June 2005 Archives

[Moozik: Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug]

So yeah, this made the coffee come out of my nose this morning.

Put simply, it's a bag to wee in that you wear round your leg. It's one of those ideas which is conceptually brilliant, but practically probably less so. I mean, can you imagine moshing with a bag of piss strapped to your leg? Actually, don't answer that.

Stadium Pal: an idea whose time has come

[Moozik: The Wonderstuff - Red Berry Joy Town]

Woohoo. The Daily Show's Indecision 2004 DVD is out today.

[Moozik: Japan - Life In Tokyo]

I bought Depeche Mode's Violator today. Again. This is the fourth bloody time I’ve bought it. I bought the first copy on vinyl (which I still have) and since then I’ve had two copies on CD. I’ll be buggered if I know what happened to those two CD copies. The first one mysteriously disappeared during our move from Italy to the USA. The second one is even odder because I still have the jewel case with the insert but no actual CD.

What annoys me is that Violator is the only DM album that I haven’t ripped to mp3 and stored on (at least) one of my computers. Oh well, It’s ripped now and lives on my main music server and nicely backed up to my 250GB external USB backup disk.

I’m *never* buying this album again.

[Moozik: Nitzer Ebb - Shame]

I blogged a while ago about my neighbours being awfully nice and offering free wireless broadband. They still do in fact. I still see 5 wide open networks.

Anyhoo, tonight I was farting around with iTunes preferences and clicked on the 'sharing' tab. It has a setting called 'look for shared music'. So I clicked it. Not only do my neighbours not mind that their wireless networks are wide open, some of them have decided to allow their music collections to be shared. Bless em.

[Moozik: Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses]

During some heavy duty channel surfing, Sally and I accidently stumbled upon Goodfellas. I think we might be two of the four people on the planet who hadn't actually seen it yet :-)

Very good Mob movie. I enjoyed it much more than the Godfather movies. Shock, horror, I know you're *supposed* to like the Godfather movies but, to be honest, I've always thought they were just a tad overrated. Up until this point, my fave mob movie was Donnie Brasco. Now I'm thinking it might be Goodfellas.

I was surprised that I actually thought Ray Liotta was good. I've *never* liked anything he's ever done. I take it all back Ray. You can act afterall.

[Moozik: Apoptygma Bezerk - Mourn (Remix)]

So I gather it's been around for years but seeing as I live in a cave, I'd never even heard of it until Brad Fitzpatrick mentioned it.

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

[Moozik: Skinny Puppy - First Aid]

Words somehow fail me. I'm flabbergasted.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses -- even against their will -- for private economic development.

It was a decision fraught with huge implications for a country with many areas, particularly the rapidly growing urban and suburban areas, facing countervailing pressures of development and property ownership rights.

High court OKs personal property seizures

[Moozik: Sheep On Drugs - TVUSA]

Those people that still keep their dogs outside when it's 114°f should have the privilege of being alone with me and my Cricket bat for, I dunno, let's say 2 minutes minimum shall we?

Ahem, and this concludes today's public service announcement.

[Moozik: Rosetta Stone - Deeper]

Coming back for a third stint noless. Who? That man Porl Thompson.

The members of the CURE are teaming up with guitarist PORL THOMPSON once again for their string of European festival dates this summer (05).

It marks Thompson's third time with the group, after he played with them between 1976 and 1978 and again from 1983 to 1993.

Longtime keyboardist ROGER O'DONNELL and guitarist PERRY BAMONTE departed from the band late last month (MAY05).

Frontman ROBERT SMITH says, "Porl coming back adds new dimensions and possibilities - for the summer repertoire and beyond. I suppose the short answer is: We are going back to our roots to find a new direction!"

The Cure Reteam With Thompson

[Moozik: Frontline Assembly - Unknown Dreams]

I'd read some very good things about Resident Evil 4 so yesterday I went out and bought it.

To say this game was good would be the understatement of the year. The graphics are just outstanding. Probably the best graphics of any game on any platform I've ever seen - and this is a Gamecube game! The atmosphere feels perfect and you get totally sucked into the RE4 world. I even found myself jumping when an enemy surprised me from behind - it's that realistic :-)

Not one for the faint of heart though as blood and gore are front and center. A great example of this is when an enemy with a chainsaw killed me by cutting off my head. Luuuurvely.

I played it solidly for about 4 hours yesterday and I can't wait to play it again tonight. One of the best games EVAAAAAR.

[Moozik: ClockDVA - Axiomatic And Heuristic]

So yeah, it’s summer here in Arizona. Let the fun begin :-) This period of the year is what I like to call the 'ghost town' period in suburbia. This means that people go outside from about 6:00am to 9:00am and then you won't see a soul until about 6:00pm. Then the garage doors open and the garden watering and car washing extravaganzas begin. I dunno, it’s like everyone must be trying to get away from something. Arizona? Summer? I wonder what it can be?

[Moozik: Front 242 - Moldavia]

Wow, the end of a long, long, long week.

It started last Sunday with my pager going off at 10:00am. 10:00am on a Sunday, who’s awake at that hour eh? Not me. Something spectacularly broke at work. Nothing development related but they needed a programmer on the two hour conference call while the fuckup from hell was explained and the fix put in place. That was fun and two hours of my life I’m never getting back.

Then Monday the development requirements changed on a very high priority project that I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks. It’s such a cool project dealing with system configuration management for remote Solaris hosts. Wish I could say more but alas I can’t. Anyhoo, those changes needed to be in place for UAT (that’s user acceptance testing for all you non-developers) by today. So I’ve been working something like 12-13 hour days all this week trying to finish the development and fix the bugs that have been discovered. My laptop keyboard sure has taken a pounding this week that’s for sure.

Yes, that wine is going to taste rather nice tonight. Cheers.

[Moozik: The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before]

Looks like the Rolling Stones are going to be in my neck of the woods in November. I dunno, the Stones are one of those bands I would like to have said that I'd seen at least once in my life.

So, let's see how much the tickets are shall we? Tickets, priced at $355.05, $165.05, $100.05 and $65.05 will go on-sale at 10am on Saturday, June 11 at the Glendale Arena Box office.

(gulp, rubs eyes, must have misread that, double checks, laughs out loud)

Right then, I don't want to see them that badly. Call me a total cheapskate but I would have second thoughts about paying that much to see Depeche Mode or The Cure who are by far my fave bands of all time. So, sorry Mick, I won't be walking over to see you.

Who in their right mind pays $350 per ticket anyway?

[Moozik: Sheep On Drugs - Cathode Ray]

So yesterday I finished watching the remaining episodes of Band of Brothers. I can honestly say it's one of the best mini-series I have ever watched.

Thanks Ray and Toby for recommending it :-)

[Moozik: DAF - Alle Gegen Alle]

So having totally missed Band of Brothers when it was on HBO a couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to have my sister, ahem, provide me with DVDs of the first season when we were on vacation. Tonight I watched the first two episodes and I'm totally hooked. I might yet watch some more tonight :-)

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Nothing]

Damn you Apple for making iPods easy to scuff and scratch. Today I realized that I couldn't leave my iPod naked for much longer.

So, at lunchtime I buggered off to Best Buy and bought my very own iPod condom. Well, it's officially the Jam Jacket 20 aka the 'Translucent Silicone Jacket' that 'fits your iPod like a glove'.

Ahem.

[Moozik: New Order - Age Of Consent]

Nat Friedman made me chuckle today.

Have you ever noticed how in superhero stories, the villains are always laying these grand, intricate plans, and the heros are always trying to sabotage them?

Superheros don't actually do anything cool, they just stop uncool things from happening.

It's not clear whether it's creativity or organizational skills they lack.

In any case, you've got to hand it to the bad guys for taking the initiative.

You're a real asshole, Superman

[Moozik: KMFDM - Bargeld]

Dubya receiving advice from big oil companies, who'd have ever expected that?

President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the White House for discussions on climate change before next month's G8 meeting, reinforce widely-held suspicions of how close the company is to the administration and its role in helping to formulate US policy.

In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is found thanking Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable.

Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush

[Moozik: The Stone Roses - Elephant Stone]

Wow. Yes kids, from the "turning green with envy" department. Jonathan has such a sweet Power Mac System. Drooool. Ok, now back to reality, those 30 inch cinema LCDs are 3 grand. And that's before you price the G5 system itself.

When I win the lottery perhaps :-)

[Moozik: The Smiths - Nowhere Fast]

So, got plenty of free time to waste? Eh? Then run, don't walk and install the StumbleUpon plugin.

[Moozik: The Smiths - Still Ill]

The government is throwing its weight behind a revolutionary plan that would force motorists to pay £1.30 a mile to drive on Britain's busiest roads in a bid to prevent 'LA-style gridlock'.

Satellite and global-positioning technology will be used to make drivers pay to use notorious 'traffic-jam' routes such as the M25 around London, the M1 in the Midlands and the M6 in the north-west of England.

Satellites to track motorists on UK's busiest roads

[Moozik: Front 242 - No Shuffle]

I knew Flash would come in handy one day. Gawd bless those Flash developers with too much time on their hands. I might actually hook up my external monitor to my laptop at work and run this clock on it.

[Moozik: Soft Cell - Frustration]

You know what, ever since I was a wee nipper I've always wanted to be the first bloke to move a train with my ear. Some bastard has beat me to it though :-)

39-year-old Zhang Xinquan, from Dehui city, Jilin province, put his right ear in an iron clamp device, locked with a long bolt.

Zhang pulled the 24 ton train 40 metres within 4 minutes after two failed attempts.

Zhang, a father of a 15, has a bigger right ear than left. "That's the result of years of practicing", he said.

He added: "I don't want others to copy my stunts, since they may get hurt", reports New Culture Papers.

Man moves train with right ear

I must admit, these are the best best street paintings I've ever seen.

[Moozik: Killing Joke - Mathematics Of Chaos]

Today marked my second day back at work and I still haven't written a single line of Perl code - sigh. Every couple of years I get my friendly reminder of how much I dislike Oracle's PL/SQL and this past couple of days have been no exception :-)