Sun, 31 Dec 2006

No More Saddam

Appears this CIA asset finally overstayed his welcome:
http://www.bushflash.com/thanks.html

While Iraqi blog Baghdad Burning wrote just before his killing:
That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi, to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but intentional.

Posted at: 14:36 | category: /rants | # | 2 comments

Sat, 30 Dec 2006

2006 Darwin Awards - Priest Tries to walk on water, drowns

In August, a congregation's 35-year old pastor insisted one could literally walk on water, if only one had enough faith.

more information

Posted at: 23:32 | category: /rants/religion | # | 0 comments

Tue, 26 Dec 2006

ZOG confirmed at chill area for Rainbow Serpent Festival 2007

I am completely stoked I was lucky enought to score yet another gig at this most amazing event. I have always had the most amazing time and seen the most amazing music at this event. A highlight of RSF2006 was seeing Zen Paradox and DJ Toupee a the market area, but there was piles of other excellent going on at all times.

More info at the Rainbow Serpent Festival Web Site

Posted at: 14:22 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Hooked On Kimchi

Been eating more and more Kimchi.. we started on small 300 gram tubs but have now have graduated to buying it by the 2KG jar.

Its a zingy, strong crunchy spicy mix of cabbage, chilli and garlic. It stinks to high heaven but tastes delicious. It has a kind of addictive morish taste. At least it has no sugar, no fat, and is evidently quite healthy.

More in kimchi from Life in Korea

Posted at: 14:00 | category: /food | # | 0 comments

Mon, 25 Dec 2006

Happy Hijacked Festival!

Yuletide, quoted from Wikipedia:
Many of the symbols associated with the modern holiday of Christmas such as the burning of the Yule log, the eating of ham, the hanging of boughs, holly, mistletoe, etc. are apparently derived from traditional northern European Yule celebrations. When the first missionaries began converting the Germanic peoples to Christianity, they found it convenient to provide a Christian reinterpretation for popular feasts such as Yule and allow the celebrations themselves to go on largely unchanged, versus trying to confront and suppress them. The Scandinavian tradition of slaughtering a pig at Christmas (see Christmas ham), and not in the autumn, is probably the most salient evidence for this. The tradition derives from the sacrifice to the god Freyr at the Yule celebrations. Halloween and Easter are likewise assimilated from northern European pagan festivals.

Posted at: 02:05 | category: /rants/religion | # | 0 comments

Sun, 24 Dec 2006

Hassles with DVI output on an nvidia fx5500 card at 1680x1050

Well I got myself the Proview 22 inch lcd monitor from MSY (I love their JUST THE FACTS basic web design style as well).

Nice basic cheap and cheerful flatscreen monitor that looks nice on the desktop. It has a litle bit of "backlight bleeding" from the top and bottom, but only visible when the screen is nearly all black, none of it is visible during my normal usage patterns of it so I don't care. The model number is FP2226w.

Main problems aoccured trying to get the FX5500 to drive the monitor via DVI.. the nvidia drivers refused to go higher than 1440x900 when I can easily go to the max mode using the VGA mode, but it looked terrible. After some reading up and trial and error, the problem appears to be the line in the Xorg.0.log saying: 

135.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
Which appears to be a driver enforced limit. Adding the option "NoMaxPClkCheck" to the driver section like: 
Section "Device"
    Identifier     "nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5500]"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    Option         "ModeValidation" "NoMaxPClkCheck"
    Option         "NvAGP" "3"
EndSection
Stopped this arbitrary limit being enforced for enumerating video moded and now I have the monitor running perfectly at best resolution.

One problem with the Leadtek Winfast A340 PRO T card is that it has a really crap heat sink and no fan and was overheating when playing True Combat Elite or Enemy Territory.. another visit to MSY to get a $3 80mm case fan to bolt on to the heat sink and heat problems mostly resolved, I can play at 1024x768 or 1280x800 without any heating problems kicking in.. still hangs at 1440x900 for those games, but then again the game isn't playable on an FX5500 at that resolution anyway. Other OPenGL games play fine at full resolution so it must be the Quake3 derived games that really work the card hard or something.

Posted at: 15:11 | category: /nerdy | # | 6 comments

deepmix.ru - excellent constant techno streams

Thanks to Nik and Jon for putting me on to this excellent streaming radio station from Russia.. neverending, excellent minimal techno - just what the doctor ordered after feeling worn down stressed and headachy recently. Never quite sure what they are playing but it's almost always good.

Link : www.deepmix.ru

For us command line using linux heads who just want to get straight into the music try this: 

totem http://85.21.79.5:8040/listen.pls

Posted at: 14:34 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Thu, 07 Dec 2006

Outgoing Google PageRank

here is a natty little web toy from php drupal wizz dgtmlmoon:

Posted at: 00:38 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Sat, 25 Nov 2006

Mr Bollinger

Well in his current musical incarnation TK Bollinger ain't quite bleepin though I have played with him in his more bleepy incarnation at Ye Goode Olde Shen Ying nite club of yore.

