RSI - ?

I'm struck down with RSI, my whole shoulder and arm is aching like I've been lifting heavy weights with it, or what I'd imagine that to be like, having never done that sort of thing in reality. If I had any work at the moment, it would be near impossible to do it, without probably injuring myself for life. Um. What to do. At least I can see the bright side of having no work, he he.

Mad Cows in America

I cant help but find this story symptomatic of the laziness and self delusion that plagues most Americans, [no offence intended], who are kept so cut off from world events. I had the pleasure of being in regular contact with Americans of all ages and sexes, all over that fair country, for about seven years. It became clear to me over that time that many were frighteningly ignorant of world events, [ ie outside USA borders], world geography or history, and held a strange belief that bad things that happened 'over there' were never capable of happening within their own country. The issue of 'mad cow disease' was a huge joke to them, without exception, and they behaved as if it was all 'our' fault, for not being American. [This, sadly, is not an exaggeration.] The actual fact of the matter is that American feeding practises for their farm animals is worse than it ever was in Britain over the eighties and nineties, and nothing has been done to improve it. And, though the British politicians did their fair share of denial in the face of overwhelming evidence to insist that our beef was safe in that time, it has been manifestly shown over the last few years to be a series of half truths and thinly veiled lies, told in the vain hope of keeping the British Beef industry alive. There continue to be cases of CJB, the human form of BSE, the most recent of which occurred due to contaminated blood transfusions. I myself stopped eating beef in 1986, and have yet to resume eating it, from any country.

The sad truth is that America could probably have prevented what is about to happen, if they had been a little less complacent about the state of their own animal feed legislation and habits. But they believed it would never happen to them, that was impossible. Well, just like the infamous 9/11 incident, they are about to find out that they are not immune to world events and catastrophes, and they will learn the lesson by losing billions of dollars, as well as many citizens. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM WHEN THEY SAY THEIR BEEF IS SAFE. IT IS NOT. DO NOT EAT IT. EAT SOMETHING ELSE.

PS: I really love Americans, they are the life blood of the world,[though that is frightening to contemplate sometimes]. I mean no harm.

Here's a pertinent piece of news:

No Risk From Mad Cow Meat, U.S. Says
57 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!

By EMILY GERSEMA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Investigators and retailers in eight states and a territory are scrambling to recover meat that may have come from a Holstein stricken with deadly mad cow disease.

Agriculture Department officials maintain, meanwhile, there is no health risk to consumers. Dr. Ron De Haven, chief veterinary officer at the USDA, reiterated that point Monday.

"We know from scientific research" that the agent that causes the disease "does not go into muscle tissue or the meat cuts but resides primarily in the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord," he said on NBC's "Today" show. DeHaven described the danger as "certainly minuscule risk, if any risk at all."

"We're, again, taking this action out of an abundance of precaution and not out of any real risk to the public safety," he told CBS's "The Early Show." .....more

Greeting in MP3 form....

Finally Ive put that sound greeting on the page....no great achievement, but I wanted to find out if you could use any sound format, and it appears you can use MP3, wav,wma, but not ogg. [I dont know about aiff etc, as that is the dreaded mac].

I sincerly hope everyone has had a good holiday, and we are all refreshed ready for the coming onslaught year, and we are all raring to go. I know I'm not. It's just not the english way is it?

Ill post again later with something more important hopefully....

H A P P Y Chrisssmass

Ill be kind of out for the next few days, but Im going to try to add a soundfile to the page, so hey....it may or may not work...

but if it does, it will be something, rather than nothing.
Im quite busy at the moment..

This is Nice

I really like this. Pixelzentrum are running a thing called We are the Robots [f**k the freaks], and anyone can submit their own version of the template psd, which you can download from their site. Some of the stuf there is really cool, and very clever. [Check out the Pixelwall too]. This was one of the great animated bots, so I hope they don't mind me using it.

In fact, if you go and look at this site, and can listen to The Mars Volta at the same time, that would work best.

pixelzentrum

The Mars Volta

Just checked them out. Totally magnificent and can be considered clever. Really incredible flowing arrangements, fantastically throbbingly brilliant. Get some as soon as you can. You need this in your life.

Good News For P2P

OK maybe a lot of people are a bit bored by the p2p stuff going on at the moment. But I saw some news yesterday that warmed the cockles of my heart. It seems that justice is alive and well in the G.O.USA, and common sense has prevailed. I've included the basic news item below, rather than try and abbreviate it. I feel very strongly that the RIAA has a very over inflated opinion of it's own self importance. People dont really much care for very greedy or selfish types at the best of times, but when it is the hugely wealthy music industry of America pleading poverty and that things just aint fair for poor old them that we all recoil in disgust.

