Sunday, May 15, 2005
Woohoo! Gentoo!
I'm finally running a distribution of Linux I think I'll be happy with. After trying first Mandrake, then Fedora Core 2 and 3, I've settled on Gentoo. All of my favorite applications are now up and running smoothly, except for Winamp which is Windows only. Once things have settled in a little more, I'll post my experiences with Gentoo. For now, all I can say is Yipeeeee! If you're not afraid to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, and you want to take the Linux plunge, you owe Gentoo a look.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
There's a Vorbis in my Ogg!
When Fraunhofer IIS introduced the MP3 audio codec to the world, the world couldn't help but take an interest. By giving people the ability to store whatever audio they may have at near CD levels of quality in a fraction of the space, MP3 quickly became a boon to anyone wanting to have access to their entire music collection without the hassle of lugging around a stack of CDs. On the flip side, MP3 became the nemesis of the recording industry as people could now easily distribute music all over the internet without paying anything to the record companies.
After witnessing the MP3 explosion, it didn't take long for other companies to look for ways to make their own mark in the compressed audio arena. Microsoft introduced its WMA format, Apple came up with a proprietary version of AAC, and Sony has its ATRAC3. Unfortunately for the masses, most of the new codecs being introduced were owned by the corporations who introduced those codecs to the world. I'll not go into a discussion of why this could be a bad thing, but I will point out that generally, corporations exist to make money.
Luckily for people like me, Xiph.org introduced Ogg Vorbis. Ogg Vorbis is a free and open-source audio codec for compressing...uh...audio. I haven't done a side-by-side listening test, so I am unable to support any claims about quality, but the web site claims that the codec can acheive the same quality as MP3 with a smaller file size. Really though, that's not what prompted me to learn more. What moved me was the open-source nature of the project. Anyone with the necessary skills can contribute and feedback is always welcome. There's also a note on the website that Ogg Vorbis will never support digital rights Management (DRM). Needless to say, I was excited.
Unfortunately, the number of portable players which support Ogg Vorbis is relatively small when compared with those that support MP3. It is growing, and hopefully, by the time I'm ready to purchase a portable player, I won't be forced to choose a player based on Ogg Vorbis support. On the other hand, the format is more widely supported by various media players, most notably Winamp. One could argue that Winamp is one of the most popular, if not the single most popular, software audio player on the planet.
For my part, I'm going to choose Ogg Vorbis over other formats once I've finished ripping all my music to the lossless FLAC format (a discussion for another day). Others may want to read up on the format first. A good place to go are the Hydrogenaudio Forums. The members of these forums have a phenomenal amount of knowledge in this area and are well equiped to perform whatever tests are necessary to compare various formats. Some may find that Ogg Vorbis needs to mature a bit more before they switch, others may want to start playing around with the format first, and still others may decide they're fine with whatever format they use now. However, I encourage everyone to at least take a look at Ogg Vorbis.
Well, that's all for now. There are many, many more topics I could write about, but they'll have to wait for future posts. I'll be putting in a new motherboard and hard drive soon, and going back to a dual boot system between Linux and Windows XP, so I'm not sure when those future posts will appear. Hopefully, it won't be as long as the time between my last post and this one!
After witnessing the MP3 explosion, it didn't take long for other companies to look for ways to make their own mark in the compressed audio arena. Microsoft introduced its WMA format, Apple came up with a proprietary version of AAC, and Sony has its ATRAC3. Unfortunately for the masses, most of the new codecs being introduced were owned by the corporations who introduced those codecs to the world. I'll not go into a discussion of why this could be a bad thing, but I will point out that generally, corporations exist to make money.
Luckily for people like me, Xiph.org introduced Ogg Vorbis. Ogg Vorbis is a free and open-source audio codec for compressing...uh...audio. I haven't done a side-by-side listening test, so I am unable to support any claims about quality, but the web site claims that the codec can acheive the same quality as MP3 with a smaller file size. Really though, that's not what prompted me to learn more. What moved me was the open-source nature of the project. Anyone with the necessary skills can contribute and feedback is always welcome. There's also a note on the website that Ogg Vorbis will never support digital rights Management (DRM). Needless to say, I was excited.
Unfortunately, the number of portable players which support Ogg Vorbis is relatively small when compared with those that support MP3. It is growing, and hopefully, by the time I'm ready to purchase a portable player, I won't be forced to choose a player based on Ogg Vorbis support. On the other hand, the format is more widely supported by various media players, most notably Winamp. One could argue that Winamp is one of the most popular, if not the single most popular, software audio player on the planet.
