CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-18 10:28:52 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Something to get lost in. http://electronicexplorations.org/?show=zhou Fairly short and quirky mix of tunes "that I would want to listen to". Recommended.

2013-05-17 17:53:33 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Shock horror. Festivals are expensive and only middle aged, middle class people can afford it.
http://www.factmag.com/2013/05/16/study-60-of-young-people-priced-out-of-festivals-average-festival-costs-420

Which explains how white, middle aged and middle class, Glastonbury can appear to be. (sez, the balding old git).

2013-05-16 15:49:12 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Realists have no idea how they ended up living on this once hospitable planet with all these fools

2013-05-16 06:42:10 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

16 May (tonight), MS Stubnitz, Canary Wharf, London for some Real time, Algorithmically Generated Techno wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive conditionals.

http://algorave.com/stubnitz2/
http://algorave.com/
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2013/05/11/algoraves-get-people-together-to-dance-to-music-generated-in-real-time-by-algorithms
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWeb/~3/zsUdjhOM5tY/
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/11/algoraves-dancing-to-algorith.html

Time to dust off the Music Tech dissertation and rhythm generator using Markoff Chains in the time domain.

2013-05-15 16:57:02 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Google All Access. "Radio Without Rules", Music streaming $9.99 pm, $7.99 pm early adopters. 30 days free. An extension to Google Music allowing clever playlists and instant access to any track in Google's library. Along with some more smarts for exploring based on your listening and library habits. USA Today. Other countries rolling out "soon".

No thanks. I've already got 30k tracks in my personal collection.

2013-05-10 19:54:44 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Read this and be inspired. http://www.electricbike.com/dogmans-tale/

2013-05-09 17:49:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Woah! Really? http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/May/130503sx.htm
The story takes another turn. WTF is Dean Adams up to now?

2013-05-08 13:35:23 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Can I go back 5 years and get Moto3, 2 and GP live and in real time on Eurosport please? I don't mind if it's free to air, on BBC, on BT Sport or whatever, just as long as it's live on Eurosport as well.

2013-05-08 07:34:21 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Curious idea. Electric military dispatch and SO M/C. I suppose range is key, although with quick replaceable battery packs, somebody could come and rescue you! 

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/807/16130/Motorcycle-Article/Zero-Introduces-2013-MMX-Military-Motorcycle.aspx

2013-05-02 08:29:33 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Stealthy Road bike
Interesting article and thread about building a stealthy (not tm!) road bike with a Bafang SWXH rear hub motor. Kepler's running about 750w-1Kw peak through this nominal 36v-250w motor. And using anything up to 18s of Lipo from Hobbyking. One of the really neat touches is to mount the controller below the bottom bracket where it's hidden by the chain ring. The battery is hidden in a luggage bag. And most of the wires are either hidden in the frame or behind covers or chain protectors.

His only problem with the motor has been a locked up clutch. One of the comments on the thread suggests adding ATF (7-10w oil) with a syringe through a disk mount hole to deal with a similar issue.

I really like the idea of taking a 700c road bike with disk mounts and adding a 36v kit using this motor, but instead of the kit controller using one of Lyen's modified 6Fet... more »

2013-05-02 06:42:50 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

This little spat between Schwantz, Pedrosa, Puig, Dorna is just embarrassing. I've got nothing against Schwantz putting his foot in his mouth occasionally, but the others should know better than to rise to it.

However Dean Adams at Superbike Planet wading in as well is just ugly. I'm really pretty tired of his inability to forgive and forget the Pedrosa-Hayden incident all those years ago.

Just saying, is all.

2013-05-01 10:06:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Bicycle trip. Stratford, Greenway, Beckton, Woolwich, Greenwich, Dome, Canary Wharf, Limehouse Basin, Limehouse Cut, Lea, Fat Walk to Cody Dock. Greenway, Viewtube Cafe, Tottenham Hale, Home.

2013-04-29 09:53:19 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

What is it with all the social media spam around E-Bikes? Pictures of the Audi mockup, the Smart mockup and now the CNet Specialized [1] article seem to be hyped endlessly by people with no obvious connection. see
https://plus.google.com/s/electric%20bicycle on most recent.

And while I'm having a moan, why don't any of the reviewers have a clue (with the exception of http://www.electricbike.com/)?

And why can't the USA (and other places) create clear and unambiguous regulations about what constitutes an unregulated, unregistered bicycle with e-assist and where you're allowed to use it? And how to test if a specific product meets the regs. Maybe then we wouldn't get every comment thread being taken over by retards who can't seem to tell the difference between a bicycle and a moped. Hey ho.

