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What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?

Olaf — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:20:06 +0000

Frequency is probably a term more commonly associated with 80′s synth-pop artists and electrical sound engineers. However, it’s not to be underestimated or underutilized as a viable word in other situations.

I worked with one of the more difficult teaching challenges in my experience yesterday at my drum circle. A gentleman joined us with a peculiar short-coming – he had no current musical interest and an unclear memory of the interests from 30+ years ago when he called it (music) quits. I see many people that claim to have “no rhythm.” At face value, it’s true. However, everyone has rhythm whether they recognize it or not. Your heart beat has kept a rhythm for your entire life; surely one can learn to keep one externally for a few minutes. As it turns out, there are some people that this may seem even less possible for. This guy that I worked with seemed to have a real mental block to rhythm, or to something even more fundamental – frequency. In his words, he had trouble with numbers in that they held no relevance. I believe the problem was actually that he assigned no frequency to numbers. In order for counting to assist you in musical timing, one must use a consistent spacing between the numbers. Without it, counting does us no good. I attempted to teach this concept in many styles; visual, tactile, and aural. Each of them seemed to provide a glimpse of what he was missing, but none of them resonated completely. Having thought about it more sense the drum circle, I have some additional ideas of how to get this message across.

For one, utilizing the old method of counting seconds may be helpful (e.g. one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, etc.). Forcing yourself to say one thousand between every second counted manages to keep many of us attuned to a consistent frequency. There is also the issue of matching patterns, which I think people can more easily grasp than timing. My five-year-old is learning about patterns in kindergarten as an introduction to math. Following this course, I may be able to explain frequency in terms that a potential drummer can understand. In the end, I want this guy to grasp the concept of the wave. Hear the noise of each crest. Feel the silence at each trough. Of course, the goal is anticipation. Without that – and this is something that he struggles with – one can never ride the wave!

Lennart Green Magic Amazes TEDrs

Olaf — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:55:10 +0000

Lennart Green, the foremost close-up card magician of the world, dazzled the audience of TED 2005. I caught the video today on my Zune and was thrilled. His show is very entertaining, quick witted, and his foreignness is close to my heart (Green is from Gothenburg, Sweden). The TED video is around 30 minutes of goodness. Green had me laughing often, and his hand work is second to none. If you ever wanted to be a magician, watch this video and give up on your dreams. You’ll never amount to anything!

Interface: Flash

Olaf — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:44:33 +0000

Pentagram: Flash

Pentagram: Flash

Olaf — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:38:40 +0000

Interface: Flash

Zune 2.x

Olaf — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:43:18 +0000

You may recall that I had written up the Zune Wish List a couple of months after I received mine in December of 2006. I took the time to assess my needs and what the Zune hardware and software could do to meet those needs. It has now been nearly a year since that list and it’s time to update it.Microsoft released their 2.0 Zune Marketplace software with the newer Zune hardware made available for Christmas of 2007. The new software addressed some issues with the older software, but more than anything I think the new version was an aesthetic shift for the product team. Maybe they’ve completely replaced the creative group in favor of a sexier image. At any rate, with a good number of users and a year or more on their belt as Zune users, there were clearly going to be some polarized debates about the change.Refresher: Here is the old and new iteration of the Zune (Marketplace) Software, respectively…
Here are my original ‘wants’ for the hardware and software after 2 months of use:

Zune Hardware:
- Alphabet ToC Navigation in addition to click-wheel
- Ratings categories (so I can play 4-star or 5-star music only, for instance)
- The ability to remove songs from my “quicklist”
- Setting EQ attributes to a song or album uniquely
- Inline normalization
- New category…or put a recently added link at the top of each category
- Make playlists of video files
Zune Software:
- Faster *My software has long periods of unavailability, though I realize I have an over-sized library
- Automatic playlist creation
- Support for OGG
- Insight into the folder monitoring – some sort of progress or status on this
- Better album art application – album art isn’t always displayed immediately after you add it
- Without knowing any better, I wish the album art was embedded within the ID3 tag of the file rather than being added as a hidden file in the directory
- Perhaps support for a real database back-end – I feel the need for enterprise class media management

There were also some real problems that needed attention:

Crashing…the software crashes, the hardware crashes. Sometimes it’s solid, but then it goes into a fit and crashes consecutively all to often. **UPDATE – I found out that the hardware is most likely crashing due to an electrical protection feature. Static electricity is not the Zune’s friend.
Renaming/hiding MP3’s. This could be related to crashing – I’m guessing that MP3’s were being indexed and something went wrong. Then, the Zune software went and renamed a *lot* of MP3’s to their cataloged GUID and hid them. The files won’t play until I rename them back to a .mp3 extension. It will annoy me when it comes up – so far only a few of these songs have come up in my shuffle list.

