Cogs can think.

Whether you hook up your TV via digital connections, analog connections, or both, you are unlikely to detect any difference in picture quality between a cable with a moderate price and a luxury brand. The only difference you’re likely to notice is how the cable looks behind your TV.

It didn’t take me a test to figure that obviousness out. My entire audio/video/television system is digitally connected via optical audio cables and HDMI, and I’ve always specifically told the sales people to more or less shove their nonsense up their asses and give me the cheapest HDMI/optical cables they had in stock. I told them the same thing when I was hooking up my parents’ brand new A/V/TV equipment - cut the crap, and give me your cheapest cables. I’m not going to discuss this with you salespeople, because you’re wrong.

The only justifiable reason to pay 130 EUR for a HDMI cable is that the cable overall is sturdier, and will last longer. However, for picture and audio quality, it doesn’t make a single goddamn difference, and if you still claim that it does, you’re thick and a thief of your own wallet (as we Dutch say).

Kind of like all that UFO nonsense. I saw one, so they must be real! No, let’s just follow Occam’s Razor, and take the simpler explanation: you’re just an idiot.

Several small things.

I have a new main desktop computer, built it myself from hand-picked parts. AMD Phenom X4 quad-core processor (4x2.2Ghz), 4GB of gaming RAM from Geil (whatever the hell gaming RAM means), and a fancy motherboard that can connect the on-board graphics chip to a discrete one via SLI. Also bought a red Asus case and a power supply picked because it was silent. It’s a blazing-fast machine now, and I’m really happy with it.

It set me back a mere 320 EUR. I forgot to order cooling paste, so I quickly drove to town to buy a tube of the stuff, and as I walked by the Apple store and noticed the prices, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

I also have a new job. I can’t say much about it, but it’s nothing fancy. I’m quite happy with it, in any case. This new job does mean more time for OSNews, which is always a good thing.

I bought This Is Alphabeat today, Alphabeat’s debut album. Great stuff.

Last night’s new Battlestar Galactica episode kicked major ass. Awesome stuff.

That will be all.

I’m not a Green Day fan, but for some reason, those guys have a couple of songs that really stick with you.

One that I particularly like is “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”. The simplicity of the sound is striking, and the lyrics are short, but quite powerful, and recognisable to just about anyone in one way or another.

I was always a bit afraid of them. Mention their name, and music enthusiasts all over the world instantly start burying them under boatloads of words of praise, with such devotion and determination it usually made me wonder - can these guys really be as good as everyone promises me? Does any artist (other than Fiona, obviously) really deserve such devout adoration?

Consequently, I stayed away from the band in question as if they had herpes. I just couldn’t believe all the pink ponies and rainbow stories with them in it, and in order to not be disappointed, I ignored them.

Well, as it turns out, I was wrong. Radiohead deserves all the praise they’re getting. Dear lord, these guys are good.

Thar she blows! Thar she blows! Thar she blows! The new A Camp single! The new A Camp single! Oh my god! I waited god knows how long for this!

Lyrically, “Stronger Than Jesus” is really typical Nina - it’s about love, but from an odd perspective. Musically, it seems like a departure from the dark and lonesome atmosphere of the “band’s” (it’s more or less regarded as Nina Persson’s solo work) title-less debut album, which was an odd mix of country music and abundant orchestras. The country doesn’t bear the overtone - it’s more the baseline, the bare metal skeleton of the sound that guides everything else, but never overpowers it. Combined with Nina’s seductive bedroom voice, it was an oddball album that won’t capture you in one go - you’ll need to give it some time. The debut album was met with very positive reviews, but gained little commercial success. Especially “Song For The Leftovers” and “The Bluest Eyes In Texas” are mind blowing pieces of art.

It does seem like this new album - as far as you can judge an album by just one song - will be another hard pill to swallow: you’ll be a bit turned off at first, but once you put the pill in your mouth and drink the water, there’s no way it’s going to get out.

Gosh, I wish Fiona, Nina, Alanis, and Shirley would come together one day and form the modern, female equivalent of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. They’d kick so much ass.

Fiona, Nina, Alanis & Shirley. Really has a nice ring to it.

As has probably not gone unnoticed, I’m a bit of a Fiona Apple fan. In fact, I’m one of those Fiona Apple idiots, one of those people that belong to her core fan group, a group of people so obsessed with her work, her character, her being, that it sometimes scares me a little.

Listening to her art is still one of the most pleasurable past times for me. Listening to and watching interviews with her is one of the most entertaining things there is, because she isn’t media trained, and as such, comes across natural, unedited. Watching her perform is simply mindblowing - she’s not singing her songs, she’s engulfing herself in them, she’s reliving the tales told in the words, right there on stage, and you can taste it.

One of the controversial discussions among Fiona fans is which version of Extraordinary Machine is better - the leaked, unfinished Jon Brion version, or the actually released, finalised Elizondo record. Most of the people in the scary obsessed group of fans swear by the leaked Brion version.

I don’t.

A confession: I’ve never even heard it. Badum-tish.

The reason is simple. Fiona has made it clear that she wasn’t happy with the Brion version. It was too much Brion, and too little Fiona. Brion is an amazing producer, an amazing musician, and he did a great and outstanding job on Fiona’s When The Pawn, but for some reason, Fiona didn’t like the results when it came to Extraordinary Machine. She cancelled the project, and later on decided to start over, this time with producer Mike Elizondo.

This became the released version of Extraordinary Machine, the version that I proudly have in the prime position in my record collection as the limited-edition dual-disc version, which contains a DVD side with emotional and very cosy live material recorded at Club Largo.

Anyway, I have 100% confidence in Fiona. She knows what’s best for me, as one of her most devout fans and admirers. She said she didn’t like the Brion version, and recorded a new and apparently very different version of the album that she did like. And that’s enough reason for me to ignore the illegal bootleg release. I’ve never heard it, and I’m not going to either.

And I think it’s this blind faith in Fiona that makes the biggest and most devout Fiona fan in the world.

Dear Beyonce,

If you were a boy, you’d be flipping burgers at Wendy’s because you wouldn’t have a hot body to sell.

Take care honey,

Thom

Thirteen years down the road, and this is still the best intro to a song ever made.

I’ve been a bad, bad girl
I’ve been careless with a delicate man
And it’s a sad, sad world
when a girl will break a boy just because she can

I bought two new albums last Sunday. The first won’t surprise many who know my taste in music (women! Women! Women!). I bought Amy Macdonald’s successful debut album “This Is The Life”.

The second one might be a bit of a puzzler to most of my friends - I bought Rihanna’s “Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded”. I basicaly liked every single she put out there (except for the dreadfully corny “Hate That I Love You”), but what really dragged me kicking and screaming into buying the album is her latest smash hit single, “Disturbia”. Not only is this an awesome song, it also has one the coolest videos I’ve seen in a long time.

Both albums are welcome additions to my collection, and interestingly, almost as different from one another as two albums can be. Definitely recommended.

There’s so much more to see
I don’t believe this is how the world should be

Just wanted to share.