In short: I want to keep posting my awesome science links.  I know a few people read them or watch the vids.  I think that’s worth it altogether.  I have some good friends online. Despite have 130ish ‘friends’ whom I barely speak with, the small few that I do speak with make it worth it.

So, I am going to keep burning the fires for science.  I think it’s critical for the future of mankind.  I’m not kidding!  The day we regress is the day we start burning people as witches and cowering everytime a comet graces the sky.

I will say this though, if the comet is headed towards Earth, feel free to panic, get naked, drink lots, have LOTS of sex, do LOTS of drugs and otherwise be completely irrational.   Why?  If a comet has our name on it, at this point, we are S O L. So, may as well have a good time before it all ends, right?

/onsoapbox

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to invest in some low budget gear to record music.  I bought an Alesis Micron synth which is just awesome!  I also got myself a small used multi-track.  I wasn’t very sure about it as it was older.  I decided to give it a shot.

Well, turns out I wasn’t so impressed with it.  I take the item back and get a full refund.  Well, I still wanted to record but I wanted more of a PC interface.  The gentleman at Guitar Center recommended the Digidesign Mbox2 Mini.  It came with Pro Tools LE 8 and a box to interface with the computer. Perfect, right?

*another deep breath*

I get home and run the install.  Took a while but it was clean and easy.  I read the start up booklet so I could at least lay down a test track, you know, kick the tires a bit.  It went well and sounded good.  I played with the plugins a bit and thought all was well.

A couple of days later I wanted to really lay down a track and start piecing together ideas for songs.  So, I run my synth in, hit record and start playing.  Roughly 45 seconds in, I get an error. It’s a 6086 error.  I saw it many, many times more after the first time.  It’s a hardware buffer error I do believe.  That much I didn’t care about.  I wanted to fix it and fast.  I kept seeing people suggesting the use of an external hard drive.  Lucky me, I had one!  Plug it in, hit record, ERROR! *sigh*

I was fed up.  I uninstalled all the software, boxed it up and headed back to GC.  I wanted to return this damn thing before I blew a fuse.  Oh, wait, looks like I can NOT return it because the software is open.  Oh. My. God.  So, I was told I had to make my system compatible.  I was initially very irritated.  I was essentially speechless and making ‘dur hur?’ sounds.  Ok, policy is policy.  Not their fault.  I wasn’t going to make a scene.  Back home I go to try to make my system work.

So, I did one google search and was immersed into a sea of people who have this same error!  It’s a very common error in fact.  If you ask me, it is TOO common.  Well, I registered myself on their forums (digidesign) and got to work.  I posted my entire system specs and got a couple of suggestions.  I was going to have to buy a new hard drive regardless.  That was until I saw one final response to my thread.

My motherboard is Nvidia based.  The chipset is Nvidia in other words.  Those chipsets are known to be problematic.  He said I was basically out of luck.  Ok, now I’m getting angry again at this point.

So lets get this straight:  My system clearly and vastly exceeded the requirements on the side of the box.  Yet, I cannot run it because I need an additional hard drive and, oops, my chipset is problematic?  Now I have to eat the $200 I spent on this item?  I don’t think so.

I’m going to put it up on eBay.  I simply have no other choice.  What would you do?  I’m a hobbyist.  I’m not a big time recording guru.  If I were, I wouldn’t have wasted time with this in the first place.  I’m not a big fan of tossing 200+ dollars out the window.  There is someone out there than can use it.

My gripe is that Digidesign continues to sell a flawed product.  Yep, it’s flawed.  If it takes a gargantuan amount of tech support to make the thing work then it IS flawed at the core.  There needs to be a better way of determining system compatibility.  It’d hurt their sales but they’d gain respect as a company, if you ask me.

Many people swear by this product.  I’m sure it’s fan-freakin’-tastic when it works.  For myself, it does not.  It’s crap.

/offsoapbox

/onsoapbox

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to invest in some low budget gear to record music.  I bought an Alesis Micron synth which is just awesome!  I also got myself a small used multi-track.  I wasn’t very sure about it as it was older.  I decided to give it a shot.

Well, turns out I wasn’t so impressed with it.  I take the item back and get a full refund.  Well, I still wanted to record but I wanted more of a PC interface.  The gentleman at Guitar Center recommended the Digidesign Mbox2 Mini.  It came with Pro Tools LE 8 and a box to interface with the computer. Perfect, right?

