Sunday Links

• Happy Capy Babies Explore Howletts Wild Animal Park Serious faced bebeh capes on ZooBorns
• Retro Future: Space Art Proper spaceships should have curves and fins ...
• Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction, Hudson River Ditching A breath taking simulation of flight 1549 performing an emergency landing in the Hudon river using actual voice recordings of the event
• Basic Self-Defense Moves Anyone Can Do (and Everyone Should Know) (H/T Rachel)
• EVERY DAY IS LIKE SUNDAY The fall of a media tycoon, chronicled by Adam Curtis
• Knuckle Tattoo Generator Handy if you are stuck in prison and out of inspiration
• Terra Cibus Close up photography makes everyday objects look like alien landscapes
• Before and After Shots of Joggers An intriguing (and sweaty) photo project
• Reading the Riot Act Have you ever wondered what reading the riot act actually entailed?
• Bulwer Lytton The very best of bad fiction, 2011
• The Joy of Dullness Intriguingly dull books
• Tasting Dictation App Graham Linehan tries out a new dictation app on Twitter. What could possibly go wrong with that?
• Sherlock Holmes’ ‘Lost’ Martial Art Makes NYC Premiere A bartitsu seminar (hosted by Prof Donnelly) automatically translated into Japanese and back again. Learn the secrets of self invulnerabilty using only a dungeon phone!
• Alien The graphic adaptation for Heavy Metal by Walt Simonson. Astounding.
• Justin Griffith's Atheist / Flying Spaghetti Monster dog tags Standing up as an atheist in the US Army (and what the drill sergeant made of it)
• Rock-Paper-Scissors: You vs. a computer that learns your playing style
• This is the web right now The current state of the art

Annexing the goggie's cushion

Return of the Boo

Haikusday

City of Angels
Burning sun reflected by
Whitened sepulchres

Tail lights shine blood red
Rain beats on monochrome streets
The last case is closed

An unsolved murder
The only clue a single name
Rolo Tomassi

A child of Eden
Lost within the corrupted
Memory of Earth

Tramlines 2011 Day 3

The toll of the weekend was starting to tell, but today was my birthday so I was determined to make the most of the last day of Tramlines. We headed into town again, stopping to get some water and sun cream - essential purchases given the sunny weather. I was very grateful for my new hat to give me a bit of shade.

First up on the new music stage were The Xcerts - indie rock with a bit of a dark edge and plenty of howling feedback and creative use of noise. Good stuff, but we were in the mood for something a bit more mellow so after meeting up with a work colleague we made our way to SoYo for cold beer, cold air conditioning and some acoustic stuff from a singer-songwriter called Lupen Crook - simultaneously dark and amusing, and an accomplished guitarist too. He was followed by Neil McSweeney who packed the place to the rafters and beyond, so we made our excuses and decamped to Bears and Bungalows for chill out music (and more beer).

Back to the new music stage for the final three bands of the day - Errors (yet another Glaswegian band) provided some post rock electro with plenty of keyboard noodling and interesting noises. Good stuff. They were followed by The Ghost of a Thousand for some hardcore punk in one of their last ever performances. It took me a while to get a handle on their sound but when they played a spot on cover of 'Back in Black' it all clicked into place and I could see a clear line from heavy metal to the music they were playing. While we were waiting for the final act of the day, I got chatting to Bri Shaughnessy, the veteran lead singer of Barnsley rockers Seventh Son who was a genuinely nice bloke and also seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the music being played by bands who hadn't been born when he kicked off his career.

Rolo Tomassi had been curating the stage, choosing the bands and I think they did a superb job in bringing a wide range of music to the attention of music fans, young and old. Their closing set was a revelation to me -a mix of etherial introductions and hard core experimental metal with lead singer Eva Spence - a pop pixie with the face of an angel and the voice of Beelzebub gargling razor blades. My goodness, but they were good and an excellent way to close the weekend.

Roll on 2012!

