If I see anybody ask something like this without good cause, the respect I hold for them is immediately docked.
Is keeping numbers really that difficult of a thing to do?
In at least 5 years I've gone through as many phones and I've never had to resort to copying numbers by hand, or indeed asking anybody for theirs more than once!
Although bluetooth is probably passed the point of being a novelty, it was one of the simplest ways of moving contacts from phone to phone. Any phone that had bluetooth should have the option to send all contacts. There, Simple. Done!
Bluetooth is no good when you no longer have the previous phone to take the numbers from. The next best thing would be to use whatever bundled software came with your phone. This should allow you to backup all contacts, and probably more to a computer This can get complicated if you get a completely different phone and have have to import/export, but at the very least you have a copy of your phonebook on computer.
The best place to keep a backup of contacts is of course online. Years ago I found my Sony Ericsson phone would sync contacts to Gmail. Since then I've never lost a contact. This lets me look them up online, and regain the entire phonebook on the numerous replacements that have gone through my hands since.
There's probably a way of doing this with any phone that has access to even the most basic internet, so don't say I didn't warn you!
Before flooding facebook with requests for numbers, it might also be worth a moments thought that there is in fact phonebook on facebook and your friends might well have put their number there (whether they realize it or not). Sorry guys, but asking everyone for their number over again is just getting a little bit last decade.
28 March 2012
26 March 2012
Screenshot or URL?
Like many other complaints and insults I've voiced in this medium, this is a small thing that has annoyed me much more than it really ought to.
When people share screenshot of something when they really ought to just have linked to a page.
It really is blindingly simple. If you expect anyone clicking your link to read any more than one or two lines, or look at ANY picture, then you're better linking them directly to that page or that image. Sending a screenshot might well ensure that people on the other end see exactly what you see but that's not necessarily what's best.
Sending a link instead gives followers the opportunity to see any images at full resolution, to see the full context of what you're sharing and ensures that the original source gets the hits they deserve for their content. Sometimes it gives me the impression that people are sending a screenshot just so that any interested party has to comment and ask for the link!
Of course there are some good reasons to send a screenshot. If you're outside of a browser that's a dead giveaway, since you don't really have any other option. Within the browser you really ought to be careful. Nearly everything is best shared by simply copying the contents of the address bar and sending that. Times you are right to use a screenshot are when you won't be able to recreate what you're looking at through a link, or if the page you're linking is likely to change an error or be taken down entirely, a screenshot will be the only way.
I guess I'm screenshot loosely- If you're only trying to draw attention to a particular part, you should crop (or use snipping tool) accordingly!
With your support, I aim to draft to send through parliament.
Thank you and goodnight
When people share screenshot of something when they really ought to just have linked to a page.
It really is blindingly simple. If you expect anyone clicking your link to read any more than one or two lines, or look at ANY picture, then you're better linking them directly to that page or that image. Sending a screenshot might well ensure that people on the other end see exactly what you see but that's not necessarily what's best.
Sending a link instead gives followers the opportunity to see any images at full resolution, to see the full context of what you're sharing and ensures that the original source gets the hits they deserve for their content. Sometimes it gives me the impression that people are sending a screenshot just so that any interested party has to comment and ask for the link!
Of course there are some good reasons to send a screenshot. If you're outside of a browser that's a dead giveaway, since you don't really have any other option. Within the browser you really ought to be careful. Nearly everything is best shared by simply copying the contents of the address bar and sending that. Times you are right to use a screenshot are when you won't be able to recreate what you're looking at through a link, or if the page you're linking is likely to change an error or be taken down entirely, a screenshot will be the only way.
I guess I'm screenshot loosely- If you're only trying to draw attention to a particular part, you should crop (or use snipping tool) accordingly!
With your support, I aim to draft to send through parliament.
Thank you and goodnight
25 March 2012
Fiddling with Dropbox
Just in case you've never heard of it before, Dropbox, I'll start off by saying that it's essentially 2GB free online storage. It works best with it's PC software, which runs in the background and doesn't really have much of an interface. What it does do is create it's own folder which is constantly synchronized with that online storage. It comes into it's own when you install dropbox on a second computer, meaning anything in the dropbox folder is then updated elsewhere too. In addition, anything in your Dropbox is then available on the website and via the mobile apps.
I've used dropbox for ages without going on about it but I've become more actively interested after a recent update to the Android app. This means my phone now has the ability to immediately upload photos to my online storage as they are taken.
This was possible before but needed a third-party app. This update probably means Dropsnap will soon see it's last days. It's probably just as well, considering the Dropbox app has made it a much more simple process. There are only two settings to look for: 'Camera upload on' & 'upload by wifi & data/wifi only'. Immediately after I activated it, the app uploaded what I already had on the phone, and of course any new photos from then on..
