Jason R. Baron: why companies should pay attention to growing data volumes and to analytics

Jason Baron is awesome!!! Big data, analytics, predictive coding, business ethics and digital humanism… I love Baron’s fannnntabulous mind!!! This is a smart people watch. ~~~Felicia

eDisclosure Information Project

Jason R. Baron is Of Counsel at Drinker Biddle & Reath and Co-Chair of the Information Governance Initiative.

He was a keynote speaker at the LawTech Europe Congress in Prague last year, where he gave us many good reasons why companies should be paying attention to the ever-increasing volumes of data which they create and keep, not just to reduce cost and risk but to uncover valuable data.

This is one of two short videos which he recorded for me on that occasion. The other will follow shortly.

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Artificial Intelligence, Deep Neural Networks and Deep Learning: Oh My!!

♥In Love with Technology♥

I can’t explain how much I love learning about technological breakthroughs. I’m not scared in the least bit by much when it comes to the forefront of intellectualism. I recently read a hard copy article in the May 2015 issue of The Economist titled Artificial intelligence:
Rise of the machines. The byline says… “artificial intelligence scares people—excessively so?” Really? What a bunch of wimps!! People continue to fight enlightenment, progression and change to stay in boxes they have built. Not me.

At a speech in October 2014 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a scholar said that artificial intelligence (AI) was “summoning the demon.” People are paranoid that machines will take over in employment’s race for productivity. With industry powerhouses like Google and Amazon buying AI start-up companies, maybe human worries are justified? We will just find other jobs right? It’s called perseverance.

•Photo I snapped while reading the article in the library.•

Will computers continue to replace some of the things that people normally do? Probably. I loved this quote. “The torrent of data thrown off by the world’s internet-connected computers, tablets and smartphones, and the huge amounts of computing power now available for processing that torrent, means that their algorithms are more and more capable of understanding languages, recognizing images and the like.” Why didn’t I visit the San Diego Supercomputer Center many years ago when I had the chance? I also could have ditched my conference last October to go there! Now that would have been a real memory to cherish!

The article in The Economist said “signs of the AI boom are everywhere.” Google recently paid $400 million for DeepMind. Have you ever heard of DeepMind? If not, you should so check it out!! Pure awesomeness if you like video games. Just Google it and see. There is also a great article in The New Yorker which discusses how deep neural networks operate. Deep neural networks are used by companies like DeepMind. These artificial networks are much like the neural networks in the human brain. It is amazing to read about.

The newest form of AI tied to deep neural networks is now capable of “deep learning!” Computers can learn through the analysis of large amounts of data using algorithms. Freak out on the algorithm Facebook recently deployed. Did you think you were anonymous in that untagged photo? Think again… DeepFace “can recognise specific human faces in images around 97% of the time, even when those faces are partly hidden or poorly lit.” I want to be that smart and write programs like this. It’s not fair!! Male engineers created DeepFace and I give them tons of respect, but why are intelligent women often seen as  domineering? That’s not fair either.

•Smart Woman Army•

Another thing I found interesting in the article was that since most data is labeled by humans, and algorithms need that data to learn better, another race is on. It is a race to develop “unsupervised-learning” algorithms. This way, the need for human labeling is basically eliminated. How accurate will it be? I guess we will see. Artificial neural networks were invented in the 1950s by people with big brains who wanted bigger, faster, more accurate brains! I lovvvvve brains!! I am so not turned off by them!! Haha… These smart people were simulating the neurons and electrochemicals in a human brain to create artificial intelligence. It worked!!

♦"Just watch! Imma make my perfect woman!" (Dr.J before the chemical waste accident that birthed The Joker and this is not Harley Quinn)♦

If you are a brave fellow intellectual and enjoy all things mind blowing, you should read the article in The Economist. It so so worth the read. You can also learn about the interesting problem with AI. Do you know the one thing people can immediately identify that a computer simply can’t define? Porn… Yes… pornography. I guess machines provide plenty of access to porn, but don’t ask a damn machine to intelligently recognize porn lol. We can leave that type of analysis to the humans!

