Mar
31
2008

More Timezone Issues

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, March 31, 2008 - 11:35:58 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
So, the timezone issues have continued. At work there was much bitchin', and a particular problem is calendaring in Thunderbird, which as far as I can tell there is not a fix for beyond waiting for next Sunday. While all my meetings show up find on Google Calendar, in Thunderbird they're all out by an hour.

It's really shocking that there had been no media covering about the fact that eastern standard time changes were changing as of this year! I had no idea until looking it up that in addition to the transition to standard time going back a week later, daylights savings time will start up 3 weeks earlier than usual in October (at the start, rather than the end). I love daylights savings, bring on having more of it, but geez, it's kinda a pain in the ass having it change, and particularly really having no notice of it. There has been a little bit in the news today, given it's caused havoc apparently on computer systems and mobile devices, but not really that much. Y'know, having a bit of advanced notice on this stuff by the media would probably be good! [confused]

To close out my rant on it all, I'm glad that I had the foresight to restart cron, otherwise I would have missed half of The Basement. Despite what I would have expected (but thankfully considered), after applying the new timezone data to my Gentoo box, processes that had already started were still observing the wrong timezone.
Mar
31
2008

New Gin Blossoms Album?

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, March 31, 2008 - 02:51:22 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music)
Today I read this cool interview with Robin - New Miserable Interview: Gin Blossoms Frontman Robin Wilson

Of particular note was this:
Oh, and final answer to your question: by the end of this year—god help me—we'll have a new record out.
That is a) surprising and b) pretty fricken exciting. I must say that I'm surprised that he'd make the claim, given the self confessed bane of his existence it became last time. But maybe making the statement is an indication of how likely it is to happen. Let's hope so.

A new Blossoms record by the end of the year would be great! [smile]

The other thing touched on in the article is the 20th Anniversary since they formed. I read elsewhere that they have '20 Years Of Misery' t-shirts. Fucking awesome, there could not be a better Gin Blossoms t-shirt than that! I want one. I just hope they didn't screw them up with a bad color, or design. [wink]
Now Playing: Tramps & Thieves - L.A.
Mar
30
2008

What Time Is It Anyway?

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, March 30, 2008 - 10:15:41 am
(Posted Under: Linux Linux, Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux)
This morning I've had some confusion about what the time is exactly - Windows machines and everything else say 11am, Gentoo says 10am.

In 2006 I updated sys-libs/timezone-data to support the stupid Australian Government decision to change daylights savings due to the Commonwealth Games, but didn't later update the package again. Maybe that's why.

Although, looking into it, Daylights Savings this year ends on the first Sunday of April, rather than the last Sunday of March.

Updating sys-libs/timezone-data has fixed the problem on Gentoo, but this change is going to wreck havoc on International Time! [confused]



scholars distfiles # emerge -vp sys-libs/timezone-data



These are the packages that would be merged, in order:



Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild     U ] sys-libs/timezone-data-2007f [2006b] USE="nls%*" 0 kB 



Total: 1 package (1 upgrade), Size of downloads: 0 kB

scholars distfiles #
Mar
29
2008

Guest DJ Week & Tempe Music Festival

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 12:55:40 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
March is generally a good month when it comes to Tempe music - guest DJ week and the Tempe Music Festival, and we're at that time again this year. Which also means that it's around the time I hit Tempe first time around. It's kinda cool that if I was to forget, the Tempe Music Festival is a good reminder.

In years past I've wanted to go again, however this year I'm not fussed about not being there. The only band worth seeing is the hometown Gin Blossoms, which obviously would be a reason to go. But that's the only one. In terms of the national acts, it's the Gin Blossoms, My Chemical Romance, Puddle Of Mudd, Fergie and Meat Puppets. Fergie playing at TMF is fairly comical to me (and pretty much to all the press I've read on TMF). The other band to be getting a lot of press locally is The Meat Puppets. The fucking Meat Puppets. I have to agree with Hops - 'Frankly it all sounds like gibberish to me and I don't give a rats ass whether or not they break up tomorrow'. In short, not that great of a line up, and aside from the Blossoms, the main drawcard would be local bands playing the Emerging Artist Stage.

