kstruct

…another round of rumours about the Australian launch of the iTunes Music Store. I really hope it shows up this time.

So, another round of Australian iTMS rumours, and with any luck, we’ll get an actual launch this time. I don’t even mind if two of the major record companies aren’t on board.

(Though if I were a band, I certainly wouldn’t want to be with a label who was refusing to be a part of it)

In fact, if it’s Sony BMG and EMI who are the problem, I’ll quite happily boycott them entirely until I can buy their music for an Australian iTMS. Now it’s not as though I buy a lot of CDs to begin with, so I doubt I’ll actually be hurting them in a noticeable way, but at least I can feel like I’m doing something.

Anyone else care to join in?

The main reason being bandied around for why the labels are holding out is that they want a tiered pricing structure, where ‘hit’ songs are more expensive than others. Looking at the current charts, I don’t think I care too much if they do, since I doubt I’d be buying many ‘hit’ songs.

I’m looking forward to getting back to Impro theatre classes this week. I finished the stage 1 course a couple of weeks back and then jumped straight in, performing in Impro Theatre ACT’s first public performance (1.3 MB PDF) in front of about 200 people. It’s was a pretty big step out of character for me, but a lot of fun, and apparently I didn’t crash and burn too badly.

I’ll be interested to find out what the stage two course covers. I’m assuming that there is more to it than just more practice, but I’m not really sure how it will all fit together. Anyway, I’ll be back into it this Tuesday, and I’ve roped three people in for the new stage one course also starting this week. No doubt they’ll be upstaging me soon.

And speaking of Impro, I saw the scared scriptless guys up in Sydney last weekend. There were some really great games, and it makes it pretty clear how much I have to learn/practice. They also ran, for the first time apprently, a 45 minute (longform?) performance at the end which was really impressive.

Anyway, I’ll attempt to post a note here in advance of our next performance whenever that may be, and anyone who is interested in the classes can let me know and I’ll pass on the details. Unfortunately the group doesn’t have a website as yet, but with the (surprisingly large) number of IT people involved, there probably will be one sooner or later.

(See email from inessential.com)

I was pleased to find, a while back, a bit of a rundown on the PVR situation in Australia. I’ve read a lot about TiVo in the US, and even remember hearing about some of the ANU staff’s efforts to hack them back when I was in my first year there. (I was lucky enough to be in a small Advanced CS tutorial with Andrew Tridgell of Samba fame back then. I’m sure he doesn’t remember me, but what the hell.)

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For those outside Australia, HomeScreen is one of our NetFlix clones

About a month ago I discontinued my subscription to HomeScreen after over a year on the three disk at a time plan. I was never really able to find much info about the Australian NetFlix clones, so I guess this is a bit of a contribution. What’s really needed I suppose is a comparative review, but I’m not planning on signing up with any of the others (Quickflix, BigPond Movies, others?) in the near future, so this will have to do.

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