Didn’t know what the big deal was so I took a listen to this “Air and Simple Gifts” piece. So not only was it performed to recording, the piece itself is a cheap knockoff, quoting almost verbatim Copland’s use of a pre-existing shaker melody (“Simple Gifts”) down to instrumentation, plus some other less than appealing thematic fluff and unoriginal variations thereof.

Yo-Yo Ma told NPR’s All Things Considered that the piano keys had been decoupled from the hammers, and the bows of the stringed instruments had been soaped to silence them.

So much trouble for a … meh … piece. I’m disappointed. This isn’t even as good as the 40′s movie music “At Last” performed at the Ball in the ‘Hood.

Seems like only good reviews so far.

Not sure if that just reflects the psychological relief due to the mediocrity of Vista or what…

Whatever the case may be, the comments below the article provided some comic relief due to multiple Linux trolls jumping in with non-sequiturs. Nothing against Linux, but it is kind of funny that anything having to do with Microsoft is like a sh– magnet for Linux trolls.

by TrakerJon January 22, 2009 1:26 PM PST
Well, I’m not sure what you downloaded Don, are you sure it was Windows 7 and not Ubuntu 8.10? Windows 7 is nothing more than Vista SP2 with a couple of GUI changes that look a lot like offerings from Linux distros. Windows 7 is a huge install requiring 16Gb and I’m sorry Don but maybe you should curb your enthusiasm until you actually tried the latest release of Ubuntu…fully loaded with all the bells and whistles coming in at 4Gb hard drive space, better security, remarkable connectivity and start-up speeds and all the apps you could ever want for free.

And a response that gave me a good chuckle:

by weedmonk January 22, 2009 1:37 PM PST
When will FOSS advocates learn you can’t shove Linux down consumers throats with the zeal of Bolshevism. People have a choice and the verdict is that they’d rather pirate a 8yr old OS than deal with Linux distro’s.

Oh yes, Microsoft layoff rumors were true. Gone is the title of never having had a layoff.

What?

xxx-xxx-3910

“This is a collect call from [buzz buzz, anytime]“.

In my quest to find a decent notation program, I have failed yet again. But I’ll have to stick with this one for the time being, just for its mouse input (and hence pen input) capabilities.

(Read the article)

Random being the fragments that I apparently still remember, and surely imperfectly, but hey, with correct grammar…

Gallia est divisa in partes tres…

Quo usque patientia nostra abutere, Catalina…

Arma virumque cano Troiae qui primus ab oris, Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit…

Conticuere omnes intentique ora tenebant…

Cenabis bene mi Fabule apud me…

Scallops, clams, oysters … all pretty much the same. What bothers me to no end though, is at what point in this process does the darn thing die?

I’ve seen opened clams that are still alive, but this one doesn’t appear to be here:

This is driving me nuts. This package is still a few hops away! It is supposed to be “Guaranteed Three-Day Delivery”. However, Newegg, who decided to be cheap, sent it out on Ground because it decided it is within the UPS 3-day delivery radius of me.

But now you see that this is not at all the same thing as actual third-day delivery service offered by UPS called 3rd Day Select.

Holidays, weekends, snow… This is possibly the worst-case scenario for Ground.

Date/Time Activity Location Details
01/04/2009 15:56:00 UNLOAD SCAN[I] PORTLAND, OR, US
12/31/2008 11:12:00 ARRIVAL SCAN[I] PORTLAND, OR, US
12/29/2008 20:37:00 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
12/28/2008 09:49:00 ORIGIN SCAN[I] BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
12/24/2008 15:06:11 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED[M]

I was recently shown this collaborative editor called Gobby (there are others) and was reminded of an idea I’ve been toying with for a long time.

A lot of work these days goes into novel human-computer interfaces (think coffee table displays, networked whiteboards, etc.) and gestures (think various touch responses like multi-touch zooming), but in my opinion (and metaphor), these work are like lightly scratching the skin when there is a deep deep itch.
(Read the article)

Meantone and otherwise non- equal temperament tunings

A description: http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/meantone.html

And a demonstration:

(Read the article)