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GTA 4: That was- er, what?
Hmm, well it is heavily armoured I
s’pose...
...something wrong with this phone?
Almost made me wonder
whether they were channelling the people that did
this.
Oh, and the answer to the original question? I
matched the location as well as I could using Google
Earth, and it looks like they just put generic
lowrise buildings there. Ah well.
When words fail...
It’s random link time!
First up, Cloverfield condensed. A few other goodies on the main page there too.
Tr2n (Tron 2 for those old enough to have watched the first one in theatres) teaser trailer was bootlegged on a mobile phone at Comicon and looks awesome! The crowd reactions are great too. Oh and you should know I got well and truly repeatedly fricken Rick Rolled looking for the best version there too. The things I put myself through for you, dear reader, you’ve no idea...
Oh and remember that astronaut who came out last week and said UFOs were real? More here. Good on him.
And in other news, one year.
You know you've been playing GTA4 for too long when...
Er, I’m talking in game, not on commute. Tempting thought at times, though...
On the other hand, this guy is just getting silly:
Well, now that's interesting question...
Five New Firefox Features That You Probably Didn't Know About.
Fan Boys.
Oh and just so’s you know, searching for “fanboy” on
YouTube gets some really cringeworthy stuff...
Archives coming online soon.
Disappointing.
I wanted to keep that blog around because it covered my Dad’s final years and other important stuff, but I also wanted to get a little revisionist on it and remove some entries. I’ll leave this as a clue while I work on moving some 200 entries across.
iPhone 3G Day (no, I wasn't asleep.)
Go them.
You may have noticed here that I’m not all gooey about today, and that I didn’t also camp out to gets me one. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think the iPhone is an awesome piece of kit and, to mix metaphors, certainly wouldn’t kick one out of bed for eating crackers were one to fall in my lap, but it’s just not for me right now. Why?
I have a perfectly good - really nice, actually - mobile phone. It’s a Sony Ericsson k800i and for me it’s perfect to the point of being almost excessive. It takes great pictures, syncs perfectly with my Mac’s address book and calendar (from across the room) hell, I probably don’t even know how to drive the advanced features of this phone. What’s more it has the ability to receive and send text messages over thin air, and when it rings, I can talk to other people as if they were right there. Magic! Okay I’ll dial back the sarkiness, you get the idea, then there’s the other half of the functionality...
I have a perfectly good - really nice, actually - iPod. It’s a 5.5 gen 30GB and for me it’s perfect to the point of being almost excessive. It produces great sound & video (we regularly watch movies on the main AV rig using it), syncs perfectly with my Mac’s iTunes music & video, hell I probably don’t even know how to drive the advanced features of this iPod. What’s more it has the ability to carry my entire music collection as well as a backup of essentials from my Mac. Magic! Okay I’ll dial back the sarkiness, you get the idea.
Thing is, with the functionality of these two devices that I own outright, I really can’t see the need to be a bleeding edge iPhone 3G owner. I like them, and I’m almost gleefully waiting for the Apple naysayers to eat their words as it takes the planet by storm, but for me right now an iPhone would just be excessive and extravagant.
I saw today on the news first a story about people doing it tough just to survive current petrol prices, rent and food costs, queueing by the thousand for a charity food handout. This was in Queensland. Not ten minutes later on the same program I saw people queueing for iPhone 3G. In Australia they’ll be paying an absolute minimum of $51/month for 24 months (or close on to $1k for an outright purchase) for something they don’t even need. What’s wrong with this picture?
Yes, technically I’m a hypocrite in saying that since I’ve bought more than my share of unnecessary gadgets, but I like to think I’ve tempered that with giving whatever bit of kit became redundant to someone else who’ll get another few years good use out of it. Been doing it for quite some time now.
I’m not making judgements here (pot - kettle - black) but I just think - for me - it’s a little... um... distasteful to spend so much on something I don’t need. Maybe in a year when the pricing gets sane (and I see good homes for the current kit to go to) I’ll kick tyres, but until then...
Maybe I’m growing up a little?
Two words.
Some examples (not necessarily ones I’d pick): Go Earth, Family Rules, Do Good, No Greed, Give Way, Defeat Evil, No Harm, Have Fun, Improve World, Make Difference, Be Fair.
Hint: if you pick something like Me First, then I think it says something interesting about you...
The ultimate iPod test.
It’s quite another to face the challenge of letting your iPod play one of its default playlists: Top 25 Most Played, in front of others. Chappo didst challenge me so, and the playlist went thusly. Now I should preface this by saying that I usually just let my iPod scamper through my collection on full random so while I have many tracks, this list likely reflects tracks I have really focussed on. Call this an inverse-excuse, if you will...
25. Drive / Bic Runga. Excuse me but, dear Gods this woman has quite a voice. This is the watered down single version, have a listen to the original on Drive if you can.
Rain fall from
concrete coloured sky.
24. Take On Me / A-Ha. Were you really surprised by
this?
Bonus points if you can make it through this version:
23. Everything I’m Not / the Veronicas. A tad 90210,
and aimed at a demographic half my age, but their
sound rawks. And they’re local girls, so, go
them!
and a pretty cool unplugged version:
22. Don’t Believe Anymore (Remixed by Ivan Gough and
Colin Snape) / Icehouse. This has many resonances for
me, especially the original. But we’ve been over that
before. Suffices to say if iPods were around in
1985/6 the play count on this one would be a few
hundred higher.
...and here’s the version that hit the iPod top 25:
21. Just a Word / Icehouse. I actually have a bone to
pick with ID on this one. The remix on the remastered
CD is overcooked! What were you thinking, Iva!? Were
you aiming for the US market and thought the original
was too barren? The version on vinyl is far, far
better than this one. Whitespace, Iva, whitespace!
No vid available, exercise for student, etc.
20. Specialty / Howard Jones. Mingli,
thank you for introducing me to this.
19. Jeunesse Dorée / De Phazz
18. Sabbatical / De Phazz
17. Heartfixer / De Phazz
16. As The Days Go By (remix) / Daryl
Braithwaite. Hunt down the remix if you can - the
vid that follows is the single version. Look out
for the brilliant bridge, and of course the one
and only John Farnham lending a vote of confidence
on backing vocals.
15. You Can’t Hold On Too Long / The
Cars
14. Night Spots / The Cars.
13. Rush / Big Audio Dynamite
12. Spaceman (remix) / Babylon Zoo
11. Here to Stay / New Order
10. Icehouse / Icehouse
9. Something Special / De Phazz
8. Human Behaiour (Close to Human mix) / Bjork
Sorry, can’t seem to find any freely available video
of this one, the iTMS preview is here.
7. Don’t You Want Me (Extended) / Human League
Haven’t been able to find this version on iTMS or
youtube so here’s the original.
6. Maybe San José / De Pazz
Love how these guys step right up to the line then
mischeviously poke their tongue out and turn away.
“Do you know the way to San-”
5. Streams / Baily
How the hell did this one get in here!? 
4. Numb/Encore / Linkin Park & Jay-Z
This is a remix of one of two Linkin Park’s tracks
I’m addicted to. This is a really good collab with
the two. The clip you see here has the song, but I think I
probably associate this track more to that
questionable remake of Miami Vice.
3. Things Can Only Get Better / Howard
Jones. Again, Mingli, thank you.
2. Untouched / The Veronicas.
1. Unforgotten / Halo 2 Original Soundtrack
If you’re not a Halo/Marathon fan then this one’s
probably a little lost on you. For me it brought out
goosebumps. I’m just in awe of Microsoft (yes, I just
typed those six words!) for going the whole nine
yards and engaging a whole fracking
orchestra to do the soundtrack for a game. It’s
times like this that I smile in realising that there
are just as many well-meaning,
devoted-to-making-the-world-just-a-little-better
geeks there as anywhere. They just don’t let them see
daylight is all.
Excuse me, I’ll just go watch Antitrust a few more
times to get my head straight; I feel a little - um -
wrong about declaring an M$ product number
one in anything. Seriously though, hats off to you,
Microsoft for briefly owning the soul of
and collaborating with Bungie and making a
really decent go of it.
So there you have it. You know what surprised me? No Thomas Dolby or Blue Nile made that list. Ah well, I get a little fickle with the ol’ track skip button. So what’s on your top 25 these days?
We all knew it...
US Pirate Party Study Shatters MPAA Claims
We all knew it, but somebody finally did the legwork. I'd like to see them do the same study for the music industry. Problem is that that one probably would show faltering sales... but that's only because music being produced these days is utter shite.
