05/7/12

The Butterfly Circus – Short Film

Over the last few weeks I’ve been reading the book ‘Life Without Limits’ by Nick Vujicic who is a Christian speaker who was born with no arms and no legs yet has managed to achieve so much. In his book he talked about appearing in the short film ‘The Butterfly Circus’ a few years back which I remember seeing around the internet but never watched until this evening.

It’s a fantastic 20 minute short film telling the story of hope and redemption and well worth watching.

Here it is..

04/19/12

E-Books

I know I’m probably a bit late to the bandwagon when it comes to e-books but the other night I finished my first ever e-book using the Kindle app.

When I purchased my iPad 2 a couple of months ago I was determined to try and use it for books in one, way shape or form and whilst Apple’s ‘iBooks’ app is very nice amazon has a better reputation for e-reading with Kindles and if I ever ended up with a Kindle any books would work with it. On top of that the Amazon Kindle store is a lot cheaper than the iBooks store.

I’m not going to review the book I read but share my thoughts on the world of e-reading!

Advantages

Chatting to Suzie on Facebook (check out her blog on Kindles here) she talks about how her Kindle takes up a lot less space than lots of books and also is far more portable for travelling and I think I tend to agree. I’m pretty bad at remembering to pack a book but would probably remember my iPad…on top of that I like that the app syncs which means I could continue where I left off on my iPhone. Having a limitless supply of holiday reading without having stupidly heavy bags could be a big advantage.

I also think that in terms of space e-books have a lot going for them. Our house has lots of books…both fiction and non-fiction and lots of them youth work related and actually having a searchable library would be incredibly useful.

The other thing I like about the idea of e-books is the fact that they are instant, you could simply want a book and buy it…on top of that there’s lots of classics which are available for free. The ability to store Kindle books in the cloud too is a massive advantage because you don’t clog up all your space!

Disadvantages

Having owned an iPod for years and listening to most of my music digitally I still buy CDs…the reason? I like the artwork and I like having something physical. With music I enjoy flicking through the artwork, lyrics, thank-you’s and generally being a geek about it…on top of that you feel like there is more to show for your £8 with a CD than a series of files (plus I can easily listen to them in the car without the crackle of the fm transmitter).

However I don’t have that same artwork attachment with books nor will a book fit in my car stereo without the aid of a hammer which remains the ‘what do I have to show for my money’ aspect which again (and I can’t quite explain why) doesn’t bother me with the idea of e-books but I guess could put some people off.

One thing which may be more of a disadvantage with an e-book (although less so if you own a real Kindle and not the app) is that addition of more screens. I’m very aware that for most of my life I’m looking at a screen whether it’s an iPad, iPhone, Computer, TV or whatnot and wonder if this is a good thing or not?

Lending & Selling Books

One big disadvantage over real books is that you can lend and sell them. Most of the books I buy I get off amazon marketplace and so for £3 I can have a book delivered…e-books don’t have that same advantage (although if your e-book retailer controlled the storage of the e-book I’m sure there’s scope for a secondhand ‘e-book’ store) and so I’d have to pay more for books (although if it’s only a little it probably wouldn’t have a massive impact but the loss of that ‘got a bargain’ feeling is a shame).

When it comes to lending, I am told there is a way to do this with kindle although I’m yet to discover it but if they sussed that e-books would be awesome…no need to worry about who has that missing book!

Overview

To summarise what is probably a fairly badly written, disorganised, ‘Mark is too sleepy to be typing’ blog I think that in principal I like the idea of e-books. I currently have a bit of a reading pile of real books but will probably start getting into them after. I don’t think I’ll be replacing the books I have with e-books (i.e. selling a book then buying the same as an e-book) simply because it would work out too expensive and to that extent it’s a shame that books don’t have the same transferrable nature as CDs…you can easily get your CD onto an iPod however without a hell of a lot of patience and several years with a scanner doing that for a library of books is impossible!

It’ll be interesting to see if I get into them a bit more over the coming months…will probably blog again in the future (on e-books and in general!)

