Monday, December 18, 2017
Comments:
nick: Not sure if I'd mentioned this before but Ella's gone vegan (just to complicate mealtimes even more, because Ryan's gluten free). Tim what is the name of that yeast stuff which Tina sprinkles on things? I can't help associating it with dandruff but I assume it's not called that. Ella was persuaded after watching a youtube video which she has forwarded to me but I've not plucked up courage to watch it yet.
I've switched to eating vitalite; haven't made the move to non-dairy milk though, and cheese is going to be tough (although Pizza Express do sell GF vegan pizzas which Ella says are quite nice)
Tim: Post edited :-)
£2-odd in H&B, or there's a B12-enhanced version for er, vegetarians I guess, that costs a bit more.
nick: Bridge Constructor Portal has turned up as the "app of the day" on my phone. I haven't finished playing Witness yet though, will have a concerted effort over Christmas. Maybe BCP will get cheaper (it's £4.99 now)
Steve: I tried a Sainsburys vegan cheese and almost had to spit it out as it was so strong-tasting and I was starting to heave. Probably the only "food" I have ever thrown away uneaten.
I want to do it though. Until I have Cadbury's.
nick: In other gaming news, Tony bought an Oculus Rift VR thing for himself and said he had the feeling of "I'll never be bored ever again".
So far as I understand it, you get a headset, gloves, and two cameras: you put the cameras on tripods somewhere (it guides you to do this), and they can "see" where you are because the headset and gloves have visible dots on them or something. So when you've got the helmet on you can move around (you tell it how much floorspace you have, and "walls" appear around the perimeter) and you see your (disembodied) hands moving around and picking things up.
We're going out for our Christmas curry tonight and he asked me to go round early so I can have a go with the VR headset. I'm interested to see what it's like (and am willing to be persuaded) but have a feeling it may turn out to be a gimmicky thing like 3D TV. (Tony says it's not at all like that, and VR is going to really take off)
Tim: I think "see what it's like" is key. 3D TV last time around was mildly interesting, I had a go with it (on games) at least 3 times.
So how did it go?
nick: So how did it go?
Well.
It was quite impressive. Once you have the visor on, you are inside the environment and it feels like it's all around you - you can look left, right, up, down and it's completely "there". One of the most impressive things is that as you move your head to look at something, it really feels like you're looking around even though what must actually be happening is that it's scrolling the display to make it appear that things in the world are in a static position. That was completely smooth; I didn't notice any glitching which gave away what was happening.
You wear hand controller things which have various buttons/triggers on them and the system knows where they are and what shapes you're making with your hand, so your hands appear in your view, and move around and flex. Often you navigate the system by pointing at things: as you point, a laser type beam comes out of your finger and you can direct it at things - e.g. panels with menus on them to choose what program you want to play.
You can also "pick things up" by grabbing them (it can tell when you're clasping things in the gloves) and then drop them/throw them.
I had a go with two apps
- google earth, which lets you zoom in/out anywhere in the world and fly around - you point the laser where you want to go, and move one of the buttons to indicate how fast you want to move, and you're off. I don't know how much data they have, but it must be pretty huge: I found my cycle route to work and flew along it - you get a 3d street view, but while you're doing it you can look around - up/down/left/right/behind you and everything's there. zoom up into the sky and you end up in space. Click and drag the sky and you can rotate it to change the time of day. I flew up the Thames and through the spokes of the London Eye.
- Robo Recall which is a first-person shooter with robots chasing you. This one made me jump a lot - when they run at you it's quite hard to avoid physically shrinking back. You can pick up guns to shoot with, and hit/grab the robots when they come close to you.
I was sitting down for this - Tony said you can stand up/walk around but this seems to be more prone to giving people motion sickness so the things I used achieved "movement" by pointing at where you want to go and either flying (google earth) or teleporting (robo recall) to the point you chose
Being on the edge of a cliff and peering over it in google earth was a bit queasy, but one thing that really knocked me was when I was in the robot game and looked down to the floor (which is all "there") and caught myself thinking "where have my legs gone??"
I can definitely see the appeal. It did feel a bit unsociable/selfish: Tony & Jonny were watching me, and could see on the PC screen what I was seeing, but it seemed like - more than normal gaming - there would be a temptation to isolate yourself from the real world. I am not sure how many games/applications there are - I guess that is what will be needed for it really to take off. It felt like there must need to be a phenomenal amount of data but perhaps games nowadays already have this and it's just a case of rendering what they already have a VR way.
Tim: I'm currently replaying a never-completed Myst game from 2003 (Myst 4 Revelation) and I'm often feeling hampered by the fact that I have to whizz the mouse around to look in different directions, and then I'm not *really* sure if I'm looking up or to the left or behind. If I could look around and still have a sense of direction that'd be fab.
What's this extra data you're on about?
nick: Re: extra data
In google earth it seems you can go down to street level anywhere on earth and see 3D photo rendering of everything. I don’t know how much of the world is cver d to this level of details but that’s a lot of data.
For the open world games you seem to be able to look anywhere you want - left,right,up,down,behind you and it’s all there. Maybe when they build pc games nowadays they have all this stuff modelled anyway and the vr environment simply lets them render more of what was already there but my reaction to being in it was to think how much information they must have to have coded into it
Steve: Btw if you haven't booked the gig 9th March can you miss me out? I have something on the 10th it turns out. I knew it was March but thought later.
Steve: Being "snowed in" has its advantages, like making a start on the jaw-dropping On and Off the Road. Only heard the 2011 mix CD version of Discipline so far but finding all sorts of amazements with the layers of odd guitars. One of the posters is from a US gig where Jon Anderson was supporting, that would have been a good night.
This is a serious labour of love by the DGM boys.
Only one thing missing, a pair of white gloves for handling the goodies.
Season Greetings.
Tim: I'm back at work for a couple of days so luckily there was no snow here (or at least it didn't settle).
I've just had a look at the track listing on Discogs and can't make much sense of it. But some of it's surround, can you do that?
Tim: I had a dream that Steve bought a land rover, or something. Nick was so impressed that straight away you were both heading off (in strange vehicles) to the dealer in Kent to get another one.
Steve: No surround here currently but I keep wondering about it as somewhere we have that huge amp of yours Tim. I have my Ruarks available.
It would be a faff though.
I need to print out a summary track listing and take the disks out of the 12" box to more easy access. Very impressed by the notes at the back of the book advising how to get best surround output.
nick: I vaguely remember the amp, but it's definitely Tim's. Talking of faffing how's your ripping going Tim?
Dreams: I frequently have dreams where I'm in a public place or at work and have no clothes on. The other day I dreamt it again and thought "oh no, my dream about being naked in public has come true!"
We just finished seeing people etc. for Christmas - Julie and Ken went to Spain for Christmas with Ken's brother who's planning on living there semi-permanently so it was a bit odd without them. They said it was nice and warm there.
Tim: Can't say I've done much ripping. But lots of newer stuff is coming from Bandcamp, so I'm downloading those. Still mostly listening to CDs though.
Tim: What happened to that AV receiver you acquired, Nick? AFAIK you didn't do anything with it so I was assuming that Steve ended up with it.
nick: I don't remember having an AV receiver.. - I've got an AV amp which has multiple HDMI inputs - use that for the PS4.
I thought you had some humungous silver thing.
Tim: Yes, I have. But for a while you had something similar that was a cast-off from some relly or friend. I think all it did was take up room on your office floor for a bit.
nick: oh yes... maybe I had one that came from Uncle Phil in Exeter. He gets through electronic equipment at quite a rate. Not got it now though so perhaps that's what Steve's got.
Am staying in today waiting for a phone call. Managed to get all my financial stuff done, tax return submitted, now going to try and catch up writing up book reviews, which are about 7 months out of date
Steve: Having a clear out, is anyone going to want the paperback The Second World War by John Keegan?
It did not grip me but is very well-regarded. Seems too good to go to a charity shop.
Steve: I have an embarrassingly tall stack of unread books but I go into a charity shop and oops I did it again.
Reading the stuff in the KC boxset reminded me of the time we travelled hopefully to London to see Discipline. How the heck did news like this spread before the Internet?
And I now see that the 40th anniversary versions of the 70s trilogy look worth it, each with extra DVD for reasonable price. The huge boxsets from that period do not look worth it with umpteen live sets when I have Great Deceiver and Night Watch already.
nick: Well done Tim - I was thinking I ought to say yes but I too have a huge pending stack. The annual pension statement got me reading up about retirement and they say it's good to have a plan on what you're going to do. So I think planning to read more history might be a good one.
How the heck did news like this spread before the Internet? Remember - we did have Tim.
Steve you must be well Crimsoned-out by now. I wish I liked the music more so I could get all that stuff. I am always impressed to hear it but I don't think I really get it.
Steve do you have a season ticket these days? Or are you mostly working from home? Green Party has a petition to bring railways back under public control. I signed it although I think I must have signed others of the same sentiment in the past and it doesn't seem to have worked yet.
Steve: I'm considering train options. Currently doing 2 days in the office so dailies are still cheaper. Need to investigate carnets which gives 10% off in theory. Problem is that WFH has made me realise that schlepping up to London doesn't give me very much work-wise. I'm not in the Dev team so have no direct colleagues to talk to locally. They have shrunk down and some of them only do 2-days in the office as well. So a typical day without the visitors like me has 4-5 people in. I also do customer meetings a bit and we don't have a meeting room I can use to prevent disturbing them, so again WFH wins.
So we are paying for the rail improvements but still have one of the worst stations in the UK. And the new trains have fewer seats even if they are longer as they are designed for standing capacity. And once the improvements are done, does the price go back down again?
Road users have had tax freezes. Although this is not as bad as paying 6% on a student loan.
Yes I have too much KC, but unlike Yes and their 6 stonking albums, KC manage to provide lots of interesting live variations. They seemed not to play the same thing twice.
There's no way they made any money on this release.
Labour want to bring the trains back to public ownership as well?
I suppose it's increasing public debt but why can't we have a go at some of the guaranteed money-making schemes with our pensions such as train leasing and power stations? Get something decent for your money.
Yes work is still in a lull from the holidays, can you tell?
nick: Mostly for Steve - have you come across a TV programme called "Inside No. 9"? I had never heard of it until I saw comments about a new series - apparently it's been going some time. A couple of people recommended the episode The 12 Days of Christine so I watched that. And I would say it is definitely worth a watch. I think Steve would like it. Don't read anything about it first (like I didn't) so you have no idea what to expect (like I didn't)!
Steve: I have seen a couple of them, very inventive but a bit too variable to set a reminder to watch them.
Steve: Been trying some DVD ripping using DVD Audio Extractor and it's not been easy. Previously was fine with music videos but this typically comes up with 4 sections with say 8 or 10 chapters. Very difficult to work out what album versions they are as often the track count does not tally with the written sleeve notes. Am I looking at the 30th anniversary version or the new one for example? And I'm pretty sure I can't see everything listed and available via TV DVD menu. Oh well, it gets me the high-res audio (if I can tell a difference) and some pleasurable hours of faff.
nick: DVD ripping can be problematic especially if they do copy protection - quite often there are lots and lots of fake tracks and it's hard to work out which is the right one. The DVD players and DVD playing apps manage it though so you wouldn't have thought it ought to be that hard for a ripping app to do it.
Got all togged up for cycling this morning and then when started the car noticed that one of my headlamp bulbs had gone. So spent half an hour in the freezing dark replacing it (I did have a spare, but it's unbelievably awkward to get your hand in to the bit where the bulb goes). Then went back inside and got untogged up and drove all the way in. I did have good intentions though.
Bought some Steely Dan CDs over Christmas (2.99 in HMV) which I am going to try and get into
Steve: Rumour has it that Luton HMV is going again soon if not already. Can't work out why HMV was rescued, it's on a downward trajectory.
I have Royal Scam which I've played loads but don't want any more. £2.99 is cheap though.
nick: Steve, if you've not watched that episode of inside no 9 I do recommend it - it will be on iPlayer for another few days. I didn't watch any of the other episodes in the series though.
Started to have dreams about Ella's wedding being TODAY AND I'VE NOT PREPARED. Haven't had one yet where I'm giving a speech and find I've got no clothes on, but I guess it's just a matter of time.
Been trying various types of non-dairy milk. Fave taste is cashew nut but I'm worried about the added sugar. People have recommended the oat one but I can't find it anywhere. I find the soya stuff has a bit of a powdery aftertaste
Tim: I gather that it's no good just trying "the soya stuff", you have to try every brand and subtype. Likewise with the all the other kinds.
Steve: Yes I watched it thanks, was about the most amazing 30 mins of TV you will see. Despite the terrible name McMafia is proving to be a winner.
Has to be Alpro soya unsweetened for me. I have tried others but not liked them. Used to like So Good but seems to have vanished in the VHS/Betamax equivalent war.
Unbelievable that something made in a factory is way more expensive than an animal-based product. Must be subsidies.
nick: So glad you liked it!
Been watching McMafia which seems good so far, I heard that BBC were attempting to make it like the Night Manager after Le Carre refused to write a sequel for them. Also been watching "Hard Sun" which is enjoyably barmy.
I noticed that I got into a habit of wasting time on the internet by browsing around - you start off thinking "I'll just spend 5 minutes looking at this..." then "I'll just spend 5 minutes looking up that" and before you know it you've wasted an hour. So I'm trying to do more meaningful stuff instead, which has meant I've been watching more TV than previously.
I'm really liking the Alpro Cashew one - I can't work out how it can taste so creamy and nice when it's half the calories of semi-skimmed. I'm a bit worried about the ethical implications of cashew nut harvesting - I have a vague feeling that I've read that the people who pick them are exploited
nick: What’s the name of the thing you put over your head and goes round your neck when you’re cycling in the cold? I can’t think of the word but believe it has three letters and ends in “g”
nick: Ah yes that’s it. i wasn’t very close although I did think it only had one syllable. I’ll bookmark this so I can look it up again - I seem often to forget the word
nick: Buff was definitely the word I was thinking of. I had thought it was a short word (one syllable) with a hard "g" and probably a "u" as the vowel. So I was thinking "nug?" (but I knew that wasn't right). So my brain had some of the right features of the word - don't know where the "g" came from.
I managed to get "Rime" fairly cheaply and finished that this weekend. Some nice bits, and definite echoes of Ico with a young boy wandering around and occasionally being helped by a companion, but overall not that brilliant (the story didn't make much sense)
nick: I had no idea until last night that there was official footage of recent KC concerts on youtube. It's quite good!
Steve: Hmm lovely sound quality, and we've heard Wetton sing it live as well. So I also need to buy that box set do I?
nick: It's probably already included on Steve's massive box set - I suppose he may not yet have come across it though
Steve: Actually Nick you have never bought a CD box set have you? Always Tim and me? And you can't count 3 Slowdive albums that you foisted on me and I will never get around to. There is so much stuff coming back to you in 2018.
nick: Actually, I have bought this box set (or an earlier edition of it). You're welcome to borrow it!
Steve: Ok I'll let you off (a bit).
BTW A Fish Out of Water is going to get a new edition even though there is already the new one you got me so I won't be partaking.
Oddly I did hear Run With the Fox last Christmas on the radio.
nick: I wish he’d done more solo albums. I do love FOoW but not sure I need that many editions of it
A combination that Steve is sure to love: Philip glass played on accordion.
Steve: Hmm news to me, just a tad expensive at the moment but I'd give it a go at reasonable price as it has In the Bleak Midwinter on it.
And the Glass was not terrible. Drat I can't get to Discogs at work.
Steve: A few more LPs got repatriated yesterday, I have no knowledge of lending them to my cousin! What was I thinking, not that he played them. First batch was last year. As Gill and Richard clear out for their Devon move in a month, all sorts of things are being discovered I should think.
U2's October on currently, always been a fave. Early Genesis and WYWH next.
Feel like I got sucked into CD-buying way too much but the convenience and crackle-free-ness is great.
Nick, how is Steve (bike crash) getting on?
nick: how is Steve (bike crash) getting on?
He's still having physio but is up and about. He had some slight problem with his vision (double vision or blurred vision) last time they tested so he isn't allowed to drive for 3 months. For a while after he came out of hospital he came across as being a little bit groggy but I think he's got over that now. The police are still waiting for tests on the driver (I think) before they decide whether/how to prosecute them.
Steve: Actually I now see that it is also on the night before, assume you will not be making that Nick but I will see if I can book it.
Tim: Count me in, if poss.
Nick, did you ever decide about those two jazz things at the uni you told us about?
nick: Nick, did you ever decide about those two jazz things at the uni you told us about? - argh, no slipped my mind. You still interested?
Also - saw "Darkest Hour" last night - film covers the period from Chamberlain's stepping down until Dunkirk - when Churchill was being told by Chamberlain and other members of the war cabinet that he should negotiate via Mussolini for peace terms with Hitler.
Pretty good and makes you realise how nearly we came to losing it. But **spoiler** really spoilt by a scene in the film towards the end where Churchill takes a tube to Westminster and asks people in the carriage whether they would want him to negotiate peace or to fight to the bitter end. Don't think that actually happened and makes you less confident about trusting the other events depicted
nick: the actor playing Chamberlain was an astonishing likeness though - here's a pic of the actor next to the real thing
Steve: Oops Tim I didn't think you would be interested so I only got one for me. But it is still available if you want to book.
She was pretty good on here own when we saw her so filling in the rest of the time should be fine.
Re film, look at the way they treated people on the Channel Islands, fight surely?
Tim: No problem Steve, I might do.
And Nick I was more interested in the Bill and whoever than the Gary wossname. But generally not too worried either way, they are equally convenient and missable.
nick: This made me laugh - on Tuesday I was at the lunch table with Roger (Catalan) and Tim (British). Roger mentioned that one thing that he'd found awkward when learning to speak English was phrasal verbs. Neither Tim nor I knew what this was, so Roger explained.
Next day, I was at the lunch table with Joanna (Polish), Thanos (Greek) and Viktoria (Bulgarian). I said "does any of you know what a phrasal verb is?" and the all groaned and said "yes of course".
Steve: We probably don't have many of these. But we have enough of them to make the list interesting as I go through a Tim Hecker phase: Pitchfork's 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time. Over to you Tim.
Tim: Crikey, that's a list alright. Plenty on there that rings no bells, some names that I think I might have *something* by, and a number of familiar greats.
Steve: Just spotted that Kraftwerk - 3-D The Catalogue got a Grammy for best dance/electronic album.
Tim: We had the corporate email from the current head honcho, nothing in it of obvious direct relevance.
Mainly I'm hoping my pension fund didn't buy too many Capita shares.
nick: Had my first puncture in 11,000 miles/20 months on Saturday. I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to have that increasingly bumpy sensation when you're riding along. Then had my first puncture in 0 miles/0 months after the replacement tube went down straight away. I think I must have nicked it with the tyre lever
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nick: Not sure if I'd mentioned this before but Ella's gone vegan (just to complicate mealtimes even more, because Ryan's gluten free). Tim what is the name of that yeast stuff which Tina sprinkles on things? I can't help associating it with dandruff but I assume it's not called that. Ella was persuaded after watching a youtube video which she has forwarded to me but I've not plucked up courage to watch it yet.I've switched to eating vitalite; haven't made the move to non-dairy milk though, and cheese is going to be tough (although Pizza Express do sell GF vegan pizzas which Ella says are quite nice)
Tim: Post edited :-)£2-odd in H&B, or there's a B12-enhanced version for er, vegetarians I guess, that costs a bit more.
nick: Bridge Constructor Portal has turned up as the "app of the day" on my phone. I haven't finished playing Witness yet though, will have a concerted effort over Christmas. Maybe BCP will get cheaper (it's £4.99 now) Steve: I tried a Sainsburys vegan cheese and almost had to spit it out as it was so strong-tasting and I was starting to heave. Probably the only "food" I have ever thrown away uneaten.I want to do it though. Until I have Cadbury's.
nick: In other gaming news, Tony bought an Oculus Rift VR thing for himself and said he had the feeling of "I'll never be bored ever again". So far as I understand it, you get a headset, gloves, and two cameras: you put the cameras on tripods somewhere (it guides you to do this), and they can "see" where you are because the headset and gloves have visible dots on them or something. So when you've got the helmet on you can move around (you tell it how much floorspace you have, and "walls" appear around the perimeter) and you see your (disembodied) hands moving around and picking things up.
We're going out for our Christmas curry tonight and he asked me to go round early so I can have a go with the VR headset. I'm interested to see what it's like (and am willing to be persuaded) but have a feeling it may turn out to be a gimmicky thing like 3D TV. (Tony says it's not at all like that, and VR is going to really take off)
Tim: I think "see what it's like" is key. 3D TV last time around was mildly interesting, I had a go with it (on games) at least 3 times.So how did it go?
nick: So how did it go?Well.
It was quite impressive. Once you have the visor on, you are inside the environment and it feels like it's all around you - you can look left, right, up, down and it's completely "there". One of the most impressive things is that as you move your head to look at something, it really feels like you're looking around even though what must actually be happening is that it's scrolling the display to make it appear that things in the world are in a static position. That was completely smooth; I didn't notice any glitching which gave away what was happening.
You wear hand controller things which have various buttons/triggers on them and the system knows where they are and what shapes you're making with your hand, so your hands appear in your view, and move around and flex. Often you navigate the system by pointing at things: as you point, a laser type beam comes out of your finger and you can direct it at things - e.g. panels with menus on them to choose what program you want to play.
You can also "pick things up" by grabbing them (it can tell when you're clasping things in the gloves) and then drop them/throw them.
I had a go with two apps
- google earth, which lets you zoom in/out anywhere in the world and fly around - you point the laser where you want to go, and move one of the buttons to indicate how fast you want to move, and you're off. I don't know how much data they have, but it must be pretty huge: I found my cycle route to work and flew along it - you get a 3d street view, but while you're doing it you can look around - up/down/left/right/behind you and everything's there. zoom up into the sky and you end up in space. Click and drag the sky and you can rotate it to change the time of day. I flew up the Thames and through the spokes of the London Eye.
- Robo Recall which is a first-person shooter with robots chasing you. This one made me jump a lot - when they run at you it's quite hard to avoid physically shrinking back. You can pick up guns to shoot with, and hit/grab the robots when they come close to you.
I was sitting down for this - Tony said you can stand up/walk around but this seems to be more prone to giving people motion sickness so the things I used achieved "movement" by pointing at where you want to go and either flying (google earth) or teleporting (robo recall) to the point you chose
Being on the edge of a cliff and peering over it in google earth was a bit queasy, but one thing that really knocked me was when I was in the robot game and looked down to the floor (which is all "there") and caught myself thinking "where have my legs gone??"
I can definitely see the appeal. It did feel a bit unsociable/selfish: Tony & Jonny were watching me, and could see on the PC screen what I was seeing, but it seemed like - more than normal gaming - there would be a temptation to isolate yourself from the real world. I am not sure how many games/applications there are - I guess that is what will be needed for it really to take off. It felt like there must need to be a phenomenal amount of data but perhaps games nowadays already have this and it's just a case of rendering what they already have a VR way.
Tim: I'm currently replaying a never-completed Myst game from 2003 (Myst 4 Revelation) and I'm often feeling hampered by the fact that I have to whizz the mouse around to look in different directions, and then I'm not *really* sure if I'm looking up or to the left or behind. If I could look around and still have a sense of direction that'd be fab.What's this extra data you're on about?
nick: Re: extra dataIn google earth it seems you can go down to street level anywhere on earth and see 3D photo rendering of everything. I don’t know how much of the world is cver d to this level of details but that’s a lot of data.
For the open world games you seem to be able to look anywhere you want - left,right,up,down,behind you and it’s all there. Maybe when they build pc games nowadays they have all this stuff modelled anyway and the vr environment simply lets them render more of what was already there but my reaction to being in it was to think how much information they must have to have coded into it
Steve: Btw if you haven't booked the gig 9th March can you miss me out? I have something on the 10th it turns out. I knew it was March but thought later. Steve: Being "snowed in" has its advantages, like making a start on the jaw-dropping On and Off the Road. Only heard the 2011 mix CD version of Discipline so far but finding all sorts of amazements with the layers of odd guitars. One of the posters is from a US gig where Jon Anderson was supporting, that would have been a good night.This is a serious labour of love by the DGM boys.
Only one thing missing, a pair of white gloves for handling the goodies.
Season Greetings.
Tim: I'm back at work for a couple of days so luckily there was no snow here (or at least it didn't settle).I've just had a look at the track listing on Discogs and can't make much sense of it. But some of it's surround, can you do that?
Tim: I had a dream that Steve bought a land rover, or something. Nick was so impressed that straight away you were both heading off (in strange vehicles) to the dealer in Kent to get another one. Steve: No surround here currently but I keep wondering about it as somewhere we have that huge amp of yours Tim. I have my Ruarks available.It would be a faff though.
I need to print out a summary track listing and take the disks out of the 12" box to more easy access. Very impressed by the notes at the back of the book advising how to get best surround output.
nick: I vaguely remember the amp, but it's definitely Tim's. Talking of faffing how's your ripping going Tim?Dreams: I frequently have dreams where I'm in a public place or at work and have no clothes on. The other day I dreamt it again and thought "oh no, my dream about being naked in public has come true!"
We just finished seeing people etc. for Christmas - Julie and Ken went to Spain for Christmas with Ken's brother who's planning on living there semi-permanently so it was a bit odd without them. They said it was nice and warm there.
Tim: Can't say I've done much ripping. But lots of newer stuff is coming from Bandcamp, so I'm downloading those. Still mostly listening to CDs though. Tim: What happened to that AV receiver you acquired, Nick? AFAIK you didn't do anything with it so I was assuming that Steve ended up with it. nick: I don't remember having an AV receiver.. - I've got an AV amp which has multiple HDMI inputs - use that for the PS4.I thought you had some humungous silver thing.
Tim: Yes, I have. But for a while you had something similar that was a cast-off from some relly or friend. I think all it did was take up room on your office floor for a bit. nick: oh yes... maybe I had one that came from Uncle Phil in Exeter. He gets through electronic equipment at quite a rate. Not got it now though so perhaps that's what Steve's got.Am staying in today waiting for a phone call. Managed to get all my financial stuff done, tax return submitted, now going to try and catch up writing up book reviews, which are about 7 months out of date
Steve: Having a clear out, is anyone going to want the paperback The Second World War by John Keegan?It did not grip me but is very well-regarded. Seems too good to go to a charity shop.
Steve: I have an embarrassingly tall stack of unread books but I go into a charity shop and oops I did it again.Reading the stuff in the KC boxset reminded me of the time we travelled hopefully to London to see Discipline. How the heck did news like this spread before the Internet?
And I now see that the 40th anniversary versions of the 70s trilogy look worth it, each with extra DVD for reasonable price. The huge boxsets from that period do not look worth it with umpteen live sets when I have Great Deceiver and Night Watch already.
nick: Well done Tim - I was thinking I ought to say yes but I too have a huge pending stack. The annual pension statement got me reading up about retirement and they say it's good to have a plan on what you're going to do. So I think planning to read more history might be a good one.How the heck did news like this spread before the Internet? Remember - we did have Tim.
Steve you must be well Crimsoned-out by now. I wish I liked the music more so I could get all that stuff. I am always impressed to hear it but I don't think I really get it.
Steve do you have a season ticket these days? Or are you mostly working from home? Green Party has a petition to bring railways back under public control. I signed it although I think I must have signed others of the same sentiment in the past and it doesn't seem to have worked yet.
Steve: I'm considering train options. Currently doing 2 days in the office so dailies are still cheaper. Need to investigate carnets which gives 10% off in theory. Problem is that WFH has made me realise that schlepping up to London doesn't give me very much work-wise. I'm not in the Dev team so have no direct colleagues to talk to locally. They have shrunk down and some of them only do 2-days in the office as well. So a typical day without the visitors like me has 4-5 people in. I also do customer meetings a bit and we don't have a meeting room I can use to prevent disturbing them, so again WFH wins.So we are paying for the rail improvements but still have one of the worst stations in the UK. And the new trains have fewer seats even if they are longer as they are designed for standing capacity. And once the improvements are done, does the price go back down again?
Road users have had tax freezes. Although this is not as bad as paying 6% on a student loan.
Yes I have too much KC, but unlike Yes and their 6 stonking albums, KC manage to provide lots of interesting live variations. They seemed not to play the same thing twice.
There's no way they made any money on this release.
Labour want to bring the trains back to public ownership as well?
I suppose it's increasing public debt but why can't we have a go at some of the guaranteed money-making schemes with our pensions such as train leasing and power stations? Get something decent for your money.
Yes work is still in a lull from the holidays, can you tell?
nick: Mostly for Steve - have you come across a TV programme called "Inside No. 9"? I had never heard of it until I saw comments about a new series - apparently it's been going some time. A couple of people recommended the episode The 12 Days of Christine so I watched that. And I would say it is definitely worth a watch. I think Steve would like it. Don't read anything about it first (like I didn't) so you have no idea what to expect (like I didn't)! Steve: I have seen a couple of them, very inventive but a bit too variable to set a reminder to watch them. Steve: Been trying some DVD ripping using DVD Audio Extractor and it's not been easy. Previously was fine with music videos but this typically comes up with 4 sections with say 8 or 10 chapters. Very difficult to work out what album versions they are as often the track count does not tally with the written sleeve notes. Am I looking at the 30th anniversary version or the new one for example? And I'm pretty sure I can't see everything listed and available via TV DVD menu. Oh well, it gets me the high-res audio (if I can tell a difference) and some pleasurable hours of faff. nick: DVD ripping can be problematic especially if they do copy protection - quite often there are lots and lots of fake tracks and it's hard to work out which is the right one. The DVD players and DVD playing apps manage it though so you wouldn't have thought it ought to be that hard for a ripping app to do it.Got all togged up for cycling this morning and then when started the car noticed that one of my headlamp bulbs had gone. So spent half an hour in the freezing dark replacing it (I did have a spare, but it's unbelievably awkward to get your hand in to the bit where the bulb goes). Then went back inside and got untogged up and drove all the way in. I did have good intentions though.
Bought some Steely Dan CDs over Christmas (2.99 in HMV) which I am going to try and get into
Steve: Rumour has it that Luton HMV is going again soon if not already. Can't work out why HMV was rescued, it's on a downward trajectory.I have Royal Scam which I've played loads but don't want any more. £2.99 is cheap though.
nick: Steve, if you've not watched that episode of inside no 9 I do recommend it - it will be on iPlayer for another few days. I didn't watch any of the other episodes in the series though.Started to have dreams about Ella's wedding being TODAY AND I'VE NOT PREPARED. Haven't had one yet where I'm giving a speech and find I've got no clothes on, but I guess it's just a matter of time.
Been trying various types of non-dairy milk. Fave taste is cashew nut but I'm worried about the added sugar. People have recommended the oat one but I can't find it anywhere. I find the soya stuff has a bit of a powdery aftertaste
Tim: I gather that it's no good just trying "the soya stuff", you have to try every brand and subtype. Likewise with the all the other kinds. Steve: Yes I watched it thanks, was about the most amazing 30 mins of TV you will see. Despite the terrible name McMafia is proving to be a winner.Has to be Alpro soya unsweetened for me. I have tried others but not liked them. Used to like So Good but seems to have vanished in the VHS/Betamax equivalent war.
Unbelievable that something made in a factory is way more expensive than an animal-based product. Must be subsidies.
nick: So glad you liked it!Been watching McMafia which seems good so far, I heard that BBC were attempting to make it like the Night Manager after Le Carre refused to write a sequel for them. Also been watching "Hard Sun" which is enjoyably barmy.
I noticed that I got into a habit of wasting time on the internet by browsing around - you start off thinking "I'll just spend 5 minutes looking at this..." then "I'll just spend 5 minutes looking up that" and before you know it you've wasted an hour. So I'm trying to do more meaningful stuff instead, which has meant I've been watching more TV than previously.
