fredart : blogbits

After one of the cordless mice died on one of the machines at the office, i ended up replacing it with the Logitech wireless mouse i was using with my Laptop.  Using a mouse with a laptop is nice, but not as needed as it is with a desktop machine, so the sacrifice was required.  After a while, i did find that i missed having a mouse with the laptop (especially when one of the cats would decide that my lap was a good place to sleep when using said laptop, blocking access to the trackpad - a frequent occurence) so i went looking for a new one and got a Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks.

Yknow, when you have a friggin Wacom Cintiq 21ux, you just don’t get worked up over things like mice, but i have to give some props to this thing.  The mouse i was using with my laptop was a Logitech VX7 Cordless Optical mouse, which is a pretty decent mouse, but there was one irritating problem with it - the USB reciever is nice and small, only 2″ long or so… but when sticking out of the USB on your laptop, it’s just plain akward when using it on your lap.  There is always this constant fear that you will break the thing off, and you have to take it out when sticking it in a bookbag.

The most awesome thing about the VX Nano is the reciever:

Once it’s plugged in it only sticks out of your laptop 2 mm or so.  You seriously don’t even have to think about the damn thing.  Corded mice and laptops were always a pain in the ass.  The LX7 with its 2″ reciever was great, but this… this is cool.

The only gripe i have about it is the forward and back buttons (which i actually use when browsing) are not in the most convinent location (like they are on the LX7) but that’s just taken some getting used to. It is a better mouse than the LX7, the tracking feels more accurate and the weighted scroll wheel feels very natural and comfortable to use (you can have it spin down long pages with a quick rolling flick). It’s a little on the expensive side ($70+/-) but it really is a convinent addition to my laptop… so much so that i got one for Sarah.

It’s been a long time since i’ve done any blogging, ranting or posting, which is silly when you consider how easy it is to post such things these days.  It’s kind of like Kalium said in a twitter response earlier - i’ve got more than enough to blurp about, i just need to start doing it where i’m supposed to rather than just to friends online.  So without further blathering, I’ll put this rather delightful WordPress interface for this particular blog to work.

If you’ve been following MT or reading my blog for any length of time at all, you know that i have some odd and wide ranging taste in music, most of it chosen to either compliment or contrast whatever mood i happen to be in at the time.  I’m a particular fan of various types of Ambient music, running the range from the dreamy, spacey and sometimes kinda silly stuff like John Serrie to the sometimes rather alarming sounds from artists like Infetu and Karjalan Sissit.  It’s really hard to figure out if a particular ambient track or work is going to be something you enjoy or are able to listen to over time because it’s kind of a subconscious listen.  The best tracks are the ones that leave you with the atmosphere and the mood without giving you anything to grasp that sticks in your head and identifies the tune.  Consciously hearing the track as it comes on means that it’s not going to have the effect you are looking for.  You don’t WANT it to grab your attention.

Which is a little dumb if you are creating a track list or looking for stuff to listen to.  :P  I pluck stuff from itunes or amazon or other places quite regularly, but yesterday i picked up download that is something i’ve actually been hoping to find for quite a while: Gas - Pop.  Even better, it wasn’t just Pop, it was three other disks by this guy as well in a ‘box’ set called Nah Und Fern.   Itunes has it, but i got it for a much better price over at bleep.com, a download shop with a pretty specific collection of labels to choose from.

Gas is some earlier work by influential techno artist Wolfgang Voigt who released these works almost 10 years ago (Gas (1996), Zauberberg (1997), and Königsforst (1999), Pop (2000)) but evertime i heard something from Pop on one of the ambient shoutcast stations i listen to from time to time, i would make note of it and try to find it.  Just the other day, when looking at some of my bookmarks on ambient music, i brought up a page on Gas and after poking around for a bit found that some of his work had been released recently on itunes.  Then i came across this CD, and i felt it was one i really should get.  It’s easy on the ears, which just enough structure to it to wander, and it seems to really be saturated with the kinds of moods i am always looking for in ambient music. I’ve listened through a number of times now and it’s definately been worth getting.

Just for the heck of it, i’ll try putting Bleep’s little player here so you can give it a listen.  Lemme know if this thing blows up your browsers

So much for a super quick post.