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(The words come in after the first few seconds. Someone please let me know if they click this link and get a 'Forbidden' error message.)
Webspace is killing me right now. I've uploaded MP3's samples of some of the remixes I've been doing, but I've been getting forbidden errors every time I try to access them. I've also noticed that the links to my Ubik remixes have stopped working as well. I've written to ITS, and will hopefully get an answer back soon. In the mean time, here are a few pictures of my setup after my desktop PC melted down over the weekend.
Aloha Arpeggi! check out my page for the visualization of the blog posts - from the abstracted larger words in the depiction, you and/or myself can remix/orchestrate some electronica. Not only that, but as the blogs grow the song will too, etc etc - we can also remix on the fly, recursion is a must and infinite feedback loops are sexy - ttys! ~s.claus
April 16, 2007
Last night, I had a brief dream in which the Onionposted an article on their front page dedicated to spoofing Ubik, their focus being Glen Runciter. The headline of the article escapes me now, but I do remember excitedly posting and linking the article on the wiki.
April 4, 2007
P.K. Dick Interview:
April 2, 2007
My Ubik remix is in three parts and can be found here
Arpeggi has finally mastered Audacity's delay effect! Rejoice!
It's coming...
March 29, 2007
Hey RPEDGY:
The Jory track is phantastisch, which means that it really helps us envision in a new way just what and who Jory is. I swear that when I played your track on my desktop, it was stuck on repeat in MoviePlayer and I had to quit out of the player to get it to stop. No doubt next time I will have to launch xkill to, in fact kill it. Which gives me an idea: Why don't we now hack this track - and grow others like it - into an artificial life program that randomly mixes sounds from your desktop and your synth based on the different success of different alife organisms competting in an environment? We could give Jory special powers and let it go from there.
So while my original remix idea is nearing completion (a combo of Ubik text and those great snippets of prose that turn up at the bottom of most of the junk emails that flood my psu.edu account), I just had a great idea for an altogether different remix that I am actually pretty excited about. I know the assignment was for us to use text (or, perhaps, words), but Tuesday's class inspired me to employ my various BT resources and see what sort of Ubik or Burroughs audio I could come up with. The search yielded some pretty good results. I found an audiobook of Ubik, as well as Burroughs reading both Junky and Naked Lunch. I'd like to use these files as the basis for an audio mashup (DJ Arpeggi) while incorporating other snippets of audio/words that I find interesting. I just downloaded Audacity, and am still trying to get the hang of how it works. If push comes to shove, I think I can use GarageBand for this sort of thing - which, come to think of it, might work better as I'm familiar with its mixer and can use its various delay and filter effects. But we'll see. Right now I'm combing the audio for soundbites. Listening to Burroughs read his stuff is great, if not a tad chilling.
Ubik Remix – Page 208 - Version 1.0 (Version 2.0 coming as soon as I develop my funky-fresh DJ'ing skills. Werd, yo.)
Wyrd, Apreggi. What I say is: Next class or at your convenience, you should read/sing/chant/interpret aloud your text below, and we can record it, then mix it back over the jory track. What say ye, yo? - mobius
I think that would be great. Thursday might work a little better as I am going to be out of town this weekend, but I definitely want to do it. I have an old text program on my laptop that reads text in the OK Computer fitter/happier voice, and think it would be fun to mix some text in that way. The possibilites seem pretty much limitless with this. I'm still working on timing (getting loops to come in on the downbeat), but I might scrap that alltogether as it's getting pretty tedious, and a result sans rhythm might sound a lot cooler.
Hey Arpeggi. The OK Computer Fitter Happier voice reached out and grabbed me when I first heard the track several years ago, and I found this on greenplastic.com: "Many people mistook the computerized voice on this track for that of physicist Stephen Hawking. The strange voice was, in fact, created by Thom on his Mac computer. He recorded it one night in an isolated area of the rehearsal space that the band had set up. Ed: 'Thom basically had this checklist, like a nineties checklist if you like, and he had written it out. There is a bit of him playing piano, in the rehearsal room. He was very drunk one night, which you can tell by the sloppy playing on it, and he just played out this melody and stuff. He was very anxious that it wasn't him saying them - this voice is neutral. By the computer saying it, it doesn't becomed a bit of pretentious art-wank, it's something neutral in the way that the computer stumbles over words and doesn't get the pronunciation or the inflections right.' Adds Thom: "The reason 'Fitter Happier' exists is 'cos of mental background noise. Some days you're in a disturbed state and it moves to the front.' ~ Ceridwen
Within the solemn, lamplit interior of the drugstore a bald pharmacist wearing a formal dark vest, bow tie and sharply pressed sharkskin trousers, approached him. “Go nurse, you cannot, but perhaps you do some of them injustice, two sweethearts on my hands, and in a deuce of a scrape.”
