October 2007 Archives
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To play downloaded youtube flv's. Also: recorde straight from your browser with Freerecorder toolbar. Saves recording as wav or mp3 straight to your HD.
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List of apps to download web video
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Beta start page. Pretty interface.
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Tip: disable usb in bios. Good plan.
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Nice phpBB styles
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Not from last night's Amsterdam show, but a good indication of what it was like (in its quieter moments). Marc Almond is a huge, huge star. So there.
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Probably one of the first bands I downloaded music from, when the web was young. Still going strong.
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So when I installed the new PC, the system disk got named H: because the card-reader snagged C to G. This is now causing problems with various apps. I'm looking at a format and reinstall. Sigh.
Marc Almond, as pictured by me, at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on October 27, 2007. Gushing review now available.
Setlist:
I have lived
These My Dreams Are Yours
Tears Run Rings
Your Aura
The Idol
Tragedy
Dream Lover
Child Star
Mr Sad
If You Go Away
Jacky
Amsterdam
Redeem me
Pearly Spencer
The Boy Who Came Back
Hand Over My Heart
Ruby Red
I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten
Backstage I'm Lonely
Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart
Tainted Love
What?
Say Hello Wave Goodbye
Setlist:
I have lived
These My Dreams Are Yours
Tears Run Rings
Your Aura
The Idol
Tragedy
Dream Lover
Child Star
Mr Sad
If You Go Away
Jacky
Amsterdam
Redeem me
Pearly Spencer
The Boy Who Came Back
Hand Over My Heart
Ruby Red
I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten
Backstage I'm Lonely
Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart
Tainted Love
What?
Say Hello Wave Goodbye
Sometimes I wish I was an OS-nazi. I'm not. I appreciate Windows and the abundance of software available to it as much as I like the neat structure of OS X. I admire Apple's design as much as I don't care about a tool's aesthetics. I like that you can buy an expensive beautiful, functional object, or go for raw power for peanuts. But it all makes it harder to choose what to buy.
I think the current iMac is ugly and the Mac Pro too expensive. I considered doing away with desktops completely and getting a really good laptop. The MacBooks are so tempting, but perhaps not powerful enough, the Pro's... really, I'm not prepared to lay down that much cash. And since I already have two (old) laptops, getting a third seemed extravagant. I want the old ones to break down before I upgrade. So... Macs were out, laptop out, PCs were in. A new dilemma. Intel Pentium, or AMD Athlon? Brand or brandless?
In the end, money talks and practicality motivates. 1. I didn't want to spend too much. 2. The only memory-sucking tasks I do are image editing in Photoshop and some audio encoding. 3. I don't play games.
AMD is a little cheaper, but the Pentium chips out-perform Athlon when it comes to Photoshop (even the Pentium D apprently does better than Athlon's dual cores), so I needed an Intel based machine with a card reader, a big harddisk, a run of the mill graphics card. No need for a sound card, I still have an unused Soundblaster Audigy 2.
After much agonising I decided I didn't want Vista on the machine. I have been using it at work and the number of programs that failed to work on it was frightening. So the Acer machines I'd been looking at were off the list. In fact, all brand PC's were off the list since they all come with Vista pre-installed.
I finally ended up with an offer from 'Computerland', next to 'Paradigit' and 'MyCom' and all the other hardware stores on Ceintuurbaan, Amsterdam's own mini-Tottenham Court Road. Conveniently located about three stops up the road, across the river, on the tram line that goes through my street. Yes, it did feature on the ' pro's ' list when I bought the house.
I think the current iMac is ugly and the Mac Pro too expensive. I considered doing away with desktops completely and getting a really good laptop. The MacBooks are so tempting, but perhaps not powerful enough, the Pro's... really, I'm not prepared to lay down that much cash. And since I already have two (old) laptops, getting a third seemed extravagant. I want the old ones to break down before I upgrade. So... Macs were out, laptop out, PCs were in. A new dilemma. Intel Pentium, or AMD Athlon? Brand or brandless?
In the end, money talks and practicality motivates. 1. I didn't want to spend too much. 2. The only memory-sucking tasks I do are image editing in Photoshop and some audio encoding. 3. I don't play games.
AMD is a little cheaper, but the Pentium chips out-perform Athlon when it comes to Photoshop (even the Pentium D apprently does better than Athlon's dual cores), so I needed an Intel based machine with a card reader, a big harddisk, a run of the mill graphics card. No need for a sound card, I still have an unused Soundblaster Audigy 2.
After much agonising I decided I didn't want Vista on the machine. I have been using it at work and the number of programs that failed to work on it was frightening. So the Acer machines I'd been looking at were off the list. In fact, all brand PC's were off the list since they all come with Vista pre-installed.
I finally ended up with an offer from 'Computerland', next to 'Paradigit' and 'MyCom' and all the other hardware stores on Ceintuurbaan, Amsterdam's own mini-Tottenham Court Road. Conveniently located about three stops up the road, across the river, on the tram line that goes through my street. Yes, it did feature on the ' pro's ' list when I bought the house.
