The latest release of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux free software operating system became available back in October.

Download it here

I’ve had several trouble free weeks using the Live CD, and am satisfied that is seems stable enough to proceed with a full install to hard drive.

This is a blog I originally wrote for Musicnsw, written in Sydney, 24 September 2009:

The Law and the PPCA

Under the copyright act, owners recorded songs (artists and record labels) are entitled to licence fees from any business that perform their recordings in conjunction with their business operations. The PPCA was set up as a non-profit organisation to collect these licence fees from all businesses around Australia that perform music to the public.

Tariffs and Lattes

Since its inception, businesses have been required to buy such licences or tariffs in order to play copyrighted recordings of music. The fees collected are then pooled by the PPCA and and the funds are divvied up between the labels and artists that are represented by the PPCA.

This blog discusses the proposed changes to the licence fee that must be paid by the restaurant/cafe industry. Since the beginning of the PPCA, they have required that restaurants and cafes pay a pretty much nominal amount for the right to play recordings in their business. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a coffee shop with a seating 55 punters currently pays PPCA $69 a year.

The PPCA has finished a comprehensive review of this tariff and has decided to markedly increase this tariff (based on various scales and formulae). So this 55 seater coffee shop will have to pay $5,500 per year – thats something like a 7-800% increase in fees!

Is this Fair?

To figure this out – theres a couple of things the PPCA had to say on the issue:

“Music is widely used by the restaurant and café industry to contribute positively to the ambience and atmosphere of an establishment. For example, research indicates that more than 75 per cent of a sample of cafés and restaurants typically use music in their day-to-day operations.”

“Research also shows that where used effectively, music can lead to a significant increase in the time spent by consumers in restaurant and café environments, and an increase in their expenditure on food and beverages, in a range of between 10% to 70%. “

The Value of Music

Basically, what they are getting at is that there is a significant commercial value in music. Having music in a cafe or restaurant significantly impacts on how much a customer is going to spend and how long they will stay. Up until now, cafes have been getting such a valuable asset in their business for basically a nominal value. Now, after all this economic research the PPCA wants a fairer deal for artists and record labels so that what they get paid realistically represents the impact their music has on the restaurant industry.

In the eyes of the PPCA – the bottom line is this: if you don’t think music is commercially valuable to your business – then don’t use it.

Backlash

Obviously, a 7-800% increase in a cost for a business will not be taken lightly as most restaurants and cafes struggle to break even as it is. Essentially, what lobby groups say in opposition to the increase is that the PPCA has not adequately taken into account the impact these increased costs have on each restaurant’s books.

The PPCA argues that all a cafe has to do is add 10 cents or so to each of its products to alleviate such stresses. But its my opinion that the PPCA has no right to suggest such ‘advice’ as price considerations are purely up to each business and their competitive environments and types clientele. Generalisations on the industry may prove harmful for many cafes.

Many restaurants and cafes have suggested that many cafes will now be silent as they simply cannot afford the huge tariffs. And if restaurants do adhere to the new scheme, they will be forced to increase the costs of their goods/services – by much more than 10 cents. End result? Customers lose.

Potential Ramifications

1. A Boost for Live Music

The PPCA only collects fees from businesses that perform sound recordings in their businesses. So a potential unintended impact of increasing the tariffs by such a large amount may be that cafes and restaurants will be more inclined to hiring live acts to play at their venues. This may, in the end, be cheaper than buying a PPCA licence, and may stimulate Australia’s live music scene (for some genres of course).

2. Music Direct

Another potential impact is that cafes and restaurants (or their lobby group) may go directly to one or two record labels and bargain their own licence deals, thereby bypassing the PPCA. One detrimental implication of this is that such restaurants will only play music from that labels repertoire – thereby leaving small indie labels and artists unheard at such venues.

3. A Creative loophole?

Bit of an aside here – USA in the 1930s: radio took hold of the country and was this was the first time that songs could be sent all across a country to be heard and loved by everyone. Due to the success of the wireless medium in increasing the usage of music, ASCAP (the PPCA of the times) argued that their artists/labels deserved much more income when their recordings were played over the radio. ASCAP then increased their license fees payable by broadcasters by a huge amount.

