I was the unofficial DJ at my last workplace. We all (12 people) sat in a large room, and I'd usually play whatever I was into at the time, trying to mix it up as much as possible, unless someone else brought in a CD for me to play, which took precendence. What made it work so well was that we had a gong policy. Anyone at any time could "gong" a song or album, for whatever reason. It could be a one-time gong (say you're simply not in the mood for it) or a permanent one (if you can't stand the song/CD ). For instance, I played a Johnny Cash CD once, and a coworker came back the next day and said he had "Tennesse Stud" stuck in his head the rest of the day and put a permanent gong on Johnny Cash. So I never played it anymore while he was around.
Basically, music in the workplace can be a double-edged sword. A well-chosen CD can make a hour of hardcore coding at 9 pm go by like nothing. A CD like Hanson can prevent you from doing any work at all, for lack of any spare brain cycles (they're all used up saying "this sucks, this sucks, etc.).
A little goddam common courtesy for your fellow workmates goes a long way. Failing that, "shut that crap off, woman" isn't such a bad idea. Or if you feel like being more polite, just suggest people take turns DJing. Not playing music at all is, IMHO, a poor and counter-productive solution.
Getting thousands of dollars worth of equipment, a T1 line, a shack on a plot of land somewhere in the desert and sending thousands of people millions of emails that they don't want?
Oh wait, that's wildly profitable. My bad.
42!!! Where's my towel?! Listen to my poetry!!!
on
H2K2 Conference
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· Score: 2
Were they any good? I saw them (or it might've been just Daltry) on TV not too long ago, and I was really unimpressed. Roger Daltrey in particular seemed more like Michael Bolton than his past self. It was nothing like the music of theirs that got me through high school (yeah, 20 years after it was released). I'm pissed that I never got a chance to see them live, but by the time I was old enough to drive, Keith Moon was long gone and they were well past their prime. Although I really enjoyed "It's Hard," I sometimes wish they would've grown more with the times, like say, King Crimson. But that's just me being selfish. I've actually heard tha Entwistle did some solo work though. Has anybody heard it? How is it?
Anyhoo, even if they had released nothing more than Quadrophenia (their best, IMHO, and it also has Entwistle's best work on it) and spent the rest of their lives sipping mint juleps on a cottage by the beach, John (and the rest ot them when their time comes) will still be missed by me. Missed, with gratitude.
Re:READ THIS -Very Off Topic-
on
Minority Report
·
· Score: 1
Okay, I'll bite, but only because the quote in the original article doesn't make any sense. (though I'm probably putting my karma on the hibachi here)
"A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical... to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,"' it said.
Huh" It's not the same at all. "God" is a blanket term to mean the divine creator, be he Jesus, Vishnu, Zeus, or whatever you call him. "One nation under Jesus" would be unconstitutional, since it insinuates that we're all Christians. The reality is, this nation was founded "under God," by people who were pretty religious. I'm not sure it would even be possible to completely seperate church and state, and I feel pretty sure the majority of the citizens here wouldn't want to anyway. This has little to do with the freedom of religion thing though. I don't believe you need a completely secular state for people to be free to worship whoever they want, even if it's Satan or simply nobody.
It's funny, I always thought it peculiar that they outlawed prayer in schools but kids still had to say the pledge of allegiance. Ahh, nothing like a good self-contradiction.
Episode I gave a whole new meaning to the word "jarring."
Dunno about the Gap logo thing. I think the fact that it even exists is a bit of a stretch. I mean, how many clothes manufacturers in 1950 are still popular today?
Actually the real reason is that the internet sucks as a method of promotion vs. radio. Can you listen over the internet:
--in a car, on your way to work?
--at work, if you don't sit at a computer (or can't use headphones)?
--at home, if you have a dialup connection?
What's more, can you just "flip on" the internet, and with a twist of a dial, browse through a whole bunch of stations? Until technology gets better, radio is still the way to go.
They say that the rest of the money is spent on advertising the cd; but what if the artists would decide to use the internet as their advertising media?
How? Banner ads? Building their own site? How are people gonna know to go to the site? Internet advertising is WAY less effective than traditional. Where does that $15-1 go (besides label profits and recording/packaging costs)? Promotion. Sure, the artist gets $1 per CD, but when a lot of money is spent on radio airings, talk show appearances, signs in CD stores, magazinge articles, and commercials, he gets a LOT more of those $1s. Probably more than if he were to get $10 per CD, but do all the advertising himself. And if he's not a big star already, he better be damn good, and ready for some intense touring. Making it without a label backing you is damn near impossible, though it can be done (see Ani DiFranco).
