Stephen Fry – Getting Overheated

20 Tuesday Nov 2007

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The brilliantly funny and hugely intelligent Stephen Fry has started to publish a blog (http://stephenfry.com/blog/).  Like Stephen’s other work it is both very observant and literate at a level that makes me feel like a monkey bashing a keyboard.

Stephen’s latest blog (Getting Overheated) entry looks at recent event that occurred whilst filming in America, and from that to the arguments for and against global warming. It is brilliantly reduced to a single point – regardless of which side you fall, are you prepared to gamble the current global climate and the possible risks of climate change to be able to say – told you so? If the climate change predicators are wrong, well egg on face, and we may have made our fossil fuels last a bit longer. If they’re right, well we’re all still here along with hopefully a few other species as well.

 

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KGSR Broadcasts

19 Monday Nov 2007

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 KSGR is a radio station in Austin, Texas I’d not heard of before (unlike the amazing KCRW) until hearing about it on a forum.  However KGSR, like KCRW and others records special studio sessions with bands (and has the potential to be very interesting given SXSW).  Highlights from these sessions are then compiled into a limited ‘Broadcasts’ double CD which are sold to raise money for a charity.  They can be purchased through Waterloo Records & Video at $20.  The only downside is that according to Waterloo for shipment to the UK you can add at least another $8.

The current ‘Broadcasts’ includes performances by names like Gomez, Calexico, Ryan Adams to name just a few.

 

Albums of the year

19 Monday Nov 2007

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As we’re into the last month of the year for publishers, the annual craze of compiling lists of the best albums/singles/gigs/widgets/insert your own list of things of the year is upon us.  Rather than trying to compile my own list, and trying to justify why my choice is right I thought Large Hearted Boy had a good solution – he is compiling a list of all the lists (here), just checkout the list(s) you think may favour your musical preferences, and flame out the others (if you dare).

Largehearted Boy: 2007 Year-End Online Music Lists

 

1000 albums to hear before you die

16 Friday Nov 2007

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The Guardian are running a series of five supplements from this Saturday (17th November) which detail what they believe should the 1000 albums that you should hear before you die.  You can get a little more information here.

 

The Guardian are also publishing the list online if you want to see what they say.

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Moby’s next album

16 Friday Nov 2007

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Moby’s next album, which I believe has been in the ‘can’ as they say in Hollywood for a little while has now been scheduled for release in March coming.  The album, is reportedly going back to his more dance orientated (rather than chill out) routes.  If the shaven headed one tours the album, it will make for some exciting/clubby gigs.

On the subject of Moby, it would seem that press are slowly picking up on the fact he has been making some new music freely available for download for indie film makers to use.

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Kate Bush announces new material!

14 Wednesday Nov 2007

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According to the NME (Kate Bush announces new material – NME.COM) the very unprolific Kate Bush is releasing new material.  unfortunately it is only one new song for the film The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.  The song will be used with the closing credits of the film.

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Delays – Love Made Visible

13 Tuesday Nov 2007

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The Delays are back with a new EP as previously mentioned. I now have my copy of the limited CD run.  I have to say – we’re pleased with what we are hearing.  Love Made Visible continues with the Delays signature high vocal harmonies with an upbeat rhythm, bright splashy guitars and synth fills.

The EP comprises for five tracks of which for are new songs and the fifth is a radical remix of the title song, so radical you might as well consider  it as a new song in its own right.

The title track pounds a long at a fair rate carrying you with it.  If this had been released earlier in the year and we’d had a good summer then I think it would have been successful reminding us of those brighter days and correspondingly a hit.  Sadly the weather was poor here, and the EP has only just been released in November. 

Panic Attacks and Slow Burn, slows down the tempo, and have a more Autumnal feel to them dealing with less cheery subjects than love.  You See Colours, the title of the last album, moves back to a brighter feel with a stronger synth presence. This leads us into the Together We Make A City (Love Made Visible) which takes the vocal from the title song and lays it onto a chilled out synth base with real stabbing blasts of keyboard and what could almost be a sample of Moby’s Go in the background – brilliant stuff.

Recommended listening.

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One Little Chip Will Change the Way You Share Pictures

13 Tuesday Nov 2007

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Wired have an interesting article on the arrival of a new application of the SD card (Eye-Fi: How One Little Chip Will Change the Way You Share Pictures). The combining of WiFi with an SD interface and form is a neat solution.  In terms of cameras, this is brilliant for those point and shoot moments (as you’re more likely to be in a location with WiFi readily available, not to mention not overly concerned about finessing your picture in photoshop).  Going from camera lens to your Flickr account in seconds.   For the pro photographer, the device still has huge potential if developed – imagine this partnered with an iPod like 80GB hard disk device – the need to buying ever larger media cards are gone as the photos can be transferred to a heavier large storage device in your camera bag.

But the application could easily extended to breath life into older PDAs without WiFi by presenting the receiving end of the wireless connection as a the content of a mass storage device.

 

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Virtual Palm OS on your Nokia Internet Tablet

13 Tuesday Nov 2007

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Engadget are reporting (Virtual Palm OS on your Nokia N-Series tablet — hoozah! – Engadget) that a Virtual Machine of the Palm OS developed by Access is available to run on a Nokia 770 and later.  As a free solution, this is great news as it will allow the tablet to be to move closer the the PDA role many want to use their N770 for (there is personal organiser software out there but the Palm OS offers a lot more in terms of Windows integration) as well as a lot of robust product standard solution software.

The question has to be, what is the price of the Virtual Machine in terms of performance overhead.

If the usability and performance of the virtual machine is good then this can only help Nokia try and poach more Palm OS users to the N series.

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Quote of the day…

12 Monday Nov 2007

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We may not achieve transcendence through computation, but we will keep ourselves out of the gutter with them. What you perceive of as a vacuum is an earthy paradise – the freedom to, quite literally, line-by-line, prevent humanity from going nonlinear.

Douglas Coupland – Micro-serfs