You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2007.
OK, first off: Montage Mountain is becoming a terrible place to see a show. Well, not a terrible place to see it, just a terrible place to get to and fro. On the way up to Scranton, we got bottlenecked for an hour due to I-81 construction (which I should have looked for before we made the trip - we could have gotten around it faster) and stopped at a Wilkes-Barre Outback to meet up with Kevin and have dinner before the show. After our steaks, we did the familiar crawl up Montage Mountain, and similar to 2004, we were placed in inconvenient bulk parking. More on that later.
The show? The show was great. Spoilers follow…
The show opened up with a funny short starring our beloved heroes. First Alex wakes up from a nightmare about snakes & arrows and realizes he’s in bed with… Neil! Then we find that what we just saw was Geddy’s dream, and he gets a visit from a Scot played by himself. Funny stuff. These guys can do comedy.
They played lots of old (and some rare) stuff before they even touched the new material. I got just a bare whiff of what would be played when I saw someone talk about Geddy playing his Jaco signature bass on “Malignant Narcissism” and his old Rickenbacker on “A Passage to Bangkok”, which showed up in the encore. Apparently they have a fixed setlist so far this tour (reflected also in the fact that the tour book lists background video credits by song). From the Power Windows site (my ticket’s image is the one on file for the Scranton show), with my comments:
- Limelight
- Digital Man (I was blown away by this. They rearranged it to make it shorter, but it worked great.)
- Entre Nous (Couldn’t believe this. I think it’s the first time they’ve played it live.)
- Mission (My favorite HYF track)
- Freewill
- The Main Monkey Business
- The Larger Bowl (with excellent McKenzie Brothers intro)
- Secret Touch
- Circumstances (Look around the web for bass tablature for this song.
) - Between The Wheels
- Dreamline
-Intermission- (w/ video intro)
- Far Cry
- Workin’ Them Angels
- Armor And Sword (Probably my current non-instrumental S&A favorite.)
- Spindrift
- The Way The Wind Blows
- Subdivisions
- Natural Science
- Witch Hunt (This was great to see again.)
- Malignant Narcissism
- Drum Solo
- Hope
- Summertime Blues
- The Spirit of Radio
- Tom Sawyer (with South Park intro; Cartman comes up with new lyrics)
Encore:
- One Little Victory
- A Passage to Bangkok (excellent!)
- YYZ
I really need to invest in a pair or two of musician-grade earplugs. My ears are fine today, but I think I would have heard the music a bit better if I had plugs in. I heard Geddy’s bass and vocals fine, but the guitars were a bit harsh and distorted. Next time I’m in Guitar Center, I’ll pick some up.
I really liked the S&A stuff live. I enjoyed “Secret Touch” from Vapor Trails as well. These guys rock. I was constantly watching Geddy, made easier by the fact that we were sitting on the stage-left side of the venue.
Short story is: these guys are still one of the best concert deals around. Two hours, 45 minutes of music and all the video, lights, and lasers continue to make Rush a first-class production. If you like the music, you owe it to yourself to see them at least once every tour!
Back to the venue (the Pavilion at Montage Mountain): we had to wait over an hour and a half to get out of parking and back onto the highway. Simply unacceptable. Seeing Rush at Montage Mountain is no longer a slam-dunk for me; I’m going to look into other venues next tour.
Update: MSM coverage: CitizensVoice Wilkes-Barre Times Leader
After multiple delays and a price reduction to $16, Amazon sent me one of the first MVI DVD-Albums, Rush’s Snakes & Arrows. They’ve provided 5.1 DD (16/48kHz) and 2.0 LPCM (24/96kHz) versions of the music, 192kbps MP3s (-9.35dB RG), 11 entertaining 1024×768-pixel wallpaper BMPs, and other extra content like a 40-minute making-of-S&A documentary by Andrew MacNaughton. It’s in a very attractive laminated cardboard box with a 28-page booklet that’s similar to the CD’s with a few more pages. Does Hugh Syme kick ass or what?
My main technical interest in this release is the quality of the high-resolution and surround versions of the album. A test listen will come soon, but my initial rip and ReplayGain of the 24/96 stereo mix reveals a fatal flaw: less dynamic range in the 24-bit audio than the MP3s sourced from the 16-bit CD audio! The MP3s on the DVD show a RG Album value of -9.35dB, and the high-res version shows -10.14dB. Very disappointing. There’s no point in mastering a high-res version of the music if you’re going to further squash the dynamic range!
There is speculation that this is a DVD-Audio release. It’s not. All the content is either in the DVD-Video portion of the disc or elsewhere in its UDF filesystem.
Update: Looking at the hi-res WAVs playing back in REAPER, they’re maxing out at +0.8dB, which accounts for the difference in RG values between them and the MP3s. However, a question remains: why didn’t the producer & engineer take advantage of the extra bit depth of the hi-res version by leaving more dynamic range?
I’ve got both Firefox and Thunderbird using our Windows-based profiles under Ubuntu 7.04. “firefox -profilemanager” and “mozilla-thunderbird -profilemanager” are my friends. And so is ntfs-3g.
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Looking forward to the Transformers movie. Here’s hoping it doesn’t suck.
