Play Pause

 
tell application "System Events"
	set MyList to (name of every process)
end tell
if (MyList contains "Spotify") is true then
	tell application "Spotify" to playpause
end if
 

Next Track

 
tell application "System Events"
	set MyList to (name of every process)
end tell
if (MyList contains "Spotify") is true then
	tell application "Spotify" to next track
end if
 

Previous Track

 
tell application "System Events"
	set MyList to (name of every process)
end tell
if (MyList contains "Spotify") is true then
	tell application "Spotify" to previous track
end if
 

Problem

MI Retail stores are fast failing in the UK, and its been happening for years not just because of the 'recession'. The common held wisdom that if you build a music store they will come and sample the wares and buy - bricks and mortar is good. However, as history is consistently showing the MI Retail sector isn't making much out of this philosophy. Maybe there are exceptions to the rule, but at large retails stores with their inherent overheads of staff and upkeep as well as stock - its a complete non-starter.

Lifestyle Business

These issues are further compounded by the shear number of 'lifestyle' business, where the owners have made their money elsewhere and have the music store as a play thing. At the end of the day the balance sheet doesn't matter its all about something todo. Therefore you have a market that fosters a race to the bottom, rather than quality.

Aversion to new things.

For an industry that is so often at the forefront of new technologies, such as the MOOG and the Roland V-Piano. We are also terrible bad at adopting new technologies into the industry. The internet is still seen as a threat (even though many wont admit it), as such many reputable retailers have little to no web convincing presence see JG Windows, Reverb and even Chappels of Bond Street. These are supposably some of the respected flag bearers of the industry. The trade has always had an arms length relationship with internet, leaving the market wide open for newcomers such as Dolphin Music, and they have seen explosive growth.

Solution?

Taking the Dolphin Music model, they were an internet startup. The brain child of Rob Williams and Jason Tavaria [more] whilst still at university. They grew amazingly fast and basically dominant a huge chunk of the internet pie, not just because they were first to market and saw the value of online, but also because there is nobody else who can contend the market.

What about Demos?

The lack of a demonstration equipment I think is the motivation for Dolphins Music push into retail (Bricks and Mortar) you will see prominent links on all Dolphins pages that let you see if that item is in stock at your nearest store. Despite there prime locations Dolphins stores work, because of the user base it generated online. This is we the key under estimation of the internet comes, it isn't less personal but more personal.

I as a web developer can tailor search results and product recommendations uniquely to each of my visitors, I can also because the time taken on writing an email is much less than face-to-face contact write personal responses to each enquiry whether there be one or a 1,000. You can easily build a rapport with a customer and a community online that reaches a much larger audience online than you can simply with a small local store or even a chain.

So where do Bricks and Mortar Sit

Bricks and mortar stores, sit in the sweet spot. Much of a catalog of instruments/accessories can easily be served online with fast delivery and good service. However you do have the items such as Pro-Keyboards and Guitars that do need demoing before you can decide that is perfect for me. However, traditionally and especially for stores without a reasonable web presence, you quickly find that a potential customer will come into a store and demo a guitar for a considerable amount of time, not buy and buy online later. By having an online store something amazing happens, you can filter customers. Easily decide between sales leads that have a good potential and leave the ones that don't.

Even if you have no contact between you and customer before they enter the store, they can know whether you have stock where you are when you open. So the chances of converting that business is extremely high as they have already chosen you. You already have a connection with the customer and you have effectively done nothing for it, as such even a relatively small company can appear as a large trading enterprise and also carry the expertise that would imply for a fraction of the cost.

I don't really know hoe I ended up collecting soundtracks, but two moments that really standout are; tracking down a piece of music used the in 2004 BAFTAs and another piece of music featured in the South Bank Show.

The music from the BAFTAs was probably the easiest to track down, I just emailed them. It took a couple of weeks but they emailed me back answer: Whisper of a Thrill - From Meet Joe Black - Thomas Newman. Within seconds the CD was bought and on its way. Its OK if you can email the people responsible and get them to tell you the music used but in the case of my second hunt, the emailing method wasn't so fruitful.

