tcpip | Emotions and Music, Linux and Employment, More Religious Madness

Over the past several days I've been suffering headaches, sleeping badly, eating poorly and have generally been struck by a malaise. Appropriately however and in part inspired by

missmalice's list,

trayce's and

slowlight's postings (among others) and

1phish2phish's recent polls, I am attempting to compose my favourite LPs of contemporary music. True to form I am discovering that my preferences lie with the "critically acclaimed but rarely popular"; meaning complex psychoacoustics, existential lyric poetry and narrative consistency within the LP. With this line of thinking I might end up writing something for Music Theory, if they'll have me.

Microsoft, taking a hammering evidently on the server market and worried about the desktop market, have started a standard FUD campaign claiming Linux violates over 200 patents. Groklaw thought the matter was trivial enough to ignore. Ballmer appears to be getting the patent study completely wrong according to the author. Seems that they have ended up with a lot of egg on their face over this one. Appropriately, after several months of sporadic work (self-imposed), I'll be starting various Ubuntu/Debian sysadmin tasks as Internet Vision Technologies on Monday.

From

mrteufel: In a blog backing Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas we have an advocate who claims that Heliocentrism is an atheist doctrine and a lie. Via

cardinal_sodom Fawell supporters sought to bomb protestors at the evangelist's funeral. On

convert_me, I take the opportunity to pull apart a Creationist site.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Having looked through the comments on the heliocentrism post, I'm pretty sure it's a parody, though a very well-done one.

That's a hell of a lot of effort for a parody. It's up there with Jonathon Swift.

These are the ones that made me suspicious (all by the post's author):

Why do you want to fill the heads of our children with this Heliocentric nonsense? Do you want them to grow up like Europe’s children, tolerant of budding Islamist threats within their midst? Do you hate America?

No, I hate that man. He’s a charlatan, he’s rude to our President, and he emboldens our enemies.

Jewish people have every bit as much of a right to live here as Christians do- and substantially more of a right than tree-hugging Wiccans like you do. After all, your religion was only invented about 4 years ago. How was there an Original Intent by the Founders to allow you to worship Marilyn Manson?

I notice you use thhe metric system. That automatically makes your calculations suspect. The metric system is pure evil.

Just a little too heavy on the cliches. And since I last looked, he's added this:

BTW, I have no time to refute the people who accuse me of spoofing. That accusation isn’t worth dignifying with a response, anyway. Why would someone spend months working on a blog they didn’t believe in? Ask yourselves that question.

Methinks he protests just a little too hard there. Though now I think about it, I'm not sure whether it's intended as subtle satire or an attempt to discredit Brownback. Works pretty much the same either way...

Hey, someone who thinks heliocentrism is a lie is also going to think the metric system is evil. One must say they're being consistent in their madness...

Wow, how about that heliocentrism post. Mother of Pearl! The guy has GOT to be joking... it ranks up there with Landover Baptist's "Creationist Science Fair" page. I think the "metric system is evil" bit is our best evidence for parody. Though, I'm almost afraid to say, right-wing fundies have argued against the metric system in the past.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/dunaway2.html

Landover Baptist does do parody as parody... I mean tampons as Satan's Little Cotton Fingers is simply beautiful.

That's a great Lew Rockwell article; it would seem that there is basis in scripture for the metric system being classified as "evil".....

>>True to form I am discovering that my preferences lie with the "critically acclaimed but rarely popular"; meaning complex psychoacoustics, existential lyric poetry and narrative consistency within the LP.

i'd really, really like to hear some of this. (please)! :)

...complex psychoacoustics, existential lyric poetry and narrative consistency within the LP.

Sounds like prog rock to me! :)

I am trying to find a favourite Hawkwind compilation :-)

guess it's time to look beyond tool then

Heh. Given your love of complex music and words of literary merit, I'm really not surprised at all by such a request...

Some immediate examples:

The Chameleons; Script of the Bridge
Ultravox!; Three Into One
The Clash; Sandinista!
Gang of Four: Brief History of the 20th Century
Laurie Anderson: United States Live
Shriekback: Oil and Gold
Foetus: Hole
China Crisis: Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms (Some People Think It's Fun To Entertain)*
Front 242: Front By Front
Pop Will Eat Itself: This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!
Leftfield: Leftism
Various: First Feast (A Beggars Banquet compilation)
New Order: Power, Corruption and Lies
* Certainly the longest album title I've encountered!

thanks! will definitely check those out.

I think in the end that MS's patent violation claims will prove to be just a bunch of saber-rattling. Considering they bankrolled (in part) SCO's tilting at legal windmills, you'd think they'd have learned something from that experience, even with their deep pockets. They have proved rather adept at FUD campaigns over the years, even if FOSS advocates laugh them off.

My advice to people who are still unsure whether to adopt FOSS is to simply stay the course and don't let the bastards scare you off.

You are quite right in all regards. The people that have to be convinced however are the holders of the purse-strings in management who hear news like this and suddenly become fearful due to this sabre-rattling.

Technical issues aside, there can be little doubt that one a moral level Microsoft can be described as 'evil'.

I actually really appreaciate that you used the term "psychoacoustics" as your way to describe emotional reactions to complex changes in air pressure. Having worked with sound in the professional capacity for over 10 years it gives me a warm feeling to know that there are people out there who appreciate the impact sound has on affect.

I have an occassional side interest in the psychology of music. The psychoacoustic approach derives originally from Plato who considered both music and mathematics to be a description of reality. Others, deriving from Hilbert, consider music to be a pattern of conventions and, deriving from Chomsky, that music is a mental grammatical language.

My bias towards the Platonic orientation also means I derive great musical pleasure from natural sounds.

Here's to better sleep, better food and a lack of malaise in your near-future.

Feeling much better this morn'. A combination of some decent food, multivitamins, sedatives and a good night's sleep...

Emotions and Music, Linux and Employment, More Religious Madness

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