The Smug of Apple

By bigdaddymerk | 30/11/2009

So my work supplied Mac Book Pro died in it’s sleep the other week so it needed looking at.  The problem with the aesthetics obsessed Apple is you can’t just send it off to be looked at, No.  You have to take it in person to the Genius Bar within the cold, joyless, smug Apple Store.  The nearest one being in Birmingham.

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The Genius’, as you’d expect aren’t exactly Genius’ just the usual ‘follow-these-steps-if-it-doesn’t-work-we’ll-give-it-to-a-real-engineer-to-fix’ types you get in these sort of places, see PC World for similar thing.   As a self confessed geek what gets me is the sheer arrogance of the ‘Genius’ thing – Stephen Hawking is a genius, the portly bloke who ‘tested’ my Mac was not – regardless of the T-Shirt he was wearing;   “Not all Superheroes wear Capes“.   You could feel the ’smug’ emanating from that store.

Anyway, after ‘genius‘ tried all the stuff I’d already tried he had to pass it to an engineer to look at – these are kept locked up in a room away from the shop floor, presumably because they don’t fit Apple’s ‘look’.   Two days later they phoned to tell me the motherboard was dead and wanted £730 to repair.  Much to my displeasure my employers didn’t want to pay this or indeed, buy me a new Mac Book Pro.   So I was given a budget and told to find another laptop.

I ended  up getting a nice Acer laptop with pretty decent spec, but it came with Windows Vista – an operating system I’ve managed so far to completely avoid.  Our in-house IT dept sorted ou me a copy of Windows 7 and I have to say I’m very impressed with it.  To date I’ve not had it crash, not had to manually end a non-responding process or throw it against the wall once.  While the keyboard doesn’t light up, the power is not a funky magnet power plug I still like it.

Posted in Geekery | 1 Comment

So here we are…

By bigdaddymerk |

The domain registration run out for bigdaddymerk.co.uk last week and I wasn’t sure about renewing it, thing is I’ve had this domain for such a long time now it would be like losing an old friend.

When I first registered the domain it was through some random free domain company and it was my first attempt at html coding and even my first major foray into the world of the internet – it was via dial up at my mums house, on my first proper pc which I paid £1200 cash for at Tiny. My (or rather my Mums) first dial up bill was about 300 quid!

I made this really shit site which entertained the idea that BigDaddyMerk himself was some sort of celebrity hit-man, offering varied levels of violence towards people like Robbie Williams, Will Smith etc. it had animated gif horizontal rules of dripping blood and an animated Terminator saying something very shit like “Tell me which celeb you wish to be terminated‘ – Frankly it was dreadful and very embarrassing.

If I could go back 11 years and tell myself not to do something this would probably be quite high on the list, alas I can’t and I must tell you that at no time did I ever do a ‘hit‘ on anyone, celebrity or otherwise.

At the time I’d just started college near Birmingham I was doing Audio Visual Design, which is a posh name for titting around in a recording studio – I took this course because at school I spent a lot of time doing sound and light work for the theatre productions and this was what I wanted to do. The school wouldn’t run a dedicated technical course (ironic given their whole City Technical College thingy) so I headed over to Smethwick 4 times a week to do sound.

While I was there I realised I wasn’t really interested in sound engineering in a studio environment because most musicians I met during the process, while very talented, where mostly a bunch of arseholes!

Part of the course was Radio Production, something I’d really gotten into and with the influence of the excellent Mark & Lard, Chris Evans and a fast emerging Chris Moyles (although I’d rather cut my ears off than listen to him now). I met a good friend who I ended up doing a radio programme on Wolverhampton Campus Radio – a long term RSL on AM broadcasting to Wolverhampton College, it was fun. Lots of fun.

I decided to head to University, the place that offered the best course was in Warrington – a place I will never miss. I spent most of my study/work time helping set up a student radio station which last time I checked is still going. I only lasted a year, before deciding it wasn’t for me.

I headed back home and within a year I’d got a full time job with Wolverhampton Campus Radio, while I learned much more about radio, radio production and management. Just before I left WCR I started working with a place called The Public in West Bromwich and we successfully applied for a radio licence, a 5 year FM licence to broadcast community oriented radio. All went well until the The Public’s much publicised demise, the administrators were called in and the first thing to go was their support my company that would eventually run the station. Bad times.

During this time I was working in technical support for an ISP, a boring unsatisfying job – but it paid a half decent wage, so I stuck it out, after about a year or so I was given the opportunity to move into the Network Operations Team which is where I still am to this day. My computer/networking knowledge has grown tenfold and I am still learning every day, it’s sometimes fun, sometimes challenging, sometimes downright annoying.

