Birmingham, UK had one of the most vibrant record shop scenes in the country
During the 70s and 80s, Birmingham became a Mecca for record stores. You could find almost anything, and what you couldn't find someone could import it for you,
This list of 30 stores in the city brings me find memories of how I used to take the bus every Saturday from my town to Birmingham, for £3.50 return:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/nostalgia/nostalgia-30-birmingham-record-shops-7607715
I'd leave on an early bus, the take the last bus home, spending all day at my favourite store that is strangely not on this list — Don Christie’s. It was THE place to get the best Dub, Reggae and Hip Hop imports of the time.
The base was so loud, the shop windows vibrated almost to breaking point. Warnings were posted to ensure you closed the door when entering the store. What great times I had.
5 November 2019 — French West Indies
Intentions to realisations
In trying out this idea to write and publish something everyday for a month, I inevitably had a look at some of the ideas I've had for articles, blog posts and my newsletter.
There's a lot of stuff there. A lot of ideas, most of whom will remain that way for good reason,
And that is what this is all about, practicing and practicing some more, to help me turn my intentions to realisations. Something tangible, something interesting or — who knows — something brilliant.
4 November 2019 — French West Indies
Every device
Every device with a non-user replaceable battery should be available on a subscription bases, with manufacturers and distributers bound to recover and recycle.
This would allow the insatiable desire for consumerism, and allow sales to continue to grow, whilst preserving as much as possible the environment.
Sure, some would game the system and some would ignore the incentives by dumping products, I suspect, however, that the numbers would be substantially reduced over time.
3 November 2019 — French West Indies
Only day two
It’s only day two into my self-imposed folly of NaBloPoMo, and it is already difficult to find something to write about that is worth publishing.
I like writing, I like blogging too, but barfing out whatever in my head just isn’t what I’m wired to do.
I’ll keep it up though. If nothing else just to prove I can. Who knows, perhaps something of worth might come out if the experience.
2 November 2019 — French West Indies
NaBloPoMo
Every November a writing challenge is started, NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write every day for the 30 days of November to complete a novel, hence the name — National Novel Writing Month.
I’m not a novelist, but I do write and write quite a lot. Some of it is personal and private in my journal, and some is published on my newsletter. A lot just gets written and nothing much done to it.
I thought I might take on the challenge, but in my own way, by writing and publishing on this blog every day for the 30 days of November.
29 days to go.
1 November 2019 — French West Indies
Quick takes
I’m always surprised how many pundits and commentators publish comments on as yet unreleased or unavailable products.
Today is a great example, Apple announces AirPods Pro and those that should know better are already predicting that they fall out of ears, have bad battery life or are otherwise the best thing since the end of the Second World War.
First post in comments. Oh dear.
28 October 2019, F.W.I
The Joy of Tech comic... Zuck, the Champion of Free Speech!
Zuck, the Champion of Free Speech?
A better perspective:
The BBC killed the paragraph
Is it just me?
Am I alone?
The only one that thinks that the way the BBC writes it's articles is awful to read?
They have taken to writing one sentence per paragraph.
Perhaps to break up the text.
But it makes it more difficult to read.
And mentally, the associated parts of the text that should be in one paragraph, are disconnected.
Making your brain work harder to rejoin what's related.
I do hope they stop doing it.
It's distracting and frankly l, looks awful too.
My opinion.
14 October 2019 — French West Indies
Book recommendation
I really do think you should take the time to read this book.
I get to the heart of why seemingly innocuous encounters can turn into tragic events. It additionally makes you think about yourself and the encounters you have with those strayers around you.
20 September 2019 — French West Indies
Feeling better by effort
I can’t quite put my finger on when exactly I decided to do it, but after more than a month I feel a lot better. Better physically, but better physiologically.
I’ve been manipulating my life to fit in a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day, logging it using my (don’t laugh) 2nd Gen Apple Watch. I’ve had the watch for a few years now and I still wear it every day. I have a quick vacation at a hotel that was sports oriented — not in the Sports Bar way — and I’ve continued the regime up daily since.
I’m about to get my bag together, so I can run/walk tonight for 45 mins or so. It sounds cliché and it is in away, but the motivation tools in the Apple Watch do help. I’m not an overly competitive person and motivating me is a lesson patience, but once I get going I tend not to stop easily.
Real-world results are being noticed. I walk faster and longer for the same time, I ride my bike harder and for longer, my HRV is increasing and I just feel, like I said — better.
New Series 5 Apple Watch for me as soon as I can get one (it’s not easy where I live).