Now Playing: The Blaze - Point Of Ventre 2008-03-28
Mar
28
2008

Free Dr. Pepper

If Chinese Democracy Is Released In 2008

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, March 28, 2008 - 09:34:49 am
(Posted Under: No Category)
Probably in the only interesting news about Chinese Democracy, Dr. Pepper has announced that they'll give every person in America a can of Dr. Pepper if Axl releases the album at sometime - anytime - within this year. Okay, so not as much interesting as it is funny

What is intetesting is the fact that anyone still gives a shit the album. To be honest, it's interesting that anyone did in 1995.

It is however fitting, since Dr. Pepper is probably about as bad as what Chinese Democracy will be. But, who are we kidding - no-one is going to be getting free Dr, Pepper out of this. [wink]

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003741826
Mar
19
2008

iPod Linux

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 08:51:21 pm
(Posted Under: Linux Linux, iPod)
Last night I gave in, and installed Linux onto my iPod. Something I've conceptually wanted to do since I got it, but hadn't because of the hassle of having to choose one OS or the other.

Funnily enough, looking into it, there are bootloaders that allow for dual booting. Perfect, or so it seemed. At first I tried Rockbox, which is relatively unobtrusive, sitting on the same FAT partition as everything else. Just a change to the bootloader. After that I decided it was worthwhile trying out iPod Linux. Which, with that 5th Generation iPod, was a more of a manual process. Which seemed worthwhile, until I got finished, to realise that iPod Linux does everything except play songs.

As much as the closed nature of Apple's firmware is (especially the lack of any documentation), the whole experience made me appreciate Apple's firmware. Just because it's nicer, despite any annoyances. Not that Rockbox was bad, hey it played songs - and I question that the sound quality was actually better than Apple's firmware - but the interface and convience is really worth just reverting back to only the Apple firmware. Despite how much I want to get a Hitter plugin on there, I'm happy to wait until I can do it on Apple's firmware - the iTunes import into Hitter isn't that bad.
Mar
12
2008

The Maine

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 11:19:54 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music)
Over the last weeks I've been listening to The Basement on The Blaze, which Sarah Ventre has turned me onto. It's more hit and miss (miss and hit?) with my tastes than Sarah's show, but I figured 'how can you pass up another local music show?', and I've heard a few things that have grabbed my attention. Particularly The Maine, who are a new young band from Phoenix. I've only just had a chance to go back and check them out, and I definitely really like what I'm hearing!

Ironically I've been enjoying The Basement as the weeks have progressed (my guys - Marc Zubia and The Longshadows even got spins), and it turns out that the show is ending in April. [frown]
Now Playing: The Maine - Count 'Em 1, 2, 3
Mar
09
2008

Rockwiz @ Moomba

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, March 9, 2008 - 11:44:44 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
Photobox ImageThis afternoon we headed out to Moomba. It's the second time that we've gone, however, this year we had a particular event that interested us - Rockwiz. Last year we went to just check it out, and in addition to the stress of Katie having an orientation session in the afternoon (or was it a class? Orientation was probably over by this stage), there wasn't all that much there for us. Which made it really cool seeing that there was the Rockwiz gig this year. Which there was last year also, but we didn't know about it. I'm not sure if Rockwiz was back on TV this time last year (and hence, if not, Katie wouldn't have even known of it's existence. But I digress...)

In anycase, definitely a reason to go to Moomba, beyond, well, for the sake of going to Moomba. Plus, it was a pretty good deal, as we'd actively tried to go to a taping throughout the second half of last year, unfortunately never scoring tickets. So it really worked out nicely for us. Not that we won't still try to see it at the Espy this year.

