January 2006
18 posts
BGBlitz seems to have overtaken my life. I’ve been testing out OS X backgammon software for the last few days. Absolute Backgammon and David’s Backgammon don’t quite hit the mark, but BGBlitz is the most astonishing piece of shareware I’ve ever downloaded. It does everything you could possibly imagine. It plays at world championship level, thanks to a sophisticated neural...
Flyer of the year, for the world’s longest running electro festival, curated by former guest blogger DJ Charlie Beez.
There’s only one gig to be at tonight, and it’s the debut gig of Sunset Gun. They’re on at The Hope and Anchor, where the Sex Pistols made their debut, at 8.30pm tonight. They’ve just updated their myspace page with three downloadable tracks. The debut line-up features Alice (ex of The Enemies) singing, and Occy (ex of The Ruffness (pictured)) drumming. I guess you could...
I’d always believed that movies rarely directly inspire violence. But actually, The Deer Hunter popularised Russian Roulette as a appealing form of suicide. Stay Free, is just a really good pop-cultural groupblog. It may be my second favourite blog based on a magazine, after Things. How cochlear implants sound. I am dubious about the methodology here, but v cool nonetheless. The Morning...
Have you ever made a list of your ideal dinner party guests? George Monbiot would definitely be on my list, particularly if I limit myself to people who are still alive. Anyhow, last night I got to have dinner with George’s dad, Raymond Monbiot, who was a very amusing dinner companion, and also deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. As you might imagine, George and his Dad don’t...
Overheard somewhere in South London: “Did you see that man on the telly last night? That black man, you know the netball player. What he said about Madonna…ooh my.” The DraganFlyer V Ti Pro is the coolest looking RC helicopter that ever lived. It also happens to be practically a UAV, and comes with a tiny digicam payload. Too awesome. Now if I could only find $1499 down the back...
Some other combos that = crazy delicious (For peeps who don’t necessarily like Mr Pibb + Red Vines) Quinoa + Alpaca, Jonze + Eggers, Olive Oil + Vegetables + BBQ, Panda + Cupcakes, Football + Beer, Year-in-review + December Prize Drawing, Google Desktop + Firefox Cache, Blogger + Emacs, Scarlet Johansson + That Pink Dress, Reptiles + Aviation, DFA + Britney Spears, Garmin + OS X, Food...
The water along the Atlantic coast of South Africa is shockingly cold, due to the Benguela Current. When the prevailing South East wind blows freezing water is drawn up from the Antarctic waters. The air temperature in Cape Town can be in the high 30’s, and the water temperature can still be stuck in the low teens. It makes for shocking surf conditions. Pictured are the Reef (South Africa)...
Dope badges from Assault. Jeff Staple’s blog, is jealousy inducing. His entire life seems to consist of snowboarding with Hiroshi Fujiwara, and receiving free sneakers from Nike and his celeb designer friends. Howto: wrap stuff Japanese style. Now I just need to grow square melons (Powerpoint melon howto). I lost almost a year of my life training rats, but somehow Fish School, seems like...
Whale says, “I didn’t do it on porpoise”. The myopic may click to enlarge. (Thanks Sam!)
Great Nokia research paper about how illiterate people use telephony. On my recent trip, I was amazed by how many people in South Africa now had mobile phones, despite low levels of literacy. The Slanket, the world’s best blanket? Rice-planting robot, from Japan of course. I’ve ticked off another entry on the Restaurant Magazine Top 50 Restaurants, having now eaten at Le Quartier...
Movies I watched over the holiday period: Moog This is a rather rambling documentary. It explores the late Robert Moog’s somewhat mystical views of his and various musicians connection to his famous analog synth. It features lots of hippy nonsense, some great moog performances, including Mixmaster Mike and Money Mark, and the DVD comes with amazing Moog emulation software. 7/10 Proof A prize...
So I’m stuck at Heathrow Terminal 1, waiting for a majorly overdue plane. I just paid £7.50 for 3 hours of T-Mobile Hotspot, when I suddenly realised if I’d been here 10 days ago, I could have enjoyed Google Space for free. Anyway despite my sadness at missing out on a little of the google-glamour here’s some random nonsense before my departure: Neologism watch: Las Vague-as,...
Flash Mind Reader. Completely brilliant, I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if my mouse movements were giving me away.
Now that I’m all “monetised”, I can afford to blow some bandwidth. Funniest track I’ve heard all year (5 days and counting): Indie Kids by Yes Bo$$. (4.6Mb MP3) Like a Northern rather more snarky Goldie Looking Chain, though I suspect they take themselves more seriously than that. You can stream some of their other tracks at the Yes Bo$$ myspace site. (Note to Yes Bo$$:...
Prompted by the completely unfounded suggestion that ads might make my site look more professional, I’ve added a few ads. I realise this is a controversial decision, and if everyone complains enough, I’ll drop them. I’m going to South Africa for a couple of weeks, and will be updating infrequently. I figured this would be an ideal time to see if Adsense will cover my hosting...
One of my (many) New Year’s resolutions was to quit caffeine (again). As a result I’m lethargic, grumpy, and suffering a constant low-level headache. Today’s links may lack their usual panache: WOTD x3: evince, evection, exordial, and if you like Words OTD, you might like Ben Schott’s Word of the Week (I’ve yet to receive my first word, so I can’t vouch for the...
Happy New Year. That is all. (My hangover hasn’t quite worn off.)