web analytics

Macbook Pro surgery, self-help style.

Posted by rayui on July 18, 2011 2 comments

So… in the process of installing a larger hard disk drive in my father’s Macbook Pro I accidentally split the frame surrounding the screen. God knows how, I was dead careful and didn’t hear it go at all. Anyway, after the initial horror, blame, counter-blame and acceptance session, it was time to come up with a viable solution to patch the thing back together. Taking inspiration from a technique outlined in Robert Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, I went on the hunt for likely sources of aluminium with which to patch the damaged frame back together. Pirsig recommends beer cans; I found a can of Coca Cola in the garage which would perform the job just as well. A further short hunt around the tool boxes turned up some Araldite metal cement… my tools were now in hand. What follows is a short photo documentary of the process of the true art of engineering – making broken things work again. The final result, as you will see, is not at all bad.

My work was aided invaluably by these instructions from iFixIt, a brilliant general hacker resource.

Macbook Pro in pieces

Macbook Pro in pieces


Coke can shim in front of split Macbook LCD panel

Coke can shim in front of split Macbook LCD panel


Coke can shim applied to Macbook LCD panel

Coke can shim applied to Macbook LCD panel


Macbook Pro happily back together post surgery. The split on the bottom left hand corner of the display is almost invisible.

Macbook Pro happily back together post surgery. The split on the bottom left hand corner of the display is almost invisible.

Is it the Olympics yet?

Posted by rayui on June 21, 2011 None comments

I just put a new website live. Does what it says on the tin, plus lolz.

John Resig Reddit Rage

Posted by rayui on June 14, 2011 None comments
John Resig Reddit Rage

John Resig Reddit Rage

Various new Understudy Inferior archive uploads

Posted by rayui on May 30, 2011 None comments

Over the weekend I was rummaging around in my drawers looking for The Ali G remixes when I came across a disc that I though had been lost to the mists of time. It was an album I recorded in my halls of residence bedroom during my second year at university, in the year 2000.
When I started writing electronic music, I had set myself a challenge to get on the Peel show. This was my third attempt at getting on the air, the previous two being an album length cassette and a CD single which sampled various items of domestic equipment. I addressed a parcel containing the record to John’s daughter, Flossie, at the BBC and enclosed a letter moaning to her about the fact that her Dad never played my stuff. If she listened to it and liked it, would she pass it on to him for me? Well, it seemed to work and subsequently a couple of tracks from “Electrovoyeurism” appeared on the Peel show later that year, joyously sandwiched between end-of-night death metal and drill and bass standards. The first, “I’m Sorry About What You Said Before” was played on 14th November and the second, “What Did You Want Me to Say” was played on 7th December.
Writing this album and getting on Peel seemed like much more achievable goals than a degree I did not really want to do very much at that time. Indeed, that proved to be the case!

You can listen to the record and the excerpt from Peel’s 7th December 2000 BBC Radio One show on Soundcloud.

Resources:
John Peel Torrent Collection 9 of 17 1994-2001
THE JOHN PEEL SHOW Tuesday 14 November 2000
THE JOHN PEEL SHOW Tuesday 5 December 2000

Note that the dates in the recording ad the tracklisting conflict. I’ve not yet been able to find the definitive running orders of the shows in the BBC’s online archives.

World’s First 3d Internet QR Code Clock

Posted by rayui on May 19, 2011 None comments

3D QR Code Clock screenshot

3D QR Code Clock screenshot

A colleague of mine and I at LBi London recently produced the World’s First 3D Internet QR Code clock. It is built with Javascript, WebGL and the canvas element. You can now get all your 3D time needs at the following address: 3dqrclock.com. Epic? Just a little bit!

On the twelfth day of the secondary fermentation process my brew gave unto me…

Posted by rayui on March 31, 2011 8 comments

According to the instructions you should leave Woodforde’s Wherry in secondary fermentation for two weeks before it is ready but I am going to take the advice of many other people I have spoken to and leave it for five. It’s exciting however I am impatient, so I decided to take a tiny sample from the pressure barrel to “check its progress”. Here’s a picture of the sample:

Sample of Woodforde's Wherry 12 days after pressurisation

Sample of Woodforde's Wherry 12 days after pressurisation


As you can see it’s still quite cloudy. The nose is highly floral and as well as having a lively tang I can definitely say it contained alcohol. Sadly, I forgot to measure the density. Sorry!

Viet salad photo sequence

Posted by rayui on March 30, 2011 None comments

Here is a meal I made the other day and decided to photo journal. It’s simple but effective and serves about four. It’s very cheap and quick to make and is therefore a mid-week staple of mine. The basic idea is to get through the following sequence of pictures in about half an hour. The ingredients are:

Herbs:
Coriander, mint

Spices:
Garlic, ginger, chilli, cinnamon, curry leaves

Veg:
3 medium carrots, one medium cucumber, one large spring onion, one iceberg lettuce

Protein:
2 egss, kilo of prawns

Other stuff:
Fish sauce, vegetable oil, toasted sesame oil, basmati rice

Garlic, lime, ginger, mint, coriander, chilli, curry leaves

Garlic, lime, ginger, mint, coriander, chilli, curry leaves


Defrost prawns

Defrost prawns


Chop herbs and spices like this

Chop herbs and spices like this


Mise en place: Put herbs and spices together

Mise en place: Put herbs and spices together


Two eggs, three medium carrots, one medium cucumber

Two eggs, three medium carrots, one medium cucumber


Quarter and core cucumber

Quarter and core cucumber


Whisk eggs, chop carrot and cucumber into fine batons

Whisk eggs, chop carrot and cucumber into fine batons


Heat wok

Heat wok


Large spring onion

Large spring onion. Chop this guy into fine rings.


Place prepared ingredients next to hob

Place prepared ingredients next to hob


Add oil, prepared spices to wok

Add oil, prepared spices to wok. Fry for 3-4 minutes on high heat.


Place prawns in wok

Place prawns in wok. Fry for further 3 minutes, folding


Add coriander

Add coriander


Add generous fish sauce, juice of lime

Add generous fish sauce, juice of lime


Add 1 can coconut milk

Add 1 can coconut milk


Allow to simmer

Allow to simmer


Boil kettle

Boil kettle


Pour basmati rice into boiling water on hob

Pour basmati rice into boiling water on hob


Drain rice

Drain rice after five minutes in boiling water


Place rice on steamer

Place rice on steamer. Fill steamer by pouring fresh boiling water from kettle over rice.


Arrange iceberg lettuce on plates

Arrange iceberg lettuce on plates (yes, I know but it is authentic in East London)


Make omelette with beaten eggs

Make omelette with beaten eggs


Chop omelette into strips

Chop omelette into strips


Pile rice, prawns, spring onion, cucumber, carrot, egg and mint onto lettuce

Pile rice, prawns, spring onion, cucumber, carrot, egg and mint onto lettuce in that order

Serve with an optional garnish of toasted crushed peanut/fresh chopped red chili/drizzle of toasted sesame oil.

Archive material

Posted by rayui on March 24, 2011 None comments

I’ve found some more old recordings, this time from 2002/2003 when Clean Cut were hosting concerts around Bristol and other bits of the UK. Some of these tracks were released by hiding them in racks in Bristol record shops on Park Street. I’d previously considered following two lost in the mists of moving house some years back.

Delta (3) – rescore of Tomas Danko’s “Delta” for C64. Not to be confused with the Rob Hubbard track of the same name, I probably rewrote this using Vaz Modular.

Rotar (live) – this was a live performance of a track I wrote in a session with Boris of rock band Chikinki Asteroth of Float Records. It was probably recorded on line-out from a front of stage desk to a mindisc.

Under Pressure

Posted by rayui on March 24, 2011 None comments

Last Sunday I decided to transfer my first batch of Woodeford’s Wherry to its pressure barrel for secondary fermentation. Here’s a picture of the barrel when I opened it up.

Whoodeford's Wherry after primary fermentation

Whoodeford's Wherry after primary fermentation

The beer smelled really floral and exciting. I took a sample of it into a plastic test tube with my siphon. Here’s a photo of the equipment and the sample:

Beer sample and siphon

A sample of Woodforde's Wherry in a test tube with siphon

I noticed that the bubbles in the sample were no longer rising, so I placed the hydrometer in the beer. It read about 1010 degrees, which is acceptable. I’d rather have it stronger but I was worried about leaving it becoming infected after having breached the airtight seal. Of course, at this point I had a taste. I liked it but couldn’t help thinking that it is weird that having something that has literally just died in your drink could be nice.

Hydrometer in beer sample

This hydrometer reads about 1010 degrees

I decided at this point that as the conditions were good to start secondary fermentation and that it was time to transfer the beer to the pressure barrel. Before I could do that, however, I had first to sterilise the barrel with some more of the powder from the kit.

Sterilising a pressure barrel

Sterilising a pressure barrel

After sterilisation, I washed the barrel thoroughly to remove any trace of the sterilising agent. I am making 40 pints so before adding the beer, I added about 100g of sugar to kick start the secondary fermentation process.

Sugar and pressure barrel

Acquired it from the kitchen

I set the beer on a chair in order to enable a proper siphon action and transferred it into the pressure barrel:

Siphoning into a pressure barrel with pressure cap

Siphoning on top of the bathroom.

I capped it. I had spilt loads of sugar around the cap. It was annoying and I had to clean it off, so next time I will be using a funnel. Then I transported it off to a warm room for a couple off days.

Pressure barrel by a radiator

Here it is in the "brewdoire..."

Finally I put it in the workshop where it’s a bit chillier than the rest of the house.

Pressure barrel in a workshop

Chillin' in the workshop

I’m leaving it there for five weeks. What will probably happen, though, is that I’ll forget about it in a bit. It will be a nice surprise when I find it again. Woohoo!

The Best of Syrian and Lebanese Dabke 2010

Posted by rayui on March 15, 2011 1 comments

Dabke, for those not in the know, is a form of Middle Eastern folk-pop music, usually played on samplers and synthesizers using traditional scales and time signatures. Dabke first came to my attention via the medium of the Sublime Frequencies artist, Omar Souleyman and his album, Highway to Hassake.

Last October and November I made a three week trip to Syria and Lebanon. During my time there I collected about 15 CDs of dabke music, most of which was terrible, but there were a few gems amongst the dross (including a selection of DVDs of mobile phone footage of belly-dancing in somewhat unrepresentative packaging. Promises, promises…! I watched it, anyway). I include in this post the absolute best of what I found, a grand total of seventeen tracks of the highest grade Lebanese and Syrian Dabke. The compilation is a collection of zipped .ogg files, which should play on any open source music player, such as VLC.