I see this phrase on lottery tickets and the now-ubiquitous gift-cards. I wonder what it says about our relationship with hard currency and a perception of value. Think about it: your physical currency (in this case, coins) is reduced to mere implement. Implicit in this suggestion is the idea the coin has less value than the series of numbers beneath the 'security area.'
I've yet to see a card who's suggestion was "Rub with fingernail" or simply "Scratch off". Is this verbiage deliberate? A natural consequence of economic realities?
It would be really nice if SONAR's MIDI quantize plugin could also deal with velocity ranges (in the same interface.) Currently, I have to use a separate tool/plugin to do this (in SONAR). It would just be convenient to see note timing and velocity controls together as they seem pretty related in terms of performance.
Here's a suggestion for an easy interface modification:
The Velocity range would be controlled by dragging the top or bottom of the indicator to cover the desired range (0-127), and all notes would be real-time scaled to that range.
Why do some people have hundreds, if not thousands, of contacts on 'social networking' sites? I see this phenomenon on MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and recently, my beloved Vimeo. At least twice a week now I'm notified that I've been 'added' to someone's network. To date, I've yet to actually know someone that's added me. Invariably, when I look at their profile, they've got umpteen hundred contacts....
Where's the value in that? Is is simply some psychological tick where people don't feel good about themselves without a large number in the "Contacts" field? Part of marketing efforts (easy to spam large swathes with "send to all contacts" options?) General cluelessness about social networks? Just ignoring social conventions?
A judge in San Diego, CA issued a ruling today essentially making certain contracts for red-light ticket systems illegal. Not ALL contracts...just certain ones.
A couple of years ago, the adjoining city (Roseville) installed red light cameras at a major intersection a couple blocks away. Although technically in another municipality, the red-light cameras (and adjusted yellow/red times) have resulting in traffic backing up into neighboring Citrus Heights. It's made the intersection in question (Cirby and Sunrise Blvd) all but unnavigable during most daylight hours. Bad weather makes the situation worse.
Yet municipalities persist. Highly focused sales teams overwhelm hapless, uncreative city managers into deals that profit corporate entities at whatever cost they can socialize (congested streets, lost time and productivity for all citizens), and we're all the poorer for it.
Just for comparison, here's another song that uses the same chord progression.
A music teacher on YouTube has made a quick theory analysis of the two songs.
It's pretty clear the VI VII III I progression has great appeal to writers, as it can accomodate more interesting melodies (IMHO), so the question really becomes about the melody.
The fact that many of these songs share a near identical tempo is interesting....perhaps the combination of tempo and chords/keys lend themselves to certain melody possibilities. And the pentameter of the melodies is very strong, Coldplay's in particular seeming to pulse in a brilliant way (Brian Eno produced the Coldplay album. Eno is a master at his craft.)
My limited legal understanding of Satriani's position is he does not have to prove intent to infringe, meaning he doesn't have to demonstrate that Coldplay *knew* of his music before they wrote "Viva la Vida", only that the music is similar enough to constitute infringement.
I think many people confuse the issue: Satriani's not claiming Coldplay "stole" his music, only that they published a composition that technically wasn't original. He may agree they came up with the chords/melody independently, but that's not the issue: he published it first, therefore, it's his.
As producers, one of our challenges is to create something original, new, and fresh while still familiar and accessible. Sooner or later, chords, melodies and arrangments will collide - it's simply mathematical chance.
I hope this is a case of amazing synchronicity, rather than a case where Coldplay (and by association, Brian Eno) simply pilfered someone else's work.
The only thing the electronic answering system should really need to know is what language you speak. After that, someone should be forwarded to a service agent that is trained/equipped to deal with *all* aspects of Comcast product support. (along these same lines, increase the pay of frontline support agents, as they REALLY are your brand experience.)
Drop the happy-smiley sales pitches and pleas for customers to look at your website, Comcast.net. We're calling because we want a human being. If there was something on your site I wanted (assuming my service is operating), I'd already be there looking. The very fact I'm on the phone means....I don't want your website.
Allow agents to individually (or by small group) track tickets and manage them through report/resolution, rather then letting the call queue randomly assign customers to support reps.
Require field crews to report location and service ETA's as often as possible, and update customers periodically with new information. Yes, this is *supposed* to be expensive..what other way can someone punish a company for poor service?!?
Be faster to offer services and/or refunds for service interruptions. The internet is a mature technology now, and it's importance is greater in many situations than working television feeds. Frustration could be eased with as little as a couple free months of HBO or something.
I finally know what 21 million other people already figured out.
iTunes is awesome.
First and foremost, the ability to encode high-quality, DRM-free mp3's is such a basic function in 2008, I still cannot fathom why it isn't built into OS's. Either way, it's made my music production workflow far more economic (converting high-bitrate wav files quickly....nice.) And the encoder sounds just fine.