I’ve been enjoying this USA Today series and agree with it so far (today they revealed #19 - Marshall Faulk). My guess at their top 5 10:
- Joe Montana (ranked #1 by USA Today as well)
- Tom Brady (ranked #9 by USA Today)
- Barry Sanders (ranked #10 by USA Today)
- Brett Favre (ranked #14 by USA Today)
- Walter Payton (ranked #3 by USA Today)
- Emmitt Smith (ranked #7 by USA Today — close!)
- Dan Marino (ranked #11 by USA Today)
- Reggie White (ranked #5 by USA Today)
- John Elway (ranked #6 by USA Today)
- Jerry Rice (ranked #2 by USA Today)
Defensive players will most likely be under-represented. Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor, and Bruce Smith should all make appearances. Thurman Thomas should be in there, but probably won’t. Since this list is being created by journalists, I’m thinking Art Monk will probably be snubbed.
Update (6/27): I extended my guesses from the top 5 to the top 10. Defensive player representation got a boost today from the inclusion of #18, Ray Lewis.
Update (7/3): After Bruce Smith’s appearance (part of four straight defensive players), I thought the list had hope. Ranking Brett Favre #14? The man may become the most prolific passer in history this season as he is set to eclipse some of Marino’s and Elway’s records. He was a three-time league MVP. The list is now irrelevant.
Update (7/10): Still following the series. Can’t believe Barry Sanders isn’t ranked higher.
Update (7/16): The Top 5 remain. 4 out of my orginal top 10 remain: Montana, Payton, White, and Rice. I think they plus Lawrence Taylor will comprise the Top 5.
Update (7/17): Reggie White at #5. Assuming my top 4 are correct, the 25 break down into 8 defensive and 17 offensive players. More than I though would make it, but still less than a third of the list. One offensive lineman: Anthony Muñoz. The remaining 16 players consist of 9 QBs, 6 RBs, and 1 WR.
My lone concert indulgence of this year is coming fast. On Friday I’ll be making my third pilgrimage to Scranton with Mark to see Rush. This time around, I’m avoiding setlist discussion and going cold turkey; I want to be surprised! I’m really enjoying Snakes & Arrows and can’t wait to see what they play from it. I’m hoping they play all three instrumentals; they’re all great. They’ve been pulling out forgotten gems the last few tours. My guess is that they’ll play either “Jacob’s Ladder” or “The Camera Eye”. I would be ecstatic if they played “Cinderella Man”. If I’m right, don’t tell me until Saturday!
In this day and age, I’m completely miffed that I can’t upload DV footage from my Canon Elura 100’s IEEE1394 (Firewire) port to my new computer. I moved the cheap TI-compatible Firewire card I had in Earthshine to FarCry and haven’t been able to get the camcorder detected in either Windows XP x64 (using WinDV) or Ubuntu 7.04 x64 (using Kino). I may try to load up 32-bit XP to see if that’ll do it, but that seems too much like giving up. I still need to check and see if a Firewire-capable external hard drive I have is recognized on FarCry before I completely blame the OSs. I’ll probably end up getting another Firewire card for what’ll end up being the new Ghostrider (ie. the old Earthshine with a spiffy new 32-bit Windows install) and trying to upload the DV there. We’ll see. This problem has vexed me (admittedly part-time) for a few weeks now and I had to publicly complain.
Update: I’m going to try this adapter since one of the reviewers said specifically that it worked with their camcorder under XP x64 using WinDV.
We’ve traded in my 1998 Dodge Stratus ES towards a 2007 Saturn Outlook XE AWD. We just drove it home tonight. It’s a nice car! Pictures on Flickr (and linkage) as I get to them.
Update: The old car (doesn’t look too bad…):
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I’m not an Internet radio listener, but I used to be a wannabe broadcaster/programmer. Go Internet Radio!
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Steve Young is one of my all-time favorite NFL players.
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I’m researching Dell vs. HP for large VMware ESX hosts (64GB memory) and Dell’s commitment to VMware seems to be poor. This forum post highlights one of the issues; another I’ve found is firmware maintenance.
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This is the gap I’ve found with regards to maintaining firmware on Dell servers running VMware ESX vs. HPs. Dell doesn’t have a bootable CD that will smart-update firmware. HP does. HP wins.
We’re looking for a new SUV that’s bigger than our 2000 Honda CR-V (3150 lbs curb weight), particularly in back seat room and cargo capacity, without being too big, gaudy, and expensive. We looked at the Honda Pilot, the Toyota Highlander, and the new Saturn Outlook this afternoon; we came away very impressed with the Outlook. Both the Pilot and the Highlander are awaiting redesigns that are coming on the market later this year, and the Outlook came out just a few months ago. Would anyone like to recommend other mid- to large SUVs that we might like? Anything over 5000 lbs curb weight or getting less than 20mpg on the highway probably won’t be considered.
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One of the better Windows x64 tips I’ve found on the net.
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Fuel taxes should ideally tax road usage, not fuel amounts. Carrying per-gallon gasoline taxes to biofuels regardless of the efficiency of use (MPG) is stupid.
Had a whirlwind weekend between helping with Zachary, Ryan’s soccer game and birthday party, tinkering with “the beast” (now named “FarCry”), hanging with my parents, and going to the Middletown Fair as well as some “normal” weekend stuff.
Ryan’s soccer game Saturday morning was great. They’ve got a core of 6 kids on the team that are playing together well; the last two weeks, they’ve really started playing like a team. They have one more game this coming Saturday. Can’t wait to see how they do in the Under-8 division next year, and I hope they get to continue to play together.
Mom and Dad came late Saturday morning to visit and watch Zachary as we took Ryan over to Fountainblu for his early birthday party. I’d never been to this rink before and was impressed by its organization, cleanliness, and size. I hadn’t been on my blades yet this year, and hadn’t skated indoors since leaving Buffalo. I was in hog heaven. I had fun whipping around the rink, and helping the little guys get the hang of their skates. Being six and seven, they haven’t skated much yet. Ryan really impressed me. He went down a lot, but everytime I thought “he’s done” he was back out on the floor a few minutes later. I think we’ll be back at Fountainblu, even if it’s just Ryan and myself. Melissa did get out on her skates as well near the end, but she was great as the greeter and overall party runner.
I was pretty tired after the party; the skating was my first significant exercise in a while. But it was all good; I made dinner and we had a restful evening talking with my parents and playing with Zachary.
Speaking of Zach, at a month old he’s really liking laying in front of the activity gym and observing the lights and songs for 15-20 minutes at a time. I’ll have to get a pic of that soon.
I did find some pockets of time to get Win XP x64 installed on FarCry and get the drivers loaded. The only “gotcha” was that I had to go out and grab Realtek’s drivers for the onboard audio. MSI’s provided drivers (had to go online; the x64 OS wasn’t supported with the included CD media) weren’t installing. Everything else loaded up great, and once I get the Audigy 4 and FireWire card from Earthshine inserted I should be able to finalize the hardware build and then install Ubuntu 7.04 x64. Don’t know how often that’ll get used upstairs, but I have plenty of hard drive space to use to play with it. I’ve also successfully tested its dual-boot-ability with Win XP and was impressed.
On Sunday my Dad wanted us to go for a bike ride but I woke up with a headache and was still feeling the skate a bit, so I declined. Early in the afternoon we headed down to Hoffer Park in Middletown for our first Middletown Fair. It was nice to go a craft show that we weren’t participating in as Manolas. It wasn’t as crowded as I expected and the food was OK. I noticed that the crowd skewed pretty old; I guess that reflects the average age of the borough’s population. We don’t get down there much except to go to Alfred’s.
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“To jump-start competition, the cable industry will be required to separate the security function inside their digital set-top boxes [..] from the navigation function, which is basically the channel changer.”
The build has progressed far enough that I was able to energize the beast for the first time this morning. All the hardware is green so far. As I just emailed Andy Bolin: it runs like Red October. I still have to attempt to install the internal CPU air-flow handler after I get two more PCI cards installed. There’s a lot of cables in there!
So… a name. My last two computers are “GhostRider” and “Earthshine”; I’m thinking “FarCry” or “Spindrift” for this one. Whaddya think?
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“An online protest involving 20 tons of peanuts delivered to CBS Entertainment in New York and California has succeeded in bringing back the television show Jericho, which the network canceled last month.”
Putting together my latest “beast” made me think about the very first computer that my dad and I (well, mostly my dad) built back in 1991. Let’s compare the two:
Unnamed PC (circa 1991):
- Intel 486DX/33Mhz
- 16MB RAM
- 200MB hard disk
- 2MB VESA Local Bus video card
Yet-to-be-named PC (circa 2007):
- AMD Althon 64 X2 2.5GHz (Brisbane core)
- 2GB RAM
- 160GB & 320GB hard disks
- 128MB PCI Express x16 video card
Comparison points (new vs. old):
- Nearly 50% Cheaper: I think the ‘91 PC cost about $1200 (or more?) to build. The ‘07 one was a little over $650.
- Nearly 500 times faster: The DX/33 could produce 18.1 Dhrystone MIPS. The Athlon 64 X2 produces 4300 per core!
- 128 times the system RAM
- 64 times the video RAM
- 2400 times the hard disk capacity
Build pix will be up on Flickr once I’ve started, which may not be until next week. We’ll see.
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The new computer config I just ordered. Not exactly drool-worthy in the graphics department, but definitely much faster and higher capacity than what I have now.
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“Later this year the open source version of Movable Type will be released under the GPL license.”
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CompTIA is a Microsoft shill. Their website says they are the leader in vendor-neutral IT certifications. Why don’t they lead in vendor-neutral document formats?
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Mark makes great points about Ubuntu and Debian’s package management making his Linux experience shine. My next computer will most likely run Ubuntu; Windows will be relegated to a VM.
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Frederick Lane’s call for Apple to distribute music files at bitrates closer to 1440kbps, as opposed to 256kbps, is ignorant and silly. The entire article smacks of ignorance.
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Can’t tell if this article is trying to be informative, accusatory, or just unnecessarily alarmist. Why would one care about embedded metadata unless they planned on sharing the files in question?
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