To listen to his most excellent alt country type stuff in linux land, use the following command rather than battle through the windows centric mp3.com.au interface... 

totem "http://www.mp3.com.au/PlayAlbumASX.ASP?id=15268&Stream=96&File=Test.asx"

He also has a MySpace page that is less ugly than most other myspace pages... much like his sartorial splendour in person.

Posted at: 14:03 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Mon, 20 Nov 2006

2006 Victorian Elections

greens victoria

Posted at: 01:42 | category: /rants | # | 0 comments

Tue, 14 Nov 2006

Mitsubishi Diamond R100 with OpenWRT

Though I have not actively partaken in melb wireless I have remained on their mail list for the occasional interesting nerd discussion - from there I heard of a cheap deal wireless routers capable of running OpenWRT, so I snarfed one.

Installing the Asus wl500g version of OpenWRT White Russian RC6 via tftp I was able to get this excellent little distro up an running quickly, even booting with root on a USB key.. running it in bridged client mode so I can plug PCs in down the other end of the house, but fun having a well put together old school minimal Linux distro to play with as well.

Lets see how long I last with swap running on a USB memory stick..

Here is the output of dmesg, for the curious: 

CPU revision is: 00024000
Enabling BCM4710A0 cache workarounds.
Primary instruction cache 8kB, physically tagged, 2-way, linesize 16 bytes.
Primary data cache 4kB, 2-way, linesize 16 bytes.
Linux version 2.4.30 (mbm@reboot) (gcc version 3.4.4 (OpenWrt-1.0)) #1 Mon Nov 6 17:35:21 PST 2006
Setting the PFC value as 0x15
Determined physical RAM map:
 memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 init=/etc/preinit noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM4710 rev 0 at 125 MHz
Using 62.400 MHz high precision timer.
!unable to setup serial console!
Calibrating delay loop... 82.94 BogoMIPS
Memory: 14212k/16384k available (1464k kernel code, 2172k reserved, 104k data, 84k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction...  unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
PCI: Fixing up bridge
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 01:00.0 to 64
PCI: Fixing up bus 1
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
Registering mini_fo version $Id$
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
JFFS2 version 2.1. (C) 2001 Red Hat, Inc., designed by Axis Communications AB.
Squashfs 2.1-r2 (released 2004/12/15) (C) 2002-2004 Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
b44.c:v0.93 (Mar, 2004)
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:02.0 to 64
eth0: Broadcom 47xx 10/100BaseT Ethernet 00:11:2f:e1:00:4a
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:08.0 to 64
eth1: Broadcom 47xx 10/100BaseT Ethernet 00:11:2f:e1:00:4a
 Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table v1.1 at 0x0040
Physically mapped flash: Swapping erase regions for broken CFI table.
number of CFI chips: 1
cfi_cmdset_0002: Disabling fast programming due to code brokenness.
Flash device: 0x400000 at 0x1fc00000
bootloader size: 262144
Physically mapped flash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0xda5f3
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "Physically mapped flash":
0x00000000-0x00040000 : "cfe"
0x00040000-0x003f0000 : "linux"
0x000bf400-0x001a0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x001a0000-0x003f0000 : "OpenWrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (5953 buckets, 5953 max) - 332 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
NET4: Ethernet Bridge 008 for NET4.0
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear 
All bugs added by David S. Miller 
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 84k freed
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
diag: Detected 'ASUS WL-500g'
Probing device eth0: No Robo switch in managed mode found
Probing device eth1: No Robo switch in managed mode found
Probing device eth2: No such device
Probing device eth3: No such device
BFL_ENETADM not set in boardflags. Use force=1 to ignore.
b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
mini_fo: using base directory: /
mini_fo: using storage directory: /jffs
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:04.0 to 64
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xb8004000, IRQ 2
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:04.0, PCI device 14e4:4715
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
hub.c: new USB device 00:04.0-1, assigned address 2
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
  Vendor:           Model: USB DISK Pro      Rev: 1.00
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  Vendor:           Model: USB DISK Pro      Rev: 1.00
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi removable disk sdb at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 1
SCSI device sda: 971776 512-byte hdwr sectors (498 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
Partition check:
 /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
SCSI device sdb: 2880 512-byte hdwr sectors (1 MB)
sdb: Write Protect is off
 /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun1: unknown partition table
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
jffs2: attempt to mount non-MTD device 08:01
SQUASHFS error: Can't find a SQUASHFS superblock on sd(8,1)
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,1), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
jffs2.bbc: SIZE compression mode activated.
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 01:02.0 to 64
PCI: Enabling device 01:02.0 (0004 -> 0006)
eth2: Broadcom BCM4320 802.11 Wireless Controller 3.90.37.0
Probing device eth0: No Robo switch in managed mode found
Probing device eth1: No Robo switch in managed mode found
Probing device eth2: [switch-robo.c:90] SIOCGETCPHYRD failed!
[switch-robo.c:90] SIOCGETCPHYRD failed!
No Robo switch in managed mode found
Probing device eth3: No such device
BFL_ENETADM not set in boardflags. Use force=1 to ignore.
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
device eth2 entered promiscuous mode
eth2: attempt to add interface with same source address.
br0: port 2(eth2) entering listening state
br0: port 1(eth0) entering listening state
br0: port 2(eth2) entering learning state
br0: port 1(eth0) entering learning state
br0: port 2(eth2) entering forwarding state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 1(eth0) entering forwarding state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
b44: eth1: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth1: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
Adding Swap: 32760k swap-space (priority -1)
device prism0 left promiscuous mode

