Blender Fox


Google Music

#

English: Google Logo officially released on Ma...

I am getting pretty peeved with Google recently. I have a huge amount of music on my Google Music library, so much in fact, that I hit Google’s track limit for uploads. Now, I’m trying to download my purchased music back to my machine, but their MusicManager is winding me up no end. It downloads for a while, then stops, thinking it has finished, with several tracks not downloaded. I restart the download, and it goes on a bit more then stop again.

Google suggested a few things, eventually ending up blaming my ISP. But there isn’t much alternative for me. Other than my current ISP, I can only use my corporate connection, but that requires a proxy - something Google do not support on MusicManager, or using Tor, which also doesn’t work properly. They suggested using the Google Music app, but that only works (if it ever does) on a single album.

I even tried using AWS and Google Cloud, but the app ties to MAC and refuses to identify my machine (which is a virtual machine). I also tried using an LXC contain, and that worked for a bit longer, but also died. So now, I’m trying using a Docker image. Slightly different concept, but lets see if it works.

If that doesn’t work, I’m going to try using TAILS.

EDIT: Docker image didn’t work. So anything with a “true” virtual environment such as AWS, GC, and Docker don’t seem to work (VirtualBox will probably be in this list too), anything else (LXC, e.g.) will work, but fail later.

Game (And Software) Release Stages

#

This is a Google Developers episode detailing how best to avoid releasing broken or defective games on Google Play. It speaks of three release stages: Alpha, Beta, and Canary/Staged Rollout. Alpha and Beta, almost all people are aware of. But Canary/Staged Rollout is a new term for me, but makes a lot of sense.

If you develop and/or release software, this is probably worth a watch.

www.youtube.com/watch

Updates

#

It’s been a while since I last posted so here’s a few quick updates:

1.Royal Parks Half Marathon

Ballot opens in just under a week, so I’m hoping to be able to get a place

  1. Running Updates

I’ve now got a Running Watch and a Nike+ Fuel Band – linked into my profile here. The band lets me check my activity for the entire day, and the watch lets me log my run far more accurately than my phone can. I still use Endomondo and Zombies, Run. Endomondo for the training plan, and Zombies, Run for the story entertainment.

Stopped using gmusicfs as it causes random reboots, and, I’ve noticed, messes up CameraZOOM, which is the photo app I use on my phone, so now, I have my music streaming via Google Play Music, and have ZR running. However, it does cause overlap, plus, I can’t always hear what they are saying. Fortunately, I’ve listened to the entire Season 2 now, anyway. Actually, might ditch ZR now as its not really helping me now.

Ran a 13K distance on Sunday just gone, and was suffering aches during Monday and Tuesday. The route was mostly okay, but like with Waggon Road, this one stopped doing pavements part way along the road, forcing me to run on the grass and on the main road itself. Even had to balance on the stones holding up the black and white “>>>” chevrons.

Next run is today (7.4K, but going to aim to round it up to 8K.) Aiming to run it at between 5:30 and 6:00 min/km pace, so should be 44-48 mins. Found a nice route following the A110. Sure it’s along the main road, but its lit at night, has a dual pavement most of the way (separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists), and mostly flat. Should be good to help with my distance endurance

Google rolling out 'I'm feeling lucky radio' to Play Music on Android and the web

#

I saw this on the latest update to Play Music the other day. Must say, I'm enjoying it.

Google rolling out 'I'm feeling lucky radio' to Play Music on Android and the web.

TV on Google Play

#

It would appear that Google Play now do TV shows. Kind of an “On Demand” thing. True, you still have to pay for the shows, but they’ve got some pretty big name shows there now:

And even for the learning types, they've got documentary series too: They're running a couple of free episodes at the moment via here.