Sunday Links

• Koala Joeys Galore for Australia's Dreamworld Stop the internet, we have a new contender for cutest picture ever on Zooborns!
• Sharks! Watch the World's Largest Shark Tank on Live Webcam
• Two-Headed Animals!
• Drawbridge, California Nathan Kensinger Photography
• Beautiful Swear Words Obscenity plus typography
• Vintage Exercise Machines As interesting for the clothing that people used to wear to exercise as for the machines themselves
• Sesame Street vs The Beastie Boys
• ‪Space Shuttle: The complete missions Every shuttle mission spliced together, with a soundtrack by 65daysofstatic
• ‪A Remote viewing test with Michele Knight‬‏ OoooOOoooOooh - spooky dooky!

Tramlines 2011 Day 2

Day 2 of Tramlines and the sun was shining. We caught the end of Red Track on the World stage playing an unannounced slot, and I managed to find a seat on a bench with a prime view of the stage for Bertie Lee's Blues Explosion - a perfect way to spend half an hour soaking up the sunshine.

It's a short stroll from the Peace Gardens up to Barker's Pool for the New Music stage where were in time to see the unexpectedly brilliant Copy Haho a Scottish four piece with a nice line in self deprecating humour and some killer riffs. The bar was also serving a very acceptable pint of Tramlines Ale, which was a much better bet than the fizzy lager on offer.

We had arranged to meet some friends at a Blues and Ale venue, but we stopped on the way for a perfectly heeyuge bratwurst before making full use of our day tickets for the tram to take us down the hill. More beer was drunk, including a Best Bitter and a well kept Moonshine, and blues was listened to. It was fun to note the much higher percentage of men in hats at this venue, as well as the natty patent leather spats and crocodile shoes sported by the genuine musos.

Back on the tram again to the New Music stage for the mighty Dananananaykroyd - the absolute highlight of the day for me and a band I certainly want to see again. Two vocalists bounced off each and had the crowd jumping along enthusiastically. I was very glad to be a safe distance from the mosh pit.

The final act were Los Campesinos! with a disappointingly flat sound for a nine piece lineup. After a couple of songs from them, we called it a day and headed home, managing to get to the right bus stop at the right time to catch the right bus.

Caturday night's alright for snoozing ...

Tramlines 2011 Day 1

What better way to kick off Tramlines than sitting on a comfy sofa with a nice pint, planning what to see and where to go? Actually, we already knew pretty much what we were planning to do for the first day, so it was just an excuse to drink some beer and chill out for a while.

First venue on the bill was Tiger Works on West Street - a low rent bar with sticky floors, sticky tables and ideas way above its station. As we arrived a band was already playing - I tweeted that the vocalist had a vocal style somewhere between Siouxie and Grace Slick, but lacking the range of either. Interesting rather than electrifying, and I didn't catch the name. Sorry.

Anyhoo, we'd already seen The Velcro Teddybears chatting up the flyer girls outside and enjoying a pre-gig smoke, and it wasn't too long before they kicked off yet another cracking set. Songs of love and loss, regrets, staying in bed too long, thinking things through and then realising that life is pretty good after all is said and done. They closed with a perfect cover of Ooh La La by the Small Faces that had the crowd singing along. Superb - they deserve a much bigger stage than this, and judging by their commitment it won't be long before they get there.

The next venue was The Washington, which has turned into an excellent music pub since the last time I was in there for a lunchtime sandwich. We just caught the end of Volcano before settling down with a pint of Moonshine to watch Scrim who produced a blistering set of rock numbers, including a cover of Foxy Lady. Another name to watch out for I think.

Home after that, and the less said about the vagaries of Sheffield public transport the better.

Podcast Thursday

• Robin and Josie's Utter Shambles is a fairly infrequent podcast, but always delightful when it turns up. In this episode they are joined by Dave Gorman for a discussion that ranges from healthy snacks, to pencil erasers, to pierced nipples and prisoners of conscience.
• Joe Bussard's Country Classics - if you are anything like me, then a music show featuring classic jazz, bluegrass and western swing should be right up your street.

