In Computing on
10 August 2010 tagged Computing, gadgets, gear, input, keyboard, pc, windows with no comments
Now that I’ve got hibernation working again on my machine, I’ve turned my thoughts to making it more comfortable.
I’ve longed for a decent small keyboard for many spins round the sun now. It seems like a simple thing. Make a keyboard with no number pad with a bunch of keys on it suitable for a Windows computer. Simple! It should be wired with a USB connector because I don’t want to fiddle with batteries or yet another USB wireless dongle. The keys should be decent with good tactile feedback. They should also be full-sized. It should do these things and take up as little space on my desk as possible.
Enter the XGene Multimedia Mini Keyboard. Take a moment to have a look at it.
That’s it. Sitting above my Apple Wireless keyboard. You’ll note that I have different requirements for my PC keyboard compared to my Mac’s, otherwise, I’d just use one of those. So far, keyfeel is pretty solid. It requires a bit of force to type on this thing. I’ve had a couple of keys not register because I wasn’t typing hard enough. They keys themselves get a little tiny when you get out to the edges of the board. The outside right edge is bordered by home/page-up/down/end which means that they’ve shrunk the backspace, backslash and enter keys to accommodate. The same goes for the keys on the left, the tab, caps lock (now a control key) and escape keys are pretty smallish.
Backspace is probably the worst of the bunch because it’s surrounded by a home key, the equal sign, and the decades old and mysterious PrtSc, Scroll Lock and Pause Break keys. Trying to erase a mistake often leads to more mistakes and funny beeps. The backspace key should probably cover the whole top right of the keyboard the way I type.
It doesn’t get much better at the bottom of the keyboard. The space bar is small and shifted just far enough to the left that I often hit the tiny little “alt” key next to it, popping open a menu. Windows key, Context menu key, Ins and Del live next to it, all competing with the arrow keys. Yes, it is a little cramped.
We’ll see how it works for gaming though. The main keys are normal-sized so I’m hoping they won’t hinder my use of the ASDW keys. I’m already considering prying up some of the worst offenders around the edges.
Preliminary review: 3 stars.
In Computing on
3 August 2010 tagged 64bits, Computing, windows with 3 comments
Annoyed by the inability to see more than 3GB with Windows 7 32 bit, I decided it was time to enter the world of 64 bits on my PC. I had to flip a chipset option to allow memory remapping through the northbridge controller. Having done that, my memory performance is no longer the bottle-neck on this machine. That honor falls to the lowly hard-drive. Maybe I need an SSD.
In Computing on
3 August 2010 tagged Computing, Hardware, pc, windows with no comments
Between barbecues and golfing this weekend, I took a few minutes to drop some new hardware into my criminally-neglected PC. It’s been some time since I’ve added any parts to it and I’d gotten the bug recently when prod and I started playing Dawn of War II. StarCraft II got released last week and, better still, Civilization V is going to be out very soon now. For the first time in nearly half a decade, I’m actually looking forward to PC gaming and thinking that my Xbox 360 is going to be relegated to occasional late-night Blur sessions and playing back video from the network. That’ll probably change when Halo: Reach comes out and Gears of War 3.
taking delivery of a tube of Arctic Silver. In its very own box.
The goal
See how much I can improve my LGA775-based system for $500. The motherboard is getting a little old, but they’re a pain to switch. Jumping up to a more modern i7-powered board is going to be a much pricier proposition and probably require completely new guts. Power-supply and motherboard. Plus, I’d probably feel more compelled to look at a 5000-series ATI card or comparable Nvidia. The whole prospect of going up to an i7 was more of a hassle (and money) than I really wanted.
The parts list
• Intel 3.06GHz Core2Duo E8400 (Wolfdale)
• 4GB Corsair XMMS DDR2 RAM @ 1066MHz
• MSI 9800GT graphics card
Installation was shockingly easy, and once again I had nice thoughts about my Lian-Li PCV600 case. It’s not the quietest, but it sure is nice to work in.
The biggest issue I had was the RAM. My BIOS firmware was a couple of years (!) out-of-date. That it was able to use the processor at all was a bit of a surprise. At boot-up, my machine sat on the ASUS logo screen but wouldn’t go any further. There were no extra beeps during POST so it seemed to be working. On a hunch, I pulled the new RAM and put my old, crusty RAM back in and that got me into the OS.
