David Roessli's Empty Set

Links for 2009-11-09 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

node.js
Node's goal is to provide an easy way to build scalable network programs
Transforms

Links for 2009-11-08 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Viewfinder: Flickr search tool
Viewfinder is a Mac OS X application that dramatically simplifies the process of finding, downloading and using images from Flickr.
Simple Desktops
A collection of desktop wallpapers curated by Tom Watson to make your computer beautiful without distraction.

Links for 2009-11-06 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Closure Tools - Google Code
Open source JavaScript compiler, debugger, library, and templating system from Google

Links for 2009-11-03 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Susan Burnstine Photography
Delicate and square
Cell Size and Scale
A Flash animation to illustrate cell size and scale
David Airey, graphic designer

Links for 2009-11-02 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Snow Leopard Compatibility: SnowChecker
Tells you whether or not your applications will run under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

The mists of time

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:11:17 +0100

I woke up this morning to find myself wrapped up in an old friend's arms: Mist.

There was something comforting about the way it dampened reality by overlaying a softness filter inside and out.

Focus was on my immediate and close needs. Preserving heat, stretching distal limbs, and bootstrapping my brain out of its haze into adagio mode.

The night's dew has dried up. Hello world.

Currently playing in iTunes: Biber's Passagalia for unaccompanied violin by Andrew Manze & Richard Egarr

My favourite IM abbr

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:00:00 +0100

In my daily chats or tweets, I often get asked the question “What does XXX mean?” or receive the bare question mark suite “???” following the use of an abbreviation.

A side effect of today's prevalence of text messaging, instant messaging and especially Twitter as means of communicating is the increased usage of acronyms and abbreviations in the content we broadcast, which's length is slimmed down by choice or by constraint.

I live in Geneva where the main language remains French. Most people I communicate with have some fluency in English, but most lack the geeky online culture in which these abbreviations are the most common. Even though a number of them have been translated into French (e.g. LOL becomes Mdr), their English counterpart still prevails and bewilder a number of people I know.

There is a generation gap which adds to what precedes, as the younger people tend to embrace the web and its culture as ubiquitous.

All this isn't without reminding me of the days when CB radio (“ham”) was popular and how the slang used by aficionados fascinated me. Secrets and double meanings in ordinary words. I loved it.

If wonder if there are any CB fans/users left out there…

There are loads of web sites out there that give you lists of the common abbreviations used in text messages of instant messages, but if I had to pick two, I would suggest:

AIM's Acronym Dictionary. Comprehensive.
The Urban Dictionary. So much more than just a list of words and their definitions.

BOT: this entry is getting far too long. All I wanted to do this morning was to share my favourite 30 with you.

73	Best Regards
88	Love and Kisses
831	8 letters, 3 words, 1 meaning, I love you
100	Nature Calls/Pit Stop
AFAIC	As Far As I'm Concerned
AFAIK	As Far As I Know
AKA	Also Known As
BOT	Back On Topic
BRB	Be Right Back
DAMHIK	Don't Ask Me How I Know
DW	Don't Worry
EG	Evil Grin
EOD	End Of Discussion
ETA	Estimated Time of Arrival
FYA	For Your Amusement
FYI	For Your Information
GAL	Get A Life
GBTW	Get Back To Work
LOL	Laughing Out Loud
ROFL	Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROTF	Rolling On The Floor
SS	So Sorry
SWAK	Sealed With A Kiss
SWL	Screaming With Laughter
SYS	See You Soon
YMMV	Your Mileage May Vary
YWIA	You're Welcome In Advance
ZZZ	Sleeping

Have a great weekend!
88

Currently playing in iTunes: If You Knew by Mélanie Pain

Links for 2009-10-30 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

20x200
(limited editions × low prices) + the internet = art for everyone

Nouvelle Vague in concert in Lausanne

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:45:45 +0100

Last night was magical.

We were teleported to Les Docks in Nouvelle Vague in concert.

It was my first time at Les Docks and I found the place very friendly and well laid out. The tickets as well as the bar prices are reasonable and there are lots of smiles and good vibes radiating. The kind you find in places where people enjoy what they do.

The concert hall is well setup and nicely sized to preserve this kind of delicate intimacy that can exist between the performer and his public. This sorely lacked at Emilìana Torrini's concert at the BFM earlier this month. Don't get me wrong: I love the BFM and I loved the concert. The two weren't meant for each other that all.

