google image labeler

This is fun. ImageLabeler You work with someone else to identify random images from the web.

family trees

I'm interested in how to draw family trees. Been playing with some software phpgedview. My project is to map out the genealogy of the Royal Family of Amber from Roger Zelazny's series of books.

I've been thinking about the limitations of family trees. They are OK to draw if you plot descendancy or ancestry charts but if you try and fit more data in the chart quickly becomes unmanageable, at least in 2 dimensions. Some other people have also been thinking of different ways of drawing family trees. I had in mind a family tree that includes your closest relatives in the most detail, i.e. big, and more distant relatives smaller. The closest to this representation is I think the "fractal" family tree. I also have been thinking about ways of navigating the tree using modern computerized interfaces. Here's something like what I would like to see. A flash family tree. Example = gods_tree.

Maynard Ferguson dead at 78.

Maynard Ferguson, the legendary trumpet player has passed away. He was an inspiration. I never did get to see him play live.

Here are five of my favorite CDs to listen to and appreciate the genius.

• Big Bop Nouveau (1990) - The first CD I ever purchased. Even before I owned a CD player! Highlights include a medley performed on Maynard's 60th birthday tour. Chameleon, Macarthur Park, Frame for the Blues, Maria, Birdland.



• Chameleon (1974) - Highlight for me is La Fiesta.



• Maynard Ferguson Compilation from 1992. Aquarius.



• Live from San Francisco (1993) Recorded in 1983. Highlights are Fireshaker, Coconut Champagne and Ganesha, well actually the whole CD.



• The best of Maynard Ferguson (1980) First two tracks blew my mind. Gonna Fly Now and Macarthur park. (What a Bari solo!)

It's a sad day for trumpet players the world over.

pandora and 20 questions

Been listening to pandora.com a lot. I really like the idea of being able to train your radio station by clicking "I like it" or "I don't like it" on the tunes played to eventually end up with a station that always plays your favorite music.

The whole idea of pandora is to discover new music that you'll like right? infavorofthinking I do like the music but I haven't really found music I like from new bands I've never heard of before. Do I have incredibly fussy tastes in music perhaps? For some reason I've found I'm more likely to hear good new music on the old fashioned radio.

CyberJunkies - article from 1994-12-13

Excerpt from Encyclopedia Galactica 2005 Edition

In the first decade of the 21st Century there emerged a new social problem. Cyber Junkies (or CJs as they became known). The rapid growth in VR technology, combined with the ubiquitous info superhighway meant that a large percentage of the world's population had access to cyberspace.

A few individuals found cyberspace incredibly addictive. In its most severe form cyberspace addiction could lead to symptoms similar to those produced by hard drug use: an inability to deal with normal human society and interpersonal relationships (although most had good social interactions in VR), flat emotional responses in RL, unemployment and malnutrition.

A common diagnostic test for CJs included a loss of focusing abilities in the eyes and many sufferers expressed a desire not to ever leave cyberspace. At this stage there is no known cure for the CJs condition and the prevalence of the disease is increasing.

---

A decade or so on how'd I go?

Well, the Encyclopedia Galactica is wikipedia.org. Often the first keyword hit on the search engine and the practically authoritative source.

The addiction is actually for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. There's a term "Widows of Warcraft" that's apt.

VR goggles still haven't really caught on.

The Internet is pretty ubiquitous. Its good to be able to pay your bills online and retrieve info on a mobile phone!

Although there's a huge chunk of the world's population who don't have such luxuries.

initscripts

Just spent several hours writing initscripts. Why oh why does software that costs many thousands of dollars not come with a basic initscript?

underclockheads

Confessions of an OS junkie

I'm the kind of person who likes to mess around with different Operating Systems. Always have been. I usually carve up my harddisk into lots of partitions and have a couple of versions of Windows, a Linux or two, some *BSD and even some stranger OSes from time to time.

Until recently I've used removable harddisk trays and boot loaders to manage my addiction. That is until the VMWare player came along.

It's so cool to be able to run multiple OSes at once without having to have a house full of computers.

High Note Trumpet - top ten tunes with wailing "money shot" endings

• Jon Faddis - Gloria From The Mass Of St. Bernard - (Chuck Mangione)
The tune builds and builds until the last note - high A. Much Props to Faddis. He's an awesome lead player. What a sound. Like a pure bell tone bright and brilliant. This last note is like a laser cutting through the full band and choir. I'm sure the guy sitting in the furthest seat at this live concert would have been blown backwards with his fillings rattling.


• Jon Faddis - Into the Faddisphere
Possibly the finest sounding trumpet album of all time. This recording is superb. I couldn't bring myself to play for a month after hearing Into the Faddisphere. He plays a high G for so long your ears start to bleed and the neighborhood dogs start barking, then finishes on dubba C .. Perfect control of the instrument.


• Jon Faddis - I hope I get it - A Chorus Line (soundtrack)
One note. One note! One singular sensational note. That's all it takes to identify who's playing lead. Faddis has played on over 300 albums as a studio muso. This is one of 'em. Have a listen to the attack on this high F# To me it sounds like he hits the note from slightly above to give it extra punch, then holds it a half a second longer than the rest of the band at the end. A lot of jazz players end a screamer with a kind of drop/kiss sound and put their lip into the 'piece to finish it. I do it myself, it sounds kinda cool. Faddis however has such control that he can hit a high note and end it with a slight bend upwards in pitch. I don't know anyone else who can do that!


• Maynard Ferguson - Gonna Fly Now (theme from Rocky)
Classic high note tune. Maynard rips this to pieces. There's no-one else with a sound like his. It's a dry sometimes harsh tone when he wants it to be. But tremendously exciting. I still remember the first time my trumpet teacher at the time played this tune to me. I'd never heard anything like it and it's an inspiration to this day (over 15 years later). High B.


• Maynard Ferguson - La Fiesta
Starts at 100% with Zavod's driving electric piano and builds up to one of the greatest free-for-all trumpet choruses ever recorded. Surely! Maynard pops out an awesome shake on high F# and ends on his high B, high A, high B.


• James Morrison - Scream Machine
Starts with 5 trumpets playing a unison high G. Just the way every tune should start :-) He hits some tasty high Bs in the last chorus and ends on a modest high E.


• Arturo Sandoval - Alo Chicoy
Arturo has it all. Amazing high note chops. Consummate musicality. Wicked finger speed. He can play bebop, electric, standards, latin (of course) and awesome piano. In this tune he rips out a dubba D dubba C riff near the end of the tune and finishes on a wailing (slightly sharp) dubba D.


• Cat Anderson - My adorable D
Ends on a high E but Cat can play up at least an octave higher. I was rolling on the floor laughing the first time I heard some Cat Anderson. Is it really possible for the trumpet to play that high? I had no idea. A freak. No regard for the laws of physics.


• Bill Chase - Bochawa
He died too soon. Wild man of the high note trumpet. So many free-wheeling trumpet choruses. Makes me want to give up playing every time I hear him. Bastard! :-) Ends on a tasty High A.


• Paul Cacia - The end on the world
Dubba D. Nailed. Held for way too long. Apparently he does it live. Good grief.

JSR 168 portlet library

I'm looking for a library of JSR168 portlets. Free, commercial whatever. You'd think such a thing would exist somewhere on the Internet? That's the whole point behind portable portlets isn't it? So they can be shared?

The closest thing I could find was on sourceforge POST but it looks like a dead project to me.

blog is the new .plan file

I'm not a diarist and I guess I'm just not much of a blogger. I'm averaging about one post per month.

Now that I think about it, I started blogging in 1992 and got tired of it in about 1994. Back then it was with .plan/.project files on unix boxen. Same thing really.

google mini++

Just announced by google:

100,000 documents for US$ 2,995
200,000 documents for US$ 5,995
300,000 documents for US$ 8,995

Current customers can upgrade for $3,000 per additional 100,000 documents.