We could develop a system that permits any user to donate a dollar to the author of the song, if the user wants.
Here's why the donation model sucks: people are lazy. It's a pain in the ass to fill out credit card information and stuff just to give someone a dollar over the web. And if you don't take credit cards, forget it. Paypal is even more of a pain, if you don't have any funds in your account. As it is, half the reason people buy CDs at all is because they happen to be out shopping and they wander by a CD store. Or they see a CD in the grocery checkout line. The donation stuff would work great if it could let people take a buck out of their pockets and magically send it to the author. But anything more complicated is going to have highly diminishing returns, expecially when you can get the stuff for free anyway, which is what Stallman is hinting at. I think Stallman's ideas might only work in his theoretical world, but hey, look at me I'm following his advice (see sig). No, it's not "The blind leading the blind," it's just that all this RIAA/Clear Channel/payola stuff is disgusting, and it helps to shut your eyes.
up here in Canada they decided to put brail on the money itself.
That's a really great idea. Not only is it good for blind people, but it would be great for checking how much money you have without taking your hands out of your pockets. I wish they'd do that here in the US.
I did a Connecticut -> Montana trip almost a year ago. I wrote all about it in some emails I sent to friends and half of them told me they busted a gut laughing, so I archived them on my website. The first installment is more expository, and they start getting good around the 2nd.
I strongly recommend stopping in Montana and doing some hiking and/or fishing, if you're into that sort of thing. The nature around here is second to none.
One thing you have to look forward to in the great northwest: Moose Drool. Best. Beer. Ever.
It is USB. I could've sworn it was firewire. I wonder how they get the zero latency with USB. Oh well. Yeah, it still looks cool, and I still want one, just a little less now.
I don't trust USB completely. I've had problems with hubs deciding not to supply power, and the bandwidth is too narrow. From what I've heard about USB CD recorders, I'm not alone. For $450, you can get Digidesign's Mbox, which is firewire-based. It samples at up to 24-bit/48khz, has focusrite mic pre-amps with phantom power, and most importantly, zero latency. It also comes with Pro Tools audio recording/editing software. No, I don't work for them, I've just been drooling over this thing lately. The idea of having a decent home studio with one of these and a laptop...
Get Pro Tools free from Digidesign. Musicians like Beck, Bjork and Aerosmith use it. Of course, they use the version that's tens of thousands of dollars. Basically, the difference is the more money you spend, the more hardware (and thereby processing power) you get.
The best way to learn is to just start doing it. If you have a sound card and Pro Tools free, you should be able to just start laying down tracks with the mic that came with your computer. Experiment with EQ settings. It's all about training your ear to recognise what sounds good and what doesn't. After you've recorded an album's worth of material, you'll find you're able to make much better sounding songs, though you won't be sure how you got there.
If you don't have a sound card, get one that has at least a stereo input and output. Before you get it, make sure it's supported by whatever software program you're using. If you don't have a firewire port, think about getting one. Firewire is useful in so many ways.
If you want to get some higher fidelity, you'll need to get a decent mic. Pick up a Shure SM57 if you're recording mostly instruments or 58 if it's mostly vocals ($80-100). These mics are workhorses of the industry and will remain useful even after you become a famous rock star. You might be able to find a XLR -> 1/8" adapter to plug the mic into the back of the computer, but I recommend either buying a cheap mixer and going mic -> mixer -> soundcard, or getting Digidesign's mBox ($450), a firewire-based audio input system. The good thing about the mBox is you get a more robust version of the software along with it.
Pro Tools isn't the only way to go, though I think it's the only way that's free. Kruder & Dorfmeister use Cubase, and Thievery Corporation use Cakewalk. I've heard lots of great things about Cubase, but the Cakewalk seems to be more amateurish. Thievery has a crapload of hardware, and I think Cakewalk is just a small part of their studio.
If you're broke, you can always pirate plug-in's from p2p networks, but audio programmers are generally non-rich really cool people, so if you ever wind up making decent money off of your music, you should buy the software you use frequently.
If you're into programming, check out MAX/MSP. Autechre uses it.
Also, check out Propellerheads Software:
Reason- Berklee is using this to teach recording concepts.
Rebirth- 303, 808, 909. Kicks ass.
For a reference, my stuff was recorded using Pro Tools with the Audiomedia III sound card (it's pretty old), a Neumann TLM103 mic and a Roland xp-60 synth, both going into a mackie 1202 mixer. I'm completely self-taught.
A lord asked Takuan, a Zen teacher, to suggest how he might pass the time. He felt his days very long attending his office and sitting stiffly to receive the homage of others. Takuan wrote eight Chinese characters and gave them to the man:
Not twice this day
Inch time foot gem.