*another deep breath*

I get home and run the install.  Took a while but it was clean and easy.  I read the start up booklet so I could at least lay down a test track, you know, kick the tires a bit.  It went well and sounded good.  I played with the plugins a bit and thought all was well.

A couple of days later I wanted to really lay down a track and start piecing together ideas for songs.  So, I run my synth in, hit record and start playing.  Roughly 45 seconds in, I get an error. It’s a 6086 error.  I saw it many, many times more after the first time.  It’s a hardware buffer error I do believe.  That much I didn’t care about.  I wanted to fix it and fast.  I kept seeing people suggesting the use of an external hard drive.  Lucky me, I had one!  Plug it in, hit record, ERROR! *sigh*

I was fed up.  I uninstalled all the software, boxed it up and headed back to GC.  I wanted to return this damn thing before I blew a fuse.  Oh, wait, looks like I can NOT return it because the software is open.  Oh. My. God.  So, I was told I had to make my system compatible.  I was initially very irritated.  I was essentially speechless and making ‘dur hur?’ sounds.  Ok, policy is policy.  Not their fault.  I wasn’t going to make a scene.  Back home I go to try to make my system work.

So, I did one google search and was immersed into a sea of people who have this same error!  It’s a very common error in fact.  If you ask me, it is TOO common.  Well, I registered myself on their forums (digidesign) and got to work.  I posted my entire system specs and got a couple of suggestions.  I was going to have to buy a new hard drive regardless.  That was until I saw one final response to my thread.

My motherboard is Nvidia based.  The chipset is Nvidia in other words.  Those chipsets are known to be problematic.  He said I was basically out of luck.  Ok, now I’m getting angry again at this point.

So lets get this straight:  My system clearly and vastly exceeded the requirements on the side of the box.  Yet, I cannot run it because I need an additional hard drive and, oops, my chipset is problematic?  Now I have to eat the $200 I spent on this item?  I don’t think so.

I’m going to put it up on eBay.  I simply have no other choice.  What would you do?  I’m a hobbyist.  I’m not a big time recording guru.  If I were, I wouldn’t have wasted time with this in the first place.  I’m not a big fan of tossing 200+ dollars out the window.  There is someone out there than can use it.

My gripe is that Digidesign continues to sell a flawed product.  Yep, it’s flawed.  If it takes a gargantuan amount of tech support to make the thing work then it IS flawed at the core.  There needs to be a better way of determining system compatibility.  It’d hurt their sales but they’d gain respect as a company, if you ask me.

Many people swear by this product.  I’m sure it’s fan-freakin’-tastic when it works.  For myself, it does not.  It’s crap.

/offsoapbox

So, thoughts so far?  I really don’t miss it nor do I think about it much.  The only time I think about it is when I see a great science article online.  If I could somehow just get that stuff out to people without the massive influx of drama.  I do have twitter but it’s not as powerful in that regard.  I can pretty things up and have more room to write in Facebook.

Oh well.  If I did go back I’d reboot my account as a channel of pure science.

I do not miss the social interactions because they were next to non-existent.  I do miss a handful of friends but I know they’re still around if I should choose to go back.  There are other avenues of contacting friends as well.  Also, as time goes by and scenery changes, so too do the people around you.  You can’t be total bud-buds with 100% of everyone you were ever friends with.  You’d go insane.  I have highschool friends I haven’t talked to in a long time.  I can’t stop my life to stalk them.  They have lives too.  Usually it’s just a word in passing and that’s enough for a good long while.

Facebook was a bit too narcissistic for me anyway.  I am proud of what talents I have but I have a rule of thumb: No matter how good you are at something, someone is always better.  I choose the route of being humble.  Sort of like Atticus Finch after he is revealed to be an excellent marksman.  By the way, I’m not telling whether or not I’m an excellent marksman.

For now, Facebook will rest.  I still have a cooking achievement to get in WoW.  It only takes 15 minutes of my day though.

My newest endeavor is getting back into writing music.  I’ve tried a few times in years past with mixed results and good times.  I already put a serious investment into this go round.  I bought myself an Alesis Micron keyboard/synth.  It’ll double as a MIDI controller also.  That will go hand in hand with Pro Tools LE 8 that I got with my Digidesign interface.  These are tools I’ve never used before.  I’ve gotten a small taste of Pro Tools and it’s just insane how powerful even the LE version is.  Next few items will be a bass (short scale perhaps) and a new guitar multi-effects processor.  I need a MIDI interface as well.

It’s nice to have the free time that would have been otherwise wasted on Facebook.  Writing music and showing my kids the joy and work that goes into that is much more constructive.

So, thoughts so far?  I really don’t miss it nor do I think about it much.  The only time I think about it is when I see a great science article online.  If I could somehow just get that stuff out to people without the massive influx of drama.  I do have twitter but it’s not as powerful in that regard.  I can pretty things up and have more room to write in Facebook.

Oh well.  If I did go back I’d reboot my account as a channel of pure science.

I do not miss the social interactions because they were next to non-existent.  I do miss a handful of friends but I know they’re still around if I should choose to go back.  There are other avenues of contacting friends as well.  Also, as time goes by and scenery changes, so too do the people around you.  You can’t be total bud-buds with 100% of everyone you were ever friends with.  You’d go insane.  I have highschool friends I haven’t talked to in a long time.  I can’t stop my life to stalk them.  They have lives too.  Usually it’s just a word in passing and that’s enough for a good long while.

Facebook was a bit too narcissistic for me anyway.  I am proud of what talents I have but I have a rule of thumb: No matter how good you are at something, someone is always better.  I choose the route of being humble.  Sort of like Atticus Finch after he is revealed to be an excellent marksman.  By the way, I’m not telling whether or not I’m an excellent marksman.

For now, Facebook will rest.  I still have a cooking achievement to get in WoW.  It only takes 15 minutes of my day though.

My newest endeavor is getting back into writing music.  I’ve tried a few times in years past with mixed results and good times.  I already put a serious investment into this go round.  I bought myself an Alesis Micron keyboard/synth.  It’ll double as a MIDI controller also.  That will go hand in hand with Pro Tools LE 8 that I got with my Digidesign interface.  These are tools I’ve never used before.  I’ve gotten a small taste of Pro Tools and it’s just insane how powerful even the LE version is.  Next few items will be a bass (short scale perhaps) and a new guitar multi-effects processor.  I need a MIDI interface as well.

It’s nice to have the free time that would have been otherwise wasted on Facebook.  Writing music and showing my kids the joy and work that goes into that is much more constructive.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

That quote refers to the TARDIS.  That blue box.  Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space, in case you didn’t know.  And, well, I didn’t borrow it actually, I stole it! No, kidding again.  The ‘Time Vortex’ background was something I threw together.  I couldn’t find a decent one in an image search.  It works well enough for me.  The theme overall is also more blue.

Sadly, the season ended last Saturday for us in the U.S.  The U.K. gets it 3 or 4 weeks earlier.  The finale was bang on.  I love that, the play on words.  Bang!  The Big Bang was the name of the episode.  I’m going to have a review of it soon.

Geronimo!

I joined Facebook very early on.  I’d say only a month or two after it came about.  Back then it was just a blip on the radar.  The big site at that time was MySpace of course.  My Facebook account sat, unused for nearly two years before I came back to it.

Once MySpace lost footing, Facebook moved in for the kill.  Then, as if all at once, it exploded.  Thousands became millions.  Millions became hundreds of millions.

Just a quick side note: It’s a phenomenon full of irony.  Tell anyone that they’re being watched or eavesdropped on and they get pretty ticked off.  In fact, so ticked off that they’re going to make that their status on Facebook.

“I can’t believe this crap, the government is tracking my every move?? I’m getting a burger at Shakey Bakey’s anyone else wanna join me? lol xoxo ”

Yeah.  We’re so defensive about our privacy and yet, we toss it around social networks like some old jacket that barely keeps the cold off.  I know very well that what goes on the web basically stays on the web. Forever.  So I decided that I’d post things I was comfortable with people knowing.  Believe me, there is a lot more info out there about us than we’d like to know about.  Privacy was never a concern for me though, like I said.  Just thought I’d mention it.

The problem for me was time.  The time I spent on Facebook was bad enough.  What I was doing was worse usually.  You see status after status of people doing things you’d like to be able to do.  Go on a vacation, go to a concert, have a night out (just the two of you), sleep in, get a great workout in.  You get the idea.  It was time spent benchmarking myself against other people.  It made me feel like I had to be someone else I guess?

A few weeks back I changed my stance a good bit and decided I’d post only nonsense and science links.  That worked out pretty good but it still wasn’t enough.  I had to kill it.  I’m going to compare it to Doctor Who scenarios because Doctor Who is just awesome. It was like closing that crack in the Universe.  Now it’s all just a memory.

