Gadgets and Gizmos

So I never really thought about it, but it is possible to create my own digital instruments. I guess it seemed like it might be too expensive or complicated, but possibly not. The idea came to me as I was doing a little Saturday morning reading. 

I was reading Macworld today, and there's a feature article entitled, "Control the World: Microcontrollers connect hobbyist hardware to your Mac" by Brian Jepson. In the article he designed a sensor for his computer chair. The sensor interfaced with the computer to flash some script across the screen that would tell him to get up and take a break. It was  a cute idea, and something that seemed doable. This was accomplished by using software, the microcontroller board, and hardware/components that are connected to the microcontroller. The microcontroller board is made by a company called Arduino. It costs around $35 for a fully assembled board, and then you buy the sensors and wires and either use them as a stand-alone, or connect them to a computer and use software. The Arduino site describes this flexibility eloquently, 

"Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. IT's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP)."

This really made me begin to think. If I could control software in new ways, potentially I could create music that is not limited to common input devices such as a MIDI controller. Not that there's anything wrong with a MIDI keyboard (currently one of the two MIDI controllers I own) but a MIDI keyboard is tied to tonality (unless you're cool enough to program it differently-and I'm not).  So potentially one could create any type of device that one could imagine, assuming the components were available. So, I thought I'd take a look as to the components that were easily available. I also took a peek at what other  people are creating with this. Here are some links.

Vendors

SparkFun Electronics

Trossen Robotics

Communication

Software

Hardware

Examples

NYU MIDI Site

Halloween Sounds

A better way to host?

So I've been looking for a better way to host my domain, www.evajegolf.com, and some of the other sites I've authored. The thing I'm finding is that it costs about $60 per year in hosting per domain. Well when you want to create several sites, it begins to get expensive. So what is one to do?

Well...I purchased a server. Really, it's just the  server software I purchased for my power mac. It is almost identical to using the Leopard operating system, but it has some features specific to a server. More on that in a minute. Initially I just wanted to use it for my local network at home so that I could coordinate backups, and calendars, and create local network wikis for my Husband and I to use. Of course I could use it also for my hosting needs but there were hurdles to doing so. The two main hurdles were power usage/cost, and lack of a public static IP. How should one overcome these hurdles?

The obstacle of a public static IP not on the local network takes a bit of explanation. When you set up a server, it is possible to set it up on a local network with a private address. This would mean that only computers on the local network can access it and use its services. IP address on a local network tend to have addresses that start with 10 such as 10.0.0.1. Sometimes they also start with 172, or 192. The different starting sequences designates a different class.  What most internet providers do is provide a dynamic address for your house so that you can access the internet directly (by connecting to whichever box they provide). Some people need to connect more than one computer at a time so they use  a router which assigns address to the various computers on the local area network using the IP addresses described previously. With a server you can set the router to use a reservation so that one specific address is reserved for your server and the other computers can receive addresses distributed by the router. Sometimes the router changes the addresses of the different computers depending on how many computers/printers are on the network. It is  possible to create a reservation for the computers too, but it usually isn't too important to do that. When a reservation is created for the server or any computer, effectively a static local IP is created. Servers need static IPs to run and provide services. These static IPs can be on a local network or public. So that's what I did initially. I set up my server on a local network using a private IP with a reservation. It works beautifully on the private network.

So why not just use the local network with the server? Well, it works fine, but it won't function as a web server to host my sites. A web server needs a static IP that is public (not on my local area network-LAN). The residential service provided by Optimum Online (my provider in the Bronx) will not sell me a static IP. This of course infuriates me and has sent me looking for another provider. There are local providers outside of the big guys such as Optimum, Time Warner. BWAY is one in the NYU area. The problem is that their service costs about $70 per month. Optimum Online will sell me Business Service (not residential like I have already) for about the same price, the speed is a little faster, and it includes a block of 5 static IPs. I checked my residential bill and I realized that I pay about $45 per month for dynamic residential internet service. The service would ordinarily cost $55 except that I get a discount for buying my phone and cable also from these clowns. Is paying an extra $25 per month for a business plan worth it? I'm still deciding...

As you might recall there is one more hurdle. The cost of running the server in my Mac Pro 24/7 (a server needs to be on-not in sleep mode). A Mac Pro gobbles up energy when it is on compared to other models. When I ran the calculations it would cost and extra $9.50 or so per month to run the Mac Pro 24/7 (based on current rates from the power company which of course are expected to increase). I knew that Mac Minis sipped power so I looked into using one as a server instead of my Mac Pro. There's someone named Edwin Olsen at MIT who has a funny article, and he argues that these things idle at 19 watts, and don't go above 38. This means that for estimation sake it used 25 watts, and I left it on for 365 days. It would cost me $21.90 per year to run the Mini server 24 hours per day. It is possible to purchase a Mac Mini used on eBay (that meets the specs to run the Leopard Server software) for about $300. Now I just need to convince my Husband. Wish me luck.

5/10 Update: I just purchased a used Mac Mini on eBay to use as a server. I haven't received shipment yet, but I'm very excited.

I want the old iMovie back!

 I'm very annoyed with the new iMovie. The lack of a timeline at the bottom of the window is driving me bonkers. The bin sort of functions as a timeline, but in a very awkward way. Also, it's skinny on transitions and text animations. Another lacking feature is the ability to draw volume curves when you're adding your sound. I have a very loucd chhhhhhhhkkkk at the end because I wasn't able to draw a volume curve. If you click on the little speaker symbol in the middle right, there is allegedly a volume control, but it's not the same as being able to draw the intuitive volume curves like the ones in GarageBand or Logic. At any rate, I couldn't get it to work, and there's a big chhhhkkkk. If I were thurough, I would edit it in Logic, or Audacity (they have a handy fade-out effect). Alas, I didn't edit it right and there's a chhhhhkkkk. This is going to drive me nuts. Can I resist the O.C.D. tendency to go and fix this problem? Watch the movie and find out. 

The Challenge

So here it is: my Husband and I have a bet. We both love Ibiza, Spain which has a huge crazy electronic music clubbing scene. I've been there twice, and Mike (my Husband) has been there six times. There is a particular DJ we both enjoy named Paul van Dyk. He specializes in what some would call German Trance, although his most recent album "In Between" crosses some of the electronica genres (there are many-more to come on that). So the bet is whether or not I can create electronic music songs that would be up to the standards of Ibiza. I should say that I have no experience as a DJ, and very experience composing. Watch for more posts on my endeavor. Stay tuned to see if I can even come close. The picture is of us in Dalt Villa, Ibiza.