music

Continuing to have a great time with Python on the N900. I'll have to post later about how awesome it is to run N900 Python aka PyMaemo scripts  from a Terminal.app window on my Mac edited in Aquamacs using ange-ftp (or whatever it's called in the 21st century).

Anyhow came up with gpsgamelan.py which is a modification of the script from latlongsound.py to play gamelan (indonesian scale) music (using the code from PyGSoundTestTest_3.py from Matthew Brown, thanks!) based on the jitter from GPS Lat/Long (10 different sounds based on latitude and another 10 different gamelan sounds based on longitude)

Here's what it sounds like (short video from flickr):

Not so great sound. My next idea is to play more pleasing music

• e.g. for each neighbourhood, pick a major key (there are twelve possible major keys in Western music AFAIK)
• based on the latitude, play a major chord (one of 10 possible)
• based on the longitude, play a minor chord (one of 10 possible)

My guess is this will produce more melodic and pleasing sound

Amen brother! Preachit!

FROM A VC: What The RIAA Needs To Do:

QUOTE

The RIAA is screwing up the music business. Their hatred of Napster has led to a jihad on free mp3s that is slowly but surely killing the music business. The major labels will continue to merge, consolidate, and put out increasingly irrelevant music.

Something needs to change and this is what needs to happen. The RIAA needs to drop its fight against free mp3s. They need to accept that music sold online needs to be as portable as music sold offline is.

I mean how stupid is it to continue to sell CDs with no copy protection on them but to DRM the hell out of online music. It's forcing people like me who consume all of our music online to buy our music encased in plastic! It's dumb, anti-consumer, and it has to stop.

The RIAA needs to accept that some proportion of their customer base will consume pirated music. They need to just eat that as the cost of doing business.

They need to focus on the majority of music consumers who will pay for music, but want a better deal, and want the music portable so they can play it wherever they want.

END QUOTE

[Cross posted from MoMo Van]

Mobile Monday Vancouver May 2006 last night at Take 5 was an eclectic potpourri of topics and very lively conversation. Here are my highlights:

Matthew Snyder of Nokia is a former big wig of Nokia Search but has now moved on to other cool projects in Nokia. His current job is in Helsinki but he's based in Vancouver! Talk about a commute. He was a lively and fascinating conversationalist. Matthew demoed the Nokia/Yahoo Search app on his N70 together with some cool Canadian local integration which has not yet been released but I can't wait until it does. And I hope Matthew will start blogging!

Jim Pick showed off his 2 (!) Nokia 770s that he picked up when he was living in Berkley. The 770 is an awesome WiFi mini tablet (would be better if Gizmo and Skype were bundled!). I really wish it was sold in Canada. Anyways Jim who recently moved back to Vancouver has worked on the ARM port of Linux, Xen Virtualization and the Kaffe Java virtual machine. Jim's a great addition to the mobile community. Welcome back Jim!

Carlo of Upside Wireless discussed their SMS related work with the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale and plans for the IPIPI SMS engine

Duff Gardner of New Media BC's Mobile Muse project gave us the skinny about the upcoming mobile related talks at Vidfest (I wish there was a schedule for Vidfest 2006 that I could link to, but until then here's the Vidfest 2006 Speaker list) as well as some insight into the new World Centre for Digital Entertainment that New Media BC is working on.

Patrick Payne, ex of Mobile Operandi/Mophone/3GUPLOAD and Ericsson, was also a lively conversationalist. He spoke about the Wireless lab that will be part of the World Centre and the plans for taking MoMoVan to the next level after learning from the mother ship at the Mobile Monday Global Summit May 8th and May 9th, 2006 in Helsinki, Finland.

Speaking of the MoMo Summit, Steph Rieger (who along with Bryan has done 99% of the MoMoVan organizing, I just pontificate and blog :-) !) will be there with Patrick and is also hoping to learn from the MoMo Mothership. She and Bryan also discussed Flash Lite as well their ideas for a Bluetooth server.

I of course pontificated about the greatness of ShoZu (my ShoZu pics and videos) the N70 Nokia Blogger Relations program and how I was saving for my own N93 dream phone (3x optical zoom, 30fps video!)

John Goodall of LiteFeeds (a cool mobile RSS reader) made a brief appearance and then mysteriously left (work or family called I bet). Come back John!

Finally, we spent a long time discussing the next MoMoVan which will be Monday June 5th at a venue to be determined and what the next phase of MoMoVan looks like. If you are interested in helping shape and influence Mobile Monday Vancouver, it's never too late. Sign up for the Yahoo Grooup MoMoVan group and get your skin in the game! Looking for organizers, speakers, and sponsors! Looking forward to hearing from you!

See you in June!

No pressure Derek. But can't wait to get the CD! Looking forward to playing it loud and also am loving the fact that I know that the money I paid went directly to the artist (of course PayPal got a little).

From The real thing | Derek K. Miller, Writer & Editor, Vancouver, Canada.:

QUOTE

UPDATE: I'd better get cracking. I already have at least three people (Roland included) who want to buy the thing, and I don't even have my music page updated with the info. I'll still take their money and send them early copies if they want, though!

Copies of my debut CD have finally arrived, and I'll soon be making them available for sale. In the meantime, you can check out photos and listen to all the podsafe tunes (plus more) for free at my Penmachine Podcast page.

UNQUOTE