iG.STUDiO: Ilya I. Gerasimenko

2012-01-18T10:51:00.001-05:00

The Song Of Ice And Fire: An Empirical Gudie To Survival of the Game of Thrones.

2011-10-29T11:23:00.001-04:00

In no particular order:

You can safely skip detailed description of the food being served. It rarely has anything to do with the way people consuming the food will die. Besides, there is only two cuisines in Westeros: northern, where everything is glazed with, braised with, or dipped in honey, and southern, which is a hot snake stew. The rest of the world eats horse and puppies on a stick.

You don't have to try to memorize ancestral lineage of every character in the books. Most of them will die soon enough, and the rest will talk about their fathers, grandfathers, and grand grandfathers endlessly, so you will learn anyway.

Regardless of how carefully and meticulously somebody plans something, it never comes through. Once you embrace this simple concept, you will save yourself a lot of disappointment, because everything always goes terribly wrong. Strangely enough, all that does happen is commonly a result of an elaborate plan of some shadowy character, of whom we know very little and whose intentions are unclear. They evidently know how to plan for success.

If you feel that a character is growing on you, it is best to be ready to part with the him or her, and prepare yourself for his or her demise. Then consider each new chapter with that character to be a nice surprise. I have to admit, though, that character's lifespan seems to be directly proportional to complexity of the one's persona, and disposition to intense inner conflict. Simpler people seem to expire much faster, deeply tormented souls tend to linger awhile.

If a character of any significance is said or believed to be dead, it's a sure sign that he or she is not. Even if you read the whole chapter about it, it might still not be true. And even if it is, some might come back from the dead.

And finally, like with many of those epics, there is always another book coming.

Or two...

...iKaossilator!

2011-10-28T11:34:00.000-04:00

I have the original yellow Kaossilator, and I am a big fan. This app, although visually similar in many ways, is fundamentally different in the way it handles the phrases you create; it's not better or worse, it's just different, and if you are to use it, you just have to learn.
First of all, it does not record and loop sound, like the original Kaossilator does, it records sequences. The downside of it is that one can't endlessly overdub the track, using the same voice, it will start erasing previous loop eventually (but they do give you five layers to play with, so there is plenty of space to build your riffs). The upside is that you can save, undo, redo the sequense, return to it, re-record, reassign instruments, change the key, tempo, scale, everything, all in real-time, and then save it again.That is big. And the mix play is a very nice feature.

WHAT IT NEEDS:
Ability to export MIDI
Ability to import MIDI (there is no way the tracks in app's library were made with the app, no one can play a touch pad the way the keyboard is played, it's even smaller the the pad on the hardware Kaossilator)
Dynamic GRID on the pad, reflecting th actual scale being played.
Ability to be MIDI controlled with an external controller (I'd pay extra just for that, the syn sounds are awesome, well... KORG it is...)
I want the Drone sound back (#60), and the rest of the effect sound missing from the original Kaossilator set!!!

iPad version with a bigger pad would be nice, too...

Hm.

2011-05-05T11:52:00.004-04:00

It looks like I haven't posted anything for a year. Apparently, nothing to say.
How about some music, then?

Leaving Manhattan—bossa-nova @ 130 bpm, by yours truly, written sometime in the fall of 2010, after we stopped pretending being rich and moved out of the shoe box size studio on West 95th Street. Technically we didn't leave Manhattan, just the Upper West Side, but the new neighborhood feels quite different... miss the easy acces to Central Park dearly, so the tune is a bit sad. Like 99.9% of all my tunes, really.

This particular version came alive with the help of Pat Felitti (piano), Ian Pellow (bass), Raul R. (drums, percussion), all @ kompoz.com. I play tenor sax and EWI.

Leaving Manhattan by iG.STUDiO

TASCAM DR-07

2010-05-05T12:37:00.014-04:00

I absolutely love this little gadget.
It does what it says it does, and does it very well. You just have to know what to expect.
In my testings, the device recorded the sound of saxophone equally well through the internal and external microphone (I used Shure SM58, just because I have it, I would imagine that the quality can only be better if one uses more advanced studio recording equipment). The recording of a full range performance through the internal mics, taken from the middle of the small auditorium, came noticeable dry on the bottom, just as one would expect from a small handheld mics; once again, using a high-end external mic would definitely improve the results.
The recording of the same performance from the mixer's "line out" was absolutely perfect: I use backing tracks and play live over them; the backing tracks sounded identical to the original ones, and our playing and singing over them was captured just as it was going into the system through the stage mics.
To those reviewers who complain about too much handling noise to be picked up by internal microphones: GET REAL. This is what the input level dial is for. Find it and use it, and don't handle it, hold it! In other words, stop scratching the surface with your fingers...
The device has many features, some very useful, like the "single" repeat mode of playback, which brings the gismo to a full stop after each song in a playlist—very convenient for live performance using backing tracks, and many others.
The DR-07 is powered by two AA batteries, which is just great. I am all for being green, but I had so many iPods, Palms, cameras and other gadgets go dead just because of the internal rechargeable battery not holding a charge anymore, that being able to replace a dead battery in seconds is a true virtue for me. Battery life is very good, too. I had it running in recording mode for two hours straight with display backlight on (I love to watch the level indicators :) ) without any noticeable discharge.
The only thing I found annoying is the fact that In/Out loop, when engaged, plays with a little gap, which is tolerable, if you are practicing over the portion of a track, but makes the feature unusable for live performance (it does the same in "repeat one" playback mode, the looping is not seamless).
Overall I am very happy with the DR-07. I wish I had one of those, when I was a kid and used open reel tape recorders to record music...

I Am Going To Boycott Travelocity, And Not Because I Hate The Gnome

2010-04-05T09:06:00.005-04:00

I do hate the annoying gnome, but that's not the reason.
We (my wife and I) just had a very strange and unpleasant experience with online booking through Travelocity. It started in a pretty normal way—on Friday she booked a flight for her father, who doesn't have a computer, so she usually does it for him, I printed the e-ticket, put it into an envelope, mailed it to Cincinnati, where he resides, and we went on with our life.
That wasn't it, though. Next day, in the evening, my cellphone starts ringing, I cross the room to pick it up, it stops. Missed call. From... let me see... a person named "0050". Not that I know anybody by that name, and no voicemail message left. Whatever. Back to dinner.
Three hours later I go to the computer to check email, to find three messages from memberservices@travelocity.com
First message - at 6PM (about 24 hours after original booking):
1."...For the protection of our valued customers, all reservations are subject to review by our Revenue Protection Department, which requires the actual credit cardholder to contact our agents for additional information or verbal authorization...Your reservation is subject to cancellation..."
Second and third messages - both at exactly 7:51PM:
2."...We are unable to complete the processing of the reservation you made on our system, until we can obtain some additional information from you..."
3."...Thank you for booking your travel reservations with Travelocity.com...Our Revenue Protection Department previously had either contacted you by phone or emailed you requesting that you contact us. Unfortunately we have not heard from you and we have canceled your reservation due to lack of verifiable information..."
Apparently, the call from that 0050 gnome was not the one to miss.
I called Travelocity, and got through the maze of menus, and was put on hold and demanded explanation from someone with undecipherable English, and was transferred to another someone, whose first words to me were (I kid you not) "Who is this?" By that time I was not even yelling, I was more like hissing, but at no avail, cancelled reservations can not be reinstated, and so on.
I am just wondering at what point the company which use to have a good reputation stops giving a shit about it and turns the business to it's Revenue Protection Service.
And do they really expect me to be glued to the computer with the phone in my hand on Saturday night, or my reservation will be cancelled 24 hours after it was made, my dinner will be ruined, and my wife's weekend will be spent looking for another ticket through another travel site?
On the brighter side—at least they let us know that the reservation was cancelled. I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't.
I hate gnomes.

P.S. On Monday, two days after they cancelled this reservation, they charge my credit card for it. I had to call them and yell at them, and I also called my credit card and disputed the charge just in case. Somehow the words that come to mind when I see the gnome are not of a civilized nature.

Finally LOST

2010-02-17T10:38:00.039-05:00

I seriously think that LOST is a phenomenal show, being made by the group of individuals who have balls of the size of melons.

The latter is the only explanation of the confidence they exude when faced with necessity to further develop the convoluted story lines of the plot which
a) never existed
b) collapsed several times already during previous attempts to develop what never existed to start with and
c) still not coming together (really? alternate reality is the cheapest cop out there is, next to the person waking up and realizing that all of it was a dream...).

I can only admire the commitment of that team, and extend my deepest sympathy to the writers who actually have to put words on paper, and make them sound natural without conveying any sense (which looks more and more like a policy of the show, like "no direct question should be dignified with an answer, ever" or "if in doubt, make a character tell a random lie or cry")—amazing writing indeed. I am serious.

So, final season.

Is it just me, or it looks like the show resets itself every once in a while? Or, rather, every time it reaches a critical mass of conflicting logic? And it does so by blowing up stuff, like a hatch.
A submarine, or another station, or two.
A ship.
An island (that's a big one, how are we gonna get out of this one? Oh, oh, I know: alternate reality!!! Where everybody is happy, except for Locke, who is still a loser. Is that the plan—to explore this new "side-flash" story and end up in the mere 100 years old O'Henry Roads Of Destiny's way of coming to the same point, just in a different way? They have to resolve this new wisp of plot lines somehow, haven't they? I suggest waking up randomly selected main character, but it's just me.)

So, the bomb went off (in one reality?), causing the island to appear sunken in 2004, and all the characters carry on with their lives as if nothing ever happened. Story resets once again, but I am not sure I want to follow the alternate reality, I am being force-fed now for the lack of better entertainment. I kinda like the island better, you know, all the isolated environment stuff, characters, forced to deal with each other quirks, and so on... up until a certain reset of a story, which threw us into the bliss of 70's suburban soap opera of the last season, that was annoying.

I am not amazed nor excited to see Kate in handcuffs again. Who cares if she might even be allegedly innocent in this life? There are an infinite number if alternate stories which could be written about any of the losties, and they all can be made to look believable, and they all can be played out in a very convincing way by the talented cast (I am not sure I like Ben as a school teacher, after he was so endearing as a cult leader of the Others and an assassin handler on main land), so what?
Imagine a really good band stop playing suddenly after two verses and a chorus, and say "err... oops. wrong key. have to start over... hope you don't mind...".
And again.
And again, bit without "...hope you don't mind...".
That would take away a bit of the entertainment value, wouldn't it?

It also reminds me of the all the cons on Leverage: you know, when the first well-planned con doesn't ever goes as planned, something terrible wrong happens, and the crew needs to improvise to get out of the situation, and it always works out?

Except on Leverage IT'S DONE ON PURPOSE, and that's why it works!!!

What is really amazing is a cult following this show has, and the level of blind trust people put in it's production team (I have heard some internet comments like: "Don't you remember Mr. Eko saying to Locke that he is next, and now he is dead, so THEY DID HAVE A PLAN FROM THE VERY BEGINNING!"—nope. If it only was that simple, or proved anything, it'd make me happy. In reality it just means that you can't see the story cracking at the seams, or don't care, because you finally found your alpha, and now your muzzle is glued to it's tail, and you are ready to believe that one loaf of bread feeds one thousand people under right circumstances, give or take a few. Too bad it's just a TV show, and not a real cult, so you can't wait for a second coming of Jacob in the remote campground, while leaving your earthly possessions to your leader).

And yes, I do watch the show. I am ashamed to admit that, but I still hope that they will find an elegant way of tying all the loose threads and making everything come together at last, but the hope is fading away with every new cope out.

I am less and less convinced everything will work out, ad we all know what to do if you are not sure.

Press "77".

P.S. And for those of you who gets really excited about characters randomly quoting Star Wars or anything else for that matter—watch Psych, they do pop-culture quotes half a dozen times per episode, and it's actually funny there.

document.elementFromPoint

2009-10-27T11:26:00.003-04:00

More of a mental note:
for document.elementFromPoint IE/Mozilla calculates coordinates of the point from the top left corner of a viewport; WebKit and Opera - from the top left corner of a document.

Sony Webbie HD Camera MHS-CM1

2009-07-17T09:30:00.006-04:00

Six years ago I bought a Sony MiniDV camcorder, which is still an a good working condition, and does what it is supposed to do. After initial euphoria of taping everything which moves for a couple of years, I kind of drifted away from home-made videography, moving towards home-made music production, so the camera was not used a lot.
A little over a year ago I finally upgraded our family entertainment center to a flat-screen TV, which made me understand how poor the quality of the standard definition home video actually is.
So the caressingly used camcorder is now used even less.
But—Dar's new show is coming up, and needs to be properly documented for many important reasons.
Preferably in a modern day video standard.
So I stumble upon this one:
Sony Webbie HD Camera MHS-CM1
Not only it costs about 1/6th of what I payed for my MiniDV cam, it is four times smaller, ten times lighter (no moving parts, duh) and records up to 5 hours in 1040 HD on a 16GB memory card.
So I grab one.
Did it yesterday, played with it for one evening, and made my conclusions.
The video is, of course, HD, but the resolution is not everything (I shot several clips, all in 1440x1040:30p, trying to get the cam to adapt to different light conditions. It's got some controls and settings, like backlight, low light, and so on, but the automatic is the one to go with). Any kind of movement in the frame, however, produced a nauseating blur of such magnitude, that the image would look actually worse then the one of a standard definition. When movement stops, the auto-focus kicks-in lasily, and adjusts the picture to acceptable sharpness—assuming that there is enough light. In low light conditions, the sharpness never comes.
And since there is no image stabilization, there is always motion in the frame, unless you are using a tripod (the screw socket is plastic, so be careful not to tighten it too much).
As frustrating as it is, it would be tolerable, considering the price (the thingy is CHEAP, I got mine for $180 at B&H, 16GB card was $75, all together with carrying case and taxes—under $300), I would even forget the mono sound, but there was another major minus for me.
CONTINUOUS RECORDING TIME IS LIMITED TO 25 MIN.
After that it stops recording, and you have to press the button again. If you are trying to record a continuous event, you end up with a several second gap, if you noticed that the camera stopped in time and pressed the button immediately.
Why is that, to prevent people from stealing movies in the theatre?

Needless to say, this morning puppy went back to the pound.
One can't afford cheap things, truly.

More Things To Be Mad About

2008-11-20T09:27:00.014-05:00

There is no US Embassy in Minsk, Belarus. As a result, people who need to go through an interview for a green card, like my mother, need to go to the nearest city which has one. In good old communist times it would be Moscow, the capital of the whole USSR. The trip there would entail overnight train Minsk-Moscow, spending a day in a city, and overnight train back. No visa required, naturally.
Today, despite the fact that old Soviet Union fell apart and old Soviet Republics are separate states, the trip to Moscow would go pretty much the same way.
But the wizards at National Visa Center came up with a different plan. Everything my mom needs is done in Warsaw, Poland. Why?
NO IDEA.
May be it's closer.
So my mother had to pay for Polish visa, go through the medical exam they require, wait for ten days to get the visa, go to Warsaw, and all this just to find out that the medical form for her green card is not in a correct format (which was never specified, by the way), and—this is my favorite—THEY DO NOT HAVE A PROOF OF MY US CITIZENSHIP.
I called them a month ago, as soon as my mother was scheduled for an interview to check if they have everything, and they said yes.
This whole case is based on the fact that I am a US citizen, otherwise it would never get approved.
Now I need to send my mom a copy of my naturalization certificate, and she has to go through this idiocy again.

I haven't been this pissed since the 2004 presidential election.

Is There Anybody From 13th District Who Is Voting Republican?

2008-11-04T21:08:00.006-05:00

Campaign Worker: "Is there anybody from 13th district who is voting republican?... we, err... have a 13th district machine stuck on "republican", so if you are, you can just go ahead of the line and pull the lever... may be it will unstuck..."

There were actually two brave ones who responded to the call...

Made my day =), even though they sent us registration confirmation letters marked "district 15", and we are, as we now know, district 19 (we had to stay in line twice to find that out). Whatever, I voted in a morning, Eva had to return after work to cast her ballot.

We did what we could. If McCain wins, we most likely will have to move to Manitoba.

On The Endless Wonders Of Internet Explorer

2008-10-07T12:00:00.003-04:00

May be somebody will stumble upon this post and save some time for him/herself.
Apparently—it only become apparent after several hours of trial, cursing and error, as it usually goes with IE—, Internet Explorer (up to version 7) throws a runtime error, if you try to modify innerHTML of the dynamically created element under certain conditions.
The conditions, as it always go with IE, are significantly lacking consistent logic. For starters, if you assign innerHTML to the element before you insert it into a DOM tree, the error may not come up at all, but will surface later, when you try to modify it.
So far it looks like the error mostly comes up, if you change innerHTML of the block element inserted into inline element (which is not kosher in standard-compliant HTML, so it makes sense), and some nested block elements (like DIVs inside Ps—why is that considered wrong, too?—for instance).
So, if one really-really need to insert a division into a paragraph, and work it's innerHTML (like I did), one has to use span instead and set it's display property to block—that seems to trick IE into errorless mode.

I've put up a test page to illustrate all of the above.

Needless to say, Firefox and Safari handle all variations correctly no matter what.

P.S. I am mostly pissed because my Palm T|X had a severe crash this morning, and is currently stuck with a white screen of death (even the reset button doesn't work, damn it). Now I have to wait for the battery to drain and hope that it will reset itself after that.

P.P.S It did. Yay.

If Your Quit-Smoking Meds Make You Think About Suicide...

2008-09-24T08:59:00.008-04:00

...you should pick up smoking again.
Seriously, you might live longer...

Sometimes You Just Know

2008-09-22T14:44:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you just know what's going to happen, like, when flying Delta to Moscow (happened some years ago, flight was cancelled due to horrible weather, then they decided to send us there through Amsterdam, then changed it to Paris), at that vividly remembered moment, when we just checked in our suitcases to the Amsterdam flight and someone comes and says "no, they are going through Paris" and we are sadly looking at our luggage being slowly dragged by the conveyor belt to that Amsterdam flight we are not going to board anymore, and we say "what about our luggage" and they say "don't worry, it is going to be taken care of" and you just know it is not true.
And it wasn't, and we landed in Moscow in a middle of a snow storm, and most of our warm clothes were traveling to Amsterdam and back and it took them three days to finally reach Moscow.
Sometimes you just know, and now I am having another déjà vu moment, different curcumstances, same feeling... after mailing a check for my monthly parking spot on 8th avenue, I decided to make sure it reached the destination (I used to pay in person before), so I checked my bank statement online, and no, the check was not clearing day after day, so I went to the garage and paid in person again (late fee applied, naturally). The very next day my check clears, and I go there again, and there is no manager on duty, and I go there again the next day and there is, and "oh, I see; we will credit it towards next month", and... let's see, what I will get in the mail when the payment is due.
Sometimes you just know, but you still hope to be wrong, at least this one time...

There Is Nothing To Do On Bermuda

2008-09-12T06:29:00.019-04:00

Neither there is anything to do on the way there, and, frankly, not much to busy oneself with on the way back. And if not for the hurricanes, we wouldn't even consider going there on our 25th wedding anniversary—and we hadn't, we actually bought a cruise to Bahamas, and even booked two shore excursions—but NCL just took us to Bermuda instead.

Well, things happen and people have to deal with them.

It would be, however, much easier, if the overall cruising experience aboard Norwegian Spirit left nothing to wish for. Unfortunately, it did.

When it comes to cruising, the entertaining elements of a trip normally fall under three major categories: food, drinks, and shows. Those are supposed to compensate for an imminent boredom of being trapped aboard 13-story floating hotel for several days without even being able to marvel at the occasional car wreck down below from your room window.
I did expect a lot from all three, since Evelyna (and Dar) were on a cruise once, and came back absolutely nuts about how good everything was.

Not this time.
Food, which was all free and awesome on their first trip (Carnival Cruise Lines, not NCL), was simply not good. The ever-crowded buffet selection was mediocre at best, pool-side barbeque was totally inedible, anything above those required a cover charge of at least 15 bucks, sometimes more, and—get this—did not guarantee an outstanding meal. When we were dining at the steakhouse ($25 cover charge), I had to send back my fillet mignon, which was dry as a board (I ordered "medium", I always do), and so on.
Very frustrating.

The performers weren't really impressive neither. The bands (all two or three of them) near-or-below-wedding quality; the magician was OK, the blues guitarist/singer was on a good bar level; the jazz piano player was good and would be even better if he didn't have to sing, but I understand that life isn't fare in general. The so-called "Broadway Show" was horrendous. We left, when they started butchering excerpts from "Moving Out" and fled to listen to family karaoke at the poolside, which was more fun in comparison, probably, because that was the only bar left open that late (midnight).
I do not understand a curfew when it comes to a bars on the ship (or anywhere else, really), but most were closed at 11 p.m. Go figure. And that was pretty much the only quality entertainment left to us, spoiled New-Yorkers...

That covers the ship experience. We had to spend an equivalent of one more ticket price just to maintain a certain level of happiness, which to me is rather important on vacation, and drinks made just about a third of it, the rest was food... make you own conclusions.

They say, it's not where you go on vacation, it's what you are escaping from. That's true, unless it's Bermuda.
I was never a beach/sun/swim person. If you are, you are lucky, because that is the only thing there to do. The beaches are gorgeous, and the ocean is wonderful. The rest is made in China and costs three times as much as the exact same item on Canal street. The toy pink Bermuda bus I bought for my grandson had steering wheel on the wrong side (left of the vehicle, not right as they have it under UK driving rules in real life), if I'd notice it in the store, i'd probably leave it—not that Cass would care, though.

P.S. I bought myself a hat just to have something from the trip. Good for walking dogs under the rain. Made in China.

P.P.S. The part which infuriated me the most—to send an email message from the ship is $3.99. I am so done with NCL...

On The Fragility Of Financial Equilibrium

2008-08-07T12:12:00.012-04:00

Time and again, life presents me with another proof that for some absolutely unexplainable reason I am not allowed to have money.
Once I have any unspent funds on any of my accounts, something comes up and clears the offending surplus. This time I just didn't have a chance to shovel the unexpectedly timely security deposit refund from our previous place towards the credit card I used to pay for our vacation. That resulted in a chain of seemingly unrelated events, which, in turn, helped me to get rid of the extra money.
1. It rains cats and rats on Saturday, so we cancel our trip to Long Island, but since there is a parking spot right in front of our building I leave the car on the street overnight.
2. I totally forgot to take my car to the state emission test, of which I am gently reminded by a bright orange envelope under my windshield wiper with a $65 parking ticket.
3. I am taking my Jeep to the closest (and only one) Jeep dealership in Manhattan, (Manhattan Jeep Chrysler Dodge) to quickly get the sticker and forget about my stupidity.
4. I am informed that since I first time was at that dealership five weeks ago—I drove in for an oil change and ask them to check the brakes; my brakes were fine, but I needed some maintenance; I said yes and they performed the aforementioned procedures, which added up to over $1700 in parts and labor—my water pump started leaking and my oxygen sensor is failing the emission test.
5. The water pump was apparently handmade from plutonium, oxygen sensors they must have shipped from Jupiter, and they probably have to hire and train new mechanics for each car they service—this is the only explanation of the final bill I got ($1540 for parts and labor; not bad. I did some research, so now I know that is at least three times the charge for that amount of work).
6. Done. No more extra money, which was in all fairness very not extra.

Next time I will take my car to the shady shop with a sign "FLAT FIXED $5" and hope that the stolen part they put in will hold at least while I am making sure nobody is following me on my way home.

Half A Block From Central Park

2008-07-17T09:24:00.009-04:00

Sounds a bit like a movie title, doesn't it? Or a book...
So many things happened since my last post, it's difficult to even start. In short, we moved again (like-we-did-last-summer... no, actually, it was the summer before last, when we escaped Crown Heights in favor of Briarwood, small neighborhood on the edge of Kew Gardens).
This time we decided to go for the gold, so we moved to Upper West Side, and Dar and Cassian—to Brooklyn Heights.
Wow. I am still not sure if we are going to make it, but both areas are really nice (doh... location-location-location, as they say... almost makes up for our can-you-please-take-dogs-for-a-walk-I-need-to-open-the-fridge-size apartment... and Dar's is a basement burrow even smaller than ours...).
It was about time for us to move, though. Life in Queens was a definite upgrade from our year-long Brooklyn survival experiment, but still quite far from a dream, considering a hefty commute on a barely working E/F trains (for Eva and Darya, and after I got my new/present job, for me as well—do not have to drive anymore!), not very many places to take dogs out (which they need at least twice a day, unfortunately), and, of course, Dar's baby.
I do like little brat, but the sooner they will start living on their own, the better for all of us it will be. We have reached this understanding, crossed our fingers, and signed two leases. No going back now, not without a penalty.
So here we are, still 90% in boxes, our hands and heads hurt from assembling IKEA's puzzles, out legs—from 3rd story walk-up, but we are not bridge-and-tunnel people anymore, we are in the City (Dar still lives on the other side of Brooklyn Bridge, but really close, one train stop), two blocks from Roth's Steakhouse, where I played jam last year—a whole year passed already?—and half a block from Central Park.
I wonder what's next.

Things I Do Not Get II

2008-05-09T10:00:00.006-04:00

Something's telling me that there will be a lot of posts with this name, that's why I made up a special label for them. This post's issue is taxes, and the thing I don't get is: why if I dutifully put in all my dependents in my W-2 form, and then repeat the process in my 1040 form, I end up owing taxes? And I am not saying hundreds of dollars. I am saying THOUSANDS. The time for taxes is, of course, passed, and all I owed is paid, but why? I was naive enough to actually expect a refund this year, and that refund would help A LOT. Darn it, I am still not over.
In addition to that my daughter's taxes, which I prepared with TurboTax, are proved to be wrong at least on the state level (the state of New York apparently disagrees with TurboTax on the matter of who can claim child care expenses as a deduction—long story short: my daughter and her son were both my dependents for the year of 2007, but she paid for the child care institution, Cassian goes to, and according to TurboTax, was eligible to claim a deduction, regardless of the fact that her son is technically my dependent), so now she also owes money, instead of getting a refund.
If I understood anything in tax law, I wouldn't need software to prepare my taxes in a first place. Now I need to decide if I want to file an amended tax return, and claim those child care expenses for myself and hope that I get some of my taxes back.
Why can't all this be simple?
A little trivia fact: the total amount of taxes my wife and I paid for the year of 2007 is just a couple of hundred dollars short of being equal to my very first salary in the US back in 1993 (very crappy job, but professional nevertheless)... I guess we are doing better now. It also is just over the total amount of my credit card debt, which I still have and paying off little by little, 0% APR, of course, my math is still OK for that...
Whatever.

Is It Just Me, Or...

2008-04-25T14:30:00.004-04:00

... the creators of LOST really decided to get rid of some characters—probably so they wouldn't have to develop their stories, for there is already way too many—and drastically change some of the surviving ones? C'mon, Ben is now growing surprisingly 007-ish, and the way he handled those two poor AK-armed nomads in a desert was very much Jason-Bourne-like; move over, XXX, we have a new action hero in town (in all fairness, though, the real spies and assassins probably all look like Ben, and not like James Bond)... nevertheless, fun to watch. I never believed that they will get out of the LOST storytelling maze gracefully, and so far I see no indications of the plot coming together. Oh, well.

Things I Do Not Get

2008-02-22T15:08:00.005-05:00

Amongst many things, and in no particular order:

A Web-standard-compliant box model.
Why the default size of the box is determined by it's contents, and why the padding should be added to the overall dimensions. The Internet Explorer's model makes more sense (blasphemy). It does.

Another CSS thing which puzzles me: why I can float things right and left, but not to the center? Right and left here are in fact top-right and top-left, but I sooo could use bottom-right and bottom-left positions as well...

And why decided that vertical margins should collapse? Not a very important one, but still... really, why?

On UPS Communications And Delivery Options

2008-01-16T05:42:00.000-05:00

OK. I never had any significant luck when I order something with delivery. One way or another, something will ALWAYS go wrong. The following is merely a documented process of getting the item I bought on the web, delivered by UPS, no rush, regular 2-5 business days option.
Tracking info from UPS website:
US 01/10/2008 6:52 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
KANSAS CITY, KS, US 01/10/2008 7:17 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
KANSAS CITY, KS, US 01/11/2008 1:31 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
SECAUCUS, NJ, US 01/14/2008 10:30 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
SECAUCUS, NJ, US 01/15/2008 1:37 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
NEW YORK, NY, US 01/15/2008 1:58 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
01/15/2008 6:48 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY

So far so good, right? I was smart, too—gave them my office address, just to make sure I won't miss it.
Now, at around noon I go to the restroom, strangely located outside the office's backdoor, next to a freight elevator, and find a UPS info notice, slapped on the door. The back door, the one which is never open, and doesn't even have a doorbell.

Darn. Why wouldn't they deliver through the front door?
OK, let's check the website, just to make sure:
01/15/2008 11:48 A.M. THE RECEIVER'S LOCATION WAS CLOSED ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE

OK, I am screwed. Let's call the number on the notice.
Phone robot: "Thank you for calling UPS..."—blah-blah-blah, navigate through the voice recognition menu to change the delivery option to hold for pick-up—wait! the robot girl says "it's still early in the day, would you like us to try a second delivery attempt?"—YES!!! OF COURSE!!! GREAT!!!—"Someone will call you within an hour to confirm... blah-blah-blah". Good. Back to work.

Two hours pass. No call.

I call again. "We are in a process of arranging your delivery. Someone will call you within an hour, if not already done so to confirm..." OK, this is not working. Let's check the website. Two new entries:
01/15/2008 12:40 P.M. A DELIVERY CHANGE REQUEST FOR THIS PACKAGE WILL BE PROCESSED / SAME DAY WILL CALL
01/15/2008 1:33 P.M. SAME DAY WILL CALL / ARRANGEMENTS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED WITH CUSTOMER

Hm. I was going to ask for a will call, but the robot girl convinced me to try re-delivery. Let's call again:
"We are in a process of arranging your delivery. Someone will call you within an hour, if not already done so to confirm..." What if I press "0"? Ahha! Live operator! YES!!! Can I change an address for this delivery? I can? GREAT!!! Can you deliver tomorrow to my home address, because I am going to work from home tomorrow? Excellent!!! Thank you very much!!! 9AM–7PM? Not a problem, I'll be there.
Let's check the website, just in case:
01/15/2008 4:18 P.M. THE DELIVERY CHANGE REQUEST FOR THIS PACKAGE WAS MODIFIED / DELIVERY TO AN ALTERNATE ADDRESS WAS REQUESTED

Looking good. I go home and watch "American Idol" freak show.

All that was yesterday. This morning I check the website again:
01/15/2008 6:18 P.M. THE RECEIVER REQUESTED A HOLD FOR A FUTURE DELIVERY DATE. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED / AS REQUESTED, THE RECEIVER WILL PICKUP AT A UPS FACILITY AT THEIR CONVENIENCE. THIS MUST BE WITHIN 5 BUSINESS DAYS

This is strange. Yesterday at 6:18 P.M. I was in a subway. And even if I wasn't, I didn't request a hold. And even if I did, what does THIS mean:
"UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED / AS REQUESTED, THE RECEIVER WILL PICKUP AT A UPS FACILITY AT THEIR CONVENIENCE"
Aren't those mutually exclusive options?

