My second game for the iPhone is now on the iTunes store! Based on an early comic from the truly inspiring and highly recommended xkcd…
Red Spiders is a simple game. A vaguely randomly distributed set of boxes (where Sum(blocksize)< 4.0f && p.y=1.0f*screenSize.height*rand()/RAND_MAX/2+100.0f) appear onscreen, going some way towards preventing the inevitable descent of Red Spiders towards the ground. Your task is as follows:
Destroy as many of the Red Spiders as is humanely* possible by tapping them.
Become overwhelmed by the ultimate futility of all human achievement in the face of entropy (a tangential effect of playing the game)
Lapse into a zen-like catatonic and attempt to achieve nirvana (not currently enabled in this release)
Once finished, you can tweet your highscore, visit the wonderful and highly recommended xkcd.com webcomic, or GOTO 10
* For the purposes of this game, the definition of ‘humanely’ has been extended to include death involving a satisfying blood splat, and a rather less satisfying pop sound.
This is the HDR set I took in California. San Diego Zoo, Death Valley, and more San Diego pics, taken with my Dad’s Canon Powershot Pro 1 using exposure autobracketing +/-2 and merged in Photomatix
From San Diego back to LAX last saturday morning, we listened to the following tracks in the car:
Rufus Wainwright – Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
Feist – 1234
Joni Mitchell – Chelsea Morning
Rufus Wainwright – California
Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi
Stereolab – Captain Easychord
Joni Mitchell – California
David Hirschfelder & The Bogo Pogo Orchestra – Medley: La Cumparsita/Tango Please
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
Feist – Sea Lion Woman
The Magnetic Fields – California Girls
Stereolab – Jenny Ondioline
Air – The Word ‘Hurricane’
Rufus Wainwright – Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (reprise)
LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
Oliver Cheatham – Get Down Saturday Night
Feist – My Moon My Man
Dee Felice Trio – Nightingale
Skalpel – 1958
Pogo – Alice
Placebo – Nancy Boy
Jack Conte – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Metro Area – Miura (Original Mix)
Max Sedgley – Happy (Make You Happy)
Gui Boratto – Arquipelago
The Magnetic Fields – Three-Way
Placebo – Pure Morning
Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven
Yes, there’s a lot of California-themed tracks there, of course. The only tracks we didn’t get to listen to on the playlist was:
Hot Chip – Over & Over
Belle & Sebastian – The Boy With The Arab Strap
But that’s no big deal, end up listening to them the whole time at home anyways. Placebo was surprisingly good to drive to, especially with somewhat of a lack of sleep hanging over me. And Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, always a good driving track.
It irks me that my Macbook DVD drive isn’t region-free. I’ve a rake-load of DVDs purchased on assorted trips abroad, and I can’t play the damn things. So some stage, I have to try this out (and hope to hell it doesn’t brick the drive):
I’ve posted these instructions elsewhere but wanted to bring them here. The topic is how to play DVDs from anywhere in the world on your MacBook. The reason you might want to perform this hack is that DVD players are manufactured to only be able to play DVDs manufactured for the local region. That sucks. I buy the MacBook and the DVD andthey won’t let me play the darn thing. I could download the video illegally but I like to collect DVDs (I know, I’m already in the 12-step program). I could rant about this for hours but Wikipedia does a good job of describing the issues.
This is how I performed the hack and links to the software I used. Special thanks to the guys at RPC1.org for making this possible, especially Ben11 who did all the hard work.
Copy this at your own risk but it worked for me.
1. Go to Apple -> About This Mac -> More Info -> Disk Burning to check what firmware version you’re running.
2. Download the software you need. A list of the MATSHITA drives (the appropriately named company whose drives Apple uses in their MacBook and other lines) that can be currently upgraded by this method is available.
3. Apply the flash AT YOUR OWN RISK. Do not interrupt the installation. Restart the computer after the installation has been complted. FYI, my installation paused a couple of times; if yours does too, don’t be tempted to restart the computer or stop the installation before the installation is complete.
4. Use DVDInfoX to confirm that you’re flash worked.
When I did the check, this is what it showed:
DVD Info X v1.0.1, by xvi (xvi@rpc1.org)
WARNING — DVD Info X will only list DVD drives that have some WRITE
capabilities, like combos, DVD-R, DVD-RW, etc…
DVD-ROM-only drives will NOT be listed.
