Random non sequitur posts catch-all thread

RawkGWJ wrote:

My former music teacher told me, “Jazz is just classical music with the emphasis being on beats 2 and 4 where classical has the emphasis on 1 and 3.”... This is exactly what’s happening with Mozart’s “Twinkle, Twinkle” and Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World.

I follow you, but in this case both songs use common time (emphasis on the 1/3), so maybe not a good example of what you describe.

My take is, it's super common for unrelated songs to use the same chord progression, but what's interesting here is that it's the opposite - you have the same melody, note-for-note, but they don't sound alike because they're harmonized differently.

E.g. "Twinkle Twinkle" starts out I I IV I IV I V I, so harmonically very simple, and the melody notes are all roots or fifths or major thirds of their respective chords. Hence the very stable, predictable sound. In contrast "What a Wonderful World" might typically be played I7 iii IV iii ii7 I7 V/vi7 vi, so those same melody notes that used to be roots and perfect fifths are now minor thirds or sevenths of their chords. I think that's what makes it sound more evocative and generally jazzy.

Nicely done!!

One more thing that makes WaWW sound jazzy is the syncopated melodic line. The line “and I think to myself” also incorporates a slow triplet. The rhythm of Twinkle by comparison is all downbeats.

I wonder if you could have just changed the IP on the new router to match the old one...?

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I switched routers and that went ok but I wasn't prepare for all the things I had update. The cameras, plugs, bulbs, and everything that connects to the network. Some devices were easy to update but others I'm still trying update.

The good news is that switching to a new router has fixed my connection problems.

That is why when I changed mine I just name the WiFi network the same as on the old with the same password. Almost everything just seamlessly moves over then.

LeapingGnome wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

I switched routers and that went ok but I wasn't prepare for all the things I had update. The cameras, plugs, bulbs, and everything that connects to the network. Some devices were easy to update but others I'm still trying update.

The good news is that switching to a new router has fixed my connection problems.

That is why when I changed mine I just name the WiFi network the same as on the old with the same password. Almost everything just seamlessly moves over then.

I put my password out in public for a few months by mistake and wanted to change it. That would have made things easier.

Team lead asked me to put a comment in the issue tracker regarding some defects on a spec. I forgot, and the spec moved on to the next step. Not that big a deal, since I'm the one coding it anyway (and it's almost done, too), but I might have to eat crow at some point because of it.

Oh well.

Those specs are horrible. They're all at least 20 pages, but 99% of what's in them is completely useless from a development perspective, and the 1% remaining doesn't actually tell me what I'm supposed to do.

On the other hand, that project is a lot better than the one I was on before. Instead of looking at old crappy code and analyzing what it does, I get to write new crappy code!

...And now the Circle of Code is complete, comprising a rotating register of indeterminate but finite length in which the last element is followed by the first...

RawkGWJ wrote:

Nicely done!!

One more thing that makes WaWW sound jazzy is the syncopated melodic line. The line “and I think to myself” also incorporates a slow triplet. The rhythm of Twinkle by comparison is all downbeats.

Side note: while thinking about this it occurred to me that the alphabet song (now I know my ABCs..) also has the same melody as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Which seems like a fact too blazingly obvious to not notice, but oddly I can't recall ever having been aware if it before.

Would a third set of teeth at the age of 45 be worth the headaches/pain?

What would the tooth fairy bring in exchange for your second set of teeth?

Stealthpizza wrote:

Would a third set of teeth at the age of 45 be worth the headaches/pain?

What would the tooth fairy bring in exchange for your second set of teeth?

Lipitor

fenomas wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Nicely done!!

One more thing that makes WaWW sound jazzy is the syncopated melodic line. The line “and I think to myself” also incorporates a slow triplet. The rhythm of Twinkle by comparison is all downbeats.

Side note: while thinking about this it occurred to me that the alphabet song (now I know my ABCs..) also has the same melody as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Which seems like a fact too blazingly obvious to not notice, but oddly I can't recall ever having been aware if it before.

Also Baa Baa Black Sheep.

bobbywatson wrote:

Team lead asked me to put a comment in the issue tracker regarding some defects on a spec. I forgot, and the spec moved on to the next step. Not that big a deal, since I'm the one coding it anyway (and it's almost done, too), but I might have to eat crow at some point because of it.

Oh well.

Those specs are horrible. They're all at least 20 pages, but 99% of what's in them is completely useless from a development perspective, and the 1% remaining doesn't actually tell me what I'm supposed to do.

On the other hand, that project is a lot better than the one I was on before. Instead of looking at old crappy code and analyzing what it does, I get to write new crappy code!

I am the ghost of Agile Future... ooooOOOOooo...

We finally got our power restored after Tuesday's tropical storm.

Strangely, the fiber-optic lines didn't go down, so we had internet as long as I ran power to the FiOS box and router from our generator.

That's because they are powered from the switch. And that is likely in an old Bell or Verizon phone bunker with redundant power. Gotta love FIOS...

Robear wrote:

That's because they are powered from the switch. And that is likely in an old Bell or Verizon phone bunker with redundant power. Gotta love FIOS...

I just meant that I was surprised that power lines were down all over my town (75% of the town lost power on Tuesday) but somehow the FiOS lines themselves stayed up.

It's weird to have only one powered lamp in my house, but still have 100 Mbps internet.

that reminds me how after one storm, I kept telling people to call us on the landline because we didn't have power and I wanted to keep the cell phone charged

Hrdina wrote:

I just meant that I was surprised that power lines were down all over my town (75% of the town lost power on Tuesday) but somehow the FiOS lines themselves stayed up.

