BBC Open Source launched

Elphin writes "The BBC today launched their BBC Open Source website, providing a home for projects such as their video codec dirac , TV-Anytime Java API and Kamaelia network testbed."

Comments

Re:The same BBC...

[joebutton]

That won't refer to the London train bombers as "terrorists"?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Anews.bbc.c o.uk+terrorist+OR+terrorists+london+july+2005

returns "about 777" pages

Terrorism & Red/Blue America

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with this point of view. "Bombers" is an accurate way to describe them. They may also be "terrorists", but this does carry an emotional implication as well. It's a little quirky, but I can see the point of simply reporting events rather than making judgements. It's something the media in general seriously lacks.

Actually, the most charitable thing you can say about this BBC policy is that those making it are simply ignorant of the facts. That's unlikely, but it is the nice thing to say. The real reason is that they "make nice" about terrorism in the hope that they won't be the ones getting killed.

It's terrorism because its goal is to create terror pure and simple. The terrorist themselves make that very point. The means they use is irrelevant, which is why they're are not 'bombers.' Their targets aren't chosen because they have any military or economic value. They're chosen to maximize the number of ordinary, harmless citizens who get killed, creating a much larger number who are terrified into passivity or, like the BBC, into cooperating with their agenda. And in the long term, in the case of Islamists, they hope to 'convert' the UK to their rather coercive variety of Islam. Someday, they hope, you'll hear nothing but them on the BBC. And they may be right.

One of the great cultural divides in Western democracies is between those who still retain a measure of courage or at least respect for those who are brave and those who're simply trying to muddle through life as affluently and comfortably as possible, avoiding all danger and discomfort. Emotional words like terrorist make them uncomfortable, because they suggest the need for decisive actions like helping Iraq become democratic. Risk terrifies them.

A couple of summers ago, I came on someone tossing knives against a tree just a few feet from an extremely busy path in a Seattle park. Knowing someone had to make the weirdo stop, I asked a healthy man in his thirties to just stand by while I talked to the guy and perhaps get help if things got nasty. He fled in terror without saying a word. Since everyone else seemed to be a mother with small kids, I approached the weirdo alone with the suggestion he toss his knives someplace where he wasn't going to get someone hurt. When he refused and began to get angry, I backed off and told him I was calling the police. He started ranting nonsense and coming at me. Since he was bigger than I am and had at least three knives, it wasn't very pleasant. Fortunately, a Very Big Guy intercepted him and cooled him down. Later that guy told me he'd thought himself of talking to the knife thrower and decided to get involved only when I did. In dangerous situations, someone always has to act first.

The guy who ran away is 'Blue America.' They listen to NPR or the BBC and think Pres. Bush, of all people, is a threat. They deplore words like terrorist, and are, quite frankly, cowards. The guy who helped me is part of "Red America." They listen to Fox News and talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh. They call a terrorist a terrorist.

One reason I love Tolkien is that he calls things by their real names. He doesn't not mince words about the terror the Black Riders bring or the horror that would be life under Sauron. His heros fight, they don't "nuiance."

--Mike Perry, Seattle, Untangling Tolkien

it's a shame the BBC content is so crap

[JohnLeFucker]

open source, my arse, when they scrap the license fee then it will be open source.