IE7 versus Slashdotters

So it’s been delayed in Japan because of unspecified issues (probably to do with localisation) and Slashdot comments are an absolute moron-fest. There are way too many people in there caught completely by surprise by this thing, including one who ironically says “Thanks Redmond” after IE7 broke their business’ online payment system.

Why not just wear a t-shirt saying “I’m an ignoramus”?

Clearly, your business depends on it, clearly, it’s coming soon, clearly… you did nothing. Oh, yeah, that’s Redmond’s fault.

I’m really appreciating a lot that Microsoft are doing of late, so, without wanting to sound like too much of a fanboy, let me just remark that this person had it coming and any issues faced are entirely their own problem and responsibility. Moron.

Enrolledish (plus rants, etc.)

Eighteen per semester. Was the best I could manage. But it’s now officially submitted and done so before the online cutoff of November 10 so that’s one less thing…

But I haven’t got any education units. Or any history units. And… that has certain drawbacks.

I.Am.So.Confused.

Meanwhile, I declared war on Taiwan today on account of a particularly vermicious vehicle for volumes of veraciously vacuous vignettes. Or just regular data. But whatever, it’s a decidedly evil external hard drive enclosure with USB2 and SATA2 ports on it. SATA2 works great, USB2 worked great for all of about five minutes and then stopped working on every computer known to mankind. Where mankind = my house. Which is not quite sentient, but getting there. *drapes more blue cables, pats switch.*

This is punishment for not purchasing goods from where Josh recommends :) Nevermind that I recommended them once, I think that once, in the very distant past, I recommended Cworld and look where that got us. Okay, that fiasco was actually before content on this blog began. And I still haven’t forgiven them. I hold brand-grudges lonnnng time.

Present sweetheart supplier is Umart.net in Kingsford, because they’re nearly as cheap as MSY and within comfortable walking distance (or lightning-quick drive/bike distance). And the service isn’t too bad, either, especially when it comes to ordering stuff and getting it in same-day. Dad needed an external hard drive and bought the bits from THX (I will persist in calling them that for as long as I bloody well want to. Simply because thx.com.au is easier to type than txcomputer.com.au, and because tx.com.au was (unsurprisingly) taken — not by them. Rule number 1 in retail IT business naming: easy to recall/guess domain names. Most important IP a business like that will ever have. And, also, the name THX evokes all kinds of wonderful geeky nostalgic feelings which can’t be passed up lightly) who sold him a hard drive for $40 more than it would have cost from Umart and an enclosure for… who cares, it’s a piece of crap. Actually, so far as industrial design goes, it’s probably one of the better ones I’ve seen (if a little cramped), but the fact is it doesn’t work. So game over.

Ah, nothing like a good geeky rant to forget the troubles of the world as they pass by (IhaveanexamIwillprobablyfailonWednesdaymorningohcrap). In other moderately exciting news, apparently Raw Ideas are moving office to somewhere that there’s actually elbow room and I’m possibly going back there for some work over the summer. Depends a lot on how project stuff goes between now and the end of the year but it’s nice to have options. Would be good to be working full hours for a few weeks even if it’s split between employers. Australia needs more web monkeys (optionally imported as stowaways from China).

Again with the DRM’d music

I want to buy a CD right now. I’ve heard an artist I love, I want to hear more of it, and I can’t buy it online. Well, I possibly could (though as an artist on an Australian indie label they’re probably not exactly available through URGE or iTMS) but certainly not in any instantly-gratifiable way. Which is really the rub, isn’t it?

If I bought DRM’d music, I could have it now. If I wait a few days, I can have it DRM free. This applies as much to obscure artists on indie labels as it does to top 40 hits: even so-called ‘enhanced’ CDs are close enough to Red Book spec that you can rip the guts out of them to beautiful lossless FLAC files without much difficulty.

That’s what’s so bloody illogical about this whole conundrum: I can still get content in better-than-iTunes quality without DRM. I just can’t have it now.

Why not just let me have it now as an MP3 (OGG or FLAC would be nicer, but I’d settle for less ;-)) whilst I wait for the CD to arrive? What about this model doesn’t make sense? I would buy so much more music if licensers played to my at-computer (or, in this case, in-room at-radio) impulse buying tendencies. I doubt they’re ever going to get it.

Nyah!

Perhaps just to prove my capacity for strenuous research (and procrastination), I compiled a tracklisting by ear of the absolute all-time classic mix CD, Nyah, which I located today when searching for a power brick completely by accident.

1. Ameno – Era
2. The Energy – Audiovent
3. The World I Know – Collective Soul
4. Outside of Me – Killing Heidi
5. One Last Breath – Creed
6. No Such Thing – John Mayer
7. Wonderful – Everclear
8. All Star – Smashmouth
9. Everything – M2M
10. I’m Too Sexy – MC Hammer
11. Clubbed to Death (Kurayamino Mix) – Rob D
12. Outside – Staind
13. Stop Crying Your Heart Out – Oasis
14. Disease – Matchbox 20
15. Underneath It All – No Doubt
16. 2′s Company – Charlton Hill
17. Sk8er Boi – Avril. (Of course!)
18. I Can’t Wait – Hilary Duff
19. Like a Prayer – Rufio

Ameno, the Like a Prayer cover, and Charlton Hill posed the most difficulties. But discovering the CD in a declining state, the power of such preservation efforts in the interest of nostalgia are well worth it.

Good. Times.

Digital restoration and redistribution required, methinks ;-) It’s funny because a lot of the tracks I heard and thought I’d done something bad to my headphones, then realised that’s just what highly compressed tracks off Napster sounded like back in the day. It’s been a while…

Eclipse rocks my socks and covers my ass

I just had my butt saved massively by Eclipse.

I’m not even using it with SVN/CVS but local versioning fixed an accidental overwrite. Best. App. Ever. It just secured its place as my markup development tool of choice. I used to be ambivalent about it where there wasn’t any PHP (using the excellent PHP Eclipse plugin) involved, because of lack of syntax highlighting and whatever else (this can be remedied very quickly using the Eclipse Web Standard Tools (WST) subproject, but it isn’t installed by default), but for everything else it offers, and for the inevitable transition into a programming language once projects reach a certain stage, it’s so worth using earlier in the process anyway.

*happy-relieved sigh*