I’d like to highlight briefly the lyrics of the song because learning more about the imagery that Cohen borrows really helps to add significance to the song.  Most of it ties around two interesting figures from the Old Testament: David and Samson. While entirely unrelated, save for the pesky-Philistines, both characters experienced very similar life stories. They experienced selection by God (David selected as the King of Israel, Samson a savior to the Jews under Philistine rule), great feats and love of God (David slew Goliath, Samson killed quite a few), failure and destruction in the face of temptation (David and Bathsheba “saw her bathing on the roof”, Samson and Delilah “she cut your hair”), and eventual return to faith and redemption after their great suffering.

The last point is rough to go into as Samson is tortured and forced to live in slavery until he sees the inside of a temple collapse, and he was lucky. David did more dubious things after the Bathsheba incident (read up on Uriah the Hittite), and his kingdom fell apart: the child born out of wedlock dies, his third son rebels and is killed, his oldest son rapes his daughter and is killed, and many other trials. David’s and, to a lesser degree, Samson’s stories are incredibly tragic, but the significance comes in the height from which they fell…from absolute favor with their God. David, as the song points out, is often thought of as communing directly with God through the Psalms that he wrote. Without knowledge of the great peaks and depths that these men experienced it’s hard to understand the complications of ‘the Hallelujah’ that Cohen brings out.

“…But love is not a victory march, It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.”

For a while I’ve been trying to find a list of all the major (and a few minor) versions of this classic. Finding them was interesting enough, but trying to rank them has been almost impossible. Still, I’ve built a completely subjective list. You can listen to them individually, or listen to the whole playlist (in reverse order).

1. Jeff Buckley – Hands down winner every time
2. Alexandra Burke – Went back to the original with the chorus, but modern flare. Lot of credit.
3. Allison Crowe -Piano is underwhelming, and the end gets a bit crazy (“And IT IS A” tell me if you notice it)
4. K.D. Lang – She slides into eeEEvry sssSIiingle nnNOote.
5. Brandi Carlile – Not a great voice, but her spirit is locked in
6. Kate Voegele – EDIT: Forgot about Kate! Really crisp, but her voice gets in the way in spots.
7. Justin Timberlake et als. – Some flaws in the recording, too many frills and poor harmonies
8. John Cale – His air control seems lacking in spots
9. Imogen Heap – A capella  is bold, and lovely voice, I just need more
10. Bon Jovi – Listen to how he hugs the mic
11. Rufus Wainwright – Really, this should be better, but it sounds like he’s reading the lyrics fo-net-ick-ly
12. Willie Nelson – Yeah.
13. Le0nard Cohen – The original, I think this is purely a style problem. I like the digital age too much.
14. Charity Mondok – Don’t know who she is, but her’s is pretty, pretty bad.

If you’ve got modifications to the list I’d love to hear them; I don’t know if anyone else is that interested.

As an aside, Cohen said, in that same CBC interview, “I was just reading a review of a movie…and the reviewer said – ‘Can we please have a moratorium on Hallelujah in movies and television shows?’ And I kind of feel the same way. I think it’s a good song, but I think too many people sing it. I think people ought to stop singing it for a little while.”

Microsoft declined to comment on Williams’ testimony and characterization of the crash screen. Transocean did not respond to e-mail seeking comment.

I realize that you may find this a grave thing; and because of you I have decided I can no longer remain silent. Now, in front of God and the American people, I would like to say that I know information about this oil spill. Yes folks! That’s right. I know what was really to blame!

During the trip I made to the oil rig on the day of the disaster I noticed[!!!] that the Dell PC’s USB drive didn’t work.

And the Seagate hard drive was making a clicking noise. And the Intel CPU was overheating. And the Logitech mouse was dropped in a cup of Campbell’s soup. And the Home Depot door let through a draft. And the government inspected power lines were covered with bird poop. And the Portland Cement was cracking. And the ocean water was cold, suspiciously similar to the chill one gets from standing in front of an open, Maytag refrigerator. And the Morningstar Farms bacon strips were burnt that morning. And the only music playing on the XM radio station was “I’ve got you, Babe” by Sonny and Cher. And half the crew’s Abercrombie and Fitch socks hadn’t dried in time to wear in the morning. And the birds protected by PETA were raucously cawing. And despite a constant use of the Honeywell Air Filteration system, the air was still particularly salty. And Pizza Hut refused to deliver to the rig. And somebody stepped in some Trident gum that had been carelessly discarded after the director’s particularly laborious morning staff meeting during which he would make long and convoluted diagrams on the 3M whiteboard with Expo markers. And the GE lightbulbs weren’t bright enough, I mean they weren’t dim, but it kind of made your eyes strain a bit which is really annoying. And the Target wicker basket that they kept the Golf Digest magazines in was starting to crack. And the Scott brand toilet tissue, while immensely affordable, was never really as enjoyably used as others. And Amazon charges too much for shipping out of the continental US.

There, I’ve said my peace. I hope that people heed my words and find these companies legally responsible, financially obligated, and morally reprehensible for their contribution and fault in this tragic incident. I also pray that my Acme whistle-blowing will not fall on deaf ears.

(For legal purposes, let me assure you that I own none of these company’s trademarked information. Just assume every single word and phrase combination in this entire post is followed by a trademark/copyright/poundsign/upsidedowncross or whatever else you need to signify ownership and that the aforementioned phrases are the property of whatever company claimed them in the first place. Phooey.)

Hi!

I received a letter from dating site. And they informed me about your email.  They also tagged that you are looking for a partner. I was fond of your character so I want  to initiate dating with you and learn you more bettterr. We could send photos each other. How do you consider this?

My email is h_zdenek@yahoo.com .

and I will respond you gladly and I will send some photos too.

My name is Helen and i am from Turkey.

Senator,

You’ll have to forgive me as none of the subjects in this form drop-down seemed appropriate for this email, so I picked Campaign Finance.

I sent you a cookie-cutter style letter concerning the Network Neutrality debate; and I received a cookie-cutter response back. This is fine, we both obviously deal with a lot of topics and email. We don’t have time for us or our staffers (thanks to you, by the way) to hand-type emails supporting letterhead-positions. The -only- problem was how you did it. You see, I gave you my email address, the personal line to reach me. What did I get in response? donotreply@warner.senate.gov

Look, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but when we enter in this new world of electronic communication it means we need to obey some standard etiquette. After the email that I sent, you had my email address to which you could respond with your thoughts and feelings in that conversation. I appreciate the email you sent, but you broke the potential for conversation and turned information into a one-way-street by sending it from this ridiculous account, equivalent to “donotreply@yourSenatorCouldntCareLess.gov”. I don’t want the email box that your wife sends you dinner with or where you get the daily sports sent, I’m just saying I’d like to be able to reply to something you shoved into my inbox.

I know the Senator’s office is a busy place and you probably never see these emails, let alone care about what email address your emails get sent back. However, I know that Senators are supposed to have an open line of communication with their constituents. In fact, this is the basis for the amazing republic in which we live. This is a brave, new world, Senator. I don’t think I’m asking for much, just that you don’t shut me down by not letting me talk back. It’s only fair.

Your empathy is appreciated,

Raymond Berg
Voter

Dear Raymond B.,

The Lala service will be shut down on May 31st.

In appreciation of your support over the last five years, you will receive a credit in the amount of your Lala web song purchases for use on Apple’s iTunes Store. If you purchased and downloaded mp3 songs from Lala, those songs will continue to play as part of your local music library.

Remaining wallet balances and unredeemed gift cards will be converted to iTunes Store credit (or can be refunded upon request). Gift cards can be redeemed on Lala until May 31st.

Click here or visit Lala.com/support for more information, or to view Lala’s Terms of Service.

Thank you.

Lala

This letter was probably written the day that Apple purchased Lala over four months ago. It further solidifies my disgust with Apple and the way they do their business. In this acquisition and destruction of a perfectly good company, they’ve literally promised services to me in exchange for my money and now backed out of our agreement. I currently have over $25 in store credit on Lala and over one hundred songs to which I’ve purchased streaming rights. Beyond that, I’ve given dozens of songs to friends and family on the service.

Lala was the most innovative approach to music that I’ve seen in years, and I was extremely excited to evangelize the service and partake in it like some sort of Dionysian zealot. Now that’s all gone because Apple saw competition, they wanted technology, and when they had it they didn’t want to share. If Apple wants to make me happy they can give me copies of my MP3′s at a loss to them or send me a check for $50. Until that time, I’m looking to warn others of what happens when a closed, heavily proprietary company in bed with numerous neerdowells. This closure makes me furious, and I’m eager to see significant blow-back from Apple’s consumer-base.

UPDATE: It would cost me over $155 to get MP3 copies of the music I’ve purchased. Screw you, Apple.

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

1. Open – Flash isn’t an open system, it’s closed source and Flash controlled.
2. Features – All those flash sites you claim are so important? Yeah, we’ve got apps for those…so shut it.
3. Security – Adobe has more bugs than a camel’s armpit, and twice as many security flaws.
4. Power Consumption – Because you don’t use hardware acceleration it winds up sucking more processor speed, and therefore power.
5. Touch – Have you ever used an iPhone? Yeah, we like touch.
6. Flash Apps – Yeah, we’re not going to let you get that foothold. You know how we do quality control. [BAN]

It’s largely concrete and controlled, but my favorite quote is the last paragraph where he unleashes the liver-fed lion:

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

I largely agree with everything that Jobs is saying here, with one giant caveat: he shouldn’t have said it. Thousands of other people can say things like this and have it actually mean it, hell….even Ballmer would have gotten some respect from me for this kind of publication. But it wasn’t Ballmer, it wasn’t Zuckerberg, it wasn’t Brin, and it wasn’t even Bezos…it was Jobs.

Apple[Jobs] has created one of, if not the, most closed environments in recent history, barring the PRC. Every developer who wants to play in their app space needs to obey the censors and keep their noses clean, in addition to paying annual fees to enter the market. They continue to be criticized over, over, and over again for their blaze approach to censorship; Jobs even went so far as to tarnish the character of those who dare buy from the enemy. To say these things may seem like a logical attempt to regain trust from developers that “Steve’s really got our backs”, but it doesn’t take a psychology degree to see what his intentions are.

Jobs does not have the user or developers in mind. He’s pushed his teams to exclude flash from the iPlatform because he doesn’t want to lose control of the AppStore reigns. In a nearly-open system one can make the case that singular exclusions of technological compatibility are in the best interest of the consumer. Even Hu Jintao doesn’t whitelist Internet sites for his people. This essay has done nothing but push me closer toward a Verizon store and my first Android phone. I might even buy one of those wacky, now-imaginary Couriers.

Amazing, Steve, just amazing.

The first lecture of my master’s program was my first policy/engineering class, and my world was rocked. I was probably galvanized by the seething hatred that my peers seemed to have for this brand of security. Dismissing the pariah complex, I had an abnormal draw toward it, and the people that I began to associate with only pushed me further in that direction. When I chose my first full-time position it was pretty clear where I would lean. Now I’ve programmed less than 100 lines of code in the last 3 months, and 95 of those were from personal projects.

Work is filled with partial glimpses into projects large enough to crush a human, and everyone struggles just to make sure their documentation doesn’t accidentally expand their scope commitment into a new circle of requirements-hell. Most of the higher-level minds just try to negotiate the nether-space between clients and managers, hoping that satisfying one of them doesn’t piss the other one off. Quality engineers are overworked, and project managers mumble unintelligibly to themselves while walking the fine line between hyper-tension and deadline slippage. Great ideas are hatched in unreserved conference rooms and laughed off or, if particularly reasonable, are stabbed to death by managers and customers during powerpoint briefings. The only people who get great things done are the ones who play the field better than Kasparov.

And it’s all fascinating.

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.

Since I come from the midwest, I’ve got to have meat with my potatoes.  As such, the last photos were a mix of the hard-hearts of the chopped onions, teriyaki sauce, and minced garlic.  The onion hearts were only used to flavor the sauce, I took only chicken out when I plated it. It would have been nice with some steamed, Chinese onions.  Clearly, I like to be able to roam freely around the continent.

Oh, don’t forget to let the chicken marinate for 10 minutes or so before cooking. I usually pop that bad boy in the fridge. Again, cooking with me isn’t science; it’s just fun.