WARNING — You also must eject any inserted medium to list the drive.
5. Set and change the region using (the Intel updated) Region X 1.3.
6. Use DVD Player to watch your region free movies and reset the region as need be (using Region X) or use VLC and don’t worry about changing the region (as it doesn’t set a region).
An interesting article with more than just the usual amount of vituperative ire than you’d expect on the internet for a music review of an easy-listening composer. Unsurprisingly though, it comes from a jazz blog, of the sort which despises the type of popular/populist jazz at which Henry Mancini excelled.
One amusing thing about the article is that the author bitches about how Mancini ‘stole’ his ideas from various other artists of the era. Eh, hello, anyone producing music for TV/film over the past 50 years has always appropriated musical ideas from popular culture, no big surprise there. By its very nature, soundtracks are cobbled together from the popular music of the day (or at least, from the type of music that we generally associate with the subject matter’s era).
Personally, I think Mancini was superb at what he did, composing genre-defining soundtracks that are still to this day recognisable, from Pink Panther’s cat burglar tiptoeing across the piano, to Thornbirds’ Irish tin whistling in the Outback, to, yes, Peter Gunn’s Private Eye sleazy brass section and mean streets guitar.
Also, (last post today (probably)), I’m playing at Synth Eastwood‘s Laptop Battle in Twisted Pepper (used to be Traffic on Middle Abbey St) this Saturday (Oct 24th) at 10pm (free in before 12pm). Join me, and a host of others, as we bang the shit out of our laptops, live, totally unscripted, and for your enjoyment*.
And I am fully aware that I have used an excessive amount of brackets (parentheses) in this post.
If any iPhone/iTouch owners are about tonight in Spy, tomorrow night in the Button Factory, the Digital Hub on saturday or down at the Synth Eastwood night in Twisted Pepper (née Traffic), if you say hello, I’ll send you a copy of Stylophone for freebies! It’s not officially launched on the iTunes store yet, but if you’re friendly over the weekend, I’ll wing you on a copy!
*Terms & Conditions apply…
* The terms & conditions being, I’ll need your iPhone ID to let me build a copy of the app that you can just drop into iTunes to install on your device , so I’ll be sending you an email with instructions. But it’s really pretty simple anyway…
Last Friday, I took the train up to Belfast to go to the Waterfront. An impressive venue, it must be said, all space-age and floating platform structures that look like a tastefully done version of the Star Wars democracy room from the Phantom Menace, albeit with much better acoustics.
Ennio Morricone, one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, is one of my personal heroes. Much of his work is instantaneously recognisable the world over, from the pounding marching drums and whistling motif of his western movie soundtracks, to the heartbreakingly stirring and triumphant yet plaintive theme to The Mission. It’s highly unlikely that you’ve never heard anything composed by the man, ubiquitious should be his middle name. Just a month short of 80 years old, he’s created the musical atmosphere for over 500 films (yes, I know that’s almost verbatim taken from the wikipedia page, and your point is?)
On stage, there were roughly 200 people playing, singing and (obviously) conducting, an incredible feat in itself, including a 100-strong choir and a soprano whose name I didn’t quite catch at the start, but who was a totally captivating presence on stage.
The concert was broken up into various sections, playing for 20-15 minutes at a time, touching upon various eras from his selection of ouvres, yes, the western themes were played, yes, The Mission was visited, but joy of joys! He also played several numbers from the earlier Italian films he was involved in (I highly recommend the two albums below)
I didn’t take that many photos, the night was far too memorable to be spending the whole time fumbling around with a camera and trying not to get caught with it. The highlight of the concert were many, including hearing the piano intro to “Metti, Una Sera a Cena” coming in, with all the jazzy brushed drums and the glockenspiel and marimba flourishes, absolutely fantastic. Cinema Paradiso had me weepy-eyed, and the final performance of “Here’s To You, Niccola and Bart”, with not a single idle performer onstage (seriously, they were ALL playing/singing it) was a triumphant ending to a wonderful night.
Well, at last, development has finally ended! Development on what, you say?
…Stylophone, for the iPhone!
