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KDE

Journal Journal: KDE Slackware

Well this journal entry is being written on a dell 101.<it works> yahoo! I had alot of trouble with it before with KDE. I have to say KDE has come a long way and the config is much better than any other desktop. Slack 9.1 rocks, no trouble with usb mice, great config tools and all the docs. I have the feeling Slack is going to catch on with the mainstream guys.
Science

Journal Journal: Well I screwed up.

Well I pulled the ultimate bone head jump to conclusion about data with the thought that the power outage possibly was caused by a flair! Shu=it sorry you guys I will do a better job of getting the info right in the future. Well lets start to speculate as to cause, hummm msblaster? Well the Canadians are still blaming the Americans and vice versa, so that is possible yet. I can just see some poor sucker who works as the software specialist at a major hydro switching station who was stupid enough to ignore the warnings! Stay tuned.
Microsoft

Journal Journal: Wierd MS goulies!!!!

Well it is getting very strange in the land of Gates, did he pull another software clone fast one with advanced DRM and his much touted TRUSTED COMPUTING TECH? My guess is that Sony and Phillips would not buy into anything that did not have some sound (pardon the pun) tech behind it. If MS really has screwed these guys I think they might have finally screwed the wrong people. Time will tell. They have screwed enough developers in the past and this sort of usury is not beyond them. If you have a tech that MS wants bad enough but is not willing to license then you can bet they will get virgins to reverse your code to spec.

Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: well I flamed the cisco crowd and

Well I flamed the Cisco crowd and still have excellent karma. It is about time to take it out on the Apple users again that should get my karma down.
Better still I will do it to the limited audiance at MS.com. Geepers I will then need to write something good to get some karma back such is the life of a Ratfynk.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Cause of rediculous bill is more than meets the eye.

Just thought I would put this comment in my journal, as it is relative to my view about todays music dark age.

The pop culture hero worship of the lovable bad guy is the crux of the situation. As long as there is a little bit of the thief in our sensibilities then this is what you will expect to happen. Copyright infrigement has now come under this social sensitivity.

No we cannot justify our need to steal, but it feels good to be a pirate and thumb our noses at those who get rich selling the candy we crave. The average Joe in Chicago during the depression gladly took hand out from Al Capone, and many looked up to him as a figure standing up against what everyone loved to hate, Government.

The problem is Government has become dissasociated from people. The media has taken advantage of this and regularly makes villains of polititions, cops, and anyone seen to be in authority. It is ironic that the very media who has made all the money making villains out of polititians is now running to them for protection from a wave of junk media and pop music pirates. "This situation will get out of hand and we will be lucky to live through it." Quote from the Hunt for Red October.

There is going to be a fundimental shift in media and entertainment. As it no longer becomes possible to sell cds to the craved audiance then some other venue will become more important. Music concerts where the stoned out, lighter waving audience makes almost as much noise as the band have just become a bore to music lovers and musicians. Real musicians and performers will rule the day again because they are the only ones that will be able to get anyone to actually listen. Or buy anything, perhaps 24/96 high end iso over a secure connection to subscribers is the best route. That way a dvd rom can be burned by the subscriber who can legally burn cd and sell them to small local audiences. Rather like an underground direct music distro for musicians. Hmmmmm not a bad idea! It could bypass Sony RIAA and the whole sheebang and be totally legal and on the up and up.

Spam

Journal Journal: To the slashdot ./ mail script kiddies.

Since flaming users of a certain well known junk OS I have suffered a considerable increase in my junk mail. The titles headers and return addresses of which are all cryptic junk, or nonsense.

Well I guess this goes to show you how protective of their own security they are! One glaring flaw is the fact that modem highjacking is very easy to trace, and detect. Those like myself that are angry at the fact that spam can contain the latest MS script kiddie innovations, are amused by the rediculous attemps to highjack a dead modem, lure me to certain hidden urls, use port 180 etc, to get access. By the way I can tell when it is not a bot. Just a word of caution your infantile activities with certain 1-800 numbers and other well know exploits have been logged, recorded and reported to the right people including exact time and name of the 800 service.

The Courts

Journal Journal: The Sco thing

If the SCO vs IBM thing ever does go to court the very legality of software rental EULAS will be put to the test. If software is indeed an intellectual product then how will a regular rental agreement work.

If you purchase the rights to use then all
rental agreements need a time specification. To rent permanently the way Microsofts EULAS are written is akin to any ownership title of a real physical property. Unless the EULAs for proprietary ware change, then the concept of the right to own use in perpetuity is at best dubious and at worst a deliberate deception!

Windows

Journal Journal: Slashdot has become something useless my sign off. for now. 2

I starting to slash dot because of my genuine concern over the state of Classical Music recording and our computerised big brother windows society. Now that I see this is not the right forum and has become populated by air heads, and kids. I should have known better than to try get informed intellegent opinions, from the non university based internet.
I hearby swear off all internet based discourse it has become worse that useless. Bill Gates is safe another well informed old mind bites the dust!

ratfynk not an anon coward

ps
my email address is really just my spam repository. and has been an education about big brothers techniques since trying to communicate intelligently online. It has been a slice, but life is too short for a real musician to mess with this bullshit.

ps bs whenever you get an email reply like "whatever you are on I want some" it only
goes to prove my point, see I do read my junk in a safe way before I delete it along with all the other shit with viruses and trojans attached! format C with a different fs or the good old linux command, dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda ... cleans your windows of bugshit! just fine.

Apple

Journal Journal: more Karma

Well I got my good Karma back, I guess I will need to get myself moded down again. Easy enough just get the Apple users pissed, and bingo down goes the Karma.

Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Karma

Wow it worked my Karma is now positive not Good!
It is amazing how a little karma is like a fox shitting over a cliff.

Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Well here I am meta moderate to karma nerdvana

If this is going down on my permanent record then I have a confession to make. Sometimes I do not know what the hell I am talking about. I am going to seak help from SLASHDOTTERS ANONYMOUS DISTRESS INFORMATION SUCKERS TRAMA SECTION or the SADISTS. I have an addiction to typing useless flamebait! Please help. I punch fun at the site of vulgar trolls and bait the hell out of them just to piss em' off. This cannot be good Karma! Yet my Karma remains good. I have tried to be informative, when possible but find that Bullshit is more fun! My pet trolls are obviously AOL and MSN keyword junk surfers. I am even trying to bait MSN users into flame wars! May the gods of Slashdot forgive my illbegotten behaviour.

Music

Journal Journal: more music

I can just imagine Johann sitting at a PC with a Kerzwiel, and banks of Korgs wondering about what to write today. He turns on the synth, punches up the strings 2nd octave, puts in a little chorus. Plays an Em broken chord arpeggio (for those wonderin what it is? e,g,b,e 'not always in order except e in the bass'). With some satisfaction he adds a bank of flute stops and runs a G 6/4 (for those wonderin what? 'in ascending order b,d,g but not played in that order except b in the bass!') adding f# to the top (voice) melody leading he descends the base to the chord C Major ascending to the g as melody without doubling, (down)..f#..(up)to,b etc.... then with his usual skill yeilds to the dominant Bmajor, the bones of a new wonderfull composition are all he needs. From this novel musical idea he will create a structured masterwork. He crafts his work so quickly that other composers will marvel for centuries at his genius!

He turns on the Dribble Notater software to notate the beauty he is creating. Suddenly the software crashes because he upgraded to XP last night. He calls Dribble Inc. Tech support determines that the issue is with his sound card driver and is known but not fixable, the recommendation is to upgrade to the newest version of Dribble Notater 3.1, and get a supported sound card. As the friggin' computer flies out the Window, his wife Anna brings him his old writing tools. All is not lost. His skills are real, not computer generated.

Fortunately there were no PCs around when real composers took quill to paper and made generation after generation proud to be musicians.

Music

Journal Journal: Music File Formats and Encoding with 64 bit processors

Music MP3s are a great way to keep obscure music alive, and for musicians to communicate.
As a musician mulling over the posibilities these things come to mind. One can record music that is out of print, demonstrate music and technique with recorded examples, keep a digital record of ones musical ideas, communicate musical ideas to other musicians, etc. The other illegal uses are only too painfully obvious and by and large are not of any interest to musicians, myself who I humbly include.

I will endevour to see if there are any software gurus out there that can help come up with a real time wave to encoded recording interface. Of course file formats other than mp3 need to be explored. The difficulties encountered when trying to encode wave in real time should be overcome with the introduction of 64 bit processing to the home computer.

As home computing is still in its infancy I expect that there will be the usual resistance to trying different approaches. Given that RIAA is so anal, I expect to see that efforts to create 64 bit real time recording/encoding for the home user will cause them fits. Certainly home encoding in real time from a private original source is beyond the scope of DRM, and the case for fair use is beyond reproach.

I want to be able to send compressed recording of my own music and legal arrangements to who ever, where ever and when ever I so desire. The recording industry cannot be given sanction to stop fair use of this or any technology. If the RIAA does succeed in stopping the advancement of recording and encoding technology, then the public reaction should be a boycott of the industry. To these ends I will work. The real day the music died was when the musician signed the contract!

I also intend to start a draft for an Open Use Music Copyleft that can be digitally encoded into the music file at time of recording. This copyleft could verify that the rights of the original are respected and that commercial use of the original or any modified version of the original can only take place with prior approval of the original copyleft holder.

Regards to those that read this.
Ratfynk aka Eric
     

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