Llama Press

Iphone Obsessions

2007-04-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

Flock

2007-04-16T21:59:00.001-07:00

I just had three wisdom teeth pulled out, and am currently drugged up on painkillers and antibiotics.

So I figure, what better way to to spend the evening before I crash, then by playing around with Flock, a webbrowser built off the Firefox engine, that is geared towards blogging and social networking.

This is my first test post of the features.... ignore me.

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Nice features -

Blogging in browser as an extension

Editing in browser, post-publishing
connects to online photo accounts for streamlined uploading
Brings all you're news together in a nice front page thats designed to be blogged directly from - Front Page
Many firefox extensions work with it.
Allows you to easily post links and snippets off webpages in a more streamlined interface - This also includes drag-drop images off pages <---like that

Could use -

More imaging features for on the fly webpage snapshots that can be cropped and sent to a blog post quick
Drag and Drop videos
Chat features so when you surf blogs or sites you can chat with whoever happens to be on that same site as well
Better editing interface... its too simple and grety right now.

technorati tags:Test, Flock, Review

Blogged with Flock

Bilbao - Free music for soul searching folk day dreamers

2007-03-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a great album for all us low fi folk/indie junkies that feel out of place with a lot of music out there today...

Bilbao is an unsigned band, this is a collection of rarities that is offered free to download on the net. I first heard the track Brindille on the John Peel Tribute albums (which are also collections of free music)... thought it was great... and then found this load of tracks, which is a double bonus.

Enjoy.

Gorgeous use of Graphics

2007-02-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

I haven't seen graphics this well done ever, they create a highly believable set of alien plants and make them seem as life like as possible. Had I not been told I was looking at graphics when I first watched this, It would definatly have taken me several reruns to discern the fake from the real.

Anyways, believable imagery, gorgeous environment, and a soundtrack that fits, all make this an A+ Video!

Death and Renewal

2007-02-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

Abu Ghraib continues to haunt me. What is to be done?

If there were no pictures, there would be no Abu Ghraib. How many other cells, and how much torture existed and continues to exist is beyond conceptualization. These guys got caught red handed just out of the stupidity of taking photos and leaking them to a friend that was trusted.

The military covered up the extent of the torture by offering an amnesty period to anyone that had photos, hinting they be destroyed. The administration covered their backs by giving the people that were caught in the photos low grade prison sentences and not charging the actual murders or anyone in the administration that actually signed off on these policies. No figures were released on deaths in Abu Ghraib, and it is still not clear how many people, who endured so much of these disgusting tortures, actually were innocent...

What scares me, what horrifies me, is that since then, the US government has not only signed off on documents that further erode the Geneva Conventions, but also peruse an active policy of sending prisoners to foreign jails where they can be abused to greater extents.

Who am I but some dumb shit kid that got lucky enough to be born to a family who can live comfortably and relatively detached? What better way to make use of this gift then to agitate, to remember, to seek knowledge, to condemn. I am lucky, to be born as such, then be one of many Iraqi woman raped by security forces, children tortured to test their fathers will or a random innocent forced into a cell, psychologically and physically abused, sodomized and murdered.

We are an abused generation, we all were tortured and humiliated together. We cannot take this back, or reverse our direction, rather only hope to divert it from further abuse; that our children can live without the horrors we or our fathers have committed, or suffer our rape. All we can hope for is to remember, and to learn, to seek knowledge, and then to teach through our actions; to offer a better tomorrow. Let us be a transistor to peace, then another manifestation of hatred.

Let us give our children a chance to dream again, then endure the nightmares we have been witness to.

Viet-Dong: Fucking for Sanity... and 5 million dollars.

2007-02-20T05:08:00.000-08:00

James Pacenza, has just been fired from IBM for using Adult chat rooms while at work.

Typical open and shut case right? Wrong! This guy claims that his military service in the Vietnam War led to a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that causes him to seek out "titillating conversations" whenever he gets bothered or worried.

James Pacenza, 58, of Montgomery, says he visits chat rooms to treat traumatic stress incurred in 1969 when he saw his best friend killed during an Army patrol in Vietnam.

Ah yes, but of course, that all makes sense now.

He argues, that on that specific day, he had just returned from a veterans memorial, and that he needed to get it off his mind.... so what better way of course then to have cyber sex with some miscellaneous person during your break?

