But truth, cher ami, is a colossal bore.
- narrator, Camus' The Fall
...



...

LEST I AM JUDGED FOR THIS
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MINI POSTS
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AUDIO AND VIDEO
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MOBILE POSTS
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RSS FEED
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mini updates:
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    dear reader/listener/viewer/enjoyer/co-conspirator:
    lest i be judged for it, i inform you now that this project continues to be a scratch pad, a space for experimentation

    in other words, enjoy what you find here, and feel free to participate, but try not to take anything personal, and don't believe that this project presents an accurate view of me or my life

    this is a window, certainly, but one that hasn't been cleaned in quite some time

    your view may be foggy, obscure...you may see things that aren't really there...

    --harold

    want some background music?
    please consider downloading my most recent music podcast.

    and yes, i love my mom and my dad;
    they've always been good to me, no matter what impression you may have received here

    they never locked me in a cellar or anything
     
    highlighted post from the archives: me rambling about a new job (from two years ago)
    i recently messed with the archives, so they may not work correctly, but you may take your chances:
    December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 November 2007 February 2008 March 2008 May 2008

    i once was an active member of the

    association of music podcasting

    musicpodcasting.org

    along with these fine music podcasters:

    all florida indies - bing futch
    audio gumshoe - rich palmer
    audio popcorn - krash coarse
    aural icebergs music cast - tiffany rapplean
    capital rock show - bucket aka jason
    darkhorse radio - alan carr
    ears to hear - jill lawton
    eclectic mix - george l smyth
    homegrown podcast - nic treadwell
    indiefeed - chris macdonald
    le jazz affair - sal calfa
    rubyfruit radio - heather smith
    sober cafe podcast - gracie hollombe
    sundown lounge - larry winfield
    tempo of the down - harold (that's me!)
    the darkcompass podcast - rowland cutler
    the fabrications podcast - matt macfarlane
    the phill(er) - phill ramey
    the radiozoom podcast - john bollwitt
    thepillarcast.com - jon tucker
    uc radio podshow - michael yusi
    zaldor's world - les zaldor

    ¡the text on this blog wants to leap out of its borders!

    this is...

    something that happened

    somethingthathappened.com
    		stories by harold j. johnson, in various formats - including text, audio, video, and podcasts
     
     
    Tuesday, August 30, 2005  

    Thank you, Boris Dimitrov, for telling others about my works and the works of other artists via your editorial position at Ourmedia.org this week. Ourmedia.org is my favorite new place to go to download or stream the audio, video, and electronic text works of independent artists. 8/30/2005 10:39:00 PM (0) comments





    Monday, August 29, 2005  

    I'm a multi-operating system kind of fellow these days, simultaneously using Mac OS X, Ubuntu (Linux), and Windows (again). So which is the best OS? I honestly can say (at least, I think I'm being honest) that I don't know. Each one of them has their own particular strengths and weaknesses, and I find myself jumping from system to system to perform the various tasks that each particular system outperforms the other systems in. Perhaps that is the ideal way to compute in today's world.

    You see, lately I've been composing my podcast on Windows, as this system seems to have what it takes to get the job done - or very nearly, anyway. I may have to switch back to my Mac system, or perhaps even a Linux system, as my primary system for this task. The Windows system is Celeron-based and has less memory than the Mac, and apparently my preferred audio editing application, Audacity, wants to chew up as much RAM as she can get. Yet even with alot of memory, Ubuntu just seems to run Audacity better than Windows or even Mac OS. That's right - the choice system for audio producers, Mac OS X, is being outperformed by a Linux distribution running on the very same hardware. It seems that Mac OS X's Aqua-ified version of Audacity is struggling to keep up with the X-windowed and original flavor of Audacity we find on Linux systems.

    For my email, news reading, podcast downloading, and general office-type and communication tasks, the Windows system seems the ideal performer. Everything just works the way you want it to, you know? The resumes you create in Microsoft Office format the way you want them to, the applications you want to use to communicate (such as Google Talk) are available for the OS, and most everything is just, you know, the way you need it to be to perform your daily tasks. My main concern, however, is the spyware/virus problem...

    I'm learning a bit of programming these days, and Ubuntu is my preferred system for this task. All the development tools I need are available free of charge for Linux (and Unix) systems, and I'm not about to pitch out a ton of money I don't have to run Visual C++ on Windows. Many of the same tools I'm using are also available for OS X, so I can jump between the two systems to continue my self-education in the programming arts. Additionally, for some reason it just feels better to be learning programming on a Linux (or Unix) system.

    As for the Mac - well, working on the Mac is simply a pleasure in itself. The Mac OS is a joy to work with: it's snappy and responsive, I can easily perform most tasks via keyboard commands, and it looks...just...beautiful. Placing my problems with the OS X iteration of Audacity aside for the moment, most of my favorite audio applications are also built for the Mac OS, so many of my audio production tasks are still performed on the Mac. The same goes with my preferred website and image authoring tools, such as PageSpinner and GraphicConverter.

    All this is to say that I am currently exercising all three of these operating systems in my daily routine. So again: which is best? Again, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that it sure is helpful to have all three systems available to perform specific tasks. Perhaps the computers of tomorrow will enable all of these operating systems to run on the same machines simultaneously...what a wonderful world that would be, indeed!     8/29/2005 11:13:00 PM (0) comments





    Sunday, August 14, 2005  

    Is the Wi-Fi lifestyle all it's cracked up to be? I recently became a member of that particular jet set, though the skies I'm flying are far from luxurious: I'm accessing the web wirelessly using an old PowerBook G3, running at 233MHz. The RAM installed in my machine seems barely equipped to handle the Mozilla browser I'm using. Still, at least I'm able to do the thing.

    And what thing is that, anyway? You know, the thing: cruisin' the coffee shops, laptop in hand, with the uncanny ability to fire up your portable computer and surf, blog, work, and play from most anywhere - all while enjoying delicious cups of coffee in fun, frivolous, and inspiring settings permeated by the rich aroma of coffee, cakes, and people...

    Ahem. Not exactly. As much as it pains me to say, it's not exactly as described. Yes, the coffee is usually good, but the Wi-Fi is not always as speedy as expected, sometimes barely matching the speeds of your old dialup modem - and it's not always easy to get much work done in the sweaty and loud atmosphere of the coffee crowd. Remember, these people - including yourself - are jacked up on caffeine. Once that chemical hits the bloodstream, bodies want to move, and since coffee houses aren't usually equipped with dancefloors and disco balls, most folks turn to exercising their vocal cords in order to satisfy the itch to twitch. Apparently, talking as loudly as (un)comfortably possible has been deemed an acceptable way of behaving in the modern coffee houses of America.

    I'm just grouchy today, I suppose...     8/14/2005 01:14:00 AM (0) comments





     
     

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