One new iTunes feature that slipped by me was the new ‘Apple Lossless Encoder’. Unlike music formats like MP3, AAC and Ogg Vorbis, lossless encoding results in no loss of quality – the music file sounds exactly like the original. The downside to this is that files compressed using lossless compression are typically quite a bit larger than their lossy counterparts.
With the largest iPod topping 40GB it’s hardly surprising that Apple have adopted this – I’m sure the majority of people will never fill that much (even I have only 6-7GB) so the extra space can be set aside for higher quality files. What is surprising is that Apple chose to adopt their own format, and not one of the (many) other lossless encoding formats.
If you thought there was a format war amongst lossy encoders then you’ll be knocked back by how many lossless ones are out there. There’s at least 14, although not all of them are as good as each other. Thankfully, lossless formats are easier to compare since output quality isn’t a factor, but a good format will have quick encoding, a small output file size, many features, and would preferably be open source too.
The most popular is FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), which is now being steered by the Xiphophorus Foundation who are also steering the Ogg Vorbis format. It’s arguably not the best format out there but it’s good enough and it’s entirely open source. It’s well represented on almost all platforms and is even in some hardware players. Monkey’s Audio is a little faster but isn’t so well supported, being restricted to Windows and a command line encoder in Linux. Although it is open source, development has been a little slow of late, and it lacks some features compared to FLAC. Shorten is another popular format.
Apple Lossless Encoder (or ALE for short – nice acronym), is, sadly, based on none of these. It’s a new format which is closed source and currently only works in iTunes (Mac and Windows) and through QuickTime, although a dBpowerAMP codec is apparently in the works. It is quite well featured, offering streaming and seeking support (which a surprising number of other formats lack), and is obviously supported on the iPod with the addition of the latest firmware update, so on paper it has a similar number of features to FLAC. It is, however, slower at encoding and decoding, and files are typically a megabyte or so larger, according to this comparison provided by the FLAC project, however this HydrogenAudio topic suggests it is faster. I’m guessing Apple may have optimised it for the PowerPC processor, in which case compile times on Mac OS X would be better than in Windows.
It’s just a pity that Apple took the decision to re-invent the wheel when good alternatives already exist, although this Macworld column reckons this is because Apple may want to add DRM to it in future so that punters can buy higher quality files from the iTunes Music Store. AAC was an open(-ish) format and look how quickly that was cracked. On the other hand, I doubt the record labels would be interested in giving away their songs on the internet at full quality, based on their previous boneheaded decisions.
There may also be reasons, such as patents or problems with embedding FLAC in the iPod firmware, but seeing as other hardware manufacturers have managed it this seems strange.
In any case, it’s an interesting development. Any support for lossless audio in iTunes is a good thing, I just wish that Apple had gone with the herd rather than go on a tangent and then confuse people. What I would like to know is whether the WMA import function of iTunes allows you to convert them to ALE, since then you wouldn’t lose any quality – I couldn’t find anything that suggested this in my research for this article.
Hope you enjoy that extra day we have to stick in every 4 years so that the seasons remain in order!
No special plans, although I’ve spent almost half of it asleep now since I only just got up. And then when messing around with Real Alternative I realised I’d missed out on this week’s Radio 4 comedy shows, so that was another hour wasted.
Thanks for the comments about the re-design, I’m glad to hear that all of you who have commented like it.
Most of all, I’m impressed at how long the site has lasted – I’ve run a number of sites prior to this and not one has survived as long as this one. It’s probably a testament to Movable Type (and Blogger) that my interest has remained for so long.
Today I go back to university, ahead of my (written) exam on Friday on SQL. I’m going back today to give me time to settle in beforehand. It also meant I could download today’s MS Security patches on a reasonably fast connection. Also, last night I moved MT’s files so that it is running under cgiwrap, which apparently makes the whole thing more secure. I would have had it there originally but I didn’t find the option until a couple of weeks ago.