My phone is configured to upload automatically while on wifi, and when at home I can take a picture and see it arrive on my laptop only a minute later.
Back in the real world, it's unlikely that I'd need to have the pictures so promptly. I have been quite pleased to find that any photos I've taken while I'm out are usually waiting for me on the computer, having uploaded themselves in the time between the phone coming in range of wi-fi and when I sit down.
(yes, that is the URL of an image that shows how to get the URL of an image)
To be honest, Dropbox probably won't supersede twitpic as my twitter image sharing medium of choice but it does have some useful applications.
The meagre 2GB offered to everyone for free isn't that attractive, so I thought I'd offer a few tips on how to expand this as much as you can. The most effective way to get more space would of course be to pay for it which starts at $10 a month for 50GB.
Anyone in their right mind will of course be looking to get as much as they can for free, and there are a few ways to expand without lifting your wallet. There are a handful of triggers which reward additional space. I made my way up to 5GB without really trying to but it certainly helps that I've had mine for over a year.
The best place to start is of course on the 'get started' page, which lists a few tasks to complete. It might not make it clear that some of these will award you with more space though. For example, making use of the Photo Uploader on any platform, which will bring you an extra 500MB.
The most difficult of these tasks is to refer others to the service. You can be rewarded for 32 referrals and get 250MB for each! I'm yet to make any, so if you suddenly find yourself interested, you'd be doing me a favour by clicking one of the links I've scattered around.
That's about it for above board ways of increasing your space, but I do know of one less legitimate way of gaining space.
This paragraph probably isn't for you if you don't have a rooted android phone, so it might be worth overlooking. The forthcoming HTC One series of phones promises to better connect Dropbox and Android. More importantly, it comes with a 2 year, 23GB increase to the owners dropbox! Despite the fact that they aren't released for another 2 weeks, the software has already been leaked and developers at XDA have ported it to run on other phones! If you've already gone through the process of installing a custom rom, it might be worth switching to one based on Primo just to gain this reward. Switching back immediately afterwards hasn't yet been reported to revoke this reward.
G'bye- and if I have by some miracle convinced you to try out dropbox, you'd be doing me a big favour by giving me a referral.
17 March 2012
Equilux
Though it's a seldom used term, I thought I'd write something about it since today happens to be the equilux. No, I hadn't heard of it either, but I was reading wikipedia and was perhaps a little too interested by it.
A similar, more commonly used term would be the equinox, which comes from the latin "aequus nox", meaning equal night. It's a little bit of a misnomer, since the it doesn't necessarily fall on the day which is the same length as the night. The equinox isn't really a day at all- it's simply the moment at which the sun crosses the equator. This Spring, that happens to be at 5:12am on Tuesday (20/3/12). That day where I am in Fife, Scotland happens to last 12 hours and 13 minutes.
The equilux is simply the day which lasts closest to 12 hours, which would make it today, as it lasts 11 hours 59 minutes.
A similar, more commonly used term would be the equinox, which comes from the latin "aequus nox", meaning equal night. It's a little bit of a misnomer, since the it doesn't necessarily fall on the day which is the same length as the night. The equinox isn't really a day at all- it's simply the moment at which the sun crosses the equator. This Spring, that happens to be at 5:12am on Tuesday (20/3/12). That day where I am in Fife, Scotland happens to last 12 hours and 13 minutes.
The equilux is simply the day which lasts closest to 12 hours, which would make it today, as it lasts 11 hours 59 minutes.
This necessarily true of everywhere, however. It's certainly not true of anywhere in the southern hemisphere. I can only say with certainty that it's true for Scotland, and probably the rest of the UK. Sydney, Australia for example will have an Equilux on the 24th March, with the sunrise at 7:02am and sunset at 7:02pm.
Since the moment of equinox is the when the sun crosses the equator, it is not dependant on the observers location so it will be the same time worldwide. The only possible difference in this will be down to time zones, or the fact that my 2 sources stste different times! Wolfram states 5:12am, but Wikipedia and it's source state 5:14am. Go figure.
Since the moment of equinox is the when the sun crosses the equator, it is not dependant on the observers location so it will be the same time worldwide. The only possible difference in this will be down to time zones, or the fact that my 2 sources stste different times! Wolfram states 5:12am, but Wikipedia and it's source state 5:14am. Go figure.
The reason that equilux and equinox are different is mainly because the sun is so big and so close. If all that light were to come from something that appeared in our sky as small as any other star, it would rise and set in an instant. It's the time that it takes such an apparently large disc of light to set that adds these extra few minutes onto the day closest to the equinox.