IO launches an OpenStack cloud running on open source servers

~~~Awesome. •••Felicia

Gigaom

Modular data center expert IO is getting into the cloud provider business, launching a new service called IO.Cloud that’s built using Open Compute server designs and runs the OpenStack cloud computing operating system.

That’s a lot of open source, but the company seems to think it’s necessary. According to the IO.Cloud website: “IO.Cloud is built on Open Compute because it provides our engineers with the flexibility to configure and optimize the hardware specifically for scale cloud deployments … IO.Cloud uses OpenStack Cloud components that are interoperable and designed to support standardized hardware implementations.”

IO is pitching IO.Cloud as an enterprise cloud offering, and if it plans to legitimately compete against larger cloud providers for those workloads, the company and its cloud can use any advantages they can get. IO.Cloud is available in hosted and on-premises versions, and the Open Compute hardware almost certainly will let IO operate its public cloud infrastructure more efficiently, as well…

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The Artistic Science of Cryptology

~• Cryptogram by Felicia Lujan- January 20, 2012 •~

Tonight I checked out the Encyclopedia of Cryptology at my local public library. What an amazing book. David Newton put together a great encyclopedia which documents “black chambers, microdots and invisible ink, agents and double agents, intrigues, betrayals, and murders.” The encyclopedia is mind blowing and uncovers “the history of cryptology” and “the science of secret writing.”

Cryptology, for those who do not know, is a science. It is the science of secret writing and messages. A message is customized by an author for a particular recipient. These messages are manipulated in a way so that not just anybody can grasp the meaning. Cryptography is the scientific art of authoring such messages. The majority of these types of messages can be classified as either a cipher or a code.

In his introduction, Newton says that his studies have revealed that secret writing has been used to transmit messages for at least 4,000 years. The encyclopedia says that David Kahn, “the great historian of cryptology” can prove that the first secret message altered by a human has been traced to an ancient Egyptian tomb from around 1900 B.C. This is just the earliest example.

Contemporary secret messages have been encoded and decoded by “politicians and diplomats, military officers and infantrymen, smugglers and thieves, retail merchants and bankers, officials and scholars of the highest rank, and the simplest citizens of nations around the world.” The latter would include me! I tend to enjoy creating cryptograms. My messages include words, numbers, symbolism and images.

The Newton encyclopedia captures information on Leon Battista Alberti, who is referred to as the Father of Western Cryptology. He was a Florentine cryptographer who was born in Genoa in 1404. I find Alberti extremely interesting as he was well rounded with regard to his skills and interests. He was an architect who built famous structures. Alberti also painted, wrote poetry, loved drama, was a philosopher, and he could even write essays. This man was very smart. He built a custom cipher machine out of two copper plates. The plates rotated to encode and decode messages. How awesome is that?!

~• Leon Battista Alberti (Credit-www.cs.trincoll.edu) •~

Then we have one of my favorites in the book. How could we have an encyclopedia on this subject without including Edgar Allan Poe? The dark poet died in 1849, and surely took many coded secrets to the grave. He coded his stories and poetry in ways which no other writer has. The American poet was adept with monoalphabetic substitution in his writing. He tried to decrypt the messages others, but usually failed with regard to that. I guess some codes were not intended to be broken, solved, cracked, revealed? Poe also published several articles on cryptology. If this man was alive and well, I would surely kiss him with much love and admiration.