After watching the South Bank Show, I had the I must have that music moment and started on my merry way trying to track it down by google to no avail, I had some idea of who the composer could be Craig Armstrong or Thomas Newman, so I loaded the ITV website and sent them an email. I have found since then both ITV and the BBC hate these inquiries and just brush them off, Channel 5 usually give a better response. I got the typical response, "Due to the nature of the way we create our programming there is no record of the music for each program." I spent another few months searching, and had all but given up hope on finding the elusive piece of music, when i chanced upon a newly upload Craig Armstrong Album on iTunes. I had found it. Finding Beauty - Craig Armstrong within a couple of seconds it was downloaded.

I am sure that there isn't just me who has these little quests, I am also sure that many people unlike me will give up on finding the song they were looking for. I wish the BBC and ITV would setup websites that listed all the music from each program. I think music companies should be actively encouraging the publishing of music in film and TV, it would earn them some points and make some money.

Since my first encounter with the wonderful world of soundtracks my library has grown from a mere 5 hours to over 22 days (thats528 hours) So much so I now have so much music that the chances are that I hear a piece of music in a film or TV program, I will already have a copy in there somewhere.

The problem is finding it.

Q: "What is the problem?"
A: "I don't really know, but we can solve it if we buy a new X "

Here in lies the problem, there a number of companies that get this crap answer. There is very rarely a person in the company who will take responsibility and make sure their current system works properly before trying new things or upgrading, at the end of the day new hardware is meant to be better right?. Small to medium businesses have less of a problem with this because the amount spent on IT directly effects there bottom line, and don't have deep pockets for IT to begin with.

The problem becomes even more pronounced when you get to a school or college. There are obvious complexities with these system your dealing with a couple of hundred computers and about 10 times as many users, but when anything goes wrong more money 'must' be spent to solve the problem. Inevitably the systems breakdown within a couple of weeks or even days, because the real problem wasn't tackled or even attempted to find a fix.

For the average user this is a minor or major frustration depending on which way you spin it, but for anybody interested or working in tech like me, its like having burnt sticks buried into the back of my eyes. It can't be too difficult to get it set up right in the first place, I like buying new tech as much as the next man (probably even more) but you have to realise somewhere along the line what you are proposing is costing someone a shed load of money and that money could be used better elsewhere, especially in schools.

--Rant Over--

"Unfortunately, many schools have turned a blind eye to piracy," Berman said. "I don't doubt that there are legitimate issues that universities must grapple with, including privacy and cost concerns. However, when a university such as Purdue tells the AP that it rarely even notifies students accused by the RIAA because it is too much trouble to track down alleged offenders—such inaction is unacceptable."Congressman Hollywood: Universities a wretched hive of scum and villainy

This is what happens when a person in power, brains' get turned to jelly and is spat out by the cat. It never occurs to these people funding researching and going around screaming disaster and catastrophe from the hill tops, to actually look what is right in front of them.

The Music/Movie Industries is Inherently, poor at adapting
So what exactly does this mean well its quite simple. When Napster came along the Music industry looked at it and said "We still good it will all blow over in a couple of months" Then a couple of months later they had a problem. The same goes for the Movie industry. They are arrogant enough to dimiss a technology that will quite clearly effect them in the money making department and try to place the sole blame on the cosumer. The consumers pay them money in the first Place

Solve not Sue
Anyone with a slight business interlect and brain cell(s) would look at the current situation within the Music/Movie industry and start working on solutions, put the money were it is well spent. The industry will never change the habits of the youth of today, they have spent to long in the courts increasing the resentment for that. They need to start working to give the consumer product they want in the form they want, this by no means free.

The idea that forcing your consumers to do something because the man companies say it should be is completly stupid and cause more illegal downloading, just so you as a consumer feel happy your pissing the said companies off. Everybody knows that downloading music and not paying for it is wrong, but when the labels offer no better alternatives, what else are your options.

The Other Options
iTunes Store, has a big market share and a big catalog of major labels and indie music, look deeply at the  Store and you see just what a miracle it is, its there, and in the same moment why it doesn't give what a p2p client gives. The simple matter of choice is what it now starts to boil down to, what could be classed as the catalyst to this whole thing in the first place.

