Tunage

The Jean Genie    The Dandy Warhols    Plan A    2:14
Seven Nation Army (Harry Potter And George Bush's Severed Head Army Mix)    The Flaming Lips    LateNightTales: The Flaming Lips    2:49
Neon    The Knife    The Knife    4:08
Popcorn    Hot Butter    Single    2:33
Girl U Want    Zombie Ghost Train    Glad Rags & Body Bags    2:42
It's Alright!    2UP    Player's Club    3:53
Stutter    Elastica    Elastica    2:22
The Mercy Seat    Johnny Cash    American III: Solitary Man    4:35
The Good Son    Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds    Live Seeds    4:27
My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)    Neil Young    Rust Never Sleeps (Live)    3:48
Caribou    Pixies    Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim    3:14
The Illustrated man    Konrad Lenz    Living with the spirits of the dead    3:58
Blade-running     Elf      Preview    4:13
Chom chom generator    Jack Planck    To hell with you, I'll make my own people    3:50
Why Won't You Give Me Your Love    The Zutons    Tired of Hangin' Around    3:22
Audrey's Dance    Angelo Badalamenti    Twin Peaks    5:18
Theme From Gbvg    GBVG    Whitey Trickstar    5:02
You Love It    Peaches    Impeach My Bush    3:00
Fitter Happier    Easy Star All Stars    Radiodread    2:20
So says I    The Shins    Chutes too narrow    2:49
Oh My    The Drones    Havilah    4:44
Puttin' On The Dog    Tom Waits    Orphans: Brawlers    3:39
Elevator Music    Beck    The Information    3:38
Kiss Kiss    Yeah Yeah Yeahs    Is Is (EP)    2:46

Still Barracking for Obama

 

Nice one America.

It only seems fitting to take a snapshot of the FoxNews website homepage at a point in history like this.

Songs

Dirty Water    Randall Blair And The Wedded Bliss    Tattoos And Taillights    4:46
Reindeer    The Knife    The Knife    7:11
I Take Time    The Knife    The Knife    3:05
Neon Flex    Bit By Bats    Go, Go, Go!    4:29
Rock And Roll    Led Zeppelin    Mothership    3:41
Sad Jexy    Dirty Three    Cinder    3:24
Half Right    Elliott Smith    New Moon    3:51
Just Like A Woman    Calexico & Charlotte Gainsbourg    I'm Not There [Disc 2]    4:16
Dark Eyes    Iron & Wine With Calexico    I'm Not There [Disc 1]    4:31
J'Te Jure    Mick est tout seul    So Frenchy So Chic: 2008    2:31
Sandman    Tex Perkins And His Ladyboyz    No 1's and No 2's    3:55
Business Time    Flight Of The Conchords    Flight Of The Conchords    4:05
Oh My    The Drones    Havilah    4:44
Now You Love Me    The Dandy Warhols    Earth To The Dandy Warhols    3:09
Sleep Forever    theredsunband    Peapod    2:16
Electioneering    Radiohead    Ok Computer    3:51
Love Will Tear Us Apart    Joy Division    24 Hour Party People    3:26
yes We Can Song    will i am and friends    Obama 08    4:20
This Land Is Your Land    Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings    Naturally    4:31
O Freedom    Billy Bragg    Mr. Love & Justice    4:05
Woman And Man    Ween    La Cucaracha    10:49
16 16 Piccola Radiolina    Manu Chao    La Radiolina    1:08
11 11 El Hoyo    Manu Chao    La Radiolina    3:23
You & Steve McQueen    The Audreys    Acoustic 3    3:42
Fuzzy    Grant Lee Buffalo    Fuzzy    4:59
Human Fly    Nouvelle Vague    Bande À Part    2:49
Myth Takes    !!!    Myth Takes    2:24

This is why I'm an Obama fan

It's the people that he attracts to the cause

I can haz another 15 minutes of fame?

Movember is creeping up on us and this year I've found a new group of homeboys to share the joys of growing appalling facial hair for charity with. I've been getting into Screenplay, the games blog on The Age, recently and posting the odd comment or five on the discussion boards under my gamername, Singo the Dingo.

The good thing about this blog is that the author, Jason Hill, encourages readers to post their own stories.
So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and plug the Screenplay Movember team as well as briefly discuss the role of the moustache in gaming. You can check it out here - it begins under the Great Gaming Moustaches subheading. (Or, you know, you could just keep reading it here)

If you would like to sponsor me or join the team (men and women are welcome - women are free to not grow the mo : ), please click the link at the bottom.


Great gaming moustaches
Gamers measure the greatness of games using a complex personal algorithm that includes (among other things) shiny next-gen graphics, captivating stories, sheer fun-itude, massive explosions and characters with stonking great... guns.

Ultimately though, there is a single element in any game that will invariably tell you, at a glance, whether a game is worthy of your time and your hard-earned cash. Take a closer look at the main characters in the proven greats - it's been right under our noses all this time - it's the moustache.

In a list which has been shamelessly adapted from other time-killer lists on the Internetz, I present to you, the Great Moustaches of Gaming.

1. Mario (from Mario series)
2. Snake (from Metal Gear Solid)
3. Dr Robotnik (bad guy from Sonic)
4. Luigi (from Mario series)
5. Ocelot (from Metal Gear Solid)
6. Mike Haggar (from Final Fight)
7. Wario (from Mario series)
8. Dr. Wily (from MegaMan)
9. King of All Cosmos (from Katamari Damacy)
10. Dracula (from Castlevania)

Heroes all. (Even the villains, such is the power of the moustache). The great thing about gaming is that it gives us all an opportunity to be heroes and as this list should make eminently apparent, heroes have moustaches.

Ok, tortuous segue aside, a handful (so far) of Screen Players, led by Cannon and including myself, have signed up for Movember, a fundraising initiative for Men's Health that involves growing a Mo in November.


I think this is a great way for us to continue the work that Jason started with the 40 Hour Famine as well as a chance to have a bit of fun for a good cause. Please sign up and join the team or make a donation at http://au.movember.com/mospace/1434296

(By the way, women - or Mo' Sisters as they are known - are also warmly welcomed in the Movember fold)
- Singo the Dingo

The Soundtrack of my afternoon

Don't Explain    Paul Kelly    A-Z Downloads    3:06
The Minotaur    The Drones    Havilah    3:26
The songs that we sing    Charlotte Gainsbourg    So Frenchy So Chic: 2008    2:55
Sweet 16    Tex Perkins And His Ladyboyz    No 1's and No 2's    3:13
Master And Slave    Beasts Of Bourbon    Little Animals    4:51
Fashion Death Trends    Frausdots    Couture, Couture, Couture    2:51
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction    Devo    Nouvelle Vague Presents New Wave [Disc 1]    2:38
99 Luftballons    Nena    GTA VC Wave 103    3:51
I Heard It Through The Grapevine    The Slits    Nouvelle Vague Presents New Wave [Disc 2]    3:50
Yoshimi battles the pink robots pt.1    The Flaming Lips    Yoshimi battles the pink robots    4:46
Give Me Some Mercy    Tom Woodward    32-20 Blues    5:58
Wicked And Weird    Buck 65    Talkin' Honky Blues    3:43
Myth Takes    !!!    Myth Takes    2:24
Sheela-Na-Gig    PJ Harvey    The Peel Sessions (1991-2004)    3:24
Dirty Water    Randall Blair And The Wedded Bliss    Tattoos And Taillights    4:46
King Kong    Tom Waits    Orphans: Bastards    5:30
Bird    The Knife    The Knife    4:34
Blue Balloon    Ween    La Cucaracha    3:51
Ice Girl    Emilie Simon    So Frenchy, So Chic (Disc 2)    3:26
Oxygène, Pt 4    Jean Michel Jarre    GTA IV The Journey    3:11
Antenna    Kraftwerk    Radioactivity    3:42
yes We Can Song    will i am and friends    Obama 08    4:20
Transmission    Joy Division    Permanent    3:34
Kingdom Of Doom    The Good, The Bad And The Queen    The Good, The Bad And The Queen    2:43
My Pal    God    Tales From The Australian Underground - Singles 1976-1989 (Disc 2)    3:21
19 19 Siberia    Manu Chao    La Radiolina    2:05
Those Little Things    Carla Bruni    Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited    2:09
Acid Food    Mogwai    Mr. Beast    3:41
Fitter Happier    Easy Star All Stars    Radiodread    2:20
Mother Pinball    The BellRays    Raw Collection    2:17
Piazza, New York Catcher    Belle & Sebastian    Juno    3:02

LOLing: the Singstar/FPS game

It had to be the Dutch.

Playing

Jump    Aztec Camera    J Files - Best covers of all time    5:29
Everybody's Gonna Be Happy    Queens Of The Stone Age    Songs For The Deaf     2:36
Electioneering    Easy Star All Stars    Radiodread    4:34
TZU Blues (Sweet Little Hoochie)    Tzu    Smiling At Strangers    4:31
Caribou    Pixies    Death To The Pixies    3:14
Twenty-Four Hours    Joy Division    Permanent    4:27
Murder City Nights    Radio Birdman    The Essential Radio Birdman (74-78)    2:24
One Step Ahead    Amiel    She Will Have Her Way    3:02
Got 2 Let U    The Knife    Deep Cuts    4:00
Someone I care about (Alternate Version)    The Modern Lovers    The Modern Lovers    2:59
The Man Comes Around (Early Take)    Johnny Cash    Unearthed - Redemption songs    3:50
The Letter    PJ Harvey    Uh Huh Her    3:23
We Call Upon The Author    Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds    Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!    5:12
Machines Work    B(if)tek    2020    3:59
06 06 El Kitapena    Manu Chao    La Radiolina    1:55
Leaving You    Randall Blair And The Wedded Bliss    Tattoos And Taillights    4:34
Spanish Flea (long)    Simpsons, The    Single    2:07
Sorry    The Easybeats    Rage - The Songs Most Chosen By Rage Guest Programmers    2:34
Man Overboard    Deborah Conway & Wicked Beat Sound System    He died with a felafel in his hand - Soundtrack    6:12
Chinito Chinito    Ry Cooder    Chavez Ravine    4:53
Into Temptation    Jimmy Little    Messenger    4:49
Truth Doesn't Make a Noise    The White Stripes    De Stijl    3:15
Anything could happen    The Clean    Topless women talk about their lives     2:37
Bigmouth Strikes Again    The Smiths    Singles    3:14

Respecting: the Public Service ethos

A headline in today's Canberra Times reads "Cancer faked in bid for sick day"

Ok, go on, I'm listening.

A Commonwealth public servant's habit of forging doctors' certificates to take days off work was only discovered by his bosses after he went too far and faked having lung cancer.

The ACT Magistrates Court heard yesterday that the Department of Education and Workplace Relations became suspicious of its employee Ben Lyons in September 2006 when a concerned colleague tried to visit the 26-year-old's bedside, only to find that no hospital in Canberra had heard of the man.

The court ordered Lyons to refund more than $3000 in sickness benefits he was paid by the department and he was convicted of three counts of falsely obtaining financial advantage by supplying forged doctors' certificates.

I can only imagine the sick voice that the guy had to put on for that phone call.

Let me just say, for the record, no-one is more Australian than Public Servants :)

Enjoying: Jed Bartlet meets Barack Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html?em

I came across this great scene in the New York Times the other day, written by Aaron Sorkin (creator and writer of A Few Good Men, Studio 60 and of course, The West Wing). It's his take on what would happen if his super-awesome fictional president Jed Bartlet met Barack Obama.

I love Bartlet's point about taking back the word elite - "Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence."

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.
BARTLET Senator.
OBAMA Mr. President.
BARTLET You seem startled.
OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.
BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.
OBAMA Yes, sir.
BARTLET Come on in.
BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.
BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.
OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.
BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —
OBAMA Look —
BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?
OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.
BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?
OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.
BARTLET I can’t give it to you.
OBAMA Why not?
BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.
OBAMA Why?
BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.
OBAMA O.K. —
BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?
OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.
BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.
OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.
BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.
OBAMA Which was?
BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.
OBAMA And?
BARTLET I was.
OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?
BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.
OBAMA What do you mean?
BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.
OBAMA I’m asleep?
BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.
OBAMA Yes, sir.
BARTLET I mean tons.
OBAMA I understand.
BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.
OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?
BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.
OBAMA How did you do it?
BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.
OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?
BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”
OBAMA That would make it easier.
BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.
OBAMA What the hell does that mean?
BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.
OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?
BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.
OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?
BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —
OBAMA I have two.
BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.
OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.
BARTLET Is that what you came here for?
OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.
BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?
OBAMA Sir —
BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?
OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?
BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.
OBAMA What would you do?
BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!
OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?
BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?
OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.
BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.
OBAMA What’s the second step?
BARTLET I don’t care.
OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?
BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.
OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?
BARTLET “Break’s over.”

Taking: a blog-cation

The whole springtime/upcoming birthday thing has me thinking that I need to try some new approaches to getting things done - both at work and in terms of my own projects.

I'm going to try focussing exclusively on one project for a month at a time and see if this gets me any further than my usual flurry of minor activity spread over dozens of ideas. This month I really want to try to get stuck into learning how to use FPS Creator and build a (basic) game that makes use of all of the tools it has to offer.

Meaning that I'm going to take a bit of a break from proper posts on here

If something leaps out at me I may have a rant but it'll need to be special.

see ya round like a rissole

Using: the Lazy Bloggers Post generator

Crikey! I just returned from my daily swim on the beautiful Fijian beach and realised I have not updated this since Hammertime was in the charts... You would not believe that my hands were chopped off and I was waiting for bionic ones. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness..

I am totally exhausted with setting fire to people wearing Crocs, learning to fart the theme to neighbours, just generally being the life of the party to anyone unfortunate to cross my path, my day starts with the dawn patrol from the second I am woken by murderous Teletubbies to whenever. I am secretly pregnant. it will be fun fun fun till they take my TBird away.

I won't promise anything to you but if one more person emails me to ask why I haven't posted today I will start posting pictures of toe fungus, or fecal murals. Fully! Assuming I don't get distracted by counting my chest hairs..


Courtesy of The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator - http://www.aussiebloggers.com.au/blogpost.html

Playing: Sounds of Sunset

I Was Hoping You'd Say That    Paul Kelly    A to Z - I    2:25
99 Luftballons    Nena    Best of Nena   3:51
Rockit    Herbie Hancock    Rockit    5:22
Kiss of Fire (Allen/Hill)    Monsieur Camembert    Absynthe    5:44
Nobody's Baby    Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings    100 Days, 100 Nights    2:28
Jukebox Junkie    Rocket Science    Different Like You    2:34
Horny As A Dandy - Original Version    Mousse T. Vs. The Dandy Warhols    Horny As A Dandy (Mashed By Loo & Placido)    3:17
Business Time    Flight Of The Conchords    Flight Of The Conchords    4:05
Wicked And Weird    Buck 65    Talkin' Honky Blues    3:43
Yoshimi battles the pink robots pt.1    The Flaming Lips    Yoshimi battles the pink robots    4:46
Dans le tempo    Constance Amiot    So Frenchy So Chic: 2008    2:47
Home is Where The Hatred Is    Gil Scott-Heron    Best of    3:24
Kool thing    Sonic Youth    Goo    4:06
Karma Police    Easy Star All Stars    Radiodread    4:48
The Great Gig In The Sky    Kirsty Rock    Dub Side Of The Moon    4:25
over and over    Hot Chip    The Warning    5:46
Pop Star Girl    Tom Woodward    32-20 Blues    3:53
Teenage Kicks    Nouvelle Vague    Nouvelle Vague    2:14
Fuzzy    Grant Lee Buffalo    Fuzzy    4:59
My Pal    God    Tales From The Australian Underground - Singles 1976-1989 (Disc 2)    3:21
Sheela-Na-Gig    PJ Harvey    The Peel Sessions (1991-2004)    3:24
VLB Disco    Vanlustbäder    The People Versus Vanlustbader    3:42
Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)    Neil Young    Rust Never Sleeps (Live)    5:14
Idea of Fun    The Stooges    The Weirdness    3:18
Bird    The Knife    The Knife    4:34
Mondays    TZU    Computer Love    4:33

Playing: Songs for Breakfast

What If    Lucinda Williams    West    5:41
You're Gonna Miss Me    13th Floor Elevators    High Fidelity    2:29
Lick The Bacon    Osterberg    Osterberg    2:09
Common People (Vocoda Mix)    Pulp    Different Class (Remixed 2006)    6:18
My Boyfriend's Back    Spazzys    Aloha! Go Bananas    2:40
Wasted life    Tall tales and true    Tales from the Australian underground Vol.2 1977-1990    4:32
Open Book    The Rakes    Capture/Release    2:17
I will survive    Cake    Fashion Nugget    5:11
Business Time    Flight Of The Conchords    Flight Of The Conchords    4:05
Find Me A Home    The Detroit Cobras    Life, Love & Leaving    1:32
Wicked And Weird    Buck 65    Talkin' Honky Blues    3:43
Yoshimi battles the pink robots pt.1    The Flaming Lips    Yoshimi battles the pink robots    4:46
99 Luftballons    Nena    GTA VC Wave 103    3:51
Home is Where The Hatred Is    Gil Scott-Heron    GTA IV IFF 99 Funk    3:24
Kool thing    Sonic Youth    Goo    4:06
Karma Police    Easy Star All Stars    Radiodread    4:48
Teenage Kicks    Nouvelle Vague    Nouvelle Vague    2:14
Horny As A Dandy - Original Version    Mousse T. Vs. The Dandy Warhols    Horny As A Dandy (Mashed By Loo & Placido)    3:17
over and over    Hot Chip    The Warning    5:46
Pop Star Girl    Tom Woodward    32-20 Blues    3:53
Fuzzy    Grant Lee Buffalo    Fuzzy    4:59
My Pal    God    Tales From The Australian Underground - Singles 1976-1989 (Disc 2)    3:21
Sheela-Na-Gig    PJ Harvey    The Peel Sessions (1991-2004)    3:24

LOLing: the Google Chrome comic remixes

Google's big marketing to-do used to promote and explain their shiny new Chrome browser came in the form of a 39 page comic book put together by Scott McCloud.

I'll talk more about Scott McCloud one day as he has written/drawn two really fantastic comic books which talk about how comics work (Understanding Comics) and how they might be reinvented (Reinventing Comics).Suffice to say, the guy has an amazing ability to explain some reasonable dense concepts in comic book form.

I enjoyed what I understood of his Google Chrome comic - it did explain a few things for me but seemed to get a little bit bogged down in developer-speak at points, which could just have easily have been simplified.

The Internetz being what they are, it hasn't taken long for some remixes of this comic to start appearing online.

These ones come from a site called Yahooray apparently - though my network appears to be blocking the site for some reason. I found them re-posted on 4chan - these are my favourites.

.

Uninstalling: Google Chrome

As you might expect from one of the monoliths of the knowledge era, the launch of a new web browser from Google, Chrome, has attracted a lot of attention in the last few days.

In the space of a day it has already grabbed something like a 3% share of the browser market.

It's meant to be one of the fastest and smartest browsers around, making effective use of a lot of the open source research which has come before it. (And remaining admirably open source as well, feeding back innovation into the community).

I tried it out yesterday and did find it quite nimble at loading pages and featuring a clean & simple Google interface that we've come to know so well.

But ultimately I've decided to uninstall it and maybe come back for a look in a little while. 

I have no problem with Google - they have produced (or bought up, rebranded and released) a raft of great web based applications over the years - including Blogger of course. I'll generally go to YouTube first for videos, mainly use Gmail and Google talk for communication, track traffic to this blog with Analytics and have had some fun with Sketchup.

But Chrome, so far, doesn't really give me what I want in a browser.

It is streamlined to the point of oversimplification for me - something like a point and click disposable camera. It does what it's meant to do but I just want a whole lot more control. The menu options give you virtually nothing to fiddle around with and there are at least a dozen add-on features that I have in Firefox 3 (including Ubiquity, which I mentioned the other day) that I'd really prefer to keep using.

These include mouse gestures (browser control by right-clicking and making shapes with your mouse - faster than going to the buttons all day), Ad-block plus, foxytunes (a music player control bar in the browser),  fireftp (an ftp client), colorzilla (for identifying colours on screen), measure-it (a click and drag onscreen measuring tool) and my gmail notifier. Not to mention the array of themes that Firefox community members have produced to brighten up the browser - hard to imagine life without Pimpzilla and its gold-bling buttons and leopard skin tabs background.

Not to mention the fact that Chrome simultaneously installed something called Google Updater, which constantly runs in the background, chewing up processing power and which I haven't yet figured out how to remove.

On a more pragmatic level, you can do all of the lab testing that you like with a new piece of software but it's only when it hits the real world that a lot of the flaws in it really become apparent - particularly security problems (which have already been found apparently). It just makes sense to let the dust settle and see what else comes up in the next few weeks or months. After all, it's not like it's some exclusive club that you have to join from day one.

On a more emotional level, I think that Firefox still deserves our support. It has consistently raised the bar in browser development and, as I've already mentioned, still has a number of features that aren't found elsewhere.

