Bing Ad

I was visiting a website today about technology news and in the sidebar of the page was an ad for using the new Microsoft Bing search engine.

Recently I found a fortune cookie that told me “bing” in Chinese (now, I know for a fact this isn’t the only interpretation) can mean “disease.” The opposite side of this “fortune” read: Truth can be harsh, but it can be helpful.

So maybe you can use Bing (or bing) to help you find things. But what I really want to comment on is the ad itself.

First, they’re out to use “bing” as a verb. “Google it,” might become “bing it.” Okay, they chose a probable word in English and they want to attach meaning to it. We’ll see if that works out.

But the example in question is a Microsoft product, their own webcam. Their silly “cashback” program is at play here (a poor icon choice, I think, because cash sounds like squishy green paper money, not gold coins from an arcade game), but would you use their search engine maybe only to search for products they themselves made??

Then there’s the hilarity involved, in using your own product as a prop, and learning “it’s not the best.” It’s only a 4-star webcam, not 5. Only 86% of people found its size a positive factor? Where do these metrics come from? Is Bing chasing Amazon (with the stars and orange color) or Google?

Lastly, would you type in web cams (with a space) or webcams?

Let’s go to Bing and find out if this works the way they propose.

No, I didn’t get a nice picture of a webcam and arrows pointing out the benefits. The ad is contrived.

I clicked on “top 10,” hoping to see the graphics with arrows and reviews. What shocked me was what a knock-off of Google bing really is. “Sponsored sites” on the right, blue headings with links for the results, and green URLs with cached versions. Take away the stupid surfer at the top (now, if the search results page put in an image that related to my search, say, a big fancy Microsoft webcam, then I’d be impressed, but what surfing has to do with webcams is quite foreign to me), and you’d think you were looking at a Google page, perhaps.

More curious notes:

• the word “web” at the top left is not on the same line as the next words.
• MSN and WindowsLive is also not on the same line as the rest either.
• Why do all of their properties need a Bing search bar at the top? It’s on WindowsLive, MSN, etc. Oh, that’s right, you might not be using Internet Explorer.

Poorly done.

Evolution of HiFi

While I’ve seemingly been quiet here, at least in talking about music, I’ve been busy trying to determine where to take the hi-fi system as of late. I discovered a problem and I’ve recently come up with an intermediate solution.

For those that don’t know me well, I enjoy listening to music in two primary locations: in my office and in our Salon de musique family room. Each of the two rooms contains important assets.

1. The office has my workstation where the media files are stored.
2. The family room uses the better loudspeakers and a more sophisticated hi-fi system.

A computer-based hi-fi system isn’t atypical today. I’m currently taking analog audio from my computer and passing that into an integrated amplifier. That, in turn, drives two bookshelf speakers on either side of my head here in the office. I use iTunes to drive the music, available in varying qualities, from 256kbit MP3s to lossless files ripped at 750-800 kbits.

I used to stream music downstairs to an Aiport Express using a Toslink cable plugged into a rather clear-sounding digital to analog converter. This little box is magic, and in a future upgrade, it will find its way upstairs with the computer.

Needless to say, since upgrading to iTunes 8.1 (and unchanged in iTunes 8.2), I noticed some sound quality issues downstairs. The music, especially with certain types (say, solo violin) became strident and ugly. Extensive testing revealed the “bad” link was the Airport Express. That’s not to say another cable might not have helped, but using the same cable, going directly from computer to DAC revealed correct-sounding music.

Some reading indicated it may be a problem with clock jitter.

I therefore upgraded the system from an Airport Express to a Mac mini computer. Because i fancied running the mini headless (without a monitor), and I want to keep the media on my main workstation in the office, I set up an auto-mounting function in Mac OS X Leopard called autofs. This auto-mounts the media volume from the workstation on the mini. I made a copy of the iTunes library on the mini. Now, when it plays music, it’s “streaming” it over the network. The machine also goes to sleep and wakes up on a schedule. The jittery-problems have not surfaced.

The issue then becomes, “What’s next?” Obviously, this solution needs maintenance (upgrading the library to the auxiliary mini). However some point to USB as a superior communications medium between the computer and the DAC. Wavelength Audio’s products especially look enticing.

The iPhone works as a great remote control, operating volume, track selection, and start/stop.

All’Improvviso – L’Arpeggiata

This is my new favorite album of all time. That might not last for so long, but, hey, it’s 2009. I’ve got a big collection of music, and this is damn good.

L’Arpeggiata (perhaps named after the piece for lute by Kapsberger), is an ensemble directed by harpist and lutenist Christina Pluhar. Their recordings have pretty consistently been composed of pieces both instrumental and vocal with instrumental backup. Think of L’Arpeggiata as a big continuo group. They’ve got minor percussion, a hammered dulcimer (psaltery?), and at times they bring out melody instruments like cornetto and violin. They’re a historically-informed group, but they don’t use that as any restriction. Instead, it’s the foundation for lively music making that often causes a curled smile by this listener.

This recording celebrates the chaccone. What makes it stand out is the addition of an E-flat clarinet. Suddenly, it’s an early baroque band that suddenly has gone Klezmer. There’s no doubt in my mind, that no matter the mood of a particular track or section within a track, that the musicians here are having fun.

Among my favorite two tracks are the Folia, the Spanish dance that traveled its way across Europe, causing an intolerable sensation as it did. Composers over time have taken up this “crazy” dance and done some cool things with it. Again, the clarinet here is just crazy fun.

The other winner is Antonio Bertali’s violin sonata over a bass chaccone. Some slight variation from the score here is by far the best reading yet of this work. And Pluhar’s violinist Veronika Skuplik is just as good as John Holloway and Manfredo Kraemer in their readings (on ECM New Series and Astrée, respectively). What sets the readings apart is simply the overall sense of the work’s design and a willingness to take risks for the happy injection of drama into what we might consider boring, simply looking at the score.

This is a well-performed, well-considered, delicious recording.