YouTube embedding in self-hosted WordPress blog

Posted by jerry on March 20th, 2007 — Posted in Journal

This is a test embedding a YouTube file in a post 🙂

And it works!

Okay here’s how – noting that this is a WordPress.org blog, not wordpress.com (ie self-hosted wordpress blog) you go to ‘Users’ in the main menu, then scroll down to uncheck the “Use the visual rich editor when writing” box and then copy and paste the ’embed’ code from the YouTube video and hit save. And that’s it – no plugins needed 🙂

Cheers
Jerry

Museum of Lost Interactions

Posted by jerry on March 20th, 2007 — Posted in History, Journal, New media, Technology

What a gem! Sharon came across a wonderfully quirky site dealing with pre-digital technologies that addressed the communicative and interactive needs of today. So they were technologies ‘before their time’.

Mindtracks

The Museum of Lost Interactions showcases real devices from times past – up to 1970 – that gave people portable wireless communication with a telegraphic PDA using Morse code through to portable video players that filled a need currently occupied by the new iPods and 3G phones. The multi-track recording device for studio remixing – onto wax cylinders was quite a highlight!. It’s a fascinating site that in some cases reinforces the notion that it can take time for society to catch up with an emerging technology and find uses in daily life – or perhaps it’s the other way around? Equally, sometimes the social need is there, but the technology needed to make it a social phenomenon has yet to be developed. So this museum showcases some interesting dead-ends in the tree of technology innovation.

Cheers
Jerry

Eve’s bike (Honda CT110) on the road again

Posted by jerry on March 19th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Motorcycling

Well I got a bit distracted by St Paddy’s day preparations and fitting the topcase to my own bike, but Eve’s bike fired up today and settled quickly into a steady purr.

Honda CT110

What else needed to be done? When I assembled it I aligned the top-dead-centre mark on the crankshaft with the cams leaving the valve tappets just loose enough to move, tightened down all the bolts to the right torque and tried the engine movement without a spark plug and noticed a tight spot and a metallic ticking sound. hmm. Could the valve timing be out? Yup – it could. You see, when I assembled it it was getting dark and what I thought was the dot on the cam sprocket turned out to be a speck of oil.

Honda CT110

Today I came at it with a fresh eye and it is the work of only about half an hour to undo the two bolts retaining the cam sprocket and identifying the real dot (actually an engraved small circle) and with the sprocket loose, I was able to flip the cam chain over a few links until the dot was in exactly the right place – aligned with the V mark on the head. It was a quick matter then to replace the relevant covers, give the engine a kick over to hear nothing but smoothly interacting machinery, then change the oil, replace the spark plug, and with two kicks the engine purred into life with a nice quiet smooth new-engine sound. Success!

Honda CT110

A few revs and it was apparent that the cam chain was making a little bit of noise, so I adjusted the tension bolt and the engine became even quieter.

First test ride was down to the local service station for fresh fuel and tyre pressure check, and despite the welcome rain the bike performed very well.

And the beauty of it is that it no longer blows smoke, and it has real pulling power. Not bad for my first ever piston change – and it cost only the new piston, rings, gaskets and cylinder machining – you certainly can save a lot by doing it yourself!

Cheers
Jerry

Tunes from Full Circle

Posted by jerry on March 19th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music

Well, I promised some audio from St Patrick’s Day – and some audio of the newly repaired violin, so it seems a good idea to combine the two 🙂

Full Circle at Filthy McFadden's

The first tune is Ashokan Farewell, written in 1986 by Jay Ungger, about the town of Ashoka – and farewell to the town as it disappeared beneath the artificial lake created by a dam – in much the same way that part of old Canberra was submerged to make way for the artificial lake. So I guess that makes Canberra and Ashoka sister cities. It’s a lovely tune. [NB: It was recorded at a high level – so you may wish to turn down the volume on your computer first] 😉

The second tune is a kind of ‘wall-of-death’ version of a reel called Tongadale (not to be confused with a small Pacific Islands nation). As St Patrick’s Day gathered momentum, so did our music, culminating in a somewhat blistering pace that just seemed to get faster as the night went on 🙂

I hope you all had a great St Patrick’s day!

Cheers
Jerry

St Patrick’s Day – Full Circle Band

Posted by jerry on March 18th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music

And what a glorious St Pat’s it was too! Both shows were packed out and the energy was high 🙂

At PJ O’Reilly’s in Civic (Canberra, Australia) we started at 1.pm sharp with a set of reels – Paddy Fahey’s Number 1 and Gravel Walk (well… sprint actually!) and that set the tone for the session.

At one point a troupe of Irish dancers invaded and called for a couple or reels – the dance schools usually use CDs so they welcome the opportunity to dance to live musicians – and we were quick to oblige.

We did a bunch of old favourites, like Black Velvet Band and New York Girls, threw in a few slip jigs and double jigs and generally had a great time. Then it was time for a quick pack up (ie hurl everything into Jerry’s van) and drive to Kingston to set up at Filthy McFadden’s where we played from 5.00pm-8.30pm.
Full Circle live at PJ O’Reilly’s

Full Circle at PJ OReilly's

Full Circle at PJ OReilly's
…not bad bowing technique!

Full Circle at PJ OReilly's
Hmm – those mic stand drink holders are handy!

Full Circle live at Filthy McFadden’s

There was little time for a sound check, but the sound was quickly sorted – and it got better by the end of the first bracket. The audience were great calling out requests, getting up and dancing and having a great time. At the end of the evening we were called back for several encores and throughout the show there were queues outside waiting to get in – the place was at capacity crowd. Our energy was high and the pace quite blistering 🙂

Full Circle at Filthy McFadden's

Full Circle at Filthy McFadden's

Some said Jerry played fiddle like the Devil himself! This photo was taken mid-leap!
Full Circle at Filthy McFadden's

The Ashokan Farewell went over in classic style – an Army bloke came up after and said he had tears in his eyes…

At the end we were exhausted but bouyed up by the energy – and relaxed with our first pint of Guinness at the end of the night – with two shows we have to be disciplined and stick to low-alcohol beer otherwise our fingers fall off and that gets messy 😉

Happy St Patrick’s Day to you all – may the road rise up to meet you and the wind be ever at your back!

Cheers
Jerry