Delicious LiveJournal Links for 1-4-2009

[andrewducker]

• Spotify - free, legaL, music
  True, there are apparently ads, but I haven't heard one yet. And it seems to have most mainstream music - and a fair bit of non-mainstream too. Ooh - you can bypass the invitation process and sign up here: https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
  (tags: music free streaming)
• Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse
  AOL just shut down over a terabyte of user websites, with 4 weeks notice, sent via email (which a lot of people seem to not received). I hope you have backups of any websites you run...
  (tags: internet web computing data community hosting)
• Denmark's resilient mortgage market
  Interestingly different to other models
  (tags: economics mortgages housing denmark)

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the Economist on Danish mortgages - I haven't got as far as reading this week's edition - I'm still working my way through the Christmas issue!

One of the things I really don't get about the British housing market is the absolute belief that home ownership is the be all and end all. Other European countries have much more rented accommodation, and people don't worry about it. Here, if you don't own property, people think there is something wrong. It may come down to property rights - I think tenants in the UK have fewer rights, and rolling short-term leases with no assurance of long term residency. Which suggests to me that we haven't got balance of the legal responsibilities and rights sorted out properly.

[andrewducker]

The advantage to mortgages is protection from inflation, and not having to pay any rent when you retire. There are obvious disadvantages of course.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

Is spotify better than Last.fm?

[andrewducker]

See the post I made earlier today...

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

doh :)

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

oh! I think I see - you can chose which specific full length song to listen to, rather than a genre or tag.
or, as one blog put it I just read "It’s just like Last.fm, but without the social crap."

[andrewducker]

Give it a go - it just works :->

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

oh if you insist. My dad is going to go mental at the amount of cr*p I've installed on his laptop.. :D

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

God, do you have ridiculously mainstream tastes? This has very little I like to listen to on it - eg, only 3 Neko Case tracks, not even a full Dar Williams album. And I was kinda hoping for Mwng by the Super Furries... oh well, there's just about everything else.. oh look, Katy Perry album, excellent :>

[andrewducker]

Nope - as I said it's missing a lot of indie stuff. But it didn't seem worthwhile listing all the bands I like that are missing. The lack of Coptic Rain, most Fish albums, Winterkalte, Velvet Acid Christ, etc. was hardly a surprise to me :->

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

Sorry, yes you did say that, I've spent the day sobbing in my room so I have clearly not been reading thngs thoroughly! I think this will be very handy for when I want to listen to big label stuff, and it really is fantastically designed, but sadly I need my folk/bluegrass/country fix :D

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Looks like Spotify just redirects that link to https://www.spotify.com/en/invitation/, so I can't get in without an invite.

Do you collect invite codes like with gmail and then give them out, or is it just something where you sign up and they invite you in eventually?

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Never mind, I wasn't paying enough attention initially. I believe that the service isn't available in the US yet, hence why I can't bypass the invitation system.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Reposted from the other thread in case anyone's interested and misses it there. You can bypass the invitation system if you register via a proxy:

1) go to
http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/

2) enter the following URL:
https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/

3) Create your account. You need to enter a UK postcode, any will do the trick.

4. Download the client.

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

Oh, cheers for the Spotify thing, I've been wondering how to get an invitation!

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

And also, thanks for the link to Spotify. So far, I'm impressed - it seems better than Last.fm.