BBC News - Microsoft reveals details of its Windows Store plan

BBC News - Microsoft reveals details of its Windows Store plan

You know, that's the other thing I mean to tell you about!

Suddenly ... ?

EVERYBODY's doing it ... !

Well, I say everybody ...

I've got to admit, I came across that little article, a couple of days ago, now.

Basically, to the effect that Microsoft is planning to release its own version of an app store, with the upcoming release of Windows 8.

Hmmm ...

The times really are a-changin'.

I've got to admit, I'm vaguely pleased to hear it.

Although it does - long term - make my chances of finding a retail job in the software sector harder, it should - at least in theory - bring software prices down.

Here's hoping, anyway ... !

The Parking Saga … AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know, I’ve got to admit, one thing I forgot to do — in yesterday’s posts about the parking on Rollason Way — was to put up the relevant letters I and the rest of my neighbours got, recently.

And, as you’d’ve worked out from those self-same posts, I think — think — that the government plans to ban wheel clamping on private is going to be problematic.

At any rate, it’s nice to see that the letters actually outlines where we’re allowed — with the permits — to park.

Which, as I recall, wasn’t well explained when the scheme started.

Sara Bartleman — our Neighbourhood Officer — even included a map …

Handy …

Because one thing I do know, afterdoing a little asking around, is the costs of putting a barrier on each car-park.

Which amounts to roughly £10, 000. Per barrier.

For a total of £60, 000.

I dread to think what that’ll do to the Service charge. Because I think something like that may be the only viable alternative.

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Actually, one more thing …

Remember — in the first of yesterday’s post about the parking — I also mentioned the Windoze refund … ?

Well, I found a couple of pieces on the technology section of the BBC’s website.

And also followed up on a link from PC makers, Dell, about Ubuntu, and a rather snotty open letter from Microsoft.

All of which makes it perfectly clear that you have to get any refund — for their product — from the makers of the computer. And only after you’ve ticked the box that says you’re refusing to use the pre-installed product.

Dead rats, anybody … ?

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Clash Of the Titans: Krakens, Gorgons, and TONS of CGI

You know, I am — quite possibly — going to seriously regret this in the morning.

But I, Kevin D and Movie Night Adrian, all happily got ourselves together for a film, tonight.

And, BOY, I think we are going to have …

Issues …

Or, at least, admit that we’ve seen a film that’s generated discussion.

Quite a bit of discussion, in fact.

Which is why I’ve STARTED this post about the 2010, Louis Leterrier, re-make of Clash of the Titans, at one in the morning … !

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Did I tell you Kevin and Adrian like looking inconspicuous?

No?

Kevin and Adrian like looking inconspicuous.

So you know …

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Boy, I’m tired …

At any rate, Adrian, Kevin and I had all got together, tonight, for our by-now-regular Saturday Night movie.

And, in case you’ve not worked out from the poster … ?

It was the newly released on video, 2010 Louis Leterrier, version of Clash of the Titans.

And I’ve got to admit, it is quite a visual spectacle.

Which caused quite a bit of discussion!

It sees Sam Worthington — he of Avatar and Terminator Salvation fame — as Ancient Greek hero, Perseus.

Who has something of a bad start in life, after his (human) father finds out that Perseus is really the son of Zeus: a Chief of the Gods played with a certain amount of gravitas by Liam Neeson.

Perseus is caught up in the war between the war between the Gods and the Greek kingdom of Argos when — as a result of the destruction of a statue of Zeus — his adoptive family are killed.

Leaving him at the Argos Royal Palace and being coerced into helping with the War and sent of a mission to kill the Kraken*: a creature originally created by Hades, to help he, and his brothers, Zeus, and Poseidon in their war against the Titans.

And a creature that the gods are threatening to unleash on the chief city of Argos, unless the Argosian royal Princess — Andromeda, played by Alexa Davalos — is sacrificed to the beast.

As you can possibly imagine, Clash of The Titans has BIG BUDGET BLOCKBUSTER written all over it …

Phew!

Actually, I mean ‘Phew’.

I’ve just had a look at the time: it’s getting on for 1:36. I’m going to get to bed, and finish this post, in the morning … !

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8th August, 2010.

Whoah …

Right …

Now, as you can tell, it’s the day after. Which is when I’m going to be finishing this write-up. And to be frank, I’m not running on empty.

I’m getting by on caffeine and fumes … !

But let’s get back to what I was saying, shall we … ?

As you might gather, Kevin D, Movie Night Adrian and I managed to watch the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans.

And I think I’ve got to say that I, at least, was impressed.

Well …

That’s not strictly accurate.

I think I can say we were all impressed. Although I think it’s safe to say that Kevin, bless him, had … … …

Reservations …

Mostly where he felt that Clash of the Titans — and many other modern films — suffer from the over use of computer generated animation.

