Recent media reports have suggested that individuals involved in the clean up operation have been prohibited from speaking to the media and this is simply untrue. BP has not and will not prevent anyone working in the clean up operation from sharing his or her own experiences or opinions.

- Doug Suttles, BP CEO

This is what they do:

And once again a corporation says one thing and means another. Nothing in the CEO’s statement says that they won’t stop the media from talking to workers, they simply say they will not stop workers from talking to the media.

I’d like to see the smirk on the PR thug’s face right now.

It is a Linux program called Lilypond. The craziest part about getting used to it is that you input the music in a text file, then run the program and it generates it. I plugged in one of my counterpoint examples I did from a class awhile ago.

The input file looks like this:

#(set-default-paper-size "letter")
\version "2.12.2"
\header {
title = "Holst"
composer = "Jesse Talbot"
tagline = ""
}
info = {
\key ees \major
\time 3/4
\partial 4
}
soprano = \relative c' {\info \clef treble ees4 f2 c'4 bes2 g4 ees f2 d bes4 c2 d4 g f2 aes4 g bes aes c bes ees d2 ees2. }
alto = \relative c' {\info \clef treble bes4 bes2 c8 d ees2 d4 c c2 bes g4 g2 bes4 c c2 c4 bes2 c ees4 aes f2 g2. }
tenor = \relative c {\info \clef bass ees4 d ees f g aes bes8 aes g4 aes g f2 ees4 ees f g ees aes g f d2 ees g4 c bes2 bes2. }
bass = \relative c {\info \clef bass g8 aes bes2 aes4 ees2 g4 c aes2 bes8[ aes] g[ f] ees4 c' bes8 aes g4 c f,2 f4 g2 aes ees'4 aes, bes8[ aes] g[ f] ees2. }
top = {\new Staff < <{ \soprano \bar "|."} \\ {\alto \bar "|."} >> }
bottom = {\new Staff < < {\tenor \bar "|."} \\ {\bass \bar "|."} >> }
\new GrandStaff < < \top \bottom >>


When that is entered into the program this is what I get.

It can also generate midi files, pretty much rendering the need for me to buy any notation software completely moot. Which now means I no longer need Windows.

If you are a musician I highly recommend Ubuntu Studio. It is a version of Ubuntu that comes pre-installed with a lot of software aimed at musicians. Sure it takes a little bit of getting used to, but it is all open source software. No company is going to shove their propriatery rights down your throat, and it doesn’t cost anything.

Alarm Clock Music by Alex Burgess & Jesse Talbot

Their solution?

One possible strategy for the future, Dorritie suggests (via a history lesson), is for each corps to find a way to work with, and not against, the sound characteristics of Lucas Oil Stadium.

I have an idea: how about we hold finals in a stadium that works with, and not against, the music that the corps are performing? DCI had the option to bail after a year, and considering the difference between 2008 and 2009, I think the logical solution is to hold finals in Bloomington, or resume having finals in different venues every year.

When DCI first began talking about Lucas Oil they marketed it as a venue that was being designed with acoustics in mind. That was obviously a lie. Their new approach is to now pretend like that responsibility is that of the design staff of each corps. While any smart corps will tweak their approach to the finals stadium to maximize the recordings, what will we gain from asking show designs to cater to indoor design? 98% of the season is not at finals.

When I watch a drum corps show, I want there to be clarity in the sound. Specifically, I want to hear the same notes that the performers are themselves producing, not a mix of what they are playing and what they played 2 seconds ago. If the stadium hinders that, especially the stadium for finals, why should I continue to spend a large amount of money to travel and attend it, especially if the activity is strapped down there for a decade?

When you’re right, you don’t have to compromise. Compromise is for people that are wrong.

The biggest threat to our nation are the uninformed that think they have an opinion. I would love to hear actual policies that Sarah Palin actually knows about and can consistently speak to, and I would love to hear educated opinions from her supporters.

I feel that Tyler’s death was completely pointless and preventable. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

The information I can gather is that a police officer who was not in uniform did not specify he was actually law enforcement until after he fired several shots. What happened next is irrelevant, anyone would go on the defense if some random guy approached and was behaving like that. I think it is apparent that the officer could have handled that situation completely differently, but because of his carelessness, a life has been lost. Hindsight may be 20/20, but foresight shouldn’t be legally blind.

According to WCCO the family is considering filing civil charges against Waldron.

I have simply had it with the lackadaisical approach towards ethics in law enforcement.

Did you know it is illegal for a police officer to exceed the speed limit in the state of Minnesota unless they have a siren or red light on? I see Minnesota State Troopers speeding down I-94 between Hudson and Woodbury all the time. It wasn’t until I laid on the horn at a trooper speeding by me that he turned his lights on. What a great example of hypocrisy.

His destination? The median in the middle of the road so he could set up a speed trap. I wish I had that one on film, I would have reported a crime of him speeding. But his immune ass probably wouldn’t have gotten a ticket.

And then there is officer Todd Lappegaard, who tasered Rolando Ruiz for not resisting. At least in this case the FBI is reviewing it, but this officer still has a job doing desk work. Oh yeah, his carelessness is what lead to an innocent jogger dying on the scene because he smashed a fleeing SUV right at him in 2002. I guess we should be reassured he has a desk job now. I could be terminated for significantly less at my job…

Some cops seem to have the ability to do whatever they want because they are abusing their legal authority. Unfortunately, these are the bad apples that spoil the bunch by creating an environment of distrust towards the majority of law enforcement officers that do have ethics.

Thank you for your interest in the Move Media player. We do not currently offer
support for any distribution of the Linux kernel. Supported operating systems
include Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X 10.4+.

We hope to offer a Linux-supported version of the Move Media Player at a future date.

Grain of salt anyone?

Haven’t heard anything from NBC.

One question that has been nagging on my mind for awhile is if competition is no longer viable or is reaching the limits for what it does for business. You have Wal-mart who is hell-bent on offering the lowest prices on absolutely everything. Then other businesses need to lower their prices in turn to stay competetive, and often they don’t have the sheer purchasing power that Wal-mart does.

What happens next? The business loses profit margin, or they lose sales to Wal-mart. Either one of those means cutting costs from their bottom line, usually meaning employee benefits, cost-of-living increases, or going out of business completely. Then, you have displaced or under-compensated workers in an environment where jobs, especially well-paying jobs, are hard to come by. They can afford usually less, so they go where the prices are cheap: Wal-mart!

I’m using Wal-mart as an example, but competition has pushed the profit margins of businesses to mere slivers, and some lose out completely. We then lose a large deal of potential competitors, meaning the survival of the so-called fittest, who then move closer to having a monopoly over the situation.

It’s a vicious cycle that I don’t see ending soon.

FOX and NBC both don’t support Ubuntu as of yet, so that means booting into Windows for The Office, The Simpsons and Family Guy. My roommates and I decided that we were just going to get internet and no acutal cable to save money. You can catch 90% of everything on the network’s websites, so I just hook my old Windows PC up to my TV and sound system, and we’ve got a poor-man’s cable box. I’m going to send emails to both of them to see if they have any plans to work with Ubuntu.

The giant nail on the coffin is music notation. By far. There are some great Linux music programs in development, but nothing feels complete and ready for real use.

However, I did find a free program called Solfege for ear training, which is very complete and thorough. I am looking forward to using that as I get ready for grad school.

I’ve decided that I want to switch to Linux permanently, so about a week ago I installed Ubuntu on a dual-boot with Windows XP. I would like to be able to get rid of Windows completely, but there a few things I still need it for that aren’t supported in Linux. I have an iPhone so i need iTunes, Netflix instant watch doesn’t work in Linux at all yet (boo…), and neither does NBC.com for episodes of The Office.

There is the option of installing Virtualbox so I can run Windows XP inside of Ubuntu. I plan to do this eventually for iTunes, however I haven’t had any luck with video working out from inside a virtual machine. I think it is simply the age of my laptop I’ve had for 4 years. Once Netflix and NBC get their act together, I will get rid of the dual-boot completely and go just with Ubuntu.

The main kinds of software I need are music notation, recording, video & photo editing. The best part is the standard of open-source software, and that I have several different options, all which are free and usually easy to install.

I am going to be outlining the software I find that I think deserves a mention and detailing how to get a few other things done as well.