married to the sea

Priceless !
Take an old print, preferable eighteenth on nineteenth century tech related, and add a new tagline to it.
Married To The Sea.

(via Sh3Ll4C's blog)

hüsker dü

While the storm rages and the wind howls outside, I started digging into my record collection to stumble upon one of the pearls of 80's hardcore : Hüsker Dü.

It was Candy Apple Grey (their 1986 album) that first introduced me to their music with songs like "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely".

This lead me to their 1987 " Warehouse: Songs and Stories" with "Could You Be The One?" and 1984 "Zen Arcade", probably their best album, which kicks off with a blazin' " Something I Learned Today".

Not only did they feature good rocking songs (mainly Bob Mould's songs) but also heartbreaking emo (courtesy of Grant Hart) like "Never Talking To You Again".

But their most famous song is probably "Diane" from their 1983 "Metal Circus" EP, with rather sinister lyrics about a murder victim. This songs is probably best known to most of you in the 1995 version by Therapy? on their "Infernal Love" album.

more photo

This afternoon I took as small hike to the supermarket and took some photo's on the way there.
I managed to salvage more or less four of them from the wreckage to post on flickr.

I also found out a way to change the adres for my flick account to a permanent one so now it's www.flickr.com/photos/foo-fu/.

frist postH^^^^ photo

Inevitably I now created a flickr account to post my photos.

The camera in itself is quite intuitive and insofar as I could check at this time of day (night photography is not my best) the picture quality is good.

Anywho : here's my flickr account and my 2 first photo's.

toys for boys

Finally I got myself so far as to purchase a digital photo camera.
A bit to my surprise my requirements for the machine pushed the boundaries of the compact cameras :

• a decent lens
• a decent optical zoom (a bit more then x3 or x4)
• flash override
• Lithium-Ion batteries in stead of the dreaded AA batteries
• USB connection and no proprietary memory sticks (like Sony)

I turned out the Samsung NV7 OPS was as good my type of camera as I could find.
On top of that it has a certain slick yet serious look.

The only drawback was the lens sticking out a bit, but the etui that comes with the camera covers this up nicely.

Now it sits here loading in it's dock. As soon as we have power you will suffer the first of my photo's.

tux mania

Get your children to work (or your inner child) and head over to this site.
After first admiring the wonderful history of Tux, you can find a DIY cut out version here.

Download, print, cut out and start getting messy with the glue.

for the more advanced crafts(wo)men among us, there is also the Free Penguin Project, complete with downloadable Tux sewing patterns.

update : forgot to check the links, it seems http://www.premiumink.com/penguin/ no longer exists so you' ll have to do with the more advanced sewing version.

no good deed

Following the outrage these last days when some bloggers announced microsoft gave them a shiny new laptop (apparently the new Acer Ferrari is the only machine apt to run vista at a decent speed) pre-packed with vista, it seems it's now time for a big 180.

After Laughing Squid announced they would auction of the laptop and send the money over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Marshall Kirkpatrick, one of those lucky being on the receiving end of one of these "demo-models", mentioned he got a follow-up message from microsoft telling him - contrary to the original letter joining the laptop gift - to either give it away or send it back.

After all ... "I strongly recommend you disclose that we sent you this machine for review, and I hope you give your honest opinions."


(via slashdot)

armwrestling

I took the opportunity of this in-between-holidays-period to go shopping for some furniture.
As we all know our favorite Swedish shopping giant offers nice stuff.
Although not intended for that purpose, I got myself a set of bathroom furniture (the MOLGER series) to serve as storage in my hallway.
Now I come to think of it, the bench structure I could really use as a bench and only store shoes on the bottom ledge.