Currently Reading: Life without Limts by Nick Vujicic and I, Partridge by Alan Partridge/Steve Coogan

03/26/12

UK Acoustic House Tour – Booking

It’s been an exciting few months musically for me. Last week I finally re-released my album ‘Escape This Town’ in fully remastered glory (Free download link | CD link) and over the last few months Rob and myself have been practicing a load of acoustic stuff and after a couple of opportunities in the last year to play odd tracks at various events we thought we’d do a mini-tour!

So here’s the idea…

Rob and I turn up to your house, student flat, church etc.

We play some songs for you…some off ‘Escape This Town’, some covers and some new.

You invite your friends!

…Simple!

So…if you’d like to have a couple of musicians turn up in your living room for an evening of entertainment with you and your mates here’s what you need to do…

1 – Check out the dates below…we may be able to put other dates in at your request but these are definitely blank in our diaries

2 – Contact me using marktiddy [at] me.com (turn that into an e-mail address!) or via Facebook or Twitter

3 – We confirm a date and turn up at your house!

We’re not charging for this however if you fancy giving us some food or somewhere to sleep or something towards travelling costs that would be very nice but not compulsory!

Anyway…here’s the dates

April

13th, 14th or 27th

May

18th, 25th or 26th May

June

1st, 2nd, 8th, 15th, 16th, 22nd or 23rd June

03/7/12

Luke Leighfield – New Season – Review

A few years ago I was invited to an event on Facebook titled ‘Luke Leighfield’s Free Album launch’ and seeing the word ‘free’ naturally clicked onto it and ended up downloading Luke’s album ‘Have You Got Heart?’ (Get it here) and I was sold!

For those of you who’ve never heard of Luke Leighfield he is an independent pop musician from Southampton and has played over 600 gigs, released 4 albums, a variety of EP’s and is a generally great guy!

Last year Luke asked his fans to fund his new album ‘New Season’ before its recording process. Luke offered a variety of options ranging from a copy of the CD upon release to having Luke phone you up or write you a song. After seeing countless tweets, updates and photos (and eventually hearing a couple of songs) New Season became one of my most anticipated albums for a long time.

After a year of waiting on Monday I received my digital download of the album and today in the post came a nicely packaged ‘New Season’ envelope containing my CD copy of the album, some stickers, a poster (with personalised greeting) and some postcards (you don’t get that from major labels!).

I’ve listened to the album quite a lot over the last few days and thought I’d post a review so here it is…

New Season comes in a beautifully designed digipack with a 20 page photo-booklet and lyrics sheets and contains 10 songs.

The album has a more spiritual side to it than ‘Have You Got Heart?’ and both musically and lyrically feels more mature but without losing the energy that ‘Have You Got Heart?’ had. Throughout the album there is this theme of slowing down and making time and as a listener you find yourself feeling both challenged by this and part of the journey that Luke has been on in writing these songs. There’s a real authenticity that comes across in Luke’s lyrics on this album which you don’t find often on albums.

Personally I think my favourite tracks on the album are ‘New Season’, Garde Ta Foy’ and ‘The One Thing’ but there’s actually not a weak track on the album. ‘New Season’ has some immensely rawkus moments such as the crescendo in ‘The One Thing’ which, on full blast in the car is amazing!

Overall I think ‘New Season’ is a cracking album. For new listeners of Luke Leighfield I don’t think it’s as easy to listen to as ‘Have You Got Heart?’ but it’s certainly worth listening to, buying and recommending to others (and if you get a chance go and see Luke live too!)

Links: Luke’s Website | Stream ‘New Season’ here | Buy the CD and a variety of goodies here

Shameless Plug: Finally my album ‘Escape This Town’ is out on the 19th March in it’s fully remastered/re-recorded glory. You’ll be able to get it here on the 19th March and you can pre-order the CD here now! (For full info on the release go here)

01/2/12

Top 5 Albums of 2011

Since 2007 I’ve written a ‘top albums of the year’ style post to share my personal favourite releases from the past year and whilst I realise I’m a few days later than I’d usually be here are my top 5 albums of 2011 (in no particular order)

Blink 182 – Neighborhoods (Deluxe)

The album I entered into 2011 looking the most forward to was the new Blink 182 album. I’ve been a huge Blink 182 fan for years and when they announced that they were getting back together a few years back I was really excited and have spent the last few years waiting to see what the new Blink 182 would be like.

The deluxe edition of Neighborhoods contains 14 tracks and shows more maturity than Blink 182′s previous stuff and really shows Mark taking aspects of Plus 44 and Tom aspects of Angels & Airwaves back to Blink.

It’s a fantastic album and my personal highlights include Kaleidoscope, Heart’s All Gone, Fighting the Gravity and Ghost on the Dance Floor.

You can read my full blog review of the album here

Avril Lavigne – Goodbye Lullaby

I’ve been an Avril Lavigne fan since she first released ‘Let Go’ when I was a teenager and all of her albums feature in the ‘guilt pleasures’ section in my music collection however her follow-up albums since ‘Let Go’ have been a bit hit and miss. In typical pop-fasion they’ve included a handful of good tracks and then some fillers.

Thanks to Spotify I was able to give ‘Goodbye Lullaby’ a proper listen before deciding to buy it and it’s turned out to be one of my favourite albums of the year.

The album has a more mature feel to it and still follows Avril’s ‘pop-rock’ style but she seems to be more comfortable in her own genre rather than occasionally trying to be something else. The album is pretty much all good and my favourite tracks include ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Darlin’.

Kristopher Roe (The Ataris) – Hang Your Head In Hope

One of the bands I’ve got into the most over the last few years has been ‘The Ataris’. In the midst of all the synths and over production of newer pop-punk I’ve found the more simple yet effective side of their music refreshing.

On top of that they’ve been in the process of recording a new album for the last few years and without a record label they’ve been doing it pretty much on their own.

In order to support their new recording process Kris Roe (lead singer/guitarist) released a ‘pay what you like’ acoustic album called ‘Hang Your Head In Hope’. The album is pretty much him and a guitar playing the best of ‘The Ataris’ songs and I love it!

For me Kris Roe’s slightly edgy voice and aggressive guitar style makes this album fantastic. The whole thing is worth downloading and you can get it here for whatever you want.

Owl City – All Things Bright & Beautiful

Owl City have been one of my favourites for a couple of years now and since their success with ‘Fireflies’ the follow-up has always going to have been interesting as artists tend to either dramatically change after a hit or stay the same…often there isn’t anything in the middle.

All Things Bright & Beautiful breaks this rule. The follow-up to Ocean Eyes is the beautiful pop that Adam Young has always produced but seems to have a bit more edge…the drums in particular on this album seem to have more kick. If you like Owl City’s previous stuff you’ll love this…some of the best tracks include ‘Deer in the Headlights’, ‘Galaxies’ and ‘The Real World’.

Yellowcard – When You’re Through With Thinking, Say Yes

Yellowcard’s first album ‘Ocean Avenue’ is one of my favourite pop-punk albums ever. The bands unique blend of pop-punk with a violin makes them always a refreshing listen however despite trying to get into them on Spotify their follow-up albums have never quite cut it.

Their new album ‘When You’re through with thinking, say yes’ however changes this and returns to the style that they had originally. The album is energetic and a fantastic listen. Some of my favourite tracks include ‘The Sound of You and Me’, ‘Be The Young’ and especially ‘With You Around’ (because it references a song off Ocean Avenue).

So there you have it…my top 5 albums of 2011. In 2012 I’m really anticipating the release of Luke Leighfield’s new album ‘New Season’ and getting to listen to plenty of other new stuff.

12/24/11

Alex Day’s Forever Yours: Game Changer?