I call again and press "0". My package is being indeed held for me. In Manhattan, naturally. What happened to the delivery to the home address? They don't know.

Oh, but I do. Tomorrow, when I will try to pick it up, it will be on the truck to Queens...

Fearing that, I call again to be told that the package is going to be there for 5 business days, and I will definitely be able to pick it up tomorrow. Good.

I am not even going to ask why the address they gave me is not listed on their website...

________

Update on the situation: as planned, I went to the UPS store to pick up my package. To my pleasant surprise, it was, indeed, waiting for me there. The clerk couldn't find it for a while, but finally did.
Just for kicks - let's check the website:
NEW YORK, NY, US 01/17/2008 1:41 P.M. DELIVERY
01/17/2008 1:41 P.M. THE RECEIVER REQUESTED A HOLD FOR A FUTURE DELIVERY DATE. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED / THE RECEIVER PICKED UP THE PACKAGE THAT WAS BEING HELD FOR THEM

Just tell me one thing: how are they planning to attempt the delivery, if I already picked it up?

Netscape Is Dead

2008-01-04T05:28:00.000-05:00

I feel sooo old. Somehow, when Microsoft announced the end of support for the Internet Explorer for Mac at the version 5.2, I didn't feel that weird, but I always was a bit of a fan of NN—just to stick it to the man, I guess—, even after I switched to Firefox a couple of years ago and made it a primary browser on my Windows machines, having Safari rule my Mac environment. Surviving a web browser may not be a life-changing experience, but it does make one ponder...

On Addictivity And Connectivity

2007-11-27T08:57:00.000-05:00

First things first—after a year (at least) of drooling over one, I finally decided to cash in my almost-two-years-of-non-smoking credits, and got myself an EWI.
It sounds a bit like a medical condition, and frankly, it's quite mental, because I can't stop playing with it.
So far it seems to be an amusingly addictive instrument even with a stock soundbank—I plan on making my own patches later, as soon as I figure out how to use that UniQuest joke of a software—worst of all, it can be played in headphones, so I can do it even at 4am if I wanted to. So far, I have more fun then problems playing it, in spite of its little fingering differences (I use SA(x) mode), and totally different breathing technique.
Now comes the connectivity part.
I've used FastTrack USB for a couple of years with a microphone through the XLR input with no problems, but when I tried to connect a line output of EWI's synthesizer to the line input of the FastTrack, the signal level was very low. There was no noise, it was just quiet, even with the track volume all the way up—no match for the rest of the tracks.
I use FastTrack USB for audio input, and built-in audio for output, it's connected through a hub (no problems for two years). In GB microphone is going to the Channel 1 (mono), and still works fine. Synthesizer goes to Channel 2 (mono) and is really quiet. I tried the EWI with two different 1/4" cables with no difference.
After some more research on the Net it appeared to be that all the FastTracks suffer from the same problem, which makes me believe that it's not a bug, but a feature of an unexplainable kind.
Oh, well, back to my old iMic noisemaker (this one works, it's just screened very poorly, so it picks up all the possible interference, and also makes its own little nasty hiss—this is why I switched to the Fast Track a while ago—so I will need to cut it out with an equalizer).
Hopefully, the EQ surgery will not affect the synthesizer's sound consistency and quality as severely as it used to, when I was dealing with a microphone's input.
We'll see. There is also Lightsnake*, which looks very nice...

____
* Ended up getting the Lightsnake eventually. Works fine, in spite of it showing up as "Unknown USB Device" in GarageBand menu.

On Variety Shows

2007-11-20T10:12:00.000-05:00

Well, to put it shortly—if the best number in your variety show is performed by the quick-change artists, and the second best is Chinese acrobats (and even they cheated and bailed out of properly dismounting from the top of the chair tower), there is something wrong with the rest of the people on the show. I rightfully expect Ellen's Really BIG Variety Show—if I remember the name correctly—in it's dreadfull boringness to be challenged only by the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Should have gone to bed at 9 p.m., but didn't. Shame on me.

Template Update

2007-11-15T17:29:00.000-05:00

Nothing special, really, just updated the blogger template for the sake of trying something new. And, yea, I lost my previous template backup somehow, so there was no way back. Now I have found my backup, but I don't like it anymore, so I am going to stay with this template for a while. Who cares.

On Voice Recognition

2007-09-11T15:45:00.000-04:00

I: (touch the Bluetooth headset button)
Phone: (beeps ascending scale, then in a female voice) Please, say a command.
I: Call Darya.
Phone: Command not recognized. Please, say a command.
I: Call Dar.
Phone: Did you say (pause, then in a male distorted voice) Darrin?
I: No!
Phone: (in a female voice) Did you say (in a male distorted voice) Dennis?
I: NO! DARYA! I SAID DARYA!!!
Phone: (in a female voice) Are you sure? Because I'am pretty sure you said David... Which is strange, since there is nobody by that name in your Contacts. Neither there is Darrin, nor Dennis. My battery is low. And I am tired. And you are nuts. Please, say a command.
I: Fuck you.
Phone: Command not recognized. Go fuck yourself. Please, say a command.
Phone: Command timed out. (beeps descending scale)
I: (sigh) ...

On New York Subway And Late Night Jams

2007-08-06T08:54:00.000-04:00

I must admit that I am severely spoiled, when it comes to public transportation. Having lived in Moscow for half a decade and spent nearly three hours a day commuting, I grew accustomed to the impeccable logic of the one of the world's largest cities' "metro". There are, as I see it, two major rules, which the builders followed through the whole process, and oh, boy, they work; they really do.
Rule one: there is one line per physical track. If you got on the train in a hurry you don't have to worry about what train you are on, A, B, C, or E, and whether you have to get off on the next stop and wait for your train, because this one ain't the one you need. It always is.
Rule two: the platform is always between the tracks. If you spaced out, fell asleep, or for any other reason missed your stop, all you have to do is get off, cross the platform, get on the train and go back.
It is simple and it works like a charm. Overall structure is simple as well; one circular line, encasing most of the city and connecting most of the major railroad terminals, and several "rays", crossing the circle and connecting center of the old city to the outskirts of the metropolis.
If we compare this to, say, NYC subway system, we'll see how confusing and inconvenient it is, with all the lines chaotically intertwined in some places and totally absent in others, different lines sharing same tracks, and suddenly parting after. My personal favorite is when you get on the train, like E, and it turns itself into another, like F—in Moscow it would be impossible, here it's common practice.
Well, everybody in New York has to deal with that somehow, and everybody does.
Friday morning I took the horn with me to the office, planning to attend a jam session in the City late night, same one I went to about a month ago. I figured that if I return home after work, I would probably not find in my heart to take the car to the City that same evening, and certainly will not take the train.
So I dragged the case to work and after a full day of working ended up facing a very hard question: what am I going to do for several hours I have to fill before the jam starts?
I hanged out in the office until 8 pm, working while I was still able to. Tried to watch a Herbie Hancock DVD I thoughtfully brought from home, but soon stopped, because it just felt weird, sitting behind the desk and watching DVD on my laptop. I can't just watch anything on a computer screen. The computer's got a keyboard, that's why. It's for working, duh.
I was for a while entertained by the task of getting the DVD to play, because, for some mysterious reason, Dell (and, probably, other Windows machines as well) laptops with DVD-drives do not com with DVD players. I see no logic behind that, but hey, it's Windows, there is no logic. When you insert a disk, a dialog pops-up, asking you if you want the disk played by Windows Media Player, you click "Yes", and it starts WMP, which in turns, says that it can't play the disk. Simple and efficient. Now you have to buy a decoder, unless you download VLC Media Player which plays pretty much anything that moves for free.
Anyway, it felt odd, so I packed and took off, heading for the Upper West.
Due to aforementioned complexity of the NYC subway structure, I have completely failed to locate uptown-bound E train, so I took 1 (which was OK just as well) to a 96 street and walked to a place.
There was no one playing at first, then the pianist emerged from behind a kitchen—I recognized him from the last jam, he was a guest player—, sat down and started to play solo. It was way to early for a jam, still 8:30-ish, so I had to sit through his act first, then listen to the host band for another set, and then, may be, play.
And of course, you can't just sit in a restaurant and listen to the music, so I had to order.
By 9:30 I was totally finished with my very well prepared and very upper-west-side-priced dinner. That niche of productively spending time was covered. I yet had to figure out a way of spending another couple of hours there, preferably without drinking myself silly, for I was going to play later, although the only force, driving me at that point was my own stubbornness: I couldn't cope with the idea of me going home after all the troubles I've gone through from carrying the horn to the city in the morning to paying $50 for steak and salad. I was dog tired and sleepy, and listening to a piano solo for two hours did not really help. I resorted to a modest Cap'n Morgan on the rocks, and managed to stretch it to an hour worth of decent adaptation of miscellaneous standards.
The host band arrived around 10 pm, same instruments, drums-bass-piano trio, different people, though, nevertheless, all good players. They looked new to the place, and there was a brief moment of confusion, when manager asked me If I am the one playing tonight ("no, I am here for the jam—planning on sitting in later on..." "I see..."). They did a set by themselves, as it usually done, then took a healthy break.
I looked around the steakhouse, tracing any possible guest players, beside me, and realized that I am the only one. I also realized that it's raining like in Noah's times. Crap, thought I, I can't even take off, first, I already said I'm here for a jam and taking off will be considered rude, like I don't want to play with them, second, it's raining really hard and I have a laptop with me; and it's clear, that nobody is coming in this weather.
It's not like I didn't want to play, I did, that was the idea, but to attend a jam is one thing, and to give an improvised concert is a totally different story. You can compare jam to a chat between several people, while being the only one talking is a bit more like a monologue; and that was something, I was not prepared to do.
The band returned and started playing, however they did not announce any jam, just played more standards one after another.
I waited for an invitation of some sort at first, but they kept playing, and started Summertime. I set up my horn and came up to the stage, got a inviting nod from the band leader, played a solo, then, when it was time, took the melody out. I wasn't really happy with my solo, I was dead tired, and it showed. "Nice... Call the tune, man what do you want to play?" I hate this, thought I, and I don't remember any... this one may, be? "How about a bossa? This one, what's it called..." "Blue Bossa, sure..." We played, I played another forgettable solo.
The took a break after that, I inspected the weather conditions and realized that the rain had stopped. I packed, thanked the band and fled the scene.
It took me two hours to get home, and I missed my stop, because the train I was on, which was supposed to go local, went express at 1 am for some mysterious reason. I got out on Jamaica, one of the few stations where they do have a platform between the tracks, but the tracks in the direction back to my stop were occupied by a maintenance vehicle and it looked parked there for good.
I walked home. I think I am still tired.
Somehow hight life is proving itself quite difficult lately.

On The Last Day Of Steady Employment

2007-07-20T10:12:00.000-04:00

It's been raining for the last two days, and the glorious city of New Your smells like sewage and dog pee. And it's hot.
The Internet connection in the office is very flickery, which really screws up my writing flow, but it feels like the events of these few days somehow should be documented or at least reflected upon.
So...
My desk is sterile with the exception of a few things I still plan on using today: headphones, Palm, half-pack of chewing gum and an antique* Maxwell House coffee mug. My ailing Windows box is cleaned up of all the stuff I kept in it during almost two years I had it. My coworkers are conspiring to take me out to lunch (I, of course, already bought one in the morning, because initially the gathering was supposed to be a short run for a beer after work). Darn. Will have to take it home along with the antique mug.
The office of congressman just called. Apparently, my case is not showing up anymore anywhere in both organizations, so I have to re-file. I don't wanna talk about it. Next step would be to sue, and it's all coming to just that.
My rapidly developing enthusiasm (although I was very skeptical at first) about my new employment is slightly marred by the light, but annoying sensation in my chest, which I am carefully trying to ignore for what seems to be like a couple of days (it could be longer, though...). Every evening I challenge myself with an energetic walk up the hill from my parking garage to my apartment building, watching out for the symptoms I know so well by now. So far, so good... We'll see, what will come next.
I am to report to my new boss on Monday, July 23rd, at a break of dawn, which in this case is 11 AM.
My computer will be arriving on Wednesday.
I am officially the first employee of his company.
It is time for a change, I think...
____
* Anything made more than 20 years ago is called antique in this country. Things made before the World War II are considered ancient.

Writing A Job Description For Myself

2007-07-12T09:20:00.001-04:00

It is kind of a fun assignment: to write your own job description. Nevertheless, worth trying...
OK, soooo... after I leave this job, you, guys, are going to be looking for a Visual Web Designer/Front-End Web Developer with a minimum (well, and maximum, too) of B(F)A, schooled in both conventional (hard copy) as well as fluid layout (web) composition, with experience in image editing, web image optimization, typography, with strong hand-coding (no WYSIWYG!) skill set (XHTML/DHTML, CSS, client-side JavaScript) and basic understanding of .NET developing environment.
The above professional should be aware of the latest Web design trends and principles, and be able to create standard-compliant cross-browser and cross-platform HTML structures and be able to (err... to see them being butchered by the developer team without spiraling down into a fit? no, not that...) oversee and ensure proper implementation of the aforementioned designs, as well as being able to maintain and troubleshoot (i.e. reverse-engineer) existing sites.
The person will also be responsible for designing from scratch as well as adopting supplied advertising materials, such as banners, animated ads, landing pages, and event or special promotion mini-sites.
If the person will be responsible for ad deployment, as I am, he or she should be able to write a simple SQL query, but that's easy to pick up.

Applications: Photoshop/ImageReady, Dreamweaver (in code mode), Flash, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
Technologies: XHTML, DHTML, CSS 2, XML, JavaScript+AJAX, ActionScript 2, SQL, .NET.

I, actually, can do more, but this is what I was doing for two years here...

On IE7 Upgrade

2007-07-11T15:11:00.000-04:00

Since I really have nothing to loose at work, where I am spending my last two weeks (I gave a notice on Monday), I have upgraded to IE7. After that I have spent two hours, trying to figure out, why my website makes IE7 crash. I finally did, but damn, that was entertaining.
It looks like document.open('text/html','replace') needed to loose the replace argument, document.writeln() can not be used for writing links to external scripts, the address bar is not removable anymore, and window.resizeTo() doesn't want to work (that pretty much disables all my portfolio galleries).
Lovely. What was even more annoying, is that IE would work with .html files, if they were opened locally, but crash, when opening the exact same files from the server.
So much for the upgrade.
All other imaginable browsers do display my site correctly, with little or no problems. Even Opera.

P.S. During the fixing fit, I removed the reflection.js script---which wasn't mine anyway, I was just playing with it.

"Dude, you need a helmet..."