Instead of complying with such requests, the broadcasters formed a group called Broadcast Music Incorporated. BMI would then collect license fees from radio stations at a rate at which radio stations could operate properly. So instead of playing songs that were licenced to ASCAP, the radio stations were playing music that was free and in the public domain – like old blues and country tracks.

Now, back in the naughties – an unintended ramification of increasing the tariffs by such a large amount is that cafes and restaurants may cancel their licenses with PPCA and in turn play free and public domain music.

The Sydney Morning Herald says that this would definitely suck as music that is currently in the public domain includes things like Elvis and other old stuff. But, the use of new music created under creative commons licenses may be a another source of ‘unrestricted’ music. Music under creative commons licences may waive any performance rights and could be an answer for cafes and restaurants looking for modern music for their customers.

Fairness

Its my opinion that a compromise may be required here. The PPCA have an extremely valid point – music does add significant value to the ambience and experience of a restaurant. The problem arises from the way in which such ‘value’ is calculated.

It is unfair to expect artists and labels not to get a slice of the pie when their music adds to the taste of that pie. But its also unfair to expect cafes and restaurants to take on such increased costs without interrupting or even stifling their cash flows. A compromise needs to be reached where sides can agree on some middle ground or price that is acceptable and valuable to all.

When the inevitable happens and I finally take control of this planet we like to call Earth (do we actually like to? Strange saying..) these are the things I’m going to do to make the world a better place:

• Consider a new name for Earth that we DO like to call it
• Ban beards. Just why? They’re ewwy!
• I’d meet Taylor Lautner. I’d only have to meet him once for him to fall in love with me, haha (I wish)
• Every book I love will be made into a TV show/Film
• Being Scottish will be illegal
• Flying will be free (for people I like)
• Everyone will say hello and goodbye with a hug
• Anyone I don’t like get’s sent to Fiji
• I’ll build a bridge between the UK and USA with one giant flat (and uber fast) esculator thing along it so you just have to stand there
• Scales will be illegal – who cares how much you weigh?
• OAPs and children will not be allowed to go to town when I am
• My favourite TV shows will run continuously (every week) without hiatus or season breaks until I say so
• All dance/trance/house/rnb will be banned
• Chivalry will be law, but there will be clear guidelines on the difference between chivalry and sexism
• All bombs/guns/explosives will be destroyed and anyone wanting to fight must do so (with my permission) using swords and bow and arrows
• Karma will be MADE to happen
• No one is allowed to say they don’t like something unless they have tried it. Properly.
• Arguing with me would result in death
• All idiots will be prosecuted
• I would have one of every item of clothing/shoes in Topshop, Bershka, H&M, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, Republic, River Island etc and someone to help me pick what to wear each day
• Anyone who annoys me while I’m driving will have their licence removed. For life.
• All hot lads must play either guitar/bass/drums and know how to ride a motorbike
• All cities will be removed from Africa, people from there will be given the option of a house in a different country or staying there and living in a tribal hut
• People who are bosses/supervisors/managers will be taught that they are only ‘higher’ during working hours and must consider than the rest of the time they’re no better than ‘their staff’ and should therefore treat everyone with respect within working hours too. Or it may come back to bite them in the arse.
• The whole ’sleep at night’ convention will be removed and the world will be constantly in motion with people sleeping whenever they want instead
• Friday and Monday will become parts of the weekend
• Everyone must read my blog. Or be punished.

That’s all I can think of for now. My world sounds pretty darn nifty, doesn’t it? Have a song that matches. Take That – Rule The World ♫ http://blip.fm/~gvp9n Enjoy!

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On just about every online PR activity I end up scratching my head wondering which Creative Commons licence I should use for the online assets we create for our clients.

There isn’t a licence for when, we want the content to be free for use, for commercial gain without the need to be referenced. Press releases can be used as if they were written by the blogger or the journalist themselves, that’s the appeal of the press releases to them!

The question is what licence is then appropriate for PR activities.

A very short summary of Creative Commons licence elements:
Attribution
•    Allows others to copy, republish and edit your work and changes they make as long as they accredit you.
Share alike
•    Allow others to distribute derivative works under a license identical to the license to yours.
Noncommercial
•    Allows others to copy or republish your work but for noncommercial purposes only.
No derivative works
•    Allows others to copy your work but without making any changes.

Nous avons reçu plusieurs questions dernièrement sur la licence XLGL et sur les renouvellements/mises-à-jour, alors j’ai cru bon d’y répondre ici.

