http://ergh.org/blog/ - rat's ramblings

AntiHouse 10:To What End? Finished.

1. Plaid - Sincetta
2. The Dust Brothers - Medula Oblongata
3. Recoil - Prey (Shotgun Mix by David Husser)
4. Neo - Control
5. Placebo - Pure Morning
6. Depeche Mode - Wrong (Trentemller Remix)
7. Nine Inch Nails - The Greater Good (Instrumental)
8. Die Warzau - Insect (Butterfly Reedit)
9. Way Out West - Chasing Rainbows
10. Erasure - Ship of Fools (Soil in the Synth Remix)
11. Cirrus - You Are (Panacea)
12. The Prodigy - Stand Up
13. Lemon Jelly - Space Walk
14. UNKLE - Unreal
15. Fluke - Kitten Moon
16. Hednoize - Army Of One
17. Yazoo - Winter Kills (Electronic Periodic's Dub Mix)
18. The Black Dog - Gawble Vianag
19. Moby - The Come Down

90 minute mix, 160k Stereo MP3. Download here.

Retarded, Insane Assholes? Absolutely.

From Moby.com: "the riaa have sued Jammie Thomas-Rasset of minnesota for $2,000,000 for illegally downloading music."

This is my response:

Yes, the nearly 2M fine is outrageous, but if that alone hasn't had you frothing at the mouth, here's something that probably will push you over that edge.

First off, I'm going to start by addressing the "notice" fine that she got in the mail. Media Sentry, the "company" that was investigating for the RIAA to track down file sharers was NEVER LICENSED TO DO INVESTIGATIVE WORK IN ANY STATE IN THIS COUNTRY. What's worse is that they did it across state lines. That's criminal behaviour. There was no accountability, no checks or precautions. No peer review. Nothing but their word. (Considering they engaged in illegal behaviour, that already puts their word into doubt.)

They just looked at a user, wrote down whatever IP address they were using, what tracks they saw in a share folder. Then the RIAA files a motion in court to discover who these John Does are... meanwhile, the John Does can't be contacted to defend themselves until -after- personal information had been released on them. Conveniently, the RIAA had already had their day in court without opposition before they sent the notices out demanding a settlement from the people that were ASSUMED to be file sharing. This amount, according to the letters, is to be paid under the threat that they will be taken to court and could stand to lose much more.

You know what that's called? Extortion. Pay us now... cause it would be a shame if you lost everything you had whether or not you were actually the right person to be accused of filesharing. (Remember the dead grandmother or the person who never owned a computer or had any internet connections?)

Now for what really needs to be looked at, the penalty or so-called 'damages'.

Let's assume each of the 24 songs in question in Jammie's case is available on iTunes with a price of 99 cents. Let's also assume that statutory damages were actually limited to the revenue lost by the company (which they obviously aren't)... And finally that the 24 songs were each 5MB and the cable modem had an upload speed of 256kbps. (Given that this happened in 2004, 256k or 384k upspeed is most likely)

For the 24 songs in question to incur $80,000 in damages each... they would have had to be downloaded a total of 1,939,394 times, for 9,696,970 MB (9.6GB) of downloads. This would, at 256kbps, take 3,507 days (about 9 and a half years). Kazaa had only existed for about three years at the point of infringement. Also... that ignores the remaining 1,678 songs.

Going the other direction, if all 1,702 songs were saturating the upload speed of the modem for the history of Kazaa (call it 3 years even to make things easier) you'd have been able to upload 1,009,152MB, or about 201,830 songs, divided evenly over all 1,702 songs... that's about 118 times each. At 99 cents each, that's $2,803.68 in statutory damages.

$2,803.68 total, not each song, and only that much given that her connection was *absolutely saturated for the entire three years.*

Another way to put $80,000 per song in perspective, look at the RIAA's 2001 marketing stats ( http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html ) (the latest year I could find figures for new releases). On average each new CD title brought in about $500,000 in revenue. If you figure conservatively 8 songs per CD, that works out to $62,500 per song. (The difference between an ep/single and an album, or an album with longer tracks, etc... 8 seems like a fair number.)

In other words, the jury awarded more averaged damages per song than if she'd prevented all copies of the song from ever being sold.

You angry now?

