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11-30-2006: Recap
Here are notes about some of the more interesting happenings of the last ten days.
Thanksgiving
I had an enjoyable time in Michigan over break visiting a number of relatives of mine. One of my uncles engaged in his usual explanation about the supposed moral deficiencies of Japanese cars (as usual, failing to completely convince me in the process), while another of my uncles allowed me to browse the extensive map collection he accumulated over the years. Finally, one of my cousins asked if I was on "MySpace," to which my answer was certainly "no."
MorLUG
I sat in on the end-of-semester Morgantown Linux User Group meeting yesterday. Attendance was slim as usual, but the discussion topic of "web development tools" sounded promising enough.
One person claimed that approximately 30% of traffic on the WVU Libraries website was by Mozilla Firefox users, which I found surprising (not least because the public computers in the library are equipped with Internet Explorer only). Another seemed to seriously imply that formal web standards should be enforced on websites by act of law, which made my eyes tired from rolling.
Television
I haven't watched much of anything in the way of new TV lately. There was, however, a very good Electric Company cast-interview and clip special on channel 13 (WQED) last night. It's scheduled to repeat next Sunday morning, if anyone is interested.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
11-20-2006: The Loudness Wars
Have you ever thought that popular music today sounds worse than ever? There's truth to that...and I'm not talking about musical styles.
It's not your imagination: The sound quality itself of music on CD has deteriorated over the years. The reason? Dynamic Range Compression.
Dynamic range is the difference between the loudest and softest parts of a recording. Compression is used to reduce this dynamic range. Compression itself has a number of practical uses, but in record or CD mastering it usually carries the purpose of making the recording sound louder than it otherwise would be.
So, why would mastering engineers make a CD sound louder than it otherwise would be? To be fair, the earliest CDs played at relatively low volume levels, and to many people, LOUDER is equated with better. Thus, new CD releases on average have been sounding louder and louder ever since then. The Compact Disc format allows for a very large dynamic range, but even so releases soon got loud enough for the use of compression to be necessary in order to maintain a higher average volume level. Some compression led to more compression, and nowadays many CDs are compressed so much that they are distorted and fatiguing to listen to, and basically constitute sonic mush. Listen to Rush's Vapor Trails if you don't believe me.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words (or something like that), here are pictures of representative waveforms of songs taken from various CDs, released each year from 1983 to 2005. Notice how the diagrams resemble brick walls more and more as the chronology approaches the present:
 | 1983 Bob Dylan - "Jokerman" (Infidels) |
 | 1984 The Cars - "You Might Think" (Heartbeat City) |
 | 1985 INXS - "Listen Like Thieves" (Listen Like Thieves) |
 | 1986 Journey - "Girl Can't Help It" (Raised on Radio) |
 | 1987 Bryan Adams - "Heat of the Night" (Into the Fire) |
 | 1988 Mike + the Mechanics - "Seeing is Believing" (Living Years) |
 | 1989 The Smithereens - "A Girl Like You" (11) |
 | 1990 Alice in Chains - "Sea of Sorrow" (Facelift) |
 | 1991 Toad the Wet Sprocket - "Walk on the Ocean" (Fear) |
 | 1992 Gin Blossoms - "Found Out About You" (New Miserable Experience) |
 | 1993 Rush - "Cold Fire" (Counterparts) |
 | 1994 Weezer - "Buddy Holly" (Weezer) |
 | 1995 Collective Soul - "Smashing Young Man" (Collective Soul) |
 | 1996 Dave Matthews Band - "So Much to Say" (Crash) |
 | 1997 Savage Garden - "To the Moon and Back" (Savage Garden) |
 | 1998 Better Than Ezra - "At the Stars" (How Does Your Garden Grow) |
 | 1999 Third Eye Blind - "10 Days Late" (Blue) |
 | 2000 Green Day - "Minority" (Warning) |
 | 2001 Incubus - "Nice to Know You" (Morning View) |
 | 2002 Jason Mraz - "The Remedy" (Waiting for My Rocket to Come) |
 | 2003 Third Eye Blind - "Crystal Baller" (Out of the Vein) |
 | 2004 U2 - "Vertigo" (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb) |
 | 2005 INXS - "Devil's Party" (Switch) |
The saddest part of the increasing over-compression in CD mastering over the years is how unnecessary it is: It carries no purpose whatsoever, and once the damage is done, it can't be undone, short of remastering a CD in question. Earlier CDs mastered at lower levels sound fine (and often great) with just a turn of the volume knob. While it is true that radio stations use compression in their broadcasts, this additional compression is always added at the broadcaster's end and overly-compressed CDs do not have any advantages in this context either. You don't need to be an audiophile to pay note, either: Even when I first started buying CDs six years ago, listened to them on a cheap headphone setup, and knew nothing about the issues at hand, I noticed that releases from 1999 or 2000 tended to sound needlessly louder and less dynamic than CDs from 1997 or 1998.
Unfortunately, over-compression has become so accustomed to on major-label CD releases (and oftentimes insisted upon by record companies, artists, and/or producers) that it probably won't go away any time soon. That said, the popularity of vinyl and audiophile-oriented LPs and CDs with superior mastering in some circles...as well as the endurance of older music in general...speaks some about the avenues in which dissatisfaction with the sound quality of recent CDs can be vented.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
11-16-2006: Think Small
When dealing with a large assignment, it's helpful to break down and rationalize it into smaller bits.
Case in point: The 12-page research paper in my Art Theory class. Sounds daunting, doesn't it? But that includes the title page, bibliography page, and illustration section, which would take up a third of that space from the outset. Then consider that the paper is double-spaced, so eight pages really constitute the text of four. When you add footnotes and consider that the last page may well just contain the end of the concluding paragraph, the length of text may well be halved once again. In practice, a paper twelve pages long may well boil itself down to only two. Sounds simple now, doesn't it?
I also suspect that my mom would take this post the wrong way.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
11-12-2006: Sold Out
I checked my mailbox the other day to find this novel mass-mailing inside from the university:
So, they're trumpeting a new website called "Blue and $old", a straightforward (if somewhat sluggish) online classified-ad service. It's definitely not a bad idea, and I would have certainly liked having an avenue of promotion like this when I was trying with frustration to sell off my iBook a year ago.
One part that kills me is the comment the asterisk on the flyer leads to, planted lest students expect to do what otherwise might be obvious: "The sale or trade of textbooks is strictly prohibited on this website." A bit of conflict-of-interest with the WVU Bookstore, by chance? Regardless of the explanation, this line of text succeeded in making me roll on the floor laughing my head off.
Some of the items that have been listed thus far are a bit, should I say, interesting: a diamond ring, a miniature satellite dish, exercise equipment, tickets to an upcoming sports event, photographic darkroom equipment, and an old Commodore computer ("with Cassette Recorder and ac adapter and keyboard)," for example. The most bizarre item is Item 429, due to end tomorrow: A horse for sale, brand "Quarter Horse Gelding," condition "Young and Healthy." I hope he (she?) finds a good home, although barns, stables, and prairies aren't exactly easy to find in downtown Morgantown.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
11-8-2006: Civic Duties
I had a hell of a time voting yesterday.
To set the ball rolling, I had moved to a different residence hall a year ago, but had forgotten to update my voter registration information accordingly. As a result, my designated polling place was still at the St. Francis Catholic School Gym, now over two miles away.
Late in the morning, I hopped on my bike and rode on down to the school. However, when I got there, there was absolutely no activity whatsoever: No cars, no people, no signs, and definitely no polling.
After a bit more pedalling, I asked a few people manning the desks at Towers if they knew where the nearest polling place was, if not at the school. No one knew, and surprisingly many a person didn't seem to know anything at all: "You want to know where the nearest bowling place is?" So much for getting the college vote out!
Ultimately I learned that within the last year, the St. Francis Catholic School property had been purchased by the university and converted to its needs...thus explaining the "Engineering Laboratory Annex" (or whatever it said) sign that had definitely not been there the last time I had voted.
I rode the two or so miles back home, and spoke to the clerk of county commissions (or actually his secretary) over the phone to get to the bottom of things. The ultimate consequence of the call was the revelation that polling for my precinct was being conducted at a hitherto unknown location at the Monongalia County Health Department building. With that in mind, I was back on the road on yet another two to three mile bike ride, this time in the rain, narrowly avoiding a dead animal on the shoulder of Patterson Drive in the process.
The Health Department building actually comprised two buildings, and I walked into the wrong one by mistake the first time around. Eventually I did found the right place, where I discovered to my own dismay that instead of conventional punch-card ballots or the fill-in-the blank forms from the previous election that reminded me of taking the SAT, electronic computer-based "iVotronic" machines were being used.
As the friendly poll workers explained the ins and outs of using the machine, I couldn't resist asking: "How secure are these computerized voting machines?" "That's something I can't answer" was the unsurprising response. Although my votes appeared to go through without incident, I still don't trust these easily-manipulable machines worth a darn, although a receipt-esque "paper trail" was provided for what good it may do.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
11-6-2006: State of the Union
One of my least favorite subject matters to discuss is politics. That is for a very good reason: I have nothing good to say.
If I could press a button and turn the sociopolitical state of the world (or at the very least the United States) back six or even twelve years, I would do so in an instant. A short look at some of the happenings since then: A badly-planned war being waged only for personal kicks (while diverting resources from another war ALREADY ON carrying more justification..."bin Laden" and "Afghanistan," anyone??!), domestic spying, constant civil rights and personal liberty cutbacks out of the Big Brother/J. Edgar Hoover/Joe McCarthy book, hypocritical policies whereby civilians are required to adorn a passport even for a weekend stroll into Canada while corporations are encouraged to roam and outsource free around the world, repetitive newspeak from the Executive Branch (Freedom = Oppression), a complete lack of functional domestic programs (Two words: "New" and "Orleans"), social and environmental standards being rolled back to the standards of the 1800s, anti-scientific bias, deficits of more dollars than there are grains of sand (that have to come out of somewhere...think about it!)...all unhampered by fascist clowns in congress who loathe doing anything about it.
Will anyone who believes any of this to be a good thing consider stepping out of their "W" sticker-emblazoned car and into the nearest psychiatric institute? Thank you.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
11-3-2006: It's All About Music...
If the ratio of T-shirts and posters is any indication, it sometimes seems as if almost every student my age has a predilection for the following musical groups, regardless of their other tastes and interests:
- The Doors
- Led Zeppelin
- Pink Floyd
I rather like the Doors myself, although I care less for the god-like aggrandizing of Jim Morrison that goes on in some circles. Led Zeppelin I've warmed up somewhat to over the years, although some of their albums (i.e., IV) I find much more engaging than others (i.e., I). Pink Floyd, meanwhile, is not my cup of tea. Roger Waters and David Gilmour have talent, but the unfortunate fact is that I find their music boring. I have Dark Side of the Moon and while I agree it's a decent-enough listen, it's hardly worth five stars.
My favorite bands of the '70s are currently Genesis, Yes, and Jethro Tull. If those choices win less favor in the "T-shirt and poster circles," I'm fine with that.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
10-29-2006: No Problems Here
Good news: This year, I made it through the entirety of October 28th without experiencing computer problems of any kind. Last year on that date I managed to break the network functionality of my PC, and the year before that the network functionality of my infamous iBook stopped working in the library.
I feel like giving myself a pat on the back.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
10-23-2006: Bon Voyage, Bon Echo?
Today is October 23rd, and Mozilla Firefox 2.0 is due to be released in just another day. As anyone reading this probably knows, I'm a fan of Firefox and have used Netscape/Mozilla web browsers continually for over a decade. I'd like to be enthusiastic about Firefox 2, but there are a number of circumstances surrounding the software that have tempered my mood somewhat.
Up to this point, I've liked virtually all the changes and developments that have come to Mozilla Firefox since the Phoenix/Firebird days. There have been a few exceptions, like the unpolished Firefox 0.9 interface or the default appearance of the Firefox 1.5 menus, but these details have either been remedied over time or can be worked around through customization.
Unfortunately, the relative worth of the changes in Firefox 2 may be close to a draw: Certainly I like new features such as inline spell checking; the user interface has been freshened, and links that are coded to open in new windows open in new tabs instead. But meanwhile the "Read Mail" link was removed, the tabbed-browsing feature was arguably compromised in usability, and fewer overall developments separate Firefox 2 from 1.5 than did 1.5 from 1.0.
Given the new features with a positive benefit in usability or convenience, I'd be more than willing to overlook the negative ones if I could get the software running. But that isn't to be, since it turns out that compatibility with Windows 95 (official support was never bothered with) was broken between the first and second beta releases. On a whim I opened a bug and traced the break back to changes in a nightly build from July 28, but I don't expect anything to come of it. It would seem that while I was enjoying the air at the Kew Gardens in England, the Firefox developers were busy breaking compatibility with operating systems eleven years old.
So why do I care? Disagree vehemently with or flame me if you want, but I still use Windows 95 OSR2 for a variety of reasons, and have long been under the belief that it is in the best interest of Netscape or Mozilla to have as many users of its browsers running Windows 95 or NT 4.0 (the last versions not unremovably inundated with Internet Explorer and its code) as possible. IE didn't generally exceed Netscape in popularity until just after Windows 98 was released, and I don't think that's entirely a coincidence.
At least Firefox 2 should run on Windows NT 4.0, so it's not yet the end of the world, and even Firefox 1.5 should remain a relatively viable browser for a few years to come. The humongous memory consumption and 'Netscape' 8-knockoff interface of Internet Explorer 7 make Firefox a featherweight and bastion of usability in comparison. But unfortunately, my unwavered enthusiasm over the newest versions of Mozilla Firefox may be through.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
10-20-2006: Domains 1, Predictions 0
Sorry for not updating the site as often as I sometimes do. I've been somewhat preoccupied lately. But in any case...
Back in the late '90s, several years after I began to access the web, I predicted that website domain names (and to a lesser degree URLs themselves) would gradually become redundant in the future. My rationale was simple: The number of desirable domain titles would be depleted as more websites and web pages came about, and people would become more dependent upon search engines for finding information online. Since back then new websites were popping up like dandelions with URLs no more descript than "http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/1234/," there was a bit of precedent for me to anticipate this.
Of course, like so many other predictions I made over the years, this one didn't come true. The domain-name business is still a big one, and if anything, I'm more dependent on entering specific URLs for web navigation myself now than before. That said, I don't see any reason to spring for a domain name of my own any time soon!
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
10-13-2006: An Expedition to Washington, D.C.
Yesterday was quite an event in my schedule, since it was the day I participated in the art department's annual field trip to Washington, D.C., to visit a variety of attractions.
