It's no big secret that HMV is a struggling retailer. It's suffering from the double-whammy of a declining high street caused by the economic situation and a declining market for music on physical media.
HMV is for many towns, the last place the consumers can visit in the high street to buy music. The other big names have gone - Our Price, Virgin (later Zavvi), Woolworths - and independents stores are in decline leaving many towns with none. Sadly I wonder if in five or ten years time this last bastion will also loose its physical presence.
Despite the obvious impact that the above points must be making on the business, I wonder though if HMV are doing themselves any favours. It seems that with each passing year, the amount of space given to the humble CD is declining, being taken over firstly by DVDs, Blurays and Games and most recently by technology. Not only that, the stock on offer has some very interesting pricing options.
The trouble with the pricing is that it's impossible to go in to the store with a budget and a list of albums. Each disc being priced differently (ranging from £7 to £15 or more - excluding sales) makes it impossible to know beforehand exactly how much will be spent. Indeed, it encourages price checking - if I see a disc that I want on offer at, say £12, I will be checking Amazon to see if it can be had for significantly less. Looking at a DVD set of the television series 'Black Books' today, I saw it available in store for £30. Amazon will sell me the same for £17.99! Much as I enjoy browsing a shop, I'm not putting myself out of pocket by an additional £12.
Of course, the price only comes in to play if what the customer wants is available. So often I go into the store with a list of albums in mind only to find that not one of them is stocked. Sometimes I can check a few stores if I'm traveling around but I find the situation the same everywhere. Although a physical store cannot stock everything, the problem is exacerbated by the diminishing range of CDs and although the sale of physical albums has fallen significantly thanks to downloading, it is by no means dead yet.
As for technology, whilst I understand HMV branching out into this area and in particular digital music players, headphones etc., I find it bizarre that they also see fit to stock tablet computers of various makes and models. The technology corner is starting to look like a section of Comet more than a music store and HMV certainly isn't the first place I'd think of to buy such equipment. If their opinion is to sell these devices because they can play music, well I wouldn't be surprised to see full computers making an appearance and perhaps a range of mobile phones too!
I understand the need for the business to diversify but I think it may be going too far. I find that as a music customer the store is not catering for my needs and there are plenty of times when I walk out empty handed. I think they should re-think the deminishing stock of CD albums, better focus the technology section, and bring in standardised pricing. All of this would encourage me to visit the store more often, spending my hard-earned cash which as a business is surely the most important thing.
Just time to write my traditional message celebrating the new year, which will arrive in about 55 minutes time.
Lucky for me I got the website upgraded in time, otherwise I would have had to have missed it. That would have been a shame since it's something I've written for years now.
One of my resolutions for 2011 was to write more blog posts. Unfortunately I think I failed at that somewhat since my last entry was in October - coincidentally exactly the same as in 2010. The hold on blog posts was down to the database upgrade rather than the lack of any ideas so perhaps if I carry the resolution over, I'll be more successful in 2012 than this year. Perhaps I'll have even more to write about thanks to a little event occurring in February.
My other resolution was to learn more French, and whilst I'm certainly nowhere near competent enough to even attempt casual conversation I think it's fair to say I'm better than I was this time last year. Of course, learning a language has to be continuous so I'll continue to attempt to improve over the next twelve months and, with the lack of anything better, I'll carry that resolution forward as well.
So, with 48 minutes of the year remaining; happy new year!
Lucky for me I got the website upgraded in time, otherwise I would have had to have missed it. That would have been a shame since it's something I've written for years now.
One of my resolutions for 2011 was to write more blog posts. Unfortunately I think I failed at that somewhat since my last entry was in October - coincidentally exactly the same as in 2010. The hold on blog posts was down to the database upgrade rather than the lack of any ideas so perhaps if I carry the resolution over, I'll be more successful in 2012 than this year. Perhaps I'll have even more to write about thanks to a little event occurring in February.
My other resolution was to learn more French, and whilst I'm certainly nowhere near competent enough to even attempt casual conversation I think it's fair to say I'm better than I was this time last year. Of course, learning a language has to be continuous so I'll continue to attempt to improve over the next twelve months and, with the lack of anything better, I'll carry that resolution forward as well.
