A newswire story from 2010.A routine train ticket inspection at London Bridge International Train Station heralded the beginning of a brand new type of inspection. Now ticket inspectors not only have the power to enforce fare-dodgers, but now have the powers to audit passenger's iPods.
Using a hand-held device the inspectors are able to perform an iAudit of the MP3's music collection, and a ticket is issued to the owner giving them 28 days to produce evidence that they have legally purchased or own the right to listen to the music.
The trial device compares the music in its database to the music on the iPod, and using state-of-the-art fuzzy logic it can even detect renamed files. At the moment the hand-held can only store 100 albums worth of music, but the Metropolitan Police (who are running the scheme) say they are in contact with the Recording Artists of America and the Rest of the World who are supporting the scheme to acquire more music with which to compare to. The more music they have access to, the more music files can be checked for validity. Those users who are unable to produce the revelcant documentation, are fined.
The trial scheme is planned for 3 months.
A follow-up newswire story from 2011
In the ultimate "Bite the hand that feed you" sensation of the year, we have this to report.
The Recording Artists of America and the Rest of the World are taking the Metropolitan Police to court over copywright violations. It claims the MP have illegal music on its Hand-Held device database.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said in response, that they had requested over the last 11 months for copies of all of the RAA & ROTW music so as to administer the scheme better. The RAA & ROTW has not replied and so the Metropolitan Police had no other choice but to begin downloading the music themselves.
Friday, 9 June 2006
Tuesday, 6 June 2006
What they WONT tell you about Broadband
In the UK broadband is getting out of hand.
It wasnt long ago that download speeds were of dial-up quality, 2-4kb per second. I wont go into a long rant about how we are now enjoying 8meg download speeds and all that - thats nothing more than looking a gift horse in the mouth.
But here is what they dont tell you. While you get wonderful download rates of 8128 kbps, the upload speeds are only 832. That means your ability to upload data is one tenth of your download ability.
Now this isnt an issue Im taking a stand on for P2P networks, but for businesses who need to share data over intranets and the internet. Using a database program, but sourcing the data on a networked business server is difficult because of the lack of synchronised data speeds.
Imagine using a program where you got the data in one second, but took you ten seconds to send that same data back.
It wasnt long ago that download speeds were of dial-up quality, 2-4kb per second. I wont go into a long rant about how we are now enjoying 8meg download speeds and all that - thats nothing more than looking a gift horse in the mouth.
But here is what they dont tell you. While you get wonderful download rates of 8128 kbps, the upload speeds are only 832. That means your ability to upload data is one tenth of your download ability.
Now this isnt an issue Im taking a stand on for P2P networks, but for businesses who need to share data over intranets and the internet. Using a database program, but sourcing the data on a networked business server is difficult because of the lack of synchronised data speeds.
Imagine using a program where you got the data in one second, but took you ten seconds to send that same data back.
Monday, 5 June 2006
TV Shows I'm Addicted To
Two TV programs currently being shown on British TV are occupying a lot of my viewing time, and both by accident. Im fairly difficult to please, the last show that blew my socks off was Firefly, but this blog isnt about that show. SteveD does a better review of each episode, far and above anything I could attempt.
Okay Show 1 is Futurama - this is a show that has taken me nearly 8 years to actually enjoy watching. When I first saw it, I thought it was a Simpsons ripoff, the same stories but set in space, but I was wrong. Here is a show that is more culturally aware, and is able to be more cutting and scathing in its attacks, but get away with it because it is a "cartoon". It is witty, smart, intelligent, makes remarks about our society that we live in and gets away with murder. It is almost as if Matt Greonig made the Simpsons to finance this show.
Show 2 is Scrubs - a far cry from anything I normally would ever watch. But it has a clever script, smart cast and a wonderful set of on-going jokes (JD and the janitor, JD and Cox), plus it has some of the weird sureal scenes ever seen on a mainstream comedy series.
Futurama is a Sky 3 on Freeview on Sunday afternoons
Scrubs is on during the day on Channel 15 on Freeview, but I only get to watch it at the weekends.
Watch em and let me know what you think?
Okay Show 1 is Futurama - this is a show that has taken me nearly 8 years to actually enjoy watching. When I first saw it, I thought it was a Simpsons ripoff, the same stories but set in space, but I was wrong. Here is a show that is more culturally aware, and is able to be more cutting and scathing in its attacks, but get away with it because it is a "cartoon". It is witty, smart, intelligent, makes remarks about our society that we live in and gets away with murder. It is almost as if Matt Greonig made the Simpsons to finance this show.
