Little Bit O' Bass

In my very dim and distant past (even before I worked in I.T.) I was a kid. During this time I went to school, like many kids do. One of the subjects I took while at secondary school was music, or rather in my case 'Music and Modern Technology'. The 'Music' part was your traditional type stuff - reading music, composition, that kind of thing. But the bit that interested me more was the 'Modern Technology' part.

At the time 'Modern Technology' referred to recording studios, mixers, sequencers, samplers, drum machines and the like, all of which we got to learn how to use. As you can imagine, for a technology nerd this was an amazing experience for me and I genuinely loved going to music class. The more knobs, buttons, switches and dials something had to play with, the happier I was. One particular favourite of mine was the Korg synth, which was completely awesome. I was a very happy bunny.

Check out this bad boy!  I used one at school.  It was awesome.

During this time period, at home I had a trusty old Commodore 64. And believe it or not there was sequencer software available for it. I forget the name of the program now, but it was excellent, and I even used it to create my final exam piece. Music and Computer Studies were the two subjects I got the highest grades in at school, so I think alongside computers, music really helped press all the right nerdy buttons.

When I left school I got an Amiga 500 and would use sequencer software available for that to create my little amateur electro-tunes. I'd only ever play them to myself, too embarrassed to play them to anyone else. But to be honest, they weren't really good enough to share, and it was only ever for my own amusement. Then after my Amiga, I progressed onto PCs and I did nothing at all vaguely "musical" with them. That is until this week.

Now some of you may know that I'm a bit of a Linux fan, so I wondered what was available for it in terms of sequencers, drum machines and the like. The only thing I'd heard of and used up until now was Audacity, which is an audio recorder and editor. So I did a bit of googling again and I found Hydrogen which is a drum machine/sequencer for Linux. So I downloaded it and had a play.

Hydrogen for Linux

Like I say, my creations aren't very good, and I'd probably get a lot more out of it if I read the documentation and watched the tutorial videos, but where's the fun in that? The most important thing is that it's keeping me occupied and is helping to bring back some happy memories. And I must admit there is a certain sense of achievement when I create something a little bit musical. I'm no Kraftwerk, Orbital or 808 State, but I'm having fun!

Thank you to kurisuuu for such a great photo of the Korg synth.

Bloody Printers

Most of you probably know that in the dim and distant past I worked in I.T. Occasionally I still miss those days, which is probably why I'm still such a huge computer nerd when I'm at home (well, that and the fact that I don't have a life). But one thing I certainly don't miss from those days is buggering about with printers.

Printers were the bane of my existence. It's as if they speak a whole different language to computers. Trying to get a computer and printer to communicate with each other could often be a complete nightmare. Many a time I would shout "But the bloody thing is right there!  Don't you see it?" when a computer would quite calmly pop up a 'Printer not found' message.

Thankfully in these days of the e-web and intermail and such, printers aren't the essential partner to a computer that they once were. I still have a printer, but it's no longer permanently set up, I just hook it up when I need it. Thankfully that's very infrequently.

The other thing that irks me about printers is the cost of the ink, which I think gram for gram is quite possibly the most expensive substance in the known universe. I loathe spending a fortune on printer cartridges, so recently I decided to purchase a printer cartridge refill kit. These are the kits that come with little bottles of ink and a syringe that you use to fill up your empty cartridge. You also get a load of little rubber bungs to plug up the hole in your cartridge once you've finished filling. I just bought a black kit (as I only ever print text) and it cost me about a fiver.

Initial results were disappointing, and I ended up with baby-poo coloured prints. But after some trial and error I ended up with really good print quality. Here are my three tips:

• It's a messy job! Fill your cartridge over the sink and wear rubber gloves (seriously, you'll need them).
• This is really messy, but fill the cartridge until ink starts coming out of the print head. That way you'll know the print head isn't blocked and that the ink has a clear path down to it. My baby-poo prints were the result of me not filling up the cartridge enough and the ink not getting down to the print head properly.
• Putting the little rubber bung in the hole in your cartridge is a major pain in the ass. To make it easier, use a pair of pliers to squash the tip of the rubber bung. That way you'll find it will go in a hell of a lot easier and it'll save you a load of time (and possibly some swearing).

Overall, the process is a bit of a faff. But then you are doing something that isn't meant to be easy or convenient, printer manufacturers have made sure of that. They practically give their printers away in the hopes of making money from you by selling you their overpriced cartridges.

Yes, it's messy and inconvenient, but you can get good results. And if you're on a tight budget then you'll definitely save yourself some money. But if you prefer convenience and not going to all this hassle, then you're probably better off buying an own brand or remanufactured cartridge from your local supermarket.

Star Wars: A New Hope?

When I heard the news that Disney had bought Lucasfilm, initially my heart sank. Disney in control of Star Wars? What horrific torture would Disney inflict upon the franchise? Hasn't Star Wars been through enough already? Just leave it alone. But pondering upon it further, I wonder if this is actually the best thing that could possibly happen to Star Wars.

Personally, I thought that Lucas would never relinquish control of Star Wars. I thought he would carry on twatting about with the original trilogy and releasing dire prequels forever. Or at least until he died. But now that appears not to be the case. I think Lucas distancing himself from Star Wars can only be a good thing. We've already seen that he is unable to leave the thing alone, like a movie scab that he can't stop picking at. He says he's tired of the constant criticism from the fans. But let's be honest, that criticism wasn't without good reason. The fans desperately wanted to love the special editions and the prequels, but they just couldn't. Not in their heart of hearts and with a clear conscience.

Lucas is stepping back. So what does the future hold for Star Wars? Well, what we know is that there is to be another trilogy, and apparently these movies will be sequels to the original trilogy rather than prequels. Whether they'll be any good of course depends upon a myriad of factors. Factors like who Disney get to write and direct the movies. And of course how much those writers and directors take on board Lucas's ideas for them, and what those ideas might be.

Will the sequels follow the story of the original characters? Or will we see a new part of the Star Wars universe? If the movies are to follow the original characters then presumably we will see new actors brought in to continue the story. I think it's pretty unlikely they'll wheel out Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, etc. in the new movies. Maybe they'll have cameos, but I don't think we really want to see the Star Wars movies go down the same route that the Star Trek movies did.

Personally I think it would be interesting to use young, unknown actors rather than any big names, just like they did in the original Star Wars. We saw big names in the prequels like Ewan McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson, and they failed dismally. Samuel L. Jackson in a Star Wars movie should've been the coolest thing ever. It should've been all "Eat lightsaber, motherfucker!" but sadly it wasn't. It was meetings, and muppets, and more meetings, and people talking and doing boring stuff in front of CGI backgrounds. Anyway, I digress.

A lot of things have to be got right and there is so much potential for disaster. But when you look at the last three Star Wars movies, you could argue that the bar isn't set very high. More, decent action, less CGI, a good story and characters that we actually care about would be a start. Ooh, I don't know, like, say the original trilogy for example.

I wish that the prequels didn't exist. I wish that the original trilogy was all we had and that there will never be any more. But I realise that I have to live in the real world. There were dire prequels and there will be sequels. But they don't have to be dire. In fact, they could be wonderful. Disney has a golden opportunity, let's hope they don't screw it up.

I know there are bigger, more hardcore Star Wars fans out there (my friend with 'Sith Lord' tattooed on her knuckles springs to mind), but these are just my ponderings upon the future of a movie series that I originally loved and that I would dearly love to love again.