Tom Davenport

The first rule of Fight Club is…

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:32:36 +0100

The first rule of Fight Club is…

When April Fools articles come true

Thu, 17 May 2012 11:48:00 +0100

I almost sprayed tea over my iPad this morning when I saw this headline:

Doctor says emo hairdos could lead to lazy eye syndrome

A doctor has spoken out to condemn ‘emo’ haircuts with heavy fringes, saying that they could lead to lazy eye syndrome.

“If a young emo chap has a fringe covering one eye all the time, that eye won’t see a lot of detail. And if it happens from a young age, that eye can become amblyotic,” said Andrew Hogan, education director of the Optometrists Association of Tasmania.

Why was I shocked?

Because in 2011, I wrote an April Fools article for Ultimate Guitar about a fictional coalition of emo kids with lazy eye syndrome:

Emo Coalition Complain About Foo Fighters Film

A coalition of former emo fans have struck out against the Foo Fighters, saying their forthcoming 3D documentary will leave them out in the cold.

The problem began in the mid-2000s, when emo hit the mainstream and a trend of side-swept hair covering one eye became a fashion. Little did they know, their habit would leave them with a serious visual impairment.

The group, indistinguishable with their incessant group hug and black clothing, say they want the Foo Fighters to only broadcast their film in 2D. When asked why they would even want to see a film about a regular non-emo rock band, they said “We don’t want to watch it. We just want the right to watch it.”

It was an old idea for The Onion, and includes one of my favourite lines:

“I’m crying now. I feel like my face is a bath and the taps are stuck.”

The Higgs Boson Explained (by PHD Comics)

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:01:50 +0100

The Higgs Boson Explained (by PHD Comics)

This parody of Google Glasses, the augmented reality headset due...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:57:12 +0100

This parody of Google Glasses, the augmented reality headset due later this year, demonstrates exactly what we hope won’t happen to user interfaces.

Apple probably wants HD-AAC for iTunes Match

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:01:00 +0000

Yesterday I reported in the Guardian on Apple’s plans to upgrade its iTunes Match library to offer “adaptive streaming”.The theory is, anything you re-download (or stream?) from iTunes Match will be at the best quality available for your device or connection speed.

Now I think Apple is seriously considering HD-AAC as the file format to deliver this service.

HD-AAC is developed by Fraunhofer - the German folk behind AAC, MP3 and a bunch of other smart codecs - and the promotional guide to HD-AAC pretty much spells out the rumours in the Guardian post:

Songs stored on media servers in the HD-AAC format can be streamed to multiple devices at varying bit-rates. This maximizes the sound quality under difficult network conditions by matching the bit-rate to the available bandwidth.

It’s a great format too; lossless encoding of 24-bit audio up to 192KHz, a compression ratio of 2:1, and immediately compatible with AAC-enabled devices. That is, the entire Apple line.

This image shows how the iTunes server could store a 24-bit/192KHz file (left), deliver a lossless version to the consumer (middle) and even deliver a lo-res version if your connection speed sucks (right). Seemingly all from one file.

There’s no hard evidence Apple will use this. But when it starts asking for 24/96 iTunes masters, and we hear that it is working on an adaptive streaming system, this clearly fits the bill.

Composite lets you make scenery-inspired art with ease. It looks...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:11:20 +0000

Composite lets you make scenery-inspired art with ease. It looks fun.

Spotify pays more than 1p per stream - sometimes

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:40:00 +0000

Spotify receives a lot of bad press for its tiny streaming royalties.

At the last #sonicmeet, I told a skeptical Mike Hillier that Vienna Circle, a band whose second album I have been producing, have seen streaming payments in the pennies before. Sure, it’s no flattering payment, but it certainly looks better than the £0.000125 that many artists receive per play.

I just received an updated copy of Vienna Circle’s digital stats, and checked back to see if I was utterly mistaken that Spotify, or indeed another streaming service, really can pay more than the hallowed penny for a single track stream.

If it can, then suddenly streaming becomes a reasonably viable platform for the long term.

Take a look at your own last.fm stats and see how often you’ve played certain tracks over the last five years. Then scale that up to your lifetime. If streaming royalties are, on average, over half a penny, the number of plays could ultimately earn the artist more a traditional sale.

It turns out that Spotify really can pay up to 1.4p for a single track stream (that’s £0.0138). Napster and MySpace can fare better, with Napster up to 1.8p and Deezer paying almost 5p. Please note, these are not standard streaming rates. Most are far less, but I haven’t seen other figures to show they can also be this high. I can only presume it is the result of a fully paying subscriber streaming the tracks.

So what is the average rate overall?

At 1,975 streams, the average pay per stream for Vienna Circle is £0.0043. A fan would have to stream a song 184 times in their lifetime to effectively pay the artist the iTunes rate (not including Apple’s cut).

Of course, these rates pale in comparison to regular iTunes sales. Streaming income would never have given Vienna Circle the opportunity to invest in a second album, and they wouldn’t be able to claim a profit from just streaming for decades, if ever.