When the last Eminem album sold more than 1 million copies on its first day of release in the States, the crying over 'lost revenue' from p2p is a bit rich to say the least. No one believes for a minute that the dire sales figures of the many less successful artists on the majors rosters has much to do with p2p. Eminem is probably one of the most popular artists to download, and yet he still achieves breathtaking levels of success, mainly due to his being VERY GOOD AT WHAT HE DOES. The fact that all the mediocre mainstream artists aren't selling their average records is down to the fact that no one wants them. I would imagine that cursory research into download statistics would confirm this theory. I use p2p to find out about minority music that goes largely un-noticed by the UK market, like post rock and electronica. These artists sell very few records comparatively, and I am doing them a favour by listening to their unpublicised releases, as I buy the majority of what I hear. It is the only way to get an idea of what these bands sound like, as radio has now been so emasculated as to have no playlist power left. I would argue that, contrary to popular myth, p2p actually increases sales figures. But perhaps not for the major labels with their bland release schedules, and greedy eye on maximising perceived profit margins.


Court Throws Out Net Music Legal Tactics
Fri Dec 19, 4:30 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a surprise setback for the recording industry, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that record labels must abandon their favorite method to track down those who illegally copy music online.

Court Ruling Deals Blow To Recording Industry

Recording companies must file a formal lawsuit if they want Internet providers to turn over the names of customers who may be copying music illegally, the court said, adding the industry's legal basis for inundating Internet providers with thousands of subpoenas "borders upon the silly."

The decision complicates the beleaguered industry's efforts to stamp out online song copying over "peer to peer" networks such as Kazaa, a practice the industry believes has contributed to plummeting CD sales.

Earlier on Friday the Dutch supreme court ruled Kazaa can not be held liable for the activity of its users, underlining the industry's inability to shut down the online networks over which millions of songs are copied daily.

The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) began filing lawsuits against individual users this fall, and so far has reached at least 220 out-of-court settlements, usually for $5,000 or less. more...

Here are some other relevant links:

soulseek official blog news //

No Time Today...

Sorry no time as very busy doing xmassy things. Totally boring, so will post tommorrow proper.
[This post 2am gmt].

Drugs n Sport

I can't help but think the decision to find Rio Ferdinand [ Man U and England soccer player] guilty of missing his test, and banning him for eight months was a really bad one. It sets the precedent that one can be found guilty of having potentially taken drugs, recreational or otherwise. I know that in the States there are much more stringent tests for job candidates in big companies [small too?], which haven't fully taken a hold yet in Europe. I know there is already a big trade in 'flushing' kits, so that people can clean out their system before a job interview. This decision to make an example of a very well paid and successful member of the sporting community in this manner, bodes ill for the rest of us. I'm not saying we are all rampant drug takers, but here in England, there used to be an outlook of 'what they dont know wont hurt them', and that was the rule by which society functioned. We could all do what we liked, as long as we turned up for work on a Monday morning, and did a good job. Unless we were found guilty of actual crimes, it was ok. Now that is not enough, something more synister is taking hold, a kind of high moral ground law, making anyone who questions the straight and narrow to be deemed a very bad person indeed.
A small point, but what happened today could have much wider repercussions than one would anticipate.

Copyright Protected CDs

Yes it's the old issue, can you play the CD you just bought on your pc/mac, or your in-car, or your walkman? Will you be able to play it at all? Will you be able to take it back if you can't? What about if you can play it, [at least on one of your appliances], but the person you bought it as a gift for, can't? Will they be able to take it back? Etc, etc. ad infinitum. Ive been previewing a few discs recently, and without exception, all the major release discs won't work on the pc media player. This is the standard Windows Media Player. Occasionally one will play on a winamp type player, but not the media player. Most will play on the walkman, but not all. It's a lamentable track record isn't it? For all but the avid fan, it's very off-putting to say the least.

Some of the smaller labels haven't got round to it yet, so their stuff still plays, either media player or winamp type player, or walkman. They sound great, good groups, great albums, and I've enjoyed them alot. I will obviously have to buy smaller label CD's. They seem to be more reliable to actually do what it says on the tin.

The history of this situation is well documented on the web. It's clear when you check out some of the news items that there was more of a fuss two years ago than there is now. The subject has been allowed to grow cold, so that the big companies can get their way in the courts and the little people like you and me are still in the dark about the legal aspect. I remember hearing in the early days that there was even an issue with Phillips over whether it was legal at all to manufacture the compact disc format without it being cross platform friendly, which apparently was the whole point in the first place. [IE data or audio, totally cross platform format]. Now you just pay your money, take your choice. It reminds me of the coconut shy thats fixed, so you can never knock the bloody coconuts off. New laws seem to be applying, like if you pay for a CD, then it's your risk/responsibility to know what to play it on. They'll be making us take a CD playing proficiency test next.

If record companies, the big ones that are left, are to keep us the general public interested in their wares, then they should buck up, and start investing. In technology if necessary, but certainly in the grass roots of the business like the retailers, to make their job easier to sell us CDs. [This is putting aside the issue of lack of enough new talent]. As I read in one article: 'No wonder p2p is catching on so much!'

