2008 March | notetoself.net

random thought about the purely digital generations

March 17th, 2008 10:43 pm musings, web 1 comment

some kid who has been raised solely on computers and teh internets is going to ask about the feature’s name in the browser….

“dad, why are they called ‘bookmarks‘?”

i’m pondering getting a mac

March 17th, 2008 4:01 pm audio, tech 1 comment

for so many years of my tech-aware life, i’ve heard the term “mac user” as negative… like a baby user that needs it’s hand held. after OSX, the system seems more robust and flexible. besides the general intuitiveness, it should allow me to satisfy my tweaking fetish. i’m becoming aware that there are apps for most everything i would want to do now, but, of course, the driver development for mac is still generally second priority to windows, and i might not be able to use all my peripheral toys.

i’d been looking for a non-partisan guide to mac for “power users” so i can apply my knowledge of other systems and just learn the new names and paths that are used for mac. this link seems to be what i need, but i’m only part-way through. http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx.

so, before i actually go buy another $$$ toy, i’m putting together a list of pro/con to making the “switch” (or rather merely adding mac to my electronic farm).

what reasons mac might work for me?

having a less chaotic system with fewer hardware and software crashes

save time and frustration with mac’s media optimization when processing my photography and audio

aesthetic details are becoming more attractive to me (i even like the way vista looks now)

i’m a sucker for white

‘NIX

cons

$$$ and much much less able to piece a system together by cannibalizing other machines

iLife (fracking iPotty)

i’d be a newb for a while, but that’s actually somewhat appealing as a challenge to master

finding mac versions of all the interface tricks, enhancements, and applications that i rely on

mac is the new “empire” that nearly forces you to do everything their way (which is “different”?!)

joining the kool kid klub

i’m just rambling on, but i’ll come back to this to reexamine my motivations. my next system will either be a grey cheesegrater or an audio-studio optimized PC.

PSA awareness test

March 15th, 2008 2:15 pm bike Leave a comment

this PSA does well in making this point.

http://www.dothetest.co.uk

analog wins today

March 14th, 2008 12:05 pm audio, electronics 2 comments

arp omni-2

my old ARP Omni-2 sounds really good to me. i’ve been playing with new synths alot for the past few weeks.. mostly just listening to the preset patches and doing some basic tweaking… and it wears on my ears somewhat. most of it hasn’t been inspiring. i just found some samples of my old ARP (which i sold on craigslist for less $ than the audio cables i use on the new synths), and the sound is more rich by a level of magnitude. it was pure analog with lots of noise from the old, dirty circuits. the sound was more complex, warm, organic and tangible. each development in modulation sounded more like experiencing a sunset over the pacific than merely seeing it in a home theater as a wireframe 3d animation like my virtual analog synths produce.

damn.

i did glamour shots at work today

March 13th, 2008 6:29 pm makestuff Leave a comment

1984

March 11th, 2008 2:12 pm musings 1 comment

that year keeps coming up lately for me. i remember noting then (i was 7) that it was a very fun year. i remember feeling a leap in my own consciousness. now, i’ve become aware of so much media created then that i love. i’m listening to vangelis synth music right now from various movie soundtracks from then.

hmm… once i get my place ready enough, i’ll have a 1984 party and movie night.