Isn't that a big reason people get FIOS? Or is that just something the tech types notice? It's not "somehow", reliability (in the technical sense) is designed into the system lol. FIOS is life for information workers.

Despite the name of this site, occasionally, I am reminded why I stopped calling myself a "gamer."

I too, love my wife, a brand.

Am I overly sensitive, or is it weird for an article that touches on various nuances of cultural sensitivity to kick off with "so we all know how xenophobic the Japanese are" in the lead paragraph?

Robear wrote:

Isn't that a big reason people get FIOS? Or is that just something the tech types notice? It's not "somehow", reliability (in the technical sense) is designed into the system lol. FIOS is life for information workers. :-)

I'm not sure TBH.

I got it because it was available when I moved house back in 2008, and it was a vast improvement over the DSL I previously had.

I still have the "older" FiOS, which uses coaxial cable within the house. I can't upgrade my speed any more without upgrading the junction box to one that uses Cat6 instead of coax, and I'm not eager to have people inside my house right now.

The uncanny valley effect is also true of demons trying to pass as human. However, often regular people are mistaken as demons because people are weird. So don't be so quick to judge the guy with pineapple on his pizza or the girl crab walking backwards down the stairs shooting projectile vomit at people claiming to be Pazuzu.

fenomas wrote:

Am I overly sensitive, or is it weird for an article that touches on various nuances of cultural sensitivity to kick off with "so we all know how xenophobic the Japanese are" in the lead paragraph?

I agree.

steinkrug wrote:

I agree.

Hrm, thanks.

FWIW the author is loopy - "gaijin" isn't even impolite or disparaging, it literally just means foreigner.

Hrdina wrote:

I still have the "older" FiOS, which uses coaxial cable within the house. I can't upgrade my speed any more without upgrading the junction box to one that uses Cat6 instead of coax, and I'm not eager to have people inside my house right now.

I hear that... The new box is because they rebid the cable plant and another company won. It also changes out the internal landline phone box, making it easier to deal with, and smaller. It's a good upgrade when you're ready for it.

fenomas wrote:

FWIW the author is loopy - "gaijin" isn't even impolite or disparaging, it literally just means foreigner.

C'mon man, every single result on the first page of Google results for "is gaijin impolite" shows that you're wrong.

By your logic, "asshole" isn't impolite either. It literally just means the place you poop from.

Oh noes I'm outvoted!

In seriousness I don't know what you're seeing. When I search for that the top result seems to agree with me but most of them don't answer either way. If you post a specific link I can respond to it.

Either way, the word is neither polite nor an insult. A native speaker would use it when saying how much they respect and admire foreigners, and they'd also use it when saying they hate dirty stinky foreigners. There aren't really any other terms for foreigner in general use, except variations like gaijin-san or gaikokujin (which differ in formality or nuance but not politeness).

Note that obviously I'm talking about politeness w.r.t. the intent of a native speaker saying it. How a listener interprets the word is naturally a separate matter.

Jonman wrote:
fenomas wrote:

FWIW the author is loopy - "gaijin" isn't even impolite or disparaging, it literally just means foreigner.

C'mon man, every single result on the first page of Google results for "is gaijin impolite" shows that you're wrong.

By your logic, "asshole" isn't impolite either. It literally just means the place you poop from.

In unrelated news my Mexican 'friends' tell me they call me Gringo out of respect...

thrawn82 wrote:
Jonman wrote:
fenomas wrote:

FWIW the author is loopy - "gaijin" isn't even impolite or disparaging, it literally just means foreigner.

C'mon man, every single result on the first page of Google results for "is gaijin impolite" shows that you're wrong.

By your logic, "asshole" isn't impolite either. It literally just means the place you poop from.

In unrelated news my Mexican 'friends' tell me they call me Gringo out of respect...

It was explained to me by my best friend's wife's father (a Japanese man) that gaijin doesn't mean foreigner, it means "not Japanese" originally. The distinction is subtle, but it is there. This explanation happened when I said "I'm just a gaijin" in jest and he pulled me aside later to inform me what I had just did.

A friend of mine who happens to be Asian told me that gaijin means white devil. I told him that not all Anglicans are white devils. He said, “Don’t worry. You’re one of the good ones.“

Grenn wrote:

It was explained to me by my best friend's wife's father (a Japanese man) that gaijin doesn't mean foreigner, it means "not Japanese" originally. The distinction is subtle, but it is there. This explanation happened when I said "I'm just a gaijin" in jest and he pulled me aside later to inform me what I had just did.

AFAIK most linguists think that the modern usage derives from "gaikokujin", which during Japan's imperial days referred to anyone from outside the Japanese empire (there being a separate term for people who were from countries within the empire but outside Japan).

But etymology aside, in general usage gaikokujin is the standard (formal) term and gaijin is widely assumed to be an abbreviation of it (apparently linguists disagree over whether that's actually the case). And in practice, both get used quite haphazardly - in reference to a person's nationality, their place of birth, their cultural background, their racial makeup, or any combination thereof. They're not very precise terms.

RawkGWJ wrote:

A friend of mine who happens to be Asian told me that gaijin means white devil. I told him that not all Anglicans are white devils. He said, “Don’t worry. You’re one of the good ones.“

That'd be "gweilo", and it's Chinese.