Marker - World-of-Newave.info http://answers.world-of-newave.info/marker.htm Latest news and articles about Marker en-us Copyright (c)2004-2008.§/Newave SARL. All rights reserved. webmaster@world-of-newave.com (Webmaster) Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:08:46 GMT Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:08:46 GMT Newave Lisa XML Engine v1.0 - http://www.world-of-newave.info/about.htm 60 http://www.world-of-newave.info/images/wi8831.gif World-of-Newave.info - Knowledge and Informational Database http://www.world-of-newave.info/ 88 31 {SOFTWARE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Hands-On With Microsoft's Touchless SDK http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/software/operating-systems/linux/news-and-media/hands-on-with-microsoft-s-touchless-sdk-2008105288.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/software/operating-systems/linux/news-and-media/hands-on-with-microsoft-s-touchless-sdk-2008105288.htm Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:56:00 GMT snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister takes Microsoft's recently released Touchless SDK for a test spin, controlling his Asus Eee PC 901 with a Roma tomato. The Touchless SDK is a set of .Net components that can be used to simulate the gestural interfaces of devices like the iPhone in thin air — using an ordinary USB Webcam. Although McAllister was able to draw, scroll, and play a rudimentary game with his tomato, the SDK still has some kinks to work out. 'For starters, its marker-location algorithm is very much keyed to color,' he writes. 'That's probably an efficient way to identify contrasting shapes, but color response varies by camera and is heavily influenced by ambient light conditions.' Moreover, the detection routine soaked up 64 percent of McAllister's 1.6GHz Atom CPU, with the video from the Webcam soon developing a few seconds' lag that made controlling onscreen cursors challenging. Project developer Mike Wasserman offers a video demo of the technology."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Developers.Slashdot.Org Hands-On With Microsoft's Touchless SDK {new window}   Developers.Slashdot.Org - snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister takes Microsoft's recently released Touchless SDK for a test spin, controlling his Asus Eee PC 901 with a Roma tomato. The Touchless SDK is a set of .Net components that can be used to simulate the gestural interfaces of devices like the iPhone in thin air — using an ordinary USB Webcam. Although McAllister was able to draw, scroll, and play a rudimentary game with his tomato, the SDK still has some kinks to work out. 'For starters, its marker-location algorithm is very much keyed to color,' he writes. 'That's probably an efficient way to identify contrasting shapes, but color response varies by camera and is heavily influenced by ambient light conditions.' Moreover, the detection routine soaked up 64 percent of McAllister's 1.6GHz Atom CPU, with the video from the Webcam soon developing a few seconds' lag that made controlling onscreen cursors challenging. Project developer Mike Wasserman offers a video demo of the technology."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Slashdot | Hands-On With Microsoft's Touchless SDK {...} Hands-On With Microsoft's Touchless SDK -- article related to Microsoft and Developers. {...}
Published: October 11, 2008, 4:56 pm - Indexed: October 12, 2008, 9:06 am - Page Size: 70KB
Category: Computers > Software > Operating Systems > Linux > News and Media

]]> Computers > Software > Operating Systems > Linux > News and Media {MOTORSPORTS > FORMULA ON} - Singapore: Grip predictions wide of the mark http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/motorsports/auto-racing/formula-on/singapore-grip-predictions-wide-of-the-mark-20080962545.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/motorsports/auto-racing/formula-on/singapore-grip-predictions-wide-of-the-mark-20080962545.htm Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:48:27 GMT Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) set the marker on the opening night of running for the Singtel Singapore Grand Prix by using Bridgestone’s soft compound Potenza tyre to set Friday’s fastest lap time at the 5.07km Marina Bay Street Circuit, as Formula One cars ran at night for the first time at the fifteenth round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship. F1network.Net Singapore: Grip predictions wide of the mark {new window}   Www.F1network.Net - Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) set the marker on the opening night of running for the Singtel Singapore Grand Prix by using Bridgestone’s soft compound Potenza tyre to set Friday’s fastest lap time at the 5.07km Marina Bay Street Circuit, as Formula One cars ran at night for the first time at the fifteenth round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship.