La première chose à savoir est que lors de l’achat de XLGL vous obtenez un numéro de série. Associé à ce numéro de série est une date d’expiration. Le numéro de série vous donne le droit d’utiliser toutes versions de XLGL produite avant date d’expiration. Il vous donne aussi accès au soutien technique jusqu’à la même date.

Une fois la date d’expiration atteinte, vous pouvez toujours utiliser XLGL. La seule chose qui change est que vous n’avez plus accès aux nouvelles version de XLGL.

Vous n’avez jamais à payer pour une mise-à-jour particulière de XLGL. Soit votre plan de mise-à-jour et de soutien technique est valide, soit il ne l’est pas. S’il l’est, vous pouvez télécharger et installer à volonté. Sinon, vous devez renouveler.

Au moment de cet écrit, le renouvellement est de 199$ pour une année d’accès aux mises-à-jour et au soutien technique. Ce prix est pour un numéro de série, indépendamment du nombre de licence installée associées avec lui. Que vous ayez une licence pour un ordinateur ou pour 5 ordinateurs, vous payez un maximum de 199$.

En parlant de licences installées, XLGL peut être installé sur un ordinateur plus soit un ordinateur à la maison, soit un ordinateur portable, pour un total de deux installations. Des licences additionnelles peuvent être achetées et associées au même numéro de série à un prix réduit (99$ présentement).

Après soit votre achat initial ou votre renouvellement, vous devez activer XLGL pour le synchroniser avec notre base de données d’activation. XLGL vous demandera peut-être pour activer ou vous devrez activer manuellement en passant par XLGL > À propos… et en cliquant le bouton Activer.

Y a-t-il d’autres questions sur les licences ou l’activation? S.V.P., laissez-le moi savoir.

Pierre Alain

Après une collection ratée consacrée au label Def Jam, Adidas Originals tente de se racheter avec une collab Star Wars avant tout destinée aux geeks. Composée de baskets, de T-Shirts et de vestes reprenant des personnages cultes comme les Stormtroopers, Yoda, Luke Skywalker (dans son X-Wing) ou encore Dark Vador, la collab sera disponible en shop à partir de janvier 2010. Le temps que filtrent d’autres visuels et qu’on puisse déterminer si le hoodie Vador est si abusé que ça ou non. En espérant que le style soit avec eux.

Pour voir plus de photos de la collection Adidas Originals x Star Wars, vous pouvez cliquer pour

A Berkshire council is considers changing the terms of its pet shop licences to help reduce the number of dogs bred by puppy farms…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: farm. The blog is also related to: farm.

I’ll try to find something worth taking a picture of everyday. I use the iPhone 3G, a Leica D-LUX4 or a Canon 1D Mark III.

The photos are published under creative commons – So you can use them for private without charge – my Name (Harald Schirmer) and Link (www.fotoschirmer.de) must be published next to the image. Thank you for your fairness!

I hope you’ll enjoy some of the images.

Having decided that the time was right to migrate from the back of a bus to the front, I gathered the necessary forms from the DSA (Driving Standards Agency) along with several text books on driving large vehicles. I called my local doctor’s surgery and nearly fell off my chair when they quoted £104.00 to carry out a medical! I politely said “thanks, I’ll be in touch”. I was of course, but not with them. After a bit of digging around on the net, I found another doctor across town who would do it for £35.00. This suited my pocket much better so I made an appointment.

The day of my appointment arrived and my next challenge was to find the place. It was actually a Chiropractor’s surgery on the first floor above a small shop in a pedestrian precinct. This being a Saturday, it was occupied by a doctor whose waiting room was full of chaps like me, clutching D4 Medical Report forms.

I nearly fell at the first hurdle because I’d not brought any ID with me. Unfortunately I wasn’t told about this when I made the appointment and I had left my current driver’s licence on my desk at home, ready to be sent off to the DVLA. I managed to convince the doctor that the decision about whether my identity was legitimate would be taken by the folks at the DVLA when they compared the photo on their files with the new one I was going to have done later that day. He seemed happy with that and proceeded with the medical report. Everything was satisfactory, he signed the form and I walked away happy.