I've been a lurker on here for a very, very long time and felt the need to say something now. I'm exceptionally pleased that you have decided to speak out against this, Moby... but I don't see how any reasonable person shouldn't. It crossed a line so far, so low that I cannot fathom what the jury was thinking... that they couldn't even be of our own society.

I was disheartened when Mute Records was acquired by EMI. This made Mute, and its releases, funding sources for the RIAA. I have much respect for Daniel Miller and what he did with Mute (Mute was one of the two labels I would blindly purchase releases from. WaxTrax was the other. It was how I discovered Moby... I saw a copy of the Move EP and bought it on account of it being a Mute release.)... It put me at ends with my desire to explore new music on account of a label's reputation. If it wasn't for the extreme abuses being perpetuated by the RIAA when it comes to how they view filesharing... I wouldn't be so selective and shy as I am now about buying RIAA affiliated acts.

Filesharing is killing music? No. The RIAA is.

Diabolical Villainy, or why the RIAA and MPAA can go to hell.

This is a response comment I posted after seeing this article: http://www.vnunet.com/articles/print/2239392, Top 10 IT villains. (Warning: It may open a print prompt as you load the page, since I linked to the printable all-in-one-page version of the article.)

My response is below:

I'd probably arrange the list slightly differently myself, but that nit pick goes ignored for what I consider to be a bit of a fatal flaw in the comments made at the end for the RIAA/MPAA selection at the end.

Quoted: "Let me say right off the bat that theft is wrong. You can't walk into a store and start helping yourself to CDs and DVDs without paying by saying that you have a fast internet connection and so you're entitled to get stuff for free."

Your own argument against the RIAA/MPAA's actions would be strengthened even further if you could distinguish the difference between copyright infringement and theft.

Copyright infringement is not theft. To waltz into a store and steal copies sitting on the shelf, you are removing a physical product from the property of the store itself, if you were to succeed in this moment of criminality. Something is physically lost and has to be manufactured, shipped and restocked again to be replaced.

However, when it comes to copyright infringement... making a copy of an object, or in this case, the data that exists on a physical slab of plastic... that slab of plastic still remains in the hands of whoever made a copy of it. When they send a copy of the data on that slab of plastic, there becomes two copies of it... and again, that slab of plastic STILL remains in the hands of whoever made that first copy of it. When you download, copies do not go missing from store shelves... nor can you directly say that it means that those copies will go unsold because of a download. The culture that we live in today dates further back than people realise: Try before you buy. Reader's Digest. Shareware. In-store demo displays.

When the fat cats running these organizations as a proxy for lawsuits on behalf of the member labels say that each download equals a lost sale, I can easily argue that anyone who downloads an album from The Pirate Bay likely never intended to buy it from the store in the first place. I can also say, albiet only from my own experience and of those I know, that being able to download tracks "for free" has led myself, and others, to go out and purchase legit copies of these releases because we enjoyed them so much. Artists are recognizing the potential for publicity and exposure due to "piracy" and have begun to use it to their advantage. For every Nine Inch Nails, where there is a built in fanbase already well aware of the act, there are hundreds of unknowns who crave this kind of exposure... and have gotten some, due to their open policy of allowing people to sample their works without being called criminals.

Copyright infringement is not theft. If it were, people who have been caught downloading could be arrested. But they can't. Copyright infringement is a civil issue, not a criminal one. Being a pirate, or a mere downloader, two sides of the same coin in all intents and purposes... is not a criminal act no matter how much the RIAA and the MPAA want to make it so.

However, when it comes to the RIAA and MPAA for the type of actions they have taken against their very own customer base... the brief summary of why they're hated is apt, but incomplete. I think it is definitely worth mentioning that the actions that they have taken in the legal system blatantly reeks of extortion. So much that motions and counter claims accusing them of violating the RICO Act has actually gotten serious attention. The real criminals are the fronts, called the RIAA and MPAA, for how they have abused the legal system and their very own customers.

Goodbye and Fuck you, Hostway. (Or: How Hostway Sucks in Too Many Words)

This is my little spiel that I typed out when they asked me if I wanted to comment about why I was canceling my account.

