The Tea Tray


I suppose it had to happen at some point.
While I like my iPhone a lot it starts becoming less useful for apps such as music apps. Over the years music apps have become more powerful and have much greater depth. Within the confines of the iPhone screen this can become a problem and off putting when all you want to do is get a quick tune started.
I decided to bite the bullet and get myself an iPad. I got myself the latest model with the retina screen and faster processor. I also got the 64GB model just so that it's as future proof as I can make it considering how much I've just spent on it.
My first impressions are very good. It's fast and the retina screen makes everything very clear. It's a lot different from the ageing 3GS.
Just about every music app that I'd just about abandoned has a renewed life thanks to the size of the screen. There's also the added bonus of a whole load of new apps to discover thanks to them being iPad only.
One question remains. Should I have invested before now? I think the answer is no. This iPad is fast enough and good enough to do everything I need where as previous models might have run out of steam a bit sooner.
Late adoption has its benefits.

Trinity

While I'm in the mood for writing I have to write this long overdue post.
For a start I'm a bit crap at making friends, I'm way too odd to just strike up a conversation because I have nothing in the line of small talk. Furthermore I shy away from approaching people I admire because I get tongue tied and end up looking even more odd. Probably like some over enthusiastic, sycophantic stalker. So I don't bother, it's easier.
The internet changes the game though. I can ease myself in with people I like and if I get no response ease myself out just as easily. No harm done.
So it has been with a couple of people I have great respect for. Both because of their knowledge on subjects close to my heart and their accessibility simply because they are wonderful human beings behind the online profile.
Firstly may I introduce Mr Ashley Elsdon. Before I knew he was Ashley Elsdon I knew him as PalmSounds. I was reading his blog for a long time before I knew he was on Twitter. Twitter gave me the opportunity to say a few words and the response I got was overwhelming. Wow! An online hero has responded to me! OK, it's not much these days to the connected generation but to me it was a revelation. This sounds like fan worship but, no! I come from a generation that contacted each other in public phone boxes and if one didn't have 2p or 10p it was all too much radio silence.
After a while I found out that PalmSounds was Ashley Elsdon and another dimension opened up. The simplest things please me, information being simple, I found I liked the man behind the profile. Still no fanboy stuff, most people irritate the hell out of me. I like the public image then find out they're a total shit. Not in Ashley's case. Breath out. Relax.
One regular contributor to the PalmSounds timeline was and is Concrete Dog. Again I tempted fate (even though fate is nonsense in my opinion) and said a few words. Again the feedback was amazing. Another intelligent, talented person with time to put up with a random like me asking dumb questions but finding the time not only to respond but explore the questions until a suitable answer had been found. Wow! Again!
I'm writing this for two reasons.
One. I'm in the mood for writing and this all needs to be said.
Two. If I find a pot of gold I'm into sharing. I can't spend the whole thing myself and I'm not selfish.
So there you go. Hopefully you'll read this and follow the links that follow.
I won't say you'd be stupid not to because by now you know that yourself.

Twitter:
PalmSounds
Concrete Dog
I Am Ashley Elsdon

The Web:
PalmSounds
Concrete Dog
Ashley Elsdon

The Art Of The Essay

Quite by accident I bought a book that in some small way will change my life.
As you can tell from this blog I'm not much of a writer. I used to contribute a lot more to this blog but the app I was using on my iPhone became unstable and then unsupported. Nothing of any worth has replaced it.
I also checked the last time I added anything to my novel. One and a half years ago was the last time I did anything, not good.
It sounds like an awful excuse but I like to write at the oddest times and by the time I've booted a netbook I've lost the urge. My recent purchase of a portable word processor has done a lot to overcome this but as yet it isn't as portable as I'd like but that will be sorted within a week or so.
I have decided to buy a Nexus 7 when the 32gb version hits the high street next month. I'll wait a week after launch for reports then just buy one anyway.
So what has that 107 year old book got to do with anything and how did it change my life, a bit?
Well, it's by a man called William Hazlitt and what he did was to publish essays. An essay of his amounts to a decent chapter in any other book but it's on a single topic and therefore condensed. Genius.
I've looked into essays before and pamphlets as a way of publishing them. The book I now own is a collection of essays. While I may never be published by Penguin or someone like that I can use the open ePub method and get my random, condensed thoughts out there. Don't expect anything soon apart from satisfaction within myself, that and a paper I am in the process of writing. The ePub format seems perfect for getting my message across to whoever has the time to read. While I'm at it I haven't forgotten .pdf files too. They're just as good and relevant.
So thank you you Mr Hazlitt. You've given me direction and a forward thank you to Freitag and the Nexus 7 for giving me the means.