Anyway, back to last night. Before Mélanie Pain's supporting act, I grabbed a beer and went in the front of the stage and watched the public slowly trickling in, trying to tweet and registering once again how fast time goes by. Most of the public attending must have had half my age. I don't mind that at all, on the contrary, but it's just that I feel more and more like if I was on a train running faster and faster towards its destination.

Mélanie Pain came on stage with Paul at the keyboards and guitar. Her voice was immediately familiar from having listened to Nouvelle Vague's latest albums. She played most of her first album's content with talent and humour, despite a sore throat. She set the vibes nicely for what was to follow.

Nouvelle Vague then filled the room with their remix of The Police's “So Lonely” and I fell under their spell. I love live performances, especially in settings such as those where the artists are less than a meter away and giving all they've got.

Nadeah Miranda and Marina Celeste's (I think it was her - please confirm?) performance was huge. Acting as opposites as well as mirrors, they lead us vocally and visually throughout the night. Up peaks and down dark alleys, their voices wrapped us up or stabbed us, but never left us unmoved. Mélanie Pain joined the gig half way through and completed the set perfectly.

Marc Collin (bass) and Olivier Libaux (guitar) were prodigious in their tunes and in the way they rythmed the different sets, lighting up the path for the singers to follow. Drums were amazing, but I must admit all the eyes were on the singers, especially Nadeah which delivered a phenomenal performance. Half way between Nina Hagen and Brigtte Bardot but with so much more and her own personal style, she brought Nouvelle Vague's songs to life.

<ego>Not to mention we came in close contact when she chose me to step down from the stage, leaning on my shoulders and sliding through my arms to later dance through the hall. Waow.</ego>

The evening was magical thanks to the way Nouvelle Vague shared their love and passion with us. Don't miss them if they come near you.

The only downside I can think of would be the public and its shyness. I didn't feel it expressed much, and I wonder what the band got out of it. Not much probably, but I might be wrong.

I have noticed this at Emilìana Torrini's concert where the people sitting in front would have been those standing behind if there wouldn't have been any seats. Quiet. Yesterday wasn't that quiet, but I expected more smiles, sweat and shouts. Maybe I'm the one getting it wrong.

Running down the streets of Lausanne, we barely managed to catch the last train home, a large smile painted over our faces, that much richer of a magical evening.

Currently playing in iTunes: So Lonely by Nouvelle Vague

Links for 2009-10-29 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Augmented Reality – Create your own Layar Layer!
Fredrik Davidsson, developer of the WAYD layer, has shared his code with the developer community! This code enables you to create a content Layer with PHP. Now PHP developers don’t have to reinvent this wheel.

I ♥ my {international} Kindle

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0100

I received my International Kindle last Wednesday, and have been playing around with it since. As we've set the clock back an hour today, I'll take the opportunity to post my 2¢ worth of initial Kindle thoughts and how such a US centric product works in Switzerland.

The packaging is small, sweet and simple. Rip the “Once upon a time…” and you are presented with the Kindle displaying on screen the steps to follow to set it up.

My first disappointment was that it ships with a US power adapter. You can use the USB cable provided to charge it from a USB port of your computer if you don't have an USB-power adapter.

Slide the power switch, and it initialises in less than a minute. I was then greeted by a personalised letter in my name and the User Guide outlining the basic features and commands. My Kindle was already personalised and registered. Sweet.

Usage

Its usage is strait forward for anyone use to computer interfaces. The main navigation buttons are clearly visible on either side, as well as the menu access controls and joystick. Connecting to the Kindle Store or reviewing my settings was a breeze.

The screen is amazing. Very crisp and clear and easy to read. Since there is no backlight, it requires an external source of light depending where you are, but it doesn't tire your eyes. At first, I was tempted to interact directly with the screen, especially for scrolling and selecting - a side effect of having an iPhone I guess.

Once you find your way of holding it and turning the pages, you are left with a very smooth reading experience. The controls don't get into your way are are never far if you require them. The page turning effect could be better, but you get used to it.

While you read, you can change the character size, add bookmarks, take notes and make clippings fairly easily. The little joystick can be cumbersome to navigate in a page and select content to mark up, especially if you are use to an iPhone like experience, but I suppose you get use to that too. After all, this is supposed to be more of a reading device than a note taking device.

