BuzzMoo.com » elroy

Items of Interest

BuzzMoo — Sat, 28 May 2011 09:41:03 +0000

An older album by Solar Fields recently popped up on my radar. Used as the soundtrack for the new game Capsized, ‘Movements’ is good news. Released in 2009 it sits right next to Solar Field’s soundtrack composed for EA’s Mirror’s Edge. I’ve had the Mirror’s Edge soundtrack for ages now but only recently played the game, it’s always interesting to make the connection after so long. If you’re a fan of the music in the game, you’ll be loving Movement’s music album oriented tracks. Definitely worth the buy!

Solar Fields - Movements

Meanwhile Jon Hopkins’ album also from 2009 is making an impression here at BuzzMoo HQ. The variety of styles contained in his album Insides is impressively broad. It sits in form something like The Flashbulb’s Soundtrack To A Vacant Life. The first track of Insides ‘The Wider Sun’ will take you far away. You can go as far as space, even, with Light Through the Veins. Brilliant stuff.

In other news Elroy plows ahead. There’s nothing stopping him and his weirdo movie buff friends – and I mean that! There’s absolutely nothing stopping that guy uploading stuff to the Internet. He’s been doing it for ages now. This week among other things the Remote Viewing crew cover Pirates of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides. I saw it on Tuesday in 3D because the stupid cinema was making people pay more to see it in 2D. Socialised with work friends, actually. We weren’t sure it was a good idea but no harm came of it, in the end. The movie is supposed to be based on a book that is very entertaining and is the inspiration for some of the things you love about Monkey Island and the first three Pirates films. On Stranger Tides, written by Tim Powers and published in 1987, is pulp fiction that gives you pirate action mixed with voodoo mystery. Its action is pictured just before Hollywood got the technology to show it on the big screen. Pirates 4 is tenuously connected in the main plot line but you’ll be disappointed if you expect the movie to pick up and use the ideas that made the book entertaining. Darn!

Despite moving towards “getting out of IT” I have of course still had IT related bits and pieces going on. We’ve launched the ACT Chronic Fatigue Society’s new Joomla powered site which turned out to be an easy gig, completed entirely without the input of a designer. They’ve taken to the new tech very well and have started adding content already. Peter Kabaila has been in central Vietnam helping extend an orphanage for poor disabled kids and he’s taken some photos of the work. Apparently they could use help with their limited IT means, too.. He’s also published an amazing new book on Aboriginal life here in this region called ‘Survival Legacies‘. I have a copy and I encourage everyone to get one for themselves. Meanwhile i’ve also been helping Rafe out with his online presence but it’s not ready to go yet. He’s a funny kid. Our meetings generally follow an hour or so of my floundering in the pool, which still happens on a regular basis. But more on that later.

This year’s University of Canberra graphic design students have put on their final exhibition dubbed ‘Taste Test Exhibition‘. I’ve been hosting the site for the event which by all account was a huge success. The site details the student’s style and aspirations and won’t be the last web page you see them featured on.

There was more but this alone is enough to say ‘not a bad week!’ and leave it at that.

Content factories

BuzzMoo — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:51:14 +0000

It’s full steam ahead over at elroyonline. He’d resolved to produce a regular podcast dealing with TV and movie culture, purchased a lot of nice audio equipment, then went ahead and did it. Remote Viewing, which previously existed as an animated short, now comes to you weekly in audio form. Man, these people consume a lot of multimedia and then have a lot to say about that multimedia. If you’re interested in Boardwalk Empire, Battle LA, Red Riding Hood or say, the new Harry Potter, you’ll probably be interested in listening in. If you ever wondered about how movies and TV influence fashion, you’ll be interested again. The Remote Viewing crew are two months in at this stage and are going strong. Visit www.remoteviewing.com.au for details and the full episodes. You can subscribe through iTunes here.

There’s a character I’m aware of who’s into all things musical. He drummed for the Never In Doubt and many other bands I don’t know about probably and I’ve spent quite some time listening to his solo work. Now the new group he’s with are about to launch an album. I enjoyed the single which is now up on YouTube:

YouTube has also come through with the goods recently. Lisa gave me the heads up to a web-centric production of a new Mortal Kombat series. It’s actually pretty good! Especially if you go by what has come before. It deals with origin stories which is no surprise. There’s a mix of old and new ideas. The new ideas are fun. So I think there’s only one thing that’s appropriate to say here…’and now for a taste of things to come’: Mortal Kombat: Legacy Episode 1.

