1821

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Led Zeppelin discography listen-through

« on: December 31, 2014, 06:06:49 PM »

I plan to finish with their headlining performance at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, as chronicled by the live album/concert film Celebration Day, their final performance together to date, and almost certainly ever.

No, their final performance ever was on 27 June 1980.

1822

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 31, 2014, 02:33:27 PM »

It's pretty sweet to be back on an SSD again. And this mouse is great, and I've got that USB key thing set up to dual boot Debian and OpenBSD from my keyring. Now I can boot an OS of my choice wherever I go, and I have a rescue system handy should any of my own machines kick the bucket.

1823

Technology & Information / Re: New (used) laptop

« on: December 31, 2014, 02:30:05 PM »

This laptop + OpenBSD is just fantastic. It cleanly suspends and resumes when I close and open the lid, no messy loose ends lying around afterwards, which is something I'm just not used to from Linux. I even wanted it to auto-lock the screen on suspend, so I dropped a four-line shell script into /etc/apm/suspend to run xlock, and it just fucking works. This is so much better than old-school Linux, and so much easier to configure than systemd. The trade-off is a loss of some amount of flexibility, but with source code as clean and easy to modify as OpenBSD's, who cares if it doesn't do what you want out of the box?

1824

Technology & Information / Re: New (used) laptop

« on: December 31, 2014, 02:02:15 AM »

It got here, and I've put it in the laptop and installed OpenBSD. It is great.

1825

Technology & Information / Re: New (used) laptop

« on: December 30, 2014, 10:17:26 PM »

Postal services are still working NYE?

According to Australia Post's tracker thing, my PC Case Gear order will be delivered today. Let's see if that actually happens.

1826

Technology & Information / Re: New (used) laptop

« on: December 30, 2014, 09:10:36 PM »

It has arrived, with a 9-cell battery after all. I guess I have a spare.

I'm just waiting for my SSD to get here, which should happen today, and then I can install OpenBSD.

1827

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: Reunification Proposal

« on: December 30, 2014, 03:37:06 PM »

The two societies' forums will be merged by way of tfes.org inheriting theflatearthsociety.org's database. The resultant forum will remain under the current administration, moderation and rules of tfes.org.

Does this mean that I will be effectively demodded?

All else being equal, yes, but we will be reviewing the moderator selection to account for reunification at some stage (possibly on tfes.org before actual reunification takes place). We will most likely keep the most active moderators from both forums, but this will be treated separately from reunification because the merged forum will be under our control.

What precisely this means I can't say, because we haven't yet made any decisions on this matter, so I can't say for certain whether you would still be a moderator post-reunification.

1828

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: Reunification Proposal

« on: December 28, 2014, 11:40:01 PM »

Are you going to do this on an individual-by-individual basis, or based on usernames (or something else)?

We will most likely ask people to tell us which accounts they'd like merged closer to the date. A brief look at what's possible suggests that we should be able to merge existing accounts as well as attribute posts from deleted accounts to users (e.g. Thork's old posts). But, of course, we won't do anything people wouldn't want, so an individual basis sounds safest.

We would probably do it based on usernames as well, especially since otherwise we'd end up with multiple accounts that have the same name, and that would be really confusing. People with different usernames would certainly be handled on a case-by-case basis, though.

Edit: I'm actually working on the code to merge the forums at the moment. Once I have something that seems to work well, I'll post the details of the merge logic in advance of the actual merge so that people can raise any concerns with the merging strategy. So if you're concerned about us merging accounts you don't want merged, we're not just going to dump a new forum on you without telling you what's coming.

1829

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: Reunification Proposal

« on: December 28, 2014, 04:50:11 PM »

The only problem I have is that I like this site's theme and logo infinitely more than the old site's.

The themes are identical, aside from the small improvements we've made since the split. Are you referring to the board read/unread icons, which are derived from each board's logo?

1830

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: Reunification Proposal

« on: December 28, 2014, 02:45:04 PM »

I also do not see a need for the ZC. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

The ZC was ill thought out. We had 5 people with very little power to do anything on it.

It should have had Parsifal who ran the website, PP who ran the forums and wiki, someone who did merch and membership, a press-officer and a social media person.
Between the 5 of them, they could have actually got stuff done. What could Tom Bishop or I do? We had no actual power to improve anything.

I think at its inception everyone was a little frightened of how PP and Parsifal might run the place. We had left a place where there was zero trust. Trust is actually something we have here now. and it took a long time to build and is likely the reason people feel the society has a good feeling about it over here. Going back and putting Daniel in charge of things will vaporise that. If we have another ZC or similar in the future, people should be elected into positions. Not just on a board of talking heads.

