Okay, so I worked a little faster than I expected, but here it is! Some lovely, rumbling techno for you all. I really had a lot of fun with this one. Go here to get it.

Enjoy!

My new mix is coming along nicely. I haven’t had too much time to work on it as I’ve been distracted by so many other things, but it should be finished sometime in august.

Other than that, the second phase of the StarCraft 2 beta is underway, and I’m having a blast playing it. I can’t wait for its release on July 27.

What follows is excerpts from forum responses I've written in a debate regarding the security risk of having to post on Battle.net's official forums under your real name. To clarify my stance on the Real ID system: I'm ambivalent about it. I can take it or leave it. But I do love playing devil's advocate.

My full name is readily available through many other channels already so this doesn’t bother me. Not that I use the official forums – hardly ever – but I don’t see the need to restrict my full name in a context such as this. There is a good reason for forcing people to have a proper identity on forums of Blizzard’s caliber, and that is the quality of the threads. A national newspaper here in Norway did this for their online version, more specifically comment field on articles. The level of debate went up significantly because everyone is suddenly accountable for what they say.

There are plenty of places to go for anonymity, and I don’t see why you would need anonymity on a forum like Blizzard’s official one. It’s not like it’s riddled with debates on religious or political issues (which can genuinely anger others and inspire them to harm you). If you’re worried about identity theft then I don’t see how you can feel targeted among the millions of other people. There is strength in numbers. If you’re randomly chosen for it by some asshole, then okay, bad luck. And imagine how many other people actually share your name, even your surname. Your name alone isn’t that much information.

I’m sorry, but I do feel that saying something along the lines of “don’t post your name online because bad people will get you” is tantamount to telling women not to dress provocatively because they may attract rapists.

I wish someone would please enlighten me as to why using your proper identity online is such a horrific act of carelessness. As long as you keep things like your bank account numbers and social security numbers to yourself, I just don’t see it.

I’m quite aware that additional information can be extracted from your name if one was so inclined. But that’s just it, isn’t it? A person would need motive to track down this other information. People’s motives are not something that any of us can control. And even if someone got a hold of this information, why should you care? Is that something to be rationally afraid of? The guy in the link that was posted was targeted specifically by anonymous idiots for harassment. There was a motive behind it. This can happen to anyone, but how likely is it?

Again, I think it’s viable to say that you can’t blame the victim of a crime of it happening to them because they were “careless”, which seems to be the mindset of most people in the debate on this and other security issues.

I’m thinking I’m more likely to get hit by a car when I cross the street on my way to the store almost every day than I am to be a target of identity theft. Even if they knew my e-mail address they wouldn’t know my passwords or any of my other information like my social security number or bank accounts that can actually cause real damage when used by the wrong people. Minimizing risk is good, when the act of minimizing is actually worth the effort and it pays off. Is it worth remaining abstinent your entire life to minimize the risk of STDs for example? I would say no, cause there are other ways to protect yourself while still participating. Sex is too awesome, and so is the great internet.

To me it’s just an issue of probability. Fearing that your trivial information is visible to someone who can be bothered to track it down is not rational to me, especially when the additional probability of someone actually meaning to cause you harm by using that information is so low.

Risk vs reward, basically. The reward being a higher quality forum in the form of more mature responses and more constructive feedback. I would like more information about the specifics of the risk involved, if anyone has any data about it.

I’ve recently moved to a new apartment and because of timing issues with tenants moving out of the place I was moving into, I was literally without a place to live for three weeks. I spent this time at my parents house. Needless to say, I have not had time or energy to focus on my mixes during this time.

I’m now settled in, but as the apartment is quite small I’ve not been able to setup my “mixing spot” as of yet. Still need some more furniture for that. I am however doing my monthly Beatport crawl right now, and I’m about halfway done (even though I’ve been at it for at least 4 hours already). I should have plenty of new material very soon.

Hope you all are doing great, and please don’t mind how crappy my site looks while I’m in this transition period. Thanks.

I promised you another mix this week, and here it is! The genre is something quite different, so make sure you check it out.

A little 8 year old australian girl by the name of Mary decides to write a letter to a random person in a New York City phonebook. That person is Max Horowitz, a middle-aged overweight jew with Asperger’s syndrome, who is voiced by none other than the great Philip Seymour Hoffman. The story is told through narration and the exchange of letters between these two very different souls. One is innocent and inquisitive, the other very direct and rational, and both are equally ignorant as to how the world works.

I had so many great laughs throughout the film due to the sheer bizarreness of the story, as well as the great art-direction and animation. The movie is extremely quirky and charming, and had quite an emotional impact at the end as well, due to the great depth of the characters and the relationship between them.

Highly recommended, especially if you have a soft spot for great animation and storytelling.

Here’s the trailer. If you end up seeing the movie, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Another hard-hitting dubstep mixtape for you all! I will be releasing a second mix in a different genre sometime next week. In the meantime, go enjoy this one!

Those who know my taste in music well would say that this is quite a departure from what I usually listen to, and it is. Slough Feg seems to be a very traditional hard rock/heavy metal band, and this record in particular sounds very soft, isn’t very sharp-edged, and doesn’t have that much of a “punch” to it. And when I say “traditional”, bands like Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest may spring to mind, but I don’t really listen to these bands all that much so I’m a bit hesitant to likening Slough Feg to them. And in fact, from what I can recall, Slough Feg may be even softer than some of those bands in many respects.

The tempo on this record never quite reaches thrash levels, and the vocal is clean throughout. There is more focus on melody and groove than brutality or speed. Like I said, there was nothing to grab my immediate attention when I listened to this the first few times, but the melodies grew on me quite quickly, and before I knew it I was actually singing along and doing the cheesy air guitar moves that this music so rigorously inspires.

The album as a whole seems to be a concept album of sorts in which apes have somehow gained sentience and decide to rebel against mankind’s destructive ways. Don’t quote me on this though, as I haven’t studied the lyrics in-depth, but with lines like “never coming down from the trees, never bending down on my knees” and “simian anger defies“, it leaves the impression that this album has some quite serious and even poetic undertones.

The music itself reminds me of the ambience that stoner rock bands like Fu Manchu and old biker rock bands like ZZ Top would inspire. But Slough Feg seem to be technically superior to these, and slightly more energetic and harder in their delivery and sound. The album sounds very warm in its production, and even though I’d like to have had more punch (especially in the drums), it all works for what it’s meant to be.

As long as you know what to expect when going into this (hard rock/heavy metal with strong grooves and melodies), maybe it will be easier to “take in” for you than it was for me. But I assure you, I have no regrets about investing my time in this. I listen to this record almost daily now, and I haven’t done so with any other album in a long while.

Personal favorite tracks: Ape Uprising, Simian Manifesto and Shakedown At The 6.

Here is their MySpace and Wikipedia entry. You can get the album here (Amazon link).

Have you heard this album? Let me know what you think.

Yes indeed folks, it’s Just Another House Mix. Got some spring/summer vibes in this one for you, along with upbeat melodies and beats.

Go get it while it’s hot!