Tuesday, September 3, 2002

Network links in high end communities are starting to pop up in reasonable numbers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16815-2002Aug30.html I still worry that there aren't any compelling services. Fast net is wonderful, but most people probably value it for its "always on" feature. And there is this little feature of what is available ... Dan Gillmor makes some valid points. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3982670.htm The net isn't what it used to be and its trajectory doesn't seem terribly promising. 3:37:17 AM     To date nearly every large organization who has tried digital online music has failed to meet expectations. Now AOL is trying it with a huge user base and a tiny bit less less greed than other organizations. It is possible that they may win. I also expect that Warner is effectively firewalled from AOL proper by layers of corporate distrust - this may be necessary if the scheme is to succeed. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/02/technology/02MUSI.html I have this silly optimism that schemes connecting the artists directly with their audiences can be made to work and will offer great value - perhaps enough to push broadband. A few of us worked on this and failed, but I remain convinced that there is a pony somewhere out there. As I understand it, the AOL scheme does not meet my criteria to build a tight/short path connection between the artist and her audience. I should not get started on this now as I would go on for pages... 3:36:46 AM     I won't let go of the music topic easily this morning. A few of you are probably archiving your music libraries in digital format and, to first order, that probably means you are compressing the music using mp3. There are better things to use. I was in an organization that was heavily involved in creating the superior aac codec. Before spending the time converting a library you should test the codecs against a reference. Recently I tried the aac implementation in QuickTime 6 Pro for the Macintosh against two mp3 implementations (LAME and the current Frauhoffer mp3 encoder). I was using good earphones and speakers for reference and the music exits the computer in digital form to a good DAC/preamp. Hint - (thanks to JJ for the suggestion) try harpsichord music. Percussion is also a good test as is some guitar music and many female voices (to my ears at least). I certainly wouldn't waste my efforts with mp3 unless I was willing to use 256kbps compression settings (and really large files). Now if Apple would just put aac in the iPod (and I can hear Fernando nodding) If you are impatient and are uninterested in iPod synching, but have a legal aac encoder there is an Applescript that allows you to semi-automate the ripping and compression process. Just be sure to set the aac settings to something reasonable (160kbps for example) as the default setting with Quicktime Pro is far too low. Look for Make Mine MPEG-4 http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/ The results will be placed in iTunes and you can use iTunes as your interface. Presumably these files should transfer to the iPod when the aac codec is made available, but .... 3:36:16 AM     Continuing with the sound theme ... Being of a certain vintage I fondly remember putt putt boats. Also known as pop-pop boats or toc-toc boats, these were small metal boats with a thin coiled tube for a boiler. The coiled tube terminated at the back of the boat in the form of two submerged pipes and the whole thing was powered by a candle. You would get precharge the boiler with water, put the boat in the water and light the candle. Heat from the candle would vaporize some of the water which, in turn, would push a column of water through the tubes at the back of the boat (true waterjet propulsion). Some of the steam, having left the heated boiler but not the boat, would condense pulling water back into the engine. Because expelled water was in one direction and the incoming water is nearly hemispherical, there was a net forward propulsion accompanied by a satisfying sound. There have been many variations. I remember making these as a kid - they always worked, but 25 cent commercial models usually worked better than what I would spend a day building. You can still buy them - this would be a great gift for the geezer in your life, or for yourself if you are fascinated by simple mechanical toys that are non-trivial physically (I have seen putt putt boats in physics Ph.D. preliminary exams - physics folks will recognize them as Helmholtz resonators) I have never purchased anything from these people, but you might give them a try http://www.hilgartdata.com/grahamco/index.htm 3:35:40 AM     Apple recently announced that they are releasing Rendezvous as open source. If you have tried to configure IP networks you may have noticed that it can quickly become non-trivial to do fairly simple things. On the other hand crusty, inefficient AppleTalk usually just works - many early Apple users found themselves building non-trivial networks without realizing it buy just stringing components together. Rendezvous is Apple's implementation of Zeroconf http://developer.apple.com/macosx/rendezvous/ and http://www.zeroconf.org/ There is a strong AppleTalk flavor here as well as the potential for near magic. On the other hand there are some sketchy points - there may (or may not) be some hand waving going one about a security issue or two for example. One suspects that the verdict will soon be in on Zeroconf. Until then I have it disabled in my OS X Macs, but expect wonderful things. As an aside I mention that there is a body of urban folklore about the robustness of AppleTalk. Much of this mentions a farmer connecting a barn to his house using Appletalk connectors, alligator clips and barbed wire. The punch line is usually "oh - it works great unless a cow leans on it ..." A few years back I was in Montana and decided to try this somewhat primitive physical layer. It worked perfectly. I was able to bring three computers and a laser printer up with no configuration.. and no - I'm not going to make the obvious Dell comment at this point. 3:35:00 AM     Recently a link to a Reuter's story about a Turkish woman who kept cows(!) in upstairs apartments in Trabzon http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/40997|oddlyenough|08-30-2002::10:27|reuters.html was mentioned on Metafilter triggering an avalanche of truly bad puns (the highest recommendation I can offer) http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/19621 3:34:17 AM

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