Posted at: 08:11 | category: /nerdy | # | 1 comments

Tue, 07 Nov 2006

My Bush Would Make a Better President - Digital Primate

Excellent pop song by Digital Primate, check out the video on GootUbe Here. Good stuff. Nice start to a laid back Melb. Cup Morning.

Posted at: 11:00 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Sun, 05 Nov 2006

Blog of Dr Bunsen Honeydew

One part of mysterious duo Nerfcore has a Livejournal Blog.. at least LiveJournal sucks much (much) less than MySpace.

Posted at: 23:38 | category: /links | # | 1 comments

googlestats plugin added

since I am nerding out a bit on the blog I also added the google stats plugin.

Not sure if it will work, but we will see...

Posted at: 14:31 | category: /nerdy | # | 14 comments

blog comments turned back on

After upgrading to the backports.org newer version of pybloxsom, and installing the tweaked CAPTCHA plugin from Benjamin Mako Hill's pyblosxom plugin page

Now to go through and eliminate all the spam comments that accumulated in the short time I did have captcha-less comments enabled.

Posted at: 12:43 | category: /nerdy | # | 4 comments

Sat, 04 Nov 2006

nerd gear lust - nice monitors and power supplies

My good mate Rig picked these up for a friend, didn't really get to check them out but liked them muchly:

All purchased fairly cheaply from MSY. I didn't get to fully evaluate these, just they looked nice on first impression.

Posted at: 13:10 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Fri, 27 Oct 2006

"kings of Werribee" prank dvd download torrent must be a high demand item at the moment

This very dodgy effort from some sad cases documenting themselves committing apparently criminal acts ranging from typical teenage pranks to serious crime is kind of predictable that it would have happened somewhere in the world. But still a low point that it happened in Victoria. And if it isn't anything illegal on it as some claim deal they should put a torrent up on the 'net somewhere to demonstrate.

Posted at: 20:48 | category: /rants | # | 0 comments

Mon, 23 Oct 2006

An example of xhtml web templates using python and meld3

In the past I have used spambaye's pymeldlite but recently have been trying out meld3 which has a slightly different approach, and hopefully better performance. Here is a quick chunk of example code showing it in action, the type of thing I wish could have disected when I was starting to figure out how it all fits together. I have converted a simple html example form to work as an xhtml template with a python cgi backend:

.. and of course the source code to the cgi

#!/usr/bin/python
#
# simple example of using meld3 and python cgi module to process a html form using an
# xhtml template.
#

from meld3 import parse_xmlstring
from meld3 import parse_htmlstring
from StringIO import StringIO

import sys, cgi, os

colours = ["chartreuse",
   "azure",
   "puce",
   "cornflower",
   "olive draub",
   "gunmetal",
   "indigo2",
   "blanched almond",
   "flesh",
   "ochre",
   "opal",
   "amber"]


debugenabled = False

template = "template.xhtml"

# log to a file so we can see whats going on without interfering with cgi output, if debugenabled turned on
def debug(debugoutput):
   if debugenabled:
      f = open(DEBUGDIR+"/debug.out",'a')
      f.write(debugoutput)
      f.close()

def process_form(root, form):

   # do a pile of stuff, to the encoded template, according to values from the form.

   # set the action to submit this cgi script
   root.findmeld('form1').attributes(action=os.environ.get('SCRIPT_NAME'))

   if form.has_key('name'):
      root.findmeld('name').content("name entered was "+form.getvalue('name'))
      root.findmeld('nameprompt').attributes(value=form.getvalue('name'))

   if form.has_key('quest'):
      root.findmeld('quest').content("name entered was "+form.getvalue('quest'))
      root.findmeld('questprompt').attributes(value=form.getvalue('quest'))

   if form.has_key('text'):
      root.findmeld('comment').content("name entered was "+form.getvalue('text'))
      root.findmeld('commentbox').content(form.getvalue('text'))

