Amit Schreiber's Blog | הבלוג של עמית שרייבר
I finally got my new stereo system (the speakers had to be shipped from France) and I’m having an amazing time listening to The Prodigy with it. It’s true happiness. I’m expecting the neighbors to knock on my door any time now.
Speaking of The Prodigy, I’m going to see them in Turkey this weekend in Rock N Coke festival. Anyone wants to join me?
Oh, and if you want to hear your own music like you’ve probably never heard it before, drop by anytime and bring some CDs with you.
The Guardian came out with a story named When I’m dead, how will my loved ones break my password?. Basically, it handles the same problem as my own Online Will idea the same way snail mail and email handle the same problem.
Here’s a quote of the proposed solution from the article. The 8 readers of this blog may find it familiar :)
Finally, I hit on a simple solution: I’d split the passphrase in two, and give half of it to my wife, and the other half to my parents’ lawyer in Toronto. The lawyer is out of reach of a British court order, and my wife’s half of the passphrase is useless without the lawyer’s half (and she’s out of reach of a Canadian court order). If a situation arises that demands that my lawyer get his half to my wife, he can dictate it over the phone, or encrypt it with her public key and email it to her, or just fly to London and give it to her.
As simple as this solution is, it leaves a few loose ends: first, what does my wife do to safeguard her half of the key should she perish with me? The answer is to entrust it to a second attorney in the UK (I can return the favour by sending her key to my lawyer in Toronto). Next, how do I transmit the key to the lawyer? I’ve opted for a written sheet of instructions, including the key, that I will print on my next visit to Canada and physically deliver to the lawyer.
P.S.
Thanks to blog reader rom for pointing the story out to me.
Yesterday Girl 2 and I broke up. We had a very good time together up until the last moment of this relatively short relationship. But while everything was great, I grew increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that I wasn’t falling for her. I thought it was just a matter of time but as time passed I started feeling like I was being dishonest. As always in this relationship I talked to Girl 2 about it and she decided she prefers to end it now instead of being hurt even more later.
I’m wondering if it’s immature of me to expect to fall in love. Crushes last only so much. After that you get to see the person you’re with for what he/she really is and not like that image you built yourself in the head. So that’s a big advantage of slowly-evolving relationships.
I learned already that many breakups are not as final as they initially seem. So I consider this the end of Girl 2 Episode 1 (G2E1?) Maybe in the future things will work out for us. Maybe when I grow up.
Since We’ve Been Wrong is the second single from The Mars Volta’s new album, Octahedron. It’s a quiet song which reflects the album’s sound. Cotopaxi is the one exception.
If you had any doubt that The Prodigy rule, maybe this will take care of your doubt: In the UK Dance Singles Chart, The Prodigy have 4 tracks in the Top 10 and 10 tracks in the Top 40. The tracks are:
Some tracks appear twice because they are remixes. Also, some tracks are originally from 1991. Prodigy WIN :)
I decided to end the search and confusion by buying the system I liked two days ago. I went to the store to listen to it again and make sure this is what I wanted. I even got a chance to compare it again against other amplifiers and speakers. It still sounded like the best option for me.
So the specs are:
I’m very excited and hoping I will be able to take it home from the store before the weekend.
Yesterday, for the sake of being a good consumer, I went to see another stereo demo at another store. My audiophile friend from work talked me into it. He’s helping me a lot but eventually I got really confused. It turns out in this market the sellers make huge margins, so basically you can get a lot of discounts if you bargain a lot. Unfortunately I’m not the type to bargain.
But my friend told me the first offer I got was too high and I should keep looking, even just for the sake of finding something I like even more. In the second store from yesterday I got to listen to Cambridge Audio amplifier with Mordaunt-Short speakers, both presumably better than what I liked a day earlier in the first demo. But I was a little underwhelmed – the demo was inside a very big store space, so the acoustics weren’t great, and I didn’t get that kick I like so much from the music.
I did get warned by the saleseman that getting front stage speakers can be tiresome for the ears after a while. The salesman from the first demo also warned me about that. So now I’m conflicted. The worst that can happen is that I’ll take the system home and then realize I made a bad choice.
I don’t like when things get complicated. Like I said before, I hate shopping.
As part of my search for a stereo system I went yesterday to hear 4 different sets of speakers playing my music. It was an amazing experience. For almost two hours I was engulfed by the same music I’ve heard thousands of times before, only I couldn’t believe the way it sounded. It was so much fun I completely forgot about the outside world for the entire demonstration.
Eventually I had to choose between two sets of speakers: The DALI Ikon 6 and the Focal JMlab 716 Chorus. Both considered good speakers but produce entirely different sound. I eventually picked the Focal pair as my favorite because their output for The Prodigy’s music was the way I like it. Specifically, the bass (at the right volume) can make your body vibrate. I actually brought specific bass-loaded tracks to test that :)
To complement the speakers a NAD C355BEE amplifier and a NAD C515BEE CD component were chosen. Cabling is also important – cables made from different materials can be used to tweak the way the music sound… I heard it with my own ears.
By the time the demonstration ended I was ready and willing to buy everything, but following my audiophile friend’s advice I decided to give it a few more days. I doubt I’ll go to another demonstration because I think it will just confuse me – how will I be able to remember what a specific set of speakers sounded like compared to a new set I’ll be listening to? But we’ll see what my friend suggests.
The Mars Volta published their entire new album, Octahedron, on their MySpace page.
On each of their albums The Mars Volta had a quiet song or two. But this time it’s an entire quiet album except for one song – Cotopaxi (video here.) The Mars Volta claims this to be their version of an acoustic album. But don’t get them wrong – it’s far from being acoustic in the traditional sense. Being quiet, I didn’t have to listen to album 20 times to like it – I liked it immediately.
Those of you who know my music listening habits also know what this means – I’m playing Octahedron in an endless loop :)
I’m trying to be brave again and write about relationships. Thoughts of Girl 1 still haunt me but, following the advice and a match made by a friend, I’ve started dating someone new. And to my surprise… I’m enjoying it. A lot.
It’s refreshing to be in a relationship where you feel like you can say anything on your mind and not be judged. I’m told that it’s actually one of my more endearing qualities… saying what’s on my mind. Luckily, Girl 2 knows to take things I say in a positive way (which is the correct way) without looking into darker meanings, even when I blurt out things that may be interpreted as offensive in some convoluted way my simple mind could have never come up with.
Past relationships have always started with a big crush. This one is different. We simply enjoy one another’s company and there’s definitely attraction. It’s building up slowly and calmly and I like it. I think Girl 2 pretty much feels the same way and that’s why I can write about it freely. It’s great to be in a relationship that allows you to do that.