[1] Who exactly do Specialized think they're trying... more »

2013-04-28 19:13:43 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

The very term "Space Age" seems antique
http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-frozen-frontier.html

Go back and read the science fiction of the 1940s and ’50s, and you’ll be struck by the vaulting confidence that this expansion would continue upward and outward, and that a new age of exploration was just waiting to be born.Today that confidence has vanished. Our Mars rovers are impressive and our billionaires keep pouring money into private spaceflight, but neither project captures the public’s imagination, and the very term “Space Age” seems antique.  

... because we know that spaceflight isn’t going to get us to another world anytime soon. 

Maybe it's just realism but it's a realism that we haven't properly internalised yet. Space is very, very big. It's very, very hostile to anything we wouldrecognise as ... more »

2013-04-28 17:25:31 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

It's been a good year for future club music so far. A small selection of quality in no particular order:-

Cottam - Dawn Walk
Dauwd - Heat Division
Kahn - Kahn
DJRum - 7 lies
Outboxx - Outboxx
Cosmin TRG - Gordian
Sandwell District - Fabric 69
Nail - Ode Rammel
Lapalux - Nostalchic
Samuel Kerridge - Waiting For Love 1-4
Shlohmo - Laid out
Romare - Love Songs (Part One)
Youandewan - Disarray
Delta Delta - Skyway (∆ ∆ - Skyway)
A Made Up Sound – Ahead / Endgame
Natan H & Amy Jean – For Her
Synkro – Acceptance
Leon Vynehall – Rosalind
Benjamin Damage – Heliosphere
Anthony Naples – El Portal
Fort Romeau - SW9
Recondite - EC10
Various - Future Foundations
Various - Think & Change

If you like all these, you'll probably likehttp://whitenoi... more »

2013-04-28 16:38:18 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Really liking Cottam's style of deep house. Espesh this recent EP. Think you might like it. SeeAlso Ubuntu.
https://soundcloud.com/cottam/sets/cottam-dawn-walk-ep

2013-04-26 17:21:16 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Tasting notes on Sacred English Vermouth
http://sacredspiritscompany.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=52
and Monin Pomegranate Syrop
http://www.moninstore.com/prod_Detail.html?prodID=43

OK. So, back to back with a bland middle of the road Martini Rossi. Sacred is more complex (duh!), more orange citrus and crucially more bitter. Nowhere near Punt e mes or such like but still more bitter than your average Italian V. Hence Sacred's recommended Negroni is 35ml Gin, 25ml Sacred vermouth, 15ml Aperol, 15ml Campari. So light on the Campari style bitters, light on the vermouth and heavy on the gin. Generally, It's strong tasting so you can use less of it than you would normally. And (hic!) 50ml Jim Beam, 25ml Sacred, 6 drops Angostura, 6 drops Bitter Truth Orange stirred for 40secs is most excellent! Compared with say, Caparno, it's fairly obviously... more »

2013-04-25 16:53:49 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Sorry, what is "(post)cyberpunk" ?

2013-04-24 21:21:58 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Any ideas of how to get a USB power socket on a 36v electric bicycle? How about gutting an iPod/iPhone charger and just connecting the 36v across the mains live and neutral pins? Over-driving a 12v car cigarette lighter adapter? Tapping into the throttle 5v +ve feed?

2013-04-24 15:03:03 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Retrophilia is a dangerous disease that is highly contagious so please take all necessary precautions before reading these. Untreated and unchecked it can lead to Retromania and severe neck problems as the sufferer attempts to walk backwards into the future.

If you see a child or young adult suffering from nostalgia for a future that didn't happen, predicted in a past that didn't exist, from before they were born, then please report them to the relevant authorities immediately.

In recent weeks, London has seen an outbreak of Retromania after significant numbers of parents failed to inoculate their children against Right Wing Capitalism. The population had lost it's herd immunity to the dangers of unchecked greed and the longing for a golden past of certainties.

We can't be too careful or society may drown in an ocean of vintage whimsy and any possibility ofc... more »

2013-04-22 17:04:05 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

What are these tally marks on my arm?

2013-04-19 19:55:24 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

I don't normally do this, but I'm going to call it. Marquez for the win.

2013-04-19 10:01:03 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

An interesting summary of the RSS/Atom feed reader market
http://www.rumproarious.com/2013/04/18/how-large-will-the-payed-feed-reader-market-be/

Especially note this comment:- 
I wanted to determine the number of people who use RSS on a monthly basis. Also, how they use feeds is important. I only want to estimate the people who are using something that works like Google Reader. There are a lot of people who use RSS when they use something like Flipboard, but don’t know they are using RSS.
Because of course there are numerous use cases for feeds that don't necessarily look like direct consumption by an end user as relatively raw untouched content. Flipboard, Pulse, Currents are all examples of this. So too are backend services like dlvr.it

The bottom line figures.
- ~ 65m regular users
- ~ 2.6m potential paid subscribers based on typical conversionra... more »

2013-04-17 17:32:19 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

"all I can hope is that future historians note that one of the core empirical points providing the intellectual foundation for the global move to austerity in the early 2010s was based on someone accidentally not updating a row formula in Excel."

JFC!

2013-04-15 09:27:23 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Thatch: She was a one-woman Luftwaffe, really.
http://phil-zone.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-one-woman-luftwaffe.html

Genius!

2013-04-15 09:16:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

A most excellent guide to understanding post-everything music reviews from the late lamented Stool Pigeon.

Found sounds — Go out early onto the streets of Dalston one morning, and you’ll find wandering herds of hipsters out recording ‘found sounds’ on their iPhones, which they will then use as the basis for an experimental EP in the mistaken belief that they are John Cage.

Bonus link. The achingly beautiful https://twitter.com/solovelyithurts is so lovely it hurts for surely "Pain is so close to pleasure".

And by the way. There are no Singles, Albums, EPs, LPs any more. There are just "Releases". So there's no need to put "EP" on the end of your release title. It's not "Breach - Jack EP", It's "Breach - Jack". m'kay? Calling yourself "Various Artists" or "Unknown" isn't funny,it'... more »

2013-04-14 09:06:29 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Bikes that really ought to have an electric assist kit added to them.

http://fuckyeahweirdbikes.tumblr.com/post/47876848296/trecool-blog-donky-bike-bicicleta-de-carga
also here http://donkybike.com/

UK Postie from Pashley. http://www.pashley.co.uk/products/mailstar.html
also http://www.pashley.co.uk/products/courier.html

2013-04-13 18:20:38 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

Whatever happens to musicians happens to everybody. Including you.

Every year around Jan 7 I get quite disparaging about Bruce Sterling. But then some time during the year he blows me away again with a post or lecture or an SXSW closing speech. This is one of those times where he does it again with too many ideas per sentence.

2013-04-13 07:39:50 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

I think we need more electric Velomobiles on the roads. It's just a shame that they really don't fit existing US and EU regulations. Perhaps they could be licensed as Quads, but I suspect there's still a whole load of awkwardness around insurance, let alone TUV and MOT testing. I think something that can do 50mph should require safety checking, be licensed and insured, but I also want this to be easy for one-off or low production quantities.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2012/10/electric-velomobiles.html

2013-04-12 14:52:10 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Recipe suggestions requested for cocktails that can be pre-made and drunk at room temperature.

Couple of years ago at Glastonbury I bumped into someone walking the crowds and selling shot glass cocktails and cigars out of a backpack and bum bag. The trick is that even doing this in the evening you probably can't keep the drinks cold. And you want everything pre-mixed so you can just pour out measures. A lot of festivals have a ban on glassware, so I guess you could carry 6 to 8 Litre water bottles filled with your mixes.

So what would you make up? Warm Manhattans?

2013-04-10 16:12:45 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

I think we all need one of these in the garage.
http://www.skyteammotorcycles.com/motorcycle-range/e-max/

2013-04-09 18:37:20 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

It's an awesome bit of customisation but is the inspiration what I think it is? http://ridethemachine.tumblr.com/post/47519755453

2013-04-09 08:50:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/apr/07/james-blake-interview-overgrown?
http://www.residentadvisor.net/forum-read.aspx?id=221290

The comments are almost as good as the article.
- James Flake
- please don't use that acronym "EDM". Each time I come across that, my stomach churns a little...James Blake has had NOTHING to do with EDM.
- I'll give the boy a listen but in my experience most current songwriters with the Christian name James have tended to be shit

And form the article:
- The ship" – he means the music business – "isn't just going down. There are people trapped inside, bashing on the windows trying to get out."

So which genre section does this go in? I had to use "other" because it doesn't feel to me like it fits into any of them.

2013-04-09 08:46:05 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Whatever you think of the new James Blake album, this is worth reading if only for this comment.

The ship" – he means the music business – "isn't just going down. There are people trapped inside, bashing on the windows trying to get out."