People want choice they want to choose how they consume media and where, iTunes limits you to the iPod and your PC/Mac, there is a simple solution get rid of DRM and completely and open the whole thing up, and I would never illegally download again.

However, there is one place that iTunes excells at apart from providing a seamless UI experience. Our friend the Longtail, p2p only really is a good distribution system for popular tracks, when you get to less popular tracks you quickly find nobody sharing things.

To cut a long story short we need a solution, that the consumer is happy with and we need it fast else we could see everybody going down to court.

read more | digg story

My answer : Why the hell not?

But to create something that will challenge Myspace will be something abit special. MySpace is trying do what Microsoft does; be everything to everybody, but in MySpace's case it seems to be a working formula.

What exactly is wrong with MySpace?

As much as MySpace is trying to be everything to everybody its still not being the be all and end all in web 2.0 to me and many others, I still don't have a MySpace and will probably never get one.

I aren't denying that MySpace can be a powerful tool but it is a melting pot for extremes, People with 3000+ friends (its physically impossible without the web to have a group of friends that big the maximum is about 100 for an average person) and then theres all the bad press it gets because of children being exploited through the network. If they'd have thought of that when they started out they could have put some policies even some code to help prevent it.

Then there is the fact the whole site is just messy, theres ads all the place and theres little in the way of easily accesible content. Why do all these so called "web2.0" sites, use very "web 1" ads, subtle ads win the day. Apart from the ads mucking up the design they just are irrelevant and people are so used to them they are ignored so why even bother putting them in? find another way to make money.

Keep It Simple Stupid ~ KISS
Why is it so complicated to find what you want on myspace apart from the ads, and why do they feel the need to replicate links and content images all over, A simple Menu system, maybe with a bit of AJAX magic would make it so much more bearable. Also the music player on peoples profile gets on my nerves why does it insist on playing on load, let the user on the end to decide.

Whilst I think that personalizing web-pages is good, personalizing MySpace pages is all wrong, MySpace should give the ability to this within there system that way they can keep everything cohesive and understandable no matter what page your on.

So That's What I Think
I tried to be objective and it looks as if a manage it a bit but not enough. It may seem like I am just taking MySpace simply because I don't like it, but it's not that at all I think MySpace is successful at what it does and should inspire people to see what they can do with an idea and some coding knowledge, but as with all thing I seriously think that it can be done a lot better, and the real question is why can't we do it better and be creative with it too.

We (depending were you read this blog) live in countries with few or no laws on how to protect ourselves online, fair enough there's the DPA in the UK which goes somewhere near but there is no clear definition of what constitutes hacking or any other cyber-offence.

It stupidly simple to get access to a computer that you don't own that its scary. You can take a standard off the shelf USB stick, push it in a computer it will create you a Administrator account a remote user account and give you the password to anybody who logs into that machine. Many homes now are switching to wi-fi indeed BT offer there Home Hub which is wireless with all there packages, albeit with a very simple 64-bit encryption assigned to it, but who's responsibility is it to secure there wi-fi, I am firmly in the camp that if you leave it open its fair game to anybody, but just think about what you do online in a particular day and how much somebody could find about you it just a few hours on your network. Its enough to steal your Identity and rob you blind, yet many people just don't understand the scope of the problem.

It's all well and good knowing that these things are problems but how do we stop this from happening in the first place. As yet I haven't been able to come up with a single thing that could be feasibly enforced, or surrendering our own privacy to some higher power (which I don't think anybody in there right mind would be comfortable with. This is a problem that is almost as big as Global Warming if we manage to survive what ever apocalyptic event we make. Yet, we continue for the most part ignoring the fact it is a problem and how it would effect you if your identity was cloned and bank accounts cleaned, not a particularly nice thought.

