One of the Panic developers proposes a compensation model for the valuable time invested in social networks.
Certainly it would take something like this to make me sign up for any more, and I’m only on one.
(0)Monthly Archive for August, 2007
Today Apple quietly opened up the UK iTunes store for video. And it’s all at those great prices that the English have come to expect. Let me break it down:
In America a song from iTunes will cost you $0.99 (£0.49), and a video $1.99 (£0.99).
In England the same song will cost you £0.79 ($1.59), which is pretty bad. Anyway, at this stupid exchange rate you’d expect a video to cost £1.59 then, right? Wrong, video’s £1.89 ($3.81).
Wheeeee~
Even with the discounts for buying a whole season it’s rarely cheaper than getting the DVDs off Amazon (money quote: “If I am not going to get the physical box, extras, free artworks etc. then I want to pay a damned sight less than the DVD price.”). The DVDs that you can play in anything, and generally have a higher resolution (typically 720*480, as opposed to a maximum width of 640px for iTunes content).
Of course, the iTunes videos are pristine h.264 from the source, and thus so much better than anything Handbrake will make from the MPEG2 on those DVDs. Not to mention they’ll play without further dicking about on your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. What price convenience?
Yay for close-knit software/device/service ecosystems!
So, I’m doing a little research as to whether it’s OK to use Helen’s MacBook’s 60W power adaptor with my MacBook Pro (which generally requires an 85W adaptor, but it seems to be charging OK?), when I find a blog post about how to use the mag-safe adaptor.
Seriously, a body of writing complete with pictures detailing the intricacies of plugging it in to the wall, plugging it into the mac, swapping the plug head for another plug head or indeed, if you can imagine it, the extension cord.
Intrigued, I read further. Seems this fellow has a rather unique take on how-to blogs, with articles ranging from the possibly-obvious how to style your hair with wax, to the geeky how to apply thermal paste to a P4 chip, not forgetting the puzzling how to use post-it notes.
Seriously, post-it notes.
I wonder if I will ever meet the man who needed to have the concept of the post-it note explained to him, despite being able to command both computer and google with prowess enough to locate the explanation. He will have my pity, my derision, and my sincere hopes that he never finds a how-to for reproduction.
Today I sold both of Harwoods’ remaining 20″ white iMacs, those which have been superseded by the new hotness.
Nothing remarkable here, besides my ability to shill out-of-date machines (which is especially remarkable when you consider that the brand new ones were right next to the old ones). What is remarkable, however, is the machine that one of these customers was upgrading from. For you see, prior to today the gentleman in question had been using an electronic typewriter for all his document-processing needs.
Seriously, you get all sorts buying computers; a young lady today quite earnestly asked me if a Macbook would have enough room for all her essays, because she planned on writing rather a lot over the course of her degree. This one actually threw me more than the electronic typewriter, to tell you the truth, since this was pure bloody-minded ignorance. Then again, she was studying history.
Paul Thurott vies once more for a jackass of the week award by suggesting that the iPhone’s calculator app… wait for it… looks too much like a calculator.
(0)Billshare.org is a web 2.0 app for tracking shared bills. I’m really digging it, not least because it tells me I am owed money. It’s on the internet, so it must be true!
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