Month: February 2004

Favelets

Sean Willson has a great collection of favelets (or bookmarklets) which is basically “a bit of javascript code that you can put in your bookmarks to perform some action in your web browser.” Sean’s favelets range from browser resizing to disabling stylesheets to performing searches to validating HTML and CSS.

Also worth checking out is some favelets for the Wayback Machine courtesy of the Kalsey Consulting Group. Also there are move over at About.com, Bookmarklets.com, Google Directory and Jesse’s Bookmarklets Site (highly recommended!).

Surfin’ fun

The gang

For the first time, in a really long time (perhaps 10 years) I went down the coast for a bit of bodyboarding fun. The last time I went all the way down to as far as Jervis Bay for Black Rock. This time I went only as far as the Wollongong region aka “Coal Coast”. I got up real early to meet up with Pete, James and Mel at BJ’s place at 6am. Sheesh. The sun wasn’t even up at that time.

So we headed down to the Gong, stopping off at Maccas on the way for breakfast. Our first stop was Thirroul. Looked OK, not too many people, but we thought we’d have a drive up north of Thirroul to check things out. I think we drove past probably Austinmer Beach, Headlands, Coledale Beach and Thommos before we hit the end of the road. The other beaches were OK, with one of them looking quite good, but it was too crowded, so we headed back to Thirroul where there were more breaks and it was less crowded.

Heading out at 8am, the waves were decent (around 4ft maybe??) and it was just hollow. Just hollow enough for me to snag a couple of nice barrels. Unfortunately due to my laughable state of fitness at the moment, I spent a good portion of my time stuck in the impact zone getting pummled by whitewash.

Later on we went for a walk to buy some stuff (notably, I finally bought a board leash after not having one for years). When we got back around 11 or so, the waves were still holding their size, but unfortunately, it was mostly closing out and the barrels were pretty much gone.

We headed to Wollongong after that for some lunch, and on the way back we stopped off at Garie Beach in the Royal National Park to see what it was like. That was my first time there, and it was beautiful. Shame about the surf though. By the time we got there, there was a full southerly gale in force, and everything was blown out. But I guess Garie can now be a mission for another weekend ๐Ÿ™‚

Grex Ultra Dynamics: Notron, the next generation

Some of you might remember the legendary Latronic Notron that was famously known (well atleast in Detroit ‘spotter circles) for being used by Claude Young. Apparently other famous users were Björk (who even received her own Notron mod in the form of the “Björkeyboard”), The Orb, The Advent, Kirk De Georgio, Mark Bell, James Ruskin, Oliver Ho, Howie B, Max Duley and Richie Hawtin.

Well after disappearing for a few years, Notron’s creater Gerard Campbell, appears to be back with a new company: Grex Ultra Dynamics. The first product released is the MFX8 Midi Crossfader which allows for gives quick and easy control of up to 56 MIDI Controllers along with volume cross fading, beat gating, punching, kill, MIDI clock generation and unique ratio sequencing. Its already available for sale direct from the Grex Store for ฃ225.00 excluding VAT.

On the horizon in 2004 (in the Northen Hemisphere’s spring) is the next generation Notron; the Genotron which apparently has over 5 times the processing power of the original Notron.

Xinerama and an IBM ThinkPad T40

My desktop
Fitting in the category of “it shouldn’t be this bloody hard” was getting my IBM ThinkPad T40 working in Xinerama mode under Linux. My laptop is currently setup with Redhat Linux 9.0 and all the latest updates. I’ve been wrestling with it for a while to get it working. Every site I’ve had a look at seems to have a slightly different setup in their XF86Config with never seemed to work for me. Most users who use Xinerama seem to be either Debian or Mandrake users, so that might be the reason.

Anyhow, here is my XF86Config file. Currently it only has support for doing straight Xinerama, nothing else. When I get the chance I’ll update it and write a script to detect the prescence of an external display using tpctl so it can decide whether to go dualhead or not.

Update: It would seem that cursors aren’t working correctly with them being displayed in black and white instead of the full colour that they’re supposed to. Also there appears to be a bug with Yahoo! Messenger with it hanging whenever someone messages me. ๐Ÿ™

Update 20/02/04: Alright. No need to fudge around with detecting the second display. It would seem GDM (or is it XFree86?) is smart enough these days to figure out whether the second display is there or not.

Japanese TV Strangeness

Color of Life image grab

Color of Life: A Best-Of compilation of various, visually artistic music clips, poking fun at different facets of daily life. From Vermilion Pleasure Night, the late-night Japanese TV show very popular among young adults, The Color of Life is an unexpected surprise with visually alienated oddities and grotesquely humorous Japanese short films

We’re moving

78 Kepos St, Redfern

In case you didn’t know, Rozie and I are moving out of our current place in Redfern at the start of April. My Dad got himself a job in Broken Hill at a company called Australian Inland who do electricity and water services for inland Australia. So what does this have to do with Rozie and I moving out? Well, we’ll be moving into my parents house (and the house that I grew up in) in good ole Epping. Goodbye City, goodbye good times. OK, its not that bad. The City is only a 25 minute drive away. But I do really love living in the City. Moving into the Epping means us living rent free for 3 years though, which will be great for us saving up the money for our own home someday.

Anyway, if you know anyone looking to move into a 2-bedroom terrace in “East” Redfern, let them know our place is up for grabs soon. Its on Kepos St, which is a really nice tree-lined street in Redfern between Bourke and Baptist St. Moore park is about a block away, and its super-quiet.

