Stuart Homfray The Weblog

Last.fm Signs Deal with Sony BMG

Interesting news that Last.fm, the social music website, has signed a deal with Sony allowing members to listen to the entire range of Sony BMG’s music on it’s radio service. Now personally, I would never be inclined to attack Last.fm as it was through them that I met the woman that I am moving to Prague for, but signing a deal with a company with a track record like Sony’s (remember the rootkits) could be a step too far… It will be interesting to see what else Sony may get out of the deal - anyone got any mp3s of Sony artists that they may have downloaded? :-)

The Good Old Days…

The review of the i am 8-bit art exhibition in Wired today certainly took me back a few years to the days of ?LOAD ERROR and SYS 64738, so I thought that I’d have a little look back at my favourite games since the days of byte-sized computers.

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Tintin: The Boy Who Never Grew Up

I have never liked the Tintin stories. Even as a youngster, I found them to be slow, basic, plodding affairs because of their simplicity and their tendency to progress from beginning to end via lots and lots and LOTS of clichéd events.

Still, I always wondered why he never seemed to get any older, and thanks to Raymond Chen’s blog post, it all seems to become clear. A remarkable piece of research highlighted within the Canadian Medical Association Journal actually demonstrates the possible causes of Tintin’s delayed puberty. Who could have believed that Herge would put so much effort into medical accuracy?!?

Not Like This In My Day

It’s been a long time since I last heard an evening show (in fact ANY show) on BBC Radio 1. I’ve just turned off a show on there at the moment that appears to be hosted by someone that is educationally subnormal on their first day at a radio studio.

This person talks over records that have barely started, he attempts to sing along, he talks loudly with his mouth too close to the microphone, he makes strange noises, and he seems to be so impressed with all of the buttons and switches with little lights on them that he has to press them all.

The name of this individual is, I am told, Zane Lowe, and apparently, he’s even DJ’d before.

Now I don’t wish to get into a rant about how Radio 1 used to be better in the good old days (Peely was/is superb, and even Lamacq’s Evening Session was OK, despite his enthusiasm for terms such as ‘boss tunage’), but come on - this Zane Lowe character seems to have no respect for the music that he plays! He seems to be more intent on coming across as some sort of watered-down, indie-loving, wannabe Westwood (another strange fella - I happen to like a lot of hip-hop, but when it’s introduced by a vicar’s son attempting to sound like some bad-ass mo’fo from da street, I’m afraid I have to leave the room).

Oh, it HAS turned into a rant after all, but what the hell! I happen to think that it might be a good idea to have a DJ that actually knows about the music itself, as opposed to one that happens to have met the musicians/producers at some sponsored gig or record company promo party.

Well Done Tony B

Congratulations go to Tony Bunyan (who else could I mean?), editor of Statewatch (a non-profit voluntary group that investigates and reports on European justice, accountability and civil liberties) for his selection as one of the 50 most influential people in the EU for 2004 by the European Voice newspaper. He is nominated within the Campaigner of the Year category for his campaign to protect civil liberties, put at risk by the package of anti-terrorism measures.

Tony commented: It is very good to see that our work the “war on terrorism” and its effect on civil liberties in Europe has been recognised.

It’s a pity that the TV and press do not fulfill their potential by investigating and discussing some of the issues that both Statewatch and Media Lens examine. It is, after all, in the interests of everybody that we analyse and challenge new laws proposed by Government(s), especially as:

• most of the security issues are down to the actions of those same Governments, and
• Statewatch’s “Scoreboard” [pdf] and analysis finds that 27 out of 57 EU proposals have little or nothing to do with tackling terrorism - they deal with crime in general and surveillance