This post was originally written in 2004; I’d now recommend using MPC-HC, an improved fork of Media Player Classic.
Does this program look familiar to you? It may well do, because it’s rewrite of Windows Media Player 6, except it’s open source and released under the GNU GPL, and doesn’t have the annoyances of MS’s original. The interface is similar but a little more up-to-date and XP friendly, and comes with some more advanced features.
But probably the best thing about this player is the range of formats it supports. It’ll play just about anything you throw at it, whether it’s an MP3, an Ogg, a WMA, even a QuickTime file. And with Real Alternative (which Media Player Classic is bundled with), you can add RealMedia files to that list, negating the need for RealOne Player, which has to be enough reason to download it in itself.
You can also (probably) ditch QuickTime while you’re at it, since MPC doesn’t take an age to load, doesn’t annoy you with an ‘Upgrade to QuickTime Pro’ popup and lets you view movies in full screen. Unless you have iTunes installed in which case you’ll need to keep it.
Media Player Classic is available on its own from SourceForge but I’d recommend also installing Real Alternative and then deleting RealOne Player, since you won’t want to use it anymore. Anil found Real Alternative about the same time as me, and came to similar conclusions, so you needn’t just take my word for it.
No idea who started this meme, but Google shows quite a lot of results. In any case, I’ve nicked it from LordRich.com, although I managed to find question 29. 21 is still a mystery.
1.What did you do in 2003 that you’d never done before?
Drink a pint of lager. No, seriously.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Kind-of, and yes. I did reduce my drinking, eventually, but I really need to exercise more and eat better food. So they’ll be my resolutions. Oh, and try to save even more money.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousin and his wife now have a lovely daughter called Eve, born in September. She’s adorable.
6. What would you like to have in 2004 that you lacked in 2003?
A girlfriend? Although I’ve lacked that in 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999…
7. What date(s) from 2003 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Probably my godfather’s funeral.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Passing my first year with a 64.8% average.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Not passing with better marks.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Injury: odd sore finger, but that’s it. As for illness, I seem to have had every cold going, plus the ‘flu. But nothing too serious – I’ve never been a hospital inpatient apart from when I was born.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Difficult one. I’m pleased with my Duex MP3 player
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
All my friends.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Tony Blair for being a suck-up and not taking time to get his ‘facts’ checked out properly.
14. Where did most of your money go?
You tell me.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Sometimes even little things get me excited so the list here would be too long.
16. What song will always remind you of 2003?
Probably either “Fly on the Wings of Love” by XTM or “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? Much happier.
thinner or fatter? Probably a bit fatter. See new year’s resolutions.
richer or poorer? Slightly richer in terms of money in the bank, quite a bit poorer if it’s offset against how much I owe in loans.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Socialising and exercise. Unless someone opens a pub in the gym the two are hard to mix.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Playing Solitaire. That thing has wasted far too much of my time. And eating junk food.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Hrm, no-one told me I should’ve done this last week…
21. Who deleted question 21?
I blame Elmo.
22. Did you fall in love in 2003?
Not really.
23. How many one-night stands?
None. Like I’d ever be in a position to get a one-night stand.
24. What was your favourite TV program?
It’s a tie between the repeats of Coupling, My Family, QI and Have I Got News For You.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Other than Blair, no. In fact the inverse is more true.
26. What was the best book you read?
“Just For Fun” by Linus Torvalds. Although admittedly that was the only book I read 🙂 .
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Probably “Time to Fly (Climax 69 Remix)” by Lyala. There wasn’t much decent trance out this year unfortunately, and any half-decent stuff was by established artists.
28. What did you want and get?
Probably that MP3 player again.
29. What did you want and not get?
World peace and new mobile phone.
30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Probably Return of the King, but I only saw a handful of films this year.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Attempted to go out but couldn’t get in anywhere. I was 19.
32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A really close friend.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?
Less beige, more dark green and black. And scarves.
