Friday, August 1, 2003

On the roof of my loft in Boston in 1980 10:15:41 PM    comment []; Seed battle heads to supreme court A Canadian farmer is preparing to take on the Monsanto biotech corporation in a case that goes to the heart of the issue of genetic patenting. [BBC News] 10:05:13 PM    comment []; Cameraphone catches criminal We've all heard about all the horrible things that camera phones can be used for. Well, here's a good thing that they can be used for. According to USA Today, a 15 year old boy took photos of a strange man that was trying to lure him into his car. [Mobile Burn] 9:55:51 PM    comment []; PDA Geek has a very good review... PDA Geek has a very good review of the Palm Tungsten C. [The Connected PDA] I so want the love child of the Tungsten C and the Treo 600. If that son of Treo and Tungsten had Bluetoooth as well I'd buy it in a heartbeat....How about the name of the web site? PDA Geek!! Ha! 8:33:23 PM    comment []; Wearable camera from Minox Tiny new wearable digital camera from Minox. The 2.1-megapixel DD1 is just 3.27 by 2.95 inches in size, and comes with 32MB of internal memory and a slot for SD memory cards. [Gizmodo] Minox was big in the spy business in the sixties and seventies. James Bond had one. Well, my dad had one also... 7:27:07 PM    comment []; Fogscreen: ethereal display The FogScreen is a tradename for a display systems using turbulent airflow with suspended particles for a projection medium...[BoingBoing] 7:20:54 PM    comment []; Is Louder Better? GoodNicsTken writes "Rip Rowan over at prorec.com did an analysis of 5 different Rush CD's released from 1984 to 2002. The results show a definite trend in the recording/mastering style from each album. Rip contends that louder is not necessarily better as the record execs believe. The artist however, is often left with little choice in the matter." [Slashdot] Who says the members of Rush didn't get more deaf with time? But seriously folks, I agree that CDs are getting mastered louder every year and by mastering louder you get less dynamics! Perceived loudness is the average volume. What happens when an album is mastered louder is that the sound is compressed. Compression controls the loudest parts of the song and brings up the softest parts. Instead of a zig-zag between softest and loudest parts you end up with an almost flat line. That's fine for club music, but sucks for Jazz or any music with great detail and dynamics. For the listener it also means that if you put several CDs in a CD changer one will be so soft that you will need to turn it up and the next CD will make you jump up because it is way too loud...Listen to the Christmas CD I recorded for Epic a few years ago. Not very loud, but a lot of dynamics. Compared to that nouveaumatic will be quite loud and the original Nouveau Flamenco was positively thunderous. Apple's iTunes software has a command that lets you make songs play back at a similar volume, which makes it great for shuffling a bunch of very different music styles without one being much too loud and another much too soft.... 7:18:36 PM    comment []; Dusan Bogdanovic In April, when I played guitar for Leda's new album in Milan, one of her engineers recommended classical guitarist Dusan Bogdanovic to me. I bought the CD "Keys to talk by" and it is very nice. Modern classical music at its finest, and beautifully recorded. It is very complex and not for the faint-hearted, but even if you don't dive into the complexity head first, you can enjoy it like you can enjoy a moorish design in Granada without understanding it.... 5:45:08 PM    comment []; Mambo Sinuendo I bought the new Ry Cooder album Mambo Sinuendo and now I am bewitched by the melody on the first track of the CD. This morning I had it on repeat for half an hour. What a great snaky melody. Beautiful! Best track on the album IMO. 5:37:35 PM    comment []; Spud Bazooka BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have arrested a man for firing potatoes at passers-by with a home-made bazooka, authorities in the western city of Essen said on Friday. "It was like a bazooka that fired potatoes," a spokesman for police in Essen said. "Jolly dangerous from close range." Drunk and armed - dangerous combination...that reminds me of a party I gave about 8 years ago where I filled a couple of large water pistols with tequila and, well we all got plastered... Thanks Carol 5:24:58 PM    comment []; A Peking Gateway 1:24:45 PM    comment []; Dan the best monitor man! I have worked with Dan since 1994. He gives us the best monitor mixes a guy could ask for! 11:05:32 AM    comment []; Bears in China A friend sent me this link today and wrote: makes me proud to be human - which you will find, after reading the article, he meant facetiously.... 9:11:42 AM    comment []; Senator Wants Answers From RIAA A Minnesota lawmaker calls on the music industry group to clarify just whom it is subpoenaing and why. Republican Norm Coleman is worried that innocent people might be sued for copyright infringement by the music industry. By Katie Dean. [Wired News] 9:03:51 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 9/1/03; 10:37:55 AM.