My current choice of computers is a 6 year old desktop and a 5 year old laptop. I desperately need a more up-to-date machine. Here's a list of what I use my machines for and what I think I need.

Software

• Music software - primarily Ableton Live but also Propellerheads Reason and NI Traktor
• Development - Adobe Flash and general web dev
• Day-to-day - web, IRC, office, photo editing/graphics etc.

Hardware requirements

• Minimum of 500Gb HDD, preferably as high as possible
• Minimum of 8Gb RAM
• Fancy graphics card
• Lots of USB ports for MIDI controllers etc.
• FireWire for my audio interface
• As much future-proofing as possible!

Bearing the above in mind, I feel that my options are either a MacBook Pro or a Lenovo ThinkPad 520, both tricked out and weighing in at around the same price.

However, I'm torn over getting a MacBook Pro. On the one hand they have amazing build quality and seem to be sturdy enough to take out DJing/whatever. On the other, well... I don't like Apple's approach to developers or their attitude to Flash. I'm really not fussed about Mac OS, I'd rather use Windows (for music) and Ubuntu (for development). The only reason I'd be interested in Mac OS is for publishing iOS applications. Could I get away with triple-booting between Ubuntu, Mac OS and Windows 7? Considering I'd want to use Windows for music-making, would the latency be too much using this method?

Is anyone able to help me out here? Should I be going for such a pricy laptop or just grab something cheap? Either help me make up my mind (although I'm not asking for a platform war in the comments) or confuse things by introducing new challengers!

Paul showed up to the Wizard's party, dressed like Jesus, at Easter and I lost my shit laughing at him. then he put on the dinosaur mask

Going to a wizard-themed fancy dress birthday party - dressed as Jesus. On Good Friday*. And shitting it up with a dinosaur mask. That's got to get me a sweet, sweet blasphemy Brucie bonus, right?

* I'd completely forgotten the signifance of the date when I packed my costume.

I received a link to this video on Alexandros Maragos' blog through our internal work e-mail and it's now doing the rounds on Twitter.

Sadly it's a fake and here's why.

First of all, if you've ever used an iTrip or similar FM transmitter, you'd have probably encountered one of their major flaws straight away - they have a very limited range if you want a clear signal. Even a few metres away from each other and sound quality starts to drop significantly. If you try to use this setup on the same frequency as a broadcast radio station, you'd best be indoors and have the transmitter right on top of the receiver to have any chance of it working otherwise the strength of the broadcast radio signal will massively overpower the tiny output of a handheld transmitter. I didn't see any large batteries attached to Alexandros' transmitter or "repeater", so I find it hard to believe it would have the strength to overwhelm the signal sent to the screens. Think about the hardware required to run a pirate radio station and then wonder if it could be successfully miniaturised to the size of the circuits shown in the video.

This assumes that the video screens in Times Square use some form of RF or wi-fi signal to receive the signal they display. RF seems unlikely as they would need individual streams for each screen that shows a different signal. Wi-fi is even less likely as it can be slow, prone to interference and susceptible to hacking. I work in advertising and although it's predominately web-based, there are certain principles that are the same across the industry - if you've booked advertising space somewhere and your ad doesn't go up when and where it's supposed to, someone's in deep shit. Judging by these figures that would involve an awful lot of money and so I can't see a competent tech team implementing wi-fi as it's just too unreliable. Even taking into account the costs of digging up bits of New York City to lay it, cables would be cheaper, faster, and less likely to be tampered with than wi-fi. Considering that the screens at Times Square have been around longer than wi-fi technology has, I'd wager that it'd be easier to upgrade the existing infrastructure instead of replacing it with a new system when wi-fi came out. I've had acquaintances that have investigated the feasibility of hacking the screen adverts and announcement boards in the London Underground and they didn't get very far purely because practically everything was cabled for security reasons. I'd be very surprised if Times Square was any different.

Most importantly, judging by information from Apple themselves, no model of iPhone can output video from the headphone socket. To be on the safe side I looked on-line for any third party peripherals that might be able to achieve this but so far I've not found anything of worth.

Unless the next update is an independently verifiable circuit diagram, his hack is all just bluster. And probably the result of an afternoon spent in After Effects.

Can you wait at least one more week? I'm out of the country this weekend and I don't want to miss the party:

On the first Saturday after Margaret Thatcher dies, Class War is calling a mass party to start at 6pm, in Trafalgar Square, scene of the most famous riot against her policies!

Whether or not you want to remenicse about the good old days of rioting against the poll tax, to toast old friends who fought Thatcherism, or just want to celebrate the death of the most reviled woman in Britain, we hope to see you there.

Bring your champagne, fireworks, party clothes and yourselves!

London Class War

Remember to check Is Thatcher dead yet? and pop one of these in the post when you hear confirmation (found via Allan Cavanagh):

Residents of Democracy Village, a protest camp in Parliament Square, were evicted in the early hours of this morning.

What is it with the Police doing this sort of thing in the middle of the night?

Original photo sourced from telegraph.co.uk

I found these Open University textbooks in Stoke Newington while walking home from the bus stop. They'd been left on a garden wall with a few other items, hopefully they were left out to be recycled and I didn't just pinch them.

I've always had an interest in artificial intelligence and I'm still gutted that I didn't get to study my holy trifecta of AI, Latin and Computer Science at university, instead settling for a dismal Multimedia course at London Met.

After a quick flick through them they seem pretty interesting. Hopefully I can use some of the concepts to improve the AI for one or two game projects I've had kicking around my head.

On my way home from work the other day I stumbled across a bike in Stoke Newington. Chained to a lamppost and painted white, it didn't look like it was to be used, so I snapped a photo with the intent to find out if it was part of any particular street art project.

Coincidentally I ran across another, this time on my way to work when I got off the bus a stop early to grab some breakfast. This one's purpose was more clear, as there were the remains of some flowers and a laminated placard. It turns out these were ghost bikes placed in memory of cyclists killed on the road. The one in Clerkenwell was for Rebecca Goossen:

The colleagues of an architectural assistant killed by a lorry at a notorious central London junction paid an emotional tribute to her this week by placing a “ghost bike” at the scene of her death.

Rebecca Goossen, a 29-year-old German who worked at Farringdon-based Metropolitan Workshop, was struck by a cement mixer turning left between Goswell Road and Old Street two weeks ago.

Goossen, who was cycling from her home in Bethnal Green to Metropolitan Workshop’s office, was pronounced dead at the Royal London Hospital.

Mounted on that weird thick plasticard stuff too. Thanks, Vlad. Thlad.

Source

Last night I saw Atari Teenage Riot play at The Electric Ballroom in Camden. They were one of the bands I used to love as a Kerrang-reading teenager but I'd never managed to make it to one of their few shows in England. It was their first gig in the UK in about a decade and as it's being sold as their final tour I figured I'd catch them while I still had the opportunity.

Did they live up to 10 years of anticipation? Well, yes - they played an absolutely blinding gig, belting out the classics and all the expected tunes from their last few albums. With nothing but a banner as a backdrop, the music was at the forefront as the various members would screech the lyrics and alternate running back to the decks or drum machines. The set overran and after closing with the anthemic "Revolution Action", descended into unadulterated chaotic noise.

I was just happy they played "Ghost Chase" although a little disappointed I didn't hear my favourite - "You Can't Hold us Back".

There were two downsides to the night. Hanin Elias was conspicuous by her absence (as well as Carl Crack but that can't exactly be helped). Support act Ulterior were one of the worst acts I've seen, boring music and no stage presence, even after the heckling started. Who on Earth booked them to support someone like ATR?

Just got back from doing my little bit for democracy (for today, anyway). I was pleasantly surprised to find a queue on my arrival and so I had a friendly little chat with two of my Hasidic Jew neighbours while we waited to cast our votes. I'm only mentioning their ethnicity because a few weeks ago one of the prospective Labour councillors came canvassing. During his sales pitch he asked me to vote tactically in the local election as the Greens and Liberals poll badly in this ward, while the Jewish population tend to vote to en masse to the right of centre. The fellows I talked to seemed keen on UKIP but didn't sound too impressed with the Conservatives. We spoke about Nigel Farage's plane crash and the riots in Greece, the three of us remarking that Britain might not be so far from a similar situation before heading to the booths.

I voted for the Liberal Democrats in the nationals despite this probably being a "wasted vote" as this borough is pretty much a safe seat for Labour. But as my MP is Diane Abbott I'd be fairly happy if she was reelected and so my vote goes a little way to shore up the popular vote for the Liberal Democrats.

In the local elections my vote went to two of the three Labour candidates, the gentleman who came a-canvassing and his female counterpart because I'm all about equality/special treatment for women. The last vote went to the only Green candidate because she's got such a delightful name - Precious Martini-Brown. Well, that and the Greens have done some good work here in the 7 or so years I've been living in Hackney.

The final vote was for the Mayor of Hackney. My first choice was for the Liberal Democrat candidate, second choice went to Monty Goldman, finally fulfilling a childhood wish to vote for the Communist Party.

As I left the polling station the queue was even longer, meaning it's likely I've lost the money I put on a bet of a low turnout a few months back. So a bad day for my wallet but hopefully a good day for democracy.