For my part, I'm going to choose Ogg Vorbis over other formats once I've finished ripping all my music to the lossless FLAC format (a discussion for another day). Others may want to read up on the format first. A good place to go are the Hydrogenaudio Forums. The members of these forums have a phenomenal amount of knowledge in this area and are well equiped to perform whatever tests are necessary to compare various formats. Some may find that Ogg Vorbis needs to mature a bit more before they switch, others may want to start playing around with the format first, and still others may decide they're fine with whatever format they use now. However, I encourage everyone to at least take a look at Ogg Vorbis.
Well, that's all for now. There are many, many more topics I could write about, but they'll have to wait for future posts. I'll be putting in a new motherboard and hard drive soon, and going back to a dual boot system between Linux and Windows XP, so I'm not sure when those future posts will appear. Hopefully, it won't be as long as the time between my last post and this one!
Friday, January 07, 2005
Good Science Fiction
I was going to write this long, in-depth post about a series of books I've been working my way through. However, it's late and I desperately desire sleep. So visit the link above, or to the side, or below, or wherever the darn thing happens to be (I'm not that familiar with the layout I chose for my blog).
Oh, I suppose I should describe where you'll be going when you do click the link (and you will click the link, or unsettling things may happen to you and your loved ones...). Briefly, there was this guy who happened to be an author. He wrote a handful of books about this planet called Arrakis. Well, that's not quite accurate because it was more than just Arrakis, but the planet did play a central role in the book. That is, if you just skim the surface and don't plunge deeper. Getting back on track, this guy wrote these books, then died. Following his death, this guy's son...did I tell you this guy's name? No? Well, it was Frank Herbert...Anyway, Frank's son, Brian, got together with this other guy, Kevin Anderson, and finished the last book from Frank's Notes (I capitalize the 'N' here because Frank was such a cool guy and we need to capitalize the nouns describing his stuff, though I guess I didn't capitalize the 's' in 'son'...).
Apparently, Brian and Kevin did such a good job, and Frank's Notes were so good, the two guys went out and wrote two prequel trilogies. So now there are a total of 12 (5 + 1 + 3 + 3 = 12) books in the Dune series. Oh, and that's the name of the series, and also the name of the first book in the original series, Dune. So now these two guys have a web site for the series, with plans to write a seventh book to the original series. This web site is where the link will take you.
If you're interested, and you should be after my wonderful introduction, run to your local library, ignoring all traffic laws, throwing caution to the wind, and check out these books! Don't worry about the police, once you tell them you're trying to get the books as quickly as possible, I'm absolutely sure they'll let you go with nothing more than a warning. Ladies, remember to pout and show a little cleavage, just in case.
Ok, to sum it all up (just like I learned in school, though any of my past instructors would refuse to agknowledge they had anything to do with this abomination): Frank wrote some books, Frank died, Frank's son Brian wrote more books with some dude named Kevin Anderson, the two got a web site. You're going to visit the web site, then you're going to read the books. THE END.
Wow, that wasn't so brief after all, was it?
Oh, and it turns out the link is the title of this post. Who knew? And one more plug: Dune series by Frank Herbert = great reading, More Dune books by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson = Not as good as ol' Frank, but still great reading. Ok that's it. No more plugs for Dune.
Except this one: Dune is good...
Oh, and this one: mmmm...Dune...
Ok, no more Dune. Really! You don't believe me do you? I can see it in your eyes. And they all began to dance...
Oh, I suppose I should describe where you'll be going when you do click the link (and you will click the link, or unsettling things may happen to you and your loved ones...). Briefly, there was this guy who happened to be an author. He wrote a handful of books about this planet called Arrakis. Well, that's not quite accurate because it was more than just Arrakis, but the planet did play a central role in the book. That is, if you just skim the surface and don't plunge deeper. Getting back on track, this guy wrote these books, then died. Following his death, this guy's son...did I tell you this guy's name? No? Well, it was Frank Herbert...Anyway, Frank's son, Brian, got together with this other guy, Kevin Anderson, and finished the last book from Frank's Notes (I capitalize the 'N' here because Frank was such a cool guy and we need to capitalize the nouns describing his stuff, though I guess I didn't capitalize the 's' in 'son'...).
Apparently, Brian and Kevin did such a good job, and Frank's Notes were so good, the two guys went out and wrote two prequel trilogies. So now there are a total of 12 (5 + 1 + 3 + 3 = 12) books in the Dune series. Oh, and that's the name of the series, and also the name of the first book in the original series, Dune. So now these two guys have a web site for the series, with plans to write a seventh book to the original series. This web site is where the link will take you.
