Cheese Dreams

No more FTP Blogger - I'll be off then..

2010-03-06T16:38:00.006Z

Woe, Blogger, woe. Very disappointed to see that you have decided to discontinue the FTP, static publishing option that I have used for, 11, yes 11 years. I've been there from the start. I even gave you money for 'Pro' before Google bought you. I got a hoodie as a thank you.

I did wonder since the development of Blogger seemed to be happening at the speed of continental drift, and had at best a ghost staff who dropped by occasionally to mimic badly some Wordpress features.

I didn't want a dynamic, database driven blog. There has been no need for dynamism in my peculiar corner of the web. However, I suppose it's off to Blogger's sexier cousin Wordpress for me. If anyone reading this can recommend a nice archive migration tool, please post in the comments.

Still, I am sad to go...

Take that, Honda Cog

2010-03-06T16:29:00.003Z

Those OK Go boys have done it again. After the viral success of the "treadmill routine" video for Here it goes again comes a playful Mousetrap / Honda Cog inspired piece. Great tune too.

Tiger Tiger

2010-02-26T07:32:00.004Z

Great bit of mobile, digital art from artist Karolina Sobecka - a projected Tiger whose animation is linked to the acceleration of a car. As the car speeds up the image of a tiger begins to run and as the car slows, so too does the tiger.

wildlife from karolina sobecka on Vimeo.

Also, more mammalian action as artist Nikhil Kirsh (twitter) recently painted my house rabbit Ben. It's not the first time I have cajoled artists to represent him, but this time in acrylic on canvas.

Lab coats

2010-02-22T11:17:00.002Z

VW Beetle Snowplough ad

2010-01-06T12:22:00.003Z

Ah, all this UK snow reminded me of the 1963 VW ad. A great example of a simple story, beautifully executed in sixty seconds.

"Echinacea, Palestine, how you rent DVDs online, the 1980's"

2009-12-17T14:06:00.004Z

From Spoons, a sketch show co-written by Charlie Brooker back in 2005.

The hunger of the Ox with small downward-pointing horns has worried me

2009-12-07T23:58:00.003Z

This post exists purely for that title... from the British Library Archival Sound Recordings. Recording of the week hits new surreal heights with this Ugandan ox herder's song.

Starlings from Brighton Pier video clip

2009-11-29T14:18:00.003Z

Camera phone clips. Music - Knee deep in the North Sea by Portico Quartet.

Made in Rromania - teaser trailer

2009-11-29T12:03:00.002Z

Ooo, some great images in this teaser trailer for an HBO documentary about the 'Shukar Collective ' a Romanian music project that fuses electronica with Ursari (one of the groups of Roma people) music.

Made in Rromania - teaser from Matei-Alexandru Mocanu on Vimeo.

I dream of the day that a warrior robot..

2009-11-23T07:37:00.002Z

I Say Fever and Two Weeks

2009-11-17T11:38:00.007Z

Ta @bbod for the link. US animator Stefan Nadelman, director of Terminal Bar turns his hand to some great wild west styled animation. Let it play to at least 00:53 where the lighting and pace goes crazy with the chorus.

Ramona Falls "I Say Fever".

Fun with cities

2009-11-16T18:18:00.006Z

Thoughtful use of music raises the bar on this simple idea.

Creative advertising on buildings

I also like Urban Prankster for documenting things such as the Bodies in Urban Spaces project below.

Random find on Vimeo

2009-10-30T16:23:00.002Z

Again - New Song by Mood Status from Mood Status on Vimeo.

More violence, please

2009-10-12T16:19:00.004+01:00

Rather good, if grotesque, animation.

A preview of an FPS in the MMO EVE Universe. Great idea!

Mumford & Sons album "Sigh no more"

2009-10-10T08:59:00.008+01:00

Really enjoying the the earnest, plaintive wailing's of Marcus Mumford and his band. I saw them first accidentally at 2008's Great Escape, in an all star line-up including Noah and the Whale, Laura Marling and Jay Jay Pistolet. At that time, they were new and inexperienced and were being coached by Laura and Noah ATW front man Charlie Fink.

The album has everything from wistful melancholy to driving folk anthems. Also, I like that they are charming, well brought-up, posh boys.

Despite the radio unfriendly lyrics of Little Lion Boy, you know they'd be very polite if you took them home to meet your Mum.

Watching the gig last year, the kids knew all the words and sang them in an impassioned way that recalled to me the importance of "your favourite band" when you're young.

For the less emo amongst us, I had a similar impression from seeing live those quirky, shouty pop kids Los Campesinos!.

Sigh no more is available on Spotify. Best tracks are the rollicking Roll away your stone, and the foot stomping single Little Lion Man.

Other finds on my more maudlin, folky radar;

Horse Feathers - In Our Blood
Oregonian chin strokers, violin noodling, cello underscoring, lost harmonies.

Department of Eagles - Sailing by by night
Lo-fi mutterings, or "post-urban depression" as tagged on last.fm

The Acorn - Crooked Legs.
Merz and Bon Iver stylings, and some lovely ploinky percussion.

Denis Jones - One Loop
British guitarist singer songwriter, with glitchy effects. John Martyn-esque with a looping, effects pedal.

Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine
Lots of great beards from these folkies from Ontario, Canada. Rough shod banjo, probably composed in a wood cabin, with the local Grizzlies gathered at the door.

Mac NTFS driver and exporting FLV files

2009-10-09T15:26:00.008+01:00

Couple of Mac tips today.