Whisper

The Kindle really starts to shine when you get online via the Whispernet services, either on the Kindle Store to download books, newspapers or magazines, or by sending yourself documents to your private e-mail address. I may also mention that zero setup is required to connect to your 3G/EDGE network.

You need to spend a few minutes in a browser managing your Kindle account first, to setup the list of approved e-mails that can send content to your Kindle, and to setup the default 1-click payment method. Yes, Kindle transactions are completed with 1-Click only.

The Kindle formatted books look great and are easy to read and navigate. As for your own content, your milage my vary depending on the layout and complexity of the document you are trying to read. But overall, the quality is acceptable to good.

Be aware that there is a fee to send documents to your Kindle via Whispernet: $0.99/Mb. This can be circumvented by sending your documents to a special e-mail address to be converted that will then be e-mailed to your computer for you to transfer them via USB.

“If you would like to transfer your personal documents to your Kindle for free, you can send attachments to "name"@free.kindle.com to be converted and e-mailed to your computer at the e-mail address associated with your Amazon.com account log-in. You can then transfer the document to your Kindle using your USB connection.”

Wireless delivery is fast. I must admit it is fun to explore new books by downloading their first chapter, and it wasn't long before I stated buying my first Kindle books.

My first was “JavaScript: The Good Parts” by Douglas Crockford, followed shortly by Stephen Fry's “The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within”.

Thursday evening, I downloaded Friday's edition of “Le Monde” which was my first Kindle newspaper edition. I must admit that reading the paper this way suits me down to the ground. You can zero in on articles by theme, check the number of words per article (useful as you don't have any visual clue of the length of the article), or clip an article for later reference.

If your content is in English, you have the ability to look up words just by pushing a button - or almost. You do need to navigate to the word and click the joystick button. Nevertheless, it's a nice feature.

Audible

My next attempt was to try out audio content. Namely Audible books. It was a piece of cake to transfer the file to the Kindle: I hooked up my Kindle to my Mac and it showed up as an external drive. At the root level is a folder called 'Audible'. Just drag and copy your files there, they will automatically show up on the Kindle's home screen.

Selecting an audiobook switches to a page with the book's cover and description, with the audio controls down the bottom of the screen. All you have to do is to plug in your headphones and click play. So I thought.

The nag is that the device needs to be activated by Audible, which the Kindle automatically offers to do. Enter your Audible login information, and wait until your device gets activated. Which never happened with me… after 5 minutes this process times out with an error message.

Until now, I haven't been able to figure out how to activate my Kindle with Audible. Whatever book, location or time of day I try, the process times out with an error message saying that my device can't be activated now. I posted a support ticket with Amazon regarding this issue and spoke 40 minute with Seattle, but haven't received a pertinent answer yet. “Contact Audible support” was their last suggestion.

This probably has to do with the web browsing restrictions international Kindles are subject to in certain countries.

If you load the text based browser located in the 'Experimental' submenu and enter an URL, you'll be informed that “Due to local restrictions, web browsing is not available for all countries”. Duh!

I suspect that the Kindle activation runs through the web one way or another, and that those “local restrictions” are preventing me from reaching the activation server. This remains to be confirmed though. I'll be in London next week, and I'll give it a try.

28 Oct update: Audible's support page confirms that the activation is done over Whispernet, and hence won't work is web browsing restrictions are active.

Beginning with the Kindle 2 model, Amazon included wireless access from the device. This service, called Whispernet, is at no cost to the user and it is currently available in the US. This feature allows Audible customers that have either of the compatible Kindle models to wirelessly activate their Audible account. This is convenient for those customers that do not have access to a Windows computer and that usually download using a Mac. Below find the instructions as to how to activate Audible content from the Kindle wirelessly. [Orig: Are the Kindle/Kindle2/KindleDX Compatible with Audible?]

Currently, the only solution for international Macintosh users with web browsing restrictions is to use the Window's Audible Manager to activate the Kindle. Activate your account and transfer a file to the Kindle and files transferred later via the Finder seem to work. This is a poor workaround, but at least you don't have to use Windows each time you add Audible content to your Kindle.

