Half past time to think about the subject of my Six Sigma study! What will it be? I'm going to spend A LONG TIME working on my Six Sigma project so it had better be something that I'll enjoy.
On a totally unrelated note where is the /proc "filesystem" in OS X? It should be there! Once you learn the power of all that information at your fingertips under Linux you want it on every system.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
I've never thought about this before..
I think the word "joystick" is unusually named.
("Intel ICH Joystick" shows up in /proc/bus/pci/devices on a test machine)
("Intel ICH Joystick" shows up in /proc/bus/pci/devices on a test machine)
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A 25 year-long project continues for another week.
Darn it!!! I thought I finally had this one in the bag!!!
Some history: around 1985 I somehow managed to get my hands on a VHS tape titled Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii. This tape represented a pivotal musical turning point in my life. I had, of course, heard of Pink Floyd before 1985. Dark Side of the Moon had been released two years before and Money was still dominating the FM airwaves having finally displaced Hey Jude (talk about a song that hung around forever).
But I digress. The songs on Live at Pompeii were played, well, live and they were amazing. It was hard for me to believe that a band could make so many noises with so few instruments. It was unreal. At the time I was a guitar student and never before could I have imagined what a talented and motivated person could do with a Fender Startocaster (honestly, I thought Jimi Hendrix showed all that was possible - not so!) As far as my own development as a guitar player I was shown was real talent looked like in real time and I was old enough even at that age to realize I didn't have what it took. But that's another story for another time.
After hearing these Floyd songs, Echos, Saucerful Of Secrets, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, One Of These Days I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces, Careful With That Axe Eugene and others, I embarked on a discovery of all things OLD Pink Floyd. I purchased Ummagumma, the album on which Saucerful of Secrets, Set The Controls and Careful With That Axe all resided. I was disappointed. So was I with Meddle. Both albums were great albums but the Pompeii versions were simply much, much better than the ones on the album.
But herein was the problem - Pompeii was released only as a movie, not a soundtrack. So I did what any teenager would do at that time in history - I placed an audio tape machine in front of the television and hit 'record' while the VHS tape played through the crappy 3 inch speaker in the TV. You can imagine the poor quality of the resulting audio tape. But that was all I could do - this was high technology of the day. The audio tape broke a couple of years later and I forgot about Pompeii, more or less, for over 20 years.
The while perusing Netflix I saw Live at Pompeii on DVD! It was remastered as a "Director's Cut" but, hey, it was there and waiting so I got it. It was everything I remembered in remastered DVD glory. No muted tones from a worn VHS tape, no washed-out colors - just brilliant sound and color. I was hooked. So I purchased a copy and ripped it to my Apple TV for rainy days at the beach. It makes for great background music.
Then I thought, heck, since I own the media why not rip the audio only to my iPod? And last night I did just that. I took the audio out from the back of the Apple TV and ran that into a Griffin iMic (early clear version). I then pumped the audio into Audacity oh the Macbook and recorded the songs. It worked and the sound is brilliant and so far there is only one problem - a noticeable POP in Echos Part 1. I'll have to re-record that so I can't yet close out the 25 year project just yet - but I'm close. And soon I'll be done.
(update: the only affected song was Echos Part 1. The other songs all ripped to mp3 beautifully. In fact I heard some subtle sounds in Careful With That Axe I've never heard before. All things considered I'll have to call this project a success. And once I re-rip Echos Part 1 the project will be over.)
I consider most of the songs recorded on Pompeii to be the DEFINITIVE versions of the songs - especially for Echos, Saucerful of Secrets, Set The Controls and One Of These Days. They are that good and that much better than the original recordings. If you're a Pink Floyd fan you would rent the DVD. I think you'll be quite pleased.
Some history: around 1985 I somehow managed to get my hands on a VHS tape titled Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii. This tape represented a pivotal musical turning point in my life. I had, of course, heard of Pink Floyd before 1985. Dark Side of the Moon had been released two years before and Money was still dominating the FM airwaves having finally displaced Hey Jude (talk about a song that hung around forever).
