Ratafia Tumblelog

Anthrax as a false flag

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:05:00 -0400

Scary overview of current evidence regarding the 2001 anthrax letters.

On 29 August 2008, the FBI’s primary suspect (Bruce Ivins) committed suicide. Ivins worked at the government post that analysed the letters, and possibly sent the letters (though this is uncertain). The US government itself says that the letters were an inside job.

The anthrax letters were a key part of linking Saddam with 9/11; early confusion suggested Iraq as a likely culprit for the WTC attacks partly due to a general lack of information, but it quickly became a ‘fact’ in popular conception.

ABC News had very quickly presented claims that the anthrax contained material that could only come from Iraq, but there were never scientific claims of this nature. This has long since been proven false, but ABC have shown no interest in revealing the four sources who provided the false information.

Given that there were hints by October 18 2001 that the US was considering an Iraq invasion, the false evidence regarding WMDs, and general warmongering, it would not be surprising if this were a deliberate move on the government’s part to create a case for invading Iraq.

NewsFire flaws

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:30:22 -0400

I recently switched over to NewsFire as my feed reader, after becoming increasingly annoyed with the performance problems and ‘open source feel’ of Vienna. While the experience has been largely positive, there are a number of bugs and annoying aspects that I wish to document.

Visual

Mandatory colour bubbles on groups: I dislike colour bubbles. I never use them in the Finder and rarely them in Transmission. Presumably the idea is to help reduce visual clutter for some people, but I am not in this population. Please make it optional.
Fade-in on launch, fade-out on quit: Completely unnecessary.
Hover colour in headline view: Somehow I never get lost in iTunes.
‘New’ badge: The contrast difference between read and unread is sufficient.
Greyed group title bar: I’m really not sure what the deal is here. It’s good to grey when the application’s not in use, but doing it when the pane’s not active?

Bugs/design flaws

Visual glitches: Not entirely uncommon.
OPML: There are two major problems here. First, there’s not clear how to ‘select’ feeds when I’m presented with the import box. Something like a checkbox would make the process clearer. Second, and more infuriatingly, opening an OPML file that contains existing feeds will blank said feeds, even if the import is canceled. Re-importing a large number of feeds can have [drastic results].

Cities as Musical Whirlpools

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:40:00 -0400

A post over at City of Sound explores why music scenes are a phenomenon unique to cities. In a digital age where one can do anything almost anywhere, one might expect a massive decentralised scene to emerge. While this does happen in a small way, cities still form musical eddies.

Really, it all comes down to the fact that humans are, by and large, very social creatures. The immediacy of feedback and rapport in a city simply can’t hope to be matched in a small town.

What MobileMe Means for You

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:34:00 -0400

Today, among a number of other things, Apple announced MobileMe—a service based around the idea of personal ‘cloud computing’. In essence, the idea is that any time one updates certain information—email, photos, addressbook, &c.—at one machine, it will be updated almost instantaneously for all the user’s devices.

MobileMe’s foundations come from .Mac, which offered the ability to use Apple’s servers to store and sync personal data. Over the past four years or so, .Mac had come to be seen as outdated and over-priced, with customers hoping each year that an overhaul would be announced, but to no avail.

Hints of interest in cloud storage came with the Macworld 2008 announcements of the ‘Back to My Mac’ service (remote access and syncing) and the ability to push videos between devices. Much of the discussion revolved around the AppleTV and the MacBook Air, but I felt that there was something deeper going on.

The iPhone is really the motivator for much of this direction, in my opinion. MobileMe is generally about easy access and instant propagation, yes, but at the core it’s about being able to use the iPhone as a ultra-mobile computer that can call people. Digital media, contacts, email, data storage, and native applications—everything about the iPhone centres on the idea of the cell phone being subservient to the user.

However: Apple is far from being first with any of this. Cloud computing? Google’s entire application suite depends on it, and offers most of the functionality. Microsoft produce the only significant competitor in the category, Exchange (which, in fact, Apple are licensing to pull in business users). Dropbox are just one of the companies offering instant personal file syncronisation. There’s been a fair amount of movement towards cloud computing over the past year, too.

Apple differs from these others due to how completeness of the service. It has Google’s web-based data access; Microsoft’s automatic syncing; Dropbox’s file management; it works equally well with desktop computers, the web, and—most importantly—the iPhone.

I think this is part of why ‘Mac’ was missing from the WWDC banners—the iPhone is a major part of Apple’s plans, and OS Ⅹ is more about users than hardware.

Kraze—‘The Party’ Justice—‘Tthhee Ppaarrttyy’ (with Uffie) In...

Mon, 26 May 2008 01:14:16 -0400

Kraze—‘The Party’
Justice—‘Tthhee Ppaarrttyy’ (with Uffie)

In this case, part of the first verse is a reference, as is the entirety of the chorus. Thus, the mashup has two separate portions—in the first, we hear how Kraze has difficulty getting into the club, while Uffie gets right in by knowing the doorman. The second segment is simply choruses.

My mashup skills are still abominable.

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:00:18 -0400

Today’s musical comparison is rather obvious, perhaps even a...

Mon, 19 May 2008 14:27:00 -0400

Today’s musical comparison is rather obvious, perhaps even a tribute.

The Damned—‘See Her Tonight’ (Damned, Damned, Damned, 1977)
Franz Ferdinand—‘Tell Her Tonight’ (Franz Ferdinand, 2004)

This time round I’ve done a crossfade rather than a sudden transition.

Continuing the theme of musical similarities: Pink...

Sat, 17 May 2008 10:36:21 -0400

Continuing the theme of musical similarities:

Pink Floyd—‘Interstellar Overdrive’ (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967); 0:58–1:29
mewithoutYou—‘Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt’ ([A→B] Life, 2002); 0:00–0:14

Apologies for the sharp change, but the tracks don’t combine cleanly like last time.

"The Compact Disc Audio System offers the best possible sound reproduction—on a small, convenient..."

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:48:09 -0400

“

The Compact Disc Audio System offers the best possible sound reproduction—on a small, convenient disc. Its remarkable performance is the result of a unique combination of digital storage and laser optics.

For best results, you should apply the same care in storing and handling the Compact Disc as you would with conventional records. No cleaning is necessary if the Compact Disc is always held by its edges and is replaced in its case directly after playing. If the Compact Disc becomes soiled by fingerprints, dust or dirt, it can be wiped (always in a straight line, from center to edge) with a clean and lint-free, soft, dry cloth. Never use a solvent or abrasive cleaner to clean the disc. If you follow these suggestions, the Compact Disc will provide a lifetime of listening enjoyment.

”

- Liner notes, Back in the High Life (Steve Winwood; 1986)

I noticed a striking similarity between two songs: Janet...

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:02:34 -0400

I noticed a striking similarity between two songs:

Janet Jackson’s ‘You Can Be Mine’ (Control, 1986)
New Kids on the Block’s ‘You Got It (the Right Stuff)’ (Hangin’ Tough, 1988)

I opened both in Audacity, trimmed to the relevant sections, and reduced the speed of ‘You Can Be Mine’ by 2.5%.

I’ve only found one vague mention of this on the web, so I figured I’d share.

Photo

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 19:46:56 -0400

Iphone + moving vehicle = blah

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:47:20 -0400

Iphone + moving vehicle = blah

Photo

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:54:24 -0400

Photo

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:07:52 -0400

More track

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:02:27 -0400

More track

Walking on the tracks

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:40:07 -0400

Walking on the tracks

Bill Clinton rally (more later)

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:42:10 -0400

Bill Clinton rally (more later)

‘Paraphernalia’ update released

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:55:45 -0400

I’ve just pushed out version 1.1 of my Adium message style.

Changelist

Margin above the first message, so it doesn’t look like it’s stuck to the window’s title bar.
Long usernames are cut off if they don’t fit.
Two new background images.

What remains to be done here

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:16:00 -0400

‘RSS’ link at the top of the page
Category images for audio, photo, quote, video
Tweak ‘permalink’ text positioning

A brief note

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:15:00 -0400

Tumblr theme development will be carried out over here.