Here's a few bits of background if you're interested:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/32636.html.../
http://www.publicknowledge.org/text-only/issues/copy-protected-cds.html.../
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-272784.html?legacy=cnet.../
http://www.itworld.com/Man/2683/020619cdcopy/.../
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/25274.html.../

Mouse or Pen?

Here's a picture of the Wacom Graphire, a great little pen and tablet unit, I paid £60.00 for. [$100.00 approx].There is an ongoing discussion as to the relative merits of tablet and pen versus your bog standard mouse, and whether it's worth the investment, forking out for a pen. I definately think that a pen is far more versatile, and will allow all kinds of thickness/thinness and curves when drawing. I always find that, with a mouse, although you're used to it as an implement, there isn't enough versitility in terms of perspective and dimensions. In simple terms, you can't draw curves and other complex shapes easily, unlike with a pen. I'm no master artist, but I do try many different approaches to work, and still find myself more inclined to use the pen for any situation that makes it easier. The Wacom is great, as you can simultaniously run the mouse and the pen, switching over at will. It's especially good for hand writing and digital graffitti styles, as a mouse just can't do those as well.

Great Site

I know fractals are kind of boring nowadays, but these are fantastic, go and look at this site. The images are incredibly detailed, very unusual shapes and really good quality. There is a master at work.







fractal-recursions //

Hard to know what to think

Yes I suppose most people are having the same thought, why did S Hussein not put up a fight, and why was he hiding down a hole, when, lets face it, he could have made arrangements to go anywhere. It seems next to impossible to believe that out he pops, without any attempt to make a run for it, and with no guards or back up defense plan. I am finding it very hard to believe. Another thing, a well known BBC radio News Presenter was flown out to Iraq on Friday, at very short notice, surely indicating that Mr Hussein had been caught and held from then, not the Sunday as reported. Are we to believe that news agencies and other journalistic bodies had priveliged information, and sat on it for nearly three days? As usual, none of it adds up, much like the events of 9/11, when, as listened to live on the radio and television, they seemed to lose a couple of fighter jets following the third plane, which were not mentioned again. I soon learned not to ask too many questions, as I was greeted with quissical looks and a shrug of the shoulders.

No Time at All - [this was posted Sunday, late]

Unusually, there has been no time today to compile a nice entry, so wait until the morrow,
I will have more nice morsels of delight.....

P2P - legal or illegal?

The on going debate about what is legal and what is illegal shows no sign of clarity or agreement.
Two things to think about:
I asked on the NME forums about what was the best p2p for music on a dial up connection. I got quite a few votes for kazaa lite,[the one without the adverts and spyware], and a couple of enthusiastic users of soulseek. I was also told I would 'be arrested', and had one post of an american girl cop, ready to get me. The surprising thing was that my post was allowed at all, when as we know, NME is published by 'the Man'. They have always taken quite a brave stance when it comes to p2p, almost encouraging it. In America, on the other hand, record retailers who would otherwise be cool characters, suddenly turn into slavering anti technical luddites, who expect everyone should 'do the right thing', and never download freely available music tracks for fear of putting the record shops all out of a job. The funny thing is, only deeply unpopular people such as Courtney Love have ever rallied for the support for fair pay for the actual bands and musicians, who have been royally ripped off for the best part of forever, the fatcat labels taking every last penny they are owed before any musician is entitled to their share of the dollars.

The second thing is the recent news from Canada, our colonial cousins, who seem to have a better idea:

Canada deems P2P downloading legal
But uploads aren’t; fees tacked on price of MP3 playersBy John Borland

Updated: 6:04 p.m. ET Dec. 12, 2003
Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators said in a ruling released Friday.


In the same decision, the Copyright Board of Canada imposed a government fee of as much as $25 on iPod-like MP3 players, putting the devices in the same category as audio tapes and blank CDs. The money collected from levies on "recording mediums" goes into a fund to pay musicians and songwriters for revenues lost from consumers' personal copying. Manufacturers are responsible for paying the fees and often pass the cost on to consumers.

The peer-to-peer component of the decision was prompted by questions from consumer and entertainment groups about ambiguous elements of Canadian law. Previously, most analysts had said uploading was illegal but that downloading for personal use might be allowed.

"As far as computer hard drives are concerned, we say that for the time being, it is still legal," said Claude Majeau, secretary general of the Copyright Board.

The decision is likely to ruffle feathers on many sides, from consumer-electronics sellers worried about declining sales to international entertainment companies worried about the spread of peer-to-peer networks.

Recording industry unhappy
Copyright holder groups such as the Recording Industry Association of America had already been critical of Canada's copyright laws, in large part because the country has not instituted provisions similar to those found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One portion of that law makes it illegal to break, or to distribute tools for breaking, digital copy protection mechanisms, such as the technology used to protect DVDs from piracy.

