Is there food?

…is there food?

Welcome to my new site. If you get the reference, congratulations - go to your nearest newsagent and tell them you’d like to claim your £5.

If you don’t, don’t ask - figure it out for yourself…

The other night (as I made my way home from work) I had a little good fortune.

I’m a big fan of Zane Lowe’s show on Radio 1, but I’m not always in able to listen. He has a tendency to play some excellent music considering his time slot. Trying to listen to his predecessor, Dave Pearce, was very much like having knitting needles driven into your ears, so Zane’s show is a massive improvement.

On this particular night, Annie Mac was filling in for Mr Lowe, and it is to her that I am eternally grateful for introducing me to the above mentioned Sigur Ross. I’d heard of them before, you understand, I’d just never heard them.

Needless to say, I’ve ordered the new album: Takk. It comes out on Monday, and I’ve ordered it from HMV online, so hopefully it will arrive within a couple of days of release.

Once I’ve sampled its delights, I’ll be sure to post here about it.

I would expect you’ve already come across this.

Apple have, by the looks of it, done it again. Pretty much everyone with sufficient fingers to post to a message board have expressed their need for one of these devices. It’s basically the Shuffle done right - solid state, colour screen, scroll wheel, and tiny.

Needless to say I’ve ordered mine. Well, I’ve ordered one for my 3 month old son (he doesn’t get on with the Shuffle, he finds the lack of screen prohibitive ;) )

Full review when it arrives…

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

I’ve had to change the skin on the site. The old one was causing a few problems, and so I needed to find a newer one.

I’m reasonably happy with how things look now - I doubt there will be any other major changes any time soon (unless Stuart finds something else that doesn’t work).

Whilst this blog isn’t intended to be technical (in the sense that it won’t contain purely technical content) from time to time I’ll probably write technical articles in order to share certain areas of my knowledge. This will be linked to as individual pages, rather than posted as entries on the front page. However, I suppose I ought to draw attention to their existence by gesturing frantically to them from the front page.

The first of these is an article I wrote about SharePoint Web Part versioning, and can be found [here](/technical-articles/web-part-versioning-in- sharepoint/). There’s a companion piece to it on Simon Tocker’s blog (BinaryJam) which goes into a little more detail in terms of actual code to implement one of the things I mention.

Update: [Beta 3](http://www.istherefood.com/2007/01/10/ie-devbar- beta-3-released/) is out!

Microsoft have released a developer toolbar for Internet Explorer. It looks very handy.

Whilst searching for myself on Google, I came across this. It should offer a bit of a clue as to where the name of my site came from.

My Sigur Ros cd’s arrived. I’ve got Ágaetis Byrjun and Takk to listen to.

My Sigur Ros cd’s arrived. I’ve got Ágaetis Byrjun and Takk to listen to.

The iPod Nano arrived a couple of days ago.

It’s white, and shiny, and lovely looking, and comes in that delicious Apple packaging that makes you not want to unpack it… but you do. There’s not much to be said about using the device; it’s an iPod - it has the same scroll wheel, the same screen, and the same options as its larger siblings. If you’re looking for a aesthetically scrumptious, flash based mp3 player, the Nano should be everything you want. Unless you have some form of irrational hatred of Apple products.

A few things that may be worthy of note:

• The scroll wheel is very sensitive. Numerous people have mentioned this to me, so its not just my big, clumsy fingers. I’d like to see Apple post a firmware update that allows you to set the sensitivity of the wheel.

• I had a little trouble getting mine to sync. I think my PC was a little jealous of the Nano’s good looks, and decided that shunning the new arrival was the best idea. After half an hour of furious plugging/unplugging of USB cables, I eventually resorted to rebooting the Nano (hold the centre button, and menu). After that, PC and Nano got along fine.

• The Nano flatly refuses to sync using Firewire. Literally. Upon connecting a Firewire cable to the Nano, a message appears on screen: “Firewire sync is not supported, please go away” (or words to that effect). This isn’t a massive problem - there’s a USB2 cable in the box - but its mildly annoying for those of us who own bigger iPods and want to use the same cable.

