AyeTea

Window users like myself can see linux systems as a bit techie, particularly when websites and those in the linux know tend to quote frequently command lin instructions which you might be forgiven for thinking is all there is to linux.

I have to say that I use the cmd tool within windows infrequently and if I am honest I was quite glad around 1995 when Mr Gates led us away from command line temptation.  I recall my very early days of computing when everything was launched from a DOS command line.  In those days PC's were heavy, the monitors heavier and the manual sets the heaviest of the lot!  I also recall that prior to 95' pretty much every computer user was a geek, noone ele had the patience to learn the command line options!.

I said at the start of this project that I was aiming to stay away from the command line as much as possible.  However a few nights ago I hit a problem that kind of drove me to the command line once again.  As it happens I have now managed to resolve my origional problems by changing over from the Ubuntu 9.04 distribution to Eeebuntu, a custom made distribution designed for my hardware.  But before this I had found a workaround that I actualy prefer.  I am being a little cryptic here, so I had better explain things from the start.

In the UK the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is our largest broadcaster, uniquely the BBC is funded not through advertising but via a licence fee.  It has a reputation for producing high quality (though not this is not always true) television and radio.  The BBC also provides a we interface where you can watch TV programs that you may have missed.  Some live streaming services are offered as well.  I use this service sometimes particularly when someone recommends a program that they found useful or entertaining. 
The BBC iPlayer service is available fro their website and relies on flash player to give access to the streams.  I tried to acccess the service the other night and though they claim to support linux, I could not get access to the streams.  I installed Adobe flashplayer as instructed, but the egg timer just froze when I tried to watch a stream. I had an issue and the more I did to try and fix it, the more I managed to make the issue worse.  While searching for solutions I came accross a site which mentioned the command line application get_iplayer. 

This little program was installed via instructions from the website.  I have to say that I have become addicted to it.  Its quick, easy and provides many advantages over the BBC's own iPlayer interface.  All accessed through typed commands.

For instance if I wish to search the iPlayer content, I type in the command

get_iplayer eastenders

get_iplayer and a full list of available programs is listed.  I can search by program name or more just by adding my search terms to the command line instruction. 

eg. get_iplayer eastenders

What is really smart about Get-iplayer is the way that it downloads media.  The BBC offers different stream formats for different devices and those who have sold their souls to Apple get the best quality streams (The BBC is meant to be independent bear in mind). One clever trick that Get_iplayer plays is to  pretend to be an apple device and download the material in mov format.  Quality wise this is dramatically better than the flash player stream, even on my ickle EeePC.

get_iplayer  can be used in several modes:

• For direct streaming
• To record a stream
• As a personal video recorder

Get_iPlayer does not however handle the play back of the streams, I am currently using VLC player to do this though Mplayer will also do this (and has a slightly better interface IMHO)

So how does it feel to be back in the command line after all these years away?  Well not to bad really, there are one or two differences between the linux command line and DOS, when navigating I have to remember not to use DIR but rather ls to list the contents of a directory, but cd works pretty much the same way in DOS.

Command line working does feel very immediate compared to GUI, and as you get to learn each command it is slightly faster.  However I would hate to have to work this way for absolutely every task.  I frequently forget syntax, and have t look things up and this is just for navigation and one small application, I am happy to stick to the GUI for the moment. 

This little application allows me to see kinda how linux applications develop.  Someone decides on the need for an application and writes it to run on the command line.  Once this is working alright, then either the original programmer or someone else develops a more user friendly front end.  Finally the application reaches the sort of finished state that Windows users take for granted.  It's interesting...

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