Welcome to Midnight Void

Updates to M-Void

Once again I've started on my infrequent attempts to update the site style. One try over the summer met with failure after the drive on my old testing-server at home died completely.

I definitely intend to make a better stab at it this time though.

DVDs: A suggestion

Making people wait for DVD releases is a pain. Or, more accurately, it's a holdover from older days. That's my opinions, anyway.

Obviously the companies involved would disagree. They want to make maximum money out of a property, so why release something "Good Enough" early when it would stop people buying the "Full Product" later?

Well, maybe 'cos these days it really pisses people off.

1 - Movies
Who honestly has time to go to the cinema for every movie release? I know I sure don't. Plus, more importantly, I don't currently have any people to go with. And solo cinema trips are both dull and stressful. Being on my own in a room full of complete strangers? Bugger that! I just want to see the story. Especially fims which get reveiwed on sites I follow, but have a UK release weeks (or months) after the US release.

2 - Anime
I like Anime, especially in the original Japanese through the use of English subtitles. So a show gets licensed. We then have to sit though at least half a year before even the first episodes come out.

Mainly what takes the time is the English Dialogue version. When i only care about the subtitled version that involves waiting for a process to be completed that I won't even care about.

But in the DVD situation I have an idea. Of course seeing it's great for the customers and eats profits a little I bet it'll never fly.

Slimline Quick Releases

Think about it:

For movies having the film come out on a cheap DVD/VHS whilst still in the cinemas - though maybe a few weeks in to placate the beancounters. No surround sound. No special features - except HOH Subtitles. Heck, even minimal chapter-stops. Oh, and no inflated price-tag.
But for people who just want to see the damn film, they can. And legitimately. And when the full-featured DVD comes out you'll still get a bucketload of sales. Mianly for the extra features.

Then for Anime why not release a sub-only similarly-limited DVD as soon as you've got the script done. Don't penalise/turn-off the people who prefer subtitles. Plus waiting half a year or more simply for the first episode of a series you're halfway through (or more) is a pain. It might give lower profits but I'd sure pay for a sub-only DVD of the rest of a series I've addicted to. But sometimes by the time the latter half of the series comes out I've either lost interest or simply don't have the funds available.

If someone doesn't buy your DVD it doesn't matter whether it'd because they've got a copy off the Internet or down the market, or whether it's because they simply gave up waiting and decided not to watch it at all. Both are sales lost due to making people wait longer than they want to.[*]
Give the customers what they want when they want and more people will actually spend their money.

[*] Personally I'd suspect the latter of being more of a "lost" sale - in some cases anyway. People who obtain copes through other means may well not have intended on ever paying to watch, os it's not a "lost sale" as it never would have been a "sale". But someone who loses interest is a lost sale, as they were probably waiting for the legit copy.

Music, Media, and Copyright

A Change in Direction for the Void

I've been neglecting the Void for ages. Plus as I have a Livejournal, i don't really need to make general comments. If I bother do make any at all, I tend to put them there.

So, as a result, I'm putting in a slight change of focus for the M-Void Rantspace. I'm gonna be commenting on music, and copyright, and stuff like that. yes, everyone and their cat has already spoken their opinions, but the more voices out there the more chance there is of people realising that the current system is flawed.

It's long overdue, but there's a new rant up at JADED.

Found on Slashdot... (author unknown)

There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.

Tales from Chaos Central

The Thomas Danby Office here at the Pakistani Centre has now got some new office furniture. Now it's all set up, it actually looks pretty good. But getting to the current state was... eventful, to say the least.

Why do things never seem to go straightforward?

Although I support the classroom PCs and not the office ones, I am someone onsite who's good with computers. So I was asked on Wednesday to disconnect all of the PCs on Thursday, ready for when the people would be coming to clear out the old furniture.
Simple. Until I turned up on Thursday morning to be told that they'd just found out we were first on the list or centres being done, and we needed to empty out now. So I was rapidly disconnecting 2 PCs at the same time as the Admin Staff were clearing the desks and workmen were disassembling shelves.

On Friday, when the desks were delivered and fitted, it soon became apparent that the measurements were wrong. It wasn't the furniture people's fault, though. They were given the measurements by whoever fromt he college did it. They would have measured them as part of the package, however, and then made sure that everything fitted.
Not good.

By 3pm we'd all had enough and were stressing big-time. So we cleared off home.

Yesterday (Monday) things slowly started to pull together. We worked out what needed to go where. College sent a joiner around to cut bits out of the desks to fit against the wall around pipes and radiators. I reconnected the computers, meaning they had access to those things again.
By the time I went home at about half-four yesterday afternoon, it was acutally starting to look good.

Local Bus Route Changes

One of the neighbours just dropped around with a photocopy of some local bus information. They'd been keeping it very quiet, but it seems that the information is on West Yorkshire Metro's website.

163/164/165/166
Arriva Yorkshire

26 Jan

Leeds - Garforth - Kippax - Castleford

The existing services will be withdrawn and replaced by new services 164/166 between Leeds, Kippax and Castleford. The services will no longer serve Chapel Street, Cross Green Lane and Green Lane and are re-routed on journeys into Leeds via Boar Lane instead of The Headrow. The 164 service operates via York Road and Selby Road direct to Kippax, omitting Garforth, and service 166 will operate via York Road, Cross Gates Road, Station Road, Ring Road Halton and Selby Road, serving Garforth via the route of the previous service 164 . The service frequency is increased with four journeys per hour from Leeds to Castleford (two via Garforth) and four journeys per hour from Leeds to Kippax only (two via Garforth). Journeys which terminate in Kippax operate via Leeds Road and High Street to Kippax Memorial. The evening and Sunday service operates via the revised service 166 route with a new timetable.

This is going to affect quite a lot of people, and it seems they were trying to rush it by without letting too many people know.
I guess that plan failed then!

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