Day 240, Techno junk

Featuring the AK4528 converter chip the Audiophile 24/96 was a reasonable priced bit of sound-acquiring technical gubbins.

The AK4528 appears identical to the AK4524 but with an 8dB improvement in chip-level dynamic range.  We can only assume that that is a good thing based on no evidence whatsoever (my ears cannot help given that they are as old as me and thus not fresh.)  There was all sorts of that stuff about the chips and the dB figures in the music production press at the time, I'm pretty sure it goes straight over the head of most people.

But this I/O device is of no use to me, and hasn't been for quite a while as it was long since consigned to one of the boxes of 'stuff' after an upgrade.  So it'll be going in the bin, sorry, it'll be going to the nearest WEEE recycling service.

It would be irresponsible to do anything other than recycle it.  Never mind the fact that it still works and is perfectly usable, and that the return on investment has long since been passed for me, there's the hidden environmental cost of producing all of the components on the card.

Once it is unplugged...

The rest is silence.

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Day 239, High spots

Ah the beauty of the British summer.

The joy of standing at one of the high points in the city.

Witness the glorious vista stretching almost as far as the cloud base.

The gentle pattering massage of soothing rain.

Obnubilation will diminish as the season progresses.

Just 245 metres above sea level and absolutely no metres above rain level at the peak of Lydgate Lane.

If you have the benefit of ultraviolet vision you will clearly see the city in the distance.

And in the opposite direction even with speciality vision there would be little to see.

I'm not suggesting there's nothing there, just that it is below eye level and obscured by buildings, obviously.

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Day 238, 20/20 vision

We might not all have 20/20 vision.  Although for most there are handy face-tools to help with that.

Not even everyone has 20/20 hindsight.  And there's really no excuse for that other than lack of attention, and missing out on reviewing and assessing what has gone before.

In a world of IT projects there often appears to be a lack of learning from any form of hindsight.  Major IT providers repeat their own mistakes time and again.  Don't they review the 'lessons learned' documents, maybe people aren't honest in the 'lessons learned' documents, maybe they don't actually document where problems occurred.  Why wouldn't they document that information, it's the most valuable of all the information, that where failure happens.

Perhaps the difficulty in IT projects lies with the expectations of those wanting a solution.  The complexities of integration with other systems is usually underestimated if it is ever considered at all.  It isn't just a case of "this product matches our requirements", there should also be "how well does this product integrate with our environment", and what happens if it doesn't.  Somewhere in there is a consideration of cost, which includes managing, maintaining, and updating - are the resources available in-house and if not how much does it cost to have a third party do the full administration job.

If only we'd considered that on our latest project here at home.  We got all the flashing lights, the trombone sound plays at exactly the right point, the lid goes both up and down, however when drained the outflow isn't connected to the waste water outlet.  That's the last time we have Crapita fit a toilet.

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Day 237, Post structuralism

It clearly has structure, and you might be inclined to say that they are posts.  Nice and shiny concrete examples of the physical manifestation of the architect and quantity surveyors abstract musings and calculations.

Implementation is now taking place, the organisation of discrete assets and mobile operative objects, agents, and entities coalescing and giving coherence to the formerly hypothetical codifications.

Our existence, experience, and context gives clear meaning that unless some deeply rooted analysis is taking place that this is not deconstruction.  Unless there is a difference, and it is not possible to say without positive terms, then let us defer to prior knowledge.

And so we are reduced to discursive practices, lacking meaning, content, or nourishment.  It is a benefit, although not as fundamentally challenging to conscious thought or practicality, that this paradigm contains a recognised system of the order of things.


A - What is it?

B - No idea.

A - Anyway, I don't know much about art but I know what I like.

B - Oh, it's a car park.

Pseudy commentator - Excuse my existence, please step aside.

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Day 236, POLITE THINK!!

There's a new branch of Orwellian language.  Forked from the original 1940s version.

POLITE THINK!!

Yes, clearly it is designed to be misinterpreted.  The checked pattern at the top, and the word POLITE in huge capitals are meant to put people in mind of, and be directly mistaken for POLICE.

So schools have taken to putting their own grammatically dubious signs in the street - assuming it is the school - how many exclamation marks do you need, usually one is too many.

Much more appealing, to me at least, is that the law is enforced in some low cost and not at all over the top way.

There are double yellow lines clearly visible, and that means that parking on them could result in you being towed away.

Monitoring of the street should take place at all times, cameras mounted with laser cannon could be used to deploy heat-light destruction for any infringement greater than 5 seconds.  Graffiti artists could be employed to spray paint any vehicle that stops in the controlled zone, images or words could be painted, 'cock piss partridge' for example.  A gang of urchins could be taken under the wing of a local Fagan type character who will arm them with spikes to puncture the two offside tyres of any car which stops in the zone.

These are all reasonable suggestions.  But perhaps all it needs is a collection of Traffic Wardens repeatedly patrolling the street from one end to the other until it becomes a no-go area for selfish arses. 



Toodle pip!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Day 235, Underside climbing

A - Here's the set of stairs you ordered.

B - Hey thanks, oh wait, they're the wrong way round.

A - That's what you ordered.

B - But...

A - Here's what you asked for, it clearly says set of stairs, foot at south, width of gap, top to bottom.

B - Yes, but the interpretation you've put on it is completely counterintuitive.  Surely you must have expected them to be usable?

A - Just giving you what you asked for, not my problem.

B - But that's not useful as anything other than an art installation, I wanted stairs.

A - Yeah, well, I've delivered what you ordered.

Not wilful misinterpretation.  Not deliberate misunderstanding.  Not trying to be difficult or awkward.  Although it might appear that way if the overall objective has been lost somewhere en-route.  Maybe there are other pressures that have the effect of narrowing vision to block out the overall objective.

Things should be simplified, partners should both understand what their responsibilities are.  Be clear and concise about requirements, objectives and boundaries.  And if you're charged with creating the product then be prepared to run away once you've delivered it completely inside out and with the contents on the outside...

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Day 234, pedal for the metal, blues legacy

Way back in time when the Delta blues was in its infancy and the backwaters of the Mississippi was alive to the sound of the new music there were no pedals to change the sound.  The instruments were un-amplified.

Here we have a Dunlop Cry Baby, there are various models often used in funk and blues.  When Robert Johnson made the mythical pact with the devil he was told that if he hung around long enough there would be great new wonders.  Of course he didn't live to see such things.  And I almost certainly made all of that up.

We can only guess at what sense Robert Johnson would have made of the classic Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi.

Unfortunately my prowess in using these devices was in no way helped by shaking the hand of David "Honeyboy" Edwards, a friend of Robert Johnson's who was present the night that Johnson was poisoned in 1938.  Edwards was only about 80 when I tried to absorb some of his skill, and he was still very, very good, and didn't claim to have made a pact with anyone.  None of that class rubbed off or was transferred to me directly, indirectly or from Johnson either by any degree of separation.

Maybe I should go down to the crossroads at midnight and attempt to make a pact with the devil, or the modern equivalent in government.  Though I suspect the only thing I'd get down at the crossroads now is run over.


Will this do?

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