Steve's Multiplication

I found this picture in a blog post. More details here. It's a bit expensive at $7000!

I'm having fun watching a gig by bass virtuoso Steve Lawson, his wonderful singer wife Lobelia and some other people. It's at a pub in London, but being streamed live on Ustream. It may be available for watching later.

What makes it more fun is that there is a chat feature there so you can discuss the gig with other viewers. Unfortunately there are not many of us on there and maybe even fewer at the gig. People are missing out on some great music.

I'm seeing Steve and Lobelia play on Tuesday at Bar Darbuka, not far from Kings Cross. Saw them there recently (see review). Nice, intimate venue.

Okay, back to the stream for the next set.

Update: The recorded gig is here

The other cool musical/internet thing this week was when someone at work lent me a CD. I listened and the list of tracks was uploaded to last.fm as usual. I have an RSS feed from there of gigs that I might like and within an hour that artist appeared there. This is how I think things should be. Amazon recommends based on what you buy, but I listen to a lot of music without having to by it. last.fm recommends without too much commercial interference. Oh, and I passed 20,000 tracks this week. Took me over 4 years.

Having a clear-out. Will consider any offers for these

22" TV - not an LCD
16" TV - also not LCD
Lady's mountain bike
Boy's bike, 14" wheels - suit 4-5 year old

I'll try and add some pictures.

I also have some assorted computer parts I need to sort through and will detail later, but for starters I have a PCI TV card. Receives analogue terrestrial (BBC1,BBC2,ITV,C4,C5) and can also be used to transfer video from other sources, e.g. VCR

Good fun family film. Fat panda becomes martial arts hero, the usual stuff. The animation is great and the voice talents do a good job.

This is something I have wanted to see for ages, a way to search for local on-line groups. It can be used for any sort of organisation. They need you to add any that should be there.

Inspirational talk on music and more

We have a redundant Ikea shelf unit. It is 165cm tall and has 7 metal shelves 22x22cm. It needs to be screwed to a wall for stability. Suitable for books, DVDs etc.

Anyone interested?

I've been using Firefox as my browser on Windows and Linux for a few years and it's great. The new version released yesterday has some neat tricks. You can enhance it with all sorts of add-ons.

I only ever use Internet Explorer when I really have to. Usually on work-related sites that need it. For general use I've seen too many problems with naughty software getting installed when you happen to browse a dodgy site.

A site that can log your CO2 generation based on your car, house and flights. It should show where you can make changes. If you join up let me know.

A friend could really do with a newer computer, but he's short of money. He doesn't need the latest technology, but the main requirements would be:

* 1GHz processor or faster
* Desktop or tower with space for several hard drives and a couple of free PCI slots
* Reasonably quiet

Things like a CD writer would be a bonus. It doesn't matter what version of Windows or whatever is installed as it will be running Linux.

So if you have an old PC gathering dust then let me know and I will make sure it goes to a good home.

My mobile phone, which I got second hand via Multiply a couple of years back, is on its last legs. So I am on the look out for another. I hardly use it and only have PAYG, so I never get an upgrade.

So does anyone have a spare phone gathering dust?

My requirements are fairly modest, but something newer than my Samsung V200 would be nice. That's around 5 years old. I need Tri-band so I can use it in the USA.

Has it really been about 20 years since the last one? It must be as I was still living in Germany when I saw it. So Harrison Ford is getting on a bit, but he still has some fight in him (actually a lot of fight).

Does the plot really matter? It's another case of bad guys trying to get hold of some ancient artifact to rule the world.

There's plenty of action, much of it not generated by computers, but they still get used for some big set pieces. We get some old-fashioned car chases.

Inidiana has a couple of fights with one baddie that do go on a bit. These seemed a little much considering how many kids would be watching. How he can walk away after that much beating I don't know.

Overall it's pretty enjoyable, but lacks the spark of the earlier films. Sean Connery was much missed this time.

Any opinions out there?

I had a great evening at a small gig in London this week. Stadium gigs are all very well, but you have no chance of decent food and a chance to actually talk to the band.

Full report on the blog

Picture courtesy of my new friend Wulf.

I just bought a new toy to do some music recording on. More details on the blog. I hope to be uploading some recordings here in the near future. Stay tuned.

It's not for kids, but the US animation Family Guy is excellent. There's something to offend everyone, but you will still laugh. This week BBC3 showed their extended spoof on Star Wars, but I missed the beginning. Luckily I just found out about the BBC programme database that tells you when each episode will be on again as shown here. It is repeated tonight! I could have found this in my Radio Times, but there are just too many channels to check each day.

I only watch a few programmes each week. Tonight it's Heroes. It's silly, lightweight stuff, but entertaining enough. Last night I watched Later that I had recorded on my PC. I have some very powerful media centre software called MythTV. To make best use of it I really need to leave the PC on all the time, but it tends to get switched off unless I know it will be recording.

This looks like a must-have for Wii-owning Star Wars fans

Force Unleashed

Not that I have the time to play the games I already have.

Apparently it is RSS Day today. If you don't know it stands for Really Simple Syndication (or other things according to other sources), but it means that you can keep up to date with lots of web sites without having to visit them every day.

Just about every blog or news site publishes an RSS feed, including mine. If you use Firefox then you will see an Orange icon in the address bar when it detects a feed. You need software to read the feeds for you. There are various options there, but I've mainly used on-line readers so that I can access them from multiple computers. My current favourite is Google Reader.

Every morning I log into Google and see all the updates that have come in. This way I can track news from dozens of sites. It can get overwhelming if you subscribe to too many, but I cut back once in a while.

Give it a try and drop me a line if you have questions.

I heard a segment on Radio 3 today about a piece of music based on the above garden. Some of the music sounded a bit like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

Looked up the garden. Then realised it is by the same designer as the piece by the Modern Art Gallery in Edinburgh.

There's a book about it too. It's like something from Alice in Wonderland.

The garden is near Dumfries, but is only open for one day. I think it was on 5th May. Worth a look if you can get there.

I've just been clearing out some old paperwork and it got me thinking. Do we really need all this paper? Some companies send out massive amounts.

I recently got a small discount on my Virgin phone bill by not getting the itemised bill each month. I can access it on-line.

You can get your TV licence by email by changing your details at TV Licencing

We just had a new Yellow Pages, but we hardly ever use it. Can you opt out of getting it?

Here are 50 ways to help the planet

We all have to do our bit.