I finally received a non-damaged copy of iWoz today. Thanks Amazon. Why it took 3 attempts I don't know. Either way, I'm just glad to be able to read it to destruction (of my own choosing!). The history of Steve Jobs is widely known (and this site is more complete than any other), but Woz's story has been told far less. I'm hoping that iWoz tells the whole story of this pioneer.
The one thing I'd love to know is whether we'll ever see an autobiography of Steve Jobs (I suspect not but if there came a time where he fancied making another few hundred million, I'd buy the autobiography along with numerous others). So far, I'm enjoying this look at the other Steve - it's a bit interupted in places (lots of dividers between sets of paragraphs) but a fascinating read.

I receive a fair number of emails asking people to publicise their site via a mention on the blog. Whilst I'm grateful that people send in links (I do read all emails) I'd like to make it clear that I will not talk about sites that I don't use regularly or actually find a use for.

Whilst I talk about links to sites, this brings me onto the topic of which I intended to post. A researcher from the University Of Manchester is interested in gauging Blogger Privacy Concerns. If you're a blogger, and want your views to be used to "inform academic and policy discussions on blogging practices and attitudes towards privacy" you'll want to head over to the site and take the survey. It takes about 5 minutes to complete (I can vouch for that). As someone who's studying just across the road from that particular school of the University, I thought I'd try and spread the word!

Facebook is the new MySpace. It's true. There's so many reasons why:

• Clean Easy UI - Hassle free to do simple things
• Unlimited Photos - OK, they are uploaded via Java and downsized, but it's good.
• I can listen in iTunes and surf Facebook. It's not possible with MySpace because I have to ensure some shitty music (read: Not My Choice of Track) when surfing MySpace. Sure I love Stravinsky, but Firebird doesn't go well when I've got Bon Jovi playing!
• The Clean Easy UI means fast loading
• Photo tagging is great - and something that Flickr ought to be buying and using!

Now, whilst I love Facebook, I can't help but comment on what Facebook could be if bought by Yahoo. I have a modest 550-odd photos on Flickr (perhaps the best example of how to buy and continue running a Web 2.0 company) which was bought by Yahoo just before I joined Flickr. Flickr is all about photos - and that is why it is successful - but boy oh boy, if you could bring all my photos over from Flickr to Facebook with a single click (ahem, there is an API for both sites after all) - something that would just have to be part of a Yahoo purchase - that would just make my day. Comments from my Flickr contacts visible when accessed via Flickr, and then have comments made through Facebook available to my Facebook contacts is the easiest way (can you imagine trying to bring the two user bases into one hybrid freaky-deaky family? Not anyone's idea of a smooth transition!) and would enable both sites to run to their respective strengths. Flickr does, however, need person tagging in photos. Notes is good, but for people, you want to be able to see all of the photos of that person not just their own photos. That, my friends, is why Facebook's photo sharing is perhaps the best out their after Flickr's, and perhaps Zooomrs.

Today saw Manchester Flickr User Meetup 3 go down. It was a great afternoon and lots of photos were taken. We saw no less than 3 celebrities (well, 2, with an extra being seen after we'd dispersed) and had a great laugh. If you were unable to be there, I'd urge you to head over to Flickr and check out the Manchester group pool....... In the meantime, here's a photo I took of Jimmy Carr (who is doing his show at the Apollo this evening). Of all 7 of us, I was the only to get a photo snapped before he went on his way! Kerrrching!

Enjoy!

I agree. Apart from the giving up and using tables. We're a Web Standards factory here don't ya know!

Tomorrow is the 3rd Manchester Flickr Meetup, and here's a sample of some of the stickers the Flickr-rs sent me for the meetup! Cheers guys.

Not bad postage seeing as they were posted on October 24th!

Casino Royale is coming, and if you're excited about the soundtrack and you don't mind having a few spoilers via the titles of the tracks, head over to SoundtrackNet for a sneak preview. It sounds awesome!