And is it just me or does the Chrome logo look just a bit like a Poke ball - the thing that Pokemon creatures come out of. Gotta catch 'em all indeed.

Pondering: the telemegaphone

The telemegaphone is an unusual arts project put up by Unsworn, a "design and innovations studio" in Sweden.
They develop "products for beautiful and surprising telecommunications".

Essentially, they have installed these wind-powered 7 metre high giant high speaker/statue things in remote areas around Sweden which you can leave a message for which is then blared out around the immediate area.

Nifty idea - though I have to wonder how much these things have been griefed so far - I must confess that some of my first thoughts as to the kind of message that I would send would be generally obnoxious/offensive remarks (though obviously humorous) and the second was to send through the sound of an air raid warning siren.

But then, I can be kind of juvenile at times :)

Thanks to Shane for pointing this baby out.

Watching: Taken Out

I enjoy good trash culture - not everything in life needs to be insightful or meaningful, sometimes a bit of froth and bubble (or shlocky exploitation) is just what it takes to help the mind wind down a little.

The world we live in isn't populated by rocket scientists and brain surgeons, it's almost entirely just average people going about their business and trying to get by. It's easy to mock or feel superior to some of the people we see on tv - particularly reality tv - for being kind of simple/dumb or having priorities in life that seem shallow or materialistic or whatever but I think this is ultimately unkind and generally a sign of our own failings. Don't they say that the things we hate in others are the things we hate in ourselves?

Which is why I'm having a hard time working out how I feel about Channel Ten's new show, Taken Out.

It's a new format for dating shows (rather than a "safe/proven" recycled show from overseas so points for effort) which takes 30 women and puts them in a big semicircle around one man. (Apparently this shifts later in the series to 30 men and 1 woman). The women have a light panel behind them and a button in front which they can use to turn their light off. They use the light panel to indicate whether they are still interested in the man currently on display based on a series of drip fed information. Once they have turned the light off, it stays off for the round.

Between the decision sessions, the host randomly picks women to ask why they have chosen for or against the guy. Decision points occur as soon as the guy enters the studio, after a short biographical filmclip package, after the guy has had a chance to chat about themselves and finally after a short videoclip of the guy's best mate talking about them. From here, the remaining women come down in front of the guy and he gets to ask them one question to determine which of them he takes out on a date.

Ok, so structurally, it's something a little different - the pacing was a tiny bit slow but you could put this down to pilot jitters and it's fair to allow the host and editor/director etc time to get the feel for the show. The decision making time is around 10 seconds which seemed longer but is reasonable but the host/girls banter really needs some work - partly because the host didn't seem to have a lot to work with in terms of bright sparks amongst the women but also because he seemed unsure of how to play it. (Tip - patronising and slightly sleazy probably isn't the best approach)

All in all - and again, I'm trying to accept that it's froth tv, not the 7.30 report - pretty well everyone on the show came across as either kind of dumb, highly superficial, vapid, slutty (male and female) or famewhores. I'm not saying that this is all there is to these people, given the context they were in and the no-doubt selective editing that was going on but there were at least a few of these people who seemed to positively revel in this identity. Interestingly, the woman who seemed less like this came across as so bland and devoid of personality that I was personally hoping that the other type got the date. So it's not really a win-win situation.

I haven't been able to find much online in the way of clips yet - just a handful of Channel Ten promos using the male and female contestants from the show - you can check these out here if you like 

I'd say that the response on the Channel 10 forums about the show offers perhaps the most illuminating response to the show so far - and it's not great. There are a fair few people who are a little pissed off that repeats of repeats of Friends have been taken off air but even leaving those aside, just look at some of the topic headings.

Choice comments include:

Geez, this new program is honestly WOEFUL!

I never post on these forums, but strangely felt moved to do so in this case. What a train wreck! Never seen anything like it. A lacklustre premise for a show, with a mediocre host and lukewarm guests, all delivered at an mind-numbing pace. Truly miss-able viewing.

Do us all a favour and axe it tonight. Let's see "Friends" repeats tomorrow instead.

Sleaze discussions of sex in public places in a 7pm timeslot, women with their **** hanging out. Desperados wanting 10 minutes of fame. I guess this is where they end up when they axe Big Brother.

Looks like it is another season of the 7pm timeslot that 10 wants to lose. 

