The Pacemaker v2 is coming soon

I could have put money on my prediction. I knew the 120gig Hard drive of the Pacemaker version 1 was too big. Currently I have 17gig of tunes on it and another 14 gig of tunes backed up in a different location on the same device. Don't get me wrong, we're still talking about 1500+ songs with a average length of 6mins each. Anyway, it still looks like the same device but they have redone the UI of the device [theres a short video from CES 09] to make it more quickly usable for new users. Auto beat match is like a major no no in the world of the dj. Version 1 had a BPM counter but it wasn't automatic. It seems one of the major changes is the automatic application of this feature. I don't quite know how pro-amateurs and pros will take the pacemaker v2 because the 1st version did come scrutiny for making mixing skill-less but they quickly found out it didn't. Either way, I'm hoping the UI changes will be a firmware update for the V1 Pacemakers. I checked for a Firmware today but nothing, however the forums seem to be on fire with the news.

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Pay us to remove the DRM

I seriously don't believe this…

Apple has dropped DRM from iTunes — and is offering to remove their DRM from music you already bought for the low, low fee of $0.30 per song.

Why the hell should people who have paid for there music legally have to pay again to take the DRM off? I can't work out what's worst, buying DRM music or having to pay again to have the DRM taken off. Someone is taking the living piss out of the consumers who try to stay on the straight and narrow path.

Actually this reminds me of something else I saw the other day. Considering a life of crime by Euan Semple. Euan talks about how iPlayer and Audiable's restrictions are weakening his grip on the straight and narrow. Hey no wonder Usenet usage has grown exponentially. There's also estimates (not from the BBC of course) that the recent special of Top Gear was watched by over three times the amount of people online and outside the UK that on tv and iplayer inside the UK.

I got to say I also don't understand the point of paying 10 pounds a month for higher quality streams from iplayer. Something jars with my net neutrality thoughts, specially when I'm already paying over the odds for premium bandwidth and most isp's are not even giving you what they advertise let alone tricking you with there acceptable use policy. 

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A month into the Apple iPod Touch experience

Everyone knows i'm not the biggest fan of Apple products and services. So it was a shock when I went out and bought a Apple iPod Touch. I struggled from day one to do anything with it except turn it on due to the crazy notion that you must pair it with iTunes before it will actually work at all. There's a ton of tweets I sent out of frustration of this process. But how have I been doing since?

Well I tend to carry it with me everywhere because it slips into my pocket really well. I did have a shock when I saw the Sony eBook Reader on sale for 189 pounds the other day because I was thinking hummmm maybe i'd be better off with that. But then its not as portable and although it has a RSS reader, I doubt it can cope with my requirements.

The iPod Touch's shining and worst feature is the Apple App store. Its good being able to download apps quickly over a Wifi connection but its also painful to search (25 items at a time) and there's not enough information for somethings. For example I was looking for a decent RSS reader and the only way to really tell the difference was to try them out. So I tried out the Free ones and then spent 1.19 pounds (the only money I've spent on the App store to date) on a pay one which I used for 2 days.

Its also worth noting that many app authors create a Free version for you to download to get around the lack of a demo option on the app store. On Windows mobile you get apps like PC apps, demos which are time locked or cut down till you enter a serial number.

Then I switched over to Netnewswire because of its ability to sync with Newsgator on the web and on my Windows mobile phones. So I never end up reading the same news twice. But now how do I get my 1.19 pounds back for the app which I hardly use?  I'm also upset about the choice of ebook readers, maybe I need to pay out a load of money to test the paid for versions. But so far each ebook reader has its own storage container, so any new apps can't see the already uploaded ebooks!!! Yes maybe someone might create a decent ebook reader, but how would I ever know?

Multitasking on the iPod touch is painful!!! I hate this device for this thing. Here's a example of why, so I see a good news item and I want to email it to someone. I click the send via email button and it launches the mail app which I have setup. I send the email to the person (its usually stored in the outbox because I'm not online) then I have to click the one button to go back to the app menu then click the netnewswire icon again to re-start netnewswire. I have to do this everytime I want to send a message from Netnewswire and I got to say it becomes a bit tiresome after a while. Some real multitasking wouldn't go a miss, specially when I decide to have a ebook open and want to update my rss. Or even during the night, when I got the alarm set and want to use the ipod as a bedside night clock but also pull down rss during the night time.

