BBC iPlayer

I really like iPlayer since it allows me to catch BBC programmes and watch them when I want. Although I have some frustrations with the player not always downloading correctly, especially through the actual iPlayer desktop. My hardwired connection can download faster than my wireless, but I can't transfer shows since they tend to stop midway. A programme called get_iplayer is much better for downloading and doesn't have some of the associated iPlayer drawbacks.

Get_iplayer finds the "portable device" version of the show. I find that version is less buggy than the actual iPlayer version. I blame the DRM for a lot of iPlayer's issues. In particular crappy download quality. It seems that programmes either are jumpy as heck or can stop. I am frustrated as heck that I was only able to download half of an episode of the New tricks episode "Mad Dogs". Frustration has cause me to buy a copy of season 5 from a Dutch vendor and the sucker is taking forever to come.

On the other hand, it is a great advantage to catch some of the programmes such as Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton's Madison Square Garden Concert. It doesn't bother me that they're a couple of OAPs. And it seems that QI series 7 is up and running. That means I have to download that!

Why have cable or satellite when you can have iPlayer?

Cartoons!

It seems like my life is fast becoming like the film Volere Volare, where the protagonist sees himself living in a cartoon. I should blame this on spending time in Belgium where bande dessinée is the national art form.

I was going to make a comment that Boris Johnson (top left) looks like a character from the Beano. A bleach blonde version of Dennis the Menace (right). I think it's the hair. Or maybe the eyes.

It seems that Private Eye agrees with me on this. They referred to The Spectator as "The Hasbeano", with the Spectator's editor Boris Johnson becoming "Boris the Menace".

I prefer Boris to Red Ken who sort of reminded me of Peter Bowles when he had hair and a moustache.

Not sure what Stephen Fry is doing in this picture, but I do think QI is brilliant. A Fred Flintstone look alike perhaps?

Andrew Marr (top right) is a brilliant journalist. I've started watching his "The Making of Modern Britain" which is interesting, but I am beginning to see I am not as much of a lefty as I think. This show is really oriented toward "democracy". I think that the belief in my being left leaning comes from living in the US which seems to be turning more and more into a facist nation.

Anyway, I think he looks like a cartoon with the ears. I thought I could come up with a "good" picture, but short of a screen capture, I don't think one will show up in a picture search.

I can't help thinking of the Yellow Kid (right) when I see Marr on the screen. It seems that he once was approached by a man in a shop who said, "Here, you look just like that Andrew Marr... you poor bugger."

Marr claims he was once mistaken for Vladimir Putin. Sorry, Andrew, but Putin looks more like Dobby the House Elf than you. Unfortunately, that similarity caused an international crisis.

Now, I just have to steer clear of Toontown.