They really do. And here’s why:
1. Hidden tracks hark back to the days before LCD displays. These days, people can see how long each track is. If they are playing the CD on the computer, or as sound files, then they can see a full track listing. How curious that the last song is 13 minutes long… the hidden track is not really hidden, making it… a track.
2. An increasing number of people are converting their CD collections to MP3s, so that they can benefit from the portability and convenience offered. Hidden tracks force them to either waste (admittedly expendable) megabytes of storage space on silence or rip to WAV, open the file up in a wave editor, and chop it up into two separate files.
3. When listening to a CD in the car, who wants to sit through eight minutes of silence? No-one, that’s who. It’s easier to skip back to the first track than to fast-forward to the start of the “hidden” track, so that’s what you do. Not only do you miss the “hidden” track (despite knowing that it is there), but your attention is also diverted from driving while you are hammering that button. One day someone will have an accident while skipping tracks, and if they live in the USA they may attempt to sue the producer of the CD. Maybe. I’m just tossing the notion in there.
4. It’s not big.
5. It’s not clever.
I’m going back into retirement now. For how long, I really don’t know. Toodles!
- Comments: 13
- I always like the hidden tracks on NIN's broken. There's 99 tracks on the CD, the LP is th... - Destructor
- PARP! Especially when they start with a big brass band thing. - Pete
- Hidden comments. It's the way ahead, I tells ya. - Graybo
- Midnite Vultures by Beck has a rather odd hidden track, which sounds like a song played at... - Pete
- I think the only time anything like that happened to me was when a young lady friend and I... - Stuart
A Song about Chicken
I haven’t seen the KFC ad that prompted 1671 complaints from parents, but I am interested to note that, of everything that kids have access to on the TV and internet, the big burning issue is not violence, not drugs, not bad language, not even poor punctuation. It’s table manners.
I didn’t even know that families in the UK sat down to dinner anymore.
- Comments: 3
- Unfortunately, I have to agree with the complainants about the terrible example that this ... - adhoc
- I would like to complain about the distinct Meaflessness in the ad. Okay, it's fried chick... - Timbo
- Never mind whether or not it's bad manners - it's a considerably-more-annoying than averag... - Doctor Pockless
Two Danubes


- Comments: 13
- I think this is a good time to recall autoblogging. ... - Destructor
- Years. I meant years. For 'months', read years. Definitely. - Vaughan
- Only four and a half months, Vaughan? - Karen
- Boo, get off! - Doctor Pockless
- My name is Vaughan. I'm a blogaholic. It's been 26 hours since my last blog. (It's been ab... - Vaughan
Saved Game
So, we had an eventful weekend. On Saturday we bought some supplies at the xxxxxxxxx and spent the afternoon in the xxxxxxxxx replanting the xxxxxxxxx. Oh, and that was after a late game of xxxxxxxxx on Friday night.
Sunday was particularly good; we went to see Revenge of the Sith, which we were both moderately satisfied with, especially the bit at the end, where xxxxxxxxx kills xxxxxxxxx and turns out to be xxxxxxxxx after all. When we got home from that, we did a xxxxxxxxx, and were pleasantly surprised to find that we’re xxxxxxxxx. Well, maybe not all that surprised; it’s always been on the cards.
On Monday, xxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxx came over and we had lunch in the pub in xxxxxxxxx – jolly nice burgers. The weather has been nice and it was good to have three days off work. Roll on August bank holiday.
- Comments: 6
- Nah, Mr D. I think if you look closely you'll see that the number of X's clearly correspon... - Vaughan
- I think the answer is: "Mah Jong" In every case. - Mr.D.
- "But ... I'm not so good at filling in the blanks. Espeically with girls." We know, sweeti... - pixeldiva
- But ... I'm not so good at filling in the blanks. Espeically with girls. - Adrian
- This is a new style, adopted in response to Pete's post below. - Karen
Long post (about 1.7 londonmarks)
While I was driving home today, I toyed with the idea of restoring the archives from my previous “blog”. I took them down after I finished writing the site. I’m not sure why, perhaps I was just having a little paranoid thing about employers finding it yahdy yahdy yah, not that there was anything particularly incriminating on there anyway.
The reasons for and against doing this are all intermingled and there’s probably a fair spot of duplication between them, which is why I’m not going to explain the purpose of what I’m writing here. I’m just going to write it and hope that you can figure it out for yourself. If you can, then you’re doing a hell of a lot better than me.
