Tässä reilun puolentoista vuoden kokemuksella latausmusiikin myymisestä, puran hieman tuntojani asian tiimoilta. Kokemusta löytyy muuten myös kivijalkakaupassa myymisestä, olin myymässä yhdessä Helsingin ydinkeskustan vilkkaimmista ja villeimmistä kaupoista (eli metrotunnelin Free Record Shopissa, jossa varkaiden lisäksi olivat huolena känniläiset, nistit ja muut piripäät), joten koen että minulla on jopa ihan hyvä kuva fyysisten levyjen kaupasta.
Kritiikkini kohdistuu lähinnä levy-yhtiöihin ja siihen tapaan jolla he digitalista musiikkikauppaa hoitavat ja siihen suhtautuvat. Ravintoketjun loppupäässä meinaan tuntuu ettei digipuolen tuotteisiin kohdisteta juuri lainkaan laadunvalvontaa ja että kyseessä on jokin toissijainen toiminto jota on pakko harrastaa "siks ku muutki".
Muutamat levy-yhtiöt sentään ovat ottaneet aktiivisesti osaa mainostukseen ja kampanjointiin, mutta kyseessä on aika pieni yksityiskohta, jossa useimmiten keskitytään ns. varmojen nakkien puffaamiseen bannerien ja sen sellaisten muodossa.
Asiakaspalvelijana koen tilanteen erittäin epämielyttäväksi ja huomattavan kuumottavaksi, jopa siinä määrin että pitää huutaa vessassa ärräpäitä kun keittää yli.
Kritiikkini kohdistuu lähinnä levy-yhtiöihin ja siihen tapaan jolla he digitalista musiikkikauppaa hoitavat ja siihen suhtautuvat. Ravintoketjun loppupäässä meinaan tuntuu ettei digipuolen tuotteisiin kohdisteta juuri lainkaan laadunvalvontaa ja että kyseessä on jokin toissijainen toiminto jota on pakko harrastaa "siks ku muutki".
Muutamat levy-yhtiöt sentään ovat ottaneet aktiivisesti osaa mainostukseen ja kampanjointiin, mutta kyseessä on aika pieni yksityiskohta, jossa useimmiten keskitytään ns. varmojen nakkien puffaamiseen bannerien ja sen sellaisten muodossa.
Asiakaspalvelijana koen tilanteen erittäin epämielyttäväksi ja huomattavan kuumottavaksi, jopa siinä määrin että pitää huutaa vessassa ärräpäitä kun keittää yli.
18/05 -10: Club 3D GeForce 7600 GT, busted
Well, had one of them 3D graphics cards mentioned in the title blow up on me.
What rubs me the wrong way about it was that it was just few months over the warranty. The peeps over at Club 3D were nice enough and replied fast, but I was hoping for a comp of somekind.
Ended up buying a slightly better Radeon card, but which is old as well. Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 AGP.
Here is a nice shot of the offending piece of hardware:
Busted!
What rubs me the wrong way about it was that it was just few months over the warranty. The peeps over at Club 3D were nice enough and replied fast, but I was hoping for a comp of somekind.
Ended up buying a slightly better Radeon card, but which is old as well. Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 AGP.
Here is a nice shot of the offending piece of hardware:
Busted!
06/05 -10: UK Motorola Milestone got Android love
I decided to wait until the official update comes and that day was today. Over-the-air came smoothly, rebooted and installed without a hitch and I'm happily running Android 2.1. You can find the info on what is new elsewhere, what I wanted to write was the small prob I had with the multimedia station.
After putting the phone in the dock, the dock software kept crashing and only option was force close it every time it was started. I even rebooted the phone to no avail. But finally it dawned on me tha you need to clear settings from before the update.
To do that go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > press menu and choose Filter > All, locate and select 'Multimedia Station' and then 'clear data'.
After that you need to set the weather app for the dock, unless you get the correct one automatically. Done.
After putting the phone in the dock, the dock software kept crashing and only option was force close it every time it was started. I even rebooted the phone to no avail. But finally it dawned on me tha you need to clear settings from before the update.
To do that go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > press menu and choose Filter > All, locate and select 'Multimedia Station' and then 'clear data'.
After that you need to set the weather app for the dock, unless you get the correct one automatically. Done.
21/03 -10: Android Developer Challenge 2
I just happened to notice that the ADC2 is over (how did I miss it completely?) and the winners are online.
The lists are usually a good list of stuff to check out, so I'm making a list of my own, for stuff that I should install, try out and decide if I have any use for them later.
So here goes:
Overall Winners
Entertainment
Games: Arcade/Action
Games: Casual/Puzzle
Productivity/Tools
Social Networking
Rest of the lists can be found at the Android Developer Challenge -page
The lists are usually a good list of stuff to check out, so I'm making a list of my own, for stuff that I should install, try out and decide if I have any use for them later.
