Tag: technology
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Apple Turnover
Despite having rented houses ever since I left England (some 20 years ago), every so often I think about how nice it would be to own my own home. Not because I think renting is money down the drain (although it is) or that I want to ‘put down roots’, or any of the usual reasons, but because I really want to wire the entire house for sound, so I can stream music to whatever room I am in at the push of a button (or swipe of a touchscreen). I’ve always got music on when I’m home – and… Read more
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Buying music not the medium
For several years now, I’ve been complaining about the need to pay twice for music if you want it in multiple formats. For example, I’ve got a reasonable selection of vinyl, but when CDs came out, they told us that we needed to upgrade to CDs for ‘superior quality’. (And now, ironically, they are marketing vinyl as the ‘purists’ medium!). I didn’t go out and replace all of my vinyl immediately, because I recognized it for the scam it was. The record companies and the artists have already had my money once for the purchase of the album – why… Read more
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Fun With Servers – Part 1*
A couple of years ago, for the fun of it, I wrote a book on UPK 3.5. The latest version of UPK (11.1) has now been available for several months, and although my current client doesn’t have it yet, I keep getting asked for an update to my book. Also, in the spirit of being a true ‘consultant’, I thought I’d better stay at least one step ahead of my client, who are upgrading soon, and learn about UPK 11 before I need to teach them about it. UPK 11.1 can run as a stand-alone product on a single PC,… Read more
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Microsoft: The Phisher King
This morning I got an email telling me that my 14-day free trial to Zune Music Pass is ending, and I will automatically be signed up for the monthly service at a cost of $9.99 per month, unless I cancel. It also handily provides a link for me to go online and confirm my account and payment details. I’ve never signed up, so figure that this is just a phishing attack, and am about to delete and ignore, but Zune is a Microsoft product an my eldest has an Xbox which is also Microsoft’s, so making a short mental leap,… Read more
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Fire Eyed Boy
A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of my latest toy – a Kindle Fire. I’d been eyeing Kindles for a while, and the combination of an ‘expanded functionality’ e-reader (I don’t know that I’d call it a full tablet PC) and a price point of $199.00 (and me having $199.00 worth of Amex Membership Rewards points to spare, for a net cost of zero) made the Kindle Fire an interesting proposition. It’s not really a ‘true’ Kindle in that it doesn’t use e-ink (which was really the main selling point of Kindles) but the screen is of a… Read more