Technology
We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score | iFixit News
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
- I think I might hate iOS even more than Windows, though.
This is why iPads frustrate me so much these days. The hardware is more than capable of running a decently powerful OS, but Apple are insistent on crippling them with a big version of iOS. iOS is fine on an iPhone where the limited screen size means I have no particular desire to do anything too complicated, but the same restrictions on an iPad feel like Apple don't really know how to reconcile what the device can do with not wanting to pull customers away from Macs. I was unexpectedly gifted a 6th gen mini last week which is in front of me as I type and which I'm not entirely sure what to do with.
Technology
We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score | iFixit News
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Yes, they really do. There were a few years of fuckups and questionable decisions, but by and large the devices they make are absolutely solid.
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro at home that's running Monterey via Opencore as well as if it was still supported. Until recently I was using a 2015 MBP that was absolutely faultless. I now have an M2 Air that may have some issues down the line that haven't come to light yet, but it seems unlikely. I have two Mac minis at work, a 2011 and a 2014 that are still absolutely capable for the level of work I ask of them. I'm typing this on one of them.
In terms of iPhones/iPads; I've had 7 iPhones and 5 iPads over the years, and the only hardware problems I've experienced with them have been of my own doing (broken screens, water damage, etc...).
So yeah, the 2016-2019 MacBooks had shitty keyboards and questionable I/O decisions, but otherwise the hardware was absolutely top tier.
And with Apple you can’t choose and pick like with PC. When they decide to try silly things like the touch bar you are stuck with them for years.
This is kind of a weird argument. You can't choose which keyboard you get with any laptop.
Technology
We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score | iFixit News
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
All of this stuff makes me sad. As a long(ish)-time Apple user, it's been sad to see them go full throttle into hyper-capital mode. They're literally the wealthiest company on the planet because they've spent the past twenty years figuring out how to nickel and dime their customers. Hell, even when I bought my first MacBook back in '07, the guy in the Apple Store suggested getting the RAM upgrade elsewhere because Apple prices were ridiculous even then. Everyone knows they didn't go with soldered RAM and storage for the performance gains...
But they make incredible hardware, so I tolerate all that shit, making me complicit in the fuckery.
Asklemmy
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
I won't feel bad for them. Survival of the fittest, isn't it? And I, on my new 25k SirVelo am the fittest, as evidenced by all the KOMs I have. (Which is all of them).
Those KOMs will only be broken by me on next week's 25k SirVelo.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
It would seem that none of their dental surgeries are doing very well, so they have to actually work rather than fuck about online.
United Kingdom
brexiters shit themselves after eu flags waved at Proms
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
Saw an article by David Frost in the Torygraph earlier. I genuinely can't imagine having the energy to get so irate for money about such inane shit.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
opting for the hard copy
I'm in the middle, downloading lossless music to put on my iPod.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
Any new tech that emerges should be viewed as either "How will they use it to scrape all my data?" or "How will they sell this to the military?"
Or both.
United Kingdom
Broken Britain: what went wrong?
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
The Tories.
Music
The Punk-Rock Predator: Anti-Flag suddenly broke up after frontman Justin Sane was accused of rape. Twelve more women have accused the singer of predatory behavior, sexual assault, and statutory rape
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Yeah, fuck this guy. I like Anti-Flag, and Justin did some really good acoustic stuff a few years back, but I guess they’re now added to the pile of music I won’t listen to any more.
It’s a shame for the other guys, but their response was solid.
Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
Ubisoft has quietly pulled Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag from Steam
DJDarren
1 year ago
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97%
I saw my wife playing this years ago, and always fancied having a go, but never got around to it.
So a few months back we got it going so it could stream to our Apple TV and off I went. Spent a few weeks playing it in the evenings and having a nice time.
Then Ubisoft put out an 'update' to it, that broke it completely. A massive update for a ten year old game. Cunts.
So I guess I'll never finish it, because fuck Ubisoft.
Technology
How to make an MP3 player work in 2023?
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
In theory, any MP3 player / DAP that can have music loaded onto it by drag and drop could work with your iPad (assuming you have the means to connect it, of course).
But there are a number of things to consider.
Firstly; storage. Obviously, your iPad doesn't have expandable storage, so depending on the size of your collection, you might run out of space. Using the same method you'll need to connect the player to your iPad, you can hook up an external drive of some description. Files should be able to see it (as long as it's formatted to exFAT or FAT). From there, using Files you can simply drag from one place to another.
However, this doesn't allow you to change metadata or anything. There are apps you can download that will allow you to do it, but it can be a pain in the ass if you've got quite a bit of music.
Finally, there's where you get the music from.
If you buy from somewhere like Bandcamp, then you can download directly to your iPad, though they don't make it easy. You can't buy from iTunes because the app won't let you open them in Files. Torrents are obviously out, so is CD ripping, as there are no CD drivers for iPad that I'm aware of.
So while it's entirely possible to run a DAP with just an iPad, it's kind of a pain in the arse, unless you already have a ready supply of music and it's either already tagged well, or you don't really care about that sort of thing. As others have suggested, it might be just as easy for you to pick up a cheap PC. It doesn't need to have any bells and whistles, just the ability to store music and have some way of managing the library.
Technology
I Used a Game Boy Camera for FaceTime Video Calls in iPadOS 17 and It Was Glorious
DJDarren
1 year ago
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93%
But a million people haven’t done that with an iPad, because until now no iPad was able to receive video input. That’s the point of the article.
Technology
I Made My Own Computer | Let's See How It Works
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
Can it run Doom?
www.macstories.net
This is wonderful.
www.macstories.net
This is magnificent.
Morning Champions, and welcome to another week! What's floating your boat right now? For me, having spent a massive chunk of yesterday sat in the sunshine in the garden playing No Man's Sky, I'm rocking [the 65daysofstatic soundtrack](https://songwhip.com/65daysofstatic/nomansskymusicforaninfiniteuniverse). I've been a huge fan of this band for a good number of years now, but kinda missed this when it came along, because I wasn't then able to play the game for whatever reason. There was a part of my brain that told me that there was no point listening, as I'd be missing much of the context, which turns out to be a load of bollocks. It's a great record on its own terms.
Do It Yourself
Vacuum Cleaner Over-heats and Cuts Out - Can I Fix It?
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
I inherited my Nan's Dyson DC25 when she went to live in a care home. Used it a few times and it was fine, but figured I'd strip it down and give it a damn good clean out.
The fucking thing damn near sucked up my carpet.
It's still going strong now. Had to replace the little nubbin that drives the brush bar a few weeks ago, but other than that it's still solid. Not bad for a 15 year old vacuum cleaner made to modern standards.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
Assistant to the General Manager.
Printmaking
'Tangled' monoprint by David Parfitt
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
What band is this, and are they doom, sludge, or grindcore?
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
I once saw the two eras of Genesis referred to as Boring Genesis and Shit Genesis, and I was never able to fully disagree.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
Kinda confusing when they rebranded as The Folksmen though.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
I went to a number of hardcore punk gigs in the late '90s, where there'd be 8 bands on the flyer, because they'd all take to the stage, spend 20 minutes blasting through their entire 30 song catalogue, then down tools and fuck off to the bar.
It was glorious.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
This is where I am with 65daysofstatic. I'll always have the records up to Wild Light, and I'll always love them, and while replicr, 2019 is too ambient and experimental for my tastes, I love that they're doing what they find interesting and fun.
Kinda the same with John K. Samson, in that as much as I want him to make more music, to reform The Weakerthans and tell more stories, I respect that he's moved on from it for now. All of his records are still there to be heard, there just probably won't be any new ones.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Kid A felt like Radiohead reacting to the enormity of OK Computer by shrinking into a band that no one would want listen to, but it didn't work and they just got bigger.
For what it's worth, I really enjoy both sides of Radiohead. The early, straightforward indie is nice for my nostalgia, to remind me how I felt when I first heard Creep and Street Spirit. Then I still have the newer stuff for when I want to get lost in sound with my good headphones. A Moon Shaped Pool is an intriguing record.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
This can go a number of ways, I think.
You get bands who hold on to their original sound with a vice-like grip, and invariably get kinda stale (I'm thinking Green Day here), you get bands that adapt their sound to their current circumstances and current market trends, who end up getting kinda stale. Then you get bands who just do what they damn well please, and that one is interesting to me.
Ultimately, though, we mostly get the second of those. Bands like Coldplay, whose first few albums are interesting, in a middle-class-dinner-party kind of way, but by the fourth record had hit a point where they needed to keep making money, but maybe didn't have the inspiration they needed to make interesting music. U2, Snow Patrol, Biffy Clyro, and sadly (from my personal view) the Foo Fighters. They churn out records, sell the merch, play the stadia around the world, but the music doesn't move me in any way, not like their earlier stuff does.
But I don't blame them; they're reacting to the world we live in, making music is their career, and they're under contract to bang out a new collection of tunes every couple of years, whether they're inspired to or not. Having said that about the Food though, their latest album is genuinely wonderful, so it's not all bad.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
This is by far and away my favourite of The Cure's, so I was absolutely made up when they started playing it that night.
Thanks for posting!
Technology
Fairphone 5 Released
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
I picked up a 13 Mini back in March, and will ride this bad boy for as long as I can, in the hope that Apple eventually release another Mini model.
So perhaps it’s true that we hold onto our little phones for longer, primarily because we’re waiting for another little phone to come along.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
The house I rent for £1100 a month would cost somewhere in the region of £250k to buy, putting it firmly out of my ability, despite the mortgage payments almost certainly being lower than my rent.
AskBeehaw
What is your "inexpensive" hobby that turned out to be expensive/ you gradually invested lots of money into?
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Kinda the other way around; but when I was 27 I got divorced and decided to go to uni to study radio production with a view to changing my career.
Three years later, I'd graduated with a 2:1 and almost £20k of student debt.
...and all I have to show for it is a podcast that I used to do, because I couldn't find a job in radio.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
"We've got a fucking bassoon. Do Bad Religion have a fucking bassoon‽"
God, I love Mike.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
I've been on a Rise Against kick lately. Can't listen to one of their songs without taking a deep breath and diving right into everything. Recently discovered their acoustic album which sounds wonderful on my Good Headphones.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
So holding on to that 2010 model with a death-like grip then?
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Thank you x
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Yeah, my reaction to losing them is a good chunk of why my wife suggested not getting any more. I don't deal with it very well. I go to pieces, quite frankly. When I took Feegle for his last trip a few months ago, the vet's receptionist asked if I wanted to wait in a quiet room, no doubt because my sniffling and dribbling was putting off the other customers.
But Feegle was adorable.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Of the five we had, Wilbur was by far and away the pointiest of nose, and the most questionable of parentage, but I still loved him. He could yoink a Cheerio like nobody's business.
This was Nac, Mac, and Feegle, at about eight months old, I think.
It was really hard to take good photos of them...
Three years ago my wife and I got three pet rats. A little over a year later, we added two more, and for a brief moment had a lovely little mischief of five happy boys. Then we lost one of the new babies in a freak accident after he got injured during a scrap, then, a few months after that, the first of the original trio left us, and so on, and so on, until today, when the last of the new babies, who was now just over two, passed away. And as much as I try to focus on the happy times, watching them boing about on the sofa, or stealing snacks from us, or just snuggling inside the hood of my jumper and falling asleep, it’s really hard to reconcile that with their short little lives. We recently adopted a pair of 6yo cats, and while they could feasibly spend the next 10/15 years with us, there’s always that nagging doubt that they’ll suddenly develop an incurable illness, and we’ll lose them too soon. But that’s all kinda worth it when they’re asleep on your lap, purring away. Or in the case of the ratties, boggling and bruxing. Sorry if this is a bit maudlin; I’ve just buried Wilbur in the garden, and I miss my little toast-stealing friend. 
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
You're wrong.
sixcolors.com
Good piece here from Jason Snell, and I have to say, I get exactly where he's coming from. I tried to do the iPad-only thing, and was evangelical about it for a good year or so, but in the end got tired of having to figure out workarounds when iPadOS got in the way, trying to do things I knew a Mac could do without complaint. iPads are cool and all, but ultimately they're not (to me) an essential device. Which left me thinking about whether or not I could justify even the price of the cheapest model. And I can't. Not any more. Mostly for me it comes down to the gulf between what I see an iPad being capable of, and what Apple envision it to be. To my mind, if it has the same processor as a MacBook Air, then it should be able to run macOS as well as a MacBook Air does. But Apple is more concerned about product lines eating into each other's profits than it is about making a great device that can do anything. At a stretch, I might consider an iPad mini to use for browsing the web, reading articles and such, but despite how hard I railed against people claiming that iPad was only a device for media consumption, I kinda agree with them now.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
No, it hasn't.
I got a 15" M2 a couple of months back and have been consistently impressed with just how capable this thing is. So with games like No Man's Sky finally making their way to Mac, I figured I'd dip a toe in and see what it can do. In short, I’m blown away. Sure, it’s not going to be challenging the PC Master Race any time soon, and no Serious Gamer™️ will be using one for any pro Call of Duty tournaments, but damn if this thing isn’t a capable device for the casual and patient gamer. Over the past few days I’ve *finally* been able to play Red Dead Redemption, after absolutely falling in love with RDR2 last year. I bought the original for my PS3, which promptly yellow light died on me about fifteen minutes in, so I’ve never actually played it. But now it’s available for Switch, and there’s a perfectly capable Switch emulator for macOS (called Ryujinx, if you’re interested), I’m able to play it. And it runs damn near perfectly. With vsync off, I’m getting around 50fps, with the GPU peaking at about 95°. Now, many would say “so what? You’re talking about a 13 year old game”, and that’s true, but this is a fanless machine. That kind of performance on *any* game would be impressive a few years ago. I’ve also put some time in to No Man’s Sky (the new Mac-native version on Steam), which my Mac handles like a champ. An hour of NMS used about 15% of my battery. An hour on my old 2015 MBP would have used three times that. And going back to emulators; it runs Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD from the PS3 without any major glitches and a decent frame rate. In theory, the same kind of performance should be available from the 13” M2 Air. So for £1k you can get a MacBook that does all the good Mac stuff as well as be a solid little portable gaming device. You can’t argue with that.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
100%
Parts of the US struggle to offer an adequate level of rights to its human residents.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
In theory, Super Mario Bros. on the NES, because that's the first game I really played by myself. But I'm not sure it really is, because at that time video games were just a thing you did, like watching TV. So I never considered myself a gamer as such, just someone who would casually drop in on games here and there. I was never involved in them, I'd just play for a bit, then go and do something else.
Fast forward to a few years ago, and my wife (who plays a lot of games) suggested I play To The Moon, and that got me hooked. A video game that made me cry - amazing.
Since then I've played more games, looking for ones with a great story. Played RDR2 last year, and nothing has come close to it since.
DJDarren
1 year ago
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100%
Well ain't this place a geographical oddity.
DJDarren
1 year ago
•
93%
I remember listening to a podcast that talked of how in the Philippines (I think it was), Facebook is the internet, because Meta/FB effectively subsidised the carriers into allowing FB access to not use up any data allowance. As a result, if all you do is go on FB, you don't pay a penny. If WhatsApp is included in this, then yeah, you're locked in with no real alternative.
Thought I'd see if there were any likeminded individuals around. This is three of my small collection that I have with me at work. The 4G Classic (left) is modded with 64gb, the Mini is 128gb, and the 7G Classic is currently in need of storage and battery. My plan for that one is to give it 512gb and as big a battery as I can squeeze in there.
www.youtube.com
Had a hankering to listen to this yesterday, and have probably spun it a dozen times since then. It's an utter, utter belter.
As per the title, I downloaded [this game](https://www.macbed.com/lonely-mountains/), have added it to my Gatekeeper exemption and disabled SIP and all that, and even though it's added to Steam as a non-Steam game, all I get when it loads is a message saying "Steam not found, please start through Steam client". Does anyone have any ideas?
www.imdb.com
I loved the first season because I'm a huge fan of Pratchett and Gaiman, so was a little nervous that the next series, with no source material to adapt wouldn't hit the mark. But then I saw that Neil had asked John Finnemore to help him write it, and that sealed it for me. No one could replace Terry, but John Finnemore comes damn close. Anyway, season 2 is wonderful, with some beautiful little references to Pratchett's Discworld. Also, I'd gladly watch Sheen and Tennant together in anything.
Morning Champions! Here's our weekly music thread. What are you obsessing over this week? What's new on your horizon? Drop some links and share the love.
www.youtube.com
Easing myself gently into a Monday morning at work by listening to this absolute belter.
Like, the only reason countries exist is because some rich guys decided that they ruled this chunk of land, and everyone else just kinda said "Yeah, whatever, I don't really give a shit, just let me farm and leave me the fuck alone". Then the rich guy on the next bit of land said "I want a bit of what he's got going on", and before we knew it, all the bits of land were ruled by people who's only claim to them was that they were the first to have the idea. Fast forward a few thousand years, and some of the bits of land are ruled by people who wear gold hats and spout a load of bollocks about divine right, while some of the bits of land are ruled by people who convinced the rest of the people to let them do it, and really, there's no difference between, like, France and Spain, but some old dudes drew a line and said "Nah, that bit speaks this version of a language, and that bit speaks another version of it". You ever think about that?
www.youtube.com
If you're in the UK, this might strike a chord once again, but it's always worth bearing in mind.
www.youtube.com
I'm absolutely obsessed with this today. It's 8 minutes long, but I've listened to it a good 10 times already this morning. I've heard the single version dozens of times in my life, and love it enormously, but I've never listened to it on my Good Headphones until today, and by christ the production, and guitars and bass are beautiful. And Kirsty's voice, obviously.
www.youtube.com
In a state of mind where I never want to hear anything but music by Refused for the rest of my banging, shouty life.
www.youtube.com
For me, this is one of those tracks that I can sink into like a big, soft bed, and get lost in its warm folds. Put it on in your best headphones, close your eyes, and let the lads from Sheffield take you on a journey.
This morning I'm mostly grumpy about my ADHD. Firstly, I didn't get around to taking my pill until an hour after I got up, because I straight up forgot, despite remembering as I was pouring my coffee. Then I just realised that I missed a Dr appointment yesterday, because it was made two fucking weeks ago, and despite being in the fucking calendar I can't be trusted to fucking remember anything. I'm particularly angry about that, because it was to review (and hopefully increase) my meds... I'm angry about that because it could have been a sodding phone appointment, but every drs surgery is run by old guys who are massively averse to anything beyond sitting in front of their patients so they can chastise them for being fat. And I *really* want to practice the mindfulness I've been taught, to consider that this is a spiral, and that ultimately no harm has been done, I'll just be increasing (hopefully) my dosage a couple of weeks later. But I'm frustrated that there's so much stuff I have to remember that I just can't. Other people manage to juggle all the needs on them, but I feel like I always fail, or at the very least that I can't be trusted to be consistent.
apps.apple.com
My wife showed me a TikTok last night of a woman talking about this app, and how useful she finds it. I've just installed it on my Mac, and yeah, it looks like it could be pretty helpful. It's essentially just a frontend for Chat-GPT, but arranged in a way to be helpful to those of us with executive dysfunction issues. I'm going to use it a bit over the next couple of weeks to see how good it turns out to be. Let me know if you try it out. It's worth it for £1/$1. (I'm not affiliated with the app in any way, just saw it and thought it might be useful to some people.)
www.youtube.com
This is one of the best songs ever. Discuss.
www.youtube.com
As far as I'm concerned, this is GnR's imperial period.
Howdy, fellow ADHDers. How the bloody hell do you get ANYTHING done at work? My career history has been pretty varied, but I currently find myself as a quality and training manager at a firm that values neither. Because of this lack of defined interest from management above, much of my workload is self-led, and self motivated. Which, of course, means that I do basically nothing. I've been seeing a work coach for the past few months, who is helping to steer my mindset in the right direction, and ultimately it boils down to how easily distracted I am by things I deem more interesting than what I'm paid to do. Which is everything. The one tool that works for me is a website blocker called Cold Turkey, which literally just forces me to not be able to access whichever websites I specify. It works brilliantly, because there's almost no way to override it, not easily anyway. However, the automated actions are part of the paid for app, which I can't currently afford, so I have to manually push the button that cuts me off from all those beautiful distractions on the internet. The anxiety this spikes in me is way more than is healthy... So what tools do you use to try and get shit done?
I know there are a couple of apps already in development, but I kinda want to have a go to learn how to build an app in Swift. So what are some good resources to learn?
www.reuters.com
What are the weird, low budget movies you've been enjoying lately?
Just wondering how many of us are a) Mac users, and b) users of Macs so old that they need OCLP in order to run the latest OS. If nothing else, it might be nice to have a space where we can discuss support that isn't getting lost in the sea of chat on Discord.
www.themarysue.com
I don't know whether this is the right place to post this, but I figured you fine folks might get something from it.
www.youtube.com
For all those Mac owners out there, rejoice that "proper" gaming could be just around the corner. Sadly for me, my 2015 MacBook Pro doesn't support Sonoma, so I can't (yet) take advantage of this. But maybe the folks working on OpenCore will manage to get it working, in which case I'll be jumping all over this.
songwhip.com
Which is something I'm quite surprised I'm saying, because for how perfect the first two records are, every release since has felt less relevant to me than the previous. Unsurprisingly, But Here We Are is an emotional ride, and perhaps it's because I'm kinda tired and emotional today, but the closing track, 'Rest' has got me sitting at work, just wanting to have a little cry under my desk.
www.youtube.com
I've never known energy as much as TV On The Radio throw into every second of this performance of Wolf Like Me for Letterman. To the point that the album version leaves me cold.
mendeddrum.org
For those who are unaware, #AudioMo is an annual event, where every June, people try to publish a piece of audio every day. The audio could be some bird song they enjoyed hearing, or an hour long conversation with someone else about a topic that's important to them. It doesn't really matter. What's nice is filtering the hashtag, then scrolling down through, listening to voices from all walks of life, talking about a vast range of subjects that you might never have given any thought to.
Thought I'd see who's about and whether we could get a thread going on music recommendations from what we're jamming today. I started off with The Presidents - [Dune Buggy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ebeY3zrkvM) as an ear worm, which was very much agreeable.