The day in which you coded that software you gave away for free will not come again. A small bit of your time is more valuable than the largest diamond. It's limited and you can never buy more. Never put a price on your time. It cheapens it.
(BTW, if anyone knows exactly which characters Takuan wrote down, I'd be eternally grateful if you told/showed me, email is jcsehak.at.yahoo.com)
...after a few feet, so it doesn't shine forever like a laser pointer? And what about the thickness of the beam? Would a beam an inch thick be more dangerous to look at? Is it even possible? Would it do any cutting, or would it be just like a thick laser pointer?
Surviving a 1-meter jump is no problem for most people. A one meter fall, on the other hand, is high enough to cause injury more often than not. Try this: stand on your counter-top (about 1m high). Imagine yourself falling and not landing on your feet. Ouch. I've actually seen a woman fall 0m (she tripped over a curb) and break her wrist.
That was the point of their bullet analogy. If you fall 1m and land on a spot on your body the size of a bullet--say, your elbow, it would be the equivalent of getting shot in the elbow. Of course, the force of the fall would have to somehow not be dissapated through your joints, muscles, etc...
In space, nobody can hear you groan...
on
Physics in the Movies
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
That really pissed me off, it was such a tease. When I saw the explosion and heard no sound, I said to myself "OMG, this is like the first movie since 2001 (the space oddessy) to get this right." I was so excited; it really made me feel like I was in space. Then a second later, boom. *sigh*
I don't know if maybe those were supposed to be electro-magnetic concussive waves or something, but whatever they were, it's impossible for sound to move in space. You wouldn't have heard them. On the other hand, as the site points out, flying debris moves through space quite well without any gravity or air resistance to bother with. I'd love to see a space movie where people were afraid to shoot at each other for fear of their own ships getting torn apart by the debris.
People say that adding sound to the explosions and whatnot makes it more dramatic, but I totally disagree. The silent bits in 2001 were among the most nerve-wracking in any space film. I just don't understand why people insist on going "boom."
Slashdot Mirror
I was the unofficial DJ at my last workplace. We all (12 people) sat in a large room, and I'd usually play whatever I was into at the time, trying to mix it up as much as possible, unless someone else brought in a CD for me to play, which took precendence. What made it work so well was that we had a gong policy. Anyone at any time could "gong" a song or album, for whatever reason. It could be a one-time gong (say you're simply not in the mood for it) or a permanent one (if you can't stand the song/CD ). For instance, I played a Johnny Cash CD once, and a coworker came back the next day and said he had "Tennesse Stud" stuck in his head the rest of the day and put a permanent gong on Johnny Cash. So I never played it anymore while he was around.
Basically, music in the workplace can be a double-edged sword. A well-chosen CD can make a hour of hardcore coding at 9 pm go by like nothing. A CD like Hanson can prevent you from doing any work at all, for lack of any spare brain cycles (they're all used up saying "this sucks, this sucks, etc.).
A little goddam common courtesy for your fellow workmates goes a long way. Failing that, "shut that crap off, woman" isn't such a bad idea. Or if you feel like being more polite, just suggest people take turns DJing. Not playing music at all is, IMHO, a poor and counter-productive solution.
Getting thousands of dollars worth of equipment, a T1 line, a shack on a plot of land somewhere in the desert and sending thousands of people millions of emails that they don't want?
Oh wait, that's wildly profitable. My bad.
Oh, h2k2. Sorry, wrong topic.
Were they any good? I saw them (or it might've been just Daltry) on TV not too long ago, and I was really unimpressed. Roger Daltrey in particular seemed more like Michael Bolton than his past self. It was nothing like the music of theirs that got me through high school (yeah, 20 years after it was released). I'm pissed that I never got a chance to see them live, but by the time I was old enough to drive, Keith Moon was long gone and they were well past their prime. Although I really enjoyed "It's Hard," I sometimes wish they would've grown more with the times, like say, King Crimson. But that's just me being selfish. I've actually heard tha Entwistle did some solo work though. Has anybody heard it? How is it?
Anyhoo, even if they had released nothing more than Quadrophenia (their best, IMHO, and it also has Entwistle's best work on it) and spent the rest of their lives sipping mint juleps on a cottage by the beach, John (and the rest ot them when their time comes) will still be missed by me. Missed, with gratitude.
Okay, I'll bite, but only because the quote in the original article doesn't make any sense. (though I'm probably putting my karma on the hibachi here)
... to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,"' it said.
