've just checked, and no newsletter in my inbox either. And we've only had two blogs so far (a personal least for the Edmaster, I believe). Maybe he blogged himself out on Friday and still hasn't recovered!
btw: I'll answer you a little later, John H., if I may... Am stuck in the office listening to a conversation in German, not understanding a word of it!
Me neither.
I've just had to sort out a 1000-spam-emails-a-day problem which was painful. Really 1000 spams daily!
At least they weren't frittered.
Chris the Pickle : a bee-sting aerial is not a shark-fin aerial. Or a "mast". Or the demister on the back window. Or a coat hanger :)
It is supposed to look a bit like a bee-sting, but since I've never been that close to a bee's bottom I have to take thier word for it.
I have started to upload some photos, and am posting this to give you the link for no good reason.....
... and no strapline. The place is going to pot and the blog's forgotten me yet again. I'm beginning to feel like I don't exist.
Perhaps I should go down to the pub and find some regulars.
We are mystified about the newsletter too. Sorry. I can copy and paste it here...(it was written just before noon). It said:
Hello,
Did you sleep OK last night? I woke, inexplicably, at 0230 and could not get back to sleep. If I'm tired at 1700, and YOU'RE tired...maybe we should just agree not to do the programme until tomorrow when we're both up to it?
Having said that - who am I to complain? It's one hour's work a day and it's not nuclear physics.
Well it might be, as we try to explain what North Korea may or may not be doing. Prisoner numbers will probably feature, as will Damilola Taylor. The two brothers convicted of killing him are due to be sentenced today. Oh and the cost of ID cards. Plus - growing old in China and how a falling birth rate is causing problems.
And we'll pat Hugh on the back. He's far too shy to blow his own trumpet - and in any case he has a bad back - but he has won another award for his international reporting. We'll hear a bit of the item which so impressed the judges.
See you at five, if we haven't all died in a ghastly nuclear catastrophe by then.
Kim Muir
Worse...Hugh Sykes and I have spent rather a long time trying to post pics to the blog, of some of the children who appear in his report. We're absolutely useless.
"An email arrives"... but not a newsletter.
Is this one of the great mysteries of life?
I thought Ed sounded decidedly wobbly in the 4 o'clock PM link. Possible explanations:
a) bloggers' back
b) hangover from Sunday night
c) stiff letter from DG
d) stiff miff from hearing about Darren Jordan's defection to Al-Jazera
e) first night nerves
f) writer's block
g) presenter's block
Hello all,
Mine's a lemsip if you're going to the bar.
Just had a lovely afternoon of nothingyness and am, finally, expecting a week of bare-minimum work and catching up with flesh friends (as opposed to cyber-chums like yourselves). I've read through all I've missed (I know, that's obsessive) but managed to resist commeting on all the different threads, so I shall just say:
I'm not anti-gadget, there's just no room in my life for that sort of thing. Consequently, no IPod, no extras wired into the hi-fi, no electronic games and no satelite dish (although the latter is an ethical decision - I will not give money to Murdoch), as well as, of course, one of aesthetics (Doc, re Most of my neighbours appear to have satellite television - or else they have bought dishes for decorative purposes. LOL.)
From an earlier thread - Fearless, yes, I remembered to de-gunk before leaving the house thank you! Cold defnitely on the wane now. Hoping to be back to full fitness by the middle of the week.
John H, re Drinks - have you athelete's nose? Hope it's better. The other stuff you only use on your nose for sucking up to your boss. Absolutely no idea. Sorry - vague reference to cocaine? brown-nosing? (neither of which are permitted in my world, btw.) Nah - need an explanation.
5 o'clock and still no newsletter. Shocking!
hm - I've just spent the morning explaining how good paper technology is.
"We'd like this A3 matrix spreadsheet represented on ourr website"
"ooooo-kaaay.... Why?"
"Because we're building a site and it has to be - no?"
"erm... no."
"But how will people do their work??"
"well, does the matrix get updated much?"
"No"
"and everyone is issued with it?"
"Yes"
"and its easy to find the right row and then drag your finger along the row till you get to the right column?"
"Yes"
"and you have to balance a whole bunch of business rules when 'dragging your finger along'?"
"Oh yes, I'd say! Its quite complex what they have to bear in mind"
"and we'd have to build a rules engine to do this and weight it each day depending on what these users would be promoting that day or week. Which involves rules we haven't identified, that might change at any time and will take us 'quite a lot' of effort to build"
"Oh."
