Well, we had some fantastic entries in the first ever Mod Brothers Cardboard Case Competition. My entry wasn’t spectacular, but I think I did an okay job considering. Here’s a couple shots of my finished computer case made entirely out of cardboard and paper, including the mech! You can see some of the other entires here, at the official Mod Brothers site.
If you haven’t heard of autotune, I can bet you’ve most certainly head it used on the radio… possibly without even realizing it. Basically, it allows studio producers to correct singers who sing slightly off-key. If you crank the knobs all the way, you get a robot-like sound, much like the rapper “T-Pain”. This is becoming a common effect in pop music, and it’s kinda fun to listen to (but not for an entire song, of course).
The good side is that you can make a recording really sound nice, and can make every note pitch-perfect in tune. There are even singers who use it in live performances (such as Faith Hill and Tim McGraw) to make sure they sound good. However, not everybody is okay with this. There are now performers who are openly against the Autotune craze, and think it damages people’s expectations of what performers can do, and what a good performer should be.
Here’s an excellent article on the subject, written by Michael McCall. It’s based on country singers in Nashville, but the topics are just as easily applicable to modern pop music, too. I’ll also note that this article was written six years ago… this phenomenon is nothing new. However, viewed as a gimmick, you can use the Autotune phase vocoder to do some really funny stuff, and to great effect on techno and rock recordings (within limits).
So the question is: would you rather listen to perfect recordings, or more passionate but slightly imperfect recordings? Do you think Faith Hill would have become a star if her recordings and live performances were not “fixed?” Do you think Hollywood is having a hard time finding really good performers who are also attractive (which seems to be a must nowdays)?
You’ve all heard the buzzwords. High-Def, 1080p, HDMI, Blu-Ray. The list goes on and on. It’s all garbage, nothing more than marketing hype to make you buy into the “magic pill” the entertainment industry is selling you.
“You’re off your rocker, old man,” you say. I can see you rolling your eyes, shaking your head at my old-school stupidity. “Everybody knows HDMI is cool. It’s a one-wire hookup, gives unequalled definition, is the only format that does 1080p, ends world hunger, etc.”
Sadly, all off the reasons in that last sentence are false, except for one. HDMI is truly a 1-wire hookup. Other than that, it provides absolutely no advantages over technology that we already have for end-users. NONE.
“But what about 1080p video?” Guess what? It’s been available in studio-quality component video decks for years. 3-wire component video will easily output 1080p video and higher, with one very important thing missing: the digital copyright protection. This is why even if you buy an HD disk player, it won’t output HD content to the component outputs. That’s why the Playstation 2 and XBox360 won’t play HD video over component… you can only play games in HD unless you use the HDMI connector because analog outputs don’t support Copyright protection (which will become required in 2012).
“What about digital signal quality? Isn’t HDMI better because it’s digital?” In a word, no. You’re limited to very short cable runs, zero fault tolerance, higher cost, and at a true 1080 resolution, you’d have a hard time telling the difference visually. It’s all hype. And as far as sound goes, the digital format is already covered. And what’s more, 90% of the content that is advertised as “1080p” isn’t really, it’s upscaled, interpolated, or antialiased from lower content… but you can only tell the difference when comparing it to true HD 1080p 60hz content, like Discovery’s Planet Earth series which was shot in all 1080p 60 hz.
“Isn’t DRM (Digital Rights Management) good? Isn’t it protecting companies from piracy?” In a word, no. They’d like you to believe “big bad pirates” are stealing all their money. The truth is, DRM has never been about piracy. Over the years many companies have tried to limit the way paying customers use the media they “buy.” Bet you didn’t know this, but 99% of DVD’s sold in stores still, to this day, are encrypted so you can’t play them on an unlicensed device. And they only sell licenses to companies they want to. The only way I can play them on a Linux computer is if I install “legally questionable” CSS decryption software… even though I paid for the DVD. I’m also supposed to buy a CSS DVD player to watch them.
“No big deal,” you might think. “What’s wrong with having to buy a Blu-ray player to watch Blu-rays?” The problem is that it doesn’t stop there. The entertainment industry isn’t interested in stopping piracy, for the most part… they want to control your movie watching experience, from beginning to end, they way they want you to. You want to use a sound clip from a movie you bought to use as a ringtone? Can’t do that. Want to load the movie onto your iPhone to watch? Can’t do that. Want to skip the stupid previews on the disk? Nuh-uh. Want to watch it on a different TV/console in your house, from a media server, at full resolution? Absolutely no way, man. Got an older HD TV that will do 1080 but has no HDMI port? You’re out of luck, chump. Got a computer monitor you want to watch 1080 video on? Has to have special hardware and software to do it with. If you have a digital HD DVR, you better be taking notes… this will affect you in the future.
Do you know why they’re phasing out analog TV, cable, and analog video outputs in general? It’s called “the analog loophole” by the industry, and they hate it. They’re not interested in “giving you the best experience.” For them, DRM is about two things: CONTROL. and MONEY. They are terrified of digital DVRs, and will do whatever they can to lock down that content, in order to be able to charge you for watching it at your leisure. If they can force you to pay to watch what you want, on top of the charge you’re already paying to see it, they love it. They already have rental movies that “expire” and they are going to try to make cable, satellite, and HD disks the same way.
“Aren’t you just being cheap? What’s wrong with just buying a new entertainment system?” This is where I slap my forehead and roll my eyes at you.
I shouldn’t have to buy thousands of dollars of equipment to watch high-def video. If I want to, that’s fine… but it should not be required, when the technology is already cheaply available. You are not paying for HD content… you are playing for the enormous cost of upgrading your entire entertainment center just so it supports the industry’s anti-freedom policies. In the next few months, it will be illegal to build or buy AV equipment that doesn’t support the AACP standards. In the next year or two, it will be illegal to broadcast non-digital content over the airwaves. And in 99% of the TVs you buy today, you’re not getting true 1080p video to it, anyway… it’s limited by the source.
I’m going to fight it as long as I can. I see no need to dole out thousands of dollars just so I can enjoy a movie when I want to watch it. Call me a luddite, call me a retro freak, I don’t care… I don’t like people telling me how I can enjoy my entertainment.
More progress on my entry for the Mod Brothers Cardboard Case Competition (though since it’s partially my site, I’m not sure how eligible I am). I am also trying out some new editing software called Kdenlive since what I was using before, Kino, is very limited. To be honest, though, I did the titles in this video in Kino and imported them into Kdenlive… Kino is limited in what it can do, but it does that very well.
Some time ago, people decided that it was okay to say whatever you wanted, without fear of consequence. Some time later, people assumed that because they could say anything they wanted, they should. The Constitution doesn’t say you should blurt out anything that comes to your mind: it just says you have the right to do so. We still must deal with the consequences of our words.
Truly great people were certainly not afraid of the truth. However, they were also smart enough to know when to say nothing at all. Truth and wisdom serve no purpose if they fall on deaf ears, and will blow away with the wind. Telling the truth effectively hinges on knowing when someone needs to know the truth and will accept it to their benefit. To put it in perspective, it is useless to give a key (wisdom) to someone who doesn’t even realize they are in a cage. They see no need for it and will throw it away, wasting both their time and yours.
A wise man once said “If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” I certainly do not fall into that category, but I understand where he’s coming from. I catch my kids tattling on each other all the time, and whenever they do, I stand up and yell in my best teenage girl voice: “Mom! Phineas and Furb are making a Title Sequence!” It’s quite funny, but it makes them stop and think. Are they telling me the truth if they tattle? Possibly. Are they telling me information that is going to help anybody? Usually, it’s only to help themselves get what they want… a toy, revenge, solitude, attention, whatever.
When you speak the truth to someone, are you telling them in order to improve their lives?
Are you dropping tidbits of wisdom for them to glean and grow from?
Or are you just reminding them how ridiculous they are for following popular trends and being okay with mediocrity?
Nobody was ever ridiculed into being wise. They must be taught.
It’s getting close to that time of year again. Yeah, I know it’s still February, but Spring comes a bit earlier here in southern Louisiana than it does elsewhere. And as usual, the thought of revitalizing my life has me thinking about how I spend my time each day, how much is wasted, and how much is spent on things that will improve people’s lives (and not just mine).
With me following Dave Ramsey’s rules for financial peace, we’ve cut back our expenses hugely to be able to live within our means. Things I have to do without are mostly hobbies, but there are other things we’ve managed to reduce in order to have things we need.
This leads me to evaluate the hobbies I’m involved in. As most of you know, I’m a person of many interests, which is both a blessing and a curse. There is nothing wrong with liking all of the things I like, but I can’t spend massive amounts money on them. In order to satisfy my longings, I spend massive amounts of time on them instead, which as far as my family is concerned, is no better. They say “Time is money” but you really don’t believe it until you find yourself starving your children for time, because you have to complete that latest project, or just need to go to this event, or whatever.
So how do you and I Spring Clean our lives? The only way to not overspend money is to budget it. You take how much you have coming in, and decide what to spend it on, and hopefully you have enough.
I’ve realized (again, I do this every year) that I need to budget my time to “afford” things I need. I don’t really need to keep up with the latest trends of the automotive industry, I’m not buying a car any time soon, and I don’t have the money to do much to the ones I have. I don’t really need to see how many Xmoto levels I can beat. I don’t really need to shop for audio equipment, when I don’t have the time to use what I already have.
Things I really want to have time for:
If I can’t make time for these things, what good is anything else?
Quick update, made a cover and grille for the cards today:
More progress on the case!
Gluing the front and sides on:
Making a reenforcement piece for the rear card/IO cutout:
Taped in place, letting the glue set:
How it fits in the rear:
Top piece cutout:
Everything placed inside, and hooked up:
At this point, if you’ve read through the Encryption article series, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what encryption does, and how it works. So what else is there left to cover? This is the “Skip to the end” part of the series… I’m just going to show you step-by-step how to set up usable GPG encrypted mail in Linux. No fuss, no hassle.
You only need two programs to do this, but a third (key manager) will make it easier.
First: install GPG for your distro of Linux. If you’re running Ubuntu or Debian, then
sudo apt-get install gpg
But whatever you use to manage software for your system, you should be able to find “GPG” and install what it needs.
Second, you need to create a new key pair (public and private). Make sure you use an email address that will not disappear in a year or two! This email address is your key’s form of identification.
gpg –gen-key
This will start the key generation process. Just follow the instructions, the defaults will work fine. Come up with a fairly long password… and DO NOT forget it!
Third, install some sort of email client with GPG plugin support. I use Mozilla Thunderbird with the Enigmail add-on. I also use a program called Kgpg to manage my keys. It runs in the tray and lets me encrypt/decrypt things on the clipboard. Not necessary, just makes things much easier.
Once you’ve installed your mail client, it should automatically pick up your GPG key (it’s set to import your local GPG keys automatically) and you can then either send your public key to your friends, post it to your website, or even upload it to a key server. Most key management programs have a feature that lets you upload your public key to an internet keyserver.
And that’s it. You’re done! When you send mail, just use the OpenGPG menu to find the recipient’s email address, and if they have one on a keyserver, it will automatically retrieve their public key and encrypt the message to them. Likewise, it will automatically decrypt messages sent to you if you want.
Easy cheesy!
