30
Dec 09

Do you remember those plastic floppy records?

Do you remember those plastic floppy records? The ones that were sent with your new Hornby Train set?  Well I found this one the other day in a 1979 Hornby Railways Catalogue. So I have recorded it for your delectation.

New Hornby train set – Bernard Cribbins


27
Nov 09

E-mu 1820 update

I have finally managed to get some use out of my E-mu card!  For months this was lying dormant because it was installed on an old 1ghz 512MB ram Windows box which was retired in favour of a 2.5ghz Quad Core with 4GB Ram.

When I moved to the new PC, I decided to go with Ubuntu as main (and only) operating system. I wanted to see just how far I could get with free software. I also love a challenge…

Finally I have documented my struggles with E-mu 1820 and linux.


18
Nov 09

Playing with Audio

I have spent quite some time recently playing with audio on my ubuntu desktop.

Last time I tried Audio on linux I found it to be a sorely disappointing affair. That was some 6 to 12 months ago.

On my old Windows box I had an E-mu 1820, but when I bought it I didn’t know that Creative didn’t like to help out by open sourcing their drivers. (How many people have bought M-Audio cards now, knowing that they can get Open Source drivers for it!) On my old Windows box I thought that card was going to stay, until week before last…

I had had some recent successes with getting jack and pulseaudio playing nicely. I had had a play with Ardour and loved it. So I bit the bullet and gave it a go.

I now have glorious multi channel playback and recording via my E-mu audiodock, so I have taken the opportunity to throw together a few recordings of my poetry. The first couple were straight recordings with a bit of reverberation added for ambience.

Virility

The Tree I Wish I’d Been

The most recent is a full on four and a half minutes of sequenced sound and samples 🙂

A Rude Awakening

If you are viewing this on the site you’ll see the above links as little embedded mp3 players, courtesy of the very smart wpaudio plugin.


09
Nov 09

Fireworks – At The Hell’s Angel’s Club House

We keep meaning to go the Wolverhampton Hell’s Angel’s Club House Fireworks.  Every year we say we must go, it’s only a five minute walk away, but there always seem to be a reason why we don’t. This year it was someone writing an essay…

Anyway, the view from the bedroom window was still fairly spectacular for the high mortars, so I couldn’t resist a few firework shots. Here is one to wet your appetite.

[flickr size=”medium”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/informationtakesover/4090592734/[/flickr]

View the full set


02
Nov 09

npower improving accuracy – apparently.

I had a letter from npower the other day. I quote:

“To improve the accuracy of your account, we’ve changed the date when your next bill or statement will be issued.
Your next bill or statement will be produced on or around 08 February 2010 and will cover a shorter or longer period than normal.”

Now that’s accurate!


22
Oct 09

The Time Machine

How to make a time machine to bring people back from the past, and to find out what’s in the future.

Making a Time MachineMore DIY How To Projects


19
Oct 09

Make some PAR38 cans using Coffee Tins.

Thought I would share how I spent my Sunday afternoon 🙂


Build some PAR38 cans using coffee tinsMore DIY How To Projects


17
Oct 09

Further tweaks to the site

Just completed several more tweaks to the site, and that includes some customisation of my blog-in-blog plugin.  I released version 0.8 today, but then added even more tags for parts of the posts date so I could recreate the post theme for this site.


16
Oct 09

The Inner Voice of Hubert Latham

This is one of my favourite pieces. It was composed for a Theatre Skills workshop at Hereford Courtyard Theatre.  It was inspired by 5 words that popped into my head as I cycled the pitch dark lanes of Herefordshire one evening.

“The birds, they mock me!” – I wanted to get home quicker than I could pedal…

I combined that with an early pioneer of powered flight who ditched in the English Channel and was found on his broken plane, calmly smoking a cigarette.

[gview file=”http://timhodson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/the-inner-voice-of-hubert-latham-v2.pdf”]

Creative Commons License
The Inner Voice of Hubert Latham by Tim Hodson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at timhodson.com.


16
Oct 09

Virility

virility

Chesty hairs speak virility,
As rolling thighs,
And hanging flab,
Quiver,
In rhythm,
With,
The pudgy flailing,
Of hands.

Sweat beads his brow,
While his chins pulsate,
With big mouthed,
Utterances.
Swollen ear lobes,
Flapping,
As he slaps his wife.
Putrid flesh casting,
Yellow shadows,
As toad like,
He sits,
Mouthing words.