Angus Thinks

Author: AngusThinks

  • Physical Media or just digital content

    I was thinking the other day about whether you actually need physical manifestation of media content. Does a movie gain something by being physically on a DVD rather than being stored digitially on a computer?

    There is definitely one advantage in actually storing the movie on some kind of physical object because you can pick it up and move it around, even take it to places where the network infrastructure doesn’t exist. The obvious disadvantage is that you do actually have to take it physically to wherever you actually want to watch it.

    It is also somewhat less impressive to give a gift of piece of paper representing a piece of content rather than an actual CD or DVD.

    So I was wondering if the answer might be in tokens. The token would represent the digital media and identify ownership but the content itself would be stored digitally on the network. It would solve some of the problems of trying to squeeze more and more content onto smaller disks although it certainly wouldn’t solve the disconnected problem.

    The token would be used to actually read the media, so there would be no problems with damaged content affecting the film. Tokens might be damaged but they could be replaced in that situation and since they would be simple anyway the survivability would probably be high. I carry around a collection of plastic cards everyday that are replaced about once every three years. That is somewhat more robust than video tape and probably better than DVDs too.

    I see the token as being a smart card like object of some kind and perhaps the tokens might even reusable.

    It’s a thought anyway…

  • Cheque Clearance Time

    It must be delightful for the banks to be able to get away with taking 4 days to clear a cheque. The interest that they earn on the money in the meantime must be significant. However there is some slight justification for cheque clearance delays, in the UK at least, the cheque seems to have to be physically returned to the bank of the person who wrote it.

    Much, much worse is taking 3 days to make an electronic transfer. I suppose they probably write them out on paper and send them to the issuing branch as well.

    This really shouldn’t be allowed in the 21st century, but maybe everyone will switch to paypal for immediate transactions?

  • Rumors: To believe or not to believe, that is the question.

    AppleInsider is saying that a new iMac is coming soon, while Think Secret is saying that there won’t be an iMac at the wwdc which starts next week.

    So what (apart from the fact that it is probably a bad idea to belive everything you hear) does this tell us. Currently I’m tending towards the appleinsider view that something will happen soon, because they have evidence that retailers are not being restocked. You don’t restock if if you’re replacing the product next week, it’s bad for retailer morale and worse for their profits.

    Think Secret on the other hand is saying that no iMac will turn up at the wwdc. This might be true as well, Apple might ship a new iMac just after conference, but why? It doesn’t make that much sense.

    Who knows?

    One thing that is essential however is that the new iMac must be cheaper than the current one. It might just about get by at the current price, but when you compare the current units against offerings from Dell as I did only yesterday, the Apple machines tend to look overpriced. This makes me sad to some extent, but it shows how a company like Dell that essentially doesn’t innovate can offer lower prices. The inovative companies tend to charge higher prices (Intel,Microsoft,etc).
    The eMac is probably the right way to go. It’s a common thought but if Apple offered an eMac without the screen for $50 or $100 less I would probably buy one immediately. Even if it only had a G4 processor. The bottom end of the market is where I and quite a lot of other people permanently sit. So it’s worth making sure that there is something there for them to buy.

    I only hope that people will learn to appreciate their macs more and be willing to pay the premium for the stuff.

  • Improved Popcorn technique

    I’ve been working away on my method for making popcorn at home in the microwave.

    I realised after a while that leaving the popped popcorn in the microwave after it has popped just causes it to burn, go brown and taste bad. So my current method involves removing all of the cooked popcorn aboout half way through (as soon as a good proportion of the kernels have popped). Then putting the rest of the (unpopped) kernels back into the microwave.

    This seems to give a much better result, the popcorn is removed fairly quickly after popping and the whole lot tastes much better. If only there was some way to remove the kernels without stopping the popping. I begin to see why people have these hot air machines. I still think this method is slightly cheaper though. 🙂

  • First Purchase from iTunes store

    I have sucessfully managed to make a purchase from the iTunes music store. Oddly enough I didn’t enter the start date for credit card and things went much better. I have no idea why that might make a difference. It could even be that there was previously a technical problem that has been resolved.

    Anyway good news for me 🙂

  • Technical Problems with iTunes store

    Annoyingly there are technical problems with the iTunes store. I’ve made several attempts now to buy music but I always get a form inviting me to re-enter my payment details. Completing the form and clicking OK then either takes me back to the main page (without any music being purchased) or a box pops up stating that the purchase didn’t complete.

    The whole thing is odd. However it looks like I’m not the only person to be experiencing issues. Comments on Apple’s discussion boards suggest that the problem is happening to others, particularly with switch cards but also in some cases with credit cards too.

    It’s unfortunate that Apple didn’t test the system better, but this is something that seems to have been happening a lot with new Apple stuff recently.

    However I’ll give them a few more days to get over the teething problems before I write off the whole thing. Difficulties often happen during the first few days.

  • iTunes Store open

    The Apple (UK and Ireland) homepage is showing that the iTunes store is now open. I haven’t actually bought any tracks yet though.

    Pricing is reasonable, 79p a track is below what the 86p a track that some people were thinking. That still makes it about 40% more than the US iTunes store. (79p is worth about $1.43 at today’s exchange rate). However it isn’t too bad and is somewhat better than the 99p a track some people were suggesting.

    (Currency conversion at xe.com)

  • Piracy on ebay

    Fun thing to do:

    Try a search for “photoshop” on ebay.

    I was looking to see whether it was a realistic way to buy a copy but it really isn’t.

    Most of the auctions are fradulent or offering pirated software. There are the usual collection of “bid and get information on where to buy for £20” kind of auctions. Then there are the ones selling manuals or something but appearing initally to be the real product.

    Finally there are the pirates who are selling copies of software in various formats, sometimes with a disclaimer that the customer “should only buy if they already own a copy of photoshop”. Then why bid on the auction?

    Overall not impressive. I feel sorry for the few genuine sellers who are offering boxed and sealed copies or older versions. They are being honest, most of the sellers are not.

    Ebay really needs to clean up its auctions because the current situation is getting really bad.

  • SIte upgrade

    Just a quick note to say that I’ve upgraded the site to wordpress 1.2. Hopefully there shouldn’t be any problems. Send email or make comments if you have any problems.

  • Presentation at Serve Radio

    Chris Hampton at Serve Radio has asked me to give a brief presentation at a meeting of volunteers next week. I’ve been doing some work on internet radio broadcasting and he was looking to explain this to the volunteers. I’m still thinking of what exactly to say to them. Any ideas?