• Combat Boots by Black Cab

• blood by Bloody Knives

• This Machine by The Dandy Warhols

For many years, the core of Ministry was the pair of Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker. After Barker left, Ministry became more and more metal, but Barker carried on in the industrial tradition with Flowering Blight. (And also in USSA with Duane Denison of The Jesus Lizard, but that’s, uh, not this.)

• The Perfect Pair by Flowering Blight

An hour of massive drone doom in a single track!

• Thaumogenesis by Nadja

• Ataraxia/Taraxis by Pelican

• Empros by Russian Circles

I love all things Spacemen 3, Sonic Boom, and Spiritualized. I even liked Songs in A&E, which nobody liked, but this isn’t an “only I will like it” album – it’s just an amazing album

• Sweet Heart Sweet Light by Spiritualized

Squarepusher albums are always either awesome dancey techno, or technically amazing but (to me) ultimately boring jazz bass affairs. This is a return to the awesome Squarepusher of old

• Ufabulum by Squarepusher

Swervedriver are back together, and touring, which is pretty awesome. I hope they get the recognition they’ve always deserved.

• Raise – US Extended Version by Swervedriver

• You’re Early by 2:54

EBM goodness from Tom Shear:

• Compass (Deluxe) by Assemblage 23

Cevin Key doesn’t make things easy for the listener, and his Download project is probably the most inaccessible to the casual fan, even compared to the harshest of Skinny Puppy’s output, but I love it.

• FiXeR by Download

I’ve long been a fan of Grouper, so when I saw a bunch of new material on EMusic, I had to grab it all.

• Violet Replacement | Pt.1: Rolling Gate by Grouper

• Violet Replacement | Pt. 2: SLEEP by Grouper

• Water People by Grouper

• Wide by Grouper

This one is a reissue of a split release between Grouper and Inca Ore:

• Split by Grouper E Inca Ore

This was recommended by EMusic, so I gave it a try:

• A Balloon Called Moaning by The Joy Formidable

Ever since I first heard Miranda Sex Garden, I’ve had a mad music-crush on Katharine Blake. Originally a Miranda Sex Garden side-project, Mediaeval Baebes has become Katharine Blake’s full-time project. Wonderful!

• Mirabilis by Mediaeval Baebes

I discovered Nadja thanks to the amazing internet radio station and blog Strangeways Radio, as part of their shoegaze spotlight series. An absolutely awe-inspiring blend of shoegaze and drone metal, I had to grab everything I could find on EMusic. Also worth buying is their cover album, When I See the Sun Always Shines On TV, particularly for the mind-blowing Long Dark Twenties, a re-imagining of a Paul Bellini (Kids in the Hall) song from the Brain Candy soundtrack.

• Belles Betes by Nadja

• Desire in Uneasiness by Nadja

• Numbness by Nadja

• Radiance of Shadows by Nadja

• Touched by Nadja

A couple of months ago I downloaded Creatures of an Hour by Still Corners ; I was so impressed, I had to return for the rest.

• Don’t Fall In Love / Wish 7-inch by Still Corners

• Remember Pepper? by Still Corners

World’s End Girlfriend makes haunting, disturbing, and ultimately beautiful music.

• Ending Story by World’s End Girlfriend

• Hurtbreak Wonderland by World’s End Girlfriend

• Seven Idiots by World’s End Girlfriend

• Come Hell or High Water by The Flowers of Hell

• Groove Immersion by Steve Roach

• Ghostory by School of Seven Bells

• Succour by Seefeel

• Taking the Stage Live (1997-2005) by Sky Cries Mary

• Kill the Child by Swans

• Mezcal Head – US Extended Version by Swervedriver

• You Win Again, Gravity! by Vitesse

• Remnants of a Deeper Purity by Black Tape For a Blue Girl

• Oceanside:1991-1993 by deardarkhead

• Snuggle Bunnies by Elika

• Third Transmission by Experimental Aircraft

• The Fauns by The Fauns

• Pigs of the Roman Empire by The Melvins + Lustmord

• The Horror by Pop.1280

• Waiting For The Rain To Fall by Under Electric Light

• Call Signs by Black Cab

• Stars Out by broaddaylight

• Disorientation by Deep Cut

• Purple Bloom by Purple Bloom

• Colour Trip by Ringo Deathstarr

• Hover by The Sleepover Disaster

• Creatures of an Hour by Still Corners

• Northern Sky by 93 Million Miles From the Sun

• APOK by iVardensphere

• Gravity the Seducer by Ladytron

• Somnific Flux by M.J. Harris and Bill Laswell

• Sheath by LFO

• Like A Slow River by Lull

• 3-D by SPC-ECO

• Big Fat World EP by SPC-ECO

• Psychic Life by Jah Wobble & Julie Campbell

• Bodycode by Diffuzion

• E.P. by drowner

• Treny by Jacaszek

• Common Burn by Mazzy Star

• Lay Myself Down by Mazzy Star

• Do With Me What You Want by Mona Mur / En Esch

• Chao Organica in A Minor by Soriah

• Ofrendas de Luz a Los Muertos by Soriah

• Eztica by Soriah with Ashkelon Sain

• Automatic by VNV Nation

• Back From The Dead by Zombie Girl

It’s been a horrible year for losing giants in the computing industry.

John McCarthy coined the term AI, and was highly influential in time-sharing systems (read: multitasking).

Now, I don’t write AI code, and I’m not an OS programmer, but John McCarthy’s impact on my life is nonetheless immense, because he invented the LISP programming language, and LISP powers Emacs. If a warrior lived and died by their sword, a coder lives and dies by their editor – I’m a tenth as productive in a mundane text editor as I am in Emacs, and LISP is a beautiful (if, to the untrained eye, inscrutable) language.

• beyond within and so on by iszoloscope

• Les Gorges Des Limbes by iszoloscope

• How to Enslist in a Robot Uprising by memmaker

• A Perfect Solution (Deluxe) by Mesh

• Erection Body Mutilated by Obszön Geschöpf

• Atlan by Soriah with Ashkelon Sain

• Conatus by Zola Jesus

If I owe the start of my career to Apple, it’s only fair to admit that I owe the bulk of it to Dennis Ritchie. Dennis Ritchie was a co-creator of unix, the inventor of the C Programming Language, and the co-author of this gem:
I’m long past needing this book, but I keep it on my shelf. Both as a reminder of where I came from, and as a monument to the absolute zenith of technical writing.

There’s not a computer system in the world today that doesn’t owe some of its heritage to either C or Unix. Dennis was a quiet giant of computer science. He wasn’t a public figure like Steve Jobs, but his impact on the field of technology was at least as large, and his loss an equally terrible blow.