Indeed, a lawyer for the Canadian record industry's trade association said his group still believed downloading was illegal, despite the decision.

"Our position is that under Canadian law downloading is also prohibited," said Richard Pfohl, general counsel for the Canadian Recording Industry Association. "This is the opinion of the Copyright Board, but Canadian courts will decide this issue."

In its decision Friday, the Copyright Board said uploading or distributing copyrighted works online appeared to be prohibited under current Canadian law.

However, the country's copyright law does allow making a copy for personal use and does not address the source of that copy or whether the original has to be an authorized or noninfringing version, the board said.

Under those laws, certain media are designated as appropriate for making personal copies of music, and producers pay a per-unit fee into a pool designed to compensate musicians and songwriters. Most audio tapes and CDs, and now MP3 players, are included in that category. Other mediums, such as DVDs, are not deemed appropriate for personal copying.

more........

Copyright ©1995-2003 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.

End of Year Music List

Seems a cliched topic, but kind of interesting. here's a list sent to me from Rhode Island, that's representitive:

john's 2003 faves
3 top faves, alphabetically:
1. Calexico - Feast of Wire
2. Cinematic Orchestra - Man with a Movie Camera
3. Postal Service - Give Up
Calexico's recording is a soundtrack-inspired collection of desert border crossing Tex-Mex themes, both as instrumental and vocal. Cinematic Orchestra's is a full on jazz heavy, electronica infused gorgeous instrumental soundtrack made 75 years after the theatrical release of the same name. Postal Service is the lyric driven up beat synth-pop homage of the year.
What do they all have in common? Repeated listens only served to make them better and repeated listens is what they got in my camp. Over and over and over. At work, in the car, at home: I love these records.
3 singer-song writers:
4. Devandra Banhart - Oh Me Oh My
5. Rufus Wainwright - Want One
6. Gillian Welch - Soul Journey
Devandra does his sincere, humble, spare lo-fi and totally oddball tunes. Rufus' songs are heavily written, crafted, played and produced pieces. And Gillian does her take on Neil Young's Harvest.. All three are potential sing-alongs, together filling three very different needs.
3 Indie Darlings:
7. The New Pornographers - Electric Version
8. TV On The Radio - Young Liars
9. V/A Extra Yard: Bouncement Revolution
The Pornographers are high energy well crafted pop: Full of catchy choruses and hooky harmonies. Very "feel good". TVotR are a 70's art rock inspired piece of down beat 80's style New York rock. An EP, that begs to be a full length. "Bouncement" showcases a British Hip Hop style that synthesizes Roots Reggae, Dance Hall, Electro, Techno, and Soul. Very cool, very fun.
3 Major Labellers:
10. Coldplay - Rush of Blood to the Head
11. Flaming Lips - Fight Test
12. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Coldplay's songs are solid, poignant and memorable, Flaming Lips fill the gap between full lengths with amazing amounts of creativity in cover songs, and Radiohead remain dominant in their strange synthesis of electronic paranoia and tradition anxiety.
also rans: Cat Power, V/A Wig in a Box, Mr Lif

I would add a proviso of Magnet, with their album On Your Side, possibly the best debut release of 2003, followed closely on the heels by Doves Lost Sides. Both extremely good and well recommended. I dont agree with all the suggestions above, but wanted a list that wasn't just my own personal taste.

Database Driven Websites

This is a very techy subject. I am in the middle of trying to understand how to get Access to drive a basic site, and haven't really got a clue. That's not strictly true, I'm past the stage of not knowing the first thing, but I'm only up to about the third thing. I need to practise my SQL as they say. It's a baffling area of web building, but I'm determined to understand, so that in the future i'll be able to say YES to anyone that wants such a website. That time is a long way off at the moment, but I know I'll get there. Self belief is everything, just like in any other walk of life. [Sorry to almost quote a Dire Straights song].
Normally I post an image along with my blah, but I can't really think of an appropriate one. Yet.

Vector Art

The look of vector art is very distinctive, and its uses are varied and many. Basically, it's flat graphic design shapes, usually made in flash, fireworks, or photoshop, and is very easy to manipulate and change due to the nature of the files being very small. I know there is a mathematical reason for this, but don't know what that is. If anyone knows, please leave a post. If you search for underground multimedia, flash art or vector art or similar types of words, you'll come up with quite a few original sites. I use fireworks 3 for all my vector stuff, mainly because it's so easy to use the effects, and you get really high resolution results. I hear gimp is also very good for this. vector graphics used in flash, [either made in fireworks and imported, or made directly in flash], can be hugely beneficial, as they take up next to no memory in the file size, making it possible to create quite complex flash files, with lots of graphic movement, without crushing the dial up user. The best use for this in flash, that I have yet to implement, is to make flash 'movies', by converting normal video images to vector graphics, and then manipulating them as usual. There's a great tutorial on this at Flashkit [possibly the best flash resource site in the world].

