Rabbit & Pork

In a bid to sell more music tracks the music industry has been slowly turning up the loudness of recorded music to get it noticed over rival music.  This practice is known as the “Loudness Wars” or loudness race.

These days the trend is to listen to music via the radio or (crappy) MP3 so the effects go mostly unnoticed.  However, a tipping point is now being reached where recordings are so loud they are actually harming the quality of the recording with audible annoyances.

Take Death Magnetic, an album recently released by Metallica.  The audio quality is so bad that it becomes an impossible listen.  The recording is highly compressed, brickwalled, distorted, clipped and lacks any dynamic range.  So much so, there’s now a petition for it to be remastered, and fans are forced to rip the version from Guitar Hero 3.

Album sales are down, single sales are up.  It’s a sign of another throw-away industry where punters have a relentless appetite for the new.  Along the way, those who enjoy their music for the longer term are penalised.

Two years after promotion to the Premiership, Reading FC were relegated yesterday back to the Championship.  It was a close call.  Fulham’s great escape was sealed with only 14 minutes of the season remaining.  A single headed goal from Murphy was the deciding factor.  It was them or us.  It was out of our control.  A 4-0 win over Derby was irrelevant.

You can spend hours analyzing where it went wrong for Reading.  After last years amazing campaign (an 8th place finish), you have to wonder.  Even 24 hrs after relegation, I’m still gutted as a fan and you wonder “what if”.

So, here’s where I think it went wrong - perhaps this years premiership new boys can learn from this?

1. Lack of team spirit: last years team were on a high, very confident from promotion.  They were a consistent tight unit.  This year, after the loss of key players (Sidwell, Little, Sonko etc), the team was somehow disrupted.  The defense in particular was damaged.  You must build on a solid base.  Losing early games knocks your confidence, something that’s hard to regain.
2. Up-hill Run: sometimes you just meet opponents at the wrong time.  This year, it seemed Reading met their closest rivals when they were at their strongest.  Take Newcastle for example.  They were awful for most of the season, even in the relegation dog fight for a while, but of course, they met Reading after a revival of their own.  Basically, Reading failed to win the (also-rans) league within the (Premiership) league.
3. Lack of investment: this is the killer.  Since joining the Premiership, Reading have spent £5m (or, realistically nothing) on new players.   Reading were a Championship side punching above their weight in the Premiership.  Except, the Premiership doesn’t stand still, it gets tougher each year.  Eventually, a puffing team tires out.  Investment means continuous buying of quality players.  The players are everything (& the manager, of course).  Football is business, but it’s a black & white business.  Results are a clear reporting tool.

The big question now is…

Will Steve Coppell leave?

I don’t think any fan wants Steve Coppell to go.  He’s done a fantastic job.  But, if you think about it from Steve’s point of view, I suspect he feels he’s hit a ceiling.  The problem is that John Madeski (the owner), for whatever reason, does not/or can’t invest the required amount.  Madeski just doesn’t believe in the quantities of money being thrown around in the Premiership.  Steve Coppell is a great manager, but is he fulfilling his potential.  Does he want the battle of taking a side to the Premiership (again), or a fair battle in the Premiership?  I don’t know.  We all have to wait and see.

If Steve does leave, I fear for Reading.  It’ll be rebuild time, and no bounce back to the Premiership next year.

Really, Reading need a new investor.  Anyone know any billionaires?

Update 21/5/08: Coppell commits future to Reading - next question - will money be available to boost the squad? If so, the chances of returning to the promised land are good!

Gordon,

So you don’t give away the personal details of 25 million people again, try these simple tips:

1. select name, national_insurance_number from person
2. use the friggin’ internet to transfer the above result set

It’s not difficult and doesn’t cost a fortune to implement. I’ll code it for you.

The Lunar Eclipse may have passed you by. This is how it looked via my camera and unusually clear UK skies.

It was one of the best in years. Listen to an excited Sir Patrick Moore explain the how.

Moon enters penumbra:

Moon enters umbra:

Totality begins:

Mid-eclipse:

I won’t miss you.

Now, we (the Europeans) have another year to wait for the good looking iPhone.

