graeme.blog

Blog

  • Lily Allen plays gig just for Oxfordshire

    Interesting little concept this, Lily Allen is going to play the O2 Academy (aka the Carling Academy Oxford, The Zodiac and The Venue), and limit the audience to people that can prove they have an Oxford postcode. Tickets are £15

    Lily’s gig just for us (From The Oxford Times)

  • An unfortunate sense of timing

    For once, news about why we’re safer than we used to be – Boing Boing

    Note the date, this is from yesterday. You’re probably aware by now why this was unfortunately, thankfully thus far it looks like it has been a mix of fantastic skill by the pilot and every ounce of good luck going that has resulted in no loss of life. Steven Johnson has also responded to his own post already: About US Airways Flight 1549

  • I hate Barenaked Ladies for what they did to my mental wellbeing

    So I idly clicked and watched the following video a couple of days ago:Barenaked Ladies “One Week” Parody – CollegeHumor video. Now I’ve still got the original floating through my head, the very thing the parody complains about. Just as I was starting to clear it from my head this evening, when the latest episode of The 40 Year Old Boy finished with it. I now hate him as well (only a bit mind, he is bastard funny).

  • iPhone games – Chess with Friends

    Nice simple little application this, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It allows you to play a game of chess online with your friends. Obviously it is turn based, but as it is played via a server, you can play your game over several days, checking in to see if your friend has moved yet.

    Once you’ve downloaded the app from iTunes and set up your account, you can start up a game with anyone in your contact list on the phone. You have to have either their phone number or email address. If they already have an account, it will find them, if they don’t, you can send them an invite. iPhone or iPod Touch only at the moment. From there, straightforwards, it’s a nice little chess app. If you fancy a game, leave me a comment with your email address included, and I’ll start one up!

    Newtoy | Kicking off a revolution in gaming with your friends on the iPhone and iPod Touch

  • Satan’s Garageband

    I’m just reblogging this, found on Graham Linehan’s wonderful site. It is a commercial for Microsoft’s Songsmith, their new music making software. I’ve not tried it myself. I’m in no position to judge how well-made and effective it is as a piece of software. However the likelihood of me ever trying it is vastly reduced in a mere four minutes.

    Now in the title I referred to Garageband, but I think there is also an element of Wii Music in it. That is a simple music game/program for all the family to use. It was promoted beautifully in American by the Reverend Run. Now watch this, to see how to market your product to the insane.

    What is this?! Why aren’t you just FIXING VISTA?! « Why, That’s Delightful!

    Graham points out that this might be intended to be White People do Trapped in the Closet. In which case, it shouldn’t have been a full application, it should just be a small embeddable add-on to a website. Widget, Widget, Widget.

  • A great Japanese wrestling match

    Thanks to the Wrestling Bard for this tip, via their Favourite Matches of the Year list. It’s a fantastic match with a load of moves I’ve just never seen before. I think it’s the combinations of finishers towards the end that did it for me, just haven’t seen that used so well before. The match is from Dragon’s Gate, and pitches the champions Speed Muscle (Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino) against New Hazard (Shingo Takagi and BxB Hulk).

    Part 1:

    Part 2:

    411mania.com: Wrestling – The Wrestling Bard 01.10.09: Favorite Matches of the Year

  • Podcasts worth listening to – The Adam and Joe Show

    I’ve been a fan of Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish for many years, since their Channel 4 show (Adam and Joe DVD),  and was rather pleased when they started doing a podcast of their XFM show (which is still available to download). They sadly disappeared from podcasting for a while, but then triumphantly re-emerged with a highlights show of their Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 6 Music. It’s normally about 30-40 minutes long (they skip out all the music for copyright reasons) and is a source of constant joy and stupidity.

    It’s a hard show to sum up, they basically talk rubbish about life, tv, film and music, and it makes one laugh a lot. I think the favourite things they’ve done for me are their Songwars (each week, sort of, they write competing songs about the same theme, and then ask the public to vote which one is the best), and Joe’s sections on films and videos (he introduced me to the true magnificence that is R.Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet). The XFM show in which he explains Trapped in the Closet is particularly worth listening to.

  • Google Chrome on Mac OSX (almost)

    Google have confirmed today that they’re aiming to have Mac OSX and Linux versions of their Google Chrome browser ready for release by the middle of 2009. In the meantime, it may be possible to build a version to try out from source. According to the current advisory, they aren’t even working on the user interface yet, so it may not be that functional, but if you like playing with source code (at your own risk, of course), have a look:

    MacBuildInstructions – chromium – Google Code – Build instructions for Chromium on Mac OS X

  • Think before you Google

    Why not think where your answer may actually be before you use Google:

    Leo Hickman on the carbon cost of Googling | Environment | guardian.co.uk

    Sometimes the answer is in the first place you’d actually look.Technorati Tags: , , ,

  • Super Mario Live

    This clip of Super Mario was brought to my attention by gaming blog Kotaku.

    The style may be familiar, especially if you remember the clip from a few years ago of a table-tennis game as if it was filmed in the style of The Matrix. Both came from a Japanese TV show called Kinchan no Kasoh Taisho, which I believe is an annual event celebrating this form of performance. It’s well worth looking at the related videos on youtube, as there are many more to watch, performed by seasoned teams and talented kids alike, and they can be a joy to watch.