I Used To Be A Respected Scottish Actor

QOTSA are set to return with a new album in March, and they've got a new single on the go just now. I've now seen "Little Sister" 3 times on TV, and am already sold on it (not that I would have taken much persuading where QOTSA are involved).

Sounds to me like a song that would fit nicely on their first album, if it weren't just that bit crisper. Can't wait to hear the rest of it.

On another note, any fans of Fork Kiernan (one of the Chewin' The Fat and Still Game cast and writers, who was also in the Broadband for Scotland ads (and then was charged for road rage)) might be interested in a programme showing on BBC2 in the mornings. Spook Squad lets a team of kids complete Crystal Maze-style games to defeat a ghost. The main ghost in the castle is played in a very laughable way by Ford.

The show is worth mention even without Ford's appearances, as this morning the host had to find out more about their enemy spirit, so he typed her name into "Ghoul-Gle" (like Google). Well I thought it was funny (more funny than a case-sensitive search engine).

A Very Non-PC Solution

After recent device creativity, and a seminar today on iTunes, I've come up with a new product idea - the iPod CD-Dock.

The look of it would be a simple CD walkman (though a bit bigger) with an iPod dock set above it. When you dock the iPod, you can play any music from it (with a screen showing details of the current song and allowing scrolling & selection, much like the iPod's screen) through the connected speakers.

If the iPod isn't present, you can put a CD in the unit (either audio or MP3/WMV/AIFF/etc files) and play the content in much the same way.

But when the iPod is present and a CD is put in, you are given the option of uploading the songs to the iPod. The unit would essentially have a cut-down version of iTunes within it to handle iPod updates and music playback.

This would essentially allow someone who doesn't own a PC to buy an iPod and get near-full use of it. It also means that an iPod can be listened to with a proper stereo (which is also possible with a PC, but adds yet more cost to the system, especially adding remote control support, etc).

The main obstacle that comes to my mind for this is song label creation. The best solution would be to download song names from Gracenote or another CDDB, but getting a net connection is required. Alternatively, ask the user to enter the details (not much fun with a phone-type interface on a remote control!).