Hallelujah! The music industry’s finally lost control

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

If you wanted any further proof that the music industry has lost control of the charts, look no further than this year’s Christmas Top 40. 

Yes, I’m well aware that the number one is the product of a talent show that’s produced and part-judged by a record company executive.

But sitting at number two is a record that wasn’t even officially re-released, that’s sung by a man who died 11 years ago. And the reason it’s sitting pretty during the busiest chart week of the year is that a Facebook Group was so worried that the X-Factor winner was going to murder Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, that they urged everyone to download the peerless Jeff Buckley version instead. Even Cohen’s own version of the song is sitting at number 36.  

Meanwhile, a further glance down the chart reveals The Pogues and Kirsty Maccoll’s Fairytale of New York at number 12, Mariah Carey’s pitiful All I want For Christmas at 17, Wham’s Last Christmas at 27,  and Wizzard at 33.  

I’m going home and digging out the luminous socks – it’s like 1985 again! 

Who’d have thunk it: good films sell Blu-rays

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

To most, the recent format war was boring, unnecessary and hyped out of all proportion to the number of people who actually cared. DVDs were fine, no one even had HD tellies, and the thought of shelling out what were then £400+ prices for what could soon become obsolete understandably put off, well, everybody except the movie studios.

When the PlayStation 3 arrived with a Blu-ray drive there was only going to be one winner, and HD-DVD duly succumbed as the studios deserted it. With HDTV sales booming, what should have been the turning point for Blu-ray adoption ended up making practically no difference to the take-up rate, and while the studios are so quick to make excuses that’s entirely their own fault.

(more…)

The 2008 anti-awards

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Welcome to Stuart Turton’s 2008 anti-awards. These are not voted for by the public, there’s no free booze, swanky trophy or glittering ceremony, and you better believe they’re biased. Here, in no particular order, are all the things that made my 2008 memorable, whether because they filled my head with happy, or just made my teeth itch.

Most embarrassing event of the year

The will they, won’t they, courtship between Microsoft and Yahoo was just about the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen. Yahoo couldn’t resist Microsoft’s bedroom eyes, but didn’t want to appear cheap, while Microsoft made the old lover’s mistake of seeming overeager. Microsoft proposed, Yahoo said no… for a bit, then yes, but it was too late, Microsoft was shunned and not coming back. Yahoo’s share price is now somewhere south of hell, Yang’s out of a job and Steve Ballmer needs a new plan. Worst first date ever.

(more…)

On a BotNet near you…

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

I’d welcome other perspectives here, but it seems to me that the overall infectious environment has jumped up like crazy in the last couple of weeks. This is more or less in line with the closure of McColo Corp – as the traffic from them receded, so the trojans have taken up the slack. Looking at the variety of firewall logs I can get my hands on, it seems that there’s a massive collateral DoS effect that develops, as a relatively benign infector opens the door a crack – and the IP address that hosts it is beaten to death by traffic that’s not allowed to reach the infected host, by the firewall.

I suspect these are not necessarily new viruses, either, and that the DoS effect is unintentional. These script kiddies just want their copy of “Quantum of Solace” and don’t actually intend you any active harm: but, in a couple of cases now just over the last 10 days, I’ve been obliged to start rotating the firewall’s static external IP address to stay ahead of the inbound stuff, to give enough breathing space to work out where and what to disinfect. Most irritating, and a very good way of finding out that you need a smarter firewall or a more attentive ISP. So long as you don’t have work to do, that is!

All the week’s reviews

Friday, December 19th, 2008

A software-heavy week, with new versions of Nero and Google’s SketchUp, also saw big guns Dell and Samsung launch new laptop models, and RIM send us the BlackBerry Bold’s little brother.

Light laptops

Samsung’s X360 is aimed squarely at those MacBook Air and Lenovo X300 fans among you, with a 13.3in screen, a built-in optical drive and a weight of just 1.3kg. It’s certainly not cheap, but for that you get seven hours away from the mains and no small amount of style.

Dell’s Studio 1735 was described in our review as both “gorgeous” and “exquisite”. Again, it’s not cheap but it is well built, eminently customisable – with 19 options for the lid design alone – and very comfortable to use. Whether it’ll appeal more than the similarly priced XPS range, we weren’t so sure.

