Jonch: Blogspot: January 2010

27 January 2010

Average speed cameras coming for all motorways

Average speed cameras could be installed on all UK motorways if a government-backed group gets its way.
The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has stated that the cameras, currently only used for roadwork traffic management, would provide significant environmental benefits.
Not only would they apparently keep drivers at a lower speed, thus burning less fuel, they would also replace the current speed traps, which encourage heavy braking and accelerating when used.
Taking away control
The SDC also has recommended that all cars should be fitted with speed limiters too, with a timetable in place to curb the maximum speed of cars, possibly in line with school opening times.
Stewart Davies, from the SDS, said: "While information technology alone won't provide all the answers, it could go a long way towards making travel in the UK safer, more pleasant and more sustainable.
"Already, eco-driving technology can help motorists spend less at the pumps and reduce their emissions; better information can make using public transport easier, and video conferencing technology can help business travellers avoid some journeys altogether."
Via What Car

via feedproxy.google.com

Late for a gig?? Tough luck if these guys get their way.

If this goes ahead I shall have to leave the country I'm afraid - an ideas anyone?!?!

Posted via web from Jon's posterous

MP3 pioneers launch 'deluxe' music file format

By Ian Youngs
Music reporter, BBC News

MusicDNA will be widely available by the end of the summer, creators say

A new music file format has been unveiled by some of the key figures behind the development of the MP3.
The new file, MusicDNA, can include things like lyrics, videos, artwork and blog posts, which will continually be updated, as well as the music.
It has been created by Norwegian developer Dagfinn Bach, who worked on the first MP3 player in 1993.
And its investors include German researcher Karlheinz Brandenburg, who is credited with inventing the MP3.
British record company Beggars Group, whose labels are home to Vampire Weekend, MIA and The Strokes, has signed up to use MusicDNA, as has US label Tommy Boy.
But no major labels are currently on board and the MusicDNA files are likely to be more expensive than current music downloads.
It will also be in competition with Apple's iTunes LP, which gives users added content including bonus tracks, lyrics and video interviews.
Dynamic updates
Speaking at the Midem music conference, Mr Bach said: "We can deliver a file that is extremely searchable and can carry up to 32GB of extra information in the file itself.
"And it will be dynamically updatable so that every time the user is connected, his file will be updated."
MusicDNA is launching a beta, or test, version this spring with a full roll-out at the end of the summer.
Mr Brandenburg, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Germany, said: "I think it brings together a number of ideas that have been around for a long time.
"I remember 10 years ago, a lot of people were saying that we need to enrich the user experience, that legal access to music has to give the customers more than just music, and this is certainly one very nice way to do it."
MusicDNA, launched by Bach Technology, is not related to MusicDNA operated by Belgian company Pensive.

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via news.bbc.co.uk

I like this very much. One of the most annoying things about MP3s is that you never know who's playing on certain tracks - this would be simple to implement with these 'DNA' tracks.

At last people are starting to think of ways to make legal music downloading more appealing that P2P, rather than branding all file sharers as the worst kind of criminal.

Posted via web from Jon's posterous

26 January 2010

Leeds Kirkgate Market Quiz!

1 iceberg lettuce
4 large onions
2 red onions
Half cucumber
4 bell peppers
2 handfulls of cherry toms
4 large baking potatoes
2 carrots
1 large parsnip
7 bananas
7 clementines
4 apples (Golden Delicious)

Guess the price!

Posted via email from Jon's posterous

22 January 2010

DVD Audio extraction anyone?!

Seriously impressed with this little program: DVD Audio Extractor It rips straight to several different audio formats and qualities (and supports ID3 tags for MP3s), all you do is select the chapters of the DVD you want.

Managed to rip the sound off a couple of live gig DVDs and also some comedy stuff, all great for those loooong car journeys. Can't believe I never thought of this before!

Free trial for 30 days then $32 after.

Posted via email from Jon's posterous

Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake

via wired.com

Here's a link to some graphic images of before and after the quake. Incredible that it's visible from that high up.

Posted via web from Jon's posterous

21 January 2010

Things To Do Before You Die #67: Lunge Wildly At The Pope

via feedproxy.google.com

The cult of Bill Bailey is taking down the Catholic Church!

Posted via web from Jon's posterous

17 January 2010

The saddest film ever made, in real life :-(

Posted via email from Jon's posterous

9 January 2010

Snowman!

Posted via email from Jon's posterous

8 January 2010

Evernote named a New York Times “Tech Theme To Watch” in 2010

Evernote named a New York Times “Tech Theme To Watch” in 2010

January 6th, 2010

The New York Times named Evernote one of its Five Tech Themes to Watch in 2010!

“Evernote, the popular note-taking service, recently announced it had hit a major milestone by surpassing two million members. But the company’s victory signals a larger shift in how the Web – and our mobile phones – are becoming a larger repository for our memories. Companies like Evernote are paving the way, but expect to see more entrepreneurs and start-ups vying to supplement our gray matter with silicon.” [via NYT, read full article]

We couldn’t agree more. Evernote’s goal is to help the world remember everything. Ambitious? Yes. But, in these days of information overload, it’s absolutely critical.

Stay tuned for an exciting year.

via blog.evernote.com

Great to see recognition for this amazing idea. I have tried and tested Evernote, and indeed continue to do so - the more you use it, the more you think of new ways to use it, especially with all the different platforms it can be used on and ways in which to note-take. Can't praise it enough.

Posted via web from Jon's posterous

Spying begins on UK web users

“We reported last week on plans to enforce copyright law by forcing internet service providers to spy on consumers to detect and report every piece of copied music, movies, e-books, games and software.

Now one UK ISP, Virgin Media, is trialling some of the technology needed to do that on about 1.6 million of its customers.

Provided by Detica, a subsidiary of defence firm BAE Systems, the system is being used to try and gauge the size of the alleged piracy problem. CView, as the system is known, will take a snapshot of the scale of peer-to-peer music transfers over a few months.
It will do so by copying every packet of data that passes by, and looking for the digital signatures of data transferred using the popular bittorrent, gnutella, and edonkey file sharing protocols.

Whenever it finds a data packet that matches, it will extract the code these protocols use to identify the contents of the packet.

CView will then compare that code with a database of “musical fingerprints” to identify any music being shared, allowing it to work out if the data packet infringes copyright.

As a result, Virgin will find out how much file-sharing traffic is infringing copyright, and what the most-pirated tracks and albums are, the Register reports.”

Read more at New Scientist