• Last thing - do not, under any circumstances, allow any of the women in your life within a 15 yard radius of the iPod Nano. Trust me on this - if you want to spend any time with your shiny new friend, don’t let the women see it. My wife thinks its officially the best thing ever, as does Ashleigh’s. You have been warned.

I’ve tweaked the feed so that (with a bit of luck) it should always be served from FeedBurner now. If you’ve subscribed and it is in any way broken, please let me know.

[Steve](http://www.gailycolouredplasticbag.co.uk/index.php/2005/09/21/new- kate-bush-single/) likes the new single too.

Kate Bush has released a new single (about time) and Ken Bruce had the first play on Radio 2 this morning.

I have to say - I like it, and I didn’t think I would. Its suprisingly catchy, brilliantly produced, and has left me wanting more. The album arrives November 7th.

If you fancy a listen, go here and use the “listen again” feature for Wednesday’s show. You’ve only got 7 days though.

Oh, and if you want to listen but loathe Real Player as much as I do, install Real Alternative instead. Google, and ye shall find :)

Every now and then it’s entertaining to swap iPods with someone, place it lovingly into “shuffle” mode, and enjoy.

(Ideally, this would be someone you know, otherwise you’re likely to end up somewhat iPodless).

Tracklisting from my last iPod swap:

Black Box Recorder - Kidnapping An Hieress

Johnny Cash - ‘Cause I Love You

The Fall - Pine Leaves

Tim Hart & Maddy Prior - The Brisk Butcher

Softcell - Secret Life

Atari Teenage Riot - Too Dead For Me

Arab Strap - Hello Daylight

Augustus Pablo - East of the River Nile

The Fall - Last Nacht

Slowdive - 40 Days

Miles Davis - Oleo (Live)

PJ Harvey - We Float

Yo La Tengo - Our Way to Fall

I can’t help thinking that a Nintendo Revolution version of Fahrenheit would be incredible.

Instead of mouse gestures to interact, you would have to mime the actions required. To stand up, you would have to physically stand up. Mopping the floor would require you to make a mopping action. The “twitch” sections (where you’re required to quickly respond to an on-screen keypress) would require you to lean, or leap sideways.

Hopefully, there are plenty of games developers out there that are thinking the same thing…

I picked up Fahrenheit last weekend, but didn’t get a chance to play it until tonight.

First impressions are good; whilst it doesn’t sport the most incredible graphics I’ve ever seen (although they are good), the atmosphere, soundtrack and concept are all of a really high standard. The voice acting isn’t bad either.

Fahrenheit sells itself as an “interactive movie”, so much so that you don’t start a new game, you start a new “movie”. “Interactive Movie” was a phrase that was popular a few years back when FMV had only just been introduced into games. The interactive movies of old were actually only barely that; the player was called upon to hit a couple of keys now and then, or click on something in the FMV. Fahrenheit appears to have actually managed to achieve the goal of a truly interactive movie.

So far I know nothing about the plot, suffice to say that the game starts with your character murdering someone for no apparent reason, and then leaves you to clean up the mess. Control then switches to a different character - the police officer investigating the murder that you just ran away from…

The game uses split screen and panel effects (which most people will be familiar with from tv’s 24) to improve tension. In one sequence, the police officer that’s threatening to kick down your door can be seen in one panel, whilst the character under your control hides incriminating evidence in his apartment in the other. So far, the technique works well, and does serve to enhance the atmosphere, rather than impede it.

You control your character with mouse and keyboard (I’m playing the PC version). The process of moving your character around is a familiar one - left and right to rotate, forwards to walk forwards, and back to turn around 180 degrees. What Fahrenheit does differently though, is that to interact with the environment, you must perform gestures with the mouse. For example, to open a door, you slide the mouse forward. To drink a cup of coffee, you slide the mouse forward, then around to the side, to simulate a reaching and picking up motion. Certain sequences require button bashing (used to represent physical exertion), whilst others require you to quickly repeat a key sequence (a la Dragons Lair, or Shenmue).

After an hour and a half of play, Fahrenheit has impressed me, and intrigued me enough for me to come back to it; I want to know what happens next!