Show 2 is Scrubs - a far cry from anything I normally would ever watch. But it has a clever script, smart cast and a wonderful set of on-going jokes (JD and the janitor, JD and Cox), plus it has some of the weird sureal scenes ever seen on a mainstream comedy series.
Futurama is a Sky 3 on Freeview on Sunday afternoons
Scrubs is on during the day on Channel 15 on Freeview, but I only get to watch it at the weekends.
Watch em and let me know what you think?
Restaurants & Movies
2 disappointing experiences yesterday (Sunday), one I expected, and one I did not.
Firstly - Nando's Restaurant
Whenever we visit Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent (England), we invariable go via the cinema entrance. One of the restaurants close to the cinema is Nando's which always has a full shop, as well as having a queue so long, that you would have to be starving or addicted to the stuff to want it.
So we (my wife and I) decided to give it a try and find out what all the fuss was about. We did it last night when it was quiet, and was shocked initially by the fact that the place is nothing more than a glorified fast food joint!
You get allocated a table which gets you in the mind set of a restaurant, i.e. being appointed a waiter and ordering, waiting, eating, paying and going home, but instead you are given a table number, and have to go and order AND pay at the counter. You feel duped.
So the food comes out quickly and to be fair is well cooked, but the over-rated Nando authentic/original Portuguese recipe lark is true. I expected more from the food, and ended up being disappointed. Curries have a variety which cannot be matched, but this is tasteless.
Secondly - The Da Vinci Code
Im one of these people who have never read the book, but I have a good idea of what is going on, so much so that I watched the film and failed to be surprised by any twist or turn the film/book threw at me. It dealt with ideas and concepts that were out of date and old fashioned, purported rumour and myth to be the truth. The book Im sure will fuel the mindless masses who believe this sort of fantasy crap. Dan Brown has watched a few documentaries on cults, secret societies along with a passing knowledge of the "grail", and written a half-hearted novel about it. How it ever deserved to go global the way it did, I have no idea.
Apart from a few nationals (French and American), the entire cast was English with bad accents. The effects and wow factor was minimal, the locations boring. But then the film didnt have much to work with.
Im not a fan of Tom Hanks, but he acted his entire way through this film without any effort at all. Back in the 70s and 80s they made films with actors that were high on cocaine or heroine or smack. It seems these days films are made by actors jacked up on Botox. I mean, Hugh Grant has more emotion than Tom.
Ian McKellan looked like he was over acting, simply because no one else was even remotely making an effort.
Firstly - Nando's Restaurant
Whenever we visit Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent (England), we invariable go via the cinema entrance. One of the restaurants close to the cinema is Nando's which always has a full shop, as well as having a queue so long, that you would have to be starving or addicted to the stuff to want it.
So we (my wife and I) decided to give it a try and find out what all the fuss was about. We did it last night when it was quiet, and was shocked initially by the fact that the place is nothing more than a glorified fast food joint!
You get allocated a table which gets you in the mind set of a restaurant, i.e. being appointed a waiter and ordering, waiting, eating, paying and going home, but instead you are given a table number, and have to go and order AND pay at the counter. You feel duped.
So the food comes out quickly and to be fair is well cooked, but the over-rated Nando authentic/original Portuguese recipe lark is true. I expected more from the food, and ended up being disappointed. Curries have a variety which cannot be matched, but this is tasteless.
Secondly - The Da Vinci Code
Im one of these people who have never read the book, but I have a good idea of what is going on, so much so that I watched the film and failed to be surprised by any twist or turn the film/book threw at me. It dealt with ideas and concepts that were out of date and old fashioned, purported rumour and myth to be the truth. The book Im sure will fuel the mindless masses who believe this sort of fantasy crap. Dan Brown has watched a few documentaries on cults, secret societies along with a passing knowledge of the "grail", and written a half-hearted novel about it. How it ever deserved to go global the way it did, I have no idea.
Apart from a few nationals (French and American), the entire cast was English with bad accents. The effects and wow factor was minimal, the locations boring. But then the film didnt have much to work with.
Im not a fan of Tom Hanks, but he acted his entire way through this film without any effort at all. Back in the 70s and 80s they made films with actors that were high on cocaine or heroine or smack. It seems these days films are made by actors jacked up on Botox. I mean, Hugh Grant has more emotion than Tom.
Ian McKellan looked like he was over acting, simply because no one else was even remotely making an effort.
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