A New Old Guitar

I came across a guitar last Friday, so now I have a new project. It's in pretty rough shape, but I've always wanted to know how to build guitars, so this will be my introduction. Here's a picture of approximately the condition in which I got it:

That's not even the coolest part. If you didn't notice the bridge in the first picture, take a look at this:

That's right, it's a twelve string. I played a few notes on the four strings that were still intact when I got it, and it sounds terrible, but that's not the point. The point is that when my work is done, it will sound like a twelve string.

Even though there's a lot of work to do, there's a few things that seem good. The neck looks fine, no big gouges taken out of it or anything, no twists. Check it out:

The frets need a little work. At least one fret needs to be glued down, and the zero fret needs to be replaced entirely. I can't wait for that part. Fret work sounds like fun. At first I thought that the bridge needed some work, but upon closer inspection, it looks like I can get the guitar into a playable state with the bridge that's already on it. It just needs a few new bridge pins.

On Saturday I started by lifting the pick guard off. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. One edge was already lifting up, so I started pulling from there, and it came off easily. That was all I could do Saturday because the stores were closed by the time I got around to working on the guitar.
On Sunday I started sanding. I wish I had taken pictures earlier so you could have seen how bad the back looked. The finish was cloudy and cracked in a few places. I could have sanded it down just a little bit since I'm thinking of doing solid colours, but since the finish was cracked, I decided to take it down to the bare wood. Here's a couple of pics of the sanded back. The white powder that was all over the guitar in the other pictures was sawdust. I just placed the pick guard back on the body for illustrative purposes.
When I first got it, you could tell the back was originally the same colour as the sides. I don't know how it got so ugly. The next step for me will be to sand the front down to the wood (there's cracks in the front finish too), then seal the wood. After that, it's probably best that I try and make it playable before I do too much other work. If I do that though, then I could end up wasting a set of strings when I have to take them back off to paint. I guess I'm most worried that it wont be able to support the tension of all the strings. It wouldn't feel very nice to have a newly finished body destroyed just by stringing it up.

Multiple Flavourgasms

Jerk Pork and Ginger Glazed Vegetables on Basmati Rice

Start with the rice. Basmati rice is extra tasty, plus it has more complex sugars than white rice, so it stays with you longer. Adding chicken stock gives it a little extra oomph.
2 cups water
1 cup rice
1 tbsp. chicken bullion
Combine all three ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, stir, cover, reduce to low heat, and set a timer for 27 minutes.

If your pork chops are frozen start defrosting them now.
Next we have to get the ginger glazed vegetables started, since the carrots and beans take so much longer than the pork. I used yellow wax beans, but the flavour didn't quite work, but they were chosen more for the colour than the flavour.
Use fresh ginger rather than the powdered variety. It's dirt cheap, and has a brighter, more lemony flavour.
4 carrots cut into 2 inch strips
large handful yellow wax beans, ends removed
1 tbsp. chopped ginger
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp. white sugar
Combine everything in a frying pan over medium heat. Cover and stir occasionally at first, while there is still water in the pan. As the water boils off and the sugar caramelizes, the vegetables need to be tossed constantly.

I've never heard of a bad tasting jerk sauce. I use the President's Choice brand, it's called Memories of Montego Bay. If you can't find that, I'm sure any brand will do.
1 onion
2 pork chops
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3-5 tbsp. jerk sauce
Cut these ingredients up as large or small as you like. Use a well oiled frying pan over medium heat, add the onions and pork chops. When the pork in cooked a little bit on the outside, add the jerk sauce. When the onions are mostly translucent, and the pork is mostly done, add the green and red pepper. Stir constantly

If you timed it right, everything will be done at the same time. Stack the jerk pork mixture on top of the rice, then place the ginger glazed vegetables vertically up one side of the rice and jerk mound. Serve to someone you want to impress.

Reporting Passive Failures in Enterprise Systems

I promised that I would eventually get around to writing down my thoughts on reporting passive failures, but the more I think about it, the less there is to say and to think about.

When I say passive failure, I'm usually thinking about something that can only be detected over time. Because of this I assume the presence of some sort of persistence mechanism, like a database. I'm also assuming that the failure is related to the information making its way into that database.

..so boring.

1. If at all possible turn your passive failure into an active one. Suppose we have a batch processing system. The client pushes a batch of whatever to a server. If there's no whatever there's no push. Rather than trying to determine how long to go without a push to report a failure, make a way for the client to inform the server that there is nothing to push.

2. report a probability that the system has failed. The longer the system goes without doing something, the higher the probability that a failure has occurred. This will likely lead to having to check that your system is working, when it was working the whole time, but that's better than the embarrassing realisation that your system hasn't been working for the past month.

There has to be better ways to do this than what I've listed, but I got what I really wanted out of this, I figured out something I need to do at work tomorrow.

