Time To Have Fun

Right it's the weekend and it's time to have fun. So many good things have happened this week (and I don't include the iPhone6 Launch, iOS8 and the new U2 album, which I like) that really I am in a very good mood.

I woke up to early , have got a rant out of my system , and am looking forward to the whole weekend with lots of things to do. I've been invited to lots of free bashes and may or may not partake of some of them. Have an upcoming GOAT concert which is going to be even better because one of my great friends (who's planning a huge Wedding Anniversary bash next year) is also coming.

Hold That Happy Thought

I unexpectedly ran into friends this week and really it's just been an enjoyable if busy week. Two hospital appointments the first of which was not pleasant but the results have been fine. Oh Preston threw away a three goal lead , but it was against my friend Chris's Chesterfield so I'm not too down about that, these things happen.

So I suppose I going to have to take drugs, have breakfast , get showered get up and enjoy myself, and I suggest that you do the same. There may be things to complain about but there's a hell of a lot to enjoy.  Like the fact I can put my fingers to the keyboard , update this blog and wish you all a most excellent weekend.

Go out there and be very, very happy!  And on that note I'll post "Happy" by The Carpenters, because it was one of my mums favourite songs , it makes me happy and I know it makes a lot of my friend happy!!

There But For Fortune

I woke up too early , and I don't know if I'm "getting old" but something recently has started bugging which morally should kick off my sympathy switch. If people are worse off than me , if I can I should look out for them but ....

These Guys Help

When it's raining there's a beggar camped in an unsheltered area near where I cross the road for my train . The guy is treating it almost like a marketing campaign , when I know if I were in that position I would be going to St Vincent De Paul in Shieldfield or trying to find somewhere I could shelter. And I well know that there but for fortune go I.






Then coming back from work in the short walk from Central Station to my bus stop on Grainger Street there were three beggars (One of who is fairly aggressive and I've seen often in pubs) and three Big Issue sellers. I have adopted a Big Issue seller and she is a very nice lady with a pitch on Grey Street and have bought from her for years, but three in a ten minute straight walk I just ignore. Again the beggars do have support  in Newcastle , but I don't live on the street and don't even know if I could or what the answer is.

In a full employment economy there shouldn't be a need to beg or to sell the Big Issue but both seem to be multiplying.

Everybody Wants One

This is the day the iPhone6 launched which can set you back £800 for the top end model and Apple sold four million on the first day, and in the week that Apple also negotiated a free download of U2's new album much to many people's annoyance. I'm fine with it but it's a publicity stunt. There is a lot of money in the world , plenty for everyone, but not everyone gets access to it.






I don't really do posts like this but just had to say it. I don't know the answer. I also think I need to write another post very quickly which illustrates my normal positivity , because this makes me feel too much like a Daily Mail reader for my own comfort. It doesn't help that it's September and grey and it's six o' clock on Saturday morning.

I nicked the title from the Phil Ochs song although maybe the Joan Baez version is better know to you. I suppose there 's a lot of articles linking opulence with poverty, which has just reminded me of an excellent TED talk by Nick Hanauer that I need to include:




Right that's that done next up some positivity.

What A Shower .. and The New U2 Album

Last week I took the last plaster off my left elbow, with a little trepidation after the last time it was open to the air, but it's brilliant to have a shower and just wash your arm instead of trying to avoid getting it wet.

Also I've listed to the new U2 album "Songs Of Innocence" and it's fine, if a bit U2 by numbers, but this is a band still going after 35 years with it's original line up and they have produced an album that is good to listen to. As yet nothing jumps out like say "Vertigo" or "Desire", and still thing that "Zoo Station" is very hard to beat as an opener.

The whole thing is a marketing stunt by Apple and U2, but it's generally a win/ win situation they get the publicity and the consumer get's an album by a major band. Simon Donald (Him off the Viz) is not pleased though and reckons this wouldn't have happened on Steve Jobs watch. Under Jobs he reckons yo had the illusion of your iTunes library being yours and private, and the U2 album appearing there is like a thief has broken into your house and left you a present , but he has still violated your privacy by coming into your house uninvited and with no announcement.

