Blackfield 5

Steven Wilson has confirmed that the fifth Blackfield album will arrive on November 18 via Kscope.

CANNOT .. repeat CANNOT ... wait.

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Love The EFF - But This is Bullshit

Seriously .... while Apple stands up to the EU and the Feds - someone at the EFF thinks they will roll over to the music industry, which is already dead?

We hope that Apple isn’t unwittingly opening the door to new pressures to take advantage of that power.

Interesting that they have already had to update the inaccuracy of the post's facts - so what chance we have on understanding supposition I have no idea.

UPDATE (9/8/16): An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly suggested that no authorized audio devices or connectors that used the Lightning port existed prior to yesterday’s announcement. It also implied that the only way to achieve lossless sound quality on an iPhone was through a wired connection, which was also incorrect. We’ve edited the post accordingly.

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It's Not Just Trump That Gets To Be Graded On A Curve

If that >>>> was an iPhone ... the media would be alight with outrage and 'doomed' Apple and 'explodeGate' and all the rest of the crap ... but it's Samsung ... barely a word - really - and we have the FAA warning about using them - airlines banning them on planes and - well you know the story ...

They talk about 'Grading Trump On A Curve' - which they do. And now Samsung.

#SamsungIsTheTrumpOfTech - I know - right - he even uses one - it’s his interns that use the iPhone. 


Maybe There's A Reason For Multiple Personalities

Fascinating Thought ...

“A person’s identity,” Amin Maalouf wrote as he contemplated what he so poetically called the genes of the soul, “is like a pattern drawn on a tightly stretched parchment. Touch just one part of it, just one allegiance, and the whole person will react, the whole drum will sound.” And yet, inseparable as the parts may be from the whole, we each contain multitudes — not only psychologically, but even biologically — nowhere more so than when it comes to the bifurcation between our inner and outer selves.

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Courage

Once again I am with Gruber … this time on that word ‘courage’. How much more powerful would it have been if Phil Schiller said ….

We're trying to make great products for people, and we have at least the courage of our convictions to say we don't think this is part of what makes a great product, we're going to leave it out. Some people are going to not like that, they're going to call us names but we're going to take the heat [and] instead focus our energy on these technologies which we think are in their ascendancy and we think are going to be the right technologies for customers. And you know what? They're paying us to make those choices. If we succeed, they'll buy them, and if we don't, they won't, and it will all work itself out.

… it makes sense - right? Except this words were Steve Jobs talking about Flash

To me it isn’t the word courage - it is the context it was used in.

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Gruber - On The Phone

Again - spot on ...

There is a large contingent of pundits who apparently would be more excited about a new iPhone that looked entirely different but had the exact same components as the iPhone 6S than they are by the actual iPhones 7, which are shaped like the 6S but have amazing new components. I don’t get that mindset at all. It’s like being a car pundit and judging the new Porsche 911 with a “meh” because it looks like the previous 911, and never even considering what it’s like to actually drive the new car.

... as Gruber usually is.

... then again isn't the pundit thinking a reflection of modern society. It's all about appearance - forget capability.


Gruber On The Watch

Couldn't have put it better myself ..

Jeff Williams claimed that in 2015 Apple was the number two watch maker by revenue in the world, second only to Rolex. And Apple Watch was only on sale for eight months in 2015. If you think Apple Watch is a flop you are a moron.

... which is good - because Gruber makes his living out of this - I don't.


The English Language Is Very Structured

I have tweeted about this already - but I still find it fascinating. Capturing the information so that I can come back later and write something more considered. My thanks for making me think this way Graham.

...adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.

via Kottke

... and Stowe's position 


Peggy Noonan Weighs In

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Beyond that, anti-Trump Republicans treat his voters like immoral enablers of a malignant boob. Should Mr. Trump lose decisively in November they’ll lord it over everyone, say “I told you so,” and accept what they imagine will be forelock-tugging apologies. Then they will get to work burying not only Mr. Trump but his issues.
That’s where the future of the GOP will be fought, and found: on whether Trumpism can be defeated along with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump would care about that if he cared about that.

w00t

... is I believe the word.

I got this running - all by myself 

I wonder if it will stay up when I close down terminal ?

LATER ::: Yes it will - managed to get the former command working .... now need to work out why my 'Music Feed' is not rendering correctly.


Launched - And Now The Backlog

All caught up .... and I think I am there . You might notice that I have NOT been publishing as much here recently ... because I am publishing here. Over the past couple of weeks been transitioning my 1999 presence from Dave Winer's test space to here. Big thanks to Andy Sylvester for his help.

We had a few issues, but I think I am there. The posts from today and yesterday, are posts I had been making since August 11th that somehow got mangled. I could save them - but not here. 

Anyway - they are now all reposted - and now moving onto the backlog. At the same time playing around with the style sheet a little to move it closer towards my main blog at Beyond Bridges.


Oracle Funding

Trying to decide whether this is a good thing ... or a bad thing?

Overall - I think good - but there is an increasing number of these kind of things going on. That said, there probably always were - its just that now we know about it.


Should Gawker Have Been Allowed To Live

... Dave Winer writing on the passing of Gawker.

Now that the line has been crossed, it's fair to assume it will become standard practice for billionaires like Thiel to finance lawsuits until the publication loses and has to sell itself to pay the judgment.

Hmm - not so sure I agree. Gawker was the worst and lowest scum - with Nick Denton taking his cue from the British Gutter Press, despite his education and early days as an FT reporter. He should have known better, but in Gawker he led the pandering to the lowest form of taste. I am mixed about the ability to kill a publication, but it has always been possible.

Gawker made the mistake of writing things that were secret and really and truly added little value to the public discourse. Again, not a fan of Christine O'Donnell, and I get their defense - but why allow the writer to publish anonymously?

This time they picked on the wrong guy. I don't like Thiel. But if we don't like the laws - change them.

That said, lets say that Thiel doesn't like what The Intercept writes about him - I do not think he would take them on. Because they are writing journalism. Gawker was not journalism.


Vindication

Apple: If we're forced to build a tool to hack iPhones, someone will steal it.
FBI: Nonsense.
Russia: We just published NSA's hacking tools

... Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) August 17, 2016

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Lite Beer Is Not In My Lexicon ...

... for very good reasons. That said, it accounts for seven of the top selling beer brands in the USA. I don't drink any of the other three either, but that is by-the-by. Most important fact to note?

Lite Beer is all Marketing, proving that in America, you really can rely on the gullibility of the public.

But there's more

Consider this

  • Calories in a Bud Light - 145
  • Calories in a Guiness - 126

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Pilger On War

The conclusion of this piece ....

For only a movement that swells into every street and across borders and does not give up can stop the warmongers. Next year, it will be a century since Wilfred Owen wrote the following. Every journalist should read it and remember it...


If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Zara (Yes - THAT Zara) Should Be In Court For Stealing

This is a great post from my buddy David Airey.

SHAMEFUL actions by Zara. A boycott by all of their customers should be the minimum. And they should pay at least double to every single artist for stealing their work and set up a foundation to support other artists.


Roger Dean - Cover Artist

.. but not what you expect in many ways. For a start - as a 'cover' artist - he was truly original. I also never knew that he illustrated this book - a staple of my library for many years ...

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Terrains Like You Have Not Seen


I Had That Album ...

In his testimony, Plant says he doesn't remember ever hearing the track Taurus. He says: "I didn't remember it then, and I don't remember it now."
Plant says he heard earlier Spirit track Fresh Garbage on a compilation album that he bought in 1968.

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