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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.
Vertaisin tilannetta siihen että kivijalkakaupassa asiakkaalle myytäisiin tuote, jota on mainostettu toisaalla hienoin värimainoksin ja upein sanakääntein, mutta levy-yhtiö toimittaa kaupalle milloin mitäkin.
Ensimmäinen pienerä levyä on sitä mitä pitää, mutta siitä tuntuu puuttuvan yksi tai useampi biisi. Seuraava laatikollinen on samaa levyä, mutta nimeen on lisätty "deluxe versio" ja tuo aiemmin puuttunut biisi on nyt mukana sekä korkeampi hinta. Seuraava laatikko on deluxe version biiseillä varustettua levyä, mutta valokopioiduilla kansilla ja sitä seuraava taas kunnon kansilla sekä deluxe merkinnöillä varustettu tuote, mutta fyysinen levy on itse poltettu CD-R joka hyppii kaikissa soittimissa.
Tässä vaiheessa asiakas kyselee eri versioiden eroista ja osa asiakkaista palauttaa levyn pettyneenä kauppaan, pyytäen vielä tässä vaiheessa kohteliaasti meitä toimittamaan sitä versiota mistä mainoksissa oli puhe ja joka toimii.

Erona kivijalkalevykauppoihin ja jatkaakseni vertauksien käyttöä, joudumme ottamaan yhteyttä siihen tahoon joka levyt on meille kuljettanut jos haluamme valittaa tai kysellä em. tuotteista ja niiden vioista. Kuljetusfirma ottaa yhteyttä levyjä jakelevaan tahoon, joka sitten mahdollisesti saa kiinni levy-yhtiön suoraan tai mutkan kautta. Muutaman päivän viiveellä vastaukseksi saapuu viesti "joo, kaikki ok" ja siitä parin viikon päästä uusi erä levyjä, joka näyttäisi olevan sekoitus kaikkia aimmin tulleita versioita, mutta joka sentään tuntuu soivan normaalisti ja suurin osa asiakkaista sen hyväksyy. Ne jotka eivät hyväksy, saavat levynsä lisäksi ilmaisia sinkkuja tai levyjä levykaupan piikkiin.

Samaan aikaan toisaalla:
Levy-yhtiön edustajat huutavat kurkku suorana että heitä kusetetaan, voitot vähenevät ja kauppa ei käy. Vaikka kauppa itseasiassa kyllä käy, mutta digitalista myyntiä ei ilmeisesti lasketa mukaan, etteivät numerot näytä liian hyvältä. Itse olen nähnyt lukuja ja käyriä, joissa myynti on oikeastaan pysynyt samana, mutta se vaan jakaantuu hieman erilailla.

Tiivistäen, digimyyntiin ei satsata aikaa, vaivaa, rahaa, sitä ei tueta, eikä sen laadulle ole mitään standardeja tai laadunvalvontaa, koska sitä ei pidetä tarpeeksi hyvänä tulonlähteenä. Tai siitä ei vaan yksinkertaisesti pidetä. Digitaliset versiot levyistä tuntuvat liian usein olevan kesäapulaisten ja työelämääntutustujien hommia, ihmisten joilla ei ole asiasta mitään hajua eikä mitään kiinnostusta sen kanssa toimimiseen, puhumattakaan laaduntarkkailusta.

On sangen epäkiitollista pitää yllä laadukasta MP3-muotoista musiikkia myyvää kauppaa, kun lähtökohtaisesti ketään muuta ei tunnu kiinnostavan onko materiaali laadukasta vai ei. Kunhan rahaa tulee. Mutta ei sitä rahaa tule jos asiakas saa rahansa vastineeksi paskaa.