RealHondaF1.com - Singapore: Grip predictions wide of the mark {...} Lewis Hamilton set the marker on the opening night of running for the Singapore GP by using Bridgestone’s soft compound tyre to set Friday’s fastest lap time at the 5.07km Marina Bay Street Circuit. | RealHondaF1.com : Unofficial Honda Racing F1 news and views {...}
Indexed: September 28, 2008, 2:48 pm - Page Size: 46KB
Category: Sports > Motorsports > Auto Racing > Formula On

]]> Sports > Motorsports > Auto Racing > Formula On {LITERATURE > CYBERPUNK} - Floor "refinished" by drawing on it http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/floor-refinished-by-drawing-on-it-20080957420.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/floor-refinished-by-drawing-on-it-20080957420.htm Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:02:13 GMT Love this floor retrofit: just cover it up with vinyl and draw on it with a fat marker! It all began when i wanted to get rid of the wooden floors that were in my apartment when i bought it. Tearing it up would be a lot of work(obviously) and stupid(because even if i don?t like it, i know replacing it with plastic floor would lower the value of this apartment remarkably when i?m going to sell it one day). So i started looking for a way to keep the original floor, but cover it with a white shiny surface. Painting it would possibly ruin the floor, and it would require a complete floor grind. No other solutions seemed to be available. Until i one day saw a roll of self-adhesive vinyl film in the hardware store. People use it for cupboards and car decals, why wouldn?t it work on a floor? The staff at the store said it would never work of course. ?It won?t last blah blah blah leave marks blah blah do it proper blah?. But i was optimistic. I don?t need something to last for 10 years, if it looks good for one year and is easy to remove it?s way better! And it?s cheap too. So i bought a roll and tried it out. Kitchen floor doodling (via Neatorama)... Boingboing.Net Floor "refinished" by drawing on it {new window}   Www.Boingboing.Net - Love this floor retrofit: just cover it up with vinyl and draw on it with a fat marker! It all began when i wanted to get rid of the wooden floors that were in my apartment when i bought it. Tearing it up would be a lot of work(obviously) and stupid(because even if i don?t like it, i know replacing it with plastic floor would lower the value of this apartment remarkably when i?m going to sell it one day). So i started looking for a way to keep the original floor, but cover it with a white shiny surface. Painting it would possibly ruin the floor, and it would require a complete floor grind. No other solutions seemed to be available. Until i one day saw a roll of self-adhesive vinyl film in the hardware store. People use it for cupboards and car decals, why wouldn?t it work on a floor? The staff at the store said it would never work of course. ?It won?t last blah blah blah leave marks blah blah do it proper blah?. But i was optimistic. I don?t need something to last for 10 years, if it looks good for one year and is easy to remove it?s way better! And it?s cheap too. So i bought a roll and tried it out. Kitchen floor doodling (via Neatorama)...
Floor "refinished" by drawing on it - Boing Boing {...}
Published: September 17, 2008, 10:02 pm - Indexed: September 18, 2008, 11:44 am - Page Size: 47KB
Category: Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk

]]> Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk {NORTH AMERICA > LODGING} - Quiet cottage on Mendocino coast in meadow, gardens. PHOTOS below. (mendocino county) $100 1bd http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/quiet-cottage-on-mendocino-coast-in-meadow-gardens-2008098889.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/quiet-cottage-on-mendocino-coast-in-meadow-gardens-2008098889.htm Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:48:17 GMT Vacation rental on the Mendocino Coast, 3.5 hours north of San Francisco. (Price above, $100 per night, is based on 1 or 2 people for 2 nights during the non-summer months [Sept-May]: $125 for the first night + $75 for the 2nd = $200 [+ 11% bed tax = $222 total]. Our Quiet Meadow Cottage is located on the spectacular Mendocino Coast in a beautiful rural area just 1.5 miles from Pacific Ocean on 13 acres of gardens, meadows and redwood forests, with horses and llamas next door on our quiet, dead-end, paved road. We are 5 miles from the fishing village of Albion, 12 from historically preserved coastal village of Mendocino (an art, wine and food lover's paradise), and 20 to 30 miles from Fort Bragg’s harbor, ocean fishing and whale-watching cruises, sand dunes, Botanical Gardens, the historic Skunk Train, many Anderson Valley wineries, and two virgin redwood preserves. Our guest cottage is clean, cozy and quiet with a queen bedroom, tub & shower bathroom, small kitchen, sunny deck, and a comfy, sun-filled living room (with 2 additional day-beds). No other houses are in sight (besides the owners' next door), deer and wild turkeys frequent the meadow in front, nearby are extensive flower and vegetable gardens, and at night what you usually hear most is the distant ocean surf. Costs: For one or two people during the summer season (June-Aug and all holidays) it's $150 for the first night, $100 each additional night, and $650 per week. During the off-season (Sept-May, excluding holidays) it's $125 first night and $75 each additional night, or $500 per week. There is a 2-night minimum for holidays and summer season weekends. If there are more than two people, add a one-time fee of $25 per person, and in all cases add a 11% county bed tax. There are no cleaning or other fees. To reserve your dates, we request a check for half of the total sent immediately to Tom Wodetzki, 31901 Middle Ridge Road, Albion CA 95410. To keep the cottage fresh for all occupants, smoking and pets are not permitted. More photos can be sent to you upon request, and several photos of the property, garden and Mendocino Coast area can be viewed at the owners' home-exchange website: http://tw.mcn.org/HomeExchange/gallery.html Here are two web sites for general Mendocino area information: http://www.mendocinocoast.com/ & http://www.mendocino.org/ And here are the Flickr sites of two local friends, both professional photographers, that have numerous beautiful photos of the area: http://flickr.com/photos/44548980@N00/sets/72157594318144257/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurieyork/sets/72157602384586810 Note that we have video and DVD players and a TV set for films, but we do not get TV reception or cable. Cell phone reception is sketchy-- it works for some guests and not for others. There is a phone in the cottage (707-937-56020 in case you want to give it to family or friends, and which you may use for local calls and local internet link-up, altho it's dial-up and therefore slow. The cold Pacific Ocean 1 1/2 miles away keeps our summer daytime temp below 80 degrees-- 60 degrees during foggy days-- and nights can go as low as 45 in summer and 30 in winter. Bring layers. The cottage is heated centrally by a Monitor propane stove that you can adjust to your desired temperature. And we do provide bedding and towels. The check-in time is 3pm, and check-out is noon. We do not provide breakfasts or meals. The kitchen includes (besides stove, fridge, sink, etc) a coffee maker and tea kettle, plus sugar, salt & pepper, and usually some teas. However, you need to bring your own coffee, cream and all the food you want to eat. Many restaurants are available in the area, and Albion village has a good little grocery store and deli. Driving directions are at the bottom. For more information or to book your stay, call 707-937-1113 or email: tw@mcn.org Wishing you an enjoyable time in the country, Tom & Sharon Comments from the guestbook: "Thank you for creating such a spacious, uncluttered, tranquil environment. This lovely cottage, deep rest, miles of quiet, and black nights all conspire to ease my wound up nerves." "You have created a mansion-- a home that holds us in a place of peace & security, that welcomes us each evening, that beckons us to embrace the magic & mystery of the spirits of this land, that refreshes us each night." "This is truly a special place. I was looking for a retreat and I found more... I found myself again. Thank you for creating a safe, warm space and sharing your incredibly beautiful property." "You have a truly magical world here and a cozy cottage to comfort guests. Being here in this enchanted forest is a true gift." "Thanks for this lovely space to rest and become restored. The nature, the quiet, the warm and sunny days have left us all softened around the edges." Driving directions to Quiet Meadow Cottage in Albion, California. (Use these since Google's, Yahoo's and other's are wrong.) From San Francisco, get onto Highway 101 North and cross the Golden Gate Bridge. Continue north on 101 for 80 miles to Cloverdale. Exit on the 3rd Cloverdale exit, where the signs say Hwy 128 West, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Boonville. Follow those signs and take Highway 128 northwest 55 miles thru beautiful Anderson Valley to its end at Coast Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean. Go straight/north on Hwy 1 for 3 miles to Albion, turn right/east/inland on Albion Ridge Road, pass the Albion village on your left and drive 4 miles uphill to Middle Ridge Road, a paved road on the right. Turn right and drive down Middle Ridge Road 1 1/2 miles and turn into the first driveway on the left after the 1 5 mile marker, at the 31901 and 32033 signs. The drive forks immediately; take the left fork up to our guest cottage and home. For the guest cottage, park in the slot on the right that says “cottage parking.” Welcome to your Quiet Meadow Cottage! Sfbay.Craigslist.Org Quiet cottage on Mendocino coast in meadow, gardens. PHOTOS below. (mendocino county) $100 1bd {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - Vacation rental on the Mendocino Coast, 3.5 hours north of San Francisco. (Price above, $100 per night, is based on 1 or 2 people for 2 nights during the non-summer months [Sept-May]: $125 for the first night + $75 for the 2nd = $200 [+ 11% bed tax = $222 total]. Our Quiet Meadow Cottage is located on the spectacular Mendocino Coast in a beautiful rural area just 1.5 miles from Pacific Ocean on 13 acres of gardens, meadows and redwood forests, with horses and llamas next door on our quiet, dead-end, paved road. We are 5 miles from the fishing village of Albion, 12 from historically preserved coastal village of