The other day I came across another interesting website from Spatial Literacy (you know them, they did that Surname Profiler). With this new website you type in your postcode and it tells you where you fit into ‘e-Society‘ (via Ben Metcalfe).

Apparently people in my postcode fall into categories “D : E for entertainment and shopping” and “D12 : Small time net shoppers”.

Group D : E for entertainment and shopping

This Group includes a number of moderately well paid blue collar workers for whom the Internet and personal computing provide important leisure activities. This Group tends to use the Internet not for obtaining information about products or for learning, but rather to provide access to music, games and general entertainment. People in this Group are smart enough to learn new methods of accessing what they want but they are not necessarily interested in technology for its own sake. Besides providing a form of personal relaxation they also see the computer as a resource for family entertainment…

Type D12 : Small time net shoppers

This Type comprises many younger and middle aged men who particularly rely upon the Internet to buy music, books and videos. They are also active Internet purchasers of computer games and of fashion wear. This Type is happy to undertake a wide variety of transactions on the Internet but tends not to be professionally involved in the development of information technology when at work.

It’s all true. There are no decent music shops around here, you see. So I buy a lot of CDs from the internet.

Internet shopping has its dangers though. On the plus side there are no bored / suspicious shopkeepers who pry on your every move. But you never physically see what you’re buying. This makes accidentally ordering an LP instead of a CD is a clumsy click away.

I thought I had got past that stage. I almost always double- and triple-check which format I’m buying. I was looking forward to receiving the goods that I had ordered from Boomkat’s fine summer campaign. But today I woke up to find a 12″×12″ parcel. Doh! I must have been rushing too much when I ordered it.

It’s not that I dislike vinyl. I don’t hesitate to buy a record if it has come out on vinyl only. I do own a turntable, but it’s hardly audiophile stuff. It plays everything too fast. You wouldn’t know unless you had already heard the track. It doesn’t feel faster, but the pitch is noticeably higher. Which is a bit of a pain.

I discovered that I can change the speed of my MP3s in Audacity, but it’s takes bloody ages. Plus I have got used to simply owning my whole music collection on CD with the exception of vinyl-only releases. All of my vinyl tends to be of obscure Team Doyobi 7 inches and Analords and whatnot. Hanne Hukkelberg will stick out like a sore thumb!

Plus, as I say, my record player is crap — I tend to avoid it if I possibly can because listening to it is like looking at a blurry photograph.

So now I have a dilemma on my hands. I could just send the album back and ask to exchange it for the CD, but that’s a pain for several reasons. Firstly, for whatever reason, the CD is actually £1 more expensive than the LP. Then there is the cost of postage (if I understand the explanation on their website, the Royal Mail would make 385 pretty pennies?!?). Add on top of that the plain old hassle of sending it back, and I’m really not sure I can be bothered.

But there it is. A mint, unopened record that I don’t really want. I could sell it on eBay and buy the CD separately. But music is so pretty.