jdontillman

8 ms·

1.
by jdontillman 3mo ago
I agree. Startup Proposal: Intelligent Traffic Signals https://till.com/articles/smarttraffic
2.
by jdontillman 3mo ago
Capacitance multipliers are how wah-wah pedals work. The classic Vox / Dunlop/ Cry Baby wah-wah pedal used by Hendrix, Gilmour, Clapton, Harrison, and so many others, is built from a resonant LC filter. How do you change the reson
3.
by jdontillman 7mo ago
See also: Stanley Jordan, "APL For Music". https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/75144.75174 (!!!) (Wait, what? That Stanley Jordan?) (Yep.)
4.
by jdontillman 3y ago
Hey ho!
5.
by jdontillman 3y ago
Also see my article "The Mechanics of Moore's Law" for an analysis in terms of economic feedback loops with usual adaptive characteristics. https://till.com/articles/MooresLaw
6.
by jdontillman 3y ago
There was a delightful Usenet post way back around 1990, where someone described how they had just purchased a new multi-CD player. They very excitedly filled it up with their collection of Prince CDs, and set it to random shuffle play mod
7.
by jdontillman 3y ago
Heh-heh, "challenging" is the polite term. 12-tone serial composition is simply a technique for removing natural tonality from a composition. I think the big issue is whether 12-tone approaches are used occasionally in a piece as
8.
by jdontillman 3y ago
Jazz composer Anthony Braxton. Quote from Wikipedia: "Braxton often titles his compositions with diagrams or numbers and letters. Some diagrams have a clear meaning or signification, as on For Trio, where the title indicates the physic
9.
by jdontillman 3y ago
Game Theory's album "Lolita Nation" features a song called: "All Clockwork and No Bodily Fluid Makes Hal a Dull Metal Humbert In Heaven Every Elephant Baby Wants to Be So Full of Sting Paul Simon in the Park with Canticl
10.
by jdontillman 3y ago
In their earlier years, the Symbolics 3600 series machines included a Motorola 68K series Front End Processor (the "FEP") for booting the main processor. And the assembler for that was written in Lisp.
11.
by jdontillman 3y ago
Fascinating; thanks. Question: How does the salinity and pressure of deep sea water affect that 4C point?
12.
by jdontillman 3y ago
Exactly. Because the sensors are mounted on that very land. So tectonic movement will certainly have an effect. And you can see remnants of earthquakes in some of the data.
13.
by jdontillman 3y ago
(Largest tides on the planet. The bay acts as a kind of resonant organ pipe amplifying the tides on the Atlantic Ocean.) Hey; if they can handle 52ft tides, they can handle anything.
14.
by jdontillman 3y ago
The NOAA Sea Level Trends data and visualizations are fascinating: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/ Sea levels have been monitored for over 100 years... because of commerce. East coast US seems to be going u
15.
by jdontillman 4y ago
Disappointed; no KL10.
16.
by jdontillman 4y ago
Yes! I've been using this for years. It's great.
17.
by jdontillman 4y ago
Symbolics veteran here... Ahh, fond memories. Indeed, we had a Foonly. I don't know the model number, but it was a single rack unit. We used it as a server, software development, SUDS electrical CAD, etc. And yes, it's name was
18.
by jdontillman 4y ago
I agree. And I'm a huge fan of new possibilities. BUT most of the musical operations we see in the digital world are not "new possibilities", but rather cheap imitations of previous work. Samples, drum machines, simulations,
19.
by jdontillman 4y ago
Solid point.
20.
by jdontillman 4y ago
"More tools" is not necessarily a good thing. Music, as any art form, thrives on limitations. And without complaint. "The Blues" is a very limited form, yet it has provided about a century of wonderful creative music.
21.
by jdontillman 4y ago
I don't think you can separate music, or any art form for that matter, from the artist's craft, skill, expressiveness, resources, and materials. --- Digital isn't inherently bad, but... If the ENTIRETY of your music productio
22.
by jdontillman 4y ago
Indeed. The author is referring to the up-a-half-step modulation that Barry Manilow tactically used all over the place. I call it a "Manilow". --- But yeah, it's just one of the many elements of musical craft that's miss
23.
by jdontillman 4y ago
Solid point. I never thought about Equal Temperament as an example of Worse is Better, but yeah. And after going through heroic efforts to get the ratios of notes exact, you're probably going to want to add a little vibrato or chorus
24.
by jdontillman 4y ago
That's exactly right. Not a weird convention at all.
25.
by jdontillman 4y ago
The Nashoba Valley Winery near Hudson, Massachusetts features some very tasty wines made from Cranberry/Apple, Pear, Gravenstein, Peach, Plum, Raspberry, Strawberry Rhubarb, and much more. (I'm a big fan.)
26.
by jdontillman 4y ago
YES! The Burrito Server! With that wonderful man page.
27.
by jdontillman 4y ago
'Looks remarkably similar to The Simpsons' kitchen.
28.
by jdontillman 4y ago
Yes, of course. I've tuned pianos, so I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm just struck by the zenlike simplicity of the original question, "What is a Major Chord?", compared to the random bits of technical jibber-jab
29.
by jdontillman 4y ago
As a concrete example to my simple explanation, consider the bugle. A bugle has no valves, it can only play the natural harmonics of the horn, as determined by lip pressure. x3, x4, x5, and x6 Thus the ratios of the available pitches are 3:
30.
by jdontillman 4y ago
That's all very interesting... But the harmonic or inharmonic content of the instrument does not address the original question. And it leads to confusion; putting your first and last sentences together implies that a piano is not a wes

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