My last weblog represented a different time. There seem to be a herd of us floating around these days. We started writing three or four years ago, when we were single and had a lot of time to ourselves to think really hard about things. And we’d think our foolish, unhelpful thoughts for hours and hours and hours, and there was a computer there, so we’d write it down to try and get some sort of order. I guess we were just trying to save our games – once we’d established some basic facts, we could hit F6, and then go off and explore other fabulous bits of our brains, and if things all went wrong then at least we could hit F7 and perhaps attack it from a different angle. So we’d write long and poignant posts, uninterrupted by banalities, focused on the task of being the most intelligent beast in the world.
And now we’re still here. Well, some of us are. Some never made it out of single and tortured, and they entertain us to this day. But the rest of us made it out, and found a partner, and suddenly life is less about thinking and more about doing. Within this category there exist those who took the euphemistic prolonged hiatus, and those who still write, albeit nice inoffensive stuff. Our input is comparable to those who post pictures of their cats, and a few levels lower in the hierarchy than the angsteous livejournallers. I mean, I do actually write the personal stuff sometimes, it just never makes it out of draft. I look at it and think “Nah, people don’t want to read that, they’re just here for the innuendo and the green.”
I never used to be such a harsh editor, but I guess none of us did. It’s just one of those transitions that a lot of people go through. Why am I still writing here? Fuck knows. Inertia, I guess. As a service to the Internetting community, I use robots tags where appropriate to ensure that none of this can pollute the Google results of those innocent bystanders.
I think I hereby announce my resignation from blogging. Again.
UPDATE: Since writing this post, I’ve thought of about a million instances of people who have become unsingle, and I am enjoying their writing more, which flies in the face of my theory. I was hoping to have this little update in place before any of them contacted me on the subject, but I think I’ve failed slightly. Still, here it is.
- No comments yet, but you can change that.
Mutual back-scratching is good for fingers
Remember the episode of Friends that argued that there was no such thing as altruism, because all good deeds benefit the doer as well as the done-by? For the first time in my life, I have a job where I do something that really benefits humanity, and I feel so smug it hurts.
Meanwhile, Razorlight have signed up to the Make Poverty History campaign, allowing their music to be used in adverts, and making great speeches about organising some sort of fund/awareness-raising festival, despite not wanting to be Bono [or worse: Chris Martin].
So, free advertising for Razorlight, and aren’t they just a lovely, generous bunch of lads with it? And they get to sleep easy at night, because they’re doing a good thing. Know the feeling.
Talking of making poverty history,
I learned yesterday that the full name of China’s currency is the China Yuan Renminbi, which means the people’s currency. This is ironic, as it’s mainly the people who don’t have any.
- Comments: 2
- If that doesn't make you wonder who's getting the most benefit out of it... - Karen
- I got involved - well, signed up and supported - the Make Poverty History campaign as soon... - Vaughan
Preferred Chat Clients
For Windows: Trillian (download)
For Mac OS X: AdiumX (download)
For Linux: Gaim (download)
Gaim is also available for Windows. I’ve never tried it, but I assume that it is much the same as the Linux version.
Any suggestions?
- Comments: 7
- I use Fire for Mac. It combines pretty much everything and it doesn't explode or burn me. ... - Stuart
- Just getting back to Trillian actually, quite enjoying the new version as well. So far. St... - Gordon
- Yeah, I'm not so bothered by video chat either. My webcam is always connected to my site a... - Adrian
- Ah, the elusive feature sync. I personally view IM in much the same way as most over-50s v... - Pete
- I used the MSN client mainly because most of my friends use MSN, and in the end it just pr... - Adrian
Tried, I Really Have Tried
But I just can’t get into The Futureheads.
Aside: I was hideously confused when my computer suddenly started making a horrendous racket, as if some music was playing at the same time as that which I had scheduled. I stopped xmms, to discover that the Futureheads were still playing. I hunted around for a stray media player, but couldn’t find anything. Eventually I twigged – the music was coming from their website. A message to all bands: your website should not randomly start playing music unless the user asks for it. You complete. Fucking. Idiots.
They are playing at Reading this year, and they are on the NME stage on the Sunday, which basically means that Karen and I are forced to watch them. In the light of their computer-hijackery, I’m toying with the idea of smacking myself over the head with a bag of bricks, as it’s suddenly looking very appealing.
Anyway, my point is, are they really as bad as I think they are? At the moment I can’t stand them, but has anybody seen them live? Are they a tiny bit bearable live? Because if so, I’ll rethink the whole brick thing.
- Comments: 9
- When it comes to unwanted noise from websites, I have two words... Crazy Frog. Actually, m... - Dr Sloan
- I like 'em, but then again Xtc's Drums & Wires and Black Sea are two of my favourite album... - occasional ade
- Well as long as pete doesn't headbreak you for trying ... - Adrian
- Damn you, Mike - does that mean I have to keep listening to them? - Karen
- I used to think they were bafflingly overrated. Now I love 'em. But it did take a while.... - mike