Todays Tune: The Punisher Theme

The Punisher is a 2004 American comic book action film, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Thomas Jane as the antihero Frank Castle / The Punisher and John Travolta as the villain Howard Saint, a money launderer who orders the death of Castle's entire family.

Todays Tune: Badiel & Skinner ft. Robbie Williams & Russel Brand - 3 Lions 2010

"Three Lions" is a song released in 1996, the official anthem of the England football team for that year's European Championships, held in England. The music was written by Ian Broudie, with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner providing the lyrics. It is also popularly known as "Football's Coming Home" that appears on the covers in a number of single releases for the song.

Todays Tune: Giggs ft. The Streets - Slow Songs

Nathan Thompson (born 1983), better known by his stage names Giggs or Hollowman, is a British rapper from Peckham, South London. He is the leader of SN1 (Spare No 1), a branch of the Peckham Black Gang, alongside his brother Joe Grind, Spender, YG (Young Giggs) and Gunna D. Other artists within this group include Kyze and Tiny Boost. The group's main producers are Simple, Boomblast, Unit 10, Universe and Pablo.

Todays Tune: Leonard Cohen - Here It Is

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ (born September 21, 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships. Famously reclusive, having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique, he is extremely well-regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.

Musically, Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1967 album, Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music. In the 1970s, his material encompassed pop, cabaret and world music. Since the 1980s, his high baritone voice has evolved into lower registers (bass baritone and bass), with accompaniment from a wide variety of instruments and female backup singers.

Over 2,000 renditions of Cohen's songs have been recorded. Cohen has been inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."

Todays Dump: Computer Composer Indistinguishable From A Human

Here are two of it's creations.

Emily Howell 1

Emily Howell 2

The software is called Emily Howell and was created by UC Santa Cruz professor David Cope. Check out Triumph Of The Cyborg Composer.

Todays Tune: Louis Armstrong - We Have All The Time In The World

Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers. With his distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or vocalizing using syllables instead of actual lyrics.

Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and deep, instantly recognizable voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general.

Todays Tune: DJ Vadim - Oneself

DJ Vadim (aka Vadim Peare) is a prolific DJ and producer, born in Leningrad, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), raised in London and currently residing in both New York and Port-au-Prince, Haiti,[citation needed] whose music combines hip hop, soul, reggae and electronica. He has been described as "one of the few artists creating genuinely new work in the Hip-Hop field" and an artist who "cannot be ignored".

Todays Tune: Omni Trio - Renegade Snares

Rob Haigh, also known as Omni Trio, is a British electronic, ambient and experimental musician.

In the early eighties he released a series of experimental ambient albums under the names Robert Haigh and Sema - the most notable being ‘Three Seasons Only’ and ‘Notes From Underground’. He also contributed to several Nurse with Wound projects and formed an industrial avant funk band called The Truth Club together with Trefor Goronwy, who would go on to join This Heat, Camberwell Now and become involved with music in the former Soviet Union..

In the nineties Rob developed a unique style of what has become known as ‘ambient Drum and Bass’ and released six acclaimed albums under the name Omni Trio. The Omni Trio sound is notable for its intricate orchestrated production and atmospheric sound palette. Omni Trio was one of the original drum and bass producers, who first released for Moving Shadow as early as 1993. He produced several massive anthems in the period now known as "old skool", including the piano-led "Renegade Snares", "Thru the Vibe", "Feel Good" and the classic "Mainline". Both these featured on his first LP, The Deepest Cut (1995), which is recognised as one of the first jungle albums.

He followed up quickly with Haunted Science in 1996, which included well known tracks like "Trippin' on Broken Beats" and "Nu Birth of Cool". Mainstream trends in dancefloor-oriented drum and bass rapidly diverged from his musical style, and subsequent albums Skeleton Keys (1997), the Detroit techno-influenced Byte Size Life (1999), and Even Angels Cast Shadows (2001) produced no big hits on the scale of his early singles, but they further cemented his reputation as one of the finest album-oriented musicians in drum and bass. Indeed, he was the first artist in the genre to produce six full-length artist albums. The track First Contact made it on the GTA III's MSX FM.

Since 2004 after the release of the sixth and final Omni Trio album ‘Rogue Satellite’, Rob has been working on a solo album of "post Minimalist sonic landscapes" called ‘From the Air’ and is collaborating with experimentalist Hafler Trio.

The Omni Trio song "Renegade Snares" is featured in the video game Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, "First Contact" (off "Even Angels Cast Shadows") is featured in Grand Theft Auto 3.