I wasn't sure what to expect given the venue, but it was excellent, and I really don't think the fact that it wasn't the normal Espy gig took away from it any. What was really surprising was, despite the size of the crowd (quoted by Brian as 4,000, which I actually highly doubt), it didn't at all feel crowded, and we had an awesome view of the stage.

The other major coop was the musical guests. Which, with Rockwiz can really be hit and miss - which Katie will pretty much point out before every episode. [wink] But hey, the Who Can It Be Now? segment begs for that sort of response when you've never heard of the performer your supposed to guess! Anyway, tonight it was Katie Steele from Little Birdie (okay, means nothing to me, but Katie's heard of her / them) and Chris Cheney from The Living End. We were just hoping for someone we'd heard of - it being Chris, IMO was a big score. Incidentally, he played What's On Your Radio.

In usual Rockwiz fashion it was highly entertaining and comical, I kicked ass (as always [smile]), and it was cool to see the behind the scenes picking of the Rockwiz contestants (the first hour), which is only ever shown briefly on TV.

Briefly,
  • Dougal for a day was awesome
  • Julia is even hotter in person
  • Enough with Evie! [wink]
Here's to hoping that the air it. Not that it would make much sense if it didn't...

Photobox ImageRight afterwards were the fireworks, which I must say, were quite impressive. Given the ones at the Melbourne Show last year, I wasn't expecting much at all, but the show along the Yarra was quite long and impressive!
Now Playing: The Maine - Shake It
Mar
08
2008

Point Of Ventre

A - Z Of Local Music

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, March 8, 2008 - 11:47:57 am
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Point Of Ventre Episode)
  1. Clove Cigarette - Stephen Ashbrook
  2. We Got Cactus -Blood Spazum
  3. Another Time, Another Place - Chimeras
  4. Incorporated - Dead Hot Workshop
  5. I Don't Know Right Now - Art Edwards
  6. 50 Calibar Christ - Fish Karma
  7. Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
  8. Hard Times - Rich Hopkins & The Luminarios
  9. A Lot Like You (Leah's Local Zone Take One) - Scones
  10. Waiting On A Girl - Shelby James & The Crying Shames
  11. Oily Bead - Kirkwood / Dillinger
  12. - Meat Puppets
  13. Devotion - Love Blisters
  14. Same Sad Story - Ghetto Cowgirl
  15. New Moon Trouble - Hans Olson
  16. Dreaming (Live @ Club Congress) - Al Perry
  17. Turpentine (Leah's Local Zone Take One)- Haggis
  18. Centerpedes - Shamsi Ruhe
  19. Take Me Out, Out Of The City - Strange Young Things
  20. 3AM - Truckers On Speed
  21. Scatter - Sugar High
  22. Stranded - The Undecided
  23. Oh Well - Dead Hot Workshop
Mar
06
2008

iPod SDK

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 08:04:18 pm
(Posted Under: Geek, iPod)
In an interesting conversation during lunch today I heard that Apple will be releasing a SDK for the iTouch and iPhone. Googling it reveals that it is expected to be released today - or tomorrow I guess, based on timezone differences.

Pretty exciting news, primarily anyway. It doesn't help me any at this point, but hopefully this will prompt Apple to release a SDK for the 5th Generation iPod. I'm quite antsy to write a Hitter app / plugin for it. My code for importing plays from iTunes is working fairly well, however I've been waiting to have more control over recording plays (to mirror the functionality of the Hitter Winamp plugin) for quite some time.

He's to hoping that a SDK comes out!

Speaking of Hitter, I've done some work on it of late, with the intention of a finishing a 'version'. It was almost a year ago that I branched the code just for a 'cleanup', which morphed into adding more and more features. It's time to close out a version, and thankfully, it shouldn't be that difficult to do. About time, given that next weeks it's 2 years since I wrote the first version. Might go down as one of the longest development cycles.

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