Stockholm-based Teenage Engineering are at it again with a new OS Update and a new product. Can’t wait to try it all out on my OP-1.
The OS update delivers new drum and sequencer modes and badly-needed MIDI sync, plus cool MIDI modulation. Combined, it seems the OP-1 has really matured – sync alone removes a major obstacle for some adopters.
The new hardware is Opbox, a combination USB host / MIDI / CV box with analog sensors – and it has pretty plug-in modules and even custom-made shoes to match (below). The shoes may not be terribly practical, but the Oplab fits a unique niche in hardware I/O and DIY projects – provided it’s a niche that people actually want.
Amazing. Musical shoes. More exclusive pictures and info over at Create Digital Music. Thanks Anthony!
And of course, the new Miramar. I’ve seen a few different strap combinations and I’m partial to the brown leather, but the green canvas is still really solid.
P.S. The booth was incredible. Full flight simulator, aircraft carrier details down to the screws. Check out the behind the scenes footage of the making here.
Stomping around airports can get old. Design to the rescue! Jeriël Bobbe, a recent Eindhoven grad, has devised a musical floor that you play by dragging your suitcase across it.
Bobbe was inspired by something he noticed during his weekly train trips from Eindhoven to Amsterdam. “Whether they are stone slabs, tactile paving for the blind, or a grid for wheelchairs, there is music in everything,” the Dutch designer writes. So he decided to formalize the music-making, by creating pieces of ribbed wood that can be arranged like musical notes. The distance between the grooves corresponds to pitch, while the depth of the ruts determines volume.
I have mostly been watching the SOPA news from the sidelines the past few weeks– at least until the supporter list came out.
Not so surprisingly, GoDaddy was on there, and the internet went into an uproar. Next stop seemed like a complete domain name exodus. Grab your pitchfork.
Truthfully, I’ve wanted to bail since I watched the CEO slaughter and kill an elephant. Not long after that, there was another debacle. A billing error on my account caused me to loose a domain name (which I previously acquired for $1,000). It didn’t auto-renew, yet somehow everything else does (even when I try to turn off auto-renew).
And then, like a movie, of course they pulled their support of the bill, which is odd because they helped write it in the first place:
So they’re not for it, and they’re not against it. Perfect. I’m not one to get into the backstory much further. I had heard enough and I wanted to bail.
This was all a real bummer for me because I’ve done a lot of business with GoDaddy– so much so I have an inside guy there that helps me out with transfers and changes. But between slaughtering elephants, SOPA, and annoying Super Bowl commercials with boobed out models it seemed like it was time to take my business elsewhere.
It was actually a tweet from Ben Huh of icanhascheezburger that pushed me over the edge. I love those damn cats, what can I say.
And that’s when the epic journey began.
I found this handy-dandy step by step guide to transfer domains out of GoDaddy.
NameCheap looked and felt like a fine place to land my domains. They had a pretty strong stance against SOPA and GoDaddy. I found a code (SOPASucks) that would give me a little bit of a break on the transfer costs. They didn’t accept .be domains, so I used name.com for that.
I headed over to GoDaddy, unlocked all of my domains, batch downloaded the authorization codes and plopped them into the Namecheap.com transfer spot.
I thought that was it, but then I started getting bizarre messages from GoDaddy, like:
Dear Josh Spear,The transfer of JOSHSPEAR.COM from Go Daddy to another registrar could not be completed for the following reason(s):
Express written objection to the transfer from the Transfer Contact. (e.g. – email, fax, paper document or other processes by which the Transfer Contact has expressly and voluntarily objected through opt-in means).
The express written objection may be the result of a pending or recently completed Change of Registered Name Holder. This is an opt-in process during which the new Registered Name Holder agrees not to transfer for 60-days. This domain will be transferrable on 2/24/2012.
Perplexing. All of my other domain names came back with that response or something like that as well. I had read somewhere that if my WHOIS information wasn’t correct, I should update it. Turned out to be a terrible idea. I did update it, and changed the email– because the last time I registered a majority of those domains, the email was wrong. I also added a little more information to be sure I could be contacted if there was any problem.