Vuosikausia levy-yhtiöt vetkuttelivat ja vaikeuttivat asiakkaidensa mahdollisuuksia hankkia musiikkinsa siinä muodossa jossa he sen halusivat. Kun asiakkaat sitten keksivät itse tapoja musiikin levittämiseen ja kuluttamiseen, ei ensimmäinen reaktio suinkaan ollut näiden keinojen jalostaminen ja omaksunta (hyvän bisnesvainun mukaisesti etten sanoisi), vaan miljoonien syytäminen näiden uusien keinojen kieltämiseen ja estämiseen. Sivunmennen kusten niiden asiakkaiden kintuille, jotka vielä halusivat levy-yhtiöiden vanhojen pelisääntöjen mukana pelata. Onko siis ihme että musiikki, ostamisen sijaan, otetaan verkosta maksutta?
Nyt kun olisi laadukkaita välineitä ja tapoja musiikin myymiseen digitalisessa muodossa, on se jätetty toissijaiseksi keinoksi, hieman samaan tapaan kuin aikoinaan kännyköiden soittoäänien myyminen.

Hinnoista on turha lähteä puhumaankaan, jos maailmaan suurin suljettu digitalisen musiikin myyntiin kehitetty järjestelmä ei saa kappalehintoja reippasti alle euroon, miten pienemmillä olisi mitään mahdollisuuksia moisiin urotekoihin. Kysyn vaan.]]> Musiikki http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=190 Fri, 21 May 2010 11:05:25 +0300 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=188
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:
]]> Hardis ja softa http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=188 Tue, 18 May 2010 22:13:21 +0300 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=186
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.]]> Android http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=186 Thu, 6 May 2010 22:20:08 +0300 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=184
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]]> Android http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=184 Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:49:00 +0200 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=182 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". ]]> Android http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=182 Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:43:40 +0200 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=180 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.]]> Music http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=180 Tue, 9 Mar 2010 22:35:57 +0200 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=176 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)

]]> Android http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=176 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:02:45 +0200 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=173 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.First of all, I've been using the Milestone for around 1,5 months and totally love it. The only things I miss on it are scandinavian keys (thats äöåÄÖÅ) on the hardware keyboard, which you can get them on the virtual one with free Market App Scandinavian Keyboard (and Finnish dictionary to boost).
I also miss the ability to buy apps from the market, I'd have to root the phone to get those and I don't want to do that just yet.

On a related note, my wife has has a iPod Touch for quite a while now, so I've also used that UI for reasonable amount of time and have quite a good idea what it is about.

Now the N900. My initial reaction was confusion. I booted, got it running and it took me 30 minutes to figure out what is the normal desktop view and how it was used. What also struck me as appalling was the feel of the touch screen. Also, had the person who gave the device to me not said it has a stylus pen on it, I'd have hated the device even more, since the zoom on it doesn't really work properly and thus you tend to miss a lot of links/icons and hit the wrong one. The resistive touchscreen (I think so anyway, Milestone/iPhone has capasitive ones) also requires a lot more force to register touches, which loses a lot of finesse and precision.

The whole device has a really plastic feel to it, when you type or use the screen it squeaks and creaks alot quite uncomfotably, which is strange as the device is pretty new.
Scrolling pages doesn't work too well, while I think the best device in making a difference between short/long press/swipe/pass/tap/etc. is the iPod/iPhone OS, Android is very good at it as well. Maemo is not. Quite the opposite, it seems to randomly make the descision what is being done. It really is not ment to be used with fingers, mine are not particularily stubby and I still had problems in this regard.

The Nokia "engineers UI" style of doing things is really turning me off, I've always abhorred their low to mid-budget phone menus and UI, which I find really confusing and illogical (the same sort of thing that Microsoft does with their settings/config menus). The same thing is present on this device as well, to a lesser degree, but it's there none the less. Seems that the UI is created to suit the programmer/engineer logic and not the user logic, a sort of flow chart style of design.

The device is heavy, clunky and quite thick, so I didn't like the feel of it in my pants pocket, which is where I keep it a lot. In comparison anyway.

having followed the Maemo discussion and user experiences for the N900, I can totally relate to most of them. I didn't use the pre-update version of the OS, but heard it was really unstable and prone to crash. I got a lot of small hang-ups and twitches, on things that work perfectly fine on my old SE W910i phone, which I found hilarious.]]> Android http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=173 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:42:44 +0200 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=171
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.]]> Hardis ja softa http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=171 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:09:38 +0200 http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=168 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.]]> Misc http://www.timetombs.net/tomblog/index.php?itemid=168 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:40:48 +0300