Whoo! Release date for the long-awaited fourth album from Garbage has been announced. April 11th. And play.com reports the date a week earlier. So let's just say that it'll be out in early april...

And according to the relevant discography site, the first single is out. Promo only. And the site still disables the right mousebutton so backing up in the hierarchy requires more complex actions. Bastards.

Watched the CSI: New York-introducing episode of the first spinoff (Miami).

Not a bad episode, and the third CSI-franchise has a good leading man in Gary Sinise. The other cast seems to be a by-the-numbers exercise: eager-beaver number-two, greek/italian chick, african-american coroner and a hispanic girl to round out the posse.

I just hope the post-process coloring is toned down when the shooting starts in earnest. Pretty much every New York shot was done in very blatant blue tint. Far more conspicuous than the Neon->Pastel-handover inbetween the original show and the Miami-spinoff was. And more distracting than the plot-based tinting done in Soderbergh's Traffic.

Would actually be pleasant to catch a couple of episodes, if only to see which song by The Who is used as the title tune. I guess the mtv3/subutex-tv conglomerate has optioned this already.

What's next? CSI: Pyongyang? Where Lt. Kim solves why comrade Kim killed comrade Kim... In the absence of capitalism and worldly goods plots are harder to concoct. But when has Jerry Bruckheimer last shown restraint when there's a buck to be made.

Fazer introduced a new chocolate bar a few weeks back. Maya, laced with a delicious hint of chili. And in a ~50 gram bar, it's of a correct size - not too small or too big. And not very spicy either, certainly in a way lighter weight category than the tangy offerings available at Ruohonjuuri. No fear, the chocolate is worth dropping in, and a brief visit won't turn you into a droning vegan (I hope - haven't seen any adverse effects yet).

I'd offer a link to the product page, but the fazer site defies most elementary website design logic, and has a non-functional "search"-tool to add insult to injury.

And the answer is: unfathomably.

Turns out that the usually befuddled graphical ip-configuration tool is actually far better in understanding DHCP-offers than the usually way more reliable command line tool. And by better I mean "actually functional" in the above - the ipconfig-tool seems to fail to register any incoming offers.

And the one who explains how the ipconfig expects the devices to be named gets a beer. No, make it two beers. You name the place and beverage. I'll gladly supply the suds and funds. Sheesh.

Well. At least this incident provded that there's no reason not to install ethereal to seek out what the sad excuse of a DHCP-client is actually doing.

Yes. All was not well in Lavonardo HQ with regard to continuous wireless operations.

Apparently they just did, had the party, drank all the spiked punch, and extinguished the lights on the way out...

Indeed. Turns out that the Muppet Show episode guest starring Alice Cooper has been both released, on dvd and immediately sold out. Three songs from Coop on the episode. Including a duet with Miss Piggy on You and Me.

Well, time to scour eBay for copies.

Whoah. 314 entries down the road. And the juggernaut rolls on, with no signs of stopping. Or moving to a serious content management system.

Time to go and enjoy real winter outside. Seems that the permanent november has now been replaced by february-appropriate conditions. The -10 or thereabouts temperature should hold for most, if not all, of next week.

Like the previous item, this too is nabbed from boingboing. An excellent source of browser targets. Even if you're not desperate for content.

Anyway. A bunch of enterprising germans have put together a movie on Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies. For a grand total of 300 euros.

Well, read the books, seen some of the cartoon adaptations, seen a play, how could I resist the dvd coming out in may. Especially when the proceedings go to a worthy charity.

Decoding the iPod firmware by listening to it.

This is the stuff 21st century legends are made of.

... France the Mute must be one of the most complex ones I have.

Have listened to it several times now (though not in a row like Aaro suggests), and I clearly am missing a clue. Or multiples thereof.

Persistence will reward. Or at least I hope it to. But this is a tough nut to crack. Way, way tougher than their previous album (De-Loused in the Comatorium), which wasn't exactly a walk in the park either.

Time to retreat to regressive rock for a while: a good mix of Hellacopters, Ramones and Motörhead ought to do the trick. Perhaps the appreciation of the immeasurables of Frances will grow as a result. Perhaps not. But at least I'll know what the songs are about.

Telltale Games has announced its first title, Bone, based on the multi-award winning Jeff Smith comic book. Sounds good, especially when they are shooting for short episodic content as the creative director states in a brief interview.

On a sad note, Troika Games is no more. So there's actually a limit how many buggy games the buying public will stomach. But in the era of repetition and rampant sequelitis, they at least tried something new. Every single time. Too bad the quality assurance and maintenance sections of the company sucked big time. Both Arcanum and Bloodlines sit on a shelf as a part of a gigantic backlog, both uninstalled and unplayed.

Good game. Marred by Chelsea's passiveness. No shots at goal during the whole game. 93 minutes and no shots. Must be some sort of record. Might have been a whole different ballgame without Drogba's two yellow cards - other than those (and they were mainly due to eager stupidity rather than maliciousness), it was a very clean match overall.

Got Frances the Mute today, it seems to have the most muddled release scheme ever as reported by the ever-vigilant roklintu [in finnish only].

The two giants of this season's Euro-footie clash tonight.

My two favorite teams.

Sounds like fair-weather fanism at its very worst. But it sure ain't. Been a Chelsea fan since the days when Ruud Gullit singlehandedly raised bar of skills required to play for the team. And a Barcelona fan for a long time as well. And Ronaldinho's arrival there did not really dampen my enthusiasm either.

At least Chelsea is playing with a severely depleted squad (Robben and Duff missing), so the game might not be the fireworks everybody would love. But I'm betting it'll be a good game nonetheless.

Frances the Mute, Mars Volta's second album seems to be out. At least roklintu raves about it.

Liked the first album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, a lot. Am expecting even more from this. And was disappointed that no shop stocked this on saturday morning, in blatant disregard of the official release date. Too bad, have to drop by Tunnelin Levy (awful pages, good shop) or Keltainen Jäänsärkijä (very very not so good pages either) soonest to pick it up.

Seems that DC Comics has recognized the value of the Fables-franchise. Great storytelling, rampant intertextuality, believable characters, melancholic longing for a time long past, and it's guaranteed that in the 21st century New York pretty much no-one just gets the princess and half the kingdom.

The upcoming collection Mean Seasons collects issues up an until #33, which I got my hands on last week. And that's the march issue already. In the Good Old Days (before the arrival of the Adversary...), the collections had a lead time counted in multiples of months, not mere days.

And that's not all, seems that success has roused the publisher to propose a hardcover original graphic novel. Looks good. Though I'm not really thrilled about the prospect of a TV-series. In the hands of someone like Joss Whedon it might work, stressing the word might in the previous.

The best Vertigo comic since Sandman. And that's a big merit if I ever saw any. Go buy the first collection, or take a peek at the URL on the top line, they offer bits and bobs of the first issue gratis.

Jason Kottke, about the only high-profile blogger I read has gone pro, that is, left his job and started blogging for a living. And quotes an interview of Neal Stephenson in the announcement.

Bold move, and one I do not see myself taking. This is just a hobby, for odd minutes, some times a week, not a job and not a chore (despite the rather scary appearance rate of new entries lately).

Haven't opened the tube in since wednesday. Seen stuff on other peoples' screens, but mine's been black steadily.

Just a sudden observation. Nonetheless weird. 24 continues tomorrow, so the lack of exposure seems to be capped at six days. Probably the longest I've gone for absolute ages.

Jon Stewart on bloggers.

Should watch this more often on c+. Or at least remember to.

And nope. It's not as good as Conan. But close to. Quite close. And yes, Jon loses the plot, occasionally. But not as amusingly and totally as O'Brien.

But the good point is, both shows are shown with pretty much a day's delay.

Trusted pinball purveyor has his own blog now.

Hunter S. Thompson, the uncrowned King of Gonzo, dead by his own hand.

Busy week at work and otherwise. That's only to be expected after having missed the previous due to flu.

Anyway, here's a slice of this week:

• Lemmy has bought a third pinball machine. Indiana Jones. Tough shots, but good fun. I still suck at it, less than 200M after a score or so games.
• No NHL despite a new round of negotiations.
• Missed NBA allstar game, and the collateral games.
• Finally wireless at Lavonardo HQ. A spare SMC box on loan provides immorally convenient web access from sofa.
• Haven't seen too many movies on the Metacritic's worst movies page. And some do not belong here... Like 8 mm, way better than what the score indicates. Most of the others probably deserve what they get.
• Kipinä seems to be quaintly Kaurismäkiän in its interior decoration.
• Lewis Trondheim's Jussi Jänis is the best new comic since... since... dunno, Fables?
• Saved the city of Bögenhafen.
• Teräsbetoni shows that you can take it one step further from Manowar. The first single's A-side is decent in a slightly cringe-inducing way, B-side not so very good at all.
• Eatz's kaiten serves a decent miso, but hides utterly inappropriate chunks of red bell pepper in some makis. There ought to be a law. Or at least a "creativity"-warning sign.
• Carcassonne got a surprising positive review in a column in Taloussanomat. The publisher, lautapelit.fi hit the resurrection of boardgames perfectly. Apart from their shortage of the basic game. To be complemented by the first expansion's translation next week.
• Both Kaisla and Teerenpeli sell very good wintry stouts. This is not the season of lager and hefeweizen.
• Excel's conditional formatting continues to suck in ways not imaginable. But contrary to initial beliefs, you can do multi-cell references.

So, NHL's cancelled for the season.

Took a surprising 153 days until the parties came to the conclusion that they indeed have irreconcilable differences.

And there's no guarantees that next year will be any different.

And yeah. The blame's fully on the players. After all, they're just over-paid jocks.

Apologies for the evidence being only in finnish. But this is just too funny and sad to pass by.

First, there was this: the Finnish EFF taking a localized net nanny- equivalent program [maximum cluelessness alert] for a spin. With predictable results.

Ok. You'd expect the developer to lick its wounds, and come back with an improved version. Or at least send out a vaporous press release claiming to do so in the near, if not immediate future. But nope... Like Rob Schneider, they decide to take the fight public. Which is never a good choice. As shown by the massacring they're subjected to.

Of course. In the era of pure capitalism, there's nothing inherently wrong in marketing dysfunctional programs whose results fail to resemble anything promised by the glossy advertisements. But using children as leverage to do so is. Wrong, and reprehensible.

Here endeth the sermon. Back to bomb-building and fornication, ye readers of the filty intterweb. Right now. You know you cannot resist its siren song.

Got better. First day at work. Had doubts in a two hour project meeting, but voice held together nicely. Ought to be plain sailing now.

Not totally silent any more. Speaking is now actually quite painless, but the tone is still on the low side. My absolute tonedeafness prevents estimation of quite low exactly.

More Martin. More KotOR. More lazy lounging on the sofa (the little red triangles in antihistamins do work).

Stumbled upon this, a pretty credible subdivision of the US. Quite a few regions I'd probably hate to live in.

Had forgotten how good old Sepultura actually was. And by old I mean "Schizophrenia" from 1987. And by good I mean "unlike the latest few albums, and thus actually very listenable". Had underestimated the quality of the new Apocalyptica record, much better than was apparent on first couple of rounds. And not only the vocal-accompanied tracks, some of the instrumentals on this (like Farewell) rank among the best of their output thus far. Also played too much Pet Shop Boys for comfort. But only as shelled out by the ipod.

boingboing pointed towards a good article about H.P. Lovecraft on Salon.

Yet another blogger dismissed due to extracurricular online outputs.

Showing that imitation is indeed the strongest form of flattery, a cheap replica of the ONE TRUE SOURCE has arrived onto the web [Neither makes any sense unless you speak finnish, I'm afraid].

Noted from Empire that Angelo Badalamenti (yah, the guy behind the uncanny soudscape of most David Lynch's movies) is the composer of A Very Long Engagement's soundtrack. If he hasn't strayed too badly from his old mainstays, this is definitely a record to pick up, one of these days. Still haven't seen the movie, either.

Quite silent. Grocery-shopping mandates some vocal contact, but not much...

No longer any fun whatsoever.
Caused skipping of a good friend's bachelor party. Can't talk, can't participate in lazer tag, shouldn't really walk around in zero-degree weather, can't go to sauna. Yeah, negatives all the way, but I'd rather miss this than the wedding. Small consolation, but a silver lining nonetheless.

More Martin. Updated fishblog.

According to ESPN both Karl "Mailman" Malone and Reggie "No wussy nicknames" Miller are retiring. Miller after a season where he's still put in a good few clutch shots (considering that his proteges are still banned from the court after the debacle in Detroit). But Malone has not seen any action this season - injury (must be an LA curse, he was never hurt in SLC), politics (feuding with Kobe) and now toying with the idea of capping his career in Texas.