Other than that, I am curious to see how the home screen content will evolve has each title is listed under the next. You can sort by name or date, but you have little options to create sub categories or folders. An archive folder is present, but I'm not sure how this one functions.

Overall, I'm really happy with this new device and looking forward to the paper weight it will save me carrying around.
★★★★☆

Tech specs

6″ monitor with a resolution of 600×800px @167dpi
16 shades of gray with E-Ink technology
2Go of internal storage (a.k.a. 1500 books)
3.5mm output jack, a USB port, two speakers
Text-to-speech and WhisperSync functionalities
Compatible with Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC, PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Battery lasts up to 4 days (3G/EDGE on) or 2 weeks (3G/EDGE off)
Size 203.2 × 134.6 × 9.1mm for a weight of 289g

Mail 10.6 “Copy Address” fix

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:14:31 +0100

I stumbled on a welcoming Mail fix this morning which restores Leopard's (Mac OS 10.5) “Copy Address” behaviour.

In Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6), Mail's “Copy Address” contextual menu command copies the name and enclosed the address in angle brackets. As in “John Doe <john.doe@nowhere.com>”, which turns out to be annoying as most of the time I have to edit the pasted text in order to remove the brakets and/or name.

Mac Daddy World (Ecamm Network developer blog) discovered a Mail preference setting which restores Mail 10.5 behaviour (copy only the address):

AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard

Quit Mail, and open Terminal (Application > Utilities) and type the following command (all on the same line):

defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool NO

and next time you use the “Copy Address” contextual menu command, it will only place the e-mail address on your clipboard. Bliss.

Thanks Ken, this fix is most welcome.

How to fix a Nik Software plug-in crash in Snow Leopard

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:06:34 +0100

Since I installed Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) one of my Aperture plug-ins stopped working, crashing Aperture when launched (a horrible experience).

I have several of Nik Software's plug-ins installed, but only Dfine 2.0 stopped working properly.

Nik Software's tech support answer was,

Snow Leopard is very sensitive with regards to duplicate copies of fonts. All of the Nik Software plug-ins utilise Arial fonts. Removing all duplicate copies of the Arial fonts corrects the issue.

You'll find the detailled procedure on how to identify and remove duplicate fonts in Nik Software's support document. Kudo to Nik Software. These guys responded promptly and in details to my support request.

The truth is that it didn't work for me. Font Book didn't reveal any duplicate Arial fonts at all.

It turned out the clearing the font cache did the trick, and is the tip I wanted to share with you.

There are third party applications that do this, but I'm not familiar with them. Here is a quick run through on how to clear your font cache in 10.5 or 10.6 with the Terminal (Application > Utilities):

Quit all running apps;
Type the following command to clear the cache atsutil databases -removeUser
Type the following command to restart the ATS server (Apple Type Solutions Server?)
atsutil server -shutdown atsutil server -ping

It might take a second or two for the server to restart. If anything still looks weird, a logout and login should take care of any niggling issues.

Hope this helps.

Afterthought: it is not recommended to clear the font cache, unless you're having a problem that you specifically suspect is related to a corrupted font cache.

Needles and haystacks and such

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:50:47 +0100

I love this one. The same curve applies to age vs wisdom.

Enjoy.

Orig. Jessica Hagy's This is indexed dated October 9th, 2009.

Happy birthday little sis.

Warm solitude

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:46:50 +0100

“There is little
more beautiful
than sitting
sheltered
from an
oncoming storm,
with the light of day
dimmed
to an early evening.
And the cool
of a summer breeze
easing the moisture
out of a hot day.
And me sitting at my table.
Writing.

There is nothing better.
Save,
perhaps,
the cry of a seagull
ripping the air apart.”

One of my favourite entries of Vivienne's I met you Yesterday.

Perfect settings.

Orig. Vivienne's I met you Yesterday dated April 16th, 2009.

Yahoo! Meme

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:47:46 +0100

Yahoo! seems to be launching a Twitter/Tumblr service call Meme.

Yahoo! has been very quiet about this and seems to be experimenting it in Portuguese and Spanish first.

Found the new Internet hit? Send it to your Meme. Everyone will know you found it first. Coming soon.

At first sight (and without an account), it looks like a pale imitation of Twitter (post 100 characters messages with a repost and comment features). People can follow other peoples' feeds. It reminds me of Tumblr in the way you can post text, images, video, audio or a mix of all.

I'll give it a try when I receive my invitation.

Happy bday James!

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:52:21 +0100

Just a few lines before the day comes to a close to send you all my good vibes.

I am sure the months ahead will reveal to be a turning point to brighter horizons.

It might seem all uphill for the time being, but don't focus on that, focus on what you feel deep inside and what lays ahead. You're not alone.

Happy birthday James!

Currently playing in iTunes: Drumming Song by Florence + The Machine

All else being equal

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:24:12 +0100

Another great doodle from Jessica Hagy that says it all.

Enjoy.

Orig. Jessica Hagy's This is indexed dated August 26th, 2009.

Gentle upgrade to Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6)

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:29:18 +0100

It's a slow starter today, so while Snow Leopard gently installs on Jigme, my Mac Pro workstation, I thought I'd share my 2¢ worth of Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) experience.

The upgrade was as smooth as can be on my MacBook Pro and iMac at home. I'm sure you've read elsewhere about the new installer and features that come with Snow Leopard (SL) so I won't bother repeating them here, but rather share with you the few things I noticed since upgrading.

Make a backup

This should be standard procedure, but so many of my acquaintances don't backup on a regular basis, it's frightening. I tend to be obsessive about backups - sorry. To the least, buy an external hard drive that matches your disk's capacity and turn Time Machine on. Thank you.

Another safe move is to repair your drive's permissions with Disk Utility and make sure your Time Machine's backup is up-to-date before clicking on the “Install Mac OS X” icon.

Install

The update procedure is a breeze. Really. There are few options you can select before the install, and none are irreversible. Rosetta, QuickTime 7 or additional languages can be installed after hand with the “Optional installs”. So go ahead and click install.

The procedure took between 45 and 55 minutes depending on the hardware (iMac, MBP) and rebooted itself. Log in and you're running Mac OS 10.6.

Collateral damages

The only visible collateral damage was my desktop icons which all ended up aligned to the right of the screen (actually, it turns out I accidentally hit ^⌘3 in the Finder). I try to keep most of my apps up-to-date, or at least those I use on a regular basis, but was pleasantly surprised to find updates for a number of them.

The following application were updated Apple Remote Desktop, Default Folder, Teleport, Snapz Pro X, LittleSnitch, SuperDuper!, Apple Aperture, DockStar, PhoneView, MarsEdit, Flip4Mac, Fission, Audio Hijack Pro, Airfoil, Podcast Maker, CandyBar, DropBox, DiskWarrior, Better Finder Rename, TextMate.

For more up-to-date information on the Snow Leopard compatibility, check out the Snow Leopard Compatibility List.

Weirdly, my Time Machine exceptions on all computers were forgotten. I had to reset those.

Only Little Snitch broke and required to install the latest beta version (v2.2 at the time of writing). Supposedly, SL doesn't support Input Managers at all, so all Safari extensions are gone for the time being. There seem to be a way to get to work in a similar way they did in Leopard (Mac OS 10.5 supposedly killed them, remember?), but it's not entirely clear. StackOverFlow has an entry on this topic.

Apparently, some plugins will work if Safari runs in 32 bits mode because SIMBL (Smart InputManager Bundle Loader) is only 32 bits for the moment. To put Safari in 32-bit mode, open the 'Get Info' inspector on Safari.app and tick the 32 bit checkbox.

I am going to miss Saft and Safari Tidy.

The Activity Monitor behaviour has changed too: previously it remembered if a window was opened or not last time you quit the application, and launched in the same state the next time you opened the application. I liked this behaviour as I have it running all the time. The dock icon displays the CPU load, and I only need to click on its icon if I wanted to open up the list of processes. Now, a window is opened at each launch which requires me to close it manually (I don't like the floating windows). Minor grievance for a more standard behaviour?.

Another upgrade casualty was my printer: Canon Pixma MP980 which was (only) recognised as a Bonjour Scanner. Canon doesn't offer any SL compatible drivers yet. Installing the 10.5 drivers by bypassing the incompatible version warning worked for me. You can't access the printer settings, but at least you can print until Canon comes out with an appropriate set of drivers. To do so, you need to install those on the Install CD that came with the printer.

There is a thread on Apple Discussions that gives more insight and a few clues. Apple lists the Canon MP980 as compatible, so it shouldn't be an issue (You can download Apple's Canon drivers bundle from Apple's Support).

