A number of British football players have been accused of sexual assault whilst in Spain. I’m sure that, by now, no-one is surprised by stories like this. But a report that I saw on the TV this morning contained a very strange quote from the club involved. A spokesperson was quoted as saying “we will… Continue reading Football Spin
Author: Dave Cross
Music Tagging Again
Here’s a perfect example of the madness I mentioned last week. I have a set of four compilation CDs which were released in 2001/2 called The Album. Yesterday I started ripping them. I use grip to rip CDs and grip gets CD and track data from FreeDB. FreeDB gets its data from submissions by users.… Continue reading Music Tagging Again
Fifty Quid Guy
Looks like I’m part of a named demographic. According to The Guardian I’m “50 quid guy”. On a hot day at County Hall in London, [David] Hepworth stood up and gave Britain’s record-company bosses a lecture about their own customers, concentrating on “the 50-quid guy”, a term he had picked up from friends in retail.… Continue reading Fifty Quid Guy
Oscar Overkill
The Return of the King was, of course, a very good film. But was it really that good? Be honest. Was it really the best film of last year in eleven separate categories? And can you even remember the song that it won an Oscar for? I know I can’t. It’s hard to see this… Continue reading Oscar Overkill
Music Tagging
The way that music files are tagged is all wrong. There must be a better solution. Like (I suppose) most people reading this I have a large (and growing) collection of music files that I’ve (legally, of course) ripped from my CDs. The ripping software that I use writes various information about the track into… Continue reading Music Tagging
The Manual
I’m not entirely sure what the connection is, but on Tom Robinson’s web site I’ve just found the complete text of the KLF’s The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way). I’m sure that the general principles they talk about still hold true, but it’s interesting how much the music industry has… Continue reading The Manual
Roy Lichtenstein
Yesterday I went to see the new Roy Lichtenstein exhibition (warning – Flash and sound) at the Hayward Gallery. As an avid comics fan, my earliest memories of “proper art” are of Lichtenstein works like Whaam! or Image Duplicator. This exhibition has lots of that stuff, but also a lot of newer[1] works that I… Continue reading Roy Lichtenstein
Weekend in Brussels
Had a very pleasant trip to Brussels this weekend. I’d been invited to speak at FOSDEM and at the last minute my wife and step-daughter decided that they would come too. This turned out to be an excellent plan as it meant that they could wander off together when I was off doing geek stuff… Continue reading Weekend in Brussels
Stage Door
At about 2pm this afternoon I’m walking along the eastern part of Pall Mall towards Trafalger Square. I happen to glance up a side street and I see a small group of people milling about and some flashes going off. Being a nosey bugger I decide to investigate further. It seems from the excited group… Continue reading Stage Door
The Shifting Language
When did “rum” change its meaning? Apparently it now means “bacardi”. I was in my local pub last night and asked for a “rum and coke”. The barmaid tried to give me a bacardi and coke. It seems that you now need to specifically ask for “dark rum” if you want rum.