News

Sometimes life takes a major unexpected turn.

Well, friends, this is one of those times. My official association with E-MU Systems is coming to an end. Basically, it appears that our parent company Creative Technology Ltd. has some serious plans for E-MU, and those plans do not include my continuing to work there. So 4 1/2 years of leading the group responsible for award-winning products such as Emulator X2 (winner of the coveted mipa Award) and bringing E-MU to the Mac OSX platform, and six years with the larger organization, comes to a quiet and somewhat undignified conclusion.

Manager, E-MU Software Engineering, March 2003 – July 2007.

It is sad to leave behind friends with the local group, and I do worry a bit for those who remain behind. I am actually looking forward to some of the opportunities ahead for myself. Rather than jump right back into the job market, I think this is a good time to reflect and consider some ideas more ambitious or rewarding than a simple paycheck. Though I do suspect I'll start missing that in a month or so.

For now, things should pretty much go ahead as normal for those of us at CatSynth HQ. And of course this site continues as well. I have been planning to do more weekly features like Weekend Cat Blogging and the CatSynth Channel podcasts, including a weekly CD or film review. I may start a weekly feature on being unemployed as well…for as long it lasts.

CatSynth 1st Anniversary

Today we celebrate CatSynth's first anniversary.

It's been one year since we posted this photo on July 19, 2006:

The idea came from a friend who said something like “dude, you should do a website about cats and synths.” So I did. Really didn't have too much idea what I would write about. I quickly learned that there was quite an abundance of pictures of cats and synths, and sites like matrixsynth had been collecting such images for a while. Indeed, one of the first external “CatSynth pics” to be posted here was of matrix's own cat JD:

Sadly, we recently learned that JD passed away this month. We offer matrix our sympathies. It's always sad to hear about cat friends passing away (or human friends, for that matter), and we at CatSynth have seen our share this past year.

I expect to post more this evening reviewing the year with photos, not-so-useful stats and the other things we at CatSynth like to think we do well…





Bandwidth and image stealing

A few months ago I noticed some surprising links from a site called neopets.com. Turns out a few users there had appropriated this October-themed image of Luna for their own works. In the case of one neopet user, she was labeled as “Brokenessence: darkhearted girl”. Another user at neopets even got her gender wrong and impugned her honor by declaring her some male dark demon character.

Regular readers know how I feel about demonizing black cats, but that's not what this article is about. It's about the appropriation of images and the corresponding bandwidth from this site. The image in the example above now carries the “catsynth.com” label, as do most of my own images used on this site – some of the art photos carry my name and a date, but the idea is still the same.

But the issue also extends to the images appropriated for this site from others, e.g., the many “CatSynth pics” contributed by others. They have been used at other sites not by copying them, but linking directly back here, thus I end up serving these images to their sites using my bandwidth costs. And they don't even link back here. For those who link back and bring more people to CatSynth, I'm generally OK eating the bandwidth costs. But for those who just grab images from this site, that's just plain stealing.

The worst offenders appear to be forums – blogs and other sites are usually good about copying the images to their own locations and/or linking back. It's the forums where people dash off a random post with an image from CatSynth that are the problem. And this month these forum sites are the most common “referrers”, even though they don't link back.

The biggest offenders for July are:

low-bee.com, where someone used a pic of Mimì.
punkas.com, where I'm paying for a good laugh at a lolbush pic (though I do approve of people ridiculing W).
biggie.co in New Zealand, again serving up a lolbush.
therocksalt.net – looks like lolbush again.
And of course the long-term offender detroitluv.com.

I will probably from now on post the biggest (monthly) bandwidth stealers at least once per month.

While I am happy to see people use images from this site to link back, or to ridicule “W”, I don't appreciate serving up images for free. The bandwidth so far hasn't really cost me much, but it's a lot of work to keep this site running, including the many images which make CatSynth such a rich and rewarding place to visit.

If you want to use an image from this site, please link back and give us credit. Failing that, at least copy it to your own site or one of the popular image hosting sites like photobucket or imageshack (I use ImageShack for sites where I don't have real storage space, like MySpace).

Alan Rabinowitz, the "Jaguar Man"

I heard this story on the radio earlier this evening:

'Jaguar Man,' Alan Rabinowitz, tells us how his story of making a promise to a big cat, and traveling deep into the Belize jungle to fulfill it.