"I reckon you should stick with the A3 paper printout"
"yeeeee...ssss....... hmmmmm"
In our next episode - "I don't like it, but then, I don't like yellow"
"stiff miff"!!!!?????!!
bloomin' 'eck!
I feel completely vindicated in my earlier observation re Eddie's performance today - yet, strangely, I also feel rather ashamed.
Sorry, Ed, I was mean. When you get home tonight, make yourself a nice cup of herbal tea (with valerian), have a warm bath, a nip of whisky (single malt), and tuck yourself up with Newsnight, or whatever/whoever ..... You deserve a good night's sleep!
Please, please, what does LOL mean? I keep seeing it and can't guess. i know it's sad, but I did get IMHO for example.
I completely endorse the comments about Radio ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 7. It is wonderful. I am not sure about comedy over the breakfast period though. But if I miss something during the day (or didn't realise something was on) i love the repeats in the middle of the night.
You can tell i am an older listener just from that I suspect.
I live in darkest (or lightest) E. Sussex and digital works very well for me thank goodness. Now I come to think of it, that is obvious.
AndycraAsriel (sp?)
Thanks for that, but how is a bee's bottom arial better that the Others? Soz for being obtuse...
Rosalind, some "text speak" for you:
LOL = Laugh Out Loud or Lots Of Love
ROFL = Rolling On the Floor Laughing
IMO = In My Opinion
Lots of others, but they are close to being rude!
Rosalind,
Laugh Out Loud as far as I'm concerned, on this blog, but Lots of Love when I'm texting my favourite aunt.
Andrew Charles Linden Philip Arthur George Furry Non Bio Wedgwood Bingo Cragg,
You do right to keep away from Bees' backsides. Why AndycraAsriel today?
I've put your lemsip on the table, Appy. Glad to hear you're feeling better, by the way. Just don't push yourself too hard too quickly. We want a healthy Aperitif to be here with us:)
John H. Sorry for not answering earlier. I was trying to avoid getting dragged into a long conversation with upper management over something that's not my responsibility or area of expertise... Re the gadgets, it's Creative Zen 20Gb for general use (of course other MP3 players are available from lots of different shops and online stores) and a small 128Mb flash player I picked up years ago for when I'm in the gym. It's enough to allow me to listen to what I find gives me a boost when I'm on the bike or whatever.... As for the main player, I've finally managed to get everything I own on CD (plus a few thinks like the Now Show podcasts!) on it, and I'm hovering around the 5000 track mark, with between 1/3rd and 1/2 still free. It's scary to think I've got so much music!!
PickledChris : how is a bee's bottom arial better that the Others? Soz for being obtuse...
Well, um, my lovely in-car audio people suggested I had one because the reception using the demister (yes, some cars, even expensive German ones, use the demister grid-thing on the back window as an aerial. It stops working as an aerial when demisting) wasn't very good.
It looks a bit cool, too. Oddly.
Some people don't like the bee-sting aerial because you have to drill a hole in your precious car - but for me my car is a beautiful sound room first and an A-to-B getter second :)
AndycraAsriel today due to post about books and Mrs Coulter ("an email arrives", except that it didn't).
Whisht - I think you're reading more into that particularly stiffy than was actually intended. I was referring to Ed's 'miff' - which everybody knows is what he felt when he heard about the lovely Kirsty (No, no, it's not THAT either!) 'Miff' as in 'I felt truly miffed that the newsletter didn't get through today'
Was it just me or did Ed sound particularly disparaging tonight when he highlighted the activities (or should that read antics?) on our beloved blog?
'evening all,
DAB is definately inferior to what you get with the freeview box. It's all to do with bandwidth. You may have heard on Feedback the complaints about reduced bandwidth for Radio 3 (removing the "CD quality" sound). That is simply not an issue when using the freeview box. OK, not much help for in car entertainment systems. (For some reason, the M4 has lousy R4 FM reception between Slough and Reading at the moment).
I have neither DAB or Freeview (I don't have a television, and apparently you need one to get the radio sound from the freeview box) , and as the nights draw in, I keep myself warm by listening to my 1940's Mullard valve radio. Transistors, huh!
Thanks for that AndyCLPAGFNBWBCragg; I have an ordinary sort of aerial (correct sp this time)... you know the sort, thay are too tight to unscrew so you take a huge risk in the car-wash, then giggle nervously when it ends up pointing down the front windscreen... tum-te-tum...
It did spring back up again, but had a kind of donkey's leg shape to it..
"I haven't a clue Honey, some kid must have done it for a laugh"...
Only get digital when I listen, as I am doing now, on my trusty *mac*. The delay is disconcerting, and I've already raised the 'pips' question elsewhere on Beeb MBs.
Andycrabbs, is your beesting aerial reception *sharp*?
btw, I've heard that afficionados (sp?) are going back to vinyl in a big way (if they ever left it). Still have a turntable, heh heh
I am so grateful, why didn't I think of those explanations? And both of them nice which makes a change.
I thought Eddie's blog was extra good today.
Rosalind, btw = By The Way
:O)
Appy, perhaps it was a reference to something like (brand name alert) anusol or preparation h???? I thought it was about brown-nosing, too
No, O Frances, it's Pioneer.
Bib Sis, missed that, what did the Beloved Presenter say?
Oh, blast! BiG Sis. Not suggesting you're a messy eater (the quickness of the finger deceives the eye)
(er... should I have said that?)
Gosh, you go away to do a few chores - swim, dogs, etc - and the whole frog explodes. Drinks, and FO - spot on, both of you, wasn't meant to be subtle. Just seemed to fit in with the way it was going.
What a lot of "alternative media consumers". No TVs! Valve radios! I hear the "no money to Murdoch" line from plenty, but it's usually from people who get decent reception - so well done anybody who just accepts no TV/bad signal in order to stick to their principles. That said I'm constantly in battle with myself about exactly how much to pay for what service - and suspect we'll eventually go for the "free sat" option - don't know what it's called. One of our potential neighbours - admittedy some way from where we are - was quoted almost 30 grand for having a phone line put in - I don't think we'll be getting cable any time soon, then.
The vinyl/CD/digital debate is a funny one. But my limited experience of the sort of audiophiles who fret about the differences in quality led me to believe that their particular thing was not my particular thing (i.e. they were interested in technology, I was more interested in the content of whatever it was I was listening to.) I do like knowing that they exist though. I use an iriver mp3 player - mostly a small statement against ipod being locked into itunes. That said, I got Mrs H a nano which she loves and uses at the gym. Even better for her is that it's reintroduced her to the fun of buying singles - especially old ones that she wants to make up her playlists (where she mixes up old disco tracks with eminem and the chilis...) When I'm listening to the arctic monkeys or ancient woody allen comedy routines whilst stuck on a bus in some foreign city or on a plane, I can honestly tell you that the limitations of my ripped files is not something I tend to worry about.
Can I just ask, how do we all feel about texting? We text quite a lot, even if it is in "old fogey" speak - i.e. we use predictive texting for most things. But we were having drinks with friends recently, some with teenage kids, and when we asked about texting, they looked at us as if we'd grown an extra pair of eyes, or something.
Where is todays newsletter then Eddie? No sign in either my work or home in box! (I have mentioned the slight OCD re all things Eddie previously!!)
John H, how do we feel about texting? Couldn't manage without it, but I don't use predictive, I have my own shortfinger, The Kraken says it's unintelligible but my fogey friends understand!
Digital - we had to go satellite about 6 years ago in order to receive any tv at all ("necessity" to the young at that point, because of no available street to "play out" on), as the trees around us had grown too tall to allow terrestrial. Then of course, we still had to take some trees down to receive the satellite signal! Before you start arfing collectively, about eco-stuff, we are using the garnered timber in the creation of the New Building - so there.
Funnily enough, just ordered an i-streamy for Teen Daughter yesterday, The Kraken's had one for several years now and swears by it, although it's full now of the you-know-what, andycrjim, so he's had to buy an external hard drive for his laptop (about time he got some more anthropology done and less vinyl!)
Frances O, he said "log on to the blog for some fascinating insights", or similar, it was certainly "insights" and the rest of it was a bit inscrutible!
btw andycrjim, re your 1000 spam emails and the non-frittering, se mine on previous frog? please?
Why can't we get AM radio in stereo in this country? They manage it in north america. Or will DAB sort all that out?
Evening All. I'd been wondering where Andy was for the last couple of days. Buried under the avalanche of emails. Anyone hear the You & Yours today about the number of attacks computers receive if you leave them on all day? Which is why this gets switched off in between my surreptitious checks of the blog during the day. Esp when I'm meant to be "working" (ie practising).
