chord graphics

Ha, crossover humour! It's like Core Graphics, which is a Mac thing, only it's chord, because I'm talking about music, but I'm a Mac guy...oh, never mind.

When I'm trying to think of chords in music I always end up with a mental image of a piano keyboard, with the notes that make up the chord pressed. That's all well and good, but I don't have a piano! Apart from some set pieces like barre chords, I can't really think of note combinations in the same way on a guitar, and certainly get flustered trying to harmonise on a violin. What I really need is a piano to sit down and work out harmonies at, which I could then play on the instrument of my choosing (playing a string of notes on any of those instruments isn't so much of a problem).

Unfortunately the biggest piece of floor space I currently have access to is about 1.3m x 0.4m. Maybe some cheap Bontempi would fit there, but not an 88-key upright. If there were a real-space version of the GarageBand digital keyboard, that would certainly fit...in fact it would probably fit in one of my nostrils. One octave doth not a piano make. Some people have suggested Clavinova, MODUS or similar electric pianos before. The thing is, they cost around £2k, whereas an upright is <£500.

Prepping for WWDC

With the obvious first question being which parties do I go to? See you there?

The rokeg blood pie^W^W^Wplot thickens

So, having already discussed Klingon Anti-Virus, the under-research Klingon threat detection tool made available by Sophos, it seems that more information has been made available. From no less, or indeed more, of a source than the blog of my Clu-ful conym.

This seems to confirm the impression that the tool has been developed for some special internal use and might not be downloadable much longer. It's hard to tell, though; most of the company is being very quiet about it (indeed it wasn't until today that much internal noise was generated about the tool at all).

Of course, maybe I'm being duped. This could be some sort of company experiment to see, well, either how much free marketing they can get or who in the company is responsible for the press leaks. If it's the latter, then I need you all to take a look at my CV as I'll probably be relying on it - and you - soon ;-).

Anyway, take a look at the tool if you're interested, I've had reports that it works well but still haven't heard much feedback about the quality of the translation. BTW, interested in a Mac version of the tool? I can't promise anything but leave a message after the beep and I'll forward requests...

Detect the gagh lurking in your system!

Following up on my previous ability to get to the top of a Google search for a Klingon word (that one was chuvmey, as in my post Model, View, chuvmey) here is yet another attempt. At what? Why, at skewing the mental associations between science fiction television and the digital security industry, of course!

Sophos Klingon Anti-Virus is a threat detection tool for Windows computers, but in Klingon. Ever wondered what Conficker and Rokeg blood pie have in common? No, neither have I. In fact, I doubt anyone has. Nonetheless, try out the tool and see what Romulan back-doors have been installed on your box.

(N.B. this means we have to expand our remit from "Enterprise" security software, to include at least the "HMS Bounty" from Star Trek IV)

Rootier than root

There's a common misconception, the book I'm reading now suffers from it, that single-user mode on a unix such as mac os x gives you root access. Actually, it grants you higher access than root. For example, set the immutable flag on a file (schg I think, but my iPhone doesn't have man). Root can't remove the flag, but the single user can.