   if form.has_key('swallow'):
      root.findmeld('swallowtype').content("The swallow chosen was "+form.getvalue('swallow'))
      if form.getvalue('swallow') == 'african':
         root.findmeld('africanswallow').attributes(checked="")
      if form.getvalue('swallow') == 'continental':
         root.findmeld('continentalswallow').attributes(checked="")

   if form.has_key('color'):
      colourselected = form.getvalue('color')
      root.findmeld('colour').content(colourselected+" was the colour chosen")
   else:
      colourselected = ''

   iterator = root.findmeld('colouroption').repeat(colours)
   for element, item in iterator:
      element.attributes(value=item)
      element.content(item)
      if item == colourselected:
         element.attributes(selected="")

   return root

try:
   xml = open(template).read()

except:
   sys.stdout.write("Content-Type: text/html\n\n")
   sys.stdout.write("<html><b>Error reading temple file "+template+"</b></html>\n")
   sys.exit(0)

try:
   root = parse_xmlstring(xml)
except:
   t, v, tb = sys.exc_info()
   sys.stdout.write("Content-Type: text/html\n\n")
   sys.stdout.write("<html><b>XML Parse Error in template "+template+" :"+str(v)+" </b></html>")
   sys.exit(0)

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

root = process_form(root, form)

sys.stdout.write("Content-Type: text/html\n\n")
root.write_xhtml(sys.stdout)

# print cgi.print_environ()
# print cgi.print_form(form)

Posted at: 22:17 | category: /nerdy | # | 1 comments

Sat, 09 Sep 2006

ESI Midi Mate USB midi adapter works fine with linux

Got a ESI Midi mate from Streetwise in Hawthorn, although on their web page it is listed as an Audiotrak XP Midia mate it appears the ESI is just the Audiotrak unit re-badged. Works fine with the Linux ALSA midi drivers to the level of testing I have done. The wire used on the midi cables seems a bit flimsy compared to the stuff midi leads are usally made from, but I guess we'll see how it holds up.

Now to get to grips with MIDI sequencing and sampling under Linux. So far SEQ24 and MUSE seem to fit my needs best while being simple and usable (and muse reasonably close to the older Cubase I am used to).

Some tech info on this device plugged into a 2.6.X kernel linux box: 

aplaymidi -l

Port    Client name                      Port name
14:0    Midi Through                     Midi Through Port-0
24:0    XP MIDI mate                     XP MIDI mate MIDI 1

/proc/bus/usb/devices

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#=  4 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0a92 ProdID=1000 Rev= 1.01
S:  Manufacturer=Ego Systems Inc
S:  Product=XP MIDI mate
S:  SerialNumber=ct02090990
C:* #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=01(audio) Sub=01 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=01(audio) Sub=03 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
Now the re-assembling of the studio can continue.. if I can drag myself away from tinkering with lastfm long enough.

Posted at: 15:01 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Fri, 18 Aug 2006

Some pictures from Thailand and Cambodia

Well this is a test of tabblo to see how their blog intergration stuff works. For starters two pictures from, one of one of my favourite Thai meals, plus some ruined stone fragments from a temple in the region of Cambodia's Angkor Wat.

Tabblo: Tabblo test - pix from Thailand and Cambodia

Thai Pork Salad and Beer Chang in Bangkok..

Ruined stone fragments from the Angkor temples in Cambodia
... See my Tabblo>

Posted at: 17:42 | category: /travel | # | 0 comments

Sat, 12 Aug 2006

Back from overseas.

Lucky just before the latest Terrorism "event".. good to see the authorities treating it with the care it deserves by mixing together all the Liquids Confiscated From Passengers Because They Might Be Explosive When Mixed Together in a big container in a crowded airport.

Would be a real shit if I had to give up my duty free booze.

Will attempt to post up some pictures in some kind of categorized way.

Posted at: 18:50 | category: / | # | 0 comments

Sun, 02 Jul 2006

goodbye gnome2, hello xfce4

After evaluating XFCE4 as a leightweight desktop environment for an old laptop with not a lot of RAM, I decided there isn't really anything on GNOME that it can't do as well that I use. So I installed xfce4 on every machine I use regularly. I was mainly using gnome on inertia as I am used to it, but still frustrated it by its fatness, wierd quicks and gradual loss of usefull features. I tried KDE and it was frustrating as well.

As its gtk2 based XFCE lets me use all the gnome applications I like without all the hassles of actually running gnome.

Only minor problem I ran into was one of my machines had the font very swmall with no apparent way to change it, the secret turned out to be tweaking the XPI setting in the .Xresources file.

Posted at: 20:45 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Tue, 27 Jun 2006

kissrec.py: Keep It Simple Stupid audio recording for linux.

