November 2016

"Deep Blue Mainframe"

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"Deep Blue Mainframe" [mp3 removed -- please listen on Bandcamp]

Recorded/arranged in Ardour (Linux version).

Burbling along throughout, some live recordings of the Doepfer A-155 triggering the A-112 sampler, playing Adventure Kid "fm synth" and "vgame" waveforms in wavetable mode.

For accompaniment, several Linux softsynths: Loomer Aspect, Calf Monosynth, and one not used before, PhaseX. It's not a plugin like the others; instead, MIDI out from Ardour (via JACK) triggers the synth. Simultaneously JACK brings PhaseX's audio output into Ardour for recording and further editing. This required using Ardour's latency compensation, which I thought was only for hardware, but it helped to get PhaseX mostly in sync with the Ardour grid.

For percussion, the ADDAC 101 and 111 wav players, again triggered by the A-155; with samples from a couple of NI Battery kits, OpaSID and OpenSource. Some additional beats from the E-Mu Orbit soundfonts play in Calf's Fluidsynth ROMpler.

None of this has anything to do with Deep Blue or mainframes.

agitprop

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Friends and former friends are saying I *must* vote for the Clintons for urgent and rational reasons: (i) stop evil and (ii) stop fascism. Great arguments, really smart! Meanwhile, peaceful protestors are being pepper-sprayed under a Democratic administration. This is the party that's supposedly the alternative to evil and fascism. Wrap your minds around this.

candidates_2

clinton advice column

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Dear Tom,
My Hillary-supporting friends are driving me crazy! The latest thing they are saying is "Show me some proof Clinton Foundation did quid-pro-quo ... name me corporations/actors that were q-p-q ... show me some proof Hillary was aware." How can I respond to this? Is there an article that proves quid pro quo?
K.P.

Dear K.P.,
Asking for a "quid pro quo" is an unfair debate tactic. You're not a prosecuting attorney with subpoena power, and even if you were, the Clintons are adept at wiggling out of "smoking guns." The FBI is in an uproar over this right now. The issue is not what you or I or the FBI can prove in court, the issue is whether there is an appearance of impropriety or corruption. I'd say taking $153 million in speaking fees (the Clintons' combined haul since the early '00s) while remaining in politics, capable of returning favors, is improper.

The Clinton Foundation Timeline (maintained by a Democrat) aggregates so many suspect maneuvers that by the time you've finished reading the smell is overpowering. Here's just one example. It's not what Hillary did or didn't do at State, it's Bill selling himself for access to world leaders or other powerful contacts under cover of a charity.

Also see this review by a left-leaning commenter of the right-wing film Clinton Cash (links are in my post). She finds support for a lot of what's said. In particular, scroll down on this page to the section called "Red Shadows: Kazakhstan, Uranium One & the Long Arm of Vladimir Putin." Pretty outrageous, especially in light of all the red-baiting the Clintons have been doing to distract from the Wikileaks revelations.

It's fine if our Hillary-supporting friends want to ignore all this but when they start insisting we prove Hillary's guilt according to legal standards they are just jerking us around. (I get this too.) If this were a Bush no one would demand a quid pro quo -- the appearance of corruption would be enough. Proving quid pro quo is much harder if potential evidence is on a private email server and was destroyed as "personal correspondence" -- to insist that we resuscitate that information is especially galling.
Tom

my raspberry pi

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my_raspberry_pi

The back side of the Qu-Bit Nebulae module, showing the Raspberry Pi it uses for an operating system (for cv-controlled granular sample manipulation).
Although still functioning perfectly, this is a five year old relic, like the bone of a saint ensconced in an ornamental cabinet. Qu-Bit is no longer making the Nebulae because Raspberry Pi changed its design and/or specs. So I have a dedicated general purpose computer humming away inside an obsolete musical instrument. There is something kind of poignant about that. Or perhaps not.