Mr Speaker

mrspeaker's head in a monitor You find yourself at the entrance to the Hompage of Mr Speaker. In a darkened corner sits a trunk containing HTML5 games and some JavaScript tidbits. Next to it you spy a mastodon account. Exits are North, East, and .

Circuit Bending

Vogue Computer Lisa. Really.Possession of low-voltage consumer electronics. A love of very noisy things. A do-it-yourself aesthetic - Do you possess these items and/or attributes? Then come join the Circuit Bending hoedown! It's disturbing and easy! Here's the how and why (no, actually, the how and what)...

Circuit Bending is the art of messing with the electronics inside of stuff that makes noise, in order to make new and more useful random noise. The goal is to augment gadgets, kids toys, guitar pedals and cheap synths with new knobs, buttons, switches and "body contacts" that boldly go where no manufacturer would ever be bothered going.
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Google Gears: The Mega Cookie

Big CookieOOooh, I'm all giddy! Moments ago I discovered today's release from Google: Google Gears. It's like they reverse-engineered some advanced cookie technology from a crashed web-based UFO. Or something similar.

I'm typing this post as I explore, so we'll see how my opinions of it change from now to the end of the post - I predict I'll be impressed, but a little wary.

Google Gears is a cross-browser extension that integrates all manner of nifty tools to allow web application providers to make their apps work off-line. There are two main aspects to the release: database and local server.
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Helpful Error Messages

Bug fixing web services at 8.30am on a Monday morning is not really that much fun. The first 2 coffees haven't even started kicking in yet. And a crashing IDE doesn't usually help the situation along either.

Usually doesn't - but the error message returned to me today has added a slight spring to my (normally lifeless) Monday morning step:

Helpful Resharper error message
Thank you ReSharper, you've given me hope for an enjoyable week ahead...

Consumer Good God

My PuterLet's get this straight - I ain't nobody's shill. I don't shill. But I am a half-decent consumer and I can appreciate a good product. As rare as they might be.

So I'm lending some valuable Mr Speaker cyber* space to The PlusDeck 2c Cassette Player - which transcends the status of mere "good product" and reaches towards the realms of the consumer-good God.

It takes a couple of minutes to comprehend the genius that is the PlusDeck 2c: A 5.25" front-loading drive that plays cassettes. Cassettes!

CASSETTES!

Anyway, I can't stay here yapping about it all day. I'm only up to 1985 Bustin' Thru. After that I've got 1986 Way To Go, then some He-Man, JEM and the Holograms, and Amway motivational tapes. What an afternoon.

After I figure out a killer set I reckon I'll be ready for the 2007 Cassette Jockey World Championships. I just need another PlusDeck, and a microphone.

*Cybernetic.

Track: Happy (Hardcore)

Happy PeachYes, yes, yes... It's been a LONG time since the last post in the Earwax category. It's not that I haven't been doing any tracks - It's that I haven't been finishing them. I've explained about my attention span before, I'm sure.

Anyway, here I present to you a glitchy, bell-y piece I'm pretty happy with - I'd been toying with the ideas in it for a while, and plopped it out on the long weekend (which seems like it was oh-so-long-ago now).

It's called Happy (Hardcore). But it's not particularly happy or hardcore. And certainly isn't Happy Hardcore. Pffft. Whatever.

Download Happy (Hardcore) 192 kbps version - 8.3mb

[audio:http://www.mrspeaker.net/tracks/Happy (Hardcore).mp3]

Marinated Not-Chicken Wings

Not-Chicken served with not-sausageIt makes me sad every time, but summer is drawing to a close around these parts. Not that the cold days ahead won't be filled with merriment and valid excuses not to do anything on the weekend, but winter does put a stop to festive times of the summer staple: a good old barbecue.

Of course, the communal nature of a BBQ means your not-products can be in danger of being infected by the fats and flavours of the not-so-not-products that surround them. This means you can enjoy the taste sensations enjoyed by the normal person, yet still take the moral high-ground of the vegetarian! Win-win!

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Web automation with Chickenfoot

ChickenfeenI was getting scared there for a minute. It had been at least a few weeks since I last found something on the interweb that rocked my web-based world.

Things were getting desperate, and for a moment I feared I might be forced to go back and work on one of my half-finished projects or something. But I was saved. Saved by the crunchy goodness of Chickenfoot. Yes, Chickenfoot will (slightly) change your life.

Chickenfoot must be compared to Greasemonkey. Indeed, from the vague description I was given at Sydney BarCamp (I was told the wrong session time, and missed the actual demo) I assumed it was just someone re-inventing the monkey.

But I was wrong. Slightly wrong.
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