It’s my first bit of coding on the Mac, having only bought a Macbook in Miami last July. The interface was designed from using Pixelmator (lovely application), and coded in Xcode using the OpenAL framework, but enough about the technical details…
I’ve included an additional feature not available on the original Stylophone, Sustain, which is fantastic for actually playing it as a proper instrument, rather than it being a mere novelty gimmick 🙂
Regarding its availability, it’ll be going live as soon as it gets approved by the App Store, hopefully shouldn’t be more than a week or two, so watch this space!
I’ve been waiting on this release for a while, excellent and totally novel idea for an iPhone application.
The idea behind RjDj is kind of like Brian Eno’s application Bloom, except that it doesn’t require you to touch the screen. Instead, it samples ambient sound from the microphone, runs it through Pd-based processes, and sends it back out through your headphones. Sounds basic enough, but it’s far more random and interesting, kind of like an early Warp/Aphex Twin recording, only it constantly changes and morphs, depending on what noisy things are happening around you.
Currently sitting at my desk in work, typing away and listening to the various patches. It’s like sitting inside a piano while brushing against the strings, or inside a busy train station, listening to various sound sussurating around, echoing and repeating over and over. Definitely one of the most interesting app concepts I’ve seen in a long, long time…
This is great stuff! I’ve used Fring on my old N95, it was very handy for having quick mobile online IM chats and stuff, hadn’t really used it for VOIP, but will definitely be giving it a bash from home now that it’s available for the iPhone.
Went to see the Village People up in Tripod tonight. It was a complete pantomime, all it was missing was the Widow Twanky and someone shouting “oh no he isn’t”.
Playing in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham grounds on October 26th, Bank Holiday Sunday. Got my tickets already. The Human League played a great show in Vicar St a couple of years ago, so can’t wait to see them again, plus the latter-day incarnation as offshoot of Heaven 17 is a bonus too. AND New Wave pop-schlock meisters ABC as well? Please, everyone, no loud noises, if this turns out to be a dream, well I for one don’t want to wake up…
In the London of 1983, the parallel Irish actions by Walsh and his crew were described as “parties with a vengeance” by David Johnson in The Face. In his article, he mentions the rebel dance parties that were “glorifying the individual and wrestling power back from the elders”. Johnson was referring to the comodification of the disco after Travolta sublimated the dance for the tribal “release from the bondage of weekday work” spectacle.
…
New musical journeys downtown dispensed with any trace of the slow set, jive or party performance conventions that were in place uptown to orientate the unfamiliar visitor to the experience provided by the venue.
In Temple Bar, the absence of these (nominally straight) conventions can be seen as a pledge of definition by the nascent dance community to themselves. It was a way of saying “these are our rhythms and we own them”. If slow sets appeared on the crazy party nights where show tunes or familiar songs were aired, these sets were slow and low and once again out of reach to those out of the loop.
An excellent, cohesively well-written article on a previously undocumented aspect of an alternative to the rocker-dominated landscape of Irish music history.
When I got home last night, I (finally) managed to carry out a successful app deployment to my iPhone. Which is probably of minimal interest to both of you, dear readers, but it does mean that I’ll potentially have a couple of apps ready for release on an ad-hoc basis within the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed…)
John Waters was great last night! Witty, urbane, filthy, and quite hilarious! Loved his tips on how to keep your kids in line (eg. if they’re on drugs, pretend you’re on better and harder drugs), amongst other things. I’ve got to get around to watching Pink Flamingoes at some stage.
And yay for me, I got the last and final question in during the Q&A session at the end!
Mind you, I wish I’d asked something interesting about, say, what he thought about the whole sanitising effect of gay-but-sexless shows like Will & Grace in the media, rather than what he thought about big name gay Hollywood actors who stay firmly lodged in the closet. I was thinking directly of Tom Cruise*, John Travolta**, and yer man from Prison Break, Wensleydale Milfer*** or whatever, though Kevin Spacey**** was also name-dropped from the crowd.
Yes, Virginia, I am Perez Hilton.
* Allegedly.
** Also allegedly.
*** Name changed to protect the innocent.
**** Another allegedly, though I’ve seen some rather incriminating photos from the Holy Moly mailout, Kevin, you naughty, naughty man…
The Futility of Flogging Music
Kind of depressing in a way, but a very good read nevertheless. Humourous, pithy and very to the point.