Todays Tune: Moby - Extreme Ways

Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), better known by his stage name Moby, is an American DJ, singer-songwriter, and musician.

He sings and plays keyboard, guitar, bass guitar and drums. Moby became a successful artist on the ambient electronica scene, and achieved eight top 40 singles in the UK during the 1990s. In 1999 he released the album Play, a mix of melancholic chill-out, ambient music, and upbeat electronica, that was critically acclaimed and produced an impressive eight hit singles (including his most popular songs "Porcelain", "Natural Blues" and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"). Play became a commercial and cultural phenomenon, selling over 10 million copies worldwide(the biggest-selling electronica album ever) and with its eighteen songs receiving an unprecedented licensing in films, television and commercial advertisements.

His follow-up album, 18 (2002) was also successful, receiving positive to mixed response. His next offer, the mostly upbeat Hotel (2005) received lukewarm reviews and poor sales in general. Moby released his most recent albums, Last Night (2008) and Wait for Me (2009), finding good reviews and moderate sales. AllMusic considers Moby "one of the most important dance music figures of the early '90s, helping bring the music to a mainstream audience both in the UK and in America.

Todays Tune: Muffler - Mermaids

DJ Muffler is Konsta Mikkonen, Finnish born drum and bass DJ and producer, who currently also lives in London and Tallinn. He has released approximately 50 vinyl releases, two CD albums and made DJ mixes for various magazine cover CDs, including Knowledge in 2004 which consisted exclusively of his own music.

Muffler is one of the few artists who has recorded for almost all known high profile drum and bass labels such as Moving Shadow, Hospital Records, DSCI4, Formation Records, Commercial Suicide, Frequency Records, Outbreak Records, Urban Takeover, Trouble On Vinyl and recently on his own SighCo Recordings.

Other artist names used in the past are Konsta, Constant, Unknown Soldier, Axis Of Evil and Alloy.

Todays Tune/Dump: Hatten är din!

Does anyone remember this? Is one of the first internet memes I remember...

I think the language is Swedish - someone please correct me if i'm wrong.

Update: I think the song is in Arabic - subtitles are Swedish.

Todays Dump: Karl Pilkington's girlfriend Suzanne... (for real this time?)

Is this Suzanne???

Todays Dump: Dust-Me Selectors

I have just stumble across this great plugin for firefox: http://www.sitepoint.com/dustmeselectors/

It finds all the unused css styles on a page you are visiting - useful for developers wanting to strip out any old ones that got removed and forgotten about.

Todays Tune: RSD - Naked Mario Kart

RSD (three capitals) is the alias of Rob Smith under which he releases dubstep records. Rob Smith is a dub producer from Bristol with critical acclaim. He has released music as (a.o.) Smith & Mighty, More Rockers, blue & red and RsD.

Todays Tune: Burial & Four Tet - Moth

Burial (born William Bevan) is a musician located in London who produces electronic music containing elements of dubstep, 2-step garage, and house music. His eponymous debut album was released in 2006 to critical acclaim. The Wire magazine named it their album of the year, along with achieving fifth place in the Mixmag 2006 Album of the Year list, and eighteenth in the best of the year list of The Observer Music Monthly supplement. Burial's second album, Untrue, was also released to critical acclaim and was the second-highest rated album of 2007, according to the review-collating website, Metacritic.

Kieran Hebden (born 1977 in Putney, London, England, United Kingdom) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet.

Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favour of a more abstract approach—his sound and melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation.

Alongside recording his own material, Hebden has also performed remixes for a number of artists including Aphex Twin, Anti-Pop Consortium, Bonobo, Beth Orton, Explosions in the Sky, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers, Matthew Dear, Sia, Nathan Fake, Bloc Party, Andrew Bird, Kings of Convenience, Battles, Madvillain, and Black Sabbath. Hebden's recent output includes a number of improvisational works with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid, and a collaboration with Burial.

Todays Tune: Buju Banton - Hills & Valleys

Buju Banton (born Mark Anthony Myrie, 1973, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican dancehall, ragga, & reggae musician. They has also recorded Pop & Dance songs, as well as songs dealing with political topics. Banton is politically outspoken & influenced by Marcus Garvey.

Todays Tune: Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss", is an American singer-songwriter. They records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock infused with pop hooks, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.

Springsteen's recordings have tended to alternate between commercially obtainable rock albums and somber folk-oriented works. Much of his status stems from the concerts and marathon shows in which they and the E Street Band perform intense ballads, rousing anthems, and party rock and roll songs, amongst which they intersperses whimsical or deeply emotional stories.

His most successful studio albums, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., epitomize his penchant for finding grandeur in the struggles of every day life in The united states, and the latter album made him one of the most recognized artists of the 1980s within the United States. Because of his support for the presidential campaigns of Senator John Kerry and President Barack Obama, Springsteen has gradually become identified with liberal politics. They is also noted for his support of various relief and rebuilding efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, and for his response to the September 11 attacks, on which his album The Rising reflects.

They has earned numerous awards for his work, including twenty Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes and an Academy Award, and continues to have a strong global fan base. They has sold over 65 million albums in the United States and 120 million worldwide. They was a 2009 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.

Todays Tune: DTH - Guns Of Brixton

An interesting cover of The Clash song - Guns Of Brixton from German band Die Toten Hosen.

Die Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.

The band's name literally means "The Dead Trousers" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring". Their name is figuratively best translated as "The Deadbeats".

Todays Tune: Bob Dylan - Mr Tambourine Man

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, painter and poet. They has been a major figure in popular music for two decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when they was at first an informal chronicler, and later an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of his songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His early lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social and philosophical, as well as literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres, exploring numerous distinct traditions in American song – from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll and rockabilly, to English, Scottish and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

Dylan performs with guitar, piano and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, they has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally thought about to be his songwriting.

They has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Awards; they has been inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008 a Bob Dylan Pathway was opened in the singer's honor in his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for what they called his profound impact on popular music and American culture, "marked by lyrical compositions of odd poetic power."

Dylan released his most recent studio album, Christmas in the Heart, on October 13, 2009. It comprised traditional Christmas songs, including "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". All Dylan's royalties from the sale of this album will benefit the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme.

Todays Dump: Youtube Disco

Youtube recently released http://www.youtube.com/disco. It is a music discoverery application that creates an appropriate playlist based on a song title or artist name. It actually works pretty well in my opinion.

Todays Dump: 10 YouTube URL Tricks

1. View high quality videos
Youtube gives you the option to switch to high quality videos for some of the videos, however you can check if a video is available in high quality format by appending ‘&fmt=18′(stereo, 480 x 270 resolution) or ‘&fmt=22′(stereo, 1280 x 720 resolution) for even higher quality.

2. Embed Higher Quality Videos
While the above trick works for playback, if however you want to embed hig quality videos you need to append “&ap=%2526fmt%3D18″ and “&ap=%2526fmt%3D22″ to the embed url.

3. Cut the chase and link to the interesting part - [ most useful in my opinion ]
Linking to a video where the real action starts at 3 minutes 22 seconds, wondered if you could make it start at 03:22? You are in luck. All you have to do is add #t=03m22s (#t=XXmYYs for XX mins and YY seconds) to the end of the URL.

4. Hide the search box
The search box appears when you hover over an embedded video. To hide the search box add ‘&showsearch=0′ to the embed url.

5. Embed only a part of Video
Just append ‘&start=30′ to skip first 30s of the video. In general you can modify the value after start= to the number of seconds you want to skip the video for.

6. Autoplay an embedded video
Normally when you embed a Youtube video and load the page, the player is loaded and it sits there waiting for you to hit the play button. You can make the video play automatically by adding ‘&autoplay=1′ to the url part of the embed code.

7. Loop an embedded video
Append ‘&loop=1′ to make the vdeo start again without user intervention after it reaches the end.

8. Disable Related Videos
Publishing your content in the form of Youtube video? Don’t want people to see other people’s content that may be related but may as well be in competition to you? Just add ‘&rel=0′ to the end of the url part of the embed code and you just turned off the related video suggestions!

9. Bypass Youtube Regional Filtering
Some videos are only available in certain parts of the world. Your IP Address is used to determine your location and then allow or deny access to the video. Change the url from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= to http://www.youtube.com/v/ - [ this trick no longer works - instead enter the url into google translate and use it as a proxy ]

10. Download Video
Although not inherently a youtube trick but useful all the same for downloading videos. Just change youtube to kickyoutube in the url of the video and it will take you to kickyoutube.com with all the options for downloading the video you were watching.

Todays Tune: The Clash - Guns Of Brixton

The Clash were an English rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk rock. Along with punk, they experimented with reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance & rockabilly. For most of their recording career, The Clash consisted of Joe Strummer (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Mick Jones (lead guitar, vocals), Paul Simonon (bass, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals) & Nicky "Topper" Headon (drums, percussion). Headon left the group in 1982, & internal friction led to Jones's departure the following year. The group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986.

The Clash were a major success in the UK from the release of their debut album, The Clash, in 1977. Their third album, London Calling, released in the UK in December 1979, brought them popularity in the United States when it came out there the following month. Critically acclaimed, it was declared the best album of the 1980s a decade later by Rolling Stone magazine.

The Clash's politicised lyrics, musical experimentation & rebellious attitude had a far-reaching influence on rock, alternative rock in particular. They became widely called "The Only Band That Matters", originally a promotional slogan introduced by the group's record label, CBS. In January 2003 the band—including original drummer Terry Chimes—were inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash number 30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Todays Tune: The Pogues - Rainy Night In Soho

The Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996. The band performed together again in 2001, though they have yet to record any new music on a major album.

Their politically-tinged music was influenced by The Clash, yet used traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, banjo, cittern, mandolin, accordion, and others. In the later incarnations of the band, after the departure of Shane MacGowan, rock instruments such as the electric guitar would become more prominent. The first of The Pogues' albums, Red Roses for Me, borrows much from the punk tradition of MacGowan's previous band The Nipple Erectors (later dubbed "The Nips").

The Pogues were founded in King's Cross, a district of North London, in 1982 as Pogue Mahone—pogue mahone being the Anglicisation of the Gaelic póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse".

Todays Dump: Human Biological Clock

Just about to start my Melatonin secretion.

Todays Dump: The Virtual Piano

The Virtual Piano is a website I have recently discovered and it's amazing fun. Just select a key and try out different chord sequences. It's a great help for ideas when trying to come up with a new tune.

Todays Dump: Andes Teletransporter

The greatest invention of the 21st century?

Todays Tune: Fanta 4 - Sie Ist Weg

Die Fantastischen Vier, also known as Fanta 4, is a German hip hop group from Stuttgart. The members are Michael Bernd Schmidt alias Smudo, Andreas Rieke alias &.Ypsilon, Thomas Dürr alias Hausmeister (caretaker) Thomas D & Michael 'Michi' Beck alias Dee Jot Hausmarke. They were among the first groups to rap in the German language.

"Sie ist Weg" means "She is gone."

Todays Tune: Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street

Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack (born March 4, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where they started his career as the lead singer of his relatives musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned over 40 years and has spanned a repertoire in the styles of R&B, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, gospel, and country.

As a songwriter, Womack is notable for penning and originally recording The Rolling Stones' first UK No. 1 hit, "It's All Over Now" and New Birth's "I Can Understand It" among other songs. As a singer they is most notable for the hits "Lookin' For a Love", "That's The Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It", "Harry Hippie","Across 110th Street" and his 1980s hit "If You Think You are Lonely Now".

In the year 2009 Womack was inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Todays Tune: Minnie Riperton - Inside My Love

Minnie Julia Riperton (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter best known for her vocal range of over four octaves and her 1975 single "Lovin' You". She was married to songwriter and music producer Richard Rudolph (1968 until her death in 1979). She was also the sister of music engineer Marc Rudolph and actress/comedienne Maya Rudolph.

Riperton grew up in poverty on Chicago's southside. As a kid Riperton studied music, drama, and dance at Chicago's Lincoln Center. In her teen years, Riperton sang lead vocals for the Chicago-based girl group, The Gems. Her early affiliation with legendary Chess Records afforded her the chance to sing backup for various established artist such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Ramsey Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Muddy Waters. While at Chess, Riperton also sang lead for the experimental rock/soul group Rotary Connection, from 1967 to 1971. In 1969 Riperton, along with Rotary Connection, played in the first Catholic Rock Mass at the Liturgical Conference National Convention, Milwaukee Arena, Milwaukee, WI. produced by James F. Colaianni. Riperton reached the apex of her short, but esteemed, career with her number-one hit single, "Lovin' You", on April 4, 1975. The single was the last release from her 1974 gold album entitled Perfect Angel.

In 1976 Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a modified radical mastectomy. Though he was given 6 months to live, she continued recording and touring, and in 1977 she became spokesperson for the American Cancer Society. Riperton was one of the first celebrities to go public with her breast cancer diagnosis, but did not disclose that she was terminally ill. In 1978, Riperton also received the prestigious Society's Bravery Award presented to her at the White House by then-President Jimmy Carter. She died at age 31 on July 12, 1979.

Money For The Haiti Earthquake Appeal

Abandoned at $0.01 as it really wasn't working as quickly as i'd hoped...

Todays Dump: What Language Are Popular Sites Written In?

I thought i'd try and compile a list of various popular sites and the languages/API's that hold them together:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FACEBOOK

Most of what is presented to the user is written in PHP/MySQL.

TWITTER

Written originally in Ruby On Rails. They switched to Scala for some of the backend once traffic levels rocketed and the badly written Rails code couldn't be efficiently scaled.

DIGG

Written entirely using PHP/MySQL .

YOUTUBE

Youtubes server-side is written in Python.

FLICKR

PHP

WIKIPEDIA

PHP

WORDPRESS

PHP

EBAY

The engine is written in C++ and Java.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If anyone knows anything else that I should add/correct please comment.

Todays Tune: Brenda Lee - Always On My Mind

"Always on My Mind" is an American country music song by Mark James, Johnny Christopher, and Wayne Carson Thompson originally recorded by Brenda Lee.

Other version have been recorded, most notably by Elvis and Willie Nelson.

Todays Tune: College Humor - I've Got A Feeling

A great parody by college humor of the Black Eyed Peas song "I've Got A Feeling".

Todays Dump: How Bands You've Never Heard Of Are Making Money On iTunes

How is that possible?

A band you have never heard of -- AC/DC cover band AC/db -- made over $32,000 from music sales in November.

Under the elderly business model of music sales on physical media, it would not be. For a band to finish up with that much funds in its pockets after the distributor and record label had taken their cuts, its music would must have posted garish, unmissable sales numbers.

AC/db, on the other hand, had to do around $45,000 in sales at the iTunes store. After Apple took its 30 cents on the dollar, that left $32,000, of which the band's distributor -- TuneCore -- took nothing at all.

TuneCore is six of a few digital distributors that have turned the music business model on its head, treating distribution as a service. The company charges an up front fee to system recordings and upload them to music stores like iTunes -- which won't deal with individual artists. The band retains all rights to its music and keeps all the revenue past what the stores keep.

This model is obviously appealing to musicians. CEO Jeff Price says TuneCore, a startup with a mere $7 million in venture funding to date, distributes more music for sale than any company in the world -- and by a wide margin. In 2009, TuneCore processed and uploaded over a song per second; its iTunes sales were nice for $32 million after Apple took its cut.

That doesn't seem like a giant sum in the context of a $10 billion industry. But as most of TuneCore's customers are unsigned ("whatever that even means anymore," Price says), that is mostly going straight to musicians; in that context, $32 million is serious funds.

And it is not music -- TuneCore put a collection of Halloween-themed sound effects on iTunes, which sold for around $20,000 in November.

The barriers to entry are low -- TuneCore charges around $10 for a single, $40 for an album, much in line with its main competitor, ReverbNation -- so somebody can record anything and offer it to the masses on a whim. And if they happen to catch a viral wave, they can finish up making a decent living.

Todays Dump: Incredible Tool - Drawter

I just found an incredible site Drawter. It allows you to draw all kinds of html tags out on a WYSIWYG basis and then generate the html/css code.

I'm definately going to have to try this out on some future designs.

Todays Tune: Dire Straits - Walk Of Life

"Walk of Life" is a 1985 song by the British rock band Dire Straits. It appeared on their best-selling album Brothers in Arms. It subsequently appeared on their live album On the Night. It was released as a single in 1986 but had first been available as the b-side of "So Far Away" released in advance of Brothers in Arms. The track peaked at number 7 in the US charts & was their biggest commercial hit in the UK, peaking at number 2.

The music video for the song shown in the UK video features a busker or street musician wearing the same shirt as Mark Knopfler intercut with the band performing on a stage, while the U.S. features sports bloopers intercut with footage of the band performing the song on a stage.

A simple rock 'n' roll rhythm is used, with chord changes limited to I, IV & V chords. The long introduction has became iconic in some circles, with an instantly recognisable melody played on a synthesiser organ patch. The singer mentioned in the lyrics is said to perform "down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay," a reference to busking in the subway. The songs he plays are oldies, including "I Got a Woman", "Be-Bop-A-Lula", "What'd I Say", "Mack the Knife" & the "Talking Blues".

Live performances of the song have often been concluded with an elaborate pedal steel solo by guest performer Paul Franklin.[1]

"Walk of Life" was the song played during the Space Shuttle Discovery crew wake-up call on STS-114 Flight Day 7.