Had I simply read, understood and moved on, I guess that'd be the end of my blog post, but no. I went on thinking about it and for some reason or other I decided to challenge myself to figure out the subsolar point at equinox. That's where exactly on earth would see the sun as directly overhead at the time of equinox.
Had I simply read, understood and moved on, I guess that'd be the end of my blog post, but no. I went on thinking about it and for some reason or other I decided to challenge myself to figure out the subsolar point at equinox. That's where exactly on earth would see the sun as directly overhead at the time of equinox.
Possible places are immediately rounded down of course, since I'm giving myself the latitude for free. Since equinox is the moment the sun crosses the equator, the latitude of the subsolar point would have to be 0.
Since the sun will be overhead this point at midday (by conventional solar time), it shouldn't be too difficult to make this calculation. The time given for equinox is 5:12am, so this place is 6 hours and 48 minutes ahead in time from 0 longitude (Greenwich meridian, therefore GMT). For calculation, put into the decimal 6.8 hours. (48/60 = 0.8)
Another known fact is that it takes 24 hours for the earth to rotate 360 degrees. So I can use this to work out the longitude, which will be the angle the earth will rotate in 6.8 hours.
Rotation (r) / Time taken (t) = constant
r1/t1 = r2/t2
r2 = r1/t1 * t2
( 360 / 24 ) x 6.8 = 102 degrees.
Going with the
Going with the
So the subsolar point at equinox is 102 degrees different longitude than Greenwich. This makes some countryside in Pangkalan Kuras, Indonesia the exact point I was looking for. I'm just amazed I hit land!
If you were thinking that the 2 minute difference between sources might have made a difference, I've checked that out too. The 2 minutes equate to 0.5 degrees of rotation, which in turn equates to about 35 miles west of the last link.
10 February 2012
Keyboard Shortcut of the day: Ctrl-W
I've found another one!
It's Ctrl-W and it closes the current tab.
Since I found it's come in useful when I realize I have 40 tabs open at once and should probably get rid of some. Using it in combo with Ctrl-tab, makes for a pretty speedy way to cut off pointless tangents.
I guess I'll keep posting these every Fridays until such time as any of the following happen:
It's Ctrl-W and it closes the current tab.
Since I found it's come in useful when I realize I have 40 tabs open at once and should probably get rid of some. Using it in combo with Ctrl-tab, makes for a pretty speedy way to cut off pointless tangents.
I guess I'll keep posting these every Fridays until such time as any of the following happen:
- I don't discover any more that I deem to be worth mentioning as an individual post and resort to posting the list of all of the shortcuts I can think of (already written as a draft post)
- I post one of these and it gets zero hits. Literally none. Even my least read page ever got 10 hits.
- I forget about the blog entirely and just don't post anything for months.
8 February 2012
Shit Ticketmaster says
Most Human decisions are based on patterns, and this is something that a lot of the digital world seems to have cottoned on to. My TiVo box 'thought' I might like to watch Sunshine because I recorded 127 hours, that I might like Futurama because I gave The Simpsons a thumbs up and Last.fm suggested that I listen to Eagleowl because I've listened to Meursault and King Creosote.
They do this by making a database of all information on any film, tv show or music track with as much relevant information as possible. Then whatever I've watched or listened to is compared to other entries in the database and those which have matches are returned.
127 Hours was directed by Danny Boyle, so when another of his films, Sunshine came on TV a few weeks later, it was flagged up to me. Likewise, The Simpsons and Futurama are both created by Matt Groening, and Eagleowl, Meursault and King Creosote are all Scottish artists tagged as similar genres and have shared members and played in similar venues. It's also very possible that these suggestions were based on the habits of other users.
These suggestions and the methods for generating them are becoming pretty commonplace but one place that still doesn't seem to have bothered is Ticketmaster. As I'm sure their terms and conditions say, they have access to my entire order history. On inspection, they'd find that I've bought dozens of tickets, dating back as far as about 2006. I've since bought tickets to T in the Park, several Fringe shows, Radiohead, Biffy Clyro, Death Cab For Cutie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad, Admiral Fallow, Ross Noble, Stereophonics... and so on. The vast majority of these shows have been in either Edinburgh or Glasgow.
With this information, it ought to be pretty simple for them to get a general idea of what I like to go to, where I like to go to, or otherwise pigeon-hole my habits so that they could somehow use it to target the advertising that they send me.
Instead they send dreadful weekly emails which have no bearing on any of my past purchases. One of the worst examples I remember was headlined "Don't miss Take That" when the closest show mentioned was in Birmingham, over 300 miles away. The whole point of sending out emails in the first place would be to rouse interest in anything they had to offer, but instead it just leads me ignoring the emails, and once they started piling up, I would unsubscribe. Now, even if there were anything I were interested in paying for, they have lost their chance to sell it to me. When will they learn?