Jump shot in Wii Play billiards

"Okay now you have to blog about that," were the words of a wide-eyed Gina the first time I successfully sunk a ball using a jump shot.
It all started on a cool Spring afternoon. It was Good Friday, and there was nothing to do in a small town like Truro. We had some income tax coming back, so money wasn't as tight as it usually was.
Gina was at the computer when she turns to me with a look in her eye, the kind of look a person gets when they have an idea so fitting for the ambient mood that other people feel as though their collective minds have been channeled. This was exactly how I felt.
"You know how it's our anniversary tomorrow?" she started.
"Yah?" I said, in anticipation of finding out what I didn't know what was on my mind.
"We should get ourselves Wii Play."
"I'm getting my shoes on."

I get home with the new game, pop it in, and loose myself in the simple monotony and bright colours of the games. It would have lost it's appeal after mere minutes had I not had someone to share in my digital mirage.
Billiards became an instant favourite. With Gina and I being in our twenties, and it being billiards, it was a perfect match.
The physics were fairly realistic, and we began to expect more from them, including backspin. It did not disappoint, until it came to the jump shot. You can only play 9-ball for so long before the target ball has a solid wall of untouchable balls between it and the cue ball, and when it happens, you know exactly what needs to be done.
We tried pulling up at the end of the stroke, but the game was pretty tight lipped about how far off we were with our technique. We searched far and wide through the first 5 results on google, but with no luck. Our billiards playing comrades abroad were seeking the same knowledge as us, but none were forthcoming with the proper jump shot technique. The occasional super-champ casually mentioned their jump shot ability, usually describing how difficult they are to control, while entirely missing the aim of the thread: discovering the proper technique.

Then in a serendipitous moment of exploration, I found it. It was the exploration that happens between the time the novelty wears off, and the time you develop a new habit that it happened. I realised that in my fixation on making the next shot each and every time, I had never pushed the up arrow. To my surprise, the view changed. My view changed. I was compelled to explore further. I pushed up until I was looking down on the cue ball from above. I knew instantly what was happening.

I discovered this new perspective on the game not a second too soon. There was a wall of balls between me and the target ball, and not an artist's hope in calculus that I could bank the ball correctly. Like second nature I pulled back my wiimote and struck the cue ball hard on the side closest to the bottom of the screen. At the time I would have described it as the side closest to me, I was so involved in the game. It cleared the wall of balls the previously would have been a show stopper, and struck the target ball instantly upon the cue ball's return to the table, deadening the bounce, and keeping it on the table.

No sooner did my jaw begin to drop, than the cue ball went careening off across the table, striking a second ball, which had spent the better portion of that match peering down into the corner pocket. The second ball, I believe it was the 8, tipped lightly into the corner pocket while the cue ball came to rest a short distance away. It was done. Not only had I discovered how to perform a jump shot, I had made the exact shot I was hoping to make, plus another ball as an added bonus.
"Okay now you have to blog about that," were the words of a wide-eyed Gina the first time I successfully sunk a ball using a jump shot.

Detecting Passive Failure

I was intending to write a little bit on detecting passive failures in enterprise systems, but frankly I don't really have anything interesting to say. This is mostly because I don't have my notebook with me right now but don't worry, I'll write about the technical details in my next post. For now what's on my mind is a less technical kind of the same thing.

The way I defined passive failure for my own purposes is something that can fail without a specific point of failure. I promised some people I would write about that, possibly in the form of a children's book, but while thinking about making that post, I let too much time lapse between posts, which itself is a failure of the type I'm trying to detect, only in my own life.

Perhaps it was the length and anxiety caused by my last entry that made me neglect my writing practice, or perhaps it's just that I'm still not inspired to write, or maybe it's something else. The difficult part is that I'm not exactly sure at which point I've failed. This is one class of problem that I'm trying to figure out and solve at work.

Before I write about detecting passive failures in enterprise systems I'd like to know what some other people think about detecting and fixing passive failures in real life. What techniques do you use to keep yourself doing the things you should? Is it that doing what you should is less of an inconvenience than not doing it? Maybe you don't do things that aren't natural for you?

Making a New Music Industry

I've recently read quite a few posts on DRM, the RIAA, and other inconveniences standing between some people and their music. I haven't bothered to make any links to these topics because they're not hard to find. I actually find them tough to avoid sometimes. I have found most of these articles mind-numbingly boring, someone complains that they can't get music on their iPod, or that customers don't appreciate what the music industry is trying to do for them when they don't let them put music on their iPods, or anywhere but an iPod. I wish I had an iPod.

What I'm going to write about today is my solution to the problem of music as an industry. Not that it's a problem for me since I live in Canada, but being the imaginative individual that I am, I'd still like to come up with a solution. It's quite simple really, a company simply needs to implement an automated system to take advantage of the Long Tail.

