There’s a wonderful song, written by Barenaked Ladies which forms the theme tune to a recent sitcom called Big Bang Theory. It’s a simple, rocking little song, and deserved to be tabbed.
So I did!
The tab is my own interpretation. So it’s probably wrong anyway…
I got the REM Live album recently. There’s a lot of stuff on it I’ve never heard, as a good proportion is from their last album. The hits are still there though, so it’s all good.
The album is a double CD/DVD set. The CDs contain the concert audio, whilst the DVD contains a film recording of the same gig.
My problem with it, is that the live DVD has been produced in an overly ‘arty’ style. It cuts around far too quickly, uses far too many video effects, and a good proportion of the camera work makes you think the cameramen were either drunk, or on something.
I’ve always thought of live DVDs as being a good surrogate for actually going to a live show. When I go see a band, it’s generally not a blurry mess for me. I like to see the band play, see the audience react. Not see a blurry singer, or a swooping shot of something.
Some do get it right. The Foo Fighters Skin and Bones DVD shows you the band playing, and does it well. Some are halfway there. The Dixie Chicks DVD is made up from the performances of two or three concerts. Usually they mix and match songs, only, the editor of that DVD decided to mix and match ALL of the shots, so you get multiple shots of different shows, going into making one song’s recording. The audio seems to be from one show though. It’s incredibly obvious, as the band wore different outfits for each show, so they appear to change clothes between shots!
I’m well aware REM are a more ‘arty’ band than some – their baffling videos attest to that fact, but please leave the DVDs alone guys!
Cisco have been producing various little videos to show off their products of late. They’re quite simple – pick a product manager, plonk them into a small studio behind a desk, and get them to point at some bit of kit whilst talking about it.
The trouble is, these guys are techy types – not marketing people. So their wooden performances are more entertaining than anything else. It has worked before with other companies using their own people for ads (Halifax, springs to mind), but these guys are the best of the bunch I think.
Update: Since I wrote this, I spoke to Chelone Wolf, the owner of AudioRelief. It would seem that they have nothing to do with what happened here (my goof), so I’d like to say, they are a small, trustworthy company. If you need earplugs, they’re worth using!
Here’s the original post.
I’m annoyed.
A while ago I purchased a copy of Genie Backup Manager. During the whole checkout process, I received the usual flurry of emails about the order, etc. I can’t recall exactly, but I think either in an email, or on the order page, I was offered to sign up to Shopper Discounts and Rewards. It mentioned discounts and rebates and things, so it seemed like a good idea. I’d used Shopzilla in the past, and it looked pretty similar, so seemed like a good idea.
What the site neglected to mention, in any obvious fashion, was that you have to PAY for this service. What it also failed to do, was at any point ask me to expressly give it permission to use my payment details.
This, I find appalling. I’m annoyed with myself too, as I happened to be looking at last month’s credit card statement and spotted it. I should’ve seen it earlier, but didn’t.
I took myself straight along to their website, and cancelled. In cancelling, I wanted to fire off a bile-filled email to them, and was digging around when I found a handy refund button.
Now, it remains to be seen if they actually DO refund me. If not, I’ll be off to the credit card company to have a good winge. I’m considering talking to trading standards too, as this sort of thing shouldn’t happen. I was basically duped into signing up to a paid service, during my transaction with Geniesoft’s agents, RegNow..
So, basically, don’t sign up to Shopper Discounts and Rewards, and MAKE SURE you aren’t doing so without realising.
I think the other thing that annoyed me was that in the time I was signed up with them, I tried to use the service to find a discount, and didn’t find anything! I’ve found more by just simply Googling for offer codes.Moral of the story – AVOID.
I’m not the only one to have been caught out. Link
Made with this thing. It’s actually not bad. Often these face generator things are awful. Maybe my face is just too unique!
Yes, that’s another way of saying ‘ugly’.
Incidentally, I’m posting this from Windows Live Writer – I’m impressed!
Facebook is a great thing. It lets you do what Friends Reunited did, albeit for free, plus you can just browse around and see other people you kinda knew, or recall, but haven’t seen in a million years.
One thing I’ve noticed is the number of people who riddle their profiles with ‘lol’. Not that there’s anything wrong with using it, but it’s really best used in chat. It just looks silly in something ‘written’ like Facebook profiles. For example:
Favourite music
Anything really. Something I can dance to. lol.
What’s funny about that? I’m not lol’ing.