So, with 48 minutes of the year remaining; happy new year!
I'm sick and tired of hearing about "The Cloud".
This latest buzzword is creeping in everywhere, from the technology and computer press; to consumer TV adverts; to workplaces. The Cloud is everywhere and I'm concerned the less technologically inclined will lap it up.
The term means nothing less than services hosted on the internet and without thinking about it, one might believe it to be the latest and greatest technology yet enabled by our ever increasing broadband speeds. In truth, only half of that statement is correct. Broadband speeds are bringing ever more complex services to our computers but none-the-less, services have existed for over a decade. For example, an often touted illustration of a Cloud service is email in the browser. Of course, little mention is made that such services have existed and been in extremely common use for over a decade. Online document processing has existed for over 5 years - this is nothing new.
The thing is; The Cloud implies something simple, pleasant and friendly. Nobody would argue against little fluffy clouds in the sky, and this is the image that comes to mind, for many ... possibly. Actually, not my mind. Me, I see The Cloud as a grey, heavy storm cloud ready to rain down on the unprepared. You see, I actually see The Cloud as something rather dangerous.
Technology companies (Google, Amazon et al) would have it that many of our day-to-day activities are carried out online. Want to write a document, edit a picture or video, listen to music, read a book; well don't use big expensive software installed to a powerful computer with terabytes of storage space. No. Just turn to The Cloud. Open up your sleek web browser on your cheap laptop and let the Company servers take the strain. Let them do the processing and then store your files ready to be accessed anywhere with a connection. How wonderful. How simple.
Here's the problem. The company has your data. You don't. The positive theory is that the data is safe. Backups are not your concern. Should anything happen to your computer, it's okay. The data is safe.
Is it really though? Yes, the popular companies are behemoths, but they can fold. If they disappear, what happens to your data. Does it disappear too? Will you get any warning?
With all that data on the company's servers, it's a target for hackers - perhaps more so than your little individual machine. If the server is hacked, is your data going out the door?
Other problems can occur too, does the company have an offline solution in case your internet connection goes down? What happens when something goes wrong at the company? Recently, Google temporarily lost the emails stored in it's GMail user accounts. What sort of impact could that have had on it's users - what if it happens to files stored in Google Docs?
I think there are a lot of unanswered questions, and I think that there are a lot of people NOT asking them. The internet is wonderful in it's way, but I cannot see it replacing my powerful computer system. I like to control my data. I want to make the decision over how it's stored and backed up. When I delete a file, I want to know it's gone. Storage is cheap, as is processing power. For what many people use their machines for (basic internet, simple word processing), I don't see the need for remote processing.
Don't get me wrong, there are services I like and use. I upload pictures daily to Flickr; videos occasionally to YouTube and use DropBox for offsite backup and syncronisation. But these are select files for select purposes. I would never put every photo on Flickr and use it as my primary photo storage medium. If Flickr (or any other service I use) disappeared tonight, I would lose nothing.
Unfortunately it's far to easy for the non-technical to get sucked into these marketing buzzwords and think they're great. I think everyone needs to take another look.
This latest buzzword is creeping in everywhere, from the technology and computer press; to consumer TV adverts; to workplaces. The Cloud is everywhere and I'm concerned the less technologically inclined will lap it up.
The term means nothing less than services hosted on the internet and without thinking about it, one might believe it to be the latest and greatest technology yet enabled by our ever increasing broadband speeds. In truth, only half of that statement is correct. Broadband speeds are bringing ever more complex services to our computers but none-the-less, services have existed for over a decade. For example, an often touted illustration of a Cloud service is email in the browser. Of course, little mention is made that such services have existed and been in extremely common use for over a decade. Online document processing has existed for over 5 years - this is nothing new.
The thing is; The Cloud implies something simple, pleasant and friendly. Nobody would argue against little fluffy clouds in the sky, and this is the image that comes to mind, for many ... possibly. Actually, not my mind. Me, I see The Cloud as a grey, heavy storm cloud ready to rain down on the unprepared. You see, I actually see The Cloud as something rather dangerous.