Tonight's excitement. Cat just appeared from cellar, meowing. This means a) he is about to throw up another furball or b) is holding catnip mouse in mouth. Bent over him in darkened hall, couldn't see catnip mouse. Went to grab him (evasive action before the furball hits the carpet) - mouth opens, out shoots REAL very much ALIVE mouse. Ashamed to admit I called for the other half to rescue mouse (thrown into next door's garden) while I threw cat out the front of our house. Cat is now back inside, without mouse. SO FAR....
We have no ipods or computer games. TV with freeview box, only because the reception with normal aerial was so bad we could only watch 3 channels. Will Never get sky -moral objections, & we don't watch sport at all. Himself has connected TV to those dinky little speakers ( name sounds like boss) & we have a hideous tangle of wires at the back of it all, where I rarely venture. So we could listen to digital radio, except don't seem to have time. I don't watch much tv either. Comes of working unsocial hours most of the time, & feeling it is a sin to watch tv in daylight.
Can we look forward to Eddie offering a copy of North Korea's leader's autobiography, or greatest speeches, as his next competition prize? I happened to be listening to World Service at 4 am today (insomnia widespread last night apparently) & heard all the excitement. Also something about hundreds of Iraqi police getting food (or deliberate) poisoning & having to be airlifted to hospital. Haven't heard anything more about that all day - surely I didn't dream it?Couldn't go back to sleep until the trusty Today programme started. Somehow can't relax til I know John Humphreys is in charge & making someone cringe.
Nobody has commented on this issue yet, but I can’t help wondering about the prospects of George W Bush and the US giving up their nuclear weapons. This must come under the category of ‘do what I say, not what I do’. Or am I being naïve?
Slinks (66),
Ans: Bandwidth vs quality of signal, vs number of different stations. Looking at my 1940's Mullard, keeping me warm here, it's full of names such as Paris, Munich, Copenhagen etc, all on the AM band. Such a number of stations (trying to broadcast nationally) is a reason there is not enough bandwidth for stereo in Europe.
FM carries Stereo for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and independent stations in the UK. Digital mainly adds more stations, since that is what governments want (rather than go for better quality).
I too have been wrestling with Spam emails, especially as someone decided to make spam appear as if from my company's domain name. That is an uphill task to sort out.
While not having a TV, there is a redundant Sky dish outside my window, where basement neighbours had once had one installed. Fortunately not visible from the road, but non-the-less a blot as far as I'm concerned.
As for mp3, I certainly can hear the difference between a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ made mp3 and one I .........streamed audio. Lissa has not given an answer about copyright yet. Funnily enough, in a business meeting today, I had to reveal that yes, product X does work on system Y, but I cannot tell you which of your competitors use our product X to do so. Same sort of thing here....
I only have this confuser to receive ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ7 via listen again.
val : sorry, can't help you with the spams, I'm a lucky chap because I have lots of email addresses (I was going to say "almost infinite", but then I remembered who I was talking to ...), so can I have any combination of numbers an letters before the @andycragg.com (eg sillychap@andycragg.com, duh@andycragg.com etc etc) - the spams were all addressed to quaeyo@andycragg.com (or something like that)- I logged onto my ISP and set up a filter for that address alone.
I also signed up for the anti-spam feature from whence andycragg.com comes (uk2.net) which cost me about 15 quid. I have all emails redirected from uk2.net to my broadband ISP (www.madasafish.com, aka freenetname) which also has anti-spam, but free and, possibly, not as good.
So, I don't know how to solve your problem - maybe contact your ISP and complain, or maybe, just wait until their anti-spam program(me) catches up ...
Bit of a dull post, but it might be useful to someone ... :)
Only time I hear digital quality on the radio is through my sky tv ( love bbc as well btw)
"Tuesday, no strapline.
Our weekend's out of focus
Now; on Pluto time? "
I think Eddie's run out of straps ....
But as a service to Frances O (and thanks for correcting the typo!) I've 'listened again' for Ed's link which ran something like this:
(seguing smoothly from an item about student websites, Ed mentions the programme's presence on the Net inviting listeners to: "sign up for our daily newsletter and every afternoon think 'is it ever going to get here?' [note: v. good, Lord M!] and also, if you can find the link, you can go to our blog which is just full of fascinating insights".
Tone: Ed at his ironic best.
Ah, he brightens up the gloomiest evening!
Hi folks,
I feel honour bound to let you know that the Beeb have come up trumps and that Gordon Brown arrived safe and well.
As to Eddie's 'sig' - I won't divulge the contents, but safe to say it was typically drole.