At the time of writing, Canon USA offers 10.6 compatible drivers on their website, while the international sites still don't.

Depending on the application you wish to print from, the printer settings will be unavailable (striked through). It's probably linked to the architecture of the application. Applications running in 32 bits will have access to the setting but not those running in 64 bits. Open the Activity Monitor to see which application is running in which mode.

On the bright side

The system feel much snappier. Applications seem to load faster and boot time feels reduced which will paint a smile on your face. Among the few cosmetic/behaviour changes that were introduced, the following sweetened my day:

The Finder Spotlight search can default to the local folder now, and doesn't default to the entire Mac anymore (at last);
The Finder has a sleep shortcut now: opt-cmd-eject. The eject key was previously used to turn the display off: remember ctrl-shift-eject?
The menubar Airport drop down menu displays the strength of the available wifi networks;
The menubar Keyboard drop down menu doesn't display the flag of the current layout anymore if only 1 keyboard is selected. I hated that little flag up there. I'm not a flag type of person… I noticed the Input Sources pane have a search box now too;
The new Dock behaviour is awesome: drag a document (image, text snippet, or whatever) onto the icon of a running application, and it will expose all its opened windows. Just chose the desired one and the dragged content will be inserted at the caret's current position.
The Finder icon view goes to a jumbo 512x512px which is great to preview PDFs without using Quicklook (on a large screen that is);

Another change is the way file size is reported by the Finder: 1 megabyte = 1000 bytes and not 1024 bytes as before. This is the correct way of doing things since 1999, but Apple took its time to adopt it. Files and folders occupy exactly the same space, it is just the way of calculating the space that has changed. Read more on MacWorld.

All this to say that you shouldn't hesitate to update if you are running a healthy 10.5 without too many hacks.

For an in depth review of Snow Leopard, read John Siracusa's review on Ars Technica.

Currently playing in iTunes: I Love Your Smile (Live) by Charlie Winston

Defrag

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:22:12 +0100

Time for my yearly summer family break. I'm off to Cornwall with the kids for a week to catch up with the family, the ocean breeze and the softness of the Cornish landscape.

I'll catch up with you once my defrag is complete.

Currently playing in iTunes: Soldaji by Jessica Williams

Regina Spektor | Far

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:21:02 +0100

I must be one of the last to have discovered Regina Specktor, but lucky enough to stumble upon Laughing With earlier this month. My curiosity was tickled and let me to her latest album Far and to realise she'd been around for the last 10 years. So much for me.

What struck me first was her voice, her powerful vocal range and the diverstity of her interpretations. The piano leads, and something in the way she sings brings me back to New York, reminding me of Suzanne Vega, other tracks will evoke something of Lily Allen or Kate Nash in their rhythm, making it difficult to assign her a definite style.

“bronx girl by way of moscow who writes songs for the piano, voice, drum stick, and guitar (sort of). Other instruments may follow…”

This album is catchy and creative, she comes over cristal clear. I don't know if I'll still be listening to it the way I am today in a few years, but it's a perfect summer album for me, and has been filling my office lately. I'm adding her to my concerts wishlist…

You'll find more info on Regina Spektor at,

Currently playing in iTunes: Machine by Regina Spektor

Tango Boo

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:42:36 +0100

We enjoyed Lalo Zanelli & Ombù Sextet at the Parc des Eaux-Vives last night, and I took the opportunity to play around with AudioBoo.

Lalo Zanelli - former pianist of the Gotan Project - and his sextet gave the evening a clear Tango tinge, but sliding into jazz every now and then, with delicate and intense improvisations.

Listen!

AudioBoo is a breeze to use and can record for as long as you want. Clearly, the limiting factor is the publishing aspect. While both can publish their clips over GSM or WiFi, you'll most certainly find yourself in a situation when you are trying to push audio up over EDGE, and it can take forever while the iPhone can't do anything else.

You can edit part of the metadata (title, description and tags) once the Boo is published, but not the associated image or the geolocation. The latter reflects the upload geolocation, not the recording location, so be warned.

Nevertheless, it is a lot of fun to use. Checkout AudioBoo's walkthrough on Vimeo to have a feel of its features.

I found a few pictures of the evening on Flickr.