"A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical
Huh" It's not the same at all. "God" is a blanket term to mean the divine creator, be he Jesus, Vishnu, Zeus, or whatever you call him. "One nation under Jesus" would be unconstitutional, since it insinuates that we're all Christians. The reality is, this nation was founded "under God," by people who were pretty religious. I'm not sure it would even be possible to completely seperate church and state, and I feel pretty sure the majority of the citizens here wouldn't want to anyway. This has little to do with the freedom of religion thing though. I don't believe you need a completely secular state for people to be free to worship whoever they want, even if it's Satan or simply nobody.
It's funny, I always thought it peculiar that they outlawed prayer in schools but kids still had to say the pledge of allegiance. Ahh, nothing like a good self-contradiction.
Episode I gave a whole new meaning to the word "jarring."
Dunno about the Gap logo thing. I think the fact that it even exists is a bit of a stretch. I mean, how many clothes manufacturers in 1950 are still popular today?
Actually the real reason is that the internet sucks as a method of promotion vs. radio. Can you listen over the internet:
--in a car, on your way to work?
--at work, if you don't sit at a computer (or can't use headphones)?
--at home, if you have a dialup connection?
What's more, can you just "flip on" the internet, and with a twist of a dial, browse through a whole bunch of stations? Until technology gets better, radio is still the way to go.
They say that the rest of the money is spent on advertising the cd; but what if the artists would decide to use the internet as their advertising media?
How? Banner ads? Building their own site? How are people gonna know to go to the site? Internet advertising is WAY less effective than traditional. Where does that $15-1 go (besides label profits and recording/packaging costs)? Promotion. Sure, the artist gets $1 per CD, but when a lot of money is spent on radio airings, talk show appearances, signs in CD stores, magazinge articles, and commercials, he gets a LOT more of those $1s. Probably more than if he were to get $10 per CD, but do all the advertising himself. And if he's not a big star already, he better be damn good, and ready for some intense touring. Making it without a label backing you is damn near impossible, though it can be done (see Ani DiFranco).
We could develop a system that permits any user to donate a dollar to the author of the song, if the user wants.
Here's why the donation model sucks: people are lazy. It's a pain in the ass to fill out credit card information and stuff just to give someone a dollar over the web. And if you don't take credit cards, forget it. Paypal is even more of a pain, if you don't have any funds in your account. As it is, half the reason people buy CDs at all is because they happen to be out shopping and they wander by a CD store. Or they see a CD in the grocery checkout line. The donation stuff would work great if it could let people take a buck out of their pockets and magically send it to the author. But anything more complicated is going to have highly diminishing returns, expecially when you can get the stuff for free anyway, which is what Stallman is hinting at. I think Stallman's ideas might only work in his theoretical world, but hey, look at me I'm following his advice (see sig). No, it's not "The blind leading the blind," it's just that all this RIAA/Clear Channel/payola stuff is disgusting, and it helps to shut your eyes.
What's Eminem's beef with Moby anyway?
Which mod chip to get? Anyone have any experience intalling them? Anyone care to do (or point to) a comparison?
up here in Canada they decided to put brail on the money itself.
That's a really great idea. Not only is it good for blind people, but it would be great for checking how much money you have without taking your hands out of your pockets. I wish they'd do that here in the US.
On the flip side, you also wouldn't be able to wrap a $20 around a wad of ones and look like a high roller. Terrible idea indeed.
...why not celebrate it on the day the courts finally dole out MS's punishment? I mean, it's gonna happen sooner or later, right?
I did a Connecticut -> Montana trip almost a year ago. I wrote all about it in some emails I sent to friends and half of them told me they busted a gut laughing, so I archived them on my website. The first installment is more expository, and they start getting good around the 2nd.
I strongly recommend stopping in Montana and doing some hiking and/or fishing, if you're into that sort of thing. The nature around here is second to none.
One thing you have to look forward to in the great northwest: Moose Drool. Best. Beer. Ever.
Just stick this fan-cooled battery in your cheek
Wouldn't your saliva constitute liquid cooling? And if so, could I overclock it?
It is USB. I could've sworn it was firewire. I wonder how they get the zero latency with USB. Oh well. Yeah, it still looks cool, and I still want one, just a little less now.
I don't trust USB completely. I've had problems with hubs deciding not to supply power, and the bandwidth is too narrow. From what I've heard about USB CD recorders, I'm not alone. For $450, you can get Digidesign's Mbox, which is firewire-based. It samples at up to 24-bit/48khz, has focusrite mic pre-amps with phantom power, and most importantly, zero latency. It also comes with Pro Tools audio recording/editing software. No, I don't work for them, I've just been drooling over this thing lately. The idea of having a decent home studio with one of these and a laptop...
Get Pro Tools free from Digidesign. Musicians like Beck, Bjork and Aerosmith use it. Of course, they use the version that's tens of thousands of dollars. Basically, the difference is the more money you spend, the more hardware (and thereby processing power) you get.
The best way to learn is to just start doing it. If you have a sound card and Pro Tools free, you should be able to just start laying down tracks with the mic that came with your computer. Experiment with EQ settings. It's all about training your ear to recognise what sounds good and what doesn't. After you've recorded an album's worth of material, you'll find you're able to make much better sounding songs, though you won't be sure how you got there.
If you don't have a sound card, get one that has at least a stereo input and output. Before you get it, make sure it's supported by whatever software program you're using. If you don't have a firewire port, think about getting one. Firewire is useful in so many ways.
If you want to get some higher fidelity, you'll need to get a decent mic. Pick up a Shure SM57 if you're recording mostly instruments or 58 if it's mostly vocals ($80-100). These mics are workhorses of the industry and will remain useful even after you become a famous rock star. You might be able to find a XLR -> 1/8" adapter to plug the mic into the back of the computer, but I recommend either buying a cheap mixer and going mic -> mixer -> soundcard, or getting Digidesign's mBox ($450), a firewire-based audio input system. The good thing about the mBox is you get a more robust version of the software along with it.
Pro Tools isn't the only way to go, though I think it's the only way that's free. Kruder & Dorfmeister use Cubase, and Thievery Corporation use Cakewalk. I've heard lots of great things about Cubase, but the Cakewalk seems to be more amateurish. Thievery has a crapload of hardware, and I think Cakewalk is just a small part of their studio.
If you're broke, you can always pirate plug-in's from p2p networks, but audio programmers are generally non-rich really cool people, so if you ever wind up making decent money off of your music, you should buy the software you use frequently.
If you're into programming, check out MAX/MSP. Autechre uses it.
Also, check out Propellerheads Software:
Reason- Berklee is using this to teach recording concepts.
Rebirth- 303, 808, 909. Kicks ass.
For a reference, my stuff was recorded using Pro Tools with the Audiomedia III sound card (it's pretty old), a Neumann TLM103 mic and a Roland xp-60 synth, both going into a mackie 1202 mixer. I'm completely self-taught.
There's this zen koan:
A lord asked Takuan, a Zen teacher, to suggest how he might pass the time. He felt his days very long attending his office and sitting stiffly to receive the homage of others. Takuan wrote eight Chinese characters and gave them to the man:
Not twice this day
Inch time foot gem.
The day in which you coded that software you gave away for free will not come again. A small bit of your time is more valuable than the largest diamond. It's limited and you can never buy more. Never put a price on your time. It cheapens it.
(BTW, if anyone knows exactly which characters Takuan wrote down, I'd be eternally grateful if you told/showed me, email is jcsehak.at.yahoo.com)
...after a few feet, so it doesn't shine forever like a laser pointer? And what about the thickness of the beam? Would a beam an inch thick be more dangerous to look at? Is it even possible? Would it do any cutting, or would it be just like a thick laser pointer?
More worringly, I wonder what a Femalestrom would look like?
It's the one that needs batteries.
when their finnished
:)
You mean, after they've installed Linux?
Surviving a 1-meter jump is no problem for most people. A one meter fall, on the other hand, is high enough to cause injury more often than not. Try this: stand on your counter-top (about 1m high). Imagine yourself falling and not landing on your feet. Ouch. I've actually seen a woman fall 0m (she tripped over a curb) and break her wrist.
That was the point of their bullet analogy. If you fall 1m and land on a spot on your body the size of a bullet--say, your elbow, it would be the equivalent of getting shot in the elbow. Of course, the force of the fall would have to somehow not be dissapated through your joints, muscles, etc...
That really pissed me off, it was such a tease. When I saw the explosion and heard no sound, I said to myself "OMG, this is like the first movie since 2001 (the space oddessy) to get this right." I was so excited; it really made me feel like I was in space. Then a second later, boom. *sigh*
I don't know if maybe those were supposed to be electro-magnetic concussive waves or something, but whatever they were, it's impossible for sound to move in space. You wouldn't have heard them. On the other hand, as the site points out, flying debris moves through space quite well without any gravity or air resistance to bother with. I'd love to see a space movie where people were afraid to shoot at each other for fear of their own ships getting torn apart by the debris.
People say that adding sound to the explosions and whatnot makes it more dramatic, but I totally disagree. The silent bits in 2001 were among the most nerve-wracking in any space film. I just don't understand why people insist on going "boom."
So does the scope function as infared goggles then? How is this an improvement over crosshairs?