Monday, December 31, 2007
Bass for Beginners Lessons - Guitar Noise
I got a bass for Christmas.
I've been playing guitar for about 20 years, so I already know where all the notes are on a bass. You can transfer a lot, which is what I've done anytime I've ever borrowed someone's bass before.
But now that I actually own one, I figure I should read articles like this to try to get some idea of how to approach the bass not as a guitar but as its own instrument (which it of course is).
I've been playing guitar for about 20 years, so I already know where all the notes are on a bass. You can transfer a lot, which is what I've done anytime I've ever borrowed someone's bass before.
But now that I actually own one, I figure I should read articles like this to try to get some idea of how to approach the bass not as a guitar but as its own instrument (which it of course is).
did you ever get the feeling...
"Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?" -- George Gobel
(via Chet)
(via Chet)
Friday, December 28, 2007
unix utilities you should know
xxd, which usually accompanies VIM, is a hexdump program with a difference: it also converts hexdumps *back* into binaries.
The manpage says it was written in 1997. So people (like me) whose formative experiences with unix were all way before 1997 may be surprised to find this program is already in their Linux or Cygwin toolbox.
The manpage says it was written in 1997. So people (like me) whose formative experiences with unix were all way before 1997 may be surprised to find this program is already in their Linux or Cygwin toolbox.
Monday, December 17, 2007
quote of the day
This story has no moral.
This story has no end.
This story just goes to show
that there ain't no good in men.
-- "Frankie and Johnny", as recorded by Jimmy Rodgers
This story has no end.
This story just goes to show
that there ain't no good in men.
-- "Frankie and Johnny", as recorded by Jimmy Rodgers
Saturday, December 15, 2007
only people who work (or have worked) with me will really understand this..
What started as a simple effort to free up some space on my (work) laptop hard drive has cascaded into a total purge of ye olde Magnet Internette Bankynge Suite. Not only sources and binaries of multiple versions, but also lots of other stuff that only needed to be on here to support it. It's gone. All my mcbase are belong to null.
I really didn't need any of this cruft to be on here. Not only am I not a developer now, I shouldn't be working on this even if I were.
The amount of disk space freed is in the tens of gigs.
EDIT: Monday, I'm getting rid of the bees poster.
I really didn't need any of this cruft to be on here. Not only am I not a developer now, I shouldn't be working on this even if I were.
The amount of disk space freed is in the tens of gigs.
EDIT: Monday, I'm getting rid of the bees poster.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
random stuff you (re)discover when you go through the clutter of your desk
For reasons I can't recall or explain, I currently have every old hard drive I've ever owned (from personal machines, not work machines) at work with me.
YouTube - Ernest and Pop go Fishing
Anybody who has struggled to understand my own ramblings should watch thing. This movie is the source of my occasional saying of things like, "course that was in ninety-four... I don't remember ninety-four".
The Book of Ratings
Pity that this blog seems to not be maintained anymore. Or at least really, really slow. Because these archives is good. How good? Check out this random quote:
"Toads are kind of like sport utility frogs: uglier, slower, and somewhat better at moving over rough terrain while not exactly being good at it."
Yes, that good. A+
"Toads are kind of like sport utility frogs: uglier, slower, and somewhat better at moving over rough terrain while not exactly being good at it."
Yes, that good. A+
Friday, December 07, 2007
on a related note..
Can somebody explain the sudden (re)popularity of the "Chicken Dance" to me? I'd never heard of it before a couple of years ago; now its on all my kids' records like its something that little kids have always listened to.
Old songs don't just come back out of nowhere on their own; somebody re-popularizes them. Think of what Tarantino did for "Stuck in the Middle With You". Who is responsible for the Chicken Dance?
Old songs don't just come back out of nowhere on their own; somebody re-popularizes them. Think of what Tarantino did for "Stuck in the Middle With You". Who is responsible for the Chicken Dance?
YouTube - Weird Al Yankovic Polkarama!
Signs that you've been out of tune with pop culture for some time:
1. you only recognize about half the songs being covered here.
1. you only recognize about half the songs being covered here.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Ayn Rand Lexicon
This site is like a whole wikipedia of nothing but Ayn Rand quotes. How you will feel about that probably depends on how you feel about Ayn Rand.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
YouTube - Lucifer'S Friend: "Ride In The Sky"
I looked this up because of the connection (singer John Lawton) to Uriah Heep. I daresay this rocks quite a bit harder than the contemporary Heep. If you've ever thought to yourself, "damn I wish early Black Sabbath had had an organ player like Deep Purple", then my friend prepare to have that lifelong dream satisfied.
Further proof of Led Zeppelin unoriginality: listen how similar the french horn (yes, French Horn in a hard rock song) is to the opening screams of "Immigrant Song". Every resource I can find on the web says this song came first.
Further proof of Led Zeppelin unoriginality: listen how similar the french horn (yes, French Horn in a hard rock song) is to the opening screams of "Immigrant Song". Every resource I can find on the web says this song came first.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Convert m4a (aac) to mp3 at Elliot Lee
There are apparently a lot of companies out there selling software to do something that is already built into iTunes.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #114
Not the Mickey Mouse you grew up with unless you're in your 80's or 90's, in which case I'd like to hear about what you're doing reading this blog at all.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
youtube presents the evolution of Pegleg Pete, part 1
Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog, Goofy's a sentient (but still subnormal) dog... what the f**k is Pete?
Alice Solves The Puzzle (1925)
In his first appearance (3 years before Mickey's creation) Pete is quite obviously a bear. He appears around 2 minutes into the film. Also check out the Felix-like cat character. Extremely Felix-like. I could probably pass this off to my kids as an actual Felix cartoon.
(Yes, my kids know who Felix the cat is.. thanks to a $.99 DVD from Wal-Mart of mostly later "sound" Felix cartoons, the ones that flopped and ended his now-forgotten reign as America's favorite toon)
Check out some of the other "Alice Comedies" on youtube for lots of proto-Mickey mice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHFTvJKl5PM
Alice Solves The Puzzle (1925)
In his first appearance (3 years before Mickey's creation) Pete is quite obviously a bear. He appears around 2 minutes into the film. Also check out the Felix-like cat character. Extremely Felix-like. I could probably pass this off to my kids as an actual Felix cartoon.
(Yes, my kids know who Felix the cat is.. thanks to a $.99 DVD from Wal-Mart of mostly later "sound" Felix cartoons, the ones that flopped and ended his now-forgotten reign as America's favorite toon)
Check out some of the other "Alice Comedies" on youtube for lots of proto-Mickey mice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHFTvJKl5PM
