Just look at it:
No, really look at it:
I DON’T THINK YOU’RE LOOKING AT IT PROPERLY …

Just look at it:
No, really look at it:
I DON’T THINK YOU’RE LOOKING AT IT PROPERLY …

This is the music that powered the year for me:
Here’s six not from 2010 that also helped make the year:
Podcast: scruss-best_of_2010 [mp3]
The bloke standing behind the console looks like he’s working an iPhone – in 1959!
(actually, it might just be a cigarette; see the open pack of Luckies by Grace Murray Hopper’s right elbow.)
Image nicked from the NMAH | COBOL – COBOL online exhibit.
Geoff Apps dropped a comment in an earlier post to say that he’s updated the Aventura for the 21st century. I’m going to have a hard time justifying not buying this bike.
I wonder what the good people of MetaFilter will think?
This arrived today:
A bright pink EMUS soprano ukulele from Empire Music. I’m confused — not merely because I’ve never known Canada Post to deliver on a Sunday, but:
It actually plays quite well — but where did it come from?
Dammit, is it really December? Anyway, this is what I listened to this year:
Must be getting old; two of the albums (Bertrand Belin and Brett Dennen) I bought because I heard tracks on the radio. Consequently, I predict Lawrence Welk in my best of 2011.
I went to Photosynth, and saw this:
Bullets are also small and fast, but I don’t plan to install any of those soon, either.
I knew that nothing good would come of emusic’s plan changes. I mean, dumping all your favourite indie labels and replacing them with mainstream crud; how’s that working out for you, yeah?
Just to show you how things have changed, here’s a list of the most recent artists I’d downloaded pre-plan changes. The ones in red are ones you can’t get any more:
And here was me on a major Delgados kick, and they’re gone.
So cancelled my plan on the weekend, and got this:
Yep, if you’re on an annual plan, you’ve got to sit it out. They don’t offer refunds. So now I have to remember to go in every thirty days for the next nine months to find something – anything! – to download. It’s extremely shabby that emusic are holding over $100 of my balance to ransom. I guess they’re just trying to fit in with the mainstream music industry …
Seems that Shangri-La Toronto wants to surround their building with a bright magenta billboard. This is the view from my office:
It’s so bright everything vaguely reflective on my desk appears to be pink. I’ve made a couple of calls to the City of Toronto – Sign By-law Unit and Toronto 311 and await developments.
Arduino and the Irn-Bru Can Choir present Roy Williamson’s epic anthem:
Like O Canada and The Star Spangled Banner before it, it’s a random midi file (grabbed from Midi files of bagpipe tunes: mercifully, does not autoplay) converted to RTTTL and played through a glued-on piezo.
My timing’s a bit off, but here’s my version:
Stewart C. Russell - Walking in the ParlourPlayed on the G C Dobson, tuned gCGCD.
Got the banjo restoration project back from Hugh Hunter. I have to say, he did an excellent job:
This must be around 120 years old, but it’s held up well to some hideous misuse.
I really like what Thunderbird does when you type a word like “attachment” or “attached” in a message:

It’s got one fewer wheels than the C5 (which, stap me, appeared a quarter century ago) but it does look like a proper recumbent:
While the Sinclair Research X-1 does look quite nifty, I worry about the “Reserve now for £100, pay the rest on delivery next year” terms. It’ll probably turn up at the end of 2012 with a wobbly RAM expansion, and needing a firmware upgrade before it can turn left.
Ecofont claims to help you save ink (and not mass, like drilled out bike bits). The approach is the same:
Both of my printers have ink-saving settings that avoid this horror. Plus, y’know, with print to PDF, who wants paper?