Oh, and I also managed to get hold of a "HUTTEN" winerack (expandable!).

heavenly funk

Fifteen years later this comes true.
One icon in music less.
R.I.P. James.

ui gone wrong

You know that feeling you get when you watch a movie and things seem out of place?
The guys over at useit definitely had this when watching computers being manipulated in quite a lot of movies.
They made a top ten of the most unlikely computer user interface manifestations.
A nice follow up to the earlier remarks by drivle.

last.tv

Asked if they could outdo Microsoft they answered with a full blown "yes !" and delivered.
Eelke Dekker and Alper Çugun created a site that combined 2 of the most popular web 2.0 applications : last.fm and youtube and created last.tv.
The idea is to log on with your last.fm profile and the site retrieves video clips from youtube for the bands and songs in you last.fm profile (included suggested artists and songs)

Here is what you get when you log on with my last.fm id.

daan live

Yesterday evening I went to see the sold out show of Daan.
Despite my lack of enthousiasm for his newest record 'The Player' all of the songs stand live.

As the Roma in itself is already an impressive hall (old cinema grandeur all over the place) with a good sound , this added to the overall atmosphere.


The thumbnail included is from a series of very nice photo's taken by Anna Vanaerschot on the earlier AB concert of the same tour.

update : dipfico posted 5 clips of the concert on youtube. Although under one minute, they give a good impression.
And for a small quiz : who matches the songs to the clips?

the hamster still speaks

After his spectacular crash earlier this year Richard Hammond gives his first TV interview.
The interview appear tonight on Jonathan Ross' show ('Friday Night With Jonathan Ross' on BBC One).

Apart from two weeks missing from his memory, the clash seemed to have caused no severe results.
On the contrary, Richard recovered in a few weeks in stead of the predicted 15 months.


(via news.bbc.co.uk)

war of the worlds (2)

Seems like I was not the only one thinking of Orson Welles.

While CSS' turns 10, Smashing Magazine runs a list of 50 great examples of what you can accomplish with CSS in site design.

In the list also fellow country(wo)men Veerle Pieters

(via Eskimokaka)

css turns 10

This year W3C celebrates the tenth anniversary of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
They have an entire portion of their site dedicated to it, including a hall of fame.

Off course the inevitable css Zen Garden is also referenced as one of the classic examples of what you can do with CSS.

librarything

Now that I found a nice home for my music habbits, next thing on my list is my collection of books.
While searching for a last.fm for books I stumbled upon www.librarything.com, which I will give a try.
The fact that they intend to charge money for this service may be a drawback, but the initial 200 books you can load for free should give you a headstart with a modest collection like mine.

update: et voila! Here is my profile and here my catalogue (at least the first 67 ones, the rest will require some manual entry)

Skype TV

The long announced IPTV /VoD /webTV /whateveryouwantocallit project of the Skype founders - the venice project - has announced it's full beta stage.

You can now apply for beta-tester status, probalby among a crowd as this is currently headlining on about any tech site out there.

If succesfull this may well be a shot across the bow of all those in pursuit of IPTV happiness.

oops we did it again

Surprise, surprise!

We are getting used to the written press lagging severely versus the internets, but Time magazine manages to get it entirely too late.
They probably discovered half of their readers fled to the online world and decided to go out an find out why they went there.

Well, they found out and now proudly announce it.

kiwi !

Kiwi !

circular sarcasm

This woman definitely gets the point, although she rather spoils the plot by posting the clue to the story.
Try grasping the point without reading her explanation. If you don't get it straight away, this video may well be addressed to you.

For those who got it : here she is her lovely self.

lost.fm ?

As you maybe noticed, I recently joined the music tracking site last.fm .
Going the whole yard, I off course added a tracking chart to this blog.
However what I wonder about the most, is my own music listening habits. Are my favourite groups indeed my most listened to? Maybe I find some hidden gems in my ever growing collection?

And now I'm going to try and figure out how to upload your iPod playlist or most played songs, if this is possible at all.

simple project management

I wish all those project owners would take a little time to read this one through.
Although no shocking new ideas come up, it contains a clear an concise explanation on how to run a project and not run it into the ground from step one.


An excerpt about communication :

Being a good, clear and consistent communicator is the one thing that will give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to project management.
Give weekly updates and make sure everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing at all times.
Make yourself available for questions and concerns.
By simply taking the time to communicate well and on a regular basis you’ve one half the battle.