If you'd like to discuss why all of this is completely wrong, feel free to create a new thread. Either way, please stop derailing this one with your opinions about what we should have done a year ago. This thread is about the future, not the past.

1831

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: Reunification Proposal

« on: December 28, 2014, 08:25:51 AM »

From what I can tell, it's a holdover from the past that exists just because.

Not entirely. Its inclusion in the proposal arose out of concerns raised in the other thread, beginning here.

1832

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: update the home page

« on: December 27, 2014, 06:28:38 AM »

I wonder if this will actually happen for 2015 now?

Feel free to write an article, and I'll publish it.

1833

Technology & Information / Re: New (used) laptop

« on: December 27, 2014, 04:27:07 AM »

I just bought a 9-cell battery to replace the 6-cell in my new laptop. This is going to be so great.

1834

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 26, 2014, 02:07:41 PM »

I just realised that I left out the film soundtrack from The Body, partly composed by Roger Waters in 1970. My excuse is that keeping track of five independent solo careers in chronological order is hard.

I'll get to it either next, or after Wet Dream.

1835

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 26, 2014, 12:13:38 PM »

David Gilmour
David Gilmour
Studio album


Recorded: December 1977 - January 1978
Released: 25 May 1978

Band

David Gilmour (guitar, keyboards, harmonica)
Rick Wills (bass)
Willie Wilson (drums)
Mick Weaver (piano)

Carlena Williams (backing vocals)
Debbie Doss (backing vocals)
Shirley Roden (backing vocals)

All tracks authored by David Gilmour, except where noted.

Side A

1. Mihalis (5:46)
2. There's No Way Out of Here (Ken Baker) (5:08)
3. Cry From the Street (Gilmour, Electra Stuart) (5:13)
4. So Far Away (5:50)

Side B

1. Short and Sweet (Gilmour, Roy Harper) (5:30)
2. Raise My Rent (5:33)
3. No Way (5:32)
4. It's Deafinitely (4:28)
5. I Can't Breathe Anymore (3:04)

Review

David Gilmour is at his best when he doesn't try to take himself too seriously. The first three tracks are some amazing bluesy dadrock, of a calibre sadly lacking in Pink Floyd's albums of the era, Animals and The Wall. From there, things begin to go downhill as David's attempt at meaningful lyrics begins to creep in.

Mihalis is my personal favourite on this album, as a fairly simple, slow instrumental with David doing what he does best on guitar. There's No Way Out of Here is largely saved by having lyrics which aren't written by David and a decent backing tune, and Cry From the Street has such a groovy guitar riff to it that I can easily forgive the cringey lyrics.

So Far Away is where things start to go pear-shaped, as David leaves behind his blues home turf for a slow ballad, and it just doesn't work. Even Raise My Rent, an instrumental, doesn't really do much for me here, and most of the rest of side B consists of similarly poor attempts at lyrically-driven songs. Side B is saved from being a complete disaster by the instrumental It's Deafinitely, which is based on a groove very similar to Sheep, along with a bluesy guitar workout that would have made Animals a better album had it appeared on Sheep.

There's at most half an album's worth of good material on this record, but at the same time, it's not significantly better than or different from David's work with Pink Floyd. If you're into bluesy dadrock, you'll probably love this album. Otherwise, don't bother yourself with it.

1836

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 26, 2014, 08:53:15 AM »

Syd Barrett
Barrett
Studio album


Recorded: February - July 1970
Released: 14 November 1970

All tracks authored by Syd Barrett.

Side A

1. Baby Lemonade (4:10)
2. Love Song (3:03)
3. Dominoes (4:08)
4. It Is Obvious (2:59)
5. Rats (3:00)
6. Maisie (2:51)

Side B

1. Gigolo Aunt (5:46)
2. Waving My Arms In the Air (2:09)
3. I Never Lied To You (1:50)
4. Wined and Dined (2:58)
5. Wolfpack (3:41)
6. Effervescing Elephant (1:52)

Review

This album very audibly suffers from Syd's deteriorating mental state. As he became more and more difficult to work with in the studio, the opportunities to simply get a song down on tape became rarer and rarer, and as a result the quality of performance on the release suffered. That's not to say it's altogether a bad album, but it's much less consistent than Madcap, having fairly severe ups and downs. That said, the ups on this album are my all-time favourite solo Barrett songs.

With David Gilmour and Richard Wright both appearing prominently on this album, there are parts which sound like the contemporary Atom Heart Mother-era Pink Floyd. The backing music on It Is Obvious reminds me fairly strongly of Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, for instance. Many of these tracks, especially the ones recorded later in 1970, seem to be carried along by David and Rick's rhythm work, while Syd seems to falter in and out of prominence as the lead vocalist and guitarist.

The tracks which stand out as being worthwhile Barrett songs are almost exclusively those recorded between February and May; on side A, those are Baby Lemonade, Rats and Maisie. The album's opener is a return of the silly dysfunctional pop music from Madcap, while the latter two deviate from that formula somewhat into one-chord rock jams, with Syd doing little more than talking the lyrics, but the effect is really enjoyable. Maisie in particular is the highlight of side A for me; Syd sounds like he's completely out of touch with what the other musicians are doing, but I find that's what really makes this track.

Gigolo Aunt brings a turn for the better, being both an unusually standard pop tune for Syd in terms of melody and an unusually coherent performance for this album. Syd's guitar still seems to be in a different room from the rest of the band, and the lyrics are still unmistakeably of Syd's creation. This is, without a doubt, the highlight of side B, and possibly of the album (I'd rate it about on par with Maisie).

The remainder of side B follows the overall pattern of the earlier recordings being better, those being Waving My Arms/I Never Lied To You (which make up a mini-medley with a segue between them) and Wolfpack. Wolfpack is another foray out of Syd's usual silly pop comfort zone and into pop rock, and aside from the one-chord jams getting a bit old, it's a pretty great tune.

Finally, Effervescing Elephant is the exception to the rule that earlier tracks are better. It's the only track recorded in July that I really enjoy. Very unusually for this album, Syd was on top form for this recording, and it's also unusual in that it's much more like his early pop material than the rest of the album. It's a cutesy, almost childish tune about an elephant who warns other animals about a tiger, only for the tiger to decide he wanted a large meal and eat the elephant instead.

This album is worth listening to if you enjoy The Madcap Laughs, but Madcap is overall a better album, so get that one first. The main highlights of this one are Baby Lemonade, Maisie, Gigolo Aunt and Effervescing Elephant; the rest of it ranges from almost as good as those four to entirely missable. This isn't a flattering final farewell for the floundering former Floyd foreman, whose career was cut tragically short by his mental health issues shortly after its release, but it's all we have to document his later work.

1837

Technology & Information / Re: New (used) laptop

« on: December 26, 2014, 07:07:18 AM »

Actually, I might just spend the little extra and get a 128 GB Samsung 850 Pro instead. It's lighter, has a 10-year warranty, and closer inspection of Intel's documentation suggests that their stated power values are measured significantly differently from Samsung's, to the point of putting power consumption on par.

Done and done. I was tempted to get a bigger SSD for teh lulz, but it would have been a completely ridiculous decision because I don't like carrying around large volumes of data on a portable computer; it's a hassle to make sure I have regular backups of all of it.

January 2015 is going to be so kickass with all these new gadgets.

1838

Technology & Information / Re: New (used) laptop

« on: December 26, 2014, 06:50:50 AM »

Actually, I might just spend the little extra and get a 128 GB Samsung 850 Pro instead. It's lighter, has a 10-year warranty, and closer inspection of Intel's documentation suggests that their stated power values are measured significantly differently from Samsung's, to the point of putting power consumption on par.

1839

Technology & Information / New (used) laptop

« on: December 26, 2014, 05:44:01 AM »

I've been looking for a decent laptop that can run OpenBSD (recent Chromebooks are nice in terms of battery life, but suck at hardware support from anything but ChromeOS). I trawled the OpenBSD mailing list archives a bit, and found that the Lenovo ThinkPad X201 is supposed to be very reliable and well-supported, as well as being fairly small and light. It's a bit old, so it's not exceptionally lightweight by modern standards, but I can live with that.

I found and bought an X201 on eBay for $300. Bargain, considering the reputation this laptop has for reliability on the 'net. I can't wait to get my hands on it and install OpenBSD.

Meanwhile, my recent PC Case Gear order has been delayed by a lack of the SATA cables I ordered. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as I can now request an additional SSD to be added to the order for my new laptop, to replace its HDD.

At the moment, I'm mostly considering an Intel 530 Series 120 GB model. I won't use more than 120 GB on a laptop, and the X201 is old enough that it doesn't support SATA 3, so capacity and performance aren't worthy considerations. On the other hand, that Intel SSD has very lower power consumption (fuck yeah battery life), as well as a 5-year warranty (I care more about drives failing in laptops than in desktops, because I might be travelling with no access to backups when it happens).

I'll think about it some more and add an SSD to that order later today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, feel free to post suggestions.

1840

Technology & Information / Re: Getting a new smartphone

« on: December 25, 2014, 03:11:49 PM »

My phone is suspiciously going haywire just weeks before my upgrade cycle date. Coincidence? I think not.

Let me guess. Samsung?