It was inevitable that the Caframo Joi tealight-powered LED lantern would end up with a Chinese-made knockoff. So when one appeared, I ordered it; it was very much cheaper, and it has extra features - most notably a 2000mAh battery that you can also charge with the candle, and it will let you charge your USB devices either from battery or from ( Read more... )

I’ve been looking over music display apps for Android, and right now, I’m really liking MobileSheetsPro. I’ve been testing using the Free version, which is fully-featured but sharply limited on number of songs and playlists and set lists. Does anyone have any other software they’d like to suggest before I dive in?

(BEFORE YOU SAY IT, iPad users: ( Read more... )

A while ago, I saw Tony Fabris of Vixy & Tony using a ridiculously large Windows tablet to display his lyrics and sheet music. He’d also whipped together some software to organise it and such. It was awesome.

The trick was he’d got the tablet relatively cheap, because it was huge, but also the first release of Windows 8 on tablet, and there was ( Read more... )

Forbes Magazine has noticed the return of the analogue synthesiser. I’ve seen a lot of people buying old and rebuilding; I wasn’t aware how many of the classics were back in or about to return to production.


( Read more... )

The Seattle Geekly podcast has long been a big supporter of geekmusics of all flavours. They had to retire from podcasting a couple of years ago due to Fuck You, Cancer reasons, but are ready to come back with a little Kickstarter funding.

They’re less than $400 away from goal, but are down to four days as I type this. Go back this project. I ( Read more... )

Hi, visitors from The Old New Thing! Nice to meet you! Welcome to rage-driven acoustic elfmetal.

I know you’re here for the triple-rainbow pictures and the aftereffects of the Rainmaker 68000, but if you get a chance to listen to our music or watch any of Dara’s solo-performance video, that’d be awesome too.

We’re currently in studio working on our ( Read more... )

A linkfest post? Really? YES. I did enjoy meeting up with Songwriters in Seattle on Monday, tho’. Hey, if any of you make it over here, hi! I’m getting ready for my show in Portland on Sunday. It’s a house concert but I can get you in; just email me if you’re interested!

Anyway, a small number of links:

I haven’t loved an XKCD post this much in a ( Read more... )

I haven't known what to do with these, so here they are!

US court allows lawsuit by American victims of Mr. Bush's torture programme advance. Two undercover FBI agents, both known to be FBI undercover agents investigating corruption by US contractors, were held and tortured for months. A third American was also held and tortured for months. ( Read more... )

Let’s talk about gear! Gear is important! Gear that protects your instruments is extremely important.

So I’m working on a mandolin travel case. It’s a companion case to the zouk case I made out of an old keyboard travel case, but built from scratch out of reclaimed wood. Here’s the top frame, made from trimmed down bits of wood from a bunch of ( Read more... )

So I was helping some people the other day try to pronounce a Japanese name that they'd seen written in English letters; they we trying to figure it out and applying US English pronunciation and of course knew that was wrong, but didn't know what to do. So I pronounced it correctly for them a few times, but they needed it broken down into syllables ( Read more... )