Technology companies (Google, Amazon et al) would have it that many of our day-to-day activities are carried out online. Want to write a document, edit a picture or video, listen to music, read a book; well don't use big expensive software installed to a powerful computer with terabytes of storage space. No. Just turn to The Cloud. Open up your sleek web browser on your cheap laptop and let the Company servers take the strain. Let them do the processing and then store your files ready to be accessed anywhere with a connection. How wonderful. How simple.
Here's the problem. The company has your data. You don't. The positive theory is that the data is safe. Backups are not your concern. Should anything happen to your computer, it's okay. The data is safe.
Is it really though? Yes, the popular companies are behemoths, but they can fold. If they disappear, what happens to your data. Does it disappear too? Will you get any warning?
With all that data on the company's servers, it's a target for hackers - perhaps more so than your little individual machine. If the server is hacked, is your data going out the door?
Other problems can occur too, does the company have an offline solution in case your internet connection goes down? What happens when something goes wrong at the company? Recently, Google temporarily lost the emails stored in it's GMail user accounts. What sort of impact could that have had on it's users - what if it happens to files stored in Google Docs?
I think there are a lot of unanswered questions, and I think that there are a lot of people NOT asking them. The internet is wonderful in it's way, but I cannot see it replacing my powerful computer system. I like to control my data. I want to make the decision over how it's stored and backed up. When I delete a file, I want to know it's gone. Storage is cheap, as is processing power. For what many people use their machines for (basic internet, simple word processing), I don't see the need for remote processing.
Don't get me wrong, there are services I like and use. I upload pictures daily to Flickr; videos occasionally to YouTube and use DropBox for offsite backup and syncronisation. But these are select files for select purposes. I would never put every photo on Flickr and use it as my primary photo storage medium. If Flickr (or any other service I use) disappeared tonight, I would lose nothing.
Unfortunately it's far to easy for the non-technical to get sucked into these marketing buzzwords and think they're great. I think everyone needs to take another look.
On 1 January, on a whim, I decided it would be a good idea to attempt a '365' - one photograph for each day of the year. It seemed like a good idea at the time. So far, it's proven okay.
Today marks the end of the first month of the year and I've managed to upload 31 pictures. It's interesting to see how the album is turning out.
The first few two weeks saw me using solely my mobile telephone camera (that found on the HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1). Pictures were of a blogging nature - representative of that particular day - not particularly high quality and not well composed. Since then however, my DSLR has featured much more heavily and the images become (in my opinion) better composed and more interesting.
The former type of picture continues to make an appearance, particularly if I have nothing much to take an image of on a particular day, but overall the quality does seem to be improving. Hopefully this is how it will continue.
My personal favourite images are:
(view on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/m0gky/sets/72157625597902059/)
- 2011-01-30 Empty Wine Bottle (currently my Netbook desktop)
- 2011-01-31 Light Trails
- 2011-01-27 Computer Insides
- 2011-01-20 KCACO (Keep Calm and Carry On)
Just a quick note to say Happy New Year for 2011.
I have a couple of resolutions. The first is to increase the number of blog posts I make. Over the last 12 months I really haven't put finger to keyboard very often - the last entry being back in October. For some reason I've had ideas of things to write but just didn't bother too. I'll make a conscious effort to do so, even if they are short posts (like this one).
The second is to learn more French. I visited Paris for the first time in August and a lot of what I learnt in school came flooding back and I also picked up a fair bit (in comparison to what I knew before going there). As a result I now want to continue to learn new words and phrases. To aid this, I am following some French posters on Twitter and also reading a French learning blog.
That's all really. So for everyone that reads this, have a great 2011!
I have a couple of resolutions. The first is to increase the number of blog posts I make. Over the last 12 months I really haven't put finger to keyboard very often - the last entry being back in October. For some reason I've had ideas of things to write but just didn't bother too. I'll make a conscious effort to do so, even if they are short posts (like this one).
The second is to learn more French. I visited Paris for the first time in August and a lot of what I learnt in school came flooding back and I also picked up a fair bit (in comparison to what I knew before going there). As a result I now want to continue to learn new words and phrases. To aid this, I am following some French posters on Twitter and also reading a French learning blog.
That's all really. So for everyone that reads this, have a great 2011!