Fixing sibilance with a parametric equalizer

What I like best about vinyl are the vocals. Instrumentals, particularly piano, I believe sound just as good on CD than on vinyl, but vocals are different as these are where I notice most clearly the warmth of the format. There's the big problem, though, of sibilance. I have had some success against it over the years and shared some of it on previous posts, but I've learned the hard way that sometimes the source is to blame.

I had always wondered about the pre-out/main in jacks on the back of my preamp and found out that I could hook up equipment through them. A graphic equalizer was an obvious choice, but I didn't like the fact that the bands were pretty much set. As it turns out, parametric equalizers address this and found them readily available on eBay, mostly vintage. I settled for the least expensive SAE 180 from the early 80s at $140 and I received it in great shape.

As compared to the graphic equalizer, a parametric one has the double benefit of allowing the pinpointing of a certain central frequency and the amplitude of the effect. For sibilance purposes I already knew the expected frequencies on which to attack, but was greatly aided by an online recommendation to boost the suspect frequencies in the initial pass to better pinpoint the center. After this, it was only a matter of opening and closing the octave range and decibel volume starting both with the least amount of change possible to get the desired effect, that is mellow the ess sounds while preserving as much as possible the tone of the rest. Just killing the identified frequencies doesn't work because although it may appear that nothing interesting is happening on them, the wholesale removal of brightness makes the music dull and unexciting. Once I tried it, it became apparent to me.

By some experimentation I narrowed the parameters to a general range I could work with. Depending on the source, I tweak a bit. However, I soon discovered what is probably the greatest downturn to my solution and that is the noise floor. My particular equalizer (don't know if this is widespread) has a noticeable noise level that gets worse as one narrows the octave range in the high frequencies. Widening it to around two octaves just barely subdues it to make the whole scheme work, but just barely.

To compensate the loss of brightness by the wide octaves I resorted to raising the level at 1.2 kHz, the highest frequency I could get from the low-frequency sliders, with a three octaves spread by a couple of decibels and very nearly got back all the high frequencies that I had lost, while still keeping the sibilance in check.

This model has a button to activate/deactivate the tone effects and has rec out jacks presumably to pass the signal on the yet another processor.

A couple of small negatives: there's no power switch; presumably it has to be plugged on the rear of your preamp to pop into life when you power the system on; the manual surely makes this clear, but the only place I could find the download online required registration and I couldn't bother. Higher models have an on/off button. Another thing to consider is it small overall shape which doesn't allow straightforward stacking: some sort of space has to be found on the side for it.

In the end I got 85 to 95% of my wish and am very happy about it. Is it just cosmetic? Yes. Does it fix the underlying problems with my set up? Not at all. Does it work for my ears? You betcha.

Approximately what my frequency  curve looks like (using Magix ACL 11)

When I add back just a bit of brightness

Poor man's voice web browsing for Windows

Now, if you read my post on voice recognition for your Linux virtual machine, there's no reason why you cannot take the same elements, sans the virtual machine, and have your own custom voice-recognition command center facility in native Windows.

Microsoft's own speech recognition is already there, free, and its "show numbers" feature surpasses anything that Dragon NaturallySpeaking has to offer (as far as I'm aware of; I'm still on version 11). However, for whatever reason, you may one day want to browse the web, or do whatever else, using your own commands. Glovepie can leverage the OS' speech module. Why not avail yourself of free tools? My offered solution might work for you.

De-essing part 6: miscellany

Here are some few extra tips for the vinyl de-essing problem. None address the underlying problem but do give some symptom relief. 

Treble

This easy solution does remove the edge of those pesky esses a bit, although it also deadens the playback by reducing brightness; however, my ears tell me there's a net benefit. Also you don't have to turn it all the way down to hear some effect.  Not perfect by any stretch, but the functionality is already there. If your system supports it, EQ control by frequency is better still, because you can isolate the annoying bands more precisely.

Stylus force

This is not really a solution, but may work for some special purpose. Just ramp up the stylus force and you may get a better "read" from the groove. This is not recommended for everyday use however as it will wear out the vinyl in no time.

Get another

Some Lps of your collection are worn out already a no fiddling will get their music to what you remember. Why no just get another? Unless it is some kind of unique item, Ebay and Discogs more often than not will have a good copy around of your favorite album even if its decades old.