On a final note, a few days ago I created a digital composite with a photo of myself. That was indeed a cryptogram. It was titled Death of the Algorithm. I did not intend for anyone to decipher my message, but the gram is symbolic and was created using an image of a particular algorithm. Newton’s encyclopedia has information about algorithms. These mathematical concoctions are codes used to solve problems.

Today, the world of cryptology involves encipherment and decipherment to solve complex problems. This includes the digital world. A good example of algorithm with regard to virtual cryptography would be the development of Data Encryption Standards. Computers use algorithms for many functions, including data encryption.

Maybe it’s time for me to go back to school? I would make one hell of a cryptographer. I may not be good at the decryption of secret messages, but I am a great encoder! Interestingly enough, I finished writing this piece at exactly 11:11. That is a code in itself.

Language as a Weapon

…………………………………………
•Navajo Code Talkers of WWII•
(Photo courtesy of http://www.archives.gov)

Today was special for the Navajo saviors of World War II. The Navajo Code Talkers were rightfully honored by the Daughters of the American Revolution with a new monument here in the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

During World War II the Diné language was used as a weapon. A secret code was created to confuse the Japanese by using over 200 words. Without the language of 400+ awesome Navajo Marines, the war may have been lost.

The Glitch

•————————–•
Faux pas of the lovely
kind~ a human glitch is
not so hard to take.
•————————–•
The defect rests in a
mirage~ so I’ll just
remember I will wake.
•————————–•
Malfunctioning~ the
twilight burns as sparks
fly off the cuff.
•————————–•
Ailing is she~ strength
must grow~ weakness
never was enough.
•————————–•
Each kink and knot
bears tenderness. The
glitch doesn’t need a fix.
•————————–•
If there are mistakes
in fate there was no
need for paths to mix.
•————————–•
Imperfection~ stop and
love the flaws because
they make me real.
•————————–•
A glitch, a fault, the
missing code~ this is
the reason I can feel.
•————————–•

by Felicia Lujan
3.7.2013

This is absolutely amazing!!!!
I love this… ~F

Dream Job: Implementing Open Source Preservation Solutions for Digital Collections

This totally rocks! Today the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign published a news release courtsey of Dell titled “New Preservation Archive.” The release says “working with Dell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created a new digital archive for its university system that simplifies how it manages digital assets, including rare books and faculty intellectual property output such as research documents, papers and lectures — content typically produced in multiple digital formats. The new archive reduces storage costs and streamlines the management, retention and protection of scholarly works through a solution based on the Dell DX Object Storage Platform and DuraSpace Open Source Fedora Commons Repository Software. Critical for the university was the ability to meet today’s needs and to scale efficiently over time as digital content evolves and grows.” This is awesome! Universities are taking advantage of open solutions, but they have people who know how to build and manage the systems. DuraSpace also rocks! I worked with DSpace when I built small scale, virtual digital repositories from the ground up in my UofA program. I really need to work toward that Doctoral Program. The full news release is below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dell and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Create Preservation Archive with Open Source Fedora Repository Software

Date : 9/27/2012~~ Round Rock, Texas

~~~One of the largest public university libraries in the country uses open source software on Dell DX Object Storage Platform to manage and protect digital assets.

~~~University lowers storage total cost of ownership with scalability to support archive growth.

Working with Dell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created a new digital archive for its university system that simplifies how it manages digital assets, including rare books and faculty intellectual property output such as research documents, papers and lectures — content typically produced in multiple digital formats. The new archive reduces storage costs and streamlines the management, retention and protection of scholarly works through a solution based on the Dell DX Object Storage Platform and DuraSpace Open Source Fedora Commons Repository Software. Critical for the university was the ability to meet today’s needs and to scale efficiently over time as digital content evolves and grows.

Explosive data growth and large data sets make it more difficult for libraries, museums and government organizations to efficiently preserve and protect documents, multimedia content and digital assets for future generations. As one of the largest public university libraries in the world, the Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign manages the intellectual property and digital content created by faculty, administrators and students — from one-of-a-kind, fragile books that can create 600 to 800 image objects once digitized, to retiring professors’ collections of work over a 20- to 25-year tenure.

After considering its digital archive and retention goals, the University of Illinois customized a version of Fedora Repository Software and combined it with the Dell DX Object Storage Platform. The platform automatically replicates an archive master and a working master of each file to simplify data backup, storing one copy on the University’s main library cluster and a second copy in its engineering library. In the future, a third copy will be archived in the cloud to further simplify data access and sharing across the University system. The Dell DX Platform also produces metadata to manage the archive, identifying files that need to be transitioned from older to newer digital formats for future generations. And the DX Object Storage Platform’s plug and play framework lets archivists add additional retention capacity to the digital archive as it is needed, simply and efficiently.

Quotes

John Mullen, Vice President, Education and State & Local Government, Dell
“With the transition from stacks and the Dewey Decimal system to bytes, clusters and metadata, academic libraries need a digital archiving strategy that addresses their immediate and future needs. The University of Illinois’ innovative and open approach to this challenge is a practical model for any university.”

Thomas Habing, Research Programmer, Research and Development, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Library
“This opportunity provides us with extra resources to further the development of the Library’s digital preservation archive. It also allows us to continue to utilize Open Source Fedora Commons Repository Software while at the same time employing a commercially-supported object storage platform with many digital preservation features, such as replication and validation, which we will not need to implement ourselves. Plus, we can share all of our development efforts back to the open source community which helps everyone, including Dell.”

Michele Kimpton, CEO of DuraSpace
“The Open Source Fedora repository platform is used by more than 400 institutions around the globe. We believe commercial implementations, such as Dell, provide our users with the best of both worlds — hardware and services from a large-scale commercial vendor integrated with open source software, Fedora Repository. The total package provides users with greater transparency and durability in the long run.”

About University of Illinois
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has long been ranked among the nation’s most distinguished teaching and research institutions. Its diverse, world-class programs reflect the mission of a land-grant university. The largest public university in Illinois, the Urbana campus was chartered by the state in 1867 as the Illinois Industrial University and opened its doors to students in 1868. Its library is ranked highly nationally and globally, and its collections and services are used heavily by students, faculty, and scholars. For more information, please visit http://www.library.illinois.edu.

About DuraSpace
DuraSpace is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. DuraSpace software and services are used worldwide as solutions for open access, institutional repositories, digital libraries, digital archives, data curation, virtual research environments and more. The organization’s open-source technology portfolio includes DSpace open access repository application and the Fedora open repository platform. DuraSpace is the home of DuraCloud, a cloud-based software service that leverages existing cloud infrastructure to enable durability and access to digital content. For more information, visit http://www.duraspace.org.

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com.

Press On With Imagination

Cali DVD Screen Shot_8.12.2012

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is
limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
~~~Albert Einstein

