Kim Bach . Org

Nintendo.com News : Transform your DS into a guitar with Jam Sessions

After having been on the Japanese market for quite a while, Ubisoft is about to launch Jam Sessions to the rest of the world.

Jam Sessions is a Guitar Simulator, and unlike Guitar Hero, it’s focusing on reality, as this (Hidari Mae: Logical Conclusion) great sounding sample demonstrates - it was made without real guitars!

The concept is that you strum the guitar using the touch screen, and use the navigation keys to create chords.

So I might pick up the “guitar” again, it’s been more than 25 years since I tried to learn how to play the guitar - I sort of managed to get the technical details right, and it’s still in “my fingers” - but it never really amounted to anything - you know music is about feelings and “letting go” - when I was 18 I was a serious uptight old fart, with no concept of feelings, I think I might fare better today, and I’ve actually been jamming with my oldest niece using her acoustic guitar, and it actually sounded much better after she coached me - I was amazed or maybe I’m just tone-deaf ;-).

I’m NEVER going to master a traditional game controller, but the new generation of gaming concepts that Nintendo is pioneering strikes a SERIOUS chord (pun intended ;-)) with me.

Last.fm - the online music community - is probably the KEWLest web-site on the planet - and now it’s even KEWLer, since they have a Jaiku channel.

In case you don’t know Jaiku, it’s a web application that makes it easy to follow your friends, and stay updated on your favourite topics and/or sites (if they have a channel that is). Services like Jaiku are often refereed to as “microblogging services”, and it’s somewhat similar to another web-application: Twitter.

In case you don’t know Last.fm - you’re not from this planet, but it’s a service that, based on your musical preference, helps you discover new music, events and friends. Last.fm also operates unlimited streaming “radio stations”, where the users determine the content, for instance based on the similarity of artists, you can for instance ask Last.fm to stream a radio-station similar to a specific artist.

Since I joined the #LastFM channel, I remembered that I one year ago added “Send job-application to Last.fm” to my to-do list - I feel that Last.fm thinks like I do, and they’re looking for lots of people, and it looks like a great place to work.

Apple - QuickTime - September 2007 Keynote Address

Apple Special Event from today is now available for streaming, Steve is looking sharp, great seeing him playing with iTunes Ringtone Maker: “All we are saying is give peace a chance” - “that’s for when NBC calls” LOL.

And the iPod Touch - should be called the iPod Ouch - Ouch there goes my recent resolution: “No more gadgets!” AGAIN! I am however going to wait until I can try it, before buying. I have some questions…

1. Can I update my calendar and address book and have it synced back to iCal and Address Book? My guess is no.
2. Does the Danish localisation include a Danish touch screen keyboard, including æ, ø and å, Steve only showed the US version?
3. It doesn’t look like it works with Nike+.
4. It doesn’t look like it supports Bluetooth, so no wireless headsets or integration with phones and cameras
5. When will there be a Starbucks in Copenhagen (hey isn’t there one in CPH Airport? Guess I just have to travel some more!)

As a spin off from the Special Event today, I’ve created a Jaiku channel for the Danish Apple community called #appletalkdk, join the fun here.

The picture is Copyright (c) 2007 Apple Inc., I consider my use here to be fair use.

I got hold of a copy of Steve’s manuscript earlier today…

*Cue the music
*His Steveness enters
*iTunes growth has been OUT OF THIS WORLD, WE’RE “BEAT”ING THEM ALL
Everyone is on iChat these days, let’s see, hmm…Hi Sir Paul!
Do you have an iPod? Yes, yes I have SEVERAL, you keep making new ones. Well I might have a surprise for you later, and tell us about the merger of Apple Inc. and Apple Corp…
*BOOM!!!
*Do you remember what the BIG jeans pocket was for? Now you can put it to use again, with the brand-new iPod Video, if you can get it to fit next to the iPhone you’ll need as well to get it online.
*Phil can you show us how that works? (Phil is in the audience with his Power…ahem MacBook - oh there you are! - Phil is on iChat with the new Leopard default theme).

*And now back to you Sir Paul.

*Oh one more thing…NAH! That’s so last year:

*Thank you and goodnight!

Heyerdahl.no - iDiamond

I knew that there would be a market for “gadget jewellery”, but this bling-iPod shuffle from the Norwegian Jeweller Thomas Heyerdahl in Oslo is just a bit over the top, being priced at €31.000/US $41.000. The shuffle is adorned by a total of 430 diamonds, with 312 used for the player and 118 used for the earbuds.

Looking at the “diggs” this gadget is getting, it’s a great marketing stunt by Heyerdahl. The iPod is “iconic”, but I think that it would have been much more interesting if they had made an exclusive design, instead of relying on a $79 industrial design. OTOH, linking up with the hyped Apple brand is probably a smart move, and it’s unlikely that I’d heard about it, if they had done an exclusive design.

Personally I find the details about how the gadget was manufactured, much more interesting than the gadget itself.

It was manufactured by a Dutch company called Diaro Digital Design, using the 3D-modelling software Rhinoceros.

Details about the iDiamond from the Heyerdahl website:

• 1 pcs. / Special edition / Not for commercial sale.
• Produced for Heyerdahl by: Diaro Digital Design - Robert de Brueijs / The Netherlands / www.diaro.nl
• 3D production: CAD / CAM 3D design / Rhinoceros
• Wax model made by: Solidcape T66Bt2 Wax printer.
• Casting method: Vacuumcasting
• Diamond setting: Handcrafted micro Pavè setting.
• Details engraved: Laser engraved details

Details about iDiamond aren’t available on the Diaro Digital Design website, but I suppose that they’ll update their site soon.

The pictures that accompanies this article were copied from the Heyerdahl website, and are most likely copyright Gullsmed Heyerdahl A.S., I consider my use of the pictures to be fair use.

Hmm…A Kitty Kat/Green Light medley…UHA! siger jeg bare!

Læs mere om mine “problemer” med farven grøn her, og det hjælper ikke på det at slå op på side 132 i IKEAs 2008 katalog!!!, som om jeg IKKE havde nok grønne IKEA produkter i forvejen…

WOW! What’s going on these days…

Dell is seriously challenging Apple with their new laptops, and I just LOVE Devo, great new track. Even HP and especially LG delivers nice and cheap sub-notebooks these days.

And now that I’m turning to the “dark side” for my new job (ASP.NET development), I might get one - now do they have them in green

Freedom OF choice is what you GOT - Freedom FROM choice is what you WANT (or that’s what Apple would like us to believe)

Just listening to “Release”, the first album by “Natasja“ (+ 24-June-2007 R.I.P) - it’s actually MUCH stonger and MUCH more experimental than I remembered - will go down as a classic! - especially the tracks “Bonfire” and “Restless” are OUTSTANDING.

The picture was taken at the R*A*W 2004 event at Islands Brygge - the last time I saw Natasja alive…

Lille T det er dit navn og himlen er din havn

Lille T: Thank you for the wonderful memories, especially when you were performing with “No Name Requested”, probably the best Danish Hip-Hop EVER, and at R*A*W in August of 2004, just before your big break - it was so so great, and really the day I discovered NEW dancehall, and the celebration of life that dancehall represents!

Honour the memory of “Little T” and donate to the Red Cross’ fight against AIDS. AIDS is destroying the hope of Africa. Below is a quote from Natasja’s MySpace page.

Friends and colleagues of Natasja have been wishing to start collections for Natasja’s mom and others already did collect on the day that Natasja died, like it happened at Rub’a’Dub club last Sunday. Anyone wishing to relief Natasja’s moms situation can do so by donating money on the bank account below which is set up as a trust fund with the sole purpose of paying for transportation of Natasja’s remains and to pay for her funeral. Any excess funds from the collection will be donated to The Red Cross effort to fight AIDS in Africa. The last cause has always been one of Natasja’s greatest wishes to support.

Bank info:
Account number (incl. reg. no.): 3121 3121656760
Swift code: dabadkkk
IBAN: dk4030003121656760

And my prayers go out to the women and children of Africa!

“The real party starts when Africa is liberated”.

“The Creator” must be “sleeping”: PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE, I’m on my knees here: send more angels, like my friend Louise that is currently working at a hospital in Africa. Tasha can you “pull some strings”?

ÆRET VÆRE NATASJAS MINDE! LIGHT A TORCH FOR NATASJA SO THAT SHE CAN FIND HER WAY HOME!!!

Listening to an old issue of one of the best technology podcasts Go Digital from the BBC, I was reminded of John Perry Barlow ((born October 3, 1947) is an American poet, essayist, retired Wyoming cattle rancher, political activist and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead (source Wikipeida)).

In 1996 he formulated a Decaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, and after listening to the BBC, I’m focusing on this quote!

We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.

We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.

Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.

Amen!

As you might have noticed, I attended the reboot “(un)conference” in Copenhagen last week, and it was great.

I’d like to draw your attention to the feature “Rebooting the Web 2.0 age” on reboot 9 that BBC ran during the “(un)conference”.

Here’s a quote from the article:

The future of the web is being debated at Reboot 9.0, a leading European grassroots technology and design conference in Copenhagen.

But…”oh-my-two-dot-oh-NO” they’re using the “two-dot-O-M-G” dreaded “two-dot-oh-YEAH” word…

The big question here for the start-ups and opinion formers is how to use Web 2.0’s focus on community to build the next generation of web tools and become Europe’s Web 2.0 poster child.

I guess I can forgive the BBC, since the feature is “more than decent” ;-), and they capture some of the spirit of reboot in this quote:

This year’s conference theme is Human? with many speakers grappling with such deep philosophical queries as what it means to be human. One session was called Humanism 101.

Understanding human behaviour and how to adapt those behaviours to technology and the web rather than the reverse is rare for technology devotees.

And Last.fm deserves all the love in the world, iTunes might never know what hit them.

However, it is no surprise as the big subject in the bars and on the grass outside was this week’s sale of London social software music service Last.fm.

Its creator Martin Stiskel, explaining why US broadcaster CBS would want to buy a music preference tool said: “They want to move from a content company to an audience company, giving the audiences control and learning from this and that’s why Last.fm was their choice.”

I’m nominating Last.fm for the price of being the “greatest service on the planet”, even though it makes it look like I have absolutely no taste in music - is it about time to get more discriminating, and start “acting my age, not my shoesize” - nah some people have actually expressed love for my personal radiostation ;-), and I get shouts like this:

Du er på alder med min far, men jeres musiksmag ligger usandsynligt langt fra hinanden. Det er meget godt klaret! Respekt herfra

(translation from Danish: You’re the age of my father, but your taste in music is unbelievably far from each others. That’s well done! Respect :)).