Archive for the ‘Feature’ Category

As a music aficionado, every once and a while you get a chance to hear something so unique and distinct that it raises the bar of what we conceive to be possible via electronic music. Such is the case with the new album by BT entitled These Hopeful Machines.

While it might be easy to mistake BT as a DJ based on his active touring and dance floor success from the mid-90’s, it is clear that BT’s talents rest not in spinning and mixing, but in creating audio tapestries that appeal to the listener in ways that are entirely unique. BT does this not only by creating new music, but by inventing new ways to present that music to the listener. He is, quite literally, our mad scientist of electronic music and his latest invention is worth adding to your collection.

These Hopeful Machines is likely to please a variety of music connoisseurs. You’ve got beats, catchy dance-floor lyrics with a hint of House appeal that will cater to the club DJs or spice up your work out. You’ve got kick-ass electronic blends intermixed with the dance tunes providing signature transitions and the BT patented stutter-edits. Combine that with sonic explorations and some trance-like haunting vocals on a few tracks and you’ve got an album full of win. In fact, it is a challenge to identify a bad track on this album.

Speaking of tracks, you’ll only find two on These Hopeful Machines as BT decided to release this album as continuous tracks entitled simply A Side and B Side. With this approach BT is demanding the listener’s attention and it is a testimony to his commitment to presenting the user with an holistic audio experience. The gamble works as the immersion experience pays dividends to the listener that would not have been present for all but the most disciplined. For those seeking dance floor mixes or versions of hit singles to put on their iPod for the morning commute or work-out mix, have no fear. Many of the songs are being released as singles including remixes by a who’s who of top DJs.

It is quite apparent that BT hears the world in a way that most of us are oblivious to and his ability to extract sounds and amplify them through his music is certainly a gift we should cherish. Therefore, we give this album the highest of ratings. In fact, the first person to buy this album and email us that they don’t like it – we’ll refund your money over PayPal.

These Hopeful Machines is available via Amazon and iTunes.

Wikileaks has started posting 24 hours worth of captured pager traffic from September 11, 2001. An interesting snapshot in time especially since the pager network was more reliable than voice cellular.

“From 3AM on Wednesday November 25, 2009, until 3AM the following day (US east coast time), WikiLeaks is releasing over half a million US national text pager intercepts. The intercepts cover a 24 hour period surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.” (WikiLeaks.org)

Following the publication of his 2005 book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweil has become known, above all, as a technology speculator whose predictions have polarised opinion – from stone-cold scepticism and splenetic disagreement to dedicated hero worship and admiration. It’s not just that he boldly envisions a tomorrow’s world where, for example, tiny robots will reverse the effects of pollution, artificial intelligence will far outstrip (and supplement) biological human intelligence, and humankind “will be able to live indefinitely without ageing”. No, the real reason Kurzweil has become such a magnet for blogospheric debate, and a tech-celebrity, is that he’s convinced those future predictions – and many more just as stunning – are imminent occurrences. They will all, he steadfastly maintains, happen before the middle of the 21st century.

—>Original Story

Can you honestly imagine making PDF files out of every web page that you view? His productivity must be severally impacted by this experiment.

For the past decade, Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell has been moving the data from his brain onto computers — where he knows it will be safe.
Gordon Bell wearing a SenseCam, which automatically records photos throughout the day.

Sure, you could say all of us do this to some extent. We save digital pictures from family events and keep tons of e-mail.

But Bell, who is 75 years old, takes the idea of digital memory to a sci-fi-esque extreme. He carries around video equipment, cameras and audio recorders to capture his conversations, commutes, trips and experiences. Microsoft is working on a SenseCam that would hang around a person’s neck and automatically capture every detail of life in photo form. Bell has given that a whirl. He also saves everything — from restaurant receipts (he take pictures of them) to correspondence, bills and medical records. He makes PDF files out of every Web page he views.

—> Original Story