Category: New Fangled Stuff

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Project Magenta

Co-creating with AI. Fascinating stuff.

New technologies have fundamentally changed the way we make and experience music. In this session Claire Evans, artist, author and one half of the pop duo YACHT talks about deep learning as a tool in their creative process. Their new album explores Google AI’s research project, Magenta, an open-source music-making package using machine learning models.

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Comic-Con 2019 Walking Tour

If there’s an afterlife, I want it to look like this.

San Diego Comic-Con is unfathomably massive, and we walk through the entire show floor to give you a sense of the exhibit hall’s scope and scale. Norm and Kishore take us to some of their favorite booths in one continous walk, navigating through the crowds, cosplay, and collectibles of Comic-Con 2019.

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Lickamaforbus

Since one of you bastards broke iTunes and got it cancelled for the rest of humanity, I’ve been looking for new Apple products to consume.

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New Morning Edition Theme Blows

https://youtu.be/otGmpQpiVjw

The outgoing 40-year old theme is like a comfortable pair of old shoes. It’s reassuring. This new theme is … not.

From an article in The Atlantic …

The old theme—known for its inquisitive guitar and jazz piano—went off the air last week after 40 years of service. It was replaced on Monday with a new one that churns through dozens of ideas in 58 seconds: There’s a trip-hop remix of the old melody, a synthesized set of chimes conveying either urgency or the imminent arrival of an elevator, and a clatter of percussion that sounds “global” without evoking any one country in particular.

“For me, it was so reminiscent of childhood, of car rides to school,” [classical composer Timo] Andres told me later of the old theme. “Even though, objectively, it sounds like an artifact from a universe where Steely Dan was co-opted into writing state-propaganda music.”

The new theme, meanwhile, was summarized more pithily by [jazz singer Theo] Bleckmann. “Yeah, it sucks,” he said.

https://youtu.be/cwEDfzMfNHo

What say you bastards?

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Oops

Let this be a lesson to you early adopters.

Samsung’s futuristic Galaxy Fold is launching this month, and the device has already made its way to a select group of reviewers and influencers. During the run-up to the device’s launch, there were concerns about the durability of the folding display, and now after just a few days with the public, the device is already experiencing problems. There are numerous reports of Samsung’s $2,000 device breaking after a single day, sometimes due to poor durability, other times due to user error.

Check it out.

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Joker

I really think Heath Ledger set the bar for this role. Joaquin looks like he might give him a run for the money though. Who’s in on this one?

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Open The Pod Bay Doors, HAL

Google Duplex, coming to an iPhone near you.

Google Duplex is one of the more impressive products Google has shown off in recent years. Just ask the Google Assistant to make a restaurant reservation at a certain time, and it will do it. By “do it,” I mean it will make a phone call to a business, speak to the business on your behalf with one of the most human-sounding computer-generated voices ever made, negotiate a reservation time, and get back to you.

I can’t decide if I’m excited or terrified.

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Celebrity Shout Out

Hey Bastards, really loving the blargh

Have any of you basterds seen this? Cameo is website that connects you with your favorite celebrity, who will then make a custom video for you. For a price. So I could get Flavor Flav to put together a custom video mocking Makerbots skills on the bass guitar. Tommy Lee is over $300, but Lance Bass is only $199. That’s money well spent…