Bike Week Cometh

Bike Week 2006 comes to Toronto...

In fact I think it got started yesterday. Fortunately that was the day I took a tour along Lakeshore and up through Parkdale and Liberty Village as opposed to making an ass of myself with my abortive run up the Avenue Road hill. (To my credit though, I didn't give up... I just ran out of gears and had to walk a few metres before I was back in the saddle).

Looking forward to the Critical Mass ride tonight... should be a good time. If the weather doesn't suck too badly.

Depending on how I feel after that, I may end up at Darby's... promises to be a good time, $10 for beer and bands? I'm in!

Naturally I will be riding to that event...

Audio Input for enhanced Psychic Output

Here's the playlist in the Shuffle at the moment:

100th Window - Massive Attack
All Tomorrow's Parties 1.0 - Curated by Tortoise
Confeld - Autechre
Agharta (Discs 1 & 2) - Miles Davis
Disraeli Gears Deluxe Edition (BBC tracks only) - Cream
Cuts Across the Land - The Duke Spirit
Death By Sexy - Eagles of Death Metal
Axis of Evol - Pink Mountaintops
55 (from Clubfoot single) - Kasabian
Clash on Broadway (Disc 1) - the Clash

There's a couple on there I am forgetting... Oh well. You get the idea.

Oh, damn! Beta!

I confess that I have always liked that quote from Snake on the Simpsons and have been dying for a reason to use it.
Now I have several. I have gone beta happy this week.
My notebook is running the newest Windows Live Messenger Beta, which is fun.
I'm also running (as of yesterday afternoon) Beta 2 of Office 2007 and that is really cool. The UI changes alone are worth the price of admission (metaphorically speaking, it is a free public beta after all). As soon as my downloader starts behaving again I'm going to pull down the installers for Visio, Project, OneNote and Groove.

That isn't the coolest beta I've gotten into lately though... A few weeks back, I threw my hat in the ring to test Google-hosted mail. Imagine my surprise when I was issued an invite.
I changed my MX records, and have been accessing my mail via the hosted Gmail interface since yesterday.
I have to say... It's nice.
My previous host was not too keen on spam filtering. The filtering I am getting with the hosted GMail is damn near perfect.
The solution also allows for Google-chat based IM for all users within your domain. That's a nice bonus, especially since any Jabber client can be used to access it from outside of the browser.
I'll going to be blogging more about these betas on and off over the next little while, so stay tuned for some bleeding edge geek commentary.

The Bastard Children of NTP v. RIM

Creative and Apple are having a legal brawl over patent infringement.
Interesting to note that Creative (estimated by ZDNet to have an 11% share of the MP3 player market) struck first, accusing Apple of infringing on a key patent. Apple (with an estimated market share of 77%) struck back accusing Creative of infringing on four patents.

Is this the new competition? Stifling the more successful competitor with lawsuits over vague patents, that perhaps never should have been granted?

Apparently actually bringing something to market just isn't cool anymore. Squatting on IP that you don't actually do anything with and using the legal system to snipe away at your rivals seems to be the order of the day.

You know, maybe I am wrong about this... maybe these are just the bastard cousins of NTP v. RIM, and the real blame lies on the crop oif biz-school grads who came out of the dotcom days, eyes wild with possibility and built-to-flip business plans tucked under their arms.
Yes... the more I think of it, the more this sounds like a throwback to those days.

And that is a foul thought, to be back in that landrush mentality.

Mogwai: 16 May, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto

Awww yeah...

This was absolutely brilliant. I left with my ears ringing slightly and a huge smile on my face. 2 nights of Mogwai live in a row will do that to you.

Here's the set list (I was standing behind the soundboard and managed to see this), songs marked with an asterisk were the encores:

Long way
Friend
Flies
Travel is Dangerous
Hunted by a Freak
Satan (note: to the guy who whooped right at the end of the mellow bit before it comes back super heavy: brilliant timing, nice one man.)
I know you are
Acid food
Summer
Happiness
New Paths to Helicon 1
We're no here
*Ratts
*Glasgow Mega-snake

The opening act, Torche... I missed them in Montreal but I did see them at the Phoenix... I wasn't overly impressed, but I didn't hate them either.
They did not, however, live up to the reviews I had heard. Having said that, they do have a heavy stoner rock vibe to them... I just didn't get into it.

