emusic download manager blues and repurchasing

emusic is really starting to take the piss. Price hikes and monthly song quota cuts has already dented its once proud image as “iTunes’s younger, cooler brother.”

Now we have a site with buggy, sub standard download software and a policy which aims to make you repurchase tracks that have failed to download fully.

OK, so what happened?

I clicked on the download button, and the album started to download. (Much slower than it used to, I might add.) I then paused the download momentarily by accident (clicking the pause button).

When I clicked resume, it resumed from the next song! I now had two 30 second snippets. Nonplussed, I cancelled the download in the hope that I could restart it… Nope

Going back to the website, I found that there was no longer an option to complete your album… I’d have to pay the whole $6 to download the whole album again!

It’s a download site, for fuck’s sake and they’re charging me PER DOWNLOAD, when it’s THEIR SOFTWARE THAT’S BROKEN.

I really think that this time, I’m done with emusic.

For reference, here’s the mail I sent to their customer support… Not my most eloquent prose, I must admit.

"To whom it may concern"
I paused the download.... when I resumed, 
it tried to download the next track... 
I now have four half downloaded tracks....
I thought if I cancelled the downloads,
and reselected them manually I'd be ok...
but IT SAYS I ALREADY DOWNLOADED THE TRACKS.
With the OPTION OF REPURCHASING (WHAT THE F***?!)
ARE YOU KIDDING!
This is not good enough... You are not iTunes,
the only thing you have going for you is that
your prices are cheap... If you can't make a
system as painless as iTunes you will
go out of business.
Please let me redownload the songs which I paid
for but now don't have.
The album is
http://www.emusic.com/album/modwheelmood-Pearls-to-Pigs-MP3-Download/11475231.html

It says I have 7 tracks but I don't.
I'm getting sick of music's draconian "REPURCHASE"
policies requiring me to justify my existence
every time you have a bug in your software.
Yours, Disgruntled,

Craig Lloyd.

Zend Server 4.0.6 + Framework 1.9 and PDO_MYSQL on Mac OS X always defaults to /temp/mysql.sock

I always get an error like the one below when I first run Zend Server with a Zend Framework 1.9 app.

Fatal error: Uncaught exception ‘Zend_Db_Adapter_Exception’
with message ‘SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Can’t connect to local
MySQL server through socket ‘/tmp/mysql.sock’

Of course, recompiling PHP and so on might fix it, but I found, for time’s sake, it’s simpler to just to issue the command from the terminal. (You’ll need to be admin or know an admin’s password).

sudo ln -s /usr/local/zend/mysql/tmp/mysql.sock /tmp/mysql.sock

If you’re fed up of running this command every time you log in, just download Lingon and create a task that runs automatically on boot or login.

Firewire vs. USB

The battle between Firewire (A.K.A. IEEE 1394, iLink) and USB rages on.

It’s well known that although USB 2.0 shows a higher speed on paper (480Mbps vs. 400Mbps) than Firewire, due to inefficiencies in USB protocol and the fact that USB requires the host to manage the transfer of data, Firewire is in actual fact faster on the whole.

The reason is cited as being not just the efficient, real-time, streaming oriented protocol but the Firewire controller itself, which manages much of the dirty work when it comes to data transfer, offloading the stress of controlling real-time, high speed data from the motherboard/CPU onto the device.

This offers two main benefits:

1. The host CPU or controller has less work to do and can focus on other, more important stuff, meaning the attached host will feel more responsive and less stressed under heavy load.
2. Because major data flow control is performed on the device itself, wasteful, detailed control data does not have to flow back and forth between the device and the host, leading to less wastage and latency.

…and two main drawbacks:

1. The controller is relatively complex and thus expensive.
2. The controller’s complexity can lead to difficult to diagnose compatibility issues.

Which leads to my main issue.

My Logitec MA-16FU2/WM external firewire and USB dvd burner regularly fails to mount disks on my Mac, while connected by Firewire but performs flawlessly with USB.

Basically, no disks inserted will mount at all under Snow Leopard.

Indeed “about this mac/more info…” shows no sign of any volume in this drive, whether it’s directly connected to the mini or via the firewire hub of the Princeton PHD-MM160IUH.

Moreover a second firewire / USB device will often fail to remount over firewire if I shut it down or disconnect it. Again, it works flawlessly over USB. Moreover, it even works with Firewire when connected to my Windows PC!

Go figure!

I’ve tried:

sudo kextunload
/System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleFWOHCI.kext/

and:

sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleFWOHCI.kext/

but the external drives just shut down and restart, still without mounting the volumes.

No joy.

It’s really ironic that the Mac has worse support for firewire than Windows, especially since Apple were one of the founders of the specification.

basically, despite the ‘so-called’ superiority Firewire, I can only get my job done reliably with USB… sigh.

Apple Software Bugs Rise to New Heights : OS X iCal Truncating days off the end of month.

I always thought that February was the shortest month of the year.

