• Another post about shoes

    I was round at the in-laws a few weeks ago, and my wife and I were talking about going shopping. I mumbled something about looking for some work boots. “You don’t need any more shoes,” my wife pointed out. She’s right: I have far too many pairs of shoes, because I can’t resist a decent…

  • Firefox 1.5 (final) out

    The site hasn’t been updated yet, but Firefox 1.5 is out of beta. If you’re running RC1 or RC2 you can get the final version via Help > Check For Updates. Later that day… Looks like I’ve been misinformed. While the About screen says it’s just Firefox 1.5, the site is listing it as RC3…

  • iTunes prices to go up, says EMI boss

    The boss of EMI says iTunes prices will have to go up, because the labels aren’t making enough money. According to the article: Artists, represented by music publishers, take home only around 6 cents from every 99 cents sale, with recording rights holders earning around 65 cents. By charging more, the labels will pay the…

  • Blogrolling: bogroll?

    Just a quickie: does anybody actually use the blogrolling links over there? —–> The reason for the question is that the blogrolling code seriously slows down page load times, and I’m starting to think it’d make more sense to zap it and just link to things from the appropriate blog post. Would that be a…

  • Technorati gets an update

    Blog search engine Technorati has been given a damn good tweaking, and the most obvious difference is that it’s much, much faster than before. I’ve added its blog search to this humble tome, and so far the search speeds have been really impressive – particularly compared to Google which, for no apparent reason, seems to…

  • Napster ups bitrates. Tough luck if you’ve already paid

    I hate to say I told you so… One of the things I don’t trust about digital downloads is the issue of quality: specifically, if you buy a not-great-quality 128Kbps file today because that’s all that’s available, what’s to stop the online shop from upping the bitrate a few months later to something more sensible…

  • Digital downloads: a big step backwards

    There’s an interesting op-ed in today’s Register about the way in which digital downloads are sold in specific territories. The writer makes some good points: In Australia, under current laws, if physical CDs were 55% more expensive in Australia than the US, or were unavailable in Australia, retailers could simply import them from the US…

  • I don’t understand the Evening Times

    I’m baffled by the Evening Times web site, which takes a really weird approach to the Net (the Evening Times is Glasgow’s nightly newspaper). It used to work like this: if you logged on after 2pm, you’d be able to read that day’s edition. If you logged on before 2pm, you’d still see the previous…

  • Is Sony stopping you from getting cheaper electronics?

    This isn’t Sony’s month. According to the Register, Sony is one of several electronics firms that charges 10-15% more to web retailers than to high street shops. The article says: This “dual pricing” strategy – designed to narrow the price differential between net and high street – was allegedly initiated by Sony and quickly adopted…

  • Pain stops play

    An Italian production of A View from the Bridge was hurriedly rescripted when an audience member complained about the on-stage smoking. After a 15-minute suspension, the performance resumed with a modified script and a non-smoking protagonist. Pity they didn’t add another scene where the entire cast descends on a single audience member with baseball bats.