Tube amp

Not tried this one myself, but maybe a workaround is going entirely digital with the media and playing it through a tube amp (which I hear they are making a comeback) for the warmth.

Why I don't own a telescope

Look ma!

Time to spread one of my heresies around.

As any warm blooded enthusiast I love hardware for its own sake and telescopes are no exception especially those that are all shiny and computerized. However I've decided not to own one. I have concluded that the cost and hassle of owning one do not match the results one obtains from it.

The realization finally came to me the day I peered into my local college's 16'' Meade Schimidt-Cassegrian to look at Jupiter. It was there all-right with some of the Jovian satellites, but it appeared so small. Maybe I had gotten my expectations unreasonably high by magazines and the like, but if such a big and expensive telescope could offer so little, what hope was there for small more affordable ones? Another notch against is that, unless one takes astrophotography as well, most of the objects up there will appear so faint as to not excite the eye cells, meaning they will be devoid of any color and appear only as  misty gossamer threads. 'Sky lint' is what some of the astronomers at the center there call them. To make things worse I live within a major urban area.

I want the colors, the details, the drama.

There's also the joy of the hunt. Amateur astronomers can make contributions to science. There are still some discoveries to be made as well; most of the top prizes have already been taken, but there are still fair probabilities for amateurs to make discoveries on their own. Ever heard of the McNeil Nebula? Jay McNeil of Kentucky discovered the nebula that now bears his name with unostentatious equipment. Am I one to discover something that one day bears my name too? Seems highly unlikely. If discoveries are made, chances favor amateurs as a group, not as individuals. McNeil himself had a couple decades of experience under his belt before making his mark.

Shoot. I'll settle with the zoo. This way I'll never find a comet or anything, but I'll get most of what I want. I'm looking into buying a book or books with better images than I'll ever experience on my own (considering Michael Benson's series). And these are cheaper too.

There's still some room for maybe a pair of binoculars. These not only are highly portable, but can cover large swaths of sky. Plus no squinting is required.

Trim Intel X-25m on Windows 10

Okay, the situation with the Windows 7 update became so untenable for me (the updates would get stuck) that I was compelled to move on to Windows 10. I hate to admit it, but the move was not as bad as I feared it would be. My legacy programs worked, for the most part, as they should, which is funny, since I had tried installing some of these very same programs from scratch on another machine and they wouldn't work. So, the first lesson I guess is to have those programs installed already before upgrading to 10.

For some reason, Yahoo wouldn't login using Microsoft's new browser, Edge, nor even with the dedicated app from the store. Internet Explorer 11 was horribly slow. Switched entirely to Chrome.

The biggest possible showstopper with the Windows 10 upgrade was my very trusty Intel X-25 160gb SSD. My old Intel solid-state drive toolbox (ver 1. something) wouldn't optimize the drive using TRIM. Without TRIM I anticipated that sooner, rather than later, the drive would become unusable. Here is what I did to solve it:

Deleted the refuse left by the old toolbox on the root C: drive (*intel*.bin) 

Downloaded and ran the latest version of the Toolbox:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26085/Intel-Solid-State-Drive-Toolbox

Updated the firmware (had to cross my fingers on this one):

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/18363/Intel-SSD-Firmware-Update-Tool

When I found that the Toolbox optimization still wouldn't complete (I was getting error 100), I dug around a bit and found this solution, which only consisted in deleting a hidden folder:

https://communities.intel.com/thread/44443

Success!

Crunchbang++ Linux

Not so long ago, Steve Gibson in his Security Now podcast intimated that he was looking for small sized, contained browsing experience. Thanks to his shows, I had already switched to a full-fledged virtual machine and had been happily browsing with no problem at all. However, his requirements for something that would not be too onerous resource wise kept nagging at me. I knew that Linux could do the work within a virtual machine, but the problem was finding the right distro for it. Now, I think I have found it: Crunchbang plus plus and I think I am in love.

Here's how I finally settled on it:

Started, and as many others with Linux Mint. For myself, my biggest constraint was disk space. Although fine, and useful, it took well over 10 GB. Something slimmer, had to be out there.

