Age Abhors Technology

For reasons that should be obvious, I do not like discussing the trivialities of my day job on this blog. This is largely a safety precaution, as I would really hate to find out that one day, my boss discovers my blog, and then reads all the juicy details. This can and has happened to many of us blogging folk, and has cost more than a few of them their jobs. But I really would like to tell you what happened at the office today. Hopefully I can keep the details vague enough that the powers that be never discover who I am, or the fact that I'm talking about them.

My boss is one of the most technologically inept people I have ever met. He has little idea how computers work, though I think that he is forced to use them as a communication tool with his clients. When he is on the computer, it takes him an incredibly long time to accomplish any task, usually because he takes the longest computational path. For example, we are still on dial-up technology at the office, and he thinks the only way to disconnect the computer from the web is choosing "Shut Down" from the Start Menu. It is of my opinion that he should stick to machines like the pulley, the incline plane or the lever; he would get more work done that way.

Sadly, he has little concept of the importance of keeping one's software up-to-date. The security updates are never installed on the computer, and I have to fight with him every year to renew his Norton Antivirus subscription. He will use electronic equipment until it is far beyond obsolete; my computer at the office is running Windows 98. He has a little electronic address book that has a whopping 256k of memory. I was surprised to discover that you could plug this electronic organizer into a computer in order to back up the files. I learned this the hard way a few months back, as he accidentally wiped clean the contents of the organizer when he attempted to change the batteries. The interface to plug the organizer into the computer was so old, I had to plug it into the old COM ports. When I loaded the backup utility onto the computer, it looked like the interface was built for Windows 3.1. The backup took a ridiculous amount of time to transfer 256k, like five minutes.

In short, my office more resembles an electronics museum rather than an office.

Until today, as my boss came to me with a brand new PDA in his hands -- I don't even think he knows what a PDA is, but he bought one. I think he probably saw one of his business partners using one, and he decided that it might make his life easier. So he approached me this morning and told me that he tried for four hours this weekend to transfer some files from the computer to the PDA. Here we go again, was what I was thinking while he told me this. I asked him to provide me with the installation CD (he does not understand that computers need translation programs [i.e. drivers] so computers and peripherals can understand each other), and I proceeded to install the PDA software onto a computer that was (at the very least) six years older than his PDA.

He wants to use the PDA as a tool in the field to enter data into a word processor or spreadsheet, which may cut my workload down, but then he would not have to carry forms into the field. I don't even think he knows or cares about the other capabilities of a PDA - an address book, a calculator, an email client, plus its wireless capabilities. At the moment I thought that he would still expect to use his 256k address book relic with its monochrome LCD display. After I successfully transferred some Excel documents to the PDA I realized that there were formatting issues that I will have to deal with once I obtain the data from the PDA. It is not going to cut down on my data entry time -- and I don't think it's going to make his life any easier, as he claimed this morning.

I should not hesitate to mention, I have never used a PDA in my life. I have wanted one on and off for a number of years now, but I have come to the conclusion that I would never use one enough to justify buying one. Nonetheless, this was an opportunity for me to play with a new toy. I hit the first hurdle early on. The installation CD had a "Wizard" program that was supposed to automatically transfer the user's contacts information directly from Micro$oft Outlook. I was not the least bit surprised when M$ Outlook kept crashing while the wizard was trying to transfer the data to the PDA. It never worked for me once.

So I spent most of my workday playing with this new PDA, Uploading Micro$oft Word and Excel documents, seeing if they will work properly and do what he expects them to do. One thing I learned very quickly is that the PDA isn't very good at recognizing handwriting. In fact, it's more like the user has to learn how to write all over again in order for the PDA to recognize what it is exactly you are trying to write. I quickly learned to use the on-screen keyboard to enter text, which I found was quicker than handwriting in the first place. All the while, I was thinking that my boss was going to have a conniption trying to learn how to operate this new gadget.

I eventually decided that I should put his contacts and email addresses into his PDA, that he might finally throw that relic of an address book into the trash. Even though I managed to successfully export his address books into a format that was readable by the PDA, there were many formatting issues that would require me to edit nearly every contact in the list. At current count, I am only about halfway through his address list. For some reason, I think he is going to have a fit once he sees that I have cleaned up his Address Book. "I can't find anything anymore!" he will exclaim.

The bottom line is that I wasted the entire workday playing with his new gadget. I fully expect tomorrow that I am going to have to teach him how to use it tomorrow.

I sincerely hope all of you are praying for me.

Effective and Efficient Practicing

I managed to get about 30 minutes' worth of practicing in on Sunday evening. I pulled out a book I have owned for a few years, but never managed to spend any time learning the material. The book is called "Future Sounds" by David Garibaldi. According to Modern Drummer Magazine, it is one of the top 25 drum books published (I believe the original article was published in the August 1993 issue, so it is a bit old).

I ended up working through the first page, and felt that there was a lot that this book had to offer to both myself and my students. This got me thinking about my practice habits.

I don't get to practice my drums nearly as much as I'd like. I have too little free time, so I manage to practice about an hour per week. I began wondering how I could get the most out of my compressed practice time. The answers began coming to me swiftly, but I think there is more than what I have deduced insofar. I call it "Effective and Efficient Practicing".

It is effective in the fact that a great deal of self-discipline is necessary. The student must sit down at the kit with the intention (i.e. goal) of accomplishing something attainable in a given practice period. Learning one page of exercises is attainable in an hour; learning an entire chapter is not. In a compressed practice session, there is no time for playing the drums -- practicing patterns and skills the student already knows; there is only time for material the pupil does not yet know, or is not yet comfortable executing. If the practice session is an hour long, dedicate the first ten minutes to rudiments and warming up. If the practice session is thirty minutes, spend 5 minutes warning up. If the practice session is less than 30 minutes, then it may be important that the student begins working on the exercises immediately if any progress is to be made. Focus is key to cramming such material in such little time. The student must be on-task and focused the entirety of the practice session.

The practice session should also be effective. What this means, is the student should be practicing material that works on many aspects of his drumming skills, rather than focusing on one. A student who practices only rudiments on the snare drum in an accelerating fashion (open-close) in an effort to develop speed is only focusing on one aspect of his drumming. Rudiments are important, but in this instance the practice session isn't as effective as it could be.

A practicing drum student should focus on many key areas during the practice session. Time is likely the most important. Coordination and independence probably come second in importance, while speed, musicality, and dynamics encompass other important areas, though they are often overlooked. The development of one's creativity is sometimes addressed in a practice session, but more often than not, only happens when one is playing the drums. An effective practice session would use proper material that would address many of the above key issues. After working through the first page of Garibaldi's book, I found that his book did address many key practice issues that I mentioned earlier.

The exercises in Garibaldi's book include metronome markings. In other words, it would be beneficial for the student to practice the material with the aid of a metronome. In fact, it's beneficial to practice all material with a metronome, but many students find the metronome intimidating, or they are too lazy to bother buying one. The first page dealt with some basic coordinated 4-way independence using the paradiddle (and its' inversions) between the snare drum and the hi-hat. He also changed things up by permutating the beats and the accents. [ed. note: To really understand what's going on here, it would be best if one examined the book. My apologies go to those who have no idea what I'm talking about.]

The accents are a nice addition to the exercises. This allows the student to develop a higher degree of musicality while playing the drums. Furthermore, if the student plays the exercises from start to finish without stopping, then the exercises develop the student's sightreading abilities.

Yes, it was a good practice session. I left the drums feeling better than I had all week. I accomplished my goals for the practice session, and I found material that I plan on pitching to my students in the future. Apparently, drumming is also therapeutic.

The Frayed Ends Of Sanity

Things haven't been going well lately. I'm beginning to think I have a sleep disorder. Pick one: Narcolepsy, or Sleep Apnea. I am consistently tired. I can't focus for any considerable length of time, I can't stay motivated, I have absolutely no energy, and I spend my days in a hazy fog that borders on delirium.

I have been wanting to write a few more entries to this blog, but when I sit down to write, I find that I have about as much energy to write little more than a paragraph, and I am the kind of person who likes to develop develop his arguments. After reading what I had written, I erase it and do something else.

I have a very sedentary job. I spend the entire day in front of the computer, but it's doing work that is not terribly exciting (data entry and report writing). Since my employment, I have been less active. When I first took the job in 2001, I was playing gigs on weekends, which required a lot of heavy lifting (those amps and speakers aren't light), so I was getting some exercise during the week. Last summer, I decided to take up jogging, but that idea was eighty-sixed when my knees seized up on the first jog, and I couldn't walk for ten days afterwards. So much for getting in shape.

I do not have low blood pressure. In fact I usually check it about once a month. I am always 120 / 80. Perfect score every time. I however think, that sitting for extended periods is weakening my heart, and I am getting poor circulation.

For the remainder of this week, I am going to take a break at 10:00 and 3:00, go outside for a jog around the block, get some fresh air, and see if my condition improves. In addition, I think I might have to revolt and bring music into work. My boss hates music being played in the office. He considers it a distraction, so for the last three years I have had to listen to the incessant buzz of fluorescent lights. That's enough to drive anyone insane.

I have said to myself a number of times how much I despise my job. Perhaps it's not the job I despise, but the environment. The job is in my educational field, and I used to like it, but something has to change.