As you may be aware from my previous post unsigned artist Alex Day has been making a bid for the Christmas number 1 slot. I’m not sure how seriously he took the idea to start with or how much of it was a bit jokey but all proceeds have been going towards World Vision and at the time of the midweek chart update amazingly he was at number 4.

This is amazing because he sits there above the likes of Coldplay and Rihanna and with acts such as Little Mix with the full force of the X-Factor in front of them only just in front.

Whether he gets number 1 or simply in the top ten surely this has to be a game changer!

Think about it. Alex Day has no major record label and has only really got where he is thanks to his own hard work via YouTube and the handwork of his fans which have been building up over a number of years.

Much like the 2009 campaign of getting Rage Against the Machine to Christmas number one people power and social media is having an impact.

The difference between the RATM campaign and Alex Day is that as a musician Alex Day has no major label, no real money behind his press yet is in the Top 10.

Surely this is good for the music industry? Surely this means that actually you no longer need a major label to do well but you need to put a lot of effort into your music and actually have talent?

I don’t think if this changes the entire game but it certainly means that with the internet and social media a major label isn’t the only way to do well in the charts.

Hopefully this campaign will encourage more musicians to get out there and do self promoting!

12/11/11

The Battle for Christmas Number 1

Tonight the awful X-Factor will announce the winner of their 2011 karaoke competition and it’s more than likely that this time next week some depressingly unimaginative cover of a song that’s not really old enough to be covered properly will be released however the Christmas number 1 slot of no longer a given to the X-Factor winner following the success of the incredibly exciting campaign in 2009 which saw Rage Against the Machine get the number 1 slot (and raise a lot of money for Shelter (not Simon Cowell) in the process).

Last year’s attempts were more copies but this year there seem to be 3 equally credible and deserving contestants to go alongside the X-Factor and so here’s a summary.

1 – Alex Day – Forever Yours

My favourite of the contestants is Alex Day (pictured above), I’ve been following his YouTube channel for a while and he posts amusing videos and is also a full-time independent musician…the bookmakers William Hill have given his catchy pop-song ‘Forever Yours’ 16/1 odds of getting the slot.

Forever Yours is a fun, catchy electro-pop song which will easily get stuck in your head…on top of that Alex Day is independent which means that actually his growing YouTube and music popularity is because he is a genuinely talented guy and not some karaoke singer auto-tuned to hell in a studio.

On top of that Alex all money raised for the song goes to providing water to people in Africa!

You can listen to the song here

2 – Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Following in the footsteps of ‘Rage Against the Machine’ a Facebook campaign is aiming to get Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ to number 1…with currently over 100,000 likes on Facebook and the promise of a vinyl re-issue of the single from the record label this campaign seems to be growing with momentum.

On top of that the campaign is raising money for charity ‘Rythmix’ who (as the story goes) protested to the X-Factor girl group stealing their name only to be told ‘you’d better find some lawyers then’…although since the name has been changed.

You can check out the campaign on Facebook here and Twitter here

3 – Military Wives – Wherever You Are

The Military Wives who have been coached by Gareth Malone are releasing their song ‘Wherever You Are’ also in contest for the number 1 slot raising money for the British Legion….the song isn’t to my taste but I think they’re equally deserving of the slot.

Conclusion and Buying Info

So…there you have it. 4 options for Christmas number 1 in the form of X-Factor, Alex Day, Nirvana and Military Wives and all but the X-Factor are raising money for charity so there’s clearly 3 out of 4 which are better but which will get it?

Personally as a fellow independent musician I’d love to see Alex Day get the top spot but only time will see!

You can buy the Christmas number 1 songs from the 18th December for them to count but only buy a song once or none of your purchases will count.

Get involved, raise some money for charity and let’s make music about music and not winning some competition!

11/23/11

The Return of Five Iron Frenzy

8 Years ago yesterday a band I barely knew played their last show in Denver, Colorado. That band was Five Iron Frenzy and in the last 8 years they have become one of my favourite bands and had a huge impact on my life. Their mix of fun ska-punk music blended with a mix of beautifully profound or cleverly funny lyrics made them such a good band to listen to.