2007-07-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

I think, I've found a place, where I can hang out for a while. Roth's Steakhouse on the corner of West 93rd and Columbus has jam sessions on every Friday night from 10 pm to 1 am (allegedly, that is, the real time was from 10:30 to 2, and the jam part started around midnight), starting with a set, played by hosts, as usual.
First set was actually very good, nicely and tastefully played by a minimalistic piano trio (the drummer had only a snare, a kick drum, a hi-hat and a ride cymbal), the only inconvenience was the location of the stage, which can't be really observed from the bar, so I had to stand for an hour in order to see the musicians: the drummer, the bass player, whose instrument looked like it survived a small hurricane, but was a time or two used as a floating device, and the pianist, working on the weathered upright, seemingly held together by the wall, it was leaning against, and some duct tape.
The repertoire was diverse enough to get my hopes up, just a right measures of post-bebop, mainstream and even some bossa.
Guest musicians started arriving at around 11 pm, some skinny kid with a tenor being first, proving once again, that tenor sax is a single most popular jazz instrument in New York City (I almost miss those blues sessions in Cleveland, where I enjoyed watching endless guitarist play-offs, rarely being challenged by another horn).
I waited for a while, first thinking, that I should at least wait 'till the jam starts, to see what they play and if I am going to fit in with what I have, but the break after the first set seemed to go on and on, and shortly before midnight I broke, marched to my car, got the horn, and went in.
They were starting, skinny kid was already wrapped in some sort of sax-support harness instead of a regular "necktie" which made him look like parachutist or bungee jumper with (of course) 50-years old Mark IV / Otto Link combo (which, apparently, is another must-have for any NYC jazz-sax major) strapped to his chest; it almost made my spankin' 2004 Yamaha "Custom Z" look out of place and totally unprofessional ("So what," though I, "I have a real job, so I can afford buying shiny things...").
They started with some standard, kid played a head and a solo, of course, hard bop, what else (or the modern "student" version of bop, where you go over the changes with a series of fast arpeggios, preferably 1/16 notes, which successfully makes every song sound exactly the same, but sort of shows up your craftsmanship, or so they think).
"Dude," thought I, looking on how hard he was working in his thrill seeker harness, "you need a helmet. You play so fast, you can hurt yourself..."
That unuttered joke entertained me just enough to stop worrying about me fitting in, and just play, and so I did up until 2am, taking turns with the aforementioned kid (which indeed, could play at least twice faster than I can, and was actually very good at it. He will make a good musician one day, when he realizes, that music is not measured by the number of notes per bar), two guitarists, one more tenor, and a trumpet.
My more then modest fingering was, I hope, compensated by the more or less successful phrasing and other musical qualities I humbly possess, because I was told to "come back any time" by the hosting group. It may have been just a polite expression, but hey, that's what I was told to do (twice), and that's what I will.
Things are looking up, I think.
Need to brush up on my standards a bit...

An iMovie bug AGAIN

2007-07-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

After several month of not making any movies, I am trying a new project. Right of the start something is wrong, freshly imported unedited line of clips is not being played correctly in iMovie preview window - video stops in about 30sec or so, while audio goes on. If I switch to full screen, it gives me another 10sec of video, then it stops there, too, and nothing brings frozen video back to life. After restarting the app, everything repeats.
Needless to say it's impossible to edit.
It also does it with the older projects, which used to work just fine.
Here is what I've done so far:
1. Repaired permissions on startup disk and checked it for errors.
2. Repaired external disk, where the project resides (even tried to move the project to internal disk with no avail - same results), and where I have 80GB of free space.
3. Replaced external disk's directory, using DiskWarrior.
4. Deleted iMovie preferences file.
5. Removed all third-party plug-ins I had.
Nothing works.
QuickTime Player seems to play imported clips fine, so I am guessing, it's an iMovie bug.
I've been a loyal iLife user since the very beginning, and I swear, iMovie in it's buginnes is only challenged by iDVD.
______
PROBLEM RESOLVED (or seems to be resolved, for I haven't tried editing or exporting, but at least playback works now), thanks to Kirk Krueger:

"It is a common problem for G4 800 machines and I've been told Apple is investigating the issue.
Try putting your Mac to "sleep" for a minute and then try the file again."

Go figure.

On Be-Bop And Other Flavors Of Jam

2007-06-27T08:31:00.000-04:00

I have a special relationship with be-bop. In short, I firmly believe, that it ended with the end of it's natural life span.
In the forties.
With all due respect to all modern be-bop (or, to be scientifically correct, hard bop) players, sorry. All you do is rotating carefully rehearsed Parker's and Gillespie's licks in various combinations.
Which is awesome, of course.
There is just no music anymore, just a succession of notes in pursuit of speed and fluidity.
Will have to find another place for jammin'.
Oh, well.

Letter To Congerssman III

2007-06-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

The saga continues:
(this time, however, I do have complaints about my congressman's office involvement; although they were faster this time around, all they did was to re-state my previous letter back to me, and advised me to start over)
____
Dear Mr. Meeks (Ms. Barnes):
In your letter you advise me to file a duplicate I-130 application once again, and “contact the NVC and U.S. Embassy, requesting a letter that states there is no record of your file in their offices”. You don’t even say what I am to do with those letters.
My case was either lost, misplaced, or otherwise thrown away two times now. With all due respect I sincerely doubt that “third time is the charm” technique will work in this particular situation. I am a tax paying citizen of this country, and all I want is for my mother to live with us legally, as she is allowed by law. If everybody at CIS and NVC would be doing their jobs as they are supposed to, she’d be here already.
In a meanwhile, she was refused even a tourist visa, because of our application for her permanent one.
If the aforementioned problem does not lie within your jurisdiction, please, refer me to the appropriate authority on this matter, and I will pursue my case with them.
****

Going On Vacation

2007-06-15T14:47:00.000-04:00

Can't wait. Silly, but feels good and strangely optimistic. Haven't had that in a while... and this is just a week long trip to Catskills.

Letter To Congressman II

2007-06-12T16:37:00.000-04:00

The continuation of the saga:
(once again, I have no complaints about my congressman's office. They could be faster, but, hey, they might have stuff to take care about, and, hey, they help)
____
I very much appreciate your help with my case with Citizenship and Immigration Services three months ago (being a naturalized US citizen, I applied for an immigrant visa for my mother; the petition was approved in August, 2006, but the case never made it to National Visa Center, and nothing was happening; you made them restart the application process, and they did so on 28th of February, 2007).
But I am afraid, that now it is happening all over again.
There was no activity on the case for over 90 days (again), I called National Visa Center to inquire about the status of the case (again), the automated information line said that they have no record of the case with this number, and I can’t even get through to a live operator (although I am pretty sure, that the answer will be the same), because they changed the system, and do not put you on hold for an officer anymore, just tell you to call later, and then disconnect you.
Once again I have a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Services, stating that they have sent the case to the National Visa Center, but National Visa Center claims that they never received it.
I don’t even know what to tell my mother next time we talk, because she will never believe that this is happening all over again, and I can’t even blame her – no one would.
Please, help me.
****

Now, let's see what will happen...

Listening To Public Radio On The Way To Work

2007-06-01T09:56:00.000-04:00

...really helps to mute those annoying voices in your head. Just an observation. Highly recommended, though, for sanity purposes.
On a sad note - yesterday's premiere of Pirate Master turned out to be a total disappointment. The show is slow, uninspired, overprepared and totally faux. It feels rehearsed.
Absolute boredom.
I miss LOST.

The more I watch "LOST", Or On Building Underwater Hatches

2007-05-17T13:07:00.001-04:00

The more I watch LOST, the more I realize, that there are things I really like about that show, and there are things that annoy me - to my own greatest surprise (for I have been a sci-fi fan for as long as I can remember myself reading and watching anything).
The more I watch LOST, the more it looks like the things that annoy me, are, in fact, the very things that cultivated my affection to the genre in a first place - the sci-fi elements, the things unexplainable and non-existent in our boring daily routine, the things that stimulate imagination and challenge common sense. Like space or time travel, and alternative realities, and dangerous species, lurking in the dark in strange places, and amazing gadgets which do wonderful things.
The more I watch LOST, the more I am closing on the conclusion, that what I actually like about that show is dialog, characters, acting, basically anything, but the mystery behind all that. I do realize, however, that the mystery is the foundation of all what is happening on the island, and without it nothing would work, but wouldn't it be so much better if there was a conventional explanation for what is going on? That, of course, would never allow for the existence of smoke monster and semi-visible Jacob (I would keep the magnetic anomaly, which makes the island invisible for the outside world, though - besides, there are things like this in real world - and, probably, the healing powers of the island to keep things interesting, but that's enough for me, really).
The thing is, that you don't have to throw in everything you can think of just to make the story interesting. The relationships between the characters, conflict with the Others, sexual tension, and so on is more than enough, why do you feel the need to dilute the plot with unnecessary sci-fication of everything.
Imagine that you are reading really well-written detective story, the classic locked room mystery, which gets better and better with every page, and you are dying to figure out along with the main character, how the main suspect could commit that crime and escape the room, leaving it locked from the inside, and on the last page somebody casually says "well, that's simple, he just can go through walls, because he has superpowers, that's all". That's to me is cheating, and I am really worried that the creators of the show might slip into it; there are many things thrown in already which would only make it easier.
The underwater hatch, however, looks very cute. Aside from the obvious idiocy of having it anchored to the shore, although it was never designed to drift away, being seemingly attached to the bottom, and lacking any noticeable means of supplying the inhabitants with oxygen, it's very cool, and will provide nice scenery for whatever happens there.
I don't think, they will kill Charlie - they talk too much about it, and all the people killed on the show so far were killed without warning.
It's not clear, how Jack's plan with blowing Others up is going to work now, since they most likely will not be looking for marked tents, knowing that the whole operation was compromised. Bernard looks like a goner, though - just a gut feeling.

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

Just having a good day. Happens to us, too.

Did Somebody Else, Too, Noticed...

2007-05-03T12:48:00.000-04:00

...the surprising level of "doneness" of the top 20 songs, submitted for the American Idol Songwriter Competition is, indeed, just a sign of how well-equipped and prepared all the aspiring songwriters in this country are? I, naturally, expect the work of the professional to be of a better quality, than that of an amateur, but what was that crap about "...you don't have to be a singer, we are going to judge the song, not the performance..." and "...simple rendition with a basic accompaniment is fine...". Yea, right. Just listen to all 20 BORING songs, presented for the America to vote upon.
Another thing which surprised me, was how strangely familiar all of the songs were. I had to force myself to give a couple of them a rating of 7, and that was just because they didn't sound like something I just heard. The rest - in my honestest opinion - deserved no better than 3s and 4s.
Sad.

On Fredom Of Speech

2007-04-18T08:26:00.000-04:00

The omnipresent idiocy of the general population never cease to amaze me. The Internet has made it clearer than ever, though - people are not nice, neither they are smart. In general. The average Internet user is a violent cretin. This is why I stopped participating in many forums and bulletin boards I was a member of, I am just tired of listening to somebody's stupid tirades about anything. I can (and do) write my own, thank you very much.

On Selling Things You Didn't Make

2007-04-09T16:21:00.000-04:00

"The Pursuit of Happyness": Tired of being unable to sell several pieces of medical equipment and facing a necessity to provide for his family, the main character of the movie sets his goal higher—to sell stocks. How inspiring.

I Am Starting To Worry...

2007-03-30T16:15:00.001-04:00

...generally, when the amount of money in my savings exceeds a certain number (and that's not a large number), mainly, because I expect various unpleasant events to take place. Usually, the car breaks down. Sometimes I hit something, but sometimes it breaks by itself just as well.
This Tuesday I came to work, parked my Jeep, spent 9 hours at the office, went back to my Jeep and turned the ignition key.
Nothing. The lights are on, though, radio works, too - I have power. So it's a fuse, or starter. I checked the fuses (found two which claimed responsibility for the starter operation), one was all right, the other one I couldn't pull out without pliers, so I decided, that it's all right, too. It looked nice from the outside.
So I called AAA and asked for the tow to the dealership. The truck came in about half an hour and the driver checked my battery, confirmed that it's not it, and offered me to start my Jeep with a help of two seemingly undocumented individuals, who happened to be crossing the parking lot at the moment, which worked beautifully - he got in, we pushed, he pumped the clutch, tires squeaked, engine sneezed and started like nothing happened.
The truck driver bailed out, since I was able to move by myself, and went back to his shop, probably to bill AAA for the towing.
I drove to the dealership and got really lucky: not only they were still open after 7 pm, they also had a loaner car for me (while waiting for the truck, I called nearest rental agencies just to make sure they are all closed. They were. For a while I was seriously contemplating driving home and parking on the hill - we have many around - so I could start the car in the morning, but decided to check with the dealer first).
So my mood was greatly improved. Not only I was driving home, I was driving home in style on a 5K old Chrysler Sebring Convertible (being middle-aged, noticeably overweight, and loosing hair - just a right guy for the car...).
Next morning brought some sad news: the faulty element was my ignition switch ($220), but I also needed a power steering flush ($180), because old fluid was deteriorating as we were talking about it, and tune-up (another $180).
OK, said I, and transferred $1000 from my savings to my checking.
Next morning was also rather informative. It appeared to be that my ignition switch was damaged, because a piece of plastic broke off my steering column and damaged it. Apparently, if I was to keep my old steering column, it would attack my new ignition switch and damage it again. I need a new steering column ($500).
I transferred $300 more, leaving a total of $2.71 on my savings.
That should do it. I seriously doubt that they will find anything else wrong with my Liberty, since I am entirely out of extra money.
P.S. This just in: the car is ready. I am totally driving down there with a top down, damn it. I am allowed to have at least that much fun.

On "American Idol"

2007-03-27T16:38:00.002-04:00

Excuse me... err... how do I vote Sanjaya out? No, really... What's the number?

I Beg To Differ (On "Casino Royale")

2007-03-26T08:36:00.001-04:00

The first page of hits Google returns if you run a search on "casino royale film review" are all basically the same. Everybody agrees that it's the best Bond movie ever made and Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever.
I beg to differ.
I may not be a true 007 fan, I must admit, although I have seen all of them, and some more than once (I do not consider myself a true fan just because I don't remember what many of them were called, and who played Bond in which particular one).
I do, however, have a very clear idea, why I like those movies.
Because they provide the very best brainless entertainment the movie of this genre can provide. Well, they used to. They had an enchantingly evil villain, many bad guys of different calibers, tons of cool gadgets, beautiful girls, world-scale crisis and, of course, indestructible, classy and cool main character. There would be a half an hour of the "character introduction" proving time and again, that 007 is the coolest, classiest and indestructiblest. There would be at least five minutes of the "gadget factory" (my personal favorite), followed by hour and a half of gloriously resolving the main crisis by magnificently blowing up everything that can be blown up, killing everything which could be killed, and saving everybody who deserved it. And then, after everything would have been over, yet another half an hour of going after the miraculously escaped main villain in order to save a kidnapped girl (usually the second, prettiest one; first one usually dies violently before we get a chance to start caring about her, but it makes 007 very angry). Mmm. Good times.
Now, let's see what we got here in Casino Royale. Character introduction: I am not sure. Was it that strange short black-and-white scene, which I failed to pay attention to (I still can't recall what they were talking about), or the chase after the small time bad guy with the back pack? If so, that was a wrong introduction, because the bad guy ran faster, moved cooler, and jumped higher (I still can't understand how Bond eventually caught up with him), and the whole sequence looked like Spiderman being chased by Hulk, who can run through drywall panels. That's not classy, that's borderline goofy.
I agree, Daniel Craig is a good actor, but guess what? Being Bond does not require acting chops. All you need to look the part, have pretty accent, and be able to issue several lines of canned puns. And that's fine. I don't care about character development. I don't need to grow to like him. He is likable by default, for he is a good guy, looks cool, have pretty accent, etc. Connery was cool, Dalton was classy, and Brosnan was both (he is my favorite Bond of all times). Craig isn't. He is short, stumpy, blond(!), and looks—in a tailored dinner jacket—like a thug who robbed a magician. Once again, he acts very well, but I don't care if Bond grew up in an orphanage. I want him to shoot, and blow stuff up, and race exotic cars, and pun in between.
Another thing—where did the main battle go? Neither there is, in fact, a world-class crisis. I know that they went by the book, but hey, if I wanted a book I would just read it, and if you are so darn proud of being true to the book, you should have made him younger and set the movie in the proper time period.
Instead of the main battle there is a fist fight on the rigged to blow up fuel truck, and a missing world-class crisis is resolved by not blowing up the truck and some airplane. The rest of the battle takes place at a card game. How exciting.
And the second (prettiest) girl dies. Whaat? Oh, she was bad, but not really? Thank you. Now I know that there will be no ending, because there is nobody to save. There is, however, another bad guy, but he is dealt with in one minute. Nice.
Total waste of 2.5 hours.
If I wanted to be bored to tears, I'd watch Babel again.

And Another, And Another

2007-03-24T12:36:00.000-04:00

The things I do, darn. I thought that getting a keyboard will ease the creative process, but, no. It just makes it more complicated. My new bossa, which doesn't even have a name yet, now contains a sequence of descending chords, which is going to make it a bitch to solo over. Why do I do this to myself? I don't know. Probably, for fun. This is my idea of fun, apparently. But it sounds good this way...

On The Art Of Directing

2007-03-23T17:36:00.000-04:00

Here is the thing: when a conductor raises that skinny chopstick of his (or hers), you don't see him or her actually play an instrument. You are, however, assuming that the person, who is responsible for the operations of the whole orchestra, is capable of playing at least one instrument. And I bet you are right. More than that, actually, many of them are indeed multi-instrumentalists and often quite capable solo performers.
Another thing - play of film directors. I bet they can act, most of them. And many of them are former or still performing actors, too.
Not when it comes to directing art, oh, no.
I suggest a simple test: take a book, any book, and put it on a table. Put an orange, apple, or an office toy basketball on top of it. Now give your art director a pencil and a sheet of paper and make him draw the book and the object on top of it in perspective. Forget the shading, just the wireframe (that's even better test).
And even better one would be to draw from imagination, without that improvised still-life.
How many of us can guess the outcome?
Right.
I see this problem as very much computer-related. It's the very essence of a common mistake of substituting the tool for an ability. Just like stringing some prerecorded loops in GarageBand does not make you a composer, your virtuosity of applying the drop shadow in Photoshop makes you neither an artist, nor even a graphic designer. It makes you a fraud, who got the job because you have a "creative vision" and "attention to details" and "people skills" and you "can get the job done".
And guess what?
It's OK.
It is, because you probably have all of the above, or you believe you do, which for me is just as good.
I do not have a problem with you directing me.
I do not have a problem with you telling me what to do.
The problem I have is with you telling me HOW to do it. You can tell your chauffeur where you want to go. You can even tell him, what route to take, scenic or highway. But for the sake of anything sacred to you, do NOT tell him how to switch gears.
Especially if you never drove a stick shift.

P.S. if you care about your job security, however, you should perform the aforementioned drawing test in your imagination. You already know the result, right?
P.P.S. Good thing nobody ever reads this blog, too.

Letter To Congressman I

2007-02-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

This is from an actual letter I have sent to my congressman. Posted here to keep track of my struggle with CIS, formerly known as INS, and, to the extend of my knowledge, the worst organization I ever dealt with in this country.
____
I would very much appreciate your help with my case with Immigration and Nationalization Service.
I am a naturalized US citizen since 1999. Recently I invited my mother to come live with us, and applied for an immigrant visa for her. The petition was approved.
Enclosed is a copy of the approval notice, I have received from INS in August, concerning the immigrant petition for my mother.
Since there was no activity on the case for several months, I called the Customer Service number, listed on the bottom of the notice. I was advised to call National Visa Center directly to inquire about the status of the case, so I did. They told me to send them a copy of the approval notice, claiming that they never received the original. I did. They returned the copy I sent them with a letter, stating that they don’t have my case. I called the Customer Service number again, and this time was advised to set up an appointment in the local office. On the appointment officer informed me that they neither have my case, nor any information about it, and that I should write to the Vermont Service Center, where the case was processed. I did. There was no answer so far (they received the letter on January 10, 2007) , and, considering my previous experience, there might not be one ever.
Please, help me find out what is the status of the case and when my mother and I should expect to see any progress, this is very important to us.
****

Oxygen At 7 AM

2007-01-29T09:19:00.000-05:00

Pun intended, naturally. I am not a keyboard player, but after careful consideration I decided that I need something to enter notes into GarageBand, rather than a mouse or a computer keyboard, which displays just a horrible latency, when you type the notes in. My first choice was, actually, a wind controller (and I already know which one, after reading an excellent blog entry, which does compare both leading instruments - Yamaha WX5 and the Akai EWI4000s), which I still intend to buy some day, but for some tasks, like picking chords, the little two octave keyboard is just the tool of choice. Here comes M-Audio Oxygen8v2, hence the name of the song...
I am so easily entertained...

On Being LOST

2006-10-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

Despite all my affection to that show, I must admit that the beginning of season III had given me some doubts. The more I think about the initially multi-dimensional and yet still heavily branching story line (or lines, actually), the more I fear that the creators of the show will not be able to eventually control it to the degree where it would still remain plausible. It's the question of energy vs. entropy with the whole structure being so complex, that it can collapse into something as cheesy as "...and the whole thing is actually a hallucination, which was going on in their minds during the last 3.5 seconds of the plane crush..." or the eversafe "...just a virtual reality experiment...".

Well, that would really suck, wouldn't it?

Every sci-fi story must have an "allowance", that's the rules of the genre. No matter what it is, time travel, space exploration, rebel robots or evil aliens, it should be there, or there is no story to be told. However, the good sci-fi story rarely, or almost never uses more than one. Fahrenheit 451, or Lost World, War Of The Worlds (the book, of course, not the movie), in the movies - Enemy Mine, Alien, Matrix, and so on, they were all built upon a single allowance.

Lost, apparently and decisively, uses many. I am not saying that it's bad, I am saying, it's a lot more difficult to manage. We have the island with healing powers, mysterious Others, strangely behaving out of place animals (boars and polar bears), leftovers of the some research facilities where the NUMBERS (oh, those numbers) must be punched in every 108 minutes, psychic predictions and, of course, a strong and repeating notion of everything happening for a reason for all the people are somehow connected through their past actions, although nobody knows how. The most misplaced thing for me is a Smoke Monster, which is so obviously thumb-sucked, that it's almost funny (the theory that is wasn't actually eating people just makes us to assume that there are two extra elements, because something was). And the implementation, c'mon, we are in the 21 century, Xena and Hercules had better CGI...

OK, the Hatch blew up (or imploded, as they like to call it) at the end of the season II. No more numbers to punch in. Cool. Polar bears are back. Nifty. Boars are gone. Whatever. Desmond how has superpowers and can predict nearest future with a totally negligible margin of error. You go, brother. Walt, who allegedly had some superpowers, is gone, because the child actor grew (duh, what did you expect?) out of the story timeline boundaries. Michael is gone, too. Killed two people and left - gotta go, sorry, gotta take my son back before he grows a beard - I actually glad he did, for I was getting really tired of him.

At the moment of this ranting the story is seriously crumbling. Good thing, there is somebody to take charge of the situation and boldly call the fire upon himself. Ben, formerly known as Henry, to the rescue. I just love the character. He makes everything better and much more fun, you almost forget that the story is idling like a taxi in front of a nursing home. It is, however, apparent that the Others have absolutely no idea of what to do with Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, whom they so successfully kidnapped (sorry, guys, the writers made us do it...). Oh, I know - let's Jack perform a spinal surgery on someone and use Sawyer for body parts. Kate? Err... Not sure. Well, she can escape, then, whatever.

Let's not forget that the creators of the show (good thing we didn't know that when we just started watching the show) are the ones who brought you Alias (the show which over the course of - what, four seasons? - exploited nearly every possible sci-fi-spy movie cliche, and the main character's job consisted of pouting, running - seemingly - really fast and crying twice in each and every episode) - so they might, you know... fail at this one, too...

On Good Luck And Other Kind Of It

2006-10-19T11:01:00.000-04:00

That is from someone who gets picked out from the continuous flow of gently speeding traffic for going 2.25 miles over the speed limit - some of us are clearly marked*. Since I moved to NYC, however, my speciality became parking tickets. I get them everywhere. This is my way of supporting the city (seriously, why running the red light, which is a potentially life-threatening violation is priced $50, and parking with your spare tire hanging 1.5 inches over the sloppily painted crooked white line** - more than twice more, $115? I'd tell you why***, but this blog is a part of my professional image, or at least I hope it doesn't destroy it too much...) - as "premium" as the city is, according to our mayor.

Another topic - warranties. How in a world they manage to build something which breaks one to three days after it's factory warranty expires? And how do they know that you are going to buy an extended one, and in that case the damn thing breaks not in 91 days, but in 3 years and 1 day? Amazing, just amazing...

...and if something breaks under warranty, it's something like a clutch, which is not covered...

This time, however, it's a 3-month old Seagate 60 GB 2.5" internal hard drive, which replaced the original Toshiba drive in my daughter's PowerBook G4, which fried itself, you guessed it right, in 3 years and 1 day after purchase. Now this one reports S.M.A.R.T. status failure for no apparent reason. I wonder what will go wrong with the replacement I am preparing to fight for tonight at the Queens CompUSA shop...

Good luck to me. Yea, right.

_________

* ...well, OK, I have to admit, last time it was more like 25.2 miles over the speed limit, but it was in New Jersey!...

** ...this time it was a hydrant, but my flashers were on and I WAS going to return to the car right away!...

*** ...because catching the idiots running the red light (myself, naturally, included, but I only do it once, may be twice a year, not too often) would require actually watching the traffic, going after the offender, stopping him or her, doing the paperwork... nah. Parking tickets are much more profitable. No one ever died because of the vehicular parking assault, even if the hydrant was blocked, not to mention just touching the white line with the shadow of your bumper. It's more like a parking fee, in fact. You want a luxury spot in front of a hydrant? It's reserved, waiting just for you. Pay up and park...

What can brown do for you?

2006-08-30T17:04:00.000-04:00

Apparently, it can drive you insane, especially if you haven't dealt with it before. They use a number of very simple, but effective methods:

They only deliver, when you are not there, e.g. between 9 AM and 5 PM, and leave a note you can't read with a reference number.
Since you weren't there, they will deliver again the very next day, making sure they attempt the delivery at the exact same time (because they already know, you wouldn't be there). They will leave a note with a different reference number.
They will try again (same time) next day, and then leave another note with another reference number, marked "final attempt".
You will call the number on the note to figure out what's going on. Eventually you will get a live person, who will be very helpful and reschedule the delivery for the time you can be there (after 6 PM).
They will deliver again next day around noon, and leave a note with a new reference number.
You will call. After getting a live person and explaining the situation, you will be told "I am really sorry, but whoever promised you any delivery after 6 PM, shouldn't have done that, because we only deliver from 9 AM to 5 PM. Alternatively, you can pick up the package at this location (address follows). It's open from 9 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday. Oh, you can't... What we can do is try to deliver to your work address, if it's convenient for you?" You will give them you work address, directions, and name of the receptionist on the first floor.
They will deliver again the next day, still at your home address, around noon, and leave new note with a new reference number. You will call to find out that they are sorry, but it usually takes more than one day to change the delivery address, but it should be redelivered tomorrow.
They will deliver again at the new address. The other two packages you had, were still delivered to your original address, but due to pure coincidence, someone was at home at the time of their arrival, and was able to receive them.

... so I instructed my daughter to change the delivery address on file for her gift registry to my work address. I wonder what is to happen now.

Am I hallucinating...

2006-08-15T15:38:00.000-04:00

... or did I finally fixed this buggy blogger template (with the help of www.positioniseverything.net )? Hasn't been five years... It still refuses to validate, but at least it's not running in quirks mode anymore, and renders in IE the same way it does in Firefox. Fills my heart with joy. Happy birthday to me, too.

The whole two months...

2006-08-14T14:09:00.000-04:00

... and we are still unpacked. There is something wrong with our lives. And we have way too many books.

And we move again.

2006-07-25T11:18:00.000-04:00

This time to Queens, chasing the dream of leaving in a place where there is more grass and less cockroaches. So far seems to be working, even the part where Dar is moving in with us to make it easier for us to help her when the baby arrives. I am going to be a grandfather. That's odd.

On Wake Up Calls - Part III

2006-03-08T10:59:00.000-05:00

I will get to the point eventually. I usually do. Figuring out what is that point, however, is a task by itself. May be, I just need to vent, may be I am just annoyed by the fact that there is a blog on this site, which was abandoned for a while, or may be there is more to the four little metal things residing in my coronary artery than just preventing it from collapsing.
I don't remember all the correct stages, but there is one thing I am fairly sure about: this is as far away from acceptance, as it can be.
And, finally, I understood why I am so angry with my quitting smoking.
First of all, that wasn't my idea. As a result, I feel no real satisfaction, when I think about all these days I hadn't had a cigarette (since 01/30/06 to be exact). I just fill frustrated.
Secondly, every time I feel like burning one, I don't. This constantly reminds me that I am old, sick, not well, have "a condition", and so on. It is very annoying.
Really.
So, what was the point?
Still not sure.

On Wake Up Calls - Part II

2006-02-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

So, we've moved. Many things are different, starting from street parking, and all the way up the annoyance scale to cockroaches and ever-present puddle in the elevator.
It's surprising, how many people are afraid of dogs in our neighborhood. It's like it isn't New York (and it isn't, it's Brooklyn).
But what is New York? Or, to be precise, what were my expectations of becoming a New Yorker? Quite frankly, I didn't have any well-formed ones, and as a result, I'm not really disappointed.
In theory, yes, it's a city of opportunities, fortune, fame and all the good stuff. Money, for instance. For some people, that is. Still a good thing.
In practice, however, it's just a relatively big city, where many people live, mostly because they were born here, and don't know any other places, except this one. Some, and many, too, do move in from other places, though, in search of a bright future. This is why service sucks in so many places around here, in my honest opinion - every other waiter or sales associate is an aspiring somebody else, which has a direct effect on the quality of service.
My search for a band, though not yet complete, hadn't brought any results as of the time of this writing. Several people I met so far were not just going to have fun jamming with me, they were auditioning me; they all are working on some very special projects, where a very special individual (may be, even me) was going to take a very key part.
Some asked me to chip in to pay for the rehearsal studios, where the aforementioned auditions were held.
I did, although I do not believe in auditions, especially the ones paid for by auditionees.
Regardless of my beliefs, or participation in paying for the studio, I got no offers of any kind.
I am yet to find a place, where I could just come and just jam, as I used to. Having a full-time job (in Oyster Bay, which amounts to 1 - 1.5 hours of commute twice a day), though, doesn't really help in this situation, because the places I heard of are located in Manhattan and have sessions on weeknights, starting around 1 a.m., ending - I am guessing - around 3 - 4 a.m., and leaving me with a very little time to sleep until 5 a.m., when I usually wake up before work...

On Wake Up Calls - Part I

2006-02-09T15:41:00.000-05:00

I haven't written anything for so many months, that it's almost impossible to select a starting point for this entry, and unless you are bloggin reluctantly every second you can, an entry needs one.
I could start, perhaps, at the time of our move to New York, that would be a good one: 2005, middle of June; my contract with Goodyear is over, there is nothing more to expect from Cleveland, we need to do something, and that something, according to Evelyna, is nothing less than just moving to New York. The logic was impeccable: it doesn't matter, where not to have a job, but there we will be together.
To those, who tried to rent an apartment in any of the boroughs, good luck. To those, who tried to rent an apartment without having a job, my condolences. To those, who succeeded, hats off.
I had one week, before my "current" pay stub would start to look suspicious at least. That explains (sort of), why we ended up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and even that was not easy.
Knowing better now than I did back then, I would, probably, rather go for the neighborhood, where there's less than three hair/nail establishments per each block, and a bit more grass to walk the dogs, but, considering the circumstances, I think, I did well. And the place is big, which is a rare case for this city.
The neighborhood is OK, too; it only seemed hostile at first. I never thought of xenophobia as of something I had, but, apparently, there is a first time for everything. Mild case, but annoying nevertheless, although perfectly explainable - there are basically two kinds of species, inhabiting this neck of the woods: the ones, who go to those beauty shops, and the ones who own them. First kind is loud, cheerful and friendly; they like parties and loud music, they congregate for no apparent reasons around landmarks of any social significance, like phone booths, Laundromats, and staircases, where their kids play all the time up until bed time, which varies from 1 to 3 AM on a weekday. The second kind is serious and busy, they always walk fast, their men wear black hats, suites and coats, their women - long skirts, flat shoes and head scarves, and they all together make it impossible to find parking on Friday night, because they are not allowed to drive after dark, for it's already Saturday in their very old world.
Needless to say, that we don't blend in really well. May be, just OK, but not really well. On the other hand, it seems to be our way of doing things.

On Apples And Oranges

2005-06-07T09:09:00.000-04:00

I am no market analyst. I would never want to be one, for that matter, so I am not.
I am, however, stalked by several thoughts on the matter of yesterday's Apple's announcement of "plans to deliver models of its Macintosh computers using Intel microprocessors".
The questions, which are bothering me are:
1. The Megabytes Myth.
Is it just me, or somebody else remember, too, that first G4, and than G5 processors were introduced as first true 64-bit processing chips (after G5s appeared, the G4s somehow were removed from the 64-bit processing scene, anybody remember that? I am still compelled by the fact, that my iMac Flat Screen is not a 64-bit processor ANYMORE, but I understand now why it's running so slow recently. It used to be a lot faster, when it was a 64-bit. Sucks.), which are incomparably better, than whimpy Intels?
From the no-market-analyst point of view, there are two explanations to this phenomenon: a) The Megabytes Myth is not a Myth, which subjectively very much appears to be true, or b) The PowerPC processor is going to follow the Betacam path, as being to expensiveve to be profitable, regardless of it's superiority.
In both cases the customers (us, that is) are getting (or were for a while) screwed by our beloved company. Pick your answer, relax, and try to enjoy it.
2. The Mac OS X+.
The fact that Apple plans to produce computers, capable of running Windows OS as well as Mac OS is very scary looking - for me, again. Although it would be very convenient from the professional point of view to run Windows natively from time to time, without resorting to painfully slow VirtualPC emulator (as I have to do, being a web designer, and designing for the web means necessity to account for 96% of the surfers, using IE for Windows), my unprofessional point of view is rather simple: for as long, as Macs were unique under the hood, they required a unique operating system to run, which resulted in a very nice one - eventually - OS X. If Apple adapts the generic technology, the need for the OS will die. Slowly and painfully (again, for us, users). Apple will make pretty machines, which will happily run Windows OS, and happily charge us for classy design and fantastic packaging, along with the overpriced support.
Guess, who are getting screwed in this scenario.
I am no market analyst. But not everything in this world is profit-oriented.
I am just a guy who used both Macs and Windows-based PCs, and liked Macs better.

Isn't it how I always do things?

2005-02-27T18:04:00.000-05:00

At some point in my life I should, probably, stop and think about what is wrong with me. I really should. I am noticing alarming tendencies in my behavior, and I am not happy with them, tendencies. I am close to willful acknowledgement of the fact that I always try to do something I can't do for the reason one or another. The only thing that's stopping me from giving up is the amazing fact that whatever I do that I can't do, I end up actually doing. And eventually being able to. I wrote a new song (a while ago), it's already penciled into GarageBand as a bed for solos and such. The reason why I haven't recorded the sax yet is shamefully simple - I can't breathe during the melody. Design defect, so to say: I failed to leave myself a place in the tune, where I can grab some oxygen, darn it. The solution? I am working on it, for two weeks now - practicing the melody over and over. May be, next weekend I will finally be ready to record it, and stop torturing my wife with my exercises. But I am not changing the melody, for it's not going to work any other way. My bad. As always.

The Tsunami Showdown

2005-01-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

Legend:
[-] - Off key, [+] - On key

In order of approximate appearance:

Madonna [---] - horrible, just horrible. Some news network the next day commented: "...not sure, if John Lennon would agree with this version..." (imagine singing "Imagine" in like three different keys in a rapid succession...)
Maroon5 [-] - alternative. Very.
Mary J. Blidge [-] - she should apologize to Stevie for murdering his song...
Bryan Williams (Beach Boys) [-] - profoundly pathetic...
Norah Jones [+] - such a sweet hart, always...
Gloria Estefan [+] - consistently perfect. Can't hold, not gonna. Still good.
Elton John [+++] - fabulous, just fabulous. Incredible performance.
Sara McLaughlin [+]
Josh Groban [+] - a bit shaky, when he speaks, belting is perfect
Stevie Wonder & India.Arie [+/+] - oh, look, I can sing two octaves lower, than him :)
John Mayer [+?] - since he has no detectable voice, it's very hard to say if he was on or off :) Plus for the effort. And he can play guitar, kewl !!!
Nelly [+, I think, hard to say...] - I wonder, what do you call this genre, "Smooth Rap"?
Roger Waters & Eric Clapton [+/Eric didn't sing] - "...little Pink Floyd number..."? More like a big Dire Straits number, and a good one
Kenny Chesney [+] - I hate country...
Annie Lennox [+] - gospel, huh? Good, though...
Sheryl Crow [-] - quite unexpectedly. I guess, holding to an instrument doesn't guarantee success...
Lenny Kravitz [+]
Diana Ross [-] - you are done, admit it, sweetie.

One tank of fuel: $25

2004-12-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

One tank of fuel: $25
Insurance deductible: $250
Christmas without mother-in-law: priceless.

It's almost funny now, when my beloved Renegade is in the shop, I am driving a rental, and we indeed don't have to celebrate the holidays with granny, who I was supposed to bring from Cincinnati for that cheerful occasion. The trip didn't go all that well - some 80 miles south of Cleveland I hit an ice patch, lost control of the vehicle, spun across all three lanes of I-71 and bumped into guardrail. Twice. With both front and rear bumpers, don't remember the order. And, of course, I stalled, half way in the ditch, driver's side to the traffic, blocking the right lane.
Am I just lucky, or am I simply not supposed to die in a car accident? That was my third time starring at the several sets of slowly approaching headlights, aimed at my vehicle, helplessly sitting on the way of the deadly flow. And, once again, somebody stopped, somebody steered away, and nothing happened. I turned the key - the engine started. I got back on the freeway, pulled over to the left and stopped on the media to examine the damage.
Rear bumper - broken, rear well cover - gone, front bumper - broken and touches the wheel, turn signal - gone, fog light - crooked, so was the fender and the grill. All - driver's side.
The car, however, was drivable, there was no internal damage, so I turned on low four, plowed through the media to the other side, and headed back.
Now I know, that going 70 on snow is not a good idea. If you manage to stay alive, you will end up driving a sorry excuse for a transportation device, aka Chevy Malibu for several days, which is painful and frustrating.
The shop promised to take it back in exchange for my dear Liberty at the end of the first week of January.
I hate breaking things, especially the ones I like.

Otto Link STM 10*

2004-12-23T15:53:00.000-05:00

It looks like my acoustic setup is finally complete.
The sound (pun intended) difference between my old Amati Classic Super (290/2 facing, stainless steel) mouthpiece and newly acquired Otto Link Super Tone Master (10* facing, gold-plated bell metal) is impossible not to notice.
It was clear enough even when I test-drove 8* about a month ago (I tried to be as objective as I could, so at the store I picked an instrument closest to mine - YTS62, and a Vandoren Traditional #3 reed), the sound was wider and fuller; that mellow fuzzy hiss I used to work so hard to produce, would come out effortlessly. Needless to say, that 10* does everything even better (I had no idea they make those, I thought 9* was the top number available), and the combination of 10* and #3 Vandoren ZZ (JaZZ) reed completely elimintated those nasty squeaks in upper register, which would pop-up once in a while, if I wasn't careful enough.
Merry Christmas to me.
That trip to the W 48 St. Sam Ash Manhattan Music Store was very educational in another sence, too: I tried, finally, the horn, I read so much about: Selmer Reference 54 Tenor (brushed finish).
As beautiful (with the exception of somewhat unpleasant green tint of the finish - I would prefer a warmer yellow hue), as it is well-crafted and good-sounding, Ref 54 is one fine instrument. Well, it should be, considering it's hefty price tag - nearly $2,000 over my Yamaha Z82. The difference between the two, however, is not all that dramatic, at least, in my honest oppinion. I found the Frenchman a little lighter, and the mechanics a bit more convenient for my fingers; tone-wise, it sounded slightly different, a tad darker, I thought, but, once again: the difference was not even near the level, where one could say "wow, this is so much better, where is the nearest pound shop, for this is where my current piece of S-shaped scrap metal is going", no. It was just slightly different, that's all.
Although I really liked it, I am, however, convinced, that by just switching the brand of reeds, one could achieve more profound change in sound, not to mention replacing the mouthpiece :)

iLife Revisited

2004-12-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

After several months of DV abstinence, partly caused by an unprecedented attack of GarageBand eiphoria, partly - absence of footage of any value, due to rather eventless existance, I finally decided to return to the most time consuming of all of my activities, and make a movie again.
Following is a short summary of the experience.
I promise to keep this rant as technically oriented, as I can, in hope, that it might be of some benefit to fellow users. During nearly half of the year, which passed since my last cinematographic endevour, there were a couple of QuickTime updates, iPhoto update, and several system and security updates.
Current set-up:
System: Mac OS X (10.3.6)
iMovie 4.0.1
iDVD 4.0.1
QuickTime 6.2 (Pro)
iMac G4 800MHz 1GB RAM

Good things first: audio and video ARE in synk throughout the whole 1 hour and 39 minutes of the show. I would be thrilled, if it didn't happen before, but the good thing is that it's still there.
This is about it.
1. iMovie is as sluggish, as it used to be, when the length of the project exceeds 30 minutes. I was hoping, that QuickTime updates would improve the performance of the application, but they didn't.
2. Instead, a new (for me, at least), and very annoying bug was introduced: audio drops during transitions, and nothing can bring the level back to normal - manual adjustments to the transition clip volume graphs in timeline mode are simply ignored (I referred to Apple Knowledge Base, but couldn't find any applicable solution - all my clips were fresh from the camera, no volume adjustments before applying a transition). And a beginning of each transition now greets the unsuspected listener with a loud crack. Lovely.
The workaround: cut your clips to your liking, extract audio, turn off the sound for the whole video line, apply transitions, then manually graph the volumes of the extracted audio on the timeline. If you used clip-combining transition, like "Cross-Dissolve", you will have to re-align audio and video manually, and lock them together. Not difficult, but very time-consuming.
3. Saving the project sometimes empties the Trash. Sometimes doesn't. Since I usually empty the Trash as I go (when it's contents reach about a gigabyte in size), it's not a big problem for me; I, however, can imagine the frustration of those, who experienced all the Trash-related niceties, like corrupted projects, unrecoverable clips, etc.
The workaround: no clue. It didn't do it before, and might not do it after.
4. The quality of title rendering is still very sensitive to a color you pick.
The workaround: stay away from red and blue (purple, which I really needed for this project, is also forbidden), limit your creativity to white, yellow, and green.
5. The auto-sizing of titles, although, probably, a feature, not a bug, works in a very annoying way, when it comes to a "Multiple" title behavior. It scales each line/pair of lines separately, so the succession of titles on screen come in a delightful variety of sizes and placements (it also moves the baseline of text). I would expect the application to size the text by the longest line in the whole title, but, hey, it's just me. The workaround: playing with "size" slider helps, but it takes a lot of time, and there is always a danger of making text too small.
6. For some reason, iMovie developed a mind of it's own, which manifested itself in automatic creation of bookmarks in random places throughout the project. I deleted them, they never reappeared. Odd.
That concludes the movie-making experience. Now, iDVD:
Due to the lack of time, allocated to this particular project, I decided to use one of the third-party pre-cooked themes, rather than creating my own, which worked OK. In general. There were, however, some really entertaining moments:
1. The application is slow. You have to condition your mind, before starting to work with it. If you havn't entered the mental state of eternal observation, you will not survive the aggravation of waiting for the mouse click to sink in and get through.
2. Switching to "Preview" mode and travelling through the menus makes iDVD think that you changed something, and the project needs to be re-saved. It's minor, but annoying.
3. The "Stage 3: encoding assets" takes forever. Find another, not computer-related project to entertain yourself, like defrosting a large turkey, or growing a small beard.
4. After making first disk and testing it on a consumer DVD player, I realized, that I need to change one of the button labels. As I saved the project and put in another disk to burn, the program not only re-encoded ALL of the menus and transitions (not just the one I changed), but also ALL THE ASSETS (2 movies which I didn't touch), leaving me without a computer for another several hours.
Stupid is what stupid does, especially, if it takes 70% of CPU power.
5. Last, but not least: the "Burn" button, located in the botton right corner of the application window, is there for one and only reason - to enhance visual appeal of the interface. Clicking on it will open the "diaphragm" and make the "radiation sign" spin for a while, which, I admit, is very pretty. In several seconds, however, the "diaphragm" will close, leaving you with somewhat disturbing feeling of not having a clue of what just happened, because what just happened was nothing.
The workaround: If you really want to burn a disk, select the command from the menu. In my case, it started encoding menus, without even asking for the disk. I watched the progress bar for a while, then decided to put in a blank disk. Finder popped up a usual message, asking me what to with that disk, I reluctantly clicked "Ignore", and it worked.
This is pretty much all I learned during my latest and greatest project. Hope it might be of some use to somebody.
Have fun.

GO VOTE !!!

2004-11-02T10:40:00.000-05:00

Now.

Update

2004-09-30T07:45:00.000-04:00

I have abandoned the blog for a while... Due to many legitimate reasons, of course, being out of job (but not work, that's good), for one.
Short recollection of events, which took place during last couple of weeks:
I have completed a small, but reasonably priced project, working with a PHP programmer I have never seen before (we spoke on the phone once or twice).
I have almost finished a client-side JavaScript application for a small NYC production of Valiant; the application is designed to provide "typographic assistance" for the main character during stage performance ("Sally" doesn't speak, she types on her laptop, and the monitor contents are projected on screen - an unusual concept and a lot to type... so, I have come up with a script, which types hard-coded text string letter by letter into the page's HTML on each keystroke the actress makes - no misspeling or missing punctuation...). Being annoyed by the warning sound, which IE|Win makes on every keystroke, if the focus is not on an element, which is supposed to receive text input, decided to provide a dummy input field to take whatever the user types, thus eliminating the sound. Only worked, while the page was short, then I ran into a problem: the browsers try to scrol the document to display the element in focus, and all of them do such thing in a different way. What a surprize. IE|Win will scroll toward an input field, which receives focus, but just enough to display it; Firefox|Mac behaves the same way. Safari tries to display the field as close to the middle of the window, as it can, and IE|Mac puts the field at the top of the viewport, which would be ideal, if not for the fact, that it is painfully slow, which pretty much makes the whole thing useless. Ended up dismissing the idea of using element.focus() to automatically scroll to the desired location, and instructed the actress to turn off the sound. Oh, the everlasting joy of web design.
On the other front of my recent activities: I've discovered a new weekly jam session, where the traditional blues repertoire often diluted (or should I say "spiced up"?) with a hearty amount of funk, and even jazz. The place is called House of Swing, the jam is there every Thursday, hosted by Reid Project; 11:30 pm - 1:00 am or so.
My musical exersizes, posted at MacJams.com, seem to hold up rather well, to my surprize. I am on the first page of the "Jazz" genre if listed by "Ratings".
So far, so good.

Strange feeling

2004-08-26T16:46:00.000-04:00

For some reason, unknown to me, today I made a bitmap version of the logo I designed for myself years ago (I added the word "web" just to have an excuse for doing it). Probably, for therapy - I find pixel-level editing very comforting sometimes.

Another strange thing I did today: googled up Alexander Rastopchin (we use to more or less know each other during my playing at the cafe "Suzorie" back in Minsk more than 20 years ago). Apparently, he moved to New York in 1993, one year after we moved to Cincinnati, and still lives there, still plays guitar (still very well; he was always great, and he only got better, judging by the samples he has on his site), and still builds all kinds of guitar-related gear.
Now I am very tempted to send him an email and say "Hi, remember me?" He, probably, doesn't.
It would be fun to jam some day.

I should be looking for a job

2004-08-23T11:01:00.000-04:00

And I am. Between the employment search episodes, however, I posted two new songs to MacJams and my new site.
Seriously, this is that time of the year (or life), I really don't like that much: job hunt (due to a termination of the project I was working on, my contract ends four month earlier than I expected; of course, I don't have anything lined up...)

Nostalgic Bossa Take 2

2004-08-13T09:20:00.000-04:00

It's beginning to shape up, or, at least, I think so...
New in Take 2:
Sax (x2) melody out (AULowpass filter to make them sound somewhat like brass)
Vocal (x4) melody out by my daughter Dar (AUParametric Equalizer applied twice - one to kill iMic / Line Level Transformer "dynamic duo" noise, the other one - to remove "p"s; I really should get a decent mic preamp, and windscreen, too. I bounced four mono tracks to one stereo track, then added AUMatrixReverb to set it back in space)
Background strings fill (Apple MIDI "Orchestral Strings")
Sax melody in and solo unchanged with the exception of AUPeakLimiter filter, appears to work very nicely in combination with AUMultibandCompressor, applied to the Master Track.
Last but not least - gorgeous piano solo by McBoy. Actually, more, then one solo - dude, you sent me so much of great stuff, so I still don't know how to put everything in... Consider this a teaser preview :)
I still need:
1. Real guitar, piano, or other rhythm instruments to replace MIDI accompaniment.
2. More real instrument solos.
3. More real instrument solos.
4. More real instrument solos.
Comments, suggestions and, well... yes, real instruments are welcome.

Hollywood Smoking

2004-07-26T16:07:00.000-04:00

How come in the movies they never light up a cigarette from a disposable lighter? Seriously, it's either a match, or a "Zippo". I think, I only saw a disposable lighter once in my movie watching life—it was "L. A. Confidential", if memory serves me well—and the lighter didn't work.
Sometimes I make very keen and equally useless observations.

Another Day At The Office

2004-07-20T18:00:00.000-04:00

How come the emergency fire drill always starts when you (quite unexpectedly) feel like working?
I just figured out that "page contains both secure and insecure items" warning only pops up on the pages, where I have dynamically generated <iframe> with the src attribute set to "about:blank". The idiot browser (IE|Win) thinks that it is a reference to something outside the secure server domain.
The nastiest part of the "procedure" is the siren, which never stops, followed by the incredible annoying male voice, repeating over and over "...you are in a safe area... prepair to receive evacuees......you are in a safe area... prepair to receive evacuees...".
What a splendid word: "evacuee".
There went my inspiration for today. Well, I did fix the security bug...
Oh, yea: zeldman.com is now blocked by the Smart Filter as well.

Smart Filter

2004-07-19T23:14:00.000-04:00

Smart Filter at work has finally caught up with me. Now I lost access to ALA, Apple Discussions, BLOGGER, and some other sites, also "characterized" like "Chat". Good thing, it's not "Porn", or "Entertainment" (the last one, however, could be true to some point, for it's fun).
I think, I might have called a wrath of gods called upon me.
I should clean up my harddrive, delete all .mp3 files, uninstall iTunes, QuickTime, HarmonyAssistant, and all other "unauthorized" applications, delete all browsers' caches, and wait for an execution.
Like my job is not boring enough...

Let's Jam?

2004-07-12T10:41:00.000-04:00

OK, here is an idea: go to Apple Discussions/GarageBand forum, and holler "who wants to jam?". I wonder, how many people would actually respond... there is no way, however, to know, other than actually go and do it.
So...
The story is:
Over the last week I have come up with a little jazz tune (sixties-style bossa-nova in C minor/Eb major at 140 bpm, 2x8 bars melody, no bridge yet - and may be never - neither there is an arrangement).
I invite everybody interested to a virtual jam session - let's play and see what happens.
Here is how it will work:
If somebody answers this "ad", I will upload three .mp3 files to the Public folder of my iDisk:
1) 16-bar loop of the tune (melody + accompaniment), everything is "penciled in", for I have no keyboard (I am a sax player myself).
2) 16-bar loop of the jam track (accompaniment only), for you to solo over.
3) 16-bar loop of the melody (currently played by somewhat cheesy synthetic cello I found in Melody Assistant, I haven't recorded the sax yet), in case someone would wish to come up with the alternative harmony/rhythmic pattern for the keyboard/guitar/bass, etc. (mine are very sketchy, so you are very welcome to go ahead and suggest your own version, just don't change the melody).
If you want to play, grab the files, listen to them, and if you still want to play, loop the jam track in GB, and record your solo (16 or 32 bars, I don't think it needs longer ones). Export your part only to iTunes, upload it to the web server of your choice and tell me where I can get the resulting AIFF file (if you don't have a web space, contact me, we'll figure it out). Tag your AIFF in iTunes, so I would know whom to credit.
I will assemble the tune and everybody involved will get the full copy (I reserve the right to like or not to like the solo, and decide if it should be included in the final mixdown, just like you reserve the right to like or dislike the tune.) for use in your demo reel or for general amusement.
I have no idea, how long will it take to complete this project, nor how many people will participate (if any), but it will be fun to try (I think).
You can reply to this message ~~in the GB forum, or~~ here by posting a comment below.
Anybody in?

PS. I removed the link to the original Apple Discussions post from the header of this entry, since the post was removed by moderators.
There was, probably, something wrong with it. Funny enough, my post about how to remove the copyright protection from the iTunes-purchsed music, is still there. Logic? Anyone?

There is always stuff to bitch about

2004-07-09T21:11:00.000-04:00

But, hey, seriously. It's a Jeep. It's supposed to be scratched up, right? Besides, I've done it myself many times. Not to THIS car, though. Just being a bit bitter, darn it.
It's just the fact that I prefer to break my things myself. I have this little annoying obsession.

Another night at Parkview

2004-07-08T12:47:00.000-04:00

It's amazing, how it works.
You drag yourself home from work (you drag yourself to work first, naturally), you do something (there is always something to do, isn't it?), you eat dinner, walk the dogs, and around 10 pm all you can think of is a martini and a movie. Short one, too, because you have to get up at 5:30 am.
Instead of it you grab you horn and drive to a bar, where you might get a chance to play (good things come to those who wait. I must admit, though, that the waiting time is getting shorter and shorter; I truly hope, that this is due to my humble efforts to actually put some consciousness into the series of sounds I play - I better believe it, otherwise, why bother playing at all?), sit there, pretending to drink a cosmopolitan which has less alcohol in it, than root beer, greeting people you think you know (I am actually OK with faces, it the names I just can't attach to them, faces...), and listening to music.
And it better be good, considering that martini I gave up.
And it was good yesterday, and I saw a new face, and I won't forget this name - Tracy Marie - she was a host last night.
And she was good.
I could, probably, say something about her voice, style, and all the other things, which are supposed to be mentioned, when you describe a singer, but than I will only repeat whatever others already said before, many times.
She was good.
She sang third set with us, a motley crew of somewhat strange people, all Parkview regulars (some are for sure, some I haven't seen before, so I am speculating). Turned out OK for me, I think, with less of my screwups than I would expect to have (there was even some sort of applause after one of my solos).
It's amazing, how it works - At 15 min into Thursday morning I realized, that I am not tired (anymore), I don't want to sleep (ever), and I just want to go on playing. Common sense, however, took over, I put the horn back in the case, and we left.
This is what live music does to you...

Have to do something about something

2004-07-02T10:12:00.000-04:00

I recently realized, that I haven't been doing any 3D work for month now. I also noticed, that the last movie I made, wasn't all that exciting of a project. For some reason my interests shifted - again - to another area, which is, in turn, split between standard-based web design, and making music with GarageBand.
May be, I should concentrate on something; just may be. May be, I will achieve some sort of recognizable and reputable state in that area, whatever that area would be. May be, people will refer to me as an authority on some obscure subject, like cross-browser implementation of unordered lists, or making Apple-compatible loops, I will become famous, and will receive an incredible job offer (this last statement is about as realistic, as me winning a lottery, considering that I never play).
Somebody just sent an email to my wife, asking if she still gives art lessons. I couldn't help noticing custom domain name in the email address, so I checked it out: very decent portfolio site, all in Flash (I should really consider removing my own outdated Flash resume from my site, it's too primitive. Note to myself: kill that thingy, it sucks). Amazing, however, that the guy wants to take art lessons; kudos, brother, welcome to the club.
Break out of the ivory tower of your one and only craft and join the happy crowd of me, who could never concentrate on one addiction for more than half a year. Work included.
I can't even figure out, what to do next. Surprisingly enough, though, I know, that I will be doing something, I just don't know, what...
Learning to write in English?

Ways Of Driving A Nail Into A Board (ALA)

2004-06-18T12:06:00.000-04:00

It's so amazing to observe the evolution of the idea in a creative environment. This is why I love ALA discussions.
There is, I believe, an infinite number of ways for driving a nail into a board - starting from a hammer and working your way up to a microscope - and most of them get the work done. What to use - is entirely up to us.
This article introduce yet another way - great. Even better, it works! Anyone wants to port it to .NET or any other platform - go right ahead, and don't forget to share.
Waste of bandwidth? Hard to fathom without testing under real load; I would say, it might cause some issues in some cases, but this is not the point. The point is - the more ways of skinning the cat we discuss, the larger the world population of the skinned felines will grow.
Ewe.
I meant it in a positive way, actually. Hmm.
Anyway, great work, great concept, and great discussion.
Keep it up.

Sidetrack:
[LazyJim] ...Why not just have images for every letter of the alphabet and replace each letter on your page with a single-character image?...
This is yet another way. And, you don't even need PHP or any other server-side technology to implement it, you can get away with simple JavaScript: take a string of text, split it between characters, loop through the resulting array and write to the page whatever structure you wish to insert "YourArray[i].gif" image for each letter. Assuming that you have all the images pre-made and uploaded to the server.
Here is the sample.
I wasn't entirely happy with this solution, because each line of text would require numerous server trips on the first load (not only that, there was an issue with illegal characters in a file name, like " .gif", "?.gif", "..gif", etc.), so later I revised the script, using single image as a shifting background for the series of floating DIV's and a set of CSS rules to position the background:
www.gerasimenko.com
The next iteration of the script does, in fact, dynamically replace the H1, H2, etc. tags it finds on page onload. I was going to submit a tutorial on this matter to ALA for a while, and finally did earlier this week, inspired by the article we are discussing now (I wonder if this post will be considered a "previous publication" and ALA will dismiss my submission because of that).
Yet another way.

[Stewart] ...Using individual characters would not work, because 1) the kerning of characters would be destroyed and 2) the ALT attributes of each image would be rendered entirely useless, making this technique inaccessible...
The kerning will be affected, yes, but not destroyed, it's just a matter of dynamic positioning of each letter. Kerning in Photoshop is not bulletproof either, and highly typeface-dependable. The ALT attributes will make sense no more, true, but there is also TITLE you may be able to apply to the parent node element to make it up.

[Nevel] ...When using replacing images, you obviously don't think CSS is good enough to serve your needs...
True. It isn't. At least not yet. This is why Stewart developed this technique in a first place.

The Weekend Of Movies

2004-06-15T08:38:00.000-04:00

In short:
Shrek 2 (Theater)
Very funny. The story is, well... weak, but who cares about the story?
School Of Rock (DVD)
Cute, but underdeveloped.
Matrix Revolutions (DVD)
The first movie set the standard. The last one didn't even come close to it.
Once Upon A Time In Mexico (DVD)
I honestly believe that Banderas and Depp owe me $2.50 each for this one.

Weekend Warrior Diary

2004-06-14T10:44:00.000-04:00

Just some notes on the subject of digital video editing (iMovie4 and iDVD4).
My first project with these versions of the software proved to be successful to the level of moderate satisfaction.
iMovie4 is better and faster than it's predecessor; no audio-video sync issues, no empty-trash-loose-a-week-of-work disasters (never had those, however). One thing it does, though: if you empty the iMovie trash, it tries to screw up fade-ins/fade-outs of the imported audio clips (if you had fiddled with the volume graphs, that is. If you didn't, you are good), so you have to redo those. Not catastrophic, but annoying.
The rest works as expected, as far as I could tell.
iDVD4 is not any faster than iDVD3, at least on my machine. In fact, it's downright slow. Many new features of questionable quality, like menu transitions: dissolve looks very nice in the preview, but renders with hideous banding and pixelation - and that between menus with the same background image. Note to myself: try other transition next time, or just forget about them altogether. They only work one way, anyhow...
The "Best Quality" encoder doesn't look any better then the regular one (same "washed out" video and banding when cross-dissolving stills with solid colors), but does not allow you to encode assets without actually starting the burn procedure, so the machine was unusable for the most part of the day. Burned nicely, though: after two hours of encoding menus and transitions, and about four hours of encoding the 46 min. movie, I burned five disks at a rate of 15 min per each. Sweet.
The AutoStart feature is nice. I made a short version of opening logo sequence, and put it there. Works fine. I might try to use a custom template (this time I used "Blue Fade" third-party theme) next time, so the transition between the end of AutoStart and first menu would be smoother.
Slide show of 60 images looks as good as it could look on TV. I had "scale images to fit TV-safe area" selected in preferences, so the photos have black frame around them, which would be OK, if the TV sets wouldn't have a tendency to distort straight lines close to the edge of screen. Another note to myself: use full-screen images and hope that everything important is not clipped (i.e. shoot with overscan allowance, or frame the pics manually).
Audio is in sync with video, as it supposed to be. Always makes me happy (since iMovie3.0 crap epic).
Overall - all ends well.
I can now clean out my hard drive and start making custom loops for GarageBand.

Ads, ads, ads...

2004-06-10T16:24:00.000-04:00

I was wondering, when it will happen... so far, this blog is not affected, but the new one I just set up for April'85, already has an ugly table on top.

Budget Allocation Principles

2004-06-04T09:31:00.000-04:00

from response to email message
...
The companies have, sometimes, a very peculiar principles of allocating their budgets. Lexis-Nexis (which makes a good buck by tricking lawyers out of their dishonest earnings by selling them fresh public records information, which later will be free - and outdated, of course...) would, without a blink, fly me to Washington, D.C. to a pointless client meeting - for nearly a kilobuck for a round trip - and yet I had to wait for almost a year to get DreamWeaver 4 upgrade for a lousy $400.
Procter & Gamble - this is the matter of my professional pride - paid nearly 90 grand to Mycom for a SINGLE web page (OK, that was a portal page, fairly complex, etc, but, c'mon...) I was developing for them for seven months full-time, and they were happy kittens on a catnip, kept coming back with "changes" and "improvements" twice a week at least, at the straight rate of $75/h (I should've called Guinness Book Of Records, claiming the rights to the most expensive web page ever, never mind rather meager portion of that money, actually making it to my paycheck). After the end of the next stage of P&G project Mycom closed my position, for it was decided, that they don't need a senior web designer anymore. I never understood the logic behind that event. I still don't.
...
I am typing this on a 5+ year old 700MHz Gateway PC with 128MB of RAM. It takes it 30min to come alive in the morning, and about 4min to reallocate virtual memory, when I switch from DreamWeaver to ImageReady. I switch often. I think, I can safely indicate 2X the hourly rate in the salary history section of my resume for this job, since half of my time at work I just wait for the box to response to my mouse movements.
And I am not the only one here...

Well, Photoshop is finally up. Time to go to a meeting.

Who is running MacAddict forums?

2004-06-01T09:10:00.000-04:00

I normally hate to complain, but, being a happy subscriber to the magazine for some time now, feel like I do need to express a concern about my recent experience with MacAddict forums section of the web site.
Due to some server misbehavior, I had to re-register, my old profile disappeared, while I was updating it.
My new profile was assign a label "n00b" (None Of Our Business, if I am not mistaken. This is some way to welcome a new member to the MacAddict community). It could've been cute, but it isn't. And I don't think, it was intended to be: from the post of "Scott": "...using tables for layout...is for lame-ass n00bs..."
I have read several more posts in the "Web Design and Development" forum, which, for some reason, was for a couple of days named "George" (the name is back to normal now; but here is how forum moderator "Gipetto" reacted when he was asked about this oddity: "...poop, it blew me away that the name actually got changed. I laughed my ass off...")...
I could, probably, find some more examples of, to put it nicely, unprofessional management practices, but, I think, just going through the topics of the "Web Design and Development" forum (formerly known as "George"), you can get a very clear idea.
That, of course, if I am not missing something, and the forums ARE run by a wild bunch of underage sociopaths, who hacked their way into taking over the web site of the only magazine I read.
That would be funny. I would laugh my ass off.

As Easy As Playing A Piano (ALA discussion, contd.)

2004-05-27T11:25:00.000-04:00

Scotacus -- You've made a good point, and I agree: using CSS for the sake of using CSS has very little to do with standard-based design. I think, ALA understands it very well, otherwise they would never preface this article with the editorial note it has. The "classification" of a future material, however, might get somewhat tricky, unless they will come up with some sort of compliance-rating scale for a code... So far, we just have to live with a regular validation routine.

****
In defense of my music analogy: music IS, perhaps, the most standardized artistic realm here is (starting from A = 440Hz, doesn't get any stricter, than that, does it? I am not even going to touch the scales and chords...); let me rephrase it:
If not for the plantation slaves, who introduced us to [initiative, or proprietary standards - quirks mode, if you wish] minor and major blues scales, which were later adopted and developed by jazz musicians [initial acceptance of a standard], we would never have neither rock-n-roll [style or method], nor Stravinsky's "Ebony Concerto" [wider acceptance of a standard, neo-classic application]; without the fusion of classical music [standards - strict], jazz [standards - transitional, and quirks, a lot of them], and world folk [quirks mode, again, very ethnicity-specific], classic rock would never emerge as a style or method, and there would never be anything remotely resembling disco, techno, country, or rap in the form we know them now. No cotton - No Armstrong - No Primo - No Elvis - No Queen - No Outkast or Spears... (Hmm. I wonder, if that would be a good thing?)
Pop music [WWW] employs whatever works [styles, methods, and whatever standards, hacks and quirks there are], and easy to implement [$$$].
The point is: somebody has to start somewhere, in order to make things move.
****
Will -- "People trying new things is what got all of this here in the first place". Exactly my thoughts. However: writing standard-complaint code has nothing to do with one's creativity, it's just a way of constructing your layout, and there are many, and many of them are legit.

"Playing a piano is not that hard - all you have to do is hit the right key at the right time..." -- Who said that?

A Very Thin Line (ALA discussion response)

2004-05-26T15:56:00.000-04:00

I definitely see your point, and, in most aspects, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Yes, it's frustrating, that support for standards is not yet where we would like it to be. Yes, it's ironic, that sometimes it takes a hack to make things work as they are supposed to, and it's just infuriating, that nobody, but a little group of enthusiasts, seems to realize the importance of standard-based web design.
Yes, they are enthusiasts, may be hobbyists, purists, sometimes even called zealots and diehards, but look at what they actually do: they create, and explore, take things apart, and put them back together, share their ideas and experience, and feed on each other techniques, tricks, and hacks. All that for what? For the sake of the obscure idea of making the web a better place. And guess what? It's happening, may be, slower, than desired, but it's happening.
There will always be web designers, whose tool of choice is FrontPage. There will always be graphic artists, who don't know, how to draw a human figure.
They are not important, regardless of how successful or productive they are. They do not set the bar. These enthusiasts do.
People will go to their sites to challenge, entertain, or puzzle themselves; often - to steal ideas, scripts, and hacks.
And this is how the web evolves; and not only web - everything works in a very similar way in our world.
Where would the whole huge pop music world, if they would not be able to feed on the strange, exotic and disturbingly weird legacy of avant-garde jazz, alternative rock, folk, and neoclassical experiments of the beginning of the last century? Chances are, nowhere.
Those are the rules of evolution...

"The Manhattan Transfer" at Playhouse Square Center

2004-05-24T09:18:00.001-04:00

We wondered, what would be more insulting for the artists: nobody at the backstage door after the concert, or just three people (us, hanging around to get an autograph - Dar's NYC-acqured hobby, sort of)... The concert was, as expected, great (I am more into their newer stuff, like Off-beat Of The Avenues, and Brasil, but the standards they brought this time were as amazingly crafted as ever, an a lot of fun), the crowd was kind of stiff, though. Oh, well...
They will play on December 16-19 at Blue Note in New York. I wonder if we will be able to see that one...

We're back

2004-05-24T09:01:00.000-04:00

2445 mi round trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and back.
38:30 behind the wheel (Dar and myself switching).
One speeding ticket ($230) in Minnesota.
79 stills on Dar's camera.
2 hours of video on mine.
Everything smells like campsite.
Back just in time for Manhattan Transfer concert.
I need a vacation.

Vacation Kick-off

2004-05-14T10:11:00.000-04:00

Just when I was mentally preparing myself to a 1000+ mi. drive to Winnipeg tomorrow: here they are, initial (INITIAL!) GUI requirements for the project, I am working on.
I have a feeling, that I will need all my will power just not to loose it, and let myself off on somebody.
Here is a quote from page 4 (first three merely listed all the topics, covered in the document):

Specific Screen Requirements
Screens shall contain background color, font size and banner displayed in image below.
Screens shall show applicable drill down levels when cursor is positioned over link.
Screen's banner area shall display navigation of current path user is accessing.
Search box shall be available on all screens.

Looks like they already designed everything on the page level. You should see the "image below", ripped out from a PowerPoint presentation. You really should.
Something is telling me, that I will eventually decide not to put this in my portfolio...
I should have not read this article at ALA. Makes me wonder, for how long I will be able to work in the wonderful world of web development without going nuts.
Damn, I need this job...

On Web Etiquette

2004-05-13T09:49:00.000-04:00

You can be polite, and right.
You can be polite, and wrong.
Or, you can be rude, and loose an argument regardless.

Wrong Idol

2004-05-13T07:25:00.000-04:00

LaToya London was kicked out last night. Sweet. Jasmin, who can't carry a tune without hitting a wrong note at least twice, stayed. There's no limits to idiocy, really. Well, we did vote for the president, who can't neither talk, nor think clearly, now let's pick a star, who can't sing. We already have miss Spears for that, don't we?
I just hope, Fantasia wins, for she is the best. But once again, who cares?

New blogger toys

2004-05-10T14:34:00.000-04:00

One of them: email posting - this is how this post was published. Sweet. Another - comments (should be below the post). Even sweeter...

On Fighting Demons

2004-05-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

Again. And again. They seem to be multiplying faster, than rats, but I have come to terms with myself, and my extermination practice. I certainly killed a couple (well, my be, one, and it fought back vigorously) yesterday.
That was an unexpectedly crowded jam at Club Isabella on Friday night. When Evelyn Wright said a week ago at Bop Stop "come sometime to Isabella, we'll play", she didn't specify, when; I thought, it was more, like "see ya tomorrow (later, around, soon, etc.)". I didn't expect her neither to remember me, nor to call me up (by name), when I come, especially that night, when it looked like a family reunion on stage, and sounded like it, too. The quiet background jazz duet we expected to listen to, and, may be, to play with, was there no more, volume was up 200%, and a group of kids was performing a cappella Manhattan Transfer's version of Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square. When they were done, they tried to depart, but were requested back on stage (by Evelyn), sang some more, than left, replaced by another singer, than another, than another (I think, I can recall three more male singers - one of whom was very good - and three more female singers, who were all just gorgeous, over the night).
I was actually called up somewhere in the middle of these festivities, naturally caught unprepared, because I was waiting for a break to get the horn together, and warm up; lost it slightly on the first song (not horribly, just another "no-music-there" solo, partially saved by the fact, that I had no mike, and must have sounded very muted to the audience), got a bit better later, on the blues, I played with the whole company, but, once again, wasn't all that good. May be, just OK, or barely OK (on my opinion).
Audience, however, was extremely welcoming and enthusiastic (90% of the people actually knew each other, being related, or friends of family, and such).
Evelyn knew very little about us after a short shmooz after her show a week ago, but had to say something, so, here he comes, Ilya From Russia (good thing I already had a horn out, so nobody would expect me to pull out a balalaika, or a set of wooden spoons), to play some jazz and blues. So there.
Anyway, that was a good jam, with the exception of my mediocre performance (the demons fighting back, I guess). I should do it again, and be prepared next time around.

Dar's date

2004-05-07T20:32:00.000-04:00

I guess, when I said that the acceptable boyfriend for my daughter should be taller, than her, and younger, than me, I forgot to mention, that "younger" implies "I-don't-know-what-neither-LP-record-nor-open-reel-tape-recorder-is". Oh, well. Too late now... :)

I am going to New York.

2004-05-07T13:21:00.000-04:00

I am going to New York tomorrow to move Dar out of her dorm. Assuming, that everything goes as planned, and I do have a trailer reserved (which is still yet to be confirmed by U-Haul), driving through Manhattan with that thing behind should be a lot of fun.

Shame on me...

2004-05-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

After weeks of re-designing and checking my web site (www.gerasimenko.com) in Firefox and Safari, I happened to visit it with IE 6.0. Oh, my. Somehow I totally forgot to specify the DOCTYPE declaration, so my supposedly very professional web site was happily running in quirks mode. Needless to say, the results were stunning, especially the headers, rendered by "printplate.js" JavaScript - my latest experiment.
It's all fixed now, of course, but, yea... Shame on me...

Garage Band Demo Reel (one song :)

2004-05-05T08:27:00.000-04:00

I just fugured out, that if I am going to give out to people my new "tenorSAX" business cards (printed on Sunday, still haven't cut them...), I should post some reference to my music on the website, since the URL is printed on the very face of the card... Here is a test drive: Empty City Blues. Recorded some day in February, 2004 on my home iMac G4 with a help of GarageBand application.

Yamaha Custom "Z" Tenor Sax YTS82Z

2004-05-03T09:03:00.000-04:00

That's it. I have no more excuses. I have to really start playing now...
On Saturday, after several hours of talking and drinking we (Evelyn & I) achieved the state of mutual understanding of the necessity of acquiring a new instrument. Basically, she convinced me, that I need one.
Since "we are not rich, so we can't afford cheap things" attitude was a driving force behind all financial decisions in our family for the last 20+ years, the plan was to go for the gold (no pun intended). I was to start researching the market, going places, and checking out various horns in order to find the one and only I would like to play for the rest of my life.
The candidates were Selmer III Series, Selmer Reference 54, and, may be, pro-level Yamaha, or Yanagisawa, to compare at least - don't I need to know what I want before I spend 4+ kilobucks on something shiny? They don't make Mark VI anymore, that's a shame; however, used one is not an option for me: I like to scratch and drop my things myself (seriously, I firmly believe, that some things should not have more than one owner: photocameras, cars, and musical instruments).
Well... nothing ever goes as planned in our family. Since the only store within reasonable driving distance, and open on Sunday, was Sam Ash Music Corporation, we started there. Since the top model they had in stock was Yamaha YTS-82Z, that was the first one I tried.
From the moment I laid my hands on it, I knew, that was It. It was a significantly lighter, than Amati Super Classic, I played for 28(!) years (until this moment), yet it felt solid and precize. The mechanism, slightly unfamiliar at first, was, however, very convenient, and the action was very crisp and defined.
After I blew first couple of notes, I was done. The response in the low register was incredible, the upper register played effortlessly as well... I looked at Evelyn, and she said: "This is your sound..."
I did try some other horns (old Cohns and Kings) at the store that day, but, mostly to assure myself that they don't even come close to this one. They didn't.
May be I should have had waited a little, may be I should have tried Ref. 54, but... Hey, I am a fatalist, after all.
I have a real instrument now. I am as set, as I ever will be (I think).
Sweet deal, too, nearly a grand under street price....

Meet Kristine Jackson

2004-05-01T09:06:00.000-04:00

I did: Friday night at Savanna. She is young, cute, plays a hell of a trumpet, and has a hideous website. Way to go, kid :)

Catching The Bus

2004-05-01T07:08:00.000-04:00

Or fighting demons, you can call it that, too. Regardless of the naming convention, the fact is - I am playing again, every day (almost true) at home, and have already been to two jam sessions, at Parkview, and Savanna. The horn sounds nice - matte and fat - at home (I played #3 reed for two weeks, and, I think, ready to move to #3 1/2, but, since I already got a box of 3s, I'll just clip those), and very edgy and squeaky through the mics, for they are usually set up for vocals; kind of a bummer for me - my sound is what I basically have to show, not much else.
I guess, I'll have to impress the audience with the quality of phrasing, and incredible freshness of my ideas. I still have to figure out, how.
The people here so far are nice (I remember one and only one jam session I attended back in Cinti - I never got to play, and returned home with my squad of demons reinforced by one or two - no comparison whatsoever), friendly, and reasonably enthusiastic about letting someone they don't know screw up their act.
I like this city.

Apocalypse, poultry, jag shadows and dirty markup (more on ALA drop shadows)...

2004-04-30T08:29:00.000-04:00

I should stop making comments for the simple sake of not offending anybody. Please... I didn't mean to, I just wanted an explanation, sorry, if it sounded a bit critical (I like your website... :) :) :) ). And I didn't diss your code, Sergio, I merely asked how and why did you arrive to this point.
I think, that was Igor Stravinsky, who said once something like this (very loose quote): "If I had no limits to my resources, I would probably ended up not writing anything".
I think, I see it now. You don't want tables, so you didn't use them. I must admit (thanks to a slow day at work), this could really be fun…
(for some reason - poor CSS support in this particular part? - IE5.2 for Mac breaks the display, but who cares, it's dead anyway... It works in IE6 Win, Firefox, and Safari, though)
Once again, sorry, if my comments sounded apocalyptic...
It's all good. Keep up the good work.
PS. The table-based markup is still shorter. Not cleaner, oh, no, just shorter...

Fuzzy Shadows at ALA

2004-04-29T09:03:00.000-04:00

I have been following this discussion on ALA article for several days now, and I am still confused about the original idea.

I will have to repeat myself:

1. PNG's alpha transparency is supposed to allow us grater flexibility in positioning images over anything else, while maintaining simplicity of markup.
2. The situation with IE support can be resolved by many means (I still like the elegance of Aaron's "Sleight" JavaScript behavior), here is an example.

3. If we still have to match background color with GIFs, we could achieve the exact same results with a lot less effort by arranging elements in a table (yes, table - last time I checked it was still a legitimate HTML element - and, yes, it does support CSS formatting, so the separation of content and presentation shouldn't be a problem):
example 2.

Look... no JavaScript, no conditional comments, no separate stylesheet... I can go on.
Please, explain to me, somebody, why we feel the need to scratch our left ear with our right foot? When nestind empty (therefore, not content-bearing, therefore - presentation-specific, so where is a separation?) DIVs became a better way of design than saving the coding efforts and assuring better browser compatibility by using (dreadful) table, which was created to retain rows-columns positioning by design, and perfectly works?

Forgive me for being fossil, I just want to understand...