Note: The following posts were imported from my previous blogs.

xmlBlog  #
Wednesday, 03 Dec 2003 01:31PM
Instructions, XML and XSL for your own ASP based blog at WrongWayGoBack. After a few months reading the XML in my Photoblog and The Sharp site suck, I should have made better use of attributes, especially for images. But development is all about learning from your mistakes.

Biggest problem with XML is having to reformat so much data when you make a change...

And if you suck as choosing colours for your webpages, use this Color Scheme web app [via The Fix]. Includes options to aim at users with various colour perception disorders.


bloggin at work during lunch  #
Wednesday, 03 Dec 2003 12:26PM
Not going for a walk today. My neck is killing me.

The lightning was pretty from where I was, but doesn't sounds like the storm in Melbourne last night was much fun for anyone else. My sister's house leaked some water into the second floor. Photos of the lightning last night. Man almost drowns in car. Saved by the SES. [both The Age]

I said I didn't care but a bit of reading and Latham sounds like he'll be a good opposition leader. Doesn't mind arguing. Doesn't mind agreeing. Doesn't mind saying sorry. Of course... I still say it's impossible to say how good a Prime Minister he'd be until we see it. And no more "arse licker" comments apparently. Damn.

Rates up another 0.25%. 5.25%. House prices PLEASE come down. US dollar is 73 cents+.

The other format may have the official OK but Sony's PDD (Professional Data Disc) is on the market. 23 Gig backup writeable DVDs [The Register]. I'd only need two of these to backup the whole back catalog of Walken jamming and live gig MP3s/MPEGs. Next gen version with be 50Gb. Third gen 100Gb.


Digital music store flood smothers Australia  #
Wednesday, 03 Dec 2003 12:23PM
It's all on for Xmas. Destra Corp with Sanity/ChaosMusic/HMV are going to be selling 100,000 more online tracks by the end of the year. Packer and Microsoft plan to use a new download site to sell 275,000 tracks next year. All tracks will be burnable to CD and "unlike music CDs, downloaded tracks can be legally copied up to three times for personal use." The Packer site, OD2, plans to have a million tracks available within a year.

As usual, no prices but guesses are around $1.60 to $2 a track depending if users take out a subscription or buy a one off track.

Destra founder Dominic Carosa said traditional music retailers would sell songs remotely via websites, but possibly also from internet kiosks in their stores.

Targeting under-25s, who are big music buyers but often do not have the credit cards needed to buy online, the stores will soon start selling vouchers for internet downloads at home.

He predicted stores would offer deals, such as giving customers a free internet download if they bought two CDs.

I like the free download per purchased physical CD idea. The voucher idea is good too. Gets around the credit card transaction fee problem.

Assuming there are any tracks I actually want.

Bring on online sales of Live At The Wireless. No I will never let that drop.


latest letter from CNET re: MP3.com  #
Wednesday, 03 Dec 2003 12:21PM
Please be advised that on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 at 12:00 PM PST the MP3.com website will no longer be accessible in its current form.

CNET Networks, Inc. plans to introduce a new Mp3 music service in the near future. [...]

Launching early 2004, music.download.com will offer artists free file hosting and a presence on the Web, and will give fans free access to a universe of downloadable songs. [...]

We can't reveal more details quite yet, but we'd like to keep you informed. [...]

Notice they never actually say that the music on music.download.com will be free to download, just free to access. All of the [...] were "if you would like more information as an MP3.com artist" add yourself to email spam links.