BBC and ITV get together

Hello 

I know this newsletter is a day early – it’s supposed to be the 1st of March issue and today is the 28th February. But I’ve just finished the set of videos I’ve been working on all year, so I’m writing the newsletter a day early.

As I say, I’ve just finished them and taken the “Master disks” to the post office to send to the company who produce all the CDs for me. They aren’t available to order just yet, but they will be on next Monday – the 7th, at exactly midday. I’ll send out an email letting you know how you can get hold of them then! (More below – see ‘Video about the videos’)

But first, I’ve got some news about BBC’s iPlayer website, a snippet about Windows 7 that I didn’t know until last week, a tip from Louize and several other bits – I’d best stop chatting and get stuck in!

BBC’s iPlayer website now plays ITV as well

iPlayer is the website that you can watch BBC TV online on. It works pretty well – and you can also download programmes to watch them later. But they’ve just announced you can now also watch some programmes from other TV channels on it.

They’ve come to an agreement with ITV, Channel 4 and FIVE to show some of their programmes too.

If you go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv you’ll see on the left a list of TV channels. It shows the BBC ones to start with but if you scroll to the bottom there’s a link “Catch up on ITV, 4, Five and more”. Click on that and it’ll show programmes from other channels.

Which means if you use the computer to watch TV, you won’t need to go to lots of different websites.

Handy, though for now you don’t get as wide a choice as you do by going to the separate websites.

Tips from next door – Louize on “the character map”

When I’m putting a customer’s address on the database, sometimes I come across one from abroad, or one with one of those little squiggles above one of the letters in their name. I can always find the right symbol in what’s called the “Character Map”. For example “garçon” or Å (which is the real name of a tiny fishing town in the north of Norway pronounced “aww”)

You can read all about how to use it if you click on this link below:
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/charmap.html

I couldn’t do without it! Hope you find it useful too.

A book by one of the readers of this newsletter

I always like to hear about people who read this newsletter who use their PC skills to do interesting things. There are a couple of published authors, who’ve used their PC to write the book up, check proofs and so on. One of them, Sheila Brook, has recently had her second book published. It’s called “Where is the key?” and given that her first had 5 star reviews on Amazon, it should be a good one!

You can read more (and if you like, order them) here:
Her first book, (A Child of the Thirties) here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Child-Thirties-Unique-Social-History/dp/1847470246/ref=sr_1_2? s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298895807&sr=1-2

And her new one is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Key-Sheila-Brook/dp/1849913285/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298895807&sr=1-1
(there’s more information about it here, on the electronically downloadable version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-is-the-Key/dp/B0032JT1EW/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298895807&sr=1-3 )

A short rant about BT

I heard from someone who was trying to get a BT line installed at their new house, both to use for the phone and to have broadband set up on. They spoke to someone at BT (calling on their mobile phone), who insisted that they needed to pay first. Fair enough – but they also insisted that it had to be paid online… The person patiently explained that they couldn’t, because they didn’t have broadband set up yet. But the BT “customer service” person insisted that they couldn’t take payment over the phone, it had to be online.

Now I’m pretty sure this isn’t true, because I’m sure I’ve paid for a new line over the phone (though it could be a new rule), but it wouldn’t be the first time BT service folk haven’t known what their own company does.

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you is that if you have the same problem, TalkTalk DO let you pay over the phone. I’m not saying they’re great by any means but at least you don’t need to already have internet access in order to get internet access set up!

A short video about my new set of videos… and something I’ve just learnt about Windows 7

I’ve just recorded a quick video that gives you a bit more information about the new video course and answers some questions about it. Oh, and it also mentions something new I learnt about Windows 7 whilst I was recording the videos!

Here it is:
/moreaboutnewvideos.htm

Well, that’s all for now – I’m off for a cup of tea and a play with Alastair as a reward for getting the “master disks” sent off!

Yours
Tim Wakeling
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