jacktams.co.uk

Protecting Media from Pirates…

7 Jun 2009

Web pirates placed in 'slow lane'

The government has all but ruled out using a "three strikes" law to tackle persistent net pirates.
Using warnings and disconnection to tackle pirates was thought to be in the final Digital Britain report due to be published on 16 June.
bbc.co.uk/news

After years and years fighting the Music and Movie industries, still seem reluctant to change there business models. Still trying to convince government and ISP the only solution is to kick pirates off their respective networks, or divulge the users browsing habits so they can be sued.

The fact still remains that the industry in general still doesn't get it, see the pirate bay trial, and repeatedly shady operations for so-called piracy prevention. See

There have been more problems caused by the industry completely and utter refusal to get with the times and stick to their, pay at every point model. Than if they had simply said lets follow the path of least resistance.

We live in a world were everything is online, the vast majority of people follow the path of least resistance to what ever they are searching for. For example if I was to search online for a movie for example something that may be quite old, you look on iTunes you find nothing, you look on LoveFilm.co.uk see they have it but you want it now, you have very few remaining options - Pirate.

On the flip side you may find the film you are looking for on iTunes, yet its priced at the same as the DVD or in some cases more than the DVD. This immeadiately makes no sense even to a technophobe, they already know that you can make a video clip and put it only for free on YouTube, BBC iPlayer also almost free (You still have to pay the license fee) but the fact still remains the user knows that it costs nothing (or very little) to distribute a film online, so therefore why doesn't the price reflect this - pirate.

Sony Corporation

"I'm a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet...(The Internet) created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It's as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. They say, 'Give it to me now,' and if you don't give it to them for free, they'll steal it." - Howard Stringer CEO Sony Corp

Rather than embracing the technology that could see the Music & Film Industries revenues rise dramatically they are putting up road blocks at every turn, and don't seem to get that the vast majority of users will pay for content if its trivial and cheap to get to. However, by letting the piracy world fester and grow they are setting themselves up for a long term problem, the perceived value of content is dropping by the day, respect for the content producers and distributors is also dropping. So by the time that they really do acknowledge and start using the web the way it should have been in the first place, the price that they can charge for the content is not viable as a business

TalkTalk ISP

"It is more about education and allowing people to get content easily and cheaply that will make a difference. This idea that it is all peer to peer and somehow the ISPs can just stop it is very naive" - Charles Dunstone - TalkTalk

ISPs for the most part seem to get the role that they play in this system, they provide the pipe. As long as they can charge you for the data that you consume it is not their concern what you do with it. Nor, should it be.

BT, SKY, and Virgin have already started capitalising on the on-demand nature we now live, but they also make it difficult to get to, BT you need an extra subscription and a new Set-Top Box, similarly for Virgin Media and SKY you need a whole other subscription and a set top box. This is at an extra cost to the user and to the business would it not be easier, due to the growing number of people who use their PC as their TV to offer the content through a Hulu or BBC iPlayer like service and cut the cost of the set-top boxes.

When you boil it down to its very bare details the facts are this, the Media Producing Industries are damned if they do and damned if they don't. However if they don't act soon and make a good decision, long term they will never recover. They need to become smaller more agile companies that can easily cope with change and more important embrace it. If Sony and Universal had embraced the technology when it first appeared they would not be facing any problems now, in-fact I would guess they would be making obscene amounts of money, thats not to say they are now anyway.

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Tags: charles dunstone, howard stringer, net neutrality, open networks, piracy, pirate, pracy, sony, sony corp

Spotify & Apple Remote

In: Computing| Interesting

28 May 2009

In my continuing saga to be as lazy as possible, I have brought back my Apple Remote into use. It has practically no use except when away from the computer you can change the iTunes track. So been as I use Spotify almost as much as I use iTunes why can't I do the same.

Turns out you can with a little SIMBL plugin, http://themacbox.co.uk/smr/

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Tags: Apple, apple remote, remote control, spotify

Controlling Spotify through Applescript & Quicksilver.