Apart from this, the ticket site (and it's definitely not just Ticketmaster) ought to realize that they just aren't likely to be the place where I'd first hear about an event. It's far more likely that I would subscribe directly to newsletters, tweets or facebook posts directly from an artist in hope of hearing about any upcoming gigs from a less crap-polluted source.
I guess it's not really a problem because as I've pointed out, I chose to subscribe in the first place, but I still manage to get wound up knowing that there is crap floating around the internet.
They do this by making a database of all information on any film, tv show or music track with as much relevant information as possible. Then whatever I've watched or listened to is compared to other entries in the database and those which have matches are returned.
127 Hours was directed by Danny Boyle, so when another of his films, Sunshine came on TV a few weeks later, it was flagged up to me. Likewise, The Simpsons and Futurama are both created by Matt Groening, and Eagleowl, Meursault and King Creosote are all Scottish artists tagged as similar genres and have shared members and played in similar venues. It's also very possible that these suggestions were based on the habits of other users.
These suggestions and the methods for generating them are becoming pretty commonplace but one place that still doesn't seem to have bothered is Ticketmaster. As I'm sure their terms and conditions say, they have access to my entire order history. On inspection, they'd find that I've bought dozens of tickets, dating back as far as about 2006. I've since bought tickets to T in the Park, several Fringe shows, Radiohead, Biffy Clyro, Death Cab For Cutie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad, Admiral Fallow, Ross Noble, Stereophonics... and so on. The vast majority of these shows have been in either Edinburgh or Glasgow.
With this information, it ought to be pretty simple for them to get a general idea of what I like to go to, where I like to go to, or otherwise pigeon-hole my habits so that they could somehow use it to target the advertising that they send me.
Instead they send dreadful weekly emails which have no bearing on any of my past purchases. One of the worst examples I remember was headlined "Don't miss Take That" when the closest show mentioned was in Birmingham, over 300 miles away. The whole point of sending out emails in the first place would be to rouse interest in anything they had to offer, but instead it just leads me ignoring the emails, and once they started piling up, I would unsubscribe. Now, even if there were anything I were interested in paying for, they have lost their chance to sell it to me. When will they learn?
Apart from this, the ticket site (and it's definitely not just Ticketmaster) ought to realize that they just aren't likely to be the place where I'd first hear about an event. It's far more likely that I would subscribe directly to newsletters, tweets or facebook posts directly from an artist in hope of hearing about any upcoming gigs from a less crap-polluted source.
I guess it's not really a problem because as I've pointed out, I chose to subscribe in the first place, but I still manage to get wound up knowing that there is crap floating around the internet.
3 February 2012
Keyboard Shortcut of the Day: Ctrl-Tab
As I've hinted at already, yes. I did write this a week ago at the same time as the last shortcut of the day, but when I really don't know when I'll next bother to write, I feel I have to delay posts and create the illusion of more regular activity ...However devoid of content these posts may be!
I guess I don't really even have to write this part. Anyone who read the title and had a spark of interest will have instinctively just done it. Go on, save your eyes the strain of reading this next line by simply hitting Ctrl-Tab and finding out for yourself.
No? Well this shortcut cycles through what tabs you have open.
It comes in handy when mouses or touchpads become a drag... Or when I have about 25 tabs open at once and the titles have about 2 letters each.
What Next? I guess I could make this a regular Friday feature and just start naming obvious ones. The button with the windows sign opens the start menu, guys!
No, I might be tempted to write a big one with all the ones I've known since I was 10, but other than that I'll probably stick to writing proper posts (in my view, at least).
Over.
I guess I don't really even have to write this part. Anyone who read the title and had a spark of interest will have instinctively just done it. Go on, save your eyes the strain of reading this next line by simply hitting Ctrl-Tab and finding out for yourself.
No? Well this shortcut cycles through what tabs you have open.
It comes in handy when mouses or touchpads become a drag... Or when I have about 25 tabs open at once and the titles have about 2 letters each.
What Next? I guess I could make this a regular Friday feature and just start naming obvious ones. The button with the windows sign opens the start menu, guys!
No, I might be tempted to write a big one with all the ones I've known since I was 10, but other than that I'll probably stick to writing proper posts (in my view, at least).
Over.
1 February 2012
Is the remote dead?
So the other day the TV stopped responding to the remote. Ever looking for ways to solve problems with as little standing up as possible I had to think of alternatives to looking for batteries, so I thought hey- What happens if I point the remote at the webcam on my laptop? Sure enough, it looked like this-
That pretty conclusively confirmed there was no problem with the remote, so I moved on to the next possibility.
