Restart From Last Checkpoint
Posted on | April 2, 2008 at 9:51 pm | 4 Comments
InfK got it right yesterday, I think. The April Fools prank was not that I had never seen Rocky, but that I was going to stop daily posting. At this point, stopping daily blogging would be like stopping daily breathing or stopping daily belly shaving. It’s just something that I’ve got to do. Although that could easily change. And I really, really had never seen Rocky before last weekend.
I notice Steve didn’t take the bait and he posted today. Rats. I knew I couldn’t outsmart him
Speaking of AFD pranks, I saw this article on the 1st and thought it must be a joke: Researchers Compress Music Files 1000 Times Smaller Than MP3s. That headline alone screams out “April Fools”. And then when you read the article it gets worse. They haven’t actually come up with a new compression method, they’ve just supposedly figured out a way to recreate the original performance (notes, intonation, timbre, etc):
The technique involved isn’t an audio recording technology; rather, it re-creates the clarinet solo in the same way that a player piano re-creates a piano piece from a roll of punched paper. But in addition to re-creating the notes, it also re-creates the way in which the player played the notes.
It’s like a next generation version of MIDI. The example given is with a solo clarinet, and I seriously doubt it sounds all that identical to the original performance. I also doubt it works for multiple instruments playing at the same time, much less a full rock band recording. Something tells me it’s not going to replace MP3s (or other compression schemes) anytime soon, but of course the media can’t help spinning it that way with the slightly misleading headline and lead comparing the result to MP3s. But at least it does appear it’s not really a prank, as the story is persisting beyond the 1st.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “songs about shitty friends”.
Creepy Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “motion activated machineguns”.
Comments
4 Responses to “Restart From Last Checkpoint”
April 2nd, 2008 @ 11:20 pm
I’m not going to believe you’re stopping daily posts until the first day you don’t post.
April 3rd, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
That compression approach is not too much beyond what I’ve read about the plans for MPEG-7, which is still some ways off but is supposed to be more “content aware” among other things. Of course, announcing new compression breakthroughs on April 1st is… precedented, to say the least!
April 6th, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Death by blogging? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/technology/06sweat.html
April 7th, 2008 @ 11:49 am
Hey, if I’m going to die from blogging, I hope to at least compensated for it first.