There’s something vaguely troubling about flashing your firmware with a tool that looks like Winamp from 1998. Telling me it’s connecting to ASUS’ servers in Taiwan is always exciting. What are they installing? Am I a new node in a botnet? Windows Defender didn’t complain though, so it must be safe!
After updating, I was able to put my new back RAM in and was rewarded with Windows telling me I had 3 whole gigabytes to play with. I reran the Performance tool, and this is what I got.
Yup. A whopping .1 increase, thanks to my marginally faster RAM.
The Real Deal
Well, those numbers may not be stellar, but there’s a significant boost in processor performance. Playing Dawn of War II felt noticeably zippier last night with no slow-downs or hitching as I’d experienced before. I was able to increase my resolution from 1600×1050 to 1920×1200 with improved framerates. The machine feels a fair bit snappier.
This is a fairly subjective measurement, but without bothering to go through the whole XBench rigamarole, this is what I get. Was it worth it? You bet!
In Technology on
6 June 2010 tagged Apple, gadgets, gear, Hardware, ipad with no comments
I got an iPad. Shocking! I’d like to say that deb (who has some good app recommendations here) made me get an iPad, or that it was forced on me but that’s not really the case. I wanted one despite my efforts to not want one.
The iPad represents a shift towards a kind of computing that is both attractive and terrifying. An experience that is highly tailored with most of the ugly underpinnings hidden away behind a curtain of abstraction. Those same ugly underpinnings that let you do interesting things with your computer if you’re of a technical bent.
That first paragraph (and a bunch since) was typed on my new iPad using the Wordpress app. Typing is something I haven’t had a lot of practice doing yet but so far it isn’t quite as bad as most of the reviews have led me to expect. Well, let me clarify a bit: typing in portrait mode is not awesome. In order to hold the thing, you need your hands. This forces you to type with your thumbs and the iPad is wide enough that this is awkward. Landscape-mode typing is pretty nice if you can lay the iPad flat, say, on your lap. Of course then it’s tilted away from you if you’re at all reclined, so it’s at a bit of a funny angle. You may find you need to contort yourself into variations on the fetal position to find a “comfortable” seating angle. Still, for a first try, I was touch-typing pretty quickly on it with not too many mistakes.
What changed?
I said before that I wasn’t interested in the iPad. I certainly tried to hold out despite being bombarded by ads, friends, parents asking me when I was getting one and deb, enthusiastically suggesting we get them. Yes, dear reader, I am weak. Weak with the need for new gadgetry!
I think the iPad is a new class of gadget. I’ve tried suggesting that my Dell Mini 10 was a suitable competitor for the iPad (look! it’s got a real keyboard!) but honestly, it’s different. I consider the iPad to be more of a big iPod than a full-blown computer. I can sync music and videos to it including my huge backlog of Ted talks. It’s nearly ideal as a couch pad for looking things up on the web or for light reading. I’m looking forward to traveling with it in place of my 1st generation ipod touch. I think I’ll still be using my Kindle for longer bouts of reading however.
Which one?
I got the iPad 64GB with wifi only. I was really tempted by 3G, but without the option to share my existing data plan with it, I was not that interested. Sure, Rogers has a decent plan at $35 / mo for 5GB, but that’s on top of my cell phone plan. I’d even consider paying 10-15 / mo to share my existing data plan between the two devices. I think Rogers missed out there. Also, wifi is going to be more available in more locations over time so eventually, it won’t be that big a loss. And I can use the extra $400 / year or so to, I don’t know… upgrade my phone!
Accessories
The iPad only comes with a couple of accessories in the box. A USB-Dock cable and a wall-wart style power adapter. The usual minimal pamphlets and Apple stickers are also included. I was a little surprised at the included power-adapter. It looks like an older-style MacBook adapter with the detachable two-prong plug. I’d have expected something a little less chunky, maybe like a slightly bigger version of the iPhone power adapter. The USB cable seems to have been updated a bit with a squarer piece on the USB end. The actual dock-connection seems to keep getting smaller though which makes it hard to grab onto to remove it from the iPod… pad.
The first things I bought for it were the Apple iPad dock (sans-keyboard) and a sleeve for carrying it around.
The sleeve was from Kensington and claimed to be “for the iPad”. Whoever designed it, had probably heard there was an iPad coming, took a stab at the dimensions and sent it off to manufacturing. It’s terrible. There’s enough room inside of it to probably store two iPads and a bunch of other stuff along the edges. I should have checked with it in store on some of the demo units they had out. I’ll replace it with something classy from Sena when they’re available.
