BBC IPlayer and How to use it with Linux

Loving the new BBC IPlayer. Fantastic idea and a step forward. Just a shame about the DRM. Never fear though... us Linux geeks can still get our fix of the beeb. We've got two options;

1) Just use the BBC IPlayer Flash version.
+ It's easy
- It's low quality
- Can't even do full screen.

2) Use a Windows VM to download the DRM-ed IPlayer WMV then strip the DRM and play on Linux or anything else you please (Details follow).
+ It's great to shaft Microsoft
+ It's proves what a waste of time DRM is.
++Much better quality.
- It's more complicated to do.
- It may be illegal ( although IMHO unjustly so )

How to get you iplayer vids then strip DRM
---
1) Install the iplayer download client on a VM or a headless windows box
2) Find the wonderful bit of software called FairUse4WM. (Tricky to find because of the Microsoft storm troopers quash links fast. See end of the post for some links).
3) Run FairUse4WM to remove DRM from wmv.
4) Open your DRM free files in Linux and bask in the glory of DRM free beeb.

Homepage of FairUse4WM
Download link 1
Download link 2
Download link 3

At last a soap box! Rate your lecturers!

Been thinking of setting something like this up for while but didn't assuming someone with more time would have set it up already.It gives you the chance to rate your lecturers. Its a bit American so it could use some internationalization but its good to get the chance to let people know which lecturers are all over legendary, nice guys but shit teachers or just total sods.
Find it here;
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/


And its good to see the professors get a chance too and LOLCOPTERING;
http://www.mtvu.com/on_mtvu/professors_strike_back/

Comforting advice: Why I regret getting straight A’s in college » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

Twentysomething: Why I regret getting straight A’s in college » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

Us if we ever get Rock Band

It seems great... until they mute the audio

Lols

From http://z0r.de/?id=1265

Bunny suit

Colony blog

Moved any colony info over to Colony blog. Makes more sense
http://colonyproject.blogspot.com/

Just in case a potential employer is reading my blog...

Don't be scared off by my on-line presence!!! OK you could think I'm a bit crazy, but hey at least I'm honest about it. Everyone is a little but nuts, I just don't hide. Just incase you're not convinced here's in short
Why you should employ me!
Cos I may not have the highest grades ( as Mark Twain says "Don't let schooling interfere with your education.") but you'll be hard pushed to find someone else as passionate and practically experienced (for a 21 year old) in tech as me.
I'm innovative and if something is broke I fix it. The biggest problem in the industry today ( bar TERRIBLE documentation ) is people are too happy to stick with stuff that doesn't work rather than trying to fix the problem.
I'm not in it for the money. Sod the money... give me a interesting project and keep me in food and I'm happy. I'm a geek through and through... but I'm not a one trick pony look me up!

Freakin brilliant

This should be national curriculum for teens. Straight up honest advice. All a bit obvious to me now I'm of pensionable age but it's still bloody funny to watch.

Midwest Teen Sex Show

p.s. Its not porn.. despite the misleading title...put it away

Dear god this can not be humane

People should be more comfortable naked

It's so wierd that were not. How it can be illegal to be naked in public has always seemed madness to me.

http://www.at-home.tv/nhj07/clients/elave/index2.html This advert makes me happy just for how comfortable everyone looks.

Colony Zeit design

Some initial sketches of Colony Zeit design;





for some initial 3D-models see bzr repo

Colony

From my project brief;

Colony is a game where the player controls a nest of social insects called Zeits. A Zeit is an amalgamation of the characteristics of many different real life social insects, in particular Termites and Ants. The object of the game is to ensure the growth and success of your colony of Zeits against the elements, other insects and rival colonies. The game centers around players making subtle changes to the Zeits and their environment to implement large changes in their behaviour, nest and consequently the success of the Zeit colony. The game will also have a multiplayer aspect where two or more players can set their colonies against each other. In modelling the Zeit behaviour I will look to make use of the research done into Termite behaviour in particular the research done into nest construction.

Strategy for many years now have heavily reused the classic scheme of unit control where each unit has very little “inteligence” of its own and relies on the player for nearly all orders. With this project I intend to turn this idea on its head by giving the agents emergent intelligence. I hope that this will make a new experience which will be unique for players. It is my belief that there are few more resourseful than gamers trying to win a game, and that we can make use of this resourcefulness to further the research with agent based, self-organising, emergent behaviour.

GTD Tasklist here
Launchpad Page here (with BZR repo)