Posts by Simon Grigg
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but so will SP3 of XP be
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Read the first post in that Slashdot thread I linked to ..
that was hilarious:
Delete this file, Cancel or Allow?
Cannot delete file 'File 47'
It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.Undoing modifications, 35952 files restored.
I just checked the stats on the sites I'm involved with and Vista is just hitting 1%....not good for Redmond surely, after a month or so. The overwhelming attitude I've encountered is "why bother, what does it offer", and the hardware specs are off putting for most. Releasing a new OS doesn't excite anymore in the way that, say, a new phone, or even a natty website does. The geeks have moved on.
And YouTube?? We can? Images?
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the odd thing about Vista with me, is that I installed every DOS version on the day of release, rushed down to Whitcoulls for Win95 at midnight (admittedly only 200 metres at the time), installed Win98, Win98se, frigging Millenium, win2000 and XPpro, all more or less on the day of release...just to see...on my Windows machines, sometimes to my regret (although never as much as Mac devotees would have you believe)
But the the idea of installing Vista hasn't occurred...not even in passing. I had a Longhorn release on an old computer a while back but since re-formatted it for my daughter with XP.
Incidentally...fully cracked full release Vista (in a variety of versions) is already available readily here in Indonesia for about US$2 a copy. I guess that didn't work....
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I'd just say that some people's contrivances are feted while others' are pilloried, and I'm curious to know why that is. IMO the the disdainful orthodoxy about Britney Spears is getting in the way of basic human compassion, among other things.
And since we are in that mode...agreed. The entertainment industry (both Damon Albarn's rather good new album and Britney essentially being different sides to that same coin) and the media it feeds make these qualitative judgments and we all tend to run with them. Which are, to my mind, often rather skewered. But thankfully history re-writes as often as not. The po-faced serious musicians of an era are rarely as well remembered as the musicians who made people smile as well...and I think Max martin who created the Britney magic will get his due.
Sadly the media and the industry are quick to turn. There is ongoing chatter in music industry forums as to whether Britney will lose her contract (i.e.be dropped) by Sony BMG if this next album doesn't work as well as it should..one has to remember that the record companies are, with 20% drops in sales this year over 10% drops last year, facing the abyss and this is another behind the scenes factor...they simply can't afford to lose the money machine that Britney is, but on the other hand they can't afford to fund it if it doesn't provide instant results.
But, as a complete aside I really like that Good The Bad and The Queen album...almost as much as the new LCD Soundsystem and the James Holden (which was end of 06)..its a great year for new music so far..
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Weston,
it's an extension of the NME factor as it was called (when that magazine still actually mattered)..and was practiced across the UK's hip media extensively in the decades after 1976. Blame the likes of Birchill, Parsons, Morley, and the offensively self important Robert Elms..build em up, bash em down. From an era when music criticism actually made a difference (I don't think it really does anymore outside a few niche genres).But I have trouble with someone who writes:
On and on it runs, until you feel the soft flush of embarrassment whenever you are reminded of how much you liked that band, that song, and the embryonic hope that you once felt so keenly trickles away and grows tired and sticky.
really? She's so unsure of her own opinions, the substance of her own taste, that a couple of radio comments, a tabloid story or two and the like drives her from a band or an artist she once liked? She's that worried about others' sneers at her Coldplay albums that she squirms at the thought that they might know she once liked them? A wee bit sad and vacuous I'd say, rather than the incisive commentary she thinks it is.
And I'm not quite sure what it has to do with Britney (who has never had any critical acclaim but perhaps deserved a little more)
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and when you say 'the turks and indonesians' do you mean, *all* of them? or just a few at a time?
one of our Javanese friends rang us early last week and said she'd heard a rumour there would be a tsunami on Saturday ;)
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Lyrics like that are obviously orchestrated, but I don't think the rumoured post-shave suicide attempt was. Unless - OMG - are they tweaking Britney for the emo market? Oh, say it ain't so!
God, I don't know, I guess too many years in this industry makes one a tad cynical. Nothing is as it seems...
The suicide attempt rumour seems to have originated at either Perez Hilton, or at a dead link at The National Enquirer!!.....somebody is happily feeding the rumour mill
Unless - OMG - are they tweaking Britney for the emo market?
or this market
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surely they would have tried really, really hard to talk her out of it, rather than make it public.
Not if they want to kill her teen princess image. Public is the whole point...
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Maybe its just the piling on I don't like.
and that's the crux of the matter. And what Graham's piece alludes to I think. I don't think that the poor girl (not in the fiscal sense.....she has had her compensations!) is not perhaps experiencing a meltdown (or at least having her fun publicly..when you really look at it there is no real story)..who knows...but, and its a big one, I think the minders/ PR, whoever, are playing it for all it's worth. Let's face it, she is the face of a small corporation (album and single royalties alone if you work it out are close to US$1bn..that's profit for BritneyCorp..after costs) and there is a lot riding on their brand. Repositioning is crucial since the previous target market has gone.
Mind you look, look at what a mess Lennon made of his life in his thirties - lost weekends and all that.
I've often thought about what it would be to be "John Lennon", and its unimaginable (duh!). Very few of us will ever have the understanding of the pressures, and (worse) the expectations placed on someone like him, spending all his adult life as a demi-god to billions. But at least Lennon was intellectually placed to understand and perhaps deal with his predicament, unlike Britney I'd say.
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Weston,
I'm not saying the music in her name doesn't have authenticity, you misunderstand. It's perfectly crafted pop music. That is largely irrelevant (and the credit for it needs to go elsewhere..amongst others here).But having been in the music industry for close to 35 years I have a reasonable understanding of the processes involved,the organisation behind her...and the machinations behind the scenes. You can look at these issues in isolation or you can step back and look at perhaps what may be going on....
To quote Max Clifford, the UK PR wizard, yesterday:
"Obviously they knew exactly what was going on otherwise they wouldn't have allowed it. The whole thing was publicly arranged and publicly carried out. She wouldn't have just turned up and done this. Her PR managers would have known,"
The more I consider it, I'm having trouble believing that much of current fuss is not orchestrated, or at the very least being artfully manipulated for the maximum result..