* Posts by Chris

31 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jan 2008

Streaming rates cut to lure back YouTube, Pandora

Chris

Units

Just a quick point - are people reading 0.085p to mean an eleventh(ish) of a penny? I've seen it reported in some (music!) press as 8.5 pence... (I guess stemming from the fact that at school we were told to write 50 pence as either £0.50 or 0.50p, never both).

The Great Spotify Mystery

Chris

Another worthless opinion...

For what it's worth, I'm 23 and pay for Spotify. It does happen.

It's interesting what the supposed typical usage is - virtually everyone I know uses it for Collaborate Playlists (a genius idea in it's simplicity and simplicity of implementation) to discover new music.

I have more CDs on my shopping list now (although I accept I may be in the minority for preferring to hold the booklet and read the credits whilst listening). Like many others, my moral compass allows me download an illegal torrent for 3 plays before I feel compelled to delete or buy). *If the label can get paid at the same time then that's even better.*

What was everyone expecting from Spotify? We knew the good times couldn't last forever - of course targeted marketing was on the cards (I think a surprising number of listeners would welcome the convenience of getting merch pushed to them). Is it that hard to support them?

Bump up the ads on the free version slowly (I remember them being incredible sparse), and people will be hooked (especially if they've spent time building up their playlist).

IMHO, Spotify's biggest problem at the moment is only accepting Mastercard/Visa - not even debit cards, let alone Paypal. How are they expecting people to give them cash?

Obama pledges 3% of GDP for science

Chris
Thumb Up

As long as flying cars are on the agenda...

I'd be happy.

Guns N' Roses blogger faces music prison

Chris

@ Mark WIlls

Finally - thank you! I was beginning to wonder if I'm the only sane one around here...

"So all pre-release songs played by the BBC on all radio stations are now illegal."

Do you think that the BBC;

a) Trawl through the piratebay.org

b) Are sent legal promos by record companies?

Windows 7 beta washes up on Pirate Bay

Chris

Punctuation

Why "illegal" in inverted commas?

Yours "sincerely",

Chris

Downing Street rejects 'Clarkson for PM' petition

Chris

Good on them

If they had put out a written statement, everyone would be complaining about our dry, 'out of touch' government. I suppose this will be interpreted as 'frivolous' and the usual suspects will be up in arms at the 'waste of taxpayers money'.

Boris boots Transys off Oyster contract

Chris

@AC Friday 17:07 - "So why on earth should anyone use it ?"

Because we're not all rich enough to be jetted around in private helicopters or chauffeur driven limos.

Chris

I guess you don't have an Oyster card or travel in London much, Natalie.

I guess you don't have an Oyster card or travel in London much, Natalie.

Suprise at spelling snafu sanctions

Chris

That says a lot about...

...Buckinghamshire New University, really.

</British-snobbery>

Exploit code targets Mac OS X, iTunes, Java, Winzip...

Chris

OpenOffice updater?

OO has an updater? I thought you had to download the whole 150Mb(?) thing every time a new version came out?

Steve Fossett may be alive, investigator claims

Chris

Canoe with wings

"We found six other planes while we were looking for him. We're pretty good at what we do."

As I'm sure people said a few months ago - clearly they're not, if they initially missed those other 6.

Free for all on London Underground

Chris

@refunds By Anonymous Coward

"OK, so it's quite evident that the Oyster system can do automatic refunds. Why do they leave it to us then to go on-line and claim refunds when trains run late? Couldn't the system detect late-running trains and then refund us automatically?

Oh, wait, no, it would bankrupt them."

If I go from A>B>C, and the B>C train is delayed, how does the system know I'm even at B? I might have gone A>D>C...

Also, what's to stop me going 20 mins early when I know the trains are delayed, reading a paper on the platform and getting a free ride? Absolutely useless suggestion, AC.

419ers crank up the menaces

Chris

I got one a few weeks ago

I kept it, because it was just too good.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Timothy Killer" <Timothy2008@eor.hmdnsgroup.com>

To: me

Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 2:08 PM

Subject: BE VERY CAREFUL Christopher

>I am very sorry for you Christopher, is a pity that this is how your life is

> going to end as soon as you don't comply. As you can see there is no need

> of introducing myself to you because I don't have any business with you,

> my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL you and I have to do it

> as I have already been paid for that.

>

> WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELLING ANYONE

> BECAUSE I WILL KNOW.

>

> GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR CALL AT 585-991-3301 OR 585-237-3346.

They're New York numbers - an interesting twist.

eBay UK pimps users' privacy for targeted ads

Chris

Agreed with Eponymous Cowherd

eBay can do what they like with my eBay data. Amazon have been customising their ads towards me for years.

Phorm goes outside that domain, which is the difference.

El Reg nails Street View spycars to Google Maps

Chris

Thanks for sharing your other maps too

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=103601503239287784075.00044865d6cfbccb02889

np

BT opens wallet to send fibre to the home

Chris

Surely the big question is...

Will 802.11n finally be approved by then? It's all very well having a 100Mb/s line, but if your router only goes at 54Mb/s... (yes, I know these are theoretical maximums, but still!)

Seagate first with 1.5TB hard drives

Chris

Seriously...why?

Surely anyone with this volume of data is going to be using redundant systems? I'd be scared to put any more than 500Gb on anything not RAID...

