August 31, 2006
Playlist - August 2006
Another month, another hour of disjointed listening...
| Bob Dylan - Someday Baby >> Modern Times was released only days ago, so this playlist had to begin (and end) with something from it. This is one of my favorites, an incredibly catchy tune built around a few blues riffs. The first couple of times I listened through the album, this one slipped by without notice. Then around the third time, it hit me like a smack in the face. Dylan and his band stripped out everything but the essentials, leaving a song where every note fits just as it should... and yet it still has a totally organic bluesy sound. The musicianship is superb (even if the mix sometimes leaves a bit to be desired -- a quibble I have with a number of songs from Modern Times). A five-star gem. |
| Heartless Bastards - All This Time >> This song's mixing/production also annoys me a bit. And it's almost too... intense or something. But I'll overlook these things because there are so many great guitar moments and hooks. And Erika's vocals are cool. (And, hey, the length is 3:05. Billy would be proud... if you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit.) |
| Magnolia Electric Co. - The Dark Don't Hide It >> The obligatory "I'm a sucker for pedal steel" song. I've actually been meaning to include this on a playlist for quite a few months but it didn't fit until now. A perfectly bitter, melancholy tune that you can still tap your foot to. (For some reason, Jason Molina's warbly vocals in this remind me of John Fogerty... or at least a more sonorous, mellower, sadder, broken-by-the-world John Fogerty.) There are some fine lines in the lyrics, too: "Human hearts and pain should never be separate / they wouldn't tear themselves apart / both trying to fit" and "Now death is gonna hold us up in the mirror / and say we're so much alike we must be brothers / see I had a job to do but people like you / been doing it for me to one another" |
| Arlo Guthrie - Coming Into Los Angeles >> This song is probably most famous from Guthrie's Woodstock performance. I actually prefer this studio recording. But even listening to this version, I sometimes feel like Charlton Heston in The Omega Man (in that lonely scene where he's watching Woodstock in the empty theater)... the last person in the world, looking back at something that's been lost to everyone, not knowing what to make of it all except to know it's a moment from a vanished history -- either a last gasp or a lost gasp. (A lot of meaning to assign to such a stupid song, I know...) |
| Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money >> Just a catchy tune. And you have to love the lyrics. "Send lawyers, guns, and money! The shit has hit the fan!" And really, think of all the situations in which it would be really handy to have lawyers, guns, and money. Zevon's little vocal tics and grunts are one of the best parts of the song. Huuuh! Owwww! Yeah... (This was the random song set to wake me up one morning. I slept through it and had a strange dream with this song as the soundtrack. That earned it a spot on this month's playlist.) |
| Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation >> |
| Absentee - Hey Tramp >> This one is simple and understated, with lots of subtle elements that combine into something just right. I think the harmonizing female vocals are the key element tying it all together. (Does the lead vocalist remind you just slightly of the Crash Test Dummies, or is it just me? Mmm, Mmm, Mmm...) |
| Death Ships - Little Mystery >> The first 20 seconds hook me. Then before I get bored, I get hooked again at about 1:05. Then I make it to 3:50 (thanks in large part to the piano), where I'm hooked until the end of the song. Okay, I don't really know what I'm talking about. It's just a nice (if slightly desperate) little song. |
| The French Kicks - So Far We Are >> They constructed an entire song out of those chords, my friends. That's what it's all about. (I hear other songs are that way, too.) And maybe the drums. Well, maybe the vocals help. And the guitars, too -- they're electric! |
| Ennui - Time and Place >> In another time and another place, this song might seem too slick to me. But in this time and this place, it's just right. |
| Blackalicious - As the World Turns >> I know. It really sticks out in this playlist. But I've been waiting for a long time to put it in one... it's too good to set aside and forget, so you're getting it now. |
| Snowden - Anti-Anti >> Ever feel bleary, detached, used-up, tired of lost youthful souls and invigorated by them? Ever feel younger than ever and older than ever at the same time? Eat up. |
| Neko Case - Deep Red Bells >> An incredibly sad, haunting song about death and thunder and souls cast about like old paper bags. I can imagine Neko as a siren singing me to shipwreck. |
| Bob Dylan - Ain't Talkin' >> A masterpiece. Nothing more needs to be said. |
31 Aug 23:54 | Link | Category: Music
August 25, 2006
High-Res Desktop Wallpaper
I've long had trouble finding images to use as desktop backgrounds on my computer that are good, high-res, and free. I've previously mentioned using astronomy images from sites like HubbleSite and CICLOPS. For high-res photos of other subjects, check out the Wallpaper section at InterfaceLIFT. Not bad.
25 Aug 19:41 | Link | Category: Photography, Technology & Computing
Modern Times
Bob Dylan's latest album, Modern Times, will be released on Tuesday. From Rolling Stone's excellent (five-star) review:
In sound and feel, Modern Times recalls the kind of music working bands--Muddy Waters' bluesmen or Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys--would cut on the fly between gigs, a mixture of unique inventions and variations on hand-me-downs touched by the leader's genius. Almost every song retraces the American journey from the country to the city, when folkways were giving way to modern times. The mood is America on the brink--of mechanization, of war, of domestic tranquillity, of fulfilling its promise and of selling its dreams one by one for cash on the barrelhead.
Their cover story is also about Dylan: "The Genius of Bob Dylan: The legend comes to grips with his iconic status."
(If you pre-purchase the album from iTunes, you get five videos, a digital booklet, and pre-sale Ticketmaster access for tickets to the upcoming tour.)
Update: Stream "Ain't Talkin'" in its entirety. This is gonna be a great album.
25 Aug 15:47 | Link | Category: Music
August 24, 2006
AOL's little accident
By now, you've probably heard about how AOL publicly released web search terms entered by 650,000 of its subscribers over a three-month period. The data was originally released on a research site, but quickly found its way, well, everywhere. The whole problem is that although the search terms were not connected to a user name, they were connected to a numeric ID. Unbelievably stupid on AOL's part (they have since admitted their mistake and booted their CTO). I mention the incident because it's interesting for a number of reasons, particularly issues of privacy.
People everywhere downloaded the data set and began to analyze it. Here's a good overview complete with some basic analysis of the data, including top search terms and such. Interestingly, the top search on AOL is... Google. Also look at the top ten searches including the term AOL. You'll see all of them have to do with canceling AOL service. Heh.
Lots of people have sifted through the data. Some of it is funny, some disturbing, some baffling. Adam D'Angelo provides some examples of searches by various users and says:
Compared to some of the data, these examples are on the safe side. I'm leaving out the worst of it - searches for names of specific people, addresses, telephone numbers, illegal drugs, and more. There is no question that law enforcement, employers, or friends could figure out who some of these people are.
User 17556639, for example, is disturbingly preoccupied with murder. Paul Boutin of Slate writes:
The New York Times quickly sussed out that AOL Searcher No. 4417749 was 62-year-old Thelma Arnold. Indeed, Arnold has a "dog who urinate on everything," just as she'd typed into the search box. Valleywag has become one of many clearinghouses for funny, bizarre, and painful user profiles. The searches of AOL user No. 672368, for example, morphed over several weeks from "you're pregnant he doesn't want the baby" to "foods to eat when pregnant" to "abortion clinics charlotte nc" to "can christians be forgiven for abortion."
While these case studies are good voyeuristic fodder, snooping through one user's life barely scratches the surface of this data trove. The startup company I work for, Splunk, makes software to search computer-generated log files. AOL's 36 million log entries might look like an Orwellian nightmare to you, but for us it's a user transaction case study to die for. Using the third-party site splunkd.com, I've parsed the AOL data to create a typology of AOL Search users.
(His seven types are: The Pornhound, The Manhunter, The Shopper, The Obsessive, The Omnivore, The Newbie, and The Basket Case.)
The data is funny and disturbing (and sordid and bizarre) at many levels. This sort of thing has enormous ramifications, though. I'll leave it to you to imagine how this type of data could be used and abused by everyone from crazy individuals to unscrupulous organizations to governments.
To search the records for yourself, try a site like AOL Log Search. I played around with it for five or ten minutes and found plenty of weird, disturbing stuff. For example, I searched for the term "Firefox" and then clicked on one of the IDs that showed up. User 3151814 was interested in Firefox, "geneolgy," "sincitystrippers," "names of angels demons," "alien government newworldorder," "sons of gods sons of daughters," and biblebrowser.com.
(It would actually be pretty interesting to see my own search history all compiled and thrown together. I wonder what I would think about myself based on it.)
For further reading:
More on what Google (and other search engines) know about you (from Boing Boing back in January).
U.S. Wants Companies to Keep Web Usage Records
EFF page on AOL's Massive Data Leak
Update: More profiles. Also read: The Database of Intentions.
24 Aug 16:50 | Link | Category: Libraries & Digital Information, Technology & Computing
August 17, 2006
Happy Poppy Catchy Summer Playlist
I'm going out of town for the weekend. I thought I would have time to make a bunch of posts here, but it doesn't look like I'm gonna make it. Hopefully I'll have some time to catch up between when I get back and when classes start again next week (ugh...).