If you're interested, and you should be after my wonderful introduction, run to your local library, ignoring all traffic laws, throwing caution to the wind, and check out these books! Don't worry about the police, once you tell them you're trying to get the books as quickly as possible, I'm absolutely sure they'll let you go with nothing more than a warning. Ladies, remember to pout and show a little cleavage, just in case.
Ok, to sum it all up (just like I learned in school, though any of my past instructors would refuse to agknowledge they had anything to do with this abomination): Frank wrote some books, Frank died, Frank's son Brian wrote more books with some dude named Kevin Anderson, the two got a web site. You're going to visit the web site, then you're going to read the books. THE END.
Wow, that wasn't so brief after all, was it?
Oh, and it turns out the link is the title of this post. Who knew? And one more plug: Dune series by Frank Herbert = great reading, More Dune books by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson = Not as good as ol' Frank, but still great reading. Ok that's it. No more plugs for Dune.
Except this one: Dune is good...
Oh, and this one: mmmm...Dune...
Ok, no more Dune. Really! You don't believe me do you? I can see it in your eyes. And they all began to dance...
Sunday, August 22, 2004
What should I write about?
My last post was over two months ago. A new post is well overdue, but there is one hurdle to overcome before the new post is, umm, posted. I have no idea what to write! I suppose that's not entirely accurate. There are plenty of things I could write about, but I don't know what topics readers would find interesting and which topics readers really don't care about.
I've given this quite a bit of thought (approximately one minute and seventeen seconds) and decided I'll let the readers choose what my subject matter will be. If you would like me to post on a particular subject or answer some quesions, add a comment to my most recent post telling me what you would like. You might also try emailing me (there is a mailto link somewhere in my profile), but make sure you indicate in the subject that the email is regarding this blog, otherwise I might delete the message before reading it. Understand, however, that there are some things I will not discuss. I'll let you know when you're suggestion falls into that category.
Of course, I will not limit myself to reader suggestions. Why? Well, I may not receive any responses or something may come up which I would enjoy writing about but has not been suggested as a topic by any readers.
I doubt I'll get a response from this, but at least the "Most recent post" will be a little more current.
So long for now!
I've given this quite a bit of thought (approximately one minute and seventeen seconds) and decided I'll let the readers choose what my subject matter will be. If you would like me to post on a particular subject or answer some quesions, add a comment to my most recent post telling me what you would like. You might also try emailing me (there is a mailto link somewhere in my profile), but make sure you indicate in the subject that the email is regarding this blog, otherwise I might delete the message before reading it. Understand, however, that there are some things I will not discuss. I'll let you know when you're suggestion falls into that category.
Of course, I will not limit myself to reader suggestions. Why? Well, I may not receive any responses or something may come up which I would enjoy writing about but has not been suggested as a topic by any readers.
I doubt I'll get a response from this, but at least the "Most recent post" will be a little more current.
So long for now!
Monday, June 07, 2004
The Meijer Nymph
So I was trying to determine what direction to go with this post, and the following paragraphs are what I came up with. I've read them over and over, eventually coming to the conclusion that I didn't actually write any of it. However, I'd rather not anger the true author by deleting it, so it will remain. A note to those who dislike particularly mawkish (hee, hee, I found that one in the thesaurus!) content should browse elsewhere.
Not too long ago, sometime last week actually, I had a most extraordinary experience in the most unusual location for such a thing. It was on this particular day that I found myself in need of a new pair of shorts. Fortunately for me, my mother found herself in need of various items as well. I say fortunate for me because I had (and still have) no reliable transportation of my own with which to travel into town. So it was that my mother and I were standing in the checkout lane at the local Meijer store, when the extraordinary experience took place.
All together, the day had been terribly uneventful and dull. One of those days which is so unremarkable, it leaves no impression whatsoever in one's memory. I was working out a plan which would result in my obtaining a candy bar without having to spend any of my own money, when I noticed a movement in the checkout lane to my right. Normally, I would have paid little attention, as movement in and around checkout lanes is quite common, but as this day had been so uneventful I could not resist.
I turned my head in the direction of the movement, and was completely and utterly taken by the sight before me. A woman. Not just any woman, mind you, but possibly the most incredible woman mortal eyes have seen. Realizing I was staring and in danger of being discovered, I averted my gaze. It was not long before my eyes found their way back to this woman. Again and again I tried to look away. Again and again I failed.
A great sin it would be to attempt to capture her with words, so I beg forgiveness for what I am about to do. She was grace and elegance personified, beauty reimagined and redefined. To look into her eyes was to see eternity itself, unimagined magnificence. Her delicate hair was a light brown silk, her skin soft and light. The drab uniform of a Meijer employee did nothing to hide her loveliness. She was truly enchanting.
A moment later, and I was through the checkout lane. I cast one last glance at the lovely woman, hoping to never forget what I had seen, then left the building. It was an incredible experience. I have been back to the Meijer store on three occasions, but have not seen the woman since. Someday I hope to meet her, to speak with her. Two things remain which inspire this hope: my memories of that day, and her name as it was printed on her nametag. Hope...
Wow, okay, yeah. I still don't think I wrote that.
Not too long ago, sometime last week actually, I had a most extraordinary experience in the most unusual location for such a thing. It was on this particular day that I found myself in need of a new pair of shorts. Fortunately for me, my mother found herself in need of various items as well. I say fortunate for me because I had (and still have) no reliable transportation of my own with which to travel into town. So it was that my mother and I were standing in the checkout lane at the local Meijer store, when the extraordinary experience took place.
All together, the day had been terribly uneventful and dull. One of those days which is so unremarkable, it leaves no impression whatsoever in one's memory. I was working out a plan which would result in my obtaining a candy bar without having to spend any of my own money, when I noticed a movement in the checkout lane to my right. Normally, I would have paid little attention, as movement in and around checkout lanes is quite common, but as this day had been so uneventful I could not resist.
I turned my head in the direction of the movement, and was completely and utterly taken by the sight before me. A woman. Not just any woman, mind you, but possibly the most incredible woman mortal eyes have seen. Realizing I was staring and in danger of being discovered, I averted my gaze. It was not long before my eyes found their way back to this woman. Again and again I tried to look away. Again and again I failed.
A great sin it would be to attempt to capture her with words, so I beg forgiveness for what I am about to do. She was grace and elegance personified, beauty reimagined and redefined. To look into her eyes was to see eternity itself, unimagined magnificence. Her delicate hair was a light brown silk, her skin soft and light. The drab uniform of a Meijer employee did nothing to hide her loveliness. She was truly enchanting.
A moment later, and I was through the checkout lane. I cast one last glance at the lovely woman, hoping to never forget what I had seen, then left the building. It was an incredible experience. I have been back to the Meijer store on three occasions, but have not seen the woman since. Someday I hope to meet her, to speak with her. Two things remain which inspire this hope: my memories of that day, and her name as it was printed on her nametag. Hope...
Wow, okay, yeah. I still don't think I wrote that.
Comments anyone?
Well, it has been a while since my last post, and it might be a little bit longer before I make another real post (as opposed to this post which is obviously not "real"). For anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis (and I question the existence of such a being) you may have noticed that the HaloScan commenting is gone. Apparently, Blogger has undergone some changes since my last post, and they are now providing a commenting system themselves. I'll be trying this out for a little bit, and if I like it, I'll cancel my HaloScan account. So please, comment your hearts away so I can make sure this will work!
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Motivated by Procrastination
This is one of those posts written with the sole purpose of giving me an excuse to procrastinate on my studies. With graduation only two and a half weeks away and classes ending (for me) next week, I'm finding that procrastinating has become entirely too commonplace in my life. I've just got to give it that final shove and hopefully let my momentum carry me through.
Since graduation is indeed so close, it's also time for me to start thinking about moving out of this town. While I cannot say I'll miss the winters up here, I will miss the slower pace at which everyone seemed to move. That is one of the things that has kept me sane these past three years. I'm also looking forward to ending my employment at ShopKo. While I have only been working part time since October, I've experienced enough to decide that I never, ever, ever want to work in retail again.
Speaking of leaving my job and moving out, there is a period of time between May 14 and May 24 when I will have absolutely nothing to do but pack and relax. I just hope I have enough money left by then to enjoy the time off!
Well, that was a complete waste of time, but at least I was able to put off my homework for another ten minutes. Now I get to waste time going to class, then I'll have to eat dinner, so it looks like I get another three hours before I have to start studying again!
Since graduation is indeed so close, it's also time for me to start thinking about moving out of this town. While I cannot say I'll miss the winters up here, I will miss the slower pace at which everyone seemed to move. That is one of the things that has kept me sane these past three years. I'm also looking forward to ending my employment at ShopKo. While I have only been working part time since October, I've experienced enough to decide that I never, ever, ever want to work in retail again.
Speaking of leaving my job and moving out, there is a period of time between May 14 and May 24 when I will have absolutely nothing to do but pack and relax. I just hope I have enough money left by then to enjoy the time off!
Well, that was a complete waste of time, but at least I was able to put off my homework for another ten minutes. Now I get to waste time going to class, then I'll have to eat dinner, so it looks like I get another three hours before I have to start studying again!
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