In the hardware category, Microsoft did exactly zero to fulfill my wishes. The closest they came was to introduce sorting by “date added” to the software. That’s actually very helpful, but it doesn’t help me find new music on my device after I’ve left the computer. The Alphabetical ToC thing would still be cool, but I will say that the click wheel seems to be spinning songs by faster than it used to. It hasn’t bothered me as much that I can’t jump to a letter in the alphabet quickly, though it would probably make me a safer driver if this feature were added. Depending on your attitude towards the “Ratings” debate, the new software either decimated your organization, or has drug you from Ratings procrastination. I’m somewhat in the middle on this. I’m adapting quickly enough, though I had finally figured out a decent way of rating my music along the 5-star basis that helped me managing my music. The new Zune uses only a “Heart” to signify the emotion a given song lends. You love, hate it, or are indifferent. Despite the change, there is still no way to play music on the device that you’ve “Hearted” unless you create a playlist first (static). Microsoft took away the “Flag” option in the Zune hardware. I was using it a little bit, but it was so unnecessarily slow and useless that I had stopped altogether. I had hoped that the new firmware would add much needed functionality to the flagging option, but now we find it missing in action. No love lost for the old function, but I would like to see the ability to flag a song for my review back at the software. I would primarily use it as a reminder to do something with that song (e.g. add to playlist, look up artist, etc.).

The Zune software; that is, the part installed on a Windows machine for interaction with media and the device itself, is a piece of work. I mean that in two very polarized ways. Piece of Work: 1) Quality craftsmanship, exemplary; 2) opp. The worst, poorly demonstrated – syn. Piece of Shit. I may sound a little harsh, but this new software encourages me to use Microsoft’s new “Heart” ratings to express my emotions. This brings me to my earlier comment regarding the product’s shift in direction. I really get the feeling they threw the old software out and started fresh. On the love side of things, I really like the new look. While I prefer the technical features of an app to let me do all matter of evil to it (i.e. preferences, customizations, tweaks, etc.), I really do like the slimmed-down simplicity of the new Zune software. The previous software left me feeling like I should see more options, but didn’t. This software, on the other hand, gives me the impression that what I see is what I get. It took a little while to get used to – I’m still a little unfamiliar in its kid-gloves aesthetics – but I’m gaining proficiency. I also like the fact that this software appears to be running faster with fewer crashes. I haven’t had any MP3′s get renamed (and hidden) to GUID replacements. While file monitoring still doesn’t lend any insight as to the percentage complete, it does seem to run faster and more consistently.

On the negative, the functionality of the software has been grossly gimped. I am no longer able to do something as simple as edit my own ID3 tags in a simple form-based interface like before. I can’t seem to update an album against a web lookup – it happens automatically, but I don’t have finite control over the process as was given in the previous software. While I love the addition of the podcast category, I don’t much care for the level of experienced interaction given to users here. I prefer the more technical feel when it comes to podcasts. They tend to vary wildly in format and compatibility, so it seems best that I have the option of modifying URL’s, identifying what URL’s are being used, and possibly see the actual error message for a given RSS URL when the Zune software rejects it.

Ultimately, the Zune software direction has the potential of being good. I feel more like I’m using an Alpha product than something released for public consumption, but the good stuff is really good. With the negatives going against my my expectations of software for this type of work, I would actually rather use a third-party application to synch to the Zune. As I’ve stated before, MediaMonkey is my favorite (in case their developers are reading).

