Wikis & Books

Wikis & Books

As you may or may not know I have more than one wiki that I am playing with. One is the new James Follett Wiki (JFW) the other far older wiki is called DMP and has over the years been restarted on more than one occasion, mainly due to errors on my part that resulted in me destroying the database and all the backups! (don't ask)

At one stage the DMP had been about 1000 pages in size at this time its around 600, but then I have not worked on it for some time, in fact it is one of those projects that I only seem to work on when I remember that I have got such a project!

The size that I think DMP will get to is at this time 2000 to 2500 pages as the subject of the DMP is Dirk Maggs the radio director that I have spoken about many times here before. In fact I have also spoken about the DMP here many times normally when all was going well and not so well.

Now DMP is a project that for the reasons I have given above will not be updated on its software or the database that drivers it, as I have lost too much too often.

The DMP is again like the JFA a closed wiki very closed in fact I have at this time no intention of allowing anyone access to it even Dirk Maggs, not because there is anything in it that is libeler's but because I used it to create the main Dirk Maggs site, and also because it is the main data-bank for Dirk Maggs. I have used once so far to write a book on all of Dirk's works form 1988 to 2006 it cam e to a 300 page A4 book!

Yes I can tell you I was surprised at how long it was. I reckon that Dirk will be active in radio for at least another 5 to 7 years before he decides to go and do something else, so at the rate of productions that he does a year I think the book could end up at a 1000 pages! how mad is that.

The book is not for sale as it break every copyright law there is, eg there are photo's that I just don't know who owns the copyright to, there are articles that I do not have permission to use. But and this is the big but as this book is based on the website and the DMP from early 2006 the idea was to have a paper record just in case the website or the DMP vanish, which if my passed experience is anything to go by could happen at any moment. So I have a paper copy and the file that made it is stored else where in more than one location.

I also think that the book would not sell very many copies as it is too specialist, just how many folks want to know which actor started in a radio show that has never been heard since it was first broadcast back in 1989?

James Follett Wiki (JFW) Part 3

Things have gone very slow on the wiki, in fact not one more item has been added since the last blog, the reason being that I have found when looking at other larger blogs that they doing things that I just can not see how with the same software as me they can do.

I did after a lot of looking and searching find that they had added extensions to the wiki, how cool is that I had no idea that you could do such a thing.

So I have spent ages looking at lots of extensions, but so far have yet to download and add one to the JFW. But and this is a dig but when I find the extensions that I think will make the JFW easier either to work on or use I will let you know here.

James Follett Wiki (JFW) Part a 3 now with a part a

Yes, there is a part 3, just found out the reason why I can not upgrade the wiki from version 1.84 to 10.01 and it is something that I do not have any control over, and that is, that my ISP One&One.co.uk do not yet offer PHP 5.0 or MySQL 5.00 as standard.

Now to be fair to them, they allow for the money I pay for me to have just 2 100Meg MySQL databases which can be version 4 or 5. the snag is that I have both in use with the wiki on the version 4, to make matters worse I have other programmes using both the version 4 and 5.

I don't know if a database dump works from version 4 to 5 and knowing my luck the answer is no. ( With the luck that I have had in the past I just do not fancy taking the risk or all the work it would take)

So I am stuck with what I have at this time, maybe I will be lucky and my ISP will fall into line with other providers and give my more databases ( some hosting ISP's are allowing you as many as you want, not too sure how they can do that, but it may be that like most things most users do not use what is provided or they only use part of what is given) and more up to date versions of php and MySQL.

James Follett Wiki (JFW) Part 2

Well things are going well-ish, by that I mean I now have 103 pages on the site and I have only listed 5 of Jim's radio plays. No the problem is that I got the site set up so that it is closed so that you can't read it or edit it, which is good as it stops spam and all that sort of stuff that wiki's sometimes suffer from.

The problem that I have is that how do i allow or set up new users, and how do I set it up so that only some users are allowed to edit pages. You might say RTFM well I have and when my headache went away I soon realised that I just can't get me head around the group permissions etc.

So I have come up with a cunning plan, I will look to see other users of large wiki's have sorted this problem. As the wiki is so new it started on 10.07.2007 it will not matter too much if I don't fix this problem straight away.

As I said else where, I do not think that the wiki will get any bigger than 1200 to 1500 pages, and as Jim's output these days is not as it was I should think that the site will not grow much bigger.

I also think that the number of user's (due to it's specialist nature) will always be low, and no I am not sad about this as it is how things are.

More soon on this wiki.

