My Move

About 20 years ago I used to play a lot of chess.
On a table in the living room was a chess board with cheap Staunton pieces and a Gary Kasparov chess computer. Both sets would be playing the same game. The idea behind having a real chess board was that I could study my moves for a long time without running the chess computer's batteries down. I could also study the game from both perspectives. And besides, real chess pieces are tactile.
Over time I've played less and less. Despite thinking I should play more I never quite get round to it. Now I'm using the excuse that it will help with my computer's entropy. It's a good excuse and I'm sticking with it.
I've downloaded PyChess. It's a good piece of software and I can export .pgn files to Droidfish on my android phone. I'm going to be playing very slow games so I need to be able to view them on any platform.
The above picture is from a game I've just started.
I'll let you know when I'm done.

Our Man Inside

Just over a year ago Documentally suggested that I might like to make an ident for his new Backchannel newsletter. I did, it was fun.
Backchannel has now morphed into Our Man Inside! so I was once again asked to supply an ident. Something different to reflect the change. Here's the thought process:

I wanted the typewriter sample in there to represent Christian hammering away on his keyboard. The 3+3+6 rhythm spells out Our Man Inside. I used a sample of Christian's voice as a musical note to add chords but the tuning was a nightmare so while playing with various delay lines I happened on the rhythmic middle two bars. Christian spells out O M I and the echo repeats his voice in different ways which mimics the formula of the newsletter.
Christian finally says Our Man Inside! I added plenty of reverb to this to make him sound like he was inside something large. The vast space he is inside equals the vast range of subjects covered in the newsletter.
There's a secret bassline which bounces around the note C. This is my secret nod to (Sea = A boat show has been covered in Backchannel) and (See = There's always plenty to look at).
I hope you're intrigued enough to subscribe to this once a week publication.

Subscribe to Our Man Inside!

All New Old Style

I'm doing something I haven't done in a while tonight.
That something is trying to piece together a musical composition. Well, it's a composition of sorts but more on that at a later date. Hopefully by the end of the week.
The interesting thing is that for the first time I'm using native Linux music and audio tools. Last time I did this I just loaded FL Studio into Wine and worked that way. The thing is that FL Studio and Wine are uneasy bedfellows. I really could do with a dedicated Windows music PC just for FL Studio.
Because I don't own a Windows machine I thought I'd just work in Ubuntu and see how it went. Very well is the answer to that. Above is a work in progress inside Audacity. I bought a book about using Audacity and it has served me well. No more messing around, I'm nearly a power user, sort of.
There's a good chance I might get back to writing some music one of these days. I do have a lot to be getting on with but I'm sure there will be some spare time to get back to what I enjoy.
Fingers crossed.

A Slice Of Air

Last week I very nearly bought a Raspberry Pi3.
The reason I didn't was because I couldn't think of anything to do with it other than mess around a bit.
This week while installing some excellent cryptography tools on Ubuntu I realised the a Pi would make an excellent air gap computer. Of course there would be a bit of work to do, ie disabling wifi (why not buy a Pi2?) and finding a decent way of getting uncompromised software onto the board. The latter I'm still working on but making sure checksums are intact might be a good start.
If you're interested in what I've been playing with start at privacytools.
I'm also using VeraCrypt, Encryptpad and a useful web notepad called Protected Text.
I'm sure there's enough there you keep you occupied for a while.

Balancing Fruit

I've been trying to quit smoking, as a regular pursuit, for a while now.
I have no problem with my nicotine addiction, I don't want to give that up. There's no need to and I enjoy it.
I like the odd pipe bowl especially with a good coffee. What I don't like anymore is smoking roll-ups as my only nicotine source.
I started vaping a couple of years ago but it wasn't a satisfying experience and I went back to smoking again after a short time. In the last six months I've been getting into some nerdy vaping stuff. You really don't want to know the details but what can be achieved is more akin to the experience that is smoking.
Add to the above a pinch of snuff when I need a quick boost or top up and I really think that I can substitute the roll-ups for eliquids and powder.
I'm currently into fruit flavours. Strawberry eliquids and raspberry snuff.
It's all rather pleasant.