His lawyer argues that Mr. Pacenza is the victim of age discrimination as he is 55 years old and that he has violated no written IBM rule. The company counter-claims that he had been warned once, and they weren't going to put up with his shenanigans anymore.

[Pacenza] argues that other workers with worse offenses were disciplined less severely -- including a couple who had sex on a desk and were transferred.

Wow, IBM is starting to sound like a deviants paradise!

Of course, the lawyer is arguing that because Mr. Pacenza is a war veteran he should be given special conditions, and that sex addiction as a result of watching someone die is perfectly normal.

Funny enough, this guy might have a chance at actually winning this case it seems... I mean, I doubt too many people buy the line that watching a friend die in combat resulted in a perpetual desire to fuck, but IBM messed up by not offering him sex addiction therapy when they offer therapy for employees who suffer drug/alcohol problems.

He is suing the company for $5 Million, so my guess is that they'll quietly settle this matter out of court for a decent sum, as well as give him his retirement benefits early.

Barack Obama is a Muslim Terrorist in Disguise Hell Bent on Single Handedly Destroying the American Empire and Freedom all over the World

2007-02-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

..... aside from that I think he'd make a wonderful candidate for President.

*Warning - This post suffers from a megadose of talking out of Fox News ass*

Drunk Settlers and Thoughts on Hudna

2007-02-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

In other news, I'm still trying to figure out how extremist muslims manage to justify all the beheadings and amputations when the Koran specifically is against that... I was reading through the list of prohibited techniques used in times of war, and honestly for its time, heck even for our time, that was honestly quite developed... I guess an extremist can justify anything by focusing on certain words and ignoring others... sad state of affairs.

Live Leak has a couple of videos up of young Jewish settlers being hostile verbally and physically, towards human rights workers. What a stupid cycle of hate on hate we live in, that now even the neutrals are being abused simply for being around.

Drunk Settler with a big mouth - You could simply brush this off as the guy being a drunk idiot rambling off in the woods, but when he tries to come up close to the HRW at one point and the man replies "you cannot come in here this is not your house" you realize the HRW is actually trying to stop this drunk fool from entering a Palestinian who lives in the settlement's house. This video was taken at Tel Rumeida, a Palestinian community in Hebron.

Angry Kids with Rocks

Notice how in both videos the adults do not partake but do not condemn what is going on either...

I am not trying to spread any hatred by putting those two videos up, several Palestinian groups commit horrific crimes as well as Israeli IDF on Palestinians, but that side of the story is covered on mainstream and independent media constantly... Human rights workers getting shafted is something you just don't get to see, but from what I understand, it happens constantly.

Stupid statement of the Week.

2007-02-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

Or maybe month... even more.

I was in a class the other day where a heated discussion about how Israel's government should get into negotiations with the Palestinians. There was no real consensus on the issue, mostly since Israel works unilaterally as a state while the Palestinians have several different actors working within the system, making talking to a single actor to get a concise response that will be acted upon difficult. So in that respect, we were trying to look through Islamic principles of conflict resolution to try to figure out how lasting deals could be worked out.

Then this one fool who had been nodding off most the time (and who I now assume is/was on some sort of drug) very sincerely declares that since there will never be a solution to the problem, Israel should just make a deal with the Palestinians to limit themselves to 1 bus bombing a month. The reasoning behind this? Well, "at least its not multiple bombings."

I'm sorry, did we just collectively get a little more ignorant as a race? Have we just suddenly all become so jaded to violence that we find ways to legitimize it without addressing the causes of issues? Thankfully everyone in the class thought he was an idiot, and contributed to a joyful several minutes of laughing at this dumb shit... he honestly looked insulted as well... I love stupidity when you least expect it. I find it sad when stupid fails to recognize its self.

LSD - Yet another way to pretend you're Jesus

2007-02-09T03:57:00.000-08:00

}{erocool has been harassing me to post this, and I'm fearing for my life at this point... I watched the first 5 minutes and it looked like it would be something interesting to watch over a pizza in the evening, as soon as I get some work out of the way, and some well deserved sleep (a wee bout of Insomnia this evening). So anyways, watch and enjoy. I'll update with comments later in the day.

Update - I forgot to comment... Watched it till the last 15 min then decided to play a video game that had finished downloading (legally mind you). It was good, I don't know what is trippier though, the documentaries cinematography or lsd itself? Not something to go crazy over, maybe if you don't have much to do and have an interest in LSD then definatly worth the watch, lots of good interviews with the people who made it and situations they found themselves in (like trying to ride a bike home on lsd.... omg rofl!!!!111!!oneone!!! PWNED by drugs lol) All in all, a wonderful little documentary on the origins of LSD as a lowly drug tested on psychiatric patients and by government agiences, to the hippie mind fuck it eventually turned into!

The Tower of DRM is Falling!

2007-02-09T00:14:00.000-08:00

Duck and Cover!

Good news people. Following Steve Jobs call for the the big 4 to stop making demands that their music sell with that horiffic anti-consumer piece of code attached to it, the DRM tower may soon collapse!

The New York Times is reporting that EMI, which holds contracts with artists such as Coldplay, Norah Jones and the Beatles, has a plan in the works to start working its online music sales off the DRM binge they have been on.

This is a very good sign that the other big 3 are likely going to have to follow suite very soon, because if this EMI plan actually comes into fruitation, it won't simply be the big 4 blocking DRM sales while the independent labels provide unprotected music on the other end. If one of the giants sells unprotected music, it simply becomes bad business practice to maintain and be able to justify DRM on online sales for the rest.

God Bless those Europeans and their consumer protection laws, forcing Itunes and the rest to rethink their business policies if they want to be able to sell to those markets. Of course there were many other actors in play, and I don't mean to undermine anyones role, but those pesky Europeans really kept the anti-itunes headlines hitting the papers.

Mr. Jobs also points to the DRM hacking community, as being a source of why DRM is becoming expensive and innefective at protecting music:

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets.

Guys like QTFairUse and the Hymn project, who provide DRM stripping tools get a nod from that statement.

Another paragraph that stuck out for me in Jobs "Thoughts on Music":

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none.

I wonder if this actually goes through, and everyone agrees to end it, if they will formally strip DRM off the tracks that have already been purchased.
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A fair well to DRM - User Video (Aside from the song I think its a useless video) of
Tom Waits - Green Grass

The world doesn't need more Super Mario renditions... except on occasion.

2007-02-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

Yes I am a geek.

But I also really fucking hate all these Super Mario renditions that people keep posting on the internet... It's an old joke people, its been done, get the fuck over it and do something better with your time.

Then I saw this guy... and I mean honestly... who wouldn't want to see Super Mario played on a flute while the guy beatboxes at the same time?

Okay... maybe there are quite a few people who really wouldn't think this was worth their time, but damnit people you have to realize... I don't give a shit.... In my book, this cut is pretty fucking awesome!

Jose Gonzalez

2007-02-07T19:32:00.000-08:00

Jose Gonzalez covering "Teardrop" by Massive Attack

I like this guy, I just discovered him today but it didn't take long for him to make his presence felt on all my major playlists. This song seems to be available freely for download and distribution, it is a recording of him at a show.

I first got a chance to listen to him on the Sony Bravia commercial, the one with all the balls... okay that might have come off sounding a bit sick, so without further adue, for your viewing pleasure:

Mr. Neruda recommends not using Itunes Store.

2007-02-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

While an avid Mac user.

Mr. Neruda has a distaste for DRM.

Steve Jobs recently announced that he too feels the same way. This is of course following the news that Norway has taken the step to ban Itunes for its unfair business practices associated with DRM.

You buy low quality music. The music is then locked to your ipod, and cannot be copied more then a few times.

Untill Mr. Jobs is able to succesfully convince the big 4 that DRM is a stupid idea that is in fact, horrible for consumers, Mr. Neruda is happily using Emusic.com and Bleep.com for his music fixes.

Emusic charges you a monthly fee and gives you a certain amount of songs you can download per month for that fee. It is DRM free, and the lowest price in terms of cost, averaging around .33 cents per song. They also give you 25 free songs just for joining... but as a warning, they will charge you reoccuring after that if you do not cancel membership.

