Here are the most recent posts to my log:
Wed Dec 31 18:59:08 2008
I've been testing some TVs recently: checking out things like upscaling, invented-frame injection (Samsung call this "Movie Plus" on some sets; other people call it '100hz') and suchlike. In order to compare various ways of playing films, I sat and watched the Matrix.
I forgot how good this film is. Some aspects of it are quite dated, such as the mobile phones: I remember thinking that the auto slide-down keypad covers looks great; now the bulky handsets with the exposed aerials look almost as silly as the 1980s-style phones on display in Ashes to Ashes or Miami Vice.
Having said that, it will be 10 years old in March 2009!
I don't rate any of the sequels at all (except bits of the Animatrix), but the first one is worth a re-watch (and if you haven't seen it yet, seek it out)
Tue Dec 16 13:18:21 2008
Thanks to Daniel for suggesting I try burning my ISO image with brasero in response to my problems burning images using nautilus. Unfortunately brasero won't offer me a burn ISO option 497226: brasero: Burn button disabled. No indication of why.. I just tried wodim directly and ended up with the same (wrong) sum for the burnt disc as with nautilus cd burner (not suprising really).
I wondered if I was being bitten by 386640: wodim doesn't fixate DVD+R with premastered ISO, but trying to fix the disc did not update the sum.
Taking an image of the burnt disc, I notice that the burnt image is longer size-wise than the input ISO by 10240 bytes. This turns out to be 10240 of zeroes appended to the image.
Sun Dec 7 17:21:21 2008
The UK now has it's own equivalent to China's great firewall. My current ISP "bethere" is one of several which have opted into using it. If I try to access the wikipedia article on the Scorpion's album "Virgin Killer" I receive a "404 not found response" which does not originate from Wikipedia. This album had a controversial picture of a young girl naked on the cover. The censoring proxy has blocked access to both wikimedia's copy of the album cover but also the entire article about it (including discussion about the album cover controversy).
There are two things in particular that really annoy me about the way this has been implemented. Firstly, the response I get for a censored page is an unadorned 404. At the very least it should be an explanation of why I cannot access the material, and who to contact if there has been a mistake (no doubt in the eyes of our moral superiors there are no mistakes). Secondly, my ISP has signed up for this and implemented it without telling me. I will shortly be moving both my broadband and that of my parents away from them.
The scary thing for me about George Orwell's 1984 was not just the total control but how ruthlessly efficiently it was implemented. So far this has been implemented predictably poorly, first of all it's trivial to circumvent the block on wikipedia, at least; secondly, they've inadvertently buggered up editing Wikipedia for those affected.
Sat Dec 6 12:32:05 2008
This week, BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe played four records in their entirety as part of his "masterpieces" feature, uncensored and without interruption. These were
- The Stones Roses - The Stone Roses
- Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
- Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
- The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
Yesterday I was browsing the iTunes music store and I noticed that these albums had jumped into the top ten best selling for their respective categories. It looks like giving the album away on air has convinced people to go out and buy the records.
You can listen to the shows up to a week after they broadcast, using the BBC's "listen again" facility, now rebranded and incorporated into "iplayer".
Tue Dec 2 23:06:44 2008
I've just learnt that KiloWatts, one of my favourite artists to emerge from the "Soulseek" scene, has two of his EPs available for free for a limited time only.
I already own Teknopera which is a fantastic slice of furious breakbeat, but I haven't heard "Quickfire" yet. "Perfected Everything", KiloWatt's song originally available as part of soulseek records compilation 001 is one of my all-time favourite electronic/dance tracks. It's also a track from an album of the same name. If you like electronica, go and give these a try!