Hostway used to be good and I was happy. Hostway is now one of the most incompetent companies I have ever dealt with on the Support side of things. Questions do not get answered in email for billing OR support. The accounts are so oversold that I was lucky enough to keep hitting hard data limits less than 10% of what I was allowed. Having to repeatedly call over this and email and not have the problems dealt with or addressed with the intention of being of actual assistance, well, it leaves me wondering just what the hell happened to a company I once proudly recommended for 7 years. It's bad enough knowing that something isn't being delivered as advertised, it's worse knowing that I have to dread calling anyone at Hostway for support because the problem rarely (if it even comes close) is fixed to the way it should have been in the first place. When Support was one of the reasons I signed up for Hostway, the glowing reviews of how great it was... and I end up having to reply 4 times to an email to straighten out a Tech Support response and point out a question as simple as "Can I have my account switched over to a less expensive plan THAT IS NOT LISTED IN SITE CONTROL?" has not once ever been answered... much less, by two separate departments I brought this to?
I wasn't surprised when I started looking around online for reviews of other hosting providers...and managed to run into a few about Hostway. The incompetence of Support from Hostway is now legendary. After being with Hostway for 7 years, what's legendary is how far Hostway has fallen from being a top provider.

Need examples? Blue is from Hostway. Red is from me.

From within the internal ticketing system on Hostway:

This is a ticket for billing being opened for several reasons, questions that I would like answered before I decide what needs to be done.

I have noticed on the main Hostway site that the plan information and names have changed. I have also noticed that the "Starter" hosting plan contains everything I need from my current "Gold Plus" plan, but allows more space and is less per month.

When I attempted to change my plan within SiteControl, it only gave me the option of dropping down to "Gold", which would eliminate PHP from my account (which I require), but also stated that I would be charged for the plan downgrade. (Even though the Hostway site advertises $0 setup)

My question is whether or not I can be switched to the Starter Linux Hosting plan as advertised, but without disruption to my hosting account and without being forced to pay attentional fees just to be able to have a plan that offers more for LESS than what I've been paying for this account.

The other issue is this:

I have had to call Technical Support over hosting account quota issues multiple times in the past. Every single time I had an account set up, be it my first one or any subsequent account when the plan was updated, I never got the -full- space quota that was advertised with the plan. Currently the Gold Plus Plan allows for 20GB space quote. My account was hard limited to 1GB. This happened previously with each update to my hosting plan. I was limited to a smaller percentage of what my plan was supposed to provide.

Every time my account was ported to a new server, custom scripts and packages installed onto my account ended up breaking. I'm tired of having to fix everything because you could not provide the advertised space with the account when it was created on each new server that my account was moved to.

I would like an explanation for what it will require for me to have my account fixed to reflect current offerings and how much hassle it will be just to have this done. To state it plainly, I would like my "Gold Plus" account on Ergh.org to be properly ported over to your "Starter Linux Hosting" package.

The last time this blog was the way it was, it was on Movable type, then it moved to this system that you see now. That was the LAST time I called Hostway and asked to be given my proper space allowance for my account. It required being moved to a new server within their farm... and everything broke. Oddly enough, I'm on a completely different server now, with a completely different host, at that... and not one thing broke even though all I did was copy and past every file into the new account. Amazing.

Their reply...

Billing
reply-to Billing
to
date Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 1:18 PM
subject Re: (HW#13002930) ergh.org-Other-XXXXXXXXXX
mailed-by hostway.com

Dear Hostway Customer,

Thank you for contacting Hostway. We require further verification before we can assist you with account details. Please confirm the domain name and the sitecontrol userI.D. and password.

Also, the following alternative forms of identification can be provided: the answer to your secret question or the last four digits of credit card currently on file.

Please contact us for further assistance in answering the general inquiry we intend to update our accounts with the capacity to use these new plans offered online but to attempt that now would cause a service disruption. We will also be able to address the 20GB space quota of course.

You can reach the Billing Team Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. CST at 866-XXXXXXX (866-XXX-XXX) option 3 and then option 3 again.

Thank you.
Diane B.
Customer Service

I pretty much had it at this point.