So here goes:
Overall Winners
Entertainment
Games: Arcade/Action
Games: Casual/Puzzle
Productivity/Tools
Social Networking
Rest of the lists can be found at the Android Developer Challenge -page
So far I've figured out homescreen dimensions for wallpapers is 960 x 854 px, but haven't yet had the chance to test this. I've got Android 2.0.1 installed.
If anyone can verify or disprove this, please do so in the comments.
At first I thought its just height and 3x the width (one for each home screen), but apparently it pans the wallpaper like 80% for each of the two "side screen".
If anyone can verify or disprove this, please do so in the comments.
At first I thought its just height and 3x the width (one for each home screen), but apparently it pans the wallpaper like 80% for each of the two "side screen".
09/03 -10: Roadburn - running order for bands is online
The running order for Roadburn 2010 is on line!
But it looks rather damn depressing on several occasions, from personal perspective here are the lowlights.
Thursday:
Yob (plays another set on SAT) - Earthless
Eyehategod - Sons of Otis (plays another set on SAT)
Saturday:
Candlemass - Astra
Fatso Jetson - Sons of Otis (plays another set on THU, argh)
Moss - Brant Bjork - Shrinebuilder
The Gates of Slumber - Yob (splays another set on THU, argh) - Garcia plays Kyuss
There are a lot of other gigs going on top of another interesting ones, obviously, but most of the time one _can_ if one _feels inclined_ to run from stage to another until worn out after few hours and see atleast something of the gigs. These are the ones that I would really like to see full shows or atleast most of it.
I do have to stress that it is such a great feeling to go to a festival where you _KNOW_ you will catch a good band no matter where you go, more or less anyway.
I'll be making a Spotify playlist of the bands at the festival later on, so stay tuned for that.
But it looks rather damn depressing on several occasions, from personal perspective here are the lowlights.
Thursday:
Yob (plays another set on SAT) - Earthless
Eyehategod - Sons of Otis (plays another set on SAT)
Saturday:
Candlemass - Astra
Fatso Jetson - Sons of Otis (plays another set on THU, argh)
Moss - Brant Bjork - Shrinebuilder
The Gates of Slumber - Yob (splays another set on THU, argh) - Garcia plays Kyuss
There are a lot of other gigs going on top of another interesting ones, obviously, but most of the time one _can_ if one _feels inclined_ to run from stage to another until worn out after few hours and see atleast something of the gigs. These are the ones that I would really like to see full shows or atleast most of it.
I do have to stress that it is such a great feeling to go to a festival where you _KNOW_ you will catch a good band no matter where you go, more or less anyway.
I'll be making a Spotify playlist of the bands at the festival later on, so stay tuned for that.
Well, the big hype today has been the launch of Google Buzz, which is their take on social media and interaction. I've not gotten it to my GMail yet, as they're "rolling it out incrementally", but I did get to try it with my Milestone and later, when I found out, through my Google profile (try google.com/profiles/me to see yours).
What's even cooler about this all is the love they're giving to us Android users, not only did they update the Maps 4.0 app, it has Buzz support in it. While they were at it, they also threw in Turn-by-Turn instructions and with additional package off the market, it started to speak the turns. Awesome!
- Google Maps for Android Get Buzz Support @ Mashable
- The Buzz is out @ Zengestrom (Jaiku developer and later Buzz too)
What's even cooler about this all is the love they're giving to us Android users, not only did they update the Maps 4.0 app, it has Buzz support in it. While they were at it, they also threw in Turn-by-Turn instructions and with additional package off the market, it started to speak the turns. Awesome!
- Google Maps for Android Get Buzz Support @ Mashable
- The Buzz is out @ Zengestrom (Jaiku developer and later Buzz too)
27/01 -10: Motorola Milestone, Nokia N900, Apple iPhone
The Android versus Maemo thing is pretty useless, so I'm not doing that. I'm just gathering some of my impressions from Nokia N900 which I have in my use for a couple of days, due to my own phone, the Motorola Milestone (or Droid for any yanks out there), is elsewhere.
To sum it up.
I really don't like N900 at all, it's too much of a device that oozes "I need tweaking and hacking" nerdish mentality, looks awful (device) and feels even worse. I do like the desktop look/graphics, but the touchscreen and UI ruin even that for me. Wouldn't want to use it even if it was given to me for free.
I like iPhone OK, while most of my experience is from iPod Touch, the UI is there and the user experience is very much similar. It's a sleek, fine tuned designer device, which is more for "The Cool People" than a useful tool for people like me. It is missing too many key functions, that I would choose something else over it if I had to, but wouldn't be offended if I had to use it.
I really like Motorola Milestone, mostly because of the balance between great UI design and usability, but also because it has a lot of the capabilities which gives me the option of tweaking and hacking it. It looks very business like, while it has some engineering nerdiness to it, but definately not the kind of device hipsters would want to own or show off.