As I research multimedia sites, it's pretty common for vector graphics to be used in some way or another in the content, alongside other techniques. Here's a few samples to explore:


vector park...
mecompany...
flash applied vector art...
KVAD vector art...
nosepilot vector animation...
safeplaces...look around at this site, once you get in it's really worth it.

Liberated? Moi? - the new rise of Mcarthyism

The current climate of fear and neurosis is spreading to the most idiotic areas. I read with amusement that Eminem is now regarded as a threat to the security of the USA because of his lyrics. Can you believe that? In the 1950's that was known as Mcarthyism, and many good people in the entertainment world, some of whom were very successful, were hounded out of the business, served time in prison, or were forced to leave their communities for fear of reprisal from the good ol' boys of America.
The fact that Eminem is under serveillance is no surprise, him being so similar in what he represents to the earlier actors or musicians who spoke out about social issues. His track 'White America', which isn't under scrutiny at the moment, [that distinction goes to 'We are American'], calls it how it is. America doesn't care about it's poor, they are cannon fodder or consumer gluttons, vote machines or statistics waiting to happen. it isn't even a race issue anymore, as it's gone way beyond that. Many races are included in the underclass of America: latins, blacks, irish, the poor white south, ie, if you have no capital £$, you ain't worth a shit. Not until voting time anyway. The quote by dubya thats goes:'You can fool some of the people all of the time, those are the folks to concentrate on' was invented for the underclass of America. The rampant lack of education, even refusal to teach the true history of the American South, is all part of the problem. The rise of christian fundementalism amongst the population is also sign of ignorance, just like its counterpart in the east. [Keep 'em ignorant, keep 'em down.]

PS: While we all worry about Eminem being such a potential threat to our culture, what must the real threats be thinking and doing? It beggars belief.

Here's the news item that explains the situation with bad boy Eminem:

[From Sky News, yesterday]


RAPPER'S LYRICS RAPPED

The US Secret Service says it will not hold a formal investigation into controversial lyrics penned by rapper Eminem.

The popular rapper's song We Are American includes the lyrics, "I don't rap for dead presidents, I'd rather see the president dead."


Secret Service spokesman John Gill confirmed there had been preliminary inquiries into the song but said there were no plans for a formal investigation.

He warned that the lyrics could have unintended consequences.

"We are concerned about communications that can be interpreted in a manner perhaps not intended by the artist, and the potential peripheral impact that such lyrics can have on other individuals," he said.

Eminem's spokesman recently said the song was "unfinished" and that "there was no determination where, when, how or if it was going to be used."

Mr Gill said it was necessary for the Secret Service to look into communications that could be considered threatening to the president.

"The Secret Service takes every potential threat against the president seriously," Gill said. "We don't have the luxury to do otherwise."

Comics are the new rock and roll

Here's a recommendation to a few comic links that I've come across. Really this is just an excuse to put the moving car on, but my friend in Michigan is doing a really good comic, called City Yarns. Check it out, and look at the rest of the site, there are some other good comic links, like Modern Tales, which has alot of high quality original comic stuf, some free, some you have to pay for.
Here's a few other comic sites, some flash comic stuff from Germany, Matt Wagner's site [my favourite comic artist], and a great pulp site, really high quality illustrations:

City Yarns:: Detective grunge comic pulp.
Modern Tales: Lots of different good quality comic gear, you can submit your own work.
Matt Wagner: my favourite comic artist.
Angel B Dean: the German guy.
Supernatural Crime: a fantastic pulp comic site.

I'm very interested in pulp comic story lines, and the all pervading atmosphere that surrounds everything in them. There'll be other stuff posted on the best Batman and animated Batman links in future post's, but this is the pulp side of the comic interest.

Apology: Update

I've been battling all day with a problem with this page and Netscape....I cannot get to the bottom of it. If you view in netscape, it only has the green background to the end of the first post, or so it seems, and I know this is wrong. This is a quick test to see if it is still happening, so bear with me........

[Hope I've fixed this issue, .....]

Is it the future already?

Just a quick note about some very disturbing news I saw from ZDnet a couple of days ago. [It's not online anymore, so to view the article, click here.] It seems that not content with the idea of biometric ID cards being introduced into society, we may now have to contend with the proposal of having similar technology embedded into our forearms. Sound familiar? Hey, I though that's what they did in the concentration camps, right? [OK, not quite the same, but whose counting?] When we are being bombarded by the idea of 'organic' technology and the idea of 'self-creating' nano-technology, this seems all too natural as the next step on the downward spiral of handing over control to the machines, or at least the controllers of the machines. In the event that we would be required to go along with such a thing, [ID embeds in our forearms], we would be told: 'You only have something to fear if you have something to hide.' But as the daughter of someone who grew up in Nazi Germany, and who saw what happened when the Communists crossed over the border at the end of the war, I could never believe in such a concept. Totalitarianism begins with centralised data of who is who in society. Not having freedom of information, not being privy to the secrets that are held on file, not having access to this information, is the basis of a police state. It is only safe when those in power rule benignly. And you cannot expect to be warned when a society has lost control of it's leaders, or when information is used "un-benignly."