12 September 2019 — French West Indies
Sunday Mornings
Sunday mornings is my time. I wake up early, usually around 5am, so that I can have a coffee and prepare my things for a morning ride. I’m a (Sunday) cyclist and have been cycling for many years. It’s a ritual that is not only good for physical health —I have a resting heart rate of someone may years younger— but it is very good for the mind too.
Some Sundays I’m rewarded with the most beautiful scenery. This morning was no exception. Taken at the foot of the volcano, you can’t help but enjoy the site and simultaneously awe at the potential power.
8 September 2019, F.W.I
Missed opportunity
On the horizon this morning, a beautiful scene of rising Cumulus clouds being lit by the warm sunrise. I couldn’t take a photo. I tried, but I couldn’t, because of a technical problem.
No. Battery.
My DSLR’s battery had died overnight, apparently from my stupidity. Not switching it off and placing screen down with the lens pointing up, pressed buttons that eventually ran the battery down.
Reaching for my iPhone to take the photo only resulted in disappointment. So much so, I dare not share the image here.
Maybe tomorrow morning.
6 September 2019 — French West Indies
(Un)LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great resource for professional use. Links to colleagues (if you’re working in an international company), articles and insights in your domain of work and of course the potential of career advancement.
However, lately I’ve noticed that the platform has started to become filled with inane postings and uselessness posing as wisdom. I’ve even seen conspiracy theories being propagated, and of course, the inevitable cancer of junk advertising.
I don’t have an answer to the problem currently, but scaling back use seems to be a rational decision.
Social Media poisons everything seems apt in 2019.
5 September 2019 — French West Indies
West Indian September Sunset
One of the most beautiful periods in the year, September, gives us stunning sunsets almost daily, like tonight’s you can see above.
But we know that a storm is often around the corner and that September is the most deadly period of the hurricane season, that runs from June 1st through to the end of November.
3 September 2019 — French West Indies
Dorian
The scenes coming out of the Bahamas are just heartbreaking. I fear we haven’t seen the worst yet. What used to be the airport looks like the Atlantic Ocean, reports of a storm surge of around 20 feet (6 metres) affecting some areas, it’s just apocalyptic.
My heart goes out to those impacted.
2 September 2019 — French West Indies
A love letter to RSS
You may be wondering what RSS is, however, if you listen to podcasts regularly then you’re using it every time your app renews the list and downloads new episodes for you to listen to.
RSS is the unsung hero of the Internet and is getting bigger and bigger, largely thanks to the podcasting boom. But it has another usage, one that it was originally intended for that has a knock-on consequence that might just save your sanity. The original intent was to simplify the discovery and reading of news articles from popular websites.
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, allows websites, like this blog to publish some basic information to a feed that a reading application will update on a regular schedule. Once updated the user can simply browse the articles and blog posts either online or off. You “subscribe” to the feed and its free. And with that, you have an ever-updating list of things to read.
If you’re more Social Network inclined and are dealing with the problem of drinking sewage from the firehose — let’s not fool ourselves, that’s what most of Twitter and Facebook is —, switching to a curated RSS feed will bring a breath of fresh air to your internet experience.
As an added bonus, the RSS is clean. What I mean by that, is that there is no corporate spying technology builtin to RSS, which explains why the Facebooks and Twitters have shunned it, because they can’t track your usage.
Try it out for yourself, its easy and you’ll feel better for it. Why not start with a newly released bit of software, NetNewsWire, it’ll make you love the open web again.
I’m glad I never left RSS and I’m glad for applications like this. Thank you.
1 September 2019 — French West Indies
La rentrée
Here in the French West Indies, next week is La Rentrée, or Back to School. It’s a big deal not just for the kids, but also it’s a marker in the year that signifies starting a new year and turning a page. It neither aligns with the financial year, not the calendar year. But it is important in its own right.
I’ve decided to do my own “Rentrée” and I’ve removed all the old content, spruced up the look and feel and decided the use of this blog would be for more personal endeavours. Thoughts, links, ideas and general writing.
I have multiple blogs over the years with nothin really sticking. I started a newsletter that is starting to get traction and this serves as one of my creative outlets, but I have more inside. I’ve always been attracted to writing, I’ve even had articles published in long-dead magazines, but I’ve never really pursued it as a career or primary occupation.
This blog will hopefully help me do just that.
I’m promising nothing, but I hope that what I publish may be interesting and worth your time. I respect that you have millions of blogs to choose from and I’ll ensure I don’t forget that.
One last thing.
I have another creative endeavour in photography. I’m not very good at it, but now and again I capture a nice image or two. My photos used to be heavily sports oriented, but nowadays I seem to be taking a lot of sunset pictures. The sun setting never fails to amaze me. A giant ball of fire, up there, just hanging around, burning itself out, and it produces such amazing scenes of beauty.
Bonne journée.
31 August 2019 — French West Indies
Opinion : Google and MasterCard are not being entirely truthful I suspect
Opinion : Google and MasterCard are not being entirely truthful I suspect
We learnt recently via a The Verge articlethat Google and MasterCard had an agreement whereby all purchases using their cards would be sent to Google.
When an organisation does this kind of transaction it’s precisely because it feels there is value in the data. As we’re all aware, Google places importance on “personal” data in just about everything it does, going as far as tracking location despite users explicitly setting their phone to prevent such tracking, see this articlein The Guardian. MasterCard says this data is anonymous and by extension not personally identifiable [or useful]. If this was totally true, the data’s intrinsic value would be reduced to be virtually worthless. Which begs the question, why doesn’t Google want it so bad ? I call BS.
What many do not know, and what Google and MasterCard are hoping that you don’t either, is that much of this data can be de-anonymized using techniques that are well within the realms of Google. Take a look how a couple of researchers were able to successfully de-anonymize data from Netflix during a competition hosted by Netflix called the Netflix Prize — https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0610105
How come ? De-anonymized data doesn’t live in a vacuum, it lives in a world flowing — no gushing — with data surrounding it. The more there is, the more likely it is that de-anonymizing may turn up clues to help break the code and re-attach personally identifiable data back to what appears on the surface to be garbled junk. I suspect that Google pays handsomely for this data because it ‘knows’ it can re-attach information to its users giving it even greater shadow surveillance over its users.
They may not be doing this for nefarious reasons, sure, but this is certainly not buying a bunch of random data from a friend to fill an empty database in the datacenter. So, Google, MasterCard, stop treating us like fools and be more respectful with our information because at some point you will go too far and the results of which you’re unlikely to enjoy, most likely painful regulation by authorities tired of your fast and loose treatment of humans.
And that’s the point, there are real humans affected behind this, not just bots, serial numbers or tables in an SQL database.
Photo by Chris Ried on Unsplash
Music to my ears
Music to my ears
Depuis mon blog : Minus453F
De temps en temps je m’éloigne de la routine quotidienne pour réfléchir de toute et de n’importe quoi. C’est une exercice très difficile dans les temps modernes, quand on est connecté à l’internet (Facebook, Twitter, RSS etc.) occupé par le quotidien, la maison, le travail, les enfants. Une liste sans fin.
Je fait avec un outil génial, même magique. Un outil capable de me transporter dans un autre monde, dans un autre état d’esprit. Un outil universellement disponible, accessible à tous. Un outil, que pratiquement toute le monde s’en servent à un moment donné dans leur vie. Par fois, complètement inconscient de son implication — la musique.
J’adore la musique. Depuis, pratiquement que j’ai de la mémoire permanent (3/4 ans ?), je me rappel d’être totalement séduite par la musique. Ma mère écouté la radio, « les 8 track » ou des 12” en vinyl. Habitants d’un quartier populaire, des amis divers m’ont fait écouter différents styles de musique. C’était très enrichissant, pratiquement magique, une chance.
Déconnecter
Retour au présent. Pour déconnecter de la quotidienne, j’ai remarqué qu’il faut se battre contre trois obstacles ; la difficulté inhérente de l’exercise (notre attention est attiré en permanence), le sentiment de culpabilité d’avoir désisté des responsabilités quotidiens (la ménage, le jardin etc.), et l’envie de décompresser et relaxer, toute simplement (on n’as pas toujours envie).
La déconnexion est un exercise très difficile à réaliser. C’est parmi les principaux raisons pourquoi ceux qui médite n’arrive pas au bout de leur méditation sans décrocher. La patience, la volonté et du temps doit être à votre disposition pour le faire. Se sont les ressources peu disponibles aujourd’hui.
Par contre, nous avons une arme en notre assistance, très développé et très puissant pour nos aider arriver vers la déconnexion, nos oreilles.
L’Oreille est une merveille technologique, sans parallèle. Mais, comme tous les outils, il faut apprendre comment les utiliser pour mieux apprécier. L’oreille de l’humaine est extraordinairement capable et parfaitement conçue pour écouter la musique.
Le son
Un petit rappel de la matière scientifique — sans rentrer dans trop de détail — est important pour savoir comment l’oreille fonctionne véritablement. Il faut savoir ce que c’est le ‘son’.
La définition de Wikipedia « Le son est une vibration mécanique d’un fluide, qui se propage sous forme d’ondes longitudinales grâce à la déformation élastique de ce fluide ».
En simplifiant, le son se manifest par les ondes qui vibre dans l’air. Au vibrations plus vite, le son deviens plus aiguille et l’inverse au vibrations moins vite — le son est plus bas. On appel les différentes vitesses de vibration, la fréquence. Nous avons formulé les measurements pour simplifier l’utilisation dans le domaine de comprehension et utilisation ; on l’à appelé Hertz (notation Hz), après Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Pour référence, un vibration par second égal 1Hz, un son très bas qu’aucune humaine est capable d’entendre.
En gros et ce qu’il faut retenir c’est que, l’oreille est capable d’entendre des fréquences relativement bas — au tour de 30Hz — et très haute — environ 19KHz (K = milliers). Pour référence, un très bas grave dans un morceaux sera autour de 40Hz. Dans les conditions de laboratoire, certains sont capables d’entendre jusqu’à 12Hz à 28KHz ! Nous possédons pratiquement tous les informations nécessaires à mieux écouter la musique.
Petite parenthèse intéressant, dans l’espace il n’y a pas de son. On entend rien. C’est du vide, un vacuum, et du coup, il n’y a pas de l’air à vibrer pour produire le son.
La musique se compose de plusieurs éléments à des fréquences différentes qui rendre le son intéressant à nos oreilles. Ce n’est pas n’importe quel mélange de fréquences qui marche, par contre. Certains combinaisons de fréquences sont très désagréable à entendre. Quand les fréquences ne sont pas alignés ou les combinaisons sont bizarres on interprète le son un peu comme un mauvais goût. C’est étrange, c’est dérangeant.
Ecouter
Pour être capable à déconnecter, il faut apprendre écouter la musique. Vraiment écouter, pas entendre!
Il ya des techniques très simple qui peut transformer votre appreciation de la musique. Pas besoin d’être audiophile, ni dépenser la somme d’une maison sur l’hi-fi — c’est possible. Certes, il faut quand même un minimum. Au moins un pair d’écouteurs ou casque de qualité raisonnable. Quelque chose autours d’un centaine d’euros suffira largement. L’investissement, meme à ce niveau, donnent un résultat très intéressant.
Ce que j’aime avec les casques, est la connexion direct avec cerveau et — subjectivement — le corps entier. Écouter un morceau que j’aime avec un casque de qualité vaut vraiment le coup.
Comment écouter alors ?
Première chose, il vaut mieux être assis confortablement dans une pièce calme, éventuellement sombre en luminosité. Le but est de créer un environnement sans distractions pour que le cerveau puisse concentrer uniquement sur la musique. En suite, choisir bien la musique que vous voulez écoutez — personnellement j’ai créé des playlists. J’utilise Apple Music (et iTunes), mais n’importe quelle service de musique en ligne ou application de bibliothèque musique va faire le nécessaire.
Ecoute
Confortablement installé, avec la musique prête, il est le temps de commencer à écouter.
Fermez vos yeux, appuyer sur “Play”. Écoute d’abord de façon globale la musique. Après quelques seconds essayez d’identifier une instrument ou une voix qui vous touche particulièrement. Le suivre pour plusieurs seconds et focalisez sur un autre pour changer. Continuez comme ça en faisant une rotation entre les instruments et voix pour bien identifiez et distinguez la composition de son présenté à vos oreilles. J’aime imaginer la scene de concert ou le studio d’enregistrement, je place les personnes et leurs instruments physiquement dans l’espace virtuelle que le cerveau a imaginé. Laisse votre cerveau balade dans le groupe, instrument par instrument,
Touché
Comme pour tous les choses, il n’est pas simple le première fois, mais en pratiquant ça devient de plus en plus facile et les bénéfices se manifestent de plus en plus. Après une séance de relaxation par la musique je vois, souvent, les choses plus claires. Ca m’aide à voir mieux les jours qui viennent.
La récompense d’avoir écouté la musique dans ces conditions — la musique vraiment touchante — avec la concentration que ça mérite, c’est incroyable ! Certains morceaux peuvent vous touchez profondément, que vous pleureriez.
Image : FreeImages.com/Matthias Stelzi http://www.freeimages.com/photo/music-2-1258712