Complexification
This week Chris and Russ talk about how the universe should really be very simple. And how it really is not.
We also talk about Chris' guilty pleasure: the graphic novel Black Hole by Charles Burns.
Our opening music is Them Say Piano by the The 3 am Association
Our closing theme is Since I've Been Loving You by Scomber.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
AG027: About The Size Of It
This week Chris and Russ talk about the size of things, starting with a box like you might get from amazon and going up to the distance between starts.
The guys also talk about Chris' latest guitar project. Chris is trying to bring a much abused Fender Electric XII, a solid body 12 string electric guitar.
Russ
The guys also talk about Chris' latest guitar project. Chris is trying to bring a much abused Fender Electric XII, a solid body 12 string electric guitar.
Russ
Monday, November 23, 2009
AG026: National Hockney Month
This week Chris talks about David Hockney and Russ looks at National Novel Writing Month.
David Hockney is an English visual artist and one of the most influential artists of our time. His book on the use of optical devices by some of the Old Masters is Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters was published in 2006 and goes for about $42.
November is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write an entire novel in the month of November. The idea is to get a lot of people writing a novel, a whole novel in 30 days. It's a bit late to get started now, but any month can be Your National Novel Writing Month.
Russ
David Hockney is an English visual artist and one of the most influential artists of our time. His book on the use of optical devices by some of the Old Masters is Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters was published in 2006 and goes for about $42.
November is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write an entire novel in the month of November. The idea is to get a lot of people writing a novel, a whole novel in 30 days. It's a bit late to get started now, but any month can be Your National Novel Writing Month.
Russ
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
AG025: Creatively Common Star Trek
Creatively Common Star Trek
This week Chris and Russ talk about Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization which encourages people to share their creative works with out simply putting those works into the public domain. The bottom line is that Creative Commons offers a number of licenses that you can apply to your works.
There are a whole family of creative commons licenses. For example, if you don't mind if someone else modifies your work, and makes a profit from it but you do want the credit for anything they do with your work, you can use this license:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Alternatively, you might want to give your song or book or picture away, as long as there is no money involved:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Or you might want to restrict users of your work from changing it:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
The Creative Commons licenses is a tool for you to control what people can do with your work.
The book of the week is All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek by Dave Marinaccio. If you like Star Trek but don't particularly like Star Trek books, try this one. It is a fun romp through the 'philosophy' of everyone's favorite sci fi show.
Russ
This week Chris and Russ talk about Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization which encourages people to share their creative works with out simply putting those works into the public domain. The bottom line is that Creative Commons offers a number of licenses that you can apply to your works.
There are a whole family of creative commons licenses. For example, if you don't mind if someone else modifies your work, and makes a profit from it but you do want the credit for anything they do with your work, you can use this license:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Alternatively, you might want to give your song or book or picture away, as long as there is no money involved:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Or you might want to restrict users of your work from changing it:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
The Creative Commons licenses is a tool for you to control what people can do with your work.
The book of the week is All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek by Dave Marinaccio. If you like Star Trek but don't particularly like Star Trek books, try this one. It is a fun romp through the 'philosophy' of everyone's favorite sci fi show.
Russ
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
AG024: Patent It!
Patent It!
Techies and artists seem to have so little in common. We manipulate electrons and bits with manic precision. They fling paint and images like maniacs. We dream of being the soul of a new machine. Their souls machine new dreams. We write code. They write kōan. But when it comes right down to it, we are all in the business of creating ideas, concepts, schemes, designs. We do have some things in common though: Both artists and techies want to get our due for our work, if not in money than in credit.
The law provides for three ways to make sure that you get the benefit of your ideas, your work and your brand. In fact, if you live in the U.S., some of that protection is built right into the most basic law of the land, the Constitution. Article I, section 8 says that Congress has the power...
Lawyers generally interpret this to mean that Congress has two separate powers, one to grant patents and a second, different power to grant copyrights. A patent is the right of an inventor to prevent others from using his or her invention. A patent is a kind of a bargain: The inventor gets the exclusive right to profit from their invention for a limited term (20 years in the U.S). In return, society as a whole gets the invention when the patent runs out. The idea behind patents is that it will be better for inventors to get a patent than to try and keep their invention secret.
Getting a patent is not easy, nor should it be since a patent is a very broad monopoly. If you hold a patent on some invention, I can't use that invention without your permission, even if I thought of it independently. In order to get a patent, you need to come up with some invention that is really novel, novel in the sense that no one has thought of it before. Recently there has been a lot of criticism of the U.S. patent system for granting patents on fairly obvious 'inventions'. One of my particular favorites is U.S. patent 6,004,596 which provides a exclusive monopoly to the inventors of:
Good thing this patent wasn't around when my mother used to stamp out sealed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by making the regular kind and then using a coffee mug as a sort of cookie cutter.
In contrast to a patent, a copyright is easy to get. In fact it is automatic. Simply by typing these words as I am right now, I am magically creating a copyrighted work. Copyright protects the authors of any original work, be it prose, poetry, music, art and even computer programs. Copyright means that the author has exclusive ownership over the work for some period of time. For new works copyrighted in the United States (this article for example) the copyright lasts the whole life of the author, plus 70 years. Although copyrights are easy to get, they are a much weaker protection than a patent. A patent means that you more or less own the invention, the idea. A copyright means that you own your expression of the idea. Thus, while I own this article and could sue you if you turned the first few paragraphs into the lyrics of a Country and Western song, I would be helpless if you simply went out and wrote your own Country and Western song about patents and trademarks.
Although copyrights are automatic, you can register your copyright. Registration is mostly a processes of sending a copy or two of your work to the copyright office and paying a small fee. Even though you automatically own the copyright on whatever you create, registration strengthens your hand if you do need to sue over that Country and Western song.
Finally, there are trademarks. A trademark is a name or a symbol that you use to identify your business or product. The idea of a trademark is that you should be able to stake out some kind of symbol or name or catch phrase that uniquely identifies your product or business. Like copyrights, trademarks are pretty easy to get. In the U.S., you can register your trademark with the government in pretty much the same way that you register a copyright and for pretty much the same reasons: If someone violates your trademark, you are going to have an easier time in court if you took the trouble to register it first. Interestingly, different companies can use the same trademark, as long as they are in very different businesses. Sometimes this leads to interesting collisions, as when a small computer company founded in the 1970s took the same name, Apple, as an existing music publisher. After all, what could personal computers have to do with music? The rest is, as they say, legal train wreck history.
You can find all sort of further information at the web site of the patent and trademark office and also the copyright office.
Our intro music today was My Friend by our friend Jason Dale. Our bumper and exit music was
Forever, also by Jason Dale. You can find out more about Jason's music over at his web site.
Thanks for listening!
Russ
Techies and artists seem to have so little in common. We manipulate electrons and bits with manic precision. They fling paint and images like maniacs. We dream of being the soul of a new machine. Their souls machine new dreams. We write code. They write kōan. But when it comes right down to it, we are all in the business of creating ideas, concepts, schemes, designs. We do have some things in common though: Both artists and techies want to get our due for our work, if not in money than in credit.
The law provides for three ways to make sure that you get the benefit of your ideas, your work and your brand. In fact, if you live in the U.S., some of that protection is built right into the most basic law of the land, the Constitution. Article I, section 8 says that Congress has the power...
...To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
Lawyers generally interpret this to mean that Congress has two separate powers, one to grant patents and a second, different power to grant copyrights. A patent is the right of an inventor to prevent others from using his or her invention. A patent is a kind of a bargain: The inventor gets the exclusive right to profit from their invention for a limited term (20 years in the U.S). In return, society as a whole gets the invention when the patent runs out. The idea behind patents is that it will be better for inventors to get a patent than to try and keep their invention secret.
Getting a patent is not easy, nor should it be since a patent is a very broad monopoly. If you hold a patent on some invention, I can't use that invention without your permission, even if I thought of it independently. In order to get a patent, you need to come up with some invention that is really novel, novel in the sense that no one has thought of it before. Recently there has been a lot of criticism of the U.S. patent system for granting patents on fairly obvious 'inventions'. One of my particular favorites is U.S. patent 6,004,596 which provides a exclusive monopoly to the inventors of:
A sealed crustless sandwich for providing a convenient sandwich without an outer crust which can be stored for long periods of time without a central filling from leaking outwardly. The sandwich includes a lower bread portion, an upper bread portion, an upper filling and a lower filling ...
Good thing this patent wasn't around when my mother used to stamp out sealed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by making the regular kind and then using a coffee mug as a sort of cookie cutter.
In contrast to a patent, a copyright is easy to get. In fact it is automatic. Simply by typing these words as I am right now, I am magically creating a copyrighted work. Copyright protects the authors of any original work, be it prose, poetry, music, art and even computer programs. Copyright means that the author has exclusive ownership over the work for some period of time. For new works copyrighted in the United States (this article for example) the copyright lasts the whole life of the author, plus 70 years. Although copyrights are easy to get, they are a much weaker protection than a patent. A patent means that you more or less own the invention, the idea. A copyright means that you own your expression of the idea. Thus, while I own this article and could sue you if you turned the first few paragraphs into the lyrics of a Country and Western song, I would be helpless if you simply went out and wrote your own Country and Western song about patents and trademarks.
Although copyrights are automatic, you can register your copyright. Registration is mostly a processes of sending a copy or two of your work to the copyright office and paying a small fee. Even though you automatically own the copyright on whatever you create, registration strengthens your hand if you do need to sue over that Country and Western song.
Finally, there are trademarks. A trademark is a name or a symbol that you use to identify your business or product. The idea of a trademark is that you should be able to stake out some kind of symbol or name or catch phrase that uniquely identifies your product or business. Like copyrights, trademarks are pretty easy to get. In the U.S., you can register your trademark with the government in pretty much the same way that you register a copyright and for pretty much the same reasons: If someone violates your trademark, you are going to have an easier time in court if you took the trouble to register it first. Interestingly, different companies can use the same trademark, as long as they are in very different businesses. Sometimes this leads to interesting collisions, as when a small computer company founded in the 1970s took the same name, Apple, as an existing music publisher. After all, what could personal computers have to do with music? The rest is, as they say, legal train wreck history.
You can find all sort of further information at the web site of the patent and trademark office and also the copyright office.
Our intro music today was My Friend by our friend Jason Dale. Our bumper and exit music was
Forever, also by Jason Dale. You can find out more about Jason's music over at his web site.
Thanks for listening!
Russ
Sunday, October 18, 2009
AG023: Design Matters
Design Matters
Good design is all about making something that just works, that does what people want it to do with no fuss and perhaps with a little bit of style. Think about a plain old hard cover book. You buy a book because you want to read it, to get at the information or the story inside. You don't have to turn it on, you don't need a password, you don't even need to read the instructions. To get at the information inside a book you simply start reading and the data flows. Look away and the flow stops. Look back at the page and it starts again. Now that is great design.
Old traditional land line phones worked the same way: You never actually turned them on. To use a traditional phone you simply lifted the handset and the phone turned itself on. You could tell from the dial tone. Again, simply. Again, a great design.
The iPhone doesn't turn itself on automatically, but it is still a great design. The wonderful thing about the iPhone is that it just wants to be that little portable computer that you have with you all the time. But the iPhone doesn't aspire to spreadsheets and complex documents: Instead it simply does the stupid little computing tasks that need to be done. So the iPhone helps you figure out where you are and where the nearest pizza place is. The iPhone is computing in the small, at it is superb at it.
So what is good design? It is doing one thing really well: Be the repository for a certain chunk of information, or the always there voice communications conduit or the little computer that you always have with yout.
Good design also means doing things with a minimum of fuss: Thus, even though your book may contain important information, books don't generally come with locks on them. A lock might keep prying, non-paying eyes out, but it would be a pain in the neck to the actual owner. In the same way, the old phones just worked, they were always there and they were always ready to deliver your voice. And the iPhone fits in your pocket.
The ironic thing about high tech devices like the iPhone is that if they are well designed, they actually make the world a more human place. Or at least they make it easier to find good pizza, which amounts to the same thing.
Our opening theme is Them Say Piano by the 3AM Association. Our closing theme was Since I've Been Loving Your by SComber.
Russ
Good design is all about making something that just works, that does what people want it to do with no fuss and perhaps with a little bit of style. Think about a plain old hard cover book. You buy a book because you want to read it, to get at the information or the story inside. You don't have to turn it on, you don't need a password, you don't even need to read the instructions. To get at the information inside a book you simply start reading and the data flows. Look away and the flow stops. Look back at the page and it starts again. Now that is great design.
Old traditional land line phones worked the same way: You never actually turned them on. To use a traditional phone you simply lifted the handset and the phone turned itself on. You could tell from the dial tone. Again, simply. Again, a great design.
The iPhone doesn't turn itself on automatically, but it is still a great design. The wonderful thing about the iPhone is that it just wants to be that little portable computer that you have with you all the time. But the iPhone doesn't aspire to spreadsheets and complex documents: Instead it simply does the stupid little computing tasks that need to be done. So the iPhone helps you figure out where you are and where the nearest pizza place is. The iPhone is computing in the small, at it is superb at it.
So what is good design? It is doing one thing really well: Be the repository for a certain chunk of information, or the always there voice communications conduit or the little computer that you always have with yout.
Good design also means doing things with a minimum of fuss: Thus, even though your book may contain important information, books don't generally come with locks on them. A lock might keep prying, non-paying eyes out, but it would be a pain in the neck to the actual owner. In the same way, the old phones just worked, they were always there and they were always ready to deliver your voice. And the iPhone fits in your pocket.
The ironic thing about high tech devices like the iPhone is that if they are well designed, they actually make the world a more human place. Or at least they make it easier to find good pizza, which amounts to the same thing.
Our opening theme is Them Say Piano by the 3AM Association. Our closing theme was Since I've Been Loving Your by SComber.
Russ
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
AG22: We Trip The Light Fandango
Download Episode 22
This week we talk about light - there's more to it than you think.
So what does the heat that seems to try to cook you when you get in a hot car, the radio that you play as you drive and the X rays that your dentist uses to find that cavity all have in common with a beautiful sunset? The answer is that the glow from your car, the radio signals, the X rays and the light from the sunset are all electromagnetic radiation, one of the fundamental forces in the world. They are all just different flavors of the same thing. You can think of the different kinds of EM radiation as different notes on a piano keyboard. The radio waves are the really deep, low notes down on the left end of the piano keyboard. The heat coming off your car are slightly higher notes and the visible light, the stuff that we can see with our eyes are higher still. Up the the really high end, the sharpest notes of all are the X rays. The different pitches - technically frequency - not only change the way that we perceive the radiation, but also affects how much energy the radiation carries. This is why you don't need to fearful of standing in the glare of a light bulb or next to a radio transmitter but should be very careful around the much higher frequency X rays.
Electromagnetic radiation is all around us - fortunately mostly the safer, lower frequency stuff. In fact, everything that is at all warm, (where warm here means anything above the coldest that you could be, which is -273 C ) naturally radiates electromagnetic radiation. That hot car is radiating EM that we perceive as heat. Turn up the temperature a bit, say on an electric stove and you get 'red hot' - the EM radiation coming off the stove is high enough frequency we see it as a dull red glow. Red light is the lowest frequency light that we can see. The other colors are all of slightly different frequencies with yellow somewhere in the middle and violet having the shortest. We call the EM radiation whose frequency is slightly less than red 'infra-red' and the stuff above violet, 'ultra-violet'.
Since electromagnetic radiation is a sort of wave - think of it as like ripples on the surface of water - you can make it interfere with itself. Interference is something that waves do. Throw a stone into a still pond and you will make a set of ripples, little circular mini-waves. Throw two stones in and you will get two sets of ripples. When those two sets of ripples run into each other something very interesting happens: In places they reinforce each other while in other places they cancel each other out. So when two waves hit each other you tend to get an interference pattern, the waves are alternatively stronger (as the two waves reinforce each other) and weaker - as the waves cancel each other out. You can see that kind of interference by looking at the back of a CD or a DVD. The rainbow that you see coming off the back of a DVD is produced by the light that is reflected off of the tiny dots on the back of the DVD. All those dots reflect a bit of light which then goes out and interferes with the other bits coming off of other dots and we get the rainbow. In the same way, scientists bounce X rays off of the atoms inside of crystals - which causes X rays interference patterns - to try and figure out how those atoms are arranged.
Electromagnetic radiation: The world would be a darker place without it!
The opening theme music for this weeks episode is called Walk With Me by our good friend Jason Dale.
The closing music is Air On A G String, performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra with soloist Paula Robison
Russ & Chris
This week we talk about light - there's more to it than you think.
So what does the heat that seems to try to cook you when you get in a hot car, the radio that you play as you drive and the X rays that your dentist uses to find that cavity all have in common with a beautiful sunset? The answer is that the glow from your car, the radio signals, the X rays and the light from the sunset are all electromagnetic radiation, one of the fundamental forces in the world. They are all just different flavors of the same thing. You can think of the different kinds of EM radiation as different notes on a piano keyboard. The radio waves are the really deep, low notes down on the left end of the piano keyboard. The heat coming off your car are slightly higher notes and the visible light, the stuff that we can see with our eyes are higher still. Up the the really high end, the sharpest notes of all are the X rays. The different pitches - technically frequency - not only change the way that we perceive the radiation, but also affects how much energy the radiation carries. This is why you don't need to fearful of standing in the glare of a light bulb or next to a radio transmitter but should be very careful around the much higher frequency X rays.
Electromagnetic radiation is all around us - fortunately mostly the safer, lower frequency stuff. In fact, everything that is at all warm, (where warm here means anything above the coldest that you could be, which is -273 C ) naturally radiates electromagnetic radiation. That hot car is radiating EM that we perceive as heat. Turn up the temperature a bit, say on an electric stove and you get 'red hot' - the EM radiation coming off the stove is high enough frequency we see it as a dull red glow. Red light is the lowest frequency light that we can see. The other colors are all of slightly different frequencies with yellow somewhere in the middle and violet having the shortest. We call the EM radiation whose frequency is slightly less than red 'infra-red' and the stuff above violet, 'ultra-violet'.
Since electromagnetic radiation is a sort of wave - think of it as like ripples on the surface of water - you can make it interfere with itself. Interference is something that waves do. Throw a stone into a still pond and you will make a set of ripples, little circular mini-waves. Throw two stones in and you will get two sets of ripples. When those two sets of ripples run into each other something very interesting happens: In places they reinforce each other while in other places they cancel each other out. So when two waves hit each other you tend to get an interference pattern, the waves are alternatively stronger (as the two waves reinforce each other) and weaker - as the waves cancel each other out. You can see that kind of interference by looking at the back of a CD or a DVD. The rainbow that you see coming off the back of a DVD is produced by the light that is reflected off of the tiny dots on the back of the DVD. All those dots reflect a bit of light which then goes out and interferes with the other bits coming off of other dots and we get the rainbow. In the same way, scientists bounce X rays off of the atoms inside of crystals - which causes X rays interference patterns - to try and figure out how those atoms are arranged.
Electromagnetic radiation: The world would be a darker place without it!
The opening theme music for this weeks episode is called Walk With Me by our good friend Jason Dale.
The closing music is Air On A G String, performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra with soloist Paula Robison
Russ & Chris
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
AG21: Seven Tips For Finishing The Big Project
Download Episode 21
How do you start and more importantly, finish a big project? The answer depends on what we mean by a big project. Psychology, a big project is one that you can't easily redo if you mess it up completely. So washing your car is not such a big project: The whole thing might take a couple of hours from hardtop to wheels, and if you had the start over you have only lost a Saturday morning. Building a custom car, which might take months or years, is a completely different story. If you left your pliers in some inaccessible place in your hot rod, well you might have to redo months of assembly work.
So if you have a big project on your hands, what can you do to ensure that you not only start it but also finish it? Here's 7 things to keep in mind.
1. Plan But Be Flexible
Step one is make sure that you prepare, that you have a plan. Don't just plan: Plan big. Most large projects get off the ground on a tremendous blast of ambition. Tell yourself that you are going to write that opera or novel or that giant mural. This is no time for little thoughts: Think Sistine Chapel. The flip side of planning big is to execute small. The very thing that makes big projects big is that you can't finish them in one sitting. So execute small: Pick a little goal, a first or second or third step and do it. Tell yourself that, yes, I'm going to write that long novel, but it starts with writing the first page or the last page or an outline. So go ahead and write that page, make that first brush stoke or compose the first measure. Plan big. Execute small.
2. Clear The Decks
Another thing that you need to do before you start a big project is to get all the little things out of the way. Do your taxes *before you start on that masterpiece. Clear off your desk. Buy those 3X5 cards. Sharpen your pencils and clean your brushes. It helps to clear the minor things, things that will be in your way once you get underway.
3. Don't Listen To The Voices
I knew this guy in college who would say that the difference between crazy people and sane people is that crazy people will tell you that they hear voices. The sane people say they don't. It's not that the sane people don't hear the voices, it's just that they won't own up to it. I think that everyone who has ever tried to do something big has heard some voices, voices that say that you are wasting your time, that it's all going to be crap. Don't listen to the voices - they are the chorus of perfectionism. The prize - a finished project - goes to those who show up. The only way you are going to win is to be in the room when the project is finished. Mostly the voices are wrong; We are our own worst critics. If you do hear those voices, just sit down and say to yourself, "OK, maybe it's not going to be very good, at least not at first. But I'm just going to do it."
4. Let Yourself Be A Beginner
Which leads us to our next point: If you are just starting out doing something, then just accept that you are a beginner. It's all way points on the road to getting good. Give yourself the time to be bad at it, to learn. If are starting on the long journey to learn something new, then give yourself the time and the patience that you need to finish the trip. Nobody learns to program, or to paint or to play the oboe in a day or even ten days. But in the middle of day ten you will be nine and a half days closer to that oboe concerto. Hang in there.
5. Follow Your Muse But Track Your Progress
Sometimes a big project takes on a life and a path of its own. Sometimes you just need to listen to the work, to follow it to where it will take you. Sometimes we have a plan, but the project - or perhaps our muse - has a mind of its own. Sometime you need to simply follow it where it takes you. Take the project a step at a time and see where you are after each step.
Do try to have milestones though, some way to track your progress. Especially in the middle of a really big project, when you have forgotten what the beginning feels like and there is no sight of an end, knowing that you have just finished something, made some real progress can be a huge morale booster. I keep track of my large writing projects with 3 by 5 cards taped to the wall. Chris takes pictures of his guitar projects so that he not only has the 'before' and 'after' pix, but also 10,000 'along the way' shots.
6. Work Where You Are Comfortable
Find a happy place. If you like to write at Starbucks, then by all means write at Starbucks. I have my special writing desk, with the monitor set at just the angle I like. My keyboard is at just the right height. All my 3 by 5 cards are just where I want them. Find the place to work that makes you happy and go there, work, and be happy. Doing a project in your happy place will get you through the hard bits: You might get stuck on a paragraph or the way the shadow falls on her face, but at least you'll be comfortable, at least you'll have your donut/cappachino/calico cat to make you feel better.
7. Be Brave. Finish.
Finally, finish the thing. If you have a hard time simply declaring victory and saying 'this is done' ask yourself this: What is it that you are cheating the world of? It's better than you can possibly imagine. Get it out there!
Russ
How do you start and more importantly, finish a big project? The answer depends on what we mean by a big project. Psychology, a big project is one that you can't easily redo if you mess it up completely. So washing your car is not such a big project: The whole thing might take a couple of hours from hardtop to wheels, and if you had the start over you have only lost a Saturday morning. Building a custom car, which might take months or years, is a completely different story. If you left your pliers in some inaccessible place in your hot rod, well you might have to redo months of assembly work.
So if you have a big project on your hands, what can you do to ensure that you not only start it but also finish it? Here's 7 things to keep in mind.
1. Plan But Be Flexible
Step one is make sure that you prepare, that you have a plan. Don't just plan: Plan big. Most large projects get off the ground on a tremendous blast of ambition. Tell yourself that you are going to write that opera or novel or that giant mural. This is no time for little thoughts: Think Sistine Chapel. The flip side of planning big is to execute small. The very thing that makes big projects big is that you can't finish them in one sitting. So execute small: Pick a little goal, a first or second or third step and do it. Tell yourself that, yes, I'm going to write that long novel, but it starts with writing the first page or the last page or an outline. So go ahead and write that page, make that first brush stoke or compose the first measure. Plan big. Execute small.
2. Clear The Decks
Another thing that you need to do before you start a big project is to get all the little things out of the way. Do your taxes *before you start on that masterpiece. Clear off your desk. Buy those 3X5 cards. Sharpen your pencils and clean your brushes. It helps to clear the minor things, things that will be in your way once you get underway.
3. Don't Listen To The Voices
I knew this guy in college who would say that the difference between crazy people and sane people is that crazy people will tell you that they hear voices. The sane people say they don't. It's not that the sane people don't hear the voices, it's just that they won't own up to it. I think that everyone who has ever tried to do something big has heard some voices, voices that say that you are wasting your time, that it's all going to be crap. Don't listen to the voices - they are the chorus of perfectionism. The prize - a finished project - goes to those who show up. The only way you are going to win is to be in the room when the project is finished. Mostly the voices are wrong; We are our own worst critics. If you do hear those voices, just sit down and say to yourself, "OK, maybe it's not going to be very good, at least not at first. But I'm just going to do it."
4. Let Yourself Be A Beginner
Which leads us to our next point: If you are just starting out doing something, then just accept that you are a beginner. It's all way points on the road to getting good. Give yourself the time to be bad at it, to learn. If are starting on the long journey to learn something new, then give yourself the time and the patience that you need to finish the trip. Nobody learns to program, or to paint or to play the oboe in a day or even ten days. But in the middle of day ten you will be nine and a half days closer to that oboe concerto. Hang in there.
5. Follow Your Muse But Track Your Progress
Sometimes a big project takes on a life and a path of its own. Sometimes you just need to listen to the work, to follow it to where it will take you. Sometimes we have a plan, but the project - or perhaps our muse - has a mind of its own. Sometime you need to simply follow it where it takes you. Take the project a step at a time and see where you are after each step.
Do try to have milestones though, some way to track your progress. Especially in the middle of a really big project, when you have forgotten what the beginning feels like and there is no sight of an end, knowing that you have just finished something, made some real progress can be a huge morale booster. I keep track of my large writing projects with 3 by 5 cards taped to the wall. Chris takes pictures of his guitar projects so that he not only has the 'before' and 'after' pix, but also 10,000 'along the way' shots.
6. Work Where You Are Comfortable
Find a happy place. If you like to write at Starbucks, then by all means write at Starbucks. I have my special writing desk, with the monitor set at just the angle I like. My keyboard is at just the right height. All my 3 by 5 cards are just where I want them. Find the place to work that makes you happy and go there, work, and be happy. Doing a project in your happy place will get you through the hard bits: You might get stuck on a paragraph or the way the shadow falls on her face, but at least you'll be comfortable, at least you'll have your donut/cappachino/calico cat to make you feel better.
7. Be Brave. Finish.
Finally, finish the thing. If you have a hard time simply declaring victory and saying 'this is done' ask yourself this: What is it that you are cheating the world of? It's better than you can possibly imagine. Get it out there!
Russ
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
AG20: The Big Left Brain Right Brain Shoot Out
Download Episode 20
This week Chris and Russ take on the topic of left brain vs. right brain.
Saying that someone is left brained or right brained has become something of a cliche: We all know that left brained people are analysing, logical and good with numbers and technology. Think Mr. Spock, Dr. Frankenstein (the scientist, not the monster) and the entire male cast of The Big Bang Theory. Right brained folks, by contrast are supposed to be artsy and holistic, passionate and feeling. Think Dr. McCoy, Frankenstein (the monster, not the scientist) and virtually everyone on Project Runway. Is this all just some faulty popular psychology or is there something to this right brain/left brain stuff?
In a word, yes. It is both a myth and there is something to it. Certainly every human brain has two major chunks, one located on the left and the other located on the right. Certainly there is a lot of specialization going on: For most people the left brain does much of the work when we are talking or doing numerical things. The right half of the brain (again, in most people) does seem to specialize in spacial and artistic endeavors. And clearly, many people are better at math than painting (Russ) or better at sculpture than programming (Chris). So there is a lot to this left brain/right brain stuff.
Well, sort of. The thing to keep in mind is that every normal person (and a lot of abnormal ones too!) come equipped with a whole brain, complete with both sides. To dismiss someone - or even yourself - as completely left or right brained is to miss the fact that people can do absolutely extraordinary things. Right brained people learn to program, to do math and to assemble stereo equipment; left brained people learn to draw, sing and decorate birthday cakes.
Russ first learned about this left brain/right brain stuff - and learned to draw - from the book Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. You can find out more about the whole left brain/right brain thing at WikiPedia
You can learn more about QTips here (no, I'm not making this up). Work on that two handed technique.
Russ and Chris
This week Chris and Russ take on the topic of left brain vs. right brain.
Saying that someone is left brained or right brained has become something of a cliche: We all know that left brained people are analysing, logical and good with numbers and technology. Think Mr. Spock, Dr. Frankenstein (the scientist, not the monster) and the entire male cast of The Big Bang Theory. Right brained folks, by contrast are supposed to be artsy and holistic, passionate and feeling. Think Dr. McCoy, Frankenstein (the monster, not the scientist) and virtually everyone on Project Runway. Is this all just some faulty popular psychology or is there something to this right brain/left brain stuff?
In a word, yes. It is both a myth and there is something to it. Certainly every human brain has two major chunks, one located on the left and the other located on the right. Certainly there is a lot of specialization going on: For most people the left brain does much of the work when we are talking or doing numerical things. The right half of the brain (again, in most people) does seem to specialize in spacial and artistic endeavors. And clearly, many people are better at math than painting (Russ) or better at sculpture than programming (Chris). So there is a lot to this left brain/right brain stuff.
Well, sort of. The thing to keep in mind is that every normal person (and a lot of abnormal ones too!) come equipped with a whole brain, complete with both sides. To dismiss someone - or even yourself - as completely left or right brained is to miss the fact that people can do absolutely extraordinary things. Right brained people learn to program, to do math and to assemble stereo equipment; left brained people learn to draw, sing and decorate birthday cakes.
Russ first learned about this left brain/right brain stuff - and learned to draw - from the book Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. You can find out more about the whole left brain/right brain thing at WikiPedia
You can learn more about QTips here (no, I'm not making this up). Work on that two handed technique.
Russ and Chris
Sunday, August 30, 2009
AG19: Do You Have The Audacity To Edit Your Podcast?
Download Episode 19
This week Chris and Russ talk about using Audacity to edit your podcast. Audacity is a full featured audio recording and editing application that is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. You can use Audacity to delete the coughs, ringing phones, crying babies or anything else that detracts from your podcast. If you are going to use Audacity to edit, you probably also want to record with it in the first place.
Remember that silence is your friend. Leave some silence at the beginning of your podcast: It will help if you want to eliminate noise later. In addition, you'll want to leave some silence after a mistake, simply because when you are editing it is easy to spot those stretches of dead air, which means that it will be easy to find the mistakes.
Speaking of editing, remember: Never ever edit the one and only copy of your recording! Keep that original recording in case you need to go back to it. We have screwed up enough editing sessions to know how important this is.
To cut out a that cough or ringing phone, you simply find the part of the recording that you want to cut, select the graphic that corresponds to the unwanted sound and hit the DELETE key. Always listen to a few seconds before and after your edit to make sure that it sounds OK. Audacity supports unlimited undo, so if you mess it up just undo your change.
If you seed to change the loudness of part of your podcast, select that part of the graphic and hit the effect/amplify menu item. You can use the slider on the resulting dialog to make that part of your recording louder or softer. But don't over-do it!
Using Audacity to remove noise is a two step process: First you select some silence (remember the silence that you left at the beginning of your podcast?) and select the effects/Noise Removal. When the dialog comes up, you hit the "Get Noise Profile". Now Audacity knows what the noise sounds like. Now you go back, and select the part of the podcast (maybe all of it) that you want to clean up and select the effects/Noise Removal menu item a second time. This time around, select the OK button.
Exporting your podcast to MP3 is pretty easy: Go to File/Export, enter any tags and make sure you ask for an MP3 file.
Finally, our bonus suggestion: Start with the best quality recording that you possibly can.
Happy Podcasting!
Russ & Chris
This week Chris and Russ talk about using Audacity to edit your podcast. Audacity is a full featured audio recording and editing application that is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. You can use Audacity to delete the coughs, ringing phones, crying babies or anything else that detracts from your podcast. If you are going to use Audacity to edit, you probably also want to record with it in the first place.
Remember that silence is your friend. Leave some silence at the beginning of your podcast: It will help if you want to eliminate noise later. In addition, you'll want to leave some silence after a mistake, simply because when you are editing it is easy to spot those stretches of dead air, which means that it will be easy to find the mistakes.
Speaking of editing, remember: Never ever edit the one and only copy of your recording! Keep that original recording in case you need to go back to it. We have screwed up enough editing sessions to know how important this is.
To cut out a that cough or ringing phone, you simply find the part of the recording that you want to cut, select the graphic that corresponds to the unwanted sound and hit the DELETE key. Always listen to a few seconds before and after your edit to make sure that it sounds OK. Audacity supports unlimited undo, so if you mess it up just undo your change.
If you seed to change the loudness of part of your podcast, select that part of the graphic and hit the effect/amplify menu item. You can use the slider on the resulting dialog to make that part of your recording louder or softer. But don't over-do it!
Using Audacity to remove noise is a two step process: First you select some silence (remember the silence that you left at the beginning of your podcast?) and select the effects/Noise Removal. When the dialog comes up, you hit the "Get Noise Profile". Now Audacity knows what the noise sounds like. Now you go back, and select the part of the podcast (maybe all of it) that you want to clean up and select the effects/Noise Removal menu item a second time. This time around, select the OK button.
Exporting your podcast to MP3 is pretty easy: Go to File/Export, enter any tags and make sure you ask for an MP3 file.
Finally, our bonus suggestion: Start with the best quality recording that you possibly can.
Happy Podcasting!
Russ & Chris
Sunday, August 23, 2009
AG18: Why We Will Miss Les Paul
Episode 18
This week Chris and Russ remember the life and accomplishments of Les Paul.
Les Paul, who passed away on August 13, 2009 was one of those amazing individuals who got more done in one sitting than most people accomplished in a lifetime. Les Paul was an easy innovator in electrically amplified guitars and anyone interested in popular music will know the Gibson Les Paul guitar, which was designed by Ted McCarty in collaboration with guitarist Mr. Paul. The Les Paul is still one of the most popular guitars made today.
Les Paul started out as Jazz musician, was an early television personality and did pioneering work in multi-track recording. You can find more about Les Paul at the Official Les Paul site. If you want to read about the guitars, have a look at the official Gibson page
Les, we're gonna miss you!
Russ & Chris
This week Chris and Russ remember the life and accomplishments of Les Paul.
Les Paul, who passed away on August 13, 2009 was one of those amazing individuals who got more done in one sitting than most people accomplished in a lifetime. Les Paul was an easy innovator in electrically amplified guitars and anyone interested in popular music will know the Gibson Les Paul guitar, which was designed by Ted McCarty in collaboration with guitarist Mr. Paul. The Les Paul is still one of the most popular guitars made today.
Les Paul started out as Jazz musician, was an early television personality and did pioneering work in multi-track recording. You can find more about Les Paul at the Official Les Paul site. If you want to read about the guitars, have a look at the official Gibson page
Les, we're gonna miss you!
Russ & Chris
Saturday, August 15, 2009
AG17: So You Wanna Do Some HTML?
Download Episode 17
This week Chris and Russ look at the basics of HTML: What is is? How do you write it? And just what does your browser do with it?
HTML was invented by Tim Berners-Lee along with Robert Cailliau.
HTML is a language for describing the layout of text and graphics, the kind of thing that a person will read; In fact you are reading a rendered HTML document right now. The main problem that HTML tries to solve is: How do you describe a complicated page of text and graphics using only what you can type into a simple text editor and some image files. The solution is tags: A tag is just a word that is wrapped in less-than and greater-than signs, like this:
<body>
The idea is that any ordinary text in an HTML document just ends up as ordinary text on the screen, but things that look like tags tell the browser how to display the other stuff. In short, tags are like the stage directions that a director might whisper to actors on the stage.
Every HTML document should start with a magic incantation that announces to the world that it is, indeed, an HTML document. There are some variations on this, but they all look more or less like this one from Google:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
Once you get past this special but, you get to the actual HTML. Every HTML document should be wrapped in start and end HTML tags:
<html>
... GUTS OF THE HTML DOCUMENT ...
</html>
The example above shows an important aspect of HTML: The start of the html document is marked with <html> while the end of the document is marked with </html> . Note the / in the end tag. In HTML <something> is the start of something while </something> is the end of something.
Inside of the html tags, you have the two things: The head part of the document and the body:
<html>
<head>
... INFO ABOUT THE DOCUMENT ...
</head>
<body>
... THE DOCUMENT ITSELF ...
</body>
</html>
The most common thing that you find in the head part is the title:
<head>
<title> This is an example HTML document </title>
</head>
The title part of the HTML tells your browser what to put in the window title (way up there at the very top of your window) when it displays the page.
The body tag holds the actual document contents:
<body>
<p>This is my document.</p>
<p>This is <b>my</b> document.</p>
</body>
You can control how your text display by putting in tags like <p> for paragraph and <b> for bold.
Finally Russ was mistaken about the image tags: your specify the source of the image like this:
<img src="picture.gif"/>
You can learn a lot more about HTML from W3 Schools. If you want to know all the really gory details, have a look at the specification.
This week Chris and Russ look at the basics of HTML: What is is? How do you write it? And just what does your browser do with it?
HTML was invented by Tim Berners-Lee along with Robert Cailliau.
HTML is a language for describing the layout of text and graphics, the kind of thing that a person will read; In fact you are reading a rendered HTML document right now. The main problem that HTML tries to solve is: How do you describe a complicated page of text and graphics using only what you can type into a simple text editor and some image files. The solution is tags: A tag is just a word that is wrapped in less-than and greater-than signs, like this:
<body>
The idea is that any ordinary text in an HTML document just ends up as ordinary text on the screen, but things that look like tags tell the browser how to display the other stuff. In short, tags are like the stage directions that a director might whisper to actors on the stage.
Every HTML document should start with a magic incantation that announces to the world that it is, indeed, an HTML document. There are some variations on this, but they all look more or less like this one from Google:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
Once you get past this special but, you get to the actual HTML. Every HTML document should be wrapped in start and end HTML tags:
<html>
... GUTS OF THE HTML DOCUMENT ...
</html>
The example above shows an important aspect of HTML: The start of the html document is marked with <html> while the end of the document is marked with </html> . Note the / in the end tag. In HTML <something> is the start of something while </something> is the end of something.
Inside of the html tags, you have the two things: The head part of the document and the body:
<html>
<head>
... INFO ABOUT THE DOCUMENT ...
</head>
<body>
... THE DOCUMENT ITSELF ...
</body>
</html>
The most common thing that you find in the head part is the title:
<head>
<title> This is an example HTML document </title>
</head>
The title part of the HTML tells your browser what to put in the window title (way up there at the very top of your window) when it displays the page.
The body tag holds the actual document contents:
<body>
<p>This is my document.</p>
<p>This is <b>my</b> document.</p>
</body>
You can control how your text display by putting in tags like <p> for paragraph and <b> for bold.
Finally Russ was mistaken about the image tags: your specify the source of the image like this:
<img src="picture.gif"/>
You can learn a lot more about HTML from W3 Schools. If you want to know all the really gory details, have a look at the specification.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
AG16: The Why And How Of Blogs
Download Episode 16
This week Chris and Russ do a basic introduction to blogging. What is a blog? Why would you write one? How do you get started? How do you make your blog popular?
The most popular free blogging services are blogger, which is a google thing and the very popular typepad. There are a whole bunch more; you can find a list here.
One of the more popular (lefty leaning, political) blogging sites is the Huffington Post.
The Blog On Blog has a good list of ways to make your blog popular.
There are a number of articles about making duct tape laptop bags: For example this one.
You can find lots of off the wall how to's on the Make Magazine Blog.
Chris & Russ
This week Chris and Russ do a basic introduction to blogging. What is a blog? Why would you write one? How do you get started? How do you make your blog popular?
The most popular free blogging services are blogger, which is a google thing and the very popular typepad. There are a whole bunch more; you can find a list here.
One of the more popular (lefty leaning, political) blogging sites is the Huffington Post.
The Blog On Blog has a good list of ways to make your blog popular.
There are a number of articles about making duct tape laptop bags: For example this one.
You can find lots of off the wall how to's on the Make Magazine Blog.
Chris & Russ
Saturday, July 18, 2009
AG15: To iPhone Or To Kindle?
Download Episode 15
This week Chris is all excited about his new iPhone 3Gs. Apples uber popular phone is either $99 or $199.It seems that Chris went along to the Apple store with his wife, just to keep her company while she bought a new phone. But it seems that they were handing the kool-aid at the door and Chris ended up with a phone of his very own.
Not to be outdone, at about the same time Russ acquired an Amazon Kindle DX, the ultimate in ebook readers. The Kindle DX is not cheap: $489, but there is a smaller, but perfectly usable model that goes for $299. The real cool thing about the Kindle is that you can buy and download books wirelessly right from Amazon all without a computer. If you do plug your Kindle into a computer (USB), you can download all kinds of free books (mostly classics) and load them onto your Kindle.
This episode also marks the introduction of Bailey's Law:
Never Let Your Mom Use Your Computer
Chris and Russ
This week Chris is all excited about his new iPhone 3Gs. Apples uber popular phone is either $99 or $199.It seems that Chris went along to the Apple store with his wife, just to keep her company while she bought a new phone. But it seems that they were handing the kool-aid at the door and Chris ended up with a phone of his very own.
Not to be outdone, at about the same time Russ acquired an Amazon Kindle DX, the ultimate in ebook readers. The Kindle DX is not cheap: $489, but there is a smaller, but perfectly usable model that goes for $299. The real cool thing about the Kindle is that you can buy and download books wirelessly right from Amazon all without a computer. If you do plug your Kindle into a computer (USB), you can download all kinds of free books (mostly classics) and load them onto your Kindle.
This episode also marks the introduction of Bailey's Law:
Never Let Your Mom Use Your Computer
Chris and Russ
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
AG14: How Many Cabs In The Universe?
Download Episode 14
In this episode Chris and Russ explore 'Fermi problems', the kind of problems that scientist Enrico Fermi used to pose to his students. A Fermi problem is a question that involves estimating quantities that seem completely out of reach, but aren't. Usually the rule is that you work out a Fermi problem just with your general knowledge and your wits.
Some sample Fermi problems are: How many dogs live in your city? How much does your local grocery store or 7-11 gross in a day? How many hot dogs do Americans eat in a year? How thick is a piece of paper? In fact, making up the questions is almost as much fun as solving them.
A good biography of Enrico Fermi, the originator of the Fermi problem is Enrico Fermi, Physicist You can find a collection of Fermi questions or problems
here.
According to wikipedia number of cabs in New York is actually 13,087: God knows where Russ got the 18,000 number but close enough for a Fermi problem!
The SETI Institute has a good explanation of the Drake equation. You can also find a video of Carl Sagan explaining it on youtube.
In this episode Chris and Russ explore 'Fermi problems', the kind of problems that scientist Enrico Fermi used to pose to his students. A Fermi problem is a question that involves estimating quantities that seem completely out of reach, but aren't. Usually the rule is that you work out a Fermi problem just with your general knowledge and your wits.
Some sample Fermi problems are: How many dogs live in your city? How much does your local grocery store or 7-11 gross in a day? How many hot dogs do Americans eat in a year? How thick is a piece of paper? In fact, making up the questions is almost as much fun as solving them.
A good biography of Enrico Fermi, the originator of the Fermi problem is Enrico Fermi, Physicist You can find a collection of Fermi questions or problems
here.
According to wikipedia number of cabs in New York is actually 13,087: God knows where Russ got the 18,000 number but close enough for a Fermi problem!
The SETI Institute has a good explanation of the Drake equation. You can also find a video of Carl Sagan explaining it on youtube.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
AG13: Which Culture Are You A Part Of?
Download Episode 13
This week Chris and Russ look back on C. P. Snow's book The Two Cultures. The Two Cultures was one of the first books (actually it started out as a lecture) which pointed out that the techies were not talking to the literary and artistic types and vise versa. You can find The Two Cultures on Amazon.
You can find the early modem article here on boing boing.
How Stuff Works has a good article about how modems work. If you read the article, you will find that Russ is mistaken about exactly how DSL works: DSL actually just expands the range of frequencies available to the modem.
This week Chris and Russ look back on C. P. Snow's book The Two Cultures. The Two Cultures was one of the first books (actually it started out as a lecture) which pointed out that the techies were not talking to the literary and artistic types and vise versa. You can find The Two Cultures on Amazon.
You can find the early modem article here on boing boing.
How Stuff Works has a good article about how modems work. If you read the article, you will find that Russ is mistaken about exactly how DSL works: DSL actually just expands the range of frequencies available to the modem.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
AG12: How Do You Build A PodCast? Part II
Download Episode 12
Happy PodCasting!
Chris and Russ
The second part of our salute to the tricks and techniques of podcasting.
In this episode we talk about our experiences podcasting with a special eye on the hardware that we tried and on what worked and
didn’t work.
Like many neophyte podcasters, we started out by simply using our computer; in our case a MacBook laptop. The first, very experimental and thankfully never published episode of Art/Geek was kicked off by simply hitting the record button in GarageBand .
Since we weren’t happy with that built-in mic, we decided to take a step up in quality – a very small step. So we went out and bought a couple of Logitech Playstation 2 USB microphones These are very inexpensive: About $30 US, but for the money they produce pretty decent results. These microphones are made for use with Playstation Karaoke games, but they are really just plain old USB based microphones which will work fine in any computer. If you don’t want to spend a lot of money and you want to do a one microphone podcast. Perhaps its just you, or its you and someone with whom you don’t mind sharing a microphone, then one of these $30 microphones is not a bad bet.
Whatever microphone you pick, you are going to need something to hold it in place. While more expensive mics have special fittings for purpose built stands, our cheap Karaoke came with neither stand nor fittings. The solution was surprisingly simple: It turns out that you can bend a wire coat hanger into a perfectly good microphone stand in less time than it takes to ask for extra starch at the dry cleaners.
Another, somewhat more expensive alternative that solves the microphone and stand problem in one visit to the BuyMore would be a headset, which combines the microphone with headphones in a very ‘air traffic controller’ setup. Russ played around with using his Logitech Premium Notebook Headset (can you tell that someone likes Logitech equipment?) but he was never very impressed with the results. To Russ the headset mic always sounded a thin and flat.
Of course we aren’t doing a single mic podcast – there are two of us and while we are friends, we do draw the line at sitting close enough to use the same microphone for hours on end. What we did was run those two Logitech Karaoke mics into Chris’ computer and mix or combine the sound coming from the two mics using some software trickery.
It turns out that buried fairly deeply inside of Mac OSX there is a little utility to create an ‘aggregate microphone’, a sort of imaginary, software microphone that combines the input of two or more real microphones. You can configure an aggregate microphone by launching Audio MIDI Setup program, which you will find in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Click on Open Aggregate Device Editor you are well on your way to a two microphone podcast.
Except that the aggregate microphone setup never really worked that well. Chris’ voice is quite a bit softer than Russ’ and left untouched, resulted a recording that sounded a bit like a shouted conversation with a neighbor on the other side of the fence. To balance things out a bit, we tried upping the volume of Chris’ voice inside of GarageBand. The trouble with this is that the amplification also amplified the various background noises from Chris’ side of the room, along with the unavoidable electronic hiss that you get from inexpensive microphones. Even worse, sometimes Chris’ mic would pick up Russ’ voice, which the amplification turned into a sort of ‘voice of the gods’ reverb. Still more horrible, sometimes, for reasons unknown, Russ’ mic and Chris’ mic would get out of sync with each other, resulting in a really horrible
mess.
Which brings us to the set up that we are using today. For microphones, Russ is using an audio-technica AT2020 , (about $75) with an XLR microphone cable something like this one (about $10). You will also need a stand for you microphone, for example something like this The mixer is a Behringer 1202 (about $90) although the smaller 802 model (about $50) would work just fine. To hook the mixer to our computer we are using Behringer U-Control (about $30). You will need some RCA cables to finish things off, some thing this which you can buy online or from your local Home Depot or RadioShack.
Happy PodCasting!
Chris and Russ
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
AG11: How Do You Build A PodCast? Part I
Download Episode 11
Happy PodCasting!
Chris and Russ
The first part of our salute to the tricks and techniques of podcasting.
In this episode we talk about our experiences podcasting with a special eye on the hardware that we tried and on what worked and
didn’t work.
Like many neophyte podcasters, we started out by simply using our computer; in our case a MacBook laptop. The first, very experimental and thankfully never published episode of Art/Geek was kicked off by simply hitting the record button in GarageBand .
Since we weren’t happy with that built-in mic, we decided to take a step up in quality – a very small step. So we went out and bought a couple of Logitech Playstation 2 USB microphones These are very inexpensive: About $30 US, but for the money they produce pretty decent results. These microphones are made for use with Playstation Karaoke games, but they are really just plain old USB based microphones which will work fine in any computer. If you don’t want to spend a lot of money and you want to do a one microphone podcast. Perhaps its just you, or its you and someone with whom you don’t mind sharing a microphone, then one of these $30 microphones is not a bad bet.
Whatever microphone you pick, you are going to need something to hold it in place. While more expensive mics have special fittings for purpose built stands, our cheap Karaoke came with neither stand nor fittings. The solution was surprisingly simple: It turns out that you can bend a wire coat hanger into a perfectly good microphone stand in less time than it takes to ask for extra starch at the dry cleaners.
Another, somewhat more expensive alternative that solves the microphone and stand problem in one visit to the BuyMore would be a headset, which combines the microphone with headphones in a very ‘air traffic controller’ setup. Russ played around with using his Logitech Premium Notebook Headset (can you tell that someone likes Logitech equipment?) but he was never very impressed with the results. To Russ the headset mic always sounded a thin and flat.
Of course we aren’t doing a single mic podcast – there are two of us and while we are friends, we do draw the line at sitting close enough to use the same microphone for hours on end. What we did was run those two Logitech Karaoke mics into Chris’ computer and mix or combine the sound coming from the two mics using some software trickery.
It turns out that buried fairly deeply inside of Mac OSX there is a little utility to create an ‘aggregate microphone’, a sort of imaginary, software microphone that combines the input of two or more real microphones. You can configure an aggregate microphone by launching Audio MIDI Setup program, which you will find in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Click on Open Aggregate Device Editor you are well on your way to a two microphone podcast.
Except that the aggregate microphone setup never really worked that well. Chris’ voice is quite a bit softer than Russ’ and left untouched, resulted a recording that sounded a bit like a shouted conversation with a neighbor on the other side of the fence. To balance things out a bit, we tried upping the volume of Chris’ voice inside of GarageBand. The trouble with this is that the amplification also amplified the various background noises from Chris’ side of the room, along with the unavoidable electronic hiss that you get from inexpensive microphones. Even worse, sometimes Chris’ mic would pick up Russ’ voice, which the amplification turned into a sort of ‘voice of the gods’ reverb. Still more horrible, sometimes, for reasons unknown, Russ’ mic and Chris’ mic would get out of sync with each other, resulting in a really horrible
mess.
Which brings us to the set up that we are using today. For microphones, Russ is using an audio-technica AT2020 , (about $75) with an XLR microphone cable something like this one (about $10). You will also need a stand for you microphone, for example something like this The mixer is a Behringer 1202 (about $90) although the smaller 802 model (about $50) would work just fine. To hook the mixer to our computer we are using Behringer U-Control (about $30). You will need some RCA cables to finish things off, some thing this which you can buy online or from your local Home Depot or RadioShack.
Happy PodCasting!
Chris and Russ
Sunday, April 12, 2009
AG10: How Do We Know What We Know?
Download Episode 10
Chris and Russ talk about the strange case of the European criminal mastermind along with the even stranger case of Cold Fusion as well as the very scary case of 3 Mile Island to see if and how we know what we thing we know.
Chris & Russ
Chris and Russ talk about the strange case of the European criminal mastermind along with the even stranger case of Cold Fusion as well as the very scary case of 3 Mile Island to see if and how we know what we thing we know.
Chris & Russ
Sunday, March 15, 2009
AG09: Flatland, Projections And Cartoons
Download Episode 9
In this episode, Chris and Russ take talk about building cartoons from the inside out as well every geometrically inclined geeks favorite book, Flatland.
The cartoonist of Chris' fancy is in fact "Bill Plimptom":http://www.plymptoons.com
The classic book Flatland was written by Edwin A. Abbott in 1884 and is availiable in dead trees at amazon or you can download it for free.
You can find all kinds of interesting stuff at the Library Of Congress site.
You can find a picture of Lincoln at Gettysburg here
There are all too many pictures of the Civil War dead, for example here (not for the faint of heart).
A much more fun vision of life after death is, of course, Night Of The Living Dead
You can also find Kubrick's classic 2001 here.
Russ & Chris
In this episode, Chris and Russ take talk about building cartoons from the inside out as well every geometrically inclined geeks favorite book, Flatland.
The cartoonist of Chris' fancy is in fact "Bill Plimptom":http://www.plymptoons.com
The classic book Flatland was written by Edwin A. Abbott in 1884 and is availiable in dead trees at amazon or you can download it for free.
You can find all kinds of interesting stuff at the Library Of Congress site.
You can find a picture of Lincoln at Gettysburg here
There are all too many pictures of the Civil War dead, for example here (not for the faint of heart).
A much more fun vision of life after death is, of course, Night Of The Living Dead
You can also find Kubrick's classic 2001 here.
Russ & Chris
Sunday, March 1, 2009
AG08: Where Does Inspiration Come From?
Download Episode 8
Russ and Chis talk about the use of a blunt object in coming up with some inspiration. Inspired by this inspiring article by Thursday Bram.
As usual, Russ' mind wonders back to the Wright Brothers and programming languages. Russ' current favorite new programming language is Clojure.
Chris is, of course, more of a Photoshop and Illustrator kind of guy.
Take a look a look at those ancient cave paintings: They really are art.
You can see Shepard Fairey's Obama poster on wikipedia and also read about the related intellectual property issues. The original Obama photo was taken by Mannie Garcia and according to wikipedia, it is actually Fairey who has brought legal action over the copyright issues.
It was actually Aaron Sorkin who said that good writers borrow but that great writers steal. We regret having to violate the spirit of the quote by crediting its source.
You can find Pride And Prejudice Pride And Prejudice or here, while the zombie enhanced version is at here. Russ has written Design Patterns In Ruby, but sadly there is no zombieful version yet.
The film that Chris was trying to think of was almost certainly Dusk Till Dawn.
Thanks to Thursday for this Friday's pod cast.
Russ
Russ and Chis talk about the use of a blunt object in coming up with some inspiration. Inspired by this inspiring article by Thursday Bram.
As usual, Russ' mind wonders back to the Wright Brothers and programming languages. Russ' current favorite new programming language is Clojure.
Chris is, of course, more of a Photoshop and Illustrator kind of guy.
Take a look a look at those ancient cave paintings: They really are art.
You can see Shepard Fairey's Obama poster on wikipedia and also read about the related intellectual property issues. The original Obama photo was taken by Mannie Garcia and according to wikipedia, it is actually Fairey who has brought legal action over the copyright issues.
It was actually Aaron Sorkin who said that good writers borrow but that great writers steal. We regret having to violate the spirit of the quote by crediting its source.
You can find Pride And Prejudice Pride And Prejudice or here, while the zombie enhanced version is at here. Russ has written Design Patterns In Ruby, but sadly there is no zombieful version yet.
The film that Chris was trying to think of was almost certainly Dusk Till Dawn.
Thanks to Thursday for this Friday's pod cast.
Russ
Friday, February 20, 2009
AG07: What Time Is It In Your Story?
Download Episode 7
Russ and Chris talk about the element of time in stories. Along the way they touch on the Wright Brothers, Gutsman Comics by Erik Kriek, and Joaquín Salvador Lavado aka Quino creator of Mafalda
You can hear the Wayne Brady's theme from The Weekenders on youtube.
Kind of an eclectic mix, but heck this is Art/Geek!
Russ & Chris
Russ and Chris talk about the element of time in stories. Along the way they touch on the Wright Brothers, Gutsman Comics by Erik Kriek, and Joaquín Salvador Lavado aka Quino creator of Mafalda
You can hear the Wayne Brady's theme from The Weekenders on youtube.
Kind of an eclectic mix, but heck this is Art/Geek!
Russ & Chris
Friday, February 13, 2009
AG06: Art In That Extra Dimension
Download Episode 6
What do comics, movies and oral story telling all have in common? And how are they different? Can lightening strike the same place more than once? And why does Russ think that he is a DJ on a 23rd century live radio show? These and many other questions answered in this episode of Art/Geek!
Chris & Russ
What do comics, movies and oral story telling all have in common? And how are they different? Can lightening strike the same place more than once? And why does Russ think that he is a DJ on a 23rd century live radio show? These and many other questions answered in this episode of Art/Geek!
Chris & Russ
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
AG05: Is That A UPC On Bambi?
Download Episode 5
Should we put UPC codes on all living things? Are alien species destroying the environment? Are the French really smarter? Find out in this special mini episode of Art/Geek!
Russ & Chris
Should we put UPC codes on all living things? Are alien species destroying the environment? Are the French really smarter? Find out in this special mini episode of Art/Geek!
Russ & Chris
Friday, February 6, 2009
AG04: Would You Finish It For A Trillion?
Download Episode 4
How do artists get things done? How about programmers? Is finishing a program the same as finishing a painting?
Russ & Chris
How do artists get things done? How about programmers? Is finishing a program the same as finishing a painting?
Russ & Chris
Friday, January 30, 2009
AG03: Where Do Ideas Come From?
Download Episode 3
Ever have a brilliant idea? Where do they come from? Every have a brilliant idea and just lose it a second later? Where did it go? Chris & Russ talk about ideas, where they come from, where they go and what we do with them in between.
Chris & Russ
Ever have a brilliant idea? Where do they come from? Every have a brilliant idea and just lose it a second later? Where did it go? Chris & Russ talk about ideas, where they come from, where they go and what we do with them in between.
Chris & Russ
Thursday, January 15, 2009
AG02: Comic Books And Scary Clowns
Dowload Episode 2
Russ & Chris talk about art and software and Russ' secret ambition to write books draw scary clowns.
Russ & Chris talk about art and software and Russ' secret ambition to write books draw scary clowns.
AG01: Comic Books And Build Tools
Download Episode 1
Chris and Russ talk about writing comic books and open source software and the odd things you see on the subway in Tokyo.
Chris and Russ talk about writing comic books and open source software and the odd things you see on the subway in Tokyo.
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