I then noticed a typo in the install.rdf I uploaded so pushed 0.33 up with possibly the fastest Mozilla extension feature I’ve ever written – took me less than 40min to add a context menu option for library items that opens a new tab with a basic search of the album (or artist if the album tag is null) for that track.  Works for multiple tracks and pseudoThreaded too, just in case.  Will get back on to improving the core feature for 0.4, although it won’t be for at least a couple of weeks.

And finally, I looked at the CDN stuff again and it would appear the aforementioned Google App Engine doesn’t support PHP/MySQL – putting WordPress and this site right out of the equation.  There has been some success in getting WordPress to work but it’s pretty damn fiddly and I’d probably just be better off paying for Amazon’s CDN.  Will revisit at some point.

Ratebird can be found here.

Basically I wanted to properly sort out the preferences, and implement my greasemonkey script for RYM into the extension – which ended up being one hell of a lot simpler than I had imagined.  It still took a couple of days of fiddling to fix the script up (the RYM site had changed, some things weren’t well implemented, and some things needed re-writing entirely), but the actual integration of script and extension took only a couple of hours, which totally took me by surprise.  I think I can attribute this succes to a most useful wee tool, along with my recently enhanced knowledge of the way all these extension files fit together.

The next release should be just a few days away – Again on the user-scripting of the RYM site side of things, I’m implementing a fix for what I consider to be one of RYM’s most annoying bugs.  After that, I’ll go back to the core functionality and see about getting my code for multiple matches hooked up.  Oh, and some kind of UI telling you what’s going on, that would be nice.

You can get Ratebird from here.  Requires Songbird, obviously.

It was certainly more broad, less fiddly/fussy than the practice tests available on the Web, and thankfully with far fewer grammatical, spelling and, most annoyingly, syntactical errors.  Whilst the flaws of the exam are obvious (it often favours testing recall of function syntax, specific behaviour, obscure use cases, etc. over real-world problems and coding skill or elegance of solutions), I found it a highly positive experience to really get into some of the dark corners of the PHP manual; I feel I came away with a heightened understanding of the language in general and learnt a lot about the more advanced (and interesting) new techniques available.  Especially streams…that’s a funky set of functionality right there.

Maybe I’ll apply some of the techniques I learnt to this site, but first of all it needs a new design, which shouldn’t take too long now that I’ve found myself with a lot more ‘free’ time.

1. Ulver (Queen Elizabeth Hall, London)
2. Agalloch (The Underworld, London)
3. Gregor Samsa (Corporation, Sheffield)
4. Faith No More (Brixton Academy, London)
5. Burst/The Ocean (Corporation, Sheffield)
6. Esoteric (Victoria Inn, Derby)

This year’s list is highly likely to be topped by Esoteric, at a different venue in Derby, closely followed by Rammstein at the MEN Arena in Manchester.  I doubt anything else can get close to those two – although I can always hope

Future plans include integrating the RYM enhancer script into this, once I’ve got the hang of pref management.

1. Blut aus Nord – Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars
2. Nautic Depths – Siberian winter
3. Mathias Grassow & Tomas Weiss – Quiet Calling II
4. Arktau Eos – Ai Ma Ra
5. Mathias Grassow – Transpersonal
6. Steve Roach – Afterlight
7. Troum – Eald-Ge-Stréon / Abhijňâ
8. The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation – Succubus
9. Wardruna – Runaljod – gap var Ginnunga
10. Isis – Wavering Radiant
11. Fall of Efrafa – Inlé
12. Steve Roach – Immersion: Four
13. Kylesa – Static Tensions
14. Raison d’être – The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice
15. The Ruins of Beverast – Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite
16. Zu – Carboniferous
17. Yhdarl – Drone Nightmares, Part II: Buried Burnt Earth
18. Devin Townsend – Addicted
19. dredg – The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion
20. Tombs – Winter Hours
21. Cobalt – Gin
22. Urfaust – Einsiedler
23. Steve Roach – Dynamic Stillness
24. Skagos – Ást
25. Sun of the Blind – Skullreader

