Misplaced outrage

Hey, how about that! Three posts in a row with no blogger-created content! It's OK, though: A (err, self-, sorry) link at MacOSXHints has sent my traffic through the roof, which makes me feel quite the blogger, or would, anyway, if more than two of the people who came for my X.4.10 entry had stayed around to see anything else. Anyway, here's the first sentence of an eMusic review of Pecker's 2 y las Nadadoras:

If you don’t know Spanish, it’s going to be mighty hard to tell exactly what Barcelona’s indie-pop sensation Pecker is talking about in his songs.

Gosh golly gee, ya think? Maybe now we should go back and make sure every review of an American band starts with "If you don't know English, ..." (and then, I suppose, with a further disclaimer: "If, on the other hand, you do know English, then please ignore the fact that the songwriter doesn't.")

Irony

The BBC has an article up today, in which they report on the National Archive's worry that data stored in old proprietary formats are being, and will continue to be, lost as the programmes that could read them cease to be available. Here's the article, and here's a screen capture: Setting aside the facts that this seems to be an awfully belated reaction (did some popular programme just cease to run? Did they never try to look at the old data before?); that the archivists seem breathlessly excited about a solution which, after all, seems to be little more than virtualising the OS's needed to run these old programmes (about which even Mr Frazer above seems to look slightly apologetic); and that the story touts OOXML as a way out of the woods (albeit with a grudging mention that Microsoft might have considered using ODF instead); doesn't it seem that the BBC might feel slightly sheepish about hosting a video attached to such a story in a proprietary Windows-only format?

Free shipping

I'm shopping for stereo systems right now on amazon.com (despite my co-author's, I think farcical, assurance that "stereos are déclassé"); and, stereos being heavy, am keeping out a keen eye for shipping costs. It seems, however, that amazon.com is having some sort of free shipping promotion (I can't find the details anywhere), so now's a good time to buy. All that being said, I'm not sure what to make of this deal on a Sony stereo: