This new release is a big move on from V1 - because of the scripting capability and allowing MIDI input to control it.

The product now includes a “trans-generative music engine”, which simply means that the addition of scripting and MIDI input to the generative engine has given it a whole new depth. Allowing internal or external direction for a generative music engne means the output can have a much greater sense of structure imposed, and this is helpful to give the music more topology….

I am looking forward to using noatikl to generate alternative harmonisation for some of my guitar pieces. When doing a song, I always try to record my guitar to MIDI. That way, I can have a record of the notes I played, useful if I ever want to try to orchestrate it. Anyhow, I want to take one of these MIDI files and then see what noatikl can compose around it… It is just a case of me getting time to do it.

You can find out more about noatikl here: http://www.intermorphic.com/tools/noatikl/

http://www.mobilegd.com/events/mwc-2008-antix-porting-solution.html

Having seen a few demos in my time, and someone sent me a link to this one. What impressed me about this was how powerful a technology demo it was (from UK-based Antix Labs - http://antixlabs.com. A mobile version of Sim City (a well known branded game) was running on PC, and this was sent via bluetooth to a Windows Mobile phone. OK, so far so good, and pretty impressive.

The game was then bluetoothed from the Windows Mobile phone to a Symbian phone, and then played on that!! Wow!

What I found so impressive, was that this was the binary of a branded C++ game (not a Java game) that ran on 3 different platforms - yep, you heard me, the same binary!! I.e. not a different build version for the operating system. Now, maybe someone has seen a demo like that before, but I never have. You could just see how this could set the mobile gaming scene alight.

OK, a rather homely post to get me started again after a rather long recess (ahem).

I was given the task to put up some new curtains, which meant putting up some new fastenings. I knew full well this meant driling into the lintel (concrete), a job I really hate because I have always found it sooo difficult with the normal drill I have.

Just 2 weeks previously I had put up some other curtains and had to do the same - it took me 2 hours of drilling and cursing to get 6 holes sufficiently deep to get rawplugs into.

I had an old Black & Decker drill with hammer action, and i thought that should work. Nope. It would make no dent in the concrete even with a masonry bit, low speed and hammer action. What I had to resort to doing was to stop drilling, take a hardened masonry nail, hammer that into the hole, and then commence drilling again (and repeat the process many times). I had read of this tip somewhere else; apparently the masonry nail helps chip into the concrete, which then helps the drilling. Well, it works after a fashion, but you need lots of nails (as they bend!).

So, when it came to doing the new holes, I wanted another solution. I went down to B&Q, cos I read on the internet that what I need was a SDS (impact) kind of drill, which would make drilling in concrete possible (if not easy!). However, the price of these started at £30 for the cheapest, which seemed an awful lot of money just to drill some curtain fixing holes.

Well, I noticed a £9.99 Impact Drill 500W in an orange box (B&Q own label I think). I checked the instructions which said it would drill 16mm of concrete, but it was not a SDS drill. I spoke to one of the B&Q staff who said that it would be better than my old Black & Decker, but it would likely mean me using a good number of drill bits, if it worked sufficiently well at all. He said I could bring it back in 90 days if it just did not work for me.

So, armed with that knowledge and knowing there was little to lose, I took a chance, and bought the Impact Drill 500W with a couple of 5mm Bosch special masonry drills, as for that kind of money you could not even hire something…

What can I say? Well, it worked . Sure, it was not like cutting butter with a knife, but it was 100 times easier than the old Black & Decker, which just did not work anyhow. I drilled some pretty decent holes in the lintel without fearing I was going to injure myself (with the B&D I had to press soooo hard just to get nowhere). And I only used the one drill bit for 8 holes (+2 more in the brick).

So, if you have some curtains to put up and need to drill some holes in your concrete lintel (I guess this drill might not work so well for metal lintel), and do not want too spend much, then it is worth giving the B&Q Impact Drill 500W a try - it worked fine for me.