After all, ever since I could speak I’ve known the poem:

Thirty days has September, April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty one, except February,
which has 28 days clear and 29 days in a leap year.

If only Apple knew it, because apparently they think that January 2009 had only 24 days!

 

This is OS X Leopard iCal, the one which dispensed with the the side drawer in favour of a crappy pop-up box for editing calendar entries.

Here Apple are trying to work their way into the enterprise as a viable Outlook alternative with better Exchange support for Mail.app etc. but I’m sorry, if this is the best they can do, I’m sticking with Outlook/Entourage.

Is there anyone else out there who’s found that their months have been truncated with the last week missing in Leopard’s joke of a calendar application?

Now I’m sorry, but this kind of quality beggars belief! Apple, WTF are you playing at? GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER.

Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update Goes Smoothly

The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk) and other sites such as Macfixit, Mac in touch and others are showing a number of problems.

I’d like to report updating five systems without problem:

• Mac Mini (Intel 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo) – Mac OS 10.5 Server – 10 client edition
  • Server version of Mac OS X
  • External Firewire storage
  • USB Memory Card Reader
  Combo Update without issue. ~ 10 minutes
  　
• iMac 24″ (Intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo)
  • Vista under Boot Camp
  • Various large video and graphical editing packages.
  • MS Office
  • Firewire 800 RAID storage
  • USB Card Reader
  • Firewire Scanner
  • Graphical Pen Tablet 
  Software Update (Delta) without issue. ~ 5 minutes
  　
• 12″ Powerbook (PPC 1.5GHz)
  • MS Office
  Software Update (Delta) without issue. ~ 15 minutes
  　
• Power Mac G4 Cube (PPC 1.4GHz) 
  • MS Office
  • Zend Studio for Eclipse
  • Entropy PHP on Apache Package
  • Scanner
  • Printer
  • Graphical Tablet
  Combo Update without issue. ~ 15 minutes
  　
• iMac 15″ (PPC 700MHz, dome shaped effort)
  • MS Office

Combo Update without issue. ~25 minutes

 

Of course I have yet to use the systems in anger, so I will report if I notice any further developments.

I’ve been especially hacked off at 10.5 server which dispite having some of the finest administrative tools in the business has so many bugs that I really can’t recommend it over a standard linux server unless your company really DOESN’T have any IT knowledgeable staff.

It is without doubt the buggiest ¥40,000 I’ve ever spent.

Here’s looking at 10.5.6 server… (sigh)…

Is Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac just revenge for the travesty that is Quicktime for Windows?

I’ve reported here on Office:Mac 2008 being the worst version of Office ever released for any platform. It’s buggy, runs slower than the previous version runs in emulation and it still lacks database software and is also missing Visual Basic, a key feature for any serious Excel user. In a word. Office:Mac 2008 is a lemon, and I want my money back.

But if you really, no, I mean REALLY want to talk about crap software produced by a world class company for another world class company’s operating system, then let’s not beat around the bush.

Quicktime for Windows is a dog. It’s an old dog, a mangy, old, lame dog which you just can’t seem to have put down despite serious, room filling flatulence.

It’s slow, buggy and is missing lots of features that many serious media users find indispensable.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes blogging for ZD-Net has shown that Quicktime on his old 512MB RAM Mac Mini on OS X outperforms his 8GB Quad Core Vista system.

Ah, Vista, I hear you say. But before you click the reply button, he states that using VLC or a real media player blows the Mini to smithereens, so it is a Quicktime for Windows issue.

So I’d make that a 1-1 Apple-Microsoft draw.

Another stupid Office 2008 (Office:mac) Formatting Bug

Check this one out. I’ve been using change tracking to make sure I know who’s doing what to which file.

I had some text in a small box at the top of the page and wanted to colour that box’s text in red to make it stand out.

A simple enough request, you’d think.

Unfortunately, change it to red and the Whole Flipping Document (TM) turns red!

I’ve found several bugs while in change tracking mode. It’s far easier to return to regular editing mode, make the changes and then come back. You’ll not have those changes recorded, but at least the changes will be applied properly.

Office 2008 really isn’t ready for prime time.

The Microsoft Office 2008 disaster (Office:mac 2008 buggy as hell)

What is it about Microsoft that makes them incapable of releasing software packed to the rafters with show stopping bugs?

What I mean to say is that Office 2008 is as buggy as Hell! Come on Microsoft, this is your flagship suite on the Mac, often the only exposure to your company diehard Mac users ever get. And what do you give them? Shit on a plate.

We’ve got this project on at the moment, and I’ve been trying to get it done, but Office:mac 2008 just doesn’t seem to want to let me.

Let’s start with the good stuff:

• Excel 2008 on my Intel Mac Mini scrolls noticably faster than Office 2004 on the same machine. So although my 2.4GHz iMac 24″ is fast enough to handle the Rosetta translation from PPC to Intel without noticable performance issues, my Mac Mini clearly struggles with 2004. Exel 2008 is, once up and running, smoother on this limited machine.
• Entourage 2008 is better than 2004. It’s faster, cleaner and stalls less often when syncing my Hotmail. Enough said. Way to go Microsoft.