Over the summer, my Amazon wishlist grew with DVDs and Books that I so desired. I even pre-ordered a few things: Steve Wozniak's Auto-biography iWoz, DVD Box Set of 24 Series 5 (If there's a radio silence around November 6, this is to blame) and Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Store of How the Mac was made. There were some music scores added too, but I'm in no rush for those. However, come September, my National Union of Students Card arrived offering 5% off at Amazon. Kerrrrrrching I hear you say. Just as well none of the stuff had been dispatched (that might have ruined my day) as I could cancel the orders, and take advantage of the discount (cunning, you might say). Not only that, the 24 box set was actually cheaper.
People questioned the point in getting an NUS card (it does cost a wallet emptying £10 after all!) but I've easily saved more than that just in the last few months. Factor in a nice 5-8% discount at the Apple store (I saved £5-ish on my iPod accessories - and will save myself anything between £50 and £150 on my next laptop) I'm sorted. As for my freebie Young Person's RailCard I get from NatWest for, you got it, being a student, I travel for as little as a tenner each way Manchester to London. My legs though, sadly, are too long for standard class (it's a fact, not BS) so for £18.50 each way I travel first class with Virgin Trains. Food, drink, the lounge with more biscuits TEA and perhaps the nicest crisps ever, legroom and the all important power socket for the latop make it so much fun to travel.

I love being a student! And that, reader(s?) is yet another post where I've failed to mention anything work related. Awesome!

Yes, the iPod is 5 today! I'll save the talk of how the iPod changed the music landscape and digital music world for another time, and instead simply link to a Joy of Tech comic. Check it out here.

As you may recall, the internet is (not) a series of tubes (Video #1, Video #2). However after seeing a photo on Flickr, I thought I'd run a series of tests on my net connection to find out how fast it really is.... Given that it's been known to download 60MB OS X updates in a minute here's the stats.....

For a UK based test:


For a East-Coast USA based test:


Yes. I know. My net connection rocks. :)

Emails abounded on Wednesday when some photos of an iPod appeared in my Flickr account..... and people wanted to know why I hadn't blogged it. To be fair, it was my birthday, and I wasn't entirely able to launch RapidWeaver and get writing. So I took a few dozen photos instead. If you've not seen them so far, check them out! Whilst in the Apple Store (Manchester Arndale) my flat mates and I posed for a few flattering PhotoBooth photos. It was great fun. Needless to say, Wednesday evening was a lot more raucous and it's a bit of a blur, but everyone had a good time. Roll on the party proper on 28th October!

Thanks to everyone who sent greetings! The selection of birthday cards were just brilliant, but this one was too good not to share!

I'm busy today with a load of (sadly un-party-like) activities such as Musicianship, Language of Music, History of Music and a fantastic Orchestral Audition. You wouldn't have guessed I was trying to celebrate my 20th birthday in between! Either way, expect some muted silence (go figure) for the rest of today.... unless something majorly geeky requires my attention and Flickr upload (perhaps like an iPod).

I had to laugh when the email from Sony came through asking 'Are you ready for the Big Bang'.... I almost expected a warning about my iBook battery (what with the battery recall affecting every laptop manufacturer even Sony!). But apparently it turns out they're proud of a new ad (quite a good one too I guess) about their new plasma TVs. See whether any exploding laptop batteries were used in the ad here.

In fact, I laughed so much I screen-grabbed it! Check it out here.

How I missed this I don't know. But Manchester's very first Blog Awards take place tonight at Urbis. Hopefully I'll pop along and see what people are up to if my class isn't too late running. Chances of winning of an award? Hah! None as I'm not in the shortlist. Given that, this sorry excuse of a blog is hopefully going to fall upon better times and more readers. I'm open to ideas (apart from the suggestion to 'donate the webspace to russian spammers') on what I can do to make it far more gratifying to read. Thanks to Newfred for the tip-off. Great work on the logo too Andrew!