Dell buys into Dell for $100m

Chris

Dell-bashing

I'm probably out of the loop, but why are Dell so bad? I bought a home computer from them a few weeks ago (from the business Vostro line, as it suited me better), and I'm happy with it. Yes, I could probably have spent a few weeks researching and putting together something cheaper, but for 'out of the box' they seem to have some good offerings.

I called their Poweredge support the other day also, and I felt they were pretty good - not too much waiting at all to get through to someone knowledgeable.

Eh?

Daily Mail cites video game as proof of terrorist doomsday plot

Chris

Read by the masses too

I'm fairly sure I saw this in London (Daily Mail) Lite on Friday too. I'm not quite sure which is worse of the freesheets - Daily Mail Lite, or themurdochpaper...

Apple to launch UK movie downloads

Chris

Surely the bigger pricing issue for me is...

that it's going to be the same as a DVD.

DVD = subtitles. Download = no subtitles.

DVD = bonus features. Download = no bonus features.

DVD = physical product and burns. Download = no physical product, and probably very limited burns.

So if download is clearly an 'inferior' product, why the same price?

Want a 1TB optical drive? Call/Recall me

Chris

On a slight tangent...

"still on CD-sized 120mm platters"

Is it just me who thinks it's bizarre that so many new formats have to look like CDs? Why?! Surely there's just more opportunity to put the wrong disc in the wrong player; which will just annoy the customer ("Oh, but I thought it would fit?" - if it's a different size/shape, they will know they need new hardware)

The music biz's digital flops - a short history

Chris

This is terrifying

"I don't get royalties from most of the code I write, but I still write it. There are other ways for music to work. Elvis could have become an employee of EMI, just as you may be an employee of IBM. He then gets a salary for live performances, product endorsements etc."

A world where artists live on product endorsements (Radiohead advertising Cillit Bang perhaps?) and are *owned* by a record company is so incredibly backwards that it beggars belief. We're always told the internet gives opportunities for artists to become individual, to do it themselves, to cut out the middleman. Your proposal really doesn't sound attractive to anyone other than 'the man' if you ask me.

Quite frankly, I don't think there is a 'way around'. If artists are told they can't make money from a music recording, then the crusts around the edge are not going to make up for it, which means sad times for *musicians* (as an audio artform anyway; the dancing monkey endorsing performers who look pretty stand a much better chance in "the new model")

Boris Johnson bans boozing on London transport

Chris

liberterian

"(note: actually, I don't agree with the policy as I am a liberterian (look it up if you don't know what it is) "

Of course we know what the word for someone who tidies up books is.

Windows Vista update 'kills' USB devices

Chris
Gates Halo

I'm not sure what you mean by 'automatic version'...

"However, the automatic version of the download remains missing in action. Redmond had chalked mid-April as the date when SP1 would start downloading onto computers across the world."

... but Vista asked me if I wanted to install SP1 earlier this week? It was 69Mb if that sounds about right...

Japanese geeks offered smaller-than-Eee little laptop

Chris

'Sexy? There's nothing wrong with being sexy!'

We all know that the only vital stat involved in SCC is the accompanying lady. Until we have a suitable pic, this will be dismissed.

Although I must say, I really like the look of this.

Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich?

Chris

@"Stop sayings it like stealing stuff!! "

I always think of it as a recursive thing. If it's fine to take music for free, who pays for it? Noone. How does it continue? I just don't get it.

@ "Websites that bring that music to listeners are doing artists a favour. In fact, they’re doing them a favour that they should (and will) be paid for."

What are those websites without music? Nothing. What is music without those websites? Well, music's been around for a few years now...

BBC races away with five-year F1 rights deal

Chris

Er, ignore that last post

I can read, honest. Finally some sport on iPlayer - nice.

Chris

Probably too early to tell...

But does the deal cover internet rights too?

Spammers crack Gmail Captcha

Chris

Hats off to them...

I had to fill in a GMail CAPTCHA today - it took me two goes and a lot of squinting to read it myself. And I think I'm human...

Security boffins unveil BitUnlocker

Chris

Idiot-proof encryption?

A bit OT, so apologies....

I'm probably very low-tech compared to other readers of El Reg, but can anyone recommend anything good for encrypting a backup on an external USB drive? (People seem to be slating BitLocker, so anything that will work on non-Vista Windows?)

People may have scorned the backup device a few weeks ago which didn't do partitions, but it was aimed at the other 99% of computer users. A 'normal person friendly' encryption solution, which doesn't talk about algorithms or bit lengths, really would encourage people to encrypt things. These things start at home, and I'd hope that if people working the public sector found encryption at home, they'd probably implement it at work too. Which would be nice when things inevitably go wrong.

So is there anything Windows-based which is idiot proof and 'just works' out of the box?

Spammers dive into Google's lucky dip

Chris
Thumb Up

I use "I'm Feeling Lucky"....

It gives me a warm feeling that I'm using Google's service, but without looking at any of their ads (where did I read recently that it was estimated they lose tens of millions $/year in potentials ads?).

It's mostly for Gmail - my home page is Google so I type those 5 characters, tab twice, enter and it takes me there. It's just the habit I've got into; I'm sure I'll get 101 suggestions of how a Firefox extension could do it better.