andylockran’s blog

Inspiring, or soul-destroying?

Posted by Andy under BCS, Control, Digital Freedom, Funny, Hypothesising, Language, Marketing, Music, Software, Tech Geek, Ubuntu

I recently was introduced to www.ted.com, a site which hosts a number of inspirational talks given at the TED conference each year.

TED has been happening for a few years now, and is touted as a chance for some of the greatest minds to get together and share something unique - their ideas.

I’m quite a fan of lay-science, and getting to know more about stuff that’s really advanced.  We all have very different backgrounds and skill-sets - and I think it’s the ability to appreciate these differences that makes things really special.  When I look at the wonderful invention of the StrandBeest by Theo Jansen, I can’t help but feel inspired.

It’s fantastic to see how people’s minds tick, and this site is likely to provide me with hours of distraction in the future.  The phrase ’standing on the shoulders of giants’ is something that can be overused.  However, in sharing these ideas, we’re given access to a wealth of information.  It’s precisely for these reasons that I advocate the use of Free/Libre Open Source Software.  Enjoy the site.

Home Desk

Posted by Andy under Apple, CentOS, Digital Freedom, Fish, Gentoo, Gnome, Linux, Microsoft, Music, Software, Stupid, Tech Geek, Ubuntu, XDA Stellar

I’ve moved back home and have just set up my desk. I quite like what’s going on at the moment therefore I thought I’d share a couple of pictures.

I have my fishtank to the left, then a mac mini running OSX Tiger - useful for checking cross compatibility. Then I have my sound-dock which is connected to my PC via my “unique connector.” I then have my Webcam, followed by my 19″ Dell Monitor running Gentoo & my virtual machines (Windows and Centos). Centos I use as it’s my company’s choice of server distribution, and Windows for cross-platform testing and to connect to my o2 XDA Stellar (shown under the screen). I also have my work VoIP phone, which is very useful, and my HP Compaq nc4000 lightweight notebook running ubuntu.

All in all a quality set-up.

Alex Doyle

Posted by Andy under Music, Personal, Projects

One of my mates is a rather good guitarist and I recently set him up with a new blog/website which he’ll hopefully update.

As things stand he’s just added a bit more info and moved a few things around. It’s a basic wordpress site, as I don’t have the time to offer him anything more bespoke/exciting - and some of the formatting is dodgy. However, there’s an interesting video and I’m sure he’d like to have a little more visibility (and opinions).

I know he’s also looking for people to collaborate with around Brum.  If you like what you see do drop him a line.

So if you would pop to the site - it’s www.alexdoyle.net . Get in touch with him via alex@ the domain.

Thanks, and enjoy the music.

Music Mirror

Posted by Andy under Digital Freedom, Gentoo, Linux, Music, Projects, Python, Software, Stupid, Tech Geek

I have a nice Music Library of all my CDs encoded in the *.flac format.  I like it, so I don’t want to get rid of it.

However, Mr. iPod doesn’t like it - so I want to keep a mirror of my Music Library in the *.mp3 file format.

I’m not much cop at bash scripting.. but here’s a shell of what I’ve got so far. (music-convertor.sh)

 #!/bin/sh
##Andy Loughran
##Mirror .flac library to mp3

for i in ~/Music/*/*.flac;
do lame -b 192 “$i”;
mkdir ~/mp3Music/”$(pwd)”/;
mv *.mp3 ~/mp3Music/”$(pwd)”;
done

It doesn’t work yet - but that’s my immediate comprehension of the sort of thing I’d like.

I would quite like it to rsync the library - so only encode the new files.. I guess this could be done by getting a list of all the files in each directory and just diffing the two to get the new files.. but there’s bound to be a better way.

Therefore some questions -

Should I be using bash-scripting to do this.. is it an efficient use of resources, and if so can anyone provide me with a way that works..?

Is there a utility that already does this?

Learning the Saxophone on the M5

Posted by Andy under Music, Personal, Projects

I’ve been really enjoying my Jazz recently, so much so that I’ve borrowed my cousin’s saxophone so I can see whether or not I can pick it up.  I’ve found a really good resource on Saxophone lessons so hopefully I’ll be able to progress past annoying my flatmate.

Anyhow, this is an issue.  The Saxophone is rather noisy.  I really like the noise - but my flatmate isn’t a fan.  If you can think of a good way for me to quieten down the Saxophone, please let me know.  Otherwise I may have to resort to driving out somewhere else to practise.  (If you see any lone saxophonists on the A57 Snake Pass.. it’ll probably be me, so come and say hi!).

