Like so many other businesses, the coffee/pastry chain Panera Bread has launched a rewards card program. I was given the card a week or so ago and was told I needed to register it online. When I went to the website there was a form requesting a whole slew of personal info: address, phone numbers,… Continue reading Panera Wants My Phone Number
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Polytonality in Rachmaninoff
In previous posts I have argued that Rachmaninoff, the self-proclaimed musical conservative, was not only influenced by his more forward-looking contemporaries, but actually incorporated some of their modern harmonic devices in his music. Polytonality is the use of two different keys at once. The classic (but not earliest) example is from Stravinsky’s Petrushka: Although there… Continue reading Polytonality in Rachmaninoff
Harmonic Dissonance in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2
My previous blog entry on Rachmaninoff’s concertos may have raised some skepticism amongst those who consider the composer to be, whatever his other merits, a conservative in his musical language. Rachmaninoff himself helped foster this notion with quotes like “I am organically incapable of understanding modern music….” Yet a composer on personal terms with Prokofiev… Continue reading Harmonic Dissonance in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2
Blogging Project: Analyzing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos
My blog is littered with uncompleted, overly-ambitious projects. Here is yet another one. Since I became musically conscious sometime during my childhood, I have been fond of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s music, in particular his piano concertos. I remember tape recording these pieces from my transistor radio, listening to old 78 RPM phonograph records I found in… Continue reading Blogging Project: Analyzing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos
Rachmaninoff "Piano Concerto No. 5"
I was certainly surprised to find on YouTube links to videos of a fifth piano concerto by Sergei Rachmaninoff. I quickly discovered (after listening for a few seconds) that this was an arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony for piano and orchestra. The arrangement is by pianist Alexander Warenberg (about whom I know nothing). Apparently the… Continue reading Rachmaninoff "Piano Concerto No. 5"
Fax Machines Are Stupid
It came to me today as a sudden revelation (an “ah-ha” moment) that our fax machine is a total anachronism, like something out of the 19th century. Here it is the 21st century, and we are still sending back and forth images of paper documents over the phone lines, using an old-fashioned modem, completely independently… Continue reading Fax Machines Are Stupid
New ClickIt Coming Soon
I’m working on the next version of ClickIt. ClickIt is an automatic computer document signing program. It allows batch signing of documents in programs that don’t allow batch signing. It was originally designed to work with the Allscripts EMR system which forces the user to repetitively click the Sign button, wait for the next document… Continue reading New ClickIt Coming Soon
Blogging From My Droid
Yes it’s possible to write a blog post on an Android phone using WordPress for Android. Why anyone would want to write a post on the Droid’s clunky keyboard is an excellent question. I suppose if there is something you just can’t wait to write about, and it’s short…
Emacs Word Wrap Modes
I had problems sending posts to WordPress from weblogger on Emacs because of formatting errors. I have been using auto-fill-mode in Emacs to avoid lines extending off the screen. Auto-fill-mode works by inserting newline characters (ASCII 0A, C-j) at the end of each line. Turning off auto-fill-mode does not eliminate these characters. If you want… Continue reading Emacs Word Wrap Modes
The C++ Way. Part 0.
I’ve decided to write a series of posts on what I call “The C++ Way” analogous to “The Ruby Way,” a book and philosophy of the Ruby Language. After programming in C++ for years, I still struggle to think in C++. I constantly ask myself “what would Bjarne (Stroustroup) do (WWBD)?” when attacking a programming… Continue reading The C++ Way. Part 0.