The Dock is a dock. Not much to say there except that: a) it’s substantial in weight, which it should be because the iPad itself is fairly hefty and, b) it’s hard to actually dock the thing in it. The iPad uses the same old dock connector that all iPods have used since the beginning. It’s practically an industry standard! The problem is, the iPad is much bigger, and lining up that little slot with the dock’s edge connector is tricky, requiring lots of leaning over and scrutinizing-with-your-tongue-sticking-out-concentration to get the connection right. It’s more fiddly than it should be. Also, it works for portrait mode, but not landscape. I’d like a landscape dock for movies or pictures. As it is, it works well enough for standing the thing up on my desk.
Apps
If you’re excited about playing all your iPhone or iPod games on your iPad, or you have a slew of apps, don’t get too excited. They kind of suck. Sure, you can load them and even double their size, but with the exception of a few of the games I’ve tried, it’s not great. Orbital works and doesn’t look too bad from the chunkier pixels. Some apps I’ve tried are also acceptable, but I would have thought Apple of all companies would have made a better effort to make them look better. Proper font sizing and the nicer on screen keyboard for starters.
After syncing all my stuff, the first thing I did was delete most of the non-iPad apps.
The built in apps have all been updated for the new screen size. Some with some cute interface flourishes that would be grossly extravagant on a regular computer. iCal and Contacts have book-like wrappings around the edges. Mail and Safari are about what you’d expect and Mail works quite well. Safari is a bit frustrating with it’s simplicity, but the bookmark syncing with MobileMe is nice.
A few of my favorite apps that have been updated to work with the iPad include Instapaper, Kindle, and Stanza. There’s a separate version of Good Reader which I also recommend.
Wordpress
While taking a sweep through and finding which apps were iPad-ready, I loaded up and was pleasantly surprised that it worked with my new fat iPod. This post started at that moment and I’ve been continuing to use it to write and edit it. It works well, though you don’t get a rich text editor like you do in the online app. No big.
Colloquy
Another happy accident was learning that colloquy was already universal. It looks great and seems to work pretty well though I haven’t figured out how to get notifications to work.
Air Video
This is a gem of an app recommended by Mr B. If you have a collection of videos in various formats (avi in xvid/divx, mkv, maybe others), you install a server on your Mac or PC and feed it your videos directory. Then with the app on your iphone or iPad, connect to your server and play video converted on the fly. You can also queue up conversions to save on CPU cycles. Very cool and works well on the videos I’ve tried.
Twitteriffic
Normally on the iPhone I like using Twittelator pro. The version for the iPad looks a little crazy in the UI department so I thought I’d try something different. On the recommendation from several friends, I thought I’d give Twitteriffic a shot. So far I’m liking it. It’s simple, offers a nice set of features and has some unobtrusive ads. I guess there’s a pro version for money but so far I’m happy with the lite version. Also, Twitter in safari is decent, but I wish I could default to the full web version rather than getting dumped into the mobile version all the time. It’s the main reason for wanting an app at all. How about a pref @twitter?
AIM
The lack of iPad support in Beejive was a little annoying and made worse by a $10 grab for a new HD version. That left me without a nice-looking IM app. There is a version of AIM for the iPad however which is quite slick, despite a confusing and probably useless Lifestream section that hooks up your AIM contacts twitter, flickr, delicious and whatever other streams they choose to associate with their account. For AIM messages though, it’s great and has an interesting interface.
There is already a ton of apps available for the iPad and I only skimmed the surface of them here. As I find others I like I’ll be sure to drop some reviews. I’ll follow up soon with a review of some games.
In Music on
24 April 2010 tagged 2000s, best, lists, Music, playlist with 9 comments
I think I’ve edited this to hell and back again. I’m just gonna push “post”. These are some of my favorite albums of the last decade. The list is by no means comprehensive. I could include more. Scroll down to the bottom for a playlist if you want to assemble your own. (note, I’m hearing that google reader strips out the funky jquery-powered table at the bottom, if you want to see it, you’ll have to look here directly).