Note to Eddie: Have emailed Lissa but note she's on an awayday. So - a 'thank you' to you, and hope you slept well last night! And if you need a bigger range of pen colours, just let us know and I'm sure the bloggers will oblige.
Ledge
Morning, Big Sis!
Ah, but did you notice the pause he left after saying that? You could almost hear the raised eyebrow in that gap...
So Eddies' going strapless now, is he? Ooh and indeed Err!
Morning to you, Fred!
Yes, the eyebrow was indeed raised. I think he's the master of oral imagery (if you get my drift). I used to teach English as a Foreign Language - I wish I did that now, as I'd love to run the output past the students to see if they could detect the irony. So subtle - always impeccably polite, and therefore so funny.
Not sure what the straps were for - Holding up socks? I read something yesterday (can't remember where) about Bryan Ferry getting into a strop because a house guest (I think it was Rupert Everett) left his socks strewn across the floor.
Crikey, I've just realised what Eddie was on about. These insights are truly fascinating!
Sis
SB77
So what colour pen did Eddie use, 'Ledge? You seem to be alluding to something in your 74. Did Lissas out of office say how long she'll be away? After all, she seems to be the only one who can keep this frog running smoothly....
I've got a suggestion for a new strapline:
"Straplines? We don't need no stinking straplines!"
FF
Or perhaps "PM - The Strapless Wonder"
or even "PM - Supported by its listeners"
Hm, re the pens, it was a case of ink colour on paper colour. Ed clearly needs one of those pens with a choice of ink for such occasions, though Gordon's endpapers were suitably gloomy, so perhaps only white ink would have been the safe choice.
Farbeit for me to quibble, but Ed COULD have chosen the next page (white) - However, I think he enjoyed the lark.
Ta andycrspam, will run all that by S.O. - his kind of fascinating insight.
Ahah, so I almost remembered it correctly then, but yes, "it's the way he says them" that hits the spot, FF! I'm a great believer in delivery and tone-of-voice - ask my family....
John W - commiserations to you too. It seems to be spreading in a kind of tentacle-like way, each day brings a larger number from even further climes. I now know what "Returned Undeliverable/Blocked Message/etc" is in many, many languages. As if I needed that?
SL suggestion: "PM - as full of as many fascinating insights as you could wish for" (ahem, I haven't done one before, perhaps it needs a little pedantry?)
I recommend Eddie gives DAB another try, from home perhaps. I have three (yes, indeed, count them) DAB radios and I am very fond of them. My favourite is the great-white-splashproof-rechargeable bathroom one. I have a bug-eyed one in the kitchen that I don't like so much, mainly because it has a very stupid round button that performs three different functions very badly. In the bedroom, I have a very sensible alarm version that does everything you could possibly want from a bedside radio. Reception is good on all of them, provided it isn't thundering.
Ask the Family, Val? I have memories of that (the Robert Robinson original, of course) :)
Sorry to hear your experience of DAB. In Birmingham (5 miles southeast of city centre) we get it crystal clear, unlike some of the TV channels!
Valery, re how do we feel about texting? Couldn't manage without it, but I don't use predictive, I have my own shortfinger, The Kraken says it's unintelligible but my fogey friends understand! Wholehearted agreement.
Re the thing about principles and TV reception: I mentioned I do not have satellite for principled, anti-Murdoch reasons, but there was a hint of "that's OK for those with other options" in response. Not so in my case - no digitial/cable coverage here, so to even get the freeview sites I'd have to get a dish. Without satellite I have 3-and-a-half channels (1 3 and 4, and ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2 but it rolls too much to watch when it's windy).
Admittedly this doesn't bother me too much as
1. I don't sit watching TV a lot;
2. When I do I can usually find something on 1, 2 or 4 with which I'm happy enough;
3. I'm a Radio 4 addict;
4. I'm not interested in watching sport (sport is for doing not for watching) or films on TV (prefer to go to the cinema).
Having said all of that I would really like the extra ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ channels and so it is a principled stand not to get a dish (and one of aesthetics, of course). Same reason I won't buy his papers. When someone else sells dishes I will get one (and attempt to have it put somewhere relatively inconspicuous - oo-er) just for the freeview stuff. Or I'll wait for digital to arrive.
Thank you for listening.
Oh you're welcome Ap - I'll listen to you (digitally or otherwise), yes that was my point - we had a strange situation where we got 2 channels in summer and the other 2 in winter (depending whether there were leaves on the trees). There was no way we could get a Freeview box, as the point is that works from your terrestrial aerial, and therein lay our problem.
