Microsoft’s bright iDea

The rumour-mongers are convinced that Microsoft is going to attack the iPod head-on later this year, and MacDailyNews reckons that the firm has an interesting gimmick for potential switchers: if you go the Microsoft route, Microsoft’s software will scan your copy of iTunes for any tracks you’ve bought from Apple and then let you download copies of those tracks in Windows Media format for free.

Three initial thoughts:

* It’s a nice idea, despite the cackles from the Apple faithful. While it’s possible to re-rip your iTMS purchases as DRM-free MP3s (or whatever), it’s a pain in the arse to do it if you’ve more than a handful of tracks.

* That said, Microsoft’s solution means you’re trading one lot of DRMed music for another.

* Wouldn’t it be funny if the iTunes tool got hacked and told Microsoft that *all* your iTunes library – ripped CDs, bittorrent downloads and all – had been purchased from the iTMS?

Biffo on broadcasting

I think I’m a reasonably good writer, and as an occasional mouthpiece on the radio I’m ok at that too. But my two telly experiences have been unmitigated disasters – have you seen Broadcast News? The sweaty bloke? Multiply it by ten and you’ve got me – and when I’m without a script, I’m lost.

The ever reliable Mr Biffo, a man whose writing is ten thousand times funnier than mine, nails it:

When I was writing about videogames for a living I frequently got dragged into TV or radio studios to say something loosely interesting on the topic of games, but I’m sure I always disappointed. I think my Digitiser persona led people to believe that I had a form of Tourette’s, where I spent my life shouting “Moc-moc-a-moc”, and going off on surreal tangents about Mr T’s bins. In reality, when I have a microphone shoved under my nose I’m just a bit dull, mainly because I’m trying very hard not to swear.

…there is a gulf of difference between being able to write to a reasonable degree, and being able to stand in front of a camera and not look like you’re going to be sick.

That, incidentally, is why I blog rather than podcast: I’ve got a reasonably good voice and I’m reasonably good at the delivery, but I wouldn’t be able to do it off the cuff – I’d have to script it. And if I’m going to script it, why not just publish the script and be done with it, instead of reading it out and trying not to swear?

How the interent works

I know this has been doing the blog rounds already, but hey! I like it!

US Senator Ted Stevens explains how the Internet works and why net neutrality is a bad thing:

There’s one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.

But this service isn’t going to go through the interent and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.

Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.

The beautiful game

In the interests of balance:

A Portuguese family was attacked minutes after England were knocked out of the World Cup on Saturday.

Their car was vandalised and a brick thrown through their house window when a crowd gathered on an estate where Portuguese families have settled.

Don’t you just love the way football brings different nationalities together?

Ow, my eyes

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Is anyone else getting horrible blurry text on the front page of Amazon.co.uk? I suspect it’s a combination of OS X, Firefox and some weird font issue. Doesn’t seem to affect any of Amazon’s other pages, either.

.net’s got a brand new look

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The new issue of .net is dubbed the “redesign issue”, partly because the issue’s main focus this month is on redesigning sites, and partly because the magazine itself’s had a revamp. I finally got to see the finished product yesterday and I really like it: the design’s grown up without being dull, and the magazine itself feels more focused – the redesign involves more than just a new look; it also means new sections, new writers and a team of editorial advisors who work at the sharp end of web design and development. But most importantly of all, the cover’s printed on really nice paper.