More riots over the weekend

More proof that it isn’t just the west and inner west who are doing it rough nowadays…

A group of pilled up youths attacked police in Killara today after a day of designer drugs and Stoli vodka.

The gang of 20-something rich kids hurled BMWs, bags of coke, Rolex watches, Arts degrees, Technics turntables, Tsubi jeans, duck-feathered pillows, leather couches, laptops, ITM slipmats, textbooks, dictionaries, non-stick woks, paintings, fingerlickin records, golf balls, hockey sticks, condoms and vitamin tablets at hapless police.

Police responded with water hoses and tear gas, injuring two boys. Both boys fathers rung Bob Carr immediately threatening legal action.

One policeman was knocked unconscious by an Honours degree from Sydney Uni hurled by a young 25 year old graduate working at his dad mate’s consultancy firm.

Police said, “these boys should know better then to throw their possessions at us. They are educated, have every chance in life and we’ve never done anything to hurt them.”

The riot was sparked when neighbours complained of loud sexy house music pounding from the backyard of the party host. Police attended the scene and things got worse from there.

Police were considering making arrests but were instructed to drop the case after one of the boy’s fathers offered to donate money to build a new gym at police HQ.

Thanks to Jaime for that ๐Ÿ˜†

New Underground Commitee Mix

Javier Drada – Deep House Session 1.37

  1. Rick Wade – Night Station – Music Is
  2. DJ Pope – Running Wild – Trackmode (TM049)
  3. Audiomontage – The Darkness – Freerange
  4. Gate-Ah – The Shelter (Underground Committee Edit) – Shelter
  5. Glenn Underground – Silent Cry (Euphoria Moog Mix) – Trackmode (TM042)
  6. Abicah Soul – Chukie’s Turn – Jellybean
  7. Jaque – Keys of Life (Underground Collective Vocal Mix) – Jellybean
  8. Kai Alce and Ron Trent – Sa K’ Pase – Trackmode (TM051)
  9. Pascal Rioux feat. Mr. Day – Golden Days (Main Mix) – Rotax

This mix includes a cut from the new Rick Wade EP due out April ’04 on Music Is UK, also included is the upcoming Trackmode release of Kai Alce and Ron Trent (TM051) Due out March ’04.

Also worth checking out is a Trax Records mix over at Acid Mixes with tracks by artists such as Adonis, Phuture, Virgo, and Jungle Wonz.

Hip Hop Film Festival

Next week in Sydney, and the week after in Melbourne is the “Inaugural” Hip Hop Film Festival. Of particular interest to me it the opening night next Thursday night (26/02) in Sydney at the Gaelic Club. Guests on the night are Madlib (who last year did Shades of Blue on the legendary Blue Note Records), Diverse and Peanut Butter Wolf. Local supports are Katalyst, Blaze, Code and DJ Bonez. For the rest of the festival, there is a downloadable program guide here.

Spreading the love

OK, so its not enough that Patrick is playing at High Jinks, but those crazy Popfrenzy kids (who I’ve heard are really bad spellers, or perhaps speelers ๐Ÿ˜‰ ) are also kicking it on Saturday night for their Valentine’s Recess at the Metro Transit Lounge. DJ’s on the night are Cherry Phosphate, Jinx, Sloane, Enari, Tantric Robot, Smith, Sundance Kid.

A message from Cherry Phosphate:
According to the legend, if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a pauper but live happily ever after. If she saw a goldfinch, she would be-wed a millionaire. Hmm.

Girls, you can stop craning your necks. This year, Popfrenzy has made it sooooooooo easy for you so you won’t NEED to know what a bloody goldfinch looks like. If you attend a very special Valentine’s Recess at the Metro Transit Lounge from 9pm-3am you’ll find yourself with or without your heart on your sleeve, secretly swooning along to the finest tunes played by Popfrenzy’s finest Dj’s. Boys, start shining your cufflinks; you’ll need to see your faces in them. All singles will go home with a mystery Valentine’s day Card either clenched in their fist, throbbing in their back pocket or delicately tucked beneath a bra strap. Of course, couples will receive a complementary (on da house!) champagne cocktail and enter the draw for a weekend whisked away.

The icing on the cake is that it’s free before 10pm! 5 bucks afterwards till 3am. Geez, if that’s not enough to stick more goober in your hair, sappy Valentines Day films will be screened so you can steal your witty one liners and cheese ball charm from there.

Patrick loves you

Patrick HAF is playing at the Sly Fox in Enmore this Saturday night with the High-Jinks crew for a bit of techno and electro action. He says you should come down and that he is playing from 11.30pm – 1am. Other dj’s on the night are Ume (FBi 94.5), Topher, Some Freak and Se๑or Spitch. Also if you get down there early, Patrick HAF will be holding a kissing stall to raise money for a good cause (a few vodka, lemon, limes). $1 or $3 for some tongue action. Young boys preferred ๐Ÿ˜‰ (you’d better watch out Phil!)

It’s true. For some time now, High-Jinks has been admiring you from afar. It’s fair to say that High-Jinks has been harbouring a crush on you. On the most romantic night of the year, the time has come to state the gloriously inevitable:

HIGH-JINKS LOVES YOU!!!

Les gigolos Topher, Spitch et Freak vous aime.

Les m้lomanes Patrick HAF et Ume vous aime.

Tout le monde vous aime!

We guarantee that your stay with us will be soundtracked by the finest, soulfulest, lovingest electronica known to man. The cockatails will flow often and cheaply ($6 between 7 and 9). For people involved in love triangles, our free pool table offers an inexpensive and bloodless way of resolving trysts. After all, High-Jinks loves you.