Month: February 2003

Fear Factory – Together Again!

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

It saddened me when Fear Factory split up in March (see also frontman Burton Bell’s statment on the breakup). However, it appears that the remaining three members may have reformed the band!

The reformed Fear Factory — now consisting of Christian Olde Wolbers (guitar/bass), Raymond Herrera (drums), and Burton C. Bell (vocals) — have posted for download 45-second samples of three cuts from their recently-recorded demo.

[…]

A fourth cut recorded during the same sessions, “Bite The Hand That Feeds”, was not made available for download, but is believed to be among the tracks planned for inclusion on the band's upcoming studio album, tentatively due in late 2003. […]

I’m trying to stay calm, but I’m pretty stoked about this :^0. I really enjoy Fear Factory’s metal-industrial sound and I own all of their albums (well, exept for their first, “Soul Of A New Machine”, which I found less refined than their later works).

Oh, and the “old Fear Factory” (as if reaching out of the grave) is releasing a new album of b-sides and remixes called Hatefiles on April 8 (cover art). (Props to the DJs on Sirius’ Metal channel for spreading the word on this Fear Factory info.)

Gallery Installed, Finally

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After some effort, I successfully installed Gallery yesterday (it wasn’t quite as easy as I was hoping it would be).

In older versions, Gallery used to insist on the NetPBM library (installation requirements). However, it now supports ImageMacick as well. During the installation/configuration script, the pre-screening reported that NetPBM was found (“All 12 files found”) on my host. So, when presented with the pull-down to choose between NetPBM and ImageMagic, I just went with that…

The rest of the installation seemed to go fine. I then went to upload some photos and I started getting errors (the mind-numbingly vague “Unable to make thumbnail(0)”, whee). So, I re-ran the configuration script and turned on debug-mode. Then, after trying to upload photos again, the debug-mode diagnostics reported that one of the NetPBM files couldn’t be found (I’m still not sure whether this was the fault of Gallery or a mistake on the part of my hosting provider).

Since the NetPBM files were shared among several domains on my host and out of my reach (permissions-wise), I decided to attempt to install the latest version of NetPBM on my own. So, I uploaded those files to my host, set their permissions (755) and re-ran the Gallery configuration script. I told it the location of these newly installed files, but I just couldn’t get Gallery to recognize them (yuck).

I was about ready to give up, but then I remembered that Gallery supported ImageMagick as well. Of course, the pre-screening script didn’t affirm the discovery of ImageMagick files, so I wasn’t even sure if they were installed. But, I tried it anyway — setting the image-library in the configuration-script to ImageMagick — and it just worked (whew).

Don’t get me wrong — Gallery is a great program. But, its installation seems to become a bit wonky if it veers off its best case scenario. And, the “installation instructions” (if you can call them that) were a bit terse. Some of the steps were on the level of asking a novice cook to “julienne a potato”. Sure, that may be straightforward to an experienced cook, but it would also be understandably tough if you don’t even know what julienne means.

(And, just to clarify, I don't consider myself an expert cook, nor did I know what julienne meant until I looked it up just now.)

SXSW Hotel Booked – Austin South Hawthorn Suites

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Since I couldn’t find a roommate for SXSW, I’ve booked at the Austin South Hawthorn Suites (4020 IH 35 South, and I would have linked right to that location’s page, but the site doesn’t cooperate when ripped out of its frames).

I’m checking in on the Friday (March 7th) and checking out on the Tuesday (March 11th), as I didn’t want to miss either Richard M Stallman nor Ben & Mena Trott whose panels respectively form bookends around those dates.

I won’t have access to e-mail while I’m there. (I was about to add “of course”, but then I realized that some lucky bunnies may be able to mooch access via their 802.11-equipped laptops and some freely-available wireless-access points.)

So, the best way to contact me while I’m there would be via my cell phone (469/569-7421) through either text messages or voice (my plan includes 500 text messages/month, so you needn't worry about using up my allotment).

New Metallica Album: St. Anger

Ashley Bischoff182 Comments

Metallica is readying their next studio album, St. Anger, for release on June 10th (their first in five years). I haven’t cared for Metallica much since the Black Album days (though …And Justice For All may be my favorite), but they claim that they may be selling-in this time around:

The release of St. Anger on June 10th will bring fans the old Metallica from the early days before the Black Album. The album is said to have the same thrash metal vibe that gained them underground popularity in the mid ’80s. […]

I remain skeptical about that, but hopeful all the same. I’m sure that their songs will get airplay through their usual bribes to radio stations (as all major record labels do). So, I suppose I’ll at least have a chance to hear a few tracks before buying it.

Doughnut Fillings, Jelly and Otherwise

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I mentioned this to Bryan earlier today, but he didn’t seem so keen on it. But, perhaps I’ll get a warmer reception here ;). (if Bryan’s reaction was any guide, I won’t get my hopes up)

I think we can all agree that jelly-filled doughnuts are delicious (well, hopefully, most of us can agree on that much). I’ve often conjectured that better quality fruit fillings (such as real raspberry preserves) would result in an even-better JFD. But, that’s not really what came to mind today…

What about a PB-n-J filled doughnut? Most people like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (myself included), so how about that same experience in the context of a fried dough ring? Yum?