In the meantime, I'll leave you with some tunes.
Last week, my sister wanted a summery mix of songs. I set about putting together something without a trace of the angsty, mopey, dark and depressing tunes that fill my playlists so often. I came up with something carefree, danceable, and summery (and admittedly quite twee). (Even in the songs where the lyrics aren't completely carefree, the music is still happy and hummable.)
I never intended to post it online, but summer days and summer nights are almost gone and I thought y'all might enjoy some music to help end summer on a high note, or with a bang, or however you want to put it. Enjoy.
| The George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag >> |
| Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime >> |
| The Kinks - Picture Book >> |
| Belle & Sebastian - For the Price of a Cup of Tea >> |
| Acid House Kings - Do What You Wanna Do >> |
| The Essex Green - The Late Great Cassiopia >> |
| Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco >> |
| Ursula 1000 - Beatbox Cha Cha >> |
| Junior Senior - Move Your Feet >> |
| Brandtson - Earthquakes & Sharks >> |
| Vells - Hey Hey La La >> |
| Ron Sexsmith - Dragonfly on Bay Street >> |
| David Byrne - Neighborhood >> |
| Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken >> |
| R.E.M. - Near Wild Heaven >> |
| (and a last little hidden track: Roy Orbison - Ooby Dooby >>) |
17 Aug 0:07 | Link | Category: Music
August 14, 2006
Saga of the dead iPod, part two
I called American Express this morning and they're sending me a claim form in the mail. Barring any unforseen difficulties (like the adjuster finding some reason to make my claim ineligible), they will either pay for the iPod to be repaired or replaced. I'm still not sure what options I might be given, but I would prefer to have some cash to put towards a new iPod. (No more 40 GB lemons for me, thank you very much.)
I forgot to mention this in the original post, but part of the reason for writing it was to question Apple's customer service and quality control. Despite my annoyance at their high iPod repair costs, Consumer Reports found that Apple tops other computer companies in several customer service categories, including repair and tech support (and the latest ACSI survey puts Apple at the top of the PC industry in customer satisfaction). As for quality control, I'm not sure. I couldn't find any comparative information. In the past, there was little or no question that Apple's products were better designed and better built than their competitors' and used quality components. My own personal, anecdotal evidence would suggest that Apple's products are still well-designed, but perhaps cost-cutting in manufacturing and components has allowed some bad Apples (forgive the bad pun) to slip through. (And I'm sure they allow it because lower manufacturing/component costs easily outweigh repair/replacement costs for the company -- unfortunately, consumers suffer.)
My Power Mac G5, for example, is a solid, well-designed computer that has never offered any significant problems. It does have one annoying quality, though. Under just the right circumstances, the power supply chirps -- sometimes emitting electronic beeps, sometimes sounding like crickets. In fact, with the right software utility you can actually get it to play a musical scale. It turns out the issue is well-known and widespread, and has affected Power Mac G5s for years - even through several product revisions! John Siracusa of Ars Technica explains that it's due to the "necessary evil" of analog electronics in digital computers. He claims that "Apple is shipping computers with crappy analog electronics," that it has "been doing so for years," and is still doing it even in the new Intel models. Can't they make noise-free components? Siracusa says:
Apple did it for years and years, and continues to do so in most cases (e.g., the Intel iMac). That just makes it all the more unfathomable when they screw it up, and absolutely infuriating when they let an entire product line languish in chirpy hell for years!
I guess the bottom line is that when Apple transformed itself into a company that could actually compete with others, part of the deal was probably a trade-off between quality components/manufacturing and competitiveness. That means persnickety, perfectionist Apple customers might have to get used to the same levels of equipment failure as customers of other consumer computer / electronics companies. And maybe chirping workstations that never get fixed. Or an iPod model with twice the failure rate of other iPod models that never gets publicly acknowledged.
In some ways, I miss the old beleaguered Apple.
14 Aug 13:17 | Link | Category: Music, Technology & Computing
August 12, 2006
Saga of the dead iPod, part one
I've owned an iPod since a few months after they were first introduced in 2001. Back then MP3 players still hadn't hit the mainstream and I struggled to explain to puzzled people what the device even was. In the airport, I chanced across another person with an iPod, and it was the first time either of us had seen anyone else with one. My, how things have changed... I was never surprised by the product's success, though, because that iPod very quickly became one of the most indispensable gadgets in my life and it was undeniably the best MP3 player I had ever used/owned.
That original iPod endured years of use and abuse like a champ. It was well-designed and problem-free. But after a number of years, its (relatively) small storage capacity was too stifling so I replaced it with a 20 GB fourth-generation 'Click Wheel' model. That iPod also worked beautifully. When my mom decided to take the plunge (amazing how fast the device became so mainstream my mom wanted one), I gave her the 20 GB model and upgraded to a 40 GB Click Wheel model.
That's when the trouble started.
The 20 GB 'Pod is still chugging along perfectly, but I'm now on my second dead 40 GB iPod. The first one's hard drive died about six months after I purchased it. In fact, just barely over six months -- which meant that instead of getting it replaced for free, I had to pay $30 to ship it back to Apple and have it replaced. The $30 was a slight piss-off, but what's $30 when you're addicted?
Then, three or four months later, the replacement iPod's hard drive started acting up. The iPod would freeze, make odd noises, and occasionally lose track of all my music. Unfortunately, the problems were very intermittent. And, strange as it sounds, whenever the hard drive acted up, you could fix it - sometimes for weeks - by smacking the iPod a couple of times... probably not a good sign when smacking delicate electronics 'fixes' them, but... Anyway, I took it into the Apple Store several times right before the 1 year warranty expired, but I could never replicate the problems there, so they refused to replace it. The problems have grown increasingly frequent and obnoxious over the last six months. Today I think the hard drive finally died completely... stubborn little bugger.
So now I'm stuck with a dead, eighteen-month-old 40 GB iPod that's out of warranty. Argh. I might consider myself a simple victim of unlikely chance, but it seems that the fourth-generation 40GB model has caused problems for lots of people. From The Guardian: "The 40Gb Clickwheel, now discontinued, appears to have suffered more than its fair share of problems." Apparently the model "has been the subject of many readers' letters to Guardian Money." This is what one user experienced after 15 months: "It started making funny noises and freezing. The screen would freeze and then the songs started freezing." Been there. (He shoulda tried giving it a smack.) Macintouch conducted a fairly scientific iPod reliability survey. Several results/conclusions were interesting. First: "There are a remarkable number of original 5 GB iPods still in service today." Not surprising. My original iPod was built like a brick. But even more interesting to me is this conclusion:
The 40 GB Click Wheel iPod appears to have been a lemon. With a failure rate more than two standard deviations above average, it's the indisputable problem child of the iPod family. Many readers reported going through three to five of them before the 1 year warranty expired and Apple refused further replacements. Not all 40 GB iPods were so unreliable -- the 40 GB Photo was near the average failure rate -- so we don't know quite what the problem was. However, we think it's telling that Apple currently offers a 30 GB and not a 40 GB iPod.
So it seems many others shared my bad experiences with the 40 GB Click Wheel model. I've been extremely careful with both 40 GB models I've had, but they've both failed. If I had replaced my current one, I wonder how the replacement would have fared.
I know, I know, I should have purchased an extended warranty. But at the time, I couldn't find another $60 or so to cough up. And after having originally spent so much on the device (plus $30 for the replacement), I wasn't inclined to spend more... especially considering how quickly they become obsolete. I've owned many Apple products, including two desktop computers, two displays, and a notebook. None have ever given me the slightest problem, which is probably another reason an extended warranty just didn't feel necessary.
Oops.
However, the story might not be over yet (notice this post's "part one" label). That's because I used my American Express card when purchasing the iPod. I try to use American Express whenever I can because they offer a number of perks. One perk happens to be... automatic extended warranty coverage! In theory, American Express should extend my iPod's 1-year manufacturer's warranty by another year. I'm calling the folks at the AMEX "Buyer's Assurance" office first thing on Monday morning to see what they say. I plan on documenting the process here. If I can replace (or better, get cash/credit for) my iPod without too much hassle, American Express will have made a happy and loyal customer out of me. We'll see...
In the meantime, I have to deal with iPod withdrawals. Commuting will be the worst part... I refuse to haul teetering stacks of CDs to and from the car. My car also chokes when it tries to play CD-Rs, so that won't work. And radio.... no, just... no. I thought my mom might take pity and lend me my old 20 GB iPod, but she's too addicted to it. My dad has an iPod mini (trouble-free, I might add...) and I don't think he's completely addicted yet. Maybe he'll let me borrow it so I don't die.
Wish me luck and expect an update on Monday.
12 Aug 23:09 | Link | Category: Music, Technology & Computing
August 3, 2006
The Middle East Buddy List
This is actually pretty handy:
Confused? We are too. Slate's Middle East Buddy List breaks down the relationships between the countries, terrorist organizations, and political factions who are fighting it out in the current conflict. Who likes whom? Who are the bitterest of enemies? And which groups don't really know where they stand? Click here to open an interactive chart that tells you everything you need to know.
03 Aug 1:58 | Link | Category: Current Events
Your United States Senators in Action
Aside from lamenting Bush's impending use of his first-ever veto on a stem cell bill a few weeks ago, I've been silent on the issue. So much has been said since then that I don't really think I can add anything. But I do feel the need to share a short video clip with you.
To see how low political discourse has fallen (and the depths to which intelligence and common sense have dropped) in the U.S. Senate, watch this utterly depressing video of Senator Sam Brownback discussing the issue. The video speaks for itself, so I'll keep most of my comments to myself. I'll just say that while I might excuse his astounding ignorance of biology (he's from Kansas, after all), I can't excuse what I consider his insulting, tasteless sensationalism.
(via Cynical-C)
03 Aug 1:15 | Link | Category: Current Events, Science, Video
17 years and the oil's still there
It has been seventeen years since the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, but there is still plenty of oil just below the surface of beaches. Watch this video, in which high school students dig a shallow hole, pour water, and get oil:
In part two, they dig a hole just inches below the surface of a supposedly clean beach, dip cotton in the hole, and completely cover it with oil:
03 Aug 0:43 | Link | Category: Science, Video
Hope, maybe
I noticed this news item earlier today:
Conservative Republicans who pushed anti-evolution standards back into Kansas schools last year have lost control of the state Board of Education once again.
03 Aug 0:39 | Link | Category: Current Events, Science
Solla Solla Enna Perumai
Umm... I don't really know what the hell this is, but I'm compelled to share it for some reason:
Apparently it originates from this site, where you can find other similarly odd videos.
03 Aug 0:02 | Link | Category: Art & Entertainment, Humor, Video
August 2, 2006
Are you happy?
Back in December of '04, I mentioned an article from Wired in which Daniel H. Pink argued that along with metrics such as GDP, happiness should be considered an economic indicator. It was an interesting argument. (Read it if you haven't.)
Recently, I've noticed a couple of related stories. One was from last week, about research that created the "first world map of happiness." According to this study, Denmark is the happiest country in the world. The U.S. came in 23rd, Britain 41st, and France 62nd. The D.R. of Congo, Zimbabwe, and Burundi were at the bottom of the list.
However, according to another national happiness index (by Nef), Denmark is 99 and the U.S. is 150th. The tiny south Pacific island nation of Vanuatu rates highest in that list. (The Nef study is interesting because it takes consumption of planetary resources into account and shows that "well-being [does] not have to be linked to high levels of consumption.")
It's not really surprising that there are such widely divergent views of how to calculate so-called 'gross national happiness'. (This quote is telling: "He admitted collecting data based on well-being was not an exact science, but said the measures used were very reliable in predicting health and welfare outcomes.")
How do you define happiness? (Or worse, quantify it?) Ask anyone what happiness is, and you'll usually find that they don't have a very simple answer. Plus, answers will vary from person to person and culture to culture. (It usually involves comfort, health, love, family, environment, etc., but the relative importance of each seems to vary quite a bit.)
Despite the difficulty (or impossibility?) of measuring happiness, I think "how happy are we?" is a crucial question for humanity, and this sort of inquiry seems useful and important. When you look around at.... well, everything we do, all the frenetic economic activity, all the resource extraction and energy consumption, all the airplanes and barbie dolls and newspapers and pets and electronics and grocery stores and pipelines and multinational corporate mergers and media conglomerates and refrigerators and junk mail... it only makes sense to ask what the end purpose is or should be (or if indeed there should even be an end purpose in mind, but that's a topic for another day).
Humans are in the interesting position of feeling like we should be driving for something more than mere survival & reproduction. Much like the answer to what happiness is, I'm sure the answer to what the end purpose of our activities should be varies greatly from individual to individual, culture to culture. But I think most people would say that part of the purpose for all of this hectic high-energy human activity should be happiness... whatever it is. My general view is that humanity should have at least three major long-term ambitions and goals. The primary one should still be simple survival, which is far trickier than it sounds. If we can manage to stick around, we should aim for increased happiness and increased understanding of ourselves and our universe. Survival, happiness, knowledge, wisdom. No doubt it's difficult to balance all those things and find an equation in which they all fit correctly. With some care, and perhaps some thoughtful tradeoffs, the hope is that ultimately they can all go hand in hand.
02 Aug 0:45 | Link | Category: Current Events, Opinion & Thoughts, Science