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Anderton

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Everything posted by Anderton

  1. A bunch of new profiles have just been published on midi.org. There's a lot going on behind the scenes.
  2. I'm no doctor, but I walk at least 1-3 miles every day, and have for most of my life. I've been told that's why my circulatory system is in good shape. Then again, maybe I just got lucky at genetic roulette.
  3. I'm always surprised there isn't more emphasis on conservation. There are so many "always-on" devices these days. I honestly don't mind waiting a few seconds for something to get up to speed, compared to the energy spent on keeping an appliance in an "always on" condition. I've been to a lot of European countries where automatic light switches are a thing. If someone leaves a room, the lights turn off. I assume the circuitry required to turn the lights on and off depending on whether people are present draws some current, but not as much as leaving lights on when not needed. And, if people just set their thermostats a little higher in the summer and lower in the winter, cumulatively it would make a difference.
  4. A common trick is putting a peak at 10 kHz - not huge, but enough to add some sizzle. One advantage of paying attention to the higher frequencies is that you can balance the upper midrange better instead of having it do all the work.
  5. Well, I read the entire article, and the sense I get is whether the technology will be refined depends primarily on whether fossil fuels will continue to be more economical. Also, it seems the costs aren't solely in the process itself, but in creating an infrastructure that can recycle the uranium. It can't just be shipped to Russian or France, that infrastructure would need to exist here. If I had a ton of money and was asked to be an investor in this technology, my first question would be "how is the waste transported?" If the answer was trains, I'd run in the other direction due to liability issues. Given that there were over 700 train derailments in the US last year, one good explosion of radioactive material would be a lot worse than spilling30,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid or whatever. This isn't to say I'd reject the technology out of hand. It just seems that at best, it's quite a ways off before it can be brought to scale from a commercial standpoint, even if the political climate was favorable to it. It wouldn't surprise me if investors think instinctively that it's old technology, and are concerned that by the time they get it together, it will have been eclipsed by something better. But hey, what do I know? I didn't buy Apple stock when it was $35 a share.
  6. As I said in the first post..."If nothing else, it might have helped them achieve their dominance with CarPlay. And who knows what kind of technology ended up in the Vision Pro?" I do believe CarPlay is in 80% of new cars.
  7. It's a great idea, but from what I've read, the reliability isn't as good as either electric or ICE because there's more that can go wrong.
  8. But don't forget that what technology takes away, it can also give back. My favorite example is vocal pitch correction. I can feel much more free when singing because if there are a few bad notes in an otherwise good performance, I can fix them. Before pitch correction, I'd have to do vocals over and over, or be really careful about punching. That's what scrubbed the feeling from my vocals.
  9. For me, the same is true of writing. My first drafts suck. I have to spend a lot of time editing before my writing goes public.
  10. Well, as always the situation is more complex than it appears on the surface. I'm sure xenophobia plays into it. However, in 2021 the China Internet Investment Fund bought a 1% share in TikTok. Normally, that wouldn't mean much in terms of control, but it's a China Government Guidance Fund, which is a government-meets-private group whose aim is to further China's industrial and political policy goals. It has influence on the companies with which it's involved that goes beyond that 1%, like having board members. ByteDance says there's no governement relationship to TikTok, the participation just relates to its China market video and information platforms, and the government holding licenses TikTok needs to operation. But of course they'd say that. Others think it's not quite so innocent, and It would be like if the NSA started having significant influence over Facebook. There is zero doubt that Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China are actively involved in sowing disinformation via social media to create discord in the US (and are doing a good job of it). The upfront, codified government involvement doesn't necessarily mean the intentions are nefarious. There are several ByteDance entities in different countries, including one in the US with its own CEO. They make decisions about the platform. Onlny 20% ownership is Chinese investors. 20% is employee-owned and 60% is various global investors. But day-to-day operations in other countries vs. government involvement in Beijing are two different things. One theory is that the government is mostly interested in what comes into China more than what goes out from it. Perhaps another issue with Americans is that TikTok's success is a blow to the ego. "We're #1! We have Facebook and Instagram! We have Google!" With China making advances in many areas, this is more along the lines of "China's way ahead of us in terms of electric cars, so we'll pass laws saying we can't import Chinese electric cars." All companies track you. This article will give you something to think about. TikTok sets itself up to run in the background, and adapt to system settings that restrict background activity. So if your phone is turned on, even if the TikTok app isn't active, it it still retrieves content, fetches updates, and sends analytic data about your browsing, ISP, etc. Again, this is how all these social media companies work. But TikTok seems to be prioritizing and refining the process to a greater degree. What my son was concerned about has nothing to do with China per se, but the ease of hacking. He feels TikTok's security is low, and given the amount of personal data that's shared, you can be targeted with messages that look like they're coming from (for example) your bank, your local government, a family member, etc. because hackers know what bank you use, where you live, who your relatives are, and much more. His advice was more along the lines of all social media is horrific and to stay away if possible, but TikTok is worse.
  11. The problem isn't nuclear power, it's the waste that's generated. The US still hasn't figured out where to put the waste that's been generated in this country. Thin of it this way. If a plane had crashed in Chernobyl, there would have been a loss of life which would have been tragic. But it wouldn't have made Chernobyl uninhabitable for decades to come.
  12. That depends. The direction of social media is downward - more crass, more mean-spirited, people bailing on Facebook, getting scammed, the "X" fiasco, etc. TikTok is king of the hill right now, but that too will fall prey to what happens when you open something up to the public and let anyone in. I don't know if it's related, but Musicplayer keeps gaining people. I'm sure part of it is because so many cool folks hang out here, but it also might be because the forum structure has been around for so long that it's being perceived as a breath of fresh air after being out of fashion for so long.
  13. One of my instructional videos was banned from Instagram because it mentioned pink noise as a way to simulate listening to music in a car. Apparently they had a problem with the word pink. I kid you not. That algorithm must have seriously cut into videos mentioning Pink Floyd, The Big Pink, or Pink. Maybe I'll test the waters and post a video about watching the Pink Panther while listening to Music from Big Pink before going to a Pink Floyd tribute band, and see if Instagram implodes.
  14. For what it's worth, my son is a specialist in cybersecurity. He says "Dad, most social media is a problem but whatever you do, avoid TikTok."
  15. SSS considers very little off-topic, aside from hardcore politics and religion. We all have lives that involve more than music. There are some pretty smart people here, so it's good to have a place where they can discuss subjects other than the norm in music-oriented forums. We all drive cars to gigs, so trying to figure out what kind of car would serve our needs best is not all that off-topic!
  16. Wow, that's hardcore inhumane. As to Lorde, she's had some pretty serious health problems. Taste is subjective, but compassion isn't...so I wish her the best.
  17. Well, this is certainly good news: Microsoft just released Developer Preview 5, which includes an updated USB driver, app-to-app MIDI support, loopback MIDI, a preview of the MIDI Settings app, an updated MIDI Console app, and more. Progress!
  18. Cool, glad you liked the video! I'm still shocked Taylor Swift hasn't appropriated the SwiftCoin idea to get rid of TicketMaster.
  19. Bear in mind this is augmented reality, not necessarily virtual reality. I see tutorials as a fantastic application. For example, suppose I do a tutorial on how to compress vocals. You can be looking at your DAW while in the upper right hand corner, there's an image of me moving the controls on a compressor, and describing what to expect, so you can try it on your own compressor. Or...imagine if you did live sound for a living. A library of venues, where you could take virtual tours, would give you an idea of what to expect before you got there. 3 years ago, I did a Keynote address for the Pro Audio + Radio Summit called "What's Next?". There's a 3-minute segment about AR/VR that starts here, and pretty much anticipates how something like the Vision Pro will be used.
  20. I think it's more likely to go in the same direction as the iPad. People couldn't make sense of it at first ("it's just a big phone, right? Or maybe a lame computer?"), but the tablet has since become a major product category for multiple manufacturers. I've always liked working with companies that hired smart people because the company knew they'd be good for something, and then figured out what their optimum role would be once they were onboard (as opposed to hiring for a "position.") The Vision Pro might be the product equivalent.
  21. Just curious...it looks like it could live up to the hype, especially after it gets more support. I figure some of you bleeding-edge folks might have some thoughts about it...or is it sufficiently expensive you're in no hurry to check it out?
  22. That train left the station a long time ago. When you get a package from Amazon hyping Prime, it says "Millions of songs for free." Meanwhile, you have to pay not to get ads in the videos, and many of the "Amazon Prime" videos require payment to rent or own. And as I've said many times, Apple spends $1,000,000,000 a year to create new video content, and $0.00 a year to create new audio content. The record industry is doomed - but that doesn't mean music is. Go grab an instrument, sit around with your audience - whether it's a spouse or a venue, and enjoy the intimate connection that happens when you make music in the company of others. And if you can sell out large venues, or get as many streams as Byonce, you might even make a decent living.
  23. As to moderation, in general I think "nothing's better left unsaid" if it raises a valid point or opinion. For example, "Most YouTube videos suck" is valid, because I assume the person believes that, and has reasons for doing so. It might also inspire people to reference YouTube videos that don't suck, which benefits all of us. On the other hand, "you suck" is not a valid point I also think it's important to understand anyone can have a bad day, and take it out online. In those cases, a little understanding/empathy improves the climate far more than vitriol. But if those bad days happen consistently, then it's time to bring out the moderation tools.
  24. YouTube's gift to humanity was the 2X button. In a couple minutes, I can find out whether something is worth watching or not.
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