Be Excellent To Each Other

Teaching computers how to play games in order to develop artificial intelligence - http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31620759
What could possibly go wrong.

It was in the first console war of 2032 that we burnt the sky.

That's a great article.

Was ok, had its ups and downs.

Bit stop-start in places.

I think it was floored.

Interesting storeys there.

it didn't really push my buttons.

I'm driving myself mad right now trying to decide if a computer playing a game needs visual or audio output. If we set it to play something but just had it 'beep' when the game was over, would we know it had won or lost? Would it? Argh.

Just in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, here's Madonna falling off some stairs at last night's Brit awards.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/musi ... wards.html

Good job she wasn't miming!

Isn't this literally the main cause of the problem in WarGames?

(well, apart from Matthew Broderick's messing around, obv.)

Holy shit, I forgot all about this!

https://twitter.com/BeexSwear

Finally, a use for Twitter.

It's tweeted 28 thousand times

Everyone seems to be wailing about the end of the BBC, but it appears they only read the headline. What they're suggesting makes plenty of sense.

The fact that the license fee currently isn't required to watch catch-up is total bollocks and that at least needs fixed.

I'm interested in seeing how Germany's replacement for the licence fee, the flat levy on all properties, has worked in practice. The Iplayer anomoly has long been in need of fixing but finding a way that keeps it a universal service is important.

So I dont have a TV license.

In the last year the only UK TV I've watched is Dr Who and QI , both of which I watch on the iplayer after they have been shown.

The models we have in place to pay for TV needs to change , Neflix / Hulu / whatever may well give some alternatives.

Yep, and then it's solved by teaching it to play a boring game.
We should invite it to join in with our next MAME challenge.

I wouldn't be impressed with a compulsory levy. I don't watch live TV and I watch catch-up maybe once or twice a year - and I'd be happy to pay a subscription/per episode fee for that sort of thing.

I listen to a heck of a lot of BBC Radio (4, 3, and 6 mostly). Only non-BBC services I can tolerate are Classic FM (who have about 10 LPs it seems) and Oxfordshire's Jack FM. Rest of the commerical sector is pretty poor. How should these be funded?

For the niche stuff I dont see why Kickstarter or Patreon could not be an answer - if no-one actually wants or uses it then it should just go away but if there is enough of an audience who would pay to make it viable then why not ?

Thats one thing that does seem to be changing right now - rather than have the 'creative' person sell something to a million people (and they get a fraction of a penny for each sale and the 'industry' and marketing get the rest) they get a few quid from 5000 people who actually really want to get what they are producing ?

I used to listen to a couple of BBC Radio stations and have said before that I'd be happy to pay a radio-only version of the license fee.

I listen to Radio 1 when I can't get In2Beats (in Bedford), but I'd happily listen to something else (although I'd miss Annie Mac (and Zane Lowe, but he's leaving)). I watch Top Gear on BBC2 and I think that's about it.

Fortunately Top Gear generates more revenue than it costs to make, so they can scrap the licence fee and that can carry on

Although I do have a niggling feeling there's something else I watch on BBC.

I'm happy to keep paying the license fee just to keep a bit of the mainstream media that isn't run by the fucking oligarchs. If people are so stupid as to measure its value in only the same way they would a Netflix subscription then they don't deserve nice things.

When was the last time the BBC put out anything as good as House of Cards? Or Orange is the New Black? Hell, or even Hemlock Grove?

The Fall was great (but it's finished), Sherlock was great (and isn't finished). Um.

What about Win Your Wish List?

: sarcastic dimlie:

I knew that was going to be Lottery-related before I even looked at it. Are they under contract to make the Lottery show a certain length, or something?

Wolf Hall.

You don't read the website then?

Oh, very much this. The BBC is one of our finest cultural institutions, and respected worldwide. Flawed, yes, as most things are, but without it I think we would much poorer culturally. I don't listen to R1 or 1 Xtra, or watch BBC3, for example, but glad they exist. Its existence also encourages ITV, Sky et al to up their game.

And a world media completely dominated by either corporations or channels backed by authoritarian administrations is a horrible thought.

This website? Whuh?

BBC website.

Oh - not really. No-where near often enough to miss it if it were gone.

And much of the output of Radio 4. I'd pay the licence fee just for the radio, personally - which isn't going to happen, but the sheer breadth of output it covers is astonishing.

Wolf Hall was good, but I don't think anywhere near as well written or directed as Orange Is The New Black, House Of Cards, etc.

The BBC period dramas Excel at the beautiful sets, costumes and sturdy story lines, but don't match for pure drama. The end of the final episode was awesome, but it was one moment that stood out in the whole six episodes.

Also, lest we forget 'Cremwhale'. Gngh.

The best bit of that is "By Chris Young, T&A reporter"

Had a root canal a few months back, which i'm sure I mentioned. I had 5 canals, which is extremely unusual and it took ages to do.
Been having issues recently with pain in that area, and they were sure it was the tooth next to it as it couldn't be the tooth that had the nerves removed. After various second opinions and replacing an old filling on the tooth next door they gave up and opened up the root canal tooth again.
Turns out it had 6 canals, which is supposedly impossible!

Hopefully it's all sorted now...

It is chucklesome to see people commenting on the bbc news website on the license fee story to say that they shouldn't pay the fee as they never watch bbc, without a hint of irony.

I'm against having a household levy. The license fee isn't a tax, technically, but if it were a levy it would be the only hypothecated tax/spend that we have which isn't a good step in my view. Its also regressive. They should fix a net income budget and collect it through general taxation, as a council tax supplement (varied by banding) to give at least some element of variation to means to pay.

And also because tax efficiency consultants can't find a way around a flat levy *whistles innocently*

I thought it was, to allow it to be a criminal offence not to pay it?

The BBC Charter Review thinks so, too:

I cant help you avoid council tax either.

Anyway, hypothecated taxes are the most unpaid because people refuse to pay x for service y as they don't want service y. There's a reason we don't pay a Trident Levy.

I'm fairly sure that means its like a tax, but not actually a tax.

Fair enough. I figure you'd know

That is pretty spectacular.

Although, having read this properly, it appears the eternal flames signify the Hillsborough disaster, and have been replaced with coffee cups. It's still an overreaction, but I was struggling to see the relation to Hillsborough before and just thought Liverpool fans were being thin-skinned humourless fucks.