Smithson Tennant

30th November , 1761 – 22nd February , 1815
Tennant is best known for his discovery of the elements iridium and osmium, which he found in the residues from the solution of platinum ores in 1804. He also contributed to the proof of the identity of diamond and charcoal. The mineral Tennantite is named after him.

Tennant was born in Selby in Yorkshire. He attended Beverley Grammar School (the oldest state school in Britain, founded AD700) and there is a plaque over one of the entrances to the present school commemorating his discovery of the two elements, Osmium and Iridium. He began to study medicine at Edinburgh in 1781, but in a few months moved to Cambridge, where he devoted himself to botany and chemistry. He graduated M.D. at Cambridge in 1790, and about the same time purchased an estate near Cheddar, where he carried out agricultural experiments. He was appointed professor of chemistry at Cambridge in 1813, but lived to deliver only one course of lectures, being killed near Boulogne-sur-Mer by the fall of a bridge over which he was riding.

James Follett Wiki (JFW) 13.07.2007

This page is just a place to leave notes to myself on the development of the James Follett Wiki. The (JFW) wiki has started on 10.07.2007 and at the time of writing this, it has an item count of 76 pages.

Looking at the number of radio plays novels that have yet to be added the final page count looks at this time to be in the 1200 to 1500 page area, I do not think that it will get much bigger than this as James has not been very productive over the last few years and on to of that he has not be very well either.

The wiki has been set up so that novels, television and radio productions or items each have there own section which is then broken down in to further sections. A way to illustrate this is to look at the novel section. The top menu item is novel, then it is broken down into decades then into years which finally leads to the individual novel published in that year.

With television the breakdown will be only by the year that it was broadcast, as there are so few television productions.

With radio, now radio is a special case, mainly because its where James first started his work, but that is not the main reason for the special treatment, the special treatment is because of the large number of plays that he wrote over a few years, and then stopped because the BBC stopped producing so many plays and besides having every play set in Ireland does tend to get well just a bit boring.

So as I was saying the the radio section is broken down by play series then by date in each series. Now because some of Jim's most famous work was in the radio play department the two items that are responsible for this have been treated as separate series even thought one series does follow the other.

In case you have not got your head around what I am talking about its Earthsearch, which as you know came in 2 number 10 part episodes, each episode will get a separate page( well that's the plan at this time that may change, one reason to keep them as separate pages is the large amount of content in the resultant pages)

As we are using a Wiki we do have to take advantage of its linking and the way we can add category's to things, and this is the whole reason for using a Wiki in the first place. One thing that I am keen to do is to link and have categories for all the actors that where in James Follett radio plays, who where they? how many plays did they appear in, who was the most used male and female actors? which year did Jim produce the most radio plays? these and other questions that I have not yet thought up yet could be answered by have the whole of the current James Follett website converted to a wiki.

If the wiki works then I can see a time when I will drop the existing website in favour of it as a wiki. Do not worry it can take pictures and all that sort of stuff and more even audio samples could be a possibility.

Now on to spam, its a sad fact that Wiki's can get very badly spammed, so to prevent that I have at this time made the wiki a closed one so that only requested users can add and remove content. When the wiki is a bit bigger, I intend to open it up so that anyone can read it but only those registered can alter it. It goes without saying that if Jim was so inclined he would be given rights to edit as he sees fit.

As this is a note to myself it will be interesting to see how much of this gets done.

I have not installed the very latest wiki software, which is Medaiwiki 1.10 as I write this, as it will not install on the one&one computers for some reason, the version that I am using is 1.83 so it is old. The other problem that I might have a bit later on is that currently one&one only allow 100 megs per MySQL database, I have no idea at all just how large the database will be.

Lewis

Lewis, originally uploaded by Tidy TTT.

Nice, wounder if this pic is rare in that it is not raining.

Displaced Cattle

Displaced Cattle, originally uploaded by slightlydramatic.

Every where I look these days appears to be in flood

In Clover

In Clover, originally uploaded by Maegluin.

Is this what summer should look like? For some reason to me it does, not to sure why.

After the Launch

After the Launch, originally uploaded by Fraggle Red.

I have never seen an image of a shuttle launch look like this.

Red Explosion

Red Explosion, originally uploaded by Siobhan Curran.

Just love the very bright colours in this image, not so sure about the wasp...

20 Seconds After Liftoff

20 Seconds After Liftoff, originally uploaded by Fraggle Red.

I wounder what it must have sounded like while taking this image, I wish i could have been there athere will be only so many more before they retire the shuttle.