I tried a lot of fantastic beers in 2009, so here are my favourite bottled beers that were new to me:

1. Thornbridge St Petersburg Highland Whisky Reserve
2. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
3. Nøgne Ø Dark Horizon First Edition
4. Thornbridge St Petersburg Speyside Whisky Reserve
5. Thornbridge Alliance PX Reserve
6. Thornbridge Alliance Madeira Reserve
7. Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
8. Rochefort Trappistes 8
9. Ayinger Weizen-Bock
10. Struisse Pannepot
11. Spire Xtinguisher
12. Moor Old Freddy Walker
13. Thornbridge St Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout Islay Whisky Reserve
14. Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
15. Anchor Old Foghorn Ale

…ditto for Cask Beers:

1. Thornbridge Handel
2. Marble Ginger
3. Brewdog Paradox Isle of Arran
4. Crown Ring Of Fire
5. Spire The Wall
6. Thornbridge Cherry St. Petersburg
7. Crown Wood Street Porter
8. Thornbridge Alliance
9. Fugelestou Sledgehammer Stout
10. Thornbridge Halcyon

…and again for Ciders:

1. Dunkertons Black Fox Organic
2. Sheppys Dabinett
3. Newton Court Medium Dry

I was tempted to carry on with a list of spirits and one of honeys…but I think that’s quite enough for one day.

Elderberry & Mulberry Wine (Oct ’09) – Massive deep red/purple colour and soft berry flavour, like a Cabernet Sauvignon on berroids (lol).  Still rough, but softening fast – this will be one smooth bastard in a few months.

Sorb, Orange & Ginger Wine (Nov ’09) – The most ludicrous wine I have made so far.  It fermented out super-quickly, ending up massively alcoholic and yet somehow still sweet, with a massive bitterness from the Sorbs.  Now the bitterness is mellowing and a totally bizarre (and very tasty) big malty aftertaste has developed.  Amazingly drinkable only a month after fermentation.

Mulberry Mead (Nov ’09) – Still fermenting, but not far off finishing.  Strangely enough, it stopped a while ago, then restarted without any prompting.  Dry, massive heather honey aroma, already a complex fruity beast so I can’t wait to try this after a few months to see what develops.

Rowan & Spiced Plum Wine (Dec ’09) – Stalled at the first stage by the absence of plums.  Oh noes!  Will get some tomorrow – and some cinnamon sticks.  Next Xmas will be great if this stuff turns out well

Rosehip Wine, Pumpkin Wine, Mint Wine/Mead, Blackberry Mead, Strawberry Tree Fruit Mead/Wine/Brandy – A glint in the brewer’s eye.

What with it being Autumn now, fruit is the word, and the word is fruit.  So I have been collecting elderberries, mulberries and blackberries for what seems like forever.  I’ve made a rather excellent elder & blackberry jam, and many assorted puddings with apples, pears, plums, blackberries and mulberries.  Although one of the dandelion wines (the rhubarb-bolstered one) became a casualty of over-enthusiastic hoovering on Maggie’s part, the more promising one is still aging nicely, and looking ludicrously alcoholic; it only really stopped fermenting about a month ago, which means it spent the best part of three months burbling away to itself.  I reckon it will be fantastic, and probably about 16% after I’ve topped it up to a full gallon.  It will be ready to try at christmas, although I shall endeavour to resist drinking much during the festive season, so that it can age a full year.

The next wine project is elderberry, and I expect this will come to fruition over the next two weeks – freeing up space for the next few, which need to be done in quick succession, as most fruit is on the way out:

• Rowanberry wine
• “Whitty Pear” (true service tree) wine/mead – this one will be special, if it works.  The tree is very rare.
• Mulberry mead
• Mint wine/mead

I’ll also be making some things (not wine or mead) with rosehips, and maybe haws, if I get a chance.

Anyway, here’s a poem by D.H. Lawrence that captures a lot of things rather splendidly…and makes me want to find some Medlars.

Medlars and Sorb-Apples

I love you, rotten,
Delicious rottenness.

I love to suck you out from your skins
So brown and soft and coming suave,
So morbid, as the Italians say.

What a rare, powerful, reminiscent flavour
Comes out of your falling through the stages of decay:
Stream within stream.

Something of the same flavour as Syracusan muscat wine
Or vulgar Marsala.

Though even the word Marsala will smack of preciosity
Soon in the pussyfoot West.

What is it?
What is it, in the grape turning raisin,
In the medlar, in the sorb-apple,
Wineskins of brown morbidity,
Autumnal excrementa;
What is it that reminds us of white gods?

Gods nude as blanched nut-kernels,
Strangely, half-sinisterly flesh-fragrant
As if with sweat,
And drenched with mystery.

Sorb-apples, medlars with dead crowns.
I say, wonderful are the hellish experiences,
Orphic, delicate
Dionysos of the Underworld.

A kiss, and a spasm of farewell, a moment’s orgasm of rupture,
Then along the damp road alone, till the next turning.
And there, a new partner, a new parting, a new unfusing into twain,
A new gasp of further isolation,
A new intoxication of loneliness, among decaying, frost-cold leaves.

Going down the strange lanes of hell, more and more intensely alone,
The fibres of the heart parting one after the other
And yet the soul continuing, naked-footed, even more vividly embodied
Like a flame blown whiter and whiter
In a deeper and deeper darkness
Ever more exquisite, distilled in separation.

So, in the strange retorts of medlars and sorb-apples
The distilled essence of hell.
The exquisite odour of leave-taking.
Jamque vale!
Orpheus, and the winding, leaf-clogged, silent lanes of hell.

Each soul departing with its own isolation,
Strangest of all strange companions,
And best.

Medlars, sorb-apples,
More than sweet
Flux of autumn
Sucked out of your empty bladders.

And sipped down, perhaps, with a sip of Marsala
So that the rambling, sky-dropped grape can add its savour to yours,
Orphic farewell, and farewell, and farewell
And the ego sum of Dionysos
The somo io of perfect drunkenness
Intoxication of final loneliness.

I missed the two support acts but apparently they weren’t anything spectacular.  The Ocean started with a big puff of smoke and some vaguely generic naval-warfare themed video backdrop, and proceeded to execute their particularly epic brand of progressive sludge with exceptional tightness.  The smoke was certainly a bit too heavy and wasn’t too far way from becoming a bit Spinal Tap in places, but it didn’t seem to phase the band.  They produced a great performance but with the short (45min) set focussing on the more bludgeoning tracks in their repertoire, and the fact that they had lost a vocalist and a keyboard/samples guy compared to when I last saw them (at Hellfest last year), I felt it didn’t quite match expectations.

Burst came out to a noticeably thinner crowd, a few people obviously came to see The Ocean and left straight after they finished; they certainly missed out there as Burst totally upstaged their tour partners with a less brutal, but more cerebrally tantalising display of exceedingly progressive hardcore.   Opening with the epic ‘(We Watched) The Silver Rain’, Burst had sound issues at the start but luckily it improved significantly by the 3rd song or so.  With a stripped-down feel to their show compared to The Ocean’s smoke and mirrors, they effortlessly skipped through a large selection of tracks from the awesomely prog-tastic ‘Lazarus Bird’ album, along with a few older ones.  They were really relaxed onstage and looked like they enjoyed it massively despite the reduction in audience size (which wasn’t exactly huge to begin with).  Their main vocalist was pretty funny too, cracking a few jokes and seemingly greatly amused by the ‘balcony stage’ in the Corp 3rd room.

My only complaints were that there should have been only one support act on this double-headline tour, and Burst clearly should have reversed their set list so that ‘…Silver Rain’ (my favourite song of theirs) got the full benefit of the vastly improved sound quality at the end.

On a side-note, I’ve switched to a better browser detection script as the old one had serious issues with IE8.  I know that browser-sniffing is not a good thing, but it seems to work fine for now (and it’s only really for IE6/7 – everything else gets pretty much the same standards-based HTML/CSS/JS), at least until I sort out some kind of feature detection routine.

And on a completely different side-note, using this page I finally fixed the annoying console error messages that plague Firefox with Firebug and HTML Validator extensions installed.  Hurrah!