Now I work on top of Victoria Station, so I walk past the memorial plaque dedicated to the Unknown Soldier every day I commute to the office. Obviously not so much this year due to covid.
The Military Wives Choir did the song for Abide With Me using the now-common feature of a virtual choir:
The virtual choir idea has been used a lot this year due to social distancing, but let's not forget, the idea dates back way further, even as far back as 2009 with Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir project (https://www.youtube.com/user/EricWhitacresVrtlChr) which also made it into several TED talks
Hugh Jackman – who spent time in Broadway, so he’s probably got a bit of an unfair advantage to those who started in acting initially, but still, he definitely knows how to belt out a song
SPOTIFY RELEASED A new privacy policy that is now in effect, and it turns out that the company wants to learn a lot more about you and there’s not much you can do about it.
We encourage everyone to read the whole privacy policy before downloading the update or checking off the “Accept” box, but in case you have better things to do, here are some highlights from it.
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“With your permission, we may collect information stored on your mobile device, such as contacts, photos, or media files. Local law may require that you seek the consent of your contacts to provide their personal information to Spotify, which may use that information for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.” – Spotify
Like a jealous ex, Spotify wants to see (and collect) your photos and see who you’re talking to. What kind of media files Spotify will collect from you is vague, and why the company needs it is unclear, but it’s doing it regardless. Also, the fact that Spotify expects you to go through your contact list and ask everyone for their consent in sharing their data with Spotify is–what’s the word? Oh yes: it’s ridiculous.
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“You may integrate your Spotify account with Third Party Applications. If you do, we may receive similar information related to your interactions with the Service on the Third Party Application, as well as information about your publicly available activity on the Third Party Application. This includes, for example, your “Like”s and posts on Facebook.” – Spotify
It shouldn’t surprise you that if you connect your Spotify account to Facebook, Spotify will be able to see the information you post there. If this bothers you, we suggest that you log into your Spotify preferences and disconnect Spotify from your Facebook account (more information on how to do this can be found here). After all, Facebook isn’t all that necessary to use Spotify (unless, of course, you want your friends to know you’re listening to Owl City).
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“If you don’t agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, then please don’t use the Service.” – Spotify
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I value my privacy, so I’ll stop using Spotify. Bye Spotify, I won’t miss you.
Found this link whilst hunting for suitable methods for syncing my Google Music collection. Seems to work (so far), but it hasn’t finished syncing my music yet.
[caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“75” class=“zemanta-img “] Russell Brower after performance at Video Games Live in Glasgow (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]
[caption id=”” align=“alignleft” width=“75” class=“zemanta-img “] First Love (Yiruma album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]
A while ago, I posted of my frustration with Google Music when it refused to download my tracks. Well, I did some digging around and found that someone had written an API to expose the Google Music backend. The link is at
Which is a set of scripts designed to sync, upload and/or download from the Google Music collection.
I wrote my own Python script using the Gmusic API to bulk delete albums from my Gmusic account (it’s easy to bulk upload using Google’s MusicManager, but not to bulk delete), and the gmusicapi-scripts enables me to download most of my tracks.
I have always been a big fan of piano music, especially solo piano. Yiruma, Einaudi and then I heard this on Classic FM. If I ever learn to play the piano with any decent skill, this is one piece I’m definitely going to have on my list to learn how to play.
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.
Frozen has got to be the most parodied Disney film in history. And it was only a matter of time before Vocaloidists jumped on board, with impressive success. Here’s Miku singing “Let It Go” (Japanese Version). I believe this is the Demi Lovato/End Credits version.
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
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