But there is something else wrong. Fatigue has always been a problem with me, especially in the mornings even my Kindergarten teacher wrote in my report card "MC Fro does not deal well with mornings". Some things don't change even after some twenty-five years. I have fallen asleep standing up. I have also fallen asleep while driving -- more than once. It has been a miracle that both me and my car survived.

I cannot drink coffee - it makes me ill. I end up drinking about two or three cups per year, and then I am reminded why I do not drink it in the first place. I drink copious amounts of cola in a day -- probably nearing a liter per day. By body has grown accustomed to the daily dose of caffeine, and instead of it giving me a swift kick in the rear, it does little to help my alertness. In fact, if I do not get my daily dose of cola, it's headache city.

Please don't ask me about other stimulants or amphetamines. I don't even go near the stuff. I like to sleep on a regular basis. I'm just sleeping at the wrong times.

In other news... Yesterday, I played my most successful game of NetHack. I was playing a wizard character who couldn't seem to do anything wrong (at least at the beginning). Unfortunately, my kitty starved to death before I entered the Gnomish Mines. Using Force Bolt liberally, I managed to get my character "Zappy" to Gnometown. But then I was stupid, and I annoyed the priest. The next thing I knew I was surrounded by wolves and patrolmen. I had very little mana left, and I died rather quickly. Note to self: Don't annoy the Priest!

Ride the [Music] Elevator

Earlier this week, I have updated "MC Fro's Top 5 Tunes". Very little had changed in the rankings, though some moved up the chart, others moved down, and there was only 1 new entry on the charts. After careful thought, I considered that over time, the top 5 tunes would not be very representative of the songs I have been listening to recently.

The main reason for this, is the playlist I was using was a "top 5 most played". This playist ranks songs by a cumulative play count since I purchased my computer. If I listened to a song a dozen times six months ago, it is still going to rank very high on my playlist, even though I have grown tired of the song. So I created a new playlist that not only ranks songs by play count, but the song must also have been played in the last 30 days.

When I constructed this playlist, I found that I got some different results. Look to next week to see a new Top 5.

Grrrr...

In the last two days, I have written two lengthy entries, only to have Firefox crash on me at the last minute before publishing. My patience is wearing a little thin. If this post makes on the web, the Firefox has been granted a stay of execution.

Over the last few days, I have been considering the possibility of creating a third blog. I might call it "Zen and the Art of Drumming". I would like to keep some sort of practice journal, where I could document my progress on certain books, or exercises, as well as publish some exercises I have created. I would also like to discuss some of the deeper aspects of drumming, as well as some of the mental aspects, including some of the bio-physics issues.

I imagine most readers would find this quite boring, so I thought I would leave these issues off this blog. On the other hand, there might be some other drummers out there who might find this kind of publication appealing, and I could open the door for other drummers to post. It has the potential to grow into something larger, but at the same time, it could be one of those obscure corners of the internet.

I might have to consider this a little longer before I decide to commit to maintaining three blogs. I am having enough trouble managing two.

It's The Eye of The _____

In my spare time today, I took a few moments to watch the Macworld 2005 keynote speech of a few weeks past. I am not going to go into the major details of what was all discussed, but if you like, you can view the keynote speech here.

After watching the two-hour presentation, I was blown away by the features of Apple's newest applications, including Apple's next-generation operating system, OSX Tiger. The new technologies integrated into this release of OSX will make file management incredibly fast and simple. The improvements and integration of all of Apple's software is so fast, slick, and seamless, it is downright scary.

It's all about synergy. People want their computer programs to interact seamlessly with one another. They all want a familiar interface, they want it simple, and they want to manually manipulate objects, instead of using commands, dialog boxes, and drop-down menus. Apple has done it again by releasing state-of-the-art software. But don't take my word for it; see for yourself.

It may seem like I have been plugging Apple a lot recently, but I would like to add that many software developers are pushing the envelope, developing new technologies to make our life easier, even Micro$oft.

Here Go Another 15 Weeks...

This post is complete irony with respect to my previous post. This week featured the debut of the third season of the Apprentice on NBC. Looks like I'm going to be spending many Thursday nights in front of the boob-tube.

I hate reality television. Absolutely despise it.

But I am hooked on the Apprentice. I think I like the business theme. I can do without all the cat-scraps though. The first two seasons began with pitting the males against the females, and more often than not, the females all fought amongst one another, usually over some petty issue. In contrast, this season we are seeing college graduates being pitted against those who have only a high-school education. I consider this is an interesting concept. In the end, I think experience will prevail over intelligence.

I have been in video-game mode this last week, so I apologize for not updating this site. Earlier this week I successfully finished Myst III with a nominal amount of hints. The final puzzle was hard as heck, but I had figured out many of the clues as to simplify the problem. I was quite proud of my ingenuity.

Since then, I have been playing NetHack again. I haven't been having much luck, as I keep dying at the hands of my own (apparent) stupidity. I have learned a few neat things though, perhaps I will one day get a character that will be powerful enough to see the bottom of the Gnomish Mines. I apologize if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

There are so many commands in NetHack, that it could potentially take a player years to figure out all the applications of the commands. Many of the items have unexpected uses if you apply them to commands you would otherwise not usually consider. I find this amazing from a game that when compressed, nearly fits on one 1.44 MB floppy disk. Then there are the new (i.e. popular) games that can only fit on DVDs. That's what a heavy reliance on graphics does.

Why I've Abandoned Hope on Television Programming

Last night, when I should have been sleeping, I came across a television program called "Unexplained Mysteries". It was one of those shows that deals with UFO's, Government conspiracies, Alien bodies, and eye-witness accounts of abduction. I ended up getting some amusement out of the show, but while lying in bed afterwards, I was considering the validity of the show I had just witnessed.

I would like to believe in many things. I would like to believe that there is intelligent life out in the universe (I often think there certainly isn't any on this Rock); I would like to think that we will be contacted by these beings in my lifetime. I would also like to believe in other ideals, such as world peace, the end of poverty, disease, and even government corruption. But I am a skeptic by nature.

I have seen many shows like the one I saw last night. In fact, every one of these shows are the same as the other. They show the same old footage; they discuss all the same issues in every show: Alien crash-landings in New Mexico, preserved bodies of extraterrestrials in top-secret military bases, and experimental fighter planes based on alien technologies. They feature retired military officers claiming these events actually occurred, but have no definitive proof due to the destruction of classified documents. On top of all this bunk, these programs display faces, pyramids, and other structures on Mars that cannot be explained as natural phenomena. I am not sure if the purpose of these shows is to make believers out of us, to scare us, or to undermine credibility of our Governments.

What struck me, is the "spin" that these programs put on these shows, as if they could actually succeed in exposing the "truth" to the masses, that the United States Government has been lying to the people for at least the last sixty years. This is not unlike the "spin" that the US media portrays the civil unrest in the Middle East, or the spin that Al-Jezeera puts on the same news. I continued my thought processes and dug a little deeper into the issues at hand.

I thought, what if it were true that the United States government had definitive proof that extraterrestrials existed? Would they share that information with the public? According to the show I witnessed last night, they said "no", which I tend to agree with. The government would fear that if the public were to know that extraterrestrials existed, then a moral panic of unprecedented proportions would ensue, and the government may be unable to control the public. Upon further thought, I concluded that the US Government is right-wing conservative; some would even argue that the separation of Church and State has been blurred in recent years. One cannot deny that the proof of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe would have a profound effect on our spiritual beliefs. On a similar tangent, I would not be surprised if "the Church" still has a significant amount of influence within "the State", even up to the highest levels of government.

[ed. note: If you think I'm treading on thin ice, you are probably right. I am trying my best to be as general as possible as to not piss everyone off. If you hear me out, you might be surprised in the direction I take this.]

I would like to believe that some of the reported UFO sightings were from extraterrestrial beings. I would like to think the US military has an alien craft in a hangar in some top-secret military installation (I would also like to believe that if this were true, that the alien technology is so advanced, that military scientists do not understand the technology so they cannot implement it into their own military vehicles or weaponry). The more I think about it, I do not believe that the US military has such evidence.

In 1961, Dr. Frank Drake proposed a formula to mathematically determine the probability of intelligent life existing in our universe. The equation is as follows:

N = R × f_p × n_e × f_l × f_i × f_c × L

Where:

N = The number of communicative civilizations
R = The rate of formation of suitable stars
f_p = The fraction of those with planets
n_e = The number of planets in the system that would be capable of sustaining life
f_l = The fraction of those where life develops
f_i = The fraction of life sites where intelligence develops
f_c = The fraction of planets where technology develops
L = The "lifetime" of communicating civilizations

The numbers are arbitrary, but generally we are looking at a very small number. When we consider the possibility of extraterrestrial life landing on our small blue planet, the number gets even smaller.

If we were to be contacted by intelligent beings from elsewhere in the universe, it would surely be in the form of radio waves (sure, science fiction fans love to talk about "sub-space" communication technology that travels faster than light, but we have no knowledge if such a thing exists. If it did, every computer geek on the web would want that technology, as cable modems and email aren't fast enough for them). Radio waves have the ability to travel great distances without substantial loss in signal quality. There are many government-funded programs designed to listen to these radio waves for signs of intelligent life. The SETI@home program is an unprecedented attempt to listen to these signals with more precision than ever before. After being operational for some seven years, using millions of years of computer processing time, and identifying many potential candidates, not one legitimate signal has been discovered by the SETI@home program.

Of course, many believers will argue that we have received signals from intelligent beings, but the Government has classified the information, so civil order can be maintained. This is simply not true. What "Unexplained Mysteries" (and other similar programs) fail to mention, is that the Earth rotates; stars rise and set. Extraterrestrial civilizations do not make person-to-person calls.

In order to make contact with an alien civilization, a signal has to be sent into space at an incredibly high amplification. The message would have to be repeated countless times, not just for years, but centuries or millennia. The vastness of space is so large, that if an intelligent race existed on the other end of our galaxy, it would take one hundred thousand years for that signal to reach us. It would take another one hundred thousand years for us to return their signal. By the time they had received our signal, our civilization (as we know it) would not be around. Even so, given the vastness of space, we would have to be listening at precisely the right time in order to acquire the signal; so would they.

If an alien civilization were to try and contact us, it would likely be a very faint signal. We would receive that signal many times; and every radio telescope in the world would be able to tune-in. If such a candidate signal was discovered, the news would not be be kept secret for long. I consider this definitive proof that there is no possible way that the United States government would be able to intercept an intelligent signal from outer space, and classify it without the rest of the world knowing. How can you classify a signal that's intended for all of us? And not only us human beings; what about the rest of the Universe?

It is more likely that if intelligent life exists outside of our solar system, it is so far away that we would never be able to return the signal in our lifetime. It is even more likely that there is nothing more than noble gases out there. But I like to dream of the alternative.

The idea of "Area 51", a top-secret air force base (that even the government denies its' existence, regardless of whether or not it exists) having an extraterrestrial craft in their possession is almost unbelievable. Again, this has to do with laws of percentages. To crash-land on an uncivilized area of the United States is like hitting a bullseye target from the moon. The United States covers a small percentage of the surface area of the earth. If an interplanetary craft were to crash-land on the Earth, it would most likely land on water; two thirds of the Earth's surface area is covered in water. To have the US military cover up such a crash-landing up with few (or no) witnesses is another slim chance.

Now if such a place exists such as "Area 51", I would expect it would be more a testing ground for new military technologies, but I doubt these technologies are alien. The majority of UFO sightings are debunked as military vehicles. Some are even debunked by natural phenomena.

We haven't even yet examined archaeological evidence. There are many accounts in historical records of strange beings visiting primitive civilizations, operating strange machinery, in both the Middle East and in Central American civilizations. Besides folklore and wall paintings, there are no artifacts to prove that extraterrestrials have visited this planet in the past. Furthermore, I would argue that no extraterrestrial beings have not visited us, as even now there is "no sign of intelligent life" on this planet. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to discuss the uncanny precision of the construction of the pyramids (or other archaeological discoveries that are normally featured on similar television shows); that will have to wait for another entry.

As for those who claim to have been abducted by extraterrestrials and subjected to "testing", I would love to have psychological assessments on these people. I wonder how many of them habitually abuse hallucinogens, how many of them are schizophrenic or suffer from some other debilitating mental disorder, or how many of them are just craving attention to the degree that they will say or do anything. Many people who have suffered abuse in their lives have what is known in the professional community as "repressed memories" -- which is a nice way of saying that their experiences were so traumatic that they actually made themselves "forget" these events actually occurred. If you consider that many of these abuses are allegedly similar to acts of sexual exploitation, you can probably understand how these people might believe they were abducted by aliens, rather than subjects of abuse.

People believe that extraterrestrials would treat us in the same manner we treat other species of our planet. I don't think that these "aliens" would feel any guilt inflicting pain on us for the advancement of their knowledge. I am opening another big can of worms here, so I should probably reserve this issue for another entry.

What I think, and what I want to believe are obviously two different things. I hope that I have provided convincing evidence that we do not yet have definitive proof of extraterrestrial life. With the development of new technologies, it might end up that we might discover that we are not alone in the Universe; I hope in the process we might be able to discover a bit more about ourselves.

From the Garage to the Studio

One thing I did not mention about last week's keynote speech at the Macworld Expo, was the release of iLife '05, Apple's software suite that includes upgraded versions of iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, and Garageband. Many of the upgraded versions sport some very exciting features, including Garageband, which is growing from a low-end audio production suite to a powerful application.

Apple is borrowing technology from their high-end production suite Logic, and offering it in Garageband. The most impressive feature with the new version is the ability to multitrack record (record up to 9 inputs at one time), music notation and transcription (most audio production suites shy away from notation), and automatic tuning features for less-than-stellar vocals. For these features alone, it might be worth the $99 upgrade fee.

One thing that makes Garageband worth more than it's weight in gold is the bundle of software instruments and effect plug-ins that come with the program. I discovered (accidentally) that Apple allows the ability to use Audio Units, which are plug-ins designed specifically for Logic. Once I discovered this, I knew that Garageband could be expanded well beyond it's limits. Strangely enough, Apple doesn't tell you how to go about installing these extra packages (likely because they want the user to purchase their Jam Packs instead). I had to resort to finding the answer to my query on the web. I tried using the Audio Units provided in my Garageband package, and I was blown away by the sound quality. My tracks sounded sparkling and full of life. I knew I had to have more.

Last night I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who happens to be a very serious recording engineer. He owns his own recording studio and over the years has probably invested well over six figures into his recording equipment arsenal. He also happens to be a big-time Apple nut. We were talking about the latest releases from Apple, when he suggested I visit a site called KVR Audio. What I found was a site dedicated to the distribution of open-source audio plug-ins for all the major audio-production suites, including Pro Tools, Cubase VST, Logic, and Garageband. I downloaded a couple freeware Audio Units to see if they would work in Garageband. After some fiddling (and a little prayer) I managed to install these plug-ins and had them working in Garageband. Needless to say, I was electrified, and impressed by the sound coming out of my speakers.

If you are into computer-assisted audio recording, you have to check out the KVR Audio site. I have placed a weblink to the site on the sidebar. Once there, you will find links to almost any plug-in imaginable and software is available for nearly every suite, as well as any platform you use (PC, Mac, OSX).

MC Fro Was Seduced By The Dark Side of the Credit Card

The power of having a credit card is overwhelmingly tempting. I've been itching to use it on-line and find rare items that I've been yearning. The itch is so bad at times that I don't care what I buy -- as long as it's easy as pushing a few buttons and it winds up at my door, without me having to go out in the cold.

I spend a lot of time searching for items on eBay that I can't seem to find in town. The problem is that the bidding is so fierce, shipping charges are so expensive, and sellers are out to make their money back, that by the time you received said item, it really wasn't worth the purchase.

You could probably guess what items I typically search for: drums, cymbals, recording equipment, and computers. Many people search for these items on eBay, so chances of getting a good deal on any of these items are slim and none.

I took a stroll over to Amazon.com, and searched for a CD I've been wanting to buy for a number of years now: Contagion's Contaminant PCB. It's a very rare CD, and I learned of this group while I was a DJ at CKUL in Lethbridge. If you are a fan of Industrial music, this CD is essential to your collection. I found a copy of the aforementioned CD for 97 cents on Amazon. The total price with shipping included was $6.46. Now, I think I scored a great deal, as I was prepared to spend $30+ for the CD. As for the ease of the shopping experience: Bloody easy. Click-Click-Click-Done. Buying on eBay can be a nightmare at times. I used to send money orders (before I had a credit card). What a whole lot of running around to have an item shipped to you in 6 to 8 weeks.

Getting a "good deal" is arbitrary. I suppose you get a good deal as long as you think you did. You will always find some schmuck who bought it cheaper than you.

I hope my credit card spending doesn't wind up out-of-control. I'm the kind of person if I see a deal I can't refuse, it's mine, whether it costs me six bucks or six thousand.

The Next [Small] Things From Apple

[Ed Note: apparently, I cannot upload images at this time, so I will have to write this entry sans graphics. If you want to see images of the products I am talking about, visit Apple's homepage.]

Today was a big day for Apple. During the keynote speech, CEO Steve Jobs unveiled new software and new products. Noteworthy of mention was the release of the most affordable iPod ever, the iPod Shuffle.

Using flash memory, weighing less than an ounce and about the size of a pack of gum (think Juicy Fruit), the two new versions of the iPod can hold 120 or 240 songs, for the price of $99 US or $149 respectively. Also worthy of mention is the iPod's 12-hour battery life. If I didn't own an iPod already, I would not hesitate to buy one myself. I can't believe the price. I predict these little pieces of 21st century fashion are going to fly off the shelves. Once again, Apple is securing is domination of the digital music market.

On second thought, I could probably have use for an iPod Shuffle. I'd use the little one for music, and my 15-gigger as an external hard drive and backup utility.

Apple's second major release today blew me away. Apple released the most affordable Mac computer ever today, in an attempt to lure PC users (and iPod owners) away from the Windoze platform. The Mac Mini is about the size of 5 CD cases (about 6 inches by 6 inches by 2 inches in height), weighs in at about 3 pounds, contains a CD-RW and a DVD-ROM drive, and a 32-megabyte ATI graphics card. If you are a wireless type person, the Mac Mini is capable of 802.11g wireless technology, and able to use Bluetooth peripherals. It only comes stock with 256 megabytes of RAM (expandable to 1 Gigabyte) and a 40-gig hard drive, but what floored me was the price point: $499 US!

When I first saw images of the Mac Mini, my first thought was "The Cube has returned"! It has been widely speculated the main reason why the Cube miserably failed was that the price point was far too high. Now, Apple has introduced a machine that is reminiscent of the Cube, but at the lowest price point in Apple's history (not to mention, many times more powerful than the original Cube).

The initial response from the on-line community has been staggering. The servers at The Apple Store has been overloaded, as on-line discussion forums. From what I have read, the majority of readers are blown away by this new machine. This could very well become the most successful Mac ever -- even if it is (comparatively) not as powerful as other Mac models.

The Next [Big] Things From Apple

I imagine the small size of the Mac Mini (and low price point) may be attractive to cluster-computing enthusiasts. For the uninitiated, a cluster is a supercomputer that is made up of a number of computers networked together in such a way to "act" as one brain. You could stack seven Mac Minis on top of one another, and it would be approximately the same size as a PC tower -- but its computing performance would be considerably greater than a PC of the same physical dimensions. Better yet, Apple has created Xgrid, a program that manages supercomputing clusters, making the job easier for the programmer. Surely, the Mac Mini is not powerful enough for massive supercomputing institutions, but might prove to be an affordable alternative for supercomputing enthusiasts and smaller outfits.

When I first became interested in the possibility of cluster supercomputing, Apple had not reseased OSX, nor Xgrid. Supercomputing (I had found through a few small experiments) was not for the faint of heart. Today, it is easier to be a programmer, or researcher and use Apple technology for the world's supercomputing needs. In fact in recent years, some of the world's most powerful supercomputers have been using Apple computers and OSX for their supercomputing needs. When Apple released the G5 computer last year, it was found that by using Apple computers (and technology) researchers could build supercomputers for a fraction of the cost using Intel architecture and Linux operating systems. Virginia Tech was the first institution to build a supercomputer using the G5 architecture. 1100 nodes later, they had created the 3rd fastest computer in the world. The price tag was only about $5 million (similar machines cost in the ballpark of $100-250 million). Since then, many institutions have followed suit and opted to use Apple technology.

I really wish people wouldn't patronize Apple. People may like their Wintel boxes better, but Apple always comes up with an innovate idea that keeps them from disappearing into obscurity. These could be famous last words, but as long as Steve Jobs remains in the Apple picture, I expect them to remain in business -- even if they hold 5 percent of the market.

Deep-Freeze

For those who know me, also know that I have a "thin layer of insulation" about me. I am always cold; I am not fit for this temperate climate that I was born and raised. In Summer, I sneer at those jerks that have sweat rings around their shirts, breathing heavy, with sweat running into their eyes and asking everybody: "Hot enough for ya?" I'm in jeans and cool as a cucumber.

When it gets as cold as it has been the last few weeks, I go out of my way to stay indoors. I abstain from any extra activities that would mean going outside -- even to my car. I suppose that keeps me from shopping, but I still have to venture out in the cold to drive to work every day.

Speaking of work, you wouldn't believe how cold my office is. The building is quite old, and the windows are only one pane thick, so the heat doesn't stay in the building very long. A few years ago, my boss brought in a little space heater in order to keep my temperature above absolute zero. I ended up placing the heater about 30 centimeters away from me on the floor, which managed to keep my workspace tolerable. I still wore my winter coat at the office all day.

Last week, when the temperature dropped to minus thirty, my boss was kind enough to bring in a large electrical space heater. This thing puts out a lot of heat, and I would consider it a fire hazard. This heater is so hot that it would be comparable to standing directly in front of a well-stoked fire. Guess what -- it wasn't warm enough for me. I had both space-heaters going in the office, and only then was I comfortable.

I have often been so cold that I would have loved to douse myself in "Boy Scout Juice" and light myself on fire, as it would be the only method I could think that would warm me up. If you think that idea is ridiculous, you should check out Jimmy The Human Bomb. This guy is a daredevil who ignites himself on fire at functions such as tractor pulls, football games etc. He is doused in some form of flammable liquid, and then is placed in an enclosure like an outhouse. I believe the small wooden building is pumped full of some combustible gas, and then it is ignited. The building explodes, and out of the wreckage comes Jimmy the Bomb, stumbling like a zombie with his arms outstretched. After some thirty seconds of being aflame, his crew arrives to douse him with fire extinguishers. Apparently, he's a big hit in the southern States. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Contrary to popular belief, it is cold in Hell. Very, very cold.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold,
The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold,
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see,
Was that night on the marge of Lake LeBarge, I cremated Sam McGee.
- Robert W. Service, "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

Gates Gets a Taste of His Own Medicine

It's a great sight to see when a politician gets a pie in the face, but when the keynote speech of Micro$oft's CEO Bill Gates goes awry due to glitches in his own operating system, it is a truly golden moment. Yesterday, Gates held a keynote speech at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show, where he was demonstrating digital photography. His computer froze when he connected it to a soon-to-be released Nikon digital camera. Later in the presentation, a product manager was demonstrating a video game that is currently in development, when the dreaded "blue screen of death" appeared on the big screen.

You might say that little faux pas would be about as embarrassing as being pied. If Micro$oft's software can't work for their own CEO, I've lost all faith in their products and services.

Not Another Top Five List

The latest addition to this website is the inclusion of "MC Fro's Top Five Tunes" on the sidebar. I had to resort to doing things the old-fashioned way, that is writing a bunch of code, though I was hoping I could find a computer application that would insert the images and data, and update the webpage automatically. I was not so lucky. A number of programs do exist that could accomplish what I wanted, but there were a few problems. First of all, sometimes these programs would not display images, others created their own formatting that would have not have worked well with this site, and lastly, nearly all of them required that I have access to some FTP server, and that is something I do not have at this time.

So it looks like I am going to have to update my top five list manually for the time being.

My "top five tunes" are simply the five most played songs in my iTunes library. Once I looked at the playlist, I was a little surprised at the results. First of all, the playlist has only been active since I purchased my computer, which was sometime in October. Other playlists that I have had on other machines would have registered completely different results.

I am also in the process of a massive purge of unwanted music on my computer. Out of a playlist of some 2500 songs, nearly half of them have not been listened to. I might end up finding a real gem that I cannot stop listening to. When this happens, it tends to skew the validity of my "top five tunes" playlist. In addition, I have only managed to encode about half of my CD collection, and I know that there are some really cool songs that aren't in my iTunes Library yet. It is going to take a number of months, but I foresee the top five tunes playlist making some interesting changes in the future.

I thought I might make a few comments about the songs that made the top five, which might provide some insight as to why they made this weeks' list.

1. I Can't Tell You Why - The Eagles. I love this tune. My parents used to play The Long Run album incessantly while I was a little kid. Though this song is a little depressing, there is some wonderful performances on this track. Don Henley's voice is slick jumping to and from falsetto, which is not an easy task for any singer, and I can't seem to get enough of that THC-influenced guitar solo at the end of the song. I listened to this song a number of times while I was learning to sing it -- so I wouldn't have to ruin the song if (and when) I decided to sing it at karaoke. That would probably explain why this song made it to number one.
   
2. It's My Life - No Doubt. I'm surprised this song made the list, as I like the Talk Talk version better. Actually, I'm not that big of a No Doubt fan in the first place. This song resides in a few playlists, including one I made specifically for parties. It's a playlist that contains only top-forty singles, thus almost anybody could enjoy the music, and would (ultimately) prevent me from incessantly skipping songs.
   
3. What Do You Need? - Goo Goo Dolls. I discovered this song by chance, and when I first heard it, I knew I found a keeper. I have a few albums by the Goo Goo Dolls, though I find their music is hit-and-miss. They have written some wonderful songs that have unique hooks to them (Naked comes to mind), although I find a lot of their b-sides boring to listen to.
   
4. You're Still The One - Headpins. If you are from Western Canada, and you have never heard of the Headpins, then you might have been living under a rock. This is the only Canadian rock band that I can think of that had a Gold record before being given a record deal. The Headpins managed to sell 50,000 copies of their debut album Turn It Loud from the back of their tour van. Originally began as a side-project for Chilliwack band members Brian "Too Loud" McLeod and Ab Bryant, the Headpins quickly rose to the top of the Vancouver music scene. In fact, these guys were so loud, they were louder than The Who!
   I have shared the stage with the Headpins on at least half a dozen occasions. They are one of the hardest-working Canadian bands out there. Next time they come your way, be sure to check them out. They are well-worth the price of admission.
   
5. If I Had a Rocket Launcher - Bruce Cockburn. Every time I drive, I am singing this song. I never expected a beatnik like Bruce to have such a dark side to him, which is probably why I love this song so much. I can't help but smile when I hear him sing the final line with such vengeance: "If I had a rocket launcher / some son of a bitch would die!"

I think updating my Top Five Tunes weekly is a little ambitious. I will monitor and see if the list changes by next week. If not, I may have to resort to updating the list monthly.

Blogs.ca

I have been forgetting to mention that this blog has entered its' ninth month, and I wanted to reflect a bit on its' [relative] successes.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that I am still blogging regularly after nine months. I find this to be a bit of an accomplishment, as I usually get bored and find a new hobby within 30 days.

The second thing that crosses my mind is that a select few of you continue to return to this page to see what kind of nonesense I have to write about. Some of you know me personally, and some of you don't know me at all. I watch my Site Meter; you don't block your cookies. There's a few of you in the Eastern Time Zone and a few in Russian Federation Zone 7 that keep coming back. Don't worry, it's cool. Readership in this blog grows every month. Sure, I'm not getting millions of hits, but my evil narcissitic side wants to expand his sphere of influence. [insert scheming sinister laugh here: "Muuahh ahh ahh ahh ahh!"]

About a month ago, I submitted my site to BlogsCanada, which is one of those database sites that list thousands of blogs. The webmasters of BlogsCanada, however are a little picky when it comes to choosing what they deem to be acceptable content. I suspect that they want to have quality material on their site (whatever quality means), they might be weary of malicious content, be it terrorism-related, anti-semitic, or other simliar ilk, or perhaps they want to filter out kiddie porn. Today, I got a message from one of the webmasters stating that my site has been added to the BlogsCanada directory.

Of course the reason why I submitted it [this site] in the first place is an attempt to increase my readership. I have linked to very few bloggers, and I doubt that anyone else has linked to me, so I am in my own little corner of cyberspace.

On a different tangent, I am surprised that some people actually make money blogging. I have heard claims that some people make as much as $5000 per month by placing ads on their blog (I find that hard to believe). I have issues regarding ads and banners on my site, and as long as blogging doesn't cost me any money, then the ads will remain absent from this site. On the other hand, if this blog began to get a serious amount of traffic, and I had to buy server space and bandwidth, then I would have to consider ads. But I expect that will never happen.

Jim Elve is the main figure at BlogsCanada. He writes a column of the highest quality, and is currently addressing issues that involve bloggers directly. I'm referring to the "C" word. Copyright. This entry discusses how bloggers are being plagarized by a service/product called Skweezer. For a monthly fee, Skweezer "compresses" web content for display on your cellular phone, PDA's, or other small-screened portable device. It is essentially a filter that removes images and coverts everything to plain text. What is upsetting authors, is that their content is not only being changed in its' presentation, but if you profit from ads on your site, you will find that Skweezer removes your advertisments and replaces them with their own. Not only are they profiting from subscribers, but they are profiting from running their own ads. The author who makes a little money from running ads on his site is ultimately the loser.

If you are a webmaster and rely on ads for revenue, you might want to consider blocking Skweezer's IP address from accessing your sites. It is 216.115.239.17. It seems that Skweezer has run into some sort of legal action regarding the re-distribution of copyrighted material, but for now it seems that the only thing we can do is block Skweezer's IP.

For the little guy like me, this issue doesn't affect me much. If I ever profit from this little website, you'd be sure that I'd be blacklisting Skweezer.

iTMS Doomed? Napster the Next Big Thing (Again)?

A recent statement from Micro$oft, Napster, and Yahoo! claim that Apples' Music Store is doomed, and that subscription-based music services are the future. Representatives of the above companies attacked Apple, stating that charging 99-cents for a song was ridiculous with respect to Apple's newest 40-gigabyte iPod. To paraphrase: "Why would anyone want to spend $10,000 filling their iPod with music?"

Apple rivals claim that they have developed a better solution: Offer subscription services that will allow you access to the entire music database. In addition, Micro$oft has developed a copy-protection format that allows the user to transfer a set number of songs from Napster or Yahoos' database to a portable unit, such as an MP3 audio player, for an additional fee over and on top of the subscription fees. Furthermore, it has been determined that only a handful of portable audio devices are compatible with the Napster subscription service.

In contrast, Napster is claiming that a one-year subscription to their music database would cost $180, and consumers could essentially fill their digital music player with 10,000 songs at a fraction of the price the Apple Music Store is currently offering. There is a hitch though, in order to transfer a song to a portable music, it costs an extra dollar a song. All of a sudden, this doesn't sound like such a good deal after all.

Enter Micro$ofts' new copy-protection software. They are suggesting for $5 per month, that consumers could transfer Napster's entire catalog to their portable music player and listen as often as they like -- as long as they continue to subscribe.

So does this sound like a winning model to knock Apple off the top of the digital music heap? To me, this sounds like a lousy deal for many reasons. There are many facets to this model that don't sit well with me.

1. Nobody in their right mind would spend $10,000 filling their iPod (or other digital music player) with music. Apple's adversaries are using faulty ammunition to attack their rival. They are using the assumption that us consumers are stupid enough to believe the only way we can put music on our iPods is by downloading them from the iTunes Music Store. This is simply not true. People can encode their entire CD collection, or even download files from peer-to-peer networks. Sure, millions of people download from the iTunes Music Store. Millions more resort to less legal methods. Audiophiles like me continue to purchase CD's (pawn shops have great bargains), and listen to music on our iPod that we legitimately own.
   
   
2. The 40-gigabyte iPod is a high-capacity model, which is aimed at a target audience: Audiophiles and computer geeks. Audiophiles often can't stand listening to compressed music, which means that they will be listening to uncompressed audio. A 40-gigabyte iPod will only hold about 1000 songs on uncompressed audio. Can you buy uncompressed audio from the iTunes Music Store, Napster, or MusicMatch (Yahoos' music database)? Not last I checked.
   Furthermore, computer geeks find uses for iPods other than storing their music collections. It makes a great portable hard drive. More often than not, I am reading about computer technicians installing operating systems and other diagnostic tools on their iPods. In essence, they've created portable, bootable hard drives so they can repair downed computers on the fly. Others are using their iPods as backup drives, to store valuable information.
   The smaller 4-gigabyte iPod Minis are the models that are aimed at the consumer market. Most people don't have large music collections, and a model that has a 1000 song capacity is ideal for them. [ed. note: I must apologize for this rant, it obviously has nothing to do with debunking Napsters' allegations.]
   
   
3. I would expect that most people would purchase between a dozen and a hundred songs per year from a music download service. Conversely, I cannot fathom how I could possibly listen to 10,000 songs in a year. That's almost 40,000 minutes of non-stop music. In other words, that's nearly an entire month of music, 24 hours a day, seven days a week! I have a hard enough time managing an iTunes library of 2500 songs.
   
   
4. Most importantly, consumers like to own their music. Napster and MusicMatch are offering subscription services which basically allow the user to license music from their database. I would be weary to say that they even allow you to download the music to your computer. It is likely that the music is just streamed to your computer (I really don't know how they manage this as I never have subscribed). I refuse to pay a fee for any music service that only allows me to listen but not own. Apple offers anyone to preview music on their iTunes Music Store for free. Furthermore, what happens when you do not renew your subscription fee to Napster? Do they send you an email stating "Your subscription has expired. Please delete all songs licensed by us from your hard drive". Not likely. This is further evidence that music from these stores are likely streamed to your computer, which brings me to my next point.
   
   
5. Micro$ofts' new copy-protection music format would have to include some sort of self-destruction device, that the song file would corrupt itself once a consumer's subscription was not renewed. You know as well as I do that hackers are attracted to copy-protected software like vultures are attracted to carrion. Someone will crack the code. Anti-copying codecs aren't much of a deterrent anymore; neither is the threat of legal action. Finally, charging an additional fee for this (over and on top of Napsters' subscription fees) is nothing short of robbery.
   
   
6. Subscription fees of $9.95 per month might seem like a good deal, but how can Napster manage to generate a profit from such low fees? Royalty fees for record companies are astronomical. If you pay for a CD in a music store, the artist you've supported may see one dollar of that $20 you paid. Half of what you paid goes to the store you bought music from, the rest is monopolized by the record company, manufacturing companies, and management firms. You better believe that these same companies are getting a share from every song you download from an on-line retailer like iTunes. The artist you supported is making no more than a few pennies from every downloaded song. Conversely, in order to keep prices competitive, Napster, iTunes and MusicMatch have to cut their overhead. Apple is only making a few pennies for every song downloaded from their store.
   In order for a subscription service like Napster to work, they would have to have tens of millions of subscribers. No record company is going to let digital music sit on a server and wait to be downloaded. Those record executives have been paid already. Unless Napster can entice ten million music enthusiasts to switch, and happily pay their license fees, their music service will tank -- and when it tanks, there will be many unhappy subscribers who have lost access to their favorite tunes.
   

It seems to me that this new marketing scheme reeks of rotten vegetables. I'd have to be a sucker to believe they are offering a better deal then Apple. I fully expect to see the iTunes Music Store alive and well in the next few years.

New Beginnings

By now you have undoubtedly seen the new graphic at the top of the page. I have had components of that graphic sitting on my hard drive for a few months now, but I didn't have quite everything I needed to complete its' design. I was looking for a specific font, and I needed a scanner so I could choose the appropriate photos. I wanted them to be respective of the last ten years of my life.

The design of the graphic and embedding of it into the web's took considerably longer than I expected. I won't go into the boring details though, but it took the better part of an afternoon and part of the evening to finally have everything the way I had envisioned.

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable New Years' Eve. I ended up having my own little party with some close friends. There was far more alcohol than what we could consume. I expect that I won't have to make a trip to the liquor store until after Easter. Three of us pulled out guitars and we had a little jam session. We ended up teaching a few things to each other, played a few rock standards, and overall had a great time doing so. The session reaffirmed myself that I have to spend more of my time making music.

The party died shortly after 12:00. Some of us were falling asleep before midnight, and others had to work early the next morning. I had been up since 6:30 that morning, so my second wind had already came and gone by midnight. I was well-behaved that evening and was quite happy that I escaped the dreaded New Years' Day Hangover.

I didn't really make any New Year's resolutions, and I probably should have. If I resolved anything, it is to take my musical career in some new directions, and make more money at it. I am still entertaining the idea of my little recording studio (see previous post), and I think that could make me a few bucks a year (even if it just paid for my gear, it would be worth it).

I know that I cannot be truly happy if I am stuck in some job that's making somebody else rich. I have always been a person who wanted to do his own thing. If I choose to make that plunge, I surely am damning myself to lifetime of poverty.

It's kind of like the yin and the yang. I have to have the crappy day job in order to pursue the fun night job. My expenses are far too high for me to live on one salary alone.

By the way, the best Christmas present I got this year was from my insurance broker. My vehicle insurance premiums have dropped more than two thousand dollars per year. It all has to do with that nasty car accident that I was involved in three years ago. It's finally off my record. Now I can afford to pay off my car, and lower my expenses further. Then I have to start tackling those dreaded student loans.

The Construction of My DAW Has Begun

Over the Christmas break, I found myself playing with a happy little computer app called Garageband. It's a no-frills Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) designed by Apple. I haven't played much with it in the past, as I have no way of plugging any instruments (or my voice) into the computer. I need a breakout box, and one of the cheapest (that's worth purchasing) is Digidesign's MBox. I'd love to have the Digi 002, but it's a little out of my price range. If recording were my business, than I might be able to justify such a purchase.

One thing I found interesting about Garageband was the integration of loops with digital audio. I honestly am not a fan of loops. I don't like writing songs that sound like someone else's composition. On the other hand, I was blown away by the quality of the "software instruments" that Garageband offers. Once I began using the effects processors, then I really got excited.

I downloaded a MIDI file of a song I enjoy, and imported it into Garageband. The idea was so I could get a feel for the software, while not having to worry too much about creative issues such as songwriting. Users of Garageband will know that it doesn't directly support MIDI files. If you use a program such as Dent Du Midi, it will covert your MIDI files into Garageband files. By the way, Dent Du Midi is an indispensable app if you use Garageband. I highly recommend trying it out.

I ended up having a ball playing with Garageband. Sure, it's not as powerful as Pro Tools, Cubase VST, or Logic, but it is well worth its' price ($0). The idea of me having my own recording studio is festering in my head again, and perhaps the MBox is the way to start. I would love to sink my teeth into Apple's Logic software, but the $1300 price tag is a little tough for me to swallow, especially if it isn't generating me any income.

If you have a chance to play with Garageband, I highly suggest you try it out. You don't even need an instrument (or know how to play one) to start making music. Sadly, it might be only available to Mac users.

'Tis The Season to be Wasted

First of all, I hope everyone's holidays have been enjoyable and relaxing. Mine has not been so carefree as I only managed to get a couple days off, before having to go back to work. At least January 2nd is a Sunday, that way I have two days to recover from the dreaded "New Years' Hangover".

I know you guys are all dying to hear about one thing: Christmas Loot.

The big items were my ergonomic desk chair, and my printer/scanner/copier. Now that I have access to a scanner, you shall be seeing new images on my webpages in the near future.

A friend of mine bought me Myst 4 for Christmas. It is highly addictive, as well as equally frustrating. At a 7.5 gigabyte install it nearly ate up 10 percent of my hard drive space. Here is another game that is going to be the cause of many sleepless nights.

Citing the obvious, tomorrow is the last day of 2004. I am throwing a little shin-dig, and I bought $300 worth of cheer. If you know who I am and where I live, you are welcome to drop by and help me drink it. Bring a musical instrument so we can jam.

Happy 2005 everyone.

Switch

I have spent a fair amount of time over the past few months considering switching browsers. Today I took the plunge and installed Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.

I am blown away by the features of both programs. There is already a myriad of themes, and extensions to customize your browsing experience. The programs launch with nary a wait, and I have never seen pages load so fast in my life. This is even more advantageous for users of the new Mac G5 chip, as the code has been optimized for use on G5-equipped systems.

I will be using these programs indefinitely. I urge everyone to ditch M$ Outlook and IE. The world of open-source has designed something far superior.

Right Place, Wrong Time (a.k.a. Not-So Real TV)

It has been a bit of an adventure re-reading the entries from my 1999 tour journal. Memories that have since disappeared have come flooding back to my consciousness, and with them have returned the feelings of exhilaration, drunkenness, fatigue, anger, frustration, longing, and in some cases infatuation. At times I can hardly believe I am the same person. It's been five long years. Reading these entries is all it's taking me to realize how boring my life now seems.

I have been paying particular attention to my writing style. While I have been transcribing these journal entries, I have also been doing a great deal of editing. There are scores of extraneous information that many readers would not understand. This is the type of relative information that "you had to be there" to understand. This of course, just will not do in this context, so I am often paraphrasing passages in order to make them more relevant to everybody.

I am also revising the language. I am removing a great deal of the profanity, probably because I feel that it just isn't necessary. Some strong language will remain, if I feel the words are warranted.

Names and identities are also being censored. I may employ initials to represent people I have met, or create pseudonyms for all of them -- I have not yet decided. I fully expect that I will use Dave and Arleen's names throughout the journal, as many of you already know who they are.

By far the biggest change to the journal is the incorporation of CSS and html. When these journal entries were originally published, they were written in emails that could only support plain text. At the time, I had little knowledge of html programming, no knowledge of blogs, and I had no means of digitizing photos. This time around, I can hyperlink and add images. The experience should be more vivid this time around, and hopefully I can tell the story the way I wanted to in the first place.

It amazes me how quickly technology advances. I remember in 1999, how I thought it would benefit me if I could take a laptop with me on those long journeys. I could have written emails by the dozens, I could have checked my email on a regular basis, and I could have been a little more entertained than what I was (boredom was a serious problem while on tour). Back then I did not have the finances to afford an expensive laptop or a digital camera. In some cases, the technology wasn't even developed yet. Cellular phones with built-in digital cameras did not exist. Wireless internet technology was in its infancy, most people never had heard of a thing called a 'blog', and the only kind of internet connection most people were familiar with was known as "dial-up". To connect to the internet via a cellular phone was so expensive, I would have had to spend all my bread on airtime fees.

If I were to go on a similar tour today, I would be taking a digital camera-phone, as well as a laptop, and I would be documenting my tour in extreme detail. I would be taking photos of every club, every hotel room, every restaurant I ate in, and every person I met. People might think I was crazy pointing that cell phone at everyone and everything, but I know that on-line journal would become a hit.

People like to pry into the personal lives of strangers. This explains why blogging has become so popular, which is the same reason why Reality-TV has been dominating Network Ratings for the last five years.

Not-So "Real" TV

Those of you who know me personally also know that I have an utter dislike for reality-based television. It could be because I consider it the crack-cocaine of prime-time television programming, or because of the trials and tribulations that the producers put these 'civilians' through are so far-fetched and unbelievable that I just find this form of entertainment nauseating. I think the true reason why I hate Reality TV is because I think the viewers (i.e. the general public) are getting the wool pulled over their eyes.

I am sick of all the television commercials that state: "and don't forget to tune in this week to witness the shocking conclusion that will leave you in disbelief. All this and more on this week's episode of __________." There is something in these statements that really bother me. Do these television executives really think I have an IQ of 65, and I believe everything the television tells me? That's the first problem with America today is that they are conditioned to believe everything they see on television -- like they are actually winning the Iraq war.

Some of these shows are so unbelievable that I begin to think that Reality TV closely resembles Wrestling.

Reality television producers have a few tricks up their sleeve that they would not like the public to know about. First of all, it's not entirely "reality". The producers will often edit and delete entire passages, sequences of events, or subplots, and take them out of context to create drama. The point in case is if you watched last night's season finale of NBC's the Apprentice. Stacie J was eliminated in one of the first episodes of the season, ousted by her female competitors who coined her as "unstable". This revolved around some footage showing Stacie J at the Mattel headquarters, playing with a Magic 8-ball trying to divine her team's success. The footage of the show suggested that Stacie J was wasting precious development time, while the rest of her team was slaving away. This footage came back to bite her, as Stacie J was eliminated within a few episodes.

Last night's live finale episode featured Stacie J explaining the Magic 8-ball footage. She explained that the 8-ball didn't come into play until the team had finished their task. Not only that, but what was strangely absent was the footage showing most of the entire team playing with this Magic 8-ball. So I consider this definitive proof that the producers of the show deliberately used this footage out of context to create drama. The producers also knew that the other female candidates would conspire against her, citing her superstitious tendencies, and use that for dramatic impact.

The other part of the formula to Reality-TV success is cast selection. Before I get into too much detail in this, I should probably explain that the main premise of reality television is the Darwinist ideology of these shows. The weakest are systematically removed one by one every week until one ultimately remains. This is not necessarily the case given the "rules" of the show, as often the strongest contender is often voted out by the weaker majority.

What viewers might find surprising, is that contrary to popular belief, the producers of these reality TV-shows often do not pick the strongest applicants to be featured on the show. The applicants are first selected on basis of aesthetics. That's right. Where television is concerned, appearance and/or sex appeal takes precedent over everything. Once the uglies are cast out, the candidates are put through a number of aptitude tests as well as physical training. But
then a strange thing happens, the producers do not choose the strongest candidates to be featured on this arbitrary reality show; they often choose the weakest candidates!

No why would the producers do such a thing? The answer is simple. Drama is created not in the successes, but in the failures. Drama is also created in forcing people with abrasive personalities to work together. This of course, results in power struggles, fights, backstabbing, temporary alliances, and a whole lot of filthy language -- a recipe for Reality-TV success (hey, everybody loves dialogue with incessant beeps).

The context and theme of a Reality-based television show is rather arbitrary. The theme is only to catch the attention of target audiences. Think: The Apprentice - people in business or business school; The Biggest Loser - overweight audiences; Joe Millionaire - single greedy females [ed. note: The Smoking Gun has cited that much of this series was a farce -- including the lead male role]. If you removed the main theme from all these shows, they would all be the same. Darwinism without the carnage.

This week I have heard on the radio that the TV-ratings for Reality-based TV shows are plummeting. What surprises me the most that it has taken the average American about five years to figure it out. That being said, how many other Reality-Television series are complete farces?

Fourscore and Five Years Ago...

This blog has greatly expanded. I have just re-introduced the ZanZee 1999 tour journals. The web address is zanzee.blogspot.com. Like everything in my life, it is a work in progress, and will take some time to re-type all the entries. There is about 100 pages of text I will have to transcribe and edit, though I hope I will have ample time over the Christmas break that I can accomplish much of the work.

Truth be known, I never had finished the journal. But I am close. There really is only about a half-day's worth that I will have to recall, but most of the major events are still within the cobwebs of my mind. I fully expect the journal to end with the trip home from Minnedosa's Classic Rock Weekend, and perhaps a short epilogue; a reflection if you will.

I welcome you all to visit the page, and to visit often. I have installed a permanent link to the webpage via the sidebar. Take a brief look into one of the most exciting times of my life...

Speed Bump

This morning, my trusty iMac got a healthy dose of power. My friend (who happens to be a computer technician) and I installed an additional 512 megabytes of RAM, bumping the total RAM available up to 768 megabytes. The operation was quick and painless. We had the cover off and back on in under 2 minutes. To quote my friend, "It doesn't get much faster than that."

Upon reboot, the change was immediately noticeable. Applications launch immediately, and games don't "skip" or "pop". As I write this, I am monitoring SETI@home, and it appears that I could shave an hour off my workunit time.

Checking the system profiler, it was determined that OSX was using 256 megabytes alone. This pretty much meant that prior to the RAM upgrade, the operating system was monopolizing the system resources; any additional running programs were running under virtual memory.

I now have a computer that I am completely satisfied with -- at least for today. In a few years, this machine will become a dinosaur and will require replacement. When that happens, I imagine I will be raving about the next model. Sadly, the depreciation of technology is inevitable.

Piles Of Rock

Last night a few of my friends and I attended the Müle Shöe CD-Release Party. Entitled Piles of Rock, their CD is a reflection of their influences and roots. Take 2 parts Led Zeppelin, throw in 2 parts of Van Halen, and equal parts of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and AC/DC, and you would have something that sounded like Müle Shöe. The theater was packed, though a strange crowd. Müle Shöe is generally known around the local bar scene, but at least half of the theater was comprised of the under-18 crowd. They seemed to enjoy it all the same.

Yes, it was louder than heck.

After the concert, my friends and I found a watering hole to sing a few Karaoke numbers -- pretty much our intent was to have a few beverages, and show off our vocal talents. The bar was packed, which meant that we weren't going to be able to sing more than one or two numbers. So I picked Cheap Trick's Surrender, and CCR's Proud Mary, two numbers I have only sang once before, but I knew I could pull them both off.

With Proud Mary, you know that the whole bar is going to sing along. I heard them all singing over the PA. Of course they loved it. I was just relieved that nobody decided to jump on the stage and "help me out".

I nailed Surrender. I was also paying close attention to the crowd, as last time I sang this number it was in an empty pub, and I couldn't gauge whether or not this would be a song that the patrons would appreciate. We had a winner. There were tons of people singing along -- even a few patrons "banging their heads" to my performance. In addition, there were numerous screams and applause after my performance.

Today, I feeling the after-effects of last night's outing. I think I should be taking it easy for the rest of the day.

A Dark Day For Metal Fans Everywhere

This article appeared today on CNN.com. I reproduced it in full as I felt that the whole story was worthy of publication here.

FORMER PANTERA GUITARIST AMONG 4 KILLED AT CLUB

Police officer shoots suspected gunman to death

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- A 25-year-old man stormed the stage at a heavy-metal rock concert Wednesday night, shooting and killing Pantera founder and Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and three others before a police officer shot and killed him, Columbus police said.

On Thursday, police identified the suspect as Nathan Gale of nearby Marysville. A spokesman said police had no information about a motive or possible link to the band.

"Right now we don't see any connection at all, but that could change," Columbus police Sgt. Brent Mull said. "Unless he left a note or there's something else, we may never know the motive."

At least two people also were wounded in the attack, which occurred shortly after Damageplan began its performance at the Alrosa Villa nightclub on Columbus' north side.

James Niggemeyer of the Columbus police was nearby and responded to a call about the shooting. He slipped in a back door, and someone directed him to the stage, Mull said.

"We got the call about 10:18, and by 10:20 he was in there," Mull said, adding that "it was probably less than a minute before he engaged" the suspect, who was holding a hostage.

"The officer was able to strategically gun this guy down before he was able to kill his hostage," Mull said. "It appeared he was about to kill his hostage before this officer put an end to it."

Mull said the hostage was unharmed and that Niggemeyer's action saved lives.

"The officer ran in without any backup ... obviously put himself at risk," he said. "The community has a real hero here."

Abbott, 38, and his brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, 40, formed Damageplan after the breakup of Pantera -- a group they formed in the 1980s. Their father is Jerry Abbott, a country and western songwriter and producer.

Pantera's third release, "Far Beyond Driven," debuted at No. 1 in 1994. The band was nominated for Grammys in 1995 and 2001.

The band dissolved at the end of a tour last year -- amid much speculation on fan Web sites that the split was not amicable. The two brothers, however, played down any bitterness during an April 1 interview with CNN.

"It just kind of got narrow-minded, and we just wanted to bust it open a little bit more and just broaden it up, go for the Baskin-Robbins 31 flavors instead of the one, you know what I mean?" Darrell Abbott said.

Vinnie Paul Abbott said: "We had 13 years of really, really good success. And basically the singer wanted to move on, do some other things and really lost his focus."

At least 1 audience member among deaths

At least one of those killed Wednesday night -- Nathan Bray, 23 -- was a member of the audience. Mull identified another deceased victim as Erin Halk, 29, although it was unclear if he was a concertgoer or an employee.

Mull did not identify the remaining fatality. Abbott was the only band member confirmed dead "at this point," he said.

One of the wounded is in critical condition, the other hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Two others were hurt and treated at the scene, although the nature of their injuries was unclear.

Mull said homicide detectives are checking possible amateur video shot inside the club during the shooting but said they weren't sure if the footage would be useful.

Police roped off a huge area of the nightclub's parking lot as 60 detectives questioned hundreds of witnesses. Police brought in buses to keep the witnesses warm as they waited.

Witnesses described the gunman as a heavyset man, wearing a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey jersey.

Calvin Bota said he saw the shooting from the mosh pit in front of the stage shortly after the band began playing.

"Somebody came -- I don't know where they came from, out of the audience or whatnot -- but they come onto [the] stage and ... he shot the guitarist at first, fired a couple of other shots and then he hid behind the stage a little bit," Bota told CNN affiliate WSYX.

"Everybody started scattering, you know, there's mayhem everywhere. And then a police officer came into the building, you know, came in professional with his gun raised, and then he proceeded to shoot the guy."

Mull said Columbus police have responded to previous incidents at the club, including several he characterized as minor as well as a shooting in the parking lot. He said he was unaware of the club's security practices, except that it had no surveillance camera or metal detector.

"They are in charge of their own security inside," he said. "There are times they hire off-duty Columbus police for parking lot security -- we are prohibited by law from working inside a liquor establishment -- but last night there were none."

Goodbye Darrell. Millions of fans will miss you. It's a downright shame that your time had to come at the hands of some lunatic.

It's for reasons like this that I support firearm control.

The Paradox of The Millennium

My brain is a perplexing instrument. It is inherently playing tricks on me, causing me to think or feel one way or another. For example, a few short weeks ago, I was inspired and motivated to change to world. I was prepared to become an activist, rant, rave, and scream as loud as I could so I could instigate revolution. I was prepared to take a career in politics so that I could have the power to at least attempt to make social change for the better. That dream has since evaporated, though remnants of it still lurk in the web-infested catacombs of my mind.

Then recently I have been inspired by some interesting career news. All that has occupied my mind is what my musical career could develop into. Business is like a plant. If you pay attention to it, and take care of it on a daily basis, it could grow into something much bigger than you ever had room for. All I want to do now is pursue this endeavor.

The paradox arises in the fact that I have all this drive; passions you might call them. They infect my mind like a disease, taking over all thought processes. When I am this inspired, I often cannot think of anything else. I often don't sleep for days at a time, and food is just an afterthought. These projects, ideas and dreams I have are so ambitious that they become unattainable, or I lose interest in the process. They often lay dormant for months or years, and then re-kindle my interest. The cycle continues.

I have so many hobbies and interests, it boggles my mind that I have any time to pursue them to any degree. I change my interests as often as I change my underwear. How can I get good at anything, if I get bored and find a new interest in the course of 24 hours?

Speaking of which, I think it's about time to go back to school and get a Master's degree -- right after I tour North America in a rock band. And that's right after my successful political career as a Member of Parliament, and that's after my stint on Public Access television as an Oil Painter, painting pictures of "happy trees" between mountains and lakes. Oh yes, and that's after I make my acting debut on the local stage. And I can't forget, that's after I record and release my solo album -- where I have played every instrument on the record.

Welcome to my brain. I often wonder how I manage to not drive myself completely insane.

Have You Ever Had The Feeling That You Wanted To Go...

And then you had the feeling that you wanted to stay...

I have been doing a lot of soul-searching the last few days about my little business proposition (the one that I can't say much about at this time). I have also been soliciting the opinions of a few friends, family, business partners, etc. about what they think about the idea, and their opinions. The feedback has been rather mixed, which hasn't helped me come to a formidable conclusion. The decision I am faced with is a difficult one, though it has the potential to provide me with greener pastures, it also requires a leap of faith, and has the potential to backfire.

Backfire on many levels. It could cost me friends, clients, and business partners -- no matter which way I choose.

What I can tell you is that "it" has the potential to change the direction of my life, and career. "It" is also growing and changing shape before my eyes and could even develop into something bigger entirely. In one hand, I have the offer of something better than what I already have; in the other, I have the oyster. In my other hand, I have something that could be even bigger, and better for me physically, mentally and spiritually. But it is something that I will have to care for, nurture, and put all my efforts into for it to realize its' full potential.

In one hand, the money will come easy. In the other hand, hard times are ahead -- for at least a while. There are risks involved in everything we do. What I do know for sure, is that I cannot stay on the same path I have been on the last four years. To keep this up would shorten my lifespan significantly. I now realize that I will have to pursue what I love to do, instead of following the money trail. The money will be there; perhaps not in the volumes I had originally hoped. The money might also prove to be elusive for a number of years before paying off.

So once again, I am playing the waiting game; waiting for the other players in this elaborate chess game to make a move, before I can move another piece. I am in pursuit of freedom, and my last play has opened a number of moves that I had not thought possible.

Life is a game of Chess.

iTMS.ca

Only a few days ago, after much speculation and waiting, Apple has finally opened the iTunes Music Store in Canada. They are offering downloads at 99 cents Canadian, which makes it the best deal for downloading music from Apple worldwide.

I have not spent much time fiddling around with the iTMS. I went searching for some obscure music, and found little. I guess "obscure" is the key word here. When searching for music on the internet, I am usually searching for songs that I cannot otherwise find in music stores. At 99 cents per download, it is still cheaper for me to find music in pawn shops. Not only that, but then I have an uncompressed digital archive of all my music, which is something very important to an audiophile such as myself.

One thing that has bothered me about Apple's store is that the songs they are offering are encoded in the .m4a file format at 128 kbps. I have no problems with the MPEG-4 audio format; I think it is a superior audio codec (compared to mp3, wma, and similar ilk). My issues revolve around the bitrate. I find that the bitrate of 128 kbps is of poor-sound quality. I can identify the compression in such files, and not only do I find the sound annoying, it is also hard on the ears. I have been encoding all my music at 160kbps (.m4a format), which is comparable to mp3 files at 192kbps. At this bitrate, the audio quality is almost indistinguishable from the uncompressed original.

Even so, if you played your internet-obtained music on a high-end system, even at an encoding rate of 192kbps, you could still tell the difference between the audio file and the digital master. Apple has circumvented this problem by installing a "lossless audio codec" in the latest release of iTunes. This is a great feature for an audiophile, but the files are too large for anyone to put any substantial amount of music on their computer (or iPod for that matter). I would likely need a terabyte of storage on my computer before I would consider putting an uncompressed music library on my home computer.

The iTMS is still a powerful tool to search for music. You can preview music, so you could effectively find artists and music you would be interested in listening to. If you knew the title of a song, but not the artist, you could effectively search the archives and preview songs until you found the track you were searching for.

Unfortunately, most of the music provided on the iTMS is in the Top-40 category. Even Matthew Good stated on the opening day of the iTMS.ca that only two of his albums were featured in the store; his latest release was absent.

Perhaps things will improve in future months as tracks are added to the music store.

[Top Secret]

I have been given some very exciting news that is related to my musical career. In fact, it is some of the biggest news of my career. Unfortunately, I cannot comment about it until such time that the news becomes official. This will likely happen after Christmas. Until then, all you can do is speculate, and all I can do is keep my mouth shut.

Another Successful Gig Jam (aka "Serious Damage")

Yesterday, as soon as I got home from a long day at work, I got a call from SK, a local musician who happens to have a lot of gigs in town. He sounded rather panicked on the telephone. He was drafted to play a gig at a local watering hole at 9:00 that night. He received the call around 4:00, and he did not have a band. He called me in the off-chance that I was free and willing to make a few bucks. I accepted, and then he asked me if I knew any bass players who were available to play the gig that night.

I informed SK about AB, a gentleman I had been playing in the Grease Band. I knew he could handle the gig, and I really enjoyed playing with him. SK asked me to call AB and see if he wanted to play the show with us -- which was going to begin in about three hours.

So I give AB a call, preparing myself for rejection. I figured that given the short notice, AB might have made other plans, was not even in town, or not even interested in playing a gig without so much as a rehearsal. I breathed a sigh of relief when he was home.

It turned out he had already made plans for the night. I apologized to him and regretfully informed him that we needed a bass player for that evening's gig. His ears perked up. Immediately, AB was asking details about the gig. I told him it was a no-pressure gig, that many musical styles were going to be played, and the crowd didn't care whether we sounded good or not. Plus, it was a chance to make a hundred bucks for a couple hours' worth of work. AB said he'd drop his plans and play the gig with us. I was ecstatic.

AB is one of the guys I wanted to be in this three-piece power rock band that I have been daydreaming about the last week or so. I was secretly hoping that playing this gig with him might spark little more than an interest in my little idea. It would give him and I an opportunity to get to know one another's playing other than by playing Broadway Showtunes.

Don't get the impression that I am saying SK is not the guy for the band. I really have respect for SK, but he has many irons in the fire. He's playing with a ton of other guys in town, and he also runs a recording studio in town. He's already got a full plate when it comes to music. I'll do studio work for him, or fill-in for any other drummer who cannot make the gig, but I think at this time, if SK was the main guitar player for my new band, we'd be playing gigs few and far between due to his busy schedule. Admittedly, both AB and I agree that DS, the lead guitar player for the Grease band is the guy we want to make music with anyway, which we have already discussed the possibility with him. He was also quite receptive to the idea.

The half-hour prior to playing the first set, I could tell that AB was getting a little worried about playing this gig without any knowledge of the songs. SK and I walked him through a few riffs and songs to boost his confidence level, but I knew that the only way he was going to get over this hurdle was by playing the songs and going for broke. Time had run out anyway; it was do or die.

We sounded like a band from the first song. There was a great blend of instruments from the stage right from the beginning, and I knew AB would lock into my playing and create a tight groove. There were some great musical moments during the show -- those moments of musical creativity where there is ESP between the band members, and moments of sheer musical genius that sends shivers up and down your spine. That's what playing the gig was like. I couldn't imagine what this band would have sounded like if we had rehearsed!

We took a break, and SK left the table to visit a few of his buddies that were hanging around the club. This gave AB and I an opportunity to chat, and I wanted to get his feel for what he thought of the gig. As I had hoped, playing this gig with him turned a spark into a burning inferno. He stated that putting a band together with us and DS (and have a few rehearsals) would create an act that would do some "serious damage" around the local bar scene. I completely agreed with his statement. I was quite happy to hear that he was enjoying himself despite the fact that he had never played with SK before.

It was another successful gig. Sure, it sounded rough in places, but the crowd was rowdy, and they were into anything and everything we were doing. All our songs turned into long-jams, complete with extended guitar solos, and a few drum solos. We got many compliments from the patrons that we were an "awesome band", if they only knew that we hadn't a clue what we were doing.

The night ended with getting paid, and pleasantries being exchanged between the bandmates. AB was overjoyed that he had a chance to make music with me again. SK thanked AB and myself for bailing him out of a sticky situation, and I thanked both of them for having the opportunity to play with them again. It only came to my realization today that this might be the only time that the three of us will play a gig together. The people that were at the show likely didn't realize that they were there for a few hours of intense musical magic.

I went to sleep last night excited about the performance and the ever-increasing possibility of playing gigs with these guys again. I believe that it is a definitive possibility that DS, AB and I will put together our power-rock band and cause some serious damage.