Beer-Coated CDs are Optical Biocomputers

commodoresloat writes "A DJ and scientist in Melbourne whose research is in the area of communication through biological cells, serendipitously created an 'optical biocomputer' when he spilled beer on his CDs and left them over night. The resulting fungus that formed distorted the sound of the CDs in interesting and meaningful ways. Here's some of his research, and some media samples which include mp3s of the distorted music." Yes, the term biocomputer is used in the loosest sense.

Comments

This is an Evil Plot by RIAA blackhats

[trolman]

Jones says that he has yet to damage any of his discs or players with his pioneering work, but warns that the technique does crash CD players on computers because the software cannot cope.

This is an obvious attempt by RIAA blackhats to get everyone to buy new CDs while simultaneously destroying computer CD-RW. Time to grep for a good lawyer.

Re:This is an Evil Plot by RIAA blackhats

[afidel]

Just use the stuff packaged by Annheiser Bush or any of the other major US beverage distributors. It's not really beer so no harm done.

Re:This is an Evil Plot by RIAA blackhats

[azaroth42]

And the stuff distributed on CDs by the RIAA is not really music either ... A perfect match! :)

--Azaroth

great example!

[craigtay]

This is another good example of how beer benfits our lives. First I found out if I drink a beer a day it somehow helps my heart, but now... now.. my life is complete.

Mmmmmm, beer...

[xkenny13]

Beer, is there anything it can't do?

Apt

[samj]

It's precisely beer o'clock down under (17:18 Friday), so while this article is otherwise a complete waste of 1's and 0's, at least it's aptly timed.

This just can't be believed at all

[Anonymous Coward]

Aussies don't have any beverages that could be regarded at beer.

As the Monty Python Joke goes:

What is the difference between making love in a canoe and Austrailian Beer?

Nothing. They are both fucking close to water!

Re:This just can't be believed at all

[donscarletti]

Try a Tooheys Old, it is a good full bodied black ale.

Anyway, that line was said by an Australian in "Live at the Hollwood Bowl" about American beer, not about Australian beer itself. If you don't believe me look here.

You really need to get your Monty Python sorted out before you use it to pick on the calibre of Aussie Bruces you will find on Slashdot.

It's even more insidious!

[teamhasnoi]

I have reason to believe that this is a joint venture between the RIAA and the MPAA to...

COPYRIGHT BEER! Yes, 12 year old girls are not enough! Now they want to sue us for drinking beer!

Those SOBs! If only Rainbow Brite were alive. She would know what to do.

Well, back to my beer...er, research. *hic*

Nothing new here...

[Solo-Malee]

...I've had Beer on my AOL coasters for 10 years now.

Re:Music?

[xkenny13]

Hmmmm ... gives new meaning to the term, "Moldy Oldies".

Here in Bavaria...

[Advocadus Diaboli]

... it is a sin to spill beer. Beer is a basic food and people should drink it and not spill it. This separates the tourists from the real bavarian men at the Octoberfest.

Caution: Be aware that beer contains a lot of female hormons. If you drink too much you start takling nonsense and you're unable to drive a car.

Beer ... computers ... it's a wrap!

[the bluebrain]

The only "maningful" change results from the error correction logic in the CD drive.

• [...] the way fungus and bacteria [grow] can shape the sound in weird ways.

Tosh. It's flipping some of the bits in a bitstream which represents audio encoded with an arbitrary codec. Dude - there are more interesting ways of flipping bits, and ones that might just tell you a bit more about bacteria, fungi, music, life, the universe, and everything.
What's this guy on? I want some.

/beer, you say? Good. I can do that.

Doesn't seem all that impressive

[AaronStJ]

Ok, so this sounds a lot like a troll, but...

I don't see that this is terribly impressive. I mean, he's done a fair bit of research, wrote several papers, and uses big words like "nanoscale chemical filter" and "Boolean string re-arrangements," but in the end, all he seems to have done is pour chemicals on CDs and make them skip. I could do the same with a brillo pad. Why is that impressive? He makes a lot of noise about computing, but is any usefull computing actually going on? What are the practical applications of this "technology"?

Taking a look at the media samples, it doesn't strike me that he's stumbled on a cool new artistic technique at all (it should be mentioned that the artist Oval has been scratching up CDs in the name of art with much better results for years). This is the same thing anyone has gotten when they accidently scratched up a CD or DVD. There's no art to it, and frankly it sounds terrible.

I can understand why this would be important if his techniques yielded predictable, useful results, such as achieve a specific, desired audio or visual effect. But basically all that he gets in a broken file. The same could be done by randomly flipping an arbitrary number of bits inside a mp3. Nothing usefull is being computed or done at all. So why is this important, or even relevant?

In related news...

[PimpNinjaWannaBee]

"A student and teenager in Australia whose research is in the area of communication
through pick-up-lines, serendipitously created an 'optical biocomputer' when he spilled
beer on down his throat and left it there for a couple of hours. The resulting drunkeness
that formed distorted the sound of his voice in interesting and meaningful ways. Here's
some of his research, media samples which include mp3s of the distorted "music" coming soon."
Yes, the term biocomputer is used in the loosest sense.

Re:Music?

[blincoln]

Formal music created through random, pseudo-random, or mathematical processes is almost a century old at this point. Check out some Schoenberg or John Cage. It may not be your kind of thing (I'm not really into it myself), but it is an interesting branch of art.