The UnLaoised Groove Supply - Volume 15
31/10/07 15:37 Filed in: UnLaoised
Groove Supply | Music
Seeing as it's the day
that's in it, here's Ryan Adams's Halloweenhead, from
the album Easy Tiger. (iTunes Music Store link)
(Lyrics contain some words that might offend. "Shit" and "Fuck" to be precise.)
The video itself is from a Finnish dance instructor. Here's the original.
(Lyrics contain some words that might offend. "Shit" and "Fuck" to be precise.)
The video itself is from a Finnish dance instructor. Here's the original.
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The UnLaoised Oldfartometer - 29 October
Jim has published
his Phantom playlist from last Saturday night. Twenty
nine tracks, which gives me 580 points to aim for.
One point awards (Heard of artist in question, but know little or nothing about them):
Cathy Davey (good old Cathy, good for a point every week. Maybe I should get her album and that one point increases tenfold straight away.)
William S. Burroughs (assuming that this is the writer WSB, not that I have ever read anything by him.)
Vic Chesnutt
Josh Ritter (I have heard his stuff played on the radio many times, but nothing has ever stuck.
Five point awards (Know at least one song by the artist in question):
Grace Jones
Ten point awards (Own a recording by the artist in question, or have seen them live, but not both):
None
Twenty point awards (Own a recording by the artist in question, and have seen them live):
Cowboy Junkies (I have six of their albums, and have seen them live four times)
Also, I'm going to correct Jim on the name of the song - it's "Dreaming My Dreams With You", and for that little bit of pedantry, I'm going to claim another ten points.
Total for this week: 39
Explanation of the Oldfartometer
One point awards (Heard of artist in question, but know little or nothing about them):
Cathy Davey (good old Cathy, good for a point every week. Maybe I should get her album and that one point increases tenfold straight away.)
William S. Burroughs (assuming that this is the writer WSB, not that I have ever read anything by him.)
Vic Chesnutt
Josh Ritter (I have heard his stuff played on the radio many times, but nothing has ever stuck.
Five point awards (Know at least one song by the artist in question):
Grace Jones
Ten point awards (Own a recording by the artist in question, or have seen them live, but not both):
None
Twenty point awards (Own a recording by the artist in question, and have seen them live):
Cowboy Junkies (I have six of their albums, and have seen them live four times)
Also, I'm going to correct Jim on the name of the song - it's "Dreaming My Dreams With You", and for that little bit of pedantry, I'm going to claim another ten points.
Total for this week: 39
Explanation of the Oldfartometer
Leopard Colony
Today's the day. Mac OS X, version 10.5, codenamed
Leopard makes its debut. It's a little late, as we
were all expecting it in the spring, but hey, at
least we weren't
waiting five years.
According
to Apple, there are 300+ new feature in the OS. I'm
not going to go into them here, as gigs of bandwidth
are being plundered right now all over the internets,
as hardcore Mac geeks go all a-quiver over such new
features as Time Machine, the spiffy new Finder with
Quick View, Spaces, the new iChat, Mail, Core
Animation, etc.
Some links to give you an idea of what it's all about:
A guided tour, from the horse's mouth.
David Pogue in the New York Times points out some lesser-heralded features.
Crazy Apple Rumors goes down that route too, but gets sidetracked.
TUAW have cleared the decks for the next 24 hours in order to bring us a comprehensive guide to Leopard. This could result in the fewest references to the iPhone in a 24-hour period since before 29 June.
Also posted at CmdNotCtrl
Some links to give you an idea of what it's all about:
A guided tour, from the horse's mouth.
David Pogue in the New York Times points out some lesser-heralded features.
Crazy Apple Rumors goes down that route too, but gets sidetracked.
If you were to time travel and take a Mac with Leopard loaded on it back to 1973 and were to show some people then what computers will be like in the future, you could totally get some hot 1973 chick into bed with you! But make sure it’s not your mom, dude.
TUAW have cleared the decks for the next 24 hours in order to bring us a comprehensive guide to Leopard. This could result in the fewest references to the iPhone in a 24-hour period since before 29 June.
Also posted at CmdNotCtrl
Standing On Her Own Two Feet
As predicted last week,
Aoife has started walking.
(QuickTime movie with sound.)
Get the toon here (iTunes Store link)
(QuickTime movie with sound.)
Get the toon here (iTunes Store link)
The UnLaoised Oldfartometer
Back in my youngster
days, music was very important to me. I bought new
music constantly, read Q religiously and went to gigs on a
regular basis, sometimes to go see bands I had only
ever read about and had never heard. That all changed
as I got older, and I tended to stick with what I
liked. These days if I find only one new act in a
year that I really like, I think I'm doing well.
