jonratcliffe

SoundFlavour DJ iTunes add-on...

2006-11-12T20:26:00.000Z

I've found this great add-on for iTunes. SoundFlavour DJ creates playlists for you (from tracks within your iTunes library) using musical attributes. Anyone who's played with Pandora for any great length of time will already know the benefits (and magic) that this technology brings.

The app works best with a large (5000+tracks) music library where there is more choice for the engine to do its thing. Give it a seed track by playing a track in iTunes and then switch to SoundFlavour to see its subsequent recommendations. There is a slider that lets you change how 'aggressive' the engine is at finding like material, reduce the bar and the search threshold is relaxed.

One nice feature is the ability to discover a tracks title and artist (even when not present in ID3 tags) by analysing the soundwaves of the track and comparing it to a database of 'known tracks' - very neat!

http://www.soundflavor.com/

Newspapers get in a flap over the blogosphere (again)

2006-09-28T20:10:00.000Z

This article on TIME points to the end of the newspaper, recognising that people prefer to get thier news from the blogosphere. Its quite annoying that the article suggests that all bloggers are 12 year old geeks stuck in bedroom with no concept of the outside world.

For what its worth, I don't think the newspapers are doomed. They just need to re-evaluate what thier product is now worth. There will still be a market for what the newspapers class as news but it will be much smaller. The blogosphere has many benefits over conventional news. Its more immediate, broader reaching, self regulating and self enforcing.

Its self regulating because only the best blogs survive, thier link power and pagerank lift them to the top and you end up finding the good stuff by default.

Its self enforcing because for any given topic, you can find genuinely different viewpoints and are then able to make an informed decision on what you believe.

viva la blogosphere!

What a bloody noise...

2006-09-22T07:24:00.000Z

Myspace is great for finding music, but sometimes you get friend requests from bands that just have nothing in common with you, anything you have listed on your profile or any of your existing myspace friends.

I just got a friend request from BigSmallPromotions:
http://www.myspace.com/bigsmallpromotions

Go on - have a listen - see what you think.

Is that what the kids are listening to these days?

Bear in mind that my MySpace profile mentions bands/artists such as:

Nick Drake
John Martyn
John Smith
Jono McCleery
Scott Mathews
Burial
Fink
Jack Johnson
Jose Gonzales
Devendra Banhart
The Cinematic Orchestra
Fat Freddys Drop

I'm just failing to see the link thats all!

Talk like a pirate day.

2006-09-19T20:55:00.000Z

You know you've had a shit day when you get right to the end of it only to realise that you've all but missed out on talk like a pirate day.

bobbins.

next year I will remember september 19th is talk like a pirate day.
next year I will remember september 19th is talk like a pirate day.
next year I will remember september 19th is talk like a pirate day.
next year I will remember september 19th is talk like a pirate day.

A week of internet hoaxes

2006-09-13T12:28:00.000Z

Just a quick post covering 2 big internet hoaxes that captured some of my attention last week:

LonelyGirl15
The video blog of a 16 year old school girl "Bree" which captured the imagination of millions of YouTube visitors turned out to be one almighty hoax. 16 year old Bree turned out to be 19 year old Jessica Lee Rose - an actress hired by a hollywood production company. I only found out about LonelyGirl15 after the hoax had been exposed but I have to say that the production values (soundtrack/editing/fast forward effects) on the videos seem(ed) a bit too polished and proffesional for the work of a 16 year old girl but maybe this is just too easy an assumption to make "after the event"!

Jason Fortuny's sexbaiting.
When a web marketing team wants to attract attention to a new website in order to promote thier products or services they often go to great cost and effort, hiring search engine optimisers, setting up pay per click (and other) advertising - basically its a fairly involved job getting yourself and your site noticed. Web Developer Jason Fortuny bypassed all that nonesense and got himself instant recognition almost overnight. He posted an ad (including a saucy picture) on craigslist casual listings claiming to be a woman looking for a good time. He then waited for responses. Once he had enough responses, mostly from married men - including pictures in various states of excitement, he published the whole lot onto encyclopedia dramatica (caution - naughty pictures on the other side of this link!). He now has no problems being recognised. He was interviewed by the NY Times, made Google News, and has 99000 search results for his name in Google. The question is - where does the hoax end. We know the original post was a hoax, but what if all the responses and legal (and physical) threats were also made up?

