iPlayer doesn't work

Tried to install BBC iPlayer, didn't work. Some random error message that caused some background process to fail to work which caused the iPlayer application to not be able to load. Or something. I'm sure they'll sort it one day, or they won't sort it at all, or something.

They really should have managed the press a bit better with the iPlayer launch, because the expectation is WELL high. All the news reports on Friday were of the BBC "launching" its new service that lets you download TV. It's not really their fault that when people go to the site and find its a Beta, and their application to use it has to be approved, they get disappointed. Well, it probably is their fault, but maybe not really.

The installation process was very complicated, even if it had worked. Go to a website, login with a password, accept an ActiveX control (but they didn't tell you about that part), install an EXE application, go back to the browser and refresh, sign in to bbc.co.uk with a different password (create an account if you don't have one, which is four screens of questions), then go back to the browser again and hopefully download the WMV file. I got as far as the EXE application, and it wouldn't run, so... meh.

I wonder if the BBC are really that geared for "delivering product". For the brief moments it lived before it was axed, the BBC Jam platform was ruddy awful. Should a corporation whose background is in making content really be trying to make computer programmes? Mind you, in both the iPlayer and Jam cases, they contracted out to Microsoft, so maybe that's their mistake right there.

Bikeathon

Doing the London Bikeathon tomorrow. Been plotting the route on Google Maps. It's a double marathon, in two sections. The first marathon is a loop around West London, and the second marathon is a double-back loop around The City.

Quotes from The Thick Of It this week

"that's easy for you to say, he threatened to shove an iPod up my cock"

"don't let him hear you saying that, he'd fuck you like Ron Jeremy- only with less warmth"

"I'd love to stop and talk but I'd rather have type 2 diabetes"

"we are going to ram you up Tom's arse so hard that he has to shit out of his lying mouth"

"you're so badly fucked, his bell end is wearing your appendix as a hat"

"you're about as secure as a hymen in a South London comprehensive"

"if he thinks he's leaking now, wait til I finished with him, he'll be like Mel Gibson's fucking Jesus"

"you don't go and get me some cheese, I'll rip your head off, and give you a spinedectomy"

"it's not like we're The Independent, we can't just stick a headline like CRUELTY and a picture of a whale or something underneath it"

"enough of the pleasantries, let's just oil up and get fucking eh"

"ok people WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COCK"

"you don't leak, not from the mouth anyway"