I realised I was becoming an old fart when I would hear something on the radio and think to myself "Jesus, is this the shite the kids are listening to nowadays? When I was a youngster, songs had a tune you could whistle and lyrics you could sing. These days, it's just bang bang bang!"
So I have devised a method to quantify my out-of-touchedness, which I call the Oldfartometer.
Each week, Jim Carroll of The Irish Times does a show on Phantom FM, a Dublin station that is apparently popular with the young folk. He then publishes his playlist on his On The Record blog. Now Jim is obviously down with the cool kids, so I'm using his weekly playlist as a barometer of what is out there right now. Scores are assigned as follows: for every artist I have heard of, but wouldn't recognise their music, I award one point. For each artist I recognise and know at least one song of theirs, I award five points. If I own a recording by one of the artists on Jim's list, or if I have seen them in concert, I help myself to ten points. And finally, if I have seen that artist live and own at least one recording by them, I award myself twenty points. So with a maximum of twenty points per artist on the playlist, a twenty song playlist has a maximum potential score of 400 points. Anything below 100 points would indicate chronic oldfartedness.
Let's look at this week's playlist:
26 songs on the list, so there are 520 points to play for.
1 point awards: Cathy Davey
5 point awards: None
10 point awards: Nirvana, Billie Holliday (it's my wife's CD, but I'm putting it in anyway), Ennio Morricone (We have the DVD of Cinema Paradiso)
20 point awards: Mary Margaret O'Hara, Emmylou Harris
Total: 71 points. Not too bad, but mind you the acts where I score would be within the bounds of an old fart anyway.
Last week's playlist:
27 tracks - 540 potential points
1 point awards: Cathy Davey
5 point awards: None
10 point awards: None
20 point awards: None
Total: 1 point. Oh dear.
September 15 list:
28 tracks - 560 potential points
1 point awards: King Creosote, Bat for Lashes, PJ Harvey, Robert Wyatt
5 point awards: Captain Beefheart, Robert Johnson, Ennio Morricone, Herbie Hancock
10 point awards: Tim Buckley,
20 point awards: None
Total: 34 points. Better.
How's about you? Will you take the Oldfartometer challenge?
I realised I was becoming an old fart when I would hear something on the radio and think to myself "Jesus, is this the shite the kids are listening to nowadays? When I was a youngster, songs had a tune you could whistle and lyrics you could sing. These days, it's just bang bang bang!"
So I have devised a method to quantify my out-of-touchedness, which I call the Oldfartometer.
Each week, Jim Carroll of The Irish Times does a show on Phantom FM, a Dublin station that is apparently popular with the young folk. He then publishes his playlist on his On The Record blog. Now Jim is obviously down with the cool kids, so I'm using his weekly playlist as a barometer of what is out there right now. Scores are assigned as follows: for every artist I have heard of, but wouldn't recognise their music, I award one point. For each artist I recognise and know at least one song of theirs, I award five points. If I own a recording by one of the artists on Jim's list, or if I have seen them in concert, I help myself to ten points. And finally, if I have seen that artist live and own at least one recording by them, I award myself twenty points. So with a maximum of twenty points per artist on the playlist, a twenty song playlist has a maximum potential score of 400 points. Anything below 100 points would indicate chronic oldfartedness.
Let's look at this week's playlist:
26 songs on the list, so there are 520 points to play for.
1 point awards: Cathy Davey
5 point awards: None
10 point awards: Nirvana, Billie Holliday (it's my wife's CD, but I'm putting it in anyway), Ennio Morricone (We have the DVD of Cinema Paradiso)
20 point awards: Mary Margaret O'Hara, Emmylou Harris
Total: 71 points. Not too bad, but mind you the acts where I score would be within the bounds of an old fart anyway.
Last week's playlist:
27 tracks - 540 potential points
1 point awards: Cathy Davey
5 point awards: None
10 point awards: None
20 point awards: None
Total: 1 point. Oh dear.
September 15 list:
28 tracks - 560 potential points
1 point awards: King Creosote, Bat for Lashes, PJ Harvey, Robert Wyatt
5 point awards: Captain Beefheart, Robert Johnson, Ennio Morricone, Herbie Hancock
10 point awards: Tim Buckley,
20 point awards: None
Total: 34 points. Better.
How's about you? Will you take the Oldfartometer challenge?
Getting Back To Normal
16/10/07 22:38 Filed in: Blogging
| General
Nonsense
What with the
rugby and all, my blogging activities
here and elsewhere have been very quiet of late.
