ArtistBlog.ME

I’m going to dedicate an entire section on my site about my encounters with technology. The good and the bad sides. I’ll discuss these throughout with my wits and perspective.

In some parts I’d already be dreaming of gadgets which are still not available on this planet. The current age has created us toys which can be as small as a phone, to the size of a cricket.

Still, I am amazed what this world spawns. From armored card machines to automatic vacuum cleaners. Still, with an expense. The software is often out-to-date, slow, not userfriendly or even insecure to use while sitting in that nice armored behemot.

Topics to be opened soon (with short introduction):

• Personal Computer Widescreen is the only way to go?You can’t walk over the street without seeing these fancy laptops with glossy screens. I can’t stand glossy but I must say this is rather a preference. Still, where are those normal LCD screens which are NOT widescreen? I have to buy a 22″ widescreen before I can use the normal resolution of a normal 20 inch screen!
• Computer systems a menace for the tactical audiophile?Lot’s of DJ’s prefer MP3’s and computer systems to mix. I don’t give a damn, these things don’t give any tactical feedback at all. Same for the production of music. Fruityloops, Cubase, Reason or good sequencer can be used for dance tracks. One small detail, you’re working on a screen without any buttons, unless you got your controller placed in front of you. Still, where’s the fun of having seperate devices and using them modular? Different outputs, controls, feedback and learning curve. Everything can be done in software but you’ll still be limited by that software. I’ve been working with software for over 10 years, abandoned it for real hardware and have been producing ever well since that change!
• Noisy slow computer-systems everywhere!Last time I was sitting at a desk I was terribly annoyed by the vacuum cleaner next to my ear. Not only this vacuum cleaner had an alternating noise, just like my PC has at home, but it was slow as freak too. Remarkable, like the PC at home too! I am missing that age of silent computing. The P3 and P4 were pretty stable in sound, why do these newer CPU’s have to immitate that 5$ vacuum cleaner you found at the pawn shop?
• Data storage, a window to a black age for the greedy?
  
  Data storage opened a portal to many ways. For audio and video it was the solution for high-definition productions. It opened an entire new door to distributed computing, bloated software and operating systems with the size you could yank “MOMMA?” at! It also opened a bad doorway to those who are greedy and out of empowering their wealth. Data collection happens at governmental level but in end 2000 also at corporation level. This data can be used and abused at any given time; for as long as it exists. Do you still feel safe with that innocent mail which became illegal 50 years later?
• Immortality at a price of knowledge.Want to be immortal? Too bad! You got to die! Still, you can be immortal in many ways. The information high-way has evolved to an entire incorporated society which can pass your soul for many ages! Immortality at the price of bandwidth. If you create content which is worthy surviving for eternity you should sure think about the Internet to do so!
• Updates & Windows still not the safest way to go!Those updates, together with one of the top-best virus-scanners are still not best. This month a hacker tried to access one of my XP systems while I was working on it. Stupid. This system was fully patched, fully firewalled with F-secure Internet Security. It didn’t help. After cleaning the system completely of any backdoors (and there were 3 installed!) I noticed another box popping up. A nice Courtesy Shell. This was time to reinstall this machine, put it on another IP, firewall it externally and honeynet this attacker. Bottom line of the story: Updates and firewalls installed on machine level are not always as safe as you think!
• Defective public transportation automation.In Belgium we got these armored machines, running under a very cheap system which provides tickets to use the public transportation. It’s a nice system when it’s broken for sure! If only these tram-drivers would have the guts to price for the normal price when it’s broken!
• Cards everywhere! Do I need a new wallet?A card for these 2 shops I go to and one for the bakery where I buy croissants at, two to get a pizza at the corner, one for these office supplies, credit card, SIS card and I’m for sure not ending here. These cards often are not fully understood in policy…
• Windows Vista, is bloat really necessary?Windows Vista, the new flagship of Microsoft is not really more than an upgraded XP, with new screen/presentation enhancements, much slower and uses lots more memory. Together with the vacuum cleaner mentioned before.. Great! I knew there was a reason to live!
• Lots more …

Yesterday I went to the local electronics store where stuff gets sold for audio, video, oscilloscopes, multimeters, solder, crocodile clamps and lots more…

I needed to make a cable for the Fluke CableIQ qualification tester to check pin by pin; since this cable was not in stock at the dealer and it would probably cost 100x more anyways. I went in the store in a hurry, got the equipment with me and we had the following dialog:

[me] Hi, I see you got fluke in your etalage, do you sell these testleads?
[shopkeeper] No I’m afraid we don’t have these.
[me] do you got any test leads which I can use to make a cable for this device here? <while taking out manual>
[shopkeeper] I don’t got any separate leads.
[me] Do you got any colored crocodile clamps? I want to be able to make this cable, I already got the connector to go to the device but I’d like a nicer solution for the ending leads
[shopkeeper] Let me see what I got
… <after a time> …
[shopkeeper] I got these crocodile clamps, but only in red and black.
[me] That’s better than nothing, how many of these you got? I’d like to have 5 of each.
<to be sure because these things do break around the plastic too>
… <after a time> …
[shopkeeper] I got 5 of these and 4 of these.
… <In the whiletime an older man with a beard comes in> …
[me] Where is the time when you had these in colored?
[shopkeeper] That time is already gone for long, it’s not being sold anymore…
[me] But you do still sell soldering irons I hope
[shopkeeper] No, as a matter of fact even Dynatek is stopping with multimeters. Soldering irons do not get sold anymore, everything is getting micro-smd etc..
[me] Where is the time when we learned about these things, using resistors, capacitators, making stuff?
[shopkeeper] Now they learn to draw in schools, but most of the electronic parts we have abandoned because it does not sell anymore.
[me] That’s bad, we with the soldering irons are getting extinct, so everyone just throws everything away??
[shopkeeper] Basically yes, most stuff cannot be repaired or gets swapped with modules.
[me] Do you still got those packages with many 5 or 10 testleads in one?
[shopkeeper] Yes let me see.
[guy with beard] The challenge seems to be gone for most around us, it’s sad, although not everything is new and small and smd
[shopkeeper] I have these?
[me] <while looking> yes, these are a lot better and are which I search for, I want two packages of these.
[shopkeeper] that will me 8 euro 70 cents together please.
… <taking my money and paying< …
[guy with beard] Also a package of test leads please and pays up

Moral of story ..
Do we need to throw everything away when it still can be fixed just for the sake of having the newest model or type on our desk?

This short piece is dedicated to my wondering and pondering about a trend called voting. A lot of profile databases on the net have voting, if you see to television you see people voted out of a game (eg Bigbrother)…

Did the society change that much everybody needs to have a number put on the head? Where is all that self-confidence by nature?

The television has changed also a lot … Whereof we heard complaining from the USA about violence and sensation we are seeing it here in Europe on the tube. Everything is more-commercial than ever and sensation is in baby! Today we have sensation like Cops-and-Robbers, Judge Judy, psychological games with people (somewhat like a ratrace in a maze) like Big Brother and all derivates, ….

It’s already a few years the world is changing … I can be optimistic or pessimistic as I want but it seems to be a few years now that crime is getting high-rates, war, nukes, alcohol, sex(lines and their stupid commercials), drug, sensation and psychological f*cking is the topic-du-jour.

Think what you want .. and if you want to write your toughts down you can do it down here!