This is an excerpt from a letter from me, to my friend, written on the computer. In this section, I’m begging him to get an e-mail account. It was 1993.

I actually pasted in a section of a telnet session. And I remarked about the fine recording of Bach’s Brandenburgs via Musica Antiqua, Köln.

This last excerpt is from another letter, where I detail a listening session and a book I purchased. I am anxious to find this said book, as I do not currently have it in my possession. Interestingly enough, I still have a passion for Bach’s music and fonts. Sadly Borders is no more.

I cannot comment because I don’t use Windows. Comment on what?

You’ll have an easier read over here, but I wanted to get to the original article.

First, I cannot believe that in 2011 Microsoft is telling me I’m using the wrong browser. Millions of websites with commenting systems, and for theirs (it is MSN after all) I need a Windows machine. Yes, I can read, Firefox too. Forget it. I use Safari and Chrome, and the rest of the Internet is good enough for them.

Ahem. Now the music and Mr. Bon Jovi.

I too lament the inability to browse records at the store. I used to love going to Tower or another big store and flipping through the CDs. He wants for vinyl albums, I want CDs. But you know, it was pirating that was making the labels angry. iTunes wasn’t the cause, it was a successful reaction.

And frankly, Jon, you are too old.

Now, we have more music to buy than ever. And believe it or not, if you don’t want the preview, don’t preview it. I still order CDs online because while a physical store would lose money here, the online stores offer far more product. I lose the experience of the store for sure.

But there are plenty of new experiences in life to relish.

And if I could trade the variety of an Amazon or an iTunes catalog with the physical store down the street, I don’t know. I think the online retailer wins. Now, I must admit, I’ve visited some smaller outfits in my time that were superior to the “big box” retailers that I really enjoyed visiting in my travels (I can think of a nice store in Michigan I used to visit, and another one with a huge catalog in Madison, WI). But while Steve may have ruined it for you, he also provided the industry with a way to survive, and gave innovation to consumers. And he may just be bringing the joys of discovering and listening to music in new, significant way to consumers today.

Now, Steve, let’s start working on those high-bit rate recordings through the iTunes store, okay? Because it is 2011, and we’re still listening to music online at the same resolution as Sony/Phillips unveiled in 1984, only compressed . Okay?

You can buy all of Bach’s cantatas, as some enterprising conductors have set to do just that, record them all! There was Harnoncourt, then Koopman, among others… I’ve really enjoyed the efforts lately of the Bach Pilgrimage (recorded in 2000) by John Eliot Gardiner, and the series by the Bach Collegium Japan. But, I’ve been buying here and there, and between different ensembles, what do I really own?

It was a quick project, which began by my listing of what I own, and who the conductor is. In turn, I’d buy up more, but try not to repeat too many of the cantatas in the new purchases. I’d started with a solid foundation in the Koopman cycle, but I was looking towards Suzuki and Gardiner for future purchases…

Another important aspect is trying to obtain the recordings in high-quality formats. Today I purchased volume 20 of the Gardiner from Amazon in MP3 format; I was able however to purchase full-resolution of Suzuki from HDTracks and Passionato on the BIS label. I like that HD Tracks included the album booklet in PDF format!

Lots of fodder for future reviews here. In the meantime, I’ll look for Gardiner offered online in higher-resolution formats.

For what it’s worth, the twentieth series in the Gardiner cycle was recorded in Nottinghamshire, at this church. A recent trend for me is to go look up where these places are where good recordings are made. Very nice interior on this one.

I am always intrigued by the sounds I hear when I have had the opportunity to travel to foreign places. And by foreign, I mean outside the U.S. The first memory I really have of this in recent time was a trip to Hong Kong. The public transportation systems in large cities, both foreign and domestic, too have their sounds, and I’m always intrigued by sounds of subways, in airports, etc.

In Hong Kong, the sound that sticks is the one for crossing the streets. The signals are audible for those who have difficulty with sight. It’s a UD principal that (universal design), upon coming back here to the U.S., I didn’t understand why it wasn’t more wide-spread.

Upon returning, some months later, I listened to audio in Hong Kong from another American blogger. He’d captured the sound on his MP3 player, and instantly, that sound brought back vivid memories of my recent trip. I found this experience fascinating.

My most recent trip was to Paris, and immediately after arriving in the Charles DeGaulle airport, I was reminded of the sound that had enchanted me the last time I visited. It was some kind of signal they played to announce the announcements. It was akin to the bell tones my school would play in the 6th grade before announcing what was for lunch. The same tone would be used for lunch; other combinations of bells would be used for other types of announcements. I never bothered to ask where this bell type system had come from, but in hindsight, it was very civilized, and even sensical, without it having to be explained. (When I say bells, think of the ones for the NBC jingle.)

This time, I also noticed the SNCF people in France have their own signals too, and research online has revealed these kinds of signals or “chimes” go under different names. One source indicated the one I was fond of was called the “ADP Indicatif,” but I have no clue what ADP stands for. It evidently went into service sometime in 2005, but it is not the exclusive chime at the CDG airport.

I’ve been on the look-out for it, because I thought it would make an interesting ring tone for my phone. It really grabs your attention, because from out of no where, you hear this kind of chanting voice that morphs away as a little piano rif trails off. I’d already spent time collecting signal chimes from Japanese subways, after hearing examples in the Adium application, an instant messaging client for the Mac. I use some for various signals in my version of iChat to alert me when folks need my attention. Adapting these took some time and work; I had to take raw files, from a web page in a language I don’t understand, clean up the quality digitally, then parse the section I wanted. It wasn’t a fun use of time for a 2-3 second “beep”.

For one, this page had a lot of information and a few good links on Trip Advisor. It provides a link to the signals (and the complete song) for the French trains.

After several failed searches for “the” chime I had remembered at the CDG, today, the last day of 2010, I found what I was after, in a YouTube clip. This is the haunting little signal I had been after.

The quality, you’ll note, isn’t great. But as I listened to it multiple times, I realized the music wasn’t too complex. I went to my piano, and my hand landed on the right first note… and I figured it out. It was a fun exercise putting the right timbres to the chime, using GarageBand.

I now have my own clean version.

I’ve made two alternate versions, changing the notes, but keeping with the CDG chime style.

CDG Alternate Chime 1 and CDG Alternate Chime 2.

Back in what was probably 1993, as a sophomore at the University of Rochester, my roommate and I began to fight over the sharing of his laser printer. Not everyone had computers in our dorms, but we both did, and he brought a LaserWriter NT from home. It was not Apple’s most full-featured printer, as it was slow, but it did the job, and I was genuinely appreciative that he’d let me print over our little dorm room network.

Until he played his card and shut it off. He didn’t really care if I printed, you see, if was simply playing a chess piece of control. I have no clue why, now in retrospect, but I am sure I was playing my own pieces too to maintain some friction.

That’s when I called home and asked my mom about getting my own laser printer. She agreed I should have one, as the DeskJet she bought me several Christmas’ ago wasn’t sufficient sitting at home. I never cared for the printer, either, and for my work, I needed a good quality printer.

Our campus computer store wasn’t far from the dorm, and after several trips, I realized I had a choice to make: Apple was selling two similar models, one at 300 DPI and the more expensive one, at a new resolution: 600 DPI!

I asked them to print a Finale file (music notation software), and honestly, the more costly printer was clearly superior (compare that, perhaps, to the original iPhone display compared to one of Apple’s newer “Retina” displays. Once you see the clarity, you want the better product.

So I told my mom, and she reluctantly decided I could get the more expensive printer (I was lucky in that regard). So, a few days later, I was attempting to haul up the hill this 50 lb. box by myself. It was a LaserWriter Select 360. I’ll never forget my roommate’s face when I finally made it up to our fourth-floor room. “You got it? Hmm… is it the 300 or the 600? Really? Hmmm….”

Somehow after the new printer arrived, our rivalry faded into history and even though printing wasn’t what prompted the tension, it was soon enough gone. I learned to deal with his empty Snapple bottles and piles of laundry, if he could stand some of my Bach CDs.

So, this printer has been with me since. From Rochester, NY, to Cleveland, OH, to Richmond, VA. Yes, it was nearly 17 years old. Who keeps printers for 17 years? Well, how many still work? Sure, the individual sheet feed had been flakey for at least the last 9 years, but I hadn’t replaced the toner too many times, and while it took forever to warm up, it still printed good copy. It was official PostScript compatible.

You had to print to it using an ancient device: the Asanté AppleTalk via Ethernet adapter. This thing used these little “Localtalk” boxes that you connected with plain vanilla phone cable to a box that bridged Ethernet. The Ethernet cord went into the computer, and Apple’s proprietary 8-pin DIN plug went into the back of the printer. When Apple killed AppleTalk in OS X Snow Leopard, they put the death sentence on the LaserWriter Select.

Yes, this printer had the old rainbow Apple logo on it. And it worked.

Today I lost it to a Goodwill donation. I haven’t used that printer now for about a year; we’d “upgraded” at home to an HP printer (several generations, of course removed, from my pre-college DeskJet inkjet model) that warms up in seconds. It too has great resolution, at 1200 DPI. It even duplex prints. But it lacks the character of the LW Select. The printer was with me for almost 17 years. I should not feel attached to an object, but we sometimes do.

A favorite sweater, a pair of jeans, a family portrait… a laser printer.

I think the cost at the time was expensive – by any measure. But who knew it would have lasted for 16 years of great service? If you care to peruse, there’s another picture here. I didn’t get a farewell photo of my own.

I’m jealous.

What I notice about both is that

a) they set up their shots (backgrounds, etc.) b) they’ve got light

So… I naturally am using this as an excuse to buy more camera equipment.

This will make more light, but I may also need something that can produce more close-up lighting.

For an upcoming trip, something wide-angle might be nice, too. But by Canon, or Sigma?

And finally, while in the throws of camera lust, I might mention the extra battery grip.

Or should I just concentrate on making better food, and not pictures?

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.

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.

I took this photo a couple years ago when visiting Staunton, Virginia. I was about to get into my car. We were parked right next to this church. I looked up, and the sun was right behind the tower.

This weekend is also a good time to catch up with new music purchases.

My mother was editing a document for work with our family’s Mac Plus in 1990. At this point, it was going on two years old. She was using Microsoft Word. Interesting to me is how slow it drew the choices in the dialog box that appears.