I had a great chance to start yesterday as I was stuck in a three hour traffic jam on the M5.  I got the mouthpiece out and practised my blowing.  It was great fun, and a source of amusement for the other drivers in the queue.  I got the whol sax out at one point, but there wasn’t enough room to start playing - and as I didn’t have much of a clue where to put my fingers I just ended up making squeaking noises.  It was good fun.

So yeah, my mission to learn the saxophone has started.. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some nice noises soon or else it (or I) may come to a premature end.   Hopefully my flatmate will start to appreciate the jazz..  I bet there’s no person that was perfect when they first picked up an instrument… things can only get better

Musicians in Manchester

Posted by Andy under Music, Personal

Man I miss the music.

Since going to University the time in my life dedicated to my music has dramatically decreased - and given that I started University in 2004 you can imagine how bad things are getting.  However, I did learn to strum a guitar whilst at Uni, and took my keyboard with me to have a play - but it’s got to the stage where I need to find some people to play some music with.

I’m not going to pretend I’m some sort of virtuoso, but I do enjoy playing music.  It provides me with something that nothing else can - some kind of emotional release.  I’m also extremely varied in the music I choose to listen to and play.  One of the nicest things about my move up to Manchester has been my proximity to Matt ‘n’ Phred’s Jazz Club.  It’s so nice to see that music being played live.  Jazz is quite special to me.

However, I’m quite a ‘genre-bender’ (what a word!!!) as I love listening to metal; ambient music; classical; indie and rock.  I just love it.

Anyway, the point of the post was to see if there are any other like-minded folks in/around Manchester that fancy meeting up for a bit of a jam?  I’m not into the myspace malarkey or creating a new #1 single.  I want to do it purely for the enjoyment.  Let me know what instruments you can play too.  I manage on the piano (Grade 6 I think) - Bass (it was anything to get in a band at one point) - Acoustic Guitar.  I’m just about to start learning the saxophone - I’ll have to see how it goes.. should be collecting the instrument this weekend.

Bose SoundDock & apple iPod

Posted by Andy under Apple, Music, Projects

I have a Bose SoundDock. My Dad bought it me as my 20th Birthday Present. Compared to any other speakers I have it’s completely unrivalled. The sound quality is amazing - and I especially liked it when I used RockBox on my iPod and could listen to uncompressed Music on it. The quality was superb.

However, as previously mentioned I had to switch back to the apple software to make the iPod interface with my “iPod capable” car stereo - and to get the remote working on the SoundDock. It’s a shame, but a necessary one in my eyes.

Now, the only comment I have about the Bose SoundDock is the fact that it doesn’t have an aux-input, and in true FLOSSgeek style, it annoys me that such a brilliant product is inherently tied to a single-vendor’s product; namely, the iPod. The other thing that annoys me is that I am therefore unable to hook it up to my computer. Surely a female to 1.2mm jack isn’t that difficult to manufacture - but nobody appears to make them (at a decent price). There are a number of howtos on the internet for adding the aux input to your SoundDock by taking it apart and doing some soldering - but that doesn’t appeal to me. Were I to make a mistake that’s a £250 loss - not something I want to comprehend.

So, I looked into other ways of doing it - and as with most things progression means vulnerability. Apple have supplied me with the ammunition themselves.

I recently popped into the apple store to see if there were any female iPod connectors that I could disassemble (I don’t mind breaking something at that value - and it would mean the warranty on the SoundDock would stay valid.) They had the “Griffin 2nd Generation Shuffle Dock Adapter,” - cool. I bought one. It has a 1.2 mm jack sticking up out of the top of it. All I need now is a female-to-male 1.2mm extension cable and I have the appliance.

However, the apple/griffin people are clever - and have added a plastic surround to the adapter which means that any 1.2mm female adapters would be held ~1mm off being able to connect properly… or so they thought.I then popped to MicroDirect, based in Manchester (also online at www.microdirect.co.uk) and purchased a 1.2mm extension cable, expecting to have to file down at the griffin adapter so that it would rest flush with the cable… I was mightily surprised.



I don’t know if the microdirect supplier is anti-apple (but it would appear they are, via proxy (me)), but their extension cable has a ~1mm gap between the end of the jack and the plastic surround. This means that it fits _without_ any modification to either part - and allows me to connect my Computer, and any portable audio (or immovable audio for the pedants out there) to my SoundDock.



Mission Accomplished.

SACD, DVD-audio & FLOSS

Posted by Andy under Music, Projects, Ubuntu

I wouldn’t introduce myself as an audiophile, but I do enjoy listening to high quality music. I live with a guy who’s very much into his home-comfortsl; thus underneath the 42″ plasma you’ll find a nice DVD recorder/upscaler and a Sony 2.1 DVD audio hometheatre system. It’s quite nice, but what’s nicer is that it plays both DVD audio and SACD (SuperAudio CDs).

We’ve just got Pink Floyd “The Dark Side of the Moon” on SACD, and the quality of it has completely blown me away. There is absolutely no distortion between the tracks as can be found on normal CDs, and the clarity is beautiful. It’s really something else, that even the least perceptive person could hear the difference.

I was therefore wondering if I could change my current mp3 collection to something of the same quality. (don’t hit me, I did use ogg and FLAC until I got a BOSE sounddock - and I switched back to the apple software from rockbox as it didn’t support the remote control.) SACD is 64 times the sampling rate of conventional CDs. My mp3s aren’t yet as good as my CDs (although the flac songs I own are) - but this new format would be nice.

It’s a shame that DVD-audio isn’t of the same quality (only 192Khz, to SACDs 2.8224Mhz), as it appears to have some Linux production tools available, however, the project is still in early development.  (It’s still active though with the latest updates on the 14th October 2007).  I’ll be taking a closer look at DVD-audio in the future if I can get the software working on ubuntustudio.  I may release an ‘collection of songs’ (album sounds too professional) recorded using ubuntustudio on dvd-audio in the short to mid-term.  Wouldn’t that be nice.  I think I’d be complaining about the music rather than the sound quality then. Doh!

SohoDolls at Corporation, Sheffield

Posted by Andy under Music

Well the last time I went to back to back concerts, it was Birmingham Rock & Pop Week @ the NEC, followed by The Eagles Farewell Tour at NIA, and then Van Morrison at Warwick Castle.  That was some weekend, although I remember laughing with my mate Dan at the audacity of Mr Van Morrison’s support act - Chris Farlow.  He was terrible.

Anyway, last night (as documented in a previous blog) I went to see the SohoDolls at Night & Day and had a thoroughly good time.   I spent today listening to their album, and by lunch-time had got myself worked up into a frenzy.  It was just so nice to have such good music to work too.

Anyhow, I decided to see what the people’s opinions of the Manchester Concert was, and suggested on the SohoDolls forum (www.sohodolls.co.uk/forum) that I take some guy I’d seen (very briefly) at the Manchester gig across to Sheffield to see them again.  Well he was up for it, so I phoned my flatmate and invited him too.  Although down with a cold - he was up for it too.. wahey!

So we went across to Corporation, and had the most fantastic gig.  They were just brilliant, again.   I’m really liking this band, and although my mate Nathan reckons they play the pretenders to the LadyTrons, I like their style.  It’s just nice to be able to find a band that you can connect with.  Their music is my cup of tea.

Wonderful!

The Soho Dolls (At Night & Day, Manchester)

Posted by Andy under Music, Personal

What a night. I’m dead busy at work at the moment, but my good friend, Andrew Reid, decided to take me along to a gig tonight @ Night & Day, Manchester, to see the Soho Dolls. They were supported by The Dead Wasps (who were very amusing) and the 568’s (whose lead singer I think was very nice & may have had a little crush on yours truly).

Anyway, I digress.

The Soho Dolls are going to be a band of the century. They have a wonderful mix of tracks, delivered beautifully with a really nice bass riff going on. The bassist also has the wonderful skills to choose to play a nice big double-bass ahead of the now taken-for-granted bass guitar - and his gamble really pays off. He gives the band a foundation to move on up to heights unimaginable.

It does help that the lead singer is very (very) fit. She’s one of those that really emits a beauty and warmth that most guys dream of - yet sophisticated and talented. Her voice is her best bit, and that’s not detracting from the rest of the performance. She took the place by storm, and turned what was a lukewarm venue into a mighty put of warmth. She had charisma and the skills to match. It was a fantastic sight.

The best song they played was called Bang Bang Bang Bang - it’s catchy without being in your face annoying. just great. I don’t think I’ve seen a better band live (and I’ve seen the eagles, air, megadeth, air, van morrison…) to name a few. They were just superb. I also got to catch up with the band afterwards and buy their album. “Ribbed Music for the numb generation. I mucho recommend it to buy. ~The 568s were good too, and their album is available on itunes.

The keyboard player, Weston - was immense. He had three synths on the go at a time, and just filled the songs. It was superb. They guitar player, Toni put across amazing charisma with some really nice leads. Not too flashy, but well good enough to fit the songs. He’s not got the arrogance that many guitarists have,

I hate to be unfair on the other bands that played tonight… but these guys were just head and shoulders above the rest… I can see them going far.

www.sohodolls.co.uk

oh yeah.. you can get a free track from their site too.

You can see the amazement in my eyes…

P.S. (later addition to the blog).  We’ve just decided to head across to Sheffield tomorrow to see them play @ Corporation.  It was literally that good.  Wahey!!!