The RNCM tonight was fortunate enough to have a performance from the Netherlands Wind Ensemble - perhaps the world's best wind chamber group. All I can say is WOW. The programme was the Mozart Gran Partita, interspersed with readings from Mozart's (highly amusing) letters to his father. It was phenomenal, and the original nature of the performance spurred me to buy a couple of CDs - one of which was signed by all 13 players in the ensemble - quite a feat given they were hard to track down! The Mozart Grand Partita CD is accompanied by a Beethoven Chamber Music CD (and an interesting arrangement of Beethoven 7 for Wind Ensemble) in my library. It's highly unusual for the world renowned NWE to give a concert here in the U.K., so if you're ever fortunate enough to be offered the chance to hear them I'd highly recommend it! The theatrical performance really helps you visualise the performance when listening to the CD (however I have to admit I don't know whether I'd recommend the CD if I hadn't seen the performance - I probably would, but when a visual aspect makes you listen to the CD all the time, you can't help but feel a little biased and lacking impartiality!).

So it's here. And it looks like I might have to get it.... Apple Stores throughout the U.K. have them in stock so go check them out (I certainly will), and bask in the photo goodness below. Check it Out!

I'll share a little secret. I'm hoping to get myself an iPod Nano with any proceeds from my birthday (October 18th). Now there's been wild speculation (I know, what a suprise) that Apple would announce a RED iPod to contribute to Bono's Anti-AIDs cause. Friday 13th October seems to be the day for that. I'm going to run with wild anticipation up to the Apple Store to try and grab some photos tomorrow (and buy one perhaps on Wednesday) so until then, feast on this photo.

I've become addicted to eye candy recently..... and ignored full Internet Explorer support because, well, I wanted to! Anyway, here's a little glimmer of something I'm hoping to get onto the site in the not too distant future.......

Check the screenshot out here.

I'm still not convinced by iTunes 7. Listeners to the forthcoming Northern Bytes Episode 11 will be aware of this, but boy is this stupid. I dread to think what else iTunes thinks is in my library. I know having Evita is not exactly haut culture, but when I tell it to grab me some artwork, putting 'Doogal, the Soundtrack' instead of none at all is simply ridiculous.

Take a look here. Don't laugh at my Music Taste. Just Apple's silly software.

I've now got Lightbox technology into every page on the site. It's not being used on every page, but it's going to be used on the blog from now on. I've re-published the post that got my figuring through Lightbox so you can try it out until a new post comes out with it in.... it shouldn't be too long! (Incidentally, I've chosen to put it in my previous post just for good measure).

For some reason I've sat on this post. No prizes to the person who spots the rather ludicrous amount of disk space my Mighty Mouse has to itself. What possible reason can there be for this? I had Mighty Mouse Software (and Bluetooth Mouse Software) installed already. It's a sign that I need to run Monolingual again.

Point and laugh here.

Many people don't realise just how many movie trailers are available online courtesy of Apple.com. But what I've looked for is Movie Trailers in iTunes. Now it appears my prayers are answered. I don't have a Video iPod (yet) but this link may come in handy for those fortunate enough to do so. My particular favourite is the Casino Royale Trailer 1a. Daniel Craig may not be everyone's favourite choice as the new Bond. But from this trailer, I'm looking forward to seeing the final film on November 17th. The soundtrack too sounds like it will be blistering!

Saying I'm a Musician could be considered misleading for numerous reasons. Mainly....

1. I'm still a student studying with the intention of becoming a musician.
2. The term musician is a vague term.

So what (and who) am I as a musician?

I'm a nearly 20 classical music student studying in Manchester England. I'm actually studying Clarinet for my degree, with the intention of then doing some postgrad course (perhaps training as a conductor). I've played piano since the age of 6. And clarinet since the age of 8 or 9, so I've grown up playing music. Favourite composers? Well, I'm not normally too fussy, but if I had a choice of programme, I guess Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, Rimsky Korsakov and perhaps Barber would feature pretty heavily along with a little Rachmaninov. As all my flat mates know, I'm just completely obsessed with Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' - something brought on by performing The Rite with the county orchestra..... It was great. In many ways, the easiest way to see what interest me is to see what is on my musical bookshelf - perhaps I'll post a complete list of books in the near future. Scores of Beethoven Symphonies, Stravinsky Rite of Spring & Petrouchka, Copland Ballet Music, and numerous Opera libretti are interspersed with some of the books I received from a local church when I left for University after having been Organ Scholar there for 3 years. And there's more Cambridge Companions to Composers still to be unpacked!

