Tech | Shannon O'Neill

Patchwork

Electrofringe is just around the corner, and this looks to be a particularly good year. I’ll be there as usual, doing a few talks. No gig this time, but I am contributing to Patchwork, an exhibition of ‘patch art’. Here’s mine:

It’s a screenshot of an AudioMulch patch that I’ve been using for the past year or so for live performance, in conjunction with a Behringer BCR controller.

Twitter, Pownce, blogroll, feeds

I’ve opened a Twitter account for, you know, research. Pownce is supposedly better, but it’s brand new and currently invitation only, so we’ll see.

In other news, I’ve removed my blogroll. Blogrolls are over – you heard it here. Well, maybe they’re not but mine is too tedious to maintain, as I un/sub from feeds all the time. Ideally Google Reader etc. would add a feature to generate/update blogrolls dynamically, based on applying a particular tag to a feed. (I should quit the arts and become a Web2.0 entrepreneur, hey…)

If you’ve mainly been reading this blog as a feed, you might not have noticed the Links page, on which my blogroll resided. It (still) contains feeds from and links to my Google Reader shared items, del.icio.us bookmarks and del.icio.us network links, as well as Flickr, Last.fm and more. So I think that’s enough context to be going on with for now.

ELECTROFRINGE 2007 PROGRAM AVAILABLE ONLINE!

Electrofringe 2007 Program Online!

The full program for Electrofringe is now online. This year sees an unprecedented diversity in the Electrofringe program, as well as a stock of brilliant and stimulating events of the calibre you’ve come to expect from the October long weekend in Newcastle. Themes include accessibility and collaboration in electronic arts, wearable art, rethought radio and new approaches to electronic music. Screen works, contemporary dance, immersive and site specific works are nestled alongside dynamic panel discussions, workshops and gigs.

International guests include Tim Hecker (Canada), Leafcutter John (UK), Sebastien Roux (France), Jason Kahn (USA) and Ralph Steinbruchel (CH) alongside local artists including Robin Fox, Machina Aux Rock, Darrin Verhagen, SpatnLoogie, Sanso-Xtro, Pimmon, Shannon O’Neill and Gail Priest, plus may more.

Head to the Electrofringe website, www.electrofringe.net to check out the program and stay tuned for further updates.

Ubuntu Love

Over the weekend I installed Ubuntu Linux on two of my computers.

I tested the waters with Ubuntu Desktop on an old desktop PC that I rarely use and was surprised to find that the installation was completely painless – it detected all of the hardware and even set up partitions so I could keep the old Windows installation. But I was so impressed with Ubuntu, I got rid of XP on that machine.

I then replaced XP on my old laptop with Ubuntu Studio, which is optimised for media production. It even runs AudioMulch pretty well under Wine!

What can I say? I’m now a Linux convert! I reckon Ubuntu is the best OS I’ve used. I was afraid it would be too difficult, but if you’ve ever used the Windows command line or registry, Ubuntu is actually very easy. There is a learning curve, but it feels empowering. And of course Ubuntu is free, open source and all that good stuff. Other OSes now seem so restrictive and cumbersome by comparison. Ubuntu also has all the bells and whistles if you want them, such as the Beryl visual effects, and performance is much better on my old hardware than Windows ever was.

One of my favourite thing about using Ubuntu is that installing most programs is just a matter of selecting them from the ‘Add/Remove’ menu – no need to search the web for an installer, then download and run it – Ubuntu does it all automatically. Likewise with software updates.

Next I’m going to set up my main desktop PC to dual boot Ubuntu Studio and XP so that I can still access the few programs that I need which won’t run on Linux/Wine/OSX (mainly Adobe Audition) but mostly I’ll be using it as a file server and media center, running MythTV.

When the new Macbook Pro arrives I won’t be putting Windows on it. If anything I’ll add Ubuntu to it, but Wine also works on OSX, so I’ll still be able to access many of my Windows programs where necessary. Instead of Audition I’ll use ProTools, which is OK, since I also use it at uni. Eventually I hope to leave Windows completely.

I highly recommend that you give Ubuntu a try – especially if you have an old computer lying around. There’s nothing to lose, and you may just fall in love with it like I have!

Media centre advice? (Bye bye Foxtel)

I’m cancelling my Foxtel subscription. Foxtel = Murdoch+Packer+Telstra and I’m tired of giving them my money. I also don’t have as much time to watch TV as I used to. The only things that I watch on Foxtel these days that I wouldn’t be able to see on free to air are the 24 hour news channels (mainly Sky News and BBC World) occasional international cricket matches, and the Comedy Channel. For news, I can make do with ABC and SBS, the cricket I can live without (especially after the tedium of the World Cup) and for comedy there’s DVDs and downloads.

What I will miss is the iQ recorder, but as I’m about to buy a Macbook Pro, I reckon I might turn my old WinXP desktop PC* into a media center.

Do you have any recommendations for this? I’ll need a tuner/capture device and software – ideally cross-platform and open-source as eventually I’d like to convert the PC from XP to Linux (I’m going to test the waters first by converting my old Dell laptop to Ubuntu, and maybe experiment with Windows on the the Macbook Pro).

This is all new to me, and I’m confused by the options, so I’d appreciate any advice on how best to set up a media center PC.

* P4 2.8GHz, 1 GB RAM, 256MB ATI Radeon 9600, 3x 320GB HD, oh and a Canopus ADVC 100 video capture box, if that’s any help.

New Toy

I went to my local music store today to buy some guitar strings and left with the strings + this cute little mixer. I’m a sucker for Behringer’s cheap and useful products. This mixer will come in handy for live performances – both my own and ones that I organise. It’s perfect for laptop gigs, with some extra inputs for a mic, guitar and a few other things. The built in effects are surprisingly good, especially the reverbs, which will take a load off my poor old laptop’s CPU. An excellent purchase for $180. The only downside is that it doesn’t do surround sound (that would cost at least a couple of hundred more) so I won’t be using it at my gig this Friday, but it will get plenty of use in future, I’m sure.

BSoD

Computer woes these past few days (the timing is always awful). I think it’s fixed now, with many thanks to Nathan at Global Multitech in Marrickville – the best value, best service computer store that I’ve dealt with. If you’re a PC user in Sydney’s inner west, you should try them.

New toy

Getting ready for my residency which starts next week, I’ve finally bought something I’ve wanted for a long time – a portable audio recorder. Here it is:

TINA time

This Is Not Art is on in Newcastle this weekend. It’s my favourite Australian festival – if you’ve never been, you should check it out. I’ll be doing a couple of talks and a couple of performances.

digital camera

i need a digital camera for my forthcoming trip. less than aud500, and with the ability to use a 2GB SD (or miniSD) card (which i already have).

any suggestions?

oh and i got a new phone. it’s not amazing but it is a big step up from my previous one (i’m still waiting for my ideal ‘portable device’ (to become affordable)). now to figure out how to use it for email… it’s a shame that the vodafone live 3g content is almost entirely rubbish, but i s’pose i shouldn’t be surprised.

Shannon O’Neill