Still, at least we can play with Apple TV in the meantime.

What am I looking forward to this year? Here’s a starter for ten…

• Matthew’s 1st birthday
• Karen’s 40th (yes, really, although Karen is probably looking forward to it less)
• Wherever Alfresco will go
• Apple’s iTV (or whatever it’ll be called)
• Reading Football Club maintaining its Premiership status
• Slowly learning to ride a motorbike and perhaps take a test (CBT will expire)
• Rush album
• Learning some new drum stuff
• Summer holiday (anywhere)
• Apple’s iPhone (well, maybe)
• The unexpected
• …

Happy New Year!

Now for some fun… what’s the difference between these two pictures of my iMac?

Obviously, one is taken from the left and the other from the right. No points for that.

Ok…

The speakers have changed - Acoustic Energy (UK company) Aego Ms have replaced the rather poor performing JBL Creature IIs. Anyone wanting 2.1 speakers for their Mac should take a listen. They look great and sound awesome. Heavy weight too - they make the JBLs (and most of the other speakers in the Apple store) feel like plastic toys by comparison.

The iMac has grown (no it hasn’t taken Viagra) - it’s been replaced by the recently released 24inch version. So, now it’s Core2, NVidia and brighter than before. In the picture, use the Tomtom, digital camera and keyboard to determine how big this iMac is! There’s plenty of room for two side-by-side browsers. Btw, the browser on the right shows the UK premiership football table where Reading are placed sixth (above Arsenal, Liverpool etc)

It’s taken a while to finally get a system I’m really happy with…

• Aug 12th - purchase iMac 20inch Core Duo & JBL Creature IIs from Bluewater Apple Store
• Aug 19th - replace due to flickering display - return JBLs as wife complained they weren’t any good!
• Aug 24th - Google hunt for new speakers and order Aego Ms
• Sept 6th - new iMac range available
• Sept 7th - call Apple to determine if exchange is possible - answered with surprising yes
• Sept 15th - 24inch iMacs delivered to Bluewater Apple Store
• Sept 17th - 24inch Core2 Duo finally switched on in home office and Aego Ms unwrapped for the first time - pretty damn good.

Throughout, Apple support, service and the Bluewater store have all been first class. Another reason to go Apple.

Well, I’ve been without a PC at home for a while now having suffered yet another hard-disk failure. Not anymore. It’s hard to believe but I’ve just switched to a Mac, an iMac.

So far, so good, so very good.

Cool feature of the day has to be the magnet on the right side to hold the Apple Remote.

And this is my first post from it (using Firefox).

iPod next.

p.s. this is also my first post to feature photographs taken on my new digital SLR EOS 30D - for those who care, an external bounce flash was used to compensate for low light.

That was the question asked by Air Traffic Control to our Pilot when one of the engines of our B777 decided to give up with a bang, flames and a shower of sparks approximately 10 minutes after take-off from Washington Dulles on Aug 3rd whilst heading to Heathrow (London).

One of guys in the row front of me happened to be a plane “geek” and was listening in on radio channel 9 (air traffic control transmission) whilst this “fun” incident happened. The response was a calm “No”.

A few moments before it wasn’t quite so calm in the cabin as everyone was attempting to decipher what the f**k had actually happened. A bang, followed by engine revs dying and an unsettled plane soon ruin the “sit back, relax and enjoy your flight” mantra, whilst you ask yourself, “is this plane going to stay airborne?”

Luckily, it didn’t take long to realise the pilot had resumed control and we weren’t strapped to a brick. B777’s are resilient pieces of machinery - thank goodness. The plane was full with a particulary unusual number of families (presumably on vacation). Surprisingly, everyone got back on the next plane to London a few hours later. This time with no incident.

Simple - my wife and I have an eleven day old baby boy. Matthew John was born on 16th May at 9.38am weighing 7lbs 8oz. Of course this is fantastic news for us especially after previous events.

But it does mean for the moment that activities such as drumming, learning to ride a motorbike, even work (temporarily :-() have been pushed to the side. Hopefully some time will come back once life settles, but in the mean time, I wouldn’t have it any other way