What’s everyone listening to?

Since we are all spread around the world atm, I thought it would be good to find out what music everyone has been into?
I’m sure we have all been listening to very different things and it is always good to get some good suggestions for new tunes…

Here is a few from me on high-rotation:

Astronomy Class – Exit Strategy
Fear & Loathing – Soundtrack
Easy Star All Stars – Dub Side of the Moon, Radiodread
Bonnie Billy & Matt Sweeney – Superwolf
Fabienne Delsol – No Time for Sorrows
Fink – Biscuits for Breakfast
Flanger – Spirituals
Joanna Newsom – Ys
Lamb – Best Kept Secrets (The Best Of)
Maps & Diagrams – Antennas & Signals
Pendulum – Hold Your Colour
Salmonella Dub – Calming of the Drunken Monkey, Inside The Dub Plates
Trentmoller – The Last Resort

Have been listening to heaps of Faithless as well lately, which I am sure you all have. It pays to go back through the catalogue though as they have dome some great tracks!

On a personal note, I will be uploading all the Jungle Traffic tracks into an online box shortly so you will be able to get all the latest and greatest I will also throw in some tracks from another mate over here who is working on an acoustic mini-album. Really nice stuff and I’m sure you will like it…

Getting started in investing?

Question for the financial gurus amongst us (aka Leigh):  How would you recommend somebody start out in investing?

Lets say we have $5k to invest, for the medium term (at least 5 years).  I’ve heard good things about Index Funds due to their low cost compared to actively managed funds – something like Vanguard’s LifeStrategy High Growth Fund caught my eye, but it’s just an example.

Thoughts?

pc-mac

does anyone know if I can network a mac to a pc to transfer music files?

If so how?

The Piracy War

Dave brought to my attention the other day that the TV-links site administrator has been arrested and servers seized and shut down. Although he hasn’t been formally charged, TV-links did not hold any content on their servers hence the name, he is basically in a lot of shit. I didn’t think too much of this until yesterday…

Will (hippie Will) has recently got me membership access to one of the best private torrent communities going around called Oink. It specialises in music and has one of the most awesome catalogues available. It has a very good selection of software and download speeds are always at least 100k/s. Yesterday this happened:

Oink Shut Down – Google News

A 2 year interpol operation that coordinated police in England and the Netherlands has led to arrests and servers being confiscated. Much to my disgust I have now lost an incredible resource that could have benefited us all nicely. It also got me to thinking about how real the threat of police action against the p2p community may get. Previously we would dismiss it as ‘no chance’, but the last week has led me to think that maybe we are about to see a change?

I do realise that these arrests are minimal compared to the whole p2p community, but if they look to cut it hard at the source, then being a site administrator for torrent communities could be a dangerous and possibly very lucrative profession.

Be keen to hear the thoughts of other torrent freaks out there…

Random thought…

Do you realise that whenever the brain retrieves a combination of things it usually recalls the thing it encountered first. It is almost like a filing system for the brain. A few examples as follows:

- Mum and Dad
- Matty and Claire
- Al and Dora
- Charles and Diana
- Brad and Angelina
- Posh and Becks
- Bush and Blair
- Mitja and Gunter

I’m sure there are many more examples and it will differ from person to person obviously. See how it goes for you…

Electoral Funding

Another cool little graphic to play around with. Ever wondered how much and where it all comes from?

US Candidates – Electoral Funding 

Liberal or Labor

With Rudd 10 points ahead in the polls and Howard shelling out billions in tax cuts we are set for two months of political bombardment. It begs the question – are you Liberal or Labor? I found an interesting test at news.com.au. Re-affirms me as a Labor voter. 

Take the test

Also interested to hear why you are one or the other.

Left Brain Vs Right Brain

This is a pretty cool test!
I am Right brainer

Left Brain Vs Right Brain

Monkey see, monkey do…

Does anybody else see the irony in the Indian cricket fans taunting Andrew Symonds for being black and calling him a monkey??

Granted he may be a different shade and far more physically able (and more likely to be able to swing from tree tops with his large physique) but seriously, I would have though with 50 million people at each game they could come up with something a little better then having a go at someone for being essentially the same colour as you…

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,,22585237-23212,00.html

Laptops

One for all you gaebons out there. 

 Background:  Am in the process of deciding what laptop I’d like to buy, but have reached a wall.  Have been searching for a while now, am in a position to buy but I can’t settle myself down enough to make a choice and stick to it.  In the past month or so I have decided and re-decided on which make and model I’d like to buy, and I can’t seem to give myself any closure over the right choice.  At various times I’ve entertained a Dell (most serious), Sony and more recently, an Asus.  Am stuck, honestly can’t tell what the difference is in the specs, what the inherent benefits of each are (the stuff you DON’T read about) and ultimately, what the best model is for my purpose. 

Purpose/objective of model:  Mobility (will be a uni tool mainly).  Use will include home stuff and the like (cough*porn*cough), but I’d like it to be small enough to carry around no worries but large enough that u’d be able to comfortably spreadsheet with ease – am thinking a 14″1 or 13″3 inch screen.  Am not too worried aboout a number pad, but it would be nice (contradiction here, wide keyboard versus small and mobile – how do I reconcile??)   Could probably just get a wireless keyboard and mouse, but do you tech heads have any alternatives or suggestions???  Want it to be fast, but its performance will be limited to multiple spreadhseets and or web browsers open at any one time, meaning 2GB RAM would be well sufficient, but tell me if you think otherwise.  Want it to be quick, but it doesn’t need to be warcraft 3/itunes/online poker all going at once quick.

 Price:  Up to 2000, but willing to go a little higher if needs be.   

Aesthetics:  Minor detail, but if it could be pimpin, then I’ll be chimpin

Whatever youy guys want to suggest, I’ll listen to.  In the spirit of the blog, you could use this post to spark a wider discussion on laptops and IT in general.   Craig/Amon/Dave, on your marks, get set, go….   Pete – feel free to make jokes and tell me about your dell