Well I decided to update the nrecord program from wavnorm to work with ALSA. I ran into a barrier with using the newt library with the Alsa C API, and as I am lazy, re-implented it all in python. This allowed me to let the excellent pyalsaaudio and progressbar python modules do all the heavy lifting, while the kissrec.py program really just ties them together to make a simple audio recorder.

Features

Command line options

./kissrec.py --help
usage: kissrec.py [options] outputfile.wav

options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -dDEVICE, --device=DEVICE
                        ALSA device to use, e.g. default for default device, or
                        hw:1 for second sound card
  -v, --verbose

Download

The python code is here: kissrec.py

The prerequisites are:

Why did I make it?

It is a trivial program, but on a low resource laptop all the more featureful Linux recording programs would produce glitchy recordings due to their overhead, while all the simple ones dont have the features to monitor what is going on adequately. This software allows simple recording to occur, but with monitoring of the input levels and if any clipping has occured.

Wishlist

Posted at: 00:35 | category: /nerdy/kissrec | # | 0 comments

Mon, 26 Jun 2006

THE CHURCH OF SPONTANEOUS JOY

Saw these guys play at Glitch Bar and Cinema on Saturday night, was a great show. I'd checked out some of the mp3s from their site before heading off and suprised to find them playing live a much more refined, smoother sound than the acid techno on their site, with atmospheric spoken word, and ultra smooth echo laden trumpet sounding clearly though the Minirig Sound System. Very impressive, and went down a treat on a cold Melbourne night in away from the cold.

After the intermission the performance filled out from the elctronic backing to a full live band with the addition of guitar, bass, drums and violin to head of in a sort of stoner dub Tijuana Brass direction that was also great fun.. they shoulda played longer.. all in all a good night out on a cold melbourne night.

Posted at: 23:21 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Dick Smith Electronics USB 2.0 External Sound Card

Got this on special for just under $20, for use with Skype.

Worked first go with Linux 2.6.15, ALSA drivers - from dmesg: 

usb 2-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 3
input: C-Media USB Headphone Set   as /class/input/input4
input: USB HID v1.00 Device [C-Media USB Headphone Set  ] on usb-0000:00:02.1-4
usb 2-4: USB disconnect, address 3

it identifies as a C-Media headhone set - but works perfectly. Sounds OK, but noiser than the uca202.

Looking inside the PC board identifies it as a Gamtec MB-102 which it presumably is a rebadged version.

Has a bright blue/purple LED that flashes when the audio is active.

Posted at: 23:02 | category: /bleeps | # | 2 comments

Wed, 07 Jun 2006

MS-20 Arkestra at the Make it Up Club - 06 / 06 / 06

Went and saw the amazing MS-20 Arkestra (made from a bunch of Melbourne musicians) jam it up at the Make It Up club last night, loose and jammy but relaxing and fun.. I just wish the set was a bit longer!

MS-20 Arkestra at MIUC

Posted at: 08:42 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Tue, 06 Jun 2006

"God will save me" says man just before jumping into Lion enclosure and getting mauled to death.

KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

-- links to yahoo and BBC story.

Posted at: 08:48 | category: /rants/religion | # | 0 comments

Mon, 05 Jun 2006

The Religious Policeman Blog

Witty, inciteful, well written.. an excellent insiders view of the craziness of Saudi Society at muttawa : The Religious Policeman.

Unfortunately the author says he has just posted his last post. A pity, this is one of the best sites on the net. As he says, the site is In Memory of the lives of 15 Makkah Schoolgirls, lost when their school burnt down on Monday, 11th March, 2002. The Religious Police would not allow them to leave the building, nor allow the Firemen to enter.

Posted at: 08:38 | category: /links | # | 0 comments

Tue, 30 May 2006

quick test of irrepressible.info

Posted at: 00:01 | category: / | # | 0 comments

Tue, 16 May 2006

HEADSPACE 05 06

Got a nice little DJ gig on Saturday night at Glitch Bar and Cinema supporting Zen Paradox and Pat Stormont - more info here - should be excellent fun.

Posted at: 21:12 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Sat, 13 May 2006

last.fm player for debian fixed.

Here is a tweaked .deb of the last.fm player with the annoying bug where it doesn't work with extra soundcards fixed.

forum post that details the bug, and the fix

Posted at: 00:23 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Fri, 12 May 2006

EVIL BIBLE

Sites like EVIL BIBLE.com are great, laying out some of the repugnant and annoying things about religion in a clear, punchy in your face manner.

Found while googling around after reading about the crimes of Internet Evangelist and Bible Basher Charles Michael Balfe

Posted at: 22:14 | category: /rants/religion | # | 0 comments

Tue, 09 May 2006

Steve Kilbey on Grant McLennan

Some great comments from Steve Kilbey. I know people die every day, but I am still feeling sad about this. It feels like the end of an era for me.

Posted at: 22:41 | category: / | # | 0 comments

Mon, 08 May 2006

Go-Betweens' McLennan dies in sleep

Very Sad.

