So I’ve been listening to Dream Theater’s latest album, “Black Clouds and Silver Linings” for about a month now. I fully expected to hate it, especially after the debacle that was their previous album, “Systematic Chaos”, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Usually with Dream Theater albums, I go through the following stages: 1. I am absolutely in love with the album at first. 2. The songs on the album start sounding less and less good over time. 3. I have spurts of renewed interest in an album, where for a short period of time, the songs will sound amazing again. (Depending on how good the album is, these spurts occur more or less frequently).

With Black Clouds and Silver Linings, I can say that, so far after a month, I have not entered stage 2 yet. And I am pretty sure that, even after I start disliking the songs, the “spurts” will occur more frequently.

It seems that, by switching to the new label (from Elektra to RoadRunner Records), they have performed a reboot on their musical style. This newest album is very similar to DT’s second album, “Images and Words”. One word sums up both of these albums: atmospheric. Of course, John Petrucci’s big work in this album “Count of Tuscany” is incredibly atmospheric and also cathartic (as was expected). But Mike Portnoy’s songs are on the atmospheric side as well. His song “The Best of Times” is a tribute to his father, who passed away from cancer during the recording of this album. The song resorts to some cheesy string effects, and while it sounds amazing on first listen, it falls flat pretty quickly on repeated listenings.

But, the rest of this album is a gem. My favorite work on this album is the aforementioned “The Count of Tuscany”. It is an orgasmic mix of the older atmospheric style of Dream Theater with the newer, more aggressive sound DT has espoused since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. I can tell that John Petrucci tried to consciously move away from the old DT-foruma: come up with a few great motives and develop these ideas multiple times through the piece. Instead, “The Count of Tuscany” introduces tantalizing new themes that never come back later in the song. This teasing aspect to the song makes it fresh and new for Dream Theater.

“Wither” is a surprisingly catchy and fun ballad tune, and it excellent to rock out to. “The Shattered Fortress”, while a somewhat disappointing end to Mike Portnoy’s 5-part suite, is an excellent heavy song to head-bang to by itself. “A Rite of Passage” is perhaps the weakest song on the whole album, but surprisingly it sounds much better without the vocals! (The instrumental versions of the songs were released on their special edition).

I would like to offer a conspiracy theory (of sorts): DT’s final album with Elektra, “Octavarium” ended with the words “We move in circles”. The album art had Newton’s Balls and Mobius strips. I think DT is deliberately starting a new cycle with their albums from the new label. Their first album with the new label, “Systematic Chaos”, had some similarities to DT’s first ever album , “When Dream and Day Unite.” And now this second album with RoadRunner Records has many similarities to “Images and Words”. Furthermore, both album titles have the word “AND” in it. (“Images and Words” and “Black Clouds and Silver Linings”). “Black Clouds and Silver Linings” is at once invokes an Image, yet are a set of Words that are uttered often. One exciting prospect is that “Images and Words” contained “Metropolis, Pt.1″, which was later expounded upon in their concept album “Metropolis, Pt. 2″. There are many tantalizing possibilities for writing out a concept album based on one of the songs on “Black Clouds and Silver Linings”. If this theory is correct, then their next album will be somewhat heavier and less melodic, much like “Awake” was.

Like any new domain of human activity, the internet world is collectively struggling to reach a consensus on what is right and what is wrong. This is akin to the early days of the radio, for example, when it was uncertain whether it was stealing to play recorded music over the air. The solution was reached through broad licensing agreements between the recording industry and the radio stations.

Similar ethical uncertainty exists with digital priacy. Like the primitive apes of the digital world that we are, most have simply and straightforwardly adopted the moral conventions of the physical world: STEALING IS WRONG. But this sort of simple transfer of code only highlights our penchant for continuity and traditions over logical analysis for establishing appropriate rules in a new arena.

Consider the following case scenario: Alex bought a CD (whether it be music or software is irrelevant, for now). Then, Alex loses the CD. Is it ok for Alex to download an “illegal” pirated copy from the internet (say, from thepiratebay.com), without paying for it again?