Mind you, it's been a long time coming. This would effectively be the 5th time I've had to call over having a fraction of my quota allowed to me. It never got fully fixed each time and asking what it would take to get what I paid for seems to be too hard of a concept for Hostway to grasp.

from James Martin
to Billing
date Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 4:56 PM
subject Re: (HW#13002930) ergh.org-Other-XXXXXXXXXX
mailed-by spamprotected-gmail.com

Dear Billing and Support Drones,

I hope you understand that I will not provide you with a password over plaintext email, as that would be a horrible practice and is frowned upon due to phishing and fraud reasons. You should be able to verify everything else without knowing the password.

Domain name: ergh.org - as it says in the subject.
Site Control UserID: XXXXXXXXXX - Also in the subject.

So repeating those two bits of information isn't exactly giving you anything new to verify with.

I also stated in my ticket request that I had a Gold Plus Plan, something that you could verify yourself by looking up my account. This would be unknown to someone unless they had the password to my SiteControl user panel account.

Given that emailing a user's password to verify an account could open one up for security issue, then everything else I could possibly tell you would also be known to whoever compromised my account.

Wanting to verify information would make sense if the ticket was originally submitted via email, but as I opened this ticket through Site Control itself, then... well... that defeats the purpose, doesn't it? That itself can be verified by looking through email headers and finding the originating source of the ticket if it was processed internally through email... or any other referral information if it was sent another way.

Anyone who submitted this ticket, if it wasn't the person who owned the account, already has my username and password and already has all of the information contained within to verify... So, please, forward this to whoever you need to forward it to so that you guys may revise your policies on handling tickets so that it would give the impression that Hostway actually has a grasp on the concept of account security.

Since we're already going through the futile motions of verifying my information, the last four digits would be ####, my phone number is ###-###-####, and if you'd like, since I live in Chicago, I could stop by the offices and provide you with my photo ID.

Getting back to the point. Would you kindly change my "Gold Plus" account over to the "Starter" Linux Hosting plan, which is cheaper, provides more space and all the features that I required in "Gold Plus", but also without charging me any service or setup fees as the main Hostway site advertises the account?

Thanks in advance for processing my request so that I have no need to respond any further. (Unless, of course, it's processed incorrectly... then we'll be in touch, possibly to cancel due to the issues of ongoing incompetence as described below. Which, also, you could verify if you were to pull up my account and see the reasons for my previous tickets and calls to Technical Support... specifically, my account quotas being locked at a fraction of what was advertised and having to have my domain moved to a different server with "more space", of what was available to me, still was only a fraction of the space promised to my account plan.)

Cheers!
James

Amusingly enough, when I called phone support to cancel, the first thing they asked me for was my account password.

Hostway has no concept of account security anymore.

Their response to that email? Well. It was basically what pushed me to cancel.

from Billing
reply-to Billing
to
date Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 3:53 PM
subject Re: Re: (HW#13002930) ergh.org-Other-XXXXXXXXXX
mailed-by hostway.com

Dear customer,

We could understand your concern, how about your username, or account name, which is example john2536 or some thing like that, if you still feel this is unsafe, to pass on to us via internet, then call us 1-866-XXX-XXXX please so we may further assist you sir or madam

Account name?! Username?! Sir or Madam?! How the fuck could they even get as far as seeing that I felt it would be unsafe (hah!) to give out my password in email but could NOT see what my STUPID FUCKING ACCOUNT NAME WAS?!

But this isn't even all of it. I had simultaneous tickets with Billing AND Support.

I had phoned Support over my Hostway account being hard capped to 1GB despite having a 20GB quota. I had to get around the problem of not being able to upload one image file by doing a heavy clearing of files on my account. My phoning them about it was essentially their last chance, like my 20 bucks a month means shit to them.

from Support
reply-to Support
to
date Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 5:13 AM
subject Re: (HW#13002929)
mailed-by hostway.com

To rate the quality of our response, please go to

Hello,

Apologies for the inconvenience caused. However, we were able to upload files using SiteControl | Website tools | Web Based FTP. Kindly verify the same on

We would suggest you to try using different browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Flock. Also clear the cache of your local browser.

You can also upload files/folders to your website using third party FTP client such as miFiles, FileZilla or CuteFTP with the following FTP settings:

DOMAIN or HOST: ergh.org
USERNAME: XXXXXX
PASSWORD: Master Account Password
PORT : 21

Please be assured that Hostway is a customer centric organization and we will exert all our efforts to provide seamless hosting services to our esteemed customers.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Shanu L.
Hostway Support Staff

Uhhhh. Wait. I already told you on the phone I had to clear a bunch of files and somehow this guy thinks uploading a small "THIS IS A TEST!" html file to my account is going to prove anything...