Five Iron Frenzy had this habit of drawing you into the music and then hitting you with the most profound God-lyric ever! We even had the worship band at our wedding adapt their song ‘World without End’ adapted to be played as a worship song.

Over the last few months the bands website contained a mysterious countdown and their Twitter and Facebook came to life, building hype around something that would happen at 2am this morning (or 7pm in the USA!)…having toyed with the idea of staying up or sleeping through and checking out twitter in the morning I opted in for a 1:55am alarm and hoped that it would be something worth disturbing my sleep for.

And it was!

I’d spent my day telling myself that it would be a greatest hits or rarities album and not a reform or anything new but how wrong was I?

Five Iron Frenzy announced (with a slightly bizarre video of Reese Roper in the desert) that they were getting back together and would be recording a new album (to release in 2013…10 years after their break-up) and possibly playing some shows….oh and they put a new song online!

Now the latter doesn’t excite me as much unless they venture to the UK (I wish!) but the thought of a new album and a chance to hear a new Five Iron song really got me excited. To make this new album the band were asking for pledges in return for a variety of things ranging from a CD of the new album to the band writing you a song…I went for the former and amazingly the band aimed to get $30,000 to make, master and release the album and amazingly they got that within 55 minutes and less than 24 hours later they’re on $80,000.

Turns out I’m not the only one excited about the new Five Iron Frenzy.

I was also pretty excited about the new song titled ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ and it’s so good! It’s like a mix of ‘Electric Boogaloo’ and ‘Our Newest Album Ever’ and I think will please all FIF fans.

So why the blog?

This blog is simply to express my burst of excitement…share the word and tell you to listen to Five Iron Frenzy…they’re amazing and so much fun but also seriously challenging.

Go listen, support and download at: www.fiveironfrenzy.com

Note: I also had a worship blog in mind to write which also included some stuff about FIF so this blog might end up a little FIF obsessed for a week or so!

10/6/11

Steve Jobs – 1955 – 2011

Today I awoke to the sad news that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away. Steve, who had been battling with cancer for years stepped down as Apple CEO in August handing over to Tim Cook. This is what the Apple website says about Steve’s passing:

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and a inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple”

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1979 and the company eventually released the first home Mac controlled by a mouse. In 1985 Steve parted company with Apple and went on to buy Pixar and take it to where it is today (eventually selling to Disney).

In 1997 Steve returned to the, then failing, Apple and in the last 14 years has been the visionary behind the company launching the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad amongst other products over the last 14 years all of which have been hugely successful.

Steve’s unique approach to keeping new products quiet and then launching with big media events causes hundreds of rumours to circulate around the web in anticipation of the next Apple product update. On top of that his attention to detail has led to Apple products being unlike any other.

When I brought my Macbook 3 and a half years ago it was unlike any computer I’d ever purchased…even the packaging was exciting and there is something really special about my Macbook because it’s fantastically designed and the user interface is exactly what I want to work with.

Likewise there is no other touchscreen phone on the market that works quite as slickly as the iPhone.

Steve Job’s charismatic approach to technology has made getting excited about technology something cool and not just for geeks. His product design has led to millions of people enjoying their technology. Steve Jobs has truly left his mark on our modern world.

I’m going to finish this blog with a piece of wisdom from Steve Job’s 2005 speech at Stanford University and few tributes from some famous people/bands that I’ve seen this morning.

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love.” – Steve Jobs

“Woke to the news of Steve Jobs’s death. He changed the world. I knew him a little and admired him entirely. Love to Apple and his family.” – Stephen Fry

“Dear Steve Jobs, thanks for believing in our little band enough to put one of our songs in your first iTunes commercials. Tell me one other company of this size that would actually have the balls to use a song that includes a series of “F-Bombs” in their add campaign? Not to mention a song that blatantly talks sh*t about the radio. You were a true innovator and a hacker at heart. Hell, you were buddies with The Woz and Captain Crunch! That in itself is pretty badass. Thanks for showing that it pays to break the rules and fight for what you believe. You have made a fan for life. RIP.” - The Ataris

“R.I.P. Steve Jobs (1955-2011). Thanks for giving me the tools to build my career homie. Much love and respect, you will be missed.” - MC Lars

09/28/11

Blink 182 – Neighborhoods – Review

Like many people I remember where I was when I heard the news of big events…I remember where I was when Princess Diana died and when September 11th happened.