During my last trip, I had the opportunity to tour the Washington National Cathedral and browse the art collections of the National Gallery and Corcoran museums. Our plans were a bit different this time: After the actual journey up by bus (in which I was on the road by 7:30 a.m. and slept most of the way there), we spent an hour at the National Building Museum, which had some interesting exhibits such as an environmentally-sustainable "green house" concept on display.
Our visit there was a bit abbreviated, and we were back on the bus an hour later to travel by group down to the National Gallery of Art. I had combed through that museum the year before, so after eating some overpriced food at the Cascade Café, I ventured out to take advantage of my opportunity to see some of the other museums lining the National Mall.
I had planned to visit the National Museum of American History, but unfortunately it was closed for renovation until 2008. With that in mind, I wandered straight over to the National Air and Space Museum, which I had also wanted to see.
The Air and Space Museum was an amazing place to venture into: The actual Spirit of St. Louis was on display in the lobby, along with a backup Skylab module I could walk through (narrowly avoiding banging my head in the process!) and a variety of other noteworthy aircraft and spacecraft. I found the exhibits relating to space exploration particularly interesting: Various memorabilia from the Apollo missions was on display, and I also learned what space food from the first shuttle missions looks like after twenty-five years (Believe me, it's not pretty!). That said, I easily spent three or four hours browsing through the museum, and left satisfied.
The visit itself was quite enjoyable, although the trip home was decidedly less so: The weather got a lot nippier, an annoying guy chatted incessantly about things I didn't want to hear about (such as politics) throughout the second half of the ride back, and the bus stopped on the Evansdale campus at night just in time for the PRT to have closed. I ultimately walked the two miles back downtown and got into bed, trying not to think about the fact that a hamburger and fries, a bag of Fritos, and a candy bar were the only things I had eaten the preceding day. I feel fine now, though.
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10-9-2006: When Album Covers Attack...
Here's a video clip of Monty Python-esque animation (originating here) I came across involving album cover art. It's absolutely hilarious, if blood and gore don't leave you squeamish.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
10-4-2006: Mail Bag
In the close to four years since I started running a website, I've received a fair amount of e-mail from visitors. Some messages are informative or constructive, while others are so strange, dumb, and/or ridiculous that they just leave my head scratching. I tend to file these into their own folder.
For our feature today, we'll take a peek at some of what falls into that latter category. Identities have been withheld to protect the innocent and guilty:
Mistaken Identity
"You were very helpful to me in the past few years (I was?) when upgrading to Netscape 7.2 and then version 8 which uses the Firefox engine. Two questions that you might know:
1. Why wasn't the email part upgraded at the same time?
2. Can I uninstall 7.2 or will that affect email delivery and
really screw up things??
3. (I thought you said "two questions.") Is there a Netscape chat room or list? I have a problem with
mail folders which cannot be deleted any which way. Very frustrating.
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated."
Glad to help, but I had never communicated with this person before in my life. As for the merits of "Netscape" 8 itself, I wrote this editorial for a reason.
Mistaken Identity 2
"Hi Anthony, ("Anthony?")
This is [John Doe]. We've crossed postings a couple of times. (No we haven't.) I noticed you are a Site Admin (Not of the site you're thinking of), and I had a question. Where and how would I post a question about something I want to do on OSX. (I don't know. I don't run a Macintosh support forum.) Specifically, I want to switch the info on my "Main Hard Drive" or the Hard Drive with my OS on it. To another. I don't want to break any site rules. I haven't seen a thread on the subject if there is let me know. Hope all is well. Great site ny the way I've learned a lot." (And I've learned a lot, too...about messages that will never be answered.)
Mistaken Identity 3
"Hello Sir/Madam, (Make up your mind!) Firstly you don't know me (At least you got THAT part right) and I don't know you but before you start to wonder who am I, I am just an ordinary member of the British public like yourself. (His geography is off by only a few thousand miles.) Secondly I thought I would email you on the off chance to see what your pet hates are on television because television is in a disgraceful state right now. (Um...OK.)
My website is now complete and ready for you to look at properly.
Please type - [URL of now long-inactive page]
Please read the main page of my website first before doing anything else.
Please email me back when you get chance. (No, I won't.)
Thanks, Yours faithfully" (Get away from me!)
Sale Mail
Maybe in retrospect I should have taken him up on his offer. But the tone and frequency of messages was off-putting enough to make me want to have nothing to do with him:
"Hey, Do you still have your iMac G4 for sale? I would buy it for $500.00
cash."
"I meant to type iBook. $500 Cash?"
"Let me know with in a couple of weeks if you could. If I don't buy
yours, I'm going to order a new one. The mother board burned up on my
home PC (Just how does that happen?), so I need to get something to replace it. Thanks Man! Let me know!"
"Hi Andrew, Did you sell your computer yet?"
"I'll split the difference with you,,,cash on the barrel head!"
Tech Support Mail
I used to get a lot of messages like these. Why I'm less sure about, but that's just the way it is.
"I have just added SBC Yahoo DSL on my computer/printer/telephone set up. I have chosen to keep Netscape 7.2 for my mail. I receive e mails but can no longer send them. Is there a remedy for this."
This person didn't even end with a question mark. In any case, I don't know the answer...sorry.
Annoying Mail
Here are excerpts from a couple e-mails I received from some peculiar guy with a site whose subject premise was dubious enough and whose design appeared to have been coded by a two-year-old.
"Hi Andrew, Thank you for getting back to me my friend. (Friend??!)
Feel free to get back to me if you ever meet with a WV USMC plate so that I can complete my 50 States run (As if these things ran into me and bit me on the nose every day...I don't even know if what he's talking about exists.) I've added your data's (sic) to my webpage: [site URL]. Just want to make sure your State is WV as noticed on my website. Hope it is OK that way with you my friend and have a great week-end"
I should have known better than to let him link to my license plate website, since he snagged me in the "cc" on all his messages after that:
(In giant red letters:) "Please, don't delete and take the time to read carefully (Deleting the message...what a fine idea!)
[Random organization* and membership number] Please, visit [site URL]
MCA. Please, visit [another site URL] Also visit [yet another site URL]
Enjoy the wind in your face but ride safe! [Random organization* and membership number] Please, visit [and yet another!] Also visit [and another!]
SEMPER FI! Please, visit [another site!]
[Random organization* and membership number] Please, visit [another!]
[Even more random organizations* and membership numbers]" (*Names removed to prevent unwanted association with this site.)
...followed by the actual body of the e-mail, consisting of a forwarded chain letter with the names of several hundred people that fell for it at the bottom.
I don't need this kind of crap in my inbox. Thankfully, this is what junk filters are for.
Weird Mail
I think this one speaks for itself:
"Hi, u dont know me cuz of course i live in Texas, but anyways, my name is [Jane Doe] and im not an internet predator or a virus spreader, or any kind of advertising agency,(I UNDERSTAND THIS IS GOING TO SEEM REALLY CRAZY JUST BECAUSE ITS OUT OF THE BLUE AND IM A COMPLETE STRANGER) i ran across ur T.E.B. site and i was wondering...would it be too forward for me to ask u if u could maybe burn me a copy of their latest CD...Out of The Vein...cuz i CANNOT find it anywhere...im a devoted fan and i wish i could...i would buy one online but i dont have a credit card and im a college student myself so u can kinda guess money is always tight...If not thats fine just let me know so i can continue looking...(even if it is completely futile and fruitless searching) but anyways ... if you actually got this far into the letter, then im surprised b/c u probably think im a psycho...which i am not ...(only on weekends)wink wink...anyways, I'll wrap this up b/c im rambling like i always manage to find a way to...
Thanks for your time and i hope you can get back to me really VERY soon...( i also attatched a pic of myself...not a very good one but hey its all i got for now...)"
I feel for you, but if you expect me to "burn" you a copy of this album, you're out of luck. Legal implications aside, I don't have the equipment necessary to do so.
Weirder Mail
Here are a pair of messages I received in close succession a year ago:
Subject: "ddddddd" Body: "adeft"
Subject: "Trial" Body: "Body"
That was the extent of the messages.
Just Plain Dumb Mail
Someone sent me the following message twice, in ALL CAPS no less:
"HI ANDREW
DO YOU HAVE THE BIG GREY ELEPHANT CARTOON
IT HAS A BIG GREY ELEPHANT WALKING IT A "E" CARTOON ON SESAME STREET
DO YOU HAVE IT ON TAPE
PLEASE SEND IT FOR ME"
I have absolutely no idea who this guy was or what he was talking about. Don't see any reason to start now...
Hate Mail
Here's one message I received from a self-declared know-it-all with a bone to pick:
"Dear Mr Turnbull, I happened upon your site earlier today and have had an "interesting" time reading your thoughts. (Don't you like how he starts out politely?) While i will definitely say that i don't agree with most of your rants you are entitled to you (sic) opinion. I do, however have two questions for you.
First, on your page about mass e-mails you make a snappy remark about Norton being called Symantec for some crazy reason by the tech staff... are you aware that the Norton brand of antivirus software is one of the products available from the Symantec Corporation, as is the product they were talking about (Symantec Antivirus 10.0)...[lengthy testimonial about how great the software is] (So what?)
Second, what is your field of study. (Why should I tell you?) Your frustrations at the incompatability of your powerbook (I never had a PowerBook. Check your facts before throwing them back at me.) and WIN95 machine seem to negate your comment in an earlier article about 95 doing anything you need it to. (In that case, I suppose it's the fault of typewriters for illiterate people being incapable of reading their output.) [...] Again, i was just curious as to what your technological training was after noting some glaring inconsistencies in your logical arguments." (And I detect glaring fallacies in yours.)
News flash: I run this site for fun. I don't know what "technological training" you expect me to have, but what you're implying ain't it. News flash 2: Ever hear of Voltaire's words, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?" Maybe you should someday.
That's all for now, and more than enough to show from the last four years. I could have included some of the strange guestbook comments, responsive forum posts, or online chats I've received in that time as well, but I'd likely run out of room first.
[ Read others' comments and add your own ]
9-30-2006: Ring, Ring!
I do not own a cell phone.
I can always tell when I receive calls from people with cell phones, though...since their vocals are almost always ear-splittingly loud and distorted. (So much for modern technology being better!) It's driven me nuts counting the number of times people in my immediate vicinity have said "Hello" and proceeded in carrying out loud conversations not to me, but to some nobody through a phone. Furthermore, thanks to the miracle of "number portability," it's infuriating to have to dial long-distance phone numbers to contact people who I know live in the same city as I.
There really is no reason for any student living on-campus here to need a cellular phone. Conventional phones are available to everyone, and thanks to a central voice-mailbox system you don't even need to be near one to take messages.
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9-28-2006: Ho-Hum...
Yesterday evening's MorLUG meeting didn't go quite as planned. Only one other person bothered to show up, so it was cancelled five minutes in. :-|
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9-27-2006: Spelling Out Paradise
I recently bought a copy of Styx's Paradise Theatre on CD, and noticed a detail that I found rather interesting:
The front cover (left) has the title spelled as "T-H-E-A-T-R-E," while the back cover (right) has it spelled as "T-H-E-A-T-E-R."
For good measure, the face of the CD has it spelled as "T-H-E-A-T-R-E," while the spines say "T-H-E-A-T-E-R." So much for consistency!
Which spelling is "right" when referring to the album title? I posed this question on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums, and gained a few interesting answers in response:
I wonder if the spelling change on the front and back covers was done purposely. Maybe they felt that "THEATRE" looked more elegant and was more fitting for the era that the fictitious theater opened, as well as the mood surrounding it. Then, maybe, they felt that "THEATER" fit the more drab times, and mood, when the theater closed. This might sound like a reach, but I find it hard to believe that they would make such a gross error.
...also...
The actual Paradise THEATER used the American spelling until it was demolished in the 50's. While I can't answer what the original Styx album title was, we all know it was based on the demolition of the actual theater...
...and finally...
It depends on the country what the spine says to be honest. And varies from format to format.
So there you go.
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9-22-2006: Mountaineer Mauls
The following article appeared in the university newspaper, the Daily Athenaeum, just the other day:
The Mountaineer Mall, which was once the prime shopping outlet in Morgantown, will be dealt another financial blow next month with the opening of Wal-Mart Supercenters at the University Town Centre and near the Ramada Inn off Interstate 68. After these stores open, the Wal-Mart at the Mountaineer Mall will close.
The Mountaineer Mall opened in the early 1970s with three anchors: JCPenney, Zayre, and Montgomery Ward, with Stone & Thomas added along with a few tacky stores with outside entrances after the fact. None of these stores are in business today. JCPenney jumped ship to the newer Morgantown Mall when that opened circa 1990 (the original location has since been snapped up by off-price clothing retailer Gabriel Brothers); good old Stone & Thomas was turned into a redundant (and mediocre) Elder-Beerman store; the "Monkey Wards" location is now used as the headquarters of some dubious telemarketing firm; and lastly, Zayre was simply torn down with a new Wal-Mart built on the site.
For a place that was once the premier shopping location for the area throughout the '70s and '80s, Mountaineer Mall today is downright dead. In addition to the shuffling of and disappearance of anchors, the rest of the mall is occupied by local, nontraditional, and second-rate businesses and increasingly empty storefronts while the décor still remains a 1970s time capsule.
When it comes to Wal-Mart, I am hardly affectionate of the chain. While many faults of Wally World (their labor policies or lack thereof, their unfair strangleholds on suppliers, their deterioration of local economies, their outsourcing of foreign labor while waving the "American" card...) are so well-known that repeating them here is probably not necessary, one fault of Wal-Mart's stores that I don't hear often enough is that there are too damn many of them, and they turn them over too quickly!
One Wal-Mart store in Morgantown (that opened scarcely more than a decade ago) was more than enough, and we certainly don't need two oversized stores plus one empty shell. The only characteristic the new stores have that the old one didn't is the "Supercenter" grocery addition...although mediocre selection, mediocre prices, and nonexistent service offer Wal-Mart no advantages to consumers (and no business competing) in that field of commerce. I personally haven't darkened a Wal-Mart doorstep in several years. Give me *Zayre, Hills, Heck's, and the pre-'90s K mart instead.
I paid the mall a visit today out of respect. It didn't look too different from what it had been like the last time I visited (close to two years earlier), although there were a few subtle changes: A place called General Glass Home Center had reclaimed part of the old Montgomery Ward space open to the mall interior, and a local business called "Treasures" had replaced Sam Goody, retaining all existing décor. (That Sam Goody had the worst selection and worst prices of any record store I had been inside, so no love lost there.) Interestingly, I heard the sole employee of one store griping about the "poor excuse of a mall" he was in, and looked forward to relocating in Sabraton.
Although I'm obviously not included in that number, Wal-Mart seems to be the only thing that brings most people there nowadays. With that store leaving, the days of the rest of the mall are likely numbered. Enjoy what there is left of it while you still can.
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9-18-2006: Where Did Yahoo! Go Wrong?
Turning the clock back a bit to the halcyon days of the web, when everyone used a browser such as this, Yahoo! had the distinction of being the first website I remember visiting (and revisiting on a regular basis), back when their logo happened to be the typographical formation at right.
When I first accessed the web circa 1995, Yahoo! was a godsend of a site: It provided a convenient portal to find indexed and categorized information in ways I never imagined possible before. However, I can't remember the last time I've visited the website...it gradually became irrelevent to me in the eleven years since. So, where did Yahoo! go wrong?
A quick look at the Yahoo! website of today presents the viewer with a slew of information: A prominent search facility, news, web-based e-mail tie-ins, and a crapload of other stuff. You practically have to dig through the site before finding the directory links that once formed the core of the front page...which is just as well, since the directory became a mess long ago; littered with dead links while the majority of websites to have sprung up in recent years (i.e., this one) go unlisted.
The majority of services Yahoo! accumulated (and since became identified with) over the years came from straight-out acquisitions: RocketMail in 1997, GeoCities in 1999, eGroups in 2000, LAUNCH in 2001, and Konfabulator in 2005 for starters.
However, most of these acquired services had one thing in common; that being that I didn't or don't care much for or about them. I personally fooled around with Yahoo! Mail and (cringe) GeoCities only until jumping ship to more compelling alternatives. My appreciation of Yahoo! was primarily limited to browsing their directory and using their search engine...which was done simply by linking to AltaVista (1996-98), Inktomi (1998-2000), or Google (2000-04) for many years. Only in 2004 did Yahoo! Search begin using its "own" technology; ironically, after buying out Inktomi and the parent company of AltaVista.
It would seem that Yahoo! became preoccupied with becoming everything to everyone, while doing nothing well and leaving its most important asset...its directory...to rot.
By 2002, I visited Yahoo! to use webmail and the linked Google search engine only. When the main page underwent revisions and became too littered with references to services I had no interest in, Yahoo! ceased being my home page. When I gained a Gmail account that I found more convenient than Yahoo! Mail, I had no reason to use that service anymore, either. So endeth the story of my fascination with Yahoo!.
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9-17-2006: Where Are the Comments?
Interestingly, it's been over two months since any visitor left a comment for an entry on my Web Journal.
I've sometimes wondered how some of my friends and acquaintances online seem capable of attracting a half-dozen comments for even the most innane entries on their weblogs.
Perhaps a reason for the lack of comments here might be that, due to the non-dynamic nature of this page, there's no way for visitors to tell without extra clicking whether or not comments for an entry have been left. Dedicated weblog software and services are typically capable of providing a tally (1 Comment, 2 Comments, etc.) in the link. In addition, the free commenting service I'm using used to hide comments from view after four months; however, this is no longer the case and all comments left on my Web Journal back to February 2005 are now visible.
I check my comments daily and read every one of them, and am always curious to see what visitors have to say. If the thought of leaving a comment here ever crossed your mind, DO SO! The link is right below.
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9-13-2006: MySpace Isn't My Place
A couple years ago, I decided to register at a website called MySpace explicitly so that I could leave one comment on someone's weblog. I was underwhelmed and then promptly forgot all about it, canceling my account as a matter of course a few months later when I realized that it still existed.
Fast-forward to 2006. According to Alexa, MySpace is the sixth most popular site on the web. A surprising portion of my friends and acquaintances dutifully maintain pages on the site. Why does that leave me scratching my head?
First of all, a relatively large proportion of pages on MySpace (that I will round down to 100%) are headache-inducing to read. You can always count on most to all of these features of contemporary web design to rear their ugly heads:
- A large, brilliant background image that obscures most or all the text on the page.
- Creative color combinations of interesting contrast, such as white on white.
- Lots of Flash-based advertisements and embedded video files that drag your web browser's performance to a crawl if they don't crash it first.
- Background music. (Or as the case might be, a handy "additional plugins are required" banner reminding you why you banished the QuickTime plugin to begin with.)
- A page "title" no more descriptive than "http://www.myspace.com/madeline_87."
To say that the site is "sloppy," even in the hands of a user who knows a thing or two about web design or aesthetic sensibilities, is being charitable. Individual user pages consist of biographical information, a weblog, a gallery of random people, and other odds and ends all mooshed together without organization, rhyme, or reason. The prospect of badly-designed web pages was once reserved for users of ad-driven website hosting services like GeoCities (where at least you had to create your own content), but MySpace has thrown it to the masses.
Furthermore, it brings out the worst in people. Many people pad their pages with more information about their personal preferences, contact information, opinions, and ideologies than would ever be exposed in routine conversation, and broadcast it to the world. That the website is popular with young girls is even more remarkable: It's like asking to be stalked. Of course, age restrictions are debatable and often transparent.
The most compelling feature of MySpace would appear to be the "blog" feature. If you want to create a weblog, however, you'd be much better off signing up with a service like Blogger or LiveJournal that isn't as clunky as a rusted Pinto to use or navigate.
That the website is operated by News Corporation (perhaps most notable for the many media outlets containing "Fox" in the name) doesn't make me feel any better, either.
I could go on longer, but I'll stop. You'll no sooner find me on MySpace than you will find me dancing on a volcano.
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9-10-2006: The Real WWVU
Nowadays the WWVU call letters identify U92 FM, the campus radio station here at West Virginia University, broadcasting an eclectic mix of alternative music and other programming to the Morgantown area for over twenty years. Before there was WWVU radio, however, there was WWVU television.
WWVU-TV went on the air in February 1969 as an affiliate of National Educational Television (NET) at UHF channel 24. It switched over to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service, the following year.
In case you're curious, the WWVU-TV ad at left (Larger version) appeared in the TV supplement to the Dominion-Post in November 1980 as one of several noting new entertainment features in the coming week.
According to History of Broadcasting in West Virginia, the operations of WWVU-TV were transferred from the university to the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority in 1983 (incidentally a year after the campus radio station WWVU-FM began broadcasting) and gained the new call letters "WNPB," allegedly standing for "West Virginia (Northern) Public Broadcasting." WNPB still very much survives today, although in recent years its operations and on-screen identity have been consolidated with the other public broadcasters of the state into WV PBS.
Back to the original subject, though: WWVU's in-house programming reflected local interest as a matter of course. A handful of factual programs produced by WWVU-TV in the 1970s are present in WVU's library media collection, including Voices of Appalachian Women, Behold the Land: The Wealth of West Virginia, and a film titled How to Make Sorghum Molasses: Lots of fun.
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9-5-2006: Fun With Buz
Today I got my hands on my latest computer gizmo, a used Iomega Buz video capture device.
Why a Buz? I've been mildly interested in creating screenshots and short clips of video content on my computer for a while without ever knowing where to begin, before I remembered seeing this advertised in my late '90s magazines. I figured that it would be easy to set up; it's compatible with Windows 95 (though not much else), and the price was right.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the interface card incorporates a fully-functional SCSI controller, thus providing me with the opportunity to use SCSI drives and interface devices in the future! Considering the speed, wide software and system support, ease of configuration, and daisy-chaining capabilities of SCSI, there's no wonder why I like it.
![[Screenshot of video window]](new/ea-monolith.jpg)
The device itself consisted of a PCI card and an external plastic box with audiovisual ports connected by a rather thick cable. The physical installation was easy enough, and thanks in part to "Plug n' Play" the device-detection process was rather painless as well.
Unfortunately, there was a slight setback: I didn't have the commercial software that was originally bundled with these devices; only a CD-R with bare drivers on it. Not to worry: The free download of Buz Live provided an easy way to make screenshots and watch live video, while Virtual Dub worked well enough to encode AVI video. Both pieces of software are sometimes a bit temperamental, though.
P.S.: Bonus points to anyone who knows what the video image in this entry is about. :-)
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9-4-2006: No Blogging Here
Sorry to give a soapbox talk, but I loathe the word "blog."
Why? The first time I came across this contraction of "web log" in either its noun or "verbed" forms, four or so years ago, was in a news magazine editorial that opined about the political opinions of their creators in a way I did not relate to. That started me off on the wrong foot, to say the least.
Furthermore, I don't like the way it sounds (it could well be something that comes out of your nose), and the word has become a trendy cliché in recent years that I would be satisfied to go without hearing again.
By no means do I dislike blogs themselves; they often serve as a convenient means of conveying news and chronological information; log-style web pages have been around for as long as the web itself, and you're reading one now. But why is a special term necessary, anyway? They're all web pages.
Call it a web page. Call it a journal. Call it a web log. Just don't call it a blog if you can help it, OK?
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9-1-2006: RSS and Minor Musings
If you ever wished to be able to read my web journal as an RSS feed in the reader of your choice, you now have your wish.
Keith Hanlon decided to set up a feed of this page for me through a service called "Feed43." After a bit of bug-fixing by both of us, it's good to go, and you can access it here:
http://feed43.com/andrewturnbull.xml
Now, if only we could get the feed to work as a Live Bookmark in Mozilla Firefox. But I'll worry about that another day. :-)
Now, for other minor things that happen to be on my mind: Tomorrow, there is a football game between WVU and Marshall University to be held here in Morgantown. For the most part I don't give a damn about sports, although I am a bit morbidly curious to find out how much post-game vandalism will have occurred by the morning after.
Remember a year ago, when I told you about the "Rocky Top" song parody I heard with the geographical references changed to "Morgantown, double-you vee?" Well, I heard it on the radio again today over dinner. I still don't know who recorded it or if it was officially sanctioned or not, and to be honest I don't care either.
I'm looking forward to receiving the Iomega Buz video-capture and SCSI device I won on eBay a few days ago. I hope that it works.
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