Well, the league will be short of two entertaining athletes, that's for sure. Never saw Miller play live, but saw a few Jazz games back in the day and Malone was the king of the parquet, no matter who they played against. They might have lost, and sometimes indeed did, but he was the Chairman of the Board at Delta Center. The gawky russian kid has been putting up good numbers, and he's definitely impressed the merciless Sloan with work ethics. Now with a six year contract signed, AK-47's the cornerstone of this decade's Jazz team. As evidenced by the total nosedive of the performance during his absence (the unlikely victories over the mighty western duo of Phoenix and San Antonio being the exceptions to the rule, of course). And a ring is so much further away than it was in the glory days of Stockton and Malone - if only Jazz'd had a center who could jump more than three inches, they'd taken at least one title in the late nineties.

Not an utter success. Had to do shopping. Had to visit the post office to claim a package. Had to say 'ow' a couple of time at the dentist's office. But probably said less than a percent of words uttered during the course of a normal day. But the voice is still low, very low.

Well, since I'm going to spend the next few days verbally incommunicado, it's time to stock up on good reading. And music. Got plenty of the latter still waiting for a spin (see updated list). I'll play 'em loud to contrast my own silence. Hope that the not-so-well-behaving amp is up to the task.

And no shortage of the former either... I think I'll start with the latest Terry Pratchett, a supposedly classical treatise on character sets, the sole remaining published chapter of George R.R. Martin's saga, and a couple of random comic books.

And picking up a long-dormant game of Knights of the Old Republic. Still the best Star Wars since Return of the Jedi.

And should be ample time to select and purchase the first fish for the aquarium. And to add some more pictures to the relevant blog.

This is how Google Maps works.

A worthy explanation, indeed. One that puts my meager web-knowledge in perspective.

Was too optimistic about getting rid of the flu. Voice went definitely down the stairs yesterday, and was approaching infrasound-class rumblings at worst. Decided that it was time to see a doctor about this (no fever, not that bad a cough, just an occasionally runny nose and a very very low voice).

Very fast examination at Diacor, props to them.

I'm now officially banned from speaking until sunday to give my inflamed vocal cords a needed rest. And got some funky antibiotics to assist in the battle against germs.

A movie ticket expired yesterday, but would've been unable to go watch a movie anyhow. Too bad. But purchasing tickets in nine-paks is good, since it forces me to watch a healthy amount of movies per season.

A good competitor for the mapquests and yahoos of the world. Google Maps. But US and Canada only thus far.

Renders well. Renders fast. And allows scrolling. Would be nice to have scale noted on the maps, however.

This is where I lived '93-'94. It was less gray back then. Must have been the olympics that stole the colours from the neighborhood.

[Probably the least informational entry ever.]
Added a picture of myself on the front page. Consider yourselves warned.

Though no fever any longer. Still feel like #include <bad metaphor>.

The day's absence from providing added value provided the chance to finish Half-Life 2. And what a game it was... Short enough to maintain interest, repetitive enough to allow the player to benefit from experience, and awesome as an audiovisual experience. And considering the lurch poor Mr. Freeman was abandoned in, a third part is pretty much a certainty.

Was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday and even worse today.

And I indeed seem to have developed a nice startup of a flu, there's a fever and all. Despite the rather horrible (humid and clammy) weather this is the first case the whole winter.

Well, this means I can watch re-run of the superbowl at my leisure tomorrow instead of devoting the whole night to it.

Why am I constantly late to news of this magnitude?

Best english comic duo in ages is now set to return to the small screen. Hugh Laurie ought to have the clueless-aspect of Dr. Watson hands down, but Stephen Fry'll probably raise a few eyebrows among those whose fundamentalist views do not permit anyone else but St. Brett to represent the great detective.

Shamelessly plucked from schizoblog: imaginative disrespect on Star Wars fanboys. And some scary fangirls as well.

On a completely unrelated note... It's now been proven that there's indeed a connection between eating too much blini and having a very very slow morning come the next day. Don't hold your breaths waiting for the mathematical model, just trust the empirical evidence.

Started yet another blog. The new one is a project blog at work, and thus off limits to any civilians. Seemed like a bright idea, as there's lots of information to spread, and email is so last millennium as media anyhow...

The two first ones? You're reading the very first right now, and the second documents the setup and life of my new aquarium.

Time to start looking for a replacement for the trusty sony 715...

Second season of Black Books crashes the player. It starts blinking a static number on a familiarly blue hbackground on screen and does not respond to remote.

The other case is my first ever region 4 disc that is not dual-region... Bugger, was looking forward to catching the whole Creature Comforts in longer-than-ten-minutes chunks.