Archive for March, 2009

Markus Schulz – Toronto ‘09

Monday, March 30th, 2009

Markus Schulz - Toronto 09 CD Cover

Possibly the first time I’ve ever posted about a CD release here on lewisroberts.com. That’s probably because there aren’t many artists or DJs I’m a huge fan of but in this case, I’m willing to make a post/exception.

Markus Schulz is, and has been for over three years, my all time favourite DJ. His track selection is flawless, his musical style and mixing sublime. I can only think that the same things that excite Markus Schulz about a track are the same things that excite me and as such there is only ever one occasion where I have disagreed with it in the last three years of following the Global DJ Broadcast: A mix he did for Pete Tong’s Essential Selection was, as far as I was concerned, far too deep and progressive compared to Markus’ usual style and the music seemed a bit pointless and uninspiring. A bit like he was trying too hard. The same cannot be said for his annual “city/country” releases. (more…)

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Hello…Nokia? Where’s the N82’s successor?

Friday, March 27th, 2009

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Perhaps it’s only me in the world that hates sliders and flip phones. Is it?

I had a Nokia N80 for 12 months and towards the end of those twelve long months I despised its very existence and couldn’t wait to get rid of it. As I was looking for a new phone in December 2007 I was desperate not to end up with an N95. I waited a couple of weeks ’til just after Christmas and was rewarded for my patience with the best phone I have ever owned to date; the Nokia N82.

I love monobloc phones. Granted my apparent “love” for monobloc or candybar phones may be because of my aversion to sliders and flips but I just cannot bring myself to buy another slider or flip phone after owning the N80. My brother and cousin both owned N95’s and couldn’t wait to get rid of them towards the end of their contracts either so who knows, maybe it isn’t just me that hates them? There’s no doubt that the N80 and N95 are some people’s idea of great phones but for me, they aren’t. I hate them. Sorry if that upsets you but this is my blog after all. :p

This brings me nicely on to the subject of why I’m writing this blog entry. (more…)

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Stop whining about Street View!!!

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

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I am already sick to the back teeth of listening about how Google’s new Street View pictures invade privacy. You, as a citizen of the UK, live in THE CCTV capital of the world! There are more CCTV cameras per 1000 people than ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD yet you find the “invasion of privacy” by Google’s Street View application hard to swallow?!?

ARGH! Are you aware of the National Identity card scheme in the UK? Did you know the government want to merge all databases in use to make them MORE accessible to civil servants? Did we or they some how forget that the government and its departments are utterly CLUELESS about handling sensitive data? Do you really want the government to know EXACTLY what you do when you are both inside and outside your house? Are we really FREE any more?

If like me you aren’t happy about the National ID Card then for god sake go turn on your computer, find out who your local MP is and TELL HIM/HER you’re angry that your civil liberties are disappearing on a daily basis but stop moaning about Google Street View! You’ve already been caught on 40 or more CCTV cameras today just going about your business. Are you complaining to the owners of those cameras that your privacy is being invaded?!

For god sake, stop sitting back and waiting for it to to happen! Think of the poem First they came… or it will happen and it WILL be too late to do anything about it.

-Lewis

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IE8 & Google Street View UK Launch

Friday, March 20th, 2009

ie8It was a big day for launches yesterday.

Google announced their Street View add on for Maps was available for a number of major and minor UK cities. Those covered include: Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Bradford, Scunthorpe, Bristol, London, Belfast, Cardiff, Swansea, Norwich, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool, Southampton, York, Cambridge, Oxford.

Further news today suggests that the Street View cars are out and about in many other UK cities having been spotted in places like Essex and Hull.

As the title suggest also, Street View was joined by Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft’s much anticipated “standards compliant” *cough* browser update.

One final note, you may notice that if you install IE8 and then try to use Google Street View you’ll get an error. Who timed that badly then, Google or Microsoft?

ie8_sv_error

-Lewis

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iPhone Copy & Paste… it’s the future! & new iPod Stifle

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

iPod Stifle

In a word, lol.

Seriously, the biggest selling point of Apple’s new iPhone firmware version 3.0 is that it has copy and paste? Haven’t operating systems been doing that since the 80s?

I’m not an Apple hater, I admit I recently bought a 4G iPod nano on the basis that it is a very well designed piece of kit but I’m astonished that Apple are getting away with introducing new “features” like copy and paste in to a version 3.0 OS! What’s next? Selling licencing rights to earphone manufacturers so their earphones will work with the iPod Shuffle? Oh wait…

-Lewis

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