Swinged far to the other side and got Tiny Core Linux working, but YouTube wouldn't play with the newer flash versions. Also the mouse pointer wasn't as smooth. Similar experience with Puppy Linux which didn't support the Virtual Box additions and had way too many preinstalled programs.

Bodhi Linux, seemed like it, and has a focus on being minimalistic, letting you install your own stuff, but the Enlightenment desktop was too alien for me. And still, I guessed something smaller could exist.

Dabbled with taking snapshots of live CDs of Porteus and Lubuntu and these did work, after a fashion and might serve for specific purposes, but still the sessions wouldn't allow installing additions and rebooting and keeping it chugging from RAM seemed like counter purpose going forward.

Antix was another contender, but even changing the screen resolution from the menus was not straightforward. Also, an inserted DVD would have to be searched for manually.

Trisquel Mini was also one that worked, but for my purposes it's philosophy was more of a hindrance.

Finally Crunchbang plus plus gave me these benefits:

• Small footprint (2.5 GB with additions and chromium already added)
• A beauty (glass!)
• Based on Debian, whose terminal commands I'm more familiar with and is on a stable version
• Upgradable
• Alive and well and actively (so it would seem) developed
• Very few preinstalled software (but with options to add Libreoffice and the like at install time)
• Stats (Conky) on the desktop
• Nice terminal
• Additions work

As I see it, and the only way to make any more gains, and these minor, would be to 1) try the Debian netinstall (on my first attempt the installer crashed; will try again later on) ;or 2) get head on into Arch Linux. I will still check these out, but I think I have already hit bull's-eye.

Should plus plus go under there are at least two other Crunchbang "twins" that might be just as good: the one from Bunsenlabs & Monara.

Getting my dad on Linux

I'm worried about my dad catching malware on the net. The threats are escalating and he does nothing to protect himself. He's also 78 yo. If something were to happen, it would be up to me to fix whatever came up. I wish to make his surfing experience as painless as possible, have him protected and have me avoid as much as possible any tedious cleanup.

Up till now I've had him surf with Sandboxie and it has worked great: no infections or data loss. However, there have been some compatibility issues, such as Word documents not working at all, and cryptic notification messages from the program appearing here and there. On the whole the experience with it had turned from fine to kludgie. What's more, conceptually, being just one program, Sandboxie is a thinner layer of protection than what can be put together with just a bit more effort and with better end user experience. 

I decided to get him to use Linux within a VM.

This are the benefits I see going for this solution:

• Linux is by itself is of a different DNA than Windows, so Windows-specific malware will just not execute.

• Linux, as I see it, is now close to prime-time, meaning that the switch and maintanance is less confusing and awkward than it used to be (and not that long ago).

• A VM keeps the physical system clean and out of harm's way frequently for free.

• It also makes it easy to restore a given state quite speedily. So, messing up the guest is no problem.

• In my experience, there's no discernible loss of performance, if given reasonable resources (RAM and cpu cores)

The only problem, other than getting used to the few extra steps for the user, is getting files out of the system. We'll talk about that later.

Why not entirely Linux?

Mainly because inertia. I already know the limits of how much I can push Windows and how if something wrong happens to it, how to fix it. Not so, with Linux since I'm a newbie myself. I'm sure this will gradually change with experience. The other part is compatibility. Even with Wine and all, I want to be able that one program for him when he  or I need it. With Windows on the physical machine, I know I can count on native compatibility.

Setup:

For the host machine a brand new Dell Inspiron 3647 small desktop ( core i5-4460S, 8 gb 7200 hd) running on Windows 10 (upgraded from 7). As a parallel project, and to get him better loading times, I changed the spinning hard drive for a Samsung 850 evo SSD. I crossed my fingers for the SSD to not fail on us and I was not disappointed. Curiously, loading times for the snapshots were slower when I assigned three cores to the machine rather than two.

Virtual Machine:

Virtualbox. It has the features I need, its free and has a great company behind it, hopefully keeping it up to date for many years to come.

