Deals with the Devil

In my New Year reformat I'll try to have a Fiction Friday every week, to go with Technology Tuesday. I'll perhaps toss in a Miscellanious Monday or even a non-alliterative midweek post if something else comes to mind that defies categorization but simply must be shared. Today we'll talk about one of my favorite characters. The Devil.

In some ways he's the Professor Moriarty of the Bible, rarely explicitly appearing (was Milton the first to conflate him with the serpent in the garden? Who named him as the accuser in the story of Job? Not, certainly, the original source material), but casting a shadow across the whole canon. The benefit to a writer is that this gives us a canvas that, while not completely blank, still has plenty of room to sketch the details as we wish to. I'd suggest that the Bible as a whole has this quality, given that ancient forms of literature relied more on narrative summary than painting actually detailed scenes. The Devil, however, feels special. He's a mirror through wish we can see our own dark side, he's rebellion, he's the ultimate rebellion against authority and if you accept the idea that he was the snake in the garden then he's the one who made us who we are. No snake means no bite of the forbidden fruit, no knowledge of good and evil, no learning to wear clothes and develop technology and write blogs. If you can read this, thank a serpent.

Following are a pair of deal with the devil stores; both came from prompts my fellow writers shared on the Google+. I don't take these daily prompt stories all that seriously, but use them as sources of inspiration and as a chance to stretch my writing muscles on days when my more serious work feels bit stuck. In one the Devil wins, in the other he loses.

The Devil usually wins by taking advantage of people's greed; the Devil doesn't trick you so much as setting you up to trick yourself. Inspiration for this came from Bliss Morgan's " Nightmare Fuel" prompt-a-day project on Google Plus. For those curious about such things, it was my non-literal take on this image by photographer David Swan:
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Another Brick in the Wall
Aaron made the perfect deal with the devil. No signing away his soul, no performing one innocent-seeming yet surprisingly devastating task. No taking chances on fiddle contests or chess games. Just one cost, and even that was deferred. It would be taken at a time of the devil’s choosing, but Aaron still had it for now.
His voice.
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Success was all Aaron had dreamed of, but he needed to be careful - so careful. He rose quickly and impressively in his law firm, writing brilliant briefs for cases going all the up to the Supreme Court, but always let someone else have the honor of arguing the case in person. There were times he knew he’d do better, but he couldn’t take the chance - no matter how much better he might have been, nothing would be worse than his voice to vanish mid-argument.

Even planning his wedding her remembered to be careful, eschewing the individual vows his fiance wanted for a simple “I do”. He could mouth that, if need be.

He was so careful that the right moment for the devil to strike never came. Decades later, after a long and comfortable life, the Aaron was visited by the Devil one more time. He knew his life was ending, but his lips curled into a smile.

“You never did take my voice, did you? I guess I won.”

The Devil smiled back. “Oh, but I did have it. I had it all along.”
The Devil’s smug smile was the last thing Aaron would see before breathing his last breath, and leaving this world forever.
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Can the Devil lose? Of course he can, but I'm not partial to seeing him tricked, outgambled, outfiddled, etc. He's The Devil. Olderthan all of us put together, and has seen every trick. So how does one win? Perhaps by thinking outside the box, and changing the definition of what it means to "win". Here's a trifle I put together for Nina Pelletier's "dialog" prompt, also on Google+. The text is the Devil's side of the dialog; you can imagine the other half.
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“My, my. So businesslike. I’d offer you a nice single-malt scotch or a glass of Bordeaux, but you seem the type to want your wits about you. Perhaps a nice cup of tea? I have one brewed from the dried husk of a hearty moss growing at the bottom of a stone well, touched by direct sunlight only twice a year. You’d be the only human to taste it.”

“No? Straight to business? Very well, but with an attitude like that I’m not sure you’ll enjoy the fruits of our deal. I daresay that you’re not taking this with a spirit of relish, of enjoyment. Live a little!”

“Ah yes, that brings back such memories. The good doctor would certainly have taken me up on the tea. For one so studious he had quite the sense of humor. The English playwright was far closer to the mark than the German on that score. Funny that.”

“Adjustments to the deal? Why, of course, of course. Times have changed and all that. The doctor was funnier than you, but I can tell that you’re much, much shrewder. You might get a good deal out of this after all. Some do you know.”

“No, really. I keep those quiet. Bad for the reputation. And, don’t tell him I said this, but the big guy doesn’t want word to get out. Let me just say that if anyone’s smart enough to get a happy ending, it’ll be you.”

“Adjust for inflation? That seems only fair, and very smart of you to ask. Tell you what, I’ll double it. That should be more than generous.”

“OK, you got me. Triple, and you keep your wits until the very end. So it’s a deal. Sign here, initial there, sign there.”

“Don’t be silly. That was the Englishman using poetic license. Consider it a metaphor. Ink is fine. There. So, would you like to make your first request now? Kick the tires on this new bargain?”

“Oh, that’s funny. As if you need me to tell you what you want. Should I enjoy the other fruits you’ll ask for too? The riches? The women?”

“You can’t be serious. Perhaps I underestimated you. The doctor never would have asked such a thing. Nor anyone else. Do you call yourself a man?”

“Fine. It is a deal, after all. A poem. He should have asked for a poem.”

“OK. You win. I just put the seed of it in your mind. Stay awake meditating on the thought I just gave you until sunrise, then write the first thoughts that flow into your mind. That’s it.”

“So...do you want that drink now or what?”
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Again, not sure it did everything I was thinking, but it was fun to write and fun to share.

For those interested, Bliss is running another daily prompt project in January and February. You can find her  here.

Happy reading, happy writing! I'll see you all next week to discuss the world of AV on Technology Tuesday

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New Year, New Adventures!

I'm waking this blog up for the New Year (+ a week or so) with a resolution to blog at least once a week on technology an once on writing. Today will be a personal sort of tech day:

In 2012 I'll be saying goodbye to my position as an AV Project Manager and moving to a position as an AV Project Engineer. I'll still be working on AV projects, but purely from the technical, system design side. This is week 1 of my training, in which I'll be getting certified with Clear One's installed DSP products. For the uninitiated, a DSP (or Digital Signal Processesor) is used for mixing, combining, and otherwise proessing audio. Most commercial DSPs have a whole host of functions, from general audio processes such as graphics equalizers and filters to conferencing-specific features like acoustic echo cancellation.

Some thoughts thus far:

This past year, I've taken the following training courses:
-SynAudCon principles of audio
-Extron AV Associate (advercation from Extron, a major manufacturer of AV switching and control gear)
-Infocom Design level one - environment (from the AV industry's leading trade organization)
-Clear One technical certification (in progress)

What to the above have in common? They all started explaining what audio is and how we measure it in decibels. It's been long enough since school that  a refresher on dB is welcome, including audio specific things like dB(SPL), dBu, dBV, and various forms of weighting dB(SPL).  (SPL is sound-pressure level