deathmtn

10-4-4-4-3-3. Also a short run because I had a large lunch. You can't win 'em all.

Murder Was the Case is surprisingly good as a Halloween song! 🎃

1 check today.

I probably get too lecturey with my dad about computer stuff, but I really want him to internalize some things. I know it's well within his capacity, and yet he never does. I always have to reexplain what I mean by the "menu bar" and by "Spotlight search" (I always end up saying "the magnifying glass in the upper right corner".)

I guess I should probably just dig deep and be as patient as I would be if I were back working tech support. Somehow, I'm just never able to do that with him.

I'm grateful that at least he never does financial stuff through the computer, nor does he keep critical identity verifying information there. Malwarebytes found 31 things on his computer. Who knows what they all did. It didn't even catch everything; there were still two apps that had added themselves to the Login Items that was "cleaner" garbage.

He brought up that I told him before to always keep up with software updates. I meant OS X software updates, but the fakes that can appear within a web site are fairly convincing now, if you don't know that there is a difference between the OS, application, and web page contexts.

My parents are on OS X, largely because I thought of it as being something malware makers are uninterested. Well, several years has passed since that decision was made, and now they have speaking popups on boot.

OMG someone did a cover of Theme from A Summer Place with lyrics! Unfortunately, the lyrics are not "Theeeeeeme! From a suuuummmer plaaaace!" But they do contain "Theeeeere's a suuummmmer plaaaace!"

More Adult Standards in case you feel like taking a shot at recreating WJIB at home.

I think Music Go Music was created as a sort of reconstruction of ABBA? In addition to the disco vocals, they have a bit of chiptuneyness. Case in point: Their new remix has a track that starts a bit like something from Street Fighter II. It's that Ken rhythm.

Zoe Leonard's I Want a President was written in 1992.

We high-five the guy when we say good bye at preschool dropoff. Today, the other kids noticed, so I had to high-five everyone.

One check yesterday.

From Jaron Lanier's book:

AI is a fantasy, nothing but a story we tell about our code. It is also a cover for sloppy engineering. Making a supposed AI program that customizes a feed is less work than creating a great user interface that allows users to probe and improve what they see on their own terms—and that is so because the AI has no objective criteria for success.

Dang.

(To be fair, they usually do have criteria, like increasing engagement, which has no connection to helping users.)

Supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) reported earlier this month that during the 2016 election, their social media feeds and pro-Sanders Facebook groups were inundated with what they now believe were Russian bots spewing anti-Hillary memes including fake news stories about Clinton using a body double and murdering her ideological opponents. Over time the anti-Clinton online faction became known by the nickname “Bernie Bros.”

In all the social media furor over this, I never saw this article and the comments from the actual Bernie Sanders campaign. It was all rancorous debating about whether or not Bernie Bros really existed. Probably because Twitter (the engine, not the employees that built the engine) noticed that those tweets were engaging and pushed them.

For whatever reason, it is incredibly funny to me when you are walking up some stairs in Dark Souls and then fall down because you got nailed by an arrow. I think it may be the depiction, actually, with the arrow sticking out of you. It's sort of akin to the "funeral pose" in Kero Blaster that makes death funny in that game.

A guy trying out the Boss Metalzone.

I had a relative of the Boss Metalzone, the Boss HM-2. I played a $120 guitar into it, and then out through a 60-W Crate amp. I loved it. The low end ring on palm-muted stuff like the Dead Embryonic Cells breakdown sounded incredible.

However, I assumed that real musicians had much better pedals and blamed some of my shortcomings on it. Years and years later, I learned that classic '90s death metal bands like Entombed and At the Gates used it extensively.

Even further in the future, I heard Slayer's, Death's, and Metallica's demo tracks for various classic songs. You know, they have a lot of charm, but they do not have that invincible heaviness. If only I had known back then that that's just how everyone sounds on non-professional recordings.

This is a good one:


(Curious to see how this post will look in RSS.)

I finished my thing to a reasonable level and demoed it.
Jón Leifs composed really good imaginary adventure music.