Suppose you were offered to take part in a fake discovery of the New Testament literature. A whole team of experts has gathered together and has told you that they already have a site in Egypt where the purported discovery would take place, that they already have fake parchments and ink that have zero chance of being detected as anything other than genuine, and that they have several linguists and experts in old tongues ready to convey whatever text into proper old script and style; in fact, the handful of pros that could derail the falsification, are already in the know and very willing and able to go along. They only need you to come up with the text.What would you write?
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
De-essing part 5: software
There is one final solution that can potentially solve all your problems when trying to de-ess a LP: going digital.
Digitizing your music from analog is not only the way to go for archival purposes on the cheap, but it also allows you to tweak with the resulting data in literally, hundreds of ways. A free, or very low-cost program can reduce or eliminate hisses and scratchings and can be very good with dealing with the constant noise wave.
The program I have been using for years is the Magix Audio Cleaning Lab. Apparently, they have dropped the version number so the latest one is labeled MX. My old version 11 works so well that I have not seen the need to update it. Broadly speaking, the program lets you import your music from various sources, including your turntable, process it, and save it or export it into different file formats or optical media. The processing stage is the meatiest one and it can automatically analyze the data for a recommended set of adjustments; alternatively, if you're so inclined, you can choose from many presets or fiddle with the various processing tools as you would with rack hardware. Generally the results are very good. Not all offending sounds can be eliminated, but close enough.

Tonmann performed best out of the free tools. There are surely some other paid plug-ins out there.
So, is this the way to go? If you don't care whether your music is analog or digital, then getting this kind of software and using it concurrently with other solutions, such as the ones we have already discussed, will solve most of your problems. If you do care about keeping your LP music analog, using software is not an option for regular listening.
More on de-essing:
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Chess Endgames by Polgar review: Endgames 2

Endgames is an absolutely beautiful book. Hardcover, sewn spine, attractive dust jacket, cream-colored pages and so on. I even like the smell. Like its siblings, it has six diagrams per page and encourages solving.
It is also very large and heavy book, weighing over 3 pounds and that's its downfall. If you only want it to ogle over it, it's fine. It looks superbly on the coffee table or on a shelf. But if you really want to sit down and go over the problems, it is a hassle. The solutions are at the end of the book and you have to turn several hundred weighty pages to find the one for the problem you're working on. And the solutions are not single moves like most from 5333+1; these are full-fledged, sporting variations and sometimes sub variations, some so long, that can fill a whole column making it also easy to lose your place. Annotations are in the universal informant sign language with no other clarifying text. In view of this, you have to set the position on a chessboard and somehow fit the book on the same table at the same time. This arrangement is not limited to this volume as it also applies to the middlegames book. An accompanying electronic version would solve many of these problems, but there isn't any; and I have checked thoroughly on the net. I had to make do with preparing my own digital versions (positions and chess engine support in Chessbase format and solutions on PDF) for the first two sections and I am plowing through these now.
The contents are diverse and range from the very basic to the odd. In fact, there are 171 themes all told. No endgame enthusiast would be disappointed in the selection. Most of the problems lean towards hard.
Nowadays, this is a rare book. I think the publisher, Könemann, has gone under. The few copies that can be obtained at sites like Amazon or eBay start around $80 and it is not uncommon to see them over $100. As far as I can tell, no republishing is in the works. Cheaper units can still be purchased at Amazon's French site, http://www.amazon.fr/, and shipped to America (this is in fact what I did when I got the middlegames volume around 2004).
Wrapping up: As an object or as a collectible, this book is not really a must have, but it is certainly very attractive. If you happen to find it in mint condition and at a respectable price, snatch it. For challenge, look no further. For instruction, look somewhere else.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Harney and Sons Chocolate Mint tea review
The aroma of perfumed teas can sometimes be intense. At other times it can be the tea's most distinctive quality. Both cases bloom together in the Harney & Sons chocolate mint black tea which is the most aromatic perfumed tea that I have come across. No other even comes close. One can understandably be suspicious when faced with so heavy perfumes: who knows what they could be masking. As said, the aroma is strong. In fact, you could detect it from a yard away, with your eyes closed and with the tin sealed. Opening the tin is an experience in itself: the full force of the smell fills the airways in an instant. The surprising fact is that it isn't unpleasant at all; one would think that the manufacturer overstepped all bounds; this isn't the case.
What you see inside our small flakes of peppermint leaves and regular black tea in about equal proportions.
Now, I tried to think up with what food it would mix well, but couldn't come up with anything. With what would you pair real chocolate mint anyway? Neither spicy or blander foods seem right. Pastries… maybe, if they're moist enough. Other sweets feel like compounding… I can only conclude that this one works best as an after meal drink. I also get a feeling that this one would go down well with insomniacs as its, so to speak, dark components would be welcome to pass the time with in the wee hours of the morning. It is specially pleasing at home in cold weather.
Not tried it as iced tea. I don't think that its strength and taste would give good results cold.
Labels:
Harney and Sons,
mint,
review,
tea
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Inflation calculator for Mexico
How much was worth it?
It really doesn't bother me, but it is somewhat annoying.
From time to time I come across monetary figures in books & texts. Nothing wrong with that, especially since X number of dollars is X number of dollars. Having spent a fair amount of those I can relate to what the figures mean. As you can guess, this is only true for relatively recent figures. Inflation messes perception up and if the figures you're reading about are somewhat dated, it gets difficult to get a sense of what they actually amount to. Were, say, five 1962 dollars a princely amount or were they something you could walk by without a second glance were you to find them lying on the street? How can one tell?

Here goes:
If you have to deal with the Mexican peso, the calculator has some nice features. Firstly, it goes back to 1878, which is way farther back than what the Mexico's central bank provides for its own online calculator. Secondly, it is easier to input information. Thirdly, it outputs more than just two decimal points. Fourthly, it not only gives you the accumulated inflation for the given period, but also the average inflation for said period. Fifthly, it lets you enter whatever amount, for example, 1,000,000, and reflecting the inflation to that amount, not just the raw inflation percentage increase. What I believe to be it lacking is getting from it monthly, rather than yearly information. I did not integrate this feature because it's more difficult for the user to input the monthly data (and for me, to get the records).
For the future, if I can get hold of the data, I might rewrite the calculator for use with other currencies.
Update 9/25/14: Boosted my HTML and CSS powers with this and now the page looks less ancient.
Update 1/23/15: Added an Easter egg to the calculator a couple of weeks ago. Working on another.
Update 9/25/14: Boosted my HTML and CSS powers with this and now the page looks less ancient.
Update 1/23/15: Added an Easter egg to the calculator a couple of weeks ago. Working on another.
Labels:
inflation calculator,
mexico,
perl,
tech