Home of DJ and technophile Jonathan Puddle (aka J Puddy)
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Gabe Newell deserves to be on top
02 months ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
Gabe Newell’s Valve “gets” gaming like very few others. Here are but a few examples:
- They made Half-Life (enough said)
- They made Half-Life 2, and they gave us the gravity gun at the start of the game, rather than holding out on it till the end as some kind of nonsense reward for playing through their game.
- They released Portal, after buying the developers who made the original Narbacular Drop
- They only release games when they’re ready. Sometimes that takes a looong time, and sometimes, not so much.
- They developed Steam, which has changed gaming forever.
Gabe says that piracy will not be cured by price reductions, but by improved services. As someone who lives in Finland, but would consume North American content by choice, I can tell you that he’s right on the money. iTunes store? Location restricted. Netflix? Geographic restrictions. XBox 360 media content? Restricted. Beatport DJ downloads… geo restricted. And the list goes on. I’m keenly aware that these limitations are put in place by the publishers and copyright holders of the content, rather than the distribution channels. But when push comes to shove… if pirates are offering a product in region x, that cannot be had by legitimate means, then it’ll be had by piracy. And this isn’t even a lost sale! There never would have been a sale in the first place, because of the regional restrictions, so your cost analysis is wrong.
“Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customer’s use or by creating uncertainty.”
Valve get this, and so they’ve built Steam with that in mind. My hat is off to these guys, pretty much all the time. If publishers and copyright holders could get it in their heads that people actually do want their content, and are happy to pay for it, then we’d all be a happier bunch.
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3 months ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
Last year my midi controller was damaged, and so I did a bit of mixing in software only. I sent it off for repair this year, and after months off hassle it was finally fixed. To avoid frustration (because I couldn’t use my gear), I decided not to listen to dance music this year. My neighbour, who is a fantastic music snob and art historian helped me immensely, plying me with music from Midlake, Bon Iver, My Morning Jacket, Sister Flo, and more. It’s been a great year of music, but I almost forgot how much joy dance music gives me. I started dipping my toes back in a month or two ago, and now you finally get to enjoy another Beatitudes mix.
All the wisdom in the world
25 months ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
Late last year, I stumbled upon the blog posts by Julien Smith and Dave Fleet, preaching the benefits of a regular reading plan. Julien had taken on the challenge of reading a new book each weak, for all the weeks in 2009. Dave felt that 26 would be as much as he could practically manage, and so he forwarded the challenge on. Twenty-six books a year equates to roughly 20 pages a day on average, and I decided that I’d take up the challenge. (more…)
New MIDI mappings for Traktor Pro and Numark Stealth Control
26 months ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
The Load Track button for Deck B broke on my MIDI controller about 8 months ago. After a whole lot of hassle, I’ve finally got the controller back, fully repaired. This week I’ve remapped the layout to better reflect what I’m using Traktor for at present. It’s fairly simple, but quite a bit more effective than my last one. The Pitch Bend buttons have been re-purposed to jump to cue points, or to change the loop length when a loop is active. Cue Play resets the loop length to 4 beats. Download the TSI here (may need to right click and Save As).
King David – Streaker, rapist, hero
29 months ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
King David enjoys status higher than a lot of Christendom and Judaism’s other heroes and figureheads. Even Jesus is called the Son of David. I’ve been thinking recently how much this exposes flaws in modern Western Christianity. Somehow, King David managed to be the only person in the Scriptures that God said was a man after his own heart. Countless books have been written about David, or following the model of David, or otherwise encouraging a Davidian element in our lives. Obviously he is venerated and held in hugely high regard. And yet, we know that in a moment of passionate love for his God, he ran naked and nude down the main street of town. We also know that in a moment of passionate lust, he raped a man’s wife and then murdered her husband. Rock on! (more…)
Fixing a sliding door jam on a Toyota Lucida
01 year ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
Today is January 1st, 2011. It’s the first day of a new year, and so I set about doing something I had never done before: car repair. James recently flattened the battery on my mum’s van, and after recharging the battery the sliding door doesn’t open anymore. A quick google search told me this was a common problem, so with a few helpful tips from others on the web, I got going (if you’ve ever posted anything about a Toyota Lucida, I probably read it… THANKS!). If you find yourself in a similar predicament with this van, here’s how to fix it.
- Start by finding a thin cloth or piece of fabric, and run this around the door handle (on the inside). The door handle must be removed before the door panel can come off. There’s a small ring that holds the door handle in place, and teasing around the door handle with some cloth will eventually catch it and pull it loose. It looks like this:
- Now look for a small screw inside the door lock switch, it’s angled upwards so you may need to look from below. This can be unscrewed, the plastic enclosure around the lock can be gently pried off. Next, go to the back end of the door, and look for 2 snap clips (I don’t know what they’re really called), that hold the door panel in place. To remove these, you simply push in the center piece, and then the whole thing will slide out. There are two of them about a foot above one another.
- Now you can gently but firmly pull the door panel off, going slowely around and pulling at the edges. There are latches inside that will pop loose as you tug on them. The whole panel can be removed and put aside. Once that is off, you’ll see a plastic sheet covering various electrical components. This sheet is for water-proofing, I’m told, and it’s stuck on with a gooy adhesive that can be gently pulled off. It should remain sticky and you can just stick it back against the door after (or tape it if it looses its stick).
- The black tubular thing is a solenoid, a motor that powers the electrical door catch/release. This is the source of the problem, as with a power outage to the van it has gotten out of sync with the car’s electrics. You need to disconnect the connector with the red + red/blue wires, this is the power source feed. Disconnecting that partially isolates the solenoid, and allows you to hit it with power, in the next step.
- This step requires you to have a car charger OR a spare battery OR long enough jumper cables to run from your existing car battery. Your goal here is to fire the solenoid, so you need to provide 12 volt power into the solenoid and get it to manually fire, which will then get it in sync with the car. I had a car charger, and found some wire from a broken bicycle light. I stripped back some wire, attached one wire to each of the red and black alligator clips from the charger (you can do this with any wire, and potentially with your jumper cables to the car battery), and then I taped off the exposed metal from the clips with electrical tape, just to be careful.
- Turn on the charger/connect the battery, and carefully connect the red cable from the battery/charger into the solenoid plug, on the red side (look at the solenoid end of the connector and you can see the cable colours). Touch the black to the other wire inside the connector, and the solenoid will activate (you’ll hear the familiar mechanical noise). You’ll need someone else to help you, as at the moment you activate the solenoid, the door needs to be pulled open. Don’t leave the power activated on the solenoid for longer than necessary the pull the door open.The door should now be opened. Slide the door towards closing it just enough to reconnect the solenoid. Now try carefully closing the door again (carefully because you’ve got exposed electrical gear). The door should catch and you should hear the mechanical close noise, and then you should be able to open it again successfully. Congratulations, you’ve fixed the problem :) Now re-attach the plastic sheet, re-attach the door panel, the lock covering, and the door handle. The metal clip slides back around the door handle plastic and the two inward pointing parts of the clip slide into the holes in the handle, which will then clasp onto the handle pole. Well done.
It’s 2011. What are you going to do this year that you’ve never done before? I have a goal of reading 26 books this year, which is roughly 20 pages a day. After this successful job I think I’d like to read a book on car repair, especially seeing as I bought my first car in October (a ’96 Ford Escort).
Happy new year, folks.
The keys to happiness
11 year ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
We had a party yesterday to celebrate and bless our son Ruuben, who was born in June. We packed over 30 people into our place, plus 8 or 9 kids under the age of 3 and had a crazy fun time. As you can imagine with so many people (and my acting the part of host), the time I had available to talk with people was minimal. And yet, I feel substantially closer to quite a few of the people that joined us yesterday. I didn’t specifically spend any more time with these folks than others, but something about the act of sharing with them has really pulled me closer to them. I know a few of them feel the same way, as we received a really touching text message from someone today who was deeply impacted by the event yesterday. Deeply impacted by us sharing our food, our time, our home, and inviting them to join us on the journey of raising our son(s) together. I’ve been thinking about it pretty much all day today, even before we got that message; how blessed I was by the company of friends.
I think it fitting then, that I read a post by my friend Sarah today. She is attempting to relax more in life, something I wish her all the best at, and she linked to this great TED talk on finding a global happiness index. At the end of the talk the host addresses 5 points that he believes lead to greater satisfaction and happiness in life:
1. Connect
2. Be active
3. Take notice
4. Keep learning
5. Give
Yesterday was all about connecting. Today I feel the residual warmth of yesterday’s hours with friends, just as strong as the residual heat from a fire recently extinguished. It’s powerful. I know from my own life experience that the other 4 steps are equally important.
Point #2: Tomorrow night is squash night.
Point #3: I’m “working hard” to take an actual break from work these days, usually spent on my balcony reading and enjoying the view, noticing the seasons and the sounds. I need to read a little less sometimes, and just take in the view a little more.
Point #4: Maija and I are reading a fantastic book together before bed, The Kosher Sutra, which is all about rediscovering passion for life by uncovering a greater eroticism in the bedroom. I am learning a hell of a lot.
Point #5: We did some of this yesterday, but this is honestly something I am struggling with at present. There is not a lot of time left in the day, after work and kids… I tend to feel quite selfish with what little time I have to myself. I would like to find more opportunities to give in a greater variety of ways.
I recite these not to toot my own horn, but to show it’s really not a hard list to pursue. I’ve lost the inspiration to write anymore though… so watch the video and take it easy.
Ruuben Levi Eelis
01 year ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
Was born on Monday! What an awesome little dude he is. Maija has written a story about it already, though she’s still in the hospital.
A hunger to write
31 year ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
Over the last few months I’ve been developing a hunger to write again. Having a young family hugely impacts the time you have available for hobbies and personal fulfillment, so I’ve been trying (and generally failing) to make wise choices with the time I do have. God has provided for us in 3 awesome ways with a specific project that is consuming almost all of our evenings, at present.
The back story, is that our good friend Dave was approached to have his master’s thesis published as a book. A thesis and a book are two different things, and significant editing of the original would be required to make it more approachable, and slightly shorter. Having just moved to a recently earthquake ravaged country, he asked Maija and I if we would consider taking on the editing of his thesis. We were very honoured to be asked, and graciously accepted. We’re now a couple of days away from completion, so I’m taking a moment of repose.
Here are the 3 ways that God has blessed us through this:
- We had recently been impressed by some friends who lent their personal expertise to some other friends for a project. Maija and I agreed that we wanted to be the same kind of people, and asked God for an opportunity. He provided!
- I’ve been itching to write, and this provides me with an excellent opportunity. In the division of work, Maija tackles the high level concepts and ensures that we’re tossing out and keeping the right things. She’s the Masters student who studied discourse analysis, so this is exactly her speciality. That then leaves the rewording and paraphrasing to me, which is exactly what I want. God is good.
- This is a paid gig, so it provides a nice little bonus for our work. We would honestly have done it without pay, due to the above 2 factors, but I’m not going to deny that this is a blessing also.
Once this project is done I really want to start a new writing project myself. I feel there is some momentum behind me… and I really don’t want that to die. Editing existing material is really a great way to get going though… a blank slate can be a terrifying thing. If anyone else has some interesting in collaboration writing, let’s do something!
Also… I’m reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s great!
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