I also remember where I was when I heard the news of Blink 182′s Indefinate Hiatus back in 2005 (not that this is anywhere near has tragic as the 2 previously mentioned events).

I was in Sixth Form, working at a computer (or at least pretending too) when a friend who had the same love for their music linked me to this article on the MTV site.

I remember at the time feeling really quite sad…the thing is somewhere along the lines in my discovery of pop-punk Blink 182 had become (and if I’m honest probably still are) my favourite band.

It was listening to Blink 182 that inspired me to learn the guitar and their song ‘Dammit’ was the first that I’d learnt…even now I pretty much never bother to learn songs on guitar but can play at least 7 Blink tracks. The music of Blink 182 may not be the most musically or lyrically challenging but there’s something about it that I love.

The follow-up of the Blink break-up led to Tom forming ‘Angels and Airwaves’ and releasing 3 albums (4th this November) and Mark & Travis going on to form Plus 44…I followed and love both bands but they’re not Blink 182.

So when Blink 182 announced that they were reforming and that they’d put aside their problems around Travis’ hospital bed (after a plane crash) I was excited and the last 2 years as Blink 182 have been writing and recording their album I’ve got gradually more excited about it.

Anyway onto the album…

Neighborhoods was released on Monday in the UK in 2 formats…a normal edition and a deluxe edition (which Mark Hoppus counts as the actual album). The deluxe edition has 14 tracks and the latter ones are certainly worth having!

In previous interviews Hoppus had stated that they were all bringing what they’d been doing in their time outside of Blink 182 into the Blink 182 music and that’s the feel of the album.

Neighborhoods feels like it continues where their self-titled album left off but without as much production and so there is more of a punk rock feel to this album with the lyrical maturity that Blink 182 reinvented themselves with self titled.

The album opens with ‘Ghost on the Dance Floor, a catchy Angels & Airwaves-esque track with Tom’s vocals giving you the feeling that Blink 182 is really back!

The whole album seems to mix the Blink 182 pop-punk sound with some of the darker sounds of Plus 44 and more stadium-rock style sounds of Angels and Airwaves and it seems to all fit together very well…lyrically it’s a pretty dark album (but with all the stuff that’s happened since the Blink 182 break-up who can blame them!) and it works.

Some of my personal favourites on the album so far…

Ghosts on the Dance Floor – It’s good fun, a fantastic album opener and so catchy I woke up with it in my head yesterday morning!

After Midnight - For me this song represents Blink 182 past, present and future…Tom’s vocals in the verse with a very Angels and Airwaves guitar and Mark taking over in the chorus with a heavier feel makes this song everything you’d want from a Blink 182 song!

Hearts All Gone – This song feels a lot more like punk-rock and is probably best compared to ‘My First Punk Song’ off the Boxcar Racer album although totally different lyrically and in length. Hoppus’ punchy vocals and Barker’s agressive drums make this song awesome!

Kaleidoscope – This song reminds me so much of some of the more mellow Plus 44 songs like ‘Little Death’ and ‘Weatherman’. There’s something about the sort of lyrics that Mark Hoppus writes for these songs that’s brilliant.

Even if she Falls - This song is the last song on the deluxe edition and I’m amazed it’s not on the normal version. It’s a very Blink 182 song very similar to some of the more simple songs on their self titled album. The whole song is just Tom on vocals but it works really well with his lower verse vocals and higher chorus vocals making it a fantastic end to the album.

Are Blink 182 back on form?

