There are two six-foot long glass display cases under the counter at the shop. Right now there are some components for sale, stuff that hasn’t moved in years. I spent most of mid-day researching devices that I think may move faster. These are the counter-surveillance tools I’ve been talking about lately.One of the more interesting items is called a Cobra. It looks exactly like a flash drive, but contains a program. You plug it into your employee’s, wife’s or kid’s computer and in 15 seconds it installs an undetectable spyware script. Then you remove the drive and walk away. Whenever the computer goes on the Internet, it captures a screen shot every 10 seconds. The next day, you plug in again and it loads up to 8,000 pictures of everything they looked at. You then take the drive out, and examine the pictures on another computer. What is something like that worth to you? My guess is you’d give me $75 for it.
I drove to Jimbos and dismantled my music gear. This week everything gets an overhaul. Music dominates this month again. My guitar jack has been crackling or cutting out and I must eliminate the drum track problems. Arnel says he’ll come over to help if need be. That reminds me, you get a progress report on other musicians that are not in the loop. Big Jim has a new duo and is playing at Rip Tide, but is predictably running out of material. (This is a bigger problem than some folks seem to realize.)
Teresa and I went to the beach for a couple hours and to see Arnel’s show. The water was ice-cold. The Hippie called to say he had a gig somewhere in the middle of the Everglades. I considered it until he said he didn’t know the address but wanted me to look it up on his computer. Ah, the computer he bought that he doesn’t know how to get on-line? Um, that’s a call out. You don’t phone somebody three hours before the start of an out-of-town gig without an ulterior motive. [Author's note: During this same conversation I specifically told him to turn on the computer's antenna. He said no because his "expert" friend said that wasn't the problem. Turns out it was.]
So Teresa and I stopped by at Arty’s, now knowing that Jim isn’t playing there. I counted 21 people, which is more than my quota. I have an appointment to see the owner about playing there next Saturday. We stayed for nearly an hour, during which time Teresa ordered the daily special. Frog’s legs. She found them rather tasteless but later my cat dined in style.
Teresa is finding it amusing to see the logistics behind these music shows. (Come to think of it, I know a few musicians who could stand to learn more about how to do things right.) Like most people, she never much thought about the presentations beyond their immediate effect. For example, those queue cards Arnel uses, like the one that says “Everybody Clap Your Hands”. The next card says “Everybody Wash Your Hands”. This came from a concert he played in Brazil many years ago. He had to ask a girl how to say “Clap Your Hands” in Portuguese. One thing led to another and today he can get the crowd roaring by merely holding up a “For Rent” sign.
My task is to figure out ways to adapt the same idea to the two Karaoke monitors I plan to have on stage. Arnel and I have still not coordinated the versions and lyrics part of our shows, but when we do, it will cut the amount of duplicated effort in half. I’ve even toyed with putting Dragon on stage—remember my monitors emulate a cheap Karaoke TV screen, in reality they are really full-fledged digital computer plasma displays.
[Author’s note: Dragon refers to the application “Dragon Naturally Speaking”, which produces typed text to the spoken word. I would design some type of comic routine where what I say on the microphone appears on the Karaoke monitors in real time. Imagine me turning off the speakers and saying, “Can you hear me?” and having it flash instantly on screen. Music for the deaf?
This will be very difficult for anyone to copy even if they figure it out. You see, Dragon has to be painstakingly “trained” by each user speaking displayed words, meaning those words have to be entered in advance. By golly, I have access to over one million words right here alone. As luck would have it, the enunciation of my own material is, you guessed it, absolutely perfect. And then some.]
Fred and I loaded up the table saw he found me. The top is rusty and it needs a new gear box. It is an American brand (Delta) so there is a good chance the parts are replaceable. When I can get to it is another story, because Saturday, March 14, 2009 is an example of a slow day around here.
