ZinZam

Soundwave 2010 Wrapup

February 25, 2010

I went to Soundwave 2010 last weekend.

Although My Chemical Romance pulling out was disappointing, I was very pleased with the replacement act as Jimmy Eat World. Although they played more from their Futures and Bleed American albums, I have now ordered three other albums, Clarity, Chase This Light, and Static Prevails as they played some tracks from Clarity and Chase This Light that I liked.

Anyway here are my comments I posted on the soundwave forum.

smithy_dll wrote:

I had a very enjoyable day, I ate lunch on the way there and had dinner on the way home. I was unable to meet up with my friends who turned up later due to the phones, but oh well.

I saw,
Taking Back Sunday, good
Eagles of Death Metal, were ok
Emarosa, didn't stick around too long, stage 5/6 was horrible
Alexisonfire, they were pretty good
Paramore, sounded tight, just like a CD
Placebo, kind of meh as expected,
AFI, didn't stick around too long
All Time Low, felt out of place with all the kids with white wristbands, a little flat sound, but a good energetic set, involved the crowd, Zack kept throwing away picks and collecting bras
Janes Addiction, can't say I'm a huge fan
Jimmy Eat World, Was near the front, amazing
Faith No More, only stayed until they started playing poker face, crowd near the front wasn't as friendly as jimmy eat world.
HIM, couldn't be bothered sticking around, right sound, wrong stage
A Day To Remember, Sat under the tent listening to the set, some random let a kid sit on his shoulders for a song

The tent at the metal stage was very welcome, last year it turned into a mud bath.
But they messed up with stages 5/6 and 3 being so close. The cold water in the chillout room was very welcome.

And now for some (very out of focus) pictures from my phone.

more...

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New Skate Shoes arrived

February 15, 2010

My new skate shoes arrived today, Nike SB Paul Rod.

Check them out.


Aren't they great.

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Replacement Motherboard on the way

February 14, 2010

So a couple of weeks ago I got sick of the "bugs" in my DFI motherboard and returned it to the retailer under warranty. The replacement is finally in the post so I will be able to install it next weekend after it arrives on Monday or Tuesday.

There is no sign of even an ETA on my laptop, so I am still waiting on news from Lenovo on that one, but I doubt I will be able to get it before my Birthday.

With these new toys, I will be able to continue testing the new version of zinzam.com and hopefully move faster in being able to get something fresh online.

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Ordered a new laptop

February 09, 2010

I ordered a new laptop, so it should get here in a few weeks, hopefully before my birthday. Happy Birthday me.

Anyway here are the specs...

• Thinkpad T410
  
• Intel Core i5 540M 2.53 GHz
  
• 320 GB 7200 RPM HDD
  
• 8 x DVD Burner
  
• NVidia Quadro NVS 3100m 256 MiB
  
• 4 GiB DDR3 1066 MHz (two DIMM)
  
• 1440 x 900 pixel WXGA+ LED backlit display
  
• Legendary thinkpad keyboard
  
• Thinklight
  
• Ultranav trackpad/trackpoint, multi-touch
  
• Finger print reader
  
• 2.0 Mega pixel web cam
  
• Qualcomm Gobi 2000 WWAN PCIe card, HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM, Ev-Do, 1xRT aGPS, GPS
  
• Bluetooth
  
• Intel Centrino 6200 802.11a/g/n WLAN
  
• 5 in 1 card reader
  
• 4 USB (one powered)
  
• Intel QM57 chipset
  
• eSATA
  
• Displayport
  
• 56 kbps modem
  
• 802.2ab gigabit ethernet
  
• IEEE1394 firewire 400
  
• 6 cell battery
  
• 2.27 kg
  
• VoIP optimised with mute button and array microphone
  

This will replace my current Z61t, same size, same weight class, a lot more powerful. I need to think of a name following along in the Yu-Gi-Oh theme, I had reserved mokuba, but assigned that to my desktop.

The only things missing from my z61t are IRDA (now use bluetooth), mic and headphone port are combined (I have logitech USB headset, G330), and S-Video (did anyone ever use it?).

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A little Synergy

October 04, 2009

Playing with a programme called Synergy, it's generally OK until you need to use UAC on the computer without the keyboard/mouse attached. It also supports simple clipboard sharing which is pretty darn cool.

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Life with 64 bit

September 25, 2009

Being back in Maryborough means two things. Firstly back to the grind of work, but secondly I am now using my core i7 machine running RC of Windows 7 64.

While I realise that Windows 7 has reached RTM, it hasn't been released as GA yet. I am looking at getting Windows 7 professional as OEM at the end of october, and at the same time upgrading my core i7 box with an antec P180 mATX mini-tower case, and an A(md)TI HD5850 video card. I am also considering getting a Creative X-FI Titanium FATAL1TY sound card just for the awesomeness.

Being able to use the computer after it sitting in a box for 6 months is completely awesome. I am able to do things that I simply could not do on my two and a half year old laptop. Blender and Vegas movie studio run smoothy, Full HD video from my handycam is handled effortlessly, and dual display mode is a lot snappier.

Unfortunately while 64 bit allows the computer to support all 6 GiB of installed RAM, current versions of Blender and Vegas movie studio are only 32 bit which I am sure will change, it just means I can multi-task them effectively.

I am currently playing with Blender 3D to create 3D flyover titles for videos. I am picking up the basics pretty quickly which is awesome, but I don't think I'll be able to animate complex objects anytime soon. It is a fair bit different to using 3D CAD packages, but I am far more confident in working in 3D thanks to using CAD at work, so learning Blender has been a whole lot easier this time around despite it's unintuitive UI.

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Upcoming concerts and festivals

August 15, 2009

As I get bored of the current high rotation play list on Triple J, I realise that there are a number of music festivals coming up.

Firstly I owe Richard the cost of a ticket to see Green Day in Brisbane in December. I will need to take a day of leave or two to go see, but that's what I get for living in Maryborough (here's hoping that I won't have to fly from Sydney or Melbourne).

But also this week the lineup for Soundwave 2010 was announced. I saw Soundwave this year in 2009 and it was amazing. I went with Richard, saw some acts I had never heard of, met some people I hadn't seen in a long long time, and generally had fun. So I would love to go again in 2010 considering the following acts are on the lineup:

• AFI
  
• Janes Addiction
  
• My Chemical Romance
  
• Paramore
  
• Alexisonfire
  
• and more...
  

So that's it, plans for the next bit, if I can get tix that is.

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My Computer

July 04, 2009

A little while back I bought and assembled the components for my high performance HTPC.

My Desktop


Inside my HTPC


Building my HTPC

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Anyone else experiencing popup ads on facebook?

June 21, 2009

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Paper Planes

June 14, 2009

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