When it comes to 'other' music, I'm really not too fussy. I'll happily listen to most (but will add not all) music. I find that the free iTunes Singles of the Week, whilst perhaps at times are a little poor, they are also fascinating to me. I enjoy listening to them occasionally (but not normally more than once per track!).

I've rambled on for quite a bit (and am tired!) so I'll leave more for another time!

I love hearing from people who visit the site - I really do (if you're a visitor who's not yet added yourself to the rather excellent Frappr map then please do so!!). However, someone emailed me to ask me why my links never really get updated. Well they do (almost - thanks to del.iciou.us's widget) but the 'What I'm reading' section does not. OK, that's a fair point. So here is my abridged recommended reading (all of which will shortly be found on my Links page). So, without further ado and in no particular order:

1. Daring Fireball by John Gruber ('Mac Nerdery, ETC')
John Gruber is a genius. I've not been a paying subscriber to DF for as long as most people have (I only joined in May), but I simply love the commentary and objective technology-related articles and links he provides. They rock, and I would not hesitate to recommend DF (I'll be renewing when the time comes without a doubt).

2. Roughly Drafted by Daniel Eran
I Digg Roughly Drafted almost as much as Daring Fireball. Daniel Eran is a logical guy who makes RSS enjoyable to read. Recent articles on iPod and Zune and so much more make this indispensible.

3. The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs by Steve Jobs
Fake Steve is perhaps one of the best comedians I've read of. Harsh words for Greenpeace, Microsoft and so many more make this simply side-splitting fun.

4. The Unofficial Apple Weblog by Weblogs Inc.
There aren't enough hours in a week-day to read about all the Apple-related news. So TUAW is perhaps the first place I check in when looking for fun new things to read about. It rocks, and I love reading it.

5. Scobleizer - Robert Scoble
Former Microsoft technology evangelist's blog.

So there's 5 I love. More soon - and perhaps I'll put an OPML file online too so people don't have to hunt for the necessary RSS links!

It's been a busy Freshers' Fortnight. I've been up for 20+ hours a day for most of the last 2 weeks, and I'm not even a Fresher myself! I've taken a sizeable 350 photos (that have added 920MB to my iPhoto library) and it's been a lot of fun. What have I got to look forward now then? Well, firstly I've got a recording session all weekend for a wind band CD at college (which I'm really looking forward to) followed by the RNCM Woodwind Festival the following weekend, and then it's my birthday on 18th October, so a party is in order - but only after my orchestral audition. The audition excerpts this year are interesting (Shostakovich 9 Scherzo and Sibelius 1) so I'm now looking at those. They're hardly my favourites (I'd love to have some Stravinsky or Copland) but I only have to learn them (not love them just yet!).

People have emailed saying I've never really talked much about the music I spend most of my day doing, so I'm tempted to talk about music far more. Anyone out there with thoughts? Either way, don't think it means the content (such as geeky Apple stuff) is going away. I'm just going to add yet more content. I'm hoping to add far more photos to my Flickr stream over the coming months, so keep an eye on it (and if you want to add me as a contact, feel free). More soon!

That's the photos simply from Freshers' Fortnight! I've been taking a lot of photos recently (Fancy Dress last night saw me take over 130 shots) and so I thought I'd look at iPhoto stats and see what I've got in my library. You can create Smart Albums based on the Camera the photos were shot at (cool for identifying which photos in the library weren't taken by you, and thus can be deleted after burning to disc), so I fired up iPhoto and chose to see how many photos my trusty W17 has taken since I got it in June last year. I'm not the mad shooter that Mike is (27,000 photos in 16 months!) but I've taken a fair few. So, as of 1710hrs BST today, I've got 1125 photos (weighing in at a hefty 2.8Gb) that remain in the library that were taken on the W17. I normally delete around 20% - 30% of photos as they're crap, so there's more than that (along with a 500MB archive of other photos). Ouch, no wonder iPhoto is a weeny bit slow on my iBook. Ah well. Here's to making it to 27,000 sometime this century!

For clarity, that's not my entire active library..... that's 2036 photos (including W17 ones) and is 3.8Gb in size. I really never envisaged having this many photos (or that much disc space being used!) so it's kinda suprised me. I always shoot at 7MP quality (just so I can do more with any photos) so that might explain a lot!