Which lead to a LOT of nattering from all three of us … !

Mostly where I know I disagreed.

Both myself and Adrian generally agreed that Clash of the Titans — and films like it — are, after all, fantasies: whether derived from Greek mythology or something more modern, like Lord of the Rings.

Which means that a film company needs to be able to knock out fantastical creatures. At a reasonable price …

Kevin, disagreed. At least on one front.

He felt that the film’s producers could well have — at little extra cost — could have used a mixture of CGI and animatronics to have achieved a much better effect, especially with the scenes featuring Medusaº.

Personally … ?

I’m still not convinced: although I felt some of the grain differences between the CGI Medusa in Clash of the Titans were noticeableª, but didn’t detract from my personal enjoyment of the film. I do take Kevin’s point about CGI created scenes of car-crashes in movies: however, it’s not something I’m consciously aware of. Even though I know I’ve seen the scene from Die Hard 4.0 that Kevin offered Adrian and I as an example.

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But let’s get moving on, again, shall we … ?

Yes lets … !

As you can see, Clash of the Titans generated quite a bit of discussion.

Not all of it film related, actually …

One interesting little side discussion … ?

Was inevitably centred on technology.

Mostly as a result of Adrian and I’s gently — well … gentlyish — looking through the credits at the end.

With a joint interest in technology and a film that makes lavish use of it, I’m willing to bet you hadn’t maybe guessed …

Which lead Kevin, who’s thinking of investing in a new desktop, to raise the thorny issue of where to spend his money.

Now this is where thing’s got seriously passionate.

After all, I’m happy to admit to being a confirmed Mac FanBoy.

And Movie Night Adrian, former systems administrator that he is, is equally passionate about open-source software, regardless of the actual kit.

Which is where — possibly — where there’s going to be tons of arguments, both for and against.

One thing I know both myself and Adrian did agree on, for starters, is the simple fact that the average consumer really doesn’t have much real choice in terms of software.

If you walk into your average High Street computer store, you’ve a good choice of hardware: which will be running a version of Windoze, and nothing else.

A large part of the many flavours of both Linux and Unix Adrian has used, over the years is that they offer a degree of control — and customisation, from the kernel, upwards — that Windoze and Mac OS X don’t.

In addition to that, there’s also the simple matter of cost.

After all, one can turn a cheap PC into something of a monster, given the right operating system.

Now here’s where myself and Adrian start to disagree, again …

And not necessarily on software, either.

After all, I’ve currently got four computers, here.

• The 14-year-old Performa 6400/200, in me bedroom, running Mac OS 7.5. Which is slow, but still, at least for writing purposes.
• The G3 iMac, currently on display in my hallway, and running Xubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake.
• Archie: the ageing Dell laptop, running the current version of Arch Linux based on the 2.6 version of the Linux kernel.
• Plus, of course, Bruce, the name that my Late 2007 model Mac Mini — running Snow Leopard 10•6•4 — has been given.

Partly, we disagree on matters of both price and software …

Sort of …

Now one thing I do know is that Kevin’s main concern with investing in the Mac Mini he’d been eyeing up on Apple’s website was simply the matter of cost.

After all, Apple do charge something of a premium: contrasted with the prices for an equivalently specced PC.

And one can easily get hold of a Linux distro for nothing. (My personal recommendation would be a flavour of the extremely user-friendly Ubuntu. But, unlike Adrian, I’m a pure end-user: so I value its Mac OS X-like ease of use.)

However, a good counter argument I have from my own personal experience was my ex-girlfriend, Allison.

She had enough savings set aside — back in the day —to buy herself a laptop. And I — with a heck of a lot of persuasion — talk her into buying a MacBook.

And, while she’s had hiccups — as all owners of a new gadget do — the last time we spoke, she told me that she regarded the money she’d spent as one heck of a good, long term, investment.

One that meant she was part of a community — which includes getting helpful hints from both me, and her brother Richard, and practically anyone she meets who also has a Mac.

And one that means she has a brand of computer that’s famed for reliability.

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Ultimately … ?

Phew …

I’m none to sure what Kevin will go for.

As I told him, last night … ?

With no choice, I’d go for a PC with a version of Ubuntu installed on it.

Given the choice, though … ?

I’d have another Mac.

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Phew …

Big discussion, there, that lot … !!

But let’s go back a few paragraphs, shall we … ?

After all, I started this post intent on telling you about Clash of the Titans.

Admittedly, I’ve had a few more diversions than I thought I would.

Fun, eh … ?

But seeing Clash of the Titans?

I think I’m going to recommend it to you.