34. What kept you sane?
My friends. Although my sanity parted company with me years ago.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I tend not to fancy celebrities, but Cate Blanchett is pretty fit.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Top-up fees, followed by the War in Iraq,
37. Who did you miss?
Friends from college.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
There were several.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2003.
Too many to name, but not as many as last year.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I’ll do what Richard did and quote a Warrior lyric: “If you’re standing accused and you’re lost and confused, you don’t have to take the blame. If your life’s rushing by you I’ll be there beside you, I’ll help you to ease the pain.” I don’t really like the vocalist but the song is good.
(oh come on, what else could I have called this entry?)
So it’s Christmas morning, and in fact I have rather more presents than expected – I wasn’t expecting that much since the new laptop was supposed to be a present.
Anyway, you can divide my presents pretty much into three categories: sweets, booze and socks. I have all manner of chocolate, Turkish delight and Kendal mint cake to devour over the coming weeks, plus a selection of mini-bottles of Absolut vodka and two pairs of socks. I also got one of those chargeable mini remote control cars, a new top (which I’m wearing now) and, the main present: a tripod for my camera. It’s quite a good one since it can stand around 5 feet off the ground – I’ve wanted one for doing decent night-time shots as I need something to keep the camera steady, otherwise the picture becomes blurred.
So, it’s off for breakfast. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and I hope that you get all the presents that you wanted. And don’t get too drunk on the brandy. 😉
The above is my ‘WeeMee‘ character. It’s a silly thing for MSN6 that allows you to create a cartoon image to use as your avatar while talking to people – that was my best attempt at getting one that looked like me. Though obviously I’m a bit taller. And at the moment I have considerably less hair, although no doubt it’ll be that long in a few weeks.
My godfather, John Bramham, died of a heart attack earlier this week – we just found out today. My parents are both devastated – my father has known him since grammar school and he’s been a friend of the family ever since. He has also worked for my mother’s charity, so when I phoned her at work to tell her it was a shock to the whole office.
He was the sort of person you couldn’t not know – he was a very eccentric, friendly and amusing character whose name always brings happy memories. Probably my best memory of him was at his eldest daughter’s wedding (where the photo shown was taken) where he organised everything, leaving his daughter and her newlywed husband to merely ‘follow orders’. That said, it was very well-planned and everyone had a very enjoyable day.
He will leave behind many friends, whether they are friends of the family, friends at places he has worked at, or friends in his local village where he was a member of the local parish council and was very much involved in village events.
You may have heard that despite reports earlier in the week, Microsoft will still develop Outlook Express after all. But unless Microsoft pull off something truly remarkable, I’m not going to switch back from my beloved Mozilla Thunderbird. And what’s more, I’ve given you a list of reasons why I’m not switching, in no particular order 🙂 .
Themes – bored of the normal look? Change it. 10 themes are already available and it’s only at version 0.1
Extensions – add on extra features without using shell hooks (like OEQuoteFix uses).
Junk Mail filtering – considering OE is the world’s most popular mail client, I’m surprised this isn’t already in. But it isn’t. Thunderbird uses Bayesian filtering which is one of the best forms.
Better message filtering – much more powerful than the rather basic filtering in OE, and easier to use too! Great for adding a filter to mark out mail that SpamAssasin thinks is spam, since you can specify custom header matching.
Not full of security bugs – I can open an email infected with Klez and know that I won’t be automatically infected. And not a security patch in sight.
HTML Sanitization – you can either view HTML messages in their full glory, or with things like images and CSS removed so that your address cannot be tracked as easily. You can even view them all as plain text.
Sanitization for Junk Mail – if you like pretty messages but still want privacy, you can enable sanitization only for emails marked as junk.
Cross platform – you probably could run OE in Wine on Linux, but this baby runs natively on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. And it’s already being ported to all manner of other OSes.
Text Zooming – it’s been nearly a year since I used OE properly so I can’t remember if it does this, but if IE is anything to go by, even if it did it wouldn’t do it properly. You can make text larger or smaller in all emails, whether they use CSS or not. Great if your aunty sends everything in 64pt fonts.
