el commentardo

Who cares about the IT angle? I work in IT all day and appreciate distraction from re-arranging electrons in a manner that is, quite frankly, non-essential to the continuance and happiness of life on this ball of polluted mud.

I must say that my IT skills come in handy when it comes to avoiding clicking on links that indicate a topic in which I have no interest. Through the magic of causality, this saves me from having to berate authors who write on topics in which I have no interest.

I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.

Paris, because my electrons love her long time.

.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

He's a terrible beardy tart and no mistake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYE0LOhkHh0

Here is the IT Angle

A TV Licensing spokeman said: "TV Licensing has checked its records and can confirm we have a valid current licence on record for his address."

Surely they used their IT systems to do this

Mines the one with the pedant tag in the pocket

Ah, why not...

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.

No TV Licence

But his wife does :D

someone had to do it

Here you go, cut and paste this: "There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye."

You missed out the new images suck....

Cut and paste...

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.

If I didn't pay my TV license fee would the BBC cover up and pretend that I've already got a license? Doubt it. I'm not Noel Tidybeard.

Licence Smisence

I have a TV but I refuse to pay for a load of pointless drivel (some of which Noel was involved in), so I only watch DVDs, get the news from the radio and internet, three letters and a visit from a (to be fair nice) bloke and now they will leave me alone for 5 years, sorted, saved loads of cash, time and braincells (I miss discovery 'tho, but there's loads of stuff on the 'net which makes up for that, play is cheap and bargains on eBay means I have more than enough films to watch (the Palin box set is really good, go buy a copy).

Oh and by the way "There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye."

New to Sky One - Noel's HQ

"Embearded TV presenter Noel Edmonds last week made a heroic stand against ..."

Shouldn't that be:

Embearded TV presenter Noel Edmonds last week unleashed a thinly disguised publicity stunt....

Well, I was going to say something witty, but ok...

"There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye."

A title is not required.

"Edmond's spokesman Mark Borkowski counterattacked: "They have completely not issued Noel Edmonds with a TV licence. He has not got one.""

Probably won't stop the jobsworths at TV licensing going after him though, if my experience as another abstainer of the shit-pump is any indication. I ceased to have a TV in November 2006 (about the time I went to work on a contract at the Beeb - oh, the irony) and dutifully rang up TV licensing, cancelled my direct debit and was told that that would be the end of the matter.

As if.

Despite regular letters along the lines of 'EXPECT A VISIT FROM US!' and multiple phonecalls, I still cannot get it into the heads of these fuckwits that a) not only do I not possess a TV or any other form of receiving equipment (no PVR, no TV card, no nothing)[*] and b) they should remove me from their database so as to avoid wasting their time and mine. Short of visiting them with a ClueBat[tm] there's not much else to be done.

The BBC was a fine institution, but given that they appear to generate little in the way of original content any more it's high time the license fee was scrapped and Auntie was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. To be honest, the only saving graces of the Beeb nowadays are Radios 4 and 7 (R4 for the cricket, R7 for The Goons :-) )

Flames, 'cos TV licensing deserve to burn in hell, as does Noel Edmonds, come to think of it.

[*] - I have been known to take a peek at iPlayer content from time to time, but there's precious little on that that warrants a first look, much less a second.

One thing that I wonder about

There's one thing that I'll always wonder about.

Broadcasting all TV programmes scrambled and requiring a viewing card to watch them (but leaving the sound "in the clear", because you don't need a licence to listen to the TV sound) would require every TV receiver in the country to be replaced.

The transition to digital broadcasting also required exactly such a move.

So why weren't Conditional Access Modules (the proper name for card slots) made a mandatory requirement on all digital set-top boxes and integrated digital TV sets and recorders, right from the day the digital switchover began? Then, the BBC could broadcast their programmes scrambled; and anyone who hadn't paid for a viewing card, simply wouldn't be able to watch. And no need for poison-pen letters and strong-arm enforcement tactics either.

Damp Squib

I expect Mr. E's licence was 'paid' by a BBC exec checking a box. That way the much vaunted protest becomes completely insubstantial.

Paris - Check her box.

Commentard

Here you go, cut and paste this: "There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye."

NOT!

I am the anti-Noel

I have a TV licence, and this year just like the last three, I've received an identically addressed letter from the TVL people in the same post as the licence to tell me that the spinning roofrack boys are coming for me.

"According to our records you don't have a valid TV licence..."

Well TVL - according to *my* records, your records are shite.

A title is required.

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.

Detector vans

Did TV detector vans ever actually do anything other than provide transportation for officials? If the method of detection is (as we're now told) based on comparing a database of who's paid against a database of occupied houses, was the role of the vans simply to prowl around with aerials on the roof looking all high-tech and omnipotent, occasionally dropping off an official or two?

I'm a commentard!

Good on Mr Edmunds.

It's about time the license was re-named as the 'BBC Subscription' - the idea that you might need a 'license' to watch TV is just ludicrous!

I mean, how dangerous is TV watching that viewers need to be 'licensed' to do so! It's hilarious.

Obligatory...

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.

WTF?

But wait? This makes no sense. A man who appears to have become the face of Murdoch's Sky is attacking the BBC?

Oh wait, no that makes perfect sense. It was probably in his contract when he signed up with a company who's Chief Exec stood up a couple of years ago and made a speech to the industry insisting that the role of the Beeb should be to take risks on new programming with public money - then hand anything successful straight to the commercial sector so that they could cream the profits.

I will obey my great vulture overlords

There is no IT angle to this story.

What is it doing here?

I am removing The Register from my bookmarks.

Please cancel my subscription.

I am also dissatisfied with today's weather.

Please make the weather the way I like it.

Goodbye

Damn! Where's the tongue-in-cheek icon? :P

Yes, Master

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.

Couldent risist ... Sorry

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye

license to watch TV

Please excuse my American ignorance on this matter, but you people over there are really charged a fee to view your TV? What kind of nonsence is that?

I was wondering if it was possible to buy a Dish network satilite on line and view our American TV? I dont know if the Dish Network Satallite is viewable from the UK's vantage point or not. It might be kind of low on the horizon.

I like doing what I'm told so here it is:

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Keep the fixed width, as I like it. Goodbye.

Paris, because like her, I feel used...

Ahaaaarrrgghhh!

license? - 'twas lifted by a pirate, me hearties Ahaaaarrrg!

remember Sept 19th...

<icon obvious>

Wheres the IT angle?

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye

I'll swop his....

....TV license for a pair of my Doc Martins (well used).

Reminds me of being a student

There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.

Fair enough

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detector vans

Detect what???

I have often wondered how such a thing could possibly work, how, can a device 'detect' a reciever? From my (limited?) knowledge a TV (old ones deffinately, new ones maybe not so much) only recieved a signal, transmitted nothing, and would there fore be about as noticable as a brick wall to some kind of van, unless they claim they can detect the presence of the CR tube itself?

I could be waaaaaay off on this one, and if so, please correct me.

As requested

"There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye."

Oh, and good for Noel. A TV license may have made sense when the BBC was the only thing you could watch, but nowadays it really should be optional.. if it's such good value for money, they could survive on subscription fees...

Angle..

There is no Paris Hilton angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing Paris Hilton from my trousers. Please confirm my subscription so I can cancel my subscription. I am also really happy with today's weather, it is very sunny in Cornwall. Please make the weather the way I like it every day. Goodbye, I'm going to the pub and invite all el Reg staff along to the Union Bar for unlimited* free pints

*Fair Use Policy Applies, fees may be charged if you go over the FUP which will be determined sometime soon.

IT?

"There is no IT angle to this story. What is it doing here? I am removing The Register from my bookmarks. Please cancel my subscription. I am also dissatisfied with today's weather. Please make the weather the way I like it. Goodbye.""

p.s can you fix the firewall at my office as well

pps on topic it might be that he payed for a year and it just has not run out and all he did was cancle the direct debit

ppps can we have a pix of the eepc girl on this sotry as well?