Author: Gordon

Long time blogger, Father of Jack, geek of many things, random photographer and writer of nonsense. Doing my best to find a balance.

bookmark_borderSony misses the point

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Via Light from an Empty Fridge (initially) comes the announcement: Sony unveils online music service.

He points out the kinda obvious flaw in their press release, namely that the service will sell files in a proprietory format – ATRAC3 – which is only usable in Sony ‘devices’.

Now I, sorry Louise, has an iPod. I love it. So does she when she gets a chance to use it. It’s provided party music, background music, commuter music, and sunbathing music so far.

But I’m not tied to it. If another “better” (quantify that!) player comes along I’ll happily switch. On one condition (one of my quantifiers): it MUST support the file format I choose to work with.

Before iPod came along I was already ripping tracks to MP3 thanks to the joy that was Winamp (and still is if you ignore the version 3 debacle). I know it’s not the best format, Ogg Vorbis offers better compression for example, but I already have a large legacy of files that I use and will continue to want to use. So, ultimately, Sony can take their new “music service” and shove it in their patented “Memory Stick” slot!

bookmark_borderUnclean!

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I’m getting slightly hooked on Breedster, so much so that the email I received today has left me feeling decidely queasy:

A pathogenic agent was found in your food.
The pathogen lives in your digestive tract and affects your metabolism:
every hour 10% of the food is digested but it will increase your energy level by just 5%.

Your excrement will be contaminated.

Ick.

How absurd.

(Even more absurd is that I had to check the spelling of “absurd”. You know that way when I word just doesn’t LOOK right, even though part of your brain is telling you it is correct… very.. absurd.)

bookmark_borderMetro-tastic

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This morning’s delayed train allowed me the luxury of reading the entire paper (Metro). As a source of ‘snippet’ information it is wonderful. None of the articles are particularly in-depth allowing the reader access to the facts and for your own opinions to be formed. I’m not for a minute suggesting that the Metro is flawless, as is evident by the fact that it is fairly obvious the bulk of the articles are… let’s say “repurposed” (seriously, say it, what a dull word. Probably something to do with the aural pattern you use to when saying it, in fact I was reading an article about that kind of thing last week, ver interesting… will try and dig it out). However as a paper based ‘newsfeed’ it certainly does the job. Metro is the Kinja of the print world.

It covers current news topics, quirky tech and scientific stories, general “human interest” quirky stories, sport, celebrity interviews, and the inane ramblings of the masses (also known as the letters page). It has wonderful quotes like this one in today’s paper from a story about Madonna’s legal battle to limit public access to the grounds of her 1,200 acre property:

“There is no exception to prevent public access to land owned by those who, perhaps through their talent, become famous”

Brilliant.

I love the Metro. I just wish it’s website was a little bit… better.

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bookmark_borderGrown up

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Should I be worried? Should I care? Should I make some changes?

I don’t feel grown up. I have a mortgage, a car, a garden to tend. I enjoy a quite night in with a bottle of wine, and a noisy night out in a pub. I enjoy watching cartoons. I don’t follow politics as closely as I should (but close enough thanks), I do enjoy a good cup of coffee.

But, seemingly, I’m not ‘grown up’ because I wear boxer shorts.

My darling wife made this comment (I’m paraphrasing) the other day. She said that she, and her friend, had been discussing an appearance by Julian McMahon on Nip|Tuck, clad in nothing but a pair of dark briefs (he was, not them). She said he looked like a man, but she didn’t see me that way. Her friend said the same about her partner, I’m not sure if her friend said the same about me.

Now I know I can be childish, immature and have a tendency to use humour as a defence mechanism – so much so it’s spilled over into a natural reaction in a lot of scenarios – but I AM A MAN!

So, this weekend I’ll be changing my underwear. Er…. that is, I’ll be buying some new underwear (I was brought up well, I change my underwear everyday… mostly..). The only question is whether to invest in a pair of speedo’s as well…