Category: Geek

Crunching Numbers

Yesterday was let’s mess with WordPress plugins and see if they stick day at Barry Towers.

As you may have noticed, it’s now possible to easily quote someone else’s comment when writing a comment yourself (click the aptly dubbed “Click to quote this comment” link next to every reply and watch how magic unfolds!).

At long last: a proper contact form where you may, you know, contact us!

Over at the FZ discography section, there’s now a “Highest Rated Albums” feature. Here’s how the collective beehive mind (that would be you) have been going about rating so far:

  1. One Size Fits All (9.76 out of 10)
  2. Roxy & Elsewhere (9.45 out of 10)
  3. The Grand Wazoo (9.22 out of 10)
  4. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 2 (9.13 out of 10)
  5. Apostrophe (’)/ Over-Nite Sensation (DVD) (9 out of 10)
  6. Sheik Yerbouti (8.91 out of 10)
  7. We’re Only In It For The Money (8.8 out of 10)
  8. Läther (8.75 out of 10)
  9. Zappa In New York (8.73 out of 10)
  10. The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (8.73 out of 10)

I’d say #1 and #2 are obvious. Interestingly though:

  • The Grand Wazoo reaches #3
  • There’s an YCDTOSA in the top ten, at #4 no less
  • No Freak Out!, no Hot Rats, no Apostrophe/Over-Nite Sensation, no Waka/Jawaka and no Joe’s Garage
  • The Apostrophe/Over-Nite Sensation DVD is apparently more entertaining than the records themselves!

More number crunching? Here you go:

  • Total Users Voted: 1,923
  • Total Average: 7.03

“Good student, needs to put in more effort” :)

The Mp3 Encoding Debate: Results Are In

A follow-up to this post: Cognitive Daily yesterday published its rather (un?)surprising results:

For both recordings, there was a significant difference between ratings of the 64 kbps sampling rate and the 128 kbps sampling rate, but no difference between ratings of the 128 and 256 kbps sampling rate. It’s looking like the 256 kbps MP3s offer no advantage over the much smaller 128 kbps MP3s.

Out of nearly 700 participants, 33 were able to detect a difference in audio quality between both sampling rates. I bet those 33 will be identified as being avid KUR readers! :)

An mp3 Is An mp3 Is An mp3?

Cognitive Daily is carrying out an online poll to determine just how audible the fluctuation in quality is between mp3’s that have different encodings:

I created three different versions of two song clips — 64, 128, and 256 kbps MP3 format. Then I re-encoded all of them at 256 kbps so the files are all the same size. Can you identify which recording sounds better? Is there a difference between the listening skills of “audiophiles” and ordinary listeners? Now we’ll find out.

There have been numerous mp3-vs-lossless debates here and elsewhere, so I’m quite curious to see the results of this test. To participate, keep your ears and headset at the ready and click here. The results should be posted at Cognitive Daily next Friday, November 30.

Via Duncan.

NoSo

Take your myspace, your facebook, your twitter, your pownce, your virb, your mashable — and ram it up yer snout. Finally here’s a social network I wouldn’t mind subscribing to: NoSocial. From the about page:

NOSO is a real-world platform for temporary disengagement from social networking environments. The NOSO experience offers a unique opportunity to create NO Connections by scheduling NO Events with other NO Friends.

Save your money don’t go to the show!

Ooooh Shiny

Last.fm now allows for the making and off-site inclusion of playlist “widgets”. Let’s see how that works out! Here are my Recently Played Tracks (my iTunes is currently on Party Shuffle mode by the way):

Now then: I’ve shown you mine — care to show me your widget? :D

Extreme Makeover: Zappa.com Edition

Quoth beepee with regard to Spifnificently Soonly:

It’s a website makeover. Expect Nothing.

Hey, I’d actually be very interested to see an all fresh ‘n new zappa.com. The whole Flash thing they had going was fun for a while (read 20 seconds) but it’s about time that site gets a 21st century makeover. If webmeister “Mikey” knows anything about web 2.0 we’ll be seeing a comment-enabled WordPress powered blog incorporating Flickr photos (preferably from Moon and Diva) alongside up to the minute Twitter updates and obviously, a GoogleMaps Mashup. Oh, and an embedded last.fm “recently listened to” widget, of course.

Gaaah if only I were zappa.com’s webmaster… :D

Last.fm

Right, as usual I’m the last person in the world to jump onto the hipness that is Last.fm. I’ve only just signed up and am still playing around with it but this could be interesting. As per the site’s blurb: “Discover new artists, find out when their gigs are and invite friends. Create a profile to share your music taste with friends and listen to personalised radio.”
My profile incidently is at last.fm/user/uglyradio. Any of you out there on last.fm too? Wanna be friends? :D

Update: here’s Dr Sharleena’s profile!

B-List

B-List Blogger

With 106 links in the last 180 days, Technorati places killuglyradio.com in the high authority group. That makes you a B-List Blogger! In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.

Go me! :D

Kiss YouTube

A little over a year ago I, quite naively, wrote:

If you have some time on your hands, take a look at YouTube. There’s loads of interesting video to watch, including some live Frank Zappa.

… to which KUR regular Birdman! responded:

I didn’t have any luck trying to download these videos. Can they not be downloaded?

But of course! If your default browser is Firefox (which, if you’re on Windows, it should be), check out this add-on. For the rest of you, there’s always KissYouTube.

Reactable

Is this how we’ll be making music, 20 years from now?

The reactable, is a multi-user electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving physical objects on a luminous table surface.

And in case you’re wondering, here’s how it looks: