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tv   Click  BBC News  July 7, 2019 12:30pm-1:01pm BST

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hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. leaked emails from the british ambassador to washington have described president trump's administration as "inept", "insecure" and "incompetent".
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iran says it has breached yet another condition of its 2015 international nuclear agreement. protesters in hong kong are marching in another large demonstration against china's increasing control over the territory, greeks are going to the polls to elect a new parliament, with opinion polls suggesting defeat for the left—wing government. the jodrell bank observatory in cheshire — which has been at the forefront of astronomical research — has been declared a unesco world heritage site. now on bbc news it's time for click. this week, it's our birthday. we are 1,000 episodes young, and to mark it, we are making the bbc‘s first interactive, multi—choice tv show. there will be flowcharts, elephants, flowcharts, data, flowcharts, and wizards.
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theme music. a warm welcome to click. welcome to click. welcome to click, i'm spencer kelly. finally we have reached a very special milestone. we have been on air every week of every year, without a break, since we launched in the year 2000, which means this week you are watching season 1, episode 1,000. and to celebrate, we are making a world first. doing new things is in our dna. i'm floating on air!
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which is why we don't just show you the tech, we use the tech to push the boundaries of what's possible on tv. here's the team. it is marc on camera one and two, simon on camera three and four, jen on five, nima on six and seven, ben on eight and this is thalia on nine. this was the world's first full tv programme to be filmed and edited only on mobile devices. fyi, it was a nightmare. this week's click has been filmed entirely in 360 degrees. this was another world first, where we reinvented how tv was made, for an audience that could look in any direction at any time. and this week, for click 1,000, we've really gone for it! do i explore the cave,
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or do i look behind the tree? i'll explore the cave. so turn to page 8a. this is how i spent a lot of my childhood, reading books where i could choose my own adventure, where at every point, i got to decide what happened next, and every time i read it, the story changed. i absolutely loved them. not only was i in a different world, but because i was in charge of the story, that story came to life. it felt so real. come on then, spen. so, after choose your own adventure books, came computer adventure games, first with text, and then with amazing graphics.
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but both would let me explore vast worlds, bigger than any book. the problem is tv doesn't let us do that. it tells one story, it makes one set of choices, and we just sit back and watch. until now. i demand freedom! imagine if everything that you watched was interactive, and if you could change your experiences depending on your mood, your desires, or even how much time you had. if you go online at the address that's on—screen now, you will find a special version of this programme that is interactive. you get to choose which tech stories you hear about, and in how much detail. as you watch, you'll be given options to dive deeper, or may be to look at things from a different perspective, or maybe to skip one entirely.
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the technology used to make this possible is known as object based media, or 0bm, and it could be the future of how we watch video content. broadcasters have been developing the tech for years now. bbc r&d has explored the concept with various online tutorials. the step by step nature of 0bm is particularly useful there. netflix has had a double with its puss in boots, and more recently, with charlie brooker‘s interactive bandersnatch. and now, premiering the bbc‘s first ever 0bm tv show is us. to say it's been a tricky, brain—melting minefield would be an understatement. it's a little bit like trying to pick up ants from space using tweezers with a blindfold on. these are all the plans that we've made to figure out how we're going to structure this episode.
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being 0bm is really different because you have to think of the story in different ways, because people might have seen other bits of the story, they might have chosen different path through the story. i have been told to create several million versions. it has taken more brainpower than any episode i have ever worked on, and more teamwork, to get the thing out there. trust me, we're not talking to each other the moment. what does that stand for? wizard. but we couldn't have done it without r&d‘s otherworldly expertise. matthew and his team have been devising an 0bm strategy for the last few years. a couple of years ago we decided we wanted to try and transfer this capability to create this stuff. we were busy engineering it, but we didn't have any tools. so we decided to build a story kit, essentially. custom—made software can handle hundreds of pieces of content, like video, audio and text, and put them together on the fly,
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as viewers make their choices. so it's a tool that is aimed at producers who have no hot software development skills, so the whole idea was to allow these people to then easily use an interface like a drag—and—drop interface like story former, to create those experiences. all in all, we think we have 148 different chunks of video, which to my mind makes about a gazillion different path through the content. also tons of footage, and we've used up every hard drive that we have. i suppose it's been keeping me up at night, thinking are we going to get it finished in time? it really has been a challenging process. there's been times when i had to dojust like... but we think are we really think, it's been worth it. putting you in the driving seat will mean, hopefully, you at home can enjoy the show more than ever before more. at the core of being able to give you all these choices is the idea
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of branching narratives, possible options that lead onto the next bit, or reroute you to a park where the story can flow from there. to get advice on how to create a multiple—choice click, i went to create one of the creators of the fighting fantasy books i grew up with, ian livingstone. it involves writing multiple storylines at once. and how i used to do it was create a map, on which i kept a record of all the encounters as you went through the adventure. it's giving you a choice like do you want to turn left or right, which is a simple choice, or do you want to try and tiptoe past the sleeping goblin or attack him with your sword. and the choices are quite varied. so when i'm writing i have to keep a record of where the reader would go. so if you make this choice, i need to make sure that they can actually get out of there, and then these are all the encounters. they find gold, they find treasure, they find magical items.
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can i show you our version of an adventure map? this is the layout of this actual interview, which is multichoice. what do you think? minimalist. not too many options, so we should be done in less than four hours. because it can take you days to get through a fighting fantasy game book. good luck on your adventure. that was ian livingstone talking to one of his biggest fanboys. now, currently, normaltv doesn't allow us to show you a fully interactive programme, so to give you a feel of what happy click 0bm will be like when you watch it online, we've added a dash of it to this week's tech news. you will see some options pop up on screen. you won't be able to click them, we will do that for you. but it should give you an idea of what to expect. here is lara. hello and welcome to the week in tech. this week, the church of england issued its first guidelines for social media users.
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its release came the same time as the archbishop of canterbury streamed his own live video. nearly a decade ago, alphabet, the company that owns google, announced its balloon spin out, loon. this promised floating masts which would deliver ag services to the world's most remote places. it is now planning to launch its own trial with african telecom. loon‘s balloons are each the size of a tennis court, but they need to be as they are filled with enough helium to keep them afloat while carrying solar powered networking gear. this robot bear is quite aptly called huggable. the new trail suggests it could help poorly children feel better in hospital. more than 50 sick kids took part in the study with mit media lab, northeastern university and boston children's hospital.
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the hi—tech toy not only brought out more smiles, but also got the kids out of bed to be more active too. huggable is far from the only cute robot on the block, though. in europe, this little robot even goes to school for sick children. this means they can virtually attend classes and play with their friends. and finally, an american artist has built robotic arms to let you poke, inflate and generally play around with famous paintings. neil mendoza's mechanical masterpieces is displayed at the children's museum of pittsburgh. that's it. and in the interactive version of click you can steer your own way to lara's tech news. but with great power comes great responsibility, i mean, do you really want to make decisions about the tv programme and films that you watch?
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would you rather just sit back and relax? and also, if you want to talk to your friends about what you see, they've seen a different version of the show, you don't have a common ground. and then there's another thing. through interactive experiences, it's possible to get tabs on viewers' habits, and you may be giving out more information about yourself than you think. here is more. extrovert or introvert, open to new experience, or more comfortable with tradition? we are using the data you collect while you watch the 0bm to deliver a specific advert to you. the choices you made gave us an idea of your personality, it's certainly not scientific, but when you try it out, see if we were right. researchers have worked out that even simple data leaks can give indications about your personality. with just 75 facebook likes
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being as illuminating as asking a work colleague about you. 300: as much as asking a partner about you. some of this data you might think is not too meaningful. people's personality, people's intelligence, political views, religious views, sexuality, just because you like camping and a few other things. we all recognise when facebook, google and instagram do this, showing adverts tailored to our behaviour. this can be good if you're looking for a specific item, but can also be a bit unnerving. people say online advertising is creepy, you are talking to a friend, then later on you see an advertisement for the same thing you are talking about. it mayjust be that you were talking to your friend but then the fact you are talking to someone else, they may search for something, then suddenly you are seeing an ad for something that they're interested in.
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they infer you are friends and therefore probably have similar interests. if all this creeps you out a bit, we'll look to see some of the tools online that may help obscure your data trail. you might want to get rid of the cookies stored on your browser. these store personal data like your login, e—mail address and what is in your shopping basket. clear the cookies from your web browser using the appropriate menu. in chrome, it is in the history settings. in safari, choose preferences and privacy to block all cookies or manage which ones have access. cookies aren't the only problem, other types of trackers can follow you around. some anti—tracking tools can help. privacy badger by the electronic frontier foundation is free to add to your browser, it shows you which domains are following your online movements and lets you choose which ones to allow or block. ghostery flags more spying eyes. other services will help you stay on top of trackers, for a price.
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disconnect.me has a free basic service for desktop as well as smartphone apps. for $50 a year you can get a full vpn and tracker protection for three devices. still, even with all these tools you may not be completely private or untracked. have a look at whotracks.me, it shows some popular entertainment and news sites are crawling with unseen trackers. if, like 60% of us, you use chrome, it won't be easy to stop google from keeping tabs on you. however, an alternative like mozilla's firefox is privacy—focussed. when you install firefox, you see the privacy settings it offers straightaway. firefox is also the only major open—source browser, which means anyone can check its code, making it more trustworthy. finally, there are some more whimsical ways you can try and obscure your data. the go rando plug—in lets you confuse facebook‘s snoopers, randomising your emoji reactions, preventing their ability to build a personality data profile. be warned — this might get
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you in trouble if you end up laughing at something awkward. another tool designed by ben grosser is the demetricator. demetricator hides the ‘like‘ counters on twitter and facebook so you aren't giving out data or being influenced by what others are liking. instagram made its own version of this too. that wasjen. so, how might algorithms change what you watch in the future on tv based on your personal data? well, to simulate this, we've taken dan simmons‘ report on tech in malawi and tailored it for a viewer who we know we know is interested in inventions and the environment but likes watching shorter reports. this could be the result. with an average income ofjust a few dollars a day, this part of the world is known as one of the poorest on the planet. what's less well—known is how quickly malawi's two main cities,
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the capital, lilongwe and the commercial centre here in blantyre are expanding — as are their horizons. and malawi has a lot more high—tech than you might going on. do you want to know more? well, how long have you got? researchers are developing artificial intelligence, creating smart homes, predicting health problems and making old computers work again — for the whole continent. in some ways, malawi's cities look and feel like many others, there's plenty of shops and services, new buildings are going up, but importantly, there's a real need here for more simple tech that makes life better without the need for power. only a fraction of the country's actually on the power grid and even those who have it, well, historically it's been unreliable, demand far outstrips supply.
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and it gets hot here as well. in summer, even now at a cooler time of year, it gets up to the mid 20s. i'm on my way to meet a very cool inventor who specialises in sustainable tech. hey, adis, thanks for having us over! hi. nice workshop. adis leads a team of around half a dozen or so at his home. all sorts of things are being hacked together here. it's a mass of ideas. this skeleton car on the road next month i'm told, powered in part by steam. this tin can electric car uses phone id for security. and that's just one sim card that that works with. even adis's pottery wheel helps power things up. so has anyone before called you a mad professor?
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with all of this stuff? well, yes, i've gotten quite used to that. in the heat of the day, i've come to see a prototype adis is particularly proud of. this is the zero—electric climate control system, the main thing here is what i call the cooling element. 0k. well, it takes water and presented to the environment, right? the heat and the environment help it evaporate, that process cools things down. it sounds very simple, but is there more to it? here we have formulated materials that already are folded up so tightly that they shrink a large amount of space into a very small space. right? at nanoscale. when we put water into it, that water can be spread out. and it can use up heat more efficiently. to close that.
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right! time to test our water climate cooler. so, did the invention work? that's the question. well, you can find out by watching the click 0bm show online. of course, there are many more adventures waiting there for you, too. we're really proud of our interactive programme and we would love you to stop by and choose your own path for us. the address is on screen now. we think it's a fitting way to celebrate our anniversary. there is another way too, of course, that's to crack open the archive, look at the silly old tech and our old haircuts. welcome to click 0nline, the first of a new series for all those interested in new technology and the internet. in april 2000, the bbc decided to explore the exciting new world of the dotcom bubble.
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and, in a spectacular piece of timing, click 0nline went on air just as it burst. as online dog walkers and winetasting services tumbled around our ears, the programme went looking for the next big thing. robot: i told you i could do it. we didn't always find it. uh—oh, i forgot to change the batteries! but every so often, we backed the winner. gmail is a free e—mail service. twitter.com is as simple as it gets. it's called bluetooth. the device with some never—seen—before features has been billed as nothing short of revolutionary. we've met all sorts of amazing characters on our travels. it's—a me, mario! and i mean all sorts. la—la—la—la—la, hey! we pushed tech to its limits. 0h!
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sometimes we pushed it too far. we're going to build artificial intelligence. and sometimes, it pushed back. they came here on sort of gold rush, promised riches from waste that's slowly poisoning them. right now, over 20,000 compromised personal computers are under our control. it's been an intense experience, but the thing it has really left me with is 'i want to hold onto my data'. over the past 19 years, we have built it. we've have built it. we've flown it. we've ridden it. we've broken it... we've worn it, even the electric shorts. wow! and we've played it.
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boy, we've played it. we've gone live. we've seen the very highest tech. this is a bit spiritual, really. and the lowest. over 1,000 shows, it's been an enormous privilege for all of us to bring all of you the tech that's changed the world... mmm! refreshing. ..or not. come on, percy. upbeat sax music.
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yeah, it certainly feels like we've seen it all, but, i have a suspicion that there is much, much more to come. and next week, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, we'll bring you click 1001: a space odyssey! until then, on behalf of everyone who's worked on this programme over the years, and there have been many, thank you. thank you for watching, and we'll see you next time. theme music.
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a lot of fine weather to come across the uk for the remainder of today. always a few exceptions to the rule. there will be a little more cloud across scotland, part of the north—east of england, may be the odd sharper shower here, too. an improving picture to the south, where the remnants of a weather front brought us a grey and wet start. the south—east, moving into sunshine for the afternoon. thickening cloud through the second part of the day for the south—west of england and for south wales. a nagging northerly breeze feeding the cloud into northern scotland and north sea coasts. 1a degrees in aberdeen, a chilly 15 in newcastle. showers for northern scotland and the pennines. maybe the odd sharper one, may be drifting into lincolnshire and norfolk as we move through the evening. 0vernight, a fine story, however, and with clear skies
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it could actually turn pretty chilly in some of the glens to the north. lows of two or three degrees. low enough for a grass frost. monday dawns fine and clear for the majority, and there will be plenty of sunshine around through the day. more widespread, if anything, than today. but come the afternoon, we will see cloud thickening for northern ireland, a warm front moving in and then some for northern ireland, a warm front moving in and then some rain by the evening. temperatures for monday, well, average values, basically. we are looking at 16 in aberdeen, warm in newcastle, up to 17. 21 or 22 to the south. we should have a fine day for wimbledon on monday, with some pleasant spells of sunshine. courtside should feel pretty comfortable as 20 or 21 degrees. later in the increasing chance of seeing some disruption to play. tuesday, i think any rain will stay to the north as this frontjust tips in. high pressure hangs on in there to the south. greyer prospects for
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northern ireland with some rain and then the rain moving into scotland and northern england. to the south, the best of any brightness, perhaps 23 degrees. further north, we are looking at the mid—teens. perhaps heavier rain for a time across the central belt of scotland. on to the outlook. through the middle of the week, quite unsettled across the northern half of the uk, and then friday, fairly widespread showers are possible with some real humdingers in the mix. that, as i said, could bring some disruption to wimbledon.
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good afternoon. leaked emails from britain's ambassador to washington have described president trump as being "inept" and and his presidency as "uniquely dysfunctional". in the memos — obtained by a sunday newspaper — sir kim darroch says, despite his shortcomings, president trump's administration shouldn't be written off. the foreign office says the leak of diplomatic cables is "mischievous". angus crawford reports. the blu ntest of language, about the most powerful man

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