Spotify for Linux! :D

I barely remember signing up for a "Spotify-for-Linux" campaign on the Spotify-forums a while ago (you can find the forums here). But now, a few months later, the Spotify-crew apparently used their spare time since the campaign launched to engineer a native linux-client :) way to go guy's!

At the beginning of this week, the Spotify RSS-feed announced the tech-preview of the Spotify-for-Linux-client. Being the technophiliac that I am, I just couldn't resist testing it, even though I had promised myself I wouldn't test any beta-software on my only surviving laptop from the last decade (Asus Eee 900).

After crashing the client on the command-line before even logging in or anything, I got really frustrated. It felt like an eternity ago I signed that petition for a linux-client, so I didn't stop now.

So, I figured I'd report the problem in their forums. I posted under the title "Spotify for Linux - UNE 10.04.1 - Illegal instruction". The problem was acknowledged a day later, and a few days after that (today) they released an updated package that didn't throw an exception because of instruction-sets (low-level CPU functions).

At this very moment, I am listening to my playlists in the native linux-client :D and I'm VERY pleased! INDEED! ;D

You can find out more at this address:
http://www.spotify.com/en/download/previews/

P.S.you have to own a paid premium-account to use the linux-client for now, they're having issues on how to display ads in a stable manner (read: without being "hackable" :P). So, until they solve the ad-problems, only premium-users can use the client.

Additional, July 17th 03:39 GMT+1:

After using the preview-client for a day or two, I'm very pleased with the sound quality and player operation, especially considering it's an alpha/beta-stage project.

Sure, there are hickups in the code as with many other linux-based projects, but overall it's very operational, functional, and mostly stable. Using unimplemented-features shoots the cpu-load through the roof (60-80%), but that's to be expected, infancy-bugs will be debugged eventually.

DT: overvåking på norske veier

Datatilsynet advarer mot kontrollsamfunn på norske veier, de motsetter seg idéen om å bruke kontinuerlig video-overvåking i trafikken, men godkjenner bruk av teknologi i kontroll-sammenheng, under strenge rammebetingelser.

"I slike tilfeller vurderer vi det slik at samfunnsnytten av tiltaket overstiger personvernulempene". Dette da bare dersom etatene kjører målrettede kontroller, og ikke overskrider disse rammebetingelsene.

"Forutsetningen er at mannskap fra etatene er på plass og kan stanse kjøretøyet umiddelbart i sammenheng med den aktuelle kontrollen. Videre forutsetter vi at opplysningene ikke blir lagret for senere bruk" uttaler konstituert direktør Ove Skåra.

Datatilsynet avviser automatisk og kontinuerlig registrering av biler som passerer et overvåkingskamera, men advarer samtidig mot såkalt formålsutglidning - det vil si at overvåkningen blir utvidet til å gjelde mer enn opprinnelig planlagt.

Link:
http://www.digi.no/846921/sier-nei-til-automatisk-bilovervaakning

Go-go Andy, GO! ;D

"Andy" has definitely had an international impact on the mobile device market the past twelve months. Google cites statistics gathered worldwide, saying they're activating around 160.000 handsets each day - with a little 'math-magic' this equates to 58 million sold Android handset devices. To compare, 4 months ago these numbers were 20.000 handsets a day - 22 million a year.

All of this is only statistics, however, keep in mind that the Android mobile platform ranked on the top-5 smartphone sales list in only a couple of years - not a bad feat at all considering Microsoft and RIM has dominated this market for quite a few years already, not to mention the arrival of Apple's (dreaded?) iPhone.

Cudos to Google and the Google Teams for bringing us an open-source based solution that rubs shoulders with the biggest, baddest boys in the biz'.

I know I'm more than satisfied with my HTC Desire Android-phone :P