Arcade Fire – “Neon Bible” (2007)
Art Rockers from Montréal, The Arcade Fire made a strong debut with their self-titled album in 2002 with a critically-acclaimed follow-up “Funeral” in 2004. In 2007, their stunning concept album “Neon Bible” landed amidst outstanding and well-deserved critical press. A guitar-smashing performance on Saturday Night Live showed them as exuberant and exciting on stage. I lack superlatives. This album will be studied by future generations.
Beck – “Sea Change” (2002)
Beck’s gone through more musical styles than most artists change their underwear. Beck’s 2002 downer, “Sea Change” is a masterpiece of mellowness. If you can find the 5.1 SACD version and have that many speakers, I suggest you pick it up, turn the lights off and take a wheeze off of your favorite medicine. I guess Beck was going through a pretty heavy break-up when he wrote this and it shows. It’s largely a downer, but an impressive one.
Belle & Sebastian – “Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant”
The prolific Belle & Sebastian are best-characterized as sardonic, laid-back, pretty music. It seemed like they were releasing an album per year and sometimes more than one at a time for a period. Their music is big, featuring lots of great instrumentation and sounds like it could have been recorded in the ’60s or ’70s. Horns and keyboards, strings and woodwinds. They’re a 7-piece band that often sounds like an orchestra. Yet they still manage to produce delicate pop tunes with occasionally silly, occasionally biting lyrics. And they keep getting better.
Boards of Canada – “Geogaddi”
Highly influential electronic artists Boards of Canada reached a sort of pinnacle with 2002’s “Geogaddi”. Sprawling 23 tracks, the listener is taken through weird interstitials and longer beat-driven, sample-infested tracks. Part ambient, part down-tempo techno, this is a masterpiece of electronic music. Listening to it now, you can hear its influence in music like Autechre and Ulrich Schnauss as well as recognize bits of it from BBC commercials, Top Gear and other sources. This album is probably the 2000’s “Music for Airports”. Psychedelia through synthesizers.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – “Clap Your Hands Say Yeah”
An internet phenomenon, CYHSY went viral sometime around late 2005 with the tune “Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood”. Hailing from Brooklyn and Philly, the quirky, band evoked early Talking Heads with the lead’s weird vocal stylings and catchy melodies. Their 2007 followup “Some Loud Thunder” failed to resonate the same as their first album, but I remain hopeful for a resurgence.
Cut Copy – “In Ghost Colours”
The ’80s are alive and well in the first decade of the new millennium and Cut Copy are leading the way into the time machine. Evoking bands like New Order, “Hurting” era Tears for Fears, and Japan, “In Ghost Colours” is an entertaining throwback that ends up sounding as if it could have been produced anytime in the last 30 years. Also, it’s really really good.
The Dears – “Gang of Losers”
Maintaining my 30% Canadian Content, The Dears are another Montreal band who’ve been putting out catchy indie tunes since the mid-nineties. The 2000s offered up a a number of great albums starting with 2000’s “End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story”, the excellent “Gang of Losers” landed in the middle in 2006. Their albums are larger-than-life, having an epic scope that seems almost too big for the band to contain. There’s a grandioseness to their pop tunes that make them larger than life. Intricate arrangements and the lead singer’s swaggering vocals make for an entertaining, if emotional listen.
Death Cab for Cutie – “Transatlanticism”
Oh Death Cab. You used to be just a little thing. A quiet moody band with the delicate vocal stylings of Ben Gibbard. I think those days are gone now that you’ve gone and gotten all big and successful. Your albums are heavily produced, slickly-packaged perfect little jewels of pop. But I’ll always have 2003’s “Transatlanticism”. The title-track remains one of my all-time favorite, most-depressing listens with a 7 minute crescendo that peaks in a triumphant chorus. It’s really beautiful.
Editors – “The Back Room”
Were they inspired by Interpol? Were they both influenced heavily by Joy Division and through some quirk of time-and-space simultaneously channeled Ian Curtis nearly 25 years after his death but 4 years apart? Whatever their source, Editors’ “The Back Room” stands on its own as a bleak, driving album of catchy singles that hint at something much darker underneath. Post-punk, post-new-wave, rock, their follow-up “An End Has a Start” drew questions of whether their first album was a fluke. Their third album “In This Light and On This Evening” may have even that opinion as truth. Fluke or not, The Back Room was one of my favorite albums of the oughts earning a respected place in my library with an embarrassingly huge playcount.