I still can't put music on the device even if I wanted to because I'm not using iTunes and nothing I've found on Linux supports the iPod Touch v2 firmware even Hipo, Rhythmbox, Amarok, etc. When I connect it via USB it comes up on desktop as a camera device which Fspot wants to manage although it doesn't actually have a camera.

The keyboard input is still painful to use for me and I generally dread putting in my password to get updates from the app store. I also got to say the way it asks you if it can use your location is good but it would be nice to have a don't ask me again option. For all the fuss about the multi-touch I have used it a couple of times in my current ebook reader to zoom in a bit. Some apps like the first RSS reader I had don't even allow you to do it so its a real inconsistent experience. Something I'm sure Apple would love to stomp out.

The Wifi can be spotty too, sometimes my Windows mobile devices can see wifi that the iPod doesn't, but whats worst is if you get a wifi point which requires web page authentication like BT Openzone, The Cloud, Tmobile, etc. Safari will not attempt to navigate to that holding page. Instead it sits there like a lemon moaning theres no internet connectivity.

So overall, the iPod Touch makes a reasonable RSS reader device. Its true I'm reading tons more RSS that ever before but the move to Newsgator also had its part to play in that (although now i'm looking for a Linux Newsgator compatable reader). The screen makes a good ebook reader but the software is far off the mark. The best I can find can open pdfs and text files. I then have to use another app for chm ebooks and another one for .mobi ebooks. The first one doesn't even support reformatting of PDFs, so you can't really zoom in for that super fast reading. Once this is solved, I'll be happy and the ipod touch will have done everything I've bought it for. Although I got to say if ebook reader hardware got better and more open, I'll trade in the ipod touch no problem.

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HMV now stock the Pacemaker

HMV now stock the Pacemaker

In a very surprising move, Tonium has done a deal with HMV to sell the Pacemaker on there site and in selected stores. This is great news, because finally the device will be available outside of the pro dj shops and in the hands of the general public. I do however wonder if people will understand it without some direction or some time in such a busy shop? Oh well its yours for only 399 pounds now, which isn't bad if you consider how much I paid for mine back in May 2008. At least I can claim braggin rights with number 211.

Oh if you've ever wanted to see whats actually in the pacemaker, someones actually taken it apart [1] [2]. Here's how to do it.

The case is held together by two sets of pins on opposite sides.

If you attempt this yourself, gently pop one side off, then even more gently wiggle the other side off. If you've ever yanked a laptop hard drive, you know the side-most connector pins will get bent if you rush it.

The twin chips are each 512mb of RAM. The spotted one is possibly the Freescale i.MX31L. The spots run to indicate moisture damage. The uppermost chip is audio power management. I didn't look underneath the hdd's ZIF connector as it's really fragile.

The USB and phones boards are tightly secured to the back piece. All of the jacks are snug against the pc boards and i didn't notice any weak solder points.

Looking at the front piece, you can see that everything is screwed tightly to the chassis and backed up further by the hard drive and battery. This means no buttons to break off and push in and nothing to jiggle loose.

Beautiful work Tonium.

As expected its pretty straight forward because the guys behind it only had off the shelf “standard” components to work with. There's already talk about replacing the Samsung HS122JB hard drive with a ZIF comptable Flash Drive on the forum. But the biggest challenge is software it seems. People are trying to build replacement ways to get music on and off the device without the editor. The best attempt so far is the Pacejacker software, which is written in Adobe Air and allows you to alter the song names, genres, etc without touching the files. I'm convinced once this device gets more into the public, your going to see much more hacking on it.

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A few points about going clubbing

I love going clubbing, everytime I go, I remember what I'm missing in this weekend world. Anyway, there's a few things which do bug me about the experience. And seeing how I just got back from Gatecrasher NYE in Bristol's Syndicate Club, I thought I'd share a few of them before going to sleep for most of New Years day.

  1. I don't like it when I go to a club and the bouncer/door person looks at me and asks if I know what's on tonight. This has happened at a few places including Gatecrasher, where the door man asked me and without letting me answer started jumping side to side clicking his fingers saying something about it being a hard house night. I replied with “ummm no its a trance night.” And he says “all the same to me…”
  2. I don't understand why the door people make a big fuss about whats in my little bag but fail to check my pockets or even do a quick body search. If I was carrying drugs why would I put it in my bag? And a weapon could be tied into the lining of my motorcycle jacket easily.
  3. I don't understand why I MUST check my bag into the cloakroom but woman are allowed to carry huge handbags around with them?
  4. I don't like being followed through a club like I'm public enemy number one. And if your going to watch me, don't stand beside me or just behind me, its too obvious and surely a hour or so of doing must be boring, even if you swap now and then with another.
  5. Plastic bottles are good, they stop people killing each on the dancefloor, woman can wear baare feet and club generally. But they make a terriable mess on the dancefloor because they get slidey when crushed
  6. What is it with Lazers, there amazing but only on for 2mins max at a time and there no longer pointed towars the crowd. Even from a safe distance. And whats with the lack of programmes?
  7. The guy who stands in the toilet all night. I don't like it, there always usually african and get abuse from drunk people. I also sometimes just want to get out of the stinking mens toilet as fast as possible but can't because I can't dry my hands till the guy gives me a paper towel and then I need to leave a tip or be rude. In actual fact, that exchange is a influencing trick, where someone does something small for you and then you reicplicate at a much higher cost that the first action.
  8. I don't expect to get the piss taken out of me on a new years eve when getting a taxi back home. They wanted 40 pounds for a journey (town to Fishponds) which is shorter that the journey I took 2 days ago (Clifton to Fishponds) which cost about 15 pounds. In the end I walked from town to Eastville because I also missed the night bus which only came once every hour
  9. What stupid rule is it it that you can't use a dayrider (all day all buses faire) on a night bus, the following morning. Bristol sort out the public transport
  10. Why make a back door exit into a smoking area in a club? The cold air blows into the club and it starts to smell smokey again. This is not good, at least put something between the outside and inside. I've gotten so use to going clubbing and coming home smelling slightly sweaty but not like I've just walked through a forest fire.

That will do for now

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Symmetric Follow and Second Twitter Accounts

Getting a load of blog posts out before I go out on the town tonight it would seem.

So my thoughts on Symmetric Follow and Second Twitter Accounts. Well I don't own a second Twitter account unless you maybe count the Geekdinner one I setup ages ago and the BBC backstage one, I'm still considering setting up. But I also don't believe in this idea of symmetric following, aka following the people who follow you. I actually think it breaks the usefulness of Twitter if you follow everyone back and Twitter already has another ways to see people who you are not following.

I remember at FOWA 2007, someone came up to me and said they followed me. I was very flattered as such but then they started to rip into me about not following them back. Well I was gobsmacked. I mean I'm only human, why would I follow everyone and anyone who followed me? Strange stuff…

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Why you should use Twitter…

Its New years eve, and I'm already getting messages via text saying “Happy New Year, thought I'd send this out before the networks jam up or fall over.” Oh how different things would be if most of my friends used Twitter or to be fair some other microblogging service. The notion of sending out a Happy new year to the world would be so easy and not require 200+ text messages to each of your friends phone. Yes microblogging solves this problem totally. So maybe save us all the heart ache and sign up to Twitter tonight, hey even if you get to stage 2, the mobile phone company will love you tonight.

Twitter stages of acceptance

Picture taken from Steve Clayton's blog.)

I'm not doing a good enough job on my friends on why they should dump Facebook and use Twitter instead, so I thought I'd post up this excellent guide to Twitter from weaverluke, found via [The Obvious]

What shocked me when flicking through the pages was the fact I was quoted. It all leads back to this tweet ages ago.

See I was on a train to Manchester at the time and had just bought the Pacemaker. I was using it on the train up and it crashed and I had no idea how to restart it. The instructions didn't say and the website was so full of Flash that I couldn't navigate it well enough to find how to restart it. I twittered it asking for help, but everyones taken it as if my heart pacemaker. Well sorry to say its not that, just a Dj Tool.

Maybe this will go down in Twitter fiction/folktales as a tale for ever more. Eitherway, its another reason to dump facebook and switch to Twitter.

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My New Year Resolutions 2008 reviewed

So its the very eve of 2009 and I've been thinking what should I be doing for 2009. But before that a review of how well I've done in 2008 seems like a good idea. You can find the full post from Jan 2008 here.

  1. Finally go to Tokyo

    Well this never happened, but only partly due to the divorce and moving to Manchester
  2. Not to do another BarCampLondon unless the BBC is the venue

    Ah I remember this, I had just finished the amazing barcamp at Google and vowed not to do one again. To be fair, I've helped with 4 others but not actually done or organised them. Even better other people have stepped up and done barcamp in there own way. Which was one of my aims for 2008. Will there be a BBC BarCamp? Well there's been a internal mini BeebCamp but full BarCamp? We shall see, maybe it might make the 2009 list.
  3. Work on something very different but cutting edge this year
    So this did happen, I worked on a ARG with a variety of people but the project fell through when core parts of the team had a professional disagreement. We tried to carry on regardless but it was not possible to move forward as planned. We still have a excellent idea and story, plus I've been talking to new people about joining some of the original team. So I think this might get picked up in 2009.
  4. Dataportability
    Well I've almost cut myself off from the data portability group all together. Not out of choice or anything like that, I just didn't have the time and as things started to change and shift over the year, it became apparent that people were thinking about data portability more that ever before due to the efforts earlier on. I'm not saying its over, theres tons more to be done but also theres a bunch of other issues which need addressing. I'm hoping i'll get the time to pull some of this stuff into work, where I can have the most impact.
  5. Small Routines
    So actually this did happen, but not in a ideal way. Currently I'm sleeping very late and getting up late. During the night is when I do most of my blogging and reading. I don't know what it is but I seem to be more open to learning and taking it all in at 1am. I do still listen to podcasts while around the flat including in the shower. But what I need to do now is shift the time back by 3-4 hours. So I go to bed by 1am but get all my blogging and reading done between 9pm – 1am. Then I'd get up about 9am and not feel so tired. In regards to the RSS reading for example, the ipod is helping a lot (i should write a blog about it).
  6. Play a team sport
    Yep I started playing Handball in Manchester, but it was a ton of running about and seriously my body couldn't handle the dynamic pace of the students I was playing with. So I gave it up when I learned about a Volleyball team in Manchester. Its still very energetic and I'm playing with students and people in there prime years but my previous experience helps a lot and i'm not a bad setter at all. Theres a few tournaments coming up including a few beach ones in summer, so who knows what might happen.
  7. Geekdinners and Geekvenues
    Well I got to the bottom of geekdinner.co.uk. It was hosted on Photo Matt's server somewhere and he wiped it or something and now its all gone! Yes I know crazy but don't worry we have flickr pictures, blog posts and our memories to remind us of the good times. I also handed over the job of organising geekdinners to Cristiano Betta who I believed would take it forward while I move to Manchester. And I wasn't wrong, he's done a great job, scoping out a new venue and new speakers for the events. He's also tied the geekdinners closer to the girl geekdinners which is great. Geekvenues is still floating on somewhere, should think about that some more.
  8. Start learning Python
    Yep started, setup my environment and done Hello world and a couple other tiny projects. Micheal Sparks has leant me a couple books which are really useful including the Joel Spolsky book who I listen to on the Stack overflow podcast anyway. I also started playing with PovRay again and dropped learning AIR for now.
  9. Use the technologies around me better
    Yep this is happening, I'm also becoming more choosy and selling stuff which doesn't fit. So for example this year the Wii and Netbook went, not because I don't like them, but because they didn't quite fit into my life. I'm also switching some of my services. So I still use plaxo and now I have two Windows mobile phones, its become even more essential that I can sync between them over the air not just when I get to a Windows PC. I'm going to stop using delicious and switch to evernote. The lack of Linux support is frustrating but on the other hand its supported on my ipod touch and windows mobiles.
  10. Go to more comedy clubs
    This has happened, I'm 5mins walk from the Comedy Store in Manchester and I have been a few times on off nights. I plan to go more often and actually if I had been a bit quicker recently. Would have been off to Jesters in Bristol tonight for a night of comedy over new years instead clubbing it. So yes comedy is happening more often. Maybe I should spend less time in the cinema and more time in the comedy clubs?

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