The BBC

^^^trenchant social commentary

meanwhilst elsewhere...

elsetwhere

int counter = 5;
int factorial = 1;
do {
  factorial *= counter--; /* Multiply, then decrement. */
} whilst (counter > 0);
printf("factorial of 5 is %d\n", factorial);

my novel is currently 92794 words long and heavens! one of those words is whilst. better nuke the lot. how many words is your novel stevie? :)

i'm all about the non-fiction, louis

> whilst (counter > 0);

you could stop at 1 given that that is the multiplicative identity...

Thought u guys would be arguing the relative merits of "is it worth me applying" vs "is it worth my applying" by now

[in all seriousness, and i just felt i should make this clear, you are all welcome to use 'whilst' wherever and whenever you like, it's just my own personal bugbear, and one which has arisen from subbing/rewriting too much copy where 'whilst' has been used to imply a certain level of 'cleverness' that is painfully absent in the rest of the copy]

you could stop at 1 given that that is the multiplicative identity...

― koogs, Thursday, November 28, 2013 3:43 PM (5 hours ago)

Well that's what I get for C&Ping code from Wikipedia without checking it. Oh hang on, someone's edited it...

Five years worth, btw, works either way afaic

No wait, I was looking at the 'while' page just now, which has the 'stop at 1' condition, but the code fragment I copied earlier was from the 'do while' page. Curses to you, Wikipedia! Is it too late to work in some kind of BBC++ joek?

xp C and C++ jockeys love to prematurely optimise code almost as much as assembler programmers

i don't get why the php example is so shonky.

i also missed the 'whilst' change in that original snippet and, therefore, the entire point.

anyway, back on topic. the 'an adventure in space and time' thing to celebrate dr who was good, lots of bbc tvc footage.

BBC News editor/former Times editor James Harding says that BBC News "can't be a free-form jazz band." Why not?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/09/bbc-news-nelson-mandela-complaints-coverage

(actually I agree with him on his central point; see also the people who complained that live coverage of NM's release back in 1990 meant postponement of Antiques Roadshow. They may even have been the same people)

850 complaints. log 'em and move on.

The BBC received about 850 complaints about the extent of its Mandela coverage, including its decision on Thursday evening to interrupt a repeat of sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys on BBC1 to bring viewers news of his death.
kind of lol but mostly sad

is BBC allowed to have product placements on their shows?

newsnight, for example, gave "flappy bird" or whatever it was quite a boost no doubt last night

hopefully nobody was paid for it

there's also restaurant man. featuring some hotel in mhor scotland this week, and the pullman restaurant train last week. both times their web server went down straight after it was shown

i know because the other member of the household went straight on the website.. (same member who also downloaded that flappy bird game)

BBC things have facebook pages and twitter accounts and they talk about x-factor etc so I suppose anything goes.

BBC3 looks certain to get the chop.

Good

lol @ crass populism that isn't very popular

Say what you really feel Tom. I'm slightly saddened cos it'll mean a loss of diversity to some extent (or at least the notion of it) and obviously it sucks for the people who work there, but otoh I don't think I've actually watched more than a minute of it in my life so *shrugs*

Complete waste of money

They're giving it to Scotland as a leaving present.

it'll mean a loss of diversity to some extent

On the contrary

Great for Being Human and festival coverage, not so great for American Dad/Family Guy ad infinitum. E4 is even worse, though.

(or at least the notion of it)

That's the nub I think. The idea of provideing diversity just by being a distinct channel would have carried more weight in the analogue days, but there are so many channels now that just existing doesn't add much in the way of diversity if you aren't providing something a bit different.

providing

where am i gonna watch Family Guy now?

i'm aware that my reaction to BBC3 says a lot about my worse instincts tbh, but i'm not sure if Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents has added much of value to the culture.

the downside of this is quite possibly more dilution of BBC4 but

in an ideal world, i'm sure there shd be a place for everything, but i'm pretty sure the target audience for BBC3 is more or less exactly the demographic that watches least broadcast telly?

gonna be a lot of godawful stand-up comics and sitcom writers signing on, too

maybe broader, less middle-class-solipsist-scumbag question: is it possible to do Youth TV that doesn't pander?

E4's record in youth drama has been way better than BB3's over the past few years. But we're talking about a demographic that will, by and large, happily shift online with the channel anyway. Given the future of TV is mostly online anyway it might give the BBC more room to experiment here. Or it might just slowly wither on the vine.

Its a shame this has been under 'cuts' rather than from 'this channel is awful, lets use the money more wisely'.

I'm a non-licence-payer who hasn't had a telly in years so take this with a pinch of salt but this channel is almost channel 4 bad

Of all channels, this is one I'm happy to lose. It's remarkably, consistently, bad.

E4 shows TWO BROKE GIRLS and BROOKLYN NINE NINE both of which I like in different ways. E4 is miles better than BBC3 I'm afraid.

xp

i'd be torn in a poll, for sure

wtf @ Pinefox liking Two Broke Girls

BBC3 maybe has less aggressive neo-libertarian or prurient medical docs than C4 tbf

I mean this is probably the first of many cuts at the BBC and let's not lose sight of what the government's longer term agenda is.

finally ran out of episodes of Two Pints.

I was going to until you said that but yeah let's not xp

Can't say I watch it but smdh at all the crowing from CiF bbc4 stans about how the mindless cudchewers are getting what they deserve and it's some sort of victory for the intellegentsia

(My mistake for daring to peek at guardian comments obv)

Didn't jack fucking dee's shitty curbon copy sitcom run for like 6 seasons on BBC4

I'd be ok if they cut both BBC3 and BBC4 and that led for money being used to make better docs (which do require more money than just a roll-out of talking heads, 50 quid at a time) and funding the better comedy scripts.

Both of these could end up on BBC2.

Freeview is mostly crap

i wish BBC4 wd put all the docs i'm too knackered or distracted to watch in the week on at the weekend instead of 48 hours of Whispering Bob Harris

Last night I noticed a slot for a new channel: ITV4+1

ITV4 is okay - show a lot of movies and some of the less desired footie matches