ZoeB's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=ZoeB2011-03-14T12:45:10ZThe Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (review)http://everything2.com/user/ZoeB/writeups/The+Diamond+Age%253A+Or%252C+a+Young+Lady%2527s+Illustrated+PrimerZoeBhttp://everything2.com/user/ZoeB2011-03-14T12:45:10Z2011-03-14T12:45:10Z<p>Due to the greater popularity of <a href="/title/Neal+Stephenson">Neal Stephenson's</a> previous <a href="/title/novel">novel</a> <a href="/title/Snow+Crash">Snow Crash</a>, I'd imagine that most people considering reading The Diamond Age, like myself, enjoyed reading the former and then proceeded to wonder how his later work compared.</p>
<p>The Diamond Age is set many decades after Snow Crash, but you'd scarcely realise it's the same fictional world due to the stark contrast of the <a href="/title/style">style</a> and <a href="/title/setting">setting</a> between the two novels.</p>
<p>The countless competing <a href="/title/culture">cultures</a>, franchise-organised quasi-national entities and <a href="/title/corporation">corporations</a> which populated Snow Crash have, by the time of The Diamond Age, mostly boiled down to high tech facsimiles of <a href="/title/Victorian+England">Victorian England</a> and <a href="/title/ancient+China">ancient China</a>, nicely paving the way to the author's later historical work, <a href="/title/Cryptonomicon">Cryptonomicon</a> and <a href="/title/The+Baroque+Cycle">The Baroque Cycle</a>.</p>
<p>Appropriately enough, The Diamond Age is primarily about a lower class girl, Nell, who stumbles across an<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Lost (review)http://everything2.com/user/ZoeB/writeups/LostZoeBhttp://everything2.com/user/ZoeB2010-09-26T12:42:29Z2010-09-26T12:42:29Z<p>I'd like to articulate what I disliked about the <a href="/title/TV+show">TV show</a> Lost, not to warn people who haven't seen it yet so much as to better work out which problems I want to avoid when writing my own fiction. I won't tell you if it's worth spending almost four sleepless days watching this show (not the recommended method) so much as give you my well articulated empathy if you feel this amount of your life was somewhat wasted in hindsight. This rant contains spoilers for not just Lost itself but also <a href="/title/Douglas+Adams">Douglas Adams's</a> novel <a href="/title/Dirk+Gently%2527s+Holistic+Detective+Agency">Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency</a> and <a href="/title/Neal+Stephenson">Neal Stephenson's</a> novel <a href="/title/Crytonomicon">Crytonomicon</a>.</p>
<h3>The Ending</h3>
<p>Lost is a phenomenally addictive show. The <a href="/title/writer">writers</a> shamelessly dangle endless <a href="/title/cliffhanger">cliffhangers</a> and <a href="/title/mystery">mysteries</a> in front of the viewer, so while you're still hooked by one, two or three others pull you in further before you're finally freed from the first. Before you know it, you're fully addicted, buying whole season box sets<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Strong Magic (review)http://everything2.com/user/ZoeB/writeups/Strong+MagicZoeBhttp://everything2.com/user/ZoeB2010-09-13T17:23:51Z2010-09-13T17:23:51Z<p>In his book Strong Magic, professional magician <a href="/title/Darwin+Ortiz">Darwin Ortiz</a> reveals his <a href="/title/secret">secrets</a>. Unlike most magic books, however, Strong Magic doesn't have the author simply list step-by-step <a href="/title/instructions">instructions</a> for performing specific <a href="/title/magic+trick">tricks</a>. Instead, he tackles much more fundamental issues, emphasising the importance of <a href="/title/presentation">presentation</a> over <a href="/title/method">method</a>, and explaining how <a href="/title/performance">performing</a> for laypeople is an inherently different task to performing for other <a href="/title/magician">magicians</a>, requiring a different approach.</p>
<p>With fascinating <a href="/title/insight">insight</a>, Ortiz shows how magicians, like all <a href="/title/professional">professionals</a>, can get lost in their circle of mutually appreciative friends, distancing themselves from the <a href="/title/laity">laity</a> and their quite different <a href="/title/point+of+view">point of view</a>. He then tells you how to look at your performance anew, from an outsider's perspective, and make it better <em>for them</em>, not for your friends.</p>
<p>He explains why performing for <a href="/title/the+general+public">the general public</a> can, contrary to most<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Roland TR-808 (thing)http://everything2.com/user/ZoeB/writeups/Roland+TR-808ZoeBhttp://everything2.com/user/ZoeB2010-09-01T22:11:05Z2010-09-01T22:11:05Z<p>Roland's TR-808 <a href="/title/drum+machine">drum machine</a> was released in the early nineteen eighties, at a time when <a href="/title/Linn+LM-1">Linn's LM-1</a> was showing people that drum machines could actually sound realistic. The TR-808 does <em>not</em> sound realistic. Whereas drum machines like the LM-1 store <a href="/title/sampler">digital samples</a> of drum sounds and faithfully reproduce them in reasonably <a href="/title/high+fidelity">high fidelity</a>, the TR-808 is an <a href="/title/analogue">analogue</a> beast, using <a href="/title/electronic">electronic</a> circuitry to generate from scratch, well, <em>analogues</em> to various drum sounds.</p>
<p>There were two main advantages to this method of generating drum sounds. One was the relatively <a href="/title/cheap">cheap</a> price: at roughly a thousand US dollars, the TR-808 was a mere fifth of the cost of the LM-1. These days, however, digital sampling is ridiculously cheap, so analogue sound generation no longer has an advantage in that regard. The other advantage was, and still is, the TR-808's versatility. Using its various knobs, you can meticulously adjust, say, the snappiness of its<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Fanatics Versus the Laity (essay)http://everything2.com/user/ZoeB/writeups/Fanatics+Versus+the+LaityZoeBhttp://everything2.com/user/ZoeB2010-08-28T10:51:34Z2010-08-28T10:51:34Z<p>As with any other <a href="/title/medium">medium</a> of <a href="/title/entertainment">entertainment</a>, there are two broad groups of people who consume and listen to <a href="/title/music">music</a>. Yes, I'm oversimplifying yet again, but I think this distinction is useful for <a href="/title/musician">musicians</a> to bear in mind for reasons I'll come to in a second.</p>
<p>On the one hand, there's <a href="/title/the+laity">the laity</a>: people who don't like music that much, but occasionally buy something <a href="/title/mainstream">mainstream</a> to listen to. They own up to about twenty <a href="/title/pop+music">pop albums</a>, all of which employ <a href="/title/the+verse%252Fchorus+structure">the verse/chorus structure</a>, prominently feature <a href="/title/emotionally+engaging">emotionally engaging</a> <a href="/title/vocal">vocals</a>, and primarily use solid <a href="/title/4%252F4+time">4/4 rhythms</a> which make you want to shake your hips to the <a href="/title/groove">groove</a> (with the occasional <a href="/title/6%252F8+time">6/8 rhythm</a> thrown in for good measure). These people are largely unaware of, or at least indifferent to, the wider world of diverse music out there, but it's by choice and that's just fine. If music isn't<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Propellerhead Kong (review)http://everything2.com/user/ZoeB/writeups/Propellerhead+KongZoeBhttp://everything2.com/user/ZoeB2010-08-27T18:07:18Z2010-08-27T18:07:18Z<p>The Kong <a href="/title/drum+machine">drum machine</a> was introduced to <a href="/title/Propellerhead+Reason">Reason</a> in version 5. It can generate its own drum sounds, offering a lot of real time flexibility via its plethora of knobs. Even if you just want to use these internally generated sounds by themselves, it's already better than most drum machines, even giving the legendary (and still expensive) <a href="/title/Roland+TR-808">Roland TR-808</a> a run for its money, although it's still not going to replace the other two nineteen eighties classics, the <a href="/title/Linn+LM-1">Linn LM-1</a> and <a href="/title/Roland+TR-909">Roland TR-909</a>.</p>
<p>With all this self contained functionality, it's easy to overlook Kong's sample playback feature. Personally, I'm not completely replacing <a href="/title/Dance+Megadrums">my drum machine sample CD</a> with Kong, but I'm certainly replacing <a href="/title/Propellerhead+ReDrum">ReDrum</a>, as Kong can play back drum samples in a way which acts like ReDrum on <a href="/title/amphetamines">amphetamines</a>.</p>
<p>First, it has sixteen <a href="/title/channel">channels</a> instead of ReDrum's ten. Second, you can<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…