OK, that’s the good stuff out of the way, now the bad stuff.

• No Visual Basic. WTF?

Excuse me? But HTF am I supposed to run my spreadsheets without Visual Basic? Don’t give me some cock and bull story about “Applescript is the standard script on the Mac, so we changed to Applescript.”

Since when have you ever cared about standards, Microsoft?

Put VB back in and we’ll talk some more.

• Less stable than Naomi Campbell

Excel crashed twice last night, in three hours. That’s just a joke. It would stall for a second and vanish without a trace. And not just last night, but often.

• It’s fat, flabby and slow

Why is it that my copy of Office 2004 running in emulation on an Intel Mac is faster than Office 2008 running native (bar the aforementioned scrolling) on the same machine?

Excel 2004 takes less than 10 seconds to boot, Excel 2008 takes almost twice as long! Come on! This is not acceptable. This is native code and it’s being trounced by emulated code!

Now, it may run faster, but what am I doing that needs the speed? It’s not like I’m running any cunning VB scripts… ’cause they removed it! And who in their right mind is going to develop ultracomplex Applescript macros when Microsoft themselves said they’re going to put VB back in in the next release…

Sounds like they used the same programmers that made Vista.

• Bugs

There are just too many. Really. I’m not going to bore you with any but these two which have cost me considerable productivity time.

I saved a file as an XLSX (Excel XML format) and was completely unable to open it in office 2004 and Office 2003 on the PC, even with the Version 11.5 update and the Compatibility pack installed! I had to connect to my iMac at home, resave the file as an Excel 97~2003 file and try again. Strange though, only a couple of files have showed this bug… But then, that’s the nature of bugs, isn’t it.

Display issues is currently a real annoyance.

Check out these screenshots:

View a sheet at 100% and all is well. 

Zoom in to 125% and everything turns into hashes.

It doesn’t matter if you expand a column out, the hashes just multiply to fill the gap!

It’s only when you SHRINK the column that the hashes disappear and text appears.

Twiddle the width of the column a little and the text comes back.

Come ON Microsoft, this is NOT production quality software.

Solution

• There is no solution at present.

I recommend sticking with 2004, which while being a foible laden application suite is stable, predictable and reliable; three concepts I’ve started to take more seriously the older I’ve got.

I’m going to wait for a couple of service packs and try it again later. In the meantime and for the first time ever, I’ve reinstalled an earlier version of Office!

Is Apple’s policy of secrecy no longer tenable?

I’ve been receiving mails and comments on my post regarding my iMac overheating and having black circles on the screen. It’s now the most popular post after my film reviews.

It would appear that the old Apple addage: “Just Works” no longer applies to much of Apple’s stuff that rolls of its Chinese production lines at the hands of pretty iphonegirls. They don’t “JUST WORK” any more: There’s too much randomness and weird shit that happens when you switch on an Apple product. Of course, it’s probably just a side effect of today’s tech’s increasing complexity, but it’s still annoying that things that used to work well don’t any more, either by accident or by design.

Here’s a personal list of Apple Related Hassle

Then there are otther issues, not juat with the hardware, but with the software, too.

• Safari for Windows leaks like a sieve, leave it on overnight to come back to 800MB of memory used up.
• My Mobile Me account was intermittently inaccessible for several weeks.

Then there are design changes in the applications themselves that render them less useful than before:

• iCal’s loss of the side drawer springs to mind as minor example of forcing the users to jump through more hoops than with Tiger just to edit their schedules.

Now how can Apple a reputable company allow something like this to occur? I believe the main cause is incredibly simple:

Secrecy: It’s too high a price to pay

Apple’s secrecy is legendary. Nobody really knows anything about Apple’s future unless it has aready become the past.

This prevents wide testing of products by users before the product goes on sale (Beta testing); A process essential for modern, highly technical products. Products which have grown so large, powerful and thus complex that no longer can a single company possibly test even a significant fraction of the permutations and combinations of different factors that might cause a product to fail.

Thus. Without advanced beta testing, then, a product will lack a critical analysis stage before being hoiked on the unsuspecting customers.

I also have to say that Vista is now like the Finder in Tiger, it’s as slow as a bastard, but at least it works. Vista hasn’t crashed since SP1 was installed, despite its bad reputation. Slow, yes, unstable, no.

However, all things considered, Leopard Finder is far more usable for my Local Network heavy workload, although it’s still inferior to Windows Explorer’s Network Hierarchy of Subnets and Workgroups.

But what is important to customers?

• Dependability, reliability, stability, functionality, performance and style. Probably in that order.

Unfortunately, Apple appears to be approaching from the rear.

There is still a chance that things will improve.

Both Apple (implicitly) and Microsoft  (indirectly) have stated that their current OSes are flawed beasts and have vowed to “go back to basics” with Snow Leopard and Windows 7 respectively.

Two OSes that promise to step back and fix everything rather than another bunch of hathfudn crap.