I sent off the forms and my new licence, with category D provisional entitlement, arrived on Saturday. So today I called my instructor to fix up a driving assessment session, probably one day next week. In the meantime, I’m revising all the potential questions from the official theory test. Thankfully most of them are just common sense. The only thing that might trip me up is driver’s hours regulations.

Un rat mort à Francheville - Wikimédia Commons © CC-by-SA Otourly

Depuis que je suis administrateur sur Commons, j’ai parfois entendu des personnes s’interroger sur le fait de laisser leurs photos sur ce site. Maintenant j’ai envie de leur répondre, je sais que ça ne se fait pas trop de répondre par une question, et pourquoi pas?

Voici mes propres raisons, à vous de vous construire les vôtres.

• Partager aux autres ce qu’on a vu.

C’est assez intéressant de partager, c’est ainsi qu’on a appris à parler, c’est ainsi qu’on a cultivé notre savoir, ainsi partager des prises de vues c’est offrir des images à quelqu’un qui n’a pas eu la chance de voir ce que vous avez vu, au moment où vous l’avez vu.

• Donner envie à d’autres

Je n’ai pas la prétention de faire des photos excellentes, mais j’espère qu’avec mes photos d’autres auront envie de faire mieux. Et franchement pour moi ça vaut mieux que si je les avais réalisées à la perfection du premier coup, avec l’apprentissage et la capacité technique qui va avec.

• Laisser libre la retouche de mes images

Il est certain que nous ne voyons pas les images de la même façon. Aussi, les goûts et les couleurs…

Donc, il est pour moi naturel de laisser à d’autres personnes la possibilité de modifier mes images, de quelconque façon (en dehors de ce qui est contraire à la loi évidement) , afin de partager une autre vision de mon image.

• Permettre aux autres de réutiliser mon image modifiée ou non

Ce point permet de compléter la boucle, ainsi ça donnera peut être l’idée de la faire partager, la modifier et de la montrer à nouveau..

Mais pourquoi Commons alors me diriez-vous?

Commons est une base de donnée multimédia libre [1]. Ce site partage ma vision de la photo. Mes photos peuvent être réutilisées, notamment sur Wikipédia, mais aussi sur les autres projets de la Wikimédia Foundation. Elles pourront y être modifiées, classées, décrites dans plusieurs langues.

J’ai fait le choix de rien gagner de mes photos, car la photo n’est pour moi qu’un loisir, et l’unique récompense que j’accepte c’est la mention correcte de la licence.

Non, vraiment, je ne vois pas pourquoi je laisserai mes photos numériques prendre de la poussière dans un coin d’un disque dur, et pire, que le témoignage qu’elles pourraient offrir soit perdu, ou détruit.

Paid for content? Removal of News International from Google in a matter of months? Murdoch yesterday repeated his comments about Google Search and is either, in his own words, ‘going to lead the industry’ into a brave new world, or stuff his business model up for good. Either that or he has a plan C….

One thing is for sure: the industry has a problem. Citizen journalism, online media, advances in technology and many, many other well trodden ‘challenges’ are hitting advertising revenues hard. Micro payments based on site visits is a solution that is worth considering. That way media channels are rewarded for providing rich and interesting content.

I for one would be happy to pay for a (small) licence from which micro payments are made to content providers of all shapes and sizes. While I love the free nature of the internet, I recognise quality content needs to be paid for. However, if Murdoch thinks users will subscribe to each of his news sites then I think he is going to run into trouble. Even if he consolidated all his titles into a Sky Broadcasting type package, the idea of subscribing is not that appealing.

For pure news outlets at least, the power (but maybe not income) is moving away from the media and back to the journalist, and bloggers are beginning to ‘monetise’ their sites. All journalists need now is training and cost effective technology.

For tabloid titles such as The Sun, the power is migrating to the celebrities. Famous faces are now the ‘intellectual property’ or content and it is the celebrities the tabloids contain, the likes of Jordan and Peter, that are generating income from the tabloids.

Anyway, by charging for content, Murdoch isn’t doing anything new. Manchester Confidential beat him to it and is charging for content. Apparently the move is going well. Good luck to them! It might work for niche or regional communities, of which Manchester Confidential is one, but I don’t think the same process will work for news outlets. Manchester Confidential offers readers more than just editorial, with offers and personal insight keeping its members coming back for more. Apart from MySpace, Murdoch is a long way from creating a similar offer.

