Saturday, October 11, 2003

Ceiling of the PAC in Tampa Bay 11:12:27 AM    comment []; Drawing 37 11:05:20 AM    comment []; The bongo-drum Internet A computer-science student at Algoma University recently became the first person to create a system that routes data over bongo drums. See that picture above? That's basically how it works. You type an internet command into one computer, and the software translates it into a set of bongo-drum beats -- which the computer whacks out on the drums, using electrically-powered sticks. The second computer listens to the bongo pattern, then translates the commands back into computer-speak, and executes the command. Now we know what to do during the next blackout. [collision detection] Hey, this could even replace phone lines...just a world wide net of Bongo Computers!! 10:58:17 AM    comment []; My France story In 1980 or '81 I visited my parents and some friends in Cologne, Germany. A good friend and I decided to drive from Cologne to Paris in his Citroen 2 DC. The 2 CV was the beetle of France, a cute vehicle that was great in the city, but a little headwind would slow you right down to about 40mph on the freeway. Coming back from Paris we drove towards Luxembourg from where we planned on driving to Cologne. Not far from the border we found a little hotel to spend he night. As we were waiting for our dinner in the hotel restaurant I heard somebody in the kitchen yell something about Germans and Nazis and stuff like that. At first I was worried that the chef was might do something awful to our food but then figured I was being paranoid. We ate and went to our rooms... ...only to be woken up around 5am by the hotel manager who asked us to get dressed and come downstairs. When we arrived at the reception he explained to us that my friend's car had been stolen in the early morning hours, but that the police had found it near a river not far from the hotel. We walked over to the river and found the car a few yards from the river bank. Clearly somebody had wanted to push the car into the river and maybe had a change of heart since it was a French car??? The police man shrugged his shoulders as only a Frenchman can and pointed to a broken window and to the place in the dash-board where the stereo had been ripped out of the car. We filled out the police report as was requested of us, knowing that nothing would come of it as we had a feeling that everyone knew what had happened and condoned it. We packed our stuff and left. When we got to the French-Luxembourg border, which was nearby, we were singled out for a nice long two hour customs/drug check and the car was taken apart. We were questioned but not searched thoroughly and the whole thing almost seemed like more intimidation...Maybe the broken window was the reason for the search, or maybe somebody received a call from the little town to make sure we wold not want to come back this way..... Well, judging by the talk I had overheard in the restaurant we knew this episode had something to do with WW2 and after we made it home that day I checked history books. I found out that the little town had been the location of not one but two defeats in WW1 and WW2 and apparently some locals thought that getting back at a couple of twenty-somethings from Germany would make them feel better. I hope it did and they didn't have to do it again... 10:42:08 AM    comment []; Thu 9 Oct: Pittsburgh PA - The Rosebud Today we play a game of chicken with the promoter. If we blink and cancel the show he gets his deposit back. If he blinks and cancels the show we get to keep the deposit, but he doesn't have to pay the second half of the money. There are no ads in the local papers and magazines, no posters anywhere in the area...I wonder how people found out about this show at all. In the end the show happens in front of an intimate but enthusiastic crowd of around 80 people. Jon Gagan remembers that the last time we had such a small audience was at the Bottom Line in New York City in 1990. It was our first show in Manhattan and Jon says we played in front of about 30-40 people. Subsequent shows became more successful and eventually we sold out the Beacon Theater which seats about 2,800 people. As Dan likes to say: if it was easy everyone would do it... 10:41:34 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 11/1/03; 9:39:15 AM.