we aren't going in the matrix, they are bringing the matrix to us!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8561367.stm

this was posted near my house - notice it is from ClearChannel!

First random observation:

The people here consider it to be quite rude for me to make fart noises with my mouth. I don’t think people back home care as much.

Faced with this overwhelming evidence, the average person will no doubt shrug and consider the case closed. There is no question that the evidence points to the conclusion that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is therefore a “natural-born citizen.”

No question, that is, if you accept the dominant paradigm of metaphysical realism. That is, the idea that things exist independent of the mind and that those things are perceivable and knowable. Moreover, those who insist that Barack Obama is an American citizen also rely on philosophic naturalism–the idea that reality is subject to objective, knowable natural laws that can’t be tampered with.

However, if one rejects these two philosophic concepts, it’s quite easy to demonstrate that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore constitutionally ineligible to be President of the United States.

from here

I saw this on the hood of a car near my neighborhood today…

One of the most noticeable features of NILFS is that it can “continuously and automatically save instantaneous states of the file system without interrupting service”. NILFS refers to these as checkpoints. In contrast, other file systems such as ZFS, can provide snapshots but they have to suspend operation to perform the snapshot operation. NILFS doesn’t have to do this. The snapshots (checkpoints) are part of the file system design itself.

One of the really cool features of NILFS is that these checkpoints can actually be mounted along side the primary file system. This has many, many uses, one of which is to mount a checkpoint to recover files that were unintentionally erased.

In addition to being able to recover recently erased files and extremely fast crash recovery times, there are a number of other features of NILFS that are very attractive:

* The file size and inode numbers are stored as 64-bit fields

* File sizes of up to 8 EiB (Exbibyte - approximately an Exabyte)

* Block sizes that are smaller than a page size (i.e. 1KB-2KB). This can potentially make NILFS much faster for small files than other file systems.

* File and inode blocks use a B-tree (the use of B-trees in a log-structured file system stems from the implementation which use something called segments)

* NILFS uses 32-bit checksums (CRC32) on data and metadata for integrity assurance

* Correctly ordered data and meta-data writes

* Redundant superblock

* Read-ahead for meta data files as well as data files (helps read performance)

* Continuous check pointing which can be used for snapshots. These can be used for backups or they can even be used for recovering files.

The lyrics are a play on rhyming schemes. I wanted to have an artificial AAAAA BBBBB CCCCC rhyme scheme, where for each verse, there is only one repeating rhyme. The subject is a general paranoia song about fear of the Chinese and their nuclear missiles, their suppression of the Falun Gong, and their menacing of Taiwan. Next I move to the police and their fun practices with mace and smashing faces. Then I move on to the hypocrisy of America’s obsession with fame and giving passes to famous and/or powerful people.

The chorus was written as a separate song, which I cut up and inserted into the middle of this song. The song that the chorus comes from was a silly tuning song that was literally following the progression of the strings, which we played so everyone could tune without the normal choatic, boring tuning that most people do. The lyrics in the chorus refer to how hard it will be for us to get to the ideal, an impossibility.

I have played many, many roles in bands throughout my ‘career’: Keyboardist in my first band, and from there, bass player, singer/bass player, guitarist, singer/guitarist, singer, singer/keyboardist. I’ve played drums, as well as singer/drummer. One time I was a singer/guitarist/bassist, but we won’t get into that.

In this first track, it’s all guitars. I don’t like the production, but that is merely amateur work - and who plays the guitar solo? me, that’s who:

The next recording is from a live show:

You can hear me talking like the fool I normally am on stage at the beginning.

And finally, the latest version, recorded with a beautiful Wurlitzer organ for the main track:

This last track is definitely my favorite version. The third time is a charm, as they say.

The chord progression for this song was written by Chris McNelis, and I wrote the vocal melody and lyrics.  It was the first really successful collaboration that I had done with any other musician up to that point.

Wear your heart upon your sleeve
Show the world what you believe

http://lindamathieu.com

and here’s mine, which speaks volumes:

jasontemple.com

(here)

We have had two really nice reviews from two French folks with extremely good taste in music.

Purely from a selfish, egotistical standpoint, I will post their terrible google translations here:

Review #1

That some albums on Jamendo unnoticed when they are simply great.
A lot of listening, but very little attraction for this album that deserve a visit.
So I’ll try to correct what seems to be an anomaly.
Do not turn around the bush, this album is one of the biggest success that you can find on Jamendo. The style does plaira perhaps not to some, but for the lover of pop rock, soft as well as more remuante, this album will be happy.
Want to gently let yourself be soothed by “Chinese” want to move, dance on “Satellite”. Every desire, Major Major proposes a solution. And the title “Satellite” really seems to be one of the best pieces of this style on Jamendo.
And then what else? That the singer is good? The recording is perfect? Instrumentation that is roaring, the effects impeccable, electronic sounds adequate interpretation brilliant?
Well … yes … let’s dare to say … this album is the bomb.
If you are skeptical about the quality of the albums on Jamendo, therefore listen this album and you will see, rather hear, that the best artists Jamendo worth the best commercial artists.
Indeed I would not be surprised if the majors are up to the Major Major. At least a foot from the nose, we should soon hear about it.
On this direction favorites …
On this night right direction …

Review #2

“You have a new message.”
I want Francis recommends an album, let’s listen.
I must say that this music is not necessarily my cup of tea, but I listen a little bit and I let me take this pop-rock sometimes a little soft, sometimes stirring but still excellently performed and sung all focused by a flawless production.
Voila I finally caught in the nets this artist wielding sounds right from the 80’s or other more contemporary electro or even a Hispanic atmosphere on “Party Till It Hurts” (Bravo the plow).

Conclusion: A good album, the superb job zikos, and a place in my favorites.

Respect.

Ras-Kal.

(Thanks Francis for sharing.)