Frank Ramblings » Uncategorized

Audio Blog: Google’s Gigabit Fiber Network

Frank — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:21:55 +0000

Memo.m4a (2425 KB)

My first foray into audio blogging covers Google’s announcement of their plans for a blindingly fast fiber optic network.

Posted via email from Dr. Frank Ramblings, Ph.D.’s posterous

Why I Want An iPad

Frank — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:10:11 +0000

via youtube.com

In my first video blog, I talk about the iPad and why I want one, despite the recent negativity.

Posted via web from Dr. Frank Ramblings, Ph.D.’s posterous

FMF Episode 36 – TornadoCast 2009

Frank — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:56:21 +0000

It’s finally here! Friend of the show Shannon joins Frank for this public service episode of FMF. We hope you will learn much from this totally serious and not at all tongue-in-cheek episode. If you like Tornados, Muppets, Terminators, Texas, or One Tree Hill, then this is the podcast for you!

Listen and Subscribe in iTunes!

Guest Appearances on Castlecast

Frank — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:42:15 +0000

Twice in the last three weeks, I’ve guest-hosted Castlecast, a podcast about ABC’s Castle (starring Nathan Fillion). I’ve been listening to the podcast since it started this summer, and I’ve really been enjoying it. John and Heidi do a great job recapping and discussing new episodes, delivering Castle-related news, and talking about spoilers for upcoming episodes. Heidi hasn’t been able to host the show lately (feel better, Heidi!), so John’s been asking his fellow podcasters to step in. I was on the podcast two weeks ago for Episode 9: Fool Me Once and again this week for Episode 11: Vampire Weekend. The most recent episode was a panel discussion featuring John, Crystal, Larissa, Nathaniel, and myself. I had a great time on Castlecast and I hope to be on it again some time. Thanks John and Heidi!

The Mighty Theater Organ

Frank — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:13:12 +0000

The Life Of Joe Chaminade by Bro. Robert Lahey, S. M.
Download now or listen on posterous

The Life of Joe Chaminade.mp3 (2912 KB)

Imagine a time when going to the movies was an all-day affair with no color picture and no sound. Doesn’t sound like much fun, right? You sat in the theater for 3 or 4 hours at a time, the movie was in black and white, and the actors were mute! Was there complete silence in the room while the movie played? No, not exactly. If you were at a cheap theater in a small town, someone would probably play a piano in the theater to provide a live soundtrack to the film. In a big, fancy theater in a large city, a live orchestra would accompany the movie. But in theaters across America, moviegoers enjoyed the sound of a live theater pipe organ, an instrument most people today have never even heard of.

So what’s the difference between a theater pipe organ and say, a modern church organ? Well for starters, many church organs today aren’t pipe organs. They’re electronic organs. They mimic the sound of a pipe organ, but they’re really hi-tech synthesizers with good amplification systems behind them. A traditional pipe organ uses the keyboard to trigger the blowing of air through pipes of varying sizes to create different tones. A good theater organ goes a step further and provides sound effects along with music. This is achieved with actual props that make familiar noises. At my high school, we were lucky enough to have a restored theater organ in the auditorium. That organ has drums, cymbals, whistles, bells, and even an authentic horn from a Ford Model T. The result is a novel and unparalleled moviegoing experience.

Today I actually visited the alma mater for a screening of the 1925 silent classic The Phantom of the Opera. The event was sponsored by the New York Theater Organ Society (NYTOS), a state-wide chapter of the American Theater Organ Society. Just as it would have in 1925, the program opened with a short comedy film. In this case, it was Laurel & Hardy’s “Habeas Corpus.” I’m a big fan of Laurel & Hardy, but I’d actually never seen any of their silent work. I’m happy to say it was as hysterical as any of their talkies. Then after a word from the organist, the feature presentation began.

I saw Phantom for the first time a few months ago, and I enjoyed the film quite a bit, but there’s nothing quite like live organ accompaniment. It was a unique experience indeed. I’ve been to a number of other NYTOS events, but this was by far the best. I was transported back to 1925. The music kept me totally in the moment. If you ever have a chance to experience a theater organ, absolutely do it. The wide array of available sounds makes a theater organ a one-man orchestra.

Even without the benefit of a film, a theater organ can tell a story in sound. Don’t believe me? Listen to the mp3 embedded in this post . I recorded it at my high school during a demonstration a few years back. I love it because it really shows how you can get the feel for a story from the music alone. Imagine adding a silent film into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a pretty awesome afternoon of entertainment!

Posted via email from Dr. Frank Ramblings, Ph.D.’s posterous

Official Beatle Widget

Frank — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:03:00 +0000

How could I resist posting something like this?

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

Frank — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Norweigan Wood (This Bird Has Flown) by Frank
Download now or listen on posterous

10 Norweigan Wood (This Bird Has Flo.mp3 (3906 KB)

Apparently my Across the Universe was met with something other than disgust, so upon request, I'll post some other covers I've done as well.

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My cover of "Across the Universe"

Frank — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Across The Universe by Frank
Download now or listen on posterous

02 Across the Universe.mp3 (4786 KB)

Inspired by the brand new Beatle remasters, here's a recording of Across the Universe that I did about 4 or 5 years ago.

Posted via email from Frank’s posterous

Social Networking: Just the Beginning

Frank — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:25:00 +0000

Lately, I’ve been all about social networks. As a self-proclaimed Twitter addict for close to a year now, I hear about lots of different sites each day from the many tech people I follow. Listening to tech podcasts — especially the shows on the Revision3 and TWiT networks — also ensures that I hear a lot about social networking sites. Whenever I hear of a new site, I usually make an account and try it out. Sometimes I’ll check back often, other times I’ll never look at it again.

One of the best social networks I’ve ever had the pleasure of using is FriendFeed. At first glance, this site looks an awful lot like Twitter. But it’s so much more than that. FriendFeed aggregates statuses, comments, messages, and posts from dozens and dozens of sites and puts them all in one place. By checking your FriendFeed profile, your friends can see updates from your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, GTalk, Digg, Delicious, Amazon, StumbleUpon, and Google Reader accounts, as well as many more. Plus, there’s RSS support, so you can share your latest blog or podcast entries as well. Plus, you can have all these entries published to your Twitter, so your friends there can stay up-to-date with your lifestream. Personally, I would prefer it if everyone on Twitter would move over to FriendFeed. For one thing, the site is much slicker and more useful. The page auto-updates instantly, so you never need to refresh it. Plus the site is much more stable. I’ve never known it to crash, while Twitter crashes on almost a daily basis. Finally, FriendFeed was just bought by Facebook (FaceFeed?) so hopefully more improvements will come.

A really neat site that I just joined a week or two ago is gdgt. I think gdgt is really interesting because of how different it is. Members browse or search the site for gadgets and gizmos that they currently own, used to own, or wish they owned. When you find something that falls into one of those 3 categories for you, you add it to the appropriate list. Your profile consists of those three lists, as well as any other information you choose to share. There are also forums, a news page, and a feed of recent member activity. I think gdgt is really pretty innovative because I’ve never seen a site quite like it, and I must admit there’s something almost addicting about looking for anything I own that might be considered a gadget and seeing if it’s listed. If a gadget isn’t listed, you can add an entry yourself, but there are still a limited number of categories because the site really is brand new. So far I’ve got 15 Haves, 15 Wants, 1 Had, and made 1 new contribution. Definitely check this one out.

There are also a ton of sites you can use to supplement Twitter. Twitter is my favorite social network by far. I’ve met hundreds of new people on Twitter, a handful of whom I consider close friends, even though we’ve never met in person. Some great sites that make use of Twitter include Dailybooth, TwitPic, and Blip.fm. Dailybooth is sort of a Twitter for self-portraits. Each day, users snap a photo of themselves and upload them. Links to these photos are sent out on their Twitter accounts, where their friends can view them and leave text or photo comments. It’s a fun project to try and take 1 picture of yourself every day while keeping it fresh and interesting. TwitPic also auto-tweets links of uploaded pictures, but it’s more of an all-purpose site. Use DailyBooth to take a self-portrait each day, but use TwitPic to share something funny, interesting, or just cool that can’t be described in 140 characters. Finally, Blip.fm indexes links to MP3s and YouTube videos of popular (and obscure) songs for your listening pleasure. It auto-tweets a link to each song as you listen to it so your followers can listen along with you.

Posterous, while not inherently a social network, has some very cool potential social networking applications. At its core, Posterous is a blogging service. But what sets it apart from other services is the fact that you post blog entries via email. In fact, you don’t even need to make an account to start using the service. All you need to do is send an email to their address, and the contents of that email will become your first blog post. The neat part is that if you send audio files as attachments, they will be uploaded to the server and a flash audio player will be generated. This allows for easy audio blogging and even podcasting. The social networking aspect of Posterous is that it allows you to auto-publish links to your entries on any number of social networking sites. This means that by sending a quick email, even on-the-go, you can share virtually any kind of content on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, or whatever other site you like, have all your friends and followers view it, and keep an archive of it all. How great is that?!

There are so many other sites I could list here, but I’ve already rambled quite a bit, so I’ll just end by saying that if you want to see my updates on all these sites and more, you can visit my Google Profile.

Disillusioned & Disappointed… But Not Really

Frank — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:13:00 +0000

This is going to seem stupid to many of you, but here goes anyway. When it comes to spelling and grammar, I have a pretty serious case of O.C.D. I’m not very forgiving of those errors, mostly because spelling and grammar come very naturally to me. I know if a sentence is grammatically correct or if a word is spelled properly just by reading or hearing it. It usually doesn’t take very much effort on my part. That’s why I was so surprised today when I read Green Lantern #45, written by the illustrious Geoff Johns, and ran across the following grammatical error from the mouth of Hal Jordan’s on-again, off-again love interest Carol Ferris:

“Hal and I broke up more times then he’s charged his ring.”

Maybe some of you don’t even see the error, but to me, “then” stands out like a sore thumb. So what’s the point of all this? I mentioned it in passing during a conversation with my friend Faith, and the following dialogue came out of it. I thought it was funny, so upon her suggestion, I’m posting it here. (Forgive our grammatical laziness, specifically the lack of capitalization. This was just a private instant message conversation.)

Me: I saw a spelling/grammar error in a comic today

Faith: no way!

Me: yeah. my previously unwavering faith in geoff johns was shaken.

Faith: oh no!

Me: it’ll take some time but I think we can patch things up

Faith: so sad

Faith: I know you two will make it work out

Faith: you’re made for each other

Me: I hope you’re right

Me: things have been so great until now

Me: I don’t want it to end so suddenly

Faith: it’s the first stutter in your relationship, give it time, things will go back to normal

Me: just because he used “then” when he clearly meant “than”

Faith: oh, that’s not as bad as I thought

Faith: it’s just one bad issue. It’ll go back to normal next time

Me: that shouldn’t get past the proofreader!!

Faith: see, that’s not him

Faith: that’s an external force

Me: but he wrote it in the first place!

Faith: honey, you’re arguing semantics in a one time situation

Faith: everyone slips up a bit

Me: this is sounding too much like a real almost-break-up so I’m going to stop before I seriously frighten myself