MP3 begins to slip as the music compression standard
The Guardian Online Blog points to a survey suggesting that although MP3 is still the most favoured format for music files stored on hard drives, its pre-eminence is slipping. The stats are:
MP3 — 72%
WMA — 19.6%
AAC — 4.3%
Other — 3.9%
What’s in a name?
From Saturday’s Guardian: Staff at the south London Horniman museum have discovered that up to a tenth of all emails sent to or from the museum are being hoovered up by spam filters. Visitors trying to access the website, www.horniman.ac.uk, are being blocked or, worse, redirected to more specialist-interest sites. Tut, tut.
Pierre Salinger — as good as his word
Pierre Salinger, JFK’s Francophile Press Secretary (imagine such a thing in Bush’s xenophobic White House) died of heart failure on Saturday at the age of 79. He died in a hospital near his home near Avignon, after recent surgery to fit a pacemaker, his wife, Nicole, said. The couple moved to the Vaucluse to run a B&B when George W. Bush won the 2000 election. “He was very upset because he thought Bush was not fit to be president,” Nicole Salinger told the Associated Press. “He said he would leave if Bush became president, and he did.”
Hmmm… I wonder how many of the folks who are currently threatening to emigrate from the US if Dubya wins will do the same.
Smoke Havanas, go to gaol.
This is what Ben Hammersley says:
“A new US Treasury ruling states that US citizens cannot consume Cuban goods anywhere in the world. Full stop. Travel abroad and smoke them there, and you’ll still go to prison. Voice of America news has the story:
The notice also clarifies that Americans are barred from not only purchasing Cuban goods in foreign countries, but also from consuming them in those countries.
The penalties for violating the prohibitions include maximum criminal fines for individuals of $250,000 and imprisonment for up to 10 years. Corporations can be fined as much as a million dollars.
You can read the official document, only as a PDF here, linked to also from here.”
Well, well, it’s tough being an American. But for Irishmen, well… where did I put those matches?
En passant, isn’t it interesting to note that the place where Americans are allowed to abuse human rights is, er, Cuba. Still, it’s a consolation to know that the guards at Guantanamo are forbidden to smoke Montecristos.
Hard Workin’ George W
Nice remix by Sim Sadler of Dubya’s debate rhetoric. Reminds me of Ronald Reagan’s joke: “They say hard work never killed anyone, but I figured why take the risk?”
Hidden Wiring — audio
Lovely spoof by Carl Carter. The MP3 is best IMHO.
Happy Birthday OO!
OpenOffice is four years old today! Quite an impressive toddler. I mean to say, how many tots can drive an 800-lb gorilla wild with impotent rage?
You think I jest? Well, have a look at the marketing brief Microsoft wrote for its partners to assist them in dealing with customers who were thinking of defecting to Open Office. This interesting little hymn sheet used to be on the web, but seems to have disappeared. Just as well I archived a copy — in the public interest, naturally.
The hidden wiring (contd.)
Salon, which first raised the question of the mysterious bulge, has now published another picture.
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Plus an analysis by one Alex Darbut, a technical expert who designs and makes such devices for the U.S. military. His view is that the bulge is indeed a transceiver designed to receive electronic signals and transmit them to a hidden earpiece lodged in Bush’s ear canal. “There’s no question about it”, he says. “It’s a pretty obvious one — larger than most because it probably has descrambling capability,” Darbut speculates that the device Dubya wears is provided by the Secret Service. “They’re not going to have him driving around the countryside on his ranch without being in instant contact with him.”
So… we have the first electronically tagged president in history. No wonder David Blunkett is so keen on the technology.
Was Dubya wired (contd.)
CNN is claiming that there is a website devoted entirely to the question. But when I tried to reach it I got the “Service Temporarily Unavailable” 503 error. Has it been swamped by eager conspiracy theorists? Hmmm…
Later: Just discovered that I screwed up the link. Have now corrected it and it works fine. So much for conspiracy theory. Thanks to Angela Hegarty for her tactful note pointing out the mistake.