Nick.

I went to see OK Go last night… um… this is sounding familiar. Anyhow… given that you are obviously on The Internet, you probably know OK Go as the treadmill dance band or possibly even the backyard dance band.

Either way, you probably already know that they exude awesome… at least at choreographed dancing to their own music. What you may not know is that they totally kick ass live… even without treadmills (they were playing at Capitol which has a pretty tight stage).

Aside from being very talented musicians, they are very personable showmen. The entire show was more than just a band on a stage playing music. From a production angle, they had synchronised video including live feeds from cameras embedded around the stage and on the lead microphone.

In regards to the performance, they kept the audience engaged with conversation and encouraging participation. Damian (lead vocals) came out into the crowd a few times (which isn’t too out of the ordinary for a band), but I was surprised when most of the band came down into the crowd!

Around half-way through the show, Damian, Tim, and Andy (all band members except for Dan, the drummer) set up in the middle of the crowd and performed a few acoustic songs. They asked people standing nearby to sit down so that everyone could see. It was great!

One of the songs they played while in the crowd was A Million Ways, and someone in the audience started doing the associated dance. When OK Go realised, they stopped playing and asked for his name (“Dave” I think it was). He was really chuffed. It was cool.

At the end of the evening, they lined up and took a bow. It was fitting because they’re real performers. I wish that I had flowers to throw.

Conclusion: Superb! Best show I’ve been to in a long time.

I didn’t have my camera with me on the night, but I’ll try to get some photos from Minh or Tone (who used their fancy camera phones). In the meantime, I’ve embedded a few of the famous YouTube videos (of the band; not of this particular gig) after the jump.

Continue reading “OK Go”

I went to see The Cure last night, and joked that I would have to blog about the concert using the title “En-Cure” because they played an insane 3 encores for a total concert time of over 3 hours. Ultimately that blog title was too lame… even for me.

Here are some photos. We had great seats, but my camera is pretty ordinary:

The concert was pretty different to the last time they were here. The most noticeable difference was that they didn’t have to cut the concert short because of a midnight curfew (like that imposed when they played at the Entertainment Centre). Other differences were the instruments used (no keyboard this time, just guitars and drums) and the visuals (better lights and projected video this time).

Overall, it was a good night out.

Update: Some of their new stuff is pretty good; classic Cure but with a bit more of a rock/pop feel. Embedded videos after the jump.

Continue reading “The Cure”

Note: This post is pretty much only of interest (and will only make sense) to programmers.

I’ve been using Python a lot for around 6 months now, and just yesterday I run into an apparently common gotcha. I’ve boiled it down to a very basic example.

First, let’s define a simple function with a default argument:

def f( a = [] ):
    a.append(1)
    print a

Now, let’s call it twice and see what happens:

> f()
[1]
> f()
[1, 1]

Probably not what you expected? From the POV of a C programmer, this just means that Python default arguments map to something like:

    static int a[] = {};

rather than:

    int a[] = {};

at the start of a function. (For those whom may not know; yes, C allows for static variables nested within functions.)

My Sunday started with the sounds of trucks doing bog laps around Langley Park.

I peered outside and as the trucks started stopping (and blocking Riverside Drive), I assumed that it was some sort of protest. Turns out it was “Truckies for a Cure [to Cancer]” or something like that. That would explain why there were so many kids I guess.

I went out to have a look. Here are some photos:

Historical documents tend to communicate a lot about the social climate at the time, and landmark documents are often charged with feeling. The preamble to the United Nations Charter tells us that the world was tired of war, and incensed by the degradation of humanity:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR THESE ENDS

• to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
• to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
• to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
• to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS

In the current state of the world, it reads like an overly optimistic but well-intentioned new years resolution. That said, I find it difficult to read without feeling the sincere will behind it; this strengthens my resolve to stand by my own convictions.

Time for a crackpot cancer theory… in the form of a few quick thoughts:

• If you eat cancer, do you get cancer?
• Do they scan farm animals for cancer?
• Why do vegans have lower incidences cancer?

Cue spooky noises.

Update: Found this page on a similar subject. Here’s a quote:

Epidemiologically, the intake of animal source food correlates with the country-by-country incidence of six types of cancer. Although none of the reporting countries can be assumed to have large vegan or even vegetarian populations, it appears that the less animal source food per capita, the lower the cancer rate.

Sounds a bit more sophisticated that the title of this blog post…

Nathan Fielder has some cool videos. This one gets interesting around a minute into it:

In other Canadian web video news, Pure Pwnage episode 14 is out. Download it here.

Jim and I carpool into work, and often (at the end of each day) someone has to suggest that it’s time to go home (because the other person is engrossed in work).

The other day, I decided that this suggestion needs to be a musical affair and performed the following to the tune of Europe‘s “Final Countdown“:

It’s time to go-o home, na na na nar, nananununar

Not very cerebral, but a decent match to the tune. It would suffice… for a while.

Later that day I realised that Steve Dorff and John Bettis’ “As Long As We Got Each Other” (the theme song to 80’s sitcom Growing Pains) provides the perfect tune for a it’s-to-go-home song. So the following day, I reminded Jim that it was time to go by singing:

It’s time to go home again
Don’t waste another minute on your coding
With or without you Jim
The trip is ready to begin

Oooohhh, as long as you keep on working
There is no way that I can head on home
Captain, you and me, we gotta be
Heading home now as quick as can be

As long as you keep on stalling
You’re stopping me from being on my way
Captain, all the time, rain or shine
We carpool together, sharing all the petrol costs

I don’t expect that I will top that; so there will be no more going home songs. Although I’m definitely open to suggestions!

Update: Just in case anyone was wondering, one of Jim’s (many) nicknames is “The Captain”. Oh, and we’re programmers (hence the “coding” reference).

Video of the Growing Pains opening after the jump.
Continue reading “It’s time to go home (songs)”

Once again Nintendo comes up with something that makes me more interested in video games!

The Wii Balance Board is a board that a player stands on to interact with games. It contains a bunch of pressure sensors and connects wirelessly to the Nintendo Wii. Users can play games by shifting their weight.

The first game to use the accessory will be Wii Fit. It appears to be a bunch of fitness themed mini-games including (what they clearly hope will sell the device to middle-aged women) some sort of virtual yogalates class. It also uses the device as a scale to determine (presumably approximate) BMI.

Check out this Wii Fit introduction video from the E3 2007 Nintendo press conference:

The Wii Balance Board Wikipedia page mentions that Shigeru Miyamoto (in an interview with IGN) noted that:

Probably the simplest and most straightforward [idea] would be a snowboarding game.

Hell yeah! I want that game!

Update: As an aside, it’s great that Nintendo promotes their products in a very inclusive manner; demonstrating use by a wide range of people and focusing on families. Maybe this will help break the perception of the “video gamer” as social outcast!

I got some shaving gel the other day and today I’m struck by it’s apparent geekiness. It features a range of technologies including:

• SSE: Shave Surface Enhancing
• DDS: Dual Delivery System
• PSP: Prime, Shave, Protect

All of these are acronyms listed on the packaging! On top of that it’s called AlphaGel… okay, you have to be quite pretty geeky to think of an Alpha reference, but the above acronyms are weird…