Weeknotes #6

• It was my last week working in Television Centre. Next time I head down to London my department will be based on the third floor of DoSAC; sorry, BBC Media Centre.
• Reached a significant milestone in Genome: the first phase of data import into the internal browsing interface is now complete. This means that all of the un-complied, un-corrected data about Radio Times issues from 1923 until the end of 2009 has now been imported. I’ve got a few tweaks to make, and then I can begin the process of getting the complied data in alongside it.
• It was a fairly policy-heavy week, with lots of discussions about rights, metadata, and trying to balance a variety of competing interests (there are always a variety of competing interests) and come out with something everybody can be happy with in each case.
• There’s also been a bit of discussion about the anniversary of the First World War and the sorts of things going on around the BBC (and beyond). It’s oddly fascinating how different parts of the organisation start to turn the wheels for a big event, especially one like this which spans all of the different genres and media but also has to have a certain level of sensitivity applied to it.
• Meanwhile, I did more bits and pieces to Yawdle

Dynamic Linkage

• For colleagues: Jon Jacob is looking for people to be in TVC on the 14th March
• Browser stats from GDS (the most interesting aspect is the power of auto-update)
• Amusing hyperbole from The Sun — apparently, if Scotland were independent, the UK wouldn’t react if there was a nuclear attack north of the border. I’ll believe it when I see it (though I hope I don’t)—and the same applies to Eire, and, for that matter, parts of France.
• The amazing 200-year-old mechanical caterpillar
• The Commonwealth Games’ Queen’s Baton Relay — it’s a little bit different to the Olympic Torch Relay.
• Dinah Rose QC quits the Liberal Democrats
• Opening product data
• 4 DAYS SINCE LAST KNOWN JAVA 0-DAY EXPLOIT — “Just Another Vulnerability Announcement”
• xkcd takes on PGP
• Google strikes deal with MPEG LA for its VP8 video codec — the devil’s in the detail, but it’s promising