U2 Live

Anyway playing the new album reminded me of how great "Under A Blood Red Sky" is. It's very short and remember it was a "budget" album when it came out, and songs like "Gloria" , "Electric Co" and "40" still often play over in my head.

It's the start of a new week, I'm gonna have a great one , you have one too.

Saturday Morning 2:30 AM and an unprovoked dig at Apple

Martin and Dave

Wide awake , although feeling slightly tired, but as it's still effectively late Friday night , very early Saturday morning after a manic couple of week both at work and socially and the fact that I 'm going to see two of my all time heroes Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick next Saturday at The Tyneside Irish Centre, I thought , what the hell , I'll just get up and go and write something and see what's happening in the world.

I've just realised that this has taken me 45 minutes to put together though I've managed to learn a few things, and put another smile or two on my face. I do love the way how one thought can lead to another and if you don't reign in your mind who knows where you will end up.


It's quite funny how online spelling checkers keep tryting to tell me it's "center" not "centre"  , but when I'm using the HTML tag it's <CENTER> not <CENTRE> in one of those rare situations where you get conformity in the name of standards , though I can see Apple trying to change HTML tags just because they are Apple to something like MIDDLEIZE and then patenting the word and their users defending it on the principle that "there must be a good reason for it". Oh and by the way I do have an iPad, which I bought because of Garageband , which, when it decides to work and not hide necessary controls is brilliant, but there's probably a good reason why it does that. As this is just text I'm not going to put in a smiley face or say "LOL", but I am obviously saying these things with my tongue firmly in cheek.

The fact that I was able to write that paragraph means that my mind is obviously wide awake even if my body is not quite there. Though tonight is the first time in ten days I've gone to bed without bandages on my arm, and I can't tell you how good that feels. Having them on was neccessary but , getting them off is brilliant. While I'm not sure I'll be able to play the intro to AC/DC's Thunderstruck just yet I am feeling absolutely great now.

The other thing I'll be able to wash and shower without trying to keep my left arm dry. God bless the NHS.

Anyway everybody enjoy your weekend and this gives me an excuse to post this video as well, by Finnish band Steve'n'Seagulls which really is impressive.

Friday Is Here

I know it's not the last working day of the week for everyone but it is for me and a lot of others. The Arctic Winter and Bulgarian Invasion forecast by the redtops and tabloid rags never appeared, so generally life is good, and thought it was time I posted something.

I do intent to do a blog post by talking into my phone and maybe I'll do that this weekend, and I also need to do some more recording. I have in my head an idea for an album, although I can't say a thing about it as the title will give it away, although it's probably already been done but not by me , yet. The old Apple iPad with Garageband will be my recording studio for that.

I've also keeping up writing my book , with an October finish target and that I will hit. Anyway I'm drinking Lemsip to stave off my cold and will soon be leaving for work. There are lots of Friday related songs but there's only one I'm going to leave on here for you , The Cure's Friday I'm In Love (again).

Have a great Friday everyone, I certainly will.

A Whitby Panorama

A Whitby Panorama

Back from a good weekend in Whitby staying at the excellent Dillons. Their Yorkshire breakfast and general cooking are brilliant and Matthew and Craig are such wonderful hosts. I'm well fed, but slept a lot and am now back the the grind so to speak. I've tried to put some photos on Picasa which is now Google+ though the annoying Google (like Microsoft and Apple) just try and force you to do what they want. These are my pictures and I want control of the. Hopefully you can see them here.

While I know that Google are proving this service "free" I  may not want to associate it with everything that is associated with me.

I saw a lot of interesting things, ate at the Magpie Cafe, The Moon and Sixpence and The White Horse and Griffin, all excellent and walked up the 199 steps to Whitby Abbey , which is a fairly gentle incline.

I do love Whitby, it's somewhere that I could probably live, but I still love Newcastle , but who knows what may happen in the future. There some amazing houses there and the views are great, also it's the home of La Rosa although maybe it's best appreciated and kept as a treat, too much of a good thing may make you bored with it.

I would heartily recommend Whitby to anyone though.

The Fear Of God

I always thought it was odd that the devil was the bad guy and god was the good good guy but sometimes he was painted as loving and caring and other times as the classic "dies irae" , angry , vengeful, and fearful . so we had to toe the line , go to church on Sundays and basically be scared of him (oh and yes he was a white man). The sequence in Monty Python's Holy Grail gave be a decent slant on this (where he complains about how depressing psalms are).


The thing is if a being is omnipresent and omnipotent then that being will not be concerned with human emotions and motivations , in fact if you can do anything , then pretty soon you would get very bored , well I would. Part of the the joy of living is the uncertainty if things and striving to achieve goals and not knowing what's going to happen next. Yes there are certain things in place and the sun tends to rise and the seasons are reasonably predictable (though still waiting for The Daily Mail & Express's ice ages and tsunamis), so you have reasonably solid foundations to build on when you want to do something.

If there is a god , and I'm hedging my bets by being agnostic, I believe that the god would want us to tho live our lives to the best of our ability, and be kind to every living thing. The insecurity of life is demonstrated in the TED talk below which I found difficult to take in just because of the concepts including the Higgs-Boson particle , and in a tangential move away the seasonal song is "I Smell Winter" by the Housemartins, which I don't think has appeared on any Christmas compilations.

Also the fact I'm doing a seasonal song a day and tagging it with Christmas , means that Christmas is now one of my most common tags on here , soon to outstrip Apple and iPhones! It's quite funny that some of my most used tags are about things that I don't particularly care about , a bit like on Twitter , where if you want your tweet to go viral usually it's a complaint , which surely is not what our god would want if that god were on Twitter.

Oh and I do follow God on Facebook here , he is very good and I can live with this God's existence. Have a brilliant weekend everybody.

Going Mobile With Entertainment

I was pleased to find that the latest version of BBC iPlayer now allows downloads to my phone, actually allowing the same as 4OD. This means that as well as music, and TED I can now watch quality TV on the move.

Mobile Phone History

A lot of mobile companies advertise how brilliant their service is, but it's only any good if you can maintain a constant signal. So it's fine if you are not moving , but when you are on the train very often there's a heck of a lot of signal drop out. That's why you need to be able to download what you want to watch and listen for when there is no signal. Devices these days have huge capacity that you can usually expand with an SD card (unless you go the Apple route) , so this week I am going to be really spoilt for choice.

Although annoyingly the 4OD app still demands you be connected to wifi when my EE 4G would be far better for downloading programs.

I thought I'd include an appropriate TED talk for this post. So Have a wonderful week my friends.

There's Always Something New - Like IOS7

Just had a phone call asking me to be part of a Patients Focus Group for my doctor's surgery, I've agreed to it but going to have to fit the first meeting in between work and a concert.

I got my IOS7 this morning and not impressed so far. Icons look rubbish and first TED talk failed. Download worked OK , but hate new pin lock on it. Still I will get used to it, whether it's Apple , Android or Windows you are locked into their system.

But this, in theory gives us new places to explore and visit , and maybe there will be new frustrations but there will be great things to discover. Though still think the new Icons look horrible.

On the plus side the sun is shining again, and I'm still buzzing after last night's Wire gig , plus there's another gig on Monday. Chapter one of my book is coming along .

So I have my suit out , shirt ironed , tie put aside for tomorrow's interview. I sure tomorrow will be an eventful and successful day for me , and looking forward to it.

Happy Days

Another gorgeous red sky this morning after the ones last night . Is that a good or a bad thing. I can't say I really care because it's going to be a good day.  If it rains you don't have to water your garden , if the sun shines you just feel better anyway.

Me Then

Me Now

This morning my arms aren't aching as much despite another session on the Wii last night and I'm am feeling a lot better in myself , especially as I can now fit into a T-Shirt my daughter Kirsty bought me many years back , but was unable to wear without looking like Matt Lucas' Last Gay in the Village!






