Viva la Revolución

Hola my revolutionary brothers. I have seized this blog from the sweet and lovely imperialist swine who normally supplies the posts here, mostly about slightly Australian/highly entertaining internet brik-a-brak. I have done so for one reason only: to stick it to the man!

The 'man' in this case is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), who I normally have no beef with. Their flagship news show, The National, is one of the best sources for national and international news in North America. However, unsurprisingly their online division is run by a bunch of frigtards, hopelessly behind the times. When I wrote in to ask for a download link so that I could save a copy of a recent show, I got this email in reply:

Hello *****,

You can purchase the video copy from Bowdens, 1-800-363-1281 if you want a video copy for yourself.
We are in the process of revising our web site and hopefully in April sometime all the 7s and other documentaries will be on our new improved web site for the National. Also this is sure to be repeated during the summer months. But you can't download anything and tape it....sorry. Ok, so hopefully this answers all your questions.
- Nameless CBC Flak

Um, what? It's a news show, that you put on TV everyday, for free... How would what I'm asking for be any different than using a VCR and taping the damn thing? Oh right, it would be more convenient and take place after 1995. And what the hell is download and tape it mean? Do these cavemen think I have a VCR hooked up to my computer, so I can get it onto the universal and convenient format of a VHS tape??

Screw 'em. I downloaded it anyway and now it's mine-all-mine! And you can too. See, The National thinks they're all tricky by streaming the video, so you can't just save it to your desktop. When you do try to save it, using Quicktime Pro, you just get a small file with the extension .asx. This is not the video, but if you open it with a text editor, the link to the real video is sitting right there. So, to review:

1. Go to http://www.cbc.ca/national/


2. Click to watch the online version of The National


3. Save the file using Quicktime Pro to your desktop


4. Open the file with a simple text editor, like TextEdit


5. Copy the link out of the text file and paste it into your browser address bar


6. After the video is loaded, save it at will and mentally flip-off the CBC

Note: this will only work on a Mac with Quicktime Pro and Flip4Mac (free) installed. If you're on a PC, sorry but you've got enough problems already without taking on a corporate giant.

I'd like to thank the nameless angel that let me take control for this rant, and remember: Illegitimus non carborundum!

Adiós muchachos!