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October 29, 2005

Just Say ... "YES!!!!"

This was all so boring that I almost missed it.

To be quite honest ...Sir .. you should CONFESS and come clean ... do you or don't you????

... but the "media" ... did he ... didn't he... *YAWN* ..

Come on ... lets be honest ... the only natural position for a right wing, free market, wannabe "Libertarian" party (like the "nu-tories") is PRO-LEGALISATION & PRO-DRUGS ... which is .. PRO COLLECTING MORE STEALTH TAXES ... I mean the price of weed in the UK .. you would already think that the police and politicians were taking their cut ....... oooops !!!!!!!

can someone put the cat back in the bag for me please??

hehe not that I am cynical or owt ... yeah not effin much ....

October 28, 2005

Thanks BlogMaster - MT32 is great

Good work from the man who allows ...

Not only does he allow me blogspace but he also upgrades it and makes it even better ...

I've been meaning to change the blog layour to 3 columns for some time now ... and now I don't have to ... all my hard work has been done for me!!

YO! BlogMaster ... We who are about to BLOG salute you!!

Thanks mate .. I just wanted to say it in public ... I really appreciate your efforts ...

Yeah ... and also a big hand to the people at Six Apart ... who wrote the software my BM uses ...

October 25, 2005

Spanish (1)

One of the things that has been driving me crazy while learning Spanish is the inflected nature of the verbs. If your first language is English it makes no sense at first, and your normal patterns of speech are totally disrupted.

Consider the following exchange:

"I don't know"
"You don't know?"
"No, I don't know"

In Spanish this becomes more complicated because all the verb forms change with who is being spoken about, so in Spanish this becomes:

"No se"
"No sabes?"
"No, no se"

The final sentence is the evil one, because in English, in an agreeing statement I would normally repeat the statement I am agreeing with - "No, I don't know" - BUT if I follow the same strategy in Spanish I end up saying "no, no sabes" - which means "no, YOU don't know" - totally incorrect.

It applies to all the other verbs as well, so a whole conversational gambit that took me years to learn as a child has had to be chucked out of the window

BUT I still fall into the same trap time and time again.

"No tengo"
"No tienes?"
"No, no tienes" .... aaaarrrrgh done it again!!!!

October 22, 2005

R.I.P - "Records In Pieces"

Not long after I moved in I went and bought some shelves for my records. Not a bad idea, but the execution went horribly wrong. The shelves has little legs underneath, and the pressure of the records pushed the legs through the underside and the whole thing collapsed overnight.

It must have made a hell of a noise, but neither of us woke up.

Next day I saw this set of shelves laying, exactly as they fell, front down, but still full of records. I picked the whole lot up, strengthened the shelves and forgot about it.

Then one day I wanted to play some house music and to my utter HORROR I found that a large number of records have HUGE chips out of the edges and cracks that render them unplayable.

To say I am gutted would be an understatement.

I don't have many house records, so those I do have I select with care, and I have lost some of my favourites.

So, for posterity, and the hope that someone might offer me replacements for some of these records, here is a list of "those we have lost"





R.I.P - Records In Pieces

Lexicon Avenue - "From Dusk 'til Dawn" (Forensic-For0015)
Awesome tune, totally awesome, a bit trancy, but still awesome.

Wyatt Earp & Little Mike - "Android"(Hochokai HR002)

Actually the main tune is not one of my faves, but the Acappella on the A side is invaluable ... "robots will provide you with a secure dancing environment tonight" ... yeah right ...

Rocket - "Voices of Freedom" (Greyhound - GND-014)

Bouncy, upbeat and with that wonderful vocal - "Love is Coming Up" - this was a real favourite. It didn't hurt that "555" was on the B-Side either ... *grrrrrrr*

DJ Foxx & DJ Sense = "Hill Street Blues" (Big Chief BC-002)

It was OK when I was playing tribal house, but now, I really can't say I will miss it.

Gary Martin - "Hot!" & R.I.T.M - "Floori.d.a" (Abnormal Recordings 008)

Losing this really annoys me.

I was given this by Andy Abnormal as a white plate pressing after begging for it.

I begged because I wanted it.

I'd heard the A side late one night at "Heart & Soul" played by Bob DeRosa (I think), the other side I heard late one night on Mr.C's show on KISS-FM in London.

After hearing "Hot!" I shamelessly begged Andy for a copy, then after hearing "Floori.d.a" I begged some more ... until he relented.

Jan Fontaine - "unknown tracks" (white label)

Yeah right ... what more can be said. I've loved Jan Fontaine's stuff sver since "Open Your Eyes" and the "Implication & Champagne" EP.

This unknown white label was the perfect compliment to those, and all those other laid back funky house tracks I like to spin.

Losing it hurts .. especially as I never knew what it was called.

=====
This list is open to revision - unfortunately I'm bound to find more records destined for the R.I.P list ....

October 21, 2005

Old wine in new bottles ....

That's all I can say about this report today ...

October 19, 2005

Save the Planet: Kill Yourself!