The brave step that Blink 182 took with Self-Titled was to re-invent themselves and move on to more serious music and as they return with Neighborhoods 8 years later with all of the band having done a variety of projects Neighborhoods is everything I’d hoped for as a Blink 182 fan, it’s catchy, it has the best of Plus 44 and Angels & Airwaves blended with Blink 182 and is definitely worth buying…but make sure you buy the deluxe edition.

If you’re not convinced by my pro-Blink ramblings you can stream the entire album here

09/17/11

Windows 8 – Developer Preview

So for the last few years I’ve been sold to the world of Apple…not because of the hype but because it works. Despite what others say the operating system (once you adapt) is far easier to use and far more logical than Windows and especially for the web-design, music creation, video editing, extreme multi-tasking and variety of things I do on my laptop my Mac beats Windows every time…add into the mix that I restart maybe once every 2 weeks and have never re-installed my operating system compared to a daily restart from Windows and at least a re-install every year or so I have to say I like my Mac a lot.

That said because of the amount of Windows users I know it’s inevitable that I will at some point be sat on the latest version of Windows as I fix something for someone. I left Windows at XP and so it’s took me a while to get used to Vista and in turn 7 when I’ve had to use them mostly because things have had their names changed for the hell of it (seriously Microsoft…why re-name everything in control panal?).

So when Microsoft announced the release of a developer preview of Windows 8 I thought I’d download it and install it as a virtual machine on my Mac and I’m really not impressed.

When Apple released OS X Lion in July they talked about it taking the features that worked from their mobile devices and bring them to Mac and generally features like opening a programme where you left it, Mission Control and the optional ‘Launchpad‘ are very nice and good features to move from mobile to computer.

However Microsoft’s attempt is a bit of a fail!

The installation for Windows 8 is quick and easy and that’s always nice however it all goes downhill from there. When you first login you are greeted with the screen pictured at the top of this blog. On one hand it looks modern and clean but on the other it looks like someone’s simply played around with squares and text boxes in publisher!

Then you come to the desktop (pictured right) which looks pretty much the same as Windows 7 (ignore the black bar at the top it’s from my virtual machine programme and not Windows 8). The only real change is the shape of the start bar which has lots it’s circular shape and dimensions added in Vista and gone back to being square and flat…which is a shame cos the circular bit was probably the nicest change that came in with Vista!

The only other change is to the Windows which look more like the style of Microsoft Office which is nice because it keeps things consistant.

However here is the real reason I think Windows 8 is the worst operating system I’ve ever used…

Windows is known for being the most widely used operating system. Minus a few name changes you can go between versions of Windows no problem. Even after not using a Windows OS for 3 years I can stil go on the latest version and understand how to use it…but not so with Windows 8.

The new programs are difficult to exit (I have no idea how to close the control panal or twitter apps I’ve opened) and I had to google how to shut down!

The shut down process in Windows 8 requires hovering in the big screen start menu until a start thing appears and clicking through 2 menus to find the word ‘Shut Down’….why? Why not just put a ‘Shut Down’ button in the start menu? If I have to google how to shut down a computer when I’ve used them my whole like how is this going to be accessible to someone who isn’t?

Windows 8 is awful. Whilst I know this is a developer preview and therefore not complete or maybe even how it’s going to look I think it’s difficult to use, non-user-friendly and the contrast in styles between the new start menu and the desktop is inconsistant.

I’m keeping my Mac…or Windows XP!

(I fully appreciate that Mr Jones will disagree with this entire post!!!)

07/13/11

Acoustic Performance Videos

If you’re interested following my post the other day (link to post) here are 2 videos of songs Rob and I performed on Saturday

Not Trying To Say – Live – Written by Mark Tiddy

Mark Tiddy – Not Trying To Say – Live/Acoustic from Mark Tiddy on Vimeo.

Umbrella – Live – Originally by Rihanna

Mark Tiddy – Umbrella (Cover) – Live/Acoustic from Mark Tiddy on Vimeo.