namke communications

This place needs a spring clean...

Gonna make some changes around here one of these fine days... get some damn structure in here.

About time too.

Haiku

your friend has left you
memories are all you have
to remember them

Goodbye Kodachrome. So badly reported!

Monday saw a press release from Kodak announcing that the iconic Kodachrome film is to be discontinued.

Ok, it's a sad announcement (some people swear by its colour reproduction and its archival qualities), but I take umbrage at the way in which it has been reported!

If you watch the TV reports or read the news articles, the death of Kodachrome has almost universally been attributed to 'the increase of digital photography'. This is not so.

Holy crap. I swear the clocks just struck thirteen...

I refer you, dear reader, to these abominations. I am, quite simply, speechless with rage and anger. This is several steps up from their previous scare campaign.

This is ridiculous. I feel like the entire UK is being run by the f***ing Stasi. When's the wall being built?

Are they trying to provoke a civil war?

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen"
Opening line of 1984, by George Orwell.

It's gig time again...

Craig and I were chatting on new year's eve, bemoaning the fact that we haven't felt particularly musically-creative of late. So we decided that we'd do something together. I felt that a more loose, improvised thing would be good to do (in the past, my live performances have always had a certain improvised nature to them - tracks are broken down into their component parts, fed into some sort of sequencer and then 'mashed up' live).

So anyway, after two rehearsals (which ended up being pretty different in their musical output), we have our first gig.

Cartel-forced censorship won't be accepted here...

Just in case my ISP decides to bow to IFPI pressure and censor the internet, rest assured that they will find me an ex-customer PDQ. I would urge each and everyone to do the same...

See:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/03/telenor_wont_block_pirate_bay/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/irma_demands_irish_isps_block_ac...

Things that are Uplifting

We went down to Bristol recently for my brother-in-law's wedding (my wife's brother for those who are trying to work it out), and we had a great time - seeing lots of people who we hadn't seen for a while. Our children were the only ones there for the whole day (there were a few present at the ceremony, but not for the meal/party), and it was also nice to have people tell us how well-behaved they were (phew!).

You couldn't make this up...

From BBC News:

"Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st Century," Mr Bush said.

I'm sure there's a word for that... begins with 'H'. It's on the tip of my tongue...

... Don't tell me...

...

BBC's 'Lab Rats' series...

It would appear, after doing a bit of a web-search, that BBC2's Lab Rats sitcom is not being very well received - apparently it isn't funny. Well, in an attempt to even the balance a little, I'll just go on record to say that I find it extremely funny (i.e. laugh-so-much-that-tears-run-down-my-face funny). The last one (the subterranean lab) was rather a slow builder I must admit, but the punchline was superb :-)

Time Travelling

I've just finished re-reading Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, a book that I haven't read since English Literature O-Level. Reading the book again, I was confronted by scribbled notes in margins, little insights which must have been pointed out by my English teacher (I can't imagine having generated these nuggets myself); and I was transported back to those far off days of my youth...