Guest:

Linux Mint 17.2. This is because all that he could  immediately need is already there: flash, office, vlc for media playback, printer support and more. For web browsing I eschew Firefox because I get a clunky feel from it, and because my dad did not like it on a previous run some time ago. Chrome feels slicker, also has pdf reading support, and my dad is already invested in the Google ecosphere, so that went in instead. Bodhi Linux for the guest as a whole felt like a good alternative and I gave it a try to see if I could build a slimmer guest by adding just the software I thought my dad could need and I did. However, I could not wrap my mind around its philosophy, which resulted in a less than optimal experience in my test run. I still think is worth checking it out for the very reason of building from its base up, but didn't pan for me this time. I saw no reason for other distros, because the system already could handle Mint flyingly, and what's the point? For myself I choose Crunchbang.

As additional software Dropbox. Getting the Brother 9970cdw to print from within the VM was straightforward. http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us_ot&lang=en&prod=mfc9970cdw_all&os=128

Sharing:

Getting files out of the guest is the weakest part of my solution. There is not the easy drag-and-drop functionality I have got accustomed to from Virtual PC 2007. Sharing folders is possible, but there is no way I'm going to leave a hole open in my defenses.  Unfounded or not, I'm worried that something else will want to invite itself in for the ride. I'll have to look into this matter more closely later.

The best I can come up with for now is check  whatever file my dad wants to keep with Virustotal and then upload it to his Google drive and download it back from to the host. I'm willing to do this the first few times  and then teach him to do it by himself later. Not optimal, but I hoping for the moment that this awkward solution won't be needed enough to be a headache. From the other end, I set up another hidden "person" where there is  a live session of his Google account from which he can upload files, mostly scans for attachments.

But was he willing to learn?

With regards to technology he usually takes the path of least resistance. However, I have something to leverage my project with: his email. Most of his computer use is for email messages and if I can give him a better experience, let me tell you, he's all in for it.

Results so far

I am sad to say that the change was not a swimmingly as I had envisioned… And I'm mostly to blame.

When the computer was all set up, I thought I had the VM ready for a test run, but I had not thoroughly checked this time around all the things he might need. And right away, on the first use, he could not open a PowerPoint presentation. When I tried to fix that, he began to look discouraged at all the typing I was making, at the entering passwords and such. Then, VLC, which has a fine reputation for playing anything, began crashing the virtual machine right away, which was odd: I had tested it without a hitch previously, but now it wouldn't behave. Apparently there is something not quite working in the combination of Windows 10+Virtualbox 5 + Linux Mint 17.2+VLC. Had to change the setup back to totem. Days later, some encrypted presentations failed to open altogether owing that Libreoffice is entirely unable to deal with them, which was totally unanticipated. Up until now, it had dealt with anything that I had thrown it.

The worst part was me not being able to keep cool and patient with my dad. His complaints were: why change? It was easier before. Where is my background?

Windows 10, for its own part, had its own quirks that had to be ironed out. The worst offenders were the color scheme and the lack of an explicit shutdown button.

Took me a few extra days, but eventually the setup began to behave well,and he began using it regularly as he did with his old machine. He doesn't appear to care about the underlying platform as long as it does what he wants it to and Chrome has had a large part in this for its relative ease and familiarity.

How to play midi files on Linux Mint

While trying out Linux mint I was surprised at it not being able to play midi files out of the box. This can be easily remedied by installing the fluidsynth soundfont plugin for vlc. I'll assume here that you have already the vlc player installed.

Step 1

Open your software manager and search for vlc.

Step 2

Among the results is one for vlc-plugin-fluidsynth. Select it and install it.

Step 3

Open your terminal with  Ctrl+Alt+T

Step  4

We want to associate the format to the player.

Type gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Step 5

Press Ctrl+H and search for midi.

Step 6

Replace audio/midi=totem.desktop for audio/midi=vlc.desktop. Save your work and you are done.

Samsung 850 EVO on a Dell Inspiron 3647

As a current general-purpose desktop the Inspiron 3647 is a great affordable machine. It's only weak spot is the spinning drive, which although has a storage capacity of 1 TB, it's still a mechanical device. I decided to give my dad's brand-new Inspiron a boost by removing the factory drive and installing a Samsung 850 EVO solid-state drive (SSD).

The change of hard drives is just a bit wee difficult owing that the drive for these design is the most inaccessible component of the system. Following the online manual (http://www.manualslib.com/manual/677131/Dell-Inspiron-3647.html), the process was pretty much straightforward. Probably the only tricky part was removing the fan shroud and getting the fingers in to make the disconnections.

An adapter for the smaller size form factor would have been best, but there is no performance hit in leaving the SSD just hanging owing to its lack of movable parts. Also, the rigidity of the sata and power cables gives it enough stability and just leave it there.

In the end, I got everything I asked for: an uneventful installation, BIOS  and Windows 10 ready drive identification, all the speed benefits, identification from the Samsung latest magician software (4.8)  which includes the RAPID mode, which, at least judging by the boot times and performance benchmark numbers is blisteringly fast, and a spare Western Digital extra drive for backups.

Moto e second gen flash review

Sample photo from yours truly

I never bothered for a smartphone, but since I needed a podcast player to replace my defunct Ipod classic, I bought a Moto e second gen (2015) edition as a kind of mini tablet. Here's a flash review

Build & screen

Feels just right on a regular-sized hand and has rubber-like back and edges to forestall slipping. I have been using the phone for over four months now, and thanks to these edges, I have been able to get a good grip on the device, and not even once I have felt it has been at risk of slipping away, as a smooth finish would have surely done.

Has a roomy 4.5 inch display which is readable for regular eyes. Yes, the screen is reflective under sunlight and impossible to look at under it, but once you get under a shade it's fine. Clicking something on the lock screen is a bit unresponsive as some very few times you have to try again to get the action done. Otherwise fine.

Android OS

Clean and without bloatware.  However for an android first-timer, the OS  and apps feel convoluted compared with Apple's IOS. I imagine that not technically-savy might need help for first-time setup.

Probably the biggest letdown coming from Motorola is that this phone will be stuck on Lollipop meaning it will not be upgradable to Marshmallow. Depending on your point of view, this might or might not be something of importance. As I see it, none of the features offered by Marshmallow would really benefit the Moto e as it already has commendable battery usage and lacks a fingerprint reader. The other minor features are minor really.

Speed

Having experienced only the Samsung Nexus 6, the Moto e one feels zippy enough. Every once in a long while it gets laggy, but it sorts itself out after a reboot or even by letting it be.

Battery & Memory

Lasts for me the whole day. In fact I could go with my semi-light use (no phone calls) for ~3 days without charging. The battery is replaceable and the memory is expandable to 32gb.

Camera/Video

Basic for basic stuff. No flash and zoom is done digitally.

Podcast & audio

The audio sounds of lesser quality as compared to the ipod, however, unless you have golden-ears, you can quickly adjust. Podcast Addict does the job for me, but it only did after scratching my head figuring it out.  For its part, the Audible app, does allow for chapter skips from the lockscreen which is a boon and remembers the playback position across devices.  The WSJ auto-updates on the library, but you have to give it the go-ahead for downloading. Maybe it's just me but the bundled Play Music app from Google so minimalist for standard mp3 playing as to make it unacceptable. Months in, I cannot still figure it out. There's an FM radio app as well, but you need to have the headphones on to tune in.

Google Integration

Not having a google account for your phone is a waste. Google drive app is especially useful, since it can be used to transfer files to and from your phone without buying yet another cable.

Wifi & localization

The wifi is as fast as you can expect in accordance with your source hotspot. Has GPS.

Conclusion

For my intents and purposes this phone makes me not want to look back to a dedicated MP3 player. There's room for improvement here and there, but the android apps and features and its affordability makes it hard to look for anything else if someone's looking for an entry phone. Recommended.

4 stars

Hoyle's Black Cloud

I'm not really into science fiction books (I'd rather watch movie adaptations), but last year my older brother gave me Fred Hoyle's Black Cloud as a must-read. I obliged and found it a bit contrived but good on the suspense and premise. The author focuses, however, on the decision-makers in their bunkers, leaving out a wide arena of possibility within his setting. Sure, its interest and the main purpose of the book to see how the higher-ups resolve the crisis at hand, but not that much is said of we, the regular people. As with a good disaster setting this is what I'd like to have read, in addition to the existing storyline, maybe by the hand of a different writer:

• A set of characters, independent of the scientists and politicians, carrying out their own lives, trying to solve their own particular affairs when events begin to unfurl.
• How they begin to suspect something's amiss and how news begins to trickle in.
• Transcriptions of the newscasts. Probably these hiding the truth.
• The official crisis plan by the government
• The ways the different new characters prepare themselves for the upcoming bad times, on their homes, work and family relations while still trying to achieve their preexisting goals.
• The inevitable panic and looting
• The reactions of religious groups
• Life during the  hot and cold periods, especially during the dark days. The fear,the marauders, the screams from without the shelters
• Reconstruction

There is ample room to still work within Hoyle's universe. I mention all this as a prelude for this year's Halloween special, in which I post a really modest sci-fi short story of my own, that kind of belongs to same vein to see if it goes anywhere. This, next time.

HTML5 and CSS3 All-in-One For Dummies book review

By just being a markup language HTML is arguably easier to learn than formal scripting and programming languages. However, I had not had much of a traction with it over the years, other than few basic notions, just enough to conjure up the most basic of web pages. On my latest attempt at it the panorama has cleared thanks to Andy Harris' hot off the press HTML5 and CSS3 All-in-One For Dummies.

The book is just what I had been looking for: current with the newest standards, step by step, and uncontrived. At this point in time HTML and CSS have been polished enough to remove some of their worst warts leaving more logical cleaner languages which makes this a great time to learn. Harris' approach, in the Dummies tradition, builds from scratch both keeping the curve a level as possible and focusing on what one is likely to need to build solid, attractive webpages and move on to more advanced material if one wishes, and does not attempt to be exhaustive. His writing, code and extra material makes it easy to follow along.

My previous best attempt last year was with Tittel's HTML, XHTML and CSS For Dummies (6th) which I felt spiked the learning curve somewhere around  the CSS section and left me not learning much if anything and discouraged. This time around I also dabbled with HTML5 and CSS3 for Dummies  by Karlins and CSS3 for Dummies by Mueller but kept coming to Harris's as my guide. And things have changed since last year: with my newfound knowledge for the first time I now understand some of the aspects of my own blog and have quite quickly started editing here and there with confidence.

The 8 in 1 aspect consists in 8 'minibooks' under one cover. The 8 minibooks are:

1. Creating the HTML foundation (98 pages)
2. Styling with CSS (116 pages)
3. Building layouts with CSS (90 pages)
4. Client-side programming with Javascript (174 pages)
5. Server side programming with PHP (126 pages)
6. Managing data with MySQL (106 pages)
7. Integrating the Client and Server with AJAX (150 pages)
8. Moving from pages to sites (86 pages)

The only thing that might be a minus is it's the size of the printed book  which is over a thousand pages long. I borrow an e-version from my local library and read it with the Adobe Digital Editions reader, so you might want to consider that as well. Note too that it not exhaustive: you won't find everything, but you'll also not get overwhelmed by the material. To me that's a plus.

I'm not sure If I'd recommend it to someone who isn't comfortable with computers to begin with; for someone who has a reasonable motivation it will fit hand in glove.

4 stars

Virtual Box vs Virtual Pc 2007

Due to the well-known end of life for Win XP I decided to switch my virtual machine platform  to Virtual Box from VirtualPC 2007. To anyone else who's looking to do likewise here go the pros and cons I've seen of the newer over the older.

Pros:

• Easier virtual hardware configuration
• Multiple cores
• Video acceleration
• Snapshots
• Video capture
• Client more frequently updated

• Faster VM loading

• USB support

• Still free

Cons:

• Heavy files
• Backup a hassle:
• Resource intensive & slow
• Guest Windows activation somehow doesn't survive the export/import cycle

• No file drag and drop between guest and host with Windows as a guest
• I've not been able to easily set up a shared folder
• This one is creepy: My Andrea sound pod wakes up and blinks signaling that the microphone is active.  Haven't found the reason.
• Ugly icon (yuk!)

Virtual Box Win 7 on Win 7

Is oneself the greatest threat to LastPass security?

I wrote this letter as a Q&A submission for the Security Now! podcast. It didn't make it into the show, but I thought about sharing it here. I think there's a valid point to my argument, but who knows? Am I right? Overly exaggerating? You tell us!