04/06/2007

04/06/2007, originally uploaded by davew1.

fom the old nokia phone just to see if I could upload

04/06/2007

04/06/2007, originally uploaded by davew1.

From an old nokia phone just to see what it looks like

god this dress is short!

god this dress is short!, originally uploaded by jess22swindonia!.

Without the chair and the background this is a nice picture, yes I know the woman is a bloke, but that does not stop this from being a great image.

That dress...again

That dress...again, originally uploaded by jess22swindonia!.

Nice

Banks of the Wear

Banks of the Wear, originally uploaded by jonboy24/7.

Nice image love the clouds in this one

blue sunset

blue sunset, originally uploaded by brilliant girl.

Great image wish I was there to see this with my own eyes.

orange sunset

orange sunset, originally uploaded by brilliant girl.

just love the deep hues in this picture.

DSC_1586

DSC_1586, originally uploaded by davew1.

Leith Hill to the south west of Dorking, Surrey, England, reaches 294 metres (965 feet) above sea level, the highest point on the North Downs, and is either the highest or second highest point in south-east England, depending on whether one counts Walbury Hill near Newbury, Berkshire, which is 297 metres (974 feet) high, as being in south-east England. One can see woods, rhododendrons, bluebells and magnificent views from the many walks.

It was possibly on the summit of Leith Hill in 851, that Ethelwulf, father of Alfred the Great, defeated the Danes who were heading for Winchester, having sacked Canterbury and London.

DSC_1563

DSC_1563, originally uploaded by davew1.

I just like how small these flowers are.

DSC_1542

DSC_1542, originally uploaded by davew1.

Me in Winkworth with the Bluebell's

DSC_1519

DSC_1519, originally uploaded by davew1.

Not sure why but this is a great image for me.

Ur?

I am trying to set up a new blog that I have control over every thing on it.

Hello?

Hello?, originally uploaded by Sapphie.

Love the green and then the red lips

DSC_0105

DSC_0105, originally uploaded by davew1.

Still like this picture not sure why

DSC_1351

DSC_1351, originally uploaded by davew1.

Sunrise in sunny Aldershot

DSC_1320

DSC_1320, originally uploaded by davew1.

Ant looking just a pissed off with me taking pictures of him.

god's window

god's window, originally uploaded by andreinafrica.

Now this is a place that I would love to be at

Website Book

As you may or may not already know I have a website that lists alll the work the producer & Director Dirk Maggs has done. As I was looking for a writing project I thought it would be a good idea to produce a book from the contents of the website.

Little did I know what I was letting myself in for, as the book is some 300 pages long when using an A4 layout. The bigest single cause of %%$^%$$ has been Microsoft Word, which for some reason was falling over. I do not understand why as I have written a much larger book and did not have much if any trouble. In fact the last book that I wrote had 26 pages of contents so that should give you some idea as to how large that book was.

Anyway as I was saying the current book is 310 pages of A$ with 6 pages of contents and a file size of 6 Megs. The only thing that I can think of that is making word fall over is the picture that are in the book.

So as I said at the start of this the book is nearly done and I must admit that it has been over a month in doing the conversion from web pages to word or text pages, this was a surprize to me as I thought the task would have taken much less time.

So all I now have to do is get the page numbering right spell check it and then convert it to a PDF file and upload to my Lulu page, I will report back on progress.

such is life

such is life, originally uploaded by Fib.

I like this but for some reason it does not look real

DSC_1268

DSC_1268, originally uploaded by davew1.

Frensham Church looking rather good if I say so myself,the weather was good and so this is the result.

All work and no play.....

All work and no play....., originally uploaded by Mandy T*Girl.

I like this image, something to do with the eyes in it, Yes I know that the legs are very nice as well. Whats really sad is that the chair that she is sitting is just like the one I have in my office, now an't I sad, that I am looking at the chair!

Yes I know that the lady is a CD/TC or what ever, I don't care its a good picture and it got a response from me, so it must be a good picture.

If you have the time have a look at her site, she dos have a great sense of humour, and these days is all to rare.

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey, originally uploaded by Jim Moran.

Saw this while surfing around, having been to this place, it really is a place that photographs do not do it justice, its even better than the pics, I went when the weather was very changeable and it was great. I will have to dig out and put some of my pics up.

If you ever get the chance to go go well worth 4 or 5 hours of your life.

DSC_1263

DSC_1263, originally uploaded by davew1.

This is one of my pics of the moon that I took as it was a clear night which is a rare thing these days in England.

The pictures are now bad apart from some tripod wobble, caused by the fact that I don not yet have a remote for the camera

Moonlit Airlie Beach

Moonlit Airlie Beach, originally uploaded by aumbody images.

