Phlogiston

Tony Wilson: I’m surprised to realise I’ll miss him

Darren Brierton — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:30:08 +0000

I’ve been incredibly busy of late. So busy, in fact, that I’ve not been keeping up with the news. So it genuinely is with some sadness that I discovered today that Tony Wilson passed away well over a week ago. There is no doubt that the man was capable of spectacular grandiosity, narcissism, and—frankly—just generally [...]

Remembering Wally Ridley

Darren Brierton — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:38:34 +0000

Visiting my parents, I was saddened to learn of the death of old family friend Wally Ridley in January of this year. Wally was a record producer, songwriter and A&R man for HMV, and he was a dear friend and neighbour. He was always a friendly face whether waving from across the road or [...]

Judge Judy and Executioner

Darren Brierton — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 10:47:06 +0000

Hot Fuzz

IMDB

Year: 2007

Writer: Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright

Director: Edgar Wright

Length: 121 min

Category: Comedy

Media: Film

Rating from : To Be Announced

ID in Amazon.com: B000IOM9VQ

Rating: 5 out of 5

Just see it. Very very funny.

Ten predictions for XML in 2007

Darren Brierton — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:52:14 +0000

Just a quick link: Ten predictions for XML in 2007 over at IBM Developer Works. Good stuff.

AskVille and NowNow

Darren Brierton — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:23:05 +0000

Perplexed as to why Amazon would launch two separate Question and Answer services, NowNow and AskVille I did some googling and thought I’d share what I came up with. Firstly, it turns out that someone has already asked this on AskVille and the answers are fairly to the point. Also O’Reilly Radar has a post about [...]

Testing Google Maps plugin

Darren Brierton — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:54:26 +0000

This is a test post. MED’s offices at The Scottish Microelectronics Centre, West Mains Road, Edinburgh This post will self-destruct within 24 hours.

Are DRM’s days finally numbered?

Darren Brierton — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:35:59 +0000

The International Herald Tribune has an article suggesting that the major record labels are finally beginning to see the light about DRM. This seems to be in keeping with a Yahoo! article I mentioned earlier. The big question is whether Apple will ever see the light on this? I suspect that one of the reasons [...]

The danger of Google Ad Sense

Darren Brierton — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:18:47 +0000

James has taken much hilarity and great delight in pointing out to me that the Google Ads on my Friendster profile are for “quit smoking” products and sites offering to help with your alcohol problem. Blimey. When I had a quick look the ads were even worse: “Patriot K-9 Services: Bomb dog teams experienced in [...]

Oh you’ve got green eyes, oh you’ve got blue eyes, oh you’ve got grey eyes

Darren Brierton — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:58:37 +0000

While messing around on YouTube I stumbled upon this fabulous video for one of my favourite New Order songs, “Temptation”—indeed one of my favourite songs full stop. Directed by Michael Shamberg who made several videos for New Order it was made recently for a retrospective. It was filmed in Paris and stars Victoria Bergsman, lead singer [...]

The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex

Darren Brierton — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:41:50 +0000

I’m normally allergic to jazz-rock fusion, finding it irredeemably naff, but this song “Streetcrawler” by The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex is really beautiful. Jimmy Chamberlin is the genius drummer from Smashing Pumpkins, and I freely admit that my judgement might be being swayed by the awesomeness of his playing, but there’s something haunting about that ringing [...]