Go-betweens very much part of the soundtrack of my life in the 80s and 90s Saw them play on a stinking hot night at the corner hotel and supporting REM at festival Hall. "16 Lovers Lane" is a masterpiece.

ABC news article
Go Betweens UK site

Posted at: 08:06 | category: / | # | 0 comments

Sun, 07 May 2006

free software plus lastfm equals goodness

Last.fm is great. My new USB soundcard is great. Whats not great is one didnt want to play on the other.
Lucky due to the wonders of free software.. and me wanting to tinker with sound cards on a rainy Saturday night.. I was able to find and fix the problem and get them all playing nicely together.

Posted at: 00:00 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Sat, 06 May 2006

Behringer UCA202 USB Audio interface and linux

Just got one of these nifty devices from the friendly people at MelMusic and it worked first go in Linux.. well the kernel detected it and loaded a driver, took a bit of RTFM to get it playing with gnome desktop via ALSA, but essentially in terms of the driver it was plug and play.

Haven't recorded anything but playback sounds noticably better than the build in motherboard soundcard, even on Logitech multimedia speakers. The 3.5mm headphone out seems to sound a bit tinny compared to the main audio out, but its hard to quantify.

For nerd trivia, here is the dmesg output when plugging it in: 

usb 2-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 5
input: Burr-Brown from TI               USB Audio CODEC  as /class/input/input3
input: USB HID v1.00 Device [Burr-Brown from TI               USB Audio CODEC ] on usb-0000:00:02.1-4
usbcore: registered new driver yealink
drivers/usb/input/yealink.c: Yealink phone driver:yld-20050816

Posted at: 15:21 | category: /bleeps | # | 9 comments

Mon, 01 May 2006

moving from TPG to Optus

the cheap cheap $50/month plan is gone, thanks to Tesltra being dodgy. As my land line is optus as well the Optus plan works out slightly better than the equivalent TPG plan. Been with TPG for years and they have been OK. Not fabulous, but at least dirt cheap, which is why I have accepted their terrible tech support with amusement.

Posted at: 02:38 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Sun, 30 Apr 2006

google double standards?

Laddish and cheeky Thailand oriented blog Mango Sauce gets revenue killed by Google despite google obviously makes way more dosh than mango sauce of sexually oriented advertising.. hypocrisy++

Posted at: 01:46 | category: /rants | # | 0 comments

Sat, 29 Apr 2006

PIXEL REUNIFICATION DVD LAUNCH / FREE SCREENING

Got this in email, looks cool:
Pixel Reunification vs Winduptoys.

Pixel Reunification will launch / screen their DVD @ Glitch Bar & Cinema (St Georges Rd, Nth Fitzroy ) on Sunday 7th May @ 7.30pm (sharp!) The entry is free !!! They will be followed by a cameo performance by Winduptoys (who are due to release their own album ' Double Exposure ' in May on Clan Analogue / Creative Vibes.)

Pixel Reunification have compiled a collection of visual work onto DVD, which includes music by Clan Analogue artists including Winduptoys, Clowns Smiling Backwards as well as other musical acts. People will have also seen some of their work over the years @ various Clan Analogue events, etc.. They will also provide the visual component as Winduptoys play on the evening.

Bo & Jeremy (winduptoys) www.winduptoysmusic.com

Posted at: 14:46 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Sun, 23 Apr 2006

hero of the moment

Posted at: 02:15 | category: /rants | # | 0 comments

Wed, 19 Apr 2006

I've always been dismayed by the lack of decent politically themed (electronic) music.

That was One thing I liked about the good old 'Oils was they stuck to their guns. At least now Clan Analoguester Victor X-Ray has released an excellent dub mix with lyrics courtesy Alexander Downer to remedy that.

Get the full lyrics and download the mp3 here

This has made my day.

Posted at: 00:09 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Mon, 17 Apr 2006

Col's Minirig Site

Col, aprts from playing the odd DJ gig both here and in East Timor has had a succession of sound systems that have seen action both here and in East Timor (one was the first sound system into East Timor after liberation).. here is his Minirig Site that documents the ongoing evolution of these systems.. I got to play through the latest iteration when it was installed at Glitch Bar and Cinema for the Glitch 2nd birthday bash.

Posted at: 18:12 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Sun, 16 Apr 2006

vcf to ezmlm

Just a real simple script for subscribing "Electronic Business Card attachment" vcard (.vcf) files into an ezmlm mailing list. Might save someone a bit of scripting. Doesn't like email addresses that have bash shell special characters.. fixing that is a excercise for the reader. No error checking. 

