Dec2012 30


Very smooth. Reminds me of old school LL.

Dec2012 14

Dec2012 11


After the first trailer that looked more like World's Deadliest Catch, this second trailer gives us a greater look at the overall feel of the movie.

So, is the world ready for another Superman ?

Dec2012 10


"Motives aside, this should come as an extremely useful feature to most Twitter users. Twitter for Android has already been updated, and an official update to Twitter for iOS is expected to be released at any moment."

Dec2012 05


So, that's what cats get up to when away from their owners. If you're still confused, check out the Prodigy's original video clip (NSFW).

Nov2012 30

NaNoWriMo 2012 StatsIn the month of November, I participated in NaNoWriMo, the mammoth task of writing 50,000 words for novel in just 30 days. I was up for the challenge. 

I had started to write a novel in my early 20s but only got a few chapters, some 20 odd pages completed. NaNoWriMo gave me the excuse to start again, start fresh with a new idea and just let the words emanate. It was pretty liberating, not having to worry too much about editing, just smashing out the words and ideas began to flow in the fast pace fashion of speed novel long.

NaNoWriMo 2012 - Graph

I was pretty much keeping pace until about 10 days in my shoulder and arm started to feel sore. It was all the extra typing I was doing -- my body couldn't cope. For the next 3 days, I struggled with the pain, trying to keep the story alive but alas I knew if I continued, I was at risk of doing myself a permanent injury. I actually still living the pain at present.

So, what does it mean for my 40% complete novel ? Does this mean Mitch will never to get to save Candy from Skelon Myers and the evil Dr Mandrel ?

No. I hope not.

Just like crafting a statue, I plan to just chip away at the story when I can. I've even investigated trying out speech applications such as Dragon Dictate, but this requires you to be in a quiet room with no one around. I've been doing the majority of my writing whilst listening to drum and bass mixes and on public transport, so speech software wasn't the answer to allow me to continue NaNoWriMo, but will hopefully allow me to continue building the story.

Oct2012 25


Check out this cool video about "Spatially Targeted Communication and Self-Assembly" with an AR Drone and other robots. So cool.

Oct2012 11


Watch this great video, which explains the sport of Paintball to all parents out there and helps to clear up the common misconceptions that surround the game.

Sep2012 26


Kid Koala released his new LP "12 bit BLUES" on on Ninja Tunes. It also includes a cardboard hand powered record player that you build with the first run of CDs and 2xLPs.

Sep2012 24


Check out this Lego Great Ball Contraption. If you know Japanese (or how to use Google Translate), you can follow his blog here.

Here's some stats:-
+ 500 balls running at 1.0 balls/sec
+ size : 1.5m×6.5m
+ path length : 31m
+ construction time : 600 hours

It's just totally mesmerizing ...

Sep2012 17


Hahaha ... hilarious.

Sep2012 17

Apple EarpodsIt's been 11 years since Apple released the iPod and unleashed the ubiquitious white earbuds to the world. Initially, these earbuds came with black foam on the outside, but eventually they slightly changed the shape and dropped the foam. Well, today I got latest incarnation called Earpods. Cue Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra (ala 2001 opening theme).

So, why did I get this latest product ? Okay, truth be told, Jony Ive sold me. He could sell ice to Eskimos and it would be the smoothest, most polished and best designed piece of ice you've ever seen. This little video about the new Earpods talks about how Apple has been researching and developing these for sometime, 3 years in fact.

So, how do they sound ? Well when compared to the old earbuds, they are significantly better. They sound more richer, more fuller and the sound seems to come from in front of you rather than from the side. I know that might sound a little strange, but it has to do with the way the sound is directed down the ear canal.

Return of the Bass

Thanks to the inclusive of slits in the ear piece, this enables air to flow and allows the speaker to move more freely, which means more bass for you. For the first time in 7 years since I bought my first iPod Shuffle, I could hear and "feel" the bass. Wired reviewed the Earpods and even commented they were as good as some of the $100 earphones on the market such as Beats and Shure. Now, Beats have always been overrated so that's no surprise, but Shure make good products.

Everybody's ears are not the same and so it's impossible to make a one size fits all, however, I found them to sit in my ears with no trouble. A friend of mine can't stand the earbuds and prefers the in-ear models by other vendors, but me personally I find the in-ear headphones to be too intrusive. Leo Laporte also uses in-ear headphones but mentioned on MacBreak Weekly that he has to replace the grommets every 3 months otherwise they get clogged up. Ewww.

The remote controls have also been updated. They feel pretty slick and responsive, though I'm yet to test the microphone in a phone call sense.

So, for $35 it was a great purchase and my ear's look forward to hours of enjoyment to come.

Songs I used to test:-

BCee - Captured in Time (VIP Mix)
Random Movement & Dave Owen - Child's Play
Netsky - Love Has Gone (Enei Remix)

Sep2012 12


Developers Ubisoft Shanghai have released a new third person post-apocalyptic game using the Unreal Engine and I think they've outdone themselves. This game has all the hallmarks of a AAA title yet comes at an indie price of $18 AUD on Steam.

You play the unnamed male and without giving too much of the story away you're looking for your family in a dust-filled desolate world with shady characters and dark, bleak situations. The game takes place one year after America has gone through a massive disaster included earthquakes that destroyed most cities and areas known only as "The Event".

As a PC gamer, it plays like a console game, however I didn't find the camera or controls to be frustrating. Being a dust-filled world, there is a grainy filter applied to the video, which helps to immerse you into this dire world. Whilst, it's may fall into the "nothing new" category, I would argue that most games don't need to do something new every time and still be an enjoyable play. This is where I Am Alive fits in.

7/10

Sep2012 04


The guys from PrimerLabs write "We are recovering physically from PAX and nailing down all the bugs that cropped up with the new level creator that syncs what you build to the server. We're going to ship the new Code Hero Alpha to everyone this Friday.

Full PAX report and announcement coming also this week! Here is the trailer of the new Code Hero for you to enjoy till more updates and the Alpha release this Friday."

Aug2012 26


On the 19th August, 2012, the 5th Annual Australian Haiku Users and Developers Conference was held at The University of Queensland.

Aug2012 13


A conceptual design submitted to this year’s James Dyson Awards by Andrey Kokorin, would have cooks placing food in a spherical pod to be cut into custom segments using lasers.

Check out the cool concept video.

Jul2012 29


MacMixing.com shows a hands-on review of the iCade Core, the 2nd generation iCade device, that is a bluetooth joystick controller for your iPad. This model supports landscape mode too ... I wonder if the joystick and buttons are better quality than the previous version though.

Jul2012 20


Hehe ... this video pretty much sums up what it's like playing DayZ - the free roaming, Zombie survival simulation game, where Zombies are the least of your worries.

Jul2012 11

iPhoneToday is my 4th anniversary as an iPhone owner. I stood in line (first and only time) at Optus and was lucky to be one of the few people to get a prepaid unlocked iPhone 2 - the first iPhone to officially launch in Australia.

I was hooked. Before owning the iPhone, I was a PDA user - Palm to be precise. I started with the Handspring, the first colour PDA and I even had the mobile attachment for it. Sure it was big and bulky and people would snigger at it, which is exactly why I'd never get one of these phablets or tablaphone such as the Galaxy Note. I then went through the Tungsten series and then the LifeDrive, the first PDA with a 4GB hard drive. It was a great device despite it's battery life and poor web browser. It had Wifi, my notes, my calendar events and contacts.

So, to me at least, the iPhone was a natural progression.

Palm was dead in the water after they bought and shelved BeOS (yes, I'm bitter) and then failing to get their new version of PalmOS out the door. Here came Apple with a touch screen device with built in storage, wifi, contacts/calendars in fact all the things the LifeDrive did but much better. No stylus required, excellent browser support with Mobile Safari, 5-6x better battery life and the ecosystem was a thriving. It was a cellular device too, which meant I could get rid of my Nokia phone and it's clunky interface. 

Any device I own, I must code for it. I can't help myself. I like to write apps and so the Xcoding journey began first with the official Rinse FM app, which is still my most popular release to date. I'm still rocking an iPhone 4, skipped the 4S due to finances and the fact that the 4 is still usable, with the iOS 6 beta and am looking forward to seeing what Apple does next. 

Jun2012 18

Rated R"At last, we're going to get an R18 rating for games. Come January 2013, gaming grows up in Australia." writes AtomicPC.

“These are important reforms over 10 years in the making,” said the Minister for Home Affair, the Hon John Clare.

This means that games like Left 4 Dead 2 won't get bastardised and games like Syndicate won't just get a flat out ban.

Jun2012 15




Check out this PBS special. Great stuff.

Jun2012 11

WWDC 2012 KeynoteToday in San Francisco, Apple launched WWDC 2012 with it's opening introduction from Siri. Tim Cook then took the stage to talk about how well the App Store is doing and how it only going to just get bigger. He then showed a video highlighting how the iDevices has been embraced by blind people, growing businesses and education.

The MacBook family was the first to get a refresh with the Air and Pro getting the Ivy Bridge processor, faster graphics, memory and storage and IO (USB 3 port). Phil Schiler then introduced the new thin MacBook Pro with Retina Display (2880 x 1800). This is amazing, he showed a Final Cut screenshot that had a full 1080p viewer window and still plenty of room left over for the timeline. It has 2 thunderbolt ports, USB3, HDMI and SD card slots. Photographers and Movie people will flock to this machine. The caveat is those 2 thunderbolt ports are for your Gigabit Ethernet adapter and FireWire 800 if you need them. Priced at $2,499 AUD.

Craig Federighi then came out to talk about OS X Mountain Lion and it's iCloud support being added to numerous applications. He also showed off the other iOS-like apps such as Messages, Reminders, Notifications and Game Center. We'd seen all this at the Mountain Lion preview early this year, however, he continued to show newer features such as the new Safari with (finally) searching from address bar and iCloud tab syncing. A new power saving feature called PowerNap that allows apps to update even while the machine is in sleep mode; AirPlay Mirroring is available so you can now beam your OS X desktop to say an Apple TV or XBMC (when they fix the Mac version). Awesome. Mountain Lion will be available next month and cost $19.99 US to cover all your Macs.

Scott Forstall (aka the smug bastard) hit the stage to show off the latest iOS version 6. Siri got a number of improvements including language support for Korea and China. It's also coming to the new iPad (3rd Gen). A big social move by Apple was adding Facebook integration to iOS with single sign-on much like the Twitter support but also does things like integrate the birthdays to your address book.

A nice welcomed feature is Do Not Disturb allowing you to schedule when you don't want phone calls / notifications. No more needing to make sure the phone is on silent before going to bed now. FaceTime now allows you to make 3G calls, so no surprises there.

Safari gets the tab syncing feature as mentioned with OS X and full screen support for landscape mode. Mail gets a new feature called VIPs, which allows you to set particular users as VIPs meaning they get priority support and also makes it easier to see just their emails.

PassBook is a new app for tickets, boarding pass, store cards, etc to be integrated in the one place. Not sure how many Australian businesses will use this feature but it would be nice. At least US users are going to have fun with this.

Maps has not only a new icon but is completely written from the ground up app and dumps Google Maps to boot. The map searches are anonymous, real-time and crowd sourced. It also includes turn by turn navigation, which works from the lock screen. Siri is also integrated as well. There is a new feature called Flyover, which gives a top down 3D mode for maps where they not only showed off San Francisco but Sydney as well. It looks really good. Apple has done to maps what they've done to other markets and re-envisaged and blown away the competition.

iOS 6 is available to developers today and available to the public in Fall (Northern) / Spring (Southern).

Jun2012 07

Algoriddim, the developers behind the djay application for iPad, iPhone and OS X now have a new app called vjay - The iPad Music Video Mixing app.




Looks intriguing ...

Jun2012 07

The recent transit of Venus across the sun is probably the last time anyone alive in 2012 will witness this rare celestial alignment. Fortunately, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was on hand to capture the event like nothing else.



Absolutely amazing rare NASA Footage from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. I had goosebumps watching this.

May2012 26


Recorded Live: 26th May, 2012

May2012 20

Ludum Dare (from Latin "to give a game") is a game development competition where the participants have 48 hours to create a game. All of the code and content must be created during the 48 hours, each entry must be created by a single person and source code must be shown.

<a href='http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?uid=12633' title='Fracuum' target='_blank'>Fracuum</a>

This year's theme was "Tiny World" and had 1402 submissions. Phew! But there can only be one winner, "Fracuum" by TylerGlaiel.

Some runner-ups, worth looking at titles are Inside My Radio, Super Strict Farmer and Extensionism.

May2012 08


Kenji Ishida of Japan's JS Robotics has posted a video of his "Transformer Version 8," a radio-controlled robot that can not only transform between humanoid and car-shaped forms, but can also perform a variety of actions in both forms.

Apr2012 29


Recorded Live: 29th April, 2012

Apr2012 04


Check out this cool iOS (iPhone) music creation app called Figure by Propellerheads.

Very easy to use and get going, in fact, I downloaded it on the train this morning and started making beats straight away. It's an initial release so it can be forgiven for missing a few things I'd like to see such as export/save for the songs you've created and more sequencing.

Still at $0.99 AU, it's a bargain and another tool to add to my music creation arsenal.

Apr2012 02

It took awhile to be delivered, but it's finally arrives - the Joystick-It iPad Arcade Stick from ThinkGeek.

First thing you'll notice is it's not silver like the pictures off ThinkGeek, but that's semantics ... so, how well does it work ? Well, seeing as though I don't have an iPad yet (3rd gen is coming soon), I haven't had a proper chance to test it on an iPad.

Joystick-It on iPhone

So my initial testing has been with the iPhone 4, even though it only officially supports the iPad. I tried a number of games such as Dig Dug, R-Type, X-Men, Karate Champ and the Midway Arcade. Some of these games, at least on the iPhone, have a very small joystick area and the Joystick-It's suction cap actually covers up the pad making it very hard to do all the controls.

Joystick-It - iPad and iPhone

It was only games like X-Men and R-Type that seemed to have an area big enough, enabling control and these were great to play, especially R-Type. Karate Champ was an epic fail as they've used virtual joysticks and they're not pads at all, making it impossible to control. Pity, cos the virtual joysticks are terrible. I had a nice game of Gauntlet on the iPhone (with 8 way movement) and am looking forward to doing some further testing on the iPad.

At $9, you can't go wrong.

Apr2012 01


Recorded Live: 31st March, 2012

Mar2012 28

ElectroslaveRecorded: 25th February, 2012

Tracklist
Ferry Corsten feat. Ben Hague - Ain't No Stoppin (Sunnery James Ryan Marciano Remix) [Flashover Recordings]
Mightyfools - Thunderbad [Lektroluv]
Afrojack, Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike & Nervo - The Way We See The World (Tomorrowland Anthem Instrumental) [Wall Recordings]
Hot Pink Delorean - Get It Girl (B.Rich Remix) [Hot Pink Delorean Music Company]
Deekline & Wizard feat. DJ Assault - Night Moves (Beat Assassins Remaster) [Rat]
Wolfgang Gartner - There And Back (Dead C T Bounce Remix) [Ultra]
Wolfgang Gartner - The Way It Was (Extended Mix) [Ultra]
Dirty South & Thomas Gold feat. Kate Elsworth - Alive (Tommy Trash Remix) [Phazing]
Wolfgang Gartner feat. Will.I.Am - Forever (Extended Mix) [Ultra]
David Guetta - Without You (Nicky Romero Remix) [F*** Me I'm Famous]
Cut & Run - Hello [Cut & Run]
Benny Benassi feat. Kelis & Apl De Ap & Jean-Baptiste - Spaceship [Ultra]
Seed, MonstaR - The Undertakers Wife (Seed Remix) [Rhinofist]
The Moogs - Split (Creepers Gonna Creep Remix) [Graygoo Records]

Click here to download.

Mar2012 07

ElectrobowlRecorded: 6th February, 2012 ... right after the Giants beat the Patriots in Superbowl XLVI.

Tracklist
Wolfgang Gartner - The Champ (Extended Mix) [Ultra]
Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (Electrocisum Remix) [White Label]
Vandalism - Insane (Cold Blank Remix) [Vicious]
The SlutGarden - Get Up Girls [SHAX TRAX]
The Bloody Beetroots - Warp 1977 (TWOisONe Kick Ass Mix) [White Label]
DJ E-MaxX - Electro Bass (Alex De Vito Remix) [Balloon Records]
R.I.O. Vs. Taio Cruz Vs. LMFAO Vs. Avicii Vs. David Guetta – Animal Hangover (Erick Decks & DJ Dazz Mashup Party Weapon) [White Label]
Philipp Ray & Viktoriya Benasi - Rock My Heart (DJ Nejtrino & DJ Baur Remix) [White Label]
Jason Parker - Your Life (Extended Club Remix) [ML Media]
Wordz Deejay - Pushin Me (Extended Mix) [Balloon Records]
Chuckie - Who Is Ready To Jump (L&M Project Remix 2012) [White Label]
Steve Aoki feat. Wynter Gordon - Ladi Dadi (Autoerotique Remix) [Ultra]
Mike Nero - Believe (Drunk & Brilliant Remix) [Balloon Records]
MSTRKRFT feat. John Legend - Heartbreaker (Wolfgang Gartner Remix) [Dim Mak US]

Click here to download.

Feb2012 26


Recorded Live: 26th February, 2012

Feb2012 15

Feb2012 09

ElectromorphA bunch of new promos I got for the new year ...

Tracklist
DJ Ozi - Rock It [White Label]
Navi G. - Nothing You Can Do (AivaR & N'Lezzon Remix) [White Label]
The_Moogs - Taintless (Perfect Cell Remix) [Graygoo Records]
Avicii ft David Guetta - Sunshine (DJ P-SoniC ft Kokanidjo & Digital Attacker Remix) [White Label]
Calvin Harris - Feel So Close (DJ Newklear Mashup Extended Mix) [White Label]
AivaR vs. N'Lezzon - Let's Party (Electro Banger Extended Mix) [White Label]
David Guetta - Turn Me On (Yanis.S Remix) [White Label]
LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock - Party Rock Anthem (Downlow'd + MAD-SIN Bootleg Mix) [White Label]
AC DC vs Swedish House Mafia vs Knife Party - Big Gun Antidote 2012 (DJ Newklear Mashup Extended Mix) [White Label]
Swedish House Mafia Vs. Knife Party - Antidote (Tommy Trash Remix) [EMI UK]
Skream & Example - Shot Yourself In The Foot Again (DJ nErU Remix) [White Label]
Robin S - Show Me Love (Tauras T. Mashup) [White Label]
Skrillex - All I Ask of You (The S Remix) [White Label]

Click here to download.

Feb2012 08



Recorded: January 2012

Feb2012 06

The long awaited Kickstarter project, Infinite Loop has finally arrived.

This project had issues during it's production and hence was delayed; delayed so much, I'd pretty much forgotten about it (it was funded in July, 2011).

So I was a little disappointed to find that the suction cap doesn't work very well. Here's a photo of an iPhone 4 in action ...

Infinite Loop



Feb2012 05



Check out the extended version of Marvel's The Avengers upcoming movie, which aired during Super Bowl XLVI.

"I have an army ..." "We have a Hulk."

Epic.

Jan2012 26

Now in it's sixth year, Sikosis, N3B and Melonfarmer are back, bringing you the Top 20 Drum n Bass tracks from 2011. This year, we've got all the tunes available for streaming via Mixcloud.

We've setup a new site that's still under construction at top20dnb.com where you can listen to the Top 20 DnB for 2011 and we'll be adding the other years soon.

Jan2012 22

Recorded 31st December, 2011 and back from the dead, it's The Chill Factor with DJ Sikosis.

"Been awhile so I though it was fitting to do a mix for NYE 2011."





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