Elliott Smith – “Figure 8″
Two thousand and nothing’s “Figure 8″ was considered by some to be the downward trend of the legendary singer-songwriter. Accused of suffering from too much production, Figure 8 nevertheless contained some masterful pieces of music from one of our generation’s most gifted musicians. “From a Basement on a Hill” and “New Moon” are sad farewells with glimpses of brilliance. I miss him a lot.
Sasha – “Involver”
You think I should get back to something fun and danceable? I’m bumming you out? You think this music sucks?? Fine. Go pick this up and put it in your drive. Better yet, go driving around your neighbourhood with this blaring on the stereo with your windows down. You’ll feel cool doing it. Trust me.
The Helio Sequence – “Keep Your Eyes Ahead”
It took 4 years for Portland-based The Helio Sequence to come back online after 2004’s “Love and Distance”. A blend of electronics and guitars, “Can’t Say No” is one of the finest pop confections I’ve ever heard. The rest of the album ain’t bad either.
Interpol – “Turn on the Bright Lights”
The 2000s were good for New York bands. Interpol turned up in 2002 with an astonishingly bleak and lyrically confusing album “Turn on the Bright Lights”. Their epic NYC has a surprising sadness to it bookended by two extremely catchy tunes the mysteriously titled “Obstacle 1″ and the popular “PDA” which made a showing in the game Rock Band. Like Editors, they were at their best with their first album.
The Killers – “Sam’s Town”
Criticized for taking themselves too seriously, Las Vegas’ The Killers began with 2004’s “Hot Fuss”. Another 80s throwback to british New Wave, it begged the question, “who the hell do these guys think they are”? Sam’s Town told you just who they were. Channeling a kind of weird blend of americana and post-new-wave sound, they evoked Duran Duran meets Bruce Springsteen with some extremely likeable pop. One of my fondest memories of my most-recent trip to Las Vegas was blasting this while driving through the Nevada desert in a rented Toyota. And the blackjack.
The Knife – “Silent Shout”
The Knife. They’re Swedish. They’re weird. Silent Shout is one of the creepiest electronic albums of all time. The female/wife/alien member of the band was recently on a UK awards ceremony dressed as something from another world and gurgled into a microphone for nearly a full minute to the astonishment of those in the audience. I believe she was accepting an award for this year’s Fever Ray solo project which possibly the second creepiest electronic album of all time. Dark and minimalist, Silent Shout is music for this decade’s batch of serial killers.
LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem
Hey, it’s time to party down with James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem! A 2 CD set of fun-times and hangovers, I think this collection had more beer spilled on it than any other album of the 2000s. I’m pretty excited that they’re coming out with a new album. Disco punk. Get it.
Mclusky – “Do Dallas”
It’s 2001 and we had to go to Wales for some fun punk. It’s hard to find a song on this album that clocks in at 3 minutes or more. They combine their punk vibrance with clever, often hilarious lyrics. Honestly, if you like Do Dallas, get all their other albums. They’re all excellent.
Modest Mouse – “The Moon and Antarctica” (2000)
This album was a turning point for the band. Previous efforts were less produced, less totally a vision of Isaac Brock’s strange stylings. The Moon and Antarctica is a sonic journey unlike any other. Their sound is unique and though later albums further refine it and turn it into something approaching radio friendliness, this remains their most ambitious album.
The National – “Boxer”
What an album! Previous efforts embodied american indie in a way few other bands could. Boxer transcends that simplistic classification and moves into much bigger territory. A towering album of rock, it has a yearning, mid-west sadness set to pounding drum beats and careful guitar shimmers. One of my favorite records of the past 20 years. The New York Times recently ran an excellent article and featured a streaming version of their unreleased album new album “High Violet”. Even at shitty flash bitrates, the album sounds like another epic.
The Organ – “Grab That Gun”
More Cancon. The Organ were a short-lived post-punk girl band from the west coast of our mighty nation. Evoking The Smiths’ early albums, the band’s title instrument made an interesting backdrop for Katie Sketch’s mournful vocals. I had the good fortune to see them at Zaphod’s in Ottawa before they called it quits and while thoroughly enjoyed their music, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Katie up there on stage who looked as if she’d run off screaming at any instant. Fragile, sad, emotional pop music. By girls. I hope they get back together.