Mendocino (an art, wine and food lover's paradise), and 20 to 30 miles from Fort Bragg’s harbor, ocean fishing and whale-watching cruises, sand dunes, Botanical Gardens, the historic Skunk Train, many Anderson Valley wineries, and two virgin redwood preserves. Our guest cottage is clean, cozy and quiet with a queen bedroom, tub & shower bathroom, small kitchen, sunny deck, and a comfy, sun-filled living room (with 2 additional day-beds). No other houses are in sight (besides the owners' next door), deer and wild turkeys frequent the meadow in front, nearby are extensive flower and vegetable gardens, and at night what you usually hear most is the distant ocean surf. Costs: For one or two people during the summer season (June-Aug and all holidays) it's $150 for the first night, $100 each additional night, and $650 per week. During the off-season (Sept-May, excluding holidays) it's $125 first night and $75 each additional night, or $500 per week. There is a 2-night minimum for holidays and summer season weekends. If there are more than two people, add a one-time fee of $25 per person, and in all cases add a 11% county bed tax. There are no cleaning or other fees. To reserve your dates, we request a check for half of the total sent immediately to Tom Wodetzki, 31901 Middle Ridge Road, Albion CA 95410. To keep the cottage fresh for all occupants, smoking and pets are not permitted. More photos can be sent to you upon request, and several photos of the property, garden and Mendocino Coast area can be viewed at the owners' home-exchange website: http://tw.mcn.org/HomeExchange/gallery.html Here are two web sites for general Mendocino area information: http://www.mendocinocoast.com/ & http://www.mendocino.org/ And here are the Flickr sites of two local friends, both professional photographers, that have numerous beautiful photos of the area: http://flickr.com/photos/44548980@N00/sets/72157594318144257/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurieyork/sets/72157602384586810 Note that we have video and DVD players and a TV set for films, but we do not get TV reception or cable. Cell phone reception is sketchy-- it works for some guests and not for others. There is a phone in the cottage (707-937-56020 in case you want to give it to family or friends, and which you may use for local calls and local internet link-up, altho it's dial-up and therefore slow. The cold Pacific Ocean 1 1/2 miles away keeps our summer daytime temp below 80 degrees-- 60 degrees during foggy days-- and nights can go as low as 45 in summer and 30 in winter. Bring layers. The cottage is heated centrally by a Monitor propane stove that you can adjust to your desired temperature. And we do provide bedding and towels. The check-in time is 3pm, and check-out is noon. We do not provide breakfasts or meals. The kitchen includes (besides stove, fridge, sink, etc) a coffee maker and tea kettle, plus sugar, salt & pepper, and usually some teas. However, you need to bring your own coffee, cream and all the food you want to eat. Many restaurants are available in the area, and Albion village has a good little grocery store and deli. Driving directions are at the bottom. For more information or to book your stay, call 707-937-1113 or email: tw@mcn.org Wishing you an enjoyable time in the country, Tom & Sharon Comments from the guestbook: "Thank you for creating such a spacious, uncluttered, tranquil environment. This lovely cottage, deep rest, miles of quiet, and black nights all conspire to ease my wound up nerves." "You have created a mansion-- a home that holds us in a place of peace & security, that welcomes us each evening, that beckons us to embrace the magic & mystery of the spirits of this land, that refreshes us each night." "This is truly a special place. I was looking for a retreat and I found more... I found myself again. Thank you for creating a safe, warm space and sharing your incredibly beautiful property." "You have a truly magical world here and a cozy cottage to comfort guests. Being here in this enchanted forest is a true gift." "Thanks for this lovely space to rest and become restored. The nature, the quiet, the warm and sunny days have left us all softened around the edges." Driving directions to Quiet Meadow Cottage in Albion, California. (Use these since Google's, Yahoo's and other's are wrong.) From San Francisco, get onto Highway 101 North and cross the Golden Gate Bridge. Continue north on 101 for 80 miles to Cloverdale. Exit on the 3rd Cloverdale exit, where the signs say Hwy 128 West, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Boonville. Follow those signs and take Highway 128 northwest 55 miles thru beautiful Anderson Valley to its end at Coast Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean. Go straight/north on Hwy 1 for 3 miles to Albion, turn right/east/inland on Albion Ridge Road, pass the Albion village on your left and drive 4 miles uphill to Middle Ridge Road, a paved road on the right. Turn right and drive down Middle Ridge Road 1 1/2 miles and turn into the first driveway on the left after the 1 5 mile marker, at the 31901 and 32033 signs. The drive forks immediately; take the left fork up to our guest cottage and home. For the guest cottage, park in the slot on the right that says “cottage parking.” Welcome to your Quiet Meadow Cottage!
