every word of it.

Amazon has The Brit Box for only $36.99. That’s 43% off. If I wasn’t buying it for myself, it would be a great Christmas present for me. Because as you know, I love Brit Pop.

Here’s a review from Blender I scanned. I would just like to point out that: 1. I don’t pay for Blender and 2. James Barber is a twat

The Brit Box deserves 5 stars! To say that this set should focus on dance music? That’s outrageous! Why doesn’t he compile his own playlist and get Rhino to release a Madchester compilation and stop taking it out on Gay Dad.

This is why you should never read Pitchfork – only look to see what albums are out. Maybe – maybe look at the score. But never ever read the review (unless it’s by Joe Tangari).

From the Gorillaz – D Sides review

2007 ends with rumours of a full Blur reunion scotched once more, and reports of a full-length Gorillaz movie in production. You wonder if Albarn is spurred to all this solo and side-project activity by the refusal of Graham Coxon to rejoin the fold, the failure of his original band to properly regroup. If so, ideally the reunion will be infinitely postponed, giving us several more projects with the wit and daffy ingenuity of Gorillaz rather than the prospect of one more conventional careerist rock record.

Why would anyone write that – that they would rather Blur not reunite. The World needs Blur. Stephen Troussé obviously wanted to get a response out of people or he’s an idiot. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and say that he wanted to get a response out of people. But insulting Blur is not the way to do it. It just proves that you’re desperate.

Stephen Troussé is a twat.

From the folks that brought you Robin Sparkles

How I Met Your Mother, the best sitcom on tv

So I’ve had the iPhone for about 2 months now, and I’ve figured it out.

I love the UI more than I love the phone.

I love the screen more than I love the phone.

Sometimes even, you could say I hate the phone.

It’s frustrating, because I want the iPhone to be amazing – the best mobile I’ve ever used. And at times it is. But as it stands there are 2 things that come up that really hurt it.

Bluetooth

and

iPod functionality

Bluetooth is great. I love it. Long’s SonyEricsson T616 was the first phone I ever used that had Bluetooth. And it was neat. There was a program called Float’s Mobile Agent (fma). It was neat to connect to your phone from your computer and control Winamp and add/edit contacts. And I could even send ringtones to my phone – no more using Nokia’s ringtone program to type in ringtones on the phone. I could send midi files and it was spectacular. Eventually I upgraded to a SonyEricsson K700, which had HID profiles so it could act as a keyboard or a mouse. Very neat stuff. Anyways, the iPhone can do none of those neat things. The only Bluetooth profile it has is headset. I can’t even make calls/send text messages from MacOS X’s Address Book like I could with all of my previous phones. It’s more disappointing than ridiculous.

See, every so often I think wouldn’t it be great if I had a GPS in my car. But, I don’t want to spend thousands to replace my factory radio and then have it stolen. Nor do I want a separate GPS device like the Garmin Nuvi or TomTom whatever. I’ll leave it out in plain view one day and it’ll get stolen. Plus I don’t want to have to keep track of something else. So the ideal solution is to buy a Bluetooth GPS puck and stick it in my car, and then use Navicore or whatever on my phone. Brilliant plan. Except the iPhone doesn’t support the Bluetooth Serial Profile. Because you know, and I know, and Steve Jobs knows that the iPhone has an amazing screen. If it had a GPS application, it would be amazing. Just look at the Google Maps app.

Steve Jobs likes to say that iPhone is their “best iPod”. And that is a lie. Their best iPod is the iPod. There are 2 things missing in the iPhone – iPod app: Searching and the ability to Shuffle by Album. Don’t worry, I’ve already suggested it to Apple in their iPhone feedback form.

So, I’m just counting the days until someone releases something that matches the iPhone in terms of user experience. I think Nokia can do it. Just look at the N810. If it wasn’t almost $500 I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

Google spies on me?

Google knows too much.

Exhibit A: Here is an email to Long

In it, I’m essentially stating that I’m like Charlie Brooker. In his latest article in the Guardian, he essentially points out that you can’t go on vacation if you’re single. It’s true. It’s just the way things are. So in the article, Charlie Brooker complains a bit and says his vacation is staying home and playing Half-Life 2. Replace Half-Life 2 with Mario Strikers and that’s me.

And Google, being omniscient as they are, place a link to a website renting villas in Tobago – Tobago being the Tobago in The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. Sure I mentioned the word “Vacation” in the email, I get that. But Tobago? I didn’t mention Trinidad or Tobago. So either it’s a lucky coincidence (maybe, hopefully?) or their algorithms are too smart.

Anyways, if you visit that site, you can rent islands. The cheapest island is $2300/night near Belize. If I ever get filthy rich, I’m renting an island. But probably not near Belize.