Rip It Up And Start Again

After five years of faithful service, one of my hard drives failed this week. Annoyingly, it was the drive that contained the operating systems, so when the replacement arrived, I had to re-install both Linux and Windows.

Linux has really come a long way. It detected everything (even the monitor!), and installed flawlessly. Windows XP, on the other hand, was a big pain. It seems that it really doesn't like playing with other operating systems. It threw a hissy fit and refused to install, but not before it overwrote the Master Boot Record of the drive, so that now Linux refused to boot as well. Grrr.

So, I had to format the whole thing, install Windows, correct a few hardware detection faults, and then install Fedora Core Linux again. Which didn't complain, installed as flawlessly as before, and set up the dual-boot system without a hitch. Yay Linux, Boo for XP!

I am still jumping for joy at the end of the Doctor Who episode. DALEKS!

currently playing: Annie – The Greatest Hit

Best News Story Ever.

The police think it was probably taken by kids or students, but there is also the idea that it could be heading to Edinburgh for the G8 protests.

Forget the Spice Girls! Let's have a Timelords reunion for Live 8!

currently playing: The Clash – I'm So Bored With The U.S.A.

Pardon Me While I Warm Up My Futurephone

It’s not often that I get to come over all Warren Ellis (not enough goth camgirls or being a bitter, smoking, wise-cracking cynic with an optimistic heart, for a start), but just to announce to the world, or about ten people:

I will be attending LinuxTag 2005 on June 22 and 23, giving a talk on making DVDs with Linux at 1700 on the 23rd. There's a book you can buy as well! But it's in German. My final proof looks pretty, but they could have replaced all my text with traffic directions and I'd be none the wiser (unless they went over crossroads, as it's one of the few German words I remember).

So yes. Me. Germany. Later this month. Stammering my way through a lecture. Woo-hoo!

currently playing: Sleater-Kinney – Steep Air

It's Too Late For Mama

They didn’t get there in time to stop the beginnings of Elvis from falling into the public’s hands, but it looks like the record companies are going to get their way in the UK, according to The Times. Ninety-year copyright terms, then, propping up the giants of the music industry, because fifty years of living off The Beatles has left them poor. Corporate Welfare is fun!

In other "I hate the music industry so much I want to feed it to woolly mammoths" news, EMI and Warners are sniffing after Sanctuary Records, the indie-label success of recent years. This makes no sense whatsoever; Sanctuary is mainly made up of bands that were dropped by the majors, so why bother buying them back? Are they just jealous of a small company making a success with the bands they considered also-rans?

Of course, we'll know what'll happen if Sanctuary is bought. There'll be a brief fanfare of publicity about how the label will continue to be a showcase for bright musical talent. Behind the scenes, they'll quietly knife the management, introduce a new regime that will put an end to the more esoteric output of the label, drop a few of the less well-performing bands, citing "amicable differences", and then in five years' time, the label will be little more than an EMI or Warner shell, at which point it will be wound up; the highest-selling bands moving to the major label, and all the others chucked out into the street.

Cynical? Me?

currently playing: Prefab Sprout – When The Angels

All-New Disturbing Tales of Superman!

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Girls: Don't trust Jimmy Olsen.
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MY EYES! MY POOR, BEAUTIFUL EYES.

currently playing: Amerie – One Thing

The Jungle!

Watch out for tiggers!

Evey Evey Evey Evey Evey

You have to hand it to the Government. Not satisfied with one huge, highly-volatile database, the likes of which the world has never seen before, they want another one! Only this time, little black boxes in Britain’s 30m cars will be talking to satellites, keeping track of us wherever we go (unless, er, you drive a car that doesn’t have a box inside. I’m guessing that the Transport Secretary has a plan for that. Although I’m not optimistic).

Good evening, London. It's nine o'clock and this is the Voice of Fate broadcasting on 275 and 285 metres in the medium wave.

Meanwhile, from the "juxtaposition that makes you laugh and despair at the same time"-department:

currently playing: Martina Topley Bird – Too Tough to Die

"I Know It's Out Of Fashion, And A Trifle Uncool"

No better soundtrack to this weekend, I think (This Is The Ice Age and Danseparc are also well worth tracking down, but sadly, all three are a little hard to find on CD, although at least they're in print in the UK).

currently playing: Martha & The Muffins – Danceparc (Everyday It's Tomorrow)

Yike!

Live 8’s response to recent criticism: Stereophonics drafted in to play London. And if you don’t pipe down, they’ll do a Phil Collins with them…

Oh, goodness, and the zombified remains of Queen as well!

If we have a Spice Girls reunion, Geri is non-negotiable. All five, throwing evil glances at each other, and an evil Simon Fuller laughing maniacally in the background. We might as well get some entertainment from the night…because it's not going to come from Sting and Madonna's duet of Imagine (which may be the moment where the G8 will finally cave, if only to end the hideous nightmare).

currently playing: Saint Etienne — Side Streets

Fold Your Links Child, And Walk Like A Peasant

Sasha Frere-Jones (a critic for the New Yorker) announces that he will no longer review music that is only available through listening sessions, and EMI announces that their secrecy protocols for the new Coldplay album have been so successful that X&Y only leaked a week before the UK release date. Before going on to say that they don’t think pre-release leaking harms music sales, but they’ll spend all the money on trying to prevent it anyway.

(Incidentally, how did EMI get to be so dependent on Coldplay, anyway? I remember buying Shiver five (six?) years ago, and thinking that it was okay for a Jeff Buckley impression, but nothing all that special. And now they're the biggest band in Britain. Yes, my music prediction skills are almost as good as my political ones)

Everybody needs one of these! Secure that ice-cream, soldier!

I want this t-shirt.

The Japanese show, once again, that they are strange, freaky, and capable of making the most wonderful of toys.

The secret themes within Revenge of The Sith (warning: is completely nuts).

And finally, Jamie Hewlett's comic adaptation of Pulp's Common People!

currently playing: Nouvelle Vague – I Just Can't Get Enough