Author: jon

Jon Curnow writes on curnow.org about things that interest him. The site has been around for many years in various forms and he always wants to write much more here than he does.

Why Would You Be Interested?

I’ve had a good day and feel compelled to mention it.

It’s been quite a bizarre day as I have churned out a ton of documents at work. I particularly hate writing proposals to customers, work orders, and other documents related to my work, but today I have cleared a nice backlog, which makes me happy. There is, of course, no reason to tell you any of this except that I feel I am ending the week on a high.

In totally unrelated news, I am still trying to work out what to do with my new Gmail storage. However, I did read a fantastic idea over at Jeremy Zawodny’s blog: Google should make an instant messaging product, but make it open so other people could connect to it. Finally, I would have to stop updating Trillian every time Yahoo changed a protocol or two.

Entertainment Trivia

To take your mind off the football I present some useless entertainment trivia.

After last night’s disappointment on the football field, regular readers will be pleased to hear that ITV is bringing back Popstars to make our lives better. This time, according to Digital Spy, the show will aim to create the UK’s next male-female musical duet. To make it even more depressing, the same source also reports that ITV are planning an ITV3 show – presumably so we can have Popstars on ITV1; Popstars Xtra on ITV2, and an additional behind-the-scenes-of-the-behind-the-scenes show on ITV3.

While I was reading the excellent Digital Spy, I had cause to update the Man of the Moment entry for Colin and Matt.

We Wuz Robbed

I don’t think I have any nails left after that match.

What an entirely nail-biting match that was, and how very, very depressing. I imagine most of the country was watching as Michael Owen scored for us in two and a half minutes. I made the tube and the train, which were – I am certain – much quieter than they normally would be at 7pm. I just made it into the house just in time for the start and for Owen’s goal, and was watching all the way through to Helder Postiga’s equaliser after 83 minutes for Portugal. So everything went to extra time, and we all had to watch for another 30 minutes. Thank goodness for Frank Lampard, who kept us in it at the end of the second half of extra-time, but who on earth would want to sit and watch those penalties?

 [match summary]

Despite the result, it’s games like this that make me enjoy the game of football!

Come on Eng-er-land

An entry about sport. Me?

Well, I guess that there’s not a lot to say. There is only one topic of conversation in London today, and it all revolves around football.

There have been football songs on the radio all day (it’s simply the worst music you can listen to), and there is an excitement outside. Everywhere you go, there are English flags, which is really quite pleasing to see. Now, all we have to do is win!

Thousands of England fans are gathering in Lisbon ahead of tonight’s crunch Euro 2004 quarter-final against hosts Portugal.

[Sky News]

The only other thing of interest I can come up with is that, apparently, “Simon Le Bon himself has heaped praise on boyband Phixx’s cover version of the 1984 Duran Duran smash hit Wild Boys” [source]. And even I don’t think that’s interesting.

So I’ll leave it at that and go and watch the match.So I’ll leave it at that and go and watch the match.

Online Customer Service Ratings

Just to show that some of the biggest names on the web have poor customer service.

Over the past two weeks, I have had cause to contact two online companies that happily take my credit card details for services (and I happily pay them as I want to use the paid-for features). You may recall I’ve mentioned contacting Yahoo. I also have had cause to contact Sonic Selector. So far, both companies are rating 0/10 for their customer service when it comes to billing enquiries. At this moment, it is at the point I would cancel both of the services and find alternative providers – especially as I just got an invite for a Gmail account! Such a shame that companies behave like this. Just a reminder that sometimes a real-world store you can walk into is better.

UPDATE: Interestingly – and totally unknown to me until I posed this – the ‘On This Day‘ link is also about poor customer service.

A Little Update

An update on previous entries.

In case you’re searching for an update on this: well, OK, so the extra storage is great. The fact that they haven’t replied to any of my messages sucks. I am a paying customer 😉

Oh, and I didn’t get to see the England game in a pub as I was on public transport. The trains were empty. It was very strange.

And finally, proof that digital downloads can be good for the music industry.

Second, going digital broadens your musical taste, he says. “With iTunes [Music Store], you can sample loads of stuff. A lot of people have said it has opened their ears to new music they wouldn’t have otherwise listened to,” he says.

Just Some Things

Just a few things that I found online today.

