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    Sunday, May 31, 2009

    Google Wave, Paradigm Shift, Game Changer, much?

    An excellent review of what Google Wave will offer here. From the same developers that designed google maps, Google Wave comes out later this year, and does enough exciting new things to justify all the game changing, paradigm shift talk.

    It

    - fuses instant messaging and e-mail,
    - allows for live concurrent, collaborative editing of mails and docs - i.e. it allows edits from multiple users with all users seeing the changes at the same time
    - has collaborative building and editing of image galleries concurrently
    - lets you embed you tube clips within mails and drag images into mails
    - has real time language translation for instant messaging

    Plus it's open source with an API for other developers so it's bound to get lots of extra functionality and will link up with other sites like Twitter without the user having to leave Google Wave.

    It looks seriously useful.

    Monday, May 25, 2009

    Jogging Playlists, Part 1

    As i slowly crank my lazy blogging ass back into gear, the first of a regular series, music to jog to, tried and tested, the rules are simple.

    1. Nothing too melancholic and definitely not straight out morbid or depressing
    2. Nothing too slow
    3. But not too many fast songs or you'll burn out.

    The Talib Kweli, Kings of Leon and Futureheads tracks make me run like the clappers but you get a breather in between. Anyhoo, tracks and links to vids on you tube/tracks on my space below

    Talib Kweli Move Somethin





    1.Your Ex-Lover Is Dead,Stars
    2.Christopher and Anthony, Jape
    3.Poison Cup, M. Ward
    4.I Feel Just Like A Child, Devendra Banhart
    5.Free Money, Patti Smith
    6.California Waiting, Kings of Leon
    7.Ghost Under Rocks, Ra Ra Riot
    8.F.E.A.R., Ian Brown
    9.Cassette, Oh No
    10.Move Somethin', Talib Kweli
    11.Hounds of Love, Futureheads
    12.Crawl, Kings Of Leon
    13.I Believe In You, Cat Power
    14.Revolution Blues, Neil Young
    15.Dancing Barefoot, Patti Smith
    16.You Never Know (Domino Remix), Hieroglyphics
    17.This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), Talking Heads
    18.Bizarre Love Triangle-94, New Order
    19.Iceblink Luck, Cocteau Twins



    20.Finer Feelings, Spoon

    Friday, May 22, 2009

    All Names Have Been Changed

    claire kilroy, cover of all names have been changed

    Faber & Faber released Dublin novelist Claire Kilroy's excellent third novel, 'All Names Have Been Changed' last week. The novel is set in recession struck, dirty, gloomy, eighties Dublin and charts the course of a writing workshop attended by five embryonic writers and their hero, Glynn, an alcohol soaked, legendary Irish writer.

    What makes this novel really exceptional is the joy in language and verbal playfulness that suffuses every page. There is a greater focus on the aesthetics of language here than most novelists display, possibly at a small expense to the strength of plot and characterisation, although it would be unfair to say the novel is shabby in those areas either. The result is a page turner, but not as we know it captain. I found myself turning the pages not so much in a rush to find out what happens next but because what is said, is said so well. Banville is an obvious influence here.

    I really liked the constant stream of arch, dry humour - mostly affectionate but pointed mockery of the insecurities and delusions besetting writers and the creative process. There is a strong sense of place too, the novel veritably reeks of Dublin and that's down to more than the proliferation of Dublin street names. In time ANHBC may be regarded as part of the pantheon of fine Dublin novels taking its place alongside Doyle, Bolger, Plunkett, and Joyce. Certainly the added relevance the work gains by evoking an historic recession era Ireland as we find ourselves reeling again in a brand new trough should help it find the wide readership it most definitely deserves.

    Here's the Irish times review and Irish Independent review