Needless to say, I lost it.

from James Martin
to Support
date Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 12:20 PM
subject Re: (HW#13002929)
mailed-by spamprotected-gmail.com

This DOES NOT answer my questions!

Of course you can upload a VERY SMALL html file. I had to purge lots of files from my account just so I could upload a simple JPEG image. My account was hard capped to 1GB of space even though my account allows me 20GB of space to work with.

My questions involved what it would take to get my account changed over from "Gold Plus" to the "Starter" plan now listed on the Hostway site, as that plan contains everything I need from my "Gold Plus" plan, but offers more space for less.

And why I have to keep being moved to a different server every time I need more than 10% of my account quota!

Sooo yeah.

from Support
reply-to Support
to
date Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 3:03 AM
subject Re: Re: (HW#13002929)
mailed-by hostway.com

Hello,

We see that your domain is using 981 Mb out of the total 20 Gb allocated space for your domain. Also the file usage is 2669 out of 25000 files allocated for your domain. Kindly try uploading files to your domain once again and update us if you are still encountering any issues.

Also if you wish to change the plan, you can do the same via Site Control >> Plan info >> change.

Thank You..

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Prathamesh S.

Okay. Yeah. I cleared space. I told them that. I told them there was a hardcap of 1GB on my account. What do they do? Upload a tiny file.

I upload BIG HUGE HONKING FILES... I decide to throw up the 240MB+ WindowsXP Service Pack 2 update onto my account.

Upload didn't complete. The file was truncated at 20MB.

227 Entering Passive Mode (64,26,63,21,29,96).
Opening data connection IP: 64.26.63.21 PORT: 7520.
STOR WindowsXP Service Pack 2 English.exe
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for WindowsXP Service Pack 2 English.exe
An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
Connection closed. Server timeout.
NOOP

You cannot change your plan within SiteControl to a new type of hosting account plan if you're on a LEGACY plan like I was. I was on Gold Plus. I wanted to switch to Starter Linux Hosting.

Hostway sucks. Fuck you, Hostway. 7 fucking years I spent with you.

I hated The Dark Knight

First I'll start with what I liked.

The acting was fantastic. Performances were, for the characters in both movies so far, spot on. They knew their characters and their roles, so they didn't have issues with appearing to be off in any way. (With the exception of Rachel Dawes, but of course... was played by a different actress.) The new characters in The Dark Knight were excellent. Heath Ledger really did turn in one of the most phenomenal performances we'll see in a long time... completely unexpected and worth watching the movie for.

What I could forgive...

Was that the visuals between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were too different. It wasn't as wet and dark as it seemed before. The city didn't even look the same, it didn't resemble the first movie at all. Given the size of the budget, you'd think they'd at least try for something beyond the minimal CGIing of Chicago that they went for. That's a minor point compared to what led me to absolutely hate the rest of the movie.

What I hated is that every scene, every moment in the movie hung by one really thin thread: Perfect timing.

I could even forgive all of the glaring lapses of logic, jumps in the story and major, major, major plotholes... That comes to be something you get used to with dumb hollywood popcorn blockbuster flicks.

I can even accept that one event is an extremely unlikely coincidence, a chance of fate that sets everything else in motion. A person in the right, or wrong, place at the right... or wrong... time.

But The Dark Knight depends on perfect timing for its entire length.

Every scene. Every event that leads to another is absolutely, to exact seconds, perfect timing in execution. This went beyond suspension of belief to "Oh, come on, you've got to be fucking kidding me!" territory.

Exact timing from the moment Batman sets the stickybomb timers on the skyscraper, to how long the fight inside the penthouse lasted, to how long it took for security to get inside, to how long it took to inflate the weather balloon to how long before the plane arrived to take Batman and Lau away. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment Joker decides to crash Bruce's fundraiser for Dent, to how long it took for Bruce to escape and change into Batman, to how long it took before Rachel got herself in deep with Joker, to how long before Batman could arrive to save her, to how long it took for Joker to escape from that penthouse after Batman dives down to save a falling Rachel, to how long it takes for Batman and Rachel to land on a car, to how long before the Joker is fleeing in a van. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment that Batman takes a sample of a bullet from a crime scene, to how long it takes for him to analyze it, to how long it takes to reconstruct the bullet to get a fingerprint, to how long it takes for him to get to the address located right at the end of the funeral procession, to how long it takes for him to get up the stairs, to how long he talks to the captives, to how long before the timer goes off and snaps up the windows shades... happening at the exact moment that Bruce happens to look in the binoculars while the replaced Honour Guard start firing at the Mayor. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment where Harvey Dent claims he's the Batman to the chase scene to when Joker gets captured... and then from when Joker is being interrogated. How long it takes for Gordon to show up and talk to the Joker, to how long Batman ends up beating the crap out of Joker, to how long it takes for Batman to get to the warehouse where Dent is to how long it takes for him to get inside, drag Dent out and get him outside of the building as it explodes. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment where the sleezy lawyer goes on TV to say he wants to out Batman, to how long the Joker spends at a warehouse with all the cash, to how long it takes for all the thugs to arrive, to how long it takes for Bruce Wayne to find the lawyer being escorted to safety, to how long it takes to evacuate all the hospitals, to how long it takes for the Joker to talk to Dent and convert him to Two Face, to how long it takes for Joker to walk out of the place, to how long it takes for the last of the buses to leave, WHILE THE HOSPITAL IS BLOWING UP BEHIND THEM, just waiting long enough to allow Joker to climb on board. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment where people are fleeing Gotham City, to how long it takes before both ferries find detonators on the ship itself, to how long before Joker announces to each ship his Prisoner's Dilemma scenario, to how long it takes for Batman to rush a building and clear the hostages/thugs, to how long it takes for Batman to find Joker, to how long it takes for people to decide what to do, to how long it takes for the fight between Batman and Joker to reach its conclusion. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment it takes for Gordon's family to show up where Rachel dies, to how long it takes for Gordon himself to show up (just as soon as Batman finishes fighting with Joker), to how long their moment plays on, to how long Batman and Gordon discuss what to do about Dent's reputation, to how long before other cops start showing up and chasing after Batman trying to escape. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

One unlikely coincidence to set things in motion is one thing, but using perfect timing as the only link between events setting off another... and using that link throughout the entire movie... was just way too much for me to accept. Even though I was watching a fictional movie about fictional people in a fictional city.

I may have good timing when it comes to calling people I know over the phone, given my luck with almost always catching them on the shitcan when I happen to call... In a 2 1/2 hour movie, however, it was simply too much for me to swallow.

And that's why I hated The Dark Knight.

Decent enough dialogue (I found Batman Begins to be more sharp and effective in its use of dialogue though), great acting, good use of locations... ultimately forgotten due to my annoyance with the movie trying to make a 'realistic' Batman story so completely, unforgivably implausible because no matter what happens... the plan always happened as it should because everyone just had such perfect timing without knowing what trap or situation they were getting themselves into.

I know the character of The Joker was supposed to be that brilliant in how he managed to pull his plan off... but nobody is THAT lucky. Not even myself, when I WANT to annoy someone I call by hoping I happen to be calling them while they're on the crapper.

August, the month of Bullshit

So...

Last night I was at a bar that was doing a promotion with Absolut. "Global Cooling."

They had some hand pedal cranks hooked up to batteries that you could recharge. Doing so got you a neat little trinket and a free drink. They also had a stationary bike hooked up to a motor that was then hooked up to a battery system to power a $20,000 display... essentially a plexiglass tower with shelves of plexiglass... designed to illuminate the bottles on shelves within.

Or at least that's my best guess. It didn't work. So the stationary bike and hand pedals were there for nothing. Even if you sat on the bike and pedaled for a while, achieving nothing... they gave you a drink coupon anyway.

The trinket? A hand-crank flashlight.

I thought it was neat enough. Because the tower display didn't work, they turned a few of these on and stuck them around the tower. For hand cranked flashlights they sure lasted for a while. "Batteries?" I asked... "Nope!" they said. Suuuree. Well. Maybe it had something like a capacitor inside. Or a mini rechargeable battery. Either way, I got a second one with the express intent to tear it apart.

