I have been going to Tum Thai in Randwick for nearly 15 years. Their Choo Chee Tofu is the best in Sydney.
Audio fingerprinting tool Shazam is one of those auto-magical things that impresses pretty much anyone who sees it working on an iPhone (although it is available on other devices albeit at a cost).
Usually you’d use it to identify music playing in cafes, bars and clubs, or on the radio. But given that most of the music I actually want to find out more about isn’t often what is playing in these sorts of venues (the occasional earworm excepted), I’ve not really had much use for it in a day-to-day setting.
(Side note – when I was playing a set at the recent Optimo gig in Sydney I noticed the girl working the sound desk at the Oxford Art factory continuously loading a Shazam-equivalent on her mobile phone to try to identify what they and others were playing!)
However . . . I’ve been watching a fair few TV series recently, catching up with stuff I should have seen whilst otherwise engaged in parental duties, and the the best use of Shazam is to find out the details of songs featured in soundtracks. For example, the UK teen series Skins is notable mostly for its eclectic musical choices but the DVD releases feature different music to the broadcast versions as a result of bizarre rights issues that I can’t quite fathom. And like most TV series you can forget about getting the music listed in the credits – but with Shazam even a 10 second clip of sound used to set the mood of a scene can be identified pretty reliably.
Now if there was a similar tool for quickly identifying sample sources . . . .
My local Woolworths supermarket has finally implemented ‘unit pricing‘.
This means I can clearly see that the 600ml Coke in the fridge at the cash register is the equivalent of $5.07 per litre, whilst just across the aisle I can get a 2 litre bottle of Coke, un-refrigerated, for just $0.50 per litre. ANd I can finally figure out quickly whether the baked beans in a 465g tin are really cheaper than those in the 670g tin.
The retailers and grocery suppliers have railed against unit pricing for a long time on the grounds that consumers don’t need this extra information – and of course it is ‘way too costly to implement’.
Reality is, shopping in their eyes is more than just a rational fulfilling of needs at the cheapest price – no it is a ‘Experience’. All their marketing is about the ‘Experience’ – so of course the introduction of ‘rationality’ into this sets a cat amongst the pigeons.
Heaven forbid shoppers actually acted rationally. The economy might collapse.
Oh, that’s right, it already has.
OK so you’ve just got dumped with new phone books that are going to go straight into the recycling.
What a waste.
Surely there has to be a way to stop them?
Well, there is, but Telstra should plaster it all over their websites and their online directory search.
Courtesy of Buy Organic, I found this information buried on the Sensis site.
Print Directory Opt-out
You can choose not to receive specific Sensis directory print products by calling 1800 810 211, or emailing bookdelivery@sensis.com.au
Tell all your friends. Now.
(Yes, I know the delivery process employs manual labourers but I thought that the whole point of this economic reshuffle is the refocussing our economy on things we actually need and want . . . )
(Yes, I also know that the phone books are handy if Teh Internets is down but I’ll take a punt on that)
Well, everyone is sending this little YouTube mashup around at the moment – DJ Earworm’s mashup of the top 25 US Billboard charts of 2008.
If anything it is a good example of the “Legofication” of pop music (see Riffmarket’s argumentative takedown of Girl Talk).
From the Riffmarket piece –
Can a process truly be called “repurposing” or “recontextualizing” when Repurpose and Recontext is built into the content’s genetic code? When it’s all part of the master plan? Disco and funk producers didn’t intend for their drum breaks to become the stuff of rap samples — yet with Girl Talk compositions, one wonders how much of Gillis’s ease is a testament to his technical prowess, and how much is just an articulation of the fact that pop music has become increasingly standardized, its parts more or less interchangeable. All major rap singles, for instance, come with an instrumental and a vocal a cappella; the verses are mostly all the same length, about 16 bars; the choruses are all more of less the same length of time too. It is understood within the architecture of pop and hip-hop music these days that the song is waiting, begging even, to be mashed up.
What a great idea.
A collaborative map of album cover art!
I never knew a Duran Duran album cover used the State Library of NSW!
(via Hardformat)
It has been a great couple of days for musical initiatives.
Just today I discover Ten Tracks.
Each month you get ten DRM-free tracks totally DRM free.
Total price. 1 pound. Even with today’s rubbish exchange rate we’re talking about AU$2.50 – 25 cents a track.
What’s best of all, Optimo are curating a special monthly selection.
What are you waiting for?
One of the best things I’ve picked up from my recent Picnic08 sourjourn has been a Squeezebox. It arrived today from a local internet wholesaler and I set it up this morning.
This all came about because I had a lovely meal at a house in Amsterdam where I was shown an odd device with VU meters bouncing up and down near a hifi system. It turned out to a be a Squeezebox and the music we were listening to was coming streaming from a radio station on the otherside of the world. A bit of scrolling and we dialled up FBI and 2SER, even Radio Skid Row – the first radio station I did a show on, before settling on an Afghani radio station.