(more…)

Just in: Lenovo’s netbook – the IdeaPad S10e

Friday, December 19th, 2008

It’s been a long time coming, but Lenovo’s entry into the netbook fray, the IdeaPad S10e, has finally landed in PC Pro’s labs.

As the name suggests it’s a 10in netbook and – yes, you guessed it – it’s got an Intel Atom N270 inside and 1GB of RAM. So far, so very, very familiar.  

(more…)

Introducing the iCap

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Allow me to introduce the most ridiculous piece of technology I’ve ever encountered, the iCap. Bear with me as I pick out a few gems from the press release, beginning with the first line.

The iCap MP3 player from Gesten Technologies can save your hearing and your life

Blimey! Save my life, how? Is there a machine gun in there? A Royal Marine Commando squirreled away in the seams?

Active people looking for a safer way to listen to their favourite tunes on the go will benefit from this unique baseball cap based MP3 player with speakers allowing them to listen to music and still hear all the traffic hazards and interact with the people around them

Brilliant! Except that you can’t wear an iCap without looking like an utter tool nobody in their right mind would approach without a sackful of elephant tranquilisers. Indeed, the only traffic hazards you’ll be dodging are the ones you’ve created as people speed up to run you over.

The built-in speakers can be played low enough for private listening, or cranked loud enough to share with others

In return they can share with you a punch in the face as you blast “Eye of the Tiger” out across the gym. Hoorah.

The voice recorder has a dedicated record button

Give it up Intel. You’re beaten.

When worn backwards, the iCap fits under standard bicycle helmets and under shorty motorcycle helmets.

Bow folks, for you’re in the presence of a legend.

Wagon wheels

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Now I’m a 100% signed-up, baptised, confirmed lover of Microsoft Office 2007 – it’s the software that’s made the most difference to how I work ever. But even I think that the latest advert (as featured on this very site, so please don’t tell our ads team I’m blogging about it) is going too far.

“A PC without Office 2007 is like a wagon without wheels.” Well, for starters, if Microsoft believes that’s so then why on earth isn’t it bundling Office 2007 with Windows?

And secondly, it really isn’t. Office 2007 is fantastic, but there are lots of different ways to create documents and crunch numbers without spending the extra money on Microsoft Office.

Perhaps the advert should read “A PC without Office 2007 is like a slightly awkward wagon that you won’t enjoy using quite so much as a PC with Office 2007.” Equally catchy, I’m sure you agree.

Can Nvidia halt its current decline?

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

This month in the Labs we’ve mostly been testing graphics cards, and you’ll be able to read the results when the next issue of Pro is published in January. But I don’t think I’m giving too much away by revealing it’s not particularly happy reading for Nvidia.

Put simply, Nvidia’s desktop department is having a torrid time of it right now: when its own chipsets aren’t faulty they’re generally slower than ATI’s; and when they’re not faulty or slower than ATI’s, they are dearer, which negates any advantage they might have had.

It’s a cyclical thing. ATI had its troubled times before the HD 3000 cards arrived, and when new technology arrives the situation may well reverse again. But for evidence of where the strength lies you should alway look to the board partners – and it’s a one-way surge right now.

(more…)

Will Microsoft put bloggers back in their box after IE scare?

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

The new-found hole in Internet Explorer has certainly sparked a mainstream media storm. My security-expert colleague, Darien Graham-Smith, has been getting more media exposure than the X-Factor winner over the past couple of days, culminating in an appearance on BBC News last night. Meanwhile, I fielded a last-minute call from that veritable hot-house of technical gossip – the Chris Evans show on Radio 2.

The widespread coverage of the IE flaw will be doing Microsoft no favours at a time when it’s struggling to fend off the emerging Google Chrome and the enduringly popular Firefox. Even worse, the pain was entirely self-inflicted.

News of the hole broke on Microsoft’s own Malware Protection Center blog, and while you have to admire the company’s candour, you can’t help but wonder if the bloggers inadvertently spun the threat for more than it was actually worth. 

(more…)