Things that caught my eye today:

  • Are your SMS text messages being intercepted? Spy Blog seems to think that they may be. A terrorism expert quoted on the site says, “Having this kind of surveillance is the price we have to pay in a modern society to protect us from terrorists”. While I agree with that in principle, I do think we have a right to be told that this is happening. Wonder what they make of my late-night drunken texts home?
  • If you thought teleportation was just in the realms of science fiction, then think again. I had always assumed it was just something inventive storytellers made up. Well, BBC News reports that there have been some advances in teleportation. We might be a long way from Scottie beaming us up, but it’s fascinating, don’t you think?
  • Do you have a cool idea for the future of the web browser? If your idea might require some machine learning to implement, then Blake Ross wants to hear from you.
  • I made a conscious decision this year not to start watching the current series of Big Brother – it can suck the life out of you. Naturally, this is the year I wish I’d been paying attention. If you missed it, there’s been a punch-up and the police were called. Tonight’s eviction is cancelled. According to The Scotsman, a BB spokesman said, “We want to let the housemates continue to work through their differences rather than be faced with an eviction”
  • And if you haven’t seen this year’s Ascot hat collection, you should, for they look frightfully dull compared to some years.

Two Years Ago

Today is the first day with a full two years worth of back entries on this site.

Today is the first day that the ‘On This Day’ link has gone back two years, which has me slightly excited! One of the original reasons for starting the regular updating of this site was to serve as a personal memory archive. I have always loved flicking through old diaries and address books – this somehow brings that function into the new millennium.

Last year I was at Shrewsbury Carnival. A carnival is one of those things that you remember as being a great deal of fun when you were a child, but doesn’t always work when you are an adult. Of course, I was just being grumpy about it last year.

In 2002, I seem to have seen Spiderman around this time, which has me admitting I can’t wait for the next one. I have some film-loving friends who hated the first one (I think it was too dark for them), but I loved it and can’t wait to sit in the cinema again.

This day in 2002 was also the day of possibly the most memorable link I have ever posted on this site. New Scientist asked: ‘Does beheading hurt? And, if so, for how long is the severed head aware of its plight? Of course, with recent events abroad, it’s a little more topical and less far-fetched, but, nonetheless, it remains one of the links that have appeared here that I haven’t forgotten. Every time New Scientist changes its site, I go back and fix that link.

If you happened to look at yesterday’s entry, you would have seen the link to the ‘On This Day’ for 14 June 2003. All I can say to those who mailed me is that I will still not tell you which one I am. Gym buddy has, however, assured me my arse is a lot less flabby now.

Yahoo Extra Storage

As the cool kids play with Gmail, Yahoo just upped their mail limits.

You know all the cool kids are signing up for Gmail accounts through nice invites from people. I didn’t get one, and I even know somebody who works at Google. Still, nice to see trusty Yahoo! greet me this morning when I logged into my Yahoo mail account:

Virtually unlimited storage

A whopping 2GB means you should never have to worry about managing storage again! Keep thousands of messages, photos, and documents – think of it as your online archive.

The new Yahoo interface is cleaner, and I am about to start experimenting with using it as an online archive for something (although I haven’t yet decided what). The only problem I ever have with Yahoo is actually getting an answer to a query, which, in theory, should be OK for free services, but I do pay them for some services and still can’t get an answer. 

Personal Information Management

A little rant about data synchronisation is brewing. This isn’t it.

I have such a long post ‘brewing’ about data that we all need to transport around with us regularly. I have Microsoft Outlook at work, a Palm-powered Treo phone, and a Palm desktop/Mozilla combination at home. I occasionally back up all my data to Yahoo’s organiser (calendar, address, memo). There is no reliable synchronisation tool that handles everything well for me, and this is one of the things that truly frustrates people trying to utilise all this technology. It was one of the reasons I switched to a Palm-powered Treo rather than my old Nokia favourites (at least a good part of the synchronisation works). There are some immovables in the equation: Outlook is in use in my office, and I can’t change that, and I am attached to Windows-based computers. Although I have heard some reports that Apple’s iSync isn’t as great as it’s claimed it is – at least – an option for Mac users. I notice another satisfied user today: Jase and his Sony Ericsson T610. Maybe that post will eventually see the light of day!

Cameraphone Backlash

A little tech news I have found: camera phones are bad, seven-year-old bloggers are getting educated, while the rest of us are supposed to be old and rich.

BBC News has an article on camera phones and a backlash against them. I read it, and the main thing that stood out to me was that I have both of the phones pictured, and I don’t think either of them is good at taking photos. Sad, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, they also have an excellent article on the use of weblogging tools as learning aids for schoolchildren, which I think raises some very interesting ideas for the use of software in education.