The Squeezebox, it turns out, does a whole lot more than just connect to thousands of terrestrial and internet radio stations. It now connects to the digital music files on hard disks on the network meaning no more plugging in music players with minijack-RCA cables (it plays OGGs and FLACs and everything else). It scrobbles my plays to my Last.FM account. And, with a bit of tweaking I’ve been able to get it to play Last.FM radio! And all of this is through my ‘proper’ hi-fi – at original bitrate.
My ancient component-sized tuner can now be turfed, along with a bunch of useless cables and adaptors. And finally I don’t have to rely on the cheap DACs that my music player has to play 320s through my hi-fi.
Why didn’t I see this when it first came out?
As some readers will know I endured a nearly 50 hour journey from Sydney to Brighton recently. What should have been 30 hours ended up being considerably longer and considerably more painful.
The news media has reported on some of the circumstances (Fairfax | News Ltd) but a personal account is always more interesting.
Here’s an excerpt of my complaint letter to Qantas Customer Care.
I am yet to get a response.
To whom it may concern,
I would like to formally register a complaint regarding the level of service provided to me as a traveller on QF31 Sydney-Singapore-London on August 30, 2008. The level of service provided to me as a loyal Qantas customer was so appalling that I have felt compelled to write this letter and seek redress.
Firstly though, I would like commend the crew of QF31 who acted thoroughly professionally in their response to an in-air situation that forced the unscheduled landing in Frankfurt on the morning of Sunday August 31.
What happened thereafter is inexcusable.
The situation:
At Frankfurt Airport we were asked to wait in a café/bar until we were booked on alternative flights. Within 30 minutes all Qantas staff had left leaving us only with local staff who had minimal knowledge of the situation.
With no staff advising us of progress any semblance of organisation quickly broke down. Rumours spread amongst passengers, queues formed with no understanding of why we were queuing. Officials appeared with lists containing some passenger details, then disappeared again.
Three hours later, around 1100, after waiting in a queue at a service counter I was informed by a non-Qantas staff member that I was booked on a Lufthansa flight LH4742 Frankfurt-London at 1955 and I was to take a shuttle bus to the airport Steigenberger hotel to wait and eat a meal, for which the hotel would provide a voucher.
On arrival at the Steigenberger Hotel none of the hotel staff had been informed of our circumstances and were unable to issue vouchers for food. This was eventually rectified at 1500 by which point many customers had already purchased their own food. A 25 Euro voucher was eventually obtained and spent on a very late lunch – the last time we had been provided with food was at 800 that morning.
In the interim I managed to change my connecting National Express bus ticket to Brighton to the 2130 bus from Heathrow for a nominal 5GBP. With the time difference between London and Frankfurt this should have given me plenty of time to collect my luggage and clear immigration.
I left the Steinberger at 1700 and arrived at Frankfurt Airport to check in to the flight that Qantas had organised. At the Lufthansa check in I was informed that whilst a seat had been secured on the flight, the Qantas staff had failed to update the FIM on my ticket and I would have to go to the Qantas service desk in another terminal.
At the other terminal I was informed by airport staff that the Qantas office was not to open until 2000 – despite the fact my flight was at 1955. I was then told to go to a different Lufthansa service desk back in the first terminal where they may be able to do something.
After waiting in the queue at the Lufthansa desk for 90 minutes, along with many other Qantas passengers who had suffered the same fate, I was served at 1915. After many calls and discussions my ticket was updated at 1930, leaving me 25 minutes to make it through security and immigration. I boarded LH4742 but this flight was further delayed, finally disembarking at Heathrow at 2130.
Being 2130 and without my luggage I was unable to make my connecting bus. Nevertheless there was still the last bus to Brighton at 2330.
At Heathrow the baggage area was in complete disarray. The LH4742 baggage was finally unloaded at 0015 – by which time the terminal was closing and the final bus to Brighton has left.
Emerging to Heathrow Airport with no Qantas ground staff to advise of alternative accommodation arrangements or even an apology for the disastrous situation, the terminal closing down for the night, and no Qantas service desk to enquire at to seek emergency accommodation, I was left with other option than to order a 125GBP taxi ride to Brighton in the middle of the night.
I finally arrived at my destination at 0330 – 45 hours after departing Sydney – exhausted and significantly out of pocket.
Whilst I should be able to be reimbursed for my extra costs through my travel insurance, I am not able to make up for the significant loss of time and the unnecessary stress that has resulted from this incident.
I would like to remind Qantas that your responsibility for passengers does not end until our baggage is safely in our hands at our final destination complete with suitable connecting travel arrangements.
Debacle.