First stuf Pixel Art >

I love it, I cant get enough of pixel art and pixel animation. It makes me pleased to sit down at my workstation and look at the beautiful creations made by people I will never meet. I'm compiling a good list of where to start finding good pixel art, here's a few links:
pixelmuseum.com
nascimpact.com
pixelzentrum.de
mrwong.de

Theres a whole lot more out there, I'll post what I find that's good now and again.

I'm learning how to make pixel art bit by bit, but you need a lot of time and patience. I may take the easy way out and just look at it instead. Really I'd like to combine the pixel design idea with some nice flash, hoping I'd get good enough resolution to make it worthwhile. if anyone knows about this, please email me.

Web Tools

I've been doing abit of research into free web tools, so if people are interested, here's a brief list of what I came up with so far:
Traffic Zap - general good web tools for search rank, traffic rank, etc
Free Merchant Tools
Free News Feeds [ java and rss]
More Free News

I've put a live news feed on this page, the one from Worldpress.org, and it seems to work great, with no added pop ups's, which is always a bonus.

Im looking into Gimp a bit more, as well as great freeware like Micro Angelo, and Ikon Maker, here's a couple of icon examples of what I toshed up:





just experiments...right click and select properties to get them if you want them...
I'm really interested in pixel art at the moment, so I'll be doing something on that sooonish, good links and best animated pixelart.

--------------h o n g k o n g------------------

Jazz and Other Music

Ive just finished writing an email to my good friend in the NORTHWOODS IMPROVISORS, discussing the merits of intellectual music. And the thought occurred to me, where IS all the other intellectual music? Call me old, [oldish anyway], but in the 70's, groups like Can, Amon Duul or Mahavishnu Orchestra were all getting mainstream releases on major record labels, and as a consequence, their input into the development of musical ideas is profound and inspiring. Their influence on current musics, whether groups or electronic musicians, is there for all to see. Even though those artists I mentioned are all markedly different from each other, they all found a niche in the great history of artistic and intellectual music. I have a terrible suspicion that those artists, were they around today, would not even get signed, let alone be given the chance to see out long contracts, releasing several albums, and develop along the way.

If the current large conglomerates that call themselves record labels were to look at the back catalogues they had inherited when they bought those labels, they might see the creative risk taking that those labels had undertaken to bring such diverse types of music to a wider public. Instead they only see unnecessary work/low profit/ignorant public attitude/ as acceptable excuses for not investing in a more diverse selection of musical areas. As Billy Bragg onced said to me: 'They'd all just love it if you could only buy one record, from one artist...' I really believe this is the direction the modern record company executive believes is best for their company. But it signifies the death knell of a vibrant music industry. It may well be the reason that music buyers are shrinking in number.
Perhaps we should all 'get real' and start buying Justin Timberlake.

No Time Now {THURSDAY}

It's wrong, but theres no time to post today....
here's a picture instead::

its from www.savinoff.com - really good stuff, loads like this.

I watched.....

Two things on TV late last night:

Small Faces and The Corner

SMALL FACES:
Small Faces
Tue 2 Dec, 11:55 pm - 1:40 am 105mins

A gritty British film by the acclaimed director Gillies MacKinnon, co-written with his brother Billy MacKinnon.

The story of three MacLean brothers growing up in Glasgow circa 1968. Young Lex is caught between the gang battles in which his brother Bobby is violently involved, and the more artistic aspirations of his other brother, Alan. Strong language, violence, disturbing and adult scenes. [1996]


Lorna MacLean ...... Clare Higgins
Uncle Andrew ...... Ian McElhinney
Alan MacLean ...... Joseph McFadden
Bobby MacLean ...... Steven Duffy
Lex MacLean ...... Iain Robertson
Malky Johnson ...... Kevin McKidd
Charlie Sloan ...... Garry Sweeney
Teacher ...... John Murtagh
Fabio ...... David Walker
Tutor ...... Thomas Logan
Gorbals ...... Mark McConnochie

Subtitles Stereo Widescreen
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and THE CORNER:

01:20 Today Channel 4
The Corner
Award-winning mini-series based on a true story, focusing on a Baltimore family's battle against drugs and despair. While the father of the family fights heroin addiction and his wife struggles with her own problems, their son attempts to resist the lure of the drug corners which make up his daily world

Starring: TK Carter, Khandi Alexander, Sean Nelson
Duration: 65mins
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Worth watching. What can I say? I've put this stuff on because its rare enough anything good gets on mainstream telly, even though this was all on late at night. Small Faces had some fantastic photography, gutting landscapes and bleak barren estates, really good lighting and screenplay between the characters. The whole look was absolutely brilliant in a fuck the rotten world sort of way. The Corner, which is probably more well known, is like the one about the prison - Oz - heavy and real, in an american way. Very much the other side of the coin. I'm glad its on, even though I get the feeling it's a bit cliched and hollywood in it's attitude.


