The Null Device

2001/12/27

Obituary: Actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne has passed away, after a battle with cancer. Hawthorne was known for playing civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby in the classic of political comedy Yes, Minister, and also starred in The Madness of King George. He was 72.

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Good stuff: The BBC are experimenting with streaming programmes in the Ogg Vorbis format, an open-source, completely free format available on virtually all platforms (and not encumbered by licensing agreements, patents or other proprietarian evils); what's more, the Ogg developers have taken a stand against the copy-prevention trend. The BBC appear to be the first major broadcaster to use this format. Use it (and if you do, write in to let them know you do) before Bill Gates has a word with Tony Blair and it gets squashed by a directive from on high. (As happened with non-Microsoft systems in most parts of Britain's government.)

bbc copyfight ogg vorbis open-source 0