Comments for I Am Seb http://iamseb.com Characterisations, Hypotheses, Predictions and Experiments. Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:27:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 Comment on Perl on Rails - Why the BBC Fails at the Internet by brd87 http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-75 brd87 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:31:20 +0000 http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-75 Excellent article. Just looking to spec a BBC project that in the real world would be straight forward and scalable, and realising that in the BBC environment it's going to be an absolute mare and seriously compromised. Having also worked on the JAM project and used the ridiculous M$ IIS fudge it ran on - it seems that (for whatever reason) the BBC are determined to make things as difficult as possible for external suppliers. Excellent article. Just looking to spec a BBC project that in the real world would be straight forward and scalable, and realising that in the BBC environment it’s going to be an absolute mare and seriously compromised.

Having also worked on the JAM project and used the ridiculous M$ IIS fudge it ran on - it seems that (for whatever reason) the BBC are determined to make things as difficult as possible for external suppliers.

]]> Comment on Perl on Rails - Why the BBC Fails at the Internet by BBC unveils new-look home page « Jim Henderson’s Blog http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-39 BBC unveils new-look home page « Jim Henderson’s Blog Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:53:29 +0000 http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-39 [...] is very high, even more remarkable when you consider that the technical folk at the BBC are constrained in what they can do as a large part of their services are outsourced . However they come up with [...] […] is very high, even more remarkable when you consider that the technical folk at the BBC are constrained in what they can do as a large part of their services are outsourced . However they come up with […]

]]> Comment on Perl on Rails - Why the BBC Fails at the Internet by willard http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-32 willard Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:47:42 +0000 http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-32 A lot of the "Siemens are the bad guys" points are, as some others have already suggested, a bit misdirected. Its the beeb which is quite frankly a slow oversized unwieldy beast. Let me reminisce about my time.. I joined a certain web team (not radio - who, I have to say, like IF&L were far whizzier with their tech than the rest of the beeb*. I worked alongside some really interesting and talented folk. Most had degrees in design or computer science. So I figured they must be doing really cool complex stuff? No sadly not. From the programming side of things you spent your days restricted to 4 year old technology working purely in HTML and lame restricted javascript. The SSI tweaking as mentioned above was done for two reasons I always felt: 1. To make a clever dynamic looking thing dynamic and most importantly 2. To stop brain rot. From the design side of things, when a interesting project did pop up on the radar where did it go? No, not the 31k salaried, very experienced designers but outsourced to some company willing to way undercut the inside team purely to say "we work for the bbc". Shocking state of affairs. I clearly remember a conversation with a line manager "I can code in PHP, Perl, Java.. can I have a tinker with some of these things instead of poxy SSI's" "Afraid not.. you don't have the correct job title". What a dull place. So I left.. *NB: If you think "bbc" and think "bbc news online" and nothing more ignore about 70% of everyones comments/this article. BBC news works outside of the rest of the corp and does things completely differently - a lot of the times better.. A lot of the “Siemens are the bad guys” points are, as some others have already suggested, a bit misdirected. Its the beeb which is quite frankly a slow oversized unwieldy beast. Let me reminisce about my time..
I joined a certain web team (not radio - who, I have to say, like IF&L were far whizzier with their tech than the rest of the beeb*. I worked alongside some really interesting and talented folk. Most had degrees in design or computer science. So I figured they must be doing really cool complex stuff? No sadly not. From the programming side of things you spent your days restricted to 4 year old technology working purely in HTML and lame restricted javascript. The SSI tweaking as mentioned above was done for two reasons I always felt: 1. To make a clever dynamic looking thing dynamic and most importantly 2. To stop brain rot. From the design side of things, when a interesting project did pop up on the radar where did it go? No, not the 31k salaried, very experienced designers but outsourced to some company willing to way undercut the inside team purely to say “we work for the bbc”. Shocking state of affairs.
I clearly remember a conversation with a line manager “I can code in PHP, Perl, Java.. can I have a tinker with some of these things instead of poxy SSI’s” “Afraid not.. you don’t have the correct job title”. What a dull place. So I left..

*NB: If you think “bbc” and think “bbc news online” and nothing more ignore about 70% of everyones comments/this article. BBC news works outside of the rest of the corp and does things completely differently - a lot of the times better..

]]> Comment on The Front Fell Off by The Front Fell Off | NerdStarGamer http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/the-front-fell-off/#comment-31 The Front Fell Off | NerdStarGamer Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:52:13 +0000 http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/the-front-fell-off/#comment-31 [...] I Am Seb. Posted in Random Thoughts You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. [...] […] I Am Seb. Posted in Random Thoughts You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. […]

]]> Comment on Perl on Rails - Why the BBC Fails at the Internet by Why the BBC Fails at the Internet: Tom Smith's the OTHER blog http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-30 Why the BBC Fails at the Internet: Tom Smith's the OTHER blog Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:09:17 +0000 http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/#comment-30 [...] it’s heart-warming to me to learn of the right royal mess the Beeb are in in Why the BBC Fails at the Internet and working with antiquated, hobbled, out-sourced perl. What a mess, no wonder people left, but [...] […] it’s heart-warming to me to learn of the right royal mess the Beeb are in in Why the BBC Fails at the Internet and working with antiquated, hobbled, out-sourced perl. What a mess, no wonder people left, but […]

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