Attic Art - Affordable abstract art...

2006-09-09T20:54:00.000Z

We picked up a new canvas for our bedroom wall today from an art gallery in the most unlikely of places. Wedged in between out of town superstores, brothels, mosques and a bus depot in the backwaters of Bury (itself a backwater). Attic Art is run by Karen Jones, a local artist who sells not only her own pieces but also work from other "touring" artists.

We picked up an acrylic canvas by an artist from the North East of England called Kirsty Grayem. Many of her pieces can be viewed online but the one we bought isn't shown.

If you're in Bury and like real, affordable art, check out Attic Art which is off Rochdale Road in Bury.

King Prawn Curry Recipe from Wozza

2006-09-09T20:45:00.000Z

If you like King Prawns and Curry then this is a great recipe that Anthony Worral Thompson made on TV a couple of weeks ago - make sure you get some decent prawns though, none of your ocean tail nonesense:

Serves: 4
Preperation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
For the prawns –

• 16 large raw prawns, retain shells, leave on tail
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp chilli powder
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

For the Curry -

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2.5cm/1 inch ginger, peeled and grated
• 4 green chillies, sliced
• 1 green pepper, cut in 2.5cm/1 inch pieces
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 6 ripe tomatoes, cut in chunks
• 1tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 3 tbsp water

To serve –
• handful coriander, roughly chopped
• sliced spring onions
• deep-fried shallots
• lime wedges to garnish
• plain naan
• basmati rice – cook as per packet instructions

METHOD:

For the prawns -
• Combine the salt, lemon juice, turmeric and chilli powder with the oil and massage this mix into the prawns and marinate for 15 mins.

For the curry -
• Heat the oil in a large frying pan add the onions and cook for 6 mins until translucent but not brown.
• Add the garlic, ginger, chillies and green pepper and cook for 3 mins, stirring regularly. Now add the spices, tomatoes and tamarind and cook for a further 5-7 Mins. Season to taste.
• When the curry base is done cook the prawns in a hot frying pan for 2 mins, turning once.
• Add the cooked prawns to the curry base and cook for a further 2 mins.

TO SERVE:
• Serve the curry with boiled rice or naan bread and garnish with coriander leaves, fried shallots, spring onions and lime wedges.

The original recipe can be found on ITV's website.

Geezer blows up speed camera with thermite

2006-09-07T12:46:00.000Z

Speed cameras - the devices that collect an additional motoring tax and do knob all for road safety. Wouldn't it be great to blow one up?

28 Year old Railway worker Craig Moore decided that he didn't want the tax bill that was coming to him for getting flashed by the gatso so he decided to get rid of the evidence. He took to a gatzo with thermite completely obliterating the device in Hyde, Greater Manchester.

Unfortunately, he got caught in the act because the the police had a remote cctv feed from a camera installed inside the unit - shame. Next time - approach from the back.

Thanks to Murdoch News for supplying the story in pictures for those of use to stupid to read or devoid of attention span!

Pope calls a meeting on evolution

2006-09-04T18:33:00.000Z

I picked up on this article about the pope holding a meeting on evolution on the Register website last week and thought it somewhat amusing at the time. Realising that their quaint cult is losing support by the day, the Catholic Church is to hold a meeting on evolution - something it surely must deny the very existence of?

I would love to be a fly on the wall in that meeting:

Meeting Chair:OK, about this evolution business then.
Pope: No such thing, its utter bollocks
Meeting Chair: Well, how do you explain things like fossils that have been discovered of dinosaurs and other primitive human forms? Scientific evidence of evolution that is mentioned nowhere in the Bible...
Pope: Dinosaurs, you're having a laugh aren't you - dinosaurs don't exist, Spielberg made them out of plasticine - NEXT.

Seriously, I cannot wait for the Islamic community to host a meeting on the merits of the free market and western capitalist culture. That ones going to be a thriller!