Bleep charges 1.25$ per song, and 9.99$ per album (Mr. Neruda only purchases albums so he doesn't mind). The library here is a bit more limited to Indie/Post Rock and Electronic then other competitors. But the added benifit is that you get non DRM songs recorded in either 320kbs mp3 or FLAC.

Mr. Neruda is banning Itunes Store and hoping more people do so as well untill Apple is effectively able to change their business practices.

Still yawning the Iphone

2007-02-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

The Iphone was announced several weeks ago. Mr. Neruda fell for the sex appeal for a brief moment.

Then he took the time to read through the specifications and let out a long drawn out yawn. He still hasn't stopped.

He wonders, when shall he pull out the shovel and start preparing a little plot for it next to his cemetery of ipods that suffered from major suicidal tendencies?

Mr. Neruda wants to love it... but from past experiences, he knows its most likely not going to love him back. Purchasing it would certainly be an excersise in constant contact book backups, out of fear of the inevitable hard disk faliure.

Undressing Mr. Neruda

2007-02-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

Mr. Neruda is a simple man
he likes a glass of whiskey before he goes to bed
enjoys a red wine in the afternoon
and prefers to work and attend meetings in the morning.
Mr. Neruda does not enjoy being called at 1am to go clubbing
you must reserve him at least two days before hand.
If he is staring off into the distance with a pair of headphones in his ears
please ignore him, and do not ask whats wrong
because at that moment its you

When approaching Mr. Neruda to review your term paper
please do understand, that no matter how good it is
its bad.
Mr. Neruda does not do nice things unless he gets to laugh at you while doing it.
Do not ask him about your boyfriend or girlfriend's troubles,
you are most likely wrong, and if you are not wrong, then your lover is seriously disturbed.
Mr. Neruda does not deal in specifics, because the world is abstract.
He loves religion, but hates religious people.
He purchases expensive whiskey and drowns it in coke,
because he's just that uncultured.
Assuredly woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, as well as yesterday... and most likely tomorrow.
Mr. Neruda loves you as well, but will most likely give you the impression that he detests you.
He puts cigarettes out halfway through and smokes them later
because he likes to pretend he can afford cigars
He is ambiguous to politics, and if you are not, you are bloody wrong.
Why is Mr. Neruda telling you all this?
Because its almost bed time and he is enjoying his whiskey.

Nusrat Ali Fatah Khan

2006-11-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan - Allah Hoo Part 1

I belive the higher pitched singer on the right most is his nephew Rahat. This is among the best traditional Qwaali music out there... you have to watch your way through it to really get a feel for the talent of the musicians and the power their spirituality brings to their performances.

Allah Hoo - Part 2

Nusrat Ali Fatah Khan - Akhian Udeek Diyan

Eddie Vedder and Rahat Ali Fatah Khan (Nephew to Nusrat)- The Face of Love

Godspeed you Black Emperor! - Albanian

2006-11-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Currently an unreleased song, but you can download a live version of it legally [here]

The file is in .shnf format... so you will need winamp and this plugin to play it.

Also you can convert .shn files to .mp3 or .wav .... but doing so is typically illegal (if stated by the poster) so, thats up to you guys to figure out how to do!

Silver Mt. Zion - Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River (live)

2006-11-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

A more accessible form of Godspeed you Black Emperor! that touches closer to Indie and Alt music then its counterpart... this is an excellent live performance, with considerations to sacrifices of sound quality.

TV on the Radio/Peter Murphy/Trent Reznor - Bela Lugosi's Dead

2006-11-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Awesome version of an old Bauhaus classic performed live in Washington DC

Mum - The Island of Childrens Children

2006-11-01T10:45:00.001-08:00

Something about old grainy footage and a Mum track that just works... This was compiled by Jason Andrew Wilford, using old super 8 footage of his family.

We are Water - Glass

2006-10-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes between Radiohead albums you need to find fixes to fill the void. Well for all you people that can associate with that remark, here's one band that seem's to fit the bill for a good fix... Seeing as this is the only song by them I've ever heard, I definatly need to get my hands on an album to find out if this song is only a one shot "sounds like radiohead in too many ways" wonder. Or if I should even respect (resent?) them for putting out work like this... anyways, can't make judgements till I hear the whole album so... off to find it then!

Band: We are Water
Song: Glass

Any other information? --- Can't find it worth a damn.

[via Destructoid]