The Lone Ranger

Olaf — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:10:45 +0000

We have now officially fallen to a distant 2nd for Balthazar’s adoration. My mother gave him the gift of a lifetime – somewhat inadvertently – yesterday. She had been at a dog party where the requirement was to dress up your animals for Halloween. Among hers, she had some cowboy and villain paraphernalia that fell into the hands of one 4-year-old on the farm. Balthazar must have nearly vibrated into hysteria at his luck. He’s all boy, and as such, enamored by all things weaponry and heroic. I’ll have to get a picture on this post as soon as I can; he describes himself as “Cowboy Superhero.” His garb consists of two side shooter cap guns, the belt with holsters, sun glasses (Power Ranger), a cape, and a Sheriff’s star. Oh, he also has hand-cuffs which – thank you mom – are metal and rather painfully slapped onto the wrists. They’re not even useful for cuffing the boy to a hand railing while I go and take a nap – he can wriggle out of them at their tightest setting.

With the power of the Internet, I was able to demonstrate to this superhero that his act has already been done and he has a more proper name, “The Lone Ranger.” He didn’t have a cape, but he had a horse named Silver and sported a red neckerchief (thank you, dear, for the proper term). We watched some opening scenes of the old shows; I learned that there was a cartoon series as well. Then we found this…

I have either destroyed the fantasy of the Lone Ranger forever, or made an enduring memory that will always leave him thinking wistfully of the masked hero of yesteryear. Either way, we both laughed our asses off!

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Olaf — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:34:35 +0000

TED.com speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, delights the audience with his clever wit and poignant message on the worldwide problem of education systems. My aunt in Pasadena, California is a teacher to early elementary school children and can probably speak on this fact. I have had at least one conversation with her on what I call the “evolution of thought.” I’m not going into it here, but suffice it to say that evolution denotes a progressive development – not necessarily better, but different. An educational institution must adapt to this development or be ineffective. The mindset that educational systems seem to rely on is our nations’ collected references on historical data. While easier to implement and measure, it is not entirely effective, and stagnates the “system” in a quagmire of perpetuated problems. While the world continues to change around us, our methods of teaching do not keep the pace. Ultimately, I think many teachers would profess that the job doesn’t pay for creativity, and they’re right. Teachers are underpaid for the service they provide to the world. Perhaps when people realize the value and credit due of their office, some creative individuals can reform the system and guarantee the success of our futures.

The bright side is that there are schools out there that cater to exactly this kind of thinking. In fact, even in my [nearly] local district changes have been implemented to allow for various focuses to receive extra attention and guidance. There are a host of specialized school systems such as the Progressive systems; Magnet, Montessori, or the diverse array of private schools. While not available to everyone, they at least stand as practical examples of the application of non-standard or non-traditional educational means.

TED.com: “Do schools kill creativity?”

Gainesville’s Finest

Olaf — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:42:05 +0000

I don’t have particularly bad luck with police officers, but it just seems as though most of them don’t have very personable personalities. Friday night at Oodle’s in Gainesville proved otherwise. Two officers were eating at Oodles where my wife, son, and I frequent. Balthazar noticed the cars outside while we ate and was very interested. As the police officers were leaving Oodle’s, he started pointing them out very excitedly. I waved one of them over, Dwayne Moran, and he spent a couple of minutes talking with my four-year-old in a manner very appropriate to his age. It was really cool. All too often, people ignore little children because they either don’t know how to interact with them or are too above the station to bother. I really appreciate the personal attention that officer gave Balthazar – it’s especially important to see that because having a child, you realize how civil service employees are real celebrities to them. It’s very similar, as I see it now, to when I dress as Batman or Chewbacca. Kids eat that stuff up and it’s really important that you show them respect – if not, you lose a big piece of your positive Public Relations.

Hide from the Color Blind

Olaf — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 14:33:05 +0000

Isi sends me updates from the science department regarding cloaking. Apparently, it is relatively simple to obscure objects from specific wavelengths – like a copper disc surrounded by an electromagnetic field. Unfortunately, the only thing that’s particularly useful for is hiding from someone who, say, can only see in a single color. Oh, and I guess you might slide slide under an enemy radar with the technology…but seriously, who cares – where’s our Invisibility Cloak! They’ve also discovered through the wonder of complicated electrical mathematics that inside the invisibility field, one would only see their reflection. Also, things that give off electromagnetic currents (e.g. flashlight, watch, cell phone) would disrupt the field. If you could stabilize the field enough to resist the other electromagnetic devices, they would simply reflect off the interior – thereby causing them to reflect within the field just as your reflection would. So Harry Potter we’re not, but advances are being made. It won’t be long now before we’re seeing Invisibility Cloaks for sale in the back of Boys’ Life magazines.

The Mathematics of Cloaking