The hand crank was spring loaded, so I had some trouble getting it back together again. I didn't notice anything unusual. Just a big bulky, but lightweight, bulb area. Crank. Magnet. Motor. Wires...

Of which I ended up breaking, by accident... I swear. But the damage was done, so I decided to tear apart the bulb area.

And guess what I found...

Batteries.

Not just any kind of batteries. Alkaline watch batteries. 3 of them, in parallel, hidden inside the big bulky bulb area.

Non rechargeable batteries.

As much as they spent on a promotion on broken equipment, I had hoped that even a little giveaway would have a purpose... to teach people to not use disposable items, even if it meant having a phallic like motion to your flashlight just to give yourself some light.

After all, less batteries in the trash, the better. You're using renewable energy! It's better for the environment!

But all I could do with the one I took apart was throw it away...

Some more Vinnie pics up.

It's been about two years, to this month.

Still doesn't get any easier.

More here: http://ergh.org/photos/index.php?TopicID=VinniePics

Yes, again. (Anti House Details)

#10's in the works, but no promises yet. Things are likely to change.

Anti House 8: Far From Home (Update)

Updated April 21th: It's done.

Download it here: http://ergh.org/ah/ah8.php

--

Previous updates:

The tracklisting for Anti House 8 can now safely be considered final.

Polishing, tweaking, fiddling, mastering and uploading to be completed next. Hopefully everything with be finished by ~~March 14th~~ May?

Tracklisting is below...

Tracklisting:

1. Recoil: Electro Blues for Bukka White (Outro)
2. Depeche Mode: I Want It All
3. The Orb: Hamlet of Kinds
4. The Black Dog: 4 3s 777 (Original Mix)
5. Underworld: Best Mamgu Ever
6. AquaRhythms: Stellar Jazz
7. Fluke: Spacey (Catch 22 Dub)
8. Download: Attalal (Remix)
9. Lovely/Patterson: Wild Little Sisters (Moby and Oscar the Punk Remix)
10. Fenomenon: Solara
11. Banco De Gaia: Mafich Arabi
12. Mental Generation: Cafe Del Mar (Underworld Mix)
13. Cirrus: No Pressure
14. John Came: Hapsburg Chin
15. The Thrillseekers: Outland
16. Recoil: Incubus

Anti House 8 has been a long, frustrating and laborious project... and I'm glad to see it nearing completion after approximately a year and a half of restarts.

I'm not glad only because I can now finally put this volume behind me... but because I can put a volume behind me that I will be content with. In the past, I felt I've made too many compromises with some of my volumes and make (probably too much) effort not to have those "settled-for compromises" on future releases.

One of the previously abandoned attempts didn't fit the theme I was going for with #8 and a large block of tracks ended up becoming a part of #9, which I completed last year.

Way Out West: Apollo
The Back Dog: Riphead v2
Ian Brown: FEAR (UNKLE Remix Instrumental)
Orbital: Much Ado About Nothing Left
Deepsky: View from a Stairway
Plaid: New Family
Moby: Spirit
Fluke: Goodnight Lover

Were the tracks that survived. None of the other tracks attempted for this session made it into AH9 or the now finished version of AH8.

In 3 or 4 other near-finished tracklistings, the tracks attempted were either completely abandoned, re-purposed for a future mix or used above. From beginning to end of the process of this volume, only 2 tracks remained out of all of these attempts in the final version of Anti House 8. Funny how that is.

Some the ideas stumbled upon, however, were promising... You may see them in Anti House Ten.

Not for the lack of trying, part 2

In the yard last night, I noticed that my neighbors in the house over had attempted to build a snowman, but stopped at the first ball.

Bored out of my mind, I figured "eh, why not?" and set off to try to make my own. It would be the first time I'd ever try to do so.

Then I quickly found out why they quit. The snow wasn't "wet" enough and none of it was packing very well.

About an hour later, I had a pretty sad looking snowman just barely 2 1/2 or 3 feet tall.

Only method that worked: Shovel as much snow as you can scoop up each time and slam it into a pile, then carve your snowman out of that pile instead of packing snow to make each of the three segments.

A bit of a cheat. Oh well.