Winter’s coming

BuzzMoo — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:37:55 +0000

It’s a bit cold tonight. I’ve mentioned it before but I need to show you again how much more awesome my ‘standard’ Mac weather widget is than yours! Thanks @elroyonline!

Catchup

BuzzMoo — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:17:47 +0000

Just to prove that I’m still alive, some songs that i’ll develop further, later;

Sauce – It’s Hard To Do Well

Your Job – Nobody Will Understand

The Garden – Continues

The Wold - Changes Every Time I Sleep

Wicket – Still Lives

Elroy – Does Podcasts Now

Where I Thought I Would Be – I Am Not

Boards of Canada – New Album Very Soon. Seriously

Where I Am – I Like

When James Blake performs – I Am Impressed

When I Update Next – Will Be Soon.

If there’s a bright center to the universe…

BuzzMoo — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:10:24 +0000

Elroy linked me to a rather amusing blog post that features some photoshopped Mac weather widgets for StarWars planets I’ve spent some time on. Included is Hoth, Cloud City, Tatooine and Dagobah. You can see them here. I mentioned that it’d be way more cool if those widgets were actually real. So he went ahead and made them as real as he could. The moon is out tonight. Brilliant! Looking forward to a binary sunrise..

Now, I have to go to bed! There are some rare mushrooms growing on the moisture vaparators in the southeast quarter I want to check out tomorrow.

Powers Cosmic GG Zombie Comp video!

BuzzMoo — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 02:23:57 +0000

Well, we thought about it for a long time and then almost ended up not making an entry at all…. Then we changed our minds and decided that we would do a slightly different take on the whole zombie-video thing..

Elroy combined his two loves: not sleeping and zombies and the result was the following video! Comments and feedback welcome, although since its already been submitted to GG there’s nothing we can do about the feedback :p

Good Game, Elroy!

Morel Orel @ EOL

BuzzMoo — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 23:40:48 +0000

Elroy continues to do what Elroy does. The latest review at EOL is on Adult Swim’s Morel Orel, a series I’m definitely going to have to get my hands on. I saw last night on the news that The Pope is worried that there are voices in this world trying to marginalise religion. I was actually thinking over a religion themed post on the back of this and Jon Stewart/ Steven Colbert’s recent announcements to hold a Rally To Restore Sanity and a Rally To Keep Fear Alive, when I saw Elroy’s review. There’s plenty of posts in the topic, so for now head over to Elroy Online and see what he thinks or Moral Orel.

Catchup: Tim Burton Exhibition, Melbourne

BuzzMoo — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:53:31 +0000

I’m restraining posting media here at the moment because I’m thinking about new ways of laying it out. The Tim Burton Exhibition that ran in Melbourne in July was great. Photography wasn’t allowed anyway so there’s not a huge amount to post anyhow. The trip involved social time and tigers too (video soon), Elroy, TGLB and teamed up with Lisa and I to sample fine steak and be hooted at by monkeys. Grand!

the things i do

BuzzMoo — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:10:13 +0000

While being a clever techno-monkey I managed to delete BuzzMoo.com earlier this afternoon. It’s a long and complicated story that ends in a three hour phone call to Elroy. It sure is a good thing I happened to, by chance, back up about a week ago! There’s a lesson here, kids. You say you back up but we all know you don’t.. it’s seriously worth it. So enjoy the new interim theme! Picked entirely at random, I’m actually quite happy with it. Frez’s done some work on the banner, as you can probably tell.

iDEF 2009 TV commercial

BuzzMoo — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:34:06 +0000

on the network this month

BuzzMoo — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:57:05 +0000

A lot of interesting content floating around at the moment; Elroy just won’t quit with the reviews, Baccano, Chicago 10 and Sealab 2024 Season 4 all get a look-in. Speaking of all things Elroy, we’ve got “With The Band” which was a live portal to the AVCon event held earlier this month in Adelaide. Morgs looks at Transformers 2 and then turns everything on it’s head by talking about The Way We Get By which I want to see but not sure I’ll be able to handle it in my current state.

I finished CASE podcast episode 5 with very special guest Andrew Tridgell (only just – my iBook’s harddrive half-died during the process…fortunately I was able to recover the podcast files.

The River Cottage blog (essentially the garden of buzzmoo.com) has been given a couple of updates too.

If you’re interested in politics, there’s the #gov2au Twitter feed that’s getting a good workout this week due to the Federal Government’s “Government 2.0 roadshow”, essentially an open forum that’s touring the capital cities allowing citizens to contribute to “Towards Government 2.0: An Issues Paper“.

That should be enough links for now!

Powers Cosmic Episode 6

BuzzMoo — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:57:19 +0000

Elroy’s complicated, multi-threaded story arcs continue with Powers Cosmic Episode 6. You’d better believe the plot thickens! Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess. Check it out now.

on the network this month

BuzzMoo — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:01:01 +0000

A whole bunch of home grown content on the network this month. Elroy has reviewed Frisky Dingo Season 2 and Tokyo Gore Police. He’s also been ramping up the Twitter action for Powers Cosmic so if you’re not following yet, make sure to add @powerscosmic. To chat to the stars you can always add @elroyonline, @furious_tfm and @theromulans. To add to that Morgs has seen the new Star Trek and Wolverine. And not strictly on the network, my CASE blog keeps chugging along (mmm, cross-posting!). Plenty of things to keep you entertained.

Save Dollhouse PSA 2

BuzzMoo — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:10:32 +0000

Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, quite good by all reports, is the subject of an impassioned Elroy cartoon this week. He’s worried that it like so many other good TV series will be cancelled and encourages you to watch it. He certainly doesn’t mean illegally download it because you don’t have Pay-TV because that might rub the sponsors the wrong way. I haven’t seen Dollhouse (maybe I will at some point, I’m not really a Whedonite) but the general theme of Elroy’s video is spot on. For example, I’ve just finished watching Mission Hill and I wish there was more, I was barely satisfied by the Dead Like Me movie and regret that I’ll never see a fresh episode of Earth 2. Checkit!

Powers Cosmic Episode 5

BuzzMoo — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:32:44 +0000

The e-Shack has just churned out another episode of Powers Cosmic. Having just watched I Am Legend for the first time the other day, Powers Cosmic Episode 5 is pertinent to my interests. But you don’t need to have watched a Hollywood movie to have ever wondered what it’d be like to be the last person on earth. I assume the idea has wasted many hours of human thinking time. For a definitive analysis Elroy and Furious take us there.

accessibility @ EOL

BuzzMoo — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:10:57 +0000

Elroy has remixed the Remote Viewing gig into something a little more casual. Check out the latest episode (the first in this format) for your monthly movie fix. I still haven’t seen Watchmen! He’s also made some minor modifications to the site’s overall design. I think this is the longest he’s gone without changing his theme. Same deal here at Buzzmoo.com, I would say!

New home for the network!

BuzzMoo — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:58:43 +0000

Over the past few weeks Elroy and I have been migrating our collection of sites to a new host (yet again, I labeled myself a digital bedouin last time – it still stands) and I’m happy to report that It’s now complete. The process was much much easier this time, our new host having a cool WHM plugin that let us migrate all our sites including Cpanel settings and databases with a few clicks.

So welcome to BuzzMoo.com, served from somewhere in Brisbane, Australia!

Powers Cosmic: Episode 04

BuzzMoo — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:16:05 +0000

I certainly have some blogging to catch up on! Earlier this month Elroy released Powers Cosmic Episode 4 (appropriately, I’m wearing the very limited-edition blue Powers Cosmic tshirt). I’m pretty sure the whole thing is based on actual events. Since the zombie uprising is on everyone’s lips these days, do yourself a favour and check out Powers Cosmic: Episode 04!

Top 5 Time Trips @ EOL

BuzzMoo — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:56:45 +0000

I started writing this post by saying “The movie debates continue at Elroy Online” and then had to double take. He’s got a list of the “Top 5 Time Trips” posted and open to comment. Two of the top five time trips (of all time?) are books apparently! Neither of which I have read, both of which I will. I recall driving away from the Melbourne Exhibition Centre after eGames complaining to Insane Gazeebo about the lack of interest in literature a lot of gamers hold. He sympathised and then we discovered we had quite similar tastes in fiction. The real problem is books are long and can be quite complicated, and don’t necessarily fit properly into this medium (antithetical to this kind of writing, really) . Still I can’t help but feel there was some merit to my idea of using book packs as prizes for gamers. Anyway the point is Back To The Future Wins. Who comes next?

Sealab 2021 at Elroy Online

BuzzMoo — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:41:01 +0000

Fresh and in high spirits after iDEF, Elroy has pumped out a new review over at Elroy Online. He takes a look at the Sealab 2021 DVD and concludes that it’s “up there” with some of his favourite Adult Swim releases, but lacking in those all extras cartoons-on-DVD now so frequently give us. Check out his review here.

Powers Cosmic Episode 3

BuzzMoo — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:51:12 +0000

Oh man I have seen this episode so many times. The debate? Thought provoking. Enough material to run on a loop during the three days of the eGames expo? Nowhere close. Elroy’s Powers Cosmic returns for the third time, the dynamic duo discussing the finer points of immortality…

Powers Cosmic Episode 3

eGames expo post 1 (!?)

BuzzMoo — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:34:24 +0000

Well you would expect a tech convention to be absolutely saturated with Internet connections, but actually it’s taken me quite some time to get online. In addition to this, for some reason my card reader isn’t reading cards, so the photos are a bit light on at this stage. Apart from that I’ve been very busy at the elroyonline booth, the OLPC XOs stealing the show. A lot of people are initially attracted by the form factor, haven’t necessarily heard of “The OLPC project” before, but most have heard of “the $100 laptop” (a tagline OLPC Inc. has abandoned). Apparently it’s all a ruse – but if the starving kids in Rwanda knew they were helping Elroy develop a spam list, they’d rest easier no doubt.

I managed to get a small amount of playtime yesterday as the Expo was packed. Red Alert 3 has some chop, and the Quantum of Solace demo was fun. I’ve been watching Wii Music on the Nintendo stage and, not content to go on the word of so many others, I may line up and see if it holds some hidden gems.

Last night I managed to seriously hurt my little toe which has now become an interesting shade of yellow. That’s going to complicate the whole walk-around-and-do-things-at-the-expo thing, which hasn’t put me in the best of moods. Still, I have a chair with wheels on it, so as long as people clear a path, i’ll wheelie-bowly my way around. Or just sit at the EOL booth.

Friday was big, Saturday was big and today promises to be bigger. If you’re in the area, make sure to come down to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. I aim to have some sort of media up today, as long as I can find working peripherals.

here comes eGames – 14th-16th November – Melbourne

BuzzMoo — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:16:58 +0000

The eGames Expo will be in its third year when it kicks off this friday at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Despite being fairly close to the whole process, this year will be the first year I’ve been able to attend (and even then, it was touch and go!).

eGames is packing some interesting things this year. Yahtzee Croshaw, the fast talking pom behind Zero Punctuation will be hosting a gaming trivia session, which promises to be hilarious. I’m keen to see Call of Duty World At War taken through its multiplayer paces (this is taking place at the Alienware PC Zone) and what comes out of the Retro Game Challenge. When Elroy called and said there was going to be a significant N-Gage presence, I had to think a bit. Nokia’s N-Gage? That was dead and buried years ago – but they’re trying to bring it back, apparently. I’m curious as to what their second attempt is going to look like.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, really. So starting from tomorrow I’ll begin a series of regular eGames related posts, in theory video content will be included, as I jet to Melbourne to begin what’s going to be a long couple of days. We’ll be based out of the Elroy Online Booth, where you’ll be able to check out the latest Powers Cosmic and Remote Viewing caper, and unwashed computer geeks that haven’t had enough sleep. Some extra space has been donated to the buzzmoo.com element so that I can put on some OLPC XO demonstrations.

If you live in Melbourne, consider coming along!

Show Times

14th-16th November

Friday 1pm – 7pm
Saturday 10am – 7pm
Sunday 10am – 5pm

Ticket Prices

Adult $18
Concession $13
Family $40
(2 Adults, 2 Children)
3 Day Pass $33
(Fri-Sun)
Children under 6 admitted free

Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Southbank.

For further info check the official website:

eGames Expo @ iDEF

Powers Cosmic: Episode 02

BuzzMoo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:17:18 +0000

Fresh from the eShack comes the second installment of Elroy Online’s Powers Cosmic. During a date at the cinema Elroy (with horror) realises that Furious is one of those ones who won’t keep their mouth shut during a movie. I can’t see how this relationship will last…

Powers Cosmic: Episode 02

Appleseed Ex Machina @ Elroyonline

BuzzMoo — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:44:09 +0000

Elroy looks at Shinji Aramaki’s Appleseed Ex Machina (strange name..) and finds it adequate. I’m intrigued – I haven’t watched much in the way of CGI anime, and it looks good. The story sounds similar to one of my alltime favourite sci-fi stories, and that could be enough to push me over the edge (that, and Elroy lending me the DVD…). Investigate further at Elroy Online.