Quiet cottage on Mendocino coast in meadow, gardens. PHOTOS below. {...}
Published: September 13, 2008, 12:48 am - Indexed: September 13, 2008, 12:48 pm - Page Size: 10KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging {INTERNET > W} - Girl Turk: Mechanical Turk Meets Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals" http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/girl-turk-mechanical-turk-meets-girl-talk-s-feed-20080918114.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/on-the-web/weblogs/personal/w/girl-turk-mechanical-turk-meets-girl-talk-s-feed-20080918114.htm Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:00:00 GMT Girl Talk's Feed the Animals is one of my favorite albums this year, a hyperactive mashup sampling hundreds of songs from the last 45 years of popular music. Gregg Gillis created a beautiful, illegal mess of copyright clearance hell, which you should download immediately. (It's free, but I kicked in $20 for Gregg's legal fund and a copy of the CD.) Last month, Rex Sorgatz asked about collecting metadata on the album for data crunching. After spelunking through Billboard's chart history, that sounded like my idea of a good time. So I compiled all the data into spreadsheets, used Amazon's Mechanical Turk to collect some additional information, and pulled out a few charts. As always, I've provided CSV downloads for all the data along with the original output from Mechanical Turk, for those interested in experimenting with the platform. Results Here's the final spreadsheet with all the collected data. You can download the CSV or browse it using Google Spreadsheets. For more information about how the data was collected with Wikipedia and Amazon's Mechanical Turk, I wrote about my methodology in the next section. There are 14 tracks on Feed the Animals, with a total of 264 sampled songs. "What It's All About" and "Like This" have 26 sampled songs each, tying for the most, while "Don't Stop" has the fewest at 11 songs. Overall, the album averages 19.8 songs sampled per track. The timeline below shows where each sample was triggered across the entire album, as a percentage of the song's duration. (For example, a marker at the 50% mark on the 9th line means that a sample started halfway through track #9, "Hands In the Air.") You can get a sense of the flow of the album, how Gregg spaces samples apart and occasionally switches moods entirely by introducing three samples in quick succession. Using the sample release dates collected from Mechanical Turk, the chart below shows the median sample age for each track. (The bars above and below each point represent the earliest and latest years for each track.) I was surprised to see a trend — the album uses relatively recent songs for the first three tracks, before taking us back to the late '80s and early '90s for the middle of the album, with the exception of "No Pause." Then, every song from track 9 to the end of the album gets progressively more modern. For the whole album, 1995 was the median year. The chart below shows the sample release years in more detail, telling another story. Here, we can see how heavily Gregg uses samples from the last three years, and strongly avoids samples for the previous three-year period from 2001 to 2004. (Too old to be cool, but not old enough to be retro?) I'm sure there's more that can be explored here, so feel free to send on your own analysis. Methodology Getting the sample list was easy. I took a snapshot of the album's Wikipedia entry and extracted all the samples using Excel's Text to Columns feature. Now, I had a spreadsheet of all 264 songs sampled across 14 tracks, with each sample's original artist and song name. But to get the sample's release year, I'd need to go elsewhere. The Last.fm and Yahoo! Music APIs all support album release dates, but during testing, I found that the dates were unreliable. (Compilation albums and reissues led to incorrect dates, and some artist/song searches led to incorrect results.) Instead, I decided to use human labor to fill in the gaps using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I created a new request using the new web-based tools for generating HITs (or "Human Intelligence Tasks") from a simple spreadsheet. I paid $0.02 for each request, with each song verified by two different workers. Each worker was asked to search for the song on Billboard.com, All Music Guide, Wikipedia, or Google, and fill in the original release year. Here's an example of one of the requests. Within an hour, all but 4 answers were submitted. The median time to finish a request was an impressive 26 seconds. (Amazingly, over 110 answers were completed in under 10 seconds without any errors.) For 193 songs, about 73%, the two workers agreed on the year, so were approved immediately. For the rest, 27% of the songs, the workers came up with different answers, so I checked them manually. (In hindsight, I should have required three workers per song to resolve different answers.) Surprisingly, I couldn't find a correlation between the amount of time spent on each task and the error rate. Workers who made mistakes took just as long as the accurate workers. The spreadsheet below is the source data from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. (View it on Google Docs or download it in Excel format.) The "raw" sheet is the default output from Amazon, while the rest of the sheets are my own edits, breaking out the final set of accepted answers, the responses that were immediately approved, and the ones that were contested. Overall, it cost me $13.20 for all 528 answers and took a little over two hours, an hourly rate of about $1.64. Simple to use, affordable, and I'll almost certainly use it again — for something a little more interesting next time. If anyone out there wants to take a pass at getting the sample endings, sample genres, or any other additional metadata with Mechanical Turk or otherwise, send it along and I'll add it to the spreadsheet. Thanks!  Waxy.Org Girl Turk: Mechanical Turk Meets Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals" {new window}   Waxy.Org - Girl Talk's Feed the Animals is one of my favorite albums this year, a hyperactive mashup sampling hundreds of songs from the last 45 years of popular music. Gregg Gillis created a beautiful, illegal mess of copyright clearance hell, which you should download immediately. (It's free, but I kicked in $20 for Gregg's legal fund and a copy of the CD.) Last month, Rex Sorgatz asked about collecting metadata on the album for data crunching. After spelunking through Billboard's chart history, that sounded like my idea of a good time. So I compiled all the data into spreadsheets, used Amazon's Mechanical Turk to collect some additional information, and pulled out a few charts. As always, I've provided CSV downloads for all the data along with the original output from Mechanical Turk, for those interested in experimenting with the platform. Results Here's the final spreadsheet with all the collected data. You can download the CSV or browse it using Google Spreadsheets. For more information about how the data was collected with Wikipedia and Amazon's Mechanical Turk, I wrote about my methodology in the next section. There are 14 tracks on Feed the Animals, with a total of 264 sampled songs. "What It's All About" and "Like This" have 26 sampled songs each, tying for the most, while "Don't Stop" has the fewest at 11 songs. Overall, the album averages 19.8 songs sampled per track. The timeline below shows where each sample was triggered across the entire album, as a percentage of the song's duration. (For example, a marker at the 50% mark on the 9th line means that a sample started halfway through track #9, "Hands In the Air.") You can get a sense of the flow of the album, how Gregg spaces samples apart and occasionally switches moods entirely by introducing three samples in quick succession. Using the sample release dates collected from Mechanical Turk, the chart below shows the median sample age for each track. (The bars above and below each point represent the earliest and latest years for each track.) I was surprised to see a trend — the album uses relatively recent songs for the first three tracks, before taking us back to the late '80s and early '90s for the middle of the album, with the exception of "No Pause." Then, every song from track 9 to the end of the album gets progressively more modern. For the whole album, 1995 was the median year. The chart below shows the sample release years in more detail, telling another story. Here, we can see how heavily Gregg uses samples from the last three years, and strongly avoids samples for the previous three-year period from 2001 to 2004. (Too old to be cool, but not old enough to be retro?) I'm sure there's more that can be explored here, so feel free to send on your own analysis. Methodology Getting the sample list was easy. I took a snapshot of the album's Wikipedia entry and extracted all the samples using Excel's Text to Columns feature. Now, I had a spreadsheet of all 264 songs sampled across 14 tracks, with each sample's original artist and song name. But to get the sample's release year, I'd need to go elsewhere. The Last.fm and Yahoo! Music APIs all support album release dates, but during testing, I found that the dates were unreliable. (Compilation albums and reissues led to incorrect dates, and some artist/song searches led to incorrect results.) Instead, I decided to use human labor to fill in the gaps using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I created a new request using the new web-based tools for generating HITs (or "Human Intelligence Tasks") from a simple spreadsheet. I paid $0.02 for each request, with each song verified by two different workers. Each worker was asked to search for the song on Billboard.com, All Music Guide, Wikipedia, or Google, and fill in the original release year. Here's an example of one of the requests. Within an hour, all but 4 answers were submitted. The median time to finish a request was an impressive 26 seconds. (Amazingly, over 110 answers were completed in under 10 seconds without any errors.) For 193 songs, about 73%, the two workers agreed on the year, so were approved immediately. For the rest, 27% of the songs, the workers came up with different answers, so I checked them manually. (In hindsight, I should have required three workers per song to resolve different answers.) Surprisingly, I couldn't find a correlation between the amount of time spent on each task and the error rate. Workers who made mistakes took just as long as the accurate workers. The spreadsheet below is the source data from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. (View it on Google Docs or download it in Excel format.) The "raw" sheet is the default output from Amazon, while the rest of the sheets are my own edits, breaking out the final set of accepted answers, the responses that were immediately approved, and the ones that were contested. Overall, it cost me $13.20 for all 528 answers and took a little over two hours, an hourly rate of about $1.64. Simple to use, affordable, and I'll almost certainly use it again — for something a little more interesting next time. If anyone out there wants to take a pass at getting the sample endings, sample genres, or any other additional metadata with Mechanical Turk or otherwise, send it along and I'll add it to the spreadsheet. Thanks! 
Girl Turk: Mechanical Turk Meets Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals" - Waxy.org {...}
Published: September 11, 2008, 3:00 am - Indexed: September 11, 2008, 10:46 am - Page Size: 26KB
Category: Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W

]]> Computers > Internet > On the Web > Weblogs > Personal > W {NEWS > BREAKING NEWS} - Sept. 9, 1999: 9/9/99 No Big Deal for Computers http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/sept-9-1999-9-9-99-no-big-deal-for-computers-20080948916.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/sept-9-1999-9-9-99-no-big-deal-for-computers-20080948916.htm Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT 1999: Some people fear massive computer problems, but does 9/9/99 create headaches? Nein, nein, nein. As 1999 entered its final months, most of the tech anxiety focused on Jan. 1, 2000, and what would happen if older computers interpreted 00, a year marked with only two digits, as 1900 rather than 2000. The Y2K problem was getting plenty of attention in IT departments, in the media and in government. But there were also worries because some data systems used the digits 9999 to mark the end of a file. If a program was coded to stop running at 9999, the logic went, it might abruptly terminate processing a file if it came to the date 9/9/99. Sept. 9 was not the first date that caused concern. Some nervous nerdies also worried about Jan. 1, 1999. 1/1/1999, with three 1s, three 9s. But ... no prob. Sept. 9 in fact was not even the first 9999 date of the year. That came on April 9, the 99th day of '99. Any dating system that simply counted days from the first of the year and used just two numbers for the year might have been vulnerable. But nothing of note happened. Nonetheless (or ninetheless) 9/9/99 was still causing some apprehension. Those who downplayed the concern noted that the date would translate into machine code as 090999, which would not stop any process. Conversely, at least one expert worried that the real problem wasn't in the date being interpreted as an end-of-file marker (or trailer), but in an end-of-file marker being interpreted as a date. In this scenario, ill-written software itself intended to patch the Y2K glitch might go overboard and read an intentional 9999 end-of-file value as a date and convert it into an explicit 1999 date. Without the 9999 trailer at the end of the file, a program might go on running after it was supposed to stop, said Fred Kohun, associate dean of the school of communication and information systems at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh. Some IT people regarded the whole thing as "pernicious myth ... in the order of credibility of the abominable snowman." Other IT departments took the 9/9/99 opportunity to test their contingency plans for Y2K. If nothing happened, they'd had a rehearsal for a perceived larger threat. If something did happen, they were at the ready, or at least as ready as they could muster. In the end, no big problems materialized. That turned out be a preview of Y2K itself, which -- depending on which view you adopted -- was either a colossal waste of time, money and effort, or the lack of trouble was a vindication of all the time, money and effort that prevented problems before they could occur. This much is certain. Today is the ninth anniversary of 9/9/99, and that won't happen again in our calendar for at least 99.9999 years. Source: Various Wired.Com Sept. 9, 1999: 9/9/99 No Big Deal for Computers {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - 1999: Some people fear massive computer problems, but does 9/9/99 create headaches? Nein, nein, nein. As 1999 entered its final months, most of the tech anxiety focused on Jan. 1, 2000, and what would happen if older computers interpreted 00, a year marked with only two digits, as 1900 rather than 2000. The Y2K problem was getting plenty of attention in IT departments, in the media and in government. But there were also worries because some data systems used the digits 9999 to mark the end of a file. If a program was coded to stop running at 9999, the logic went, it might abruptly terminate processing a file if it came to the date 9/9/99. Sept. 9 was not the first date that caused concern. Some nervous nerdies also worried about Jan. 1, 1999. 1/1/1999, with three 1s, three 9s. But ... no prob. Sept. 9 in fact was not even the first 9999 date of the year. That came on April 9, the 99th day of '99. Any dating system that simply counted days from the first of the year and used just two numbers for the year might have been vulnerable. But nothing of note happened. Nonetheless (or ninetheless) 9/9/99 was still causing some apprehension. Those who downplayed the concern noted that the date would translate into machine code as 090999, which would not stop any process. Conversely, at least one expert worried that the real problem wasn't in the date being interpreted as an end-of-file marker (or trailer), but in an end-of-file marker being interpreted as a date. In this scenario, ill-written software itself intended to patch the Y2K glitch might go overboard and read an intentional 9999 end-of-file value as a date and convert it into an explicit 1999 date. Without the 9999 trailer at the end of the file, a program might go on running after it was supposed to stop, said Fred Kohun, associate dean of the school of communication and information systems at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh. Some IT people regarded the whole thing as "pernicious myth ... in the order of credibility of the abominable snowman." Other IT departments took the 9/9/99 opportunity to test their contingency plans for Y2K. If nothing happened, they'd had a rehearsal for a perceived larger threat. If something did happen, they were at the ready, or at least as ready as they could muster. In the end, no big problems materialized. That turned out be a preview of Y2K itself, which -- depending on which view you adopted -- was either a colossal waste of time, money and effort, or the lack of trouble was a vindication of all the time, money and effort that prevented problems before they could occur. This much is certain. Today is the ninth anniversary of 9/9/99, and that won't happen again in our calendar for at least 99.9999 years. Source: Various
Get the latest in science news, including space, physics, planet earth, discoveries, NASA, satellites, and space travel from Wired.com {...}
Published: September 9, 2008, 5:00 am - Indexed: September 9, 2008, 10:26 pm - Page Size: 44KB
Category: News > Breaking News

]]> News > Breaking News {MOTORSPORTS > FORMULA ON} - Preview: Exeter v Leeds http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/motorsports/auto-racing/formula-on/preview-exeter-v-leeds-2008092656.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/motorsports/auto-racing/formula-on/preview-exeter-v-leeds-2008092656.htm Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:43:52 GMT Last week's victory against Nottingham would, on the face of it, put down a marker for the rest of the league that this Leeds team is not to be underestimated. The scoreline alone would suggest that the team is of a higher quality than perhaps had been assumed once their relegation had been confirmed last year. Situation Rosy – Leeds on top of the world. Rugbynetwork.Net Preview: Exeter v Leeds {new window}   Www.Rugbynetwork.Net - Last week's victory against Nottingham would, on the face of it, put down a marker for the rest of the league that this Leeds team is not to be underestimated. The scoreline alone would suggest that the team is of a higher quality than perhaps had been assumed once their relegation had been confirmed last year. Situation Rosy – Leeds on top of the world.
TykesRugby.co.uk - Preview: Exeter v Leeds {...} Andy Brown's preview of the Exeter "crunch match" second game in.... | TykesRugby.co.uk : Unofficial Leeds Carnegie news and views {...}
Indexed: September 6, 2008, 11:43 am - Page Size: 72KB
Category: Sports > Motorsports > Auto Racing > Formula On

]]> Sports > Motorsports > Auto Racing > Formula On {MOTORSPORTS > FORMULA ON} - Exeter Chiefs v Leeds Carnegie match preview http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/motorsports/auto-racing/formula-on/exeter-chiefs-v-leeds-carnegie-match-preview-2008098137.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/motorsports/auto-racing/formula-on/exeter-chiefs-v-leeds-carnegie-match-preview-2008098137.htm Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:56:58 GMT Exeter Chiefs face Leeds Carnegie who were relegated from the Premiership at the end of last season in only the second game of the new season. Both sides opened their season with a win, Chiefs away to Esher and Leeds v last years 3rd place side Nottingham and both will be keen to lay down a marker for the rest of this season. Rugbynetwork.Net Exeter Chiefs v Leeds Carnegie match preview {new window}   Www.Rugbynetwork.Net - Exeter Chiefs face Leeds Carnegie who were relegated from the Premiership at the end of last season in only the second game of the new season. Both sides opened their season with a win, Chiefs away to Esher and Leeds v last years 3rd place side Nottingham and both will be keen to lay down a marker for the rest of this season.
Unofficial Chiefs - Exeter Chiefs v Leeds Carnegie match preview {...} Exeter Chiefs face Leeds Carnegie who were relegated from the Premiership at the end of last season in only the second game of the new season. | Unofficial Chiefs : Unofficial Exeter Chiefs news and views {...}
Indexed: September 4, 2008, 9:56 am - Page Size: 100KB
Category: Sports > Motorsports > Auto Racing > Formula On

]]> Sports > Motorsports > Auto Racing > Formula On {SOCIAL SCIENCES > URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING} - Two Men Banned from Natl. Parks for Correcting Grammar http://articles.world-of-newave.info/science/social-sciences/urban-and-regional-planning/two-men-banned-from-natl-parks-for-correcting-grammar-20080833727.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/science/social-sciences/urban-and-regional-planning/two-men-banned-from-natl-parks-for-correcting-grammar-20080833727.htm Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT Two men calling themselves the Typo Eradication Advancement League drove around the country fixing typos on signage in national parks- until the park service caught them defacing a historic marker in the Grand Canyon. read more Planetizen.Com Two Men Banned from Natl. Parks for Correcting Grammar {new window}   Www.Planetizen.Com - Two men calling themselves the Typo Eradication Advancement League drove around the country fixing typos on signage in national parks- until the park service caught them defacing a historic marker in the Grand Canyon. read more
Two Men Banned from Natl. Parks for Correcting Grammar | Planetizen {...}
Published: August 25, 2008, 2:00 pm - Indexed: August 25, 2008, 6:31 pm - Page Size: 24KB
Category: Science > Social Sciences > Urban and Regional Planning

]]> Science > Social Sciences > Urban and Regional Planning {NEWS AND MEDIA > MAGAZINES AND E-ZINES} - Tag for aggressive bowel cancer http://articles.world-of-newave.info/health/news-and-media/publications/magazines-and-e_zines/tag-for-aggressive-bowel-cancer-20080859919.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/health/news-and-media/publications/magazines-and-e_zines/tag-for-aggressive-bowel-cancer-20080859919.htm Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:57:55 GMT UK scientists find a marker for aggressive bowel cancers needing the most treatment. News.Bbc.Co.Uk Tag for aggressive bowel cancer {new window}   News.Bbc.Co.Uk - UK scientists find a marker for aggressive bowel cancers needing the most treatment.
BBC NEWS | Health | Tag for aggressive bowel cancer {...}
Published: August 20, 2008, 12:57 am - Indexed: August 22, 2008, 4:38 pm - Page Size: 46KB
Category: Health > News and Media > Publications > Magazines and E-zines

]]> Health > News and Media > Publications > Magazines and E-zines