Continue reading A 'puter, I has it.
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I´m feeling uncharitable and think there´s a lot of stupid (ex)junkie talk in this thread. Even the people who lost friends go on about how great it was. I´ve heard it all before. Fuck off.
Watch it now before Fox cancels the world from underneath your bum.
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"I think most music will soon be free, as artists give away the product as marketing for their performances and licensing, and as a celebrity accelerant that creates more opportunities to make money than just from the sale of a record." (via erwblo)
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"Go and make disciples of the Nations"
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"Williams matter-of-factly described how the companies came about (both serendipitously) and explained what he sees as their appeal: they fill people's need to stay connected with one another."
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Agree. Hands off that area.
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Best music torrent site ever busted by British and Dutch police.
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No real Photoshop at work, have to learn to do basic stuff in the GIMP.
I'm in the market for a new computer, but I haven't got a whole lot of spare cash as most of it goes towards camera gear and travel. My last three or four PC's have all been made to order by Paradigit (Dutch independent store). They used to be cheaper and better than the big brands. This time though, it seems going with a brand PC, Acer in particular, will get me a better deal - like 100 or 200 euro cheaper. I haven't been able to find any horror stories about them. Anyone out there who can tell me otherwise? Any reason why I shouldn't go for an Acer Aspire M6310 (dual core, not the quad core advertised on the page)?
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I missed Gira's gig in Amsterdam because I was tired and couldn't be arsed trekking into town.
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The gang that did the visuals for Massive Attack's 100th window tour.
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An online music magazine I'd read if I had time
{ Luka Bloom, live at Paradiso, Amsterdam, October 21, 2007}
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Got a pair of white with brown stripes Adidas Superstar Skate sneakers off eBay. Third picture from top.
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"Oh my god the fan fiction!"
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Say what?!
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'We made it a social networking site for the home, as opposed to the web,"
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Legendary Dutch writer Jan Wolkers passes away.
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Quite tasty Dutch beer. Strong licorice taste
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A MeFi post dedicated to Dutch bands.
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I can't stand solos. But Golden Earring's drummer Zuiderwijk is a star.
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Bwah! Dwight's lovely B&B
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Ryan's new website.
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I'm fighting with the Getronic supported IBM machines at work. They're old, slow, the DVD won't read my discs and I get error messages after slipping in an extra GB of memory. I need the admin pw.
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"His sunz tok turns mading cookies, and they all eated them." People who are not me have too much time on their hands
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Excellent review of the start of series 6 of Spooks which I thought started off wobbly and then became turned gripping.
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Quite a bit of press, mostly from one source.
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Early adapters discuss our site
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BlueAce reports on our new site. I'd twittered the username and password earlier today, but with most of my contacts English or American, there was no point, really.
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That's a pretty looking site.
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Great logo designer from Switzerland
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Vectors are the new swoosh
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Ajax activity indicators
Seen: Control, a film by Anton Corbijn, at Tuschinski, Amsterdam on October 11.Never having been a Joy Division fan and only really appreciating their music in hindsight - for a few shameful months in the early 80's I claimed to prefer Paul Young's cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart over the original - , my main reason to see the film Control was its director. It's safe to say I'm not going to be entirely objective in my opinion of the film. Corbijn's the only Dutch hero I have and you're not going to find me slagging off his work. Thankfully, I don't have to. Control may well be his best snapshot.
I knew the basics of Joy Division and Curtis's story: the epilepsy, the way he moved on stage, the suicide. I put him firmly in the 'tortured soul' (and thus sympathetic) department of the 'dead icons' warehouse in my mind.
Halfway through the film, my opinion of Curtis changed. I've never had much sympathy for kids stupid enough to marry in their teens or manchildren who cheat on their wives.
'Twat,' I thought as Curtis rings the wife to tell her he's finished it with his Belgian paramour, then stumbles straight back into the other woman's arms. 'Idiots,' I thought, as his manager and fellow band members put him back on stage straight after his first attempted suicide. 'Fuck off and die,' I thought as the terribly twee 'Annik' kept coming back for more supposedly deep and meaningful conversation, the sneaking around condoned and abetted by the likes of Tony Wilson. God rest his soul, but... 'Wanker!'
Meanwhile I'm practically salivating over the stark cinematography of the film. Given Corbijn's visionary photography, this was always going to be a good looking movie. Still, I think he surpassed himself by toning down the romanticism so prevalent in his photographs; omitting the more baroque influences on his style: the religious and erotic imagery you'll be familiar with through his work with Depeche Mode in particular. In Control, Corbijn finds a painful, sparse beauty in grey, the predominant colour of Thatcherite Britain, capturing the essence of the era as only a knowledgeable outsider can. Every single shot in this film is a work of art, substance winning out over style throughout.
