Spotify Comes to US

If you're under 40, you probably know what Spotify is. You may be waiting for an invitation for the free version of the music streaming service or you may have decided to pay for a subscription to obtain immediate access. If you're an old guy like me, you might not know what a Spotify is unless, like me, you pay attention to music. In that case, you probably want to know more, too. Cutting to the chase, Spotify is a European music service that was started in 2008 in Sweden. Now Spotify has come to the United States.

Pandora, probably the best known music streaming service in the US, recently conducted an initial public offering (IPO) and was, according to most analysts, far overvalued. The entrance of Spotify has to be worrisome to Pandora's managers.

Pandora has generally been considered to be the best music streaming service in the US. Even so, I've never signed up for the paid Pandora service. That means I hear an occasional commercial. Occasional. Not like commercial radio where you may encounter close to 10 minutes of ads in a row.

But after just a short time with Spotify, I'm fairly sure that I'll sign up for the $5/month plan when my 30-day free premium account expires. Spotify's head of communications, Alison Bonny, arranged for the free sample when I begged for the opportunity to jump over the line of people waiting for invitations. The account Alison provided would allow me to stream music on my cell phone if I had a cell phone that was modern enough to understand streaming music. Premium accounts carry a $10 monthly charge. The $5-per-month unlimited streaming account takes care of everything I need.

The options: Free, Unlimited, and Premium

Click for a larger view.Spotify provides access to a library of more than 15 million songs and when I installed the Spotify player it located the thousands of tracks I have on the computer. Even though I've removed Itunes (good riddance!) Spotify found all the Itunes selections on my computer and plays it.

One of the big differences between Spotify and defending champion Pandora is that if you ask for John Prine Spotify will give you John Price. Pandora will give you John Prine and then artists who are similar to John Prine (Kris Kristofferson, Gordon Lightfoot, Carlene Carter, Marty Robbins, Bobby Bare, and maybe Waylon Jennings). There's nothing inherently good or bad about either approach but if you have specific tracks in mind, Spotify is the right choice; if you want to identify new artists you'll like, Pandora might have the edge.

Click for a larger view.If you're interested in new music, you can see what's new in the US and 7 other countries (below). Occasionally you'll run across a selection that's not licensed to be played in the United States via Spotify but if you have that selection on your computer you can import it.

Spotify is available in 8 countries: USA, UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Netherlands, and Spain. The service currently has more than 10 million registered users and nearly 2 million are paying subscribers.

Click for a larger view.Finding What You Want

I mention 1968 because it was one of the worst years in the history of the United States but I remembered it as a year of uncommonly great music. As I spent an afternoon listening to 1968 I decided that there was a lot of great music that year. But there was also a lot of dreck.

5 CatsSpotify will change the way we listen to music

For $5 per month (or $10 if you want mobile access) you'll have commercial-free access to the music you like. The selection is amazing and the ability to play what you want when you want it seems to eliminate the reasons for music "piracy".
For more information, visit the Spotify website.

Are Internet Explorer Users Stupid?

Another tech writer (hats off to Kim Komando) quoted a report by "a company" (conveniently not identified) that "took a look at intelligence tests grouped by browser preference. It found that Internet Explorer 6 users have an average IQ score of 80." The conclusion seemed more than a little suspect so I tracked down the source.

The conclusion that browser choice is indicative of the user's IQ is a good example of faulty data analysis. I know several people who use IE (not always as a result of their choice) who nonetheless are highly intelligent. Those who use IE by choice aren't necessarily dimwits, either. Technologically unaware, perhaps, but that has nothing to do with IQ.

I posit that the larger the group, in a case like this, the lower the overall IQ. That's little more than a conjecture, but it seems reasonable enough. So by virtue of the fact that IE is used by something like 80% of Windows users this would make the user group the largest pool of browser users.

Additionally, people who are more willing to explore alternatives would seem to be those with higher-than-average intelligence. Opera is the browser with the smallest number of users (at least among what should be considered the the "major" browsers). So it seems logical to me that the IQs of Opera users would skew higher simply because most of those who select that browser will have done so for highly specific reasons following a significant amount of analysis.

Who Made This Claim?

The report came from OptiQuant, a Vancouver-based psychometric consulting company. The company offered free online IQ tests to more than 100,000 people and then plotted the average IQ scores based on the browser on which the test was taken.

According to a news release from the OptiQuant, "Internet Explorer users scored lower than average on the IQ tests. Chrome, Firefox and Safari users had just a teeny bit higher than average IQ scores. And users of Camino, Opera and IE with Chrome Frame had exceptionally higher IQ levels."

OptiQuant has placed the complete report online.

Figure 1

Here's what the company has to say about the graphic: "Average IQ scores for each browser were calculated. Some interesting observations were made, as seen in Figure 1. There was a clear indication from the date that the subjects using any version of Internet Explorer ranked significantly lower on an average than others. Out of all the IE versions; subjects using IE 8 faired a little better. No significant difference in the IQ scores of subjects using Chrome, Firefox and Safari was noticed, however these subjects had, on an average, a higher IQ score than the IE users. Individuals using Opera, Camino and IE with Chrome Frame scored a little higher on an average than others. In addition, the results were compared to another unreleased study of a similar nature undertaken in year 2006. The comparison clearly suggests that more people on the higher side of IQ scale have moved away from Internet Explorer in the last 5 years."

This was followed by more psycho-babble and funny lines on a graph:

Figure 2

Again I quote OptiQuant: "From the graph in Figure 2, one can see that in the 0 percentile group (the group with the lowest IQ score) about 34% of the subjects use IE version 7.0 and this usage comes down to less than 4% in subjects with a 99 percentile (the group with the highest IQ score). Similarly IE version 6.0 comes down from about 12% to 0% as we move from left to right on the IQ scale. In a sharp contrast Opera, IE with Chrome Frame and Camino go from 0% to 10%, 6% and 3% respectively, implying that individuals with a higher IQ score use them."

The study's conclusion is one of the more biased summaries I've seen outside of Fox News. Again I quote:

"The study showed a substantial relationship between an individual’s cognitive ability and their choice of web browser. From the test results, it is a clear indication that individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers. This hypothesis can be extended to any software in general, however more research is needed for that, which is a potential future work as an extension to this report.

It is common knowledge, that Internet Explorer Versions to 6.0 to 8.0 are highly incompatible with modern web standards. In order to make websites work properly on these browsers, web developers have to spend a lot of unnecessary effort. This results in an extra financial strain on web projects, and has over the last decade cost millions of man-hours to IT companies. Now that we have a statistical pattern on the continuous usage of incompatible browsers, better steps can be taken to eradicate this nuisance."

"It is common knowledge" equates to the Pravda (Truth) and Izvestia (News) Cold War claims that typically began this way: Как известно каждому школьнику ("As is known to every school child.") Any claim that begins this way is essentially meaningless because it omits any reference or proof of the claim. On the contrary, as is well known to this website developer, Internet Explorer 8 and 9 are not my preferred platforms but they don't force me to spend any additional time to make my sites work. IE 5 and 6? Well, that's a different story.

And Now the Surprise that Isn't a Surprise

Slate blew the whistle: "A website posing as a legitimate research company managed to fool many major media outlets last week with a false report that users of Microsoft Internet Explorer have lower IQs than users of other Web browsers."

Who fell for it? "CNN, NPR, CNET, London’s Daily Mail, Forbes, and BBC were among the many outlets that ran stories citing the report." TechByter Worldwide was in the process of citing it, too, but (as you've already seen) calling the legitimacy of the study into question.

You can't always believe everything you read. And that's doubly true on the Internet.

Here's a New Way to Steal Your Identity

The e-mail said that a Hotel incorrectly charged my credit card $1423. (Geeze, that's too close to 1234 isn't it?) Because the hotel is no longer accredited by the company, I need to contact my bank to get my $1423 back. How? Easy: Just fill out the attached form. The form is a Zip file. Chances are pretty good that just opening the file would infect your computer -- or try.

But there's no reason that something like this should ever trick you.

Click for a larger view.Look all of the blind-copy addresses. You normally won't see BCC information. That is, after all the purpose of blind-copy. But the fraudster who wrote the program that sends the spams didn't know how to construct a proper BCC. If you see something like this, you'll know immediately that it's a fraud so don't bite.

But let's say that the fraudster got that part right and the message appears to be just for you.

"Dear Client!"
Wouldn't the company that charged $1423 to your Visa card know your name? "Dear Client" or your e-mail address or anything other than your exact name is a warning sign.