Summer's Almost Gone

... and it hasn't even started yet, not properly.

It felt more like Autumn today when I left work, chilly and with a persistent, drizzly rain. The motorway was hellaciously slow - ridiculously slow compared to this morning - and it took me an hour and twenty minutes to get home. Not good.

I am cross. Again. One bit of bad news that has been buried by the hacking scandal is a squeeze on funding for the Open University, pushing up course fees almost to the stratospheric levels of the bricks and mortar institutions. The Open University is emphatically not about getting pimply faced teenagers into high flying graduate jobs so that they can pay back their debts. It was intended to make education available for all people, whatever their age or financial resources, and is as much about education for self improvement as it is about improving your career opportunities.

No doubt such ideas as being "financially competitive" sound good to a cabinet room full of public school boys who have benefited from a free education at a top university, but to me it stinks and I have had enough.

Haikusday

Could Bridge Farm be closed
By a bug from the Grundy's
Dodgy barbecue?

Press baron summoned
And held to account by those
With whom he has supped

Animal Kingdom
A family ruled by fear
Red in tooth and claw

All day work meeting
Leavened by a nice free lunch
And a post work drink

Sunday Links

• Oregon Zoo's Caracal Kittens, Now Five Weeks Old
• How to deactivate a cat
• the color of find out the average color of anything
• ‪Insulting religion‬‏ is not only right and proper, it is your moral duty
• Never Buy the Sun Free download from Billy Bragg
• Ghostfunk Superb hip-hop/funk mashup
• 10 Fascinating Facts About Phone Numbers No, really!
• Floppy Disks: It’s Too Late We are about to say goodbye to vast quantities of archived data that will soon be lost forever
• Space Shuttle Discovery My god! It's full of controls!
• Space Walks Iconic Photos
• Triple Canopy A superbly presented online photography webzine
• Animated GIFs Triumphant The art and science of producing animated gifs
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Philosophy vs the universe
• Captain America Shield of Justice - a rather cute take on Nazi bashing platform action

On ur stairz, violating ur healf and safety laws

Saturday Boo

Podcast Thursday

Just one podcast of note today - Torchwood - the lost files is a collection of three audio dramas to set the scene for the new blockbuster series starting tonight on BBC1 (or via other means if you are so inclined).

A brief knicker flash

Ahem - I've just got back the result for my last T215 TMA and I feel the need for a little bit of a fanfare here. Imagine a drum roll, if you will, whilst I rustle the hypothetical envelope with result in ... and the score is ... one hundred percent!

Yay!

Roadhouse Blues

A couple of days of rubbish traffic again - yesterday my usual route to the motorway was backed up past the roundabout in the center of Chapeltown and didn't appear to be moving. This was at 7:20 when the roads are usually clear too. I turned round in a side road and went for my plan B route which involves a right turn onto a busy bit of road, which I am not a fan of at the best of times (or even the worst of times). The traffic on the motorway itself has also been heavy recently too - usually the summer months are noticeably easier with people on holidays and better weather.

I did dodge one bullet yesterday when a bad lorry fire closed the motorway for a couple of hours. Fortunately it was on the other carriageway and mostly clear by the time I was on my way home.

This lunchtime I went out for a walk to try and stave off the mid afternoon lethargy that has been plaguing me recently. I ended up going into a pound shop and was tempted by a set of headphones and a retractable us iphone charger cable. The headphones were appallingly bad, but they will do for keeping in my desk drawer for emergency podcast listening purposes. The charging cable is actually quite nifty and does what it says on the tin. Again, useful to have at work in case I ever need it. Can't really complain for the price, I suppose.

Haikusday

Unexpected queue
Forces a U-turn and an
Alternative route

A missing statement
Dropped by a subversion merge
Four hours to resolve

The end of the World
Is not enough to atone
For all of their sins

They mouth platitudes
And promise an inquiry
Kicked in the long grass

The Golden Age of Video

As you probably know, I've recently joined Google Plus as an alternative social network to Facebook. We decided to try out the Hangouts video chat feature last night and managed an excellent half hour chat across three timezones with Audioboo stalwarts Will, Maria, Alex, Nancy, Alan and Pewari and featuring guest appearances from Akrabat and one of Alan's dogs wuffing in the background. Great fun, and technically very slick apart from the slightly irritating way that the focus of the main picture would switch apparently at random (or more likely because we were all giggling with glee at actually putting faces to voices).

