Gecko Bloggle

Go to KarlaBabble to see her take on voice jail systems, and then go to Paul English’s to see the list.

Quick version: Go check out Pandora for cool self-selected streaming audio based on your tastes.

Long Version:

When I was a kid, living in deepest darkest Chilliwack, I used to mourn the loss of any sort of current or edgy music. Now, don’t get me wrong,
I don’t for a moment think I ever actually *thought* the word “Edgy” when I was thinking about music, but I sure knew I wasn’t getting what I wanted to hear on CHWK 1270 AM…

Thank God (Who Is Lord Over Chilliwack, I was told many times per block) for my Uncle Bill.

Bill was a sometimes-DJ who was in his 20s as I was just getting into my teens, and every year at XMas, I’d get a mixed tape or two. Full-on “High-Fidelity” philosophy MIX TAPES.

Those gorgeous Maxell 90Minute CrO2s would arrive (sometimes just one, but later on, usually two) with both sides CRAMMED with music I’d never heard, and probably never would have, in some cases. I went through those tapes like new they were encyclopedias at a monestery and played most of ’em until they broke. They were my soundtrack of the world outside small-town Chilliwack. The music that was decidedly NOT being listened to by the bullys and preppies. Music they’d just never understand – were incapable of appreciating – that didn’t exist in Chilliwack’s 1950s mentality.

The only problem with those tapes is that they didn’t have artists, just titles.

I learned years later how hip I actually was, musically speaking. I could’ve gone toe-to-toe with the kids with the crazy hair and long black trenchcoats if I’d just realized that the backpatches they were wearing were the same bands I’d scrawled lyrics of across my bedroom walls.
In short: I knew my shit, without knowing it at all:

• I was listening to U2 from their first album – didn’t know it until Joshua Tree came out and I asked a friend “Is there another band this singer was in, like, six or seven years ago?”
• Sinead O’Connor starting her duet with The Edge, before she was bald.
• The Cure before Standing on the Beach.
• Elvis’ old stuff before it was cool to remix it, or make fun of him for being fat. The B-sides only, of course.
• Psychedelic Furs before Valley Girl.
• Simple Minds before Breakfast Club.
• Chaka Khan before anyone knew who the hell Whitney Housten is/was/would-be.
• Coldcut’s Beats and Pieces from “What’s That Noise?” LONG before anybody’d heard the “Seven Minutes of Madness” remix of Paid in Full on the Colors soundtrack. When I stumbled across Coldcut again, it was years later, when they showed up on the Journey By DJ series, and they blew my mind all over again. I don’t think I’ve musically been the same since.
• Was Not Was – Papa Was a Rolling Stone and I Feel Better Than James Brown
• James Brown – The Payback, and Papa Don’t Take No Mess (thus explaining why I was so into Prince later)
• Joy Division
• Depeche Mode (again, from the word go).
• INXS (heard Johnson’s Airplane from The Swing in a hip clothing store on Robson, so that doesn’t count).
• Parliament Funkadelic – after our generation was introduced to them as “Those guys in the outfits at Woodstock” but BEFORE Digital Underground started talking about them.

And that’s without actually having a tape in front of me. One of these days I’ll transfer them all to MP3 in their original order. Why? Because I can’t buy those tapes like that anywhere. When will the RIAA figure this out?

Okay, so here’s the thing:

www.pandora.com is my Uncle Bill times about a billion, and crammed into a streaming audio website.

You tell it an artist or a song you like, and it starts spitting out music you might also like, as in streaming it at you. You can vote that you like it, or hate it, and it’ll adjust what else gets played based on those selections.

there’s more stuff, but Dead Like Me’s on now…

Claire says:
all hail the Great Burton! Remember-er of cool trivia and neato stuff!
This humble forgetter has a question for thy mighty brain!
JBurton @ EAX says:
Type mortal, that you may be enlightened.
Claire says:
hee hee.
what the hell was the name of that weird little CD-rom/game thing that Peter Gabriel was involved in?
JBurton @ EAX says:
EVE.
Claire says:
bah! you’re so smart
Claire says:
I knew you’d know that
JBurton @ EAX says:
Nah, just have a section in my brain for that stuff.
Claire says:
that must be a really cool bit of brain…
JBurton @ EAX says:
Where most people have the lyrics to horrible 70s and early 80s songs? I’ve got software…
Claire says:
har!
JBurton @ EAX says:
Makes Karaoke a little tricky…
Claire says:
speaking of MirrorMask – if you guys haven’t seen it yet – I recommend it. The last show was last night unfortunately, but it should hit DVD pretty quick.
JBurton @ EAX says:
Wooooaaaah… We’re halfway there….
WaaaaaOOH… living on an opensource cyberlife strand bearing cycle…

I’m about to have a devilled ham and gherkin sandwich.

The hell?

Accepted: Take Over World (and/or Enable Blackberry)

Proposed agenda
1) Destroy all known enemies in bloody and savage series of attacks.
2) Enslave humanity and devour Earth’s natural resources while in drunken power-crazed frenzy.
3) Turn on each other for complete control of world…. (see number 1 for details on stylistic inpiration for 3)
4) Ironic twist phase – both killed tragically in ensuing battle leaving world to re-build, in dying seconds realize folly and show remorse (note – think about ape’s as Earths new conquering species)
5) Fix blackberry

Binary Zoo makes this self-admittedly dumb game: mono

“Not remotely original blasting action so expect the usual mix of power-ups, weapons and aliens that look like coloured blobs…..”

So why is it so fun?

Was stumbling around, and found the Machinima 2005 competition, and a link to Dance, Voldo, Dance

The choreographed moves in this recording are all actual game play; no programming was done. “Soul Calibur” is a game in which two combatants battle to the death using their weapons of choice. It’s common in this style of fighting game for each character to have multiple costumes, and this is why there are two equally freaky Voldos dancing with each other. Over a week’s worth of full-time training and performance went into this production, which sparked more than one comment of “you need a job” (a phrase I’m not all that unused to hearing).

Also, Rogers channel 29 (which should be MuchMusic) is currently the Home & Garden Network (HGTV). Arwen figures someone quit, and flipped a dip switch on a controller somewhere before walking out the door. Been like that for an hour at least.

Ooh, and pictures from the 31st (click Rip’s pic for the gallery):

So I was bombing around this morning before setting up a laptop for a presentation, and found out about Windows Live.

I went there to check it out, and a slightly mangled site came up, with a little “Firefox not currently supported…” message.
Fair enough, I though, so I went to the same site with IE, and got this: (click to view 151KB image)

That’s right: using the browser they require, on a fully patched and supported OS, I got an error message, and by browser had to close (mshtml.dll had bombed out in iexplore, for those who are following along at home). The error’s consistent, so it’s not JUST me. It’ll probably get blamed on my Google Toolbar, since Ballmer has decided he wants to destroy Google.

Remember Firefox? Looked a little funny, but worked.

Fools.

Well, at least they aren’t charging for it (yet).

Coming soon: Office Live (you think I’m kidding, don’t you?)