torarnv's dashboard

A comment on the question "How can I close my limited account when I'm no longer living in the country it's valid for?" in PayPal:

Thanks Jason, I'll e-mail you right away! – torarnv, on July 14, 2009 19:47

torarnv asked a question in PayPal on July 14, 2009 15:46:

How can I close my limited account when I'm no longer living in the country it's valid for?

I lived in the US for a short while, and created a US PayPal account, but never got around to confirming my location, so my account is limited. I now live in Norway, with no chance of "confirming my location", since I don't live in the US anymore (doh), and I can't close the account since it's limited.

This would be fine if it wasn't for the multiple e-mails I receive each week about "Your PayPal funds are now eligible for withdrawal.", referring to my 0.5$ or something that's in my account.

I've tried e-mailing and calling PayPal about this several times, but all I get back is machine-generated replies of the type "oh, your account is limited you say, then please go to the website to confirm your location", completely ignoring the fact that I _can't_ verify a location I don't live anymore.

I can't:

- change/remove the e-mail (since it's limited)
- change the country
- verify my location (since I don't live in the US anymore)
- close the account (since it's limited)

How can I close this account for good, so that I can get on with my life and get rid of the weekly PayPal spam?

Thanks!

A comment on the idea "Please normalize whole albums, not tracks." in Spotify:

@nicolasso

Great, then we agree. The symbol "!=" is computer speak for "not equals". – torarnv, on March 13, 2009 17:34

A comment on the idea "Please normalize whole albums, not tracks." in Spotify:

@nicolasso

normalization != audio compression, data compression != audio compression. – torarnv, on March 13, 2009 17:14

torarnv replied on March 13, 2009 15:52 to the idea "Please normalize whole albums, not tracks." in Spotify:

There's an option to turn of normalization now, please use that if you care about the original dynamics of the recording.

torarnv replied on February 04, 2009 18:03 to the problem "Sound is very flat and empty" in Spotify:

Seems the update is out, and the features we tested are included. Sweet!

I wish to thank the entire Spotify team for listing to us, and for resolving this issue in a very good way.

Keep up the good work!

torarnv marked one of Peblin's replies in Spotify as useful. Peblin replied to the idea "Organize favourite music in a library.". torarnv and 13 other people think it's one of the best replies.

A comment on the problem "Sound is very flat and empty" in Spotify:

@Carl-Axel

I'd like to echo Jens' request to be included in the test panel. He's had a vital role in describing the problem, and should be the perfect candidate for evaluating a possible solution.

He was also #17 to sign up, out of 20 spots :) – torarnv, on January 21, 2009 00:20

A comment on the problem "Sound is very flat and empty" in Spotify:

Perfect Carl-Axel, thanks a bunch for following up on this! :)

My username is "torarnv"

Also, I'm pretty sure Jens would like to participate, but I don't know his username. – torarnv, on January 20, 2009 16:00

torarnv started following the idea "Favorites/bookmark and browse functionality" in Spotify.

torarnv marked one of trify's replies in Spotify as useful. trify replied to the idea "Organize favourite music in a library.". torarnv and 5 other people think it's one of the best replies.

torarnv started following the idea "Organize favourite music in a library." in Spotify.

torarnv started following the idea "Adding support for virtual musiclibraries in Spotify" in Spotify.

torarnv replied on January 15, 2009 18:35 to the idea "Please normalize whole albums, not tracks." in Spotify:

Not sure what you mean Lars. As I understand it Spotify normalizes each track dynamically on playback, based on the average RMS of a set of tracks.

The low volume of Spotify suggests that this set of tracks is pretty big, and includes both high RMS-tracks like most pop tracks and low-RMS tracks such as jazz.

Are you suggesting that normalization should be changed to be based on the average RMS of the set of tracks from each album?

If that's the case, it would of course be an improvement to the current situation, since a pop album would not be affected by a jazz album, but you would still have the situation you describe where a few tracks on the album are low RMS. Those few tracks would bring down the volume of that album.

A visual guide to how this works (imagine the four example tracks are all from the same album):



So, while album-based normalization is clearly better than what we currently have, allowing users to selectively disable normalization completely would still be a must-have-feature.

My two cents :)

torarnv replied on January 15, 2009 18:24 to the question "volyme" in Spotify:

Please please please Spotify, please provide an option to disable the normalization.

As others have noted, normalization based on the RMS of a wide range of sources will basically lower the number of bits used for the tracks with an over average RMS, which will in turn increase the noise floor when people adjust their amplifiers to compensate (not to mention all the people who are maxing their sound card amplifiers already and don't have that option).

A visual guide:



If it's punch and power for your advertisements you want, just compress/limit the hell out of them and I can assure you they will cut through the music -- radio stations are doing this every day (and they usually compress the whole stream, including the music, so you would even have and advantage here since you, hopefully, don't compress our precious audio material).

As for paying users the advertisement argument is effectivly moot, so there I see absolutely no reason not to provide that check-box, unless you actually did destructively process the audio files.

Please consider these arguments, and if you have the time comment on them that would be an added bonus :)

Thanks!

torarnv replied on January 15, 2009 18:23 to the question "Very low volume using Spotify, but not any other software." in Spotify:

Please please please Spotify, please provide an option to disable the normalization.

As others have noted, normalization based on the RMS of a wide range of sources will basically lower the number of bits used for the tracks with an over average RMS, which will in turn increase the noise floor when people adjust their amplifiers to compensate (not to mention all the people who are maxing their sound card amplifiers already and don't have that option).

A visual guide:



If it's punch and power for your advertisements you want, just compress/limit the hell out of them and I can assure you they will cut through the music -- radio stations are doing this every day (and they usually compress the whole stream, including the music, so you would even have and advantage here since you, hopefully, don't compress our precious audio material).

As for paying users the advertisement argument is effectivly moot, so there I see absolutely no reason not to provide that check-box, unless you actually did destructively process the audio files.

Please consider these arguments, and if you have the time comment on them that would be an added bonus :)

Thanks!

A comment on the problem "Sound is very flat and empty" in Spotify:

Thanks Jens! You are right about the raising of volume, I realized the mistake myself just after going to bed.

Here's an updated visual guide:



Hope the image hosting stays up.

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting – torarnv, on January 14, 2009 06:55

A comment on the question "volume" in Spotify:

Updated visual guide:



Hope the image hosting stays up.

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting – torarnv, on January 14, 2009 06:53

torarnv replied on January 14, 2009 02:15 to the question "volume" in Spotify:

A visual guide to what this is all about:

torarnv made a comment on "Sound is very flat and empty", but it was removed. see the change log