Granted, it may be a touch derivative of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, with nods towards Dune — the original Frank Herbert novel, rather than the David Lynch film, or the Sci Fi Channel’s miniseries — and Star Wars.

But Clash of the Titans is a visually spectacular treat for the eyes.

And very entertaining.

* It’s big. It’s got tentacles. And, possibly, halitosis. Need I say more … ?

º Traditionally, Medusa and the rest of the Gorgons, were depicted with serpents instead of hair. I’ve two words for you. Pubes and armpits …

ª Where those scenes weren’t properly colour-corrected. I can remember seeing a fascinating — to me — episode of Doctor Who Confidential that show the visually effects department doing exactly this in one of the Matt Smith episodes.

Laugh? I wet meself!

Well, almost, at any rate!

Mostly because Dave, bless him, managed to send this this over, via Facebook.

Now, I’ll happily admit, most Mac fans — meself included — have always known that a certain Seattle based software company has an alleged reputation for … ahh … homaging other people’s products …

Putting it politely …

•••••

Either way, one thing I do know is that, while I still have the re-start problem — with the Xubuntu’d iMac*? — I know that it’ll play cds.

Ish …

Earlier today, I did try to see if this version of Dapper Drake could play DVD’s.

Seemingly not.

I’m not surprised.

As far as I know, most variants of Dapper Drake couldn’t; mostly as DVD playing software is produced commercially, or doesn’t meet the Ubuntu philosophical ideals.

But I do know it’s capable of handling CD’s, although not exactly rapidly.

However, using Max to convert an album on the Mini — Blondie’s Eat to the Beat — to the open source Ogg Vorbis format, then transfer these to my flash memory stick, then over to the iMac.

A breeze … !

And, while Eat to the Beat sounds a bit tinny, played through Xfmedia and the iMac’s ageing speakers, it doesn’t actually sound any worse than the long since gone Binatone CD player I had, during the 1980s.

The more things change, the more things stay the same, eh?

* I do know I’m going to thank llamabr, over at the Ubuntu forums, who’s suggested using sudo shutdown -h now, as an alternative to the usual GUI methods.

Which didn’t help, unfortunately, as the iMac switched off … and then restarted …

Oh — Wowsa!

Drat!

You know, if it wasn’t for the fact that Kevin was over, I’d’ve found out that ITV4 were showing the 1980 film, “Flash Gordon”, a lot earlier!

That’s a shame, it really is.

Because however much fun the cast had, making it — a lot, I’m thinking — it was certainly a lot of fun to watch!

It still is, even after twenty-nine years!

Cheesy?

Certainly!

Loud?

Even more so!

Fun?

Absolutely guaranteed!

•••••

Oh, Hang On!

I’ve just seen an ad for Windoze 7!

That oh so easy to use ‘New Taskbar’?

Look’s like MS has copied OS X …

Again!!

•••••

But at any rate, that’s not necessarily what I was going to write about, when I started this post … !!

Bless ’im, I’ve had Kevin over, again, as he wasn’t to sure about one or two things on the laptop I’d Ubuntu’d up for him.

Most of which were things that were — for those of us a bit more computer literate — relatively simple.

You know, things like drag and drop, cut and paste, right and left clicking, stuff like that.

So today was case of just going over the basics, for him.

But was also a chance to to have Movie Night Adrian — who’s very good with IT — to have a look at it, as well, to see if he could help out.

Well …

It was seemingly having trouble booting up, as it was apparently having trouble with its Master Boot record.

Now if I’ve understood what Adrian’s told me, if we imagine a hard drive as an old fashioned vinyl record, the MBR would be like the lead-in groove that you’d put the needle onto, first.

It basically connects everything up, and tells the processor where to find the operating system, and everything else on the hard drive.

He also had a look at a look at the various bits and bobs that should — in theory — make the computer play sound.

Or play CD’s.

Make noises, at any rate …

I mean, apart from the usual noises you’d expect to hear from a whirring hard drive and CD drive, at least …

I also know that Adrian’s recommended we look at one of the alternative versions of Ubuntu, given the laptop’s not the newest piece of kit on the server farm. (It’s rather old, by modern standards; Adrian feels that running a version of Ubuntu called Xubuntu, would seriously help the performance. Something I know I’d seen on Canonical’s site, but hadn’t thought to use, as I’m not as familiar with it.)

And, again, if I’ve understood what he’s told us, correctly, it looks like I was pretty much right, when I originally guessed that Kevin’s laptop has a sound card best described as …

Well, there’s a few phrases I could put, but I know some of Councillor Chilvers’ younger readers are reading this, so I’ll settle for ‘kaput’, and leave it there.

But either way, I think, for the most part, Kevin’s happy with what he’s got; a sound card, as he said, himself, would be nice. But isn’t essential.

And what he’s got is very easy to use.