Although it's probably thirty years since 'Cathy Come Home', (BBC documentary about homeless family in the early sixties), the theme to these programmes never changes. Why does nothing ever change? In the west we all spout on about democracy, rights of the individual and free trade, but it's all bollocks. The overt hypocrisy of the situation is obvious to everyone, not just the so called terrorists. They are only the extreme tiny minority of a huge amount of very disenfranchised people. All over the world, not just the so called third one. America's big secret is it's hidden poor. The great big lie of capitalism is that it's a flat playing field. Oh well, aint nothin us small people can do about it but rant. We're all in our place, according to our 'earnings bracket'.

R I P MP3.com

Just to say it was great while it lasted, and I always liked soundclick.com better anyway, so I hope they can cash in on the demise of said mp3.com. Im going to sign up to music.download.com, as any space given over to independent music deserves as much support as it can get.
Go to it music people!

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Is Graffiti Art?

So you can see from this picture that graffiti art is beautiful. In my locale, there are plenty of spacious sites for graffiti artists. The most commonly seen are the brick walls that run alongside the tube rail networks, built in victorian times, and some twenty feet high at least. Daubed with every conceivable colour, and all kinds of illegible tags. There are other sites, though, more hidden from public view, where the graffiti artists are free to work on their creations without fear of arrest, harrassment or other clashes with figures of authority. I found one such place recently, while out scouting for good photo shoot locations. A large old warehouse, on the edge of the river, derelict and overgrown, caught my eye, so I went to investigate. Pushing through a broken wire fence, and past several laburnum trees, I came upon the most fantastic gallery of graffiti work that I have ever seen. Not at all visible from the road, totally private. There was a small courtyard and road to some buildings at the back, facing onto the river, so camera in hand, I followed the path through the buildings, and was presented with at least ten full size mural graffiti designs, along with many other tags and smaller drawings, all multicoloured and meticulously laid out.

I took as many shots as I could, although I must admit to feeling rather worried that someone would catch me, and not want me to take pictures of their fantastic work for nothing. Luckily, no one was about, so I continued to snoop around, and took a look inside one of the big rooms. Naturally all the glass in the windows was either filthy or broken, and there was no electricity, so the light was dim and the smell was dank. Rubbish and spray cans were strewn about everywhere, but all along the walls, on every surface in fact, were more designs and names, pictures, logos and faces, cars and motorbikes, even a train. I really wanted to walk through the rooms, but was too scared someone might be in there, so I crept back outside.
Here in London, it's quite common to see tube trains 'tagged' with impressive designs, the sort that run across the doors, and carry on down the side of the carriage, but they are usually unceremoniously cleaned off, leaving unsightly large inky smears, making the trains look really dirty and ugly. i cant understand why people do that. Why not have the brilliant designs made by the local residents, that they love to see? We all have a right to some say in our environment, and these young artists are saying more about what they want from their environment than virtually any other social group.
Banksy at the Tate Modern.... [Banksy is a very well known British graffiti artist, who lives in hiding, and whose identity is unknown. There are currently several warrants out for his arrest.]
If you read the papers, youll know that Banksy recently managed to sneak one of his works into the Tate Modern. Apparently he dressed up as an old person, and stuck one of his canvases onto the wall of one of the galleries, using masking tape I think. It was only after a couple of hours, when the tape holding the canvas gave way, and the painting fell down, that anyone noticed..........

A Long way down that Road

So there it is. Total proof that God definately doesn't exist. I've been looking around today at different bits and pieces of information, all to do with JAVA, and CGI and the rest of it. I'm sure I'll get it in the end, it's just when the end will be that's concerning me.
The tutorials I've been studying are on the WDVL site, Selina Sol. Good, until you know just how confused you are. I am at present a long way down that tunnel.

Back at the workdesk, I've been listening to Ben Christophers, The Nuphonic NME cd, To Roccoco Rot and a small amount of A Perfect Circle. Elbow got a slight look in, but he really waileth too much.

And that reminds me. The on going debate about p2p and mp3 in general. Interesting piece of news today concerning the decay of the current music business [hurrah!]...here it is:

Technology - Reuters

Asia Takes Its Music Piracy Battle Online
Thu Nov 27,12:43 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Jason Szep

JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia (Reuters) - A handwritten sign at the entrance to a tiny shop in southern Malaysia's busiest city sums up the music industry's colossal problems in Asia.

"1 CD for 7 ringgit," it beams in bright blue ink. This sum is equivalent to $1.80.