Asking this question on most internet forums would yield a broad consensus among typical internet users: “NO, it is not ok. It is stealing.” They would draw the following analogy: Since Alex lost the CD, would it be ok for Alex to walk into a store and walk out with a second copy of the CD without paying for it? NO! Then why should it be ok for Alex to do the same on the internet?

But here in lies the rub. Let’s compare the apparent “analogy” between the physical world and the digital world. In both cases (Alex downloading a priated copy and Alex pick-pocketing a CD from a store), Alex has already paid for the contents of the CD itself. But in the physical case, by stealing a copy from the store, the store loses the CD. There is a victim. In contrast, there is no victim in the digital scenario. Alex has already paid for it, so the company creating the content on the CD does not lose sales. And because digital piracy involves making a bit-by-bit copy of the material, no one is deprived of anything when Alex downloads the pirated copy.

So, if no body loses, why should it be unethical? I hope you see that Alex is perfectly acting within his/her moral boundaries. Piracy seems blacketly wrong only when compared with stealing physical objects. Analyzed within its own terms, piracy is not always unethical.

The conlusion is this: we cannot simply apply the familiar ethics of the phyisical world to a new arena such as the digital world. This only confuses the issue, as demonstrated above. I call for a new system of e-morality, one that is logically constructed through careful analysis of the new domain.

Hello Mr. Jobs,

I recently dropped my iPhone and the glass screen broke. I brought it to my local Apple Store (King of Prussia, PA) to get it fixed, and it cost me $299 (the same price I paid for the new phone back in September)!

I am a poor college student, and this price is too much for me. I do not mind paying lots of money for quality products and service. (In fact, I love it!) But $299 to replace a glass screen on a phone that works perfectly well otherwise? This is too much!

I do not understand why it would cost any more than $150 to replace a glass screen. And why does it cost more to replace the glass screen on a 16GB iPhone as opposed to the 8GB model? ($299 vs. $199). Does the 16GB iPhone have better glass?

I realize that I am receiving a refurbished different iPhone in place of by broken iPhone. But if I don’t get to keep my broken iPhone anyway, why should it cost more for 16GB iphone users?

I love my iPhone, and I spend money on the iPhone app store almost every week. I am a loyal and passionate Apple fan, but today my faith in this little-big great company has been greatly diminished.

-Maxx H Cho
www.maxxworld.co.cc

I originally posted this here, but based on its positive response I have decided to repost it here.

I recently purchased The Hit List, a to-do list management app for the Mac, through the MacHeist bundle. I have been using Things, another to-do list app, for a while now. I was drawn to Things by its visual appeal. The first time I used it, I ran into some user interface issues, but decided to live with them given its apparent simplicity.

After trying out Hit List, I am convinced that it is far superior. I did not know how much Things sucked until I started using The Hit List. The Hit List seems to have been modeled after people’s actual working habits, as opposed to arbitrary and fangled user interface decisions. Some of these problems I was fully aware of and annoyed by, others I did not even realize them until I used The Hit List.

Here are some of the reasons why I prefer The Hit List over Things:
1. In real life, the difference between a single task and a multi-step “project” is very tenuous. Having to manually “promote” a task into a project every time you want to specify more granular steps (like in Things) can get very annoying. Not to mention that one can have a long list of projects, cluttering up the side bar. In The Hit List, every task automatically has the ability to have sublists.

2. Despite tags and areas, tasks in Things tend to get cluttered up in the “Next” list, with no satisfying or effective way of organizing or sorting them. It turns into a jumbled and unorganized list. One can sort by tags, but it still feels messy. The Hit List provides folders and lists, which is a natural way to organize tasks.

3. “Areas of Responsibility” in The Hit List is treated like tags, as opposed to like folders in Things, which seems more intuitive to me.

4. One can “Cancel” tasks in The Hit List, one can only delete or complete tasks in Things.

5. Things archives completed tasks automatically, and pushes them all into a giant bucket (the logbook), which means you loose information about how they were sorted/organized. The Hit List only archives when you hit “Archive”, and keeps the archived task in the same place (you can hide or show archived tasks in lists).

