Blank Canvas and Saltires

It's funny when you want to really do something but every time you try , it just doesn't work out. I'm working with a program called Artrage and am amazed how counter intuitive the software is. Basically I what to draw a picture , and it gets part of the way the screws up my picture. I'm having similar problems with Garageband. Have my first completed piece but it won't export to iTunes, I've just removed all the music and it still seems to hang.

 Having said that the pict, is getting better each time so, who knows it may turn out OK in the end.

The thing this calls to mind Robert The Bruce and the spider which  I thought was immortalised in a poem by Robert Burns . I must have been imagining it . So we'll just go for this Eddi Reader singing "Ae Fond Kiss" , and why not:

The Internet Is Not A Private Place

This is just in response to another site telling me , via an annoying pop up , that they're going to be collecting data about what I'm looking at to enhance my browsing experience. For that read you're going to be targetted with adverts related to things you have looked at, It's why Boots and Tesco and everyone else encourage you to take out loyalty cards , it's so they can target you with adverts and offers that you are more likely to respond to.

The internet is a public place so you shouldnt be shocked that technology is used to track what you are doing , usually in the name of making you part with your money, I have a website here but that is seeing less and less of peoples money, A big part of that was when Amazon effectively stopped paying for referrals by creating a set of rules disqualifying email links , and sales to people who were already customers. Build your infrastucture then stop paying for it , a brilliant strategy.

Also The Cloud is being used as a storage facility , while I'm OK with it as a back up , I'm not happy with it as a first point of storage. Amazon and iTunes offer cloud storage , with the right to delete anything they deem not "licensed" . So when you use these facilities you effectively lose control.

Did you know that when you catalog anything with iTunes it writes to that file!! It should never do that as it effectively corrups the item, but it tries to and tries about 1000 times befor giving up,

Basically I dont need to be told that I need to be aware I'm in public when on the internet. It's Caveat Emptor and I dont need to be continually asked or reminded. I can install ad or popup blockers and switch cookies off aand everyone who uses the internet can do the same.

Thought the Bowie song was appropriate.

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.

Bloat

I don't know about you , but it seems to me that a lot of software is written with the prime aim in mind of bringing you device to a halt. Anything that is to do with media , seems to want to grab all the system resources , fill your whole screen , try and sell you anything , while making it as difficult as possible to leave the applicattion.

Many years ago I used musicmatc which had a low footprint , was fast at ripping and burning and was perfect for managing my music. Then Yahoo bought it out and trashed it with malware making it unusable and forcing you to use their iTunes-a-like software , which didnt work either. I was then forced to use Winamp , which is the best of a bad bunch , a resource hungry annoying piece of software.

However even that pales in the face of the latest rubbish that iTunes have given to us. Just in case you didnt realise it was grabbing all your system resources , it fills your screen and thows all sorts of things at you that it thinks you may want. Then all the other bloatware it forces on you Bojour, Quicktime , iPod Helper (I don't have or want a f**king iPod as well as about 20 other programs that you have to unpick from your system. Oh and went you update you have a 43 page terms and conditions document , that no one can read or understand.

It seems to me that everyone thinks that Terms and Conditions need to emulate War and Peace. They dont , the need to be clkear and concise and should fit on a sheet of A4 in at least a 14pt font , with lots of white space so you can easily understand what you are taking on. I recently picked up a brochure from a mobile phone company and the Terms and Conditions took about 5 pages at the end of the catalogue in closely typed difficault to read font. I bet anyone over thirty would not be able to read it and anyone under thirty wouldnytt bother anyway.

Anyway I want a simple suite of small footprint software that does the job , not takes over your machine.

Rant over

Security

When I logged on to this account Google asked me again for my phone number. They already have my alternative email, they just want to know even more about me.

When I log into Facebook on my mobile they want to get all my contacts. I want control of my contacts. Facebook already have 400 of my contacts as friends on Facebook so why do they want more. Are they going to spam those that already aren't on there?

I feel secure in having things under my control. Its like storing stuff on the free Cloud space that Amazon and iTunes give you. You may have paid for the items but Amazon and iTunes have n qualms about wiping accounts on the flimsiest of pretexts.

Reminds me of the Sony debacle where their CD security software screwed up thousands of computers resulting in a multi million dollar settlement.

Im doing this using the Google Blogger software on my iPad so haven't got the hang of jumping around getting links. I may ad the later

Riddle Me This ...

A short follow on to last night's post. When I went on to Blinkbox to check the price of Soylent Green it was £2.49 to rent and £7,49 to download. This is a film that is forty years old and , yes , it's a decent film.

The problem with films is that unless they are very special you only tend to watch them once or twice. Music and books which also have their e-quivalents are similarly expensive when new but prices tend to drop after time. Novels are like film , but music does tend to be played and replayed, but film not so.

In my collection I have 400 DVDs , many of which havent come out of the box and some of which I have only watched from recording to my hard disc from Film4 or some other digital channel. So why are digital copies of old films so expensive given their nature. The DVD equivalant will be around £2.99 and for that you get a hard copy that , with the appropriate software , you can make a digital copy of.

iTunes has a similar pricing structure and on demand service will charge £3 to £4 for a rental , but they are usually newer films. 4OD gives you free on demand stuff (admittedly padded with unskippable adverts , but I don't mind that, they are giving me something I want) and the BBC iPlayer and other TV companies give similar service (although the BBC iPlayer has no adverts , it comes from the license fee).

If films were a couple of quid to download a copy I would happily buy them if I fancied them but I won't pay 7-10 pounds for something that I will only watch once. Youtube has it's own channel with a lot of free movies here such as the excellent Kung Fu Hustle . Also Blinkbox have advert supported free stuff and special offers , but the question remains , why ore downloadable DIVX movies so expensive? Bring the price down and you would see and explosion , like with MP3 and eBooks

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 ........

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.

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:

Do I Love You - Indeed I Do!

It's well known that this is THE most sought after seven inch single of all time. The following text is by Ian Levine I assume:

"The original version of this song is quite simply the most sought-after Motown and Northern Soul record of all time.The legendary Motown producer, Frank Wilson, made this solo record for Motown which was so rare, and so in demand, that someone paid fifteen thousand English pounds for a copy. He was a big help with the Motorcity project, in 1989 and 1990, and he and his wife Bunny always stay at my house every time they're visiting London. The Motown single "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" became so huge that everyone wanted to see Frank perform it. For years he refused, but finally he gave in and did so at Fleetwood in 2000, in front of two and a half thousand people, the one and only time he said he would ever do this. But previously to that, we had visited him at his Los Angeles home, and filmed him at the piano, so people got to see, on The Strange World Of Northern Soul DVD, this legendary song being performed for the first ever time."

Listen to see how good it is. It does amaze me that things like this can slip out of print while dross such as "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" by Dawn or "Save You Kisses" by Brotherhood of Man are omnipresent.

The reason for this post is the discovery of a song called "Satin and Heartaches" by Darryl Johnson. It was used in an advert for Always Panty Liners , but when I tried to track it down there's no sign on Amazon, iTunes GEMM or anywhere . All I can find is this ReverbNation page with 37 of his songs on  here. So is this a rarer more sought after song that the Frank Wilson waxing?

The Always advert!

Unearthed Treasure

Just listening to Ken Bruce on Radio 2 , and a record came on that I knew , and thought a friend of mine Carol would love. I'd heard the record before and the lyrics had a stylish familiarity. The song was London from the album "Don't Stop Singing" by Thea Gilmore . The album is a project in which Thea has taken unused Sandy Denny lyrics and set them to music creating a very beautiful album . Sandy was a wonderful singer and writer and it is amazing that her words can still captivate and amaze , brought to life by the wonderful Thea Gilmore.




On a similar note Woody Guthrie's niece or daughter (sorry about this) found a huge box of her father's / uncle's lyrics and gave them to Billy Bragg and Wilco who recorded the songs , now available in The Complete Mermaid Sessions , breathing life into writings that may otherwise have been lost to us. Both these albums should be in everyone's collections , two absolute gems which I have just ordered,





You can probably even get them on iTunes , Amazon have the hard copy and download options!!

Musical Boxed

While a great deal of music and now books are downloaded and in e-format , I still like to have something I can hold in my hand. Also by getting a physical item it's probable that you have paid for it and the artist will get their rightful royalties . One of the issues I have withillegal downloading is that children are brought up believing they don't have to pay for music.

Anyway I'm getting sidetracked . The display above has loads of recent , box sets of CDs which are available for  under twenty pounds , in some cases under ten , meaning that the individual CDs working out around £2 each and you have a beautiful package as well . Leonard Cohen and The Kinks have had decent retrospective reissues out recently , and not forgetting Chris Rea's superb Santo Spirito Blues  3 CDs and 2DVDs for £15 !! In the display above are loads of great value boxes that should keep you occupied for a long time

These are the sort of reasons why I will always by music that has a physical presence. I'm not against downloads , and infact downloads are a great way of getting music out  to people , like Amazon Free MP3 section and iTune's single of the week. Included a video of Emerson Lake & Palmer's Hoedown , just noticed it when searching for something else , a brilliant deconstruction / reconstruction of a classical piece , wish every ELP song was as good as this!!

How Many Silver Shiny Things?

This week I've bought one or two CDs , I am a fan of music and always looking for new albums and decent compilations. This is what I bought that I can remember (only spent £50-£60):

• Aerosmith - Pandora's Box - 4 CDs
• Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Complete Columbia Recordings - 6 CDs
• The Great Scottish Songbook - 5 CDs
• Steve Hackett - The Genesis Files - 2CDs
• Glasvegas - Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\ - 1 CD and 1 7" Orange single
• Syd Barret - Introduduction , Jim Jones Revue - Burning Down Your House, Black Angels - Phosp[hene Dream, Ellie Goulding , Lissie and a few others 10 CDs

 I know people with CD collection smaller than what I bought this week , but there's still more that I want. Some of the packages could not be done justice by iTunes and the like , so I'm still a huge fan of the format. And this is a precursor to National Record Shop Day coming up in two weeks time .

Listening to Ellie Goulding now , very good - much better than here "Your Song" interpretation.

The Ultimate "I Don't Give A Damn" Gift

Just been thinking and Apple iTunes vouchers must be the ultimate "I Don't Give A Damn or Care About You Gift". Think about it. The recipient can hand over your money for something taht doesnt physically exist , in a proprietary format , only available from iTunes and only playable on iPods because of the proprietary format. You may think that giving nothing is worse, but that could be because you've forgotten , or that's what your potential recipient may think. An iTunes Voucher shows you have thought about giving them the most limited form of gift on the market

Added to that , the youtube links have stopped working but I think that's just Firefox , unusual because the blog and youtube are part of Google , so you might not seeCharlie Brooker's iPad review!! Still if you must buy itunes vouchers follow the links dotted about the page and I'll happily pocket the rewards of your sheepish stupidity!!

How Free Is Free?

In today's Sunday Times was a voucher for 5 Live Blur songs from iTunes , a follow up to the free CD last week in the same newspaper. This is all well and good , but it turns out the songs are DRm'd and can't be converted from iTunes format , and hence can only be played on a PC if you install iTunes , and on an Apple Mobile device such as an iPhone or iPod.




In my opinion that's very restrictive . I do have iTunes (which is free , incidentally) , but would have to spend at least £50 on a portable device to play them (iShuffle) , which I'm not prepared to do. Given that Blur and their record label supply the music , probably paid for by The Sunday Times how come Apple can stick their oar in and dictate how you listen to the damned stuff. Anyway here's some Apple product if you like that kind of thing!!

Apple, The Devil and Bloatware

Supposedly The Devil tempted Adam and Eve with an Apple . Now Apple are trying the same withe rest of the human race with theie iProducts.

I recently downloaded iTunes Version 9.0 for the PC , 88 Mb big. What the hell is the reason for that. It plays music and video's and allows you to buy stuff from their store (it their proprietary format of course).

The irony being that physically in the iPod Nano and Shuffle you have some of the smallest music players possible , however you need the afformentioned bloatware to pre load the damned things. Apple arent the only culprits , though , almost anyone with a market presence seem to think that size will impress . NO!! Functionality impresses , though I can't see Microsoft and Apple and the rest going for efficiency while they can make money without providing an efficient product with a relatively small footprint. Meanwhile we can watch Apple's latest product in their (simulated) advertisement soundtracked by "She Got Me Dancing" by Tommy Sparks , available here :

Mugged By Apple

It's not out of choice but I have iTunes on my PC . A couple of weeks back I bought Rebel Get By by General Fiasco , and paid my 79p which is fine. However I looked at my list of purchased items and theres two tunes in there that I didnt know I'd bought. Because I'd left myself logged in on iTunes it had done the purchase when I copied the url of the song I wanted to listen.

So if you must have an iPod , and therefore iTunes, beware if you buy stuff off iTunes , log out when you're finished with it!