Bigbro's foray into the scary world of blogging
28 01 2008
I've started heading along to a slow session in the Seamus Ennis Centre, in Naul. The idea is that I play tin-whistle there, instead of guitar, thus forcing me to learn and practice the melody instrument.
The idea of a 'slow session' is that tunes are played at a slower and rather more stately pace, often repeating the secions more often as well, such that musicians get a chance to learn and practice, rather than perform. Since I tend to learn music by ear anyway, this suits me perfectly - and any notes that I can't manage to decipher after three runs through a tune can be researched on thesession.org, a tremendously useful resource for Irish traditional sheet music.
I've taken the liberty of installing lilypond on the new laptop as well, so I've no excuse not to get back in the habit of writing up my own arrangements of traditional pieces as well.
posted at: 00:34 | path: /music | permanent link to this entry
I've splashed out on a siny new laptop, and after much deliberation, went with a Dell D430 ultraportable. The screen is 12.1" but boasts an impressive 1280x800 resolution, and it appears to support Linux (Ubuntu) reasonably well. Sound, video, trackpad, 802.11g wireless and bluetooth all appear to work without problems, though strangely enough, the 'Wifi' LED on the front panel doesn't light under Linux to tell me it's enabled.
The only issue I've hit thus far has been the 3G/HSDPA modem installed, which appears to be a 'Novotel' rather than the well supported Hauwei E220. Hopefully I'll have some time to poke at this in the coming weeks and see if I can make it work. Updates (if any) will be posted here.
posted at: 00:27 | path: /technical | permanent link to this entry