Anyway have a job application to complete , work to do , and need to get myself out the house. I've wasted loads of time this morning because I made the mistake of thinking that transferring photographs from my iPad to my PC via the iCloud Photostream wuld be simple. Yes I could see the photos , I could delete them , I could share them with people , I could make them public but I couldnt actually open them or copy them !! Thank you intuitive Apple . You know on Windows we have this thing called drag and drop. It is simple , intuitive and works.

That's my Apple rant over and for some reason the wonderful Television song Days came into my head!!

Don't Give Me Space(s)

There is one thing , well there are a lot of things , that so called data suppliers and system designers seem unable to grasp. The one I'm on about is the processing of leading and trailing spaces in data strings. While this may be required for data formatting in say a Word document or on a web page , it should never be treated as an integral part of the data. At this point to have to remember that computers are essentially dumb and just do what they are told ...... perfectly  ..... too perfectly at times.

So at work I find that on certain systems , searches and comparisons are unable to take into consideration spurious leading and trailing spaces , when the simple application of the trim function (preferably on data entry , but also in the actual search / comparison)  would save a lot of messing about. To me FIVE = FIVE  . Doesn't it? Oh no the second on has an extra trailing space! The n there's also case sensitivity which should be i the control of the user but often isn't.

Anyway the thing that got me going on this was the changing of my iTunes id. Fairly simple I though, until verification of the new email. Then I kept getting password doesn't match error. Tried the old . the new and my nick name. Nothing worked. Then thought , no , it can't be , there was a space at the front of the email field but because of kerning it was hardly noticeable. Removed it , and it worked. Why couldn't Apple trim the input ? Or are leading and trailing spaces allowable in a name?

Thought this gave me an excuse to post Space Is Deep by Hawkwind , featuring one of my favourite saxophone solos of all time, starting with some brilliant drone guitar about 3:20 , though listening to this it sounds more like a synthesiser , but who cares it is brilliant.

Not Maintaining Standards

Despite the fact I'm impressed with my iPad, Apple continue to flabbergast me with their continual ignorance of standards . Was recently at my mate Mark Tovey's had he showed an excellent Android Media player that I could install on my Samsung Note called BS Player. This works like a dream allowing you to play media from you network drives after connecting to wifi. Would love if it would connect over 4G , but lets not complain. It allows to set a home directory and then has fast negotiation of you network drive to play whatever media you want , video or music.

I thought the iPad is wifi based , but I can only do the sameby installing an Air Play server on my PC and have another Apply lump of bloatware slowing my system down. My big gripe with Apple is that device are not self contained. You need iTunes on your PC that you have to sync with your iPhone or iPad or both often ending up in horrendous autorisation knots. The softare on the device should do the job independently . Yes you can sync between machines but that should not be mandatory.

Oh yes and the iPhone 5 has a different connector to prior iPhones , when other manufacturers are moving towards a standard USB connector. So god forbid that you leave your charger at hone.

So I wont be using my iPad as a streaming player anytime soon , like I can do with my phone.

Forecast Cloudy

The lyrics to the Joni Mitchell song are remarkable pertinent to to The Cloud we know todow.

I keep getting bombarded with offers of Cloud storage (Apple/iTunes) and Cloud Players (Amazon). These are all very well and each has offered me 5GB of free storage so I can listen to my own music anywhere. However these are dependent on a reliable internet connection , so it's fine if you are at home or at a friends , or maybe in an area with reliable free WIFI. In a 4G area it will also be fine and 10GB is a hell of a lot of space to play with.

But you have to remember it's only available when you have a connection. When 4G is ubiquitous speed will not be an issue for anyone , but remember that your daya and files will effectively under someone elses control.

On the numbers involved my first desktop computer had a 10 MB hard disc , (thats 10 minutes of normal quality MP3 music!) , but I could still play colour graphic games under the DOS operating system.

