1) Remembered I had this site/blog/nonsense.
2) Received my physical copy of Big Black Delta‘s BBDLP1 in the post today. It’s even signed, which is super awesomesauce. Brilliant album. IFUCKINGLOVEYOU is still my favourite track of his so far; no messing around, just straight in there with the noise!
3) Player Gears of War 3 co-op.
Cannot wait for Distraction Pieces.
Like many others I joined Google+ this week. Early impressions are good.
There is certainly room for improvement, but most of this is already clear to Google according to this page: geek.com
The only thing missing from that list that I can think of at the moment is being able to organise the stream by ‘date of post’ and not just post popularity as it seems to be at the moment.
The obvious highlight is the Circles feature, allowing you to post comments that are only visible to select groups or made public. All those people that get into trouble with their bosses because of comments they make on Facebook will certainly welcome this.
The only downside at the moment is that the network is invite only and not enough people are on it yet to give a good sense of how it will play out. And convincing loyal Facebookers to try something new is a hefty task.
I don’t necessarily think it needs to replace Facebook but I hope it finds a way to exist along side it.
Those are my thoughts, for now.
I’ve been using Latedroid’s Juice Defender for a couple of weeks now and the improvement in battery life is really quite impressive, especially now that I’ve tweaked a number of the more advanced settings.
I’ve set it so that my device connects to the network every 30 minutes for 1 minute at a time and allows things like Facebook, Twitter and email to sync. I’ve also set it to favour wifi so if a preferred network is available it won’t waste time connecting to 3G first.
Before installing Juice Defender I was getting about 14 hours out of my battery before needing a charge. Now I get anywhere up to this:
Note: I’m using the ‘Plus’ version which is about £2
Like I said in my last post, I change homescreen layouts a lot. Since that post it’s changed twice but this is definately one of my favourites.
The picture was taken with Lightbox for Android – shame about my terribly unsteady hands, it’s a little blurred. (http://www.lightbox.com/wall/bobaloba)
Beautiful Widgets with ‘NoBackgroundClock’ by VZangel and ‘none’ by Drew Richard, Smooth Calendar with no icon or background, and no dock background for Launcher Pro.
Finally plucked up the courage to root and flash my HTC Desire. Turns out it’s really quite easy and painless. In fact the slowest part was probably downloading the tools and files.
To root and flash the phone I used Unrevoked, ROM Manager and the latest stable release for CyanogenMod 7. Full instructions on the process can be found on the CyanogenMod site here.
It helps to use Titanium Backup before hand to backup apps and there data.
I’ve been running CyanogenMod 7.0.3 for a little over a week now and I’m really pleased. The level of customization available is fantastic for someone like me, with a mild case of OCD and a habit of getting bored with the way thinks look and feel when it comes to the phone.
A handy feature brought out by rooting the device is screen shots. For example:
There are reports flying around that mobile phones cause brain cancer, and this is no doubt the way the media are going to make it seem too.
This is not, strictly speaking, true. Mobile phones ‘may’ cause brain cancer, but nobody is certain of this.
An article on the Cancer Research UK website clears things up a little.
Extract from the article: “Group 2B – this is the one that mobile phones now fall under – means something is “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. It means there is “limited evidence” that something causes cancer in people, and even the evidence from animal studies is “less than sufficient”. Group 2B means that there is some evidence for a risk but it’s not that convincing. This group ends up being a bit of a catch-all category, and includes everything from carpentry to chloroform.”
This is the latest offering from Sonoio (Alessandro Cortini)
SONOIO – Enough from Alessandro Cortini on Vimeo.
Check out his website for free downloads and numerous options for physical purchases. CDs are limited to 1000 and are numbered. I’ve got mine ordered!
Last night I went to The Good Ship in Kilburn to see the Kuricorder Quartet, a Japanese recorder based folk band playing on their first tour of the UK.
I first heard of them through Iain Lee’s Absolute Radio show. Iain frequently uses some of their recordings as beds during his shows. He is also very much responsible for the quartet being in the country.
The set was amazing and they certainly gained a number of new fans.
This is the Imperial March from Star Wars (recorded on a phone so the quality isn’t 100%): Kuricorder Quartet – Imperial March
The band even signed CD’s:
And to top the night off I met Iain Lee himself, shook his hand and had a chat!