In: Blog| Computing| Interesting

15 May 2009

I have almost solely being listen to music through spotify for the last couple of weeks, sure it doesn't replace iTunes but its damn good at what it does, all you can eat music for free. http://www.spotify.com/

The Problem:
Spotify can use the built in shortcuts for play/pause, forward and reverse, but if like me you use a different keyboard and effectively 'dock' you Macbook its not much use. Enter Quicksilver, the perennial quick-launch and whiz-kid short-cutter for mac. http://bit.ly/yrlr7

I already have a load of triggers set up within quicksilver for everything from make an event in iCal to post a tweet or send email.

So getting Spotify in there, it turns out Applescript is here to help, using the System Events helper you can select a menu item without actually clicking it. Below is the code for the main actions you would want in Spotify. Simply save the apple script, then attach it to a trigger in Quicksilver. Hey Presto, magic! For more details on setting up triggers check the Quicksilver wiki, it explains it alot better than I ever could. http://bit.ly/134dnL

Play Next

tell application "Spotify" to activate
tell application "System Events"
   tell process "Spotify"
      click menu item 3 of menu 1 of menu bar item 5 of menu bar 1
   end tell
end tell

Play Previous

tell application "Spotify" to activate
tell application "System Events"
   tell process "Spotify"
      click menu item 4 of menu 1 of menu bar item 5 of menu bar 1
   end tell
end tell

Play/Pause

tell application "Spotify" to activate
tell application "System Events"
   tell process "Spotify"
      click menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu bar item 5 of menu bar 1
   end tell
end tell

(6) Comments
Tags: applescript, Help, how to, quicksilver, spotify, triggers

Government Fail…

In: Blog| Interesting

15 May 2009

picture-1 Rather than close the stable door well and truly after the horse has volted. The consvertive party website now has a list of the expenses of the shadow cabinet see http://bit.ly/15Vttp.

More interesting than the claims themselves and some are interesting, is the fact they are using Google Docs. Strange you might think but Eric Schmidt of the very same company is an advisor for the conservative party. http://bit.ly/17q273

Sadly Labour's website isn't so transparent, in fact there is little to no mention of anything remotely like expense claims on the homepage. So I will let the BBC do the work for me http://bit.ly/HnWDG

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Tags: bbc, conservative, expenses, fraud, google docs, government fail, labour

Shut Up and Get a Grip.

In: Blog

13 Apr 2009

One of the biggest teachers' unions in England and Wales is demanding a pay rise of 10% or at least £3,000, whichever is greater. BBC

I have the greatest respect for teachers, but I am sorry this is just a step too far. As a profession they should be thanking there lucky stars they have still got a well paid professional job, many haven't been so lucky.

It's common knowledge the government is spending money left, right and center, to keep the economy going. Only time will tell if its actually going to work. To ask for more money when there simple isn't enough to go round in the first place is short sited, arrogant, and plain stupid.

Many people are being asked to take pay cuts or work short time to keep there jobs because there simple isn't demand, teachers don't face this problem, they are in demand. Also why do the teachers need more money? Domestic goods cost less than last year, utilities haven't gone up dramatically (unless you bought wrong) so where does the money go.

I have a small suggestion stop spending and get to work, like the rest of the country.

No Comments
Tags: jobs, national union of teachers, NUT, pay cut, pay rise, teacher, teaching

“Lets Double Tuition Fees”.

In: Blog| University| politics

17 Mar 2009

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NohigherFees/

Many universities in England and Wales want a sharp increase in tuition fees, a survey by BBC News has concluded.

England's Higher Education Minister David Lammy said there was an "important debate to be had".
BBC News

New Labor - "Education, Education, Education"
Tony Blair said it, and Gordon Brown has re-iterated it. Yet both Brown and Blair have very little to show for it except a big hole in the budget, no one can actually say education has improved significantly, yes in places it has but the overall picture is very much the same as it was 11 years ago.

The net result is a heavily neglected Higher Education System, the solution was to get the student to contribute to the pot in addition to the government. As we already know money is being spent left right and center to get us out a recession we are already well entrenched in and it looks to be many years before we are out of it.

The one sure fire way to make sure we can stay strong through any recession is to make sure we have well educated and trained people, yet the government policy seems to be actively discourage students from pursuing higher education by burdening them with more and more debt.

Stop the government making another mistake sign the petition here:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NohigherFees/