One year ago today: April 22, 2016, the buy decision . . .
Five years ago today: April 22, 2012, you, another commodity.
Nine years ago today: April 22, 2008, the James Canal.
Random years ago today: April 22, 2011, good-bye, chihuahua.
Costa. I just finished chatting to their “repair” department. When is it not a repair department? I would say when it takes nearly 50 times as long to repair a broken article than to build one from scratch. Listen to this. If you want a new pair of custom hand-made sunglasses, they will be shipped overnight. But if you want repairs to the ones they sold you last week, it will indeed take six weeks, plus the postal transit time. That’s at least until June 3rd, so they’ll have you squinting half the summer. Or are they telling us their $250 glasses are so fragile they break at fifty times the rate they can build them new?
Can’t have it both ways, Costa. Now for some trivia. Did you know that it was around today in 1967 the first ATMs were deployed? I did not actually use one until 1982, when I began to operate at a surplus. Before that, I didn’t know what a “bank card” or PIN was. Note that once I broke clear from the situation I grew up in, it was only 14 years later that I quit working for a living. I didn’t say rich, or quit working altogether, only that I no longer worked to scrimp by hand-to-mouth like the schmeebs. You know who you are. Just think what I might have done if I’d had the tiniest bit of help, say $500. And in another 7 years after I quite working for beans, I had a heart attack anyway.
When ATMS were introduced to India, they ran out of cash within a few hours. The banking system is so bad it could take hours to make a withdrawal at a teller. The ATM lineups only average one hour.
Here’s yet another opportunity for you to use your judgment. Tell me what you would do in the circumstances. Remember the all-girl band from February 24? What would you do if you received an apology and an explanation? That everything I sent them (song lists, MP3s) went to junk mail and they don’t answer non-local calls (I still have a Broward area code). As for the reputation of playing free for the church, they say that has not been the case for five years, but the reputation persists.
This is not taking a chance, since I already play the majority of their song list. It’s not like I’m a bassist who needs to be coaxed into playing chick songs. This is why I could not understand why the older one didn’t leap on the chance eight weeks ago. Without that bass, their guitar is bad and the vocals have severe treble bite. Basically I hedged my bets saying they have to call me tomorrow or it’s a no go. Even then, they are now only a backup [plan] if the New York guy proves less than on top of it.
So, how do you read the situation? I’ll do what I want anyway, but allow me to ask like it would make any difference. It’s to create the illusion others are involved in the process, awful nice of me, I think. Hey, even this blog needs a little PR now and then, like it cares, too.
There is a common problem. You ask these people if they have a computer and they say yes. It turns out they have a smart phone, which is not a computer. But they don’t see themselves as lying, but I suppose when you are uneducated enough, anything looks like a computer. I asked if he had all his music on MP3, and he said yes. That means files on your local computer, not links to the cloud. I should have known there was a reason he didn’t send me his MP3s when I asked. Plus, it is rude when you say you know something but intend to look it up on your Android causing the other guy to wait around while you do the retard finger-dance.
Today, I insisted he send me a particular song, and all I got was a link. Which doesn’t work on the library computers. That, folks, is a severe imposition. Either I lug my computer to the library or pay for the music. Downloading the other guy’s song list (which takes hours) because he doesn’t know a smart phone from a computer was not part of the deal. Telling somebody you have or know something when in fact you only have a smart phone is totally rude. It’s even unAmerican, if you read my blog back far enough you’ll find a complete description of this from my travels in Third World countries. Where people customarily lie to you rather than admit they don’t know.
See today’s addendum for editorial on pirating music.
Proposed Songjiang hotel.
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It isn’t all according to plan, you see, because by noon, the promised call never arrived. But I know this band business, so keep the old chin up. There’s lots of time, but that doesn’t mean I’ll wait. Taking the day off, I cut some lumber up and made a reasonable copy of the hurricane candle lantern. That’s without the glass, wires, or hinges, but I have the little door and found out my robot hole saw can’t handle 3/4 inch lumber.
Here’s how far I got with the replica, the unit on the right. First time I’ve even done this kind of copying and it taught me plenty. One thing, my tools will do the job, but if this goes into production, better equipment will be needed. The quality of the photo is bad because I’ve lost my Vivitar. It will turn up just after I replace it. On the original, on the left, you can just make out the diagonal wires that hold the wooden pieces square. Like all butt jointed rectangles, this one will go trapezoidal on you.
There are only two shapes to this pattern, if you consider the little door facing the front as shown here to be just a smaller frame of the same size. Difficult to see are the hinges and little knob which I will have to learn to install, I think I said that already. There are groves to hold the glass panels already cut and as for the stain, I’ll go for vinegar and rust, old coffee, or shoe polish. The colors have to be authentic 1860. I managed to break the piece of glass I found in the shed or I’d have affixed those by now. The hole in the top is for a small chimney cap, apparently to keep the heat from reaching the hand of the carry handle, not shown.
This wire is rather distinct. It reminds me of good quality coat hangar wire. My reproduction was made by using the model itself to set the saw blade, but a set of jigs is imperative to really crank these out. A dunk tank for the stain and copper plumbing pipe for the candle holder. As usual, good ideas will crop up as the work continues. Sales? Since I have no first hand information, I’ll stick with the original projection of 200 units retailing for $35 each.
The good news is we’ve located a real router table. I’ll rig that up but for now, the plates (in the picture) were routed by hand. I further looked at trolling motors. They are a starter motor and fan belt hooked to an old fan propeller. Wal*Mart has them for under $100. My research continues and it is frustrating. Florida has 34 major (their adjective) rivers and uncountable small ones. Arrowheads and human-worked tools, including tortoise shells, have been carbon dated to 12,000 years before present. There is no information on line on how to use the trolling motor, except to say don’t scare the fish.
My thought experiment on the matter is that we need a bow-mounted unit so the sluice can drain off the back. We should expend the battery moving upstream, so when it goes dead, we’ll still get back. I’m still not convinced there can be meaningful quantities of gold in a river that does not flow downward from mineral bearing mountains or hills. The Florida substrate is phosphates and calcified seabed material. But the arrowheads and artifacts, that is a different quest.
“I've been drinking coffee since before it was cool.”
It never hurts to do a review, so let’s go over how that carbon dating works. I don’t actually know how to do it, but the principle is easy. Pay attention, this could be on the exam. You’ll have to understand what radioactive half-life is. The rate at which radioactive material transmutes to a different state is constant, but different for each element. Carbon normally has an atomic weight of 12, but high in the atmosphere, cosmic rays constantly convert some of this to carbon 14. So, down on the Earth’s surface, living things are constantly absorbing both elements in the ratio that occurs in Nature.
There are several possible creationist arguments against this method, but all are ill-informed. Probably foremost is the assumption that the ratio of carbon 12 to carbon 14 could have been different long ago. But this has been ruled out by other methods. Also, and I only heard this, the sample being tested has to be burned, and those who don’t understand the non-relation between chemical and radioactive processes think one interferes with the other.
The process can only work back so far before the remaining amount of carbon 14 becomes too small to measure accurately. Carbon dating has become a starting point, for today other elements and procedures are used. Point—all the differing methods have been testing in countless blind settings and have shown themselves in agreement. The shroud of Turin is much too new to have been around in biblical times. Belief in such relics strongly suggests a lot of people’s memories also have half-lives.
While I have time, I’ll describe the process of recording music off the Internet. If you download the file, there is a record of that. And remember the California law that makes the computer owner responsible regardless of who does the transfer. It is best to use a computer with Windows XP or earlier, which is all you need. There are too many unexplained tracking subroutines embedded in Vista and beyond to risk a even the method I will describe. That’s describe, not advocate.
Download and install the free program, not app, but program, called Audacity from Soundforge, beware of imitations. Then read the instructions, the only obscure step is to make sure you turn on WASAPI, and play the youTube version of the song you want. Audacity will pick out the audio track and record it, which you then export as an MP3. Understand this is real time, so it takes ten hours plus overhead to record ten hours of music. But the process takes place locally on your computer. So unless you are stupid enough to use Google Chrome or Windows 10, your hard drive is still fairly confidential.
I’m aware I’ve given these instructions a few times, but there are subtle changes as the software evolves, so think of these as my update to you. One item to watch for is you often have to update Adobe to play certain youTube videos, and Adobe is one creepy outfit. Never auto-install and read every text window and check box. Another is your link speed. You may get silent clips in your Audacity track. If your speed cannot keep the buffer full, you’ll see and hear the gaps. If you can’t get the recording any other way, Audacity has a tool that removes silent parts. But use sparingly. Some music has gaps that are supposed to be there.
ADDENDUM
When is it not pirating? When something is used for educational purposes, it is okay to use copyrighted material. That is, until the greedy music rights people can get that clause removed. The digital management rights people would have you pay a fee for each time you even listen to a piece of music they own. The dreaded pay-per-play scenario. And that is where the legal eagles and I part ways. I’ve never condoned the practice of buying up something cheap, then instead of improving it for sale, they work to enact the laws that guarantee them a profit. Few things define this disgusting procedure better than the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
[Author’s note: ah, you are right if you recall my stance on “NG conservationists”. National Geographic magazine’s portrayal of people as heroes when they campaign to have a territory declared a national park. Then you find out their grandfather’s fishing shack is smack dab in the middle of it. Digital recording seeks a similar end by restricting your listening to paid episodes.]
I am vehemently against what they propose to put in place to monitor what you listen to and how often. If that system does not scare you, then you have not been paying attention. Every moment of day, each individual would have to be tracked and monitored in case he is within earshot of somebody else’s music. They would necessarily have to know your identity and whereabouts at all times. Yes, this is what they are aiming for and if you think they’ll stop at music, guess again. They have already enacted laws that make it illegal to every try to make copies, that is, “thought police”.
Now, they go through lengths to say it is impersonal, but so was the census at one point. The census bureau said they would never collect information that identifies you. Yet they put you in jail if you refuse to answer their questions. And they necessarily have identified you by the time you are arrested, although the hypocrites don’t see any connection there. Same with the “music” people, who by the way, should not be confused with musicians. The actual musicians get a few pennies on the dollar for their effort.
[Author’s note: I realize some people are morons, it can’t be helped. And they will say my objections constitute paranoia and conspiracy theory. But they are wrong in the major sense that my hostility toward invasion of privacy is not, repeat not, personal. I don’t naturally do things which would need a lot of secrecy. I don’t rob banks, or hire prostitutes, or run an illegal gambling den. I’m saying that on a daily basis, I don’t indulge in criminal activity.
However, I do tear off mattress tags, wire my own outlets, and occasionally speed on remote county roads. It is a very small step from scrutinizing which music I play to logging how fast I was traveling when I did so. And that is scary.
Can you imagine ten years from now receiving a traffic fine because they went over your music records of today and determined you got from Bowling Green to Fort Meade in less than two verses of “Tennessee Whiskey”. Yes, you had better think about it because that is where they are going. The authorities don’t need a warrant to search other people’s files on you.]
I also diverge on what constitutes “music”. To me, the conflict begins not with performance, but with recording. It is not musicians, but the recording industry and it’s spin-offs that are causing all the trouble. There is already a lobby in place that would charge musicians for live performances of copyrighted music, but this is abuse of the principle. The law does not say you can’t play a copyrighted tune, only that you cannot record it and sell it, thereby reducing demand for the original. It’s one hell of a stretch of the legal mind to bend that around live music.
My defense remains the same. I am not “selling” the music, I am selling my performance and I never relinquished my rights to free expression. I am paid only for my skills and for that matter, the music becomes tertiary or less. It does not really matter what tune I play and I can handily prove that by getting on stage. However, if I was a DJ, that’s different because the music is recorded. It’s an easy distinction.
A very good defense would also be fair usage. In my life, I’ve spent very little on recorded music, probably less than $50 if you ignore the jukebox. Here’s the logic. If I do have a recording, it is because I intend to learn to play the thing on bass. The law is very clear on this point. And the DMA people are going after that law (see photo again). If they get their way, your entire life will be placed on file. Do you really want to live in a world like that? What about your grandchildren, will you condemn them to a life where they must wear uniforms and march in columns? Or else? Do you think it could never happen here? The only country in the world that taxes you without a law that says they can, but puts you away if you don’t?
But of course, it is all conspiracy theory. Until they come for you.
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