We all know that piracy has ended up as a monumental PR mess for the record industry, and it is a undisputed fact that the industry in general were far too late and couldn't adopt the same model they do in the shops so invented DRM (lets not go any further into this)

I love music as much as the next man, but when a consumer thinks their being ripped of they will always find a new way, the internet provides such a way. So when Napster and Kazaa came along the consumers went there instead of going to the local music store, by the time the industry realised just how big this was they had only one option left to sue everything and everybody related to this P2P software. As a resulting pissing off there next generation customers and the ones they already had, and along the way giving themselves and P2P developers bad press.

As a knock on affect we see the labels only investing time and money and bands that they know will make money (yes the popular rubbish, usually based of Pachelbel's canon somewhere along the line)

I acknowledge the fact piracy is theft and I just think its too late for some people who are so used to just downloading music that its unlikely that even the Dell Marketing budget could change there minds. I also think DRM just locks you in the path of why buy it and have it locked down when I can download it for nothing.

As much as the labels may not be ripping us consumers off as much as we think, why do they need to get royalties from every iPod sold, this is greed and almost a stealth tax. There has to be better ways for the industry to still make money and let the cosumers get the media from wherever they like or at least get it for a good price, for example it is often cheaper for me to buy a CD then it is to buy from iTunes, how can this possibly work, it cost more to make a CD downloaded has no CD yet costs more (a sense a little greed here)

We then move on to how music is no distributed and listened to. Radio is taking a back seat, the associations wont license Podcasts, and only the popular blogs publish what people want to read and lets not even get into myspace. How do we discover really good new music?? Well there's a new section of my site (thats it check out the music pages when you've finished reading this) and then there is the IODA Alliance: http://www.iodalliance.com/ and the Podsafe music network http://music.podshow.com I also urge you to check out ReIgnition Records www.reignition.com

I will leave this post with a thought:

You and some of your mates are a band just starting out, you produce a CD and put your music online in the iTMS, napster etc. You find that your Album is more illegally downloaded than it is bought and you get no money for these illegal downloads. Would you be pissed off? I know i certainly would be.

Artificial intelligence (also known as machine intelligence and often abbreviated as AI) is intelligence exhibited by any manufactured (i.e. ) system. The term is often applied to general purpose computers and also in the field of scientific investigation into the theory and practical application of AI. Wiki

While this definition is valid I think it is far too compliated, AI is quite simply a program that learns nothing more nothing less. So what is learning exactly.

Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skill through study, experience or teaching. It is a process that depends on experience and leads to long-term changes in behavior potential. Behavior potential describes the possible behavior of an individual (not actual behavior) in a given situation in order to achieve a goal. Wiki

This being a problem when it actually comes to creating AI seen as you have to leave a big gap in the code for the system to learn, which may not put the general public at ease. For it to truly be AI something along the lines of Asimov's Laws couldn't be programmed we would have to let the System learn and do what it may.

First Law:

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law:

A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law:

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Asimov's Laws

Having said all that why would the AI turn against us, it has only ever been programmed to learn, it is the fact we know the atrocities we have done within our small run of this planet means we fear something that would actually see what we have done and act upon this.

Artilect: Artificial intelligence (also known as machine intelligence and often abbreviated as AI) is intelligence exhibited by any manufactured (i.e. ) system. The term is often applied to general purpose computers and also in the field of scientific investigation into the theory and practical application of AI. Wikipedia

An Article that dropped into my feed reader at the beginning of the week, describes a system devised by Hitatchi which monitors the person haemoglobin levels in the Brain (Optical Typography) The use of this is very limited now but could have a large impact on the way we intereface with technology but also for people who are paralysed, a clear example of converging technologies.

As part of New Scientists' 50 year aniversary there are a number of comments about what may/likely to happen in the next 50 years assuming we don't all Kill ourselves first (war or global warming).

Talk of a scientific understanding of consciousness still evokes more sucking in of air than most other subjects. Sceptics are fond of saying that a "factor X" that cannot even be imagined at the moment is required. I would argue the opposite: it is here, and it will be commonplace by 2056[...]

