I’m surprised anyone still talks about ‘killer’ technologies these days, but this ‘listen to radio on your phone, click to download (£1.25!!!) and get a copy on your phone and PC sounds interesting…for non-iPod users at least..
But, I’m not entirely convinced about a system that relies (for now at least) on pre-pay. And wonder how it’s going to get onto handsets?
I cannot believe I have just bought an album called Daddy Cool - the album for Cool Dads [Amazon | iTunes]. My logic? It had a load of classic oldie stuff that its good to listen to, but I just happen to have digitally - take a look for yourself.
There is a broader point here over the snobbishness of compilations/ best ofs vs original albums (hey they all sound the same on your iPod!). And, you know what - it’s great. Nonetheless, I admit this was unforgiveable.
In relationship terms, I think it’s pretty fair to say that GTD and I could best be described as fuckbuddies. We get together every so often and have a great time, then for no apparent reason it all falls apart and we go our separate ways - but the next time I’m feeling a bit confused/ messed up I know I can always count on her it.
Obviously we’ve tried all sorts of aids in our relationship - but none of them seem to last. So, I’m not going to get too excited about the latest: Tracks, which I’ve been using now on and off for a few months.
It’s a very neat Webapp, that lets you clock all your actions by Project and Context. It’s a little too purist GTD for my liking (no sorting by date - or project for that matter), but I can forgive that.
The problem for not particularly technical little old me, is that it’s a ruby app. Now, the options are either that you install it on your hard drive on a server, which as any fule kno is already there with Mac OSX - but you need to use the command line (uh oh!). I looked at the instructions, and was lost within about half a second.
So, I got someone at Textdrive to install it here on simonwaldman.net - which was money well spent. But then I started commuting, which meant I couldn’t use it in my critical ‘doing stuff’ time. So I ditched it, and went to a tweaked list on OmniOutliner (yes, I know about Kinkless, but I only have 10.3.9 on here). Good - but not special enough.
Anyway, one night when I should have been paying more attention to my duties as husband and father, I stumbled across a solution - that meant you could install Tracks on your hard drive without any command line action, thanks to a programme called Locomotive.
So I did it, and it didn’t work. And just as I was about to jack it all in, I upgraded to the latest version of Locomotive (2.0.7) , and guess what, it only went and bleeding worked! Cor lummy, governor…these days I’m running Ruby apps on my local server. And it’s all running off a flash drive! If only my old friends could see me now!
Ive been playing round with Feedlounge for the last few weeks..and I’m desperately impressed. In case you haven’t tried it, it’s an Ajax newsreader (you have to pay), by (partly) Alex King who I had previously stumbled on as the archdeacon of Wordpress templatery.
The look and feel is very nice - and the keyboard shortcuts are intuitive - which give it a real app feel. I know Bloglines fans will probably feel it’s a bit feature light - and might snarl at the fact that you have to pay for it. But it does the job for me - and as for payment: hey, I value their creative efforts.
Anyway, in general, I’m looking at a lot less blogs etc at the moment, but when I do, it’s all there. For some reason, I always find Bloglines goes a bit odd if you leave it for a few weeks.
This might be a dumb question - but shouldn’t someone really launch a browser designed expressly to run web apps like this? Not sure what the interface implications are, but looking at all this stuff in Firefox feels a bit like using a hammer to dig a hole. Can someone please give me a shovel!
Number 10 gets Eddie Izzard to go to Brussels with Tony Blair and then releases it as a podcast - (well an audio download).
So in an attempt to get rid of a couple of bugs on my previous incarnation (comments not working/ para breaks not showing) I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress.
I did this - the par breaks came back, the comments remained broken, and somehow I’ve lost all the admin functionality as well…hence my (latest) bout of silence. Oh, and please dont’ tell me I should have backed everything up - because I sort of did, but obviously not quite well enough.
So, I’ve done a new install of WP here, and then made my archives still linkable here (and obviously through google)
I could spend the next X months flapping - or, more likely, I’m just going to build a new blog at sw.net/blog or something like that, which will probably be quicker…I could just delete everything here, but you know what I feel about permanence.
On a more domestic front, we went to our house-to-be on Saturday. I can’t actually believe I’m going to be living there. It’s one thing looking at places, another going through the stressful hell of a sale/ purchase. And even now, staying at our in-laws in Surrey, it still doesn’t feel like we’ve left London - but standing in what will be our garden, hearing how the Aga and the Oil tank (no gas) work,I suddenly realise this is a long way from life in (much loved) Stoke Newington.
Music? I mentioned Hot Chip’s The Warning [iTunes] in passing - which got pretty good reviews everywhere, but I don’t really know how it’s done in the charts. It’s a great, great album. Everyone should own it for the summer. They’re very smart and talented - but let’s be honest, they don’t look very good - and haven’t managed to dress it up into a geek chic thing. This is why you always seem them photo’d in moody lighting. But the album is a belter - perfect accompaniment to a barbeque.
Nouvelle Vague are back with their bossa-nova versions of new wave/punk classics (this time more the former) [iTunes]. This remains a dinner party classic. Everyone is sitting there chomping away on their linguine thinking you’ve finally given up on music by playing some easy listening pap when someone suddenly goes: ‘is this Too Drunk to Fuck?’ etc etc. Anyway,
The Feeling? [iTunes] Well, you have to really. Primal Scream? Ditto - although you could just get your old Rolling Stones albums out to recreate the same affect. (Incidentally, did I tell you I saw Bobbie Gillespie at the childrens playground in Clissold Park? Very early on a Sunday morning. I can pretty confidently say there will be no gangly Scottish rock gods in Surrey).
Also on music - Martathonpacks has done a mix of his best songs from 2006. Even if he’s no longer offering a download, by them all up and copy it as a playlist- IMHO he does the best compilations on the net.
M Craft, Silver and Fire? [iTunes] It’s a nice album, but there isn’t a song on it as beautiful as, oh god, what was it called? Dragonfly?What took him so long, I ask? Was it label problems? Or is he playing the tortured genius? Have you noticed how singer songwriters these days are banging out album after album: Sufjan Stevens, Ryan Adams, Ed Harcourt , Devandra Banhardt- it’s rather like Michael Owen’s caps. One minute they’re fresh faced new boys, the next they’re veterans. Let’s hear it for musical productivity, I say.
Oh, and finally, on a completely disconnected front - I’ve been having huge fun Lomo-ising photos in photoshop (tutorial here - and elsewhere). I don’t think I’ve quite got it right - as it makes nice clean snaps look like grubby old postcards, but it means I’ve learned to do a little bit more with this program than tweak levels.