The World Cup finishes this weekend, so my
blogging will probably return to its previous
level of activity over the next couple of weeks.
You will do well to notice any difference.
I've gotten off to a start at least, and have written a post for CmdNotCtrl that I have been promising myself for a long time. It's all about image editors for the Mac, so if that floats your boat, you might enjoy it.
In the meantime some linky stuff:
via Karlin, from her technology slot on Newstalk's "The Right Hook" - youconvertit.com. Convert document formats, audio formats, video formats, even units of measurement. I hope that whoever is behind this site has worked out some way to monetise it, cos it's a winner.
Move over Hallmark - alternative e-cards - someecards
Yay! Mac OS X Leopard will be released on 26 October. That's my wife's Christmas present to me sorted, then.
Aoife standing on her own two feet. She can take two or three steps at a time now, so full-on walking can't be far away.
The cooling tower at Bellacorrick power station comes crashing down:
I've gotten off to a start at least, and have written a post for CmdNotCtrl that I have been promising myself for a long time. It's all about image editors for the Mac, so if that floats your boat, you might enjoy it.
In the meantime some linky stuff:
via Karlin, from her technology slot on Newstalk's "The Right Hook" - youconvertit.com. Convert document formats, audio formats, video formats, even units of measurement. I hope that whoever is behind this site has worked out some way to monetise it, cos it's a winner.
Move over Hallmark - alternative e-cards - someecards
Yay! Mac OS X Leopard will be released on 26 October. That's my wife's Christmas present to me sorted, then.
Aoife standing on her own two feet. She can take two or three steps at a time now, so full-on walking can't be far away.
The cooling tower at Bellacorrick power station comes crashing down:
A Wunch Of Bankers
14/10/07 22:08 Filed in: General
Nonsense | Personal
You know what I hate?
Banks trying to tell us in their ads that they are
different from their competitors by offering superior
customer service.
Don't be fooled. They're all the bloody same. I applied for a loan for a new car with one of these self-styled "mavericks" recently. It was a tortuous process, taking a full week for conditional approval and another week for the loan to be actually handed over.
I asked to have it paid into an account that I hold in another bank that likes to see itself as different. After badgering the lender all day Thursday and Friday to get the funds released, I finally got a call from them at ten past four on Friday to say that the funds had been paid into the account. Off I trotted to the bank where my account is held to get the draft and go pick up the car. No sign of it in my account. I explained the circumstances to the person at the desk.
"Sure, that won't show up till Monday. Interbank transfers never show up straight away."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
It also begs the question - if the money has left Bank A, but doesn't show up at Bank B till the next day, where the fuck is it in the meantime, and who is earning interest on it?
I hate banks. I really do. Almost as much as I hate insurance companies. Almost.
Update, Monday 15 September: Go to Bank to get draft today - still nothing there. Get on to lender again - they get on to their underwriters - apparently it takes 48 hours for electronic fund transfer to go through!! It doesn't take that long when it's coming out of your account, does it?
Don't be fooled. They're all the bloody same. I applied for a loan for a new car with one of these self-styled "mavericks" recently. It was a tortuous process, taking a full week for conditional approval and another week for the loan to be actually handed over.
I asked to have it paid into an account that I hold in another bank that likes to see itself as different. After badgering the lender all day Thursday and Friday to get the funds released, I finally got a call from them at ten past four on Friday to say that the funds had been paid into the account. Off I trotted to the bank where my account is held to get the draft and go pick up the car. No sign of it in my account. I explained the circumstances to the person at the desk.
"Sure, that won't show up till Monday. Interbank transfers never show up straight away."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
It also begs the question - if the money has left Bank A, but doesn't show up at Bank B till the next day, where the fuck is it in the meantime, and who is earning interest on it?
I hate banks. I really do. Almost as much as I hate insurance companies. Almost.
Update, Monday 15 September: Go to Bank to get draft today - still nothing there. Get on to lender again - they get on to their underwriters - apparently it takes 48 hours for electronic fund transfer to go through!! It doesn't take that long when it's coming out of your account, does it?
A Taxing Question
03/10/07 23:18 Filed in: General
Nonsense
The Irish Times
Motoring supplement reported today that car dealers are up in arms
over reforms to the motor tax system in Ireland.
The government wants to move to an emissions-based
system, but have yet to publish details of how the
system will work. With the new-year car buying
season fast approaching, the motor industry is
fearful that it will be caught out by the new
systems.