"Transaction: Visa 1819_6XFdU"
Is this supposed to be a transaction number or a credit card number? If it's supposed to be a credit card number, you should see the LAST 4 digits of your card. If it's a transaction, be aware that Visa transactions don't look like that.

"We are sorry to inform you that on July 26th, 2011 Hotel made an error of transaction from your credit card for an overall amount of $1423."
WHAT hotel?

"Due to the termination of service contract between Hotel Melia Deviana and Moverick Company this Hotel was divested accreditation in our company."
Speak English you backwards do. Real company a in English plain speak would.

"For the return of funds please contact your bank and fill information in the attached form."
No. You would be directed to visit your bank's website if this was a real warning.

"In the attachment you will find expense sheet with the sum of wrong transaction decommissioning.
Company just mediates and bears no responsibility for any money transactions made by Hotel.
Sorry for the inconvenience. We trust you can solve this unpleasant problem."
Just let's lump 3 paragraphs these together. Speak they not as an English speaker, native, would. Not believe them you should.

Click for a larger view.The message claims to come from Genares.com, which seems to be some sort of reservation system but it's one I've never encountered. In fact, the message comes from the IP address 120.59.22.127, which is not currently associated with any domain.

The Easy Solution

If you receive a message that describes an unauthorized charge, ignore any links in the message. Instead, connect to your bank's website or call the number on the back of your credit card. If a problem really exists, your bank's fraud prevention team will be able to help.

But in a case like this, they'll tell you that there's nothing to be concerned about.

Short Circuits

Audio Update

Last week I described the new microphone that's in use for the TechByter podcast. The Cascade Fat Head ribbon microphone arrived in mid week and was immediately put into service. After listening to last week's program I came to the unsurprising conclusion that a few adjustments were needed. Maybe you noticed a low-frequency rumble. It should be gone or at least significantly attenuated this week.

The sensitivity of ribbon mics is legendary and the Fat Head was picking up an acoustic rumble that apparently present in the room. I can see the noise in the wave form and my first attempt to fix it is to suppress frequencies in the vicinity of 63 Hz with Adobe Audition's 30-band graphic equalizer. Audition also offers FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) and that may provide better results.

FFT can produce broad high- or low-pass filters (to maintain high or low frequencies), narrow band-pass filters (to simulate the sound of a telephone call), or notch filters (to eliminate small, precise frequency bands). The third use is what I have in mind.

The other option is Audition's parametric equalizer. Unlike the Graphic Equalizer, which provides a fixed number of frequencies and Q bandwidths, the Parametric Equalizer gives total control over frequency, Q, and gain settings. For example, it's possible to simultaneously reduce a small range of frequencies centered around on frequency, boost a range of frequencies centered around another frequency, and insert a notch filter on yet another frequency.

Stay tuned.

Coins of the Realm

I've been tossing coins into a beer glass for the past couple of years. It's been overflowing for several months so this week I gathered up the coins and took them to the nearby Kroger store where I dumped them into a CoinStar machine. These machines have been around for years but it's the first time I've used one. Maybe you've never used one either.

In the old days you could take coins to a bank. Now some banks have coin-counting machines because teller time is too valuable to be spent counting coins. Most banks and credit unions offer the machines without charge. At commercial machines, you need to pay attention.

The CoinStar machine told me that I could have a cash voucher (but there would be a fee) or apply the value of the coins to a gift certificate at one of several stores or donate the value to a charity. I selected a gift certificate at Amazon.com.

Click for a larger view.After a few minutes of counting, the machine told me that I had $60.16 in coins and rejected 4 quarters (one seemed OK but another was badly damaged and 2 were Canadian), 2 nickels (which seemed OK), a shiny 2001 dime, a penny, and a small scrap of plastic.

The machine reminded me that I had selected Amazon (no fee) but also offered a cash certificate with a nearly 10% service fee. I continued with the Amazon certificate.

A few minutes later the CoinStar machine spit out a summary that showed I had turned in 146 quarters, 180 dimes, 64 nickels, and 246 pennies. The paper also displayed the gift card number.

Click for a larger view.At home, I visited the Amazon website, entered the code, and saw my available balance increase to $60.16.

Two terms come to mind: Quick and Easy. If you've been saving up coins for weeks or months (or years?) this is a quick and easy way to convert them to a form of currency that you can use.