All in all, it seems worth further analysis, so subscribe to this blog and I’ll post some detailed analysis later. The second album, due in Spring, will be tracked extensively and sounds much better, so its analysis should be quite insightful. Alternatively, sign up to the Vienna Circle mailing list to hear about their second second album - I think bassist Jack is preparing some great studio videos of Monkey Puzzle House for subscribers right now.

Manhole Cover explodes in face with firecracker.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:19:27 +0000

Manhole Cover explodes in face with firecracker.

chartier: Prevail, an upcoming game from Johnny Two Shoe, for...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:39:44 +0000

chartier:

Prevail, an upcoming game from Johnny Two Shoe, for iOS looks intriguing. I love how creative the iPhone and iPad game space has become.

via TouchArcade

Alex Cherney describes how he captured footage of this...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:47:59 +0000

Alex Cherney describes how he captured footage of this aurora:

After chasing it for more than two years I was finally rewarded with two displays of aurora australis (southern lights) within a week visible from Mornington Peninsula, not far from Melbourne. The nights were warm and clear and the Moon was not in the sky either — I could not have asked for better conditions.

An unexpected side effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:30:48 +0000

An unexpected side effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiderwebs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before. (Courtesy: National Geographic)

At The Drive-In reunite. I react.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:55:00 +0000

The band that changed my life is coming back from the dead.

I first saw At the Drive-In on the cover of Kerrang, a magazine that I had arranged a work placement with but had never read. I didn’t know anything about rock, even. I had about four months until I would walk in that office and have to feign some knowledge, and buying their magazine seemed a good place to start.

But there was a problem. Upon the cover was a sweating, wide-eyed lion of a man with an afro to match. Jesus Christ. I can’t get into this, I thought. This is not for me.

With the same issue was a CD, and I grew to like much of it. But only one song really affected me. It wasn’t emotional, nor was it a lyrical connection. It was the energy. My heart raced, and I wanted to jump and jab out my arms and stamp on everything. Sometimes I did. It was ‘Pattern Against User’ by At The Drive-In.

Relationship of Command was that feeling for almost an hour. It was their last and most aggressive release. Their previous records, notably Vaya and in/CASINO/OUT opened my eyes to the world of emo. True emotional hardcore, that is - nothing with black makeup or tattoos. Just great, heartfelt songwriting in a punk gown. Real emotional hardcore, as it should be.

I wanted to see them live so I could spazz out to this music freely, albeit with respect (because moshing was a big no-no at their shows), but as a 14 or 15-year-old, my mum wouldn’t allow it. Maybe I just didn’t know how to explain how much I loved them. This remains a regret.

But their split - rumoured to be in a haze of heroin and inter-member sex - left their legion of fans devastated.

The first website I became addicted to was their forum. I remember the mourning, which sounds ridiculous, but we congregated there because we so adored them.

Thankfully the first Mars Volta EP and album were just as energetic, and Sparta were a great live band. We got over the split, and moved on with our lives. I went to uni, had two children, and morphed all the way to being a journalist.

When I read today that the band were reforming, I didn’t believe it. I started tweeting people to point out that it was a hoax.

Then Jim Ward retweeted it.

Why would Jim Ward, guitarist of ATDI, retweet a fake message?

It became clear this was official. My girlfriend was calling me for dinner, but I couldn’t miss this unfold. Everything about my teenage years came flooding back, and even now my heart races like it did in my bedroom back in 2000.

So they’re playing Coachella, according to Antiquiet. They’ll probably play other gigs. Better now, by their mid-30s, than when they’re too old to spazz out like the old days. Maybe they’re selling out and need the money.

I don’t care.

I just want to be 15 again.

Best Amazon Review Ever

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:54:46 +0000

Best Amazon Review Ever

Handmade animation from Spike Jonze and Olympia Le-Tan.

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:00:21 +0000

Handmade animation from Spike Jonze and Olympia Le-Tan.

Christian Dubstep. Dubstep is over.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:47:00 +0000

You have to hear this.

As eloquently put by Modeselektor on twitter:

Now you can buy Christian Dubstep on Amazon . It really does sell anything.

Highest bunk bed ever. It’s call bivouacking, though I...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:17:38 +0000

Highest bunk bed ever. It’s call bivouacking, though I prefer to call it ‘utterly mental’

Contender for “Best Christmas Decoration of All...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:43:24 +0000

Contender for “Best Christmas Decoration of All Time”

iTunes: How To Make Free iPhone Ringtones

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:58:42 +0000

iTunes: How To Make Free iPhone Ringtones:

Quick and easy guide I wrote for CNET UK on how to make free custom iPhone ringtones on a Mac. Takes minutes.

You really can get anything from Tesco these days. I can’t...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:06:41 +0000

You really can get anything from Tesco these days. I can’t count the number of times I’ve needed an assassin.

How to lose $2400 in 24 seconds.

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:31:49 +0000

How to lose $2400 in 24 seconds.