File Edit View... How to Make Your Mac OS X System Font Smaller!

Since the dawn of Mac OS X, new-to-the-platform users have cried "but the font is huge" followed closely by "can I really only choose between blue and grey?"...

I don't have a solution for the second problem, but I have a sorta-solution for the first one, and it got me pretty excited.

I saw a tip on TUAW explaining how to put the date in the menu bar. This got me pretty dang excited because I always refer there, and up til now had to click to get the date. This tip also has the added feature of allowing you to show the date as numbers, which is great, because usually I have to count on my fingers to determine what month it is.

Anyway, back to the point, by having a date format with this guy "/" in, I believe has caused the system font to be bumped down a notch (presumably to accomodate the date in the menu bar), and lemme tellya, it looks so much better. All the system context menus everywhere are using this slightly smaller font, and all the app menu bars too. I'm so pleased, everything is a tiny bit smaller.

Are you worried? I'm not, clearly this is a weird side effect that could disappear at any moment, and still only gives you one other font size choice (oh, and I haven't tried switching back, maybe it's broken forever). BUT how great does it feel to make a 0.5-point (estimated) change to the Mac OS X system font?


FORKING INCREDIBLY GREAT.

Sounds Good - tracklist 16/08/2008

I do a show on Radio 1 and its tracklists have been on a few different profiles over the years. From now on, they will be here! And potentially with djdownload buy links.

Don't forget you can listen to old and new episodes of the show, as it's a podcast, via podshow aka mevio.

Here's last week's tracklist:
Sleazy-E - How It Looks
DJ Steep - Large oLL (M1 remix)
K.I.M. - Wet & Wild (Riot in Belgium remix)
DJ Sneak - Acid Talks
Nick Supply & Khaled Nimry - Hizniz
Plastikman - Risk Assessment
Cult - Sound of Seduction (Guns & Bombs dub mix)
Afrojack - Hard Love
The Crystal Method - Cherry Twist (Deadmau5 remix)
Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler (Joakim remix)
Grey - Shame On You (Slater Hogan remix)
Crookers - Il Cattivo
Micky Slim ft. Tank - Hit the Club
Relentless - Blitzer Disco
Paul Jacobs pres. Soul Grabber - Motocross Madness
Missoddkidd - Smoke Machine (Dekker & Johan Even Leaner mix)
Elite Force - No Turning Back (Mowgli & Solo remix)
Tittsworth - Broke Ass Nigga (feat DJ Assault, Kenny B, Jinxx &
Frankie Baby)
The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name (LA Riots remix)
Marc Leaf & Drew Scott - Fabulous (Twocker remix)
Sebastien Leger & Chris Lake - Ghost
Soul Of Man - Scatterbox (Mowgli remix)

Thanks to Hope for hooking up the R1 site to here.

NOW TO THE POINT

(thanks for reading this far)

The R1 stream is now stereo and 44.k, i.e. it sounds good!

There was an uninteresting technical hitch causing the previous lack of quality, which I'll detail in a later blog (if you'd like to hear the story, comment!).

UPDATE

(here are the buy links)

Note that not all the tracks above are present and some have been substituted due to catalogue issues. Like, why is "Word" available when "Ghost" isn't, I thought they were on the same EP (oh right, it's from various compilations)? And, looks like MAD DECENT (Crookers' "Il Cattivo") don't put their stuff on djdownload yet..

In there is the track that Missoddkidd guests on, mentioned on the show, not her track that I played.

Buy this stuff - I get 3-5 cents for every purchase!!!

Wonky Promo Mix

Fresh from my rattly decks - the Willy Wonky promo mix!

Featuring local and international talent, combining many flavours of rave, sure to rise etc etc!

Download it, have a listen, and get amped for Sammys on Saturday.

Subscribe to podcast, or stream online here:
http://www.gcast.com/u/haszari/

Or download direct from here:
Willy Wonky Mix

Tracklist:

1. Style Of Eye – The Prophet
2. Tom Cosm – The Sluzziest Of Fuzz
3. Granite & Funk – This Real Life (Ed Kane's In The Horrors remix)
4. Sharkweek – Moonrise Over Kerala
5. Alter Ego – Why Not
6. Speculum – Invader
7. Haszari – Nerds
8. JF pres. Smokecream – Retox
9. Popof – The Chomper (LSD version)
10. Elite Force - Engine

Thanks to those who sorted me with tracks and apologies to those that didn't make it on there..

See you there then!

Tricky Does Great Covers

Tricky has a new album out. No one does breathy, atmospheric, post-trip-hop quite like Tricky (or even approaching the way he does it?).

What's really cool is he's dropped another cover. I may not be fully up with this running gag of homages (hard H thanks) to great songs (can someone tell me if there is one on Pre-Millenium Tension...?), but there is a great rock cover of Black Steel on Maxinquaye. The original Black Steel (+ "In The Hour Of Chaos"), as far as I know, (once again: "prove me wrong, kids, prove me wrong") is by none other than Public Enemy. So it was more of a political/conscious hard-hitting rap track, made over into a sung (of course by Martina), melodic punk track. Nice cover!

So, on the Knowle West Boy, the cover is of one of my favourite pop artists (possibly my number one? the mp3 stats indicate she's well up there), Kylie (Minogue).

The track is a great one, off the Fever album, which was of course a corker when it comes to electronic-pop music: Slow. This is right up Tricky's alley, breathy, atmospheric, sweaty. Of course Martina does most of the vocal but true to form Tricky's there muttering and whispering, breathing down her neck. Great new realisation of a good song. Also nice cover!

Come to think of it, I think the whole (genre) of dubstep owes something to Tricky. I'd wager he was putting out breathy and gutteral and hummy music before Burial was a teenager (?).

Support A Cause - Walking or Cycling (across the harbour bridge)

Yep - I think it's a good idea to have cycle/walkle lanes on the harbour bridge thanks!

Click the thing here to see the getacross site.

Ah am a hungrah zambah

Come be a zombie with me:
www.urbandead.com

Why? Well, mostly because you get to kill the dorks that are playing in the game as survivors and taking it way to seriously. The survivors like to role play by having pretend parties and getting married in game or pretending they are part of some non-existent police department. I think there is even a zoo or something where they pretended they were zoo keepers and animals. These people don't want to play in a zombie apocalypse game, they want to nancy around in animal suits and create a reality where they won't get mocked for it. Yeah, I hate them as well.

So come ruin their fun with me by breaking into their safe houses and eating them, cause I'm really sick of these people shitting up my internet.

(It's completely browser based and takes around 10 minutes a day)

Entered A Contest

I’ve entered a contest to remix Deepcentral’s "Is It Real", a progressive/eastern euro trance track.

I need your help - listen to the remix, let me know what you think, and vote & comment on the site!
Visit the label site to have a listen:
http://contest.e-motionsounds.com/index/userdetail/iduser/315

If you have trouble with their player or site, just head on over to the Cartoon Network DJs myspace, the track is the first one in the player. (and why not check out the other snippets while you’re there)
http://myspace.com/cartoonnetworkdjs
(and/or just complain bitterly to me about the inadequacy of trying to listen to music in shitty little flash/js custom web audio players).

My remix is a deep progressive chugger with a bassline that is a bit of a nod to early Dirty South. I’m quite pleased with it.

Please comment your comments here, at the contest site, or myspace or facebook or email.

Not quite all made with free software this one. More like made with all the software I've tried out recently - this is a 3 & 1/2 platform process.

There's a bit of a story so if you have the time I'll tell you all about it...

• chorded out on guitar


• prototyped in seq24 & general midi on an old Pentium II running linux/debian/64Studio


• "shit, perhaps these vocals I just randomly downloaded for this comp might work with these chords"


• re-prototyped in GarageBand and edited & combined with Deepcentral parts


• chugger bassline added in Reaper (demo) using Phadiz VST plus some bleeps with a VST theremin


• (and finally, the free-opensource part) mixed and more importantly low-end sidechain compressed (I have to do this to everything now) using SC3, jack, jack-rack, Ardour running in 64Studio of course (on my now quite senior Athlon64 desktop, needs RAM, needs RAM)


• and mastered in good ol' Audacity

Cheers, see you at Pop this saturday for some cocktails + banter + beats...