...it turned out the pile of DVD's in front of the TV had gotten too high, so if I'd been paying attention, I might just have noticed that in the first place, but hey. I still saved myself a search for batteries.
There are usually filters in cameras to block out non-visible light, but it's seldom going to be enough to block out the light from an LED at 5cm range.
Another thing I found out while trying to take the picture I used above was that I'd managed to uninstall the software that came with my laptop for taking webcam snapshots. Not to worry though, there's a way to use VLC as an (improved, I'd say) alternative.
In VLC, "Open Capture device" from the File menu brings up this:
From there, make sure Capture Mode is Directshow, and the video device name is your webcam. The video size option is blank by default, so make sure to type in 640*480 (or bigger if your webcam supports it) then hit Play.
You're then see your own face (should that be what lies in front of the camera in question), and can take a snapshot with shift-s (or Snapshot from the Video menu). They're saved by default in the logged in user's pictures folder. You can also record video if you click the arrow next to Play (in the above image) and pick convert instead. This gives infinite options for what video stream, audio stream and container are used for the output file. It's definitely not for everyone but if I can do it the complicated way (without getting on my feet), I will.
Maybe I should rename this blog "things that I'm learning in my twenties"
30 January 2012
What Happens When A Post Gets Shared By It's Subject
If I'm talking frankly, I would say that my target audience would fall under at least one of these categories.
...and in turn, this happened:
I guess over 800 people reading something I wrote was the whole point of writing a blog but it's left me confused.
Obviously the success was down to the fact that the band retweeted me, meaning that it went to their 24,000 followers, anyone visiting their website that afternoon could see the RT. The Pop Cop linked to it from the goss box (Jan 20), and a few other random people appear to have stuck it on twitter or facebook in some form or other.
It's making me wonder if I'll realistically ever be able to repeat this feat. Despite all these page views, not one comment was posted (have I somehow restricted these?) and nobody new followed the blog. It looks like a few people have read other posts, but that's about it. This really highlights the fact that if this ever does happen again, I'll need the assistance of a RT. Next time, perhaps by someone with 25000 followers!
What does it take to get retweeted? The tweet announcing my blog post didn't contain their handle, "@FRabbits", just "Frightened Rabbit" so I'm guessing they have a search on twitter for their own name. Mine was one of about half a dozen retweets or replies about the gig. It was among quite a few positive ones but many many more negative ones. It's certainly possibly that they took a cursory glance through mentions of their name and chose a few people who were taking their side to RT.
I only decided I was going to blog about the gig about 2 songs in, taking notes on my phone about what was said and what was played. (I didn't really have much else to do- I couldn't move!), then I stayed up writing the post in my frinds flat 'til it was finished (3:45am). I'm thinking the promptness of the post played a major part in it's success. I slept in past noon the next day, by which time it had already been retweeted and was well on it's way to becoming old news.
My conclusion really has to be that I'd provided the first coherent report on their a messy night, and that's why the band chose to share it. With their seal of approval in place, the page views steadily came in.
If I get the chance to ask, I probably will.
- My Twitter followers
- People who have nothing better to do
- Those playing click lottery
A good week generally translates into page stats like these.
Then this happened:
...and in turn, this happened:
I guess over 800 people reading something I wrote was the whole point of writing a blog but it's left me confused.
Obviously the success was down to the fact that the band retweeted me, meaning that it went to their 24,000 followers, anyone visiting their website that afternoon could see the RT. The Pop Cop linked to it from the goss box (Jan 20), and a few other random people appear to have stuck it on twitter or facebook in some form or other.
It's making me wonder if I'll realistically ever be able to repeat this feat. Despite all these page views, not one comment was posted (have I somehow restricted these?) and nobody new followed the blog. It looks like a few people have read other posts, but that's about it. This really highlights the fact that if this ever does happen again, I'll need the assistance of a RT. Next time, perhaps by someone with 25000 followers!
What does it take to get retweeted? The tweet announcing my blog post didn't contain their handle, "@FRabbits", just "Frightened Rabbit" so I'm guessing they have a search on twitter for their own name. Mine was one of about half a dozen retweets or replies about the gig. It was among quite a few positive ones but many many more negative ones. It's certainly possibly that they took a cursory glance through mentions of their name and chose a few people who were taking their side to RT.
I only decided I was going to blog about the gig about 2 songs in, taking notes on my phone about what was said and what was played. (I didn't really have much else to do- I couldn't move!), then I stayed up writing the post in my frinds flat 'til it was finished (3:45am). I'm thinking the promptness of the post played a major part in it's success. I slept in past noon the next day, by which time it had already been retweeted and was well on it's way to becoming old news.