(via Lifehacker, image a shameless rip from some project software site)

christmas song

The Knife has a christmas version of their Reindeer song duly titled " Christmas Reindeer" which you can download from their site.


or direct link (unzip & mp3)

war of the worlds

Today the be public broadcast service of the French (southern) speaking part of Belgium, RTBF, announced in a fake bulletin that the Flemish (northern) part of Belgium declared independence and split off, as such ending Belgium's existence.
Amongst others, they claimed King Albert II would have sought refuge abroad.

Even CNBC fell for it.

fighting migraine

And realizing this is really not the tune to get it out of your head.
But then again, ween absolutely rocks and "God Ween Satan" is one of their masterpieces.
(Other pieces of sheer genius are "Pure Guava" "Chocolate and Cheese" and " The Pod", full discography and stuff here )

featuring : WeenRadio.com where they broadcast their music

video gallore : Roses Are Free, The Molusk and Push The Little Daisies

photolicious

Two colleagues of mine have a talent for photography.
Both have their own stile and techniques :
Gerard Maas & Marion Kahane
Bonus points for those who find the third colleague.

viewmaster

The guys over at videolan just released a new version of the almighty VLC.



Version 0.8.6 features:

• native WMV9 support
• improved H.624 support
• support for Apple remote
• much more
  

hibernation

Although this is the perfect season to start one (if you live in the northern hemisphere), some seem to have trouble waking up from it.

You wonder where peoples common sense is to recognise a steaming pile when they see one.

I suggest to quit whining a go for a more serious solution.

schrödingers ...

... comic
via http://www.xkcd.com.
(Thanks Cory for reminding me of this site)

cold war kids

I discovered Cold War Kids on OOR/deel DEEL 3 @ Petrol and was pleasantly surprised by them. They have a fresh sound with enough edge to get stuck on. Both their live performance and their recorded music matches up to each other.
This is not one of those bands who sound absolutely great on record and suck live or visa versa.

On their site you find a number of their songs, not half assed 10 second snips but the full monty. So check them on http://coldwarkids.com/

sunday breakfast tunes

Starting your sunday morning to the sound of the Violent Femmes' Add It Up [1983-1993] record.
Ahh, what a bliss!
Together with the early winter sun this really makes my day.

The fact that it has all of the classics of the Femmes earlier period on it, makes it even better.
Their seemingly uncomplex songs which a rich structure underneath are a joy for the ear and bring about them that feelgood feeling which makes it all the more enjoyable.

If you don't know them yet, check them out on the inevitable myspace : www.myspace.com/pleasedonotgo

update: and off course some moving pictures from youtube : Gone Daddy Gone and Add It Up (live on 120 minutes)

amazed ?

Frequently people do get really upset about other peoples actions, crying in outrage over the injustice done to them in person or to society as a whole.
Next thing we know it appears like everybody clean forgot what happened and the great perpetrator is reintroduced to his or her previous position in society (or even promoted).

While these are the same people that decide this reintroduction is the most normal of things, they still seem to find a way to be amazed about this reintroduction happening at all.
On the one hand they question the lack of punishment or justice served, yet they themselves are the driving factor behind this reintegration.

I guess this is part of what makes people people : being blatantly inconsequent, which means there is still hope for me ...

afternoon soundtrack

When I was first confronted with Refused in 1997 , they were already well known within the emo/hardcore world.
Their 1998 record "The Shape Of Things To Come (a chimerical bombination in 12 bursts)" blew me away.

Althoug not entirely unique in it's style, Refused managed to get it right and how!
Here you can check yourself what I mean.

It's energetic, frenetic with a sufficient dose of emotion on the verge of pathos. It swings, it rocks and it rips through your soul.

start

After eight years of looking onto the intarwebs with a minimum of interaction from my side, I decided it was time to improve upon my presence in this general area .

While adding to the list of numerous blogs already launched by other people (and most of them abandoned over the years), I cannot concede whether I will be able to restrict myself to some carefully selected topics or if I will sling around my posts in the general direction of any subject that comes to mind at the time.

Considering the fact that I tend to be interested in nearly anything thrown at me I fear the latter. Hence the "foo" in "foo-fu".

For you, readers (if any), I fear the worst, as my goal is to make at least a bit of a presentable effort of this blog. That's where I hope the "fu" will come in handy.

Anywho, off we go ...