If you ever go to buy a cable for a TV – be it a scart cable, a coax lead, or even an HDMI lead – you’ll often find they offer them with gold-plated connectors. I’ve often been told these are the best thing to get, as they give the best sort of connection, but then it has also been said that it only really works if you have gold connectors on both sides, i.e. the socket AND the plug are gold-plated.
Well, so I’m told, it doesn’t matter either way. Gold-plating connectors isn’t done for signal purposes. No, like many things, it’s a money thing. When connector manufacturers make connectors, they tend to churn the out in batches, then throw them into warehouses until they are sold. When metal sits around doing nothing, unless treated, it’ll corrode, or rust, or just build up a surface coating of various nasty things which erode the signal quality.
If you’re a connector manufacturer, you don’t want supposedly ‘new’ connectors going out from stock looking very tarnished, so the solution – gold-plate them! The gold won’t corrode and affect the signal, so basically, they are gold-plated so that they can whack out as many as they like, sit them in storage for years on end, yet still sell and use them like they’re brand new.
I was told this by a colleague who in a previous life worked in the connector industry, and it does sound pretty convincing. Cable manufacturers, knowing that we’re all like a bunch of magpies (ooo! shiny!), make the fact they’re gold-plated sound good, add a few quid to the price, and make a wee bit more profit. You get a supposedly ‘superior’ cable, the cable manufacturer makes a bit more profit for doing nothing other than putting ‘gold-plated’ on the box, and the connector manufacturer has shifted 2-year-old stock.
Everybody wins! Kinda.
When I go out, I tend to wear a baseball cap. Don’t know why really, I just do – it’s one of those things. The current cap I have I was given as a freebie some time ago. It’s a nice one though, so it’s lasted well. Unfortunately, it’s a fairly light colour, and now looks pretty grim.
I’ve been looking for a new one, but the trouble is, most caps you can buy in the High Street are covered in manufacturer logos, or logos for various sporting teams I have no interest in. I just want a plain, simple cap. I found a few places selling them, such as Brookes (who I’ve used before) for not much really, but the killer is the delivery! A £3-odd cap turns into the best part of £10 once delivery is added! Generally speaking, I don’t like paying more for the delivery than the item!
So it seems my quest will continue to try and find what I want. I remember buying a nice, plain hat some time ago, but I think that was in Great Yarmouth. Bit far to go for a simple baseball cap.
I’ve had two ‘owies’ this week. Well, three if you count my back hurting due to the god-awful chair I’ve been sitting on this week whilst in a training course I’ve been on.
The two things were my left hand, and my left foot. Totally unconnected, but quite odd.
Firstly, my hand. Thursday afternoon, I was chatting with some people at work, when I noticed my left hand aching, right in the middle of the palm. I couldn’t quite work out why, but as the evening wore on, it got progressively worse. I was driving home and pondering quite why it was. It seemed if I touched the tip of my index finger, it hurt most, when it suddenly stuck me – it was due to playing guitar! I play fairly frequently, so the callouses on my fingertips are quite well developed, and I usually don’t have any problems playing. Lately, I’ve been playing quite a few Guster songs, and songs like Come Down Stairs And Say Hello, Ramona, and Red Oyster Cult have a LOT of barre chords in them.
For the un-initiated, a barre chord is where you place your index finger across all the strings and press down, then use the remaining four fingers to press down on some of the strings to form the chord. Conversely, an open chord just uses the finger tips, and leaves some strings ‘open’ all the way up the fret-board. Barred chords are harder to play as you’re putting down a lot of pressure to hold down the strings, which leads to an RSI-like injury. I don’t play a lot of barres often – most songs I play only feature the odd few now and then, so it’s not an issue. These Guster songs, however, are ALL barre chords. A session of playing those, and you’re into ache-city the next day.
Next was my foot. It didn’t hurt, so much as was doing something very strange. I was sitting in traffic on the way to work, with my foot on the clutch, when my leg began to tremble. I couldn’t work out quite why, and the next day, it happened again. Trying to hold the clutch up slightly made it even worse. Trying to make manoeuvres, such as reverse parking, or crawl in traffic, is much harder when your leg is bouncing about on the pedal. I think I’ve sussed this one out too. Lately, I’ve been taking to put the heaters on in the car, and have it venting onto the windscreen and down into the foot well. The foot well vent is right next to my left foot! So all the way into work, it’s blowing hot air onto my probably cold foot, and making the muscle do some weird things as a result.
It’s funny how such simple things can lead to such odd or annoying things later on. My back ache was obvious, as the chairs we were using weren’t great – I felt like an old man trying to get into the car this morning!