My conclusion really has to be that I'd provided the first coherent report on their a messy night, and that's why the band chose to share it. With their seal of approval in place, the page views steadily came in.
If I get the chance to ask, I probably will.
27 January 2012
Keyboard Shortcut of the Day: Ctrl-L
Back when I was in better habits, I wrote a post when I'd discovered a new shortcut, shift-ctrl-t which would reopen the last closed tab. Basically I posted it because I'd only just learned about it.
I probably shouldn't admit how amazed I was that I'd managed to live up to that point without it, though I guess I have now.
Anyway, here's the first of two shortcuts I've learned since then, which (if I can remember them at the appropriate time) will save more precious seconds!
It's Ctrl-L today and it quite simply selects the address bar and highlights its contents!
I think before this, I'd probably have clicked on it then hit ctrl-a. That's a whole step, gone before your very eyes!
Huzzah!
20 January 2012
Frightened Rabbit at Cab Vol, "Sick Note" 19 January 2012
This show was only announced 6 days in advance, which is never a promising start. Tickets were initially to be on the door but confusingly, a ticketweb link followed 3 days later. There was a lot of mucking about with tickets for the Glasgow show, where people were frantically clicking for hours and the site wouldn't play ball. Thankfully I managed to bag myself a ticket for the Edinburgh show without too much trouble. Bargain at £4!
I got there at about 11 (doors were 10) and spotted the queue. It stretched right down to the Cowgate and round the corner! Thankfully, I could skip it since I already had my tickets. The room gradually filled up until midnight (supposed stage time) by which time it was a towards being uncomfortably busy. It was another half hour til they came on. I've since found out they were outside doing a few songs for the people who'd waited out in the cold for hours and didn't get in. Nice guys really, but let down tonight by some god awful management at Cab Vol.
Even though I'd gone outside to smoke as late as 11:45, I still managed to get a space downstairs, albeit further back. I and the other 199 people that fit in the part of the building that was supposed to usually filled for gigs had a great night, but the other 250-400 distributed through the rest of the place probably weren't impressed.
Anyway, here's the setlist with a few notes, followed by some of Scott's banter I was able to note down
New: Holy (didn't note anything down about it, sorry)
Nothing Like You
New: Dead Now "something wrong with me"
Old Old Fashioned
New: Boxing Night
Snake
New: Backyard Skulls (On the surface reads like a song bt Fred west )
The Modern Leper
Swim Until you Can't See Land
New: Oil Slick "took a walk" "Misery loves you" "disarterous times"
My Backwards Walk (done the new way with delay on the first verse then with the steady beat)
New: State Hospital "magpies handbags" "heart beats like a breeze block falling down the stairs" "bloods thicker than concrete"
Good Arms (didnt skip last line, like he's done for as long as I remember!)
Living on colour
Loneliness (Then with the crowd still singing back the "oh" straight into...)
Square Nine
Encore: Keep Yourself Warm (With Twilight Sad's "The Room" as an outro)
"You're the grandsons
Just the grandsons toy in the corner
don't tell anyone else
You were seen in the cherry tree
Look what you have done"
After the first song, Scott gave a bit of an apology. He'd been told there were to be 200 tickets sold online, and 200 on the door. "Well, one of those things were true!" It was in fact 400 online and 200 on the door. This in a venue I'd expect to have around people comfortably. The rest, he remarked were invited to sit upstairs and watch the show on a couple of tellys! "You could go on youtube at home and do that for free- at least then there'd be no other cunts getting in the way and no waiting in the cold!
@FRabbits tweets tell a similar story, but that they only let a total of 450 people in, although lots more had paid!
Scott assured the crowd that "Bands might throw this around a bit but we can definitely say we're not coming back here!"
After "Swim" he had a bit of a spiel about the new album being depressing. He mentioned his girlfriend at the time being a little confused about it despite him being generally happy. He said "It turned out to be nice... I think"
"if you like the songs, make sure and fill out a feedback form, that's why we're doing these wee shows!"
After backwards he talked more about the new songs "You get to the point where we can play all the songs with backwards, with our closed eyes and in our sleep. Then someone comes along and says you have to wrote a new album... Fuck off... Dad!"
Great show for me, although I was 3/4 of the way back on the floor. I can assure you that anyone who liked the band would have loved the show had they been where I was or better. It's just unfortunate that that only really covers one third of the attendees. Less if you count those outside.
Kudos to Frightened Rabbit; Paper bags filled with dog shit to Cabaret Voltaire.
17 January 2012
Why your internet isnt' as good as you think it is.
I saw a post on the twitter of the Magazine New Scientist about a 12MB/s satellite ISP, which I saw and immediately thought wow! Only when I got halfway down the page did I realize that they'd made a typo, and it was in fact only 12Mb/s.