Automatic folder compression – those DBX files can get awfully big in OE, even if you delete all your mail. Thunderbird can compress them automatically, rather than waiting for you to do it yourself.
Javascript Console – I’ll but good money that OE will never have this feature.
Three-pane vertical layout – Outlook has this, but OE does not. But Thunderbird does 🙂
Customisable start page – Yes, you can change it in OE but only by going into the registry or using X-Setup (a blatant plug because I wrote that plug-in myself 🙂 ). Thunderbird has it on the opening tab of the Options dialogue.
On-screen alerts – You can have it pop up a message near the system tray when mail arrives. Handy that.
Message labelling – Have important emails marked as red, or personal ones marked in green, although naturally you can change the colours easily. And you can set mail filters to do this automatically.
Graphical emoticons – MSN Messenger has this, why doesn’t OE?
Spellchecker – yes, OE has it but in some cases it’s buggy. And you can also change the language without buying a new OS.
Doesn’t get hijacked – one of my ISPs decided to add an ‘Infobar’ to the bottom of OE once, taking of valuable screen real estate. And then there was the Hotmail advertising bar, and the ‘Outlook Express provided by…’. Yes, again X-Setup can fix those but how many users in the world have X-Setup? Probably about 0.1% or something.
I’ve probably missed many others, but that’s 18 features that I personally find useful that OE doesn’t have. Are you convinced yet? 😉
Added: meanwhile, there’s a guide for switching from OE to Thunderbird, complete with screenshots and very simple instructions. Check it out! 🙂
Four more days in the life of me while on holiday. I’ll write more as I have time, but at least now the first week is done.
Monday 30th June
Le Grau du Roi
The plan for today was to visit Aigues-Mortes in the Carmague (about an hour and a half driving from where we were staying) and then have a look at le Grande Motte which was just down the road. But on the way we passed this coastal town called Le Grau du Roi, and thought we’d take a look.
It’s not particularly big and isn’t exactly a world heritage site, but it does have an old lighthouse and is full of seafood restaurants – as you’d expect for a major fishing port. There’s a few old buildings, and a swing bridge in the centre of the town over the canal. If anything, it’s a bit like Sète, albeit less posh.
Aigues-Mortes
We probably spent about an hour there before heading on to Aigues-Mortes itself. We’d been here 12 years ago (when I was a mere 7 years old), and indeed, I have a near identical photo to the one shown that I took way back then in one of my older holiday photo albums.
Since we spent quite a bit of time in Le Grau du Roi, by the time we’d got here it was heading towards lunchtime, so most of the shops were closing for lunch. Down here, it gets very hot in the early afternoon sun, so most shops close at around 1pm and remain shut until 4pm, though typically they are open later into the evening than in Britain, where everything shuts at 5pm.
Fortunately, the ramparts, which stretch around the entire old town, were open all day, so we could pass the time strolling along these. They give great views of the town and the surrounding area, which is largely flat since it’s in the delta of the Rhône river. The big white piles are of salt – the seawater is pumped into salt pans and drained, and the area is one of the largest sea salt producers in Europe, apparently. Camargue rice, which is my favourite type, also originates from this area.
So, back to the ramparts (walls, if you must). When we last visited, they were free, but large areas were closed off so you couldn’t walk on them. Now, although you have to pay to get onto them, they form a complete circuit around the town, spanning for 1.63 metres, which is only a few metres longer than a mile. Lifts and ramps have also been added in some parts to allow disabled access – something that I couldn’t see happening in York, although admittedly the way the walls were constructed means that one section is accessible to those in wheelchairs.
After wandering around the walls and climbing up the towers, we strolled along the largely empty streets (the only places that were open were the bars and restaurants) before returning to the car and having lunch. Fortunately, the large amount of flat land around the edge of the town means there is plenty of room for car parks.
le Grande-Motte
Our intention was to visit this town, which is very much like Cap d’Agde in that it’s a seaside resort that was built in the 60s. Apparently a lot of thought was put into the design of the town, so that it didn’t end up like some of the Spanish Costas. Except that one thing they didn’t plan very well was signs for car parking.
We headed for the town centre, to find no spaces. And, as we headed out, the signs weren’t very well positioned, and we ended up going into a suburb of the town, effectively getting lost. And after it took 15 minutes to get back on the right road, we gave up. Of course, as we left the town we spotted a huge sign saying where all the car parks were, but of course it looked completely different to all of the other signs so we didn’t notice it.
Still, the town was twinned with Hornsea, a coastal town in East Yorkshire that I used to visit often with my grandparents when I was younger.
Pézenas
Since it was mid-afternoon when we gave up on le Grande-Motte, we quickly raided the guide book for other places to visit. Pézenas came up – after all, it was only a slight detour from the route home, and it was recommended, so we gave it a try.
Most of the buildings date from the 17th century, and there’s a nice church there, along with a few pretty squares. My parents were more interested in the architecture, dragging me around various old buildings that had the odd carving on them. Not really my kind of thing, but they seemed to find it interesting.
Tuesday 1st July
Agde
Now would be a good time to explain about the Commne of Agde. The Commune consists of four localities: Agde (also known as La Cité d’Agde), Le Cap d’Agde, Le Grau d’Agde and La Tammarisière. They’re basically four towns/villages located near each other, run by the same council, which is good because the tourist office can encourage those visiting the Cap into visiting the other places.
Agde itself is considerably older than the Cap. Whereas the latter was built in the 60s, the main town has been around for over 2500 years, making it older than many places in the UK (even York is only 1932 years old, founded in AD71). That said, much of the town is considerably newer.
Most of the buildings are made out of local stone, which is basalt. The nearby Mont St-Loup, which overshadows the commune, is an extinct volcano, so the rock is all volcanic, hence the dark colour of most buildings. In fact, the cathedral looks like it’s been made out of glorified breeze-blocks, although it did have some nice stained glass windows to make up for it.
Like Sète, Agde has jousting competitions, and in fact during the time we were there the local jousting association was celebrating its 100th anniversary. The boats they used were out on the River H�rault, which is where the area gets its name.
Le Grau d’Agde
Another Grau, just down the road from Agde itself (‘grau’ indecently means the mouth of a river, or something like that). It’s similar to Le Grau du Roi in that it is also a fishing village, although it has more of a tourist trade. We hit the town during the market just before lunchtime, which was a mistake because seeing all the food out made me very hungry indeed. The town is also home to a number of very nice restaurants, with seating built out over the river.
To the other side of the river is La Tamarissière, a smaller village that is also part of the commune and linked by a ferry (the nearest bridge is further inland). It’s quite pretty but we didn’t get around to visiting it.
Wednesday 2nd July
Carcassonne
Last time I went to Carcassonne was in 1996, at the age of 12, so I still remember this place quite well. Like Aigues-Mortes, it is a walled city, although Carcassonne is much older. It is up on a hill-top, and very well preserved (dating back to Medieval times), and is a tourist magnet.
So, as you’d expect, even outside full season it was quite busy, not helped by the fact that the streets were very narrow and twisted. It was also full of shops selling tacky souvenirs like plastic swords, but also had many restaurants, which were actually surprisingly cheap. But then that’s probably the result of competition.
There is a castle in the very centre but there was a queue to get in, and I seem to remember we went there last time anyway, so we gave it a miss. Still, it was very nice to visit the place again. I’d love to show you more photos but I’m a little lacking on disk space.
Thursday 3rd July
Today we visited the thing that gave Le Cap d’Agde its name – The Cap. It’s outcrop of hard volcanic rock that stretches out into the sea, and the town has since been built around it. The town’s war memorial is built here, for example. Not hugely interesting but it did give us a chance to explore this end of the town.
