Boom Boom Pow

Some people love grumbles.  Some people look for the light show.  Some become nostalgic from the smell after it has passed. My world turns upside down during a thunder storm.  UP. SIDE. DOWN. I live in the country – like past the corn fields, through the woods, and down by the little creek (yes, creek and not crick – that and banjo music are the only things allowing us to claim any sort of civility).  I’m out there.  No cell... Read More

If you got a new computer for Christmas this post is just for you

You got a new computer for Christmas. Congratulations. You plugged it in, accessed the internet and found this post. Well done. You have just shown yourself to be adept at surfing the internet and found your way to one of the blogosphere’s more popular blogs. Now for a question. Mac or PC? Got a Mac? Congratulations. Got a PC? All is not lost. Visit ubuntu.com, download Karmic Koala, and give Windows the push.  Read More →

Upstart Blogger alternative Christmas message

I’ll keep this short and to the point. Thank you to everyone who has supported Upstart Blogger over the last 12 months, helping to make 2009 such a successful year. And, if you are reading this on Christmas day, perhaps on a brand new machine, turn off, step away from the screen, and spend some time with the people you love.  Read More →

In a change to our scheduled broadcast

Anyone who has ever watch scheduled television knows how this works. The broadcaster advertises one program but then, usually for a completely innocuous reason like a minor technical fault, broadcasts another. Yesterday I wrote 2 blog posts. And in 1 of those posts I said that today I would post a screen capture of a smoking gun and let you know exactly why I had to delete some of my recent blog posts and endure a temporary Twitter suspension. After... Read More

The great rock and roll swindle

As an independent musician I am acutely aware of the way the music industry is changing. The slow and steady demise of the record label as a concept is something that all independent musicians benefit from and I, like many of my peers, look forward to the day when full transparency exists between artist and audience, allowing the public to make a fully informed decision when choosing what to listen to and what to support. Today I would like to share... Read More

The media dinosaurs will never learn

I’m a big fan of the BBC. Their output is light years ahead of the commercial stations. Mainly because of the way they are funded, being completely detached from the need to please their advertisers. Torchwood, Children of Earth, has just finished its 5 night run. The story, putting the plot holes that seem to plague modern science fiction was compelling, harrowing, adult and intensely engrossing. Unfortunately, because of the unbelievably myopic... Read More

Is there really such a thing as a bullet proof back up system?

A power surge hit our house over the weekend. It took out two kitchen appliances, the cooker and the dishwasher, and, more importantly because of the implications, two external hard drives that were plugged in at the time. The Macs are safe, as are most of the external drives, but two are fried and gone for good. I haven’t lost any data because I keep copies of all the drives. Hard drives are so cheap that it’s easy to buy them in pairs.... Read More

A plea for Email 2.0 to hurry up and happen

Email is one of the few parts of my professional life that I cannot control. This situation is made worse by the fact that email is also something on which I depend a great deal. I’m pretty sure that goes for most, or all, of you as well. Email is important. Indeed, it was the internet’s first real killer app. So how did it come to this? Brought to it’s knees by spam and rendered unreliable by over zealous but very necessary... Read More

Choosing a new mobile phone just got a lot easier

I need a new mobile phone. The iPhone is the obvious choice but buying a phone that is locked into a provider I haven’t chosen seems too much like a Microsoft trick to me. Making a new user jump through hoops and sign locking agreements, preventing them from using the product in the way they want to use it, is something you expect from a Windows product, not a Mac one. Trouble is, there really isn’t anything to touch it in terms of style... Read More

I promise this will make you smile

Passage is a video game by Jason Rohrer that was selected for exhibition at Kokoromi’s Gamma256 event. It’s a free and very small download, for OSX, Linux and Windows, and I promise it will make you smile. Commentators from all over the world, from independent bloggers to the Wall Street Journal, have tried to describe the impact that this tiny download has had on them. I’m not going to try and explain it. It’s something... Read More