I’m certainly no mathematician, but I found this interesting. A mathematician in South Wales has published a book that redefined trigonometry with the use of sines, cosines or tangents. I remember how difficult it was to remember all the trigonometric identities (still don’t know ‘em). I have found simple trig to be very helpful, but significantly more difficult when trying to learn Fourier Transforms or integral calculus, which all use the concepts from “basic” trig.

For an audio engineer with a natural curiosity for all things that help me to better understand the nature of my job, I have looked long and hard at trig functions in relation to audio and wave propagation. The notion that maybe some of that pain involved in trig can be simplified to something that looks a lot like 5th grade fractions is appealing.

I do wonder if the concepts can be applied to other areas of calculus, and that I might actually be able to understand the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) sooner rather than later.

There is a sample chapter available on N J Wildberger’s web site.

Slashdot | Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines

I have written about I, Cringely before. I really like what he has to say about technology, and he’s entertaining to read as well. A few months ago I read something about his efforts to start build a show based around his musings about technology, computers, and opinion. It has finally some to fruition. NerdTV went live yesterday. What is NerdTV?

NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks - a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology.

His first guest is Andy Hertzfeld, who was one of the original Macintosh systems programmers, and now a big proponent of Open Source Software. Upcoming guests include, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, Internet publisher Tim O’Reilly, and TCP/IP inventor Bob Kahn. As well as a host of others.

Andy also has a great web site, Folklore.org, that focuses on stories from the original Macintosh development team. It too is a great read. Andy has also just released a book of stories from Folklore called Revolution in The Valley.

Other nerdy aspects of the show include the fact that it is distributed on the internet in a multitude of formats, from mp4 video and audio formats for podcast including ogg vorbis, aac, mp3 and it’s also available as a straight up transcript.

It’s nerdy, and I found it very entertaining.

I, Cringely . NerdTV | PBS

Technorati Tags: Media, Nerd, Computers, PBS

BeOS, which many audio engineers are familiar with due to its use with LCS (Level Control Systems), is back. A few years ago, BeOS sold all it’s assets to Palm, and Be disappeared. With the exception of a few enthusiast web sites like BeBits, and a couple of opens source builds of Be, there was no supported version of the OS. LCS has changed its OS requirements, and development path, and now supports builds of CueStation on OSX, WinXP and Linux (first RedHat, now SuSe).

BeOS was ahead of its time. I still have 2 machines that I use for LCS that run BeOS. They boot very fast, and run reliably.

There is a really good history of BeOS and a review of Zeta on ArsTechinca.

ZETA 1.0 by yellowTAB

This is from Mix Magazine. A little computer assembler named Musicxpc has created a recording workstation in a Shuttle XPC chassis.

I have a Shuttle XPC, although not from Musicxpc, and I love mine. While based on the published spec one could build one for a few hunderd dollars less than the retail price of the fully assembled machine, Musicxpc has a few items that add value. Most noteably the system recovery software. Some may not find this to be all that, but for the musician, who doesn’t want to be the IT department, it may be worth the premium.

MusicXPC Professional C3 and C4

M-Audio just released a control surface for use with GarageBand. It’s called the iControl and it looks pretty cool.

iControl gives you total tactile control over GarageBand. You get dedicated transport buttons and jog wheel, eight rotary encoders for track functions like volume or pan, or effects parameters in GarageBand’s EQ or any other AU plug-in. You also get dedicated mute, solo and record-enable buttons. Automatically recognized by GarageBand.

I don’t have a copy of GarageBand, but this caught my eye, as I am always interested in what companys are doing to interface the real world with the digital world.

In these days of digital production and digital audio consoles, and the plethora of other gadgets used in audio, interface design has become an even bigger project than it used to be. In the days of analog gear, the controls were all there because they were part of the electronic circuit. Some of the layout was “designed”, but some of it was the way it was because it had to be for the electronics to work correctly.

Now, designers of interfaces have a different set of choices to make. To take a conception of what is possible in the digital world and translate that to a useable, intelligent tactile control surface, can be maddening. Especially when a particular piece of equipment crosses between different markets and uses.

M-AUDIO:iControl

The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a paper on a proposed music licensing scheme that is very interesting. Basically it works in a manner similar to the method venues use to license music (perhaps through ASCAP or BMI). A flat fee which makes it’s way to the artists, writers and copyright holders of the material. It may, depending on contracts with record companies, partially cut record companies out of some revenue, but the creators get their due. It’s a shame that the record companies can’t seem to embrace the electronic distribution model, and truly take advantage of the massive distribution potential of the internet, including P2P.

EFF: A Better Way Forward: Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing

I don’t know why I found this intriguing, but I did. I think I have most of these around the house somewhere.

There all here, from Atari2600 to PS3 and everything in between. If you ever wondered about the evolution of the game controller, check out Sock Master’s Video Game Controller Family Tree

OK, I drive a little Mazda P5, which I love. I’m not really into moding my primary transportation, so the only upgrades I really have installed are a high performance air filter (look out) and window tint. (Which isn’t much of a upgrade, but more of a necessity in the desert).

I do, however, have the desire to listen to my MP3 player in the car, which is the stock radio for the Mazda Protege5. I tried using FM modulators, and they suck. I did know that the factory radio in my P5 has an “expansion bay” which allows one to purchase a cassette deck or MD deck that can be integrated into the form factor. Actually a cool idea. I had speculated that one could use this bay, and it’s associated connections to supply an Aux input for the unit. After searching periodically for information on connector type, pin-outs, or a how-to file somewhere in the internet, I came up empty handed many times. I mostly found postings on various fourms and discussion groups expressing the same problem.

Well, I think I finally found what I need to make the factory radio in my Protege5 work the way I want. As it turns out the radio in my 2002 P5 is virtually idetical to the units Mazda put in the Miata. Take a look at Stephen Fosketts collection of photos and pin-outs. The radio in my car is close to the 4262, and as it turns out, the differences are mearly cosmetic.

Heres the thing I had been looking for, the Pin-out and photo of the connector in the expansion bay.

Upon futher snooping, I also discovered that a little company called Sylfex is manufacturing a plug-in circuit board for expressly this purpose called AuxMod!!! It doesn’t appear that there are many avaliable, but the second generation stuff looks really cool, and may have the ability to interface with an iPod or CarPuter using the radios front panel interface. You can find pictures of the installation process and an installation guide in pdf format.

UPDATE 7-17-2005:

So I’m on the wait list for the SuperAuxMod. #1150. I’ll update again when I have one in my hot little hands.

Other Resources:

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Geek My Ride by Auri Rahimzadeh with a foreword by Steve Wozniak. Pretty interesting, and the car used in the book (although I don’t think it’s stated anywhere) appears to be a Mazda Protege5.

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Car Hacks and Mods for Dummies by David Vespremi.

Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones

I’m usually not a Bose fan, and one can get better headphones, but these are amazing. They have active noise canceling, which works better than other options I’ve heard. I bought a pair for a airplane ride I had to take recently. While the noise cancelling functions are impressive, I was most struck by the comfort of these headphones. Their design allows them to completely surround ones ears, so the headphone rests on ones head rather than on ones ears. I was able to wear them for 4 hours without any discomfort at all. They also come with a nice case, and a comprehensive set of airplane friendly adapters. The case is fitted to the headphones, but has enough space inside to carry my iPod as well.

Finally a useable iPod plug-in for Winamp. I installed it last night and we were off to the races. I haven’t used all the features yet, but it at least allows one to easily move songs onto, and more importantly, if you’ve purchased music from iTMS, off of the iPod and onto the computer. I really love the iPod, I think it’s the best portable MP3 player around. It’s a shame that iTunes is such a resource hog of a program. I had relegated iTunes to just one of my 8 computers, just so I could load up the iPod, but it seems there is no longer a need if I can use Winamp instead. Nice work guys. ml_iPod  Your iPod Just Became Useful