Where's Silvan?

[Silvan]

Dave said you guys have been asking about me. I refer you to:

the answer. Most of you probably won't understand what I'm jabbering about, but it takes a lot of effort writing documentation of this nature. Especially since I find bugs along the way, and even occasionally manage to fix some of them. I've also added a small feature or two recently.

The pendulum has swung, really. I spent a lot of time in the shop last year, and didn't accomplish terribly much at Rosegarden. This year the shop seems too damn hot, and too damn cluttered, and too damn small. I've fluctuated between having cash in my pocket and being completely broke, and I never have managed to drag myself out to the lumber yard during one of those not broke times. No wood, no projects. I haven't yet gotten around to using that new table saw I so longed for, that I spent so much time setting up just so. I haven't even gotten around to setting up the jointer at all. About all I've done shop wise since spring is a few unexciting turnings.

It's just the way I am, I guess. I'll go back to the shop some day. I always do. Right now, I'm more interested in developing Rosegarden, and writing my book. It's been somewhat exciting lately, with good, positive feedback from my readers. People are using my documentation, and it's a worthwhile endeavor to continue working on it.

When I get bored with having to rewrite the same damn chapter three times because somebody changed something again (and sometimes it's even me :( ), I'll probably make that improved chess box I have drawn up. :)

It will help when it's less than 99 degrees out in the shop too. Somehow I'd rather work when it's 50 than when it's almost 100. Of course that's not really a good explanation why I petered off in Aprilish. I guess because I got a new, faster computer, and because the AGNULA project asked for permission to include my documentation, which was at that time in a disgustingly neglected, incomplete state. I put in a last minute crunch to try to get something more presentable out the door, and I kept hacking on it.

So anyway, here I am. I have no idea when I'll ever run my newsreader again. I finally fired it up so I could go ask some Mandrake Linux questions. I'm putting Linux on my boss's daughter's computer because she catches every virus in the known universe, and I can't figure out how to do anything with XP except reformat the stupid piece of crap and start over. XP sucks. Log in, then something goes wrong (I don't really know what) and something (I don't really know what) starts using 99.8% of the CPU. It's horrible trying to do anything with it. Eventually the task manager crashes and something pops up to notify me that the system is going to turn itself off in one minute.

So piss on it. She can do web browsing and instant messaging and all that crap from Linux. I don't have to worry about her falling into the latest gaping XP security chasm, and hopefully once I get through the initial dumb question phase she can continue on her own. My mother never used a computer before in her life, and she's getting along fine with Linux. Having one hell of a ripping good time with the GIMP. She's done nothing for the last 20 years but talk trash about computers, and now she's on the thing half the day. It's funny how things work out.

[patriarch]

Silvan wrote in news:eNCdnRGtdJtxG3bdRVn [e-mail]:

Thanks for dropping by, and letting us know what you've been up to. When you get the itch again, some of us will likely still be here.

Patriarch

[jo4hn]

Thanks for the update. Hope everything will be well with you and yours. May the ambient temp never exceed 75dF. mahalo, jo4hn

[Donnie Vazquez]

Cool project! I'd like to try it out if I get some free time (ha!) Does it support all the cool plugins like Amplitube, etc. Even better, are there free Linux equivalents out there?

Donnie Vazquez Sunderland, MD

[patrick conroy]

Nice hobby that works the *other* side of the brain.

It happens. For me, I don't push it. On those days I don't want to step into the shop - I don't. That's the primary advantage of this being a hobby. If it was work - well, different outcome.

Enjoy your time off. Maybe when you return, this place will be a little bit tidier.

[Silvan]

That's one good way to look at it I guess. When I dropped this off and got into wood dorking with both feet, I was getting sick of putting all my time into something so ephemeral and short-lived. Now it feels good to solve intellectual problems and stimulate my mind, and the ephemeral nature of it all seems inconsequential at the moment.

That's one good case for keeping it a hobby for sure. One thing I've learned is that trying to make money at something is a good way to ruin it. I make what money I can here and there, but I don't go after money.

Money ruins a good thing. Dad just can't see it that way though. He can't understand why I spend so much free time engaged in pursuits that return practically nothing on my investment.

Dad is a pretty boring guy. :)

Hah. Small chance of that unless someone does a little hunting in real life and smashes a few computers. :)

[Silvan]

I'm not sure about supporting plugins coming in from elsewhere, but we have oodles of free plugins for Linux. There's a plugin architecture called LADSPA, and there are tons of LADSPA plugins available. I have no idea how these compare to VST or whatever else, since I haven't actually used any of that stuff in Windows.

There's a new hemorrhaging edge synth plugin architecture coming into being right now; a joint venture between Steve Harris of Ardour/JACK/LADSPA, and Chris Cannam of Rosegarden. I haven't gotten anything working just yet, but it looks very interesting.

As someone somewhere recently said, audio in Linux is simultaneously wearing diapers and solving differential equations. It's an odd mix of things that are really too raw and unwieldy for human consumption combined with ultra cool stuff that blows people from other platforms away.

Hey, not that I understand half of this stuff. I'm just an old MIDI guy. I'm really too stupid to get most of this bleeding edge stuff to work myself. It's a real chore learning enough to write docs that won't leave people worse off than they were before.

[Silvan]

I wish.

75 is good. 65 is OK. 55 is tolerable. Why do we have to have all the stuff so far above and below that?

Damn planetary tilt. Somebody ought to just straighten this thing out some day.

Of course then everybody would move to whichever hemisphere was right side up, and all the weight would make the whole planet flip over, and we'd all be back where we started.

:)

[Mark Jerde]

Thanks for popping in.

You haven't found time to use the lathe?

-- Mark