Category Archives: General

General posts from GEEK! Posts that don’t really belong to a category stay here.

Where do you buy your music from?

In the past, I’ve used many different music download services. 

I used Napster first, which in general was good, but very short lived after I discovered their credit card fraud issues. When I used Napster, I only really used it for buying music to burn to CD but not really for MP3 players because at that time I didn’t own a very decent one.

Then after I closed my account with Napster, I didn’t use any music download service for a while.

When someone bought me an iPod earlier in the year, I started using iTunes. I received a £15 voucher with it so I played around a bit and rented some films as well as downloaded music. I’m not a huge fan of iTunes but the service itself is generally reliable and apart from the fact you have to use an iPod with iTunes, it’s pretty good. Of course there is the problem that iTunes (and Napster) are both DRM sites so you wont get DRM free music.

Then I tried the Orange Music Store (since my phone is with Orange) and that’s slightly more dissapointing but still good enough for most people. The application itself that you have to use to download music is quite buggy and can cause some problems, but I find it useful that if you download the song that you want from your phone, it will automatically send it to your PC (and vice versa). There is still the DRM problem, though.

And finally I recently started using Non-DRM sites. I like 7digital.com because they sell MP3’s that you can buy with SMS payment, although it is £1.50 per song apposed to the average 79p per song in most stores. 

What sites do you use for buying music? Do you like them?

Windows 7 ready for Christmas next year?

I was very shocked when I found that it has been reported that Windows 7, the operating system succeeding Windows Vista (see http://www.geekonthepc.co.uk/2008/10/30/windows-7-what-do-you-think/) may well be installing while we are eating our Christmas Lunch next year.

Yes, Microsoft has apparently told system and engineering partners that Windows 7 will indeed be ready for Christmas 2009. 

The last time that Microsoft actually managed to get Windows ready in time for the Christmas/Holiday season was Windows XP which was launched in October 2001.

Also, it has been rumoured that there will be a BETA on Windows 7 the week before Christmas 2008 and that we’ll have a release candidate by the second quarter of next year.

Do you think Windows 7 will be ready for Christmas 2009? Will you try the BETA this Christmas?

I’ve got my doubts… it’s not like Microsoft has always been perfect with timing!

Virgin Media starts demoing 50MB broadband

It was confirmed yesterday that 200 customers in a town called Warrington in Cheshire have been invited to demo 50MB broadband for 2 months at no extra cost. Customers who agree to the offer by the 18th November will receive a new modem. In exchange for the upgraded speeds, they will have to fill in a few questionaires.

Warrington was chosen because “a high proportion of  Virgin Media customers in Warrington are already using higher speed packages”.

The firm has upgraded it’s network to support DOCSIS3 standards. 

The company will release their new package, the “XXL” package, mid next year.

WordPress 2.7 set back until December

It was announced recently that WordPress 2.7 has been set back until early December due to apparent issues with WordPress and Internet Explorer 6.

No, you aren’t going blind – I said Internet Explorer 6. I’m sorry, but who still uses it? 

I’ve been waiting for 2.7 for ages and now they have to hold it back because of issues with IE6. Why can’t people just get Firefox or Chrome and move on. Or at least upgrade Internet Explorer. Firefox 2 is still great for older versions of Windows so there’s no excuse there.

Why can’t WordPress just release WordPress 2.7 and then make some update for it later to make IE6 work, instead of making us wait another 2 weeks.

Ah well, I hope it’s worth the wait. 🙂

What’s the point in Microsoft Silverlight?

Every time I get told that there are new updates to be installed, I open it up and somewhere in the list there is Microsoft Silverlight.

I’ve installed it before on my laptop but I uninstalled it because I couldn’t see what the point in it was.

Microsoft claims it enhances the browsing experience, but could someone tell me, how? It’s not like it makes my browsing experience any faster (in fact it probably makes my browsing experience slower!), and I don’t even use IE7 or IE8 so will it benefit me at all?

Microsoft’s web site is full of nagging ads that say Install Microsoft Silverlight, and it kind of bugs me. 

I can try hiding the update in Windows Update but it just comes back every time a new version is released.

Could someone who actually uses it (and finds it useful) tell me what it’s for? I’m just wondering why Microsoft makes such a big deal about it. 

Is it just me missing something that makes it amazing?