In 1995, I bought a book called Prayers For Bobby. It is the true story of a mother’s coming to terms with the suicide of her gay son. I thought of that book today when I read Terrance’s post about another gay son. Go and read it. Plus ça change…
Year: 2007
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Total Immersion
I mentioned the software company Total Immersion and their D’FUSION product some time ago. They’re still around, and apparently doing well in certain markets. Here’s a presentation that they gave at the DEMO conference this week. Very impressive.BTW, if you’re an elderly Brit, like me, you may remember Michael Bentine’s It’s A Square World on BBC TV. Do you remember his wall graph that came to life? I think I’ve just seen the 3D version in Total Immersion’s tabletop town… -
Indoctrination
Dear lord, this is depressing. I have news for the young man who thinks he’s going to win a Nobel prize. Not in this universe, sunshine. -
Nothing Can Go Wrong…
Good to see that robots can still be defeated by stairs… I love the folding screens bit. Do you think that is standard equipment? Buy Asimo, and get your free folding screen… -
Do Gorillas Believe in Gods?
An interesting article that is an interview with anthropologist Barbara J. King. Some good stuff, but I don’t buy the last bit. I’m surprised that she doesn’t appear to understand that a virus does not have an independent life – it relies on the host to do the work of replication. -
A Challenge
Explain String Theory in two minutes or less. Good luck, you’ll need it. -
Turbine Placements
Pruned has an intriguing post about a proposal by Mark Oberholzer to install Darrieus wind turbines into motorway barriers. The idea is that the wind from passing cars will drive the turbines and generate electricity. I can’t help feeling that you would have to choose the motorway carefully. Any traffic jams, and it’s not only the cars that would come to a stop, but also the possibility of power generation. -
You Are What You Read
Here’s a bit of computer fun. A photomosaic of myself composed of bookcovers of books that I have in my library…
Click on the image above, and then by clicking on the "All Sizes" icon, you can see the full-size original.(image created by AndreaMosaic, from book images catalogued for my library by Librarything) -
Audition
The boys get the hook. They’re clearly not as good as Donnie Davies -
Do I Need Windows Vista?
Just over a year ago, I wrote a post entitled: Why Do I Need Windows Vista? In it, I predicted that when Windows Vista was released, I would find that some of my PC hardware would not be supported, because the manufacturers would not be releasing Vista drivers. I reported problems with my soundcard, webcam, and video capture device, as well as with application software such as Steinberg’s Cubase SX2.
So, now that Vista is released, what’s the current state of play?
Well, the soundcard still doesn’t work. Actually, I have two soundcards on my machine – and neither of them work. One is the E-MU 1820M, which together with the E-MU Emulator X software, forms a major component of my music workstation. The other is a Creative Technology Audigy 2 soundcard. And, what a surprise (he said ironically), neither card has a set of working drivers for Vista. The E-MU card has neither a Vista driver, nor a Vista version of the Emulator X software as yet. The company is supposedly working on them, but, come on guys, Vista’s here, and you’ve yet to release even beta versions of your software… Creative Technology has at least got beta drivers out for Vista. The trouble is, they are very poor quality. The customer discussion forum for Windows Vista of Creative Technology is currently glowing white-hot with angry reactions from CT’s customers, and I can understand why. CT has long had a certain reputation for having good hardware with terrible software. For myself, I can certainly say that I never intend to purchase another CT product if I can possibly avoid it.
The webcam is a Logitech product, and good news on that front, Logitech have released drivers for Vista, and the webcam works.
The video capture device is an Adaptec VideOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 Edition (who dreams up these terrible names?), and guess what? Adaptec won’t be supporting this under Vista, not now and not never. It is a dead product.
And what about Steinberg? Ah, Steinberg, another company that customers love to hate, and not without good reason. As predicted, Steinberg is not going to support Cubase SX2 on Vista – or SX3, for that matter, apparently. Nope, only their newest product, Cubase 4, will be supported on Vista. Oh, and Cubase 4 users seem to be up to their necks wrestling with bugs. As well as software from Steinberg, I also have a Steinberg Midex 8 MIDI interface as part of my music workstation. Another bad move on my part – Steinberg won’t be supporting this under Vista, not now and not never. It is a dead product. They can’t even release the hardware specs for Open Source folks to take a crack at developing drivers, because of contractual reasons.
Oh, and I also have a Wacom ArtPad pen tablet. Guess what? Yup, Wacom won’t be supporting this under Vista, not now and not never. It is a dead product.
So, out of five pieces of hardware, only one is currently supported under Vista, and a further two might be, if I’m lucky. And for the two major pieces of music software that I own (neither of which were what I would call cheap), one of them (Cubase SX2) is not going to be supported (and an upgrade to the supported Cubase 4 is €220), while the other one (Emulator X) may be supported in the future. More likely, though, is that I will need to upgrade to the latest version, Emulator X2, at a cost of €80.
As I said a year ago, I suspect I’m going to be soldiering on with Windows XP for quite some time.
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Finding Faces
There was an interesting article in the Guardian recently about the current state of face recognition technology. Imagine being able to ask a Google-like service to search through the images on the internet for a face that matches yours, or somewhat more worryingly, a face that matches someone who you are trying to track down. The privacy implications strike me as being of concern. If you want to try this out for yourself, then a Swedish company – Polar Rose – is offering a beta to plug into your browser. I note that Google has also bought a company specialising in image recognition last year, so something similar may be being worked on there. -
Even Apeldoorn Bellen…
The Sea Launch rocket that blew up on liftoff yesterday was apparently carrying a Dutch telecommunications satellite. Hope they were insured. As the Dutch say: even Apeldoorn bellen (just ring Apeldoorn). -
Stroke of Insight
The older I get, the more likely it is that I will have a stroke. Apparently, the risk of having a stroke more than doubles each decade after the age of 55. Here’s a link to a fascinating interview with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist, who had a stroke and who describes the experience. -
Browsing Books
I see, via an article in today’s Guardian, that the British Library, in conjuction with Microsoft, has released a new version of the browser application that enables you to read its most glorious books online. This version requires you to have Windows Vista, and a graphics card that is capable of running the Aero interface.I have to say that the results are stunning. Looking at the Luttrell Psalter, for example, is a revelation. As you turn the pages, you can see the sheen on the gold leaf wax and wane. And you can move the book in three dimensions to show how the light catches the pigment on the pages.For those of us without Vista and Aero, there is also a Shockwave version of the application, but this is very dull by comparison. The Psalter, for example, has none of the richness of colour that shines through in the Vista version. This application gives a glimpse of the sort of user interfaces that are likely to be emerging on Vista over the next couple of years. Impressive. -
The Art of Robert McCall
Robert McCall is an artist who has specialised in scenes of space exploration or views of imaginary worlds. I became aware of his work in 1968 when the posters for 2001 – A Space Odyssey went up; Kubrick commissioned the poster art from him. McCall’s web site is here. I see that the artwork of the 2001 space station and the spaceship Orion is there (and I had an original poster of this, which, alas, has got lost over the course of the years). One, to me, surprising omission from his web site is the artwork he did of the interior of the spaceship Discovery. You can see it here (it’s the third painting down). That poster, at least, I have still got. It hangs in the library. -
Saving Hubble
This documentary film should be worth a look when it’s released… -
Predatory Mites
The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics tells us that more than 7 billion predatory mites were released in greenhouses in 2004 to combat thrips and other pests. Pie charts and bar charts are here. Just thought you’d like to know. -
Goodbye PixVue
I’ve been using PixVue to edit metadata on my digital photos for a couple of years now. It’s been a good piece of software, all the more remarkable in that it was free. It had a few limitations – it didn’t support the emerging metadata standard of IPTC4XMP, and it didn’t run on Windows Vista. But I thought I’d keep an eye on the web site to see whether Eamonn Coleman, the developer, would be bringing out a new version.Alas, when I visited the site today, this is what I found. (Note: at the time, there was a notice to say that the software was no longer being developed. The website has now been taken down completely)Say it isn’t so… -
The Big Picture
While this is "Art", it’s also a statistical view of society. Running the Numbers. Interesting. -
Jim Gray is Missing
I hope that this does not turn out to be bad news. Jim Gray has accomplished a lot in his life. I hope he will continue to do so.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 