Tag Archives: TMOC

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – The Mark Of Cain – Songs Of The Third And Fifth

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The Mark Of Cain – Songs Of The Third And Fifth

The Mark Of Cain

Songs Of The Third And Fifth

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/4700315-The-Mark-Of-Cain-Songs-Of-The-Third-And-Fifth

Year Of Release: 2012

Review

I’ve been a fan of Adelaide-based The Mark Of Cain since I was in high school. I knew about them (via skateboard magazines) when I was younger (and had a Battlesick sticker on my wardrobe), but I didn’t have access to any of their albums. When I enthuse about The Mark Of Cain to people unfamiliar with the band I say things like “imagine if Joy Division was crossed with Helmet”. It’s a somewhat unimaginative take, and I don’t think it really covers the breadth of what this band plays, but it kind of gives you an inkling.

It had been 11 years since the last album when this one was released, and I was stoked to hear that it was being released. It’s a pounding, brutal piece of work, with heavy instruments and drill sergeant like vocals. But there are also fantastically musical bits on the album too, like the last 30 seconds of Separatist – which is just a great moment that makes me stop whatever I’m doing and listen, regardless of how many times I’ve heard that track.

The Mark Of Cain has been touring pretty regularly over the last few years, and I’ve been fortunate to see them more than a handful of times (after first seeing them play at Livid in late 1995). Things are changing for the band but as far as I’m aware they’ll continue to put out the kind of music that they have been renowned for for the last forty-something years. If you get a chance to see them live – don’t hesitate.

Standout tracks for me are the aforementioned Separatist, Barkhammer, Milosevic, and Grey 11.

Rating: 8.5/10

Random Short Take #41

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Welcome to Random Short Take #41. A few players have worn 41 in the NBA, but it’s hard to go past Dirk Nowitzki for a quality big man with a sweet, sweet jumpshot. So let’s get random.

  • There have been a lot of articles written by folks about various home office setups since COVID-19 became a thing, but this one by Jason Benedicic deserves a special mention. I bought a new desk and decluttered a fair bit of my setup, but it wasn’t on this level.
  • Speaking of COVID-19, there’s a hunger for new TV content as people across the world find themselves confined to their homes. The Ringer published an interesting article on the challenges of diving in to the archives to dig up and broadcast some television gold.
  • Backblaze made the news a while ago when they announced S3 compatibility, and this blog post covers how you can move from AWS S3 to Backblaze. And check out the offer to cover your data transfer costs too.
  • Zerto has had a bigger cloud presence with 7.5 and 8.0, and Oracle Public Cloud is now a partner too.
  • Speaking of cloud, Leaseweb Global recently announced the launch of its Leaseweb Cloud Connect product offering. You can read the press release here.
  • One of my favourite bands is The Mark Of Cain. It’s the 25th anniversary of the Ill At Ease album (the ultimate gym or breakup album – you choose), and the band has started publishing articles detailing the background info on the recording process. It’s fascinating stuff, and you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
  • The nice folks over at Scale Computing have been doing some stuff with various healthcare organisations lately. You can read more about that here. I’m hoping to check in with Scale Computing in the near future when I’ve got a moment. I’m looking forward to hearing about what else they’ve been up to.
  • Ray recently attended Cloud Field Day 8, and the presentation from Igneous prompted this article.

Random Short Take #19

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Here are some links to some random news items and other content that I recently found interesting. You might find them interesting too. Episode 19 – let’s get tropical! It’s all happening.

  • I seem to link to Alastair’s blog a lot. That’s mainly because he’s writing about things that interest me, like this article on data governance and data protection. Plus he’s a good bloke.
  • Speaking of data protection, Chris M. Evans has been writing some interesting articles lately on things like backup as a service. Having worked in the service provider space for a piece of my career, I wholeheartedly agree that it can be a “leap of faith” on the part of the customer to adopt these kinds of services.
  • This post by Raffaello Poltronieri on VMware’s vRealize Operations session at Tech Field Day 19 makes for good reading.
  • This podcast episode from W. Curtis Preston was well worth the listen. I’m constantly fascinated by the challenges presented to infrastructure in media and entertainment environments, particularly when it comes to data protection.
  • I always enjoy reading Preston’s perspective on data protection challenges, and this article is no exception.
  • This article from Tom Hollingsworth was honest and probably cut too close to the bone with a lot of readers. There are a lot of bad habits that we develop in our jobs, whether we’re coding, running infrastructure, or flipping burgers. The key is to identify those behaviours and work to address them where possible.
  • Over at SimplyGeek.co.uk, Gavin has been posting a number of Ansible-related articles, including this one on automating vSphere VM and ova deployments. A number of folks in the industry talk a tough game when it comes to automation, and it’s nice to see Gavin putting it on wax and setting a great example.
  • The Mark Of Cain have announced a national tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their Battlesick album. Unfortunately I may not be in the country when they’re playing in my part of the woods, but if you’re in Australia you can find out more information here.

Random Short Take #2

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I did one of these 7 years ago – so I guess I never really got into the habit – but here’re a few things that I’ve noticed and thought you might be interested in:

And that’s about it, thanks for reading.

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