Category Archives: Uncategorized

General blog stuff.

Blogging as an Act of Rebellion

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This was my horoscope a few weeks ago:

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Because of the onslaught of the internet and social media, lots of people no longer read books. But in 2020, I highly recommend that you not be one of that crowd. In my astrological opinion, you need more of the slow, deep wisdom that comes from reading books. You will also benefit from other acts of rebellion against the Short Attention Span Era. Crucial blessings will flow in your direction as you honor the gradual, incremental approach to everything. read more

Introducing Quanta

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As one can easily see from the date stamps below, this is the first entry I’ve made here in years. It’s also the first entry in even longer which constitutes more than something of the form “here’s a photo”. I wrote a few paragraphs rambling about why this is the case, but they ended up seeming silly and unnecessary. Long story short: there haven’t been posts for a long time, but here’s a post now, and there may or may not be more soon.

The main point of this post is to mention that we (Audio Damage, that is) recently released a new software synthesizer called Quanta. It’s a sort of hybrid of granular synthesis and subtractive synthesis, with a bunch of unusually versatile modulation sources, full MPE compatibility, and a lovely UI. Here’s our video advertisement, thanks entirely to Chris:

There’s much more information about it on the Audio Damage website, of course, as well as a free demo version. We’re quite proud of it, and other people seem to like it, too: it set a new company record for initial sales.

The Coolest Thing I’ve Seen in a Long Time

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This page contains a video of something every science student has imagined, but very few see: the demonstration that, in a vacuum, all objects fall at the same speed. Usually you learn of this demonstration and are left to imagine it, since setting it up is somewhat complicated. On rare occasions, this demonstration is actually carried out with an evacuated cylinder of glass containing a feather and a bullet or some other dense object. I’ve never seen such a demonstration, and I’ve certainly never seen it carried out on the scale documented in this video.

Related: how on Earth do they pump the air out of that chamber?

Server Outage

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Thanks to an error by the company who provides my web server, Tracie and I lost about 12 hours worth of email. If you wrote to us on Wednesday evening through Thursday morning (about 9:30AM MST), you should re-send your message.

And yes, it’s been awhile since my last post.

Raccoons?

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A typical Japanese public-service sign. The thinking seems to be that the mental image of having your fingers wedged in a subway door is pretty disturbing, so they lighten it up a bit by adding a couple of cute animal characters.IMG_0161.JPG

Hey Ho

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I saw this on the chalkboard at Whole Foods today:
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I was indeed saddened by the news of the death of the last Ramone. They were a big favorite of mine during my teen years, for their humor as much as for their music. While I can’t say that I’ve listened to them much in recent years, it’s just sad that the world no longer has any Ramones at all.

Airport Day 2014

Gallery

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This gallery contains 26 photos.

Not far from our house is the Boulder Municipal Airport. It’s a tiny airfield which mostly serves gliders and other small, private craft. During the flood last fall, it became the base of operations for the aerial rescues performed by helicopter. We didn’t know this at the time, but, being long-time admirers of flying vehicles, Tracie and I enjoyed seeing Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters flying in the area (despite the unfortunate reason for their presence).
Recently, the city of Boulder officially thanked the personnel for their efforts, at the biennial Airport Day open house. I jumped at the opportunity to see such aircraft up close and take some snapshots. I certainly never would have guessed that I’d ever see the dashboard of a Blackhawk from the pilot’s perspective. There were also a number of vintage WWII airplanes and other stuff on display, but it was pretty hot out there on the tarmac so I spent most of my time around the helicopters.