It turns out had I not changed my WHOIS information I would not have received the email for the New Registration Agreement– an email they send to the WHOIS administrator and only the administrator. And because I changed it, I did receive the email, but it was already too late.
I’m not a huge fan of leaving dozens of domain names ‘unlocked’ for long periods of time crossing my fingers all would work out.
I pinged NameCheap and chatted with a nice enough tech support person in their online chat for a few hours.
I made sure all my domain names had the privacy feature turned off. (I’ve since sent Domains By Proxy my companies EIN and a copy of my passport to get my login, because I didn’t remember my login, and the ‘forgot login’ box sends an email to a whois email that no longer exists. Vicious cycle.)
NameCheap refunded me and said try again. Oh, did I try again.
And then another alert came. My domain names were locked by GoDaddy for 60 days because of the Whois information change. Despite being told to make sure the info there was up to date!
I have zero pending transfers and I’ve now paid NameCheap, been refunded, and paid again.
As far as I can tell, the locking of domain names was part of the GoDaddy T&C’s I agreed to– not an ICANN rule. A call with a GoDaddy person confirms that. And even more peculiar is that apparently it was okay for me to change the contact email, but not anything else. And yes, I updated all the information. Whoops.
The saga continues. They sure do make freedom of choice hard.
I never much cared for reading music reviews– so I won’t bother here. I’m totally digging Josh Osho’s accoustic Jesus Walks cover posted above, so check it out. Via Donald Glover
Dominic Wilcox has created some new watch sculptures– tiny people standing on the hands of a watch, on subjects from protest and big brother to money and football. Via Mocoloco
The new Watch Sculptures are part of a larger series of miniature time-based sculptures by Wilcox that uses vintage mechanical timepieces and customized model figures.
For this year’s concert the six-time Grammy winning musician will be joined by special guests: Armenian vocalist Arto Tunçboyaciyan, Gospel singer Theresa Thomason and the dancers and drummers of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. The program will include music from the Consort’s new album Miho: Journey to the Mountain.
Four Shows Only: Dec. 15 and 16 at 8pm, Dec. 17 at 2pm and 7:30pm
The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10025
At 111th St & Amsterdam Ave
This footage above is from the 2009 Solstice, which featured Russia’s Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble, New York’s Forces of Nature Dance Theatre led by Abdel Salaam, and musicians Paul McCandless, Eugene Friesen, Jamey Haddad, Paul Sullivan, Eliot Wadopian, Bill Cahn, Tim Brumfield, Scott Sloan and Paul Winter.
Old friend Chuck Anderson of NoPattern has released a few new goodies for the holiday season. Above is his latest NoPattern Calendar– a 7×7 calendar packaged inside a black vinyl record sleeve screenprinted with gold ink, signed and numbered in an edition of 300.
There are also some new t-shirts. Two of the six latest shirts are below. Great stuff.
Josh Spear readers can used the code jspear for $5 off their order in the store. Enjoy!
Ah yes, the Chocolate Invader. Molded with single origin 66% Dark Chocolate crafted from Costa Rican cacao. Made in New York. Deliciously geeky.
Buy now and it will arrive in a laser engraved wooden box– inside you will find a small poster, sticker, postcard and a bunch of pixels that you can eat. It looks like they’re made to order as it takes 4 days to get. Costs $25. Yum!
My friend Jonathan Harris never ceases to amaze me. He’s one of the most thoughtful and talented people in the world. His latest project Cowbird has an audacious goal- in his word, to become the public library of human experience, kind of like a Wikipedia for real life (but much more beautiful).
How are they going to get there? They’re pioneering a new form of participatory journalism rooted in simple human stories.
The site is organized into Sagas, Stories and Diaries, and the slogan says it best: To be a witness to life.
Above is the Saga of Occupy Wall Street, and specifically Jonathan’s story about being arrested at Occupy Oakland.
It’s easy to submit and organize your own story or saga. They can be in any form of media. On the site now the mix and sheer breadth of documented experiences is fascinating to see.
Within the profile of a user, you can see that a specific person’s (in this case Jonathan’s) appearances in different sagas, their own stories, and their relationships. It’s a little social-network like, but it’s what happens in your life that ties you to other people.
The organization is incredible, and I would expect nothing less from Jonathan!