Land of the Dead - Off we go to see it :)

Over the years I’ve invested a lot of time and far too much money in trying to find the “perfect” pair of headphones.

I can’t honestly say that I’ve found them though:

• I’ve got a great pair of Grado SR60’s, which sound magnificent, but leak noise like a very noisy, leaky thing.

• I’ve got a set of Sony mdrex81’s. These are canal-phones, and I think they might have convinced me that I don’t like canal-phones at all. The theory seems to be that you jam them as far into your ear as they will go, and you get great sound. The only problem is, if your ears aren’t the correct shape, they sound rubbish. They come with other rubber “bungs” that are supposed to provide a better fit, but the larger ones just feel uncomfortable to me - oddly enough, they make me feel claustrophobic.

• Somewhere, hidden in the depths of one of the many drawers I’ve got at home, is a pair of Sennheiser px200’s. These are a great set of headphones. They fold down, for portability, they insulate quite a lot of the sound, and they have pretty good sound quality. I’ve lost them though.

• I’ve also got a set of cheapo Beyer Dynamics (DT231’s, I think) which are fine, but they make me ears sweat. That, and I think I loaned them to a colleague and never got them back. Or I lost them.

• And, finally, I’ve got a set of Philips SBC-HN100’s for work. They’re noise cancelling phones, so are quite handy for a noisy, open plan office environment. The problem with these is that they don’t sound terribly smart.

So, I’ve not found the perfect, all purpose, uber headphones yet. Steve has, and promises to blog about them. When he does, ::steve(“this”):: will be a link :)

I’ve ordered some Sennheiser mx550’s now. They should arrive next week. Ashleigh loves his, so I’m hoping I’ll like mine…

Simon had the [DT-231’s](/2005/09/23/headphone- addiction/) in his drawer, so I can add them to the pile of nearly-but-not- quites.

One of my intentions with this site was to try to post something about each of the gigs I go to, each of the cd’s I buy, each of the books I read, and the more noteworthy games that I play. And, to post something about each of the films that I see. From my point of view this should be an interesting exercise; I should be able to look back and think “wow, yeah, I went to see him” or “I remember watching that”. The weekend before last, I went to see Wolf Creek. Here’s a little slice of something about it. The film tells the tale of two English girls (Liz and Cristy), one Australian guy (Ben), and their road trip across Australia in the cheapest car they can find. On the way they have a desire to see the large meteor crater known as “Wolf Creek”, within which strange things have been said to happen. Everything is going according to plan; Liz and Ben are starting to fall for each other, the group are getting on well, and even a brief argument with some locals is resolved peacefully. Things start to take a turn for the worse when, bellies full of the site of the awesome landscape on offer at Wolf Creek, they return to their car only to find that it won’t start… Enter Mick (John Jarret) - a handy local with a pick-up truck, and a friendly attitude. He can tow their car back to his camp, fix it up, and they can be on their way as soon as its done. Even better, he doesn’t want anything for his trouble… The [Guardian](http://fil m.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,4267,1571117,00.ht ml) review of Wolf Creek described it in a way that I thought was really quite appropriate: “Ordeal Horror”. I’ve never come across this phrase before, but it accurately describes the genre that this film and many before it (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, Haute Tension etc) fall into. Whilst I wouldn’t rate Wolf Creek as highly as Texas Chainsaw (and certainly not as highly as Haute Tension, the stand out horror film of the last few years), it’s not without it’s merits. It takes it’s time, devoting a large chunk of the film to building up it’s characters, rather than launching straight into the horror. The Australian scenery gives the film an awesome look, and doesn’t betray it’s low budget origins. The direction, for the most part, is slick and effective. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the performances of the three leads - whilst they’re adequate for the most part, there are times when the ad-libing is quite uncomfortable, and there are occasional moments of unconvincing terror. That said, John Jarret’s performance is undoubtedly the highlight of the film. He pulls of everything that’s asked of him with terrifying ease. Wolf Creek is a pretty nasty little film too: There are a few cringe inducing moments, in particular the “head on a stick” scene, and the general mood of the film is unpleasantly tense once it gets going with precious little respite until the end credits. All in all, Wolf Creek isn’t a classic - it’s been done before, and probably better than here. However, I’m not aware of an Australian equivalent, so it’s setting alone makes it worth seeing. John Jarret’s performance makes the film stand out too, raising it from a mediocre slasher film to something which holds it own quite nicely.