New music category: GTFOOMH!
As in Get [a pause here while I remember my in-laws
sometimes read this] Out Of My Head.
There are, at the moment, two songs that qualify for
this. The first is one Delta Goodrem’s In This Life. Yeah I know... This
is a girl who has gone through the whole
Neighbours mill but seems to have come out of it
pretty well. She’s had to face some pretty rough
challenges (the big C, the not-so-big P) and as far as I can see is a
pretty genuine person. In This Life almost looks
like a reinvention and an “I shall prevail”
affirmation. Good on you, Delta. It’s here in iTMS.
Why does this qualify as a GTFOOMH? Well, I caught
myself idly whistling it on the bridge today. Not an
issue in itself but others were nearby, it could have
led to “dude, seriously, wut?” awkwardness...
The second, and original candidate for this is the
Veronicas’ track Untouched. The violas contrasting
with the effect module guitar distortion (a poor
substitute for a stack o’ Marshalls distortion but it
has its own character), the square & sawtooth
wave synth and the manic tempo are quite something.
I’m pretty sure Jessica Louise and Lisa Marie could
right now collaborate with a bunch of Kangaroo
droppings and still make a hit. Not saying that Toby
Gad is a bunch of kangaroo droppings, mind. Youtube
mono doesn’t really do it justice, iTunes sample
here.
CFLs: Just Say No.
First the good side of CFLs: they use a fraction of the amount of energy normally used with incandescent lighting, and this is the Govt’s main selling point. Hey that’s great, I’m all for sustainability and helping Gaia out, but try thinking it through a little more...
1. CFLs are more expensive and take more energy to produce,
2. CFLs are wasteful: when you turf a CFL you’re chucking not only the bulb but the integrated ballast which could last much longer,
3. Recycling? Not according to the govt., they recommend disposing of these in general rubbish, ie. landfill and not recycling because the bulbs wouldn’t make it through to the recycling plant and “contaminate recyclable items.” Y’see where an “inefficient incandescent” bulb is made up of glass, a sliver of tungsten, copper and alloy, a fluoro (be it a tube or CFL) is made up of glass, plastic, alloy, copper, ballast (usually a small electronic circuit) phosphor, and mercury vapour.
The last one is the worry. Sure it’s a tiny amount, but aren’t we trying to decrease the noxious substances we’re putting into the ground? Can’t be that noxious, you say? Why, then, does that very page say that the first thing you should do if you break one indoors, is open all windows to ventilate the room? Oh, and don’t use a vacuum to clean it up.
Enough whinging, how about putting a positive -er- light on it. One good move would be to move the ballast part of the CFL into the socket so you’re not replacing it unnecessarily. These are available but they’re hugely expensive and could/should be subsidised if you want any kind of adoption rate, like say solar panels. Oh, don’t get me started on solar panels...
My thought? CFLs are relatively good for energy usage, but bad for everything else. Use them for commercial applications where the energy difference will be noticeable, but don’t put them everywhere. The real solution, IMHO, is LEDs. They’re nearly indestructible, last pretty much for ever, and are energy efficient enough to put CFLs to shame. Refine that technology and you’re laughing, until then, well...
Huzzah: eBay gives up on PayPal-only requirement.
I’ve only used eBay about three times, and once using PayPal because it was a software title I just had to have (a vintage copy of Spaceship Warlock) and PayPal was the only payment method available. I felt distinctly unsafe giving an organisation that does not have to play by financial institution rules - and who have repeatedly allowed customers’ accounts to be cleaned out - any access to one of my accounts. I closed the PayPal account the moment the transaction was completed.
You see, the biggest problem with PayPal is that it’s a pull mechanism, rather than push, and after you give initial approval, PayPal have continuous access to be able to withdraw from your account with or without your prior authorisation.
No. Just no.
I’ll stick with push transactions like bank transfers, cheques, or even credit cards where the organisation does have to comply with finance sector regs, and in the event of a disputed transaction, will reverse the transaction on your say so then start investigating.
I trust PayPal as far as I can throw it. If eBay had gotten away with the anti-competitive PayPal-only restriction then I just would never use it (as opposed to hardly ever...)
On a lighter note, yes, even though the game is some 18 years old (and cheesy as the day it was born) I still fire up Spaceship Warlock once in a while. Classic gaming is one of the reasons we still have old iron hanging around the place.
