Joe 10 Music & Sound Design

Is a dictionary like a slide ruler?

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:12:38 +0000

I’ve often heard people, myself included telling their kids “don’t look that up on the computer – use the dictionary… The process of looking it up is as important as knowing the word”

Is it?

Reading on my Kindle (ok, Kindle for iPad, really) on the commute train this morning I tapped a word and was instantly delivered the definition. For that instant need, in that in setting, that was perfect. A dictionary – especially a separate app dictionary, couldn’t have served me better.

On one hand I think the seeing of the words that surround the word you’re looking for, the free exploration of words with similar prefixes makes the physical dictionary a wonderful thing. I remember long afternoon’s as a teenager with my friend Jim trying to stump one another as we traded back and forth with a dictionary, and think that game served me well.
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But, what I wonder about, is as with all things interactive, is the context question. Context, and the nut that hasn’t been cracked: form factor. The 2D screen is pretty good for reading, yet very linear for exploration. Why hypertext made free form exploration of relationships seems like the ultimate place for branching and exploring a conceptual matrix like a dictionary, I think there must be a form factor more optimal than a 2D screen.

Like, the very physical nature of a slide ruler made relationships obvious to the budding math wizard , what electronic gizmo could make word relationships come to life.

Well, it’s my stop, gotta run!

Johny Cash and June Carter Cash Gravesite

joe10 — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:39:15 +0000

I was in Nashville a couple weeks ago and couldn’t resist driving up to Hendersonville and visiting John and June’s final resting place:

It was nice and peaceful sitting there on their bench for a few, strumming a few choruses of Wildwood Flower while some folks were having some sort of candlelight vigil affair.

Year End Top Music List of Lists

joe10 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:01:10 +0000

So, 2011 is drawing to a close, and all the music rags are coming out with their “Best of 2011″ lists. Though Zite, Flipboard or your favorite RSS reader might have already aggregated these and others for you, here’s a sampling I think is pretty spot on.

This one’s almost a cheat, as it’s really 3 lists: The 50 best albums of 2011, The 50 Best Singles of 2011, and The Best Movies of 2011
Rolling Stone’s Best of 2011
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rolling-stones-best-of-2011-20111206
SPIN’s 20 Best Metal Albums of 2011: Plus Download Free 19-Song Mixtape!
http://www.spin.com/articles/spins-20-best-metal-albums-2011-plus-download-free-19-song-mixtape
NPR Music’s 100 Favorite Songs Of 2011 : NPR
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/14/143580858/npr-musics-100-favorite-songs-of-2011?sc=tw&cc=twmp
The 10 Best Rap Guest Verses Of 2011
http://stereogum.com/908002/the-10-best-rap-guest-verses-of-2011/franchises/listomania/
10 Best Rock Songs of 2011
http://www.aolradioblog.com/features/best-rock-songs-2011/
The Best Albums of 2011: 40 Records That Made This Year Unforgettable
http://www.spinner.com/2011/12/14/best-albums-2011/
Top 50 Albums of 2011
http://treblezine.com/features/303.html
Best Albums of 2011 [HearYa's Top 50]
http://www.hearya.com/2011/12/13/best-albums-of-2011-so-far/
Pitchfork enters the foray with a nicely annotated list. Even if I ignore the repeats from others, and Beyonce, it’ll still take me a bit to read through:
Staff Lists: The Top 100 Tracks of 2011
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/8726-the-top-100-tracks-of-2011/10/
This one from s kind of fun – not exactly a music list, but the drama that surrounds it:
10 Most Surprising Music Stories Of The Year
http://pigeonsandplanes.com/2011/12/10-most-surprising-music-stories-of-the-year.html