D'Accordion

Here's the new track "D'Accordion" by AmpUT. (AmpUT is me in case you didn't know.)
It's a Schlager track. For those of you that don't know Schlager music just think about every track that's entered for the Eurovision Song Contest, apart from the UK that is, and you'll have a good idea what Schlager music is. It's a big thing in Europe and there are lots of radio stations dedicated to it. I've been listening to a few of them of late and thought I'd have a go at writing a track myself. While a lot of people wouldn't give the music much time I think it's worth consideration for the following reason. That it's basically good fun and that's a good reason to listen to or in this case write that style of music. I've grown a little tired recently trying to compose 'serious' music. The final result does make it worth the effort but the blood, sweat and tears involved in getting to said result can be tiresome. This track is four chords minus the intro and ending and the whole track was conceived while jamming with my Yamaha QY100. All the hard work, if you can call it that, was done before I opened FL Studio and because the building blocks for the track were exported via MIDI from the QY100 all I had to do was re-voice and arrange, and most of the arranging was done with ChordPulse. I absolutely love the versatility of MIDI files. One can move them around between hardware and software with no effort at all. It's a joy. This was a quick process and it meant that I could spend longer on the mixing and production which is where I'm happiest when creating a track. The track didn't take long either, probably about 20 hours from conception to completion.
So there you have it. A happy, bouncy little ditty that was a joy to make. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but it might just raise a smile from the listener. That's the intention.

Wireless

So what's this then?
This being the keyboard in the picture above is an Alphasmart 3000. It's basically a word processor that isn't attached to a PC. I know, I've got a word processor and I do love my Canon Star Writer but it has two faults, which aren't really faults. Firstly it's too nice to lug around, I really don't want it getting damaged. Secondly it's a bit of a faff getting the text files off the floppy discs because the formatting gets changed along the way. Having said that I still love and trust floppies so it may get used as an extra backup.
The reason I wanted the AlphaSmart was because it's rugged, lightweight and runs for ever on three 'AA' batteries. It's made to be rugged because these keyboards are intended to be used by among other people, special needs students, which isn't to say that all specials needs students are going to manhandle the item but some will and the manufacturers are aware of that. They are also incredibly simple to operate. Turn on, type, turn off. That's it. No boot sequence, no saving. It just works.
The beauty of the system lies in the fact that it will transfer your work to a Mac or PC by simply sending what you have written to any software that will accept text input. That's what I love about it. Work offline, send and save. Easy.

So Mr Strange. Why not just type on the netbook you intend to save the work on?
Well for one thing privacy. I can dump the output of the AlphaSmart straight into an encryption program without ever having to touch a key on the netbook keyboard so it cuts down the chance of any keylogging. Secondly if I ever had to ditch the unencrypted work on the AlphaSmart I'd be down £30 instead of £300.
Thirdly my netbook acts as a vault these days so I don't really want to be trailing it around with me. Fourthly the AlphaSmart is simple and rugged. Did I mention rugged?

So what's with all the secrecy?
Well I've been planning on writing something for a long time and the planning is done so it's time for the writing. I'm afraid the result will be dull and nerdy but someone someday will make use of it. It'll be published here in due course which is some time away yet. All I can say is that it'll be published under a CC license and it'll be my gift to the geeks.