Jeremey's Weblog

Logic

I started using Logic (Express) last night. The first hour was very frustrating, but once I "got it", it all clicked and I'm loving it. I did a complete (but preliminary) production of one of the songs I recorded at the Doin' the Stuff conference this summer in about 3-4 hours and it sounds pretty good. Once you grok how Logic uses "audio objects", it's a very smooth workflow. I easily brought in tracks recorded in Digital Performer (4), both mono and stereo, and Logic knew what to do with the split (L+R) stereo tracks. That was one of my biggest gripes with Live as a production environment.

I had the benefit of having some good Audio Unit plugins (EAS and Nomad Factory) which helped with the production, but I used Logic's PlatinumVerb to good effect (though I didn't like the presets, but in fairness I think they were designed to be run on a bus and not an insert), one of Logic's compressors, and I used its ChanEQ on every channel except the master (the EAS plugins are better suited for that).

Bouncing the master to disk was incredibly easy and flexible, too. I love it! Here's a screenshot:

Spotting Bad Security

The US and UK have absolutely lost all sense in their foaming-at-the-mouth "anti-terror" policies and systems. This general rule of thumb should be applied: if some "security" policy or system prevents or impedes some useful activity, then it's bad security. In other words, it isn't worth the tradeoff. That's probably not always true, but nearly, and it's a very good gauge to start with. Is it useful to drive cars? Is it useful to fly on airplanes? Is it useful to ride subways? If it is, then those activities should be unimpeded. If it isn't, they should be done away with entirely. Somehow I think all of those are useful.

Why is it that government is in the business of looking like it's doing something, and why does the electorate value that? Or is the electorate so incredibly disconnected and unaware that they don't care and they're just gonna vote for the guy who has the best opinion on abortion or gay rights or some other inflammatory but completely useless topic? I could turn this into a rant about politics in general, but I'll try not to. We elected these people. We should start holding them accountable. We should stop trading in freedom and everything this country is supposed to be for a few wisps of "security" that makes everyday life a pain but will never protect us from anything.

I don't want to live in a country or a world where I am protected from terrorists by government. That country, that world, will be the height of totalitarian oppression and would have our founding fathers rolling over in their graves.

Some recent instances of security stupidity:

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68973,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1575532,00.html

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/09/hurricane_secur.html

http://www.virginiadot.org/infoservice/news/newsrelease.asp?ID=HRO-04-24

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/07/shoot-to-kill.html

Very important post from Bruce Schneier about the TSA's "Secure Flight" system:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/09/secure_flight_n_1.html

The Consistent UI Look ... Myth?

I recently installed Iridium and I'm debating whether I like a homogenous, "consistent" UI look. Behavior is obviously a different story, consistent behavior across applications is pretty much a must. Apple gets that right most of the time. But should they all look identical? I'm wondering if some varienty in applications' look might actually be helpful in some way. Safari looks nice w/ Iridium, but I liked it before too. iChat benefits greatly, it looks amazing with the Unified look. Address Book too. But I'm not sure about iTunes.

In any case, the question remains... does it improve the user's experience and ability to operate the computer to have all the applications look the same. Or might that actually hinder the user? You could argue, theoretically, that some variation makes applications easier to identify when multi-tasking. The big brushed metal window is Safari, it's obvious. The big Unified window is Mail. The little brushed metal window is iChat. And so on. Is it beneficial to give the user the visual idea that he's doing a bunch of different tasks all offered by one system, or is it better to help him understand the difference between one application and another?

Here's a screenshot:

Rita vs. Our Palm Tree

Our palm, waving in the wind at various stages of Rita. Note that you may need to fetch the very latest Quicktime to view this, maybe even a beta if you're on Windows. This is MPEG-4 encoded using H.264.

Sunset With Rita

Rita vs. Sugar Land, Round Deux

So at 7:30am this morning, 12 hours after the call to leave if you can, Sugar Land called to say don't leave. I guess the window of "it's a good idea to leave" was very short in Sugar Land. Hmmm...

Rita vs. Sugar Land

I just thought it would be worth mentioning that Sugar Land was really lame in their handling of Hurricane Rita. Less than 24 hours before the storm, they decided to issue a statement that anyone with a place to go should go, which is entirely contrary to the advice being offered by everyone else at this point, and can only be construed as a "cover their butts" political tactic, just in case the storm hits us pretty hard. Ugh. There has been plenty of information available all week, if they thought people really ought to leave, they've had plenty of time to say so. Seems pretty pathetic to make that kind of a weak statement this late in the game.

Riding Out Rita

Well, we're gonna stay put for Rita. Hopefully it'll hit east of us enough that we won't get the brunt. I'm encouraged that our roof will hold even if we get a direct hit, we're good friends with the guy who installed it and he says it should be ok (modulo tornadoes). Hopefully I'll get some pictures of it all, too!

Tele

Good Security Essay

"The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security":

http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/