Entries Tagged 'Music' ↓

On the eve of my guitar amp arriving (I have been ampless for years), I had a little fun recording some acoustic with the thought that I may never play it again.

Not playing Stairway to Heaven is a guitarist inside joke. Well, at least it was in 1992 when Wayne’s World was made. Oh, apparently it is still alive and well.

No Stairway on Flickr

Being a software developer and telecommuter, I often have my headphones in. Sometimes, I have to admit, that I get a little bored of the music I have available to work by. Specifically, I have been wanting to find some new music that is a bit downtempo, but still has a decent beat. Vocals might be ok, but they can often be distracting. The main purpose of these tunes are to calm the mind, but also enhance focus. So this morning on Twitter, I put out the call, and these are the suggestions that I received back. Thanks to everyone who responded…much love.

danbenjamin William Orbit / Hinterland
tomwiththeweath - my most productive song to code to is metal grating off of aphex twin vol 2. disc 2. like a locomotive, it has a momentum to it.
m_3 also love an album called Ulysses Gaze for atmosphere
juliegomoll and steveodom consider sigur ros
maddox Thievery corporation, air, zero 7, fischerspooner
tsmyther There is a series on emusic called Chakra Lounge that is just musical enough to be interesting without being distracting.
bdainton and mperham Burial
stevesanderson and m_3 philip glass
technoweenie squarepusher: music is rotted one note, nin: ghosts
peburrows “explosions in the sky” is beautiful coding music
atmos blockhead - music by cavelight
mandoescamilla I’m a big fan of Sufjan Stevens while coding.

Internet Streams:
willie Ambient Popsicle and Jet City Lounge
Silona I like the spy channel on soma.fm for coding too - not that i code anymore these days…
bgl you could try last.fm, tag ambience or trance

Angry Coding Refuses to Be Denied:
efalcao angry coding is the best. the mars volta FTW

Other Ideas:
therealadam Tom Jones, always. Or AC/DC.
courtneypo well I ain’t no coder but I love Ben Folds. Or Jamiroquai.
Purephase May I suggest the ‘Paris, Texas’ soundtrack, Neu! or Satie?

Isn’t Twitter grand? But seriously, if you have further suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Get out your calendar, folks…

This September, I have a proposed itinerary for you telecommuting, Ruby-lovin’, Rails hackin’, caffeine-ingesting bedouins…

September 6, 2007 - Arrive in beautiful Austin, TX and join us for the Intro to Ruby and Rails Charity Workshop before the Lone Star Ruby Conference officially gets underway. We have a surprisingly strong lineup for this little pre-event I am putting together. It’s one more way that the Ruby community is paying back and I am super excited about it.

September 7-8, 2007 - Attend/speak/loiter at the Lone Star Ruby Conference. It’s going to be a great time. We’ve got the guys from ErrTheBlog (and ErrFree of course), the lead developer of RSpec, the author of more Rails plugins than you can shake a stick at, our man on the ground in Dallas who has pants that are helping to raise the number of women at technical conferences, and the multi-lingual and ever knowledgeable Glenn Vanderburg…to name a few…

Here’s a listing of the full speaker lineup. If you haven’t signed up yet, please make a point to register today!

September 9-13 - Hang out in Austin. Do some cafe computing. Drink a few margaritas. Take in the night life on 6th. Head out to Lake Travis. Take a hike in the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Etc.

September 14-16 - Attend one of the coolest outdoor music festivals in the country, the Austin City Limits (better known as “ACL”), which as per usual features a killer lineup this year, including Bjork, The Decemberists, The Killers, Joss Stone, Wilco, Spoon, Indigo Girls, etc. The full band listing is over here.

September 16-19 - Hop on a plane or two to cross the pond to Berlin for RailsConf Europe. That looks to be an amazing show over there.

Now, I reallize that this is only for the true jetsetters among you, but I thought I would put it out there.