adambowie.com

Category: Internet

  • Netflix and Disney

    Last week came news that Disney would be pulling its movies from Netflix at the end of the current arrangement, and that Disney would in future launch its own streaming service. This licensing agreement generated a vast amount of coverage, much of it ill-informed, and ignoring wider issues in the market. There are a few…

  • BBC Store is closing; Streaming v Ownership

    Back in 2015 I took a look at the then new BBC Store. It had opened in a blaze of publicity after a relatively long gestation period. Visitors could buy to own BBC catalogue programmes as well as some of the latest dramas and comedies. Since then, announcers have mentioned the ability to buy programmes…

  • iTunes 12.6.1.25 and Windows 10 Creators Update – A Possible Fix

    This is really here as both to potentially help others, and for me to moan about the incompatibility of the current products of two of the biggest companies in computing. I don’t really use iTunes any longer. I don’t have a personal iPhone, and my iPod Classic is now resting in retirement. These days my…

  • A Few Thoughts on the Ransomware Attacks

    I’ve found a certain amount of the coverage surrounding the WannaCrypt ransomware attack really quite annoying, and the responses in many cases quite pathetic. So here are a few thoughts of my own: The NSA, and other governmental bodies, have an awful lot to answer for. Governments love to collect operating system ‘exploits’ to use…

  • Believe in Worse: Sky’s Streaming Options

    You often hear that we live in a digital non-linear TV world. That’s not actually true. We very much live in a linear television world with lots of people watching television live. But why let the truth get in the way of a good story. But I digress. It’s certainly true that digital streaming is…

  • Amazon Echo – A Longer Term Test

    I bought my Amazon Echo on its official UK release back in September last year. I wrote about it at the time, but I thought it might be worth checking back in here to see exactly how I’m using it. Right off the top, I’ll note here that I use Alexa multiple times a day,…

  • YouTube-ing

    YouTube is a wonderful thing. From music, to how to’s, to clips from films and TV, to game walkthrough’s and a myriad of thousand other subjects. But I confess, that I’ve always struggled with the “YouTubers.” Now that’s not to say that there aren’t personality-driven YouTube videos that I watch. There are the guys at…

  • “We’ve Updated Our Privacy Policy”

    Occassionally you get an email with the subject line above. It’ll be from some digital service provider that you use. The company has made some changes, and is letting you know. I got one of these yesterday. The essence of it was: “We’re making some changes for [REASONS] and we’re just writing to let you…

  • GIFs

    I really don’t like GIFs. Nobody even seems to know how to pronounce the word. Or rather, I don’t like the way they’re used most of the time. They’re incredibly lazy, and just seem to take out of context “hilarious” emotions or actions. I think my real problem is they scream “look at me!” When…

  • Failing to Optimise This Site

    Over the past few days, Google has been pushing users to try running its Test My Site With Google service. In particular, it’s trying to help sites see how mobile friendly they are. I dutifully entered the details of this site, and waited for the report. I host this site quite cheaply, so wasn’t expecting…

  • The Amazon Echo – A British Perspective

    NB. I’ve included some detail about how to connect Alexa to a BT Homehub, as it definitely seems to be causing an issue to many users who get Error: 7:3:0:0:1. Hopefully this page will help a little. Amazon has been somewhat tardy in bringing the Echo to the UK. It launched in the US in…

  • Backup Storage Solutions and Costs

    More than a year ago, I wrote about some experiences I’d had with backup storage and thoughts about “off-site” back-ups. It prompted a couple of responses on the blog, and a few more on social media. Not the most exciting of subjects, but an important one, as I still believe that in this age of…