…grayblog…

Month: October 2002

  • Another space story: Earth’s first

    Another space story: Earth’s first co-orbital object found.

  • AFF: 1 point. urf.

    AFF: 1 point. urf.

  • A very good reason to

    A very good reason to stay in bed tomorrow morning. I mean, what’s the point?

  • GBlogs has closed, which is

    GBlogs has closed, which is barely surprising as Jen is “with child” and quite reasonably has other priorities. Good luck to her. It’s a shame, as GBlogs has contributed a lot to the British blogging community. I’ll certainly miss it.
    So now we cast around for an equivalent tool. I wonder if Jez will revive his recently-updated toy, as of late it has just been regurgitating GBlogs output.
    blo.gs is good, but doesn’t differentiate British sites from others.

  • Ick. Horrible grey and wet

    Ick. Horrible grey and wet morning, made no better by having to get up at 6 in order to be ready to be picked up at 7. I don’t normally stir much before 7.15.

  • I’m going to be mentioned

    I’m going to be mentioned in an article in the New York Times tomorrow, after David asked me to try out and describe my experiences of shazam.com for an article that he has now written for that publication.
    This is what I said:

    I heard of this when it launched, but didn’t sign up for it as I was hugely sceptical about the whole thing. So I gave it a go tonight, setting myself the challenge of defeating it with my eclectic musical tastes!

    First track: Empty Words by Andrea Parker. Thought this would challenge it, but it grabbed it straight away. Damn. Shazam 1 Me 0.

    Next up: The Less You Have, The More You Are by Metrotone. OK, so I’m not really playing fair here and sure enough, Shazam was defeated.

    So to be more even handed, I gave it a go at a track from BBC Radio 1: The Vines cover of Miss Jackson, which it failed to identify, in spite of good sound quality and putting my phone right under the speaker. I think it should have got this, as all the kids listen to The Vines – don’t they? (It turns out that the track has not yet been released.)

    Next: a trip down to my favourite bar, Woodies. It certainly makes a talking point, and when Shazam correctly identified Wake Up Everybody by Rae and Christian and then One Nation Under A Groove by Funkadelic, everyone was impressed, although there was quite a delay between tagging the song and the text message arriving. A trip next door to the Nag’s Head showed a weakness of the concept, however. The old thick brick walls at the Nags meant no mobile signal = no Shazam.

    So, overall, 3 songs tagged correctly out of five. Not bad.

    Aside from all that, registering for the service was very quick and easy, and you are given the chance not to opt in to their mailing lists. My biggest worry – it’s a bit tempting to use this service a lot, and at 50 pence a go (about 75 US cents) it would very easy to rack up a large bill (especially after a few beers!).

    I’ll link to the full article as soon as it has been published.

  • Football. Brighton. gah.

    Football. Brighton. gah.

  • Food and much chat last

    Food and much chat last night with Kate, followed by vodka and slimlines with Fi and Helen, with sightings of large numbers of the usual suspects.
    A damp grey morning today – ideal for searching out coffee and a newspaper.

  • It’s a gorgeous day outside.

    It’s a gorgeous day outside. The city is filled with shoppers and browsers – no sign of any economic gloom here. The bank had a very long queue – I’m well cheesed off that they never put more than three counter staff on for Saturday morning.
    I’m also cheesed off that Braun tell you to contact your retailer to get the optional extras for your newly-purchased handblender, but the retailer tells you to contact Braun. grrr.
    Anyway, I’ve bought some good food to prepare for dinner for this evening (going to start cooking now), as well as some gerberas to scatter around the flat. Entertaining is great fun.

  • me me me me me

    me me me me me me me

    phew. that feels much better.