In telly news, I can highly recommend Mildred Pierce - a depression era melodrama staring Kate Winslet as a slightly dowdy housewife abandoned by her adulterous husband and left to bring up two young children by herself. She is forced to take a low paid waitressing job simply to earn enough to live on, much to the disgust of her snobbish and precocious elder daughter. The five episode mini-series follows her life through the highs and lows of the times, with an astonishing eye for detail and some great acting from all concerned. Well worth a watch.

Sunday Links

• Eight Tiny Hooves Pigtacular action on ZooBorns (Moar pigginess with the Tiniest Snorfer on Cute Overload)
• Basset Hounds Running Nuff said
• Rupert Murdoch - A Portrait of Satan From Adam Curtis. Also (Between the gutter and the stars)
• Betty Ford (1918 – 2011) Iconic Photos
• Cathedral with Star Destroyers All classic art should have Star Destroyers in it
• Classic Material A blog dedicated to mix tapes (well, mp3 downloads but you know what I mean) of classic hip hop. Well wicked.
• Wonders & Marvels This looks like an interesting blog for anybody interested in history
• Make your own internet out of paper
• Saturn Storm Panoramas From Astronomy Picture of the Day
• 100 things about me and Twitter Grace Dent
• Light the blue touch paper and retire or not, as the case may be ...
• NON-STOP NYAN CAT! How long can you last?

Mah favrit bench

Catching up ...

As Helly has so rightly pointed out, there have been no blog posts here since Tuesday. Bad blogger. Sorry.

Wednesday

So, Wednesday was a upgrade of a test system on a customer site that ended up taking all day (and an extra hour or so after my usual snucking off time) and still wasn't completely finished even then. I was exhausted when I got in and fell asleep on the bed. My what an exciting life I lead.

Thursday

Gosh, weird dreams. It was the usual zombie apocalypse sort of dream, but astonishingly vivid with lots of shooting shambling undead creatures in the head. And werewolves too, for some reason that escapes me. The nice bit was rescuing a little grey kitten from a wrecked house that looked exactly like the one off of the Whiskas advert.

Anyhoo, I was up a bit earlier for to drive to Bradford for a project kick off meeting. Luckily, the traffic was kind and the sat nav on my phone got me there in plenty of time. The meeting finished earlier than expected, and they hadn't provided a lunch (a-boo!) so I treated myself to a Veggie Delite from Subway. Nom.










Podcast Thursday

• The Tugwell Tapes As you may have heard, the famously prolific podcasters Collings and Herrin have had a bit of a falling out recently. Fortunately some of their very earliest radio team ups from 2006 have been preserved for posterity and listening to them again is a slightly bittersweet experience.
• The Perfect One Similarly, Phil and Phill have called a halt to their Perfect Ten podcasts, but they have released a couple of bonus extras that are well worth a listen.
• The Infinite Monkey Cage Another expiring podcast, although it will hopefully be returning before too long. In this episode Prof Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Prof Richard Wiseman, Andy Nyman and Bruce Hood to discuss why people believe in ghosts and the appeal of ghost stories. Spoiler alert - ghosts aren't real ... :-)

Games News

Game Dev Story is on sale at the moment for iOS, and if you haven't already got it then I urge you to go and buy it now, and then set aside a couple of hours to watch your little pixel programmers developing games for you. Aces.

OU News

92% on my last CMA, which I was quite pleased with as some of the questions were very tricky.

Friday

The usual audioboo ...

That's it for the catch-up, and there will be a caturday later, I promise.