Funny how Facebook works.  As I understand it – once you deactivate – all your updates, links, profile, etc just disappear.  They come back if you reactivate of course.  It is kind of neat how you can seemingly erase your existence.

So at 7am this morning I closed the crack.  My wife soon followed.  We’re locked away as a memory to the people we knew and as a memory in the system.  Though for all intents and purposes we never existed.  Cool huh?

Of course, we still exist.  We’re real people with lives, jobs and a family.  That’s really the moral of our story.  We were so drawn in by the lives of others that we could barely live ours.  It was always what we’d heard or read or saw on Facebook.  So, today is the first day in a long while we’re going to start living our lives.

I will miss the regular correspondence I had with some good friends but this is truly for the better.  This is where you will find me.  Right here, writing away every other day, living my life the best I can.

I can be reached at laserfloyd at gmail dot com.  I typed it out that way so bots and spammers can’t so easily get a hold of it.

Geronimo!

I share with you now that email.  I’ve formatted it a bit so it’s nice so massive.  There’s a bit of reading to do so I’m going to do the ol’ click to read more trick.

I also decided to record it with my camera.  I extracted the audio.  Reading this out loud is even funnier… Sorry for the poor audio quality.  It was one take for the whole thing.

GREETINGS WORLD LEADERS!

“WE’RE PARDY!?”

Forgot… The ‘PEACE WALKER’ is running for USA President too!!!

Spreading bread crumbs or other small food remains around a camping area, usually keeps critters from coming into bed with one.

“DOWN COMES THE RAIN AND WASHES SPIDER OUT! LA! DE! DA!”

Rain likely refers to verbal harassments or throwing of stones, shooting bullets, etc? The Spider is an interloper, Target or Outsider. Such an Individual is commonly called a “Dick!” Rain washes a Spider, also called, “Dick” Out of a community.

“YOU HAVE TO WORK!”

If one works all the time or One’s resources are all tied up, then, One will be less likely to produce differently, that is, be a big winner and social pressures may exist to hold One back.

Heinrich Himmler’s memory?

BIGLETTE?

Adding mud/cement to the leaking Gulf oil well from a relief well, may add pressure, rather than reducing such. However, such may clog much leakage from sea floor if such exists.

ONE TRACK MIND?

This writer has just been taught a new form of the Mongolian Bow Bull, Native American Had signal, by Food line magnet, John, potential cop, NAZI Leader or former big businessman. The sign involves forcing together the small and index finger tips of a hand, while bending two knuckles in center, below. Not easy for some Folks, not schooled in such from early youth. Looks much like addition of an arrow to a bow bull?

Early 19th century American hypothesis, had it that the missing tribes of Israel might have migrated to the Americas. Such thought might have lead to Native American Groups such as the Mormons and Other religious sects, forming Christian or Christian like belief systems and allowed such, as aboriginals, to coexist, within reason, amongst Caucasians and Other mainstreamers? ‘Book of Mormon,’ ‘Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Aboriginal Inhabitants of America.’

Some years back, it was a craze amongst some persons crazed, to hard bounce off other dancers at public dances. People got hurt. An effect of such behavior? Less Folks wanted to dance. Whom were such dancers?

QUESTION MARK?
THE DAYCARE OF LIFE?
What to do with… plastic pantie’..?

THE HALFWAY HOUSE OF LIFE?

“RUSH!” Ya made it again at Arlington, on Wilson Blvd!

Perhaps use aircraft of all sizes, to spray toxic gas, like crop spraying, during warfare?

What might happen were one to putt backwards?

Back as a young kid, this writer attended Holy Redeemer Catholic Grade School, a primarily Native American enrolled parochial school at Marshall Minnesota. About third grade, there was a Nun thereat, can’t remember her name, so, let’s just call her Sister Teresa. Well… Sister, another good name for her, used to keep time with singing during singing class. Typically her timing was a bit slow. Sister didn’t like this writer much, cause, she was probably something like Chippewa and this writer a Caucasian of same tribe.

When singing ‘ WHEN JOHNNY COMES MORCHING HOME,’ it works well to tap a stick or rock, slowly, out of sync, with singing.

“I LIKE LAZER TAG!!!”

Man yelling while driving under bridge this morning.

“KNOW YOUR DAD/PARENTS!!!”

Common comment yelled by Native Americans everywhere, at Targets. It is assumed two things are meant by such, either, one’s parents will know all about one, or such may have one observed or committed, especially if living in a same State.

Holding a handgun out at two arms together distance, lining up what sights might be available and shooting, may likely prove much as effective as using a standard shoulder arm of similar caliber.

Don’t shoot at an armored vest… Shoot at limbs or head.

“I Think… I’m beginning… to believe… Mark…”

Barrach Obama, quote from CNN.

Mighta got that word NATZ/NATS wrong, when them Folks came to the 10th street bridge Arlington, a month or so back. Mighta been the ‘Nationals’ Sports Team, rather than the Competitive Cycling Nationals/NATZ. Didn’t get it, ‘cause, don’t think such played the TWINS much and besides, this writer don’t follow Football.

SECURE BREECH?

Remember: If Ya ever get a chance, visit the Arlington VA Main Library, one of the best this writer’s ever seen.

ONE OF THE SCARIEST SOUNDS IN THE WORLD?

NEARBY COCKED SHOTGUN.

So… What if a pretty librarian were to strip off her blouse and bra and simply continue working? What might happen and why?

This writer worked, some eight years ago, with a guy named ‘Mike,’ who was known otherwise as the ‘SKYWAY BANDIT.’ He robbed about nine banks at Minneapolis Minnesota, to pay for his Heroine habit. We worked at screen and glass repair at a local hardware store thereat.

“Mark! I’m Japanese!”

From speaker on jet plane, flying over Arlington VA.

COLBY CHEESE, a favorite cheese of many Folks, seems lacking, at least in some variations, in some principle food stores at the Arlington VA area. GOOD FRESH SALTY WISCONSIN CHEESE FROM LARGE HORN… sorta curdy!

Last night, while walking up Arlington Blvd, this writer found a sheet of paper containing the following information… ‘SLEEVE SPINNER FIXTURE MONDAY, MAY 10-SUNDAY, JUNE 6 (Then Explanations.)

Finally ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ CARIBOU COFEE COMPANY.

Thought They better know…

SPANK UM WITH THE BOW!!!

COURT?

“WE’RE STILL CHINESE!!!”

Yelled from vehicle passing under bridge this morning.

Must be the HAN Family…

Mark

Mark RandomGuy

email@email.com

THIS MISSIVE NEWSLETTER HAS BEEN SENT TO A MAJORITY OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS ON OUR PLANET, YOU MAY BE ONE OF THEM…

Mark

Soooooo, yes.  I’m possibly a world leader and this email has me thinking.  We need more pie!

Yes, I’m a scienthusiast.

I guess it could be hyphenated  sci-enthusiast?  Maybe scien-thusiast?  Either way, I looked around Google briefly and it’s possible I thought of this before billions of other people?  Maybe it’s some horrible word that I shouldn’t use?  Nah, it’s great!  It describes me quite fittingly, I think.

So there, it’s my word.  It’s OK, you can borrow it.  I expect royalties though!

What to do with it?  Well, I think the world needs more enthusiasm for science.  Not to solve every lurking problem in our lives but to better understand how the world around us works.  Some mysteries shall remain so.  There are some exceedingly complex things in the Universe that aren’t really practical for everyone to know.  Unless it’s your job to know them, that is.

So, perhaps one of my goals in life is to help spread the word of science; Turn people on to how it all works, at a fundamental level.  It always goes back to a quote from Carl Sagan.  Roughly, we live in a world filled with technology.  So few people understand how it all works.  You don’t have to be a scientist to understand.  You simply have to open your mind to it.  When people learn how things actually work, it’s usually one of those “wow…” moments.

In saying that, remember, we can’t let go of reason for madness.  There was a time when people who studied the heavens feared retribution.  Good people were arrested, exiled or even killed for observing something knowable versus believing in something we couldn’t know.  It might seem insane to think that could happen again, but remember as a species, we’re very young.  There are a lot of good and honest people out there that speak for science.

Science is interesting because it changes based on observation.  In that sense, our view of the world has evolved, as our methods and tools have evolved.  The next few decades should prove to be very exciting in the realm of understanding.  How the forefathers of great thinkers should like to be alive today to have a glimpse at what we know.  How the great thinkers of our future might look back and realize how primitive our thinking was.  Each new generation stands on the shoulders of giants from the previous.

Life; space; time; the Cosmos; all encompassing and all waiting to be discovered and understood.  We are, in a way, how the Universe understands itself.

We, as the human race, must keep it going.  If we’re not to be scientists, we should at least be enthusiastic about science.

Enter: The Scienthusiast.

The link to the site is here.

Can’t wait until all modern browsers adopt this.  In the meantime, time to keep researching CSS3 for what I can use at work.