My good Myspace buddy Tom just posted a global message to bands assuring us that our players would recommence automatic playing asap once a bug has been ironed out. Great, I thought, my chance to share some thoughts on the mattter:

hi tom its good that the player doesn't play automatically as this can be irritating. i normally stop it immediately on most pages it may not sit well with people who just want to increase their plays counter. but i think real people prefer to choose whether they listen to the music, why not leave the choice with the user? hope this feedback helps cheers rich

I get fed up hearing really bad music again and again on myspace, even 3 or 4 seconds of it as I scramble to stop the player. If someone has recommended I listen, of course I'll hear 'em out, but if i'm there for another reason then I'd like to choose when I listen. Anyway, dear old buddy old friend Tom aint interested in my feedback... I can't comment him, or send him a message as he's disabled these functions on his profile. I guess when you have 207617155 and counting friends it all becomes a wee bit overwhelming.

yes, its official - i am now an Apple fan-boy as evidenced by the completely unnecessary purchase of this beautiful keyboard! it truly is a work of art and a dream to use. it even smells good! all i need now is a black turtle-neck...

Another inspirational post from the good peeps at Trizle about happiness... Basically, the more you think you're changing the world, the more real happiness you'll have, and apparently thats been proven by the London School of Economics!? I totally agree. At Club-IT, when we feverishly set about improving the nation's computer skills (and therefore their general employment prospects) by implementing the Home Computing Initiative, we worked with the passion and belief of religious zealots. We truly believed that we were helping to change peoples lives. The level of creativity and innovation was intoxicating. We all worked so hard, designed and built systems, wrote and designed stuff, developed the product and service to be the most effective platform to deliver computers to the masses. When Gordon Brown and his buddies in the Treasury pulled the plug on HCI, it was a cruel blow. Three years of endeavor and learning and achievement, just tasting the first sip of success, not to mention millions of investment across the fledgling industry, all wiped out in one paragraph in the 2006 budget. It was a disgusting slap in the face by a treacherous Government, and in light of the 07 pre-budget statement, it was only the precursor to further anti-commerce measures and political treachery. However that's a different post! In spite of my complete loss of faith and trust in our Government, I haven't lost faith in my own ability to help change the world. Through music and web apps I and my buddies can make the world a better place, and those projects give me a renewed zeal for making meaning, and not just a profit.

NIMIC have announced a seminar on 'Making a living in the Live Music Sector' to be held at Belfast's Spring and Airbrake on November 7th. With Feargal Sharkey and Paul Clegg among other, it should be interesting an entertaining, but will it impart the secret ingredients needed for bands here to get sustainable on the touring front?

Its not surprising that Universal have announced the release of some upcoming singles on USB memory sticks, or that its been done before. Its just funny cos I've been investigating an idea for distribution of escape act's music using a cheap alternative to the CD. The USB memory stick just doesn't fit the bill however. For small time operator like me, its too expensive, as it can't be bought with a low enough capacity to make sense, and creating a reusable drive is teeming with pitfalls. This is still a digital file we're buying here. As a punter, why would i pay the £5 proposed by Universal for something i can get for a fraction of that cost, or for nothing, online? Even with a bunch of extra multimedia content and the storage itself there's no real added value in the memory stick itself, at least after the first purchase, and even so, do they expect customers to reuse it? When i plug it into my PC will it take over and install some crap I don't want? Will it even work on my Mac? If I already have a memory stick can I just walk into the shop and load it up? Or what, in this carbon conscious world, should I just throw it away?!? Sounds like a lot of hassle to me. If i'm going to the bother of going to a shop to buy a single, i want my CD and my artwork! If i want it on my iPod, i can rip it if I want to! It will be interesting to see how successful this experiment is, and if people are open to receiving music in other forms however this smells like the mangled interpretation of focus group feedback (with a little Apple-avoidance thrown in for good measure). Universal have deep enough pockets to try it out though.

this recipe was arrived upon when i was trying to get rid of various vegetables a few weeks ago prior to a few days away from the kitchen. i liked it so much i decided to make it as a starter for my folks' wedding anniversary dinner. at this point i changed it slightly again due to availability of veg, and made it taste better. all my best meals are accidents...

1. warm some butter in a pan, then fill the kettle and put it on
2. add half an onion and one leek, both finely chopped, plus a couple of bay leaves
3. allow these to sweat for 5 minutes without colouring too much, stir occasionally
4. chop the following into bite size pieces: 2 small sweet potatoes, 2 medium carrots, 1 parsnip
5. add the vegetables to the pan, and stir in for a couple of minutes
6. crush 2 cloves of garlic into the pan, and stir in for a minute
7. finely slice 2 or 3 sun dried tomatoes and add to the pan
8. season, then crumble two chicken stock cubes into the pan and then add about 2 pints of water and stir well
9. add about two tablespoons of red lentils
10. bring everything to a fast simmer, then reduce to a bubble for about 30-40 mins. check the seasoning after about 20 minutes and adjust if necessary. don't cook it too fast or long.

at this point the broth should have taken on a nice red hue and the veg will still be intact. i served it straight to the bowl like this with a sprig of parsley and it looked and tasted great. a real homely autumn sort of vibe. if/when i make this again i'll take a picture... the first time i made this soup i used butternut squash instead of sweet potato. the squah turned to mush and i blended the soup when it was cooked. i think the new version was much nicer and more direct in its flavour.

A cruel blow for mycophobics everywhere... BBC reports that scientists are developing ways of replacing all the good stuff in our food (fat) with mushroom extract. "One particularly promising avenue is the mushroom. It produces hydrophobins, air cells which protect the fungus from water, but which appear to have the same material properties as oil. And yet they have no calories. Because there are no legal constraints around using mushroom extract in food - it is already widely available - this is an ingredient which could be "applied across the whole board very soon", said Professor Ian Norton."

The headline above is stolen/paraphrased from Fiona Bruce, she just couldn't help herself, and neither could I! Poor old Menzies has fallen on his sword. Really tho, its sad to see the LibDems following the Tory example and eating themselves in public. The recent speculation about Menzies' position was reminiscent of the whispering campaigns that brought down recent Tory leaders. Do politicians not realise how little we trust them, without tarnishing their image further with these relentless briefings, accidentally on purpose comments and general underhandedness? It is a shame to see Menzies go, but hopefully he can return with some dignity to the elder statesman role he played so well before he assumed the leadership.

Lots of people are talking about where to locate, with the metropolises of SF and London being favoured over more remote locations. Ryan at Carsonified makes a good case for staying-put in Bath, while Marc Andreessen also speculates about location in his excellent series on how to plan your career- 'go where the action is'. Mike Butcher also joins the debate lambasting those VCs who are blinkered when it comes to funding businesses that don't cut the geographic mustard. It does make sense that the concentration of money, resources and good people will be higher in larger cities, but I think there's a case to be made for staying local, keeping the money in your own economy and building your business on that basis. If you want to go and join the crowd, go for it! Otherwise build your business around how you want to live your life. If people won't invest in your because of where you live, then they aren't the right people for you anyway. I'd rather see a vibrant, productive community developed right here in Belfast rather than watch talent and ideas drain away. This sentiment was only reinforced when Kelvin MacKenzie (former Editor of The Sun) came on the Nolan show this morning accusing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland of draining the 'profit' out of the south east of England. According to 'statistics' that economy generates enough wealth to keep the rest of us going. Now I know there are lots of issues at play here, but if they want to cut us loose and keep all that hard-earned cash for themselves, then perhaps they should move a few oil refineries, steel works and other heavy industries to Kent and the home counties, just to keep the balance right.