Tag Archives: random thoughts

The early adopter never learns

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Dead iPhone

Dead iPhone

There is no way to describe my hell right now as much as just plain outright disappointing. My love for Apple waning, my hatred for Symbian growing, my faith in OS similarly dying a slow death and my hatred for smartphones that don’t cope with any of the simplest tasks growing exponentially.

Match this with a disdain for new the new pricing structure of the Apple Macbooks combined with the inability for the MacBook Air that I currently type on to connect easily to a LAN connection and I am one not happy Nokia frustrated iPhone fucked up camper! I cant even take a call on my iPhone at the moment! What. The. Fuck?

I am pretty nerdy. I know its Friday night. But a lot of my personal and business life intertwines these days between consulting and graphic design and study and the iPhone has become a tool that I rely on, I just never realised how much.

I have paid my $100+ AUD for the right to call myself an iPhone developer and get the pre release software which all went pretty well, but since the latest version OS 3.0 software went public my developers version beta has gone troppo and I cant use it any more.

I have done everything to rectify this problem with no result. Which brings me to my hatred for the Nokia N96. Oh, My, Fucking, God I hate this operating system. I am trying to refrain from obscene language but this useless swamp donkey of a mobile OS should be put down seriously.

Could anyone actually build a slower, less responsive, laggy, buggy, shitty, OS for a handheld device than the peeps that bring us Nokia phones and Symbian? I hated everything about reverting back to this phone including paying $5 to download song and then not being able to find it anywhere on the bloody thing.

So having said all of that, I actually realised how much I appreciate the iPhone, its just a huge pity that it doesn’t work at the moment because of beta softare that now renders my phone as useless as titts on a bull. When will I ever learn?

The Blow Waves release first EP

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The Blow Waves self titled EP

The Blow Waves self titled EP

Self titled, the Blow Waves EP finally hit the iTunes store this week – and it’s a ripper.

I maybe biased with my best mate being in the band, but as an avid music fan I can honestly say this is good stuff. Just listen to the magical well crafted creepy counter melodies in ‘Attack of the Puppet People’, or the unbelievably infectious ‘Night Rider’ and you will know I am telling no porkies.

The band have gone with a 4 track EP before hitting the international circuit before returning home to record a full length album and there is not 1 of those 4 songs that doesn’t hit the mark. ‘The Beginning of Love’ is a beautifully crafted darker sounding single and I think is a strong contender for commercial air play.

Night Rider is undeniably my favourite and you can listen to the track almost in its entirety here as I did a short 3 minute video for Uni that highlighted the track for my documentary.

Restless Robots is an instant classic and deserves to make a showcase in the next George Ramero Zombie flick with it’s B52s inspired power pop. The boys really know how to construct a good song and this EP highlights just how much, from opener to closer and strength to strength these 5 boys are going to be stars mark my words.

Catch a live set now if you can, before your paying $100 to see them at Rod Laver Arena, or catch up with them on the interweb:

Bad service spreads like mozarella

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I had the worst bad service nightmare situation recently that I just have to spread the news and maybe deal up some retribution to a total ass who doesn’t appreciate repeat custom.

I catch up with a mate for a cheap pizza lunch every Friday at Cafe on Burke, that’s right – CAFE ON BURKE SHOP 1 number 50 Burke Street MELBOURNE , for a cheap but usually good pizza under $10 that is normally served in a pretty quick manner as like most, we get 1 hour for lunch.

So today, Friday June 12 was no different although the place was slightly busier than normal at 12:30pm when we arrived. I ordered in advance of my bud rocking up cause I knew he was even more pressed for time than normal.

He arrived a good 10 mins after I had ordered and we joked about his late arrival which really was my fault cause I couldn’t stand out in the cold any longer and decided my best course of action was to wait inside after having ordered.

Not the best pizza in town

Not the best pizza in town

At around 10 to 1 we started to worry our pizza was getting late as many other patrons around us were getting served. We let it slide, it was a busy lunch day Friday. At 5 past 1 my mate was getting really cranky and at 10 past 1 he decided to ask the guys behind the counter if our pizza order had perhaps been missed as it was now a good 40 mins since we ordered.

The chef then grappled around behind the counter, slips of papers resembling orders being flung around and made some sort of general announcement that our order was up ‘next’. This didn’t go down well. We quickly ascertained that after a 40 minute wait that if our pizzas hadn’t even hit the oven yet we were in for a very late lunch and promptly told them this wasn’t good enough and that we were leaving.

Which we did.

We were a good 100 metres down the road when a frumpy, frothing at the mouth, Italian man cam thundering down the road screeching obscenities in our general direction.

What ensued is not suitable for print due to the poor nature of this mans vehemence directed at us over our poor custom and disgraceful behavior for walking out in a busy period when our order had only been taken 10 mins ago. This he threatened us, brandishing a piece of paper with someones order on it, and a stamp that clearly said 12:59, but which also quite clearly was not ours, was a ridiculous expectation of a busy popular pizza house and HOW DARE WE leave without paying for our can of coke? I was so over the wait that I forgot to pay for my coke as we left. Woops.

Let me say that this kind of customer service goes down with me about as well as swallowing razor blades and is about as popular with my friend as is masturbating with a cheese grater, and as we stood there faced by this raving lunatic of a business owner I really had no idea how to react. I thought that we acted quite normally, 40 mins in the CBD waiting for lunch to be served deserved a walk out – ok I shoulda maybe paid for the drink but hey I was in a spin and didn’t feel like much else but eating something.

So at the wrath of a foaming overweight Italian very close to Lygon street after just having watched Underbelly I thought better of doing a runner and went to pay for my coke, but let me tell you – don’t hedge your bets at this place. One day its all $9 pizzas and smiles for miles in 15 minutes, the next its ‘no soup for you!’ foaming crazy men chasing you out of cheap diners down Burke street for 2 fucking dollars. Run while you still have the chance.

Robot guitars – another step closer to God

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I dont think I can take much more. Gibson, the guitar made by God himself and planted on this earth in 1957 or thereabouts to keep us sane has gone robotic.
I could die a happen man today if I could lay my hands on one, actually just knowing that they exist is enough.

The Gibson Robot Les Paul

The Gibson Robot Les Paul

But is it truly robotic I hear you say? What does it do? Play itself? Thankfully the answer to that is no. Playstation Ultimate Rockstar can rest easy yet nervously on the shelves at department stores for a while longer yet.

This babies main features are that it TUNES itself perfectly. And that is no mean feat, and not just standard A440 tuning either, it can do just about all of the bizarre stuff that made Sonic Youth and the Smashing Pumpkins sound so fucking cool in the 90s grunge era.

Every broken a string in the middle of a song in a set on stage? No? Well let me tell you how much it SUCKS. If it was a vacuum cleaner it would be Dyson bagless super sucker. It really sucks hard. And changing a string in between songs is not something anyone really wants to do cause it takes time. Not anymore. The Gibson Robot Guitar will have that broken fucker off and a new one wound on in nano-seconds with its unique (and patented) String Up mode. And tuned perfectly!

Purists of the 1957 flametop would probably dive head first into a bucket of infected pigs blood before they would play a robotic Gibson guitar that tuned itself but for me its the perfect blend of geek heaven meets guitar fetish and I want one more than the Rolex I have been crapping on about getting for my 40th birthday for who knows how long…ok maybe not that much, but quite a bit.