MaFt’s Musings

Today I had a weird instant messenger conversation with my mate, ‘P’. ‘P’ does computer repair down south and often gets frustrated with people who pretend to know ‘computer stuff’ – I do too. It started of fairly normal (although unless you read any of our previous chats the reference to the XP DVD burning update might seem a bit random) but rapidly went a bit weird…: Read more �

I’ve been brought up to use Windows. Well, technically I started with a Tandy TRS-80, moved up to a ZX-81, Spectrum 48, Spectrum 128 +2, Sega Master System, SNES and THEN a Windows PC (95, 98, Me, XP, 7)… None of that is relevant but may get some old geeks reminiscing a bit!

Basically, in my proper computing years I’ve generally been a Windows user and had no major issues with it. I wasn’t OS-ist (I even have friends who are black, erm…, I mean who are Mac users) I just used Windows.

At the end of 2008 one of my bosses gave me his MacBook Pro (see here for proof: “…5 years later I’m on my third MacBook, one has been passed on to a colleague…”) as my Windows laptop was ageing rather badly. OK, I pestered quite a bit too to see what all the fuss was about Macs!! Read more �

I got an email today from the wonderful CCL Computers (that sounds more sarcastic than it actually is – they are a great company!) as a hard drive I bought from them failed during it’s warranty period. The drive turned out to be discontinued and so I was asked to find a suitable replacement around a similar price, which I did, and replied to their email.

This morning I had this in my inbox:

Hello MaFt

Thank you for your reply.

Your order xxxxxxxxx has now been amended for the HDD0133. All been well will be despatched this evening for delivery on Monday/Tuesday of next week.  Could you please ensure that they will be someone their too accept and sign for the goods.

If you require any further help or assistance please do not hesitate too contact us back by return of mail.

Kind Regards
::name removed::
CCL Returns Department.

There are, technically, no spelling mistakes in there; so well done in that sense! However, I count 5 grammatical errors where the wrong word has been used. For someone speaking on behalf of a big company you’d think they would at least try and give a good impression!

I honestly wouldn’t normally nit-pick to this degree but 5 errors in such a short email did make me laugh!

Anyone who knows me knows I like cheap. Even better than cheap is free. So it may surprise you that in a bizarre turn-around I’ve actually bought an iPhone app that was £5.99!

I like my music and I’ve been using Collectorz.com Music Collector for about 7 years now. MuC (as it is often referred to) is a fantastic piece of Windows and Mac database/collection software specifically for cataloguing CDs, LPs etc. It has a tonne of features that can be viewed via their website (I’m blogging this on my iPhone so am too lazy to fully review it!) but earlier today their ‘clz music’ app was finally added to the AppStore. So I bought it!

Now, instead of having to export my collection to HTML, format it, split it into groups by letter, upload and update the search database I can simply export it to my iPhone and view/search from there! It’s great! No more will I be rummaging around Discovery (local 2nd hand music shop) and end up buying a CD I already own (yes, I’ve done it a few times) or cursing the shopping center for no GPRS signal to check my collection online…

Oh, they also have software for movies, comics, books, photos most of which have iPhone apps to go with them.

After my rant yesterday about iTunes being a bit rubbish at managing libraries over the network I’m going to eat a bit of humble pie… I thought I’d give it another try and it seems to be OK now. This could be down to one of two things either 1) an update to iTunes solved some issues or 2) better account control on Windows 7 RC. I’m going to opt for a mixture of the two!

I’ve also been playing with ‘Remote’ for the iPhone which works really well. Just to have the iPhone sat next to me to switch tracks without having to keep switching to iTunes itself – it’s really lazy but could be handy if I ever connected the laptop to the stereo for parties. Which I might now it works properly!

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Now playing: Nerf Herder – Easy Mark
via FoxyTunes

I use FireFox, I like music, I use FoxyTunes I also use Spotify and have both Mac and PC. All my tunes are stored on the desktop PC and accessed via the network when I listen to them on a laptop – I rarely (if at all) use iTunes on the Mac Book Pro because it’s networking ability is poor* (on the Windows laptop I prefer MediaMonkey) so often end up using Spotify.

Now, on the desktop I can use FoxyTunes to control my music and add ‘currently listening to’ links to blog posts etc but on the Mac I can only do that with iTunes as there is no Spotify support in FoxyTunes. A bit of googling tells me that the Windows version of FoxyTunes can control Spotify with a bit of fiddling but this does not work on Mac OSX.

So, what I’m after is anyone who can tell me a way to get FoxyTunes to work with Spotify on the Mac! Either that or for FoxyTunes developers to add Spotify support officially!

*EDIT: just to clarify, the networking ability of iTunes is poor – not the networking ability of the Mac Book Pro!!!

Virgin Broadband is currently down… Well, their official description is: “Customers across the Yorkshire region may currently be experiencing a loss of their broadband Internet services”. Basically, I can get to a few sites but not any of the ones I need to… like maft.co.uk for my emails (can get them on the phone though), pocketgpsworld.com (so can’t get any work done – ie no money), garminpoi.co.uk (so can’t update that site and get a small amount of advertising money).

So, generally, it sucks! So I thought I’d share my moaning with you here on the blog cos Virgin let me go to blogger.com!

See ya

MaFt

Well, yes, it’s been over 10 weeks since I last blogged – and that was a rubbish one…

So, what have I been up to? Well, lots really! Still working hard though! The main reason for the lack of updates was my main PC dying. The motherboard died but it wasn’t just a case of replacing it. Noooo… stupid MaFt decided to have one of those Small Form Factor PCs (BioStar IDEQ) with proprietary innards. So, it was a new case and motherboard that I needed – slightly more expensive. Then I realised my PC was about 4 years old so none of the other, working, parts could be used with any new equipment… I had to buy a whole new system – the only bits I kept were the monitor, keyboard, mouse and DVD-burner. Also, thanks to the good folk on the GarminPOI.co.uk Mailing List who donated just over £200 the new stuff didn’t cost me anything. I just now need to get that site back up to date for everyone!

Our iron also passed-away, as has my digital camera and my camcorder… However, JVC offered to fix the camcorder for free (even three years out of warranty) as it has a faulty CCD which has caused problems in virtually every unit they were put in. So that was nice of them, shame Olympus want £150 to fix the camera (which I could buy new for less).

Punk Worship 3volution is fast approaching too and this time we’ve opted for early Saturday mornings for practises seeing as that’s the only time slot free between the four of us…

Oh, before I finish, here’s a great big thanks to TrixMoto for writing a script for me for MediaMonkey 3 to upload my currently playing song via FTP so I can link to it in the panel on the left! Clever stuff eh?! Also, FoxyTunes added a blogger thingy-ma-bob that shows the world what was on when I typed the post too.

See ya

MaFt

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Now playing: Bowling For Soup – Ohio (Come Back To Texas)
via FoxyTunes