Is Corrie Corfield losing her mind?
It's a question people have been asking for some time, and with good reason. But on last night's programme there was this odd moment.
In fairness to Corrie, she is not losing her mind. Or at least if she is, this is not evidence of it.
Our newsroom colleagues who write the news for 1700, 1715, 1730 and 1745 had been asked to update a story for the 1745 headlines. They were doing JUST that when Corrie launched into her read, off the computer screen, at around 1743. The sentence she was reading vanished before her eyes.
It's a scary thing when that happens, and now that we've gone a bit greener on PM and are doing it without paper, it's a danger. In a similar vein, my eyes are drawn to a correction in The Guardian today: "A short news item headed Council sells Lowry painting for £1.25m, page 18, yesterday, was nearly a year old and had already appeared in the paper in November 2006. A slip of the finger led to the wrong story being filed."
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D*mn! I can't listen to that 'til I get home :(
FF, Not much to miss. She started a story and half way through said, "I'm sorry,I seem to have lost that story". The true professional that she is she just carried on. (no explanation). the fact eddie had pulled the plug on the PC screen was not mentioned. I though she must have lost a bit of paper.
I noted in Ariel the other day that Eddie's printer is not the only one that has recently fallen victim to churning out paper heaps full of unwanted paper. It seems the problem is quite widespread! - and at leats not easy to correct in the near future.
Is it therefore not feasible to allow newsreaders a little hard copy?
Now don't say we didn't warn you here on your very own blog..
paperless = problems
Eddie, you even admit to having a reporters notepad with you in studio, so give in.
Go back to those comforting scripts. Nothing to shuffle = less activity too, and that's no good for any of us.
By the way the blog is showing signs of problems, has it gone paperless too?
Totally off topic - but - Just heard an interesting chat on Five Live with Torin Douglas all about High Definition Television and the new promised ´óÏó´«Ã½ HD Channel.
As Eddie may be covering it I thought I'd drop in a few pointers.
We have just upgraded and spent £750 on a new Panasonic High Def set. I also spent £150 (E-Bay) on a SKY HD box to actaully see some of the HD channels.
The ´óÏó´«Ã½ HD channel is stunning, although mostly showing previews at the moment. Silent Witness was exceptionally good - almost displaying a 3 Dimensional quality.
However the majority of the public - without Sky HD, will not be able to see this quality.
As Torin pointed out - Normal 'Standard definition' (SD) pictures are often not as sharp as when displayed on a normal CRT (Cathode Ray) set. This is largely to do with the scaling effect - ie: re scaling the pictures to suit a screen with a different resolution.
These facts are generally not explained by the sales staff. Another worrying thing is that Freeview has no HD channels, and there is a good chance that when they do have sufficient bandwidth to transmit them - the majority of the HD televisions currently sold (with Freeview built-in) will not be suitable.
The manufacturers must be having a field day at the moment - duping many of us into buying - what we think will be a superior picture.
Well may be for a few - but at least the televisions are smaller now.
Carl said:- By the way the blog is showing signs of problems,
SIGNS?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Now!
Totally off topic - but - Just heard an interesting chat on Five Live with Torin Douglas all about High Definition Television and the new promised ´óÏó´«Ã½ HD Channel.
As Eddie may be covering it I thought I'd drop in a few pointers.
We have just upgraded and spent £750 on a new Panasonic High Def set. I also spent £150 (E-Bay) on a SKY HD box to actaully see some of the HD channels.
The ´óÏó´«Ã½ HD channel is stunning, although mostly showing previews at the moment. Silent Witness was exceptionally good - almost displaying a 3 Dimensional quality.
However the majority of the public - without Sky HD, will not be able to see this quality.
As Torin pointed out - Normal 'Standard definition' (SD) pictures are often not as sharp as when displayed on a normal CRT (Cathode Ray) set. This is largely to do with the scaling effect - ie: re scaling the pictures to suit a screen with a different resolution.
These facts are generally not explained by the sales staff. Another worrying thing is that Freeview has no HD channels, and there is a good chance that when they do have sufficient bandwidth to transmit them - the majority of the HD televisions currently sold (with Freeview built-in) will not be suitable.
The manufacturers must be having a field day at the moment - duping many of us into buying - what we think will be a superior picture.
Well may be for a few - but at least the televisions are smaller now.
On the blog problems we've been suffering - and I too have had the infuriating messages - I emailed a grown-up yesterday but he was away...have contacted someone else today. Will try to get an explanation, and perhaps more importantly a word on when it will be fixed. Please accept MY apologies. It's a real pain, and thank you for being so good humoured in your posts about it. Not sure I would manage!
Speaking of corrections:
;-)
ed
Thanks for the info Jonnie. I am looking to upgrade to a new TV and wonderd what, if anything, would happen to HDTV on freeview. You have answered the question which is that it won't play and even if it does it will need a new box.
I refuse to do SKY and assume to get HD on sky you have to subscribe (even if its only that you want it for the BEEB)
I think I'll wait till the CRT eventually dies on me.
It is now very clear that the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s IT people do not understand the concept of a REAL TIME system. This is a little worrying in a world class broadcasting organisation!
You seem to all take it for granted that "these things happen" when you don't use paper.. This is just NOT the case.
If the data is in use by a mission critical application (eg: a newsreader is reading from it live on air) every other user should be locked out from modification of that data.
File and Record locking really is a VERY simple concept and has be working in real time applications for well over three decades!
I knew exactly what had happened to poor Corrie yesterday when I heard it live on air. What really is a shock; is the way the ´óÏó´«Ã½ let this situation continue. No doubt the solution is a stern memo to all the newsroom staff, when it should go to the idiot who didn't write or configure the software properly..
But, Squirrel, she was reading the 1745 bulletin at 1743, and that would have locked out the editors before they expected....or alternatively, Corrie would have been locked out of her script.
Certainly a better software solution would be working with two copies of the file and an arrangement by which any update would happen invisibly, i.e. by leaving the reader at the same point, but with new script merging in, say, five words ahead.
A few glitches are the price of flexibility, and provide opportunities for learning. There is no scope for learning when everything 'goes according to plan'.
We've long been told we learn from our mistakes, but the fact is we ONLY learn from mistakes. If you understand what you're doing, you aren't learning anything, as someone quotable once said.
Salaam
ed
Why didn't Corrie just start singing? I would have. Got a job going?
Poor Corrie, cut off in mid sentence, is this part of the new ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff appraisal system.
If so, bring it on, can we arrange for 'an agitated' member of the AQ audience to launch into vocal outpourings the next time Master Dimbles is in the chair, just to test his mettle!
BTW I see that the a fore mentioned prog will be a guest of Guest of Mole Valley District Council – Arts Alive Festival, The Menuhin Hall, Yehudi Menuhin School, Stoke D’Abernon, Cobham, Surrey.
Is this the same Mole Valley Council that serves the good people Ashtead, some of whom objected to SSAFA Forces Help wanting to buy a residential property in Ashtead, Surrey in order to provide ‘home from home’ accommodation for the immediate family members (spouses, parents and children) of servicemen and women receiving treatment for serious injuries sustained during military operations?
Ed (11) I think you answer your own question..
Your file megring plan fails; it can lead to the same text being read twice because someone inserted an extra sentence before it. (if you see what I mean?)
What should happen is that the script is copied as is at 17:43. Then at 17:45 the file is locked while it is updated (no more than a moment) The 17:43 script is unchanged because it was a copy of the previous version.
I don't know HOW to make this work, I'm not a programmer. I just find it surprising that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ don't have someone who does!
My solution is just to keep all the old versions, but then I AM a squirrel.. ;-)