FRIENDS is the best taken out is gay take taken out of channel ten and put Friends back on and supernatural use take out all the best shows and replace them with the gayest shows

HeraScie: Wombat;
Do you really think it's a good idea to put someone on national TV and have members of the opposite sex scrutinize them over purely superficial things? Women have fought for years to not be torn apart over their appearance and now it is being done to men? (And women later, I understand).

On the other hand, it's not without support :

HeraScie....you've got issues! Leave the psycho analytical stuff within your 4 walls. You are now starting to sound drab!

And all the rest of you, Friends?? You honestly give a toot about Friends, the show thats been around since 1957!?

So what if it's on. Calm down about how appalling it is and just see it for what it really is. Just mindless entertainment with a bunch of female and male contestants having a laugh, having fun. Everyone gets a shot at saying something cheeky, something rude, something flirty, something cute. It doesnt have to be this mind altering experience. Its just a dating show for gods sake....and clearly not dated. The format is completely different from "Perfect Match". And you might actually find one of the contestants funny in the eps to come. Now wouldnt that be a treat. Some laughter in your life.......sounds like you all need it.

But seriously, I'll ask again...Friends?? Can you get over it already. How completely freaky can you Friends fans be out there?? Thats whats scary.

As a contestant and experiencing this first hand I assure you that things will get better when you get the first panel of guys on....

Will you all just shut up and give the show a chance....

(Incidentally, that last comment is repeated by the same guy  four or five times in different posts)

All of this said and done, there is a compelling car crash quality to this show that will probably bring me back a few more times - I'd suggest taking a look at least once for giggles.

Playing: songs on the radio

You know the drill - 4 to 6pm Mondays, 2XXfm (98.3) in Canberra

Who Is He And What Is He To You    Bill Withers    4:20
Starlight    The Wailin' Jennys    4:36
Winterlong    Pixies    3:11
(Straight Down To The) Bitter End    Yo La Tengo    3:59
I Won't Be Your Dog    Paul Kelly    5:10
Dancing With Myself    Nouvelle Vague    3:09
Girl and the Sea    Presets    4:46
Mutha'uckas    Flight Of The Conchords    2:27
Yadnus (Still Going to the Roadhouse mix)    !!!    5:45
Arm in Arm (Shy Child Mix)    The Boggs    3:13
On My Way    Cocoon    2:47
Black Ice    The Devastations    5:37
100 Days, 100 Nights    Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings    3:46
The Poontango    Mojo Nixon    2:37
Unguarded Moment    The Church    3:36
Bring That Beat Back (Back To The Breakbeats Mixx)    Public Enemy    5:17
Ghostbusters come inside [SMC]    Chemical Brothers vs The Ghostbusters    4:32
Im still Fresh    Elton John Featuring the Fresh prince    3:23
Master And Slave    Beasts Of Bourbon    4:51
Royal Gregory    Holy Fuck    3:52
Air batucada    Thievery Corporation    4:46
Modern Guilt    Beck    3:15

Thinking about: MMORPGs and why fantasy bores me

(Photo from programwitch)

To this point, I've steered clear of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), even though I like gaming, I like the idea of playing collaboratively and these kinds of games (notably World of Warcraft) are immensely popular.

So why? Largely I think because they are almost all heavily centred in the Fantasy genre and this generally does very little for me. I enjoyed the whole golden era of fantasy/warrior movies in the early to mid 80s (Conan, BeastMaster, etc) but it just doesn't do much for me now.

(There is also the dork factor, which I have referred to previously in my Lightning Bolt post) 

Perhaps this is because when I play games, I enjoy doing things that I'm not normally able to do - but which it is conceivable that I might. This is why GTA IV appeals so much I guess - it's a very contemporary city and makes use of a lot of the things about modern life that I think are kind of cool - modern music, cars, the internez and blowing things up. You might have some primitive explosives in WoW but I just don't really care.

I don't think it's an imagination thing either - I'm currently playing Psychonauts (more on this later) which is one of the more out-there games I've every played conceptually (and one of the most awesome).

I've heard some good things about City of Heroes, which is a superhero themed MMORPG, but not enough to excite me and this seems to be about the limit of what's currently going.

There have also been murmurings of a modern day spy themed MMORPG for a while, which will be console based but I'm a little unsure now, watching this video which (while rather cool) does seem more like a shmup (shoot-em-up) than anything. (I do like the console angle as my PC only has a wireless connection to the network and I'm sure this is slower than direct cabling)