This is the sort of picture I want to take

Spelling

I seem to have some thing wrong with this keyboard as sometimes whole letters appear to go missing, and all without any help from me. If not that then my spelling is going down hill fast.

Tate Modern exhibit hall

Tate Modern exhibit hall, originally uploaded by cascadeguy.

Wow for some reason that i just don't understand I like this picture a lot, not sure why

Cockadobby Hill Farnbrough Hants

Cockadobby Hill Farnbrough

These are my picture of this 5000 year old barrow

Ant

 

This is Ant our new kitten who is the only surviving kitten of Missy B

Nice

 

This is just a nice image that I got at Winkworth last year 2006

Missy B

 

This is a snatched picture of Missy B as she does not like having her picture taken

Test 502

 

Percy

Percy, originally uploaded by PlutostheBubbleman.

Well this cartoon made me smile

Dirk Maggs Radio Production Credits 1996

The Jasper Carrott Trial Series 1

Independence Day UK

Carrott's Comedy Choice Series 2

The Jasper Carrott Trial Series 1

1st Broadcast 6th June to 18th July 1996

Producer

Dirk Maggs

Deviser

Dirk Maggs

Produced By

Celador for BBC Radio 2

Synopsis

Jasper Carrott appears in court charged with sedition, conspiracy, incitement to riot and assault with an offensive accent.

Highlights from twenty-eight years of stand-up comedy serve as evidence for and against the defendant.

Episodes

Episode 1

Assault with an Offensive Accent

Broadcast 6th Jun 1996

Episode 2

Bringing Games into Disrepute

Broadcast 13th Jun 1996

Episode 3

Obsessive Behaviour

Broadcast 20th Jun 1996

Episode 4

Endangering International Relations

Broadcast 27th Jun 27 1996

Episode 5

Cruelty to Animals

Broadcast 4th Jul 1996

Episode 6

Psychological Disturbance

Broadcast 11th July 1996

Cast

Jasper Carrott

Enn Reitel

Jan Ravens

Production Crew

None at this time

Recorded at

None at this time

Music composed & Arranged

Matthew Strachan

>> His website is here <<

Comment by Dirk Maggs

None at this time

Running Time

6 Episodes 30 minutes each

Independence Day UK

1st Broadcast 1996

Director

Dirk Maggs

Producer

Dirk Maggs

Writer

Dirk Maggs

Produced By

Audio Movies Ltd for BBC Radio 1

Synopsis

This is the invasion of Earth as seen from the UK. No Americans here. The story starts out as a UFO watch program from BBC Radio One. Nicky Cambell and Patrick Moore are watching the skies in the British equivalent of an AWAC.

They keep hearing a message every so often and try to trace it with the help of local European tracking stations. The message they hear is the same one that Jeff Goldblum picked up in the movie. One of the City destroyers flies to London and sits there for a while. Some British Tornadoes attack but with no success.

The final part of the story involves a Tornado escort of the new EuroFighter to the point in he Middle East (As seen near the end of the film)

Or

''Independence Day UK'' is a one-hour BBC Radio 1 science fiction special, first broadcast on August 4 1996. The show is a spin-off of the movie ''Independence Day (movie)'' and depicts the movie's alien invasion from a United Kingdom perspective. None of the original movie cast appear in the radio show. The movie's producer Dean Devlin gave Dirk Maggs permission to produce an original radio adaptation provided that he did not reveal certain details of the movie's plot, and that he did not depict the British as saving the day. Maggs wrote, produced and directed the programme, with Devlin credited as "Creative Consultant".

In order to achieve authentic aircraft sounds, Dirk Maggs' crew recorded actual aircraft and cockpit interior sounds at an Royal Air Force RAF base.

After a brief Orson Welles-style opening announcement, recalling Welles' notorious radio adaptation of ''The War of the Worlds (radio)'', the programme begins with a 20th Century Fox fanfare. The first 25 minutes take the form of a live "UFO watch" broadcast hosted by Radio 1 Disc Jockey Nicky Campbell and veteran TV astronomer Patrick Moore (of ''The Sky at Night'') aboard an RAF E-3 Sentry aircraft. Campbell and Moore and the RAF crew deliver authentic reactions to the news that a large object is approaching the Earth. The object is subsequently revealed to be an Extraterrestrial life.

