Fran's Blog

“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” as the saying goes. And essentially it’s true, unless you’re signed to a record label. I’ve heard nightmarish stories of groups such as Boney M and certain others (Small Faces I think) not getting a dime for their work because of a dodgy contract.

Now I could be wrong here with the history etc. but if it is true about bands getting not very much and/or getting screwed, no wonder bands like Radiohead are starting to do exactly this, screwing their record companies. Getting a full cut of what they should courtesy of t’interweb. And here is the article:
Radio head offers new album

Good on you lads. I know I’d pay good money for groups I like, I already do. Maybe its time for record companies to start changing their business models rather than suing people and screwing their bands.

There is a big format war going on AGAIN. And yes, Sony, amongst others is a big player, AGAIN. And that’s the problem.

So, in the red corner we have HD-DVD, in the blue corner a prototype sounding Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is technically superior, it fits a vast amount more information on one disc, which could mean better quality, and also more data when storing files from your PC, very nice. At the moment, however, this technical superiority is its downfall. Discs are more expensive to produce, and players more expensive to buy. In fact, this is starting to sound a lot like Betamax. A technically superior format to VHS at the time as it was better quality, another Sony backed format (are you seeing where this is going yet?). To top it all, VHS is said to have won that war because it was cheaper, and, lets face it, porn companies favoured it, and kids could get “video nasties“. Blu-ray decided to not favour porn companies, while very nice and clean, the human race is filthy and this could be a thorn in their side.

A few years back now (ok 10 years back) I bought a brilliant DVD. I had to buy it from the States. It was The Grinch. Not the Jim Carrey one, but the original animated one with the song that makes my year every time “You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch”. My friends and I have now made quite a tradition of watching this, singing and drinking port in the festive season. I was gutted when they made a feature film, but also intrigued. “How can they pan this one out into a feature length movie?” I asked. The managed, pretty badly, in fact terribly. I stick to the animated version.

“XOHM is official, is coming, is already overrated” is what I read this morning. “the internet is on the verge of another revolution” is what marketing people are saying. XOHM is Sprint’s (a mobile provider in the States) WiMax service, which has had its fair share of hype.

I’m actually not hugely interested in this though, what I am interested in is the refusal to just accept new technology and wait for it to grow before telling people we’re about to reach new heights of being human. So, in memory of tech that has been overhyped, here is my top 5.