To sum it up.
I really don't like N900 at all, it's too much of a device that oozes "I need tweaking and hacking" nerdish mentality, looks awful (device) and feels even worse. I do like the desktop look/graphics, but the touchscreen and UI ruin even that for me. Wouldn't want to use it even if it was given to me for free.
I like iPhone OK, while most of my experience is from iPod Touch, the UI is there and the user experience is very much similar. It's a sleek, fine tuned designer device, which is more for "The Cool People" than a useful tool for people like me. It is missing too many key functions, that I would choose something else over it if I had to, but wouldn't be offended if I had to use it.
I really like Motorola Milestone, mostly because of the balance between great UI design and usability, but also because it has a lot of the capabilities which gives me the option of tweaking and hacking it. It looks very business like, while it has some engineering nerdiness to it, but definately not the kind of device hipsters would want to own or show off.
22/12 -09: Laptop battery calibration (linux)
I've had problems with a bit older batteries on several occasion and couldn't find software which will calibrate it for me.
Well, since you don't need software for it and searching for this brings up a lot of questions and not much asnwers, I'm putting this up for myself and any interested parties.
Now, I mainly use Ubuntu myself, so this is for that particular flavour, but its not hard to replicate, no matter the system.
Recharge you battery to full, 100% if possible.
1. Right-click on the battery icon on tray and choose settings
2. Find the battery settings and set everything to "Never", ie. the system will not shutdown when battery is low
3. Let the machine run until battery is dry and machine switches off by itself. (not to suspend or shutdown, mind you)
4. You might want to take the battery out and then back in, no idea if this helps, but shouldn't hurt either.
5. Plug-in the AC-cable and let the battery recharge to full
This should re-calibrate the battery, sometimes it also works better/longer too.
You can do this several times during, say one week for better results.
Also, running the battery low/critical status once in a while, when they work fine, is also a good idea. Especially if you have it plugged in AC most of the time.
I've previously noticed improved performance on cellphones as well (my old Sony Ericsson P800 and P910 for example).
NOTE: Apparently sometimes just taking your battery off while the machine is running on AC-power and the putting it back on, helps too. But as it sounds a bit harsh to me, I'll be using the above way.
Well, since you don't need software for it and searching for this brings up a lot of questions and not much asnwers, I'm putting this up for myself and any interested parties.
Now, I mainly use Ubuntu myself, so this is for that particular flavour, but its not hard to replicate, no matter the system.
Recharge you battery to full, 100% if possible.
1. Right-click on the battery icon on tray and choose settings
2. Find the battery settings and set everything to "Never", ie. the system will not shutdown when battery is low
3. Let the machine run until battery is dry and machine switches off by itself. (not to suspend or shutdown, mind you)
4. You might want to take the battery out and then back in, no idea if this helps, but shouldn't hurt either.
5. Plug-in the AC-cable and let the battery recharge to full
This should re-calibrate the battery, sometimes it also works better/longer too.
You can do this several times during, say one week for better results.
Also, running the battery low/critical status once in a while, when they work fine, is also a good idea. Especially if you have it plugged in AC most of the time.
I've previously noticed improved performance on cellphones as well (my old Sony Ericsson P800 and P910 for example).
NOTE: Apparently sometimes just taking your battery off while the machine is running on AC-power and the putting it back on, helps too. But as it sounds a bit harsh to me, I'll be using the above way.
12/10 -09: Obama's Nobel
What the hell is so hard to understand about this thing?
For fux sake; us, the rest of the world, feel uttermost relief in knowing that anyone from the Bush genepool is not in the helm of the notoriously warmongering country, which happens to have the biggest stack of nuclear weaponry in their cupboard.
What I find most funny is the republican reaction, that the rest of the world is making fun and/or disrespecting the whole nation with this Nobel prize.
When infact its the other way around; We were doing that for two presidental terms in a row, but now are genuinely applauding you for the complete reversal.
Personally, being a total misanthropist and pessimist, I feel that this is a fluke like the proverbial million monkeys typing and eventually creating the collected works of Shakespeare.
See the following video for voice of sanity on the subject of Obama Derangement Syndrome @ SchizoBlog.
For fux sake; us, the rest of the world, feel uttermost relief in knowing that anyone from the Bush genepool is not in the helm of the notoriously warmongering country, which happens to have the biggest stack of nuclear weaponry in their cupboard.
What I find most funny is the republican reaction, that the rest of the world is making fun and/or disrespecting the whole nation with this Nobel prize.
When infact its the other way around; We were doing that for two presidental terms in a row, but now are genuinely applauding you for the complete reversal.
Personally, being a total misanthropist and pessimist, I feel that this is a fluke like the proverbial million monkeys typing and eventually creating the collected works of Shakespeare.
See the following video for voice of sanity on the subject of Obama Derangement Syndrome @ SchizoBlog.