Can't write to someone's NTFS (Windows) external drive on your Mac? Install the free NTFS-3G driver but don't accidentally get the commercial version. Er, you know, unless you want to.

When making your Quicktimes into Flash, use the FLV converter which is included with the all purpose, and wonderful ffmpeg. Also a guide for you to follow.

For a pretty picture, it's likely you'll need to use the "Video" tab to whack up the bitrate to around 900 kbit/s. I get about a 70MB file for 10mins with this setting at 640x352.

If you need to letterbox a 16:9 to 4:3 for a rubbish, old school player, add letterboxing in the "Filters" tab and for a 640 wide film, enter 64,64,0,0 in the letterbox fields. Job done.

Interactive mirror

2009-10-01T22:55:00.005+01:00

Not sure why a mirror. After decades of the keyboard, any excuse will do for pretty, alternate interfaces. Shouldn't it make you prettier, or let you try on outfits/hairdos/extreme body modifications?

Interactive Mirror from Alpay Kasal on Vimeo.

Twilight Zone Episodes

2009-09-20T20:15:00.007+01:00

I am currently enjoying old, sixties Twilight Zone episodes that litter online video sites. These are my top three so far.

A Nice place to Visit (veoh link) is a story about gambler and crook Henry "Rocky" Valentine. Rocky finds himself in a world where he seemingly can have anything he wants.

Right now I want a million bucks in 5 g notes and a chick that won't quit.. I mean, like, stacked, like, like, like beautiful!

Nightmare at 20,000 feet (YT link 1 of 3) stars a pre-Star Trek William Shatner . This episode, trivia fans, was written by Richard Matheson who wrote I am legend and directed by Richard Donner of Superman, The Omen, The Goonies and others.

To Serve Man (YT link 1 of 3) is another classic (and much parodied / referenced by recent cult shows) where large headed aliens, the Kanamites, arrive on Earth on a mission to assist humanity.

I'd still like to rewatch late 60's, paranoid, alien invasion series The Invaders. Hero (and architect!) David Vincent played by Roy Thinnes had a Steve Mcqueen like intensity.

As a child I had nightmares about spotting someone with the 'mutated forth finger', that indicated they were an alien in disguise.

Smart lasers

2009-09-08T22:13:00.003+01:00

Intelligent laser with audio from Japan.

Inspired by failed 80's Glen A. Larson show Automan?

Ben gets illustrated

2009-08-30T22:33:00.004+01:00

Brighton local illustrator and designer Lucy has kindly immortalised my house rabbit Ben! You can view more of her work at her website LucyIrving.com.

Interactive LED wall installation

2009-08-27T20:51:00.007+01:00

I currently live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch: as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood, however much they're into colour.

Excerpt from Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward

Also interesting the Museum of Animal Perspectives is just that, animal POV cams.

Psychology and neuroscience links on the web

2009-08-24T14:05:00.009+01:00

I've had a growing obsession with self study on the internet in the last year. I've collected links of great places on the web to read, watch and listen about neuroscience, psychology and more. Friends asked me for my reading list so here we go.

PODCASTS (audio only)
With the podcasts, look for the itunes links. Usually you can download just the mp3 and play in any music player but it's so much easier if you manage it with itunes. Itunes picks up new episodes for you automatically.

Neuropod
Monthly, 'bout 30 minutes with 3 or four current topics.

The Brain Science podcast
Twice a month, 40 mins to an hour, one topic/interview. Can be agonising depending on the subject/person. (Avoid the C.elegans molecular biology one (!) but Chris Frith's interview was good as was Alva Noe the next episode.)

Neuroscene
New to me but seems quite good. Short singular topics.

Scientific American: 60 Second Psych
THE most 'pop' of all of the podcasts, and not actually 60 seconds but a couple of minutes. Dinner party factoids. Still fun!

VIDEO ON THE WEB

TED talks
If you haven't seen any of these, they are excellent. Lots of interesting topics by great speakers from all disciplines.

Dan Gilbert - Why are we happy?
GREAT talk, ultimately about the psychology of happiness and choice. Very lively and funny presenter.

Helen Fisher - The brain in Love
Love examined under the FMRI machine...VERY flowery but a few interesting studies referenced.

Martin Seligman - The state of psychology
Analysis of the changes in psychological approaches and 'positive' psychology. Starts well, goes on a bit.

Malcolm Gladwell - On spaghetti sauce
Fuzzy talk about choice and marketing, but good for Gladwell fans? (Who knew Malcolm Gladwell had such scary eyes?)

5 Neuroscience Uni lectures from Bangor Uni (module of a Psychology BSc?)
Very hard work these, bad quality audio over presentation slides, proper crammed textbook stuff, but useful if you want an overview of neuroscience.

WEB SITES

Mind Hacks
Excellent, often updated short blog with links to interesting Neuroscience and psychology articles.

BPS Twitter feed
Short links to all the cool stuff from the British Psychological Society.

RADIO

Radio 4 is in the middle of a 'Mind Changers' series. UK listeners can get them for a while after they air, then they are removed from the site.

Today my inbox was terrifying

2009-08-06T11:18:00.003+01:00

Arrrrgh! His eyes follow you like the Mona Lisa!

XKCD funny

2009-07-30T08:21:00.003+01:00

An Australian odyssey - photos online

2009-07-29T13:56:00.006+01:00

The more attentive amongst you will have noticed my absence from the UK this summer, as I was in fact swanning around the sunny shores of Australia's East coast. I finally got around to editing them down to this selection.