superduper.net : Sam's blog

I just got back from seeing Forced Entertainment at the Arts Admin space in white chapel. They performed First Night which I glad to say lived up to all my expectations. Their stuff can be really provoking and this was just that. It was easily as good as any of their other stuff I've seen.

Its a shame I missed other pieces they have been doing over the last week. I think I am becoming a true Forced Entertainment fan. They are also doing something in the Festival Hall for meltdown festival in not to long. Hurrah! Anyone who has not yet seem these guys needs to go!

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:12 | personal | # | TB | 0 comment(s)

Last night I was at Faster than sound where Ben Stern and is involved with building the sixty foot dome. It was an amazing event. Completely uncrowded and full of amazing sound experiments. Set on a decommissioned US air-force base east of London. The surrounding are completely amazing and surreal. Highly recommended.

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 11:41 | personal | # | TB | 0 comment(s)

After more than two years I finally got to visit my old home of San Francisco. Even better, I was able to get my flights paid for by combining my visits with GDC 2007 where Ideaworks had a lot of business going on.

It was really great to see all my old friends who I love so much and to see what has changed in the city. The main difference seem to be that even more people have been forced to move over the bridge to Oakland due to city prices. Apart from that everything seems pretty much as I left it. We even got glorious sunshine for the weekend of the 10th and 11th.

GDC was also super fun and I got to meet up with a lot of old colleagues from MathEngine who are now scattered all over the industry. Was especially good to see James Golding again, who is now at Epic writing large parts of their engine product. And, of course, I got to consume unlimited amounts of food and drink at the various industry events.

I've uploaded the few photos I took on the trip. Most of them are of the weekend in Lake Tahoe. Unfortunately. I didn't get many pictures of my time in the city.

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:33 | personal | # | TB | 0 comment(s)

Next week I'm going to LA for work. Not that exciting, except that it means I may be able to come to up to SF for the weekend and see all my lovely friends, restaurants and climbing walls.

Hey you SF people, I know you probably don't read this stuff ever, but if you do then let me know if you're around the weekend of the 10th and 11th. I've probably already mailed you anyway.

I wonder how many super burritos I can eat in one weekend. Maybe I can carry them back in my hand luggage and freeze them for consuming here in London. Tessa brought one back for me last time she went and we ate it cold the next day on the train to Bath!

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 16:19 | personal | # | TB | 3 comment(s)

I'm thinking of getting a tattoo. In true geek style I was thinking of getting my GPG fingerprint tattooed on my person somewhere. Maybe just the long (16-byte) key id. I'll post here some mockups once I've created them.

Am I crazy to do this? Couldn't I think of a more imaginative thing to permanently scare myself with? Well, I figure this would represent many things that I believe in: freedom, privacy and free software, all in one little hex string. Actually, maybe I am crazy.

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 09:19 | personal | # | TB | 3 comment(s)

I must be getting old, or maybe just more focused. Yesterday, I worked late and ordered pizza at the office. The first thing I was asked was "what's your phone number?". I've had the same number of over five years now, so clearly I said "07973.."... and forget the rest. I tried again. And again. In the end I had to ask if I could call back later.

How many times have I said the phone number outloud from memory. Certainly many hundreds. When I did track down the number in written form I read it out and it sounded alien. Certainly not the number I should be very used to.

Is this just me working too hard? Or maybe getting old? Or is it something more sinister. Perhaps its a clue in the phildickian sense, like the guy who goes to pull the light cored in his bathroom and the realises its a switch, and that he's never lived in a house with a light cord?

That's my first personal entry in my new blog. Hope you like it.

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:19 | personal | tags: personal | # | TB | 3 comment(s)

At last I've got the insurance money from CityLink after waiting more then 5 months! Just ordered a sexy new Sony Z1. Should be here on Teusday. Hurray!

Wed, 07 Jul 2004 01:36 | personal | # | TB | 1 comment(s)

Well lots has been happening here in London. The last couple of weeks have been packed with some great concerts. And best of all I've managed to wangle free tickets for all them them!

• The Pixies

  Unbelievable. The living legends themselves. We got to see the Pixies in concert at Brixton Academy. Quite an honour. Lots of absolutely passionate fans. Thanks Manish for sorting Tessa and I would free VIP tickets.

  Frank Black was incredible. Didn't stop for one minute out of 90 to catch his breath. Definitely a night to remember. I have some photos that will be in the gallery section RSN.

• Peter Gabriel

  Despite being involved with Real World for many year, I'd never actually seen Peter perform at a large gig. I got to see him do his large performance of a two year tour at Wembely arena. The stage show was quite amazing. All kinds of crazy tricks from walking upside-down to a blinding coat of purer light, to two Segways (look it up if you don't know what it is) on stage dancing to the music.

  Much more than I expected. I now understand the meaning of "stadium concert".

• Orbital

  On their way to Glastonbury to play they final gigs Orbital did two nights at Brixton Academy. Manish, again, sorting out a couple of tickets at the last minute, thanks dude. Tessa, unfortunately, was ill so I had to find someone to go with last minute on the night of an England match. Paul Makepiece eventually showed up on his way back from NYC.

  I think I must has seen these guys play at least 10 times in the last 10 years, starting back in Glastonbury 1994. For me they are the definition of nineties electronic music. This gig was nothing special, however. England having lost, the crowd, despite growing considerably after the match, wasn't too up for it. However, it was great to see them one last time and say good by. Pictures on their way.

Wed, 07 Jul 2004 01:27 | personal | # | TB | 1 comment(s)

Today I finally finished reading The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Took me three months of central line journeys to complete but definitely worth it.

I'm thinking of adding a "book" catagory to the blog that I can use to list the books I read, with cover images and links.

Sun, 23 May 2004 03:42 | personal | # | TB | 0 comment(s)

Its been 9 weeks now since my laptop was "lost" by the couriers. I really can't believe how shite CityLink have been at sorting it out. You'd have thought a big company like that would be able to hadle claims like mine in a matter of days... but ohh no.

This means that I havn't had any CPU cycles at to devote to my site or any of the software projects I have been planning. For those who are interested I'm working on three new projects:

• Litter - my linux port of clutter, that can arrange album art on the desktop. It will integrate tightly with...
• PyTunes - you guessed it. A simple iTunes-like thing written in python/gnome2. It is focused on music organisation and will itegrate with Rhythmbox and litter. It will also work with the ipod and feature a 2-way sync so you can pull music off your ipod. It will feature automatic album art retrieval using amazon and fingerprinting using musicbrainz.
• PyPhoto - you guessed it again! A simple photo orgaizer. I use the command line and gqview at the moment but want something that will integrate with metainformation I currently store on the web site.

Wed, 07 Apr 2004 12:54 | personal | # | TB | 0 comment(s)

Although, I don't normally use my blog in the traditional way and reference others, this one is kinda special to me. My dearest Tessa is really and truly writing HTML and actually understanded it as she does so. Wow. All this from the girl who.... I'll leave that stuff off the public formum acutally :)

Anyway her blog is much more active than mine and far, far more creative.

Mon, 23 Feb 2004 05:40 | personal | # | TB | 16 comment(s)

For some reason I haven't been writing in this blog for a very long time now. Since my last entries I have now completed my MSc. My thesis, along with some of my other school work can be downloaded from here.

I've also been in Brussels for about a month and am now looking for work in London. If you're reading this and you know of a programming postions in London that involves Linux and is with an innovative, lively, young company please get in touch.

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 10:35 | personal | # | TB | 0 comment(s)