Portishead – “Third”
For awhile there I don’t think anyone expected Portishead to release another album. They’d owned the title of musical vapourware for over a decade. And then it happened. They released “Third”. A challenging, sometimes disjointed album constructed from their trademark self-recorded samples, strings, and who knows what. The album’s undeniable masterpiece is track 4: “The Rip”. It has a fucking banjo in it. And it’s beautiful. Beth Gibbon’s vocals are every bit as good as they used to be. Maybe even a little smokier. It was worth the wait. I don’t know if I can stand another 10 years for the next Portishead album.
The Postal Service – “Give Up”
Ben Gibbard’s side-project with producer Jimmy Tamborello, I often feel like Ben should’ve dropped Death Cab and kept making Postal Service records. His vocals combined with Tamborello’s quirky synth lines make for a surprising combination. The result is something exceptional. Honestly though, you’ve already got this album, so let’s move on.
Queens of the Stoneage – “Lullabies to Paralyze”
The Queens of the Stoneage had few peers in the hallowed halls of rock in the 2000s. Josh Homme’s guitar and vocal talents meshed with his strong songwriting are the driving force behind the band. Lullabies was released in 2005 after the departure of Nick Oliveri and I believe is their strongest effort in the oughts.
Radiohead – “In Rainbows”
After reinventing themselves in 2001 with the surprising Kid-A and Amnesiac, Radiohead have continued to prove their alt-rock mastery with Hail to the Thief and finally “In Rainbows”. The band’s evolution has continued along an upward trajectory culminating in this album. Watching them grow has been a fascinating journey.
The Raveonettes – “Lust, Lust, Lust”
Awesome post-new-wave, post-punk bubble-gum shoegaze pop rock, to throw a few labels around casually. They pick up where The Jesus and Mary Chains’ “Automatic” left off. Evoking elements of Twin Peaks-era Julee Cruise meshed with My Bloody Valentine levels of jangly guitar noise, the end result is something ethereal and moody that somehow manages to be fun.
The Shins – “Chutes Too Narrow” (2003)
Say what you will about them now, the Shins defined indie rock in the early part of the oughts with “Oh, Inverted World” and “Chutes Too Narrow”. Strong songwriting and simple guitar-based melodies define the Shins and their music holds up fairly well. But there’s a darker side to the songs. There is a mean streak in James Mercer that sometimes peeks through the light-sounding music. In “Kissing the Lipless” he sings about a relationship on the rocks that lingers on through sheer inertia. Hard not to think of these songs of bitterness when he was accused later of being involved in some domestic violence. Nevertheless, it makes for some good music. The great remains of a friendship scarred.
Sigur Ros – “Von” (2004)
Featuring one of the creepiest opening 10 minutes of any album ever, Von starts slowly and builds to… what? Wordless singing and haunting music, it sounds like it’s from another world. The gloomy beginnings slowly give way to a more urgent sound, building to a cacaphony of guitars and drums you could mistake for metal if you heard them out of context. One of of the stranger bands to achieve popularity.
Silversun Pickups – “Carnavas” (2006)
I think the band’s name is a play on silversPun pickups, as in guitar pickups. For awhile there, I thought that was their name and only later dropped the P from their name like some kind of mental defective. It’s ok, I say “libary” too. On purpose. Carnavas is a solid bit of sonic calisthenics. It’s an assault on the ears the way early Smashing Pumpkins was. Loud guitars, a somewhat whiny-sounding lead singer, a female bassist, the formula is almost perfect. And it works. Carnavas is a great album.
Snowden – “Anti-Anti”
What is Snowden? This one album from this relatively unknown band has had strong replay value for me. Noisy, strong drumming, strange vocals singing evocative lyrics over humming synthesizers or guitars in a permanent sustained drone – I can’t tell. It’s a strange, post-punk kind of rythmic noisefest and a strong album. I hope to hear more from them.
The Strokes – “Is This It?”
I first thought the Strokes were the product of a fictional A&R company concocting the perfect fake throw-back band. The Strokes came on with lots of rock swagger and an over-driven, precise guitar-based sound that was too perfect to be genuine. Later albums didn’t quite hold up to the same level of perfection as their opening effort making me wonder if it was just a fluke?
Tool – “Lateralus” (2001)
What more needed to be said after 1996′ “Aenima”? Not much, really and if it was said, it was probably going to take you a long time to figure it out. Tool’s 2001 prog-metal opera is a mystifying sonic assault in complex time signatures. The whole album is constructed with a precision and deftness you’d think required many computers to put together. And they did this live. James Maynard Keenan’s strange lyrics really make me wonder if he does have access to another dimension and maybe this music is the key.
