Free to download and share is the Music Instinct remix by Blistik & Funkosis.
This remix was authorised by Indabamusic.com and PBS.org to support their new TV show ‘The Music Instinct – Science and Song’.
Music Instinct (FB Remix).mp3 (7.7MB 192kbps)
I’ve just tried to re-install Win XP on my Toshiba Satellite A200.
I kept getting the ” … no hard disk found…” message as WinXP doesn’t provide any SATA drivers (even SP3).
If you’re having the same problem then here are some basic instructions and the Toshiba Satellite A200 SATA Drivers. (If you link to this, please link to the page not the drivers – I’ll be moving the files shortly – thanks)
The only way to install XP with these extra drivers intact is to slipstream WinXP using n-lite. Follow the link and you’ll find the program and all the instructions to do it.
I’ll briefly run through the process I used to extract the SATA files in case anyone finds it useful in future.
I downloaded the SA200 ACHI F6-1017-XP file from Toshiba, it comes as a handy exe which installs it onto a Floppy Disk – of course, like most of you, I don’t use or even have a Floppy Disk drive anymore so it was useless .. until … I found a Floppy Drive emulation program – FileDisk-15, a bit fiddly to use but it does the trick. Of course, running the .exe file from Toshiba couldn’t find the Floppy Emulator so I had to download IZArc a handy little freeware ZIP utility, which managed to extract the .IMA files from the toshiba executable … you following?
Once the .IMA was extracted, it was a fairly simple(ish) task to mount it with FileDisk and copy the files off (to three seperate locations – 2 on my Hard Disks and one on the Interweb – mainly so I never have to mess about extracting them again).
Once they were Slipstreamed into XP using n-lite – I had a happy little A200 that is now freshly installed with XP.
Well, I hope that helped you out and saved you a bit of time.
Carmen and Camille are inviting you to come along for their rise to success. They’ve provided the stems from their previously unreleased track, “Shine 4U”, and want you to remix and re-imagine this song into something entirely new!
In a bold and unprecedented move, the girls have decided to keep the new mixes under a Creative Commons Attribution license, giving you the opportunity to work with the song to create your own success! This means that you can take your unique mix of this song and distribute and share it freely and sell it, as long as you give Carmen and Camille credit. So, come hop on board with this talented duo and bring your remix of their track to the top of the charts!
Check out some of the Carmen and Camille remix submissions or sign up with Indaba to enter the competition.
The Music Instinct Competition has started – we’ve uploaded our entry for the theme.
You can listen to our Music Instinct Competition entry here – Music Instinct (FB Remix).
The Music Instinct: Science and Song, premiering Wednesday, June 24 at 9:00pm (check local listings), is a ground-breaking program that offers viewers a new understanding of the power of music. Music is found all over the natural world and in everyday life experiences. The documentary follows visionary researchers and accomplished musicians, such as Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, Jarvis Cocker, Evelyn Glennie, and Daniel Barenboim, to the crossroads of science and culture in search of answers to music’s deep and abiding mysteries.
This was arranged, mixed and mastered in Ableton Live.
Just finished a new website …
Exclusive Escapes Holiday Homes is the freshest holiday rental company in the South West of Australia.
Selecting only the best holiday homes in Eagle Bay, Dunsborough and Yallingup all chosen for their unique location, facilities and ‘feel’.
Freedom - Eagle Bay Holiday Home
Freedom on Eagle Bay is truly one of the exclusive residences in the South West.
Home on the Bay - Eagle Bay
This exclusive holiday home is located within 150 metres of the white sandy beaches and calm, clear waters of Eagle Bay, kid and picnic friendly Meelup just minutes away, and world renowned surf beaches in each direction.
Bayview - Dunsborough Holiday Home
(photograph by Ange Wall Photography)
A beautifully appointed “award winning” holiday home nestled in peaceful Old Dunsborough, only a 100 metre walk to the beach.
Take a look and maybe come and stay …
This is just a small update to my previous articleStop website enquiry form SPAM.
While my original hidden URL technique worked very well for a while – the spammers have managed to get around it. Whether they can now ‘read’ the CSS to see that it is hidden and therefore ignore it, I don’t know.
Regardless, we’re getting SPAM through that enquiry form again.
So round 2:
I decide to add a clause to the PHP that disallows links in the textarea – my thinking is that if they can’t post links, then it’s not worth them SPAMming you.
Although it took me a while to work out the code, it’s actually really simple …
www (and thanks to kkeith29 of the Daniweb forums) and http: are the strings I’ve decided to search for as it’s unlikely to come up in a normal question.
In english, the code says:
if the letters www or http: appear together in the message box, don’t email anyone and show them this message “Please don’t post links in the questions box – it looks like SPAM and your message hasn’t been sent”.
elseif (preg_match("/(http:\/\/|www)/", $msg)) {
echo "Please don't post links in the questions box - it looks like SPAM and your message hasn't been sent";
Insert this preg_match comment after …
if (!empty($url)) {
mail( “$email” , “[You're tagged as SPAM]“, … See Stop website enquiry form SPAM for the full code.
Again, I hope this one helps you out and keeps your inbox a bit cleaner.
Free online storage seems to be available everywhere these days.
I regularly use DropBox for syncing files between diffferent locations and I’ve recently signed up with Orbit Files.
Orbit Files are offering 6GB storage for free, all they ask is for your email address and Full Name – not bad!
What’s new you ask?
Well, the main draw for me was the ability to have files accessible privately, by friends you invite or available to the public.
There is also the option to sell your files online for a very small 2% commission.
Ok, Ok … I know!
I have done it, but I’ve been too busy making music to write about it – It’s coming, next weekend at the latest.
Puppy Art: The stick graveyard
This was the sight I woke up to this morning at 6am …
Two Blue Heelers sleep in here – not sure where…
Overview:
I’m running Ableton 7.01 on my main PC, (Pentium Duo 3.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 1.75TB Disks, 250 SATA II specifically for Ableton, Built in (crap) Soundcard, Win Xp SP3), it runs pretty well. I haven’t (yet) sprung for a decent set of Active nearfield monitors so I’m using a fairly bog standard set of 5.1 computer speakers with subwoofer. Obviously that not ideal but as long as you are aware of their limitations, you can still do a fairly decent mixdown.
I’m looking to do some live sets with a DJ friend and with a view to that, I bought a Laptop. Cash was limited but for $1000 (AUD) I picked up a Toshiba Satellite A200 (Pentium Duo 2GHz, 2GB RAM, Vista Home Premium SP1, 150GB built in Disk, on board Sound card).
Optimising Vista laptop for Ableton Live
Bear in mind, I’m writing this as I’m doing it, the order in which I do things may be less than efficient … 
I’ll try and come back and re-order it later (if I’m not too busy playing with Ableton)
Part 1 is basically just about speeding up Vista, if you’ve already got Vista running quickly then move on to Part 2: Optimising Ableton Live! on Vista Laptop (link will work when it’s written).
1. Hard Disk
As I’m stuck with the internal for the moment, I enabled “Write Caching” and “Advanced Performance”.
can be found if you right click your hard disk in Explorer, choose “properties”, select “Hardware” tab, highlight the disk, click “properties” button, choose “Policies” tab and tick the boxes.
2. New profile
Setting up a profile to be used solely for music seems an obvious start, I won’t be sending emails/ editing photos / writing blogs mid set (unless no-one turns up) – so there’s a lot of programs which can be removed from this new profile and services I can stop.
How to create a new Vista Account / profile…
Start Menu > Control Panel > User Accounts > Manage Accounts > “create a new account” link
Enter the name (”Ableton” in my case) and give it Administrator rights (you need Administrator access to be able to change running services etc)
Click “Start Menu” choose “Shut Down” then choose “Switch User” Open your “Ableton” account and enter password if you put one in.
Be prepared to swear when you realise that Vista has started with Aero, Sidebar and all that other crap you disabled when you first turned it on! (at least I can give you instructions on how to disable it all now).
3. Disable all unnecessary, resource hogging, services, applications, animations in Vista.
Any external links will open in a new window
Disable Aero in Vista (I chose Windows Standard)
Change Start Menu -Right click Start Menu button and choose “properties”, select “Classic start menu” (I disabled the two “recently opened options too), click “Customize” and set your menu up as you’d like.
Disable Vista Wallpaper – right click on desktop, choose “personalise”, click desktop background, choose “solid colours” from the drop down box – pick your favourite colour (desktop wallpapers only take up a small amount of memory, but if you don’t need it don’t use it).
Remove optional and (maybe) unnecessary components
Disable Windows Sounds – Right click on the Desktop, choose “Personalise”, click “Sounds”, choose “no sounds” in drop down box.
Turn of UAC (User Account Control)
Speed up Vista with ReadyBoost I can’t confirm if this has made much of a difference, but if you have a spare memory card / USB drive then it can hurt. (Don’t go out and buy one on my say so though).
Stop an Application from Running at Startup in Windows Vista – Easy way to stop unnecessary programs like anti-virus, bluetooth manager etc starting up on your music profile.
Speeding up Vista Summary
OK, after restarting in your “Ableton” profile, your vista laptop should be running as quickly as it can with minimal services running.
The next part of this post will (hopefully) help you optimising Ableton Live! 7.01 to run on your Vista laptop.
I’m hoping that some of you out there can add to this post. I’m not super experienced with Vista, so any extra advice / ideas – please let me know. The ones that work well will be edited into the post (with credit if I remember).
If you’re lucky enough to have friends like mine, you will just have had a large plate of freshly baked warm scones with Jam and Whipped Cream put in front of you – so sit back and enjoy!
