After much recent LJ debate on the recurring subject of whether musical tastes are 100% relative (and therefore meaningless), this stunning algebraic formula appears to set the record straight for once and for all. No longer will we have to argue about whether Moby is meaningless or Beefheart is irrelevant. It’s all simple math, and math doesn’t lie!
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
The 2002 results are in! My fave:
“The professor looked down at his new young lover, who rested fitfully, lashed as she was with duct tape to the side of his stolen hovercraft, her head lolling gently in the breeze, and as they soared over the buildings of downtown St. Paul to his secret lair he mused that she was much like a sweet ripe juicy peach, except for her not being a fuzzy three-inch sphere produced by a tree with pink blossoms and that she had internal organs and could talk.”
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Ben Brown gets on board with the Switch campaign. “What am I going to do with a parallel port?”
Blogware
The number of blogging packages now available has become staggering. This is the best meta-comparision of all the different approaches I’ve seen yet. That page also links to this blogware feature list (yes, I’ve already sent the author a list of mistakes on the LJ feature set). LJ fits into a category the author calls “hosted community” and his analysis of the pros and cons of that model are pretty accurate, although I don’t understand the AOL comparison he’s making.
Cuba Underwater Megalithic Research
Off the coast of Cuba, at a depth of 2,200 feet (700-800 meters), a 20 sq. km area of white sand, punctuated by great granite monoliths, possibly structures. Granite is not native to Cuba – the nearest granite deposits are in the center of Mexico. This could be a land mass that sunk around 15,000 years ago, but no one has a really good explanation at this point.
“They (megalithic stones) are very unique structures. They really are not easy to understand and I do not have any easy explanation for them in a natural geological process.”
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Funny how I can talk about music I don’t like with my friends easily enough and all is well, but when I do it on LJ it upsets people, or comes off wrong, or gets misunderstood, or something.
Update: Reactions caused by the 100 Albums list are being tallied at QuickTopic.
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“Nothing is as it seems.”
“Oh yeah? Well, how do things seem?”
100 CD Removals
Jaguaro is running this piece “One Hundred Albums You Should Remove From Your Collection Immediately“. Designed as a counterpoint to all those “100 Must-Have Albums” lists, the list attempts to disrobe the emperor and convince you that half of your favorite records of all time are actually unlistenable crap. I use the term “unlistenable” because that’s the term the reviewers use, approximately once every other review.
The thing about this list is that I agree with it in principle – there’s a hell of a lot of stuff out there that gets all kinds of undeserved credit for being “seminal” or “inspirational” or “groundbreaking” but that is in fact just plain tired, or that wasn’t actually very good to begin with. But agreeing with the idea of the list in principle is very different from agreeing with what they came up with. About half of what’s on their list I agree with. The other half boils my blood. I’m sure that’s the idea – they intended to rankle feathers with it, and I’m sure everyone who reads it will be pissed off by something.
For example, it’s beyond me why the Pixies aren’t on that list – the Pixies are the single most overrated band of the late 20th century, IMO. I’ve never understood what’s supposed to be so interesting about them. But these clowns recommend discarding Trout Mask Replica – the single album that had more influence on my formative musical tastes than any other. I don’t get it.
Anyway, the list is alternatingly hilarious and maddening. What pissed you off about it?
P.S. : Can you please translate the Einsturzende entry? It’s hilarious without even being able to read it… but I’m curious.
Breadth Over Depth
Ack packet via : Very interesting piece on the effect internet research is having on students, how it encourages breadth over depth, how people are taking in more information but thinking about it less. Very true how everyone thinks “Everything is on the Internet now,” when librarians estimate that only about 15% of what’s in library books is also available online. Funny how this kind of analysis all of a sudden seems more relevant, on the brink of fatherhood.
Shacker as a Wee Baba
Deleted this accidentally, recreating from memory.
Attended baptism of little 2nd cousin Gabriel Ordway at an Armenian Catholic church. Was amazed at how much like an excorcism it was -“Devil get thee behind me” and “These four points of the cross keep the evil one at bay.” Afterwards into the Cupertino hills for celebration, hanging out with old cousins, etc. Maya and Dan are off to Egypt with Gabriel in a few days. Will miss them.
Dan found some old pictures at grandma’s, including these of me and my mom, circa 1964. I looked so goofy, I wonder if my parents thought I’d turn out “special.” My mom was a cutie – no wonder my dad had a crush on her.
Goats, Guns, and Grenades
My parents owned a diesel Volvo in the late 70s / early 80s. The neighbors had a diesel VW Rabbit. Those are the last two consumer cars I remember seeing run on diesel, which has all but disappeared from the American scene. Meanwhile, those whacky (read: sensible) Europeans have evolved diesel technology by leaps and bounds in the past two decades – they’re now creating massive amounts of torque in tiny packages, and doing it clean. Diesel now accounts for 33% of European car sales. But U.S. policies have effectively blocked any potential embrace of new diesel technologies in this country. See this AutoWorld piece for more. Pretty messed up.
Battle droids are becoming real. NY Times:
A War of Robots, All Chattering on the Western Front
As abstract and original concepts, Enron’s and WorldCom’s balance sheets can be classified as works of art.
Gaddafi: Goats, Guns, and Grenades. And just who is that frightening Fred Gwynn character in the picture at the bottom?
Pop quiz: which of the stories referenced above is satire?
Out of Print
Just received an email from someone wanting to know how to get a copy of the MP3 book, since it’s out of print. Out of print? WTF… checked Amazon and O’Reilly, and it’s true, but no one ever told me. Why is the author always the last to know?
That book sold terribly. I sold 10x more copies of the BeOS Bible. Amazing how something with an immense built-in audience can do so poorly while a book on an obscure topic like BeOS can do so well. My reckoning is that A) Very, very, very few MP3 users perceive the need for a book on the subject, in contrast to BeOS, and B) I had no competion in the BeOS space, while there were 10 other MP3 books on the market.
A few completely wrong-headed and bizarre comments on the book’s Amazon listing sure didn’t help. Ah well. It was a fun book to do.
Volume Contra-indicated
Which way do you turn the knob when you want more water from the garden hose or kitchen sink? Lefty-loosey, righty-tighty, right? Counter clockwise, of course.
Why, then, do we turn stereo volume control knobs clockwise to get more volume? It should be like opening a valve to let more volume out. Counter-clockwise should equal more volume, not less. Open it up, let it flow, like Pompeii.