"I am not against change since change is not only inevitable but desirable and necessary. My worry lies in the fear that virtual trash becomes the bedrock for civilization in the 21st century. That would mean, that any decent ideas that evolve out of the eternal struggle to survive with honour, would be doomed to crumble in the desperate scramble to escape reality.

Each new generation is born with a longer future and each will require a deeper, wider, more fundamental understanding of self, in order to pursue the elusive goal of fulfillment for all. Modern technology is a tool as useful to us as was the flint axe head to Homo Erectus. If we use a tool as a weapon then the futility of it all will lay waste our efforts and expose its motives for what it has become - a manipulator of empty lives."

-Ralph Steadman

I just had to post this. Steadman is the coolest old person on the planet. And the fact that it was sent to me by my brilliant and creative daughter ... well, that makes her the coolest young person on the planet.

I will comment more tomorrow. Time for the OFF switch. :-)

Take Backs?

I realize from re-reading my previous post regarding technical support personnel, that my words may make some rise to the defense - those same folks that my livelihood dependeth upon and with whom I have shared many a moment of cliff-hanging, finger crossing tech disaster/recovery moments.

I may have, to the more astute reader, committed the cardinal sin of not taking a moment before writing what's on my mind. As is true with the modern day electronic written word, you, the reader, are not privvy to my state of mind or the context within which I wrote...without putting facial expression together with written "speech", an important element is left out - the ability of the reader to discern the context in which something is written.

How many of us have fired off an email or a text, only to have it misinterpreted? Effective writing is not a natural gift to most of us, it needs to be cultivated and polished. In the arena of instanteneous communication, there are no "take backs", and moreover, once published, it's likely to float around cyberspace forever. A daunting thought.

That being said (rather, typed), I return to the point of this blog: "How Technology Has Impacted Me" or, how it affects my daily life and that of those around me.

My current thinking, (this being a Wednesday night, alone in New York City, tired from the final two weeks of school, had a cookie for dinner, witnessed a Thesis Defense meeting that left me thinking I'll never graduate from this place, etc. - this information given to you, dear reader, so you may establish a frame of reference for my frame of mind) is this:

Technology has made me available to all sorts of people at all times. My cell phone is in my pocket always - therefore I am reachable no matter where I am. No longer do I come home in the evening and settle in and retrieve my phone messages from the day; they chirp at me from the pocket of my coat in class, walking down a street, driving in a car. I grew up in the era, that a phone call meant something generally important, and answering the person as soon as possible the norm. It has taken some time to realize how to ignore a ringing phone.

If I'm not reachable by phone, email reaches me. I have become somewhat of an email addict, since its important is slowly replacing communication by phone. All school work is submitted by email; my status in terms of my grades, my schedule, my current bills, is all done electronically. This has become the status quo for me.

I am slowly learning to turn off the technology when I feel it is more of an interruption than a necessity. There are times I do not want to be available. Many of my classmates (I will make a stretch here and give the guarded opinion that the following is more true of the younger students) cannot seem to switch off. My classes that include a majority of undergrads are constantly filled with the sounds of texting, IMing and browsing the internet during class; constant chatter on touch-screen keypads.

I would initially have said we need to teach our kids when to shut down; to turn off the electronics during class times, during conversations with people, during concerts and lectures. From the viewpoint of concentration, not to mention etiquette, I still feel this is the case. But is it a case of my getting older?

JD

The Grass Isn't Always Greener

In fairness to the many posts I have read while following this semester's worth of blogging-at-will, I wish to post in support of all the IT and Network Help performers in the audience.

I come from that world, the person at the other end of the frantic phone call when technology fails you (as it undoubtedly will, most likely when you are at some critical juncture); the recipient of emails from frustrated users of software; I have met more than my share of angry, irritated, and totally pissed off users within a network. I have also met more than my share of current friends from responding to situations in which, through user error or machine failure, technology has introduced us in some way.

I would like to offer a few guidelines that I hope will smooth the rocky road of Tech Support personnel..

1.) The clearer your description of the problem, the better chance we have to solve the situation. Rather than, "The $$%$ thing's not working", say "My printer is not printing, and is blinking yellow", or, rather than "Please get right down here, nothing's happening with my computer! I need it for class right now!", try to give some detail, as in, "I was loading up my PowerPoint and everything's frozen - the mouse isn't moving, and the keyboard's not responding either"...

2) If you did *something*, please let us in on the secret. It may seriously speed up repair time. I will not yell at you! I will only get upset if you, for whatever reason, tried to uninstall, install, tweak, copy, fix, update, upload, etc. The range of tasks that people use computers/technology for is so huge, that any clue to help narrow down the issue is appreciated. Even if you can't exactly remember, please be assured that someone's probably had the same problem before, that you are not the only person in the world this has happened to. We all share technology horror stories.

3) If something is really important to you, please BACK IT UP SOMEWHERE! If you're not certain how to do this safely, please ask. I'd much rather spend time helping you to get this ability under your belt than see your frantic expression when it (inevitably) gets lost, deleted or corrupt.

4) Have an alternative plan in case technology fails you. If all the electricity goes out, do you have a backup plan? If you need to make a presentation, you can indeed do so without your computers, projectors, smartboards, iPods, but you need to plan ahead.

5) Oftentimes, the solution to a technical problem lies in the "easy" stuff. Is it plugged in? Cables connected? Power on? Paper in the printer? Have you rebooted? Rebooting can be an almost magical fix-all to many, many problems.



My goal, in general, is to not only solve the problem at hand, but to empower the user by showing the steps taken to "fix" whatever needs fixing.

HAppy APpy

DNA

Direct Note Access.




New software coming from Melodyne (creators of pitch correction software, and Cher's subsequent successful return to PopDivaNess) allows the user to manipulate individual notes within a piece of recorded music. We aren't talking Midi files here, but polyphonic audio.
Check out the demo:
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna

Now THAT's a mean fourier transform.

Good Afternoon Linearity

A few years ago I resusitated my turntable. I have a large collection of LPs, and wanted to play something for my youngest (then about 16). Wired up, then fired up; needle still intact, and dropped the vinyl and subsequently the needle. We were going to listen to an album! The sound was terrific; I realised I sort of missed those old crackles and pops. My youngest was fascinated. And then he stopped me, and asked,

"How do you pick which song you want to hear?"

I showed him the track dividers on the record, and picked up the needle and dropped it onto the beginning of tune in the middle of the album, but what I realized he was really indicating was his overall experience in music listening was digital. Not physical, as in the media we could hold in our hands, but a rapid index selection process in which songs he listenes to are not necessarily contiguous, or related to one another. A very extensive relationship with Napster had yielded him, (and all of us) literally thousands of songs that exist as only as computer files. Files to be manipulated, re-ordered to preference, shared, and deleted - all at the drop of a hat. Or the spin of a thumb.

The advent of digital music has altered the landscape. It has provided enormous choice to the audience. It has given power to the listener. Is there a new CD out? Love it, :::except:::: for song number four? Then just download the ones you like (and pay for only those). Rather than the artist's product being delivered to the audience as a whole entity, we can now pick and choose what we wish to have.


I may be holding onto the past, but I do miss the physical media.
There was album art to hold in your hand.
No more stacks of cassettes, with the tape loose on one side, just begging for a pencil to tighten up the slack?

The Music Genome Project

How could one not be intrigued by a title like that?
Pandora Radio (http://www.pandora.com)

A radio station that's free, and attempts to serve you music based on your tastes, like an all-wise waitress in your favorite eatery who offers you dishes based on what you've ordered before - or didn't. Pandora is an online internet radio station in which the user can create "stations" - the starting point of which is generally a favorite song or artist. Drawing upon a database created by a team of musicologists, matches are suggested and played. The user is asked to give a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to the tunes played on their station, thereby refining the process, and allowing Pandora to more effectively deliver music that the listener will be interested in. The results can be very good - and the audience can discover musicians they may not have known were out there - one of the original intentions of the founder, Tim Westergren.

A station can also be created by genre, ranging from Pop to Jazz, Classical to Ambient.

Evening.

First atomic post.