If you need switches or other molded electronic parts for your next circuit-bending or DIY synth project, you might consider this company out of Hong Kong and southern China:
http://www.fhhk.com/eng/info.html
You just can't make this stuff up 😉
Author: catsynth
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SOTU in situ
Listening to W's latest state of the union makes me wistful for the days when I could respect the residents of the White House:
No gems this year like last year's call to oppose human-animal hybrids.
He did get nu-cu-lar in there a couple of times, though. I could have had some fun with State of the Union Bingo from Drinking Liberally, but I'm not drinking tonight.
Not a single word about that little situation down on the Gulf Coast. You think the man who two years ago thought steroid-use in sports was a national crises could spend a few minutes on the recovery effort. Did he forget? Or maybe if he doesn't mention it, it doesn't exist…
People have given Bush some credit for actually mentioning climate change, and even proposing an increase in fuel efficiency standards. But take a closer look at what is being proposed:
Environmentalists noted that the proposal could lead to an average fuel economy of 34 miles per gallon in vehicles by 2017, but it would not require the industry to increase the fuel economy of their new cars.
Huh? My car, a non-hybrid from 2001, gets better mileage than that! So it's really not much of a plan at all. I guess I shouldn't have expected much. There was also no mention of the increasingly popular idea of CO2 costs within products and processes. For cars, that could be adding the cost of fuel inefficiency into the sale price (as opposed to adding the cost to the fuel itself). In fairness, having such a proposal in the speech would have meant he would have to explain it…
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Worthless Kitty Interlude: Cheering up with "Burbed"
It's the rare website that truly earns the title “I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats!” Burbed is definitely one of them. A colleage at work introduced me to it on Friday, and although this past weekend has seen a lot of ups and downs for me, I know I can count on Burbed for a good laugh at the expense of some of the Bay Area's worst real-estate deals. They just finished up Daly City week (for the geographically challenged: Daily City is a town just south of San Francisco), including priceless but overpriced gems like this SFMOMA permanent collection special.
If you live or own real estate in the Bay Area (as I suppose I do), you can probably appreciate the humor. If not, here's an opportunity to peer into the housing bubble and laugh at us.
If you don't think this site is funny, you are strange and weird.
It's also a reminder that my little foray into California real estate has worked out quite well on balance…
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CatSynth pic: Moogy
From our friends at matrixsynth, here is Moogy the moggy!
Moogy is actually the feline companion of Corky Burger. You can hear a “collaboration” of theirs entitled Moogy Boogie. Apparently Moogy enjoys hiding in the gaps between analog synth modules. I hesitate to think what would happen if Hercules attempted to fit in there.
Matrix had been campaigning for Moogy to win a contest featuring cute animals with electronic gadgets. She definitely got my vote. Unfortunately, the contest is now over and it appears that Moogy lost out to a chinchilla. We will have to launch a better coordinated campaign next time…
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Fun with highways: I-110/I-105 interchange in Los Angeles
This is the famed five-level intechange of 105 and 110 in Los Angeles, a rather impressive engineering feat.
Interstate 105, the Century Freeway, is one of the last of the major LA freeways to be built, and one I had neither seen nor driven until a wonderful Hollywood/LA/Orange County adventure that took place almost a year ago (it was in early February of 2006). I will spare you the details, dear reader, but I will say that it was cooincident with the 2006 Grammy Awards and was an amazingly memorable “night that never ended” until I returned home on “the 101” a day later… -
Weekend Cat Blogging #85: Hiding under the bed
We all need a safe place to hide from the world now and then. For Luna, one such place is under the bed, especially when the vaccuum or some houseguests make an unexpected appearance. We at CatSynth recently followed Luna under the bed and caught her on camera:
“What do you think you are doing down here?”
“Hmmm, what the heck is that?”
If you want to leave any advice, or join us hiding under the bed, leave us a comment. In the meantime, check out our friends at the Cat Blogosphere, who are hosting this weekend's roundup.
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The 2007 RPM Challenge
This week I signed up for the 2007 RPM Challenge to record an album in 28 days during the month of February. Here is a quote from my mission statement as a participating artist:
It took 2 1/2 years to complete my first album, Aquatic. It was well worth the time and in the end I had a beautiful product of which I am proud. But I would like to see what I can do with just 28 days. I will record some new experimental electronic tracks, maybe with some beats thrown in for good measure. Of course, I have to use at least one cat sound or two.
I will posting articles on my artist page at the RPM challenge documenting my progress (or lack thereof), and various other thoughts related to process of recording this new album. Of course, all articles will be cross posted here at CatSynth.
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Neave.tv and friends
This video came via our friend synthmonger. It was part of something called neave.tv, basically a custom video-channel application the web that plays a selection of syndicated material from YouTube, Google Video, and elsewhere. Synthmonger was actually calling attention this particular video featuring pjtoro's musical suit appearing on a Russian or Eastern European TV show. The suit appears to be a series of synthesizers controlled by body sensors. Pretty cool. The feline-themed models are a nice touch, too (hey, this is “CatSynth”).More detail can be found at pjtoro's site, including design information, more images/videos and even an interactive flash simulation.
Back on neave.tv, I found a few other interesting videos. Most intriguiging to me was the a work called Sixes Last by 1st Ave Machine, a design and animation house located (surprise) on 1st Avenue in New York. They did an amazing job of blending natural elements with surreal biology. You have to think about it for a few moments to decide whether it's real, completely animated or manipulated in some fashion. 
It's really not hard to create ones own syndicated channel like this with Flash, dynamic HTML/Javascript and the APIs provided by YouTube and other video sites. What interests me more are a few of the videos themselves, such as the work by 1st Ave Machine and others, which remind me that I still want to do more experimental video and animation work to complement my music. I've been spending much time back exclusively with music and sound (and trying to sell the CD lately), but there are some upcoming video opportunities I might want to consider…video
syndication
youtube
synthesizer
synth
musical+suit
animation
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Fat Cat in the News
All I can say is, “man, that it one fat cat!”
He has actually made quite a name for himself since getting stuck in a dog door while scavenging for food. The owners of the garage (and the food) were hoping to catch the culprit but did not necessarily expect the 20 lb “Goliath,” as he became known at the Oregon Humane Society, where he was taken after being freed from his little predicament.You can watch a video of “Goliath”, whose actual name is Hercules, below.
Happily, Hercules was reunited with his family – you can see a nice picture of him and his human by following the link. One sad note to the story, however, is that Hercules was diagnosed as having FIV (feline immunodeficiency, similar to HIV for humans). But that should not stop him from returning home to lead a happy and contented (very contented, it seems) life.
Cute as such a fat cat might be, pet obesity is increasing in the U.S., similar to the obesity epidemic among humans, and can carry many of the equivalent health risks. Fortunately, Luna and I have both managed to avoid this trend so far – we are both naturally quite thin. Here are some resources for those who are interested or concerned with issues of obesity in their feline friends:
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Super brrrrrr!
If we thought Saturday morning was cold, check out what showed up on Dashboard this morning:
It feels like the cold mornings back east that I thought I was getting away from. This is just incorrect! And ironically the northeast has been having a warm winter. Put it all together we're having some freaky weather. Are we seeing some of the effects of incipient climate change?