For some time now, legend (well, ::steve(“Steve”)::) has told of Mr Pastry.

Whilst none of us had actually seen Mr Pastry with our own eyes, we would hear tales of the wonderful things he could do using nothing more than a tea tray and his own vocal chords. After much searching, Steve has managed to track down the legend of Mr Pastry, or has he?

It turns out that Mr Pastry isn’t actually Mr Pastry: He’s Tremont Blackman. Thanks to [this](http://www.bk.tudelft.nl/users/Koutaman/internet/minor_master pieces/mule_train.html) site we can now witness the joys that Mr Blackman is capable of. His is a particularly special talent, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you. I urge you to either visit the link above (if you like filthy Real encoded video files) or go here to enjoy Mr Blackman in mp4 format.

It’s got to be one of the most amusing things I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Ashleigh has links to other file formats on his site.

I love Zombie movies. Good zombie movies, bad zombie movies, and really bad zombie movies - I love them all equally. Well, some I love more equally than others, but you can’t really love The Dead Hate the Living as much as Dawn of the Dead, can you?

I’ve just stumbled across Zombie Honeymoon. From the trailer, this looks to be much better than you’d think from the title. Consider me intrigued…

Oh, and the Land review is coming…

It looks like an [old friend](http://mental.blogspot.com/2005_09_25_mental_arc hive.html#112790936562844314) might be blogging now. Hopefully he’ll be more active than he has been in the past, and I’m sure he’ll have some interesting things to say.

I had the misfortune of witnessing the aftermath of a road traffic accident on my way to work this morning.

The first sign I had that something was wrong was the sight of a man dragging himself from the middle lane (of a three lane road) through to the inside lane, then collapsing on the grass verge at the side of the road. Had I been travelling faster, and had my concentration been so lacking that I hadn’t spotted him, chances are I would have been driving the second car that hit him that day. How fortunate for both of us.

My immediate reaction was to turn my hazard lights on, park the car, and get out to see if everything was OK; I was aware that my car was blocking the inside lane, but I thought this was needed to keep more traffic away.

There were already three people at the side of the road: an older gentleman in a suit, a young girl, and a fashionably dressed guy who looked to be in his late twenties. The fashionable guy was on his mobile phone, trying to arrange an ambulance. The young girl and older gent were talking to the guy I’d seen collapse. At that point, I noticed the blood coming out of the guys ears.

A few moments later, another guy arrived. He said he worked at the Police HQ we were stood in front of. Thankfully, he had managed to contact Police control on his radio, and had told the ambulance exactly where we were. We stood, somewhat awkwardly for a few seconds, until the fashionable guy went to move his car from it’s position blocking the outside lane. I guess he thought it was something he could usefully be doing.

After the fashionably guy had returned, a nurse came running up the pavement towards us. She started to have a look at the unfortunate chap on the ground, asking a few questions, and trying to be as helpful as she could without making things worse. Understandably, she couldn’t move the guy, or do a great deal to help him.

The nurse left as the ambulance made it’s presence known. I backed my car up to give the ambulance a good spot to pull into, and it steadily made it’s way through the traffic, coming to a stop just next to us. Now that the ambulance had arrived, I thought it would be best for me to continue my journey to work. The older gentleman and the young woman were still talking to the injured man, and I remember the young woman’s hands were wet with blood as I said an awkward goodbye and got back into my car.

Every single person who stopped at that scene are superb human beings. I could not, in good conscience, see something like that happening and not try to do something to help. I hope that makes me a decent human being too.

The thing that makes me sick are the mindless idiots who, despite it being obvious that something “bad” has happened, sound their horns and rev their engines, and generally make nuisances of themselves, because some “inconsiderate oaf” has delayed their ritualistic shuffle to work. I’d like to think that these people are in the minority, but there were a hell of a lot more people sitting angrily in a queue of traffic than there were asking if “everything was OK?” or “did he need any help?”

Some people…eh?