Paranoia, Nationalism or something else...?

Apparently, the US Gov't has banned the use of Lenovo hardware (that's the China-based company that now produces all the IBM PC brands, including the ThinkPads) from all classified networks.

I'm not sure if this is nationalism, paranoia or pressure tactics from "domestic" manufacturers. I place domestic in quotes as many (if not the majority) core chipsets are not fabricated in North America... even when the core chipsets are made on the continent, many other crtitical subcomponents (networking, for example) are not.

This announcement clearly indicates that the US government has been using hardware rife with offshore silicon for years. So why get all paranoid or nationalistic now?

Food for thought.

Mogwai: May 15 Montréal, Québec

Show was at Le Spectrum...

Being from Toronto, I'm not used to shows starting on time. Apparently this one at le Spectrum did.
Completely missed the opening act, Torche, which was a mild disappointment as I had heard good things about their stoner rockiness.

Mogwai kicked ass. Glasgow Mega Snake was the last song of the set before they came back for a two song encore. Even standing at the back of the venue, my ears were ringing.

More lucid review of the Toronto show is upcoming....

Notes on the run: Sunday, 13 May 2006

All right... There are a number of things I have come to truly look forward to about my sporadic trips to Ottawa over the last decade.

Last night, I discovered a new one - the Dominion Tavern, AKA the Dom.

This is the Bovine sans bullshit attitude from a notable minority of patrons (don't get me wrong, I love the BSC). All punk, zero fucking pretense. This *is* what a rock and roll tavern fucking well should be.

I freely admit to being drunk as hell on my initial visit here last night, but that didn't make the generally convivial "live and let live, or just go fuck yourself if that's how you're going to be" atmosphere any less welcoming or enjoyable.

The aesthetics of the establishment are definitely old school tavern - and you know I'm all about the old school - faded wood paneling, off-white paint on the walls, quarts of Blue and 50 (cinquante motherfuckers!) avaialable at reasonable rates from the bar fridge.

The partially covered back patio offers several weathered picnic tables (some of which sit beneath a shelter of corrugated plastic), as well as ample bike storage.

I could go on at length, but my quart may be getting warm, so I'm going to sum up as follows: those who don't like the Dom "suck cock by choice". And I'm talking about farm animals you tasteless bastards...

Ear candy for sprained fingers

Yeah... I bailed. It hurt. I sprained my finger and bruised up both knees.

Here's what's on the playlist:
The Fall - Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 (Disc X) + misc tracks from Grotesque
Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman I'm a Machine
Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
Joy Division - Heart and Soul (Disc Three)
Bad Religion - The New America
Primal Scream - Xtrmntr
Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal
Roots Manuva - Brand New Second Hand
Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask
Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze

Cod al mezcla cinco especies chines con Pimenton

Serves 3. Recommended sides include rice, morrocan salad.

1 frozen cod fillet cut into 3 equal pieces
Chinese 5 Spice blend with Tea
Garlic
1/2 cube of seafood bouillion
3/4 cup of rice
6 frozen shrimp (18-20 count)
1/2 - 1 tsp Paprika (depending on taste)
Salt
Black pepper
0.5L water
Olive oil

Grind 5 spice mixture into powder.
Rub into each side of all 3 pieces of fish.
Let sit 5-10 minutes.

Set skillet on stove on medium to medium-high heat.
Add oil to pan once skillet has warmed.
Crush/slice/dice/mash garlic.
Add garlic to oil.
Add fish to pan.
Flip fish 3 times to ensure proper, even cooking on each side.
Add shrimp to skillet, allow to begin to cook.
Add water & bouillion.
Add paprika, stir.
Add salt and black pepper to taste.
Allow fish to poach in liquid.

Allow liquid to reduce, then plate.