The walk of life was also the name of the charity walk from London to Khartoum 1985-1986, to raise funds for famine relief led by John Abbey. The band donated Brothers in Arms Gold disc in recognition & support of the expedition.

The introduction to the song was also used for a time as the theme music for Check Match Special cricket in the United Kingdom.

When the song was originally released, the band explained that a "walk of life" in the context of this song is a traditional journey taken by a storyteller in the countryside, in which he went from town to town telling stories, in the days before radio, tv, & recording.

How To Be Like Jason Bourne

To become Jason Bourne you will need to:

- Learn how to speak every major language - French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic.

- Learn how to create false identities.

- Learn how to fight and be extremely fit.

- Learn how to drive.

- Learn how to treat your injuries.

Learning to speak every major language

To learn a language requires regular exposure and practice. There are various online resources to help learn languages. The best free ones are:

• Internet Polyglot
• Word2Word
• My Language Exchange

You can also visit foreign chatrooms for practice.

Learning how to create false identities

If you need a quick fake identity you can visit The Fake Name Generator. However, if you want to do it properly you will need to try a bit harder.

For more info read this post: How To Be Jason Bourne

Learn how to fight and be extremely fit

I have collected here the best instructional videos on youtube.



Learn how to drive

I have collected here the best instructional videos on youtube. The only real way to learn is to find some disused land / a carpark and practice.







Learn how to treat your injuries

Instructional videos on things such as treating bullet wounds, and stitching cuts together:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-treat-a-bullet-wound-at-home-77608/

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-suture-a-wound-194156/

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-set-a-dislocated-shoulder-194155/

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-perform-a-phlebotomy-procedure-259215/

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-begin-a-subcuticular-or-intradermal-suture-259841/

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-administer-a-subcutaneous-injection-195379/

Todays Tune: Supertramp - Logical Song

"The Logical Song" is a hit single on Supertramp's 1979 album Breakfast in America and is written & sung by band member Roger Hodgson. It is one of the band's most recognised songs.

Todays Dump: Difference Between Mac & Windows Users

Todays Tune: Chet Atkins - The Entertainer (Scott Joplin)

Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), better known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist & record producer who created, along with Owen Bradley, the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.

His picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes & Les Paul, brought him admirers within & outside the country scene, both in the United States & internationally. Atkins produced records for Perry Como, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Connie Smith, Waylon Jennings & others.

Among lots of honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, & was inducted in to the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

Todays Dump: Simple FM Radio Jammer

Today I found an article explaining how to make a simple FM radio jammer. All it is is a 100Mhz crystal oscillator with an antenna stuck on it. 100Mhz oscillators are rare, but you can find them on old circuit boards. For example, I found one on an old 486DX4-100 motherboard. You hook up the power as shown, and stick on an antenna made from a thin piece of wire. The antenna should be about 80cm long.

This can silence a radio for a surprisingly good distance, and through thick walls. The interesting thing is that although it is supposed to be a crystal accurate to 100.000 Mhz it can blank out the entire FM band!

Btw this is illegal to do so don't do it. I didn't.

Todays Dump: Karl Pilkington's girlfriend Suzanne?

Is the blonde in this picture Karl Pilkington's girlfriend Suzanne?

Todays Dump: Misa Digital Guitar

A presentation of the new Misa Guitar running Kernel 2.6.31.

For more info on the Misa Guitar visit the official site: http://www.misadigital.com/

Todays Dump: Get Backlinks With Squidoo

Squidoo.com is a great place to get links back to your site. Type the following into a Google search:

"add+to+this+list"+site:squidoo.com

You will be presented with a huge list of Squidoo lenses where you can add your site, with custom anchor text. Many of these have very high PageRank as well!

For extra credit, append +"keyword phrase" onto the end of this query, and you can target your links for relevance. For example, if you were trying to rank an 'SEO' site you could type:

"add+to+this+list"+"SEO"+site:squidoo.com (click this to see the results in google, will open in new window)

Todays Tune: Doctor P - Sweet Shop

Todays Dump: Alt Characters

To obtain an ALT Character:

1) Make sure Num-Lock is on to activate the numeric pad.
2) Hold Alt.
3) Press the number on the numeric pad corresponding to the codes in the table below.
4) Release.

Todays Tune: Artful Dodger ft. Michelle E - Think About Me

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I will use this as a dump for various thoughts and findings.