Thursday, August 7, 2008

Another DRM infested music store closes - music becomes worthless

Another DRM infested music store closes - music becomes worthless
Back in April I wrote about Microsoft's music store closing, thus rendering any music purchased from that store worthless. Why? The music is DRM infested, and thus will stop playing after they switch off their servers that are needed for license veri... (more in the full post)



What to Call this Post...
How about Blogging isn't for cowards? Or maybe Linda's other big day off? A funny thing happened on the way home? Playing good samaritan has it's spinoffs?

This is really hard for me to publish, but what the ...  Close your eyes, Linda, hold your breath and jump!
Ok, here goes...  Oh, yeas, and I have sat on it for nearly a week...

Well, thanks to Our English Lass, who is still in one piece, I have a few Tuesday's off until she becomes Mother and Child. Having just had a week off the Monday-itis was massive yesterday, so I gratefully took her suggestion and had the day off.

Popped off to best friend's house, put in my Avon order. Stunning stuff really, and not worth blogging about, I know.

Came home with a piece of chockie on my tummy, feeling good about the lippies she gave me. Did a u-turn before getting home and went off to see Junior's mate who is about to turn sixteen. Thought I might buy him a pair of shoes for his birthday so he thinks he's got his pressy and gets a bit of a surprise with the rest of it.

Knock on door. Door opens. In walks Linda. Hello D, would you like me to buy you some shoes for your birthday? Oh, you already have new shoes? Excellent. What, that pair down there, next to the pair of shoes that belongs to Junior?

Uh, didn't I drop Junior off at school this morning and wasn't he wearing those shoes?

Junior!!!
I call several times... Where is he, D? In your bedroom hiding behind your chest of drawers? Come here you gutless wonder.

D seems to think that last bit is funny. Right about that time I am starting to feel sick. He emerges. Finally. The Emergent Kid.

Put those shoes on. (They could not have been any more obvious if they were painted yellow with flashing signs anouncing Truanter This Way...) Get in the car.

Where are we going, asks Junior. I stop outside hubbie's place of work. In here. We are going to see your father.

Now comes the begging...

Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad... etc etc etc. All in incredible monotone.

Get inside, anounce to Junior - You tell him. I sit down and wait for it...

And of course, the upshot of it is that, yet again, I have to go to the school and enquire as to WHY he is not at school and we have not been informed...

Now, Don't know if I told you this, but the dean in charge of dear darling Junior was going to put him on a principals report. Yesterday, I assumed. Get him some counselling. Plus careers help, so that we can pull him out in Sptember, on his 16th birthday if things don't go well...

Dean not available, see his form overlord. Thingy, whatever he is called. Adviser? Deputy or assistant principal?

Oh, he knew Junior was going onto a principal's report at sometime... No, the normal thing is to wait until a child is away three days in a row before contacting the parents/carers. Oh, really, away seven schooldays in a row last thing last term? And not here yesterday or until now today? Doesn't that make it NINE days? Isn't the advice that he is not there overdue by three times?

Find the head counsellor. That in itself was a miracle in a school this size. We see the counsellor together.

Guess what? We don't look like a happy family... Being sanguine, of course, it is the ultimate insult. Happy? I hate being asked that question. I was happy until you asked me... Strange, I know. And not very condusive to a good chat with the school counsellor. Hmm, my Mum never even got to see my counsellor, so I suppose I am doing well. (Well, what else do you do when your student's Mother turns up with the truant in hand. Apart from sack the paid truancy officer? Wait till I find him...)

So, why should junior stay at school, or even be there in the first place? For the first time in a long while it Is All About Him. He's not going to get a job just on his good looks. Unless.... Nah....

See, I have to push through here. I have been sick to my stomach this morning, I am still reeling and ready to crawl into a hole called mental illness, resign from the noble sisterhood of motherhood, whatever... But in the end, it's all about Junior.

I sit there in front of him and tell his counsellor (who probably hasn't seen all Junior's notes) that he has Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and a few more things to boot. That he didn't learn to read until he was ten years and nine months old, and then he taught himself on footrot flats books... That we have had an uphill battle right from the start. He didn't even talk until he was four, and then there were his muscular problems....

