BBC Clock Inaccurate - 100 Days To Fix? 487
mikejuk writes "The BBC home page has just lost its clock because the BBC Trust upheld a complaint that it was inaccurate. The clock would show the current time on the machine it was being viewed on and not an accurate time as determined by the BBC. However, the BBC have responded to the accusations of inaccuracy by simply removing the clock stating that it would take 100 staffing days to fix. It further says: 'Given the technical complexities of implementing an alternative central clock, and the fact that most users already have a clock on their computer screen, the BBC has taken the decision to remove the clock from the Homepage in an upcoming update.' They added, '...the system required to do this "would dramatically slow down the loading of the BBC homepage", something which he said was "an issue of great importance to the site's users".
Secondly, if the site moved to a format in which users across the world accessed the same homepage, irrespective of whichever country they were in, it would be "impossible to offer a single zonally-accurate clock."'"
Re:Not-so-accurate source (Score:5, Informative)
It's a cop-out, nothing more.
Display the time in GMT. State that the time is in GMT. Offer a drop down menu showing "-12h" to "+12h", save the option in a cookie. Or don't. No one from the licence fee paying British public would mind if it only showed British time.
Use someone else's time server. There are plenty to pick from. No need to run your own.
It took me 2 minutes to type this. Who wants to implement it by Friday?
Hmmm
GMT is only "British time" for half of the year. From the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, we are on British Summer Time, which is GMT + 1. Given how many people get confused over summer / daylight savings time, I am sure that setting the BBC clock to GMT all year round would generate a lot of complaints.
Re:Not-so-accurate source (Score:4, Informative)
Further [infiniteundo.com] reading [infiniteundo.com] on dodgy assumptions about how computers handle time.
Re: Not-so-accurate source (Score:3, Informative)
BBC broadcast services and timezones (Score:5, Informative)
The BBC domestic services only use GMT/BST (Greenwich Mean Time in winter, British Summer Time in summer). One time zone. Although they can be received in other countries in other timezones - for example BBC1 and BBC2 domestic TV channels are provided on cable in the Netherlands - no reference is made to those other timezones.
The BBC's overseas services primarily use GMT but are broadcast regionally (e.g. "Middle East", "West Africa") where they may optionally mention secondary timezones on-air. For example, the BBC World Service's South Asia radio broadcasts may say "It's eleven hours GMT, fifteen-thirty hours in Delhi."
The BBC has no European radio service any more. European relays of the BBC World Service, including the relay on Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radio inside the UK, use the African stream. This primarily uses GMT but occasionally additionally references a secondary timezone in a major African city such as Johannesburg or Lagos. There is a specific African breakfast news programme on the BBC World Service's African stream, presented jointly from London and Johannesburg, tailored around the morning hours across several African timezones.
Live presenters on the BBC World Service may also announce the time as simply "minutes past the hour" without referencing which hour they're referring to, for example "It's twenty minutes past the hour". These are particularly prevalent for African streams. These "minutes past" timechecks are avoided in regions with timezones that are offset by 30 minutes, such as India.
BBC overseas TV timezones fit into two categories; regional and worldwide. Worldwide services such as the BBC World news channel or BBC Entertainment do not usually reference the time as spoken word, but instead represent the time using on-screen graphics. The graphics will show GMT plus a selection of 3-5 timezones appropriate to the region the stream is broadcast to. For example, the European stream of BBC World will use GMT, Central European time and Moscow time. These are typically shown as full-screen text announcements for future programming (e.g. "Hard Talk, Mon-Fri at 08:30 GMT, 10:30 CEST, 12:30 Moscow" for the European stream). Where programming is shared between regions, they may either use opt-outs for regional time displays or use a more general subset of timezones (e.g. GMT, EST, India; very rarely, GMT is omitted in favour of CET).
Regional overseas TV services such as BBC America or BBC Arabic will use whatever timezones that region uses and will cope with it just like local domestic services. They will not generally use GMT.
Re:Not-so-accurate source (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Not-so-accurate source (Score:5, Informative)
The License Fee MUST be paid if you won a TV set
-- its a tax by any other name
Wrong. The License Fee MUST be paid if you use a device to receive and decoder television transmissions, the medium could be Terrestial, Cable, Satelite, or IP.
You don't need a license if you own a TV. You don't need one if you use things like iplayer on catchup. You only need one if you watching live tv.
Re: Not-so-accurate source (Score:5, Informative)
No you don't. You only need a license to watch or record broadcast TV live (or near live - a few seconds diff)
So:
live retransmitter sites - license required.
on-demand sites - NO license required.
iPlayer to watch something live - license required.
iPlayer to watch something broadcast yesterday - NO license required.
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence [bbc.co.uk]
Re: Not-so-accurate source (Score:4, Informative)
That's not enough you have to own nothing capable of receiving tv signal and thanks to tv channel repeater sites that includes a computer.
Nonsense, I don't have a TV licence, but I do have a computer. The ONLY stipulation is that you don't watch programmes as they are being broadcast. You are still allowed to watch them later on iPlayer without having a licence.
Reference [tvlicensing.co.uk]
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Not-so-accurate source (Score:4, Informative)
They will try to strong arm you... However, as long as your TV set is not logically set up to view television (not close to a socket or with a cable simply disconnected and laying there for the sake of the visit). You do NOT need to pay a penny!
Technically they have to prove you were using the set to watch TV in a court. As a civil case that's a balance of probabilities rather than beyond-all-doubt.
Basically, if you use it to watch TV (Even if you "only watch sky"), you should buy a license. If you don't you've got my full support against the bully-boy tactics of capita. I despise the few that try to evade paying the license. Just like the tax it really is, avoid it all you want by not using a TV, but don't evade paying it on some technicality.
P.S. In case anyone wonders, sky benefit a lot from the license fee as they poach staff from the bbc, who train a hell of a lot more, and their viewers benefit form the competition, just like a iphone user benefits from android competition
I shudder to think what British TV would be like if it degenerated to the crap that's in America. It's not the content that's bad in the U.S. It's the presentation. The adverts on sky would get far more obnoxious without the BBC.
(disclaimer, I work for the BBC -- not in online though -- views my own etc)