#!/usr/bin/python
#
#  really really simple script for dumping stuff from a vcf file into an ezmlm mailing list
#

import fileinput, sys, os

# split lines have format ['EMAIL', 'type=INTERNET', 'type=WORK', 'type=pref:xxx@hotmail.com\n']
# where they have the info we want

# takes VCF file and dir where the mailing list lives as the args

vcffile = sys.argv[1]
listdir = sys.argv[2]

command = "/usr/bin/ezmlm-sub %s %s"

for line in fileinput.input(vcffile):
    words = line.split(";")
    if len(words) == 4 and words[0] == 'EMAIL':
       email =  words[3].replace('type=pref:','',1).strip('\n')
       print "adding %s to list at %s " % (email,listdir)
       os.system(command % (listdir, email))

Posted at: 20:31 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Sat, 08 Apr 2006

Been playing with last.fm, which ships with a Linux player

The player seems to Just Work, bar the occasional buffering glitch at the start of some tracks but that seems to have gone away.

Here is the supplied html snippet that should insert a chart of what I have been listening to:

Posted at: 10:19 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Wed, 29 Mar 2006

GLITCH BAR AND CINEMA SECOND BIRTHDAY

Also Col's birthday partee, but thats meant to be a secret...
Saturday 8th April, 8PM til 1AM

18 ST GEORGES RD NTH FITZROY 3068 (Victoria)

And they have Coopers on tap now!

I'll break out Ye Olde Dx200, but not sure how live I will be.. at least one or two Bangin Trax though

Posted at: 17:29 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Sun, 26 Mar 2006

Religious tolerance - UK vs Afghanistan

Interesting to compare the struggle of Shabina Begum in the UK with Abdur Rahman in Afghanistan.. maybe they should trade places and they both will be happy?

Meanwhile, in the US it seems those loving gentle Xtians have declared open season on any Atheists who dare stick to their opinions.

Posted at: 14:56 | category: /rants/religion | # | 0 comments

Fairlight CMI trivia

Just an interesting link to comments and trivia about a Fairlight Sampler for sale on ebay.

Interesting the designer also made the kit synth ETI 4600

Posted at: 14:32 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Open Source Linux Driver for Traverse Pulsar ADSL card

I have been a very satisfied user of Traverse Technology's Pulsar PCI ADSL card for quite some time now. very stable and reliable. The one thing is that getting the drivers up and running needs a bit of technical knowledge.

Recently I have been using the OpenADSL drivers for this card, which are now absolutely rock solid, just follow the Debian howto in the docs and away you go, if you are using Debian Linux. Kudos to Guy and all the developers working on this project.

Just upgraded to the Linux 2.6.15 kernel in Debian/Testing, which needs the CVS version of the driver as it is compiled with gcc 4, but following the hints on the mailing list and I got it all running.

Posted at: 14:20 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

end of the mess

Well the cheque finally arrived, 14 days late. Strangely enough it was sent by "express post", when EasyStreet insisted to me on the phone they had sent it normal post, and they dont send cheques any other way? Sounds like the left hand doesn't know what the right had is doing there. The "Express Post" even has a tracking number on it that can be used to trace it's course through the postal system.. completely useless of to anybody when nobody knows this.

The picture is an error I got just then when logging in to see whats up with their online banking.. kind of sums it all up really.

Posted at: 13:34 | category: /rants/easystreet | # | 0 comments

Wed, 22 Mar 2006

planet clan analogue

Just set up a quicky install of planet planet to agregate clan analogue related blogs. Presently just a proof of concept install.. using the heads that shipped with the planet software.

The URL is at http://planet.clananalogue.org/

Posted at: 00:58 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Wed, 08 Mar 2006

ongoing shambles with easystreet finance

It's now wednesday morning, and suprise suprise, no cheque. Called up and stopped the cheque, have arranged finance elsewhere, time to move on from the slow motion trainwreck that is dealing with easystreet before ending up as more collateral damage. Easystreet staff suprisingy unsuprised by all this mess, I wonder how often their procedures cause this kind of mess to happen?

Posted at: 08:34 | category: /rants/easystreet | # | 0 comments

Thornbury Shrubbery Mafia strike again

Apart from the chilli plant we also have some "Mother In Laws Tongue" aka sansevieria_trifasciata, yesterday I noticed a bit of the plants had been taken. Then our neighbor reported she had some of her plants (in the pots) stolen as well.

Now read in the local paper (which is so local it doesnt even have an online edition or home page) on with the front page headline "Thieving Green Fingers" that shrubs and ornamental plants are being stolen all over the suburb, in such volume people suspect the plants are being stolen to be sold in markets.

Posted at: 08:23 | category: / | # | 0 comments

Sun, 05 Mar 2006

DOLLSQUAD at the OLD BAR

Well not quite a bleep but went and saw a bit of Ye Olde Pub Rock last night at The Old Bar in Fitzroy, catching Dollsquad, Sons of Lee Marvin and Lonely Hearts. Good raucus rock and roll and Carlton Draught by the jug. Show was over by the last tram home as well so didn't have to get a taxi.