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.”
~~~John F. Kennedy

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Well after two days— it is done. Late last night, I finished my Cali DVD project. I have completed a haphazard masterpiece which could have been better! Like a virtual Jacobus de Varagine, I compiled my Golden Legend, a personal collection of California memories. To complete this project, I used: two computers (cross platform); five software programs (2 of them open source); an iPod Touch; and a microphone (digital audio input). These tools were used to sort through, organize, and edit over 200 photographs and several GB of video footage. One of the programs was used to complete the voice overs (audio) that I put into the movie. I selected those things I felt were the best of the best. Hey- it was like the digital Olympics up in this house- haha- only the best made the final cut! The DVD was screened today to a few different family members- and it was fun. I have to say that Daryn and I had a blast recording the voice overs. We laughed and laughed. By all means, the project isn’t perfect, but I wanted to have it ready to show today. My next step will be to track down a video host which will allow me to upload the entire movie (close to 20 minutes) into the cloud. If I am not happy with anything I find, I will break down the movie into four segments and upload it to YouTube. This way- I can share my trip with everyone. I really want my friend Elaine to see it. She lives in Corona (CA) and I saw her on my last day of the trip. Hopefully- I can get that done within the week. I am such a lover of technology. What can I say? I am in awe by the things we can do as humans with our minds. I really think that the two quotes above sum that up. Computers are nothing without the people who create them- the engineer, the coder, the script writer, the mad brainiac. These are the real computers behind the computers right? Each and every one of these masterminds has one thing in common- they understand that they are only limited by the power of their imaginations.

Virtually Pop Your Top

A virtual collection of electronic records which can be sorted using your fingers and a touch screen the size of a movie screen. The data can also be manipulated in various ways to improve collection control. This image was taken at the 2012 E-Records Forum in Austin, Texas. An Open House at the Texas Advanced Computing Center’s Visualization Lab was apparently a “highlight” of the forum.

As promised, it is time to mention the most interesting person I had the chance to talk with at the NAGARA/CoSA Conference in Santa Fe last week. I guess when you ask the right questions “they” will come! By they I mean the smart people… 🙂 After one of the sessions, Mark Conrad an Archives Specialist working with the Applied Research Division (Office of Information Services) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) approached me. He said “aren’t you the one asking about open source solutions?” But of course I was the one! I was so excited to here that NARA is going there!!! I also had the chance to attend a session titled ISO 16363 Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories. The session was delivered by Mark and Technology Specialists from Kentucky. This “Archives Specialist” slash technical guru immediately started rattling off a list of tools and projects that I should take a closer look at. Using his tricked out iPad he started prompting his screen to pop my top. Mark works in the Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST). In his position with NARA, he works with computer scientists and engineers from all over the world “to leverage new theories, knowledge, methods, and techniques to advance the lifecycle of electronic records.” Part of the mission of his division includes looking into “emerging technologies.” I must say I about did a back flip when Mark pulled up images of a Visualization Lab in the works. Simply mind blowing! There it was— a virtual filing cabinet. As an archivist, I would be able to process or arrange and describe electronic records by using my fingers and a touch screen. Yes- a touch screen- a virtual system used to arrange collections and sort data- with color codes and all. The volume of records in a particular series is proportional to the amount of data within a particular sector of the collection. In January of 2011, the web administrator of NARAtions: The Blog of the United States National Archives interviewed Mark Conrad. She asked him what he was working on and he said “with the assistance of 17 student interns, I am collaborating on a number of projects. For example, many of the students are currently loading large numbers of files into a testbed that is being used by the computer scientists working on the CI-BER project. The purpose of the project is to provide insights into the management of very large data collections. As the number of files and bytes in a collection goes up some of the systems used to manage the collection break down. This project will help us to identify some of the bottlenecks and look for better ways to build systems that don’t break down as the volume picks up.” He also said he was working with the “Department of Energy, NIST, Naval Sea Systems Command, Army Research Lab, and other Federal Agencies on ways to share information about current and emerging practices for managing and preserving engineering data for as long as it is needed.” Sometimes I am glad that I ask a grippa questions— if I didn’t care about open source solutions, I would have never met one of the most interesting archivists with a technical background ever.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Screen shots of the Wayback Machine statistics for
My Voyage Through Time and The Drawings of Leonardo.

Did you really think that web site was gone?? One of my all time favorite tools in my digital arsenal includes the Wayback Machine. If you have never heard of it, be prepared to blow your mind. Most of you know that I like things that creep and crawl, but this web crawler absolutely rocks. The Wayback Machine is basically a digital time portal. The portal is a repository for snapshots of the living internet. With the machine, you can “browse through over 150 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To start surfing the Wayback, type in the web address of a site or page where you would like to start, and press enter. Then select from the archived dates available.” At some point this site is sure to be full text searchable, but unfortunately it is not there yet. In the mid 90s, Bruce Gilliat and Brewster Kahle (of Internet Archive- a California based non-profit organization) created a web crawler capable of capturing publicly accessible digital information. Someone had to do it! 🙂 Gilliat, Kahle, and their team collaborated with the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress on this mind bending project. Because of obvious changes in browsers and such, the pages don’t always look perfect, but the data is there. I searched for my web site just out of curiosity. What?? I got a big red exclamation point with a corresponding note reading “The Wayback Machine hasn’t archived a capture for that URL. Here’s a capture taken 0 minutes ago from the live web that will become part of the permanent archive in a few months.” Well at least my data will be archived now! If my web site gets taken out by a hacker “boooyeahhh!” Haha… It’s kinda like a site backup people… I ran another check of one of my favorite sites The Drawings of Leonardo, and found that the site has been archived 194 times since 2001. There is a timeline and you can click away to see what the site looked like at any of those 194 points in time. Of course since these captures are live snapshots of the internet, they are indeed records. The records have been used as legal evidence in court cases. There have also been many challenges for this team of technologically savvy archive geniuses. Some people don’t like for data and history to live on, but I am an archivist, so I gotta luv it! Check out the Wayback Machine if you haven’t. It is sure to pop your top!

The Loudest Silence

**********~The Loudest Silence~**********
~Digital composite by Felicia Lujan~
Created using three images including
an image of white noise, an image
of binary code, and an image symbolic
of communication.

……………………………………………………

A deafening stillness- static- feels
like one thousand needles in my ears.

……………………………………………………

Thunderous- the white noise is thick-
the deaf could hear a tongueless cry.

……………………………………………………

Blasting soundless waves- my senses
burning to hear through this silence.

……………………………………………………

The atrocious- a quiet roar builds,
then claps, then shrivels away.

……………………………………………………

Excommunicate- hear the loudest
noise blaring while binary disappears.

……………………………………………………

by Felicia Lujan_7.7.2012

Pint-Sized Hotness: Coffee with My Friend Becky

About a month ago, I received an email from my old best friend Becky. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and we have been attempting to meet up for a bit. She was here about a month ago and we didn’t get it together at that time, so we decided to meet up this afternoon. Before I hit the gym, I visited with my friend for coffee at the Green Owl, a new coffee shop here in Santa Fe. The baristas make a killer caramel breve there, and I was able to convince Becky to try one. I joked that she would be addicted now because that’s what happened to me. I have cut them out during the week, but it was still Sunday for God’s sake!

~A New Sign at the Green Owl~
Nice… Bad Coffee Sucks!!!

It has been close to 15 years since I have seen the pint-sized beauty with a heart of gold. We do send each other Christmas cards and we talk through email, but it was the first time we have seen each other face to face in many, many years. We had a great visit- ripping through over a decade of history in a couple of hours. We laughed and we cried. It was hard for me to realize that I failed to be there for her during what was probably one of the most difficult times in her life- the death of her father. I have always had a very hard time dealing with death. It has never been easy for me, so I can only imagine how hard it was for her. I missed her father’s funeral, I left early from my friend Kim’s funeral, and I never went to my friend Aundria’s funeral (among others). I really need to learn to deal with loss and pain. I apologized to her when I came to the realization (right then and there) that I had failed as a friend. I felt emotionally drained after thinking about it all afternoon. If there was anybody I should have been there for, it was Becky. She and I went through the wringer together. She was right there with me the day I found out my uncle Julian died. She hugged me and told me it would be ok. There are so many stories, so much heartbreak, so much fun, so many laughs. I miss her.

~Becky Carrillo and the Pink Taco Crew~
Hard Rock Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada

Last time we talked she was laughing about how much I loved Color Me Badd when we were young. Yes- yes- yes people, I have always loved music! We went to their concert in Albuquerque together in the 90s and had a blast. She said she thought of me because they played a concert in Las Vegas not long ago. You know I just had to download me some throw back Color Me Badd tonight right Beck? Haha 🙂 … Becky is a bartender at the Hard Rock Hotel. She has worked at the “mega-hip Mexican cantina,” Pink Taco for 13 years. She is good at what she does, and I am sure she gets “mega” tips with her outstanding personality, infectious smile, and hot looks! Now she can track all those tips with a special mobile app called Tip Bucket that her man Tracy “the boy” wrote for her. It is available on iTunes for $0.99. Yes!! He is a Las Vegas code genius- I told Becky to tell him that I LOVED him and I don’t even know him! She said Tracy could sit and write code for hours and hours and hours!! Dream job (no really see for yourself and click here)…. I absolutely loved it when she said “some girls get flowers, and some girls get apps.” Loved it!!! Tracy wrote the code for a special app to track Becky’s tips and her statistics ‘n’ such. How cool is that? Nice…

~Becky and Felicia~
July 1, 2012 in Santa Fe, New Mexico
(yes— my eyes are sooo closed! The
best photo I had taken of us today was
taken by my son Daryn- who really liked Mz. Becky by the way!)

I will have to set aside some space here on my site to write about the misadventures of Becky and I. We have some good stories we shared together— like one of the MANY times we passed my curfew and I rolled around in the rain water to say her car broke down (sorry mom 😦 – haha). Or how about all the times I got to drive her and Denise to school in her sweet little Chevy Cavalier? Someone had to drive while they put on their make-up! There are many stories to tell, but for tonight, I will turn in and listen to some Color Me Badd with the headphones and my lonely iPod. It was so nice to have coffee with pint-sized hotness herself!

Rock on with the Audacity 2.0 Release

Two screen shots of my new version of Audacity 2.0. I downloaded the new version last night. There are some additional features and effects in this 2.0 release. Digital composite created by Felicia (I have such a headphone fetish).

I was so excited to get an email this week about a release of the newest version of one of my very favorite programs (of course aside from Adobe Photoshop). Maybe I should say my favorite open source software, which is cross-platform. The Audacity team released version 2.0 (unicode), which I installed and fully loaded last night. Audacity is a free digital audio editing program written by a team of tech/music junkies from around the world. I guess you could say the volunteer developers are the best of the best. The project is hosted by SourceForge.net and Google Code, and the program is available for Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux (and other Unix-like systems). For those of you who care to know, Audacity has been designed based on code from the following projects: expat; FLAC; iAVC; LAME; libmad; libsndfile; Nyquist; Ogg Vorbis; PortAudio; portsmf; Resample; sbsms; SoundTouch; TwoLAME; Vamp; and wxWidgets.

I have given the new version a couple spins, and it seems good to go!! I fully loaded up this time, and included extras that I was missing on the last version because I didn’t install them correctly… 😦 This time, I made sure to install the additional plug-ins I wanted- including: LADSPA, with close to 100 plug-ins; additional effects and filters; and the LAME MP3 encoder, to export MP3 files. Before upgrading to 2.0, I had to use other programs to get the audio files into the formats I needed. The new version also features an FFmpeg import/export library, which allows the import and export of additional audio formats (AC3, AMR(NB), M4A and WMA). With this option, you can also import audio directly from video files. I can’t wait to mess with that to see how it all works! Looks like a headphones weekend! Now- I’m set…

The New Raspberry: A Computer “Crashing” the Competition

There is high demand for the low cost Raspberry Pi as educators in the UK join the open source revolution!

*****Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout!!!!!***** I wish I could be a kid in the UK… It’s nice to see the educators there are ready to nerd up. That’s where it’s at! It would be nice to see USA educators do the same, and join the open source revolution!
…………………………….

$35 Computer Goes on Sale
Published by Orion Jones on March 1, 2012 via BigThink at http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/35-computer-goes-on-sale

What’s the Latest Development?

The $35 Raspberry Pi computer, which is now on sale to the public, has been met with extremely high demand. The computer is sold without a keyboard or monitor and is mainly a product of the English academy and the UK tech industry. With ports for a mouse, keyboard and a high-speed internet cable, the device can be connected to any computer monitor. “Massive demand for the computer has caused the website of one supplier, Leeds-based Premier Farnell, to crash under the weight of heavy traffic.” 

What’s the Big Idea?

The Raspberry Pi Foundation envisions that the device, which runs on the open source platform Linux, will be used to teach new generations of school children how to program computers. Its release comes at a time when the UK is considering shifting the direction of its national education agenda to emphasize computer programming skills, which many consider essential in today’s world. Although the Foundation wanted the device to be made in the UK, the computer will be assembled in China. A $25 version will go on sale later in the year. 

Photo credit: wikimedia commons

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