Now this is a man who had a serious stutter until the age of 21, and suffered a lot of the social problems that come with it. He developed a strong bond with animals, including the ability to speak to them without stuttering. A supportive father brought him to the Bronx Zoo, where he made his promise to a jaguar in one of the old-school cages at the time. There is bit of irony in a man who found his way through a socially difficult childhood at the zoo, yet remains troubled about the existence and nature of zoos:

We end the hour with the story of boy who feels great sadness at the zoo. He doesn't like cages so he sets out to dedicate his life to keeping animals in the wild. In the end though, he'll find himself back at the zoo, as a zoo employee, to accomplish his mission.

We at CatSynth thought this story might be of interest to readers, a combination of overcome social difficulties, the human-animal connection, and the starkly ambivalent quality of institutions like zoos for those who love animals (the ability to admire and appreciate our closeness, while being aware of the harsh reality of captivity). And no, this story does not mirror my own life, I did not stutter as a child and probably wouldn't survive too long in the Central American jungle. Nonetheless, we can draw inspiration from it.

Cats in Shanghai

Well, this story is a lot less cute than the last one, but it still has cats, and a happy ending. From Reuters:

The power of the Internet has saved more than 800 cats from being skinned and served up on Chinese dinner tables.
About 30 animal lovers rushed to a parking lot in Shanghai after reading an Internet posting sparked by animal rights activist Huo Puyang that said two trucks carrying cats in wooden boxes had been intercepted, Huo said on Monday…
…The felines were on their way to the booming southern province of Guangdong, where some residents pride themselves as gourmets who will eat anything that flies, crawls or swims.

What the story (or similar stories on the same incident from other sources) don't mention is how in China there is a distinction between which cats are prized pets and which are food. Long-hair cats like Persians are to be bred and prized, while the common short-hair cats like those in the photo above, or Luna, are potential meals (not that we want long-haired cats to be eaten, either). But it gets worse, some of these cats may have been pets:

Huo's daughter-in-law had been looking for their missing pets and stumbled into the trucks, one of which sped away. The daughter-in-law called Huo, whose animal-loving friends then sent out an Internet alert last Friday.

The activists ended up buying the cats from the driver, after police said there was no evidence that any of them were stolen pets.

For all we know, the poor kitties were actually destined to become pet food or toothpaste. Or maybe part of some shoddy plastic product at Wal Mart…but for now, there's a happy ending in their rescue:

They now hope to place them in homes after posting their pictures and profiles on the Internet.

“They were so frightened,” the report quoted one of the rescuers, Huo Puyang, as saying.

I'm generally not that into the whole pushing-democracy-in-China thing. I could care less about the Communist Party and such. But it is good to see Chinese activists standing up to the sleeze and corruption, whether its big businesses spiking products with poisons or truck drivers stealing cats off the street. The same article (in the “related link” below) documents other recent internet-organized actions in China.

Kitten and puppy in Hyderabad

Extreme cuteness was found on the front of Yahoo news yesterday (and I'm not talking about Ayman al-Zawahiri). From AP:

A puppy and a kitten play together as they are brought for vaccination on the occasion of Zoonoses Day in Hyderabad, India, Friday, July 6, 2007. Zoonoses are diseases and infections which are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man. Zoonoses Day is celebrated on July 6 every year to bring the problem into people's consciousness, and to remind them to take action. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A)

The photo seemed pretty impropable, but it does carry a legit AP credit. Not only is getting the puppy and kitten to pose like that unusual, but so is the idea of a pet kitten in India, where traditionally cats are not treated as pets. But certainly a lot of the younger kids seemed fond of cats when I was there in 2006. And Hyderabad is a booming center of high-tech and bio-tech with a large professional class who may be more likely to have cats and dogs as companion animals in their homes.

A little post-July 4 patriotism

Yes, I know its a day late , but shouldn't we be patriotic every day?

As part of my July 4 festivities I went to see the movie SiCKO. While I figure out what I want to write about that somewhat depressing experience, I'll offer you this rant from “K.O.”:

K.O. was featured here on CatSynth last year.

Of course they're not going to resign. There are other alternatives, of course. But I think It's mostly a matter of running out the clock now:



Cats in Lebanon…Germany

Who doesn't love pictures of cute kittens?


Well, these kittens are in Lebanon, being cared for by members of BETA. Like many places closer to home, it is kitten season, and their shelter is overflowing with kittens who need homes. And this is on top of the cats and other animals that BETA has rescued from the recent confrontations and senseless religious/tribal violence still happening there.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a country famous around the world for its warm and fuzzy nature, animal shelters experience a summer influx of cats for very different reasons. According the the reports accompanying these photos from Reuters, many of these cats are surrendered to shelters, or simply abandoned, during the long European summer vacation season. You can click on the photo below for a second article.

They don't have pet sitters in Germany?

Clintons take Mount Kisco

Our friend jelly pizza recently wrote:

speaking of sopranos, have you seen the clinton knock-off? i bet you'd recognize the diner given half the chance. i did on the first viewing, shouting “hey, that's the blank blank diner!!!”

Well, here's the Clinton's Sopranos knock-off video:


You can see the full-size version here.

Well, yes that is the “blank blank diner”, or more specifically the infamous Mount Kisco Coach Diner, on E. Main Street (Highway 117) in Mount Kisco, New York:

Mount Kisco is just north of Chappaqua, the “home of CatSynth and Hillary Clinton”, and this diner was one of the local late-night hangouts. It was easy to reach via either 117 or the Saw Mill Parkway, our local excuse-for-a-freeway.

It's great to see the Clintons making use of the hood for Hillary's campaign. And whatever other merits her candidacy may or may not have, Chappaqua, Westchester and New York would be a quite a change from that ranch in Texas…

It's also cool to see an ad sticking to a hip and minimal pop-culture reference with none of the usual schlock, like silly speech clips or waving american-flag graphics. Some seem to think that this is elitist – see the much reposted article by Ann Althouse. I'll avoid the sexual symbolism and focus on the charge of elitism, which seems to apply to anything that's not available at WalMart or a megachurch. To me, this simply seems like mainstream culture on the coasts. And if it is elitist, so what? It's refreshing for candidates to have decent taste (Giuliani is a big opera fan, I've heard). For some real elitist options, see this response by film critic Glenn Kenny:

The scene I most would like to see the Clintons reenact with their own particular spin is, of course, the finale of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1961 La Notte, with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau.

I haven't yet seen La Notte, but it's going onto my Netflix queue (far ahead of any Sopranos DVDs). Antonioni's L'Avventura is among my favorite films, period. I love the completely disjointed yet still narrative story, and of course the crisp visuals of both the people and scenery are amazing.

Hmm, since they have some experience with diners now, how about recreating a scene from Seinfeld?

Worthless Kitty Backfill: Salman Rushdie knighthood protests

Here is a small sample of calm and well-thought-out reactions to the recent knighting of British author Salman Rushdie:

The Senate of Pakistan expresses its strong condemnation on blatant disregard for the sensitivity of the Muslims of the World shown by the British Government by awarding a Knighthood to Salman Rushdie, who committed blasphemy against a pillar of Islam, the persona of Holy Prophet,” said the resolution moved by the leader of the [Pakistani parliament] Wasim Sajjad and supported by all opposition groups. [Times of India].

We will give 10 million rupees (165,000 dollars) to anyone who beheads Rushdie,” Islamabad traders' association leader Ajmal Baluch told around 200 people in one of the Pakistani capital's main bazaars.[AFP]

Not to mention this heart-warming photograph:


(AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer)

C'mon, “Biggest Evil of the World”? Did you guys forget about the whole invasion and occupation of Iraq, a (mostly) Muslim country, where lots of people are actually dying? And you wonder why you guys have such a bad rep…

The ironies of course are that The Satanic Verses didn't seem all that blasphemous when I read it years ago – it was mostly about a snooty anglophile from Bombay, with occasional interludes – and that Salman Rushdie has written many other works. One of my favorites was Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a childrens book. We did a children's theatre play based on the book while I was at Yale, for which I composed several original works – everyone's favorite was the disco soundtrack for the chase scene. It was a fun exercise in how to make a children's tale something dry and off-beat while keeping it suitable for a young audience.

I think this lolcat is particularly apropos: