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mfraginon Awesome Music Theory: books, links, videos, research, visuals, composition

My linguistics professor in college warned all students on day one: "if you are an English teacher, you may struggle in this class. If you are a computer programmer, however, you may do quite well."

I love comparing the differences between piano and guitar as instruments for learning music. They have such different strengths and weaknesses. Changing keys with a capo is like using the "pitch shift" button on an electronic keyboard. Since music is only a strong hobby of mine, I have never come to any conclusion on those matters.

I learned a LOT when I received a free high-quality piano (that had been in storage) and decided to tune it myself. That's a rabbit hole I am still amazed by. I got a lot of use out of http://piano-tuner.org/ Piano tuning is such a complex art and science.

mfraginon Awesome Music Theory: books, links, videos, research, visuals, composition

Much better. Thanks for clarifying that, and thanks for what you have done!

mfraginon Awesome Music Theory: books, links, videos, research, visuals, composition

I clicked on this to see if by any chance you included Toby Rush's "Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People." I see it's recommended in the "Where To Start" section, but then you say to intensify a fear for classical music theory... and I'm not sure what you are implying there.

I remember coming across that document many years ago when messing around with music composition. The funny thing is, I went to college with Toby Rush and worked with him at the college library. He was an incredible source of information and I'd pick his brain trying to understand various concepts.

I was several pages into his guide before I made the connection that I knew the author.

His wobsite and blag are here https://tobyrush.com/

mfraginon Colorado governor signs tractor right-to-repair law opposed by John Deere

Here in Pueblo there are a lot of "closet" Hatch chili people ;-)

Seriously though, I think Polis has done a good job and he's the rare politician who can understand the implications of the right-to-repair law.

When I was teaching Comp Sci at the high school level and we got a bunch of refurbished computers from his foundation ( http://www.jaredpolisfoundation.org/ ).

The desktops came with bare-bone Windows and a bunch of open source applications. Of course we put Linux on all of them anyway, but most people back then would have NOT known how to use a Linux box, so the setup they came with was understandable.

mfraginon Ancient Earth Globe

Set it to 66 million years ago and check out where India is located. What a different world.

mfraginon These Are the Most Popular TV Shows on the Internet

While some of the more popular DVDs are in terrible shape, I have been surprised at how many we have checked out that seem to never have been watched. I'd estimate 9 out of 10 are either mint condition or have fingerprints that are easily wiped clean.

I suspect not many people check out DVDs anymore. Our library is great in that it puts all their new arrivals in one section.

Same thing with CDs.

mfraginon Gun Violence Is Worse in Red States. It’s Not Even Close.

Dead Milkmen lyrics from 1985:

"There's a town in Georgia's got a law on the books Says if we all got guns then we won't have crooks Now what could make them think that way?"

and, on the same album:

"Violence rules, guns are cool and we've got guns, in our school"

The writing was on the wall. I was teaching at a small school in Arizona when Columbine happened. I probably did a face palm and kept teaching....

mfraginon These Are the Most Popular TV Shows on the Internet

Call me a Luddite, but I think were kind of in the golden age of DVDs. Local public libraries are kind of what Blockbuster used to be, except: no cost to rent.

Watching something without commercial interruptions nowadays is luxury.

mfraginon Gamers 50-plus are a growing force in the tech market

The woman who sold me my last phone was probably in her early 20s, and she joined AARP for the discounts on her phone plan.

Off topic: the old farts in the picture hold the controller like old farts. The default way for people my age to pick up a Playstation or Xbox controller is to have your trigger fingers nowhere near the R1, L1 buttons....

mfraginon Why do studios use Roman numerals in the copyright notice in the end credits?

Of course, but only for nerds like me. Reminds me of the old joke about regular expressions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25415441

Roman numerals were easy to chisel into stone. Beyond that, kind of a headache.

mfraginon The dark side of the Mac App Store

The internet is full! Go away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

mfraginon Pop_OS makes using Linux easy

I stand corrected! Thanks for posting, as I had a limited experience and was happy that most of my applications fell into the first category below:

I just tested it out and some applications like GIMP and INKSCAPE appear as a result and when you click on it, it has a drop-down in which you can choose between the flatpak and deb version. Unfortunately the flatpak is the default choice, so many people would probably never even know about the alternative choice.

Other applications a clearly different, and it's not clear what you are getting. Like VLC.

Then you have some like BATTLE FOR WESNOTH that shows two results. One of the two (if you activate it) has the drop-down, but both choices are flatpaks. The other result is apparently NOT a flatpak, but not clear in what it is.

I now see I have more flatpaks than I believed I had. They are working nicely at least, the ones I am using.

mfraginon Pop_OS makes using Linux easy

In the Pop!_Shop you can often find both the deb version or the flatpak, so you can avoid them quite easily. For things that only appear with a flatpak option you can usually find other ways to install, after a little searching on the web.

It's very clear in the Pop!_Shop whether it's a flatpak or not, which is nice ....

mfraginon Pop_OS makes using Linux easy

I started using Ubuntu back in Hardy Heron days (8.04). I remember attending an Ubuntu user's group meeting in Denver back then and the System76 guys were there. I was impressed by their knowledge and willingness to help others.

I strayed to Mint for the last 10 years or so and only recently gave Pop_OS a try. I was delighted to see the "Welcome to Colorado" wallpaper on there right after installation. Now Pop_OS is the only distro I use. Hats off to System76 for their contribution.

I recently inherited an HP All-In-One desktop that was extremely sluggish with Windows. I have yet to find anything seriously wrong with Pop_OS and feel it really strikes a good balance. Yes the Pop!_Shop is definitely the weak point. It worked great for many applications, but when it didn't I was able to install fairly painless using other options (apt-get...).

mfraginon The inner life of the octopus (2022)

I'm happy to see they referenced the classic essay by Thomas Nagel, "What is it Like to Be a Bat?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F

That was required reading when I was studying Philosophy back in the day. I guess that's what made so much science fiction interesting: knowing how others experience things is a great antidote against solipsism.

mfraginon Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

Heck, even with video games we're not on "equal footing." When I play my little self-contained version of "The Oregon Trail," I am at a disadvantage when I have to hunt for food using those clunky controls. :-)

mfraginon Physics and Mathematics Self-Study Project

As a former teacher of math and comp sci at a pretty low socio-economic school in (US) Colorado's front range, I can attest that kids like this are out there.

Before I gave up on teaching as a career, it was kids like this that kept me going.