Haikusday

Vultures pick the bones
Of a dead schoolgirl, looking
For a good story

Digital soundscapes
Mutable waveforms changed with
The click of a mouse

All of the cool kids
Are hanging out somewhere new
Fuck you Zuckerberg

Doze off on the bed
And wake to find two moggies
Snoozing with me too

Blue Shadows on the Trail

Another disturbed night of sleep, with dreams of looming shadows and deep caverns. I also did my usual trick of waking up at half past five with just enough time to nod off again before the alarm sounded forty minutes later. I'm super croaky again as well, so I think I need to go back to the doctors.

In work news, I was upgrading a customer's test system to the latest release plus a service pack, and found several weird problemettes including a database column that appeared to have disappeared (as it were). Weird.

In OU news, I am comfortably back on track now. I've finished parts one and two of block 5 on digital sound processing (this weeks assigned study) so I can sneak into part 3 on video tomorrow. I'm finding out lots of things that I didn't know how to do with Audacity - it's chock full of clever features. I've only ever used it for trimming the ends off of files and putting fade outs on them.

Sunday Links

• Meerkat Kits at Paignton Zoo! Simples! - ZooBorns
• In slow motion, the surface of a cymbal flops around like a pancake Amaze!
• How a Tibetan singing bowl is making waves in physics
• Know Your Digital Rights! A guide from the Electronic Frontier Foundation - this is US centric, but useful advice all the same
• The Curfew If you are interested in personal digital rights it is worth revisting this game dealing with a future England in the grip of an ultra paranoid surveillance society
• The Ray Harryhausen Creature List‬‏ Every Ray Harryhausen creation ever. Knocks CGI into a cocked hat for sheer artistic brilliance.
• What if "At The Mountains of Madness" was an Italian educational cartoon? Wonder no more.
• Plot Device Just be careful of overusing a plot device
• How not to demolish a building‬‏
• The Marble Caves Patagonia's Sculpted Azure Caverns
• The History of the Space Shuttle An astonishing (and moving) pictorial history
• Tod Browning’s Cult Classic “Freaks” The whole film, available to watch online
• Portal 2 Free music and ringtones!

Fly Like An Eagle

I apologise for the sporadic nature of blogging recently, but it's been a hectic couple of weeks with personal worries, work, my java exam and a long form report to do for my other OU course all colliding at high speed like hadrons Brian Cox's play set in Switzerland. Yowzers.

Anyhoo, I got my TMA submished on time on Thursday night and I am mostly happy with it. It's the closest that I've come to the wire with any of them and I don't think I'll be attempting to do two courses at the same time again in the foreseeable future. The next block looks interesting though - producing and editing a short video to illustrate a topic from the course which should be fun.

In games news, I think I am ready to cut back on Tiny Towers - it's a skinner box of massive proportions with barely no interactivity other than restocking the shops when the notification beep tells you to. Fun while it lasted, but it doesn't have anything like the long term appeal of Pocket Frogs.

As a replacement I picked up Death Rally - a car combat game in the classic Death Race 2000 vein with a good selection of tracks, cars and weapons to play with. I initially wondered why I couldn't manage any better than last place on my first couple of races until I realised that the game has a large element of earning cash and upgrading your car's speed, handling, armour and weaponry to your satisfaction. The default controls are a little twitchy and it is easy to go careening into a wall without meaning to, but switching to a more traditional steering slider improved things no end. It's on sale at the moment and worth picking up, if you like that sort of thing.

In other news, we mooched into town this afternoon with a promise of a food festival and some music, but it turned out to be something of a damp squid. There was only one barbeque stall with not much to choose from, although the sausage sandwich I had was very nice and the mojito to wash it down with was much appreciated on a sultry afternoon. The music wasn't much to write home about either - The Everly Pregnant Brothers were a ukelele band playing comedy versions of various songs with a Sheffield twist. Amusing in small doses, I think, but not worth sitting on cobbles for, for any length of time.

Oh, and we also saw one of these:



Home now and the BBQ is warming up, so happy Saturdays everyone!

No Mr Bond, I expect you to die ...

Friday Night Chew Boo