Meanwhile, MediaPost links to an article suggesting that bloggers are “older and wealthier than what’s portrayed by their stereotype” [source]. I think we all wish we were wealthier, but to be told I am older than other people is alarming!

Already, it’s mid-June

It gets to the middle of June and I haven’t written that much. I must have been enjoying the sunshine.

It doesn’t feel like last week since I wrote anything here, but it is. Given that May was possibly the most prolific month on Listen To Musak, I think I am subconsciously giving myself a day or two off. The weather has been wonderful for the past couple of weeks, and I’ve been extra busy in the office, so there has been little time to get into the writing spirit.

Interestingly, the vote is in for the Mayor (Ken is back) and the local council elections. The results of the European elections were announced last night, and it seems the new countries didn’t see a very high turnout, which seems odd given their recent arrival in the community. It also seems that a good number of people in the UK wanted to get the message across that they are not happy with plans to take us further into Europe. I think this is sad and wonder if it’s only a shot across Blair’s bow in the mid-term or a sign of something more powerful. The two main parties all lost, and I watch with interest what their reactions to the recent votes will be. Turnout in the UK was up, which was certainly one good thing to come out of last Thursday’s poll.

Of course, the main news pushing Europe to the middle pages is last night’s football defeat at the hands of France, when it looked so certain that we had the game in the bag. Even I could tell there were some silly mistakes in injury time. And then, I woke up this morning to see Ralf Schumacher was disqualified from yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix, resulting in a podium place for Jenson Button. And then we beat New Zealand at Cricket. I could almost be interested in a summer of sport.

Digital Radio Lust

You will be aware of my love of radio and my delight at Pure’s other products: the Evoke-1 and the Tempus-1. I want a Pure Digital Bug radio. I can’y jsutify it. Is it the look or the features?

Digital Radio Lust

Adot’s Notblog discussed the concept of Tivo for radio a few Fridays ago. This reminded me that only last weekend I had picked up a leaflet for Pure Digital’s Bug in a store. You will be aware of my love of radio and my delight at Pure’s other products: the Evoke-1 and the Tempus-1 (actually, I never mentioned that I also have a Tempus-1). The Bug looks cool (it’s designed by Wayne Hemingway) and has a host of features (including some recording capabilities and radio rewind). I am not sure if I’ll actually invest in it (given I am running out of rooms to put digital radios in), but I will be keeping an eye out for the products that Pure comes up with. I think Pure (or Imagination Technologies, as they are also known) have some really imaginative products of high quality. They only lack one thing in their range: I wish they’d come up with a small, nicely priced portable radio that included FM for times when you can’t get DAB reception.

Elsewhere: Here’s my comment on notblog:

I know it’s not for the car, and it’s not available in the US, but Pure Digital’s ‘The Bug’ has those features for the UK digital radio market. It’s designed by Wayne Hemingway (of the Red or Dead fashion label). Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these (or – at least – one of the other Pure models with the same feature) for exactly the reasons you point out. http://www.thebug.com

Posted by:Jonon May 28, 2004 08:04 AM

archived here

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Amanda Holden was good but the rest of the show wasn’t great.

PY and I have a knack for seeing musicals in London’s theatreland just before they close. We’re just back from seeing Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Shaftesbury Theatre, which we decided to do very last minute.

Amanda Holden is the Kansas girl arriving in New York at the height of the Roaring Twenties and is something of a revelation. She was truly excellent and carried the show. It’s such a shame that it’s closing, and she has had some of the blame, but I didn’t think it was a killer show.

Although it’s set in the twenties, it was written much more recently, yet, sadly, it had a somewhat dated feel, which Anything Goes (which is older) didn’t have when we saw it a few months ago. I don’t think it’s helped by Anita Dobson’s character, Mrs Meers, a failed actress pretending to be an Oriental landlady. The character seems dated, and the impersonation of a Chinese woman is somewhat patronising. I had wanted to see Maureen Lipman in the role (she starred when the play first opened) and was described by one review as, Grotesque and comical, she’s verbally and physically sharp-witted” [source], but I think I am glad I didn’t. I don’t think it was Dobson, but the character who was uncomfortable.

Still, it’s such a shame so many of London’s plays and musicals are closing right now. I do enjoy a good night out at the theatre. This, sadly, was only mediocre.