19 September 2013

you know, sometimes im not sure people understand how to communicate in this newer technological world.  especially those of us that are getting into middle age.  i suppose this is what our parents felt when we were trolling the BBS boards of the early World Wide Web.  it is so hard to remember a thought process over time, much less communicate it real time.  Yes, I'm talking about Instant Messaging, something started by the very BBS's i spoke about earlier, and brought to the layman user with the venerable AOL.  Todays version though is loaded with features only dreamed about twenty years ago, picture, video, and short audio exchanges as well as VOIP phone calling, group chatrooms where all sorts of intimate things are shared with a wide audience.  Gone are the days of writing out thank you letters for Christmas, or calling someone on the phone because thats the only way you could communicate....no, now its texting (sexting too), in a nearly pure virtual world.  by the next generation, im wondering whether physical contact will be necessary for conception.  "Demolition Man" with Sylvester Stalone actually predicts such a society and targets the year 2032....freaky?!?

i urge everyone towatch "Parental Guidance", a newer movie starring Bette Midler and Billy Crystal that touches on a broader range of similar changes that have taken place.  

11 September 2013

Certainly a day to reflect upon the tragedy that is now 12 years in the past.  Those that died upon U.S. soil in New York, Washington DC, and to the fated airliner that our countrymen managed to wrest control away from the terrorists.  Today also marks a few other days to remember personally.  My wife's mother's birthday, my own mother's birthday, and the day I met my current wife.  Yes, today seems to be a focal point in the space time continuum that is a recurring theme in my life.  It is not without some apprehension that I approach this day, one marked with so much significance.  Most certainly a day of reflection.

Ruminations

So, I'm watching "The Real Story" on the Smithsonian channel where they are detailing the story behind the Bruce Willis movie, "Live Free Or Die Hard."  As always, my curiosity is peaked for the truisms and sheer possibilities presented.  One question keeps running through my head though.  Why, in all my research, reading, and seeing shows, either fictional or reality, has the United States or it's citizens been portrayed as the victim of cybercrime?  Surely other nations are targets and face the same problems from cyber criminals as the U.S., but for whatever reason, these other nations get secondary billing.  I suppose if there were a story (fictional) about an American hacker attacking another nation, the impression would be far different.  Would the impression be the top nation being a bully?

New Hobby

So, my fingers are sore....but I'm not complaining.  I decided to take up a new hobby lately, that of learning the guitar.  I've had my eye on the RockSmith bundle package from Sam's Club which comes with the game, both cables, and a Les Paul Jr. electric guitar.  For $80.00, this is a steal, really!  Online reviews of the Les Paul are favorable, given it's a bargain basement beginners guitar, and the Jr designation is not because it's a smaller size, that's just to indicate the model, which is to say that it's a lesser, not as quality manufacture as the prime time Les Paul is.  You may notice that it does not include an amp, more on that later.

I got the package home, unwrapped it all, popped the disk in the PS3, and a half hour later, I was hooked.  I'm really a music person, as anyone who knows me can tell you, although I have not played an instrument in quite some time (about three decades, give or take a couple years).  When I got done though, it wasn't because I wanted to, it was because my fingers on the fretting hand were well on their way to developing a set of bruises, especially the index finger as the game does nothing in the way of finger placement on the strings, so I used that one predominantly.

The next day, I downloaded a few apps to the iPhone and iPad, mainly guitar tuners and chord databases, but I got curious about making my Apple devices into an amp.  Sure enough, a Google search got me to 90% of a solution, as there are plenty of apps as well as commercial cables out there to buy.  Well, the wife put the brakes on my spending much, so I decided to get creative.  A few more searches turned up a guy who described how to build a cable, and a free app for the Apple devices.  After scrutinizing the instructions, I went to the local Radio Shack and picked up the parts I didn't have lying around for only $10.00.  About an hour later, I had the "cable" constructed.  Take a look at the picture below:

Now you see why the word cable above is in quotes...my design was purposeful and meant to be small as well as not have a lot of cables lying around.  My engineers brain has already designed the next phase of the device, but I can't implement it yet.  I did run into a snag, that of the instructions on the internet failed to work the first time.  I enlisted the help of my father, who spent his career with a soldering iron in his hand working on electronics for communications.  Two added components and the next test was successful, although there are still a few minor bugs to work out.  Here are some other pictures, sorry for the blackout.

The idea here is the app provides the functions that an amplifier would normally have in the way of knobs and logic for distortion of the signal and simply takes the input from the guitar and outputs the product to the headphone jack.  In this diagram, I have my computer speaker cord plugged into the speaker jack, but if you have a pair of bluetooth headphones, you can essentially jam out to your own tunes without disturbing anyone.  Furthermore, you could connect to an external bluetooth speaker from the iPhone as well.  In the future, I plan to go completely wireless and plug a wireless transmitter to the guitar jack and a receiver to the input side of this converter box, which will allow me the freedom to move without tripping over wires!