The BBC, BitTorrent, and Doctor Who

Here's an interesting ArsTechnica article on the BBC's plans to simulcast TV programming on the Web. The content, at least when viewed the way they want you to, will somehow be restricted to UK viewers (you know, the ones who pay the license fees).

There are some interesting observations in the article on how the BBC's charter actually gives them an incentive to do this, but there's one point I don't quite get. As the article says:

This move was spurred on in no small part by demand for the latest incarnation of the sci-fi favorite Doctor Who. The first episode was readily available online (if you knew where to look) prior to its airing on BBC. Instead of trying to squelch distribution, the BBC took it as a "wake-up call." In a move contrary to what the US content-creation industry has done, the network decided to actually respond proactively to the issue.

I don't see how simulcasts and the odd slightly-in-advance-cast are a response to this, given that the Doctor Who premiere "Rose" was such a popular download precisely because it was a rough cut leaked weeks before the actual broadcast, and subsequent interest in BitTorrenting the show was mostly from foreigners who had no other way of seeing it (particularly Americans, since the new Doctor Who probably never will air here). No intentional Internet release restricted to a UK audience would substitute for that.

Nevertheless, I am grateful for the BBC's refreshingly positive attitude toward the Internet, since it makes it really easy for me to stream their radio channels, including the World Service.

iPod battery advice

That iPod battery page that haineux linked to in a comment is pretty good.

I've been abusing my old 3rd-gen iPod lately by playing it through my car stereo in the glove compartment without being as considerate as I should of its operating temperature.

It's holding up remarkably well, but I have seen one phenomenon lately that frightens me from time to time. My iPod's always had a fainter-than-normal display, which I compensate for by turning up the contrast setting; but occasionally this has been mysteriously reverting to factory default, which makes me think the display is dying even though it actually isn't. This didn't happen until recently, and I don't know whether it's something to do with the way I've been treating it, or is just one of those things.

These old iPod displays are also themselves sensitive to temperature; they get darker when the iPod is too hot and fainter when it's too cold. But this is a case in which the contrast setting I've saved actually reverts, without any of the other settings being forgotten. I wonder if it's some failsafe in the code to keep the LCD from destroying itself in hot weather, but that's just an idle musing.