Fall odds and ends

Internet woes

The internet has not been all good to me recently. I often shop online and encourage everyone do so, but when things go bad, it can (apparently) be a pain to get your money back.

My first (and second) internet mishap happened while I was trying to buy an RME Fireface 800 on Ebay. On two separate occasions, after winning the item and paying through PayPal, Ebay removed the listing because they suspected it was fraudulent. I got my money back in full in both cases, but it took a couple weeks for PayPal to go through its formal complaint process. Weeks during which my money was tied up and I couldn't use it to buy a Fireface 800. After going through this twice and suffering through another bad experience (see below), I decided to buy a new interface from a Canadian store. The transaction went smoothly and I had the interface within the week.

Internet woes (Part II)

My internet misfortunes continued as a result of a transaction I initiated in late June when I ordered a mute from an online retailer. This mute has a microphone pickup inside it and I intended to use it in my meta-trombone project, so I was quite keen to get it (and very happy to find a retailer in North-America). But it wasn’t coming. So I contacted the seller in July and again in August. By mid-August I wanted my money back. When I received no reply from the seller, I lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and informed the seller. No reply from the seller.

Early in September, I reviewed the seller’s novel approach to customer service on an internet forum and I informed the seller. The seller promptly went apeshit. Whereas he could’ve taken this opportunity to renew communications with me and apologize for missing my previous correspondence, he called me a liar and publicly insulted me on the forum. Certainly not the professional behaviour one expects from a seller… Regardless, the seller agreed to refund me (less restocking fees). However, the seller also sent an email to the Better Business Bureau impersonating me in which ‘I’ apologized and withdrew my complaint. I won’t actually name the seller (due to repeated threats of legal actions), but I would encourage any reader to contact me before placing any significant order for musical equipment from an online retailer located in the north-eastern United States.

Computer woes

One thing you shouldn’t do with your MacBook Pro is to drop it on the floor. Take my word for it. No need to try it for yourself. This could’ve been much worse, but I got off with cosmetics bruises and a dead hard-drive. This is not too problematic, since I’m rather paranoid about backing-up my data. Up until now, I’ve been using CrashPlan to backup my main drive and while I thought it worked quite well, having spent some time with its restore function has made me yearn for another approach. I’ve since switched to Carbon Copy Cloner and I heartily recommend it for all your OS X backup needs. The best thing about it is that it creates a bootable duplicate of your disk. This means there is no down time and no need to reinstall software (and search everywhere for licence information). Also, it doesn’t put your files in an undecipherable proprietary format that makes it impossible to locate files without using the software in question (that is so 20th century).

Learning stuff

Having successfully demonstrated competency in rudimentary university-level mathematics, I’ve started learning computer programming at l’Université du Québec en Outaouais (in accordance with my previously mentioned epiphany). I’m currently enrolled in the introductory Java programming course, but after going through the Stanford introductory course, this one is a breeze. Feeling inadequately challenged, I also signed-up for a free online course at Stanford in artificial intelligence. I’m one of 180,000 or so students enrolled. That’s nuts.

I’ve also been teaching myself to code in Scheme. Not only because it’s the coolest programming language I’ve ever seen, but mainly because it’s the lingua franca of livecoding (see Impromptu comments below).

To solidify my hold on both mathematics and programming, I’ve been using Java, C++ and Scheme to solve mathematical problems posted on Project Euler. I’ve only solved 19 problems to date and I wish I had more time to spend on these, since it’s great fun, it makes me feel smart and I’m learning stuff. What else can you ask for?

Meta-trombone

Not much development since I last posted about the meta-trombone, but a lot of conceptual work happening behind the scenes (mostly thinking about effects). I’m now very interested in Impromptu and its novel blend of coding, AudioUnits, OSC and MIDI. I’m not sure exactly how it will be involved in this project, but I know it will be. One thing that Impromptu allows is to rapidly create AU by compiling using its AU wrapper. This would make it possible to create some signal processing wonders of my own and also to implement some of my Bidule patches as compiled code, thus increasing efficiency. Normally, there’s little drawback to using Bidule, but my audio to midi patch is a bit of a drain on the CPU and could be improved by moving it to Impromptu. This livecoding platform also has some interesting video applications that I’m more than willing to explore.

Camera (film)

I purchased an old canon film camera and a couple of lens online and found an old light table locally. I’m amazed at how cheaply this equipment can be had… an equivalent digital setup would’ve meant an investment of several thousands of dollars. For a bit over $200, I have seven lens, an SLR and a light table. Amazing.

My main reason for getting these technological vestiges of a previous century is to further explore a collage technique that I learnt from Collin Zipp when I attended a workshop at Daïmon. During this workshop, I created a little video from cut-up and scratched film negatives. While the video is ok, what struck me was that a lot of the individual frames made stunning images in themselves and I’d like to explore that in the coming months, perhaps using this technique to create a short comic.

Learning stuff online

The web is a great resource when it comes to learning stuff. Google has become my default reference library for everything from DIY projects to black holes. But as much as I like the immediacy of information that the web provides, the lack of coherent presentation and the ease with which one enquiry can lead to another is not always conducive to in-depth learning. One of my defining traits as a person is that I find everything interesting. The web’s very structure panders to my tendency to follow every thread to its next logical point. Anyone who’s spent any amount of time on Wikipedia going from one article to the next (starting with Pluto and ending with spaghetti) will know what I mean.
One strategy I’ve developed over the years to make sure my focus stays in one place long enough to learn something is to take a course.  I’ve taken a number of courses (university and otherwise) in a number of subjects and I will continue to do so.  A course brings me the structure I would otherwise lack.  Scheduled class time and assignments deadlines ensure that I will put in the work, do the reading and show up to learn…  otherwise I could easily get interested in something else (or, worse, spend my time writing poetry).  I find that the time requirements for a single course are usually manageable and allow me plenty of free time to explore other interests as they arise.
This summer I’m taking my first online course. It’s a course in electro-acoustic composition from Simon-Frasier University.  Here is the first composition I produced for this course:



It’s more of a study than a full-out creative outburst…  but I still like it.  I made used of my previously mentioned loop-making technique to create this song using only vocal sound source.
This online learning experience has been very positive so far. In fact, I’m thinking of taking more online courses in the future.
One concern I have is getting my money’s worth. The web is notorious for education scams luring suckers to spend good money on digitized copies of public domain books. Although I think I’m a rather sophisticated web reader and I wouldn’t fall for most of the scams out there, I’m sure there are sophisticated thieves devising sophisticated scams. In the words of an old friend who has since disappeared: just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.
Another issue is finding courses.  It’s easy enough to find courses on topics that already interest me.  For instant, I was able to find the following music courses without too much trouble:
Music for the Media
Sound Design for the Electronic Musician
Sound Design
All expensive, but certainly interesting.  The web page for the second one features an endorsement apparently from the professor of my current course. 
But, what about all the stuff out there that might interest me, even though I don’t currently know that it does/might/will?  What am I missing out on?  How do I discover more online courses on topics I’m not even looking for?  Do I have to read through every university website?  Maybe.  I can also use Einztein.
Einztein (http://einztein.com/) is a directory of freely available course materials from universities worldwide.  Browsing through Einztein, I’ve created a shortlist of 27 courses that I’d like to take on subjects as varied as Astronomy (outside the solar system), Navigation, Calculus, Information, News writing, Filmmaking, Photography, contemporary arts, jazz composition, typography, ear training, screenwriting and more (including furniture making).
What materials you get vary from course to course and from university to university.  Sometimes, you get only a syllabus, a reading list and assignments.  Sometimes, you get video of every lecture.  You never know what you're going to get.  It’s like a box of chocolates.  For the mind.
The course I’m most excited about is one on Douglas Hofstadter’s Gõdel, Escher, Bach from MIT.  I can’t wait to read that wonderful book once again with the aid of someone who’s put considerably more time than I’ll ever have learning the concepts it presents.  Good times.