What’s great about Spotify, apart from the neat client and simplicity of the service, is that it provides the first compelling alternative I’ve seen to getting your licks via illegal p2p and Usenet downloads. In fact, since having my beta account, I don’t think I’ve downloaded one track from anywhere else.

Spotify is different because you don’t actually download anything mind you. It’s a streaming only approach to music listening, and while at first I thought it would be crippled by not having real MP3s I could put on my Ipod, that feeling was quickly overtaken by a realisation of just how long every day I spend somewhere near a PC and with access of my spotify account.

Although not all of the content that Spotify plans to add to the service is available yet, the depth of content is already amazing. Whether I’m in metalhead, leftfield techno, aggrotech or plain old pop mood, Spotify has plenty of artists to suit. And not just the odd song, but whole discographies, along with biographies and album art.

The best bit about spotify though is how well it works in the office. My cellmate Rich, who I share many hours and musical tastes with, can add to the teams shared playlist in realtime. When he finds something that makes him go bosh and he knows will have the same effect on me, he’ll IM me a Spotify link and within seconds I can be boshing along. Everyone on the Products pod is using Spotify now, and I’m certain when the trial become open to all, the whole business is gonna see a hike in bandwidth utilisation. It’s a good job we work at a well connected ISP…

Although at the moment the Spotify Beta is free and has no ads, the service will be ad funded with all the content available, but broken up by a few minutes of genre based or other targetted ads every hour. I hope the adverts  won’t be too obtrusive, although as much as it pains my freetard side, I think I’ll be paying for a premium subscription if they are. Eitherway, after many years of only listening to music I’ve downloaded ‘illegally’, I’ll be back on the straight and narrow with a massive library of music at my fingertips and Rich guiding me to another great tune on Spotify.

Want to hear the Products Team’s Greatest Hits? Get a Spotify invite and try this.

Jones, Craig

www.huxley.com

Hi Ian,

This CV speaks for itself !!!!!!!!!1

Kind regards,

Craig Jones
IT Division
Huxley Associates
0161 233 5700
c.jones@huxley.com
http://www.huxley.com

Now, I have a real problem with this sort of unsolicited and crappy mail when it’s sent from real companies based in Manchester. I’m not the only one either.

All I can say is that if I’m ever hiring or looking and these guys are involved, they’ve got no chance of getting past the front door. Huxley Associates are spammers, and that makes them scum. Nuff said.

For a second I had a vision of a The Rt Hon Vaizey dancing round a bright light bulb and making birds fly across the walls with it’s hands.

In reality though, I think Ed Vaizey would be more properly called a Shadowy Arts Minister, along with the rest of the shadowy Tory cabinet.

“Thanks for your comment.  There is so much criticism of public services and the NHS these days that unless you are directly involved, Jo Public does not see half the good things that go on around us.

I don’t want to bore you, but few people know that disabled people these days no longer have to be dictated to by Social Services, but can demand that the funding is released by the local authority and paid directly to the disabled person / family to enable them to make their own care arrangements - subject of course to safeguards.

We have taken advantage of these new Direct Payments (as they are called) which means that we hold the purse strings, and as a result the care organisation we use (SeeAbility) is so much more responsive; it’s brilliant.  So much has changed in Alexandra’s life in the last 12 months.

She is now in her own sheltered flat, with her own little garden.  She receives one-to-one care for 15 hours per day from a basic team of three dedicated carers working only with her in three shifts, and overnight there is a central member of staff (awake) monitoring all the 8 residents in the complex (with one sleeping-in to be called on in case of emergencies).

She even now has her own car, driven by her carers -  a brand, spanking new Peugeot 308 which has already done 5,500 miles since March !  This is provided under the Motability scheme and is funded entirely out of her mobility allowance, and it has given her so much more independence - gone are the days of disabled mini-buses and outings only on a group basis.

So putting all that into perspective, the need for a communication scheme perhaps becomes more understandable, because we can interact with the carers.  Alexandra is already showing strong signs of development and is at last, at the age of 34, showing a desire to sign with her hands (hands-on-hands like Helen Keller) more than she used to do; it is still at a primitive level, but there is no doubt that the new stimulation from “supported living” instead of residential accommodation has brought this about - and the overall annual cost is actually slightly cheaper, believe it or not.

Sorry, all that is off subject but I hoped it might be of interest. Britain is still a pretty good place to live and despite what you hear in the media, we probably look after disabled people better than anywhere else in the World.

Certainly it helped put things into perspective for me, and someone taking the time to write that to a random employee at an ISP is wonderful. Oh, and the sun is shining too. How good is that for a Thursday?

Credos to Mr Grice for capturing the true nature of this incident involving a particularly angry PlusNet customer who turned up at the office after being unable to connect to the Internet for over a week.

Still, isn’t it funny how other people’s blogs are always more interesting than your own. Unless you are Seth Godin.

What do you want to know about?

My favourite my far is Widsets (a number of others in the industry like
it too) : - Widsets

They break down into the following categories:-

Uploading photos & videos from mobiles to internet communities
(facebook, bebo etc):-
ShoZu
PixPulse
mojungle

Widgets - or information feeds to mobiles (ps I use Widset a very cool
app):-
Snipperoo
Widsets
Plusmo

Uploading photos & sending to an online photo gallery / PC:-
Sharpcast
PixSense

File sharing between mobiles & PCs (this one does Instant Messaging too):-
Coogee

Integrating access to Social Networks, IM & info feeds:-
Jargong

Mobile based social network:-
bluepulse

Mobile presence:-
iotum talk now Mobile Presence

Locational Based Services (tracking friends / contacts)
loopt

Remote access to PC from phone:-
SoonR