The key for us to fully understand the ramifications of creating an 'artilect' (AI) is we first need to understand our own brains and how they work, and also the fact we are imperfect and no doubt what we create will also be imperfect (could this cause a problem? could we become so obsessed with perfection we end up some 'borg' like race; I couldn't resist throwing that in)

Computation is the fire in our modern-day caves. By 2056, the computational revolution will be recognised as a transformation as significant as the industrial revolution. The evolution and widespread diffusion of computation and its analytical fruits will have major impacts on socioeconomics, science and culture.
Within 50 years, lives will be significantly enhanced by automated reasoning systems that people will perceive as "intelligent".[...]

I personally would go one step further and say the above will happen in the next 20 years, and we will see the first true AI system by 2056. Why? because these prediction always seem like under-estimates, they never anticipate that one person who does a single thing, accelerating the field of research forward.

I also had a Computing Lesson in which the teacher posed the question:

Prove To me that a human is nothing more than a biological operating system

At first I thought we are, then I started to disagree. My Arguments against were based on the fact "Windows/Linux/{Insert Your Favourite OS Here} doesn't create something new in its likeness, it cannot learn (at the moment anyway), similarly it an OS cannot procreate with another OS (as silly as it sounds)Redhat can't go to Windows and say lets make a little OS called 'Widhat' but this could be possible with Cybernetics could it not?

The main counter argument being, if we can read the brain and interpret its code it is just infact an OS, the controlling of things without physical movement (i.e. Brain Control) would seem to support this theory partly, but I am aren't entirely convinced.

Am Leaving this post open ended because I aren't sure were I want to go next and don't want to come to any conclusion.

Links

• BBC Horizon - Human v2.0
• Ray Kurzweil Website
• Hugo De Garris Website
• NewScientist Article on Brain Experiments
• Miguel Nicolelis Website
• Train Controlled by brain interface
• 50 Year of the New Scientist

The Concept

Artificial brain designer and theoretical physicist ~Prof. Hugo de Garis raised the issue of whether humanity should build godlike intelligent machines. Because of technological advances, he foresees a time in this century when artificial intelligence can be developed at the atomic level, and an object the size of an apple could surpass human brain capacity to the trillionth power.

At this point, he believes humanity will break into two groups. The Cosmists, who want to build these massively intelligent machines, and the Terrans who are against it. A third, smaller faction, he labeled as the Cyborgists, who want to merge with the artificial intelligence. Prof. de Garis believes the conflict between the Cosmists and the Terrans will be so extreme that wars could be fought over the issue.

The machines he called "artilects", may become so massively intelligent, said de Garis, that they would regard humanity, in the same way we look at insects, and they could be so powerful as to create their own universes. He boiled it down to the question: Do we build gods or do we build our potential exterminators? In an on-the-spot Fast Blast poll that was conducted, 56% sided with the Terrans, and 44% with the Cosmists.

Intruiged so I am I So lets have a bit more information on these so called 'Artilects', What could these artilects be, well essentially a massive computer with power many times greater than the faster super-computers. Currently IBMs' Blue Gene Which Performs 280600 GigaFlops, To something that would have near infinitesimal processing power; the Quantum Computer.

The Quantum Computer

A quantum computer is any device for computation that makes direct use of distinctively quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. In a classical (or conventional) computer, the amount of data is measured by bits; in a quantum computer, the data is measured by qubits. The basic principle of quantum computation is that the quantum properties of particles can be used to represent and structure data, and that quantum mechanisms can be devised and built to perform operations with these data.
What is a quantum Computer

Timeline
The Timeline reads with a unnerving sense not 'if' but 'when' a full usable quantum computer is available. A comparison can be drawn with the current state of technology; rapid development and advancement over a relatively short period of time. The Q-Computer Timeline has the same sort markers that the current computer timeline has. Making the Artilect dilemma/debate something more important than you might think, its not just the realms of science-fiction, its well and truly science-fact.

The point of all this?

Its the background to something that will become, a very real problem within my lifetime. I think it will be interesting to see just what we can predict now and compare this to what actually may happen. Apart from that this stuff just generally interests me a whole lot, and a will be following this post with some more in the future that go into the details of the research, arguments, concepts and ideologies based around the problem of Artilects / god computers and the effect that will have on our race.