So Murdoch got our shilling (well it was a while ago, but it wasn't quite as cheap as that of course).
Hey ho
Thank you Valery. I've just reread my post after yours and feel that I need to add the following:
No criticism of anyone who likes TV more than I do, and does give their pennies to Murdoch, was intended. I realise that, in defending myself against the hint of "well it's alright for you - you can have those principles and still get tele", I may have appeared to be attacking the decisions of others. Not at all - not for me to say what anyone else does about it.
Apologies if any offence was caused.
Don't be daft, none taken, I was just pondering on the vagaries of how we can be drawn into things which we would prefer not to do, because of a wish to "keep other people happy". I found it too hard to explain to the children at that time (before very much of the dawn of reason had crept over their personal horizons), so it was easier to give in.
Mind you I didn't have S.O's backing either as he deemed it a "waste of money". Tv doesn't impinge on my world much either, as I've said here before, watching tv during the day? that way lies perfidion! Then anything I might want to watch in the evening is most often vetoed...
Do you think I need assertiveness classes?
Boy oh boy, I do sound moany today. Just blame it on the pre-holiday stress, any night soon I'll be having "packing nightmares". the bane of my life when I have to go anywhere.
I blame bad TV pictures on the signal getting stuck in the wires, though the high winds-thunder-tall-trees and the wrong kind of leaves scenarios all sound pretty convincing too.
Despite living in Norfolk, we get our TV from Yorkshire. At times of high atmospheric pressure (or so they SAY - but see above) we can have either ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ1 and 2 OR ITV and Ch4, or, when things are REALLY interesting, none of these at all and perfect Channel 5. (Other channels are of course available.)
No offence taken here either - which I add because it seems to be at least in part my comment that triggered it, Drinks. You will note that I carefully added a "well done" for those who do put up with rubbish telly reception on principle.
I like TV although I also have that "not in the day" restriction, which has already been mentioned. Then, on the basis that it gets cheaper per unit the more I watch, I watch a much as I can... Although that was for narrative effect, I certainly watch more than is good for me.
A real weakness is for films at home - and if ever I find myself with more money than I know what to do with, I'll probably devote a room in the massive house I have already bought (i.e. with the money I did know what to do with) to a mini-cinema. I love the cinema experience, but don't buy into the "single viewing" thing of most of the films I really like. Of course, this wouldn't be a problem in the scenario of me having more money than I know what to do with.
Oh I'm glad noone took offence - it sort of came out a bit differently than I'd intended!
Actually, I'm glad daytime tele exists - it's there for times when one is poorly and hasn't the energy to do anything but lie down. It's the only time one can have daylight and TV at the same time without feeling guilty (I did tell you I was brought up in the catholic tradition). Old films or repeats of things like "Begerac" I seem to recall from last time I did that. An old housemate of mine used to spend every Satuday afternoon in bed, hungover, watching "Sunset Beach", before getting up and getting ready to go out again. I always envied her - not because I wanted to watch said bad American soap opera (apparently), but because she never once felt bad about it...
I've got the TV on because I'm at home poorly today :o(
I'm not watching it, it's just sort of comforting having a bit of the outside world in the house when I'm on my own...
Off to lie down now and feel sorry for myself.
I'm on your guilt train Ap, that would be the calvinistic upbringing I expect(every bit as inconvenient as catholic). Thou shalt not enjoy thyself without coming a cropper later on kind of thing, Expect the worst then the best will be a bonus etc, etc
Cripes - I'm still moaning today. Sorry.
Aw, Chris, hope you feel better by the time you come back to read aagin. In the meantime, enjoy Columbo - or whatver it is this week, :)
Valery, I commisserate. If it's even remotely similar then merely criticising it has probably condemned us both to hell - or least a long stint in purgatory. My solution? Might as well enjoy myself while I'm here then (only works on good days...)
Still, Ap, at least we won't have to limbo our way there? :o)
So have you given your cold to ChrisTP as well as FF? Powerful frogspawn eh?
Frogspawn? Blue movies for the French!
For us Digital Radio is great as there is no interference and no pirates, which are a particular problem in our area. I can also get a good digital signal at the football where the FM and to a lesser extent AM tend to be bad in the stadium. We tried having the TV on and the freeview box, to listen but the digital radio uses far less power, so saves money too, a win win for us.