Communication

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They Know

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Make Music With iNudge

Instructions:
* Select 1 of 8 different Sound Patterns from the small Matrixes icons on the right.
* Use your mouse to draw notes on each 16 Step Matrix.
* Adjust the volume of the iNudge.
* Click MORE for advanced adjustment abilities.
* For each Pattern, adjust Volume, Mute, Clear, or set Audio Pan from Left to Right.
* Click on the Tempo numbers and click up or down to change the overall Tempo.
* Make the nudge longer for more iteresting patterns with the PLUS button.
* Use Clear, Copy, Cut and Paste to edit your pattern faster.
* Get & Share allows you to Send Mail, Get Link, Get Embed code or Spread in communities.
* Use the Feedback Forum to tell us what you think, leave your comments or make suggestions.
* Check out MOST LISTENED and NEWEST iNudges too!

Click the iNudge banner image to go check it out - this is pretty cool!

These things (or programs just like them) come around from time to time, and I almost always enjoy them. It's the musician in me. Here's one I created, if you should be so inclined to check it out:



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Swingin' Any Music

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The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect.

Swinger uses the new Dirac time-stretching capabilities of Echo Nest remix. Source code is available in the samples directory of remix.

"Dont Stop Believin'" - Journey
Don't Stop Believin' (Swing Version) by plamere

"Sweet Child o' Mine" - Guns 'n' Roses
Sweet Child O' Mine (Swing Version) by plamere

My notes:
There is actually a great version of "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, which I thought sounded better than the original (lol) - until somewhere at the end of the solo (3:20), everything gets all screwed-up, and the rhythm got totally backwards from where it should be. As explained, the algorythm doesn't understand syncopation.

This is the stuff I was BORN to do for a living. I remember when I was a teen - probably 14 or 15.. I was using the all-new double cassette features of brand new stereos to mix & dub all sorts of things. I made mixes of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Dio (RIP), and even farts. Kudos to these guys!!!!1

Continue to the rest of the samples!

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10 Unwritten Baseball Rules You May Not Know

Last month, when A's pitcher Dallas Braden called out Alex Rodriguez for cutting across the Oakland Coliseum mound, the country was informed of a small slice of baseball's Code that had lain mostly dormant in recent memory.

It was only one of a litany of unwritten rules that covers major leaguers' actions, designed essentially to preserve a baseline level of respect between competitors. They constitute the moral fabric of the game.

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The best known of these rules tells players not to steal a base when their team holds a big lead in the late innings of a game. Others include barring overt displays of exuberance in all but the most extreme circumstances; the hitter who watches his own home runs is the most egregious of violators in this category.

Many fans have heard of these rules (Alex Rodriguez himself was unaware of one). Some sections of the Code, however, fly under the radar (even for baseball insiders, to judge by the number of people within the game who had never heard the rule about restraint from crossing the pitcher's mound).
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So, without further delay, here are 10 of baseball's more obscure unwritten rules:

1. Don't swing at the first pitch after back-to-back home runs
This is a matter of courtesy, respect for a pitcher who is clearly struggling, offering just a sliver of daylight with which to regain his senses. When Yankees rookie Chase Wright gave up back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers against Boston in 2007, the guys who hit numbers three and four — Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek — each watched a pitch before taking a cut.

"Let him know, okay, I'm not swinging," said Hal McRae. "I know you're out there trying to do a job, and I have to do a job — but you've just given up back-to-back home runs. So I take the first pitch."

2. Don't work the count when your team is up or down by a lot
This is true for both pitchers and hitters. Nobody wants to see the fifth guy on a bullpen's depth chart nibbling on the corners in the late innings of a blowout. Similarly, hitters are expected to swing at anything close. It's an effort to quickly and efficiently end a lopsided contest.

3. When hit by a pitch, don't rub the mark
This one is all about intimidation or lack thereof. It's a hitter's way of telling the pitcher that his best shot — intentional or otherwise —didn't hurt. Pete Rose made a point of sprinting to first base after being hit, to ensure that he stripped all satisfaction from the pitcher.

"It's a macho thing, like a fighter who gets clocked in the mouth and shakes his head like it didn't hurt him," said Rich Donnelly. "But believe me, it hurts."

Lou Brock was the only hitter Sandy Koufax ever threw at intentionally, and despite the fact that his shoulder was fractured by the pitch, forcing him from the game, never once did he rub the spot. The Washington Post once reported that Don Baylor "was hit by 267 pitches yet never rubbed, even once. Of course, several of the balls had to be hospitalized."

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