Doctor Frog’s Pontification Pad

I’ve moved myself from blogsome to drfrog.wordpress.com. There are just too many great features supported by Wordpress.com, not the least of which is the most current version of Wordpress (surprise), plus the ability to export your blog for easy moving (albeit to other Wordpress blogs), which Blogsome does not support.

Yeah, that’s me, shooting a .223 rifle and flinching each and every time. Although, in my defense, with each shot I am vaporizing a bunny rabbit.

Alpha Dim site and download.

A few years ago, ArsWare.org wasn’t dead, and existed as a small offshoot of the techie community Ars Technica. I was browsing a handfull of half-finished apps and a nifty little screensaver caught my eye, Alpha Dim.

This simple screensaver causes your monitor to appear to dim after a specified time, theoretically making things easier on your monitor or LCD. It’s as though the monitor automatically jacked down the brightness itself. You can also change the fade color, if you’d rather have your monitor fade to a dark green or hot pink instead of the default black. Here is an example of the screensaver in action. You’ll notice my name emblazoned on the screen; you can also use an image file for the desktop to fade into instead of simply fading the screen into a selected color. Great for egotistical types like myself:

Why would you want this?

• Pure class: This is an imitation of an old Mac screensaver, and much as one might dislike smarmy Mac users, the hardware and software often has class and elegance. Rather than having dancing 3D strippers or flashing lights careening about your screen, you’ll have a simple understatment that says: “Hey, I’m better than you, your family, and your family goat.”
• Doesn’t waste CPU time: Screensavers are time for your PC to rest and cool down. Most animated screensavers jack up your CPU, and often your graphics card, to maximum use while running. When a PC should be resting, it is often working as hard as it would to play the latest video game. A screensaver such as this uses no CPU time, allowing the interior of your PC to cool, and allows background processes such as defragmenting and virus scanning to continue. Dimming the screen also lets your monitor’s power supply rest up a bit, potentially extending its life.
• Wow neato factor: While this screensaver is running, any visual action on your desktop is still visible as it happens. You’ll still be able to see that download meter progressing, or when that long copy operation is done.

so i was sitting there listening to some music, thinking many times, “now this is a good song to drink to,” when i suddenly realized that it’s pretty much all good to drink to, in general.

Based on the clean lines of a Slax screenshot, satin_blue is made up of soft blues and warm grays. Included in the zip file are 2 variations of the style and a matching wallpaper. satin_blue includes 3 bsetroot backgrounds if you’d prefer not to use the wallpaper. Click the following image to download the zip file, or download it here. You can also download the style as a tiny text file here.

Here is a screenshot of satin_blue in action. (Click to see larger view):

The wallpaper shown is included in the zip file, or you can download it separately here.

satin_blue is a style designed for bblean, but should work for any other *box shell replacement. Find out more about blackbox at bb4win.org, and see *box styles in action at boxshots.org.

Concept:
if you are familiar with dynamic playlists, feel free to skip to “Requirements” below

This is, by now, an old idea in internet years (these days, 1 day = 1 year): use a collection of ’smart’ dynamic playlists to create the illusion of Intelligent Design behind automated music selection. The goal is to create an environment in which you need do no more than press play, and a fresh, random selection of music hits your ears, tailored to your personal tastes; not the mechanical blankness of the decades-old “shuffle” function, the designs of industry megagiants or a distant robotic jukebox. Instead, you want a smart selection of tunes, mostly favorites, yet playing those few forgotten gems lurking in your music library. And life in the age of self-absorption is good, temporarily.

The infrastructure behind such a personal radio station is simple, thanks to such music library management programs such as iTunes, Winamp, or MusikCube. These programs make use of dynamic playlists, which automatically stock themselves from your personal library of music based on criteria you set. For example, you can create a playlist comprised only of soundtracks from the 80’s that haven’t been played for at least a month. In iTunes, such a playlist would be set up thus:

And the finished product would look like this:

Neat thing: as you play each of these songs, they are automatically removed from the list for one month. You wouldn’t have to hear them again for as long as you like, and the list continues to draw from your supply of 80’s soundtracks (mine is fairly limited) to provide fresh tunes.

It is this combination of dynamic generation and month-long probation that provides the driving force behind my own personal radio station (Mattland Radio International). Here are my requirements for the resulting playlist:

• The illusion of a random, but “smart” personally-tailored selection of music
• Higher-rated songs played more often than lower-rated songs
• Songs must be “fresh,” not having been played in the last month
• Unrated and lower-rated songs still allowed on the list

Here’s how you make one:

Requirements:

• A decent-sized library (200+ albums) of music you mostly like.
• A decent number of rated songs.
  (If you haven’t rated any songs, take a few moments and rate the tracks in a few albums. Get about a hundred songs if you can. As you use your personal radio station, continue rating songs as you go along. The more you rate, the more ‘accurate’ your station becomes.)
• Music management software (iTunes, Winamp, Musikcube, etc.)
• A decent working knowledge of dynamic/smart playlists.

Procedure:

1. In your preferred music management software, create a dynamic playlist containing 100 of your highest rated songs:
   • 100 songs, selected by random
   • Rated five stars
   • Not played in the last month (or week, if you have a smaller library)
   • Tracks must meet ALL of the above criteria to be on this list (otherwise, you’ll get the phone book.)

   In iTunes, the setup dialog would look like this:
   

   
   Note that “Live Updating” is checked. In iTunes, this ensures that the list will continually update itself, and not remain static, ensuring a fresh supply of tracks.
2. Name the new playlist “Magic 5,” or something else cute.
3. Using the same method, create a dynamic list of only 80 tracks, rated 4 stars, not played in the last month. Make sure “Live Updating,” or its non-iTunes equivalent, is enabled.
   By including fewer lower-rated songs in our equation, we’re increasing the likelihood that higher-rated, better-loved songs play more often in the finished product.
4. Name the new playlist “Magic 4,” or whatever naming convention you prefer.
5. Create a dynamic list of 60 tracks, rated 3 stars, not played in the last month, named “Magic 3.”
6. Create a dynamic list of 40 tracks, rated 2 stars, not played in the last month, named “Magic 2.”
7. Create a dynamic list of 20 tracks, rated 1 star, not played in the last month, named “Magic 1.”
8. Create a dynamic list of 20 tracks, with no rating, not played in the last month, named “Magic 0.”
   Again, by decreasing the pool of lower-rated tracks, we’re increasing the chances a higher-rated song gets played. We’ve also included songs that maybe you haven’t had a chance to rate yet. Adjust the list lengths above to whatever you like to fine-tune your statistics.

Now, we’ll create the One List, a playlist that references other playlists, and the only playlist you’ll actually need to interface with in order to enjoy your fresh, random selection of music.

9. Create a dynamic list that includes ALL of the lists you’ve just created:
   • Allow tracks to match “any” of the criteria instead of “all.” In other words, a track can belong to any of the lists you’ve created to make it onto the One List. Otherwise, you’ll end up with an empty One List, and a puzzled expression on your face.
   • Add each of your playlists as “rules” or criteria for the list. (See the screenshot below.)
   • Ensure that tracks will be randomly selected.
   • Limit the size of the playlist to whatever you feel is appropriate: 2 hours, 50 tracks, etc.

   For example:
   

   
10. Give the final list a clever name, and you’re done!

Here’s an example of the finished product. There are quite a few 4 and 5-star tracks present, but things are broken up a bit with unrated and lower-rated tracks. Plus, many of the tracks haven’t been played in over a month, or ever (in iTunes or on my iPod, at least):

At this point, you can just hit play, and enjoy a random stream of music! Or, you can throw in a bit of randomness to your randomness with additional dynamic playlists:

• Give recently purchased/ripped/pirated tracks a greater chance of playing by creating a dynamic list of songs that have been recently added. Increase the length of the list based on how much priority over the other songs you want, and

  (The remainder of this post is currently being edited.)

In accordance with my current wishes, inebriated though they might be, it is my Solemn and Pure wish that my Body once the Soul has evacuated its dissappointing housing be subject to Flames until it is rendered unto Ashes.

Once the body has been reduced to ashes, the remains are to be mingled with a half a can of coffee. The brand doesn’t really matter, whatever is on sale at the time is fine. Yuban, Maxwell House, though Chock Full o’ Nuts is entirely appropriate on many levels.

Once mingled, coffee is to be distilled from said remains and ingested by the mourner(s). Optionally, the resultant mixture may be desposited into a garden somewhere, where the byproduct of those ashes, whatsoever plant might spring forth from my remains (and coffee grindings), must instead be devoured by the mourner(s) in one fashion or another. One thing must be made entirely clear, that at some point you must EAT ME.

My regards to any survivors. My enemies list may be found in the usual place, go ahead an avenge me or whatever, it is “all good.”

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051219-5802.html

I wonder if this issue is an extension of a change in the way people view movies now.

When I was a kid, going to the movies was a really immersive, magical thing. Leaving the theatre was like waking from a dream. I don’t feel that way anymore, mainly because I can get a faded form of that same sensation with videogames, home theatre, even by closing my eyes and listening to certain music on a portable player. The movie house is not the sole source of that for me anymore.

This is due in part because ‘immersive’ technology is a lot more prevalent than it used to be, and I’m no longer a kid, and can afford to surround myself with such technology.

Going to the movies was a unique thing, shared with dozens of other people. But now, it isn’t as unique, and the other technology that allows us to fulfill our cravings for distraction does so in a more isolationistic, self-absorbed way.

I realize that when I go to a theatre now, it isn’t to experience something with other people, it is to get my own experience. Mine. Me. Everything else that surrounds me at home is focused on me, and my cellphone is an extension of that self-reflective technology, my digital entourage. This isn’t about you, or us. I’m not interested in you. I only want myself to be entertained. I therefore see myself as having a right to retain that cellphone, and no one can take away MY phone from ME. Me. Mine. Conversely, damn YOU for having your cellphone on and disturbing MY movie experience.

Movies aren’t a group experience anymore. The ‘me vs. you’ attitude I have outside is just brought right into the theatre. The ‘OMG Waht if Emergency???’ types are just as selfish as the ‘STFU’ types.

And yet, the feeling isn’t completely gone. I shelled out $20 for tickets to see Born in the Brothels in a small theatre in Palo Alto (how that hurts). There, for the first time in years, I actually watched a movie *with* other people, rather than by myself in a theatre filled with the necessary evil of other flesh. I don’t know what was different, but somehow we were all there to experience a movie. I’m not sure if any cellphones went off or not. It doesn’t particularly matter. The feeling was there. That same feeling is now completely absent from the megaplex. There, I stress every time a baby cries or I see some monkey flick open his celly to see which member of his digital entourage has PM’d him this time.

So, movie theatres, it isn’t you, it’s me.

I was really impressed and humbled by the talent I saw today at the last Tolkien class. My other classes have been rather dull and gray by comparison. Way to nerd it up there, guys.

My final project was a rather banal collection of excerpts from a top-secret sheaf of papers prepared by an elite elvish black-ops organization. It isn’t nearly as interesting as it sounds, but it is a relatively quick read, and you don’t have to learn any long, new, elvish names.

Edit: The file is available for download here (Microsoft Word), or here (PDF).

Enjoy, and never, ever, ever stop reading what you love.

Cure (or at least partially address) your Mac envy with the tuxedo_blue style for blackbox! No twists or turns, just reassuring shades of black, white, gray and blue. Mac-user-esque sense of superiority not necessarily included.

This style is exactly the same as tuxedo, but with a more lively blue background. Like all my styles, tuxedo_blue also comes with a bsetroot background and a 3dc style, to convert your windows background and window style to match the overall theme.

tuxedo_blue is a style designed for bblean for Windows, but should work for any other *box shell. Find out more about blackbox shells at bb4win.org.

See more in Styles.