Monthly Archives: March 2009

Music Generator Program Part 1 – Planning

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A while back I wrote about a crazy scheme to generate perfect music. I thought about it for a while but never really got anywhere with it. Time to start the “research” phase, if you could call it that. I won’t make it past this step since I don’t have a significant background in music theory, so I won’t be able to analyze the more important musical aspects of these songs.

So here’s a summary of the idea. Music is just a series of different tones. When played in succession and continuously, you’ve got yourself a trippy techno beat, sappy love song or energizing march. So the idea, inspired by the perfect face algorithm, is that universally (95%-99%) pleasing music must have some sort of similarity that makes them pleasing to such a majority of the population.

For now the experiment will be limited to just one culture – American. Obviously we can’t throw in some chart topping Bollywood beats or something. So the description universally appealing will indicate a song that is a chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100. Here’s some more on that. The chart topping songs are selected by sales and airtime. Initially I thought this would be a problem, as only a particular type of person would call up a radio or buy a CD, but it’s probably not a significant demographic group that it would interfere with the results.

Here are some selected some songs that have reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 to compare.

  • Flo Rida – Right Round
  • Crank That (Soulja Boy) – Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em
  • Whatever You Like – T.I.
  • Viva La Vida – Coldplay
  • Just Dance – Lady GaGa Ft. Colby O’Donis
  • Low – Flo Rida

There’s a lot of hip-hop on the Hot 100, but I drew extra songs from other genres. Here’s the game plan, or the aspects of the songs to be compared.

  • Song Name
  • Number of weeks on chart
  • Genre
  • Theme (Ex. What is the song mostly about?)
  • Synopsis (Ex. Full blown summary of the lyrics)
  • Tempo
  • My opinion of the song
  • Syncopation
  • Chorus (Ex. Yes or no?)
  • Time Signature
  • Structure (Ex. ABCDABAB)
  • Artist (Expand as needed) – Gender, vocal range, etc.
  • Instrument – Augmented, etc.

I had more features to analyze before. Can’t think of any more at the moment.

Reminiscing On My First Experience With Computers

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I randomly remembered my first encounter with computers today. My experiences were quite telling of things to come.

In preschool there were activity sessions which we could rotate between. I remember very clearly the first time I used the computer I was rather absorbed. We were provided these Macs (I think) that were loaded with educational computer games. It was some sort of alphabet learning game where the user would type in the right letter to advance the character.

Each activity session was around 20 minutes, so the computer session would come once a day. The computer session time was determined by a little cooking timer on top of every computer. Because I really liked using the computer, after 10 or so computer sessions, I stumbled upon the ever so brilliant idea of resetting the timer to increase my time.

I remember very vividly deciding whether I should do it. The first time I glanced behind my back to make sure nobody was looking and then turned the timer to the left about 5 minutes. After a while, all the timers went off at about the same time, and while the other kids left, my timer was still running. A staff member came and asked me why mine was still running or something, but the guy let me keep playing.

The next time I got a computer session, my intestinal fortitude improved, and I reset it about 10 minutes extra. This time the staff were talking and pointing my way, as I was the only one on the computer in a deserted activity center. But it paid off and they did not do anything about it. After about the third or fourth time they took action, and even though I reset the timer, which they probably saw, I was forced to leave to a different station.

So today while I am no master thief or master of deception, I am pretty interested in the computers. I also don’t need to reset timers to get more time.

Windows Live Wave 4 Wishlist

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Kind of late.

Windows Live Gallery

Where is this site going? It’s not listed on Windows Live anywhere, and it’s not getting updated, but all the Windows Live Spaces modules are from here.

Web Activities

A really great idea, and yet there’s a pitiful amount of activities of add. FriendFeed is wiping the floor with Windows Live. FriendFeed has over 20 different activities. Windows Live has a whopping 8. Where are the updates?

Kumo / Windows Live / Live Search Fiasco

So apparently they didn’t plan their online approach to well, and now they’re going to rebrand Live Search as Kumo. Just when everybody is really familiarized with Live Search.

Windows Live Spaces

A service with great potential, and as usual, no updates and a major lack of features. It has ugly themes. Since Windows Live obviously doesn’t like spending time developing themes, why not let users do it? It also has a slow module browser and a lack of features. Pretty much every other blogging service has more features.

Slow

I don’t know if this happens to other people, but when I switch between Windows Live services, say, Hotmail and Spaces, I get led to a blank intermediate page, where I frequently have to wait 3 seconds while it redirects.

Unintuitive Settings Pages

Editing settings on Windows Live is frequently like navigating a maze. Everything seems to be on a different page, and pretty soon you’re lost.

Lack of Privacy Settings

Not enough settings. Not organized well.

Lack of Modules

I guess they can’t do much about this one. But I will probably create a module soon – probably just a blog search module, but less ugly than the current one which has a scroll bar and 50+ different radio buttons.

Hotmail Is Still Slow

Or at least it feels slower than Gmail, despite the speed increase.

McCafe

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The other night I bought a mocha latte at a McDonald’s, which was remodeled a while back to include a McCafe, basically McDonald’s plus a coffee shop. Anyway, I drank it right before I went to bed, and I had the most extreme caffeine rush ever. I was unable to fall asleep until around 3:00 A.M. But while my thoughts were racing I came up with quite a few new ideas for websites. Alas, I’m too cowardly at the moment to spend any of my money to expand that production possibilities curve and make even more money.

But back to the McCafe train of thought. I just now Wikid it and learned that McCafe has actually been around since 1993 outside of the U.S. Not surprisingly, the McDonalds with McCafe earn significantly more than a traditional McDonalds. With stats like these I would have expected McCafe to be introduced to all McDonald’s earlier. With the addition of a McCafe, the entire McDonald’s gets remodeled, and the stores adds espresso machines and a few extra ingredients. With just the addition of whipped cream, chocolate syrup and various flavorings, they’ve added 6 entirely new high profit products to their menu.

In addition, McCafe dramatically improves the image and appeal of the restaurant. The one I went to added a few flat screen TVs, free WIFI, some trendy (laminate) wood dividers and it all looked pretty nice for a hamburger joint. In fact it looked good enough that I suddenly wanted to eat there more than usual.

The drinks are quite good considering that they’re from the factory that is McDonalds. The only problem with the McCafe is that their “handcrafted” drinks slow down the food manufacturing process.