Sorry, but my computer crashed last week. Happens to everyone from time to time - I guess. Local computer tech said my memory card had stopped functioning and I needed a new one. In addition I have had a miserable head cold during the same period.
So no new posts for over a week now, but new tidbits of odd/significant information will be forthcoming . . . . .
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Jay Greenberg Composer
"Born in 1991 in New Haven, Connecticut, American composer Jay Greenberg began playing the cello at three, and subsequently taught himself to play the piano. His first formal lessons in theory and composition with Antony John at Duke University began at seven; three years later he enrolled as a scholarship student in a special program at New York’s Juilliard School of Music that involved courses at both the pre-undergrad and undergraduate levels, including composition classes with Samuel Adler, music theory with Samuel Zyman and Kendall Briggs, and multiple courses in ear training and piano. Later, during the 2006-07 academic year, Greenberg took composition classes at the Yale School of Music as part of a high school independent study program. Currently he is a second-year undergraduate student reading Music at Peterhouse, Cambridge."
'He came to the American media's attention through the sponsorship of Juilliard instructor Samuel Zyman, who lauded Greenberg's talent during a CBS News 60 Minutes broadcast on November 28, 2004, and again on November 26, 2006. "We are talking about a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history, when it comes to composition. I am talking about the likes of Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Saint-Saëns." His primary composition instructor was Samuel Adler. Greenberg composes primarily on his computer, using a music notation program. His most well known work is the Overture to 9-11, about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which was featured on PRI's From the Top. At the time of the attacks, he was living in Macedonia but has since returned to the United States. His father, Robert Greenberg, is a professor of Slavic languages at Yale University. His Israeli-born mother also has no musical background, but Jay found himself attracted to music from an early age.
Like many composers, Greenberg says he hears the music performed inside his head and often several musical pieces simultaneously, and he is then able to simply notate what he has listened to. He says he rarely needs to make corrections to what he has notated. A lot of other material comes to him in this manner.
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Apple founder Steve Jobs has died. He underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, and received a liver transplant two years ago. He stepped down from his CEO role at Apple at the end of August of this year.
Apple announced today:
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. "
"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work withSteve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
At a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs shared the philosophy that drove him.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,” Jobs said. “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
I have never forgotten the joy of my first real computer, an Apple McIntosh which I purchased in 1984. I owe that joy to Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
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I was recently surprised when a friend here in Chiang Mai commented that she was not aware of the fact she could listen to world wide radio broadcasts on her computer.
For most of my life I have nearly always lived in an area where classical music stations [radio AM or FM] were readily available. Not so in my adopted home in Thailand, or at least here in the northern part of the country. Western classical music is just not the norm.
I certainly enjoy Thai music, both classical and popular, but often feel the need to touch base with my European roots and western classical music. Radio stations here in Chiang Mai just do not furnish that possiblliity. The choices are Thai. Thai, or Thai, and of course the most recent American pop noise.
However since I use the "iTunes" software for my musical needs on the computer[ far superior to Windows Media Player or Winamp] it has an extensive list of world-wide radio stations that I can listen to in a wide variety of music from Ambient to Top Hits by year and everyting in between. The list of iTunes classical radio stations is very extensive and naturally I have several personal favorites, with 'Radio Swiss Classic' at the top of the list.
[clip from iTunes classical listings]
Radio Swiss Classical:
"We play the most beautiful and popular works from the world of classical music – around the clock and uninterrupted by advertising. Our philosophy is not to talk about music, but to play it, so our presenters simply announce the title, the composer and the performer."
As a child in Bratislava, Slovakia my father used to listen to musical broadcasts emminating from nearby Wien [Vienna]. so the announcements in German on "Radio Swiss Classical" seem to evoke that familiar feeling of joy and comfort.
Just how stupid are IE users?
"When scientists attempt to correlate numbers, it's best to open a nice Casa Nuestra Tinto Classico and pour yourself a large glass.
Only then can you really savor the conclusions that can so easily be reached when one lot of numbers goes on a blind date with another.
Take this fascinating new study from a Canadian psychometric consulting company called AptiQuant. Appearing to have no relationship with the cosmetics of Mary Quant, these people still seem able to create a very pretty visage, one that will have us all talking to the second bottle.
For this piece of research declared that those who use Microsoft's fine Internet Explorer browser are quite the most stupid people in the world. Or, at least the most stupid people in the world who actually use a browser.
AptiQuant describes these conclusions as "really not that surprising." . . . . "
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Have received several questioning email notes after I posted about downloading The Roman Histories of Cassius Dio from people who were not familiar with Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be used on almost any computer. As of June 2011, Project Gutenberg claimed over 36,000 items in its collection. Project Gutenberg is affiliated with many projects that are independent organizations which share the same ideals, and have been given permission to use the Project Gutenberg trademark.
Wherever possible, the releases are available in plain text, but other formats are included, such as HTML, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and Plucker.
I first heard about Project Gutenberg in the early 90s when the university in Mexico where I was teaching first went on line. It was a simple and easy means for students and teachers of obtaining material in English which was not available in our school library.
Since moving to Thailand nearly a decade ago I have used Project Gutenberg often since I don't have access to a local library with books in English. Also, if you live outside the U.S. you might want to check out Project Gutenberg Australia or Project Gutenberg Canada [there are a number of other sites listed in Wikipedia] where the copyright laws are different and not quite as stringent as the those in America.
I use the Mobipocket eBook Reader which is a freebie, can be used for both computer or mobile device and has a number o unique featues for eBook reading.
So 'Herr Professor' is at it again. He seems to have a near constant hard on for anyone who has ever used or would even consider using the MS 'comic sans' font.
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: June 16, 2010 8:24 PM, by PZ Myers
And the little douchenozzle's angry diatribe just confirms that fact.
Now PZ Myers is obviously a brilliant professor and biologist, but since I have decided to not be one of his chosen 'sieg heil' minions, he can't dictate cultural preferences in my direction.
At one time in the far distant past I decided to study Residential Landscape Architecture and the chosen hand printed type of lettering that we were taught to use in our landscape renderings was very close to what eventually became known as 'comic sans'. Easy to print, clean and fluid, and when well done, very nice looking. Now of course this was long before the home computer days and the introduction of Microsoft's 'comic sans' font — PZ Myers' pet peeve.
Actually 'douchenozzle's angry diatribe' is a well written "short imagined monologue":
I'm Comic Sans, Asshole. BY MIKE LACHER
"Listen up. I know the shit you've been saying behind my back. You think I'm stupid. You think I'm immature. You think I'm a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I'm Comic Sans, and I'm the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.
You don't like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her yogurt from the break room fridge? You don't like that I'm all over your sister-in-law's blog? You don't like that I'm on the sign for that new Thai place? You think I'm pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don't all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can't all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I'm standing in the way of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr theme, and lighten the fuck up for once.
People love me. Why? Because I'm fun. I'm the life of the party. I bring levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business' website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring. . . . . "
Next Herr Myers will be dictating art and music appreciation and how Picasso was a much better artist than Caravaggio. Just because I prefer the works of Mozart over Hayden doesn't mean one is better than the other. It is NOT about black and white, good as opposed to evil, apples and oranges, but rather personal appreciation. It is nothing more or less than a fucking computer font. Something most university professors should be able to understand.
This is the 30th Anniversary of that legendary and beloved icon of the computer age, PACMAN.
Stumbled upon this Pacman skull on the internet, though I don't know where it is housed. The Smithsonian perhaps???
Even Google's current logo is honoring the occasion.
OH MY GOD, this in incredbible. A simple tool which you can install on your browser toolbar which turns ANY page into readable type and in the process gets rid of all the crap. And more than afordable since it is free.
It is known as READABILITY, from arc90 Lab.
From this [excellent article from the NY Times]:
To this clean, zen-like, very readable copy:
Once again a thousand low bows in the direction of South Carolina and eternal gratitude to my good email buddy there who pointed me in this direction.
