August 29, 2004
The RIAA Mulls Their Own Demise.
;)
Their official statement of concern is "We remain concerned about any devices or software that permit listeners to transform a broadcast into a music library." Now, I don't know about everybody else, but when I was about ten years old I didn't exactly have an allowance that would permit me to buy every band's album that I was into, so I would rely on the radio for most of my music, when there was a song I might want to listen to more often than the radio DJ's were willing to play it, I would pop in a blank cassette and record it off the radio...Apparently, "It's very hard for policy and copyright law to keep up with the pace of technological change."
The RIAA is looking for a way to dig their teeth into a software developer that wrote some software that pretty much does the same thing as hitting the 'Record' button while listening to the radio, on that Cassette Boombox you see in the picture.
Posted by tbartels at 05:10 PM | Comments (3)
August 23, 2004
Never hear the same song twice
From the "Let your music player make music" department Compact Impact is selling a CD of 99 tracks with 99 scales that is meant to be played using the Random function of your CD player to create new melodies every time you listen...
Posted by tbartels at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2004
The Water in L.A., it's A Love-Hate Relationship.
You bet, everybody I know loves to hate the water in L.A. I don't know of many people that are even willing to cook with L.A. water anymore, much less drink it. Yes, it is drinkable, it won't kill you or make you lose an organ, but when a cola sounds more refreshing than tap water after a long run, something is wrong. I think most of us pass it off as part of urban living. This is not to say that L.A. County isn't trying it's hardest to keep up with the needs of it's citizens and supply fresh, clean water throuhgout the city, but there are plenty of problems involved in getting enough water to support an area as large as L.A. One of the first things most people seem to notice about L.A. water is not actually the taste, but the smell when you take a shower or bath, most describe it as the same smell as the community pool, an abundance of chlorine. The high chlorine content of the water is severely damaging to your skin and hair, but what can you do? Well, for about $30-$50 you can get a nifty shower filter that just attaches between the shower head and the water supply. It claims to neutralize the chlorine and make your soap more effective by making it lather better. The only drawback is replacing the filter every 4 months, but the savings in lotions and conditioners might make it worth it.
Posted by tbartels at 12:54 AM | Comments (1)
August 10, 2004
Guthrie Doesn't Even Get A Say.
About a week ago I got an email expressing a comedic appreciation for the new Jib-Jab short "This Land" that is, in brief, a comedic expression of the more personal views one might expect from Kerry and Bush. Well, the people that "own" the rights to the Guthrie song are threatening to sue. I was listening to NPR earlier tonight and learned something new about the song...
Continue reading "Guthrie Doesn't Even Get A Say."
Posted by tbartels at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2004
Get Off Your Kiester.
World Carfree Day(probably should be hyphenated "Car-Free") is making it's international debut this year on Sept. 22. I used to spend most of my days car-free, but now that I work 24 miles from my home it's not quite as simple as it used to be, but perhaps for one day of the year I could actually make the effor to bike it to work, and see how long it actually takes.
Continue reading "Get Off Your Kiester."
Posted by tbartels at 09:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (11)
July 25, 2004
Keeping Up With The Technology.
I first heard of Maya several years ago from my friend Olga. She was fascinated by it's animation capabilities and at one point wished she could spend the rest of her career working on animations of this caliber. I started using Maya a few years later for Architecture at UF, studying mostly under a professor doing a few experiments with particle physics and motion as a generator of form. That was about a year and a half ago, when Maya was at version 4.5, now maya is version 6, and I just got my desktop back in working order. Time to pull out some of those tutorials and give myself a refresher course. In my search I found a tutorial on animating a yoyo on a string that was actually done in Maya 1.5, but I am sure you will be impressed.
Posted by tbartels at 12:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 24, 2004
Sex IS A Sport!
There are Betting Lines on Britney Spears' sex life, when will she be married, get pregnant and the sex of the child.
*blank stare*
Posted by tbartels at 07:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (11)
July 16, 2004
Multiple Uses For Found Objects Make for A Great Read.
When I was in school at UF for Architecture we -- my fellow students and I -- were encouraged many times by professors to use found objects as inspirational pieces in architectural projects ranging from a cube to a police precinct. It became a pretty familiar idea for me, a found object as a catalyst for an art piece, design or writing project. After all, stoking the furnace of imagination is always best left to ambiguity...right?
I recently came across a magazine dedicated to the idea of found objects, it is ominously called "FOUND Magazine." The magazine seems to have a more voyeuristic approach to it's intent, and most of the objects are focused on collecting a piece of someone else's life. Many of objects are actual photographs or notes and letters by anonymous persons. After reading through many of the online samples I started noticing that I wasn't nearly as intrigued by the actual notes and photos as much as I was by the "finder." I found myself wondering about the person that found each object, what they are like, what made them think that this item was interesting enough to pick it up and mail it in to a magazine. Were they just that curious, that they felt they needed to keep someone else's moment, or did it inspire in them a great story, something myths are made of, and hope that someone else might appreciate the object in the same way? They say "A picture is worth a thousand words." but if it isn't your picture, is it worth more?
Posted by tbartels at 02:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)