For those who don’t know, I have a Google Chat Badge on my home page. It goes largely unused, but occasionally I get a fun gem.

Guest has joined.
Raymond: Greetings
Guest: Hallo
Spreekt u Nederlands?
Raymond: No, I am sorry.
English only
Un poquito espanol
Guest: Ok. I was looking for a Dutch Raymond Berg. Thank you anyway.
Raymond:
I’m happy to help
Good luck on your search.
Guest: Have a nice day!
Thank you
Raymond: You too!
Guest: bye
Raymond: Goodbye.
Guest has left.

I had a chance to work the anger in my previous post about my broken relationship with Grooveshark. I’d like to clarify some points.

First, I had no intention of violating any copyright. I used Grooveshark as I understood Grooveshark worked. I took music that I OWN, and uploaded it to the servers so I could listen to it in the cloud. This seemed to big one of the big draws of the service, and so I opted for it.

Second, I PAID for Grooveshark. Well, that is until 6 minutes after I received the DMCA notice from the Grooveshark offices. I was a paying customer since June of this year.  Most people I know who are going to say “Dude, Grooveshark rocks!! What’s wrong Grooveshark?!? Don’t be an idiot, man!” probably don’t front the subscription fee to get the desktop and mobile clients.  I’m just pointing it out because I was dedicated to the cloud-cause. I want this to work, and I want it to not suck. I’d put up with crappy interfaces and buggy performance if it meant supporting the cause.

Third, the RIAA is still out there performing their oh-so-jackassy deeds to hold back mankind. As a patron of the arts, I am continuously offended by their work and general presence.

Fourth, my subscription was due to be renewed TOMORROW. How hilarious, right?!! Serves you right, Grooveshark, you tramp!

Fifth, I was under the (apparently false) understanding that any music provided to the whole was being licensed and paid for by Grooveshark. For all intents and purposes it seemed like a legitimate organization. Apparently I was wrong and missed all the warning signs, you tramp!

Sixth, I can’t believe I gave up on Rdio so soon! My life would have been so much better in it’s attractive, but simple, embrace. If it weren’t so expensive ($10 a month for mobile+web) then I would definitely switch. (How about $6?)

Seventh, I wouldn’t use Grooveshark again if you paid me. I’ll go to parties and be in the same room, but this relationship is over.

Eighth, and last, if you’re paying for Grooveshark I advise you to stop. And if you’re not paying, then I suggest you move on before you’re identified and sued by the RIAA for using the service. If the RIAA can find a way to get to you, they’ll use it.

Senator,

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This clip is going to be my sample to demonstrate wave collision in music mixing.  Even on isolating headphones this sounds garbled in the middle. A quick snippet, from me to you. I think it’s cute, but a little weak.

Hey, Listen!

UPDATE: I was able to get a little better about using some of the reverb controls. Here’s something with two piano voices, and a warm bass.

Clouds on the Wing

I had something fun planned for tonight, but WordPress ate it. You just get the raw bits now.

Basically, use this (amazingly short bit of python code) to wreak havoc on your mate’s computer.

'''
Created on Mar 20, 2010
@author: Raymond
'''
import win32api
import threading
class Beep(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self,frequency,duration):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.frequency = frequency
self.duration = duration
def run(self):
win32api.Beep(self.frequency,self.duration)
for a in range(0,200):
a = Beep(a*20,1000)
a.start()
a.join()


And no, I’m not even white-spacing it for you.

Here’s a fun mp3 (if you’re lazy) with picture of the audacity output. See, no volume change! Only frequency. I love science.

And the exe if you’re lazy and you don’t like to practice safe-computing.

My favorite professor, Dr. Bezrukov, used to have a very apt approach embed to those all-important, core elements in computer science to which there was no simple explanation: “I’m going to tell you how important it is that you should know this. Not only do you need to remember…it needs to be there in the center of your mind. If someone were to come into your room in the middle of the night, grab you, and shake you awake…you need to be shouting as you wake up.” This was an extraordinary way to help us realize how much he wanted us to learn this topic.

The first thing that my professor explained to me in just such a way was the structure of a Java class. I had never had any programming experience in my life, and Java was as foreign to me as Greek. But it didn’t take long for me to memorize “public static void main(String[] args){}”. I had no clue what any of it meant, but I shouted it when I was startled from my sleep. I also got used to typing it every time I started my homework in vim.

My most enjoyable memories in the computer science field were those “a-ha” moments when the simplest of concepts suddenly made complete sense, like Dr. Bezrukov’s “public static void main()”. I admit that I used to have one of these every week. I remember standing in the shower before an early morning of class and suddenly realizing how hot and cold water piping really worked and why it took time for water to warm up. This may seem silly to you, but it’s not something I had thought about before. I encourage everyone to have these moments as often as possible at every phase in life.

Tonight’s dinner was a nice quick meal of Curried Potatoes and Barbecue [Turkey] Ham (I’m trying to live a little healthier, after all). This was a bit of an experiment for me, as I’m not fully acclimated to using curry in my recipes, but I braved it for you, the reader. I do all this for you, and I get nothing in return.

The preparation is simple enough. 3 medium, Yukon gold tomatoes (I’m sure the recipe would work fine with russets or other kinds) and 1 medium onion, both chopped broadly. Come to think of it, I don’t think I know another way to say “chopped into big pieces, kind of bit-sized but maybe a little bigger”. Anyway, spread these about the cooking pan.

Warm up a 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil with 1-2 tablespoons of butter. As you are beginning to see, I’m not a big fan of measuring things. Anyways, balance this out with a tablespoon-ish of curry powder and a hefty sprinkling of red pepper and some minced garlic. This is all relative to your taste! Add pepper if you want, I don’t care, I even threw in a pinch of cilantro. How you warm this up is your business, but since I don’t own a microwave I used a cereal bowl nestled in my rice cooker. Let me shatter your belief that decent cooks (and computer people) lead glamorous lives.

Drizzle this evenly over the potato/onion mix. Then start the process to cook this bad boy in an oven or, in my case, Nu-wave oven. Halfway through, stir it up and be sure the sauce coats the potatoes. I would recommend another peppering of curry powder, but I love the taste of curry. Once the potatoes are done, eat them! Bam, who’s amazing? You are.

Look, I could give you more to work with, but I hate recipes. Even when I follow one I tend to drift off halfway through and add my own personality to it. I’ll grant you I’ve never made a souffle, but I’ve never had a bad time while cooking. Let me know if you found a way to better this recipe.

Bonus – BBQ Ham: Easy, precooked ham, cubed, dropped in a bowl of hickory bbq sauce, thrown on the grill rack and warmed up in the oven. Easy to do, and life is simple.

Rejoining the workforce, if only temporarily, has reminded me of what it’s like to be productive. That’s not to say that my education is unproductive, but you do get a sense of accomplishment when you come home every night from a 9-5. You also feel some daily pains when it comes to things like team spaces, both physical and virtual. This is especially true if you’re joining an established team with idiosyncrasies to which you haven’t yet grown entirely comfortable.

I made a reference list of rules to obey when using a team Exchange server or other tool supplying a calendar service. While some of the following rules may seem like common sense to you, I challenge you to check yourself against these rules and see if you aren’t violating at least one of them. Actually, in writing these rules I picked things that I do too, but I won’t tell you which ones.

Raymond’s Rules for Team Calendars (Outlook, Google Calendar)

1. All teammates must agree to use the calendar service as their primary method for personal appointment management and the collaborative scheduling tool. *
2. Each member of the team is accountable for their own calendar.
3. Calendars must be shared with openly with all teammates.
4. All calendars must be up to date to provide for efficient meeting scheduling and accountability.
5. All employees are in one of three states at any given time and their calendars should reflect this:
   • Free/Open – No scheduled events or appointments labeled as “Free” to show they do not require direct physical attention.
   • Busy – Unavailable or occupied during the time of this event.
   • Out of the Office – Time period when the employee is not located on campus. (Includes telework, alternate duty locations, vacation, personal days)
     In the event of an unexpected scheduling change the team member should make alterations to reflect that change as soon as feasibly possible.**
6. Tentative appointments should be firmly changed to “Accepted” or “Declined” as soon as meeting attendance is most likely ensured. ***
7. Exceptions are allowed in the form of incalculably, but necessary, overlapping appointments.
8. It is reasonable to accept an event meeting and cancel in the event of an unexpected change.
9. Do not add/save items on your calendar that do not serve a purpose in scheduling your day. Extraneous meetings and unrelated events that a team member does not effect the workday should be removed.
10. Notes/Changes/Modifications to events made on calendars should be performed and tracked through the calendar service to preserve process continuity and centralized storage for meeting related data on changes or additions.
11. Members who plan to actively attend meetings (i.e. offer input, act on authority, plan to ask questions) should be added by the meeting manager to the official roster and be notified of changes like other participants.

*If this a team cannot agree to dedicated use of the system then the team must agree to live in chaos.
**Enabling permissions for a second office-mate to modify a calendar would allow for support for meeting organization and last minute changes.
***All plans are tentative by nature so labeling events as “tentative” implies a further uncertainty than is experienced daily by mortal beings of this universe.

Casual Tips:

• Any foreseeable blocks of work time in which a teammate prefers to be uninterrupted should be labeled on their calendar.
• Further use of color coding to specify certain complex cases may be used, but it should be thoroughly enforced. For example, teleworking means an out of the office status but you are available for phone calls and will be responding to email just as you would if you were in the office, so a color code or tag may apply to this situation to help coworkers.

As with anything, you may disagree or agree, but I hope you’ll communicate with me either way. If I’ve forgotten something that you think belongs on this list, I’d love to hear it. This is only version one, and there will be other rules to come.

Try printing this off and sharing it with your teammates at your next meeting.

I’ve been meaning to get into podcasts for a while now as a way to expand my sources and let me pick up more stuff while on the road.  Also, it’s a little more fun, which is one of the biggest biggest advantages I see to podcasting: the presentation of valuable information in a manner that’s a little more social and palatable than black-on-white. (Read on…)

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I pose a challenge to any and all who read this blog: tell me how to disable binary logging on a 5.1 installation of the MySQL community server on a Windows XP box.

He who finds the Holy Grail and can return the magic elixir found therein to me shall be heralded as one greater than all in the land.