If I don't fight for my child, who will? Like a Paul Coleman song, not good enough for ... not bad enough for... Not good enough to just walk out there and take the world by storm, even if he does stand there and shake his fist at it with his opposition defiance disorder... Not bad enough to get the help he has always needed.

If I don't fight for my child, what will become of him? My heroes are the parents of the young lady with Down's Syndrome who stuck out the fight and saw her achieve her NZqa's or whatever, in a normal school and normal classes. But they were teachers, and knew how to fight.

I have given this school ample opportunity to teach my son, and was determined to make them do it, too, but they had time on their side. All they had to do was sit back and do nothing. And I am the baddy who has failed, who has allowed their son to become a truant, who could make him go to school (haha) but couldn't make him learn. Couldn't make him excited, or at least stop him from getting bored....

Well, the fight isn't over yet, and I am just going to get off my butt and run again. Go to aquarobics in the freezing cold, push my body to the limits, sore back and all. Keep my mental wits about me.

And as a Christian, I can say, to myself if not to you -  'having done all, to stand'.  (Ephesians 6:13)  Or my favourite - 'Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down:  For the LORD upholds him with His hand.' (Psalm 37 verse 24, and it's a ripper of a psalm in all it's total.  Must go and read it up now.  TTFN)



Checking your mobile data usage online is not easy
Isn't that incredible that Telecom New Zealand can charge my mobile data usage every month but it can't provide a simple way, other then calling their help desk every day, to follow my usage?

They are able to put a $$$ amount in my monthly bill, but I can't find my usage in data terms (megabytes or gigabytes) anywhere on the invoice or on-line.

They use a very cryptic "data calls" unit that means nothing to me.

Telecom New Zealand makes it really hard for me to control my usage. And they charge dearly if I go over my limits.

Vodafone is a bit better in this area, but their on-line meter is frequently outdated or incorrect according to discussions in our forums.

In Australia the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a warn to consumers regarding mobile data usage.

What about here? TUANZ? Commerce Commission? Anyone awake and aware that we have overpriced data plans?



Its 16th VB100% now for MicroWorld's eScan Internet Security Suite - ITWeb

Jailbreaking iPod touch 2.0 with WinPwn
It took a while, but I'm finally at it - iPod touch 2.0 now jailbroken for me, using WinPwn.



You'll need:
  • WinPwn (2.0.0.3 is what I used, since some bugs were apparently fixed)
  • Your iPod 2.0 restore file (please note that it must be 5A347)
  • iTunes 7.7
  • Some patience
Step 1

Open up WinPwn.

Click "Browse .ipsw" and find your original iPod touch 2.0 restore file.

Step 2

Click "IPSW Builder"

You don't really have to do anything here, but you can select "Install Cydia" if you want it.

Step 3

Click "Build .ipsw", save to a location, and wait a while.

Step 4

Once the whole process is complete, click "iPwner" and click OK to the confirmation message.

Step 5

Open up iTunes, and put your iPod into DFU mode.

I tried to do this a few times, but having a counter on hand is best.
  • Connect iPod to PC
  • Turn off while connected to PC
  • Press Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for exactly 10 seconds. Leave iPod connected.
  • After the 10 seconds, release the Sleep/Wake button. Continue to hold the Home button. Leave iPod connected.
  • Windows will now see the "new hardware", and iTunes will give a message that it has found an iPod in recovery mode.
  • Click OK.
Step 6

In iTunes, hold Shift while pressing "Restore".

Find your custom restore file and Restore. And wait for an extremely long time.

Step 7

Afterwards, iTunes may prompt for a backup restore.

It worked for me, but I'm not 100% sure if this affects anything, but if you don't mind, you can set it up completely from scratch.

The restore took around 25 minutes. Maybe it's because of my apps, but expect to wait.


... and now you should have a jailbroken iPod touch with Software 2.0!


There was one problem - Cydia always hangs when downloading or installing software. A hard reset is required. (Hold Sleep/Wake and Home buttons until it shuts down, then start up normally)



Shocking conspiracy underway, The Truth REVEALED! this will shatter you to the core.
There are subtle changes around the world all the time, some of them more obvious than others,

As many suspect, some know and some redicule,
These changes are effected by the annoymous controllers of the world, the ones who cause wars for financial gain, those who control the world economies, those who ensure the greater populace is kept in the dark from knowing the real story, and keep us from interacting with our friendly Aliens from neighbouring systems.
Some say they are really members of the ruling lizard Army,
others swear its the illuminati, perhaps its the government, or those with the black helicopters and red sports shoes.