I'm really liking the Alpro Cashew one - I can't work out how it can taste so creamy and nice when it's half the calories of semi-skimmed. I'm a bit worried about the ethical implications of cashew nut harvesting - I have a vague feeling that I've read that the people who pick them are exploited
nick: What’s the name of the thing you put over your head and goes round your neck when you’re cycling in the cold? I can’t think of the word but believe it has three letters and ends in “g” nick: Ah yes that’s it. i wasn’t very close although I did think it only had one syllable. I’ll bookmark this so I can look it up again - I seem often to forget the word nick: Buff was definitely the word I was thinking of. I had thought it was a short word (one syllable) with a hard "g" and probably a "u" as the vowel. So I was thinking "nug?" (but I knew that wasn't right). So my brain had some of the right features of the word - don't know where the "g" came from. I managed to get "Rime" fairly cheaply and finished that this weekend. Some nice bits, and definite echoes of Ico with a young boy wandering around and occasionally being helped by a companion, but overall not that brilliant (the story didn't make much sense)
nick: I had no idea until last night that there was official footage of recent KC concerts on youtube. It's quite good! Steve: Hmm lovely sound quality, and we've heard Wetton sing it live as well. So I also need to buy that box set do I? nick: It's probably already included on Steve's massive box set - I suppose he may not yet have come across it though Steve: Actually Nick you have never bought a CD box set have you? Always Tim and me? And you can't count 3 Slowdive albums that you foisted on me and I will never get around to. There is so much stuff coming back to you in 2018. nick: Actually, I have bought this box set (or an earlier edition of it). You're welcome to borrow it! Steve: Ok I'll let you off (a bit).BTW A Fish Out of Water is going to get a new edition even though there is already the new one you got me so I won't be partaking.
Oddly I did hear Run With the Fox last Christmas on the radio.
nick: I wish he’d done more solo albums. I do love FOoW but not sure I need that many editions of itA combination that Steve is sure to love: Philip glass played on accordion.
Steve: Hmm news to me, just a tad expensive at the moment but I'd give it a go at reasonable price as it has In the Bleak Midwinter on it.And the Glass was not terrible. Drat I can't get to Discogs at work.
Steve: A few more LPs got repatriated yesterday, I have no knowledge of lending them to my cousin! What was I thinking, not that he played them. First batch was last year. As Gill and Richard clear out for their Devon move in a month, all sorts of things are being discovered I should think.U2's October on currently, always been a fave. Early Genesis and WYWH next.
Feel like I got sucked into CD-buying way too much but the convenience and crackle-free-ness is great.
Nick, how is Steve (bike crash) getting on?
nick: how is Steve (bike crash) getting on?He's still having physio but is up and about. He had some slight problem with his vision (double vision or blurred vision) last time they tested so he isn't allowed to drive for 3 months. For a while after he came out of hospital he came across as being a little bit groggy but I think he's got over that now. The police are still waiting for tests on the driver (I think) before they decide whether/how to prosecute them.
Steve: Actually I now see that it is also on the night before, assume you will not be making that Nick but I will see if I can book it. Tim: Count me in, if poss.Nick, did you ever decide about those two jazz things at the uni you told us about?
nick: Nick, did you ever decide about those two jazz things at the uni you told us about? - argh, no slipped my mind. You still interested?Also - saw "Darkest Hour" last night - film covers the period from Chamberlain's stepping down until Dunkirk - when Churchill was being told by Chamberlain and other members of the war cabinet that he should negotiate via Mussolini for peace terms with Hitler.
Pretty good and makes you realise how nearly we came to losing it. But **spoiler** really spoilt by a scene in the film towards the end where Churchill takes a tube to Westminster and asks people in the carriage whether they would want him to negotiate peace or to fight to the bitter end. Don't think that actually happened and makes you less confident about trusting the other events depicted
nick: the actor playing Chamberlain was an astonishing likeness though - here's a pic of the actor next to the real thing
Steve: Oops Tim I didn't think you would be interested so I only got one for me. But it is still available if you want to book.She was pretty good on here own when we saw her so filling in the rest of the time should be fine.
Re film, look at the way they treated people on the Channel Islands, fight surely?
Tim: No problem Steve, I might do.And Nick I was more interested in the Bill and whoever than the Gary wossname. But generally not too worried either way, they are equally convenient and missable.
nick: This made me laugh - on Tuesday I was at the lunch table with Roger (Catalan) and Tim (British). Roger mentioned that one thing that he'd found awkward when learning to speak English was phrasal verbs. Neither Tim nor I knew what this was, so Roger explained.Next day, I was at the lunch table with Joanna (Polish), Thanos (Greek) and Viktoria (Bulgarian). I said "does any of you know what a phrasal verb is?" and the all groaned and said "yes of course".
Steve: We probably don't have many of these. But we have enough of them to make the list interesting as I go through a Tim Hecker phase: Pitchfork's 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time. Over to you Tim. Tim: Crikey, that's a list alright. Plenty on there that rings no bells, some names that I think I might have *something* by, and a number of familiar greats. Steve: Just spotted that Kraftwerk - 3-D The Catalogue got a Grammy for best dance/electronic album. Tim: We had the corporate email from the current head honcho, nothing in it of obvious direct relevance.Mainly I'm hoping my pension fund didn't buy too many Capita shares.
nick: Had my first puncture in 11,000 miles/20 months on Saturday. I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to have that increasingly bumpy sensation when you're riding along. Then had my first puncture in 0 miles/0 months after the replacement tube went down straight away. I think I must have nicked it with the tyre lever<< Home