TV On The Radio – “Return to Cookie Mountain” (2006)
Continuing the parade of strange rock outfits, Brooklyn New York’s (did I say this was a great decade for New York music?) TV On The Radio’s “Return to Cookie Mountain” is nothing short of brilliant. Featuring horns amongst the synthesizers, they have a large sound. The horns and rhythms often suggest improvisational jazz as much as art rock, there is a punk element as well with strong energy throughout. The lyrics are somewhat inscrutable, but evoke some strong imagery. Uncategorizable. Hard to define. Listen.
Wilco – “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (2002)
There’s almost too much story that goes along with Wilco’s “YHF”. The album was too strange for any record company to release it. It tore the band apart. Jeff Tweedy was a visionary dictator unwilling to compromise (aka asshole). There’s been a movie made about it. And so on. I’m not sure they created it, but Wilco certainly defines “alt country” and this album contains some of the prettiest, most heart-felt songs of the decade. Not perfect, there are weak parts on this record that possibly make the high points sound all the sweeter.
Wintersleep – “Welcome to the Night Sky” (2007)
Do I have room for another Canadian album? I hope so, because I’d hate to knock one of those other albums out of the list. Wintersleep’s “Welcome to the Night Sky” is a strongly-crafted alt-pop album that propelled the band to international recognition. Coming back from a tour in Europe with such contemporaries as The Handsome Furs and the Stills, their new album is due out very soon (May 18th, 2010) and I can only hope it lives up to this one. If it doesn’t I’ll still have Welcome to the Night Sky.
Yo La Tengo “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out” (2000)
New Jersey’s quintessential alternative indie(?) band have been making their special brand of pop tunes for going on 2 decades. 2000’s “And then nothing” is still one of their best with light numbers like “Cherry Chapstick” and one of the most depressing album openers of all time in “Everyday”. They set you up for a good cry then make you smile. Great stuff. Moody, melancholy and well-crafted. They blend drum machines and guitars and soothing vocals effortlessly.
The Playlist
In Entertainment, Top Fives on
19 March 2010 tagged apps, Entertainment, Games, iPhone, iPod, lists, Top Fives with no comments
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a favorite list of apps for my iPhone. Even more shockingly, I don’t think I’ve done a Top 5 games on my iPhone. A list that changes nearly every month as a new favorite rolls in and bumps out the old. Here’s what I’m playing now. (note, links to games should take you to the developer’s web-site if possible. I’ve tried not to use iTunes appstore links because they are kind of annoying).
Tilt to Live
Prod mentioned this to me this week on IM. A single line message that read “tilt to live”. I was all, “wtf is that? What are you talking about?” I believe he replied tersely, “iPod”. So I did the search, found the game, saw that it was on-sale and said, “why not?”.
And I’m super-glad that I did. This has become my latest “I’ve got 5 minutes to burn” game on my iPhone. After starting, the pace gradually picks up until you’re tilting for your life (as the title suggests), your little arrow-ship being pursued by an ever growing and evolving field of red dots. Gameplay is basic. You have a number of floating power-ups to help you defend yourself against the red swarm. Music is a jazzy little number reminiscent of a Ren & Stimpy cartoon that is pretty amusing, though if you’re like me, you’ll eventually just turn it off or listen to your own tunes. The motion sensing is excellent and fluid.
What really makes this game stand out is some of the online features from AGONline(?). Built-in awards and social networking features keep things interesting. The awards themselves are pretty funny.
highly recommended.
Orbital
My previous “5-minute” game is the surprisingly strategic Orbital. I learned of this game when I saw tech journalist Andy Ihnatko mention it in one of his iPad reviews. I looked it up and thought it seemed interesting.
And it is! Gameplay is simple, you fire a projectile that bounces around the field until it slows to a stop at which point, it balloons into a disc that expands until it touches a wall or another disc. Said discs need to be struck 3 times by your projectiles to be removed from the board and giving you a point. If your projectile comes back to a “death line” and touches it, you die and it’s game over.
There are three different game-types, but you’ll really only want to play Gravity mode where the discs cause your projectile to curve around them as if affected by a gravitational field. The grid background warps in a pleasing way to indicate where the gravitational pull becomes strongest.
It sounds simple, but there’s a real art to surviving for any length of time. As in all good games, it’s quick to learn but takes awhile to master. It’s challenging enough that you can keep going back and enjoying subsequent games.