We can’t stand the fact that we have 2,739 friends on MySpace, several of whom have posted highly encouraging messages such as “thnx 4 the add”, and yet none of them are prepared to dig in their pocket, or Paypal account, and just send us a few quid – despite the fact that we’ve poured our heart, our soul and our cash into the whole endeavour.
This is not actually me, more it's representative of how I'm feeling at the moment.
…grey and tired. Have been spending the last few days attempting to figure out the iPhone OS SDK, pulling late nights at home, for probably no good reason at all, whatsoever. The basic application setup I’ve got kind of nailed so far, but comprehension of the multi-touch user interactions is proving somewhat elusive.
Not to mention how to implement the AudioQueue, and how to deploy to a device without having to carry out a sync from iTunes including the interminably long backup procedure… It’d be nice if Apple would remove the NDA on their SDK tools, so people could talk and share notes on how to do stuff in it.
Anyway, tired and strung out right now (with an inexplicable hunger for brains).
Was at a friends’ agnostic wedding ceremony last night upstairs in the Odeon on Harcourt St. Jen and Ian got married over in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago. They organised a wedding party last night, getting the fabulous and always irrepressible Thomas Dunning to preside over the affair. Ian swore to protect Jen “from the Hooded Claw, and to keep the vampires from her door”. Thomas finished off with saying to Jen that she may now “kiss the groom”, a nice touch.
Thomas officiating, and commenting on wonderful shoes
Music was provided by various individuals, including a group comprised of Mumblin’ Deaf Ro, Conor, Brian and Mike from various incarnations of assorted Dublin bands, and a rather good rockabilly band called Aces Wild that had lots of dancers dancing and swingers swinging.
The Wedding Cake, replete with The Bride from Kill Bill, a zombie from Day of the Dead, and lots of splatter gore
A special mention should be made for the Cake, comprised as it was of two-tiers of gore-splatter, with Kill Bill’s The Bride and a appetizingly green zombie from Day Of The Dead adorning its upper level.
Ian rocks out to Purple Rain, including extended guitar solo and falsetto whoops and aaahs
Omelette, Ian’s band, played a rather good version of Purple Rain at one point in the night too. Wonderful night, great to meet up with all the mates from Things/Thumped/Ballroom of Romance from over the years. Congratulations to the happy couple!
![On the road out of Ridgecrest [03] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3567/3398535069_e87983689e_s.jpg)
![On the road out of Ridgecrest [00].jpg by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3431/3399350474_65fd9a3e14_s.jpg)
![On the road out of Ridgecrest [02] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3455/3398533167_ba96721e6e_s.jpg)
![Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes [02] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3399349972_415cb05f45_s.jpg)
![Salt Creek, California [02] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3613/3398543411_1fa025bec0_s.jpg)
![On the road out of Ridgecrest [01] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3572/3398549935_44916f3e8b_s.jpg)
![Badwater, California [03] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3564/3399346826_cb810e2dde_s.jpg)
![Badwater, California [02] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/3398539705_0a25b64054_s.jpg)
![Zabriskie Point [04] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3548/3399357574_89a5ded497_s.jpg)
![Zabriskie Point [02] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3592/3399347482_82559b210d_s.jpg)
![Zabriskie Point [05] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3436/3399351056_c5ed9cb6dd_s.jpg)
![Zabriskie Point [06] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3608/3398540461_5247606ae7_s.jpg)
![Zabriskie Point [03] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3652/3398545999_fbd427ce8b_s.jpg)
![Zabriskie Point [01] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3544/3399356428_baec86aefe_s.jpg)
![City Delicatessan, Hillcrest [01] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3603/3398540961_e88f60dfcb_s.jpg)
![City Delicatessan, Hillcrest [02] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3653/3399341316_6ea6f9a9a7_s.jpg)
![Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego [02] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3430/3399353198_b3f6e7c9a8_s.jpg)
![Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego [01] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/3398535613_a9b951cfdf_s.jpg)
![Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego [03] by LMD64](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3439/3399356916_c72ffd846a_s.jpg)
Lmd64.com 