A little underwhelmed, I posted this slightly cynical reply
Then about 10 minutes later...
Trying to avoid being cocky over this admittedly minor victory I began to wonder how many people really know what they're paying for when they subscribe with an ISP.
For the mostpart, when you see or hear an ad for an ISP, you'll find they quote the bandwidth as something along the lines of "up to 20 megabit". As I see it, they're doing it wrong on two counts. The whole business of "up to" is a complaint all in itself, but using megabits is misleading.
What's most likely to make sense to the average internet user is the download speed. If you're downloading something, the speed (transfer rate) is usually quoted in KB/s or MB/s.
When I first began to use the internet in the late 90's, nearly everyone was using a 56Kbps modem over a phone line.
That's K, as in kilo, as in 1000 (or 1024)
and ps (or "/s") simply meaning "per second"
The B or b is the part which makes the crucial difference.
A lower case b means bits, and a capital B means bytes, and the case of that letter makes an eightfold difference! 1 byte is equal to 8 bits, therefore what might be called a megabit line only allows a transfer rate of 128 kilobytes per second.
Add this to the "up to" and you're not really getting as much as the ad might make you think!
Where I live, the telephone exchanges are really quite dated. This means that the "up to" in the ad really begins to come into play! While someone connected to a brand new exchange might actually get the quoted speed, I would be doing well to get a quarter of that!
Luckily, that only goes for internet through the phone line, and since I go through cable, these same problems don't apply. What's quoted as a 30 megabit connection will (more often than not) allow for downloads of over 3MB/s (30Mb/s speed would be 3.75MB/s). it does however tend to cost a bit more.
There's are websites around (like uswitch) which tell you the capabilities of the local exchange, and tell you what other providers are available. For some reason, people seem to think that different providers will get different speeds, but most of them are about the same!
The only noticeable difference packages would be if they actually used different mediums to connect. BT, Sky, talktalk and all that all use the phone line! Cable is completely seperate.
Mobile broadband, is again of course different, but it's less likely to be better than the phone line. It's possible, don't get me wrong, but you'd have to be far enough away from a phone exchange, but still within good 3G mobile phone coverage. That's could be set to improve when 4G comes around but that's not a sure thing. Mobile coverage is only any good if there aren't a lot of people using it at once! 4G will of course be an improvement when it comes, but there's a limit to it's capacity. We'll have to wait til the end of this year at the earliest to find out. It's using some of the airspace freed up by converting TV to digital.
I've probably rambled on for longer than most of my "readership" 's attention span now.
Thank you, and goodnight
A little underwhelmed, I posted this slightly cynical reply
Then about 10 minutes later...
Trying to avoid being cocky over this admittedly minor victory I began to wonder how many people really know what they're paying for when they subscribe with an ISP.
For the mostpart, when you see or hear an ad for an ISP, you'll find they quote the bandwidth as something along the lines of "up to 20 megabit". As I see it, they're doing it wrong on two counts. The whole business of "up to" is a complaint all in itself, but using megabits is misleading.
What's most likely to make sense to the average internet user is the download speed. If you're downloading something, the speed (transfer rate) is usually quoted in KB/s or MB/s.
When I first began to use the internet in the late 90's, nearly everyone was using a 56Kbps modem over a phone line.
That's K, as in kilo, as in 1000 (or 1024)
and ps (or "/s") simply meaning "per second"
The B or b is the part which makes the crucial difference.
A lower case b means bits, and a capital B means bytes, and the case of that letter makes an eightfold difference! 1 byte is equal to 8 bits, therefore what might be called a megabit line only allows a transfer rate of 128 kilobytes per second.
Add this to the "up to" and you're not really getting as much as the ad might make you think!
Where I live, the telephone exchanges are really quite dated. This means that the "up to" in the ad really begins to come into play! While someone connected to a brand new exchange might actually get the quoted speed, I would be doing well to get a quarter of that!
Luckily, that only goes for internet through the phone line, and since I go through cable, these same problems don't apply. What's quoted as a 30 megabit connection will (more often than not) allow for downloads of over 3MB/s (30Mb/s speed would be 3.75MB/s). it does however tend to cost a bit more.
There's are websites around (like uswitch) which tell you the capabilities of the local exchange, and tell you what other providers are available. For some reason, people seem to think that different providers will get different speeds, but most of them are about the same!
The only noticeable difference packages would be if they actually used different mediums to connect. BT, Sky, talktalk and all that all use the phone line! Cable is completely seperate.
