Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Retailers push the MP3 format with new logo

I would prefer a logo that promotes DRM-free regardless of format. I personally prefer AAC, but I think it is retailers that don't understand different formats; I downloaded and AAC file from 7digital and it turned out to be wrongly encoded as a MP4 video file.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Why does Phorm concern you?

Trust is always a concern, but a key issue for me is control. With Phorm I feel I have no control. An example of good control is Amazon's recommendations, if I buy a book for someone else I can tell Amazon not to use it for making recommendations, I have control. With Google, I agree to their adverts and find them unobtrusive and helpful, but I can not use Google as and when I choose.

My analogy of Phorm would be if my water company examined my sewage to see what foods I had eaten, and then added 'flavours' to my drinking water to tempt me to buy new food and drink.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Telegraph: Mixed evidence for black sprinters' monopoly

It is even easier to dismiss when you realise that Olympic champions, whether it be Steve Redgrave or Carl Lewis, are 'freaks', outside the norm. So drawing conclusions from the edges might be hard to apply to the flat-footed kid sitting next to you.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Guardian: When Google owns you

Yet more FUD.

Storing electronic data offline could also mean it is lost at any moment, through fire, theft or accident.
Don't right tabloid headline stuff unless you real numbers that back this up.
How many times do people lose all their information from their own computer, compared to how many lose it online? Before computers how many lost all their paper work?

Jack Schofield;"Beware the Internet bogey man!"

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Guardian: AOL says it will 'sunset' Xdrive

You're serving up a degree of FUD.

Any company that has a dependence on a single supplier, or supplies to a single source is at risk from the other company going bust or pulling the plug on their key product. This risk is as old as the hills, and is not new to cloud computing. It is fair to say the cloud computing is immature, but there was a time when relying on a single computer was common place, but now it is normal to deliver a service from several computers across a network.

XDrive itself was primarily a consumer service, and it was unlikely many companies had it at the centre of their business.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

This time, the joke's on Apple

Whilst the video is funny, mostly at the Mac's expense, the funniest part is that some people think that there is a real comparison between these two machines, they are completely different in their purpose.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Film of the year 2007

I didn't get to see so many films this year, and I can't remember all that I did see, but I do remember these:
Hot Fuzz
Bobby
Apocalypto
The Last King Of Scotland
300
Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix
Sunshine
Die Hard 4.0
Hairspray
Run Fat Boy, Run


Of these Hot Fuzz was the funniest, and worth re-watching. Bobby did a superb job of recapturing the excitement and shock of the time. However, my film of the year is The Last King Of Scotland, simply because it has one of the best acting performances I have seen. Forrest Whitaker is truly terrifying as Idi Amin, whilst still showing how captivating he could be, his terror was so convincing that I was scared for the camera crew filming it.