Opening Hours

Just had a holiday in Rouen, France for a week, and it’s great to see that nearly all retail stores, do not open on Sunday, except for the small local supermarket, which is open for an hour or 2 to allow people to get fresh bread etc. I also noticed that not all restaurants open either on Sunday. This makes for a far better way of life, as it means that families can spend time together, and that retail employees get at least one day off a week.

It would be really great to have a situation like this in England, but I suspect as a country we have become used to the fact that supermarkets etc. are open 7 days week, to cater for our each and every need. Maybe one day change will happen?

Clothing Sizes

Went shopping yesterday for a new pair of Jeans. I thought it would be easy, but no it wasn’t. Went in to 2 retailers and one had nothing in my size - 30inch wasit, 29inch/small leg length, and the other had one colour, and I wasn’t sure whether the colour was a good one and whether it would suit me. Naturally this left me rather angry that 2 retailers had a very bad range of clothing for short men.

It seems to me that if you are around a height of 5 foot 4 inches it is harder to find clothing that fits, and it some stores near on impossible, this seems to be the same in France, when I go in to clothing chains in France I like, finding my size is impossible. Its time that retailers stopped discriminating against people of my size, and started to sell clothing that fits us. after all there are a lot of us about - where I work there are 6 to 8 of us, who are around 5 foot 4 inches tall, which leads me to think that it is not just me who has a problem.

What do you think? Comments welcome.

Apple Tax

Read an interesting article at cnet news which suggests that Microsoft think that when you buy an Apple computer you pay an Apple Tax. The article can be read here http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10064580-75.html

I’m not sure what to make of the idea of an Apple Tax as I am sure that when you purchase a PC you need to buy extras such as anti-virus software, spyware blockers, etc, software that is not essential on a Mac.

What do you think? Comments welcome.

More Digital Rights Management

I have been reading recently, that Norway is not happy with the way the iTunes store is run, due to the fact that anything you purchase can only be viewed / listened to on your computer, or an iPod / iPhone. As I understand it the reason this is, is due to Fair Play - Apple’s DRM system. Apple have stated in the past that they would like to offer everything DRM free, yet the record labels, except for EMI and numerous independents who let Apple sell music DRM free, refuse to licence DRM free music to Apple.

I think the time has come for countries that want to let people play purchased content on any music / video device to say to the record labels that if you want to sell your music digitally in our country it must be DRM free, so that you can play your music on any device you choose.

Alternatively if the record labels still want to sell music with a DRM encoded in to the file then they should work with all the music player vendors to come up with a common DRM system so that your purchases can work on any player / PC.

Hopefully one day soon there will be a working solution to the DRM conundrum.