I cannot say for sure who these anonymous fellows are, but I do know one thing for sure. they are at it again.


this time with the humble Match. the unobtrusive supplier of fire, lighter of ciggarettes, cigars, candles and incense sticks,



How many Matches in a standard box of Beehive "Safety Matches"???

I bet many of you will state "50" and in the better, more positive days of old, when the future was bright and mankind controlled its future you would have been correct.

I your intrepid investigator, went deep in the depths of the conspiracy, risked life and limb and discovered an earth-shattering revelation, something that could rock your perception of reality to the core.

be prepared for this. it is a shocking, terrible revelation.

THERE. IS. NOW. ONLY. FORTY FIVE matches in a box of "behive safety matches"

Surely this is the beginning of the end, the controllers, those secretive evil overloads are plotting to de-evolve the human race,

sure you say, it could be a cost cutting measure, who really uses all 50 matches in a box of matches, BUT NO!

At the same time this sinister ploy was rolled out, the cost for a humble box of matches rose by 10 cents!

Again! I hear you say, surely this could be coincidental, the cost of everything is rising due to the cost of fuel for transportation, and this surely will effect matches too.

WRONG AGAIN!!!  Pull the wool away from your eyes! that is exactly the sort of thinking they want! they want you to believe it is a result of a highly complicated series of economical factors locally and abroad causing the costs of manufacturing to increase.

AHA!  I hear a few of you say, you think you are smarter than that, you think that you have seen through this, you think,
This is a straightforward capitalist move, in which they are covering increased costs while increasing margins by dropping the number of items per unit by 10% meaning they can produce 11 units for at a cost only slightly higher (the cost of the extra box) than the cost they previously had for 10 units.

Ah my poor, naive populace, oh how I envy your blissfull sleep wrapped in your dillusioned reality.

This is only the start of the plan, these "Men X" have a sinister plan to de-evolve the human race into cavemen level humanoids.

You see. we have grown too much. we have too much of the Internet, at first they thought "Aha this internet. it is the new Television, in which we can place many time-taking activities, more intellectual soylent green, we can use this to gradually increase the depth of the reality disfunction"

-But Alas for them and fortunately for us! we have moved past.

whilst many get trapped, and sucked into the mass mind control vortices that have been created, projects with codenames so terrible I cannot mention, but which were re-branded into friendly sounding names until you realise the ominous portents of what these names portray.

these mass mind control vortices such as "MY SPACE" a secret covert program derived from
Mind Yoke, Situation Programming And Control, and another similar covert black op "FACE BOOK" a name that fills me with such ominous dread  I dare not delve far for fear of causing horrors such as were envisioned by HP Lovecraft, but let it be said it was a covert operation linked to Fully Assimilated Control Environments..

But these vortices were still not enough. they had to push further least we discover the truth.

and that is where the diabolic plan to de-evolve the human race has sprung.

it starts of small. they reduce the number of matches in a box by 5 and increase the cost by 10c.
that looks innocent enough on the purpose, but if you look further you are getting 10% less, for  20% more cost,

That is only the beginning. soon they will perform this step again, and gradually spread it out to other devices in which to make fire, gradually decreasing the resources and increasing the cost for us to create fire to such an extent that we no longer have the facility for fire,

One may point out that "what about friction - rubbing two sticks together" - this is one of the reasons their plan is soo diabolically cunning.

Citys were created for just this purpose. to eradic the availability of "sticks" and make us wholly dependand on store bought combustion created materials.

Soon we will be stuck wilth very few sources for ignition, and fewer for burning and keeping those fires lit.

"Environmental Sustainability" = "systematically remove mans capacity to make and keep fire"

if we do not prepare ourselves. we will become what the goal of their master plan is, a sub-human race of cavemen like bipeds the perfect slaves t operate their intersteller fastfood chains and cleaning resteraunts whilst they put their hyper intelligent robots to valuable tasks such as enabling awkward teen overlords to score with the hot overlord teen chicks who know about cars, by changing into a car with a cool engine then becoming a futuristic robot that deathmatches other robots before amusing crowds with puns involving Ebay.




No comments: