Author Archives: Kevin

About Kevin

Kevin Jarnot is a technologist who lives just South of Boston, MA. He is currently employed as Chief Technology Officer at DebtX, a financial services technology company based in Boston.

The Infinite Jukebox

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Kevin

A brilliant music hack using the equally brilliant Echo Nest API:

What is this?
For when your favorite song just isn’t long enough. This web app lets you upload a favorite MP3 and will then generate a never-ending and ever changing version of the song. It does what Infinite Gangnam Style did but for any song.

It never stops?
That’s right. It will play forever.

How does it work?
We use the Echo Nest analyzer to break the song into beats. We play the song beat by beat, but at every beat there’s a chance that we will jump to a different part of song that happens to sound very similar to the current beat. For beat similarity we look at pitch, timbre, loudness, duration and the position of the beat within a bar. There’s a nifty visualization that shows all the possible transitions that can occur at any beat.

Posted in Interesting, Music, Tech | Leave a comment

Tales from the Far Side (1994)

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Kevin

Just found this on the Internet Archive:

Finally, I’m able to share this gem with everyone! This was the first time anyone had seen The Far Side other than in book form and it aired on CBS on October 31, 1994. This is the first, and possibly only?, airing.

When I heard that it was available on VHS though the BBC, I was so excited! I bought it and mailed it to a friend who had it converted from PAL to NTSC for me. I was over the moon about the included Part II (which never aired in North America and I didn’t know existed)…but disappointed in Part I. Gary Larson tinkered with it for the video release (just like he tinkered with many old comics in The Complete Far Side…*sigh*) and I strongly disagreed with just about every change. To me, it totally ruined the mood! He even watered down the ending! (the ‘dead ranch’ sequence with added narration bugs me most, though) The later DVD version is, unsurprisingly, the same as the VHS. (reminds me of Star Wars OT vs. SE)

Needless to say, I’m SO glad my tape survived all these years! Quality is decent considering it’s sourced from an 18-year-old tape that my mother bought. Haha. I’m so glad I taped it in SP mode.

More info on the specials, including the changes made, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_From_the_Far_Side

Posted in Amusements | Leave a comment

Threes JS

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Kevin

The addicting smartphone game Threes, but in your browser.

Posted in Gaming | Leave a comment

Never forget!

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Kevin

Posted in Amusements, Tech | Leave a comment

Wolfram Language – one of the coolest demos I’ve ever seen

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Kevin

I’ve been a big fan of WolframAlpha for several years now. The sheer amount of data in the system, as well as the functions that can be applied to the data, is staggering. Well, Stephen Wolfram and his team have outdone themselves with Wolfram Language. This is real next level, game changing tech.

I can’t wait to try this!

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Update – 20140209

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Kevin

Still not much progress. Last week was a waste – I came down with a cold which lasted all week, resulting in no gym time.

Diet has been OK, but still not tracking daily. What seems to happen is that I start off the day tracking everything, and then by the time I make it home, I eat whatever and don’t go through the effort to enter it on MFP. That needs to stop.

I’ve also noticed that I need a snack at 3:00 every day. Since I don’t have something healthy close at hand, I grab M&Ms from the company’s stash. I need to have something better available.

I also had a few drinks during the week, which is not part of the plan.

What I’ll do (differently) this week:

I plan to make it to spin class tomorrow AM to kick the week off on the right note, and will work out every day during the week
Track everything in MFP
No alcohol during the week

Posted in Lean2014 | Leave a comment

Update – 20140130

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Kevin

I’m going nowhere fast. After a month of trying to be good, I’m up 0.2 lbs as of this AM.

Here’s the good and the bad:

GOOD

Gym – I’ve stepped up the exercise in the past week or two. I’m lifting 3x/week, and the boys have been going with me (which helps motivate me to go after a long day at work). I have also started doing spin class 2-3x/week, which kicks my ass.
Lunches – mostly lean chicken breast which I bring in from home, along with avocado or green veggies. If I do buy lunch, it’s high protein/fat and low carb.

BAD

Not tracking diet – it has been 9 days since I last updated MFP, and I know I’ve been going over my limits. I just don’t know by how much. Tracking calories and macros makes you much more aware of how much you’re eating/drinking, as well as the contents of the food.
Alcohol – the plan was to not drink M-Th, and I haven’t been sticking to the plan. It may only be a drink or two (or three), but my body processes the alcohol before the fat, which is not good.
Snacking – I’ve been snacking too often, and even worse, I’ve been reaching for the carbs. M&Ms at work, popcorn at home. Not the end of the world, but it’s not helping.
Dinners – my wife is a great cook, and I’ve been eating what she makes for dinner. Problem is it’s not always what I should be eating. This goes along with tracking – I need to ensure that I’m eating the “correct” number of calories, and that it fits my macros.

Time to correct!

Posted in Lean2014 | Leave a comment

ClarusX

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Kevin

ClarusX is a system utility that allows you to change the Mac OS X Mavericks page setup and print dialog icons (aka “boring guy”) to various dogcattle.

Long live Clarus. Moof!

Posted in Amusements, Mac | Leave a comment

How Steve Jobs Almost Put A Little Man In Every Mac

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Kevin

This would have been awesome.

“Mr. Macintosh is a mysterious little man who lives inside each Macintosh computer,” Jobs reportedly said. “He pops up every once and a while, when you least expect it, and then winks at you and disappears again. It will be so quick that you won’t be sure if you saw him or not. We’ll plant references in the manuals to the legend of Mr. Macintosh, and no one will know if he’s real or not.”

Practically trembling with excitement, Steve Jobs continued to imagine all the weird, funny ways in which users would interact with Mr. Macintosh.

“One out of every thousand or two times that you pull down a menu, instead of the normal commands, you’ll get Mr. Macintosh, leaning against the wall of the menu,” Steve exclaimed. “He’ll wave at you, then quickly disappear. You’ll try to get him to come back, but you won’t be able to!”

What Jobs imagined was the digital equivalent of the Lilliputian orchestras that live inside the stereo which imaginative parents tell their children make every radio work. But instead of just joking about it, Jobs actually wanted to make it happen. Inspired by the revolutionary graphic user interface created by Xerox PARC, Apple had spent the last three years building a computer that would change the world, and here Jobs was, talking about programming an 8-bit version of the Teeny Little Super Guy right into the core of the operating system.

Hertzfeld thought it was awesome.