11 Friday Aug 2006
Posted in Technology
Having blogged previously about how annoying The Producers DVD was for people who want to keep their media in a digital library I’ve just found another DVD; this time its Capote. Grrrrr – you have been warned.
10 Thursday Aug 2006
Posted in Technology
With all fuss a few months ago about releasing search results to the US Federal Government and privacy, AOL have managed to go one step further and release three months of search data onto the net. It turns out that the information being held contravenes both US legislation as well as the their own privacy policy.
The EFF have suggested that some organisations are treating such personal information with very casual regard. Although it may seem fairly minor, as the EFF have pointed out the impact could be personally very harmful – for example if you’ve been using your AOL account to research a serious illness that you’ve been diagnosed with and its information that you don’t want people to know about.
I have doubts about how hard AOL will be treated by federal organisations on this breach, so it may fall to a well presented class action from AOL users (or former users) to make it clear that personal data should be treated with the utmost respect and security.
Having looked at the AOL site to see what they say about the situation – AOL UK at least make no reference to what has happened in their news pages – but still carry news about Id theft in the UK.
08 Tuesday Aug 2006
Posted in Music, Technology
Last Friday () saw French legislation requiring music download stores to provide interoperability unless the artists affected approve the absence of interoperability. French legislature has fudged the law giving Apple (and others) this opt out. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Danish and Scandinavian countries are also addressing the same issue I’d say that Apple will have it easy. As by far the largest download service Apple wouldn’t be difficult to pressure artists into the sign off so meaning that Apple have a small administrative overhead. But maybe the risk of losing several more countries in the EU might force Apple to being do more than just a paper exercise.
At the other end of the spectrum, a coalition of the major record companies have started proceedings against another P2P network – this time Limewire. Given that Kazaa has finally completed its roll over with $100M payout, I can not see Limewire holding out very long.
Interestingly, I wonder how much of the $100M that Kazaa have coughed up will find its way into the pockets of artists – given that the money is payment for lost revenue, which means artists royalties? Not to mention how the money will be divided amongst the artists, if that actually happens.
07 Monday Aug 2006
Posted in Music
I came across two sites that together probably make the ultimate in REM RoIOs (aka Bootlegs). REM like Radiohead and a few other artists seem happy to have their live performances bootlegged – and you can see and hear that by the quality of some of the bootlegs. Anway I came across … We Talk – Torrents … as a great source of audio and video combined with … REM Cover Studios … for great artwork for your bootleg cds.
Link: http://www.murmurs.com/talk/forumdisplay.php?f=162%20
http://www.remcoverstudio.com/
02 Wednesday Aug 2006
Posted in Music
A Book about The Beatles’ Revolver album has been published freely to the net under the Creative Commons license. I’ve only scanned through the book so far – but looks well researched. The idea of writing a book about an individual album is far from new, Continuum Publishing have been publishing books under the 33 1/3 series for some time and have been commented by quality music blogs like LargeHeartedBoy.
But to release this one to the net freely is a brave move; if only because if the author Ray Newman has got anything wrong then he may face the wraith of Apple Inc, who doesn’t seem to be too gentle with those who raise its ire.
But given the importance of the The Beatles’ Revolver album I’d recommend checking it out.
The book site http://www.revolverbook.co.uk/
02 Wednesday Aug 2006
Posted in Music
I’ve been trying to catch up with some of my non techie reading of late. which means I’ve finally got around to read Margrave of the Marshes. This started out as John Peel’s autobiography but sadly died before he got anyway near completing it, so John’s second wife of 30+ years famously known as Pig and their four children took on the challenge of completing it.
The result is a fabulous read full fascinating and entertaining anecdotes. Although there is a definite cut between where John got to and where Sheila and the children picked up the book manages to convey a lot about John as a person rather than necessarily every little detail. Fortunately it appears that John long kept a personal diary in which he wrote some of his very personal feelings which appears to have helped provide balance in describing things from John’s perspective.
The book is only very roughly chronological. John’s writing would pick up on themes and jump around in time describing related things before eventually returning to chronological events. One of my favourite anecdotes, which maybe influenced by the fact that my wife is currently pregnant with our first child was when Sheila wrote about when the children went off to University. Many parents I’m sure send their children at university ‘care packages’ that probably contained things they feel their children need or should have. John naturally did the same thing, except the care packages contained CDs which would be labelled as what he thought the child would like, should like and should play just to annoy everyone else.
If you want a book that more describes John’s background and how he came to become the national (possibly even international institution), then you’re better off reading Mick Wall’s John Peel. But if you want to get some insight into the man’s life and passions – then this is the book for you.
01 Tuesday Aug 2006
Posted in General, Technology
As the internet is in the eyes of the legal world is a new thing (relatively speaking, although even for the non-techie people it is rapidly becoming part of normal life and taken for granted), the legal position of actions; particularly those that cross traditional frontiers are having legal presidents established and laws past. It can make things a little bit of a minefield for people; even for people who just browse – by visiting certain sites (even accidentally) could end up having you labelled as a potential terroist; what if I have a blog and express my opinions about a company which they don’t like? Is downloading from AllOfMP3.com legal or not (AllOfMP3 claim to be paying royalties in the US)? Why is that cd-wow has had to setup UK operations to sell into the UK, but BangCD does not?
To understand the legal implications of these things several organisations and associated websites have come about. Perhaps the most famous of these is the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). Although the EFF provides some guidelines and battle to protect electronic rights, it is at the end of the day an american organisation and therefore looking at American law. for those of us in the UK, we’re probably best looking to Internet Rights organisation http://www.internetrights.org.uk/.
These organisations certainly make it easier to understand how the law effects us web users than trying to follow the establishement of legal presidents, not to mention trying to read papers as they’re read and pass into law.
31 Monday Jul 2006
I’ve been a bit slower with blog posts over the last few days. That’s because the dance company my wife performs with had their annual summer show the weekend just gone. The culmination of months of hard work by the dancers and crew.
Although my view is a touch biased. The Basingstoke Tapper’s shows look very professional (no small achievement for a community organisation); but then that is in part a reflection of the background of Tracey Kinchenton who runs the company and her husband John Deemer who handles the music side of things. Both Tracey & John have and continue to work in the entertainment business professionally.
My involvement is very much behind the scenes, acting as stage manager for the last couple of years. So it falls to me to learn the show and then on the show nights ensure that everything is where it should be and keep the rest of the crew informed of what is going and reminding them of their cues and any sudden other tasks that may need to be dealt with.
Then after the final night – there is the get out, which means helping breaking down all the staging, props, lighting which typically takes the full until 2 and 3 in the morning.
It may not sound very hard but the job is pretty physical before and after the shows. Then during the show it is noisy, hot and very stressful. You’ve got a headphone over one ear and a microphone attached to it (together know as a can) through which you’re trying to listen to questions and information being passed back and forth between the crew – over which the other microphones will be picking up the sound from the main auditorium. On top of that you’re stood a couple of feed from the stage monitors (speakers) for the entire duration of the show 2 or more hours of show. In the other ear you’re listening for the show director (Tracey Kinchenton) – just incase she needs to issue more requests or changes details of the show; plus listening out for the dancers as they prepare, enter and exit the stage beside you (and it can get very busy).
As this year the music was purely from backing tracks with live vocals rather than the usual live band or orchestra, you’re looking one way to watch the timers on the music sources so you know when things have got to end. You’re watching the stage to make sure that nothing is going wrong – straying props, children getting too close to the stage edge, pyrotechnics or lights. Not to mention keep track of all my cue notes.
To be honest – the largest sense of satisfaction comes from the release of pressure after the final night of the show. The feeling of relief is incredible once you’ve called for house lights to come up and you can ‘come off cans’ as they say and the show has run smoothly.
27 Thursday Jul 2006
Posted in Photography
This is 
blogging about Monster’s photos.
27 Thursday Jul 2006
Posted in Technology
In the last few days I’ve upgraded my MSN Messenger to the new MSN Live Messenger primarily as it finally offers the first step in the right direction by being able to communicate with Yahoo messenger users plus with the absorbing of the FolderShare technology that I used in the past until the service became a pay for only option.
The look & feel and how some of the previous instant messenger functions don’t appear to as well realised with the new MSN Messenger. For example the colours used to indicator when someone is on or off line aren’t as distinctly different, sa rather recognising someone’s status with a glance you have to look with a little more care – which in my opinion is a step backward.
With the new MSN Live push has been a further promotion of MSNSpaces, the Microsoft alternative to 
MySpace. I have been intrigued by the attraction of MySpace and MSNSpaces has had to people. To be honest, I struggle to see what they offer, beyond features that are already available on the net – bulletin boards exist; blogs do; and online photo albums as well. Having had a quick tinker with MySpace and now MSNSpaces (http://mp3monster.spaces.msn.com/). I can’t say that they offer these features in a manner that beat the best solutions (like WordPress and Flickr). So what is the attraction, simply that they’re all under one virtual roof? The fact that they have drawn a reasonable number of people there already?
If this is the attraction, then whoever integrates the best offerings combined with a good market reach stands an exceptional chance of seizing a very large slice of the market.
Why do I have an MSN Space? Well to be honest, because a friend was setting up a space and in replying to the friendship request Microsoft get you to create a your own address. Content wise it only exists to point people back to this website. I have the ability to work the best of breed solutions together like WordPress and Flickr.
What ever the outcome my current MSNSpace is here, but everything will remain with the website.
Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog 