The birthday calculator.
Tuesday, 23 May 2006
Facts about your birthday
My birthday is on 26th Jan 1977, which makes me 4.19138943248532 dog years old, and on the day i was born, the moon was a "waxing crescent". Iam also 257,033 hours old, which over 1/4 of a million. Not good. Useless but entertaining:
The birthday calculator.
The birthday calculator.
Facts about your birthday
My birthday is on 26th Jan 1977, which makes me 4.19138943248532 dog years old, and on the day i was born, the moon was a "waxing crescent". Iam also 257,033 hours old, which over 1/4 of a million. Not good. Useless but entertaining:
The birthday calculator.
The birthday calculator.
Wednesday, 17 May 2006
ITunes, Ipod and Apple
How hard is it to get a standalone version of Quicktime? Quicktime is a program that is completely unrelated to digital music, yet Apple now package it with ITunes , and there doesn't seem to be a legitimate way to get around the 35 MB download of Quicktime with ITunes piggybacked onto it. Or should I say, ITunes with a "free bonus" of Qucktime?
Aftr installing it, I'd expect to see a checkbox that says "Install ITunes" that you can uncheck.. no chance. Apple now make you install the whole lot, and only when it is done can you finally go into Control Panel, Add/Remove, and get rid of their bloatware ITunes.
It feels like software is being shoved down my throat, why can't the consumer be treated like a real human being, and given a choice? Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but record companies are simply using the service to force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium. iTunes AAC files don't sound as good as CDs. AAC is basically a "lossy" compression format in comparision the higher bitrate, higher quality MP3's. So does WMA for that matter.
Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels." That's not true either, after a quick google, it turns out Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale and Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract.
You couldn't pay me any amount of money to use ITunes and pay Apple money for this DRM-infested corporate greedware masquerading as a music service.
Update: I have just now (about 2 hrs later) found a link to the Apple "Without ITunes Quicktime." It's still 21 megabytes full of crap. Even Windows Media Player is only about 10 MB or so.
Aftr installing it, I'd expect to see a checkbox that says "Install ITunes" that you can uncheck.. no chance. Apple now make you install the whole lot, and only when it is done can you finally go into Control Panel, Add/Remove, and get rid of their bloatware ITunes.
It feels like software is being shoved down my throat, why can't the consumer be treated like a real human being, and given a choice? Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but record companies are simply using the service to force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium. iTunes AAC files don't sound as good as CDs. AAC is basically a "lossy" compression format in comparision the higher bitrate, higher quality MP3's. So does WMA for that matter.
Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels." That's not true either, after a quick google, it turns out Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale and Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract.
You couldn't pay me any amount of money to use ITunes and pay Apple money for this DRM-infested corporate greedware masquerading as a music service.
Update: I have just now (about 2 hrs later) found a link to the Apple "Without ITunes Quicktime." It's still 21 megabytes full of crap. Even Windows Media Player is only about 10 MB or so.
ITunes, Ipod and Apple
How hard is it to get a standalone version of Quicktime? Quicktime is a program that is completely unrelated to digital music, yet Apple now package it with ITunes , and there doesn't seem to be a legitimate way to get around the 35 MB download of Quicktime with ITunes piggybacked onto it. Or should I say, ITunes with a "free bonus" of Qucktime?
Aftr installing it, I'd expect to see a checkbox that says "Install ITunes" that you can uncheck.. no chance. Apple now make you install the whole lot, and only when it is done can you finally go into Control Panel, Add/Remove, and get rid of their bloatware ITunes.
It feels like software is being shoved down my throat, why can't the consumer be treated like a real human being, and given a choice? Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but record companies are simply using the service to force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium. iTunes AAC files don't sound as good as CDs. AAC is basically a "lossy" compression format in comparision the higher bitrate, higher quality MP3's. So does WMA for that matter.
Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels." That's not true either, after a quick google, it turns out Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale and Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract.
You couldn't pay me any amount of money to use ITunes and pay Apple money for this DRM-infested corporate greedware masquerading as a music service.
Update: I have just now (about 2 hrs later) found a link to the Apple "Without ITunes Quicktime." It's still 21 megabytes full of crap. Even Windows Media Player is only about 10 MB or so.
Aftr installing it, I'd expect to see a checkbox that says "Install ITunes" that you can uncheck.. no chance. Apple now make you install the whole lot, and only when it is done can you finally go into Control Panel, Add/Remove, and get rid of their bloatware ITunes.
It feels like software is being shoved down my throat, why can't the consumer be treated like a real human being, and given a choice? Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but record companies are simply using the service to force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium. iTunes AAC files don't sound as good as CDs. AAC is basically a "lossy" compression format in comparision the higher bitrate, higher quality MP3's. So does WMA for that matter.
Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels." That's not true either, after a quick google, it turns out Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale and Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract.
You couldn't pay me any amount of money to use ITunes and pay Apple money for this DRM-infested corporate greedware masquerading as a music service.
Update: I have just now (about 2 hrs later) found a link to the Apple "Without ITunes Quicktime." It's still 21 megabytes full of crap. Even Windows Media Player is only about 10 MB or so.
Tuesday, 16 May 2006
Sunday, 7 May 2006
Dog Racing
At Wentworth Park, Pyrmont. Despite losing $30, it was a fun night out, and some pics can be found here.
Dog Racing
At Wentworth Park, Pyrmont. Despite losing $30, it was a fun night out, and some pics can be found here.
Tuesday, 2 May 2006
Pop Art II
Well, here's one i've done of Ingunn. Getting the hang of Macromedia Fireworks now, but still takes awhile - especially with all that bloody long hair.
Pop Art II
Well, here's one i've done of Ingunn. Getting the hang of Macromedia Fireworks now, but still takes awhile - especially with all that bloody long hair.
Sunday, 30 April 2006
InDiggNation
I like Digg. The whole concept makes a lot of sense - let the popularity of a submitted news item determine it's rank on the news site. I've put stuff in there and its gotten Digged.
Or should that be, It got Dugg? Anyway, I can Digg it. The site itself has a lot of good features (some of the comments on items are hilarious) but it also represents its own "UnDigging" if you will.
The problem is, there are alot of junk that really isn't newsworthy at all. Here's an example (very recent):
There's also some Digg Fraud going on where people get together and Digg something up to the top in order to encourage traffic which can result in DiggF*cking - the process of creating so much traffic to a site that it is brought down. Gettting traffic to your site is good, but it's not good when a whole week's worth of it is concentrated into a single 20 minute blast filled with mostly curiosity - seekers!
There is good stuff on there - but you still have to filter it out. I like the DiggSpy page too - very good example of how an asynchronous webpart can be beneficial rather than just frills.
Or should that be, It got Dugg? Anyway, I can Digg it. The site itself has a lot of good features (some of the comments on items are hilarious) but it also represents its own "UnDigging" if you will.
The problem is, there are alot of junk that really isn't newsworthy at all. Here's an example (very recent):
- GOOGLE EARTH + USB FLASH + GPS = SPY GADGET
- Artist's family asks Google to take down Thursday's `painted' logo
- 5 Truths About Code Optimization
- Boot Faster with Parallel Starting Services
All of the above are really mediocre, mostly uninformative, but they still made it to the front page of Digg. I tell you, this is just not diggnified.
There's also some Digg Fraud going on where people get together and Digg something up to the top in order to encourage traffic which can result in DiggF*cking - the process of creating so much traffic to a site that it is brought down. Gettting traffic to your site is good, but it's not good when a whole week's worth of it is concentrated into a single 20 minute blast filled with mostly curiosity - seekers!
There is good stuff on there - but you still have to filter it out. I like the DiggSpy page too - very good example of how an asynchronous webpart can be beneficial rather than just frills.
InDiggNation
I like Digg. The whole concept makes a lot of sense - let the popularity of a submitted news item determine it's rank on the news site. I've put stuff in there and its gotten Digged.
Or should that be, It got Dugg? Anyway, I can Digg it. The site itself has a lot of good features (some of the comments on items are hilarious) but it also represents its own "UnDigging" if you will.
The problem is, there are alot of junk that really isn't newsworthy at all. Here's an example (very recent):
There's also some Digg Fraud going on where people get together and Digg something up to the top in order to encourage traffic which can result in DiggF*cking - the process of creating so much traffic to a site that it is brought down. Gettting traffic to your site is good, but it's not good when a whole week's worth of it is concentrated into a single 20 minute blast filled with mostly curiosity - seekers!
There is good stuff on there - but you still have to filter it out. I like the DiggSpy page too - very good example of how an asynchronous webpart can be beneficial rather than just frills.
Or should that be, It got Dugg? Anyway, I can Digg it. The site itself has a lot of good features (some of the comments on items are hilarious) but it also represents its own "UnDigging" if you will.
The problem is, there are alot of junk that really isn't newsworthy at all. Here's an example (very recent):
- GOOGLE EARTH + USB FLASH + GPS = SPY GADGET
- Artist's family asks Google to take down Thursday's `painted' logo
- 5 Truths About Code Optimization
- Boot Faster with Parallel Starting Services
All of the above are really mediocre, mostly uninformative, but they still made it to the front page of Digg. I tell you, this is just not diggnified.
There's also some Digg Fraud going on where people get together and Digg something up to the top in order to encourage traffic which can result in DiggF*cking - the process of creating so much traffic to a site that it is brought down. Gettting traffic to your site is good, but it's not good when a whole week's worth of it is concentrated into a single 20 minute blast filled with mostly curiosity - seekers!
There is good stuff on there - but you still have to filter it out. I like the DiggSpy page too - very good example of how an asynchronous webpart can be beneficial rather than just frills.
Saturday, 22 April 2006
News from the world of search
Some new developments from Google and Yahoo were announced recently. And also some third-party goodies.
First, there are some new tools for Google Calendar. The calendar data API was released, enabling developers to build scheduling applications with Google Calendar running on the back end. The API uses the standard GData protocol for submitting queries. There's also a companion Java client library.
For the Windows users among us, some bloke called Lifehacker has this tidbit about the application getCals that syncs all of your calendars to your iPod using Google Calendar. Very cleaver.
The latest new search product to emerge from beta is Yahoo's FareChase. The service works by searching multiple travel brokers to help you comparison shop for airfare. I don't think it is the first app to do this, but FareChase does have some pretty slick features. I searched every available site in the system for tickets from Sydney to Paris and saw my search results list fill up one entry at a time thanks to a little bit of Ajax.
There's also a cool live progress bar that you can see in the screenshot below. So, when the search was completed, that space taken up by the progress bar was replaced by some sponsored links. The tables even have rounded corners!
Not surprisingly, FareChase also offers complete integration with Yahoo's mapping service, making it easier to find a hotel that's within walking distance of your favorite bars and record stores. Oui?
News from the world of search
Some new developments from Google and Yahoo were announced recently. And also some third-party goodies.
First, there are some new tools for Google Calendar. The calendar data API was released, enabling developers to build scheduling applications with Google Calendar running on the back end. The API uses the standard GData protocol for submitting queries. There's also a companion Java client library.
For the Windows users among us, some bloke called Lifehacker has this tidbit about the application getCals that syncs all of your calendars to your iPod using Google Calendar. Very cleaver.
The latest new search product to emerge from beta is Yahoo's FareChase. The service works by searching multiple travel brokers to help you comparison shop for airfare. I don't think it is the first app to do this, but FareChase does have some pretty slick features. I searched every available site in the system for tickets from Sydney to Paris and saw my search results list fill up one entry at a time thanks to a little bit of Ajax.
There's also a cool live progress bar that you can see in the screenshot below. So, when the search was completed, that space taken up by the progress bar was replaced by some sponsored links. The tables even have rounded corners!
Not surprisingly, FareChase also offers complete integration with Yahoo's mapping service, making it easier to find a hotel that's within walking distance of your favorite bars and record stores. Oui?
Friday, 21 April 2006
Lock Picking/Bumping
Still annoyed at the $220 bill I had to pay to have a guy open our front door (having locked our keys inside) and was wondering how hard it is to actually pick locks...
So, via metafilter, have been checking out the demonstration (97 min, Windows Media format) of this incredible lockpicking technique by the TOOOL association. It explains the principle behind the technique and shows how to make your own tools (filing a key into a bumpkey).
What's impressive about this technique is that it apparently requires very little training, works with a large majority of pin tumbler locks and doesn't leave any trace.
In addition, the tools (a bumpkey that fits the target lock and a flexible hammer) are simple, discreet and easy to make (bumpkeys seem surprisingly tolerant to fabrication flaws).
Also worth checking out, a howto video for making your own (traditional) lockpick set.
Lock Picking/Bumping
Still annoyed at the $220 bill I had to pay to have a guy open our front door (having locked our keys inside) and was wondering how hard it is to actually pick locks...
So, via metafilter, have been checking out the demonstration (97 min, Windows Media format) of this incredible lockpicking technique by the TOOOL association. It explains the principle behind the technique and shows how to make your own tools (filing a key into a bumpkey).
What's impressive about this technique is that it apparently requires very little training, works with a large majority of pin tumbler locks and doesn't leave any trace.
In addition, the tools (a bumpkey that fits the target lock and a flexible hammer) are simple, discreet and easy to make (bumpkeys seem surprisingly tolerant to fabrication flaws).
Also worth checking out, a howto video for making your own (traditional) lockpick set.
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Easter at the Hawkesbury River
A very chilled out 4 days spent fishing, eating (thanks Carla & Kieran), drinking and swimming in the river.
Interested in stalking? - how about buying a pair of night vision goggles.
Easter at the Hawkesbury River
A very chilled out 4 days spent fishing, eating (thanks Carla & Kieran), drinking and swimming in the river.
Interested in stalking? - how about buying a pair of night vision goggles.
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