Future of the left

Jan 16, 01:10 PM Future of the left

My intention for this blog is mainly to discuss things to do with freelancing, web design and web usability, but I’m fast starting to realise that it’s going to contain a fair bit of music news and other waffle too…

Now this is a big statement I know, seeing as it’s only January, but I think Future of the left just might be my band of 2008. Made up of ex-Mclusky and Jarcrew members, their debut album ‘Curses’ was released in September but I’ve only just discovered it and my what a pleasant find!

I won’t bother writing much else about them since my sentiments are pretty much in line with whats written about them over at the undomondo and BBC Wales websites, but needless to say I think the album is brilliant and is going to sit quite comfortably amongst the Pixies, Fugazi and Jetplane landing ones already on my shelf.

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2007 live music roundup

Dec 18, 10:45 AM Comment

I’ve seen quite a few web designers write about their top albums and live shows at the end of each year. It’s something I’ve often thought was a nice idea ‘cause it’s a good way to discover bands you might not have heard about (I was introduced to The hold steady from Jon Hicks’ blog during the year) and helps forgetful people like me remember what they’ve seen in years to come.

As this has to have been one of my best years for live music in quite a while I feel compelled to jot mine down too. So here we are (in no particular order):

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Radiohead - In Rainbows

Oct 2, 09:30 AM Comment

Radiohead are releasing their latest album under their own steam, with no record label and no distribution, via an internet download where you choose how much you want to pay for it.

It’s already been well documented and discussed, but whatever you’re take on it, it’s certainly an interesting idea and one that’s sure to generate a fair amount of publicity and get people thinking about the business of marketing music now that the internet is on the scene.

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Side notes

My little sister
Heres a little one-pager I just built for my little sister.

Jakob Nielsen ponders OK–Cancel or Cancel–OK?
Should the OK button come before or after the Cancel button? Following platform conventions is more important than sub-optimising an individual dialog box.

Flight of the conchords
This stuff is Absolute Genius

Web directions south - User experience conference
A full day conference here in Melbourne, focussing on concepts, technologies and techniques for building great user experiences on the web. Can't wait!

Redesigned BBC news site
The Beeb's 'refreshed' news site just went live. Read about what's changed on their editors blog site.