The amounts of cloud storage would enable you to store 400 albums of music , a dozen DIVX movies but there wouldnt be enough room to store a High Definition movie within the 5GB, although they do offer you more space at a price. Though I would rather watch through Netflix or Blinkbox and again you come down to the issue of having a permnent reliable connection.

You are not at the moment able to watch a streamed movie in a remote Scottish Glen on on the train from Aberdeen to London.

I still havent used my Cloud Storage yet ........

Who Will Be First?

Six years ago I walked into my present place of work (at the time Orange)  and picked up a company newspaper .The front page of the article stated that that they had a target of 30% market penetration with mobile phone ownership. The actual market penetratation at the time was something like 130% !! These figures may be coloured by the mists of time and so don't take them as gospel because they are based on my sieve like memory. However when you see suits on a train with a laptop , tablet and 3 phones trying to commandeer a table you can see the 130% market penetration in action.

Anyway, since that time companies have grown and evolved , and the things we have in our hands that we use to talk to each other bear no resemblance at all to Alexander Graham Bell's invention. In the late 80's a mobile phone required a briefcase sized battery pack and looked like you average military walkie talkie. Then battery technology came on leaps and bounds allowing creation of one piece phones that would actually fit in your hand. Sitting in the background at the the time you had the internet thing and you had the WAP protocol whence enabled very basic web access from the cutting edge phones. I always thought it looked rubbish but that's the only way progress is made. At the time it was groundbreaking , you could be in the middle of nowhere (assuming a signal) and find out the lasted horse racing results or football scores. A bit like Teletext and Ceefax on your phone.

Phones then got expanded keyboards , bigger screens , and eventually touch screen technology was integrated into the model. All the time capabilities are being enhances and phones can do more. I remember one of my Nokias had "Snake" on it , my Samsung Note 2 allows me to watch films , play "Broken Sword" , perform Office functions , connect to email , have a fully functioned web browser, and install new software if it takes my fancy. Of course this is all dependant on have a signal, but if my superfast 4G EE signal isnt available , I can connect to WiFi in Starbucks , Wetherspoons or wherever. So really it's not a phone is it?

It's a hand held computer, 20 years ago I was working on mainframes with less processing power that the device I have in my hand. It's three months since EE brought us into the 4G age in the UK , and the combined performance of device and signal means you can watch cath up TV whenever and wherever you want. My Samsung Note 2 is probably more powerful that the Star Trek communicators and tricorders. Combine with GPS if we had transporter beams we would be on a par with Star Trek. Even ten years ago you could not imagine being where we are now with these devices. EE is not , and never has been a phone company , it is about communications and connections , making the world more accessible and bringing people closer together.

Which brings me to the point of this post , we are not using mobile phones anymore , they are communication devices and hand held computers. However phone is a one syllable recognisable label. Mobil Phone is three but still recognisable. I am just wondering how long it will before someone instigates a new all encompassing name for these devices. If Steve Jobs were alive I would have said Apple , finally ditching the iPhone series with:

   "The iCom - It's not your phone , It's Your Life"

Apple Are Annoying Me, Amazon get Worse, and Is Mike Ashley Newcastle's Best Ever Owner?

Apple have done some good stuff . They have made some stylish devices and via iTunes my main website enables me to have a steady income in a few clicks , or it would do if Apple / iTunes didnt keep changing the catalog numbers of items . Any reasonable company makes sure it's supplier can find products via a static reference, , but iTunes can recatalog an item in less than two wees , so my itunes link goesto iTunes and iTunes tells the customer that the item is no longer available. It actually is but iTunes have screwed the link and me and themselves out of a sale.

Not only tht the new version of itunes is attrocious , trying to load too much irrelevant information and take over your computer by filling the screen. Not good.

Amazon have now decided they will only pay commission on sales to brand new customers . So if I send an existing Amazon customer to buy something , I don't get commision. I could remove all my Amazon links but that would be a horrendous amout of work, and they can change the rules as they like because I , on my own , mean nothing to them. £50-£100 a month has dropped to £20 if I'm lucky. Amazon are the only company that do this. Having said that , at least their catalog numbers remain simple and constant and only disappear when the item does.

Le Toon Shirt

..and Mike Ashley , has had his foot in his mouth so many times , but has Newcastle United on a secure financial footing , and has Pardew (or Pardieu as he's now known)  and Carr and co building an amazingly entertaining team. They're still in Europe , which is more than can be said for Manchester City , and if you start to list list the players you enjoy wantching the list goes on. Krul , Guitierrez , Taylor , Ben Arfa , Santon , Anita , Cisse , Cabaye , Sissoko  and on and on. Remember the fans were sniffy when Demba Ba turned up but werent happy to see the back of him. Was great today to see the fans in their berets , taches with strings of onions. Ashley certainly creates the environment for the fans to feel good . Beating Chelsea 3-2 helps as well.

The First Post

...of 2013 and hoping it will be as enjoyable a year as 2012. Seen some great gigs , including several nights at The Stand in Newcastle , as well as Lord Rochester's inaugural gig at The Schooner in Gateshead , that rarity , a Half Man Half Biscuit gig in Newcastle.

I finally got an iPad and have generally been impressed with it , though the app that sold it me was Garageband. I've also got a 4G Samsung Note 2 courtesy of EE and am impressed with that as well having watched the excellent Cockneys vs Zombies on it as well as a few episodes of Hebburn and getting my first taste of In-Betweeners via 4OD. Incidentally Hebburn features Steffen Peddie as Big Keith , and I met him at The Stand where he had the crowd in stitches laughing , he halso has a Monday night residency so is well worth checking out.

Was also impressed with Sky's "Young Doctors Notebook"  featuring John Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe . Black comedy of the highest order featuring sex and drugs and blood and tabs , if you missed it get hold of a copy one way or another. Harry Potter it is not.

As I say hope 2013 has as much to offer as 2012

4G No Ubiquity ... Yet

Just a short post on EE 4G. It is excellent to be able to stream TV on applications such as iPlayer , but you do need to have a constant signal. Cable provides and uninterupted flow , and did anaolgue TV and now Freeview through the airwaves.

BBCs iPlayer on the iPad allows you to downlaod episodes to watch when you are not connected , but the Android version I have on my Samsung Note 2 doesnt sem to have that option. This means that when you leave the 4G area in Newcastle on the way south your program stops , not a great customer experience caused by the face that you cant download when in the 4G signal range.

When 4G is ubiquitous streaming will be find , but even free media apps should provide the option of downloading when in a good signal area.

50 Years Of Cassette

This Sunday 6Music have a celebration of 50 years of the cassette tape. Check it out here

Casette gave us both convenience and the ability to mess about with songs and sounds. I was a fan of Joe Meek and various experimental artists and spent hours recording to tape , splicing and and making a lot of not very impressive noises , but I enjoyed and learned a lot about the fragility and versatility of the medium.

It's small size meant for the first time you could take your own music with you . Previously the transistor radio was the only portable option.

Cassette was Vinyl's portable , personally recordable counterpart. It's main problem is that , like vinyl, it's a fragile decaying medium. Tape heads got dirty , tapes became unravelled , tangled , twisted . You don't get that with your MP3 player or iPod. However Sony's game changer , the Walkman was a godsend . It meant you could listen to music anywhere , and annoy people anywhere and some Walkmans had radios as well , best of both worlds.

It was briefly superceded by mini disc , another Sony innovation I think , which was eventually overtaken by hard disk players and finally solid state. If 4G becomes ubiquitous we may see the solid state players replaced by stream players , but for that you need a continuous reliable signal, and that is unlikely to happen because there are always places where you are unable to get a signal.

RPM in Newcastle has a stock of vintage music centres , along with cassettes and vinyl to play on them , which is excellent if you have the room and inclination for that.

It's unlikely that I will ever own another cassette player but cassettes certainly provided me with lots of fun , inspiration and convenience in their heyday and ironically the stadard tape length of 90 minutes was almost the same time capacity as a CD.

Are We Just Renting ? Applespeak Strikes Again

A couple of issues with digital content here . Apple reckon that when you "buy" a download from them you are just renting it from them. Now 1 , unless they have bought the  said item from it's maker , composer , they are only licensees of the said item , taking their cut as a middleman . To illustrate a point you can either rent or download fims, so in Applespeak "buying" actually means just renting for a long time (see previous post here) . You can see the Bruce Willis situation here.

Amazon have done a similar thing , wiping a woman's Kindle for Kafkaesque unspecified account infringements (see Guardian article here) , and then mysterious restoring the said content , saying firsat that they are only renting the ebook out to you , despite saying you are actually buying the said item.

So for for all of thos infected buy Applespeak , here is what it means:

Buy  (b)
v. bought (bôt), buy·ing, buys
v.tr.
1. To acquire in exchange for money or its equivalent; purchase. See Regional Note at boughten.
2. To be capable of purchasing: "Certainly there are lots of things in life that money won't buy" (Ogden Nash).
3. To acquire by sacrifice, exchange, or trade: wanted to buy love with gifts.
4. To bribe: tried to buy a judge.
5. Informal To accept the truth or feasibility of: The officer didn't buy my lame excuse for speeding.
v.intr.
To purchase something; act as a purchaser.
n.
1. Something bought or for sale; a purchase.
2. An act of purchasing: a drug buy.
3. Something that is underpriced; a bargain.
Phrasal Verbs:
buy into
1. To acquire a stake or interest in: bought into a risky real estate venture.
2. Informal To believe in, especially wholeheartedly or uncritically: couldn't buy into that brand of conservatism.
buy off
To bribe (an official, for example) in order to secure improper cooperation or gain exemption from a regulation or legal consequence.
buy out
To purchase the entire stock, business rights, or interests of.
buy up
To purchase all that is available of.

Right rant over , here's a song dedicated to Amazon and Apple:

Apple: License To Make You Ill!!

I think where we're under pressure we tend to want to hit out at something , though sometimes the pressure is not caused by anything you have any control over so the upport of peers and friends becomes important in helping you through. The thing is it makes to more susceptible to hit out out when things go wrong , though generally I don't do "under pressure" , I do "laid back" and that works for me . Calming down  is a great way to become really productive, but ......

Yesterday was talking to a friend who hadn't heard of Eddie Izzard when I mentioned his "Star Wars Death Star Canteen" sketch and his 43 Marathons in 51 days , and this little observation on iTunes came up , which spurred this post!!:



Anyway a few weeks back I got an Apple iPad and general it's fine . I subscribe to the Sunday Times which includes a subscriptions via the iPad Apllication , so I thought rather than going out to the shop I'd just get it on the iPad . No way - the copy is there but the download is greyed out . I can download free bits but this week it wont let me download the bit I've paid for , which I was going to do so Fiona could read it while I went to the shop to get my paper copy , along with some Lavazza or Taylor's of Harrogate Coffee , but No - I could download my PAID FOR Sunday Times copy , so had to make do with the paper copy.

The thing is , all apps are supposed to go therough rigourous testing and you have to pay Apple $100 to get your app on the Apps Store. I've given up complaining to Apple or anything to do with then because they will never admit there is a problem.

Despite the effective dropping of DRM for music Apple still include their own licensing information and this does fail at times but they wondt admit it . It happened to me and they gave me five song credits but never admitted that anything had gone  wrong.

And Eddie Izzard is right about the terms and conditions . They keep bringing out new versions of iTunes which also includes Quicktime , Bonjour (odd name for an American Product given they renamed French Fries Freedom Fries when the French would supply cannon fodder for The Iraq War) , and it's always a full 100 Mb download . Sometimes updates are days apart. Once around version 10 the download failed because the wrong version of Quicktime was bundled. But al ltheat happened that you were left with a dead version of iTunes.

Apple wouldnt admit there was a fault , they're as bad as football referees with their Teflon attitudes!

Apple products are fine , I just which they would hold their hands up now and then and admit they can't get it right every time.. Any here's the Death Star Canteen  sketch: