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OFFICIALLY MOVED

You heard it: my full Web site is online.

www.lanxon.co.uk

Visit, bookmark, and be excellent to each other.

Weirdest. Press release. Ever.

Computers are increasingly being used by those seeking sexual thrills and this use is helping inspire new and innovative technologies, according to a cybersex expert from University of Portsmouth.

Dr Trudy Barber is delivering a lecture on the subject at a Royal Society of Medicine ‘Sexual Pleasures’ conference this week in which she will explain how fetishism and deviation in sexuality are helping change the way people use new technology and can even influence the invention of new technology. 

Dr Barber, an expert on cyberspace and sexual subcultures, has spent years researching how people’s sexual choices help shape new technology, including the internet, which she likens to the development of video players which brought pornographic films into the home in the late 1970s. 

“People are inspired by their own sexual inclinations which results in some innovative uses of technology,” she said.  

“Nothing shocks me now although I¿m frequently surprised at how ingenious people are in order to obtain sexual satisfaction.”

Dr Barber defines cybersex as computer mediated sexual contact or technologically mediated intimacy.  This can mean anything from phone sex to someone literally being wired up to a personal computer server through which others in cyberspace can access and give sexual pleasure. 

“Computer technology touches so many aspects of our lives it’s really not so surprising that it would infiltrate and influence our sex lives. In contemporary western society sex is for pleasure and for entertainment and computers will have an increasing role to play,” she said.

Her talk aims to bring a wider recognition of sexual lifestyle options to doctors and sexologists who are trying to better understand more contemporary sexual practices.

Dr Barber’s research has led her to internet sites such as Second Life, an internet-based virtual world where ‘Residents’ assume an alter-ego called an avatar to interact with each other online.  She has found that people there are quick to adopt the sexual practices from their regular lives into their second life. 

She said: “The role of deviation as a key to innovation must not be overlooked as it will contribute to our understanding of new intimacy, culture and the future of developing information and communications technologies.”

Dr Barber lectures on Media Studies, Cybercultures and Social Theory courses within the University’s School of Creative Arts and Media (SCAFM).

Microhoo!, don't ruin my photos

My main concern over the MS-Yahoo! merger, is what will happen to Flickr. Flickr is one of my favourite websites and certainly one of the most useful. I just dread seeing something like Microsoft Live Photo replacing the beloved Flickr logo.

Encoded Episode 10: We Are Scientists on dating and dogs

You can catch episode 10 of Encoded, over on CNET TV right now!

In this week’s Encoded we’ve got the new video for We Are Scientists’ latest single ‘After Hours’, a brand new video from Welsh superstar Duffy and free downloads from the original laptop poet George Pringle and electroheads Various Production. And if you fancy a night out on the tiles, Late of the Pier have just announced a 20-date tour, and they’ll also be on the bill for this year’s Dot to Dot festival. Click play for all the details.

Also, please spread the word and feel free to leave a comment.

Interview on BBC Radio Five Live

If you’re up that early, catch me live on BBC Radio 5 Live tomorrow morning at 5:30am. I’ll be discussing the digital music download industry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/

My new, updated Web site

For those of you reading this - and I’m aware that the figure hasn’t quite reached triple figures yet - I’m relaunching this blog as a more websitey sort of thing, with a new blog as a front page. Same address (lanxon.co.uk) but instead of redirecting to my temporary Tumblr blog, it’ll be a proper site with a whole bunch of my drumming videos, live shows, studio recordings and a bunch of assorted stuff I’ve written and recorded over the last three or four years.

It’ll be a few weeks until it goes live but I must admit it’s looking quite lovely.

Stay tuned! 

Updated Encoded Ep. 9 Link

I accidentally reposted the link to last weeks Encoded in my previous entry. The correct link is here.

Encoded Episode 9: Nick Cave digs like Lazurus

You can catch episode 9 of Encoded, over on CNET TV right now!

Nate Lanxon returns with the first Encoded of 2008 and brings a bumper hard drive full of audible goodies both old and new. Aussie writer, actor, singer and full time lord of darkness Nick Cave brings us his latest video; 90s hip-hop legend Guru resurfaces with a new album of smooth jazz-inspired beats; and rising hardcore punk stars Gallows bring news of a new album and single.

Also, tell your friends? They’ll think you’re cool.

I'm on ur red planet, confusin nurdz

I want to believe, but I just can’t. Maybe it’s my poorly stomach halting my imagination, or maybe it’s my natural pessimism. For whatever reason, I can’t fully believe this is anything more than a trick of the light, despite badly wanting to. 

British newspapers went crazy Wednesday morning about an image from Mars that appears to show a humanoid figure descending a shallow hillside.

The “alien” is actually a blurry detail in a huge panoramic photograph snapped on the edge of Mars’ Gusev crater by NASA’s Spirit rover in early November, and posted on NASA’s Web site on Jan. 2.

Full story 

The Vibrator: Originally a doctor's tool [SFW]

Mention vibrators, and most people think of women’s sexual pleasure. But that was the furthest thing from the minds of the male doctors who invented them more than a century ago. They were more interested in a labor-saving device to spare their own hands the fatigue caused by treating “female hysteria.”

http://www.tbd.com/content/article/basic_article.article:::love_life_history_vibrators 

A revived love

For Xbox Live, that is. After having fixed yesterday’s sign-in problems, I ended up playing Gears of War on co-op mode over Xbox Live with Phil in Bakewell. I didn’t have any plans for my Saturday but playing Gears over the Net in one sitting turns out to be an excellent way to spend a few hours.