2013-04-08 17:46:08 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

This.

"What needs addressing as a matter of absolute urgency right now, however, is that Thatcher 's legacy is one of gross, almost comically staggering inequality. We are not all in this together. We are heading down shit creek while a tiny few of "them" are up on the clifftop holding all the paddles. Inequality, inequality, inequality, stupid. If there's good to come from her death, beyond a few street parties, it's that we realise that Thatcherism never died, was never truly even un-elected. It's time to shake ourselves, and others, out of the daze into which we were collectively not so much handbagged as headbutted back in the early 80s. Thatcherism was the worst thing to happen to this country since the Second World War and it'll carry on happening to us unless we do something about it."

We need some better analysis beyond the uncritical... more »

2013-04-07 06:59:04 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

30 years on and Alexie Sayle's comments about Stoke Newington are still as relevant as ever. Hard to believe this was 1982. It feels like yesterday. 

2013-04-06 08:17:19 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

I know we live in a TL;DR culture and you haven't got time to properly express what you think and feel or add much value to the link you shared. But if it's too long, either read it anyway and attempt to comprehend it, or don't pass comment at all.

Language is the ultimate technology In fact, I’ll go so far as to say: It’s not okay to fail at written language as a modern, technologically-empowered human being.

And no, recording yourself talking about the idea and then posting it on Youtube is not an acceptable alternative to writing it down. TL;DV is also a problem made worse because it's much harder to skim and speed-read video.

2013-04-05 21:09:14 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

With the end of Yahoo! Messages, Yahoo! succeeded in destroying the most amount of history in the shortest amount of time, certainly on purpose, in known memory.
http://ianmilligan.ca/2013/04/03/yahoo-sucks-historians-wake-up/

Dream on. The industry doesn’t do hundred-year periods, and that’s why digital archives are no more stable than, say, the finance industry.
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2013/04/dead-media-beat-speculating-about-migration-hell/ "Unless we reach a stage where archival technology becomes as stable as paper and printing had been for decades, centuries even, then we cannot, unquestioning, keep all the data we digitally collect."

Total data is growing faster than total storage. So we're not just creating data faster than ever, we're also forgetting it faster than ever.

All those moments will be lost in time, liketea... more »

2013-04-05 16:48:16 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

If I mute a person and mute their post, don't keep putting that post back into my notifications each time somebody else comments on it. Duh!

2013-04-04 15:01:02 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

It begins

2013-04-04 08:47:19 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Without RSS all we'd have is pictures of cats and breakfast.

2013-04-01 06:46:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

March came in like a Lion, it should have gone out like a Lamb but actually went out like a Tiger. And now Spring has arrived.

No. April Fool. It's still Winter.

2013-03-31 18:17:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

It’s more important to not buy in than to not sell out.

R.U. Sirus for president!

2013-03-30 19:51:12 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

If you share a post with circles, you can't share it with a community as well. Really, why not? I want to.

2013-03-30 19:49:53 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

So how much did the other fast food burger chain pay to get a product placement name check in tonight's episode of the BBC's Dr Who? I know it's now a global franchise, but, really? 

And they couldn't name Jammy Dodgers?

Is it reasonable to think that the BBC making money from things like Dr Who like this makes the license fee money go further and help to fund all the properly good things the BBC does, like the Afghanistan pashtun World Service (yes, I know it got cut.). Or, is that argument flawed?

Meanwhile USians have been complaining of not being able to listen to Neverwhere on iPlayer due to region restrictions. Well, I'm very happy for my license fee to pay for them to hear it. Please make it so.

2013-03-28 11:57:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Out soon (Apr 8?). Whole EP works nicely.

2013-03-27 09:50:12 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Two excellent reviewers
http://thequietus.com/articles/11760-hyperspecific-21-electronic-music-review-dj-rashad-matmos-covered-in-sand
Rory Gibb's Hyperspecific column on The Quietus is always good value.

http://whitenoisereview.blogspot.co.uk/
White Noise has his finger on the pulse of UK Armchair Dance, or whatever it's called.

2013-03-27 08:54:53 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, The Jagged Orbit, Shockwave Rider should be required reading. They all resonate well with the world in 2013.
http://www.themillions.com/2013/03/the-weird-1969-new-wave-sci-fi-novel-that-correctly-predicted-the-current-day.html

2013-03-25 20:16:34 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Crutchlow quickest in final pre-season test
http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/jerez+day3+test+motogp

2013-03-25 07:50:14 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Flat out, knee down, elbow on the deck and he still manages to flick me the V's on the way past!