Doodle Jump
The game that keeps on giving. You really gotta hand it to the developers of Doodle Jump: They keep adding value to this awesome accelerometer powered platformer. It’s incredibly simple. Your doodle-dude jumps on platforms. You tilt to move side-to-size to position him over the next platform. You try to get as high as you can. Various power ups like jetpacks, propeller beanies, springs and trampolines help propel you to new heights. There are monsters that you can shoot with your doodler’s nose.
It’s 99¢ and if you don’t have it, just go get it. Come back when you’ve made it past 30k points and we’ll talk.
Uniwar
This is another new title (to me) that may have been around for awhile. I’m a sucker for turn-based strategy games and this is basically a straight copy of the online game WeeWars. I never really got into WeeWars not knowing anybody else who was playing it for very long, so kind of forgot about it. There’s something to be said for having a game like this on a portable device as you can play it anywhere.
It comes with a stand-alone campaign and an online component. The kicker here is that they’ve done a great job of implementing both push and email notifications so iPod users can still get notified when it’s their turn.
I’ve only played a couple of games so far, and would like to see a couple of new armies added to flesh things out a bit. And maybe a map editor so you can roll your own games. Still, the implementation is so well done that these are minor quibbles.
Sword & Poker
This is a weird one. I logged quite a few hours playing this through to level 28 or so. The premise is pretty simple. You have a 5×5 grid with the inner 3×3 populated with playing cards. You have a set of 4 cards with which to make a hand of 5 in any of the rows, colums or two diagonals. These poker hands do “damage” to your opponent who you’re fighting in a kind of pokemon-esque battle to the finish. You have shield and a weapon which determines how much damage your hands do. And there’s magic. And you’re in a dungeon fighting monsters.
If it sounds weird, that’s because it is. But it’s surprisingly fun and really well put together. Very addictive and the various weapons and shields you can buy keep you progressing against the steadily tougher enemies you meet in the later levels.
I’ve got a bunch more games installed, including some of the biggies by NGMoco and others. But these are the games that I keep coming back to and playing. What are your favorites?
In Entertainment, Music on
21 February 2010 tagged best of, Entertainment, lists, Music, top ten with no comments
Yeah, I’m late, but I might as well type up this list before we’re much further into 2010. It seemed like kind of a dull year for music. I did a lot of back-filling which should make for an even more compelling Best of the Oughts if I can ever get around to writing that. There was a lot of music that I liked in the last ten years.
So, here we have it:
- Atlas Sound, Logos
- Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
- Crocodiles, Summer of Hate
- Fever Ray
- Grizzly Bear, Veckatimist
- Handsome Furs, Face Control
- Metric, Fantasies
- The Raveonettes, In and Out of Control
- Silversun Pickups, Swoon
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz!
I actually had a hard time coming up with 10. If I were being honest, I’d probably drop Metric and Silversun Pickups out of this list. “Fantasies” didn’t have any stand-out killer tracks on it, though it was probably a more consistent album than any of their previous ones. “Swoon” was similar, lacking anything truly earth-shattering, though “The Royal We” and “Panic Switch” are solid tracks.
Notable albums that didn’t make the cut: The xx, xx. That album was pretty over-hyped and gets tired fast. Tegan & Sara’s “Sainthood” (despite a couple of excellent tracks), and the already boring Phoenix’ “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”. If you’re gonna sell your songs to car manufacturers, at least wait a few months for me to get tired of your music first. Still catchy though.
It occurs to me that I’m spending more time talking about the music I liked less than the albums I listed above. If I had to buy just three of them, I’d probably pick Atlas Sound, Bat for Lashes and Grizzly Bear. But I couldn’t buy just three because then I wouldn’t have Handsome Furs’ excellent minimal electro-rocker “Face Control”. And Fever Ray is truly strange and excellent.
Did I miss any? Leave me a note if you think I’m missing out on anything 2009 had to offer. Happy listening.
Currently listening to All We Want, Baby, Is Everything by Handsome Furs from the album Face Control
In Web on
29 January 2010 tagged flash, html, predictions, Web with 3 comments
While I’m making predictions, I think this is also the year Flash finally started its long slow exit from the web. With HTML5 gaining more and more interest and cool capabilities, the need for a dedicated browser plugin to render animations and play sounds has all-but vanished.
Now it’s just a matter of time before developers make the shift.