Dear Steve,

I'm currently moving away from a algorithm based password system. I have been testing out LastPass with some sites and have been more or less liking it. I'm already convinced that its technology can keep me safe from threats from without. However, I still have a cause for concern. As I see it, and as it currently stands, the greatest threat to a LastPass based security scheme is: *myself*.

Although I use good habits and have not had a problem for the last decade, I cannot completely trust myself not to bring malware to my system: I can be served a malicious banner on a trusted site, open a file from a contact that has been previously compromised, or click a link in an e-mail message while distracted ("so-and-so sent you a message!").

So, if I happen to get malware in my system, what is there to stop it from taking advantage from my LastPass sessions? As I see it, there are at least two ways in which it could harm me. The first one, taking advantage of an open LastPass session to look into my vault and grab whatever it can in one fell swoop; and secondly,  passively detecting the presence of LastPass and recording the unencrypted passwords on their way from LastPass to each webpage; key logging is surely not the only tool available for hackers. And, still a third one, if one wants to go over the top, what's to stop the malware from interacting concurrently with me on an open webpage? No doubt it can beat me on speed ("look! A banking site! Let's attempt a quick transaction").

The PPP option doesn't look as if it could help me here, because it would only protect the LastPass data when closed or from without, not when open and in use.

By the looks of it, LastPass is great with holding my passwords and populating fields quickly, but not much else. I still need some sort of second factor authentication for each site, preferably a global one.

Are these cause for concern or have the LastPass people have come with a solution for this too?

Dreaming in Code book review

It amazes me how seldom the death struggles and victories of programmers are ever sung. Behind every program and script there are intractable problems that had to be solved,  impossible deadlines, kludges and clever elegant solutions, wild goose chases, tears and triumphs; some of these worthy of epic poetry or of Agatha Christie. Few of these stories ever surface into public consciousness.

After a fashion, Dreaming in Code opens this world to the larger audiences.

Starts fine, comparing software coding to bridge building and pointing out the ways in which wholesome projects break down. Somewhere around here the author refers Britcher's The Limits of Software  as " a disjointed, but impassioned book". Ironically, the same description applies to Dreaming more and more as it progresses: it jumps from here to there making the reader only catch glimpses of what the author tries to show, but not in an ordered fashion. This is not an altogether a bad thing: this is one of those books where you can open it at any page, begin reading and find something interesting to be delighted with.

There is central thread though, Mitch Kapor's Chandler project. We get the inside scoop of its development, decisions and travails. This is where in one way or another the anecdotes sprout and return to. There are also about half a dozen previous books on programming projects that the author frequently refers to, being The Mythical Man-Month the most cited. These mentions in a way feel quite similar to how the characters of the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy refer to the Guide as a beacon. With these books Rosenberg also shows that despite the better tools there is nothing new under the sun.

Tribulations are one thing. There is also a large component of programming philosophy which waxes towards the end. Programming, not being an exact science, has several schools of thought on how it should be done. Dreaming presents some of these, many relating to the work at hand, others, historical.

Notwithstanding its externally disordered nature, an overall nice book that warrants a reread here and there. Recommended if you have any interest in programming.

(If you want more on team projects try Code Name Ginger for a story on hardware. For a biology one, try the Billion Dollar Molecule) 

Physics For Future Presidents course

Have you ever wished that you knew more about science and how things work? Or maybe felt that despite having an otherwise well-rounded education, you do not have a so sure footing on science, in particular physics, and could maybe understand more if things could be easier math wise? If so, you're not alone. Many of us have wished for a better science grasp and as you may well know, this wish has been recently granted thanks to iTunesU.

ITunesU is a subsection of the iTunes store which holds classes and courses from different colleges and schools from around the country in audio and video. These higher education courses encompass almost the widest possible array of subjects. The best part is that they are all for free.

I have listened to a few, and thought of giving a shout out to one in particular. This one is Berkeley's Physics for Future Presidents imparted by Richard Muller.

