So why don’t I get it? That answer is simple. Apple considers ever one of it’s customers to be little idiots that can’t do maths.

The song that I wanted to buy would cost me $1.69 to buy (which is still a rip off, considering the $AU exchange rate… explain that one too Apple…) but if I looked on my iphone through iTunes there and saw the same song through the album, it wanted me to pay $2.19 for it.

So, lets get this straight. I can pay $1.69 for a single song, or if I look at buying an album, I can buy the SAME EXACT SAME SONG FILE for $2.19… or $0,40 more???

Is it just me or does everyone else out there get sick of Apple trying to tell me what I should be paying?  if it’s not bad enough that a single song file that costs $0.99 US costs us in Australia $1.69, even when the $AU is worth $1.06 US…  I can’t see why we should be paying that much.  It’s the  SAME servers, the SAME bandwidth, and the SAME deal that the artirts are getting per song.

Please, can someone from Apple, or anyone at all!!!  Please tell me why we have these inconsistencies. And, why are we paying so much just because we are in Australia?

Apple has recently become the biggest company in the world. Not just in IT, but IN THE WORLD.  they make more then enough money, but stil they pull this shit on their customers.

As a bit of reference, this is what has caused people to go online looking for torrents and P2P downloads.  You charge to much, and you are no better  then any other greedy corporation out there.

It was Mc Lars that said it perfectly…

You know, we just wanted a level playing field.
You’ve overcharged us for music for years, and now we’re
Just trying to find a fair balance. I hate to say it, but:
Welcome to the future.

Skrillex on YouTube

But it’s not really gone. The calculator app is still there… You can see it when you search you phone, it still works when you click on the listing, but the icon has gone.

The reason for this is that Apple has decided that it knows better where I want my icons to be placed n my own phone then I do. They’ve changed the system on that particular update to move a few apps into a new ‘Utilities’ folder that wasn’t there before. So, your apps haven’t been removed, they’ve just been moved.

Is this a good idea? I can understand why it’d be useful for users that have just got a new phone and should know that creating folders is possible, but when they mess with the location of icons that I have set up already on my phone, that’s wrong. I had mine set the way that I wanted them to work, but apparently that isn’t what they wanted.

At least now I’ve found it out, and changed it back to the way that I want it to be. Lets just hope that Apple doesn’t decide to change anything else for me without telling me about it first.

What I mean is that I have finally got my new car all sorted out. Now I almost feel a strange sense of relief and joy knowing that it’s just all done.

For anyone that doesn’t know, it took a little while to get here, and I had to jump through a few hoops thanks to my own stupidity at times. Thankfully I went down to the Department Of Transport today and had the car transferred to my name, so now it’s officially mine!

I’ll try to post a picture or two up here soon.  The new baby isn’t anything special, but she’s great for me.

The hard part now is trying to decide on which of my cars I should drive!  Life sure can be hard…

Bury all your secrets in my skin
Come away with innocence and leave me with my sins
The air around me still feels like a cage
Love is just a camouflage for what resembles rage again

So if you love me let me go
Run away before I know
My heart is just too dark to care
I can't destroy what isn't there

Deliver me into my fate
If I'm alone I cannot hate
I don't deserve to have you
Ooh, my smile was taken long ago
If I can change I hope I never know

I still press your letters to my lips
And cherish them in parts of me that savor every kiss
I couldm't face a life without your light
But all of that was ripped apart
When you refused to fight

So save your breath, I will not care
I think I made it very clear
You couldn't hate enough to love
Is that supposed to be enough?
I only wish you weren't my friend
Then I could hurt you in the end
I never claimed to be a saint

Ooh, my own was banished long ago
It took the death of hope to let you go

So break yourself against my stones
And spit your pity in my soul
You never needed any help
You sold me out to save yourself
And I won't listen to your shame
You ran away, you're all the same
Angels lie to keep control

Ooh, my love was punished long ago
If you still care don't ever let me know
If you still care don't ever let me know

As bad as it seems, this is what really happens online. Hopefully everyone will see this and understand that most times it’s not just some faceless corporation that’s behind it all.

And, peace out to everyone that already knows.

The biggest thing to remember from this is…  just be cool, and have a  good time.  After all, isn’t that what life is about?

It’s the late (and great) Sam Kinison, with his version of ‘Wild Thing’.

Enjoy!!!!Sam Kinison – Wild Thing!

There’s a lot of information around for supposed “bugs” with Zend that give some ideas on how to fix them, or workarounds to try and get things to go, but these mostly relate to older versions, and are really not rlevant any longer.

I have found out where I was going wrong, and it’s a very simple mistake that is (unfortuantely) way to easy to do!  The problem is that I had the URI of the  SOAP server pointing to the servers WSDL file, and not to the actual processing URI. When you try and send the processing to the WSDL of course it’s going to fail.

This might seem like a minor issue, but it had me stumped for a little while

I have to say, as much as I like the ocnveniance of iTunes, I am one of those old-school people that likes to have the physical CD/record/whatever instead of a digital file that I’ve downloaded. For single songs it’s not to bad, but for an album, CD, movie or anything else, I would really prefer to buy it for real. Of course, that’s where the pricing comes into it. When you can pay $30 for a CD, but only pay $15 for the same album on iTunes, the online download can start to make a bit more sense.

So I went looking. The EP s on iTunes, and is available to be pre-ordered at $7.99. Not a bad price, and I was almost tempted to order it straight away. Instead I thought that I’d just have a quick look around and see where else it might be.

Then I also found in on the Chaos Music website. I haven’t used them fr ages, but I’ve known about them for a while and it was the first place that I thought of.  On their site, I could pre-order the real CD and get free shipping if I ordered before March. Sounded like a good deal, but I hear you asking “what was the price of the CD there????” Well, I’m happy to report that the price for the real CD, complete with free shipping, was $5.99.

That’s right. It would cost me $2 LESS to buy a real phyisical copy of the EP then it would to be a virtual copy that I had to download.

This is why it always pays to shop around! As much as I do enjoy Apple products and services, it’s instances like this that do leave a bad taste in my mouth. There’s no possible reason that a digital download can be more expensive then a real CD. The artist still gets the same royalties, there’s no CD to master/manufacture/distribute, and (supposedly) no third party markups from distributors around the country.

So the next time that you are looking for some new music, don’t forget your local retailer, and even the local online stores! Not only are you making sure that you get the best deal, you are also helping the little guys. Don’t always trust that the biggest and easiest way is going to be the best, because sometimes it isn’t.