What do think the chances are of significant Publicity, such as about Snoopy or NHSCare.info Coughlan campaign by Monday 20th April ?
e.g. 0% = no chance. 5% = not likely. 50% = 50/50. 90% = probably. 100% absolutely certain. You can add revised guess with time.
e.g. if 10 of the 14 days have past without signs of interest, you might reduce 5% to 1%. Similar Publicity in USA or France qualifies.
The main evidence is on this AsOnTV page: all these broadcasts were triggered by a few faxes: no "open letter" or direct contact ;-)
See My Daft Dad and, if you are already in contact with Robin, give your guesses.
No rewards, other than cudos :-)
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Right: first picture received from Ben, the Coalition Nightclub Manager, the night he found Snoopy. Click on picture to see "message"-->
Below: From the IGotU recorded GPS track - Snoopy is carried to the Coalition Nightclub by Ben Hartry, the Nightclub Manager ...
From Google streetview - the Coalition Nightclub is to the right of the Girl with the fuzzed out face ...
From the video awaiting approval by Ben before release: Robin and Dick approach the Coalition Nightclub on April Fools Day ... Grumpy old men prepare to behave badly ...
The piece below was first on the GPSS homepage during 1st April '98 :
These trees, very rare outside Italy, cannot be grown from cuttings
or the fruit - many have tried planting spaghetti, but with disappointing
results. We've also tried tagliatelle, but that also did not grow.
This particular variety is "Spaghetti Monstera Grande"
- known to some seasoned gardeners as "Big Whopper".
You can see the original BBC TV broadcast about the 1957 bumper italian
spaghetti harvest if you click on the
BBC Panorama report.
There is a more recent picture, at the bottom of this page, showing Snoopy the Viking,
and John Sylvestor, founder member of Team-Joker, inspecting the spaghetti tree,
flowering in Robin's back garden, in Sunninghill.
See the Open letter from Robin to Chris (Ginger) Evans and Nick Knowles: Snoopy the Viking needs help to get publicity so sailors keep an eye out !
Snoopy has been rescued by Dick three times now : see Snoopy page and
Dick and his daughter running the Reading Half Marathon
for charity.
Donations are still open into Dick's page:
www.justgiving.com/teams/thebaileysclimbkili
towards Cancer Research UK.
from 1992: the military origins of Robin's GPS Software: see the "
The Barossa Operation" page and the
Barossa video
from 1996: an extract from "
GPSS on Put It To The Test
" (7MB) broadcast on ITV Meridian TV, then BBC1 TV nationwide.
Robin's December 2007 attempt at a promotional video: "
GPS Software from Sunninghill
" (10MB)
2008 until now: crazy
Snoopy Sloop robot boat page.
<-- Checkout the many videos, linked from here !
from 2008: amusing spoof video is on
Robin effects USA Election result ? - what could have happened :-)
the Lovelock family take up dancing, dressed as elves for Christmas: checkout the video
"here" :-)
All Robin's youtube videos are on
www.youtube.com/user/RobinLovelock
or, if that fails,
here
More details, including pictures, from some of these TV broadcasts, are below. Enjoy! :-)
This page shows the many times that GPSS has been featured in UK Television broadcasts - mostly years ago, when Robin had a moustache :-) Maybe this will give ideas to some of you outside the UK on how GPSS might appear on TV Networks in your own country.
The picture further below was from when the BBC used GPSS "for real", tracking people both in vehicles and on foot. This was for an internal "pilot" programme where pairs of people started 100 miles apart and there was a race to see which couple met first. They were all tracked in the studio. The detailed map is from Bartholomew, and discussed in detail on the UK download page.
Another programme, and in some ways both amusing and exciting development,
was GPSS being used as special effects for "NCS Manhunt" - an action packed police drama
starring David Suchet.
Amusing ? - because this is where fact has preceeded fiction by several years.
Exciting ? - even the trailer "knocked my socks off" :-)
Here are the known UK Television broadcasts that have appeared:
These pictures below are in reverse chronological order - those appearing first are from the recent BBCTV South news coverage of Robin's Robot Boat launch. Those at the bottom are from the news broadcast on Meridian local Television in May '95. Software appearing in this first broadcast was the original DOS prototype, and GPSS v1 released on PC Magazine CDs.
Not GPSS, but it did include Robin, three GPS, some bespoke GPS software he squeezed into a picaxe - and Snoopy :-)
Snoopy was launched at 1130am Tuesday 27th November 2012, but something pulled him into Alum Bay, Isle of Wight. Snoopy last reported on the rocks at 1939 (7:39pm) in Alum Bay, then stopped reporting - water in his electronics ? Snoopy may have sailed over 5000 miles on Bray Lake this year, in winds over 50mph, but hard rocks are something else ! :-) Play the BBC TV South video of Snoopy's launch, filmed by reporter Ben Moore, then see our video of Snoopy's launch - with Ben getting wet too ! on youtube or here :-)
Not GPSS, but it did include Robin and GPS :-) A television feature on Geocaching was broadcast into
200 million homes.
Robin, Tony and friends helped BBC World make this "Click Online" TV feature. It was broadcast on worldwide TV networks nine times
from 10th until 16th January 2002.
Please visit
TVINRAIN
for the "inside story" and
www.caching.info
for more information on Geocaching.
Monday 6th August 2001: Carlton TV 6pm News in the UK East Midlands area: A couple of guys in the Nottingham area of UK doing some Radio DF "Fox-hunting". That aerial on top of their car is whizzing round at about 1 rev. a second - no wonder they attract attention :-) This hobby involves them using radio to track down the "fox" - a radio transmitter. More is on the Radio Direction Finding Page.
Starring David Suchet, Samantha Bond, Keith Barron, Kenneth Cranham, Phyllis Logan and - of course - the GPS Software, GPSS :-) The BBC paid for GPSS to be used as special effects within the covert tracking sequences of this "Crime Double" drama. A National Crime Squad team tracking down Ricky Valesi, a particularly nasty villain. All mapping appearing was provided by Bartholomews and typical of that delivered on real police systems several years earlier. Sometimes fact preceeds fiction - see below.
Other people appearing included Robin, Clive de Carle of Rare Imports, and Martin Dix of Intek. Carol Parks, next door, was heard speaking French from the 'mouth' of the computer - Carol teaches French at a local school. Software used was the DOS prototype and the very first version of GPSS, shortly before it was released for publication on PC Magazine CDROMs, for issue to the UK public in the summer of '95.
Taken in March 2015: Snoopy the Viking in Robin's spaghetti tree, being examined by John Sylvestor, founder member of Team-Joker. See Snoopy's Robot Boat.