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Random thoughts
Nov. 1st, 2004 12:17 amBarenaked Ladies
The fact that I *really* like the 'Ladies will come as no surprise to anyone. Prompted by a visit to JB HiFi with the delightful![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lizbyrd today, I noticed Everything to Everyone has a DVD with all the songs in 5.1 surround sound on it. I came home and played mine, and indeed it does. It's noticable, but not thaat different. Also watched a fair bit of the extra content on the disc.
I love how funny/witty their songs are, but I also admire them as people. They started the band back in the late 80s, made their own J cards for tapes with a photocopied for their first album, promoted themselves on a public access TV station - they have moxie. None of this (American|Australian|Canadian|World) Idol shit we're forced to listen to these days, where promoters have songs, find a pasty, then spam the world with them singing. Sure, BNL made it kinda big with Stunt, toured the world etc, but then their promoters seemed to get sick of them or something. But they didn't fade away, they still release awesome albums every year or so, and while they're never in the top 20 anymore, their music still rocks and they still stick together.
Cosima
Speaking of Australian idol, in the first season there was a contestant who went by just "Cosima". She went pretty well in the contest, but dropped out due to health problems. Australia cried their crocodile tears for her at the time. Fast forward a few years later, her non-compete contract with Idol is up and she's convinced she can still be the next big thing, after all, look how popular she was on idol!. She and her family mortgage their homes and put it into promoting her and her career and making an album run. Friday's paper had an article about them possibly loosing their houses because they can't make repayments because - surprise - her album isn't selling. I feel for them, but really - BAD IDEA. She was "popular" because the managers of Idol spammed her in every possible news media and got their partner radio stations to play her songs. It wasn't because she was particularlly good. Without Idol behind her - and they aren't - she's nothing to people. Idol has their new batch of stars. Cosima is old and busted. I hope she manages to at least save her family's homes.
Osama Bin Laden
This is an interesting October surprise :) He has some interesting points; Bush or Kerry - No matter who you vote for, if they keep messing with his organisation's theocratic desires, they'll keep committing acts of terror; He doesn't hate freedom - why didn't they bomb Sweden?; Bush Jr is an idiot who sits around listening to children stories while his country is attacked; Bush Sr is a jerk.
New Job?
Had an interview on friday with UCS as an IT Security Officer. I find out tomorrow or early next week if I got it. If not me, then it better beshigwire :) The interview went well. I had a feeling there would be some legal related question, so I researched up Australia's laws on telecommunications interception and monitoring, etc. But it was a simple one about the legality of mp3s on work machines. Due to Australia's copyright acts fair dealings provisions not including media shifting, in theory it's illegal unless the mp3 was distributed by someone with permission from the copyright owner. However, due to the overwhealming lack of prosecutions for people owning VCRs, any enforcement of copyright on mp3s made from legally owned CDs is going to be problematic, to say the least. I had a chat with Shig at lunch time on friday about our interviews and summed it up with "Yarr, I aced that question on houseboats! did you?"
AOSS6
Likedavyd, I went to the 6th Annual Open Source Symposium on Thursday. Was somewhat interesting, but that and that I was reminded of the existance of gentoo reminded me that a LOT of the open source non-programming community are spankers. Had a good chat with Steve Landers, who is a mate of my boss, about his TiVo. He brought one back from the US and is using it here with the ozTivo hacks, which because of his setup, seem to be software only (except the huge drive + cachecard). He's running it from the NTSC output of a STB controlled by IR, and outputting NTSC into an NTSC capable TV. Very neat. I like my current DVR, but a real live TiVo would be neat.
Random
Liz and I went to the rookery and had pancakes withdavyd and stephiepenguin this morning. Mmm pancakes. It's been ages since I had them. It's almost hard to believe that I've been living here for almost 2 months, and living out of home for well over a year.
I'm also reminded that I need to do a tax return sometime soon. Mmm rebated.
Also, this laptop is close to a year old now, cost/benefit sometimes says I should sell it now while it's only slightly old and get as much as I can, but there's nothing worth replacing it with yet, so I'll probably keep it another 6 - 12 months, depending on what Apple come out with.
I bought a new power pack today from Dick Smith Electronics for a switch, but the adaptor makes a *really* high pitched squeel even without load, so I think I might return it and get my money back. I feel the pain of Susie, she of the capacitor and TV tube intolerance.