When the alien mothership disgorges dozens of smaller ships that take up position over the world's City, the broadcast switches to a press conference called by Prime Minister John Major and Leader of the Opposition Leader Tony Blair to announce the formation of an emergency coalition government. DJ Mark Goodier reports from a rooftop on the alien ship's approach to London until it fires its weapon and the broadcast goes silent.

After a brief pause the story continues in Maggs' trademark "audio movie" style, with original music from the film and sound effects and dialogue in Dolby Surround sound Aboard the RAF sentry, Moore and Campbell are shocked to learn that London has been destroyed. The alien ships launch fighters and the RAF Panavia Tornado pilots Chris and Becky engage them.

Moore draws upon his vast scientific knowledge to advise the pilots on how to combat - or at least evade - the aliens. The fighters are then called upon to defend a BBC traffic helicopter that is attempting to carry the Royal Family to safety. The RAF succeed in bringing down one of the alien fighters, and Moore has a close (and given his age, surprisingly violent) encounter with the alien pilot. Meanwhile Wing Commander Reginald engages the aliens in a prototype Eurofighter Typhoon Eurofighter. At the end of the show we learn that the Royal Family are safe and have invited Becky - a staunch republican - for tea at Balmoral Castle. The surviving military forces of Europe and the Middle East are preparing to regroup in the Beqaa Valley. One of the RAF men comments that "when this is all over and we've defeated these monsters, the Yanks'll take the credit for it, you wait and see."

Trivia

The fake UFO Watch programme includes soundbites taken from the movie ''Plan 9 From Outer Space''.
The original broadcast was immediately followed by John Peel, who dryly commented: "Well, it's been like an hour-long intro to a Man or Astro-man? single."

Cast

Character	Actor
Nicky Campbell	Nicky Campbell
Patrick Moore	Patrick Moore
Mark Goodier	Mark Goodier
FLT/LT Becky Johnson	Toyah Wilcox
Wing Comdr John Reginald	Simon Treves
Group Captain Phil Johnson	Colin Baker
FLT/LT Max Brett	Peter Serafinowicz
FLT/LT Chris Thomson	Toby Longworth
Sentry Technical Director	Mark Courtney
Voice of Orson Welles	William Hootkins

Cast Pictures

Colin Baker	Toyah Wilcox	Patrick Moore
Nicky Campbell	Mark Goodier	Simon Treves

Production Assistants

Julie Drummond

Sandra Coelho

Natalie Hickman

Recorded at

The Soundhouse

RAF Location Recordings

Darrin Bowen

Music composed & Arranged

David Arnold

Additional Music

Mark Russell

Comment by Dirk Maggs

The London office of Twentieth Century Fox were trying to think of a way to promote their upcoming invasion-of-earth epic, ‘Independence Day’. They heard what we did with Judge Dredd, which coincided with the release of the Sylvester Stallone movie and compared favourably. So they asked if I could think of a good radio spin-off from ‘Independence Day’ for a British audience and immediately I thought of a ‘hommage a Welles’ - as in the classic 1938 radio broadcast of The War Of The Worlds by Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. I followed the same formula as Welles - the first 20 minutes were ‘as live’ with the real BBC presenters as they would be in a broadcasting situation. Once the destruction of the radio network was heard (as in that excerpt), the Dolby Surround encoding kicked in and we were up in the sky with the Royal Air Force as they fought the alien invaders.

The British setting was a great excuse for a lot of tongue-in-cheek digs at Hollywood action heroes - we even had one of the characters say at the end, ‘I bet the
Americans claim the credit for this’! Which of course had to be the case - the producers of Independence Day forbade us to defeat the aliens, we had to leave
that to Randy Quaid!

It was fun to have real people involved in the action, particularly Sir Patrick Moore, a venerable British broadcaster and renowned astronomer who we got fighting with an alien! He was a real sport and loved every minute of it.

Although we didn’t stir a nationwide panic there were a few worried phone calls to the BBC Duty Office.

Running Time

60 Minutes

Recorded & Mixed in Dolby Surround Sound

Paul Deeley

Dolby Labs Consultants

David Fraser

Andy Day

Audio Movie effects by Designed & Performed

Wilfred Acosta	Ian Harker	Dirk Maggs

Special Alien Effects

Danni Minogue

Other Items

Here is a good review by TY Power worth a look

Carrott's Comedy Choice Series 2

1st Broadcast 1996

Producer

Dirk Maggs

Produced By

Celador for BBC Radio 2

Synopsis

Not Known at this time

Cast

Actor

Jasper Carrott

Production Crew

None at this time

Recorded at

None at this time

Music composed & Arranged

None at this time

Comment by Dirk Maggs

None at this time

Running Time

Not Known