The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Tuesday, Debtember 02, 2003

The popular Andrew Jackson

Sigh.

67 people have linked to my image of Jeff Conaway Andrew Jackson, including two schools (but at least one of them provided a link back … to the picture!) and I just have to wonder why? Why is this particular image of Andrew Jackson so popular? Seventy percent of all searches last month were for the aformentioned picture of Andrew Jackson.

Seventy percent!

I didn't even draw the bloody thing! It's a scan of the US $20 bill!

But it's not like it's that big a problem, only 1% of the total requests to this site resulted in a request for the Andrew Jackson image (actually, 0.991% if you want to be pedantic about it) so it isn't costing me that much bandwidth. But still, the tempation to replace it with this is so strong …


The elusive Mr. Watterson

For Christmas 1995, the papers that published Calvin and Hobbes received a rather cryptic letter from Watterson. “I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels,” the letter read. “I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises.” And that was it. The strip ended on December 31, 1995, with Calvin saying, “It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy. Let's go exploring!” as the two sledded down a snow-covered hill.

Via InstaPundit, Missing! Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. Last seen in northeast Ohio. Do not approach.

Bill Watterson, elusive comic creator. Calvin and Hobbes was probably one of the best comic strips in existance; really, one of the only reasons to even read the comic section but I do have to respect him for not selling out like Jim Davis (who's own strip, Garfield is about as lively as The Family Circus) but still, getting information about Bill Watterson is hard, as the article relates; a varitable Thomas Pynchon of the comic world.

But hey, if Berkeley Breathed can make a come back, would it be too far to wish that Watterson come back with a Sunday-only Calvin and Hobbes strip?


Eigenradio—all the stations, all the time

All those stations, playing all that music, all the time! There's at least 40 different songs being played every week on most radio stations! Who has enough time in the day to listen to them all? That's why we've set up banks of computers to do the listening for us. They know what you really want to hear. They're trading variety for variance.

Eigenradio plays only the most important frequencies, only the beats with the highest entropy. If you took a bunch of music and asked it, “Music, what are you, really?” you'd hear Eigenradio singing back at you. When you're tuned in to Eigenradio, you always know that you're hearing the latest, rawest, most statistically separable thing you can possibly put in your ear.

Via raccooon : notes and scavengings, The statistically optimal music since 2003

Eigenradio is certainly different. The esscence of over 40 different songs condenced into a cocaphony of sound that almost has a beat you could dance to. “Avant-garde” could be one term to describe it. “A radio scanning way too fast” could be another term. “Noise” is yet a third term.

And ironically enough, according to Information Theory, Eigenradio is more interesting than pop radio.

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[The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades]

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