If there was to be a case study done on how to collect tax as inefficiently as possible, then the Irish motor tax system would surely be a candidate for examination. At present it works like this. You pay tax based on the size of the engine in your car. The bigger the engine, the more tax you pay. You pay the tax to your local authority, who issue you with a tax disc to display on the windscreen of your car. The Gardai regularly check cars for tax compliance, and if your tax disc is out of date, you will be issued with an on the spot fine. If you fail to pay that fine, you will receive a court summons and your car could be impounded.
What a cumbersome, counter-intuitive, stupid-headed system! The end result is that those who use their cars infrequently are effectively subsidising those who use theirs a lot. Take a car-owner who has a 1.8 litre vehicle and travels 35,000 km per year. The road tax on that vehicle is €484, so that driver pays 1.38 cents per kilometre travelled in road tax. Another motorist has a 1.4 litre car and travels 15,000 km per year. Road tax on that vehicle is €292, and at that mileage the tax paid per km travelled is 1.95 cents. Hardly fair is it.
This is before we even get to the cost of administering the system, with all the local authority staff to be paid, printing, postage, etc. as well as the cost of enforcing compliance. A tax 'n' insurance checkpoint is normally staffed by several Gardai, paid for by you and me. And even with this level of enforcement, it's still possible to get away without paying road tax, if you're lucky enough not to get caught.
Wouldn't it be easier if motor tax was added to the cost of fuel? Then the motorists that were doing high mileage would be paying more (particularly if they were driving fuel-inefficient cars), and those that did less mileage (or had more fuel-efficient cars) would pay less. The tax would have to be a fixed sum per litre (somewhere around 20-25c), and not subject to VAT or have a retailer's margin applied to it, as is the case with excise duty. This could easily be collected electronically from all fuel retailers, and there would be no defaulters, and thus no need for an enforcement regime.
Going back to our two examples above. Let's say the 1.8 litre car returns an economy figure of 7.5l/100km. 35,000km is 350 chunks of 100km, so the total volume of fuel used would be 2,625 litres. Assume a road tax levy of 20c per litre, and this would realise a tax take of €525, or 1.5c per kilometre. The 1.4 litre might have an economy figure of 6.5l/100km. 150 chunks of 100km would give a total fuel consumption of 975 litres, which would bring in just €195, or 1.3c per km.
Surely this would be a more equitable way of administering road tax?
If there was to be a case study done on how to collect tax as inefficiently as possible, then the Irish motor tax system would surely be a candidate for examination. At present it works like this. You pay tax based on the size of the engine in your car. The bigger the engine, the more tax you pay. You pay the tax to your local authority, who issue you with a tax disc to display on the windscreen of your car. The Gardai regularly check cars for tax compliance, and if your tax disc is out of date, you will be issued with an on the spot fine. If you fail to pay that fine, you will receive a court summons and your car could be impounded.
What a cumbersome, counter-intuitive, stupid-headed system! The end result is that those who use their cars infrequently are effectively subsidising those who use theirs a lot. Take a car-owner who has a 1.8 litre vehicle and travels 35,000 km per year. The road tax on that vehicle is €484, so that driver pays 1.38 cents per kilometre travelled in road tax. Another motorist has a 1.4 litre car and travels 15,000 km per year. Road tax on that vehicle is €292, and at that mileage the tax paid per km travelled is 1.95 cents. Hardly fair is it.
This is before we even get to the cost of administering the system, with all the local authority staff to be paid, printing, postage, etc. as well as the cost of enforcing compliance. A tax 'n' insurance checkpoint is normally staffed by several Gardai, paid for by you and me. And even with this level of enforcement, it's still possible to get away without paying road tax, if you're lucky enough not to get caught.
Wouldn't it be easier if motor tax was added to the cost of fuel? Then the motorists that were doing high mileage would be paying more (particularly if they were driving fuel-inefficient cars), and those that did less mileage (or had more fuel-efficient cars) would pay less. The tax would have to be a fixed sum per litre (somewhere around 20-25c), and not subject to VAT or have a retailer's margin applied to it, as is the case with excise duty. This could easily be collected electronically from all fuel retailers, and there would be no defaulters, and thus no need for an enforcement regime.
Going back to our two examples above. Let's say the 1.8 litre car returns an economy figure of 7.5l/100km. 35,000km is 350 chunks of 100km, so the total volume of fuel used would be 2,625 litres. Assume a road tax levy of 20c per litre, and this would realise a tax take of €525, or 1.5c per kilometre. The 1.4 litre might have an economy figure of 6.5l/100km. 150 chunks of 100km would give a total fuel consumption of 975 litres, which would bring in just €195, or 1.3c per km.
Surely this would be a more equitable way of administering road tax?