Xbox Live hates me

For the first time in ages I just plugged my 360 into the Internet. I try and sign into Xbox Live. After being given an error saying my account was suspended after a failed payment, the console restarts. I now see my 5250 gamerscore has gone down to 4500.

That was my first complaint.

So I wanted to renew my gold membership anyway, and proceed to the Dashboard to update my payment options. It asks me to sign in. Odd, since I was already signed in. So I sign in, the Dashboard blades briefly change colour back to my custom settings, then all of a sudden they change back to the default and I’m asked to sign into my Xbox again. This is before I even get chance to sign into Xbox Live.

Repeating the process just repeats the above paragraph. Basically, if I want to sign into Xbox Live, I’ll have to be satisfied in not doing so, AND being logged out of my offline profile.

Maybe, I think naively, I can pay online and it’ll sort this error out. Off I go to buy a year’s Xbox Live gold membership and… what? Redeem code? What code? I don’t have a redemption code, I just want to pay with my credit card. Apparently no clicking of the BUY NOW link will let me pay.

Finally, I try and access my account through Dashboard again. Signing in appears to take……. well, I wouldn’t know, since it’s still saying it’s signing in. At least this time it’s not also signing me out.

What the hell is going on is anyone’s guess, but in the process to trying to pay for a membership three different ways I have a) no membership, and b) 700 fewer gamerpoints.

Safe to say I’m feeling less happy about trying to use Xbox Live now I’ve lost 3 months of gamerpoints without even being able to download a demo of the game I was considering buying.

If anyone knows what in the hell is going on, I’d be very grateful.

Merry Unhappy, But Happy

I’ve got home from my parents’ just now. I’ve had a fantastic birthday, Christmas and New Year. I was with my small, but entire family, Patti’s family, my cats and my friends. In fact, I enjoyed my two-week break so much I’m sitting here in my house in London feeling genuinely home-sick. It’s the longest I’ve spent visiting the family since I moved from Buxton and I think it had a very moving effect.

Of course, I’m sure it’ll pass while I’m in Las Vegas for CES - something I leave for the day after tomorrow - but it’s nonetheless on my mind that despite having everything I could possibly want right now, I miss my home town to the extent that I didn’t want to leave today.

I’ve got loads of photos to upload soon, but I’m going to do them over a coffee in the morning.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you all and I hope you’ve had as good a time as I have.

Nate

Encoded Episode 8: Darkness falls on These New Puritans

You can catch episode 8 of the Encoded, over on CNET TV right now! 

This week’s episode of Encoded sees some great new music from Essex of all places – we’ve got a dark new video from These New Puritans as well as an excellent free track from Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – both hailing from sunny Southend. Also free to download this week is the title track from House of Brothers’ latest EP, and we look forward to Emmy the Great’s debut long-player, due in February.

Also, tell your friends? They’ll think you’re cool.

Next for Apple: Lossless iTunes Store

I’ve just written about why Apple developed its own lossles audio codec, and why I’m certain the iTunes Store will start offering lossless audio downloads within the next 12 months.

With the current state of the music industry, innovation surrounding music consumption is vital. iTunes is not only the solitary music store capable of successfully monetising lossless downloads (due to its integration with iTunes/iPod), but it’s also arguably the only one with a company behind it that will push for innovation until it’s blue in the face.

Linky: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/natelanxon/0,139102300,49294808,00.htm 

Guitar Hero doesn't discourage musicianship

Just written an article for this week on CNET about how, as a musician, I don’t feel Guitar Hero destroys musicianship in the ways a number of people, including South Park, claim.

It’s not the first time I’ve heard people claim that Guitar Hero discourages the learning of a real instrument. But these games are really just about rocking out to some popular songs, and can never replace creativity. They actually act as an encouragement to learn the real instrument and express yourself, and as a musician I don’t think that sucks in the slightest.

Linky here: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/natelanxon/0,139102300,49294722,00.htm 

Encoded Episode 7: Kate Nash just wants your kiss

You can catch episode 7 of my new music show, Encoded, over on CNET TV right now!

Nate Lanxon is back to bring you another big, fat music rundown – this time we’ve got fresh new videos from Kate Nash and the White Stripes, free tracks from the Super Furry Animals and Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and new releases from hotly tipped Crystal Castles and Kotki Dwa. You really would be a fool to miss it.

Also, tell your friends?

Enter Shikari, Bad Underoath

I gave them a chance. I bought their album. I’m hearing bad versions of what Underoath have been doing and subsequently giving up doing for years. Take away the trance music from the background that’s so key to these songs, and you’ve got material many bands have been doing and subsequently giving up doing for years.

As a musician, not impressed. 

Would Aristotle appreciate microSD cards?

I’ve written a piece this week on CNET about my appreciation of microSD cards, and how I consider them magical in the same way ancient philosophers were amazed by magnetism.

I’m now the proud owner of a Nokia N95. It has a slot for a microSD cards and supports cards up to 4GB in capacity. microSD cards measure 15 by 11 by 0.7 mm, and weigh about 1g. On this tiny sliver it’s possible to concurrently store about three DVD-quality movies, 250 music tracks and about 800 digital photos. Assuming the average book has 300 pages, in 2007 something the size of a human fingernail can store close to 15,000 books.

Read here: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/natelanxon/0,139102300,49294632,00.htm