So here we are, why am I writing this? I have no idea, I just sat here and out it came. Thinking about what I’ve just written I’m pleased my IT knowledge has grown but I’m still pretty sure it’s not what I want to do for the rest of my working life.

I have been asked to get involved with some old radio friends to help set up an Restricted Service Radio Licence somewhere in Shropshire next year, I’m so up for helping out – I just hope I can fit it around my job. I’m still desperate to work in theatre sound & light and perhaps radio again but I’m worried it might be too late – am I destined to spend a life in IT?

Only time will tell huh?

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Bloggage

By bigdaddymerk | 2/7/2009

I guess I should blog more huh?

In the meantime here is a video of a Monkey taunting some tigers.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Is the Shropshire Star run by 6th form media students?

By bigdaddymerk | 31/3/2009

Dear Sirs,

http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/03/31/mp-calls-for-expenses-reform/

The above URL links to an online article titled: MP calls for expenses reform, reporting that Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard has called for
expenses reform.

The quotes here are EXACTLY the same words used by Mark on the Jim Hawkins show on Radio Shropshire leading me to two possible scenarios;

1) Mark pre rehearsed the lines, and sent a written copy to the Star upon request.

2) Some lazy hack in Ketley was listening to the radio this morning and wrote his piece based upon it.

If number two is the correct answer then why not cite the source of your quotes here and give Jim and his team the respect they are due?

If number one is the correct answer then forgive my tone, but given the recent ‘borrowing’ of the Wrekin/Gem stone story from the Birmingham Post finance editor (Source), I’m starting to wonder if the Shropshire Star is being run by 6th form media students.

I would appreciate if it someone would look into this issue and explain the stance. Can I also ask that if, like many times before, my concerns are ignored I shall take this to mean that the Shropshire Star does not mind any form of plagiarism and I am okay to reproduce the entire day’s paper verbatim and sell it at a 5p lower than the Star?

Kind Regards

Merk

Update: I have an email back from the Internet Editor who writes: It could be, of course, that Mr Pritchard gave his comments to Radio Shropshire and the Shropshire Star. Have you considered that possibility?

To which I reply yes I have, thats why I have asked the question.

Update II: This isn’t some sort of personal vendetta against my local newspaper but another possible example of the dwindling standards of journalism and I think that is a shame.

Posted in Entertainment, Local, Rants | 11 Comments

Spotify – The future of music delivery?

By bigdaddymerk | 19/2/2009

As of January 2009 95% of music downloads are illegal, even with hard line tactics from the BPI, the dominance of Itunes and Amazon’s non-DRM music centre have not been able to stem the flow of illegal downloads.

While the music industry still doesn’t really get the internet and continues to dish out threats to ISP’s and court orders to your average person, some in the industry realise that court cases and legal download services might not be the only answer.

Enter Spotify, the music streaming software – an application that allows users to pick from a massive library of music, create and share playlists and discover new music.  Spotify has been launched some European Countries (including the UK) with the backing of lots of Major Record Companies.

The service simply works by installing a itunes like client to your Windows or Mac (Linux though WINE, and Mobile devices are being worked on according to Spotify) and away you go – the only proviso is that you have internet access – tracks are streamed in the Ogg Vorbis q5 format at 160Kb/s – quality is probably better than your average downloaded mp3 (although still miles away from CD Quality).

Available in three modes at the minute, free – ad supported, daily pass (Ad free for 24 hours) and Monthly subscription with no Ad’s whatsoever. At the moment I know of no one who is paying the monthly subscription fee but I would certainly consider it in the future as I imagine Spotify will grow in popularity and have to cover more costs – at this point I expect to hear more Adverts.

I’d also consider paying the daily fee for uninterrupted music at a party – this way people can search and choose whatever music they want to hear, in essence this becomes like a free pub jukebox.

Spotify has really got me thinking about this method of music delivery, with 75% and growing broadband penetration in UK households there are few reasons for people to consider downloading music to play via their home pc, media centre, music hub etc, when we can just stream everything we want – there is also less reason to illegally download tracks, this is a big plus for the record companies which is why I think they will continue to support this type of service.

The only real downside I can see to a streaming music service like Spotify is mobile music – with millions of people owning ipods and similar mp3 players it’s going to be a while before people no longer need permanent audio files on their devices but I think with the fast expansion of mobile broadband, free wifi and HSDPA and it’s faster successors I don’t think the idea of streaming music everywhere is beyond the realms of possibility.

Other option is the ability to have a closed system that downloads the tracks to a device that can only be played with the right credentials – then at least you could have music where there is no net access, a Car perhaps.

While there is much more to be be explored and developed in this area Spotify are certainly heading in the right direct and maybe just, maybe it’s enough to convince the record companies to stop dipping their toes in the water and get right in.

I have some invites left for Spotify if you would like one.

Posted in Geekery, Music | 12 Comments