Corbijn - a photographer who really wanted to be a drummer - makes the 'concert' parts of the film look real. Hyper real. This isn't what it's like being at a concert, this is what it feels like to be at and play a concert. The sound during the concert scenes has a real punch too. Having the actors play their instruments for real was a really smart move by the 'first time' director. His tracking shots of a rapturous audience are spot on: the anonymous strangers lost in their own worlds, the childlike gazes of your bestest fans, the one familiar face that's there for you, time not running quite the way it should... Again, Corbijn is the knowledgeable outsider, drawing from his experience with musicians and their craft.
Anton Corbijn and Pimm Jal de la Parra, 1989
Actor Sam Riley looks the part and does a great job most of the time, especially on stage and in the scenes he plays on his own. He's less convincing acting off other actors, the formidable Samantha Morton (who plays Debbie Curtis) in particular, but given his character, the clumsiness works in his favour. The supporting cast is excellent, particularly the light relief provided by Toby Kebbell as the band's manager Rob Gretton and the two young actors playing Hooky and Barney.
Various reviews have made mention of the other movie set in the era, 24 hour party people, some claiming the earlier film superior, preferring its Winterbottom's exuberance over Corbijn's stark view. I think Winterbottom's film is myth-making, somewhat glorifying, while Corbijn's vision demystifies and humanises Joy Division's story.
The final stages of the film are harrowing despite knowing the outcome in advance. For those of us who have lost loved ones in similar circumstances, these kind of images really are too close for comfort. Thankfully, Corbijn pulls back from his subject, granting Curtis privacy in his final moments. The last frame of the movie informs you he was 23 years old when he died.
Twenty-three. That's when it hits home. Young enough to only see black and white, not old enough to know better. Young enough to be forgiven for his twattiness and philandering. What a waste.
The day after, I stick on Control's soundtrack and burst into tears.
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But nobody's going to win a Nobel Peace Prize over that
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"Because it is weird, and even a little freaky, that so many shows this season prey on the paranormal. "
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"Cool’s not a very important value in life at all."
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Heh.
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If you need some Bobjoy.
John Cooper Clarke, As seen in the movie Control.
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"Driving wasn't John's forte, never mind the acid."
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Yeehaw... CBC is back.
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David Siegel's new company
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Bradley Whitford will appear in new BBC thriller
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Lies.
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"...as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label."
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Some may wish the same for his band?
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"Up the rich, screw the poor, long live Keith Allen ..."
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A Top Chef blog
Walter V.'s second novel, 'West', is out. I
couldn't make it to his book launch due to work, so I'm going to buy one
from Scheltema today to help keep it in the Top 10, like he asks on his blog. (There's absolutely no shame in being a hoor and the oh-so-cool detractors should lighten up.) He's getting really
good reviews (one reviewer said it was free of the Dutch smell of
sprouts and on par with American writers' style). Walter 'started'
writing his tales of Amsterdam suburbia on his personal site around the turn
of the century. It's great to see him succeed like this and I can't wait to read the book. Cult of the amateur, pah!-
Dutch article. Wish I was smart like my ex-colleague Dylan.
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Great looking blog and concert photos.
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More concert photography
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'illuminates the story without puncturing the legend'
You see them in Asian supermarkets, the mismatched couples: large Caucasian men and their tiny, tiny Asian girlfriends. Retired marines, you know the type. Standing there a little stupidly while the girl decides what's for dinner. It always creeps me out a little. Sue me.
But when they stand next to you? And she's buying him food? Dressed in a quasi schoolgirl outfit, a thin plaid skirt? And his huge hand is fondling her ass crack? While you contemplate your lunch?
You kind of lose your appetite.
But when they stand next to you? And she's buying him food? Dressed in a quasi schoolgirl outfit, a thin plaid skirt? And his huge hand is fondling her ass crack? While you contemplate your lunch?
You kind of lose your appetite.
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"The smarter, faster, easier, way to build a succesful web-based application."
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Music by Sneakerfreak
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You have got to be fucking kidding me. It's the little show that could!
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"...you’ve stopped letting someone else dictate how you listen to music. "
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Need this to help a friend with his iBuke
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Reporter talks with Clinton despite 'no questions' rule
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"Be a third place. Most normal people have home and work and then... their third place, like a pub or sports team or World or Warcraft. Goal is that people should want to join you and enjoy their time with you, get away from it all."
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'Are you still running Six Apart?'
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Sam the American Eagle says: 'Even birds. Underneath their feathers. Are essentially. Naked.'
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gottabet renamed to bragster
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Listen to full album.
I joined Dopplr today. It's a place to share your trips and travels with friends...
... just having started a new job, I'm not going to be doing a lot of travelling any time soon. So I'll be gnashing my teeth watching other people's journeys.
Lemme know if you want in.
... just having started a new job, I'm not going to be doing a lot of travelling any time soon. So I'll be gnashing my teeth watching other people's journeys.
Lemme know if you want in.
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Poor Old Skool Cylon
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Image bookmarking