John Tiernan – Blog

One of my favourite songs. Can’t help but love the video too.

TV On The Radio – Staring at the Sun

Although that does raise a question, what is your favourite song?

Important news first, Newcastle Science Fest and Maker Faire UK have been announced! Find out more about the Maker Faire at the site http://makerfaireuk.com/

In music news, System of a Down have announced they are getting back together. I’m very excited about this. Not often a great band gets back together. Cannot wait to hear what their time working on solo projects does to the overall sound.

In other music news, the head liners for 2011’s Evolution festival have been announced and include Iggy and The Stooges. Yes, you heard right, Iggy and the Stooges. I for one didn’t see this coming and are in two minds about it. On one hand it could be a brilliant show and as loud as the Stooges should be, but on the other it could just be dull as they all start to feel their age and don’t have the energy to do anything like you would expect. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Then again, at £35 per ticket, maybe not.

In tech news, I must admit something. I got a tiny bit bored and may have started creating another CMS. Not sure why, it just felt necessary at the time…
This particular one is being based on the MVC concept and will also include a brand new authentication system to go with it. Parts may be made open source, but to be honest, getting it working is the priority right now.

Short update over, all is well, how about you?

Tonight (October 6th), the amazing Marian Call plays at the Thinkgeek HQ, to add to the fun, the full event is being streamed live here. Why am I mentioning this? Simple, Marian is an amazing artist and of course, an amazing geek. I really cannot do justice here, you need to check her out for yourself. Whether you catch the second half of her show live, watch the recorded version later or whatever, you must check her out and support her if you like her stuff. Find out more at her site:

http://mariancall.com/

Recently I was introduced to the wonders of Laura Marling (Yeah Thanks Later…). As such I am slightly disappointed to have missed her playing in Newcastle at the Tyne Theatre. The awesome Steph did however make it. I highly recommend reading her review of the event over at her blog. You can find it here. A good read, for all, and certainly a blog to keep an eye on in general!

So I just got an invite to try mflow. I have to say, don’t bother.

Aside from the shiny interface (Which looks a bit too familiar…like Spotify familiar…) it really isn’t worth it. If you strip away the user interface you get a mash up. That is all it is. You can replicate the entire service yourself with a little bit of time, a bit of programming knowledge and the APIs for a few well known services.

Once you get an invite, download the application, install it, register for an account, input your invite code for a second time, slay a goat in honour of Sigmund (Todays God of choice), hit register again and finally open the program, you are in. The user interface is well design, all be it with a couple of interesting features that are not necessarily explained. The basis of the program is to share and/or buy music. It is all a little similar to Last.fm, just in a stand alone application. As such what you can do is this;

• Follow users
• Be followed by users
• Search for music
• Buy music
• Recommend music
• Preview music

So what exactly makes this different to using individual sites to do this? Well nothing really, one of the main selling points is the backing from several record labels. To get a similar experience, sign up for last.fm, youtube and a decent download site such as 7digital. This way you get full tracks, cheap downloads, videos and a better community. Sure both options have their advantages and disadvantages, but honestly? I don’t see any point in wasting time with an application (Thats going to eat up your drive space where you could put your music…) when you can do everything it offers else where and without the need for an invite code.

Verdict: Could be good, but doesn’t look like it is happening any time soon.

Note

I am in no way supported or otherwise affiliated with the companies mentioned. This review is independent and not biased.

So after this weekends MakerFaireUK and the associated Virtual Treasure Hunt, a few blogs and sites have shown up that are worthy checking out:

• www.hayleymbirch.co.uk | http://hayleymbirch.wordpress.com/blog/
• www.soundsofscience.co.uk
• http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Site/Intro.html
• http://geekpop.podbean.com/
• http://www.craftlass.com/
• http://www.oomlout.com (Technically not a new find, but still worth checking out!)

Any other sites you think should be on there? Comment and they may be added!

Highlights of the MakerFaire include: all of it.

Once in a while you come across a site worth sharing, other times you just happen to find them. This is one of those times.

A friend, commonly known as Steph has one such page. In this particular case, it is her blog. A must read for all art appreciators and music fans.

Until next time, enjoy.

So after a conversation with that mystery person (Actually just Zoey), I decided to make the list of links and associated musics available to all in a blog like post.  Apologies if some of you already know of them. I’ll post more when I think of them.
Enjoy.

• Sereena Maneesh – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiJmfCwju9k
• yourcodenameis:milo – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZXpa3gNips
• Add n to (x) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGGWrJp4JHA
• Steve Claydon (Never actually did much more, but the demo is great) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wauLt-8yPw
• Future of the Left – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeUIEL3z_n4
• Mclusky – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o66g12emwE (Also worth finding is Undress For Success)

• Biffy Clyro (Slight oddball in the list) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9fI5-WszO4

• Six by Seven – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYT1o6T0BkI
• Modey Lemon – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9leZ4IO3Qg
• Fugazi – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJFWirQ3ks
• Angelica – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelica_%28band%29
• Sparta – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eik6dKEljtE
• At The Drive In – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He6zvRwVW6Y
• My Bloody Valentine – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0dJqlvOSq4
• the pAper chAse – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNsfcH8lQFc
• Therapy? – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDVsIvvFtcs
• Clinic – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgez1yQPm7o