NFL.com, how I grumble at thee...

OK, so maybe I'm just cranky about the tremendous fail that is the Green Bay Packers. But this is week 5, and in all five weeks of the regular season (as well as all the weeks of the preseason) there have been technical problems with the AudioPass feed or the Game Center console. Both of these things are managed by small monkeys with extraordinarily large hands, and it is clear that these monkeys grew up in a Czech zoo with no understanding of the local (or any other) language and an Eastern European concept of American football.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate. A little. Still, I have problems with the audio feed every week (and I can hear the opponents radiocast without a problem, so I know it's not my gear or connection. I've stopped sending support requests because they now ignore 'em. I've spent a bunch of money on this feed, and I expect the vendor to, um, deliver.

Is it really that hard. Have a smart guy on the Game Center. Have a competent camera operator doing the analysis shoots. But try to figure out the audio feed before either the MacBook or dLink box go flying through the window.

Durnit.

Followup: Every week since this posting, the audio has been balled up coming back from commercials. This shows you exactly the amount of power I wield in the media world: NONE.

[ddg]

The Long Haul

Leaving this evening for the long haul to Minneapolis to play at the Spark Festival. I don't leave until after 6pm (due to classes and work), and I have to be there at 7:30pm for sound check. That means pretty much a straight shot - Google Maps tells me it is about a 14 hour drive, but that doesn't include zonking out at waysides and such. I'm actually a little nervous about this, but I'll burn it out. See you there?

Results of the gig will be posted on the ArtBlog.

[Note: I forgot to publish this before I left, so now you get this message along with an iPhone photo of the late-night dashboard...]
[ddg]

Fritzing as a New Option

(copied from my artBlog)

This is why I'm in the program, man. I started bitching about hardware creation in the "ancient networks" section of a class, and someone said "Oh, you should check out Fritzing". Never heard of it. Apparently, they are using the Romulan Cloaking Device to keep underground, and I was surprised there was something I hadn't already rejected.

Got it, crashed it several times (it's in Alpha state right now) - but also got the board I wanted in the sizing I wanted. Its parts list is limited, but they are doing the right thing w/r/t limiting the wholesale creation of bogus parts; you can use generic parts easily, and the labeling allows you to make sense of them in the schematic and PCB views.

This is going to be THE KILLER TEACHING TOOL for hardware-focused media tools; I'm going to dive into this whole-heartedly, because it radiated "The Future".

www.fritzing.org

[ddg]

Conceptual Split

Well, the time has come to get a little serious about all of this, and to start paying attention to the stuff I put online - and the places that I put it. In a recent class, the student (of which I am one) got read the riot act about how much information we are putting online, and how useful it is for people that are either a) trying to track what we are into, or b) trying to find out how relevant our work is to anything else.

Hence, I am now splitting my posting activities between three blogs:

my ArtBlog, which will contain a running commentary on what I'm working on.
my DevBlog, which will show hardware and software developments I'm dealing with.
this blog, which is sort of my personal take on everything else (and some of the above).

Why bother doing this? It's so that I have places to point people where they might find things that interest them. Some people will want to see my Process w/r/t art; thus, the ArtBlog. Some will want to know what I'm up to with Cycling '74 or my own creations; that's the DevBlog's point. Finally, some people just want to keep in touch or hear me rant; that's this blog's new reason for existance.

Since I'm compelled to be Super Blogging Boy, you will hopefully see more action in all these locations. Enjoy!

[ddg]

Lucky Man

Well, I'm back from a horrible trip to Wisconsin (more on that in an upcoming blog), and trying to get some things done before school and work collide into one great big autumn mess. Work for the coming year looks interesting, and will involve a lot of "learning new things" - one of my favorite aspects of working for Cycling '74. Hopefully I'll be getting my Master's degree next spring, but my thesis idea fell through the floor based on reading Joel Chadabe's book - alas, I'll have to find something new...

But I took some time yesterday to lay down a live-to-disk version of The Means Of Production, all spurred by Gregory Taylor's request to play it on his RTQE radio show. I was blown away by his request (the show is one of the best ways to find out about new music), and quickly did a in-home performance that I recorded, did a top-and-tails edit, then shipped off. It's playing tonight, but you should be able to catch his WORT-FM archive for the next week or two.

Getting the opportunity to be on his show, coming back to my mountain house, playing some music and looking forward to a busy but interesting fall reminds me of how lucky I really am...

[ddg]