6. Ability to set “Start” dates, which allows one to automatically have tasks move into “Today” when desired. In Things, you have to manually move tasks into Things.

7. Priority rating is treated separately from tags, which means your tags are not cluttered and messy like in Things.

8. When I first tried to create recurring tasks in Things, it literally took me hours to figure out how the settings work. This is very typical of Things – its visual simplicity is deceptive. I was able to schedule recurring tasks immediately in The Hit List.

9. The Hit List can sort tasks by all sorts of attributes. I don’t understand why Things doesn’t have this – another reason why the Next list in Things is so cluttered and messy.

The ONLY thing that will keep me using Things is the lack of iPhone sync for The Hit List. I know the developer said this is coming soon, but I can’t realistically use The Hit List unless I can have it on-the-go.

Jon Stewart’s Brother is a Stock Market Insider

Following the public grudge-match between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer, some have speculated that the reason for Stewart’s bitterness is that he himself lost much of his savings in the recent stock market crash. Indeed, while Stewart has consistently taken on the failings on the media, his recent attack on CNBC has been unusually resentful (and not as funny).

Some have suggested that Stewart lost his shirt in the stock market, leading to his unusually bitter attack on Cramer. However, a better theory has surfaced. Jon Stewart’s brother, Larry Leibowitz, is a stock market insider, working as the head of US Markets at NYSE Euronext. This article reveals that Leibowitz prepped Stewart for the Cramer interview.

It is possible (and likely) that Leibowitz lost a ton of money in the recent economic downturn. This explains Stewart’s all-out attack on the financial world, especially the CNBC. As you can see in the video below, Stewart’s original attack on CNBC is very different in style from his usual attacks: not as funny, and more biting.

Brilliant concept for a video sketch:

This review on Amazon of an algebraic topology textbook is perhaps the funniest review I have ever read:

By the way, this textbook is available completely free directly from the author as a gigantic PDF file: http://www.math.cornell.edu/~hatcher/AT/ATpage.html

I personally prefer Munkres’s Algebraic Topology textbook, but the Munkres does not cover homotopy theory, and is not free (no pun intended).

So apparently, Barack Obama was rejected from Swarthmore (when he applied as a high school student to hopefully attend Swarthmore). According to this month-old Swarthmore Daily Gazette story (which I completely missed when it first came out!):

Senior Joel Mittleman ’09 actually had the chance to personally confirm the rumor when Obama held an open town hall at Strath Haven High School during the Pennsylvania primaries. “I did ask Obama [whether it was true],” he says, “not during the actual question and answer, but as he was walking the line shaking hands afterwards.” Mittleman recalls the Senator laughing in response, asking him where he heard the information, and then saying “Yes, it’s true. It really broke my heart, actually.”

From: http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2008/11/8/obama-denied/

But the plot thickens. Apparently, MSNBC picked up on this story, but almost copied the above Daily Gazette story word-for-word. Although the MSNBC story attributes the story to the “college newspaper”, the wording of the story is lifted almost exactly, including even the “mismatched quotation marks” according to @mskorpe1 on Twitter.

The link to the MSNBC story is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28197566/
And in case it changes, the screenshot is shown below:

This story fascinates me on multiple levels. First, there is the obvious point: Swarthmore rejected a future world leader. But, what would have happened if Obama was indeed admitted to Swarthmore and decided to attend? Could he still have eventually become the president of the United States? Would he still have formed the crucial social connections that probably led him to success, like the ones he probably made at Columbia? And what does this say about a Swarthmore education? Swarthmore is often criticized for having a “bubble” – almost like an intellectual monastery cut off from the rest of the world. I can see how this is an apt description on many levels. And this insularity is sometimes even looked upon as a positive trait. But the more I think about it, the more I suspect that Obama would have never become who he is today had he attended Swarthmore. He probably would have become a professor, or something just as obscured from the real world.

Barack Obama has just been elected – under what I believe are insurmountable and impossible expectations. In a way, Obama just lost- when the honeymoon period is over, the fickle public opinion will fall just as fast as he rose. But more on this later.

this country is fucked.