But I digress. The songs on Live at Pompeii were played, well, live and they were amazing. It was hard for me to believe that a band could make so many noises with so few instruments. It was unreal. At the time I was a guitar student and never before could I have imagined what a talented and motivated person could do with a Fender Startocaster (honestly, I thought Jimi Hendrix showed all that was possible - not so!) As far as my own development as a guitar player I was shown was real talent looked like in real time and I was old enough even at that age to realize I didn't have what it took. But that's another story for another time.
After hearing these Floyd songs, Echos, Saucerful Of Secrets, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, One Of These Days I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces, Careful With That Axe Eugene and others, I embarked on a discovery of all things OLD Pink Floyd. I purchased Ummagumma, the album on which Saucerful of Secrets, Set The Controls and Careful With That Axe all resided. I was disappointed. So was I with Meddle. Both albums were great albums but the Pompeii versions were simply much, much better than the ones on the album.
But herein was the problem - Pompeii was released only as a movie, not a soundtrack. So I did what any teenager would do at that time in history - I placed an audio tape machine in front of the television and hit 'record' while the VHS tape played through the crappy 3 inch speaker in the TV. You can imagine the poor quality of the resulting audio tape. But that was all I could do - this was high technology of the day. The audio tape broke a couple of years later and I forgot about Pompeii, more or less, for over 20 years.
The while perusing Netflix I saw Live at Pompeii on DVD! It was remastered as a "Director's Cut" but, hey, it was there and waiting so I got it. It was everything I remembered in remastered DVD glory. No muted tones from a worn VHS tape, no washed-out colors - just brilliant sound and color. I was hooked. So I purchased a copy and ripped it to my Apple TV for rainy days at the beach. It makes for great background music.
Then I thought, heck, since I own the media why not rip the audio only to my iPod? And last night I did just that. I took the audio out from the back of the Apple TV and ran that into a Griffin iMic (early clear version). I then pumped the audio into Audacity oh the Macbook and recorded the songs. It worked and the sound is brilliant and so far there is only one problem - a noticeable POP in Echos Part 1. I'll have to re-record that so I can't yet close out the 25 year project just yet - but I'm close. And soon I'll be done.
(update: the only affected song was Echos Part 1. The other songs all ripped to mp3 beautifully. In fact I heard some subtle sounds in Careful With That Axe I've never heard before. All things considered I'll have to call this project a success. And once I re-rip Echos Part 1 the project will be over.)
I consider most of the songs recorded on Pompeii to be the DEFINITIVE versions of the songs - especially for Echos, Saucerful of Secrets, Set The Controls and One Of These Days. They are that good and that much better than the original recordings. If you're a Pink Floyd fan you would rent the DVD. I think you'll be quite pleased.
Monday, November 17, 2008
A language question
What gives? Has anyone noticed in the last few years the trailing "t" is being made silent? Granted this is occurring in primary one demographic but I'm hearing the practice spread among others and I wonder how long until this becomes common practice. What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about "gift" becoming "gif" and test becoming "tes", among many others. Listen and you'll hear it.
My only question is why? Why? Why? Why? WHY? We're not talking about one of the "English as a second language" crowds either. How did this start and how can it be reversed. I am "lef" to wonder.
My only question is why? Why? Why? Why? WHY? We're not talking about one of the "English as a second language" crowds either. How did this start and how can it be reversed. I am "lef" to wonder.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Looking for the law and phone advice
Here's what I need to look up tonight:
Laws - NC and Federal regarding "emergency" telephones in elevators.
Laws - NC and Federal regarding "emergency" telephones in elevators.
- A) Do they need to be hard-wired? (to meet legal requirements)
- B) Dependent on point "A" but can they be VoIP?
- C) Who make a VoIP "basic" handset that looks like a "basic" phone you'd find in an elevator?
- D) Maybe it would be nice to have glowing "911" and "Maintenance" buttons
- E) Who makes a 5-10 port 10/100 switch with PoE? Anyone?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Open open letter to The Boss
I try not to name my employer directly in my blog so I can at least have a bit of plausible deniability in the event I do or say something that conflicts with the corporate blogging policy, if indeed such a policy exists. That said I've heard an unsubstantiated RUMOR of what I can only only call "floorspace contraction" where we will, as a company, start to move away from leased floorspace and return back to the main company campus where we own the buildings.
The building that I call home five days a week is leased. But I really like it. I like the location and I really like the campus itself. I don't want to go back but would live if I had to. Besides, if RUMORS do turn into truth nothing will happen with regards to my office location until 2011 when our lease r runs out.
Truth be told further it would save a lot of money to relocate the offices back to the main campuses. I don't know the recurring costs of several multi-gigabit connections running between campuses X, Y and Z but it's got to be a pretty penny. Combine that along with the leasing costs and I'm sure things do add up.
Still, I'll miss this place when it's time to leave. I won't stay gone, I'm sure, as one of my favorite watering holes is located just across the portico from my building.
The building that I call home five days a week is leased. But I really like it. I like the location and I really like the campus itself. I don't want to go back but would live if I had to. Besides, if RUMORS do turn into truth nothing will happen with regards to my office location until 2011 when our lease r runs out.
Truth be told further it would save a lot of money to relocate the offices back to the main campuses. I don't know the recurring costs of several multi-gigabit connections running between campuses X, Y and Z but it's got to be a pretty penny. Combine that along with the leasing costs and I'm sure things do add up.
Still, I'll miss this place when it's time to leave. I won't stay gone, I'm sure, as one of my favorite watering holes is located just across the portico from my building.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Need to install a cross-band repeater in the Suburban
I've been getting more involved with HAM radio lately and have found several local clubs and contact many (but not yet joined). This week I plan to investigate joining ARES (the Wake County) branch. I've been joining the 9:15 PM Thursday night net meeting for the last month or so, the first two weeks as a silent "scanner" and the last two weeks I mustered the courage to actually check in with my call sign. Hopefully I didn't sound like a idiot and make many mistakes!!
Hitting the 146.88 Mhz repeater from Youngsville 5 watts of output power created somewhat a stir at the last meeting as it was thought that 5 watts out output power was not nearly enough power to hit the repeater with the input signal being much more than static. It seems my purchase of the Icom IC-T8A was a good choice (though I have not come close to using 1/10 of the functions built into this thing). After last week's meeting I was talking with a couple of very helpful fellows about my perdiciment of wanting a "super radio" that I could install in the house, then put in the car on a whim and later pull the same radio out of the car for use inside at the outer banks.
It seems "super radios" do exist but also carry "super price tags". Since I'm still paying a pretty penny for the Suburban every month I decided anything with a "super price tag" would have to wait. Shoot. But all was not lost! The helpful gentlement I was talking with on 146.88 suggested a cross-band repeater for the car. Essentially how this work is the radio listens on one band and repeats the signal at full strength on the 2nd signal at full mobile strength (50 watts). I would transmit using my handheld Icom on the 440 Mhz/70 cm band and configure the radio to restransmit my signal to any setting on the 146 Mhz/2 meter band. Pretty sweet.
I sould be able to power the unit off a secondary deep-cycle battery and I just so happen to have a 12 volt deep cycle marine battery in my garage. Now all I have to is find the correct radio, purchase it and install. All of which I know nothing about. Should be an adventure!
Greg
Hitting the 146.88 Mhz repeater from Youngsville 5 watts of output power created somewhat a stir at the last meeting as it was thought that 5 watts out output power was not nearly enough power to hit the repeater with the input signal being much more than static. It seems my purchase of the Icom IC-T8A was a good choice (though I have not come close to using 1/10 of the functions built into this thing). After last week's meeting I was talking with a couple of very helpful fellows about my perdiciment of wanting a "super radio" that I could install in the house, then put in the car on a whim and later pull the same radio out of the car for use inside at the outer banks.
It seems "super radios" do exist but also carry "super price tags". Since I'm still paying a pretty penny for the Suburban every month I decided anything with a "super price tag" would have to wait. Shoot. But all was not lost! The helpful gentlement I was talking with on 146.88 suggested a cross-band repeater for the car. Essentially how this work is the radio listens on one band and repeats the signal at full strength on the 2nd signal at full mobile strength (50 watts). I would transmit using my handheld Icom on the 440 Mhz/70 cm band and configure the radio to restransmit my signal to any setting on the 146 Mhz/2 meter band. Pretty sweet.
I sould be able to power the unit off a secondary deep-cycle battery and I just so happen to have a 12 volt deep cycle marine battery in my garage. Now all I have to is find the correct radio, purchase it and install. All of which I know nothing about. Should be an adventure!
Greg
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