This course can be thought as a quick, extensive course in everyday physics. It has an interesting angle, as it tries to answer what information must a US president needs to have on physics for effective policy decisions ranging from national security and terrorism to energy generation and use. Of course, what is true for the US president applies to regular citizens who wish to know more about the those policies, act and decide through their congressmen in the democratic exercise of their rights, and not be bewildered by the scientific concepts. This is achieved through high content conceptual emphasis over mathematical minutia. The end result is that course delivers making the world clearer and, for many, less intimidating.

The instructor, Dr. Muller, is top-notch in credentials and in teaching style.

I have only tried the audio version, but I don't think that I miss any of the concepts by using only my ears. Notwithstanding I was so enthusiastic about the course that I bought the accompanying textbook, or tried to. One must be aware that there are actually two main books books by Dr. Muller under the same name. One, the said textbook on two editions, the fall 2007 and the updated 2010 edition; the other, a condensed version of the material, aimed for the general public in paperback grey cover. I, alas, got the latter. Still good and as clearly explained as in the audio, but not the flagship. 

If you're more visually oriented,  the course is also available on YouTube

In closing, need to mention Asimov's Understanding Physics as a possible second companion to the course.  It's fine contentwise, but be wary as it somehow is without the charm of Asimov's other works.

Learning Python on the cheap: Community Service

Time now for another community service. Today I post some links to sites that offer free online Python instruction. What follows has already been previously been posted in one form or another elsewhere. However, I find the resources so good that I cannot refrain from flagging them.

Everyone has their own learning preferences. For me, it's books of course; so I went researching for possible textbooks. After a while it turned out that one didn't have to fork any money for some of the better regarded books on the matter as these were, and still are, offered legally for free online.

Think Python

http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/

This one was the best suited for me as I already had a bit of programming experience. Best part is that it includes exercises. Skipped Ch4 as I couldn't get the module running but it's safe to do so.

Wikibooks

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python

Learn python the hard way

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

I didn't quite like the approach, but it's the easiest of the bunch.

Dive into python

http://www.diveintopython.net/

The Python tutorial

http://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/

Other:

There are surely tons of instructional videos out there. Check those out if you prefer that media. Also take a look at the courses offered in ItunesU.

See if there are any live courses in your community centre.

Happily enough, all of the online books mentioned above display handsomely on a kindle ereader. If you can lay your hands on the larger screen dx, the experience gets even better.

Also ask around to see if your school/local library/organization/company has access to Safari Books or Ebrary. The first one holds all the O'Reilly books plus much, much more. The second one has many of the other standard books. The subscription fees for both are quite steep, but maybe you already have the right though your institution.

Speech recognition settings tests

Always in the quest for better performance, I decided to fiddle around with the various audio settings available for speech recognition and see if any of them yielded better results.

Base system (unless noted otherwise):

Core i5 760 no overclock, 4 gig ram, Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 motherboard

Win 7

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.0

Andrea PureAudio USB soundpod external soundcard

VXI microphone

Methodology:

A new user with only the initial training

Same text: National Geographic magazine November 2005 page 1: Who Knew?

Change a variable

Compare number of misrecognitions on each variable change

If uncertain, repeat

Raw data:

# of misrecognitions

Nc= noise cancellation

Nonc= no noice cancellation

30 Micro boost

NC	25
Nonc	30
Nc vxi	21
Nc+ LB	32+

0 boost

Regular	41
A NC	40
Vxi	23
NC Vxi	21

Vxi dif Lmodel	18
+NC	29

Andrea	27
Vxi	14
Vxi Nc	15

Other text

Vxi	28
Vxi nc	26
Vxi dif Lmodel	22
Vxi dif Lmodel NC	23

  

VXI Within a virtual machine

Out	15
VM	15

Vxi dif Lmodel 10db boost

Vxi	24
Vxi Nc	21

vxi

 

Dragon trained	10
Win7 Speech recognition no training	40

Acoustic adaptation

Pre optimized	13
Post	44
Post round#2	14

Conclusions:

• A sound pod is better than integrated sound
• Microphone boost, software noise cancellation and surround settings are best left alone
• The VXI microphone is way better than my old Andrea NC8
• From the get go, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is better than Windows speech recognition
• There is no impact on using it within a virtual machine
• Training the software and correcting misrecognitions works, though I've had mixed results with the acoustic adaptation feature
• Just from personal experience, there are limits to training: some misrecognitions will always remain