There are times when you wonder just what idiots are thinking.

It was blowing gales of up to 85mph yesterday, it was dropping around a quarter of the months rainfall in about 6 hours, but people still drive around without their headlights on! I was nearly written off by one bloody idiot who thought that I could see him approaching with no lights on where everyone else were using fog lights just to see the end of their bonnet….

He was a lorry driver!

So at a time when a professional driver of  a  large, dark, lorry has trouble seeing the cars in front you would think he would be professional and expereinced enough to realise that the spray thrown up by such a horrific downpour might make him invisible to see as well; while he was doing around 50 in a 40 zone; while traffic might be joining from  the slip road. When this driver followed me to a roundabout and got out of his truck in front of a police officer to remonstrate, the police officer got his notebook out to write down my side of the story. He put it straight back away when I told him that the lorry did not even have any lights on when he pulledup to talk to them (which they noted), let alone driving!

They sent me on my way and had a quiet word with him.

It makes you wonder though. These professional drivers with their arctic lorry; driving up and down our roads every day and some of them seem to think they own the road we all drive on.  For example; back in July, in the Highlands of Scotland a professional HGV caused death by dangerous driving because he failed to secure 26 tonnes of timber correctly… This is of course the Highlands with lots of gradients, sharp turns and various animals wandering free.

Last month in Wales a professional lorry driver lost his attention while driving, swerved to avoid a stationary car in the  middle of the road and hit a moving car head-on, killing the driver. The professional lorry driver “did not  realise” that the slippery road surface warning, after the local council re-surfaced the  road, “extended beyond the warning sign”. The lorry trailer itself was a death-trap with faulty brakes and missing wheel studs, wondering if the surface had not just been re-done, then would there have been any difference in the result?

and finally, back in May a lorry went  over a speed hump in London and its door flew open nearly taking London Mayor Boris Johnson out as he cycled around the city on a “fact-finding” mission. The door was not properly secured and we nearly lost our London Mayor over it (okay… so some of you think thats a good thing).

Guess what though. These “professional” drivers got a maximum £500 fine and 8 points. Not even a disqualification. I bet if a train driver; a professional driver; left a door open, or lost concentration and nearly hit another train, that they would not have a job, let alone a train driving licence left in their hand?

Professional Drivers indeed.

*****

In other news:

 Department for Transport (DfT) (“DafT”) is about to embark on a campaign to reduce CO2 emissions. They have embarked on the first step by taking over National Express East Coast Trains (now run by DfT owned “Directly Operated Trains”) lets hope they reduce fares to encourage train travel.

In this “equal opportunity” world, it obviously does not extend to car insurance. You can understand that young drivers, fresh out of driving school, are chargedmore as they have less experience, but MoneySupermarket.com have found that 18 year old males are likely to pay £2000 for car insurance (for a car unspecified), whereas a girl would pay around half that (on the same car). Ergo, we should sack all the male lorry drivers and employ women, driving pink tractor units covered in pictures of hunky men to keep them satisfied on the road…..

I am getting worked up about lorry drivers now…. time for a bottle of water.!

An application by Derry City supporters for an alcohol licence at a social club is adjourned until the team’s position is resolved…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: city urbanization. For a different topic see disney crowd levels. The blog is also related to: city lights.

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Dear RSA ADI Instructor
We have upgraded our website to allow potential customers to Free Text driving instructors directly from their listing on roadready.ie. This is just one of a series of new features coming online in the next few months. If there is a feature you would like to see on the site, or if you have an idea to make your life easier… please let us know directly, your feedback is vital to our continued success.
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The Driving Test
All learner drivers should keep in mind, when taking lessons or driving with a fully licensed driver that you should be preparing for your final Road Test and ensure your lesson time is spent wisely.
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Applying for the test
There are several way learner driver can apply for their Road Test.
http://www.roadready.ie/applying-for-the-test.asp

Getting Practice and Accompnaied Driving
It is recommended that learner drivers gain approximately 120 hours of driving experience, lessons and practice before taking your Driving Test. A fully licensed driver should accompany you at all times prior to receiving your full license.
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Take Driving Lessons

When you get your Learner Permit you should book driving lessons with an RSA approved driving instructor to learn how to drive safely and competently. You can find a range of approved driving instructors in your area on the RoadReady.ie website.
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