If you don't already know about the long tail, I'll give a brief explanation. Fifty percent of potential sales are made up of a relatively small variety of items, but this still leaves fifty percent of potential sales made up of a very large variety. The key is that these two halves are the exact same size. The problem is having the capacity to sell a large enough variety of items to make a profit. This can only be accomplished if the cost of selling one more type of item is drastically lower than the tiny profit to be made by selling that item.

To put it in more concrete terms, the bands you hear on the radio and see on television make up the bulk of music sales. However, there are thousands upon thousands of bands out there, making music, but not selling albums (or concert tickets, or t-shirts, or band logo toilet seat covers). All these bands combined could make up the same volume of sales as the lucky few selected to get air-play.

What is needed for this to take place is a highly scalable model for distributing music, and selling associated items. I won't get in to too much detail right now, but the key is self-service. Any band with a song and a mailing address should be able to sign up on their own, and have their music and merchandise marketed and sold just like every other band who has already signed up. This kind of self-service sign-up is exactly what made google the force they are today. Anyone with a credit card can sign up and buy advertisements.

With all this being said, it should be clear what the music industry will look like in a long time or a short time. They will provide the marketing, and sell merchandise on demand. The music for the most part will be given away free, so people can decide for themselves what music they really like. As this model builds, no one will expect to make a living selling music. There will be enough bands giving away their music for free that every musical taste can be satisfied with something that can be obtained for free. The way musicians will be making a living is by selling things associated with their music, or even by some of the traditional methods.

This new model will not prevent musicians from making their millions, not that they're intrinsically entitled to the potentially make millions, but just because they're giving away music to be listened to doesn't mean they're giving away their rights to it. Movies, television, advertisements, and radio broadcasts still need music to play, and are willing and able to pay for it now and in the future.

This should be becoming perfectly to everyone now. A band provides whatever content they care to provide, the new record company sells whatever they can to whoever they can. What makes this so exciting is the need for scalability. There's not much hope of a top-40 band trying out this new model. They're already a top-40 band, so the current system is working for them just fine. What the new music company needs is thousands of bands to put together the listener base of the top-40 band. This wouldn't be a problem for an internet based interface to a music company. The reason the company will be able to get thousands of bands is that they will be built around selling everything for every band. Because the company is concentrating their efforts on selling anything from anyone, it will be worthwhile for every band that's not already in an exclusive contract to sign up.

The rest is simply a matter of creativity and marketing. People want music. Having such a wide assortment of music should make it more likely that any given music lover can find music they like. This will lead to a wider audience, which means that any given band should be able to find someone who at least wants to listen to their music.

It's easy to see how this model can grow very quickly to a huge potential customer base. Potentially larger than the top-40 customer base. What's more it's actually advantageous to let people listen to music without limitations. Not just let them, but really try to get to listen to more music that they will like.

There is no new technology required to do any of this. It's all a matter of implementation , and a realisation that it can be done. I've wanted to do this myself for a while, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I would love to hear anything and everything you have to say on this topic, or on the post itself. Tell me why this will or will not work, something I wasn't clear about, something I ignored. I'm also interested in hearing how you enjoyed the post itself. Did it keep you interest, did it read well, did it flow smoothly from one thought to the next?

I wrote this post without the use of an outline. I'm also not reading it over before I post it. These are the exact symptoms of writing anxiety I am trying to overcome. This post also took me two evenings to write due to my inability to put effective sentences together quickly. Maybe I should be sticking to topics, instead of writing about the post itself, since this topic seems to have brought out the problems I need to overcome. We'll see how it goes.

Never Giving Up

I'm making another post as soon as possible, hoping that by making many posts, I'll get into the habit of writing before I lose interest. The same technique worked when I was learning to play bass. I would sit in my room and just make sure the bass was making sound for hours at a time. Eventually it became routine, and soon after I was playing because I loved it. If this blog works as well as my bass routine I'll be moving on to more difficult techniques in no time.

I've always found that one of the most difficult parts of non-technical writing is creating smooth transitions from one thought to another. I was taught in English class to write an outline before starting a piece of writing. Among other things, an outline makes it much easier to organize thoughts and the transitions between them , which is why I took the time to write one for this post. I know it's a little too formal a technique for a blog post, but I'm just making noise for now.

Today seems to be my day for nurturing my good habits. After a two-week hiatus from lifting weights due to a sore wrist, I can finally continue my fitness regime. I've been going with something loosely resembling The Hacker's Diet. I track my weight and body fat percentage with a spreadsheet, and use that to determine when I need to make adjustments. Over the last two weeks the spreadsheet has shown me that I seriously need to make adjustments.

I wish there was a way to objectively measure my writing skills progress the way I can with my weight. I feel like I'm getting better since I finished up to this point in this point in just over an hour, but that doesn't sound like a good metric to measure writing skill by. It doesn't matter. I'll just keep playing blog until it starts bing fun.