This concludes my semi irregular post ;>
The fact that I *really* like the 'Ladies will come as no surprise to anyone. Prompted by a visit to JB HiFi with the delightful
lizbyrd today, I noticed Everything to Everyone has a DVD with all the songs in 5.1 surround sound on it. I came home and played mine, and indeed it does. It's noticable, but not thaat different. Also watched a fair bit of the extra content on the disc. I love how funny/witty their songs are, but I also admire them as people. They started the band back in the late 80s, made their own J cards for tapes with a photocopied for their first album, promoted themselves on a public access TV station - they have moxie. None of this (American|Australian|Canadian|World) Idol shit we're forced to listen to these days, where promoters have songs, find a pasty, then spam the world with them singing. Sure, BNL made it kinda big with Stunt, toured the world etc, but then their promoters seemed to get sick of them or something. But they didn't fade away, they still release awesome albums every year or so, and while they're never in the top 20 anymore, their music still rocks and they still stick together.
Cosima
Speaking of Australian idol, in the first season there was a contestant who went by just "Cosima". She went pretty well in the contest, but dropped out due to health problems. Australia cried their crocodile tears for her at the time. Fast forward a few years later, her non-compete contract with Idol is up and she's convinced she can still be the next big thing, after all, look how popular she was on idol!. She and her family mortgage their homes and put it into promoting her and her career and making an album run. Friday's paper had an article about them possibly loosing their houses because they can't make repayments because - surprise - her album isn't selling. I feel for them, but really - BAD IDEA. She was "popular" because the managers of Idol spammed her in every possible news media and got their partner radio stations to play her songs. It wasn't because she was particularlly good. Without Idol behind her - and they aren't - she's nothing to people. Idol has their new batch of stars. Cosima is old and busted. I hope she manages to at least save her family's homes.
Osama Bin Laden
This is an interesting October surprise :) He has some interesting points; Bush or Kerry - No matter who you vote for, if they keep messing with his organisation's theocratic desires, they'll keep committing acts of terror; He doesn't hate freedom - why didn't they bomb Sweden?; Bush Jr is an idiot who sits around listening to children stories while his country is attacked; Bush Sr is a jerk.
New Job?
Had an interview on friday with UCS as an IT Security Officer. I find out tomorrow or early next week if I got it. If not me, then it better be
shigwire :) The interview went well. I had a feeling there would be some legal related question, so I researched up Australia's laws on telecommunications interception and monitoring, etc. But it was a simple one about the legality of mp3s on work machines. Due to Australia's copyright acts fair dealings provisions not including media shifting, in theory it's illegal unless the mp3 was distributed by someone with permission from the copyright owner. However, due to the overwhealming lack of prosecutions for people owning VCRs, any enforcement of copyright on mp3s made from legally owned CDs is going to be problematic, to say the least. I had a chat with Shig at lunch time on friday about our interviews and summed it up with "Yarr, I aced that question on houseboats! did you?"AOSS6
Like
davyd, I went to the 6th Annual Open Source Symposium on Thursday. Was somewhat interesting, but that and that I was reminded of the existance of gentoo reminded me that a LOT of the open source non-programming community are spankers. Had a good chat with Steve Landers, who is a mate of my boss, about his TiVo. He brought one back from the US and is using it here with the ozTivo hacks, which because of his setup, seem to be software only (except the huge drive + cachecard). He's running it from the NTSC output of a STB controlled by IR, and outputting NTSC into an NTSC capable TV. Very neat. I like my current DVR, but a real live TiVo would be neat.Random
Liz and I went to the rookery and had pancakes with
davyd and stephiepenguin this morning. Mmm pancakes. It's been ages since I had them. It's almost hard to believe that I've been living here for almost 2 months, and living out of home for well over a year. I'm also reminded that I need to do a tax return sometime soon. Mmm rebated.
Also, this laptop is close to a year old now, cost/benefit sometimes says I should sell it now while it's only slightly old and get as much as I can, but there's nothing worth replacing it with yet, so I'll probably keep it another 6 - 12 months, depending on what Apple come out with.
I bought a new power pack today from Dick Smith Electronics for a switch, but the adaptor makes a *really* high pitched squeel even without load, so I think I might return it and get my money back. I feel the pain of Susie, she of the capacitor and TV tube intolerance.
This concludes my semi irregular post ;>