“But I’m in,” Joe said. “And I want to be waited on.” He showed the pharmacist the certificate which Ella had given him; squinting through his round, rimless glasses, the pharmacist labored over the gothic printing. “Are you going to wait on me?” Joe asked.
“Ubik,” the pharmacist said. “I personally do not like the use of crate's that are being use incorrectly to confine Westie's for long periods of time. Your thoughts matter. Otherwise, just stay the heck out of that line of business.”
“Jory,” Joe said.
Turning his head, the pharmacist said, “A salamander scuttles across the quiet, silent patch of ultimate paint. You are No name, no meaning.”
“You’re Jory,” Joe said. I can tell now, he said to himself. I’m learning to know him when I encounter him. “You invented this drugstore,” he said, “and everything in it except for the spray cans of Ubik. You have no authority over Ubik; that comes from Ella.” He forced himself into motion; step by step he edged his way behind the counter to the shelves of medical supplies. Peering in the gloom over one shelf after the other, he tried to locate the Ubik. The lighting of the store had dimmed; the antique fixtures were fading.
“Sprained my ankle,” the pharmacist said in a youthful, high-pitched Jory voice. “That stupid high heel turned and gave me a sadgrimly, then began to fan violently as their hostess approachedeye, as if reminded of something funny.for her, and says 'my dear,' and kisses her 'goodnight,' and don't
see fred wallace, but he never saw the fellow. how could he, when costly thing like that; and then belle said, in her blunt way, 'i as 1727 by archdeacon croxall as the introduction to his edition
an old woman having lost the use.”
“I’ll go to the other drugstore that has it,” Joe said. He leaned against a counter, painfully drawing in slow, irregular, gulps of air.
Jory, from within the balding pharmacist, said, “The fear is that the equipment used to make the chips, or the chips themselves, could be used for military purposes.”
“Tomorrow,” Joe said. “I can hold out until tomorrow morning.”
“This account is fraudulent and will be suspended,” Jory said. “Valleywag's been relentless in poking holes in those who use small tricks to pump up the volume of what they're selling.”
“Another town,” Joe said.
“Drift all you want from ocean to ocean. Search the whole world. The worms’ll come for you big boots.” Jory, in the from of the bald-headed pharmacist, smiled, showing celluloid-like dentures.
March 23, 2007
I've been spending the better part of the afternoon slamming my head against my desk while trying to complete resumes and cover letters. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the notion of 'selling myself.' I've been talking with Provisional Idiot about hosting the S.O.C. Film Festival at the Center for Sustainability. We concluded that the most difficult aspect of the setup would probably be locating a screen on which to project the movies. That, and getting people to schlep out to the Center. But I suppose therein lie the challenges of the project, and I think it would be fun coming up with ways to promote this thing.
Toolbox and I have been discussing the possibility of hosting the festival at the Carnegie screening room, as it would be ideal for obvious reasons. And we both know a prof. in the dept. so it probably wouldn't be hard to put together if we get approval from him and maybe make it open to the public. Anyway, you should check out the page TB made for the S.O.C. festival. We should definitely join forces or negotiate or whatever, because having 2 festivals probably won't be feasible. Click here for TB's S.O.C. page. -Houdini
February 2, 2007
I just thought about RFID's potential with electronic instruments (especially live) and got really excited. I will elaborate more on this tomorrow. Just wanted to write this idea down before I forgot it.
Weird. I was thinking about RFID at concerts as well. If a band member was sick or something and unable to play at the concert, s/he could still participate in the show with RFID instruments. Maybe your idea was different, but that's what I was thinking of. -loadstool
January 28, 2007
RFID's of the Mollusk Variety
While attempting to clean out a few storage areas in my room in order to make way for a wave of new junk with which to fill them, I came across the oversized bundle of papers, maps, ticket stubs, etc that I brought home with me after my study abroad term in London. Amongst the aforementioned papers, maps, ticket stubs, etc, I came across this nifty little item:
And again:
For all the fear-mongering and privacy what-if's surrounding the growing use of RFID technology, I have to admit that these suckers can be damn convenient.
