Ottmar LiebertMusic, Performance, Recording, the Business of Music, Traveling, Life, Art + unrelated subjects!RIAA Continues Distributing Dud CDs to Satisfy Settlement- July 25, 2004 cosyne writes "Part of the music industry's recent price fixing settlement involves giving free CDs to public libraries. Although they are technically complying with the the letter of the law, they're abusing the spirit by giving the libraries large piles of crud. According to the Stevens Point Journal, 'the Milwaukee Public Library received 1,235 copies of Whitney Houston's 1991 recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner," 188 copies of Michael Bolton's "Timeless," 375 of "Entertainment Weekly:...http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/25/1539259 Bus door lock- July 25, 2004 No key to forget...http://radio.weblogs.com/0120756/2004/07/24.html#a2394 Traffic Control of the Future- July 24, 2004 petra13 writes "A high point of the Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems conference this past week was Kurt Dresner and Peter Stone's paper 'Multiagent Traffic Management: A Reservation-Based Intersection Control Mechanism.' They designed an automated system where cars reserve a time to pass through an intersection as they approach it and are then sped up or slowed down to ensure their arrival at exactly the right time. This allows traffic to enter the intersection from all directions...http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kdresner/2004aamas/index.html Do you know...- July 24, 2004 ...how comforting it is to walk into a restaurant, and the waiter or waitress says hey, and brings you your favorite beverage as you sit down... My favorite beverage with New Mexican food is Bohemia beer, with a slice of lime of course. And the best New Mexican food is found here, at Maria's on Cordova Road. Here, the Chile Rellenos are made with Mexican cheese - trust me that makes all of the difference in the world... and last tuesday they served my favorite special for lunch, the pork tacos..http://www.marias-santafe.com/index.html Fuel Cell Technology Breakthrough Claimed- July 24, 2004 As they say: "Small, cheap, and good: pick two."But no! Or so says the University of Houston, who have claimed to developed a small, cheap, and good fuel cell using thin film solid oxides.Small: a fuel cell with the volume of four sugar cubes can power a laptop computer; one the size of two soda cans can power a house.Cheap: does not use the ultra-pure and exotic materials of standard fuel cells.Good: thin film solid oxides have a 60-70% efficiency, and run at half the temperature of normal...http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/fuel-cell-technology-breakthrough-claimed-018148.php Song of the Outcasts- July 24, 2004 LR writes: Received that flamenco book, "Song of the Outcasts" by Robin Totton... have only read 25 pages, but man, it's great... just blows it wide open... "ole" is from the Moorish "by Allah", he says. Great analysis of the "form" i.e. the solea. I mean, this guy knows whereof he speaks. Comes with a CD which I haven't had time to check yet.Off to the book store... I always wondered whether there was a connection between the words Allah and Olé. Especiually since the Gitanos often...http://radio.weblogs.com/0120756/2004/07/23.html#a2389 Last coffin-nail in DVD Audio- July 24, 2004 One of the inventors of the MP3 format is back with a new technology that he hopes will revolutionize audio, creating superrealistic sound for theaters, theme parks and eventually even living rooms. Dan sent me this link and wrote: When I finished reading this article, I remembered you saying that surround sound is not that great because it's only good while you're in the sweet-spot.It looks like they've just found a way to overcome this problem. What do you thinkI think that's great, Dan. It...http://news.com.com/MP3+creator+returns+with+3D+sound/2100-1026_3-5280535.html?part=rss&am... United music menu- July 23, 2004 I think that selection of songs should work pretty well...http://radio.weblogs.com/0120756/2004/07/23.html#a2387 United Inflight Entertainment- July 23, 2004 In September and October you will find several "La Semana" tracks on United Airlines flights. Since "Eurobeat" is available on a lot more flights than "Worldbeat" we decided to put the music there. As you know categories do not matter much to me. May many a wary traveler discover "La Semana" on their flight...http://radio.weblogs.com/0120756/2004/07/23.html#a2386 |