Author: Chris

RIP Microsoft logo, 1987-2012

So Microsoft have officially unveiled their new company-wide corporate brand... And it's truly terrible.

We'll miss ya, kid.First impressions were that it looks like someone just opened Word 2010, typed the name in, added four squares and hit Save. Hideous! Even on repeat viewings, it's just abysmal.

I could just about tolerate MS turning all their web properties Metro to match the imminently-launched Windows 8... Not like I'll be using W8. But their classic, instantly and universally recognisable main logo? Eurgh. The clowns responsible for this better be preparing for the tons of scorn about to be ladled upon them.

For some history, here's the evolution of their logo...

So Microsoft have officially unveiled their new company-wide corporate brand... And it's truly terrible.

We'll miss ya, kid.First impressions were that it looks like someone just opened Word 2010, typed the name in, added four squares and hit Save. Hideous! Even on repeat viewings, it's just abysmal.

I could just about tolerate MS turning all their web properties Metro to match the imminently-launched Windows 8... Not like I'll be using W8. But their classic, instantly and universally recognisable main logo? Eurgh. The clowns responsible for this better be preparing for the tons of scorn about to be ladled upon them.

For some history, here's the evolution of their logo...

Continue reading "RIP Microsoft logo, 1987-2012"

Buying from the States? Beware of Royal Mail charges!

I received an item I'd ordered from the US valued at $25. According to HMRC their July exchange rate valued this in Sterling at £15.88 - therefore liable (by 88p) for Import VAT of £3.17. That's not so bad, however Royal Mail then decided to apply an £8 international handling charge. Outrageous! Not only is this vastly disproportional to the value of the item, it doubled the eventual cost of my purchase. Continue reading "Buying from the States? Beware of Royal Mail charges!"

Some open feedback to Vue Westfield Stratford City

When I was in London in 2012 for the Olympics, I went to watch a couple of films (and paid handsomely) at the (brand new) Westfield Vue cinema. Wasn't too impressed. Here's some feedback I also emailed to them...

[20/08/2012: Vue responded, click through for the reply.]

Have you been to Vue Westfield recently? Any thoughts on whether it's improved, stayed the same or got worse? Let me know in the comments.

Continue reading "Some open feedback to Vue Westfield Stratford City"

Tiplet: better foobar2000 playback title formatting

Foobar2000 is such awesomesauce, I use it all day every day. However, I do prefer slightly better titling (particularly as I listen to a mix of Shoutcast & Icecast streams and local files).

Excellent stations like Radio Paradise now have metadata-enabled Ogg Vorbis streams but the way the metadata's encoded into the stream (everything in the title) doesn't work perfectly with fb2k's default playback title display. Here's a concoction I devised which shows it a little more neatly (all hail foobar's epic tagging and display engine!):

 

Window title
$iflonger(%album artist%,1,[%album artist% - ][%album%[ CD%discnumber% ][, Track %tracknumber%:] ]%title%[ '('%track artist%')'],%title%)

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%codec%[, %codec_profile%] | %bitrate% kbps | %samplerate% Hz | %channels% | %playback_time%[ / %length%] [| Track %tracknumber% | ][Disc %discnumber% of %totaldiscs%]

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$iflonger(%album artist%,1,[%artist% - ]%title%,%title%) 

Listen to the rather excellent Radio Paradise Vorbis stream using the rather excellent Foobar2000 player, I highly recommend it.

I ♥