Yes. This brings out the difference between Oyster and Real ID: one gives you access to a system, one seeks to authenticate your identity. With any latter system, the private sector ( e.g. Facebook) could do some interesting things, but there is no need for the government to be involved in it whatsoever. Bruce Schnier's critique of biometric passports can be found here. As your example points out, I really think that it is in consumption, pleasure and social formations that rfid is going to be interesting. RFID with public key encryption could become an optional mode of authenication at airports, avoiding the ridiculous spectacle of the "security" lines. And imagine the kind of collective intelligence that could emerge if we shared rfid space with our friends and collectives? -mobius
The Oyster Card pictured above is how I rode around on the London Underground everyday, without ever having to go to the trouble of opening up my wallet. Unlike some city's mass transit systems (*cough*cough* New York City! *cough*cough*) that require the rider to pay their fare by going to all the trouble of retrieving their wallet, opening their wallet, taking out a small, flexible strip of plastic, sliding the plastic through a reader (often more than once, as the first swipe never takes), pushing through a turnstyle, putting the plastic away... enough! That's far too many steps. I much prefer the Oyster Card, as all I had to do was plop my wallet down on a reader and walk through a gate. Talk about simple! I'd be surprised if the 'taking out the wallet' step of that equation is not eliminated in a few years time. It is probably just as feasible for the RFID readers to detect the frequency of a card in somebody's pocket as they are walking past as it is for it to detect it in a wallet.
To sum up:
In:
Out:
January 26, 2007
I have the front page of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace open as I am typing this. I have yet to open any of the PDF documents featured on the menu, but they are already making me cringe. My only hope is that I do not have to undergo another listing of myriad government offices as I did in the introduction of the Martin Luther King Jr. report. I can't really shake the feeling that the author(s) of that report designed it in such a way that the reader would not be able to pass beyond page seven or eight. Remember: the first line of defense is not a lock or a password, but a tour de force of every unit that makes up your bureaucracy.
That said, I am pleased to find that whenever I do get around to reading this Homeland Security magnum opus, it is going to leave me feeling both engaged and empowered. Score!
January 24, 2007
Is it me, or was the tone of the Social Engineering FAQ just a tad on the condescending side? Sure, social engineering requires one to cast off any reservations they may have regarding an extreme invasion of someone's personal life. But must it also require one to completely abandon a tone of civility?
Thesis: Social Engineering FAQ is a fake. It pretends to be the work of an expert on social engineering, but really just somebody who knows how to use a phone and act like a woman: transgender tactics have often been important to the development of information technologies, prolly due to sexual selection vectors. And in pretending, of course, to be a social engineering FAQ, it became one. Getting a hacking FAQ listed on the web and replicated is itself a hack. Is it a social engineering hack? The way it uses tone makes me think so. So it is a fake fake - reminds me of PKD's notion of the "world famous imposter". Read the Psychological Operations in Guerilla Warfare, a CIA manual distributed in Nicaragua int eh 1980's US overt covert war against Nicaragua that ironically samples heavily from Che Guevara. It's much better on social engineering - flobius
I needed some background information on 'phreaking.' I had no idea what the term meant when I began reading the piece, and was eager to find out because it sounded so cool. I don't think I know anybody that phreaks. Phreaking, as I found out, is "a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telephone systems, the equipment of telephone companies, and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term "phreak" is a portmanteau of the words "phone" and "freak." It may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system." (Wikipedia)
I cannot help but admire the phreakers. There work, as I interpret it, conjures up a feeling of nostalgia. A phreaker reminds me of a slick con man from a seedy 1940's film noir. Software hacking, while not easy, is surely easier than trying to hack into somebody's wetware. Or is it? I suppose it depends on the sharpness of the wetware, or what hacking tools you have available at your disposal. But at least with phreaking the risk of acquiring advanced carpal tunnel syndrome is slim to none.
I'm somewhat surprised that the Office of Physical Plant has tried to pull a scheme similar to the one described in 'Social Engineering the USB Way.' They've already banned us from having coffee and rearranging the desks in classrooms- surely their diabolical plots cannot be completely exhausted. I reckon its time to test the security of our computer labs and, if possible, humiliate a few underclassmen at the same time.
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.
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more Banksy:
even more Banksy (I'm a huge fan of him): here. ~ Ceridwen
January 20, 2007
After reading an article on news.bbc.co.uk on those making progress in thwarting the Nigerian bank scam emails, I eventually happened upon this PDF document which I think is definitely worth a quick browse. I found it to be both informative and somewhat entertaining.
jory.mp3
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