As two policemen direct traffic just yards away, the shop's teenage manager brags of even better bargains, running a hand along makeshift shelves lined with hundreds of compilations -- from pop princess Britney Spears to Taiwanese idol Jay Chou.

It is just one of a dozen shops brazenly selling knockoff pop music CDs and DVD bootlegs of Hollywood films in a single neighborhood in Johor Bahru, only a few minutes' drive from Singapore -- and one of thousands scattered across Asia.

But as Washington presses Asia to curb the sophisticated piracy syndicates equipped with CD-burning technologies and stacks of blank discs that supply the shops, a bigger battle is brewing online against Web pirates in the fast-growing region.

The rollout of high-speed broadband Internet in India, China and Indonesia, three of the world's most populated countries, could expand the number of people downloading free music off the Web by millions a month.

To fight back, labels are releasing more hits to fee-based online music services in Asia, accelerating growth in an embryonic industry now dominated by just two companies -- Soundbuzz.Com and Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites)'s Planet MG.

"The digital music medium is coming of age in Asia," said Sudhanshu Sarronwala, 38-year-old chief of Singapore-based Soundbuzz and former managing director of MTV Networks Asia.

Four-year-old Soundbuzz has licensing agreements with 65 record labels in the region and operates in 12 Asian markets in eight languages -- from Chinese and Korean and Japanese to the Bahasa languages of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Its clients include Web portals (news - web sites) run by Microsoft Corp's MSN and Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) "We build the storefront look and feel for the client," said Sarronwala.

ASIAN GROWTH?

Asia was once prized by record labels including Time Warner Inc's Warner Music Group, EMI Group Plc (news - web sites), Universal Music and Bertelsmann unit BMG for its potential for growth as U.S. and European markets mature.

Instead, recorded music sales in Asia are sliding faster than in the United States and Europe, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) says.

Asian music sales slid 13 percent in the first half of 2003 to $2.59 billion, a fifth of the world's total, outpacing a fall of 10.9 percent globally. South Korea (news - web sites)'s fall of 23.1 percent was the worst, followed by Taiwan's 21 percent and Japan's 13.5 percent -- Asia's three biggest music markets.

In Taiwan, which accounts for 80 percent of Mandarin language music sales worldwide, around half of all music sold in the past two years was pirated, while nine of every 10 recordings in China are fakes.

Analysts say growth in legal music download sites in Asia's vast, upwardly mobile markets, in tandem with broadband Internet, could help stabilize the world music industry.

But whether paying sites take off depends on how quickly so-called peer-to-peer networks such as Grokster and KaZaa -- where surfers can download an entire 10-track album in 15 minutes -- are shut, said Simon Dyson, senior analyst at Informa Media.

"If they don't get that control, and broadband increases, then you can see music sales going right down," said Dyson.

Much depends, he says, on whether record labels win their appeal of a potentially precedent-setting April decision by a U.S. federal judge who ruled Grokster and other file-swapping networks were not liable for what their downloaders are doing.

"The opinion is that they will probably win that. If they do win that, then obviously they can start encroaching on file sharing networks," he said.

GROWING LAWSUITS

Music copyright lawsuits are also flaring around Asia. Taiwan's music industry has taken legal action against two Taiwanese sites -- www.kuro.com.tw, which has about 500,000 subscribers, and www.ezpeer.com with 300,000 members.

South Korean free music site www.soribada.com, which counts six million members and gets about 1.5 million hits a day, is also being sued. A court told Soribada to shut its server in February but it switched to new servers and is open.

"Record companies all over the world are struggling with this," said Terence Phung, managing director of Sony Music Entertainment Singapore Pte Ltd. "It is hurting all of us. There is no solution available to stop this. It is a huge problem."

Although copyright infringement is a crime in Singapore, a 2001 government survey showed 500,000 of its four million people used the Web to download music. Internet service providers are sending letters to downloaders of pirated music on behalf of the recording industry but they do not initiate legal action.

"We encourage our customers to feed back to us on these allegations by the copyright owners. We will then advise the copyright owners accordingly," said Mervin Wang, a spokesman at Pacific Internet Ltd, a Singapore Web service provider.

Sarronwala says the opening of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store this year was a turning point, spurring labels into releasing quality music online. Though he doubts piracy will vanish he reckons legal online music can thrive alongside it.

As sales fall across the industry, Soundbuzz went profitable on a quarterly basis this year after growing revenues for the past four years, said Sarronwala.

Swee Wong, senior vice president at BMG International based in Sydney, said the appetite for legal music downloads in South Korea and Taiwan was growing. "They are ahead of the game," he said. "But it's not happening as fast as I would like.

"China remains the wild west," he adds. But even if just 10 percent of China's sales are legitimate, that is still a huge market, he said. "The potential market in one city could be as big as or bigger than Hong Kong or Singapore." (Additional reporting by Doug Young in Hong Kong and Judy Lee in Seoul)