Ten Cents on the Dime

In my early impressions of the Palm Pre, I had mentioned battery life being a concern. Well, whatever under-the-hood tinkering the webOS dev team did on the 1.0.3 update, it’s had a positive effect on my battery life. After two days of average-to-light usage, without charging, my battery is sitting at 37% – previously, that was the sort of number I’d see at the end of one day. Glad both for the improved performance and to see Palm staying on top of development. Anyone else out there seeing battery improvements after the update?

My search for a Pre had been almost comically frustrating – it involved multiple store visits, several calls to Sprint’s Customer Care department, 24 hours without a phone number and a very large thunderstorm. So my hopes were not high yesterday afternoon when I stepped into Best Buy Mobile. But thanks to luck, timing and a very kind employee who said “You know, we just got a package from Sprint – hang on,” I finally got my hands on Palm’s newest handheld.

After a day with the device, I’m very excited about the potential in this little underdog of a phone. The tires need to be kicked a little more before I’m ready to give a full review, but read on for my first impressions. (more…)

My brain has this way of latching on to an idea and not letting go until I’ve done something with it. This is generally a very useful asset, except when it isn’t.

Do not start thinking about what you could do with your website as you’re falling asleep. No good can come of it. Next thing you know, it’s 2 in the morning and you’re trying to install MySQL so you can sandbox WordPress, and trying to decide exactly how much CSS one really needs to know to make a theme, and is $99 really too much to spend for good design software…it just goes downhill from there.

Unfortunately, the sandbox did not get built tonight, but there is now a plan. It’s going to involve flowcharts, a lot of restructuring (including, possibly, shutting down this blog and restarting it – though that’s more to give myself a clean slate than for any technical reason), and perhaps even hiring a designer. It won’t happen overnight, but hopefully a little hacking every day will lead to a new followfish.com by the end of the summer. Cross fingers!

And now, attempt #2 at sleep. Whatever you do, don’t give me any ideas.

The coffeemaker and I are still not seeing eye to eye. Thankfully, the French Press has stepped up to take its place, and I’m OK with that. As much of a technology snob as I can be, it’s always entertaining to see old tech show new tech a thing or two.

Studio life continues to revolve around technology, technique and other tech-words. Yesterday was more installations, and the fine points of how the iLok security token that seems to have become the industry standard manages software licenses; most of today was spent setting up templates in Logic and getting deeper into the Quantum Leap RA package. All of these things are absolutely essential and will make the summer and fall go so much more smoothly. This knowledge does nothing, however, to reduce the frustration that comes from spending 8 hours behind the keyboard and coming away with 51 seconds of something that actually sounds like music.

51 seconds. In eight hours.

On the other hand, they’re awfully pretty.

So I’m posting them. Irish Demo – 4/7/09 Irish Demo – 4/7/09.

Constructive comments/criticism will be welcomed. Non-constructive comments/criticism will be eaten by sharks. Or the commenters will. Either way. Please don’t steal my work – if you like it and want to use it, let me know. Or hire me, and I’ll write you something better.

Things I like: One very sweet little transition in the French Horns. The couple places where the key/velocity switching really worked in the Uilleann Pipes. The lovely release trails.

Things I need to work on: The way the string sections really dominate the aural space. I’m not sure what’s going on there – it was even worse when I was trying to do string quartet and using solo strings. The couple places where the key/velocity switching really failed in the Uilleann Pipes. (I think there’s an impossible slide in there – at least, on concert D pipes.) Percussion. One version of this had a little bit of field/funeral drumming, but it didn’t sound natural, so I pulled it.

May continue to develop this little piece as an exercise – if so, watch this space for its continuing evolution.

(Technical: Strings and horn sections are EWQLSO Gold, Pipes are Quantum Leap RA – both are PLAY editions. DAW is Logic Express 7.2.3. Playback tool is Anarchy Media Player.)

Coffeemaker has decided that I don’t need coffee, despite my best efforts to convince it otherwise. It’s probably right, but I don’t like the idea of some smarmy machine telling me how to manage my day.

Today is a tech demo sort of day. I’m in the process of converting over from an all-hardware setup to software synths and samplers (yes, I know I’m behind the curve. But I love my hardware synths, and all their buttons and knobs. My workhorse XV-5050 is over in a corner crying.) and with a full schedule coming up this season, I want to learn the new workflow now.

It’s definitely an iterative process. Yesterday, I was thrilled with the sounds that came out of my new orchestra (EastWest/Quantum Leap Gold, if you’re keeping track). Listening back today, things sound a little thin and out of balance. Back to the manual, and the tweaking. Oy, the tweaking.

But back to the coffee. I’ve been reading Charles De Lint’s newest book, The Mystery of Grace. It’s set in the Southwest, and the way he describes his environments, you can hear the music pulsing out of the pages, smell the air, taste the coffee. It’s making me want to dig into the new set of rare and ethnic samples that I ordered yesterday. Unfortunately, they’re not here yet, and I don’t have the money or time to trip out to Arizona for a sniff of the atmosphere, so it’ll have to be coffee.

Alright, coffeemaker. Once more, with feeling.

Here we Go!

Originally uploaded by tencents

After midnight launch-ing, installing, and patching, here’s Deyna standing on the docks, waiting for the boat to Northrend. A last look at that lovely, matching Karazhan gear before heading back into the mix-and-match clown look of leveling.

To the Democrats in Washington – you now have only 75 days left to blame the other guy. Then it’s your turn. Make this one count.

To my fellow voters, who turned out in numbers unprecedented in my lifetime – thank you for, whoever you voted for, being a part of an historic night and a fascinating campaign season. Please, please, stay involved. The real work is coming now. Keep making your voice heard.

And to all the cynics – the doubters who, like me, thought that despite all the signs, polls, articles and rallies that defeat would surely be snatched from the jaws of victory, I say: believe. Don’t stop questioning, don’t stop challenging, but believe. Change can come, and we can make it happen.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy wrote, in a letter congratulating President-Elect Obama, “By choosing you, the American people have chosen change, openness and optimism,”. Optimism. Hope. Faith. “Yes We Can.” These are sentiments that have been missing from the American spirit for far too long. Last night, we heard them ring out again. Whether they remain into the new year, the new Presidency and beyond – that’s on us. All of us.

At the risk of sounding less than genuine, I can think of no other way to close than -

God bless America.

As I get ready to dive into the holiday season at work, here are a couple of last-minute pokes at this amazing, insane election season.

Scott Kurtz smacks Dickens and the American political process – all in four panels! – in PvP’s An Election Carol.

Meanwhile, This. Fucking. Election. artistically collects the taglines from the campaign.

Please vote if you are able, and cross your fingers for Christmas rehearsals!

As the drama and the name-calling build in the Presidential election, it’s important to keep a healthy sense of humor. Machinima.com has scored with this World of Warcraft election special, featuring polls, a comparison of the candidates’ base stats, and some revealing man tauren-in-a-bikini on the street interviews. (Plus a John McCain-as-dwarf cameo!) Via Kotaku.