Rob's personal blog...

The score of Hyrule - 20 years apart

Those of you following my Twitter feed may be aware that I grabbed a copy of the latest instalment in the Zelda universe over Christmas. Whilst obviously overjoyed to be romping through Hyrulian fields once more I was even more impressed with the audio CD that accompanied the game.

The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Special Orchestra disc contains a range of music from the entire Zelda series, rearranged for and performed by a full orchestra! Some of you may also be aware that I aquired a copy of the 2010 Symphonic Legends concert which contains a 30 minute Symphonic poem derived from the various Zelda scores.

I've always had a passion for (good) computer game music, spending hours staring at the title screen of The Legend of Mana and even longer with Donkey Kong Country paused on the aquatic level so I could revel in the 16 bit sound-scape. Being able to listen to the same music with the impact of a classical orchestra is simply magical.

And so you can hopefully understand where I'm coming from here is the original Hyrule Theme from "A Link to the Past"

And here is the orchesteral version of the same. 

I appreciate that these days, consoles are more than capable of supplying rich audio soundtracks in surround sound but I hope you can see that, even with the limitations of the SNES sound chips, the sounds designers and composers of the 16 bit era were able to craft beautiful soundtracks from next to nothing.

(Note: The above clips are © Copyright Nintendo. Any issues concerning the use of these clips should be addressed via email to the address in the sidebar) 

Deputized in the mix - 105

Get your hands up in the air! Finally managed to put together a more progressive mix with some prog house and even some traditional trance stuff. Watch out for a few moments of wimsy throughout and apologies for the rough mix between Zedd & Plastik Funk ... it worked in rehearsal but not on the live mix. Above all else - enjoy...

Amazon - How customer service should work

Having boarded the horrendously busy flight back from the UK I settled into my seat, placed my bag under the seat in front of me, did up my seatbelt, adjusted the blower and then realised that my Kindle was still in my back pocket where it had been hastily stuffed for the short stroll out to the plane.

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And for the sake of 40p, Costa have lost my business for ever

Over the past few months I've gotten into a small routine. Once a week, on the morning when I'm generally feeling less than with it or feeling a little run down, I'll pop into our local Costa coffee and grab a medium cappuccino.

I only do this once a week because a) we have plenty of good coffee at work and b) daily cappuccinos? You think I'm made of money - those things can cost you a fortune! 

But sometimes it's nice to buy a hot drink that someone else has made, with foamed milk and all the trimmings that I can't replicate in the office. And I choose Costa because, for all of their corporateness, they make damn good coffee and that's something that lacking within walking distance of work.

My coffee is always the same - medium cap, extra shot (because I like my coffee stronger than your average bear) and I'm normally served by one of the same two staff members. And every time I buy a coffee I get a little stamp on my loyalty card so that after nine drinks I can get one free.

This week was week ten of the cycle and I had a full card and walked into Costa to claim my free drink, placed my order and slid the full card over the counter. 

"That'll just be 40p please"

It turns out that a new policy is now being enforced whereby the voucher only gives me the right to a 'standard' drink - despite the fact that all of the nine little stamps have been earned by paying 40p over the list price for the extra shot. 

I know it may sound petty, but a company like Costa can afford to be flexible in this regard. Sure the "standard drink" policy is in place to prevent abuse of the offer but I can't see how wanting my freebie to be the same as my normal cuppa can be considered abuse especially considering the fact that the staff know exactly what I order every time.

So I paid my 40p, collected my drink and will never be buying coffee from Costa again.

Now I just have to find a decent coffee shop that's on the way to work ... or buy an espresso machine for the office!

Why HTML5 isn't a replacement for Flash (and isn't likely to be any time soon)

new blog post over at my Techy Blog

It's the little things

Apologies if this blog has turned into a bit of an anti Jersey soap box of late. Maybe I'm getting a bit old and cantankerous, maybe I'm just in a more negative frame of mind but lately I seem to be noticing more and more aspect of life on this green isle that make me stop and gasp at the complete lack of common sense being demonstrated by our mighty leaders.

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Silent Sunday

Finished with Facebook

I've been thinking about this for a while - do I really want to continue to maintain my Facebook account?

The traditional argument has always been that it's useful for someone in my position as a means of staying in touch with friends on the mainland but recently it's become less and less engaging. 

And I have a couple of other options now that fulfil the same needs as Facebook but do it better, faster and with less ickyness.

My big problem with Facebook as an ongoing platform is that lack of control over who sees what. My privacy settings are heavily locked down to protect my digital identity but I want to be able to open up the shutters from time to time to share with a wider audience and I simply can't do it within FB.

I have my Twitter account for imediate posts, 2 x posterous blogs for longer content and the new kid on the block Google+ to fulfil my other social networking needs.

So Facebook is going to be retired. It's served its purpose well but it's time to move on to bigger and better platforms.

Need to know where to find me?

• My Google+ profile
• My Twitter Page
• My personal blog
• My nerdy blog 

Please feel free to add, follow or friend me on any of these platforms and I will reciprocate.

And I'm not nuking my FB account just yet but it will be heading for dormancy in due course.

Election Time ... and I'm not playing

The largest of the Channel Islands is due another round of elections this autumn and last night saw the close of the nomination window.

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The joys of the Jersey Taxation System

Warning - <rant> ahead Despite the fact that the Jersey tax year runs January - January I just got my annual tax return through and, true to form, the States of Jersey have fucked up my tax rate ... again.

Allow me a moment to fill you in on the backwards, shambolic chaos that is the Jersey Taxation system. A few years ago, in order to address the massive numbers of people "slipping through the tax net" the States introduced a monthly payment regime known as ITIS. But, rather than  starting over with a Pay As You Earn system* they decided to settle for assessing last years tax liability and trying to "guess" the rate of your current salary needed to offset this on a month by month basis. In other words Pay As You Earned! So to switch back to the current day, I'm not going to post details of my salary (I'm pissed off, not stupid!) but suffice to say I've been paying 15% tax for the past 6 months and have just been given a new rate of 14% by the tax office based on my 2010 salary / 2011 income ... which will take effect from my July pay packet... and would leave me with a 3 figure shortfall at the end of the year. A quick spreadsheet later and I've worked out that I need to continue to pay 15% for the next 4 months and then increase my rate to 16% for 2 months to almost break even. In fact it leaves me 77 pence in credit. Given that my salary hasn't changed this year (and even if it had they could base the calculation on my salary as declared quarterly) how the hell did they manage to get things this wrong? Fortunately I've been burned by their incompetence in the past and so have managed to avoid having to find a few extra hundred pounds for the tax man at Christmas time. My only remaining question is who do I bill at the States of Jersey for my time spent doing their jobs for them? </rant> * The reason they gave for not switching to PAYEarn  was the risk that they would lose a year of taxation if people left the island despite the fact that it would initially lead to an increase in tax revenue (due to cost of living increases in salaries year to year) and the loss would actually be staggered as people left the island or retired at different times. As things currently stand they face the same staggering effect as, when I were to leave Jersey, I would be left with last year's tax still to pay ... as I said - Chaos!