"Save the Planet: Kill Yourself" - Chris Korda - Gigolo 05 (1997)

I first heard this tune years ago at "Heart & Soul", sometime about 4 in the morning around 6 years ago.

I loved it then and I still love it now.

I know for a fact that people either love or hate this tune.

I've known people to run off the dancefloor screaming, leave the room, hold their head in their hands or just ask "wtf is THIS?"

I can't say I'm that surprised either.



The opening is pure twisted evil music, with a repeating grating sound that drives you nuts. Then the weird voice comes in:

"Greetings, we are not of this planet"
"We do not understand your strange customs"
"Your planet's ecosystem is failing"
"Your leaders deny this"
"Explain"
"Why do your leaders lie to you"
"Why do so many of you believe these lies"

Oh yeah, this is dance music from another planet alright - weird indeed - but then comes the breakdown and all of a sudden you are plunged into a section with this awesome funky bass line that just grooves and really kicks ass.

Then comes the real kicker, in the middle of all this funky dance grooviness, we get this strange warbling cry - "SAVE THE PLANET" - followed by this demonic whisper - "KILL YOURSELF".

Oh yeah .. when a dance tune goes "save the planet .. kill yourself" in a room full of people twisted off their skulls on some kind of chemical or another, then something has to give.

But who would be evil enough to take advantage of young drugged-up ravers to try and propagate their message ... alcohol, clothing, soft drink, music, tobacco, fashion, and car companies excepted of course ... ?

Well Chris Korda is the founder of the Church of Euthanasia which only has one commandment:

"Thou shalt not procreate"

Concerned with the overexpanding population, the Church of Euthanasia encourages suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy.

It also encourages people to make music. The latest version of Chris Korda's free open-source audio mixer Mixere
software for windows is available for download at Sourceforge

I've only glanced at it, but it looks like as much fun as Ableton Live, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

If I get time I'll play with it and report back, but I'd love to hear from anyone who has used this software.

The Church of Euthanasia: strange beliefs, great music, and free software

What more can a man ask for?

Hunt master hit three protesters with whip

From The Guardian today, this story about a hunt master who admitted 3 counts of assault and paid a total of £1,555 in fines and compensation.

I'm sorry, but if I beat three people with a whip in London, I'd be doing 6-12 in Brixton by now.

Talk about a law for the rich .... I'd have charged him with three counts of reckless endangerment with a horse and slapped a 5 year horse riding ban on him ... that would stop him hunting ... unless he can run as fast as a fox, of course.

October 18, 2005

how funny ....

Meanwhile from The Independent today the strange tale of "The Wrong Trousers" has finally surfaced in mainstream media.

Poor Brian Sack only wanted to sell his leather trousers on eBay.

But his sense of humour made this a auction into a viral e-meme that overpaid advertising wonks would die for.

Last time I looked his eBay Counter had run up to nearly 900,000 hits, not to mention all the emails he has been swamped with.

With nearly 2 months to go before eBay delete the entry - who knows how high the hit counter will go before it disappears.

In the end he only got $102.50 for them, a BARGAIN.

If only I'd known - I'd have bid for them myself - I love leather trousers!!

how true ....

From The Guardian website, this little gem from a user who argues, quite rightly, that "Instead of terrifying us with tales of doom, software companies should write programs without holes".

Not too much to ask for is it?

October 7, 2005

Computer Gamers Jailed Over Virus

From "The Guardian" today, this story.

"Computer Gamers Jailed Over Virus".

For some time now the government have wanted to catch some of the "evil hackers" and punish them severely - as a warning to the others - and now they have.



The message the British government has sent to the "hacking community" is harsh - infringe the law and get sent to jail - but with sentences that will run only a few months, Andrew Harvey and Jordan Bradley might rest in their cells a little happier.

Because they could have done a lot worse.

Their co-conspirator Raymond Paul Steigerwalt was sentenced to a whopping 21 months in jail for his part in the design and release of the worm.

Of course, this was nothing to do with the embarrasment of the Department of Defense who had at least two computers "owned" by the worm.

After all it was to the DoD that Steigerwalt had to pay $12,000 in restitution - as well as serving his sentence.

At least they didn't call them "hackers", but instead described them as "computer gamers" and "computer buffs", although some might call them script kiddies given that their "worm" was mostly cobbled together out of other people's utilities.

No only that, but the original vulverability for the TK worm was first posted back in October 2000 by Rain Forest Puppy and a patch was issued.

Anyone with any sense should have updated their system there and then. I mean I know sysadmins are busy, but surely anyone who waited nearly three years before applying a security patch so important wouldn't be working for much longer.

So .. what of the DoD guys administering the two, or more, computers that were infected by the worm and that needed $12,000 worth of restitution ... are those sysadmins still working?

Well .. they probably got promoted for their part in the "War Against Evil Hackers" ..

They might well be giving lectures on computer security right now, writing articles, planning books and mini-series.

God knows .. it's happened before ...

But .. all in all a good day for the powers that be.

The culprits have been caught and given a good slapping.

Now we can all sleep safely in our beds knowing that our servers are safe from all those nasty hackers.

Until the next time ...