Mobile broadband, is again of course different, but it's less likely to be better than the phone line. It's possible, don't get me wrong, but you'd have to be far enough away from a phone exchange, but still within good 3G mobile phone coverage. That's could be set to improve when 4G comes around but that's not a sure thing. Mobile coverage is only any good if there aren't a lot of people using it at once! 4G will of course be an improvement when it comes, but there's a limit to it's capacity. We'll have to wait til the end of this year at the earliest to find out. It's using some of the airspace freed up by converting TV to digital.
I've probably rambled on for longer than most of my "readership" 's attention span now.
Thank you, and goodnight
16 January 2012
Stupidware
--- This is maybe a bit dated now, since it seems I half-wrote this months ago and I've had it saved as a draft since but I'm sure there'll be another bane of the internet around the corner that these sentiments will be just as applicable to ---
Altogether too much of the internet is garbage. The same content dug up and repackaged in the vain hope that it's sell-by-date can be extended In the case of so called "content farms," they can be devoid of useful content entirely. It's often down to bots, which have been set up to create pages to bring in traffic and gain revenue from advertising. But far too much of what I see is the produce of very real (and unfortunately very human) idiots.
They fall prey to some rouse or other and give it that all-important click. The rubbish then fulfils it's purpose in life and reproduces by sharing itself with all of those who that idiot has deemed their friends.
What inspired me to begin this post was the trend of rubbish facebook pages demanding that people like them in order to gain access to something that promises to be amazing. It's all too tempting to just click the button and see what it is but in most cases I'm sure the prey are disappointed. Much like these content farms, the page just turns out to be something that was originally posted far enough into the past so that it's probably been forgotten about.
The whole scheme is that by the time you inevitably decide that it wasn't worth liking, you aleady have. This post is paraded in front of your friends with your seal of approval, this completely goes against the whole dynamic of the likeable page where the user should be able to decide based on the content whether this is something worth a 'like'. This has forced them to take that step prematurely.
Occasionally, curiosity will get the better of us, so if you do "like before you leap" only to discover it's shit, all I ask is that you cover your tracks. Just look to the bottom left of the page, and voila:
Altogether too much of the internet is garbage. The same content dug up and repackaged in the vain hope that it's sell-by-date can be extended In the case of so called "content farms," they can be devoid of useful content entirely. It's often down to bots, which have been set up to create pages to bring in traffic and gain revenue from advertising. But far too much of what I see is the produce of very real (and unfortunately very human) idiots.
They fall prey to some rouse or other and give it that all-important click. The rubbish then fulfils it's purpose in life and reproduces by sharing itself with all of those who that idiot has deemed their friends.
What inspired me to begin this post was the trend of rubbish facebook pages demanding that people like them in order to gain access to something that promises to be amazing. It's all too tempting to just click the button and see what it is but in most cases I'm sure the prey are disappointed. Much like these content farms, the page just turns out to be something that was originally posted far enough into the past so that it's probably been forgotten about.
The whole scheme is that by the time you inevitably decide that it wasn't worth liking, you aleady have. This post is paraded in front of your friends with your seal of approval, this completely goes against the whole dynamic of the likeable page where the user should be able to decide based on the content whether this is something worth a 'like'. This has forced them to take that step prematurely.
Occasionally, curiosity will get the better of us, so if you do "like before you leap" only to discover it's shit, all I ask is that you cover your tracks. Just look to the bottom left of the page, and voila:
Seal of approval revoked.
The page will then disappear from your page and only the eagle eyed among your friends will have caught any glimpse of your atrocity! Thank you and goodnight.
12 January 2012
Getting a handle on things
While signing up for the newly launched Netflix on Monday I realised something horrible.
I've been using the same username for about 8 years.
I use it for everything, Twitter, Facebook, last.fm, xbox live and now of course Netflix.
I've been using the same username for about 8 years.
I use it for everything, Twitter, Facebook, last.fm, xbox live and now of course Netflix.
As far as I remember thought it up while joining a forum. This was the first time I didn't want to use my real name for some reason. Anyway, I must've thought this handle was hilarious or something because I immediately stopped using my [firstinitial][surname][integer]@[isp].co.uk (freeserve dialup at the time, I believe) address and migrated everything to my brand spanking new lendafender@hotmail.com.
Let's make this clear - I HATE IT!
Wondering what it means? So am I!.
Was I making some kind of joke about borrowing a guitar? Did I play guitar in 2004? Is it something about a fender bender, like a car crash? I just don't know.
On more than one occasion, I've gone part-way through the process of changing it on some sites, only to rage close the tab thinking the same thing each time Can I really be sure that I won't hate this new username in 6 months time?
That's the only thing that's stopped me from moving to anything new.
I guess I'm stuck with it. When it comes down to it, I think I'd rather stick to the login I hate than become one of those bastards that changes their handle as often than their underwear.
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