Posted at: 17:08 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Sat, 04 Mar 2006

Zog Chilli Farm?

ZOG CHILLI

Well not quite but we are now self sufficient in chillis (a key ingredient for Thai food) despite having only about 1 square metre of land available for planting in. Chilli tree grown from a seed from some chillis we bought at the market.

This post brought to you by the department of "think tranquil thoughts".

Posted at: 13:30 | category: / | # | 0 comments

Fri, 03 Mar 2006

It's now Friday after the Monday when they claimed to have sent the cheque

and I have not got anything. Despite "easy street" financial services insisting on this being the only way their auditors allow them to send money there is no way for them to prove to me that the money has actually been sent.. though of course they have not hesitated to start charging me interest. Seller of car starting to get agitated as he needs the dosh for his own purposes.. I am feeling guilty and depressed at continually having to fob him off with the old "cheque is in the mail", one of the most sorry excuses to use but have no choice. To add injury to insult my current car has now decayed to a state where I don't feel safe driving it on a freeway, I have to rent a car to get to work. Thanks guys! Amazing customer service!

Posted at: 19:53 | category: /rants/easystreet | # | 0 comments

Thu, 02 Mar 2006

still a victim of easystreet's terrible procedures

it's now 4 days after the cheque has allegedly been sent and still no sign of it. My car has now died so I can't drive it to work, seller of the new car getting more and more impatient, and easystreet's attitude is tough luck. Not happy. Despite them messing it up initially they have made no attempt to expedite it, instead sending via the slowest and least trackable way possible so as to save a few cents. Thanks guys! Really great customer service! I'll be sure to tell everyone I meet how impressed I am!

Posted at: 12:53 | category: /rants/easystreet | # | 0 comments

Tue, 28 Feb 2006

easystreet financial services not very easy

yes, this is a whinge. in the big picture this is not of consequence but it is bugging the hell out of me.

I had a need to upgrade my car unfortunately, so organised a loan from easystreet financial services. As I know I am fairly impatient I wanted to get the loan all approved before setting out to search for a car as I wanted to be able to pay for it in the spot. After a car was found, then came the delays as it turns out they had somehow not finished my application and still had stuff to do. It is now nearly 2 weeks after I got the following email from them (and a week after I assured the seller I had the money right at hand) and still no cheque: 

 We advise that we have received the documentation required and your
 loan is ready to be funded. Once you have found a car contact us with
 the name of who you wish to buy the car from and we will print a cheque
 for the requested amount.
Generally I have been happy with EasyStreets low cost online services but looks like anything that needs human attention is destined to end up a shambles.

Posted at: 18:09 | category: /rants/easystreet | # | 1 comments

Sun, 26 Feb 2006

Got a cheapo UPS

Got a cheap UPS from Dick Smith Electronics, after having some brownouts during yesterdays storms. Interestingly the UPS was priced at $128 in the store and $98 on the web site. They dropped the price to the web site price as soon as I mentioned this.

Posted at: 22:44 | category: /nerdy | # | 0 comments

Clan Analogue new Dub CD Launch

Went along last night to check out the doings of my old cohorts at Clan Analogue as they were launching the new dub compilation CD. A great night, some excellent sounds on display and a very big spacious clean dubby sounds to the PA, which sounded great but not overbearing.

Posted at: 22:35 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Wed, 22 Feb 2006

SUPPORT DENMARK

Posted at: 23:17 | category: /rants | # | 0 comments

Sun, 12 Feb 2006

Rainbow Serpent 2006 was excellent.

I was pretty tired as my January has been insanely busy, but managed to get a good set together and play up there. Also caught great stuff by Kali and Bags in the Chill zone and Toupee, Steve Law, and whoever the 2 DJs after him were awesome on the market area on Saturday night. Pity a lept through a lot of the rest but I really needed it, but it was the kind of event were just relaxing was fine as well.

Congrats to the organisers for a great event and all the great music.

some pics from inthemix and flickr

Posted at: 16:24 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

The Park last Sunday

I haven't been out much recently but a laid back afternoon of minimal and dub in the park was just what I needed. Caught the sets of Steve Law, Monolake, an the Midget Fidget guys and it was excellent. Thanks to Alan Bamford!

Some of it documented in this flickr photo set.. I am in one of the pics, somewhere

Posted at: 16:15 | category: /bleeps | # | 0 comments

Thu, 09 Feb 2006

those cartoons...

.. were published IN EGYPT in November to not a whisper of offence or protest. Seems to make a difference when you have a tour of troublemaking immans with a few extra fake cartoons thrown in touring to whip up trouble against the infidels... (who did pay for all those Danish flags? where did they get them?)

Meanwhile here are a few peace loving happy joy joy cartoons from arab countries.

On a a lighter note here are some funny sites

Posted at: 20:55 | category: /rants/religion | # | 0 comments