Rob's all-purpose Writing Blog

2009-02-12T05:38:00.001Z

Armstrong goes with Astana team's testing - why double up when you don't have to? Will ppl now say it's not independent enuff? http://ping.fm/J4qIY

2009-02-10T22:18:00.001Z

Small sample but US bike dealers report upswing in high end: http://ping.fm/xDIQZ

2009-02-10T21:04:00.001Z

Before Google we loved Altavista. There's little to stop us switching again: http://ping.fm/2j0XR

2009-02-10T03:37:00.001Z

More photoshopping - an ancient cockatoo that's survived the heat: http://ping.fm/QRmSF

2009-02-10T03:33:00.001Z

Doing my photoshopping - here's an orb weaver despatching a bee for lunch: http://ping.fm/skCgp

2009-02-08T21:43:00.001Z

Harvard blog on 'smart' vs 'dumb' growth: http://ping.fm/b9lTf

2009-02-05T23:08:00.001Z

Google and IBM offer to WiFi your medical devices and store data globally: http://ping.fm/j4FVa

2009-02-05T06:01:00.001Z

In denial: UK motoring magazine thinks 30mpg is good enough for a bloated fast 1.5tonne medium/small car: http://ping.fm/cOwvN

2009-02-04T22:04:00.001Z

How about an Indian-built laptop for $20 now, hopefully $20 later? http://ping.fm/XHLm1

2009-02-04T21:57:00.001Z

Google's Latitude maps and tracks your presence: http://ping.fm/OU59D

2009-02-03T23:15:00.001Z

Desperately flakey uptake figures on Blu-ray takeup in Oz, 80% of which are actually PS3 sales: http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-life/home-entertainment/articles/bluray-takes-off-as-prices-drop/2009/01/30/1232818694763.html

2009-02-03T22:54:00.001Z

Enhanced GPS stalking tools, or a reassuring way to keep track? http://ping.fm/OvajI

2009-02-03T06:38:00.001Z

What I could do with 20 Petaflops... well video editing would be quicker: http://ping.fm/uVagf

2009-02-03T00:09:00.001Z

wordy insightful piece on crime, punishment and US cyclist Jock Boyer: http://ping.fm/GWtta

2009-02-01T23:08:00.001Z

Instant cred. New pre-worn guitars from Fender: http://ping.fm/jfdgG

2009-01-30T03:30:00.001Z

Shock horror: Wii Fit only works if you use it! http://ping.fm/PUd2Y

2009-01-29T22:26:00.001Z

Excellent article on Canberra riders like Rogers, Hayman, Stephens: http://ping.fm/qsuwa

2009-01-28T21:53:00.001Z

Interesting first-hand account of the Mascot road rage court case: http://ping.fm/RTpL0

2009-01-27T22:48:00.001Z

I finally saw those baby Koels and they are actually juvenile Channel Bill cuckoos.. http://ping.fm/OVtM7

2009-01-22T21:54:00.001Z

Why stop at software-related patent reform - what about IP law generally? http://ping.fm/SOtPh

2009-01-22T04:23:00.001Z

Graeme Brown finally got his win at Le Tour Down Under: http://ping.fm/ZyQIx

2009-01-22T03:56:00.001Z

I do like that ping includes video... just so hard to choose btween these social micro-blogr tools!

Read some feeds... if you dare

2007-10-04T01:51:00.001Z

I am writing, I really am!

Try these for size:

Not just writing, but writing-related...

2007-05-21T00:33:00.001Z

A crawl through the web exposed these ideas... not all writing-related, but mostly...

A BBC account of the genesis of the Blooker awards. The LuluBlooker itself. Worth remembering: Google's book search. Spot your book and complain about breach of copyright, or enjoy the wider fame and possible fortune that accessibility confers? Evidence from Businessweek that it actually happens. An O'Reilly blog asks, are blogs and bloggers up the the task of becoming books and book authors? Lifehacker on how to turn your blog into a book. A good read. Poynter offers some excellent writing tips for journos. Problogger on - again - how to turn your blog into a... you guessed it! If you write a Livejournal blog you can convert it into a book with this tool. Burridge on how to turn a Roller blog into a book format... More evidence. Blurb's blogslurper will suck you blog into a book format and then publish it for you, if you want. And here's a blog-to-PDF tool that looks useful.

Have fun!!

Songware?

2007-04-26T10:44:00.001Z

Songware? It seems odd that a great live band like the Who would find itself promoting software-generated songs, but apparently Pete Townshend has been working - nay dreaming - about this for 30 years. Who's next grew out of Lifehouse - Pete's idea of a connectedness that expressed itself through songs... and was for Pete a glimpse of a future world where connectedness was pervasive, electronic and creative. Which brings us to The Method, software that apparently takes personal data like a birthdate, a photo, an audio file and a beat and produces music.

Pete talks about it here on MP3.com... The legendary Who guitarist and songwriter said... that he is set to launch a new Web site that he has been thinking about for nearly 30 years. Dubbed The Method, Townsend said the site will use music composition software to take a person's physical attributes and compose a brand new, personalized piece of music for that person.

"I've been thinking about this for such a long time," he said. "The gathering that the Internet offers is meditation. You lose yourself when you're listening to good music." Townshend said he hopes the site will provoke more people to take advantage of the immediacy of the Web.

And Yahoo! says this: Rocker Pete Townshend on Wednesday unveiled an Internet-based software program that will help music fans compose personalised tracks at the click of a button. The Who guitarist/songwriter said that with a voice recording, a digital image and a rhythm clapped into a microphone, his new "Method" software will create spontaneous digital music and allow anyone to be a composer, and possibly a rock star. "You can put data in and get a piece of music out. It's as simple as that," said Townshend, a technical wizard who pioneered the use of the synthesiser more than 35 years ago on the classic tunes "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley." The project, which started percolating during his art school days in the 1960s, was developed by mathematician/composer Lawrence Ball and software developer Dave Snowdon.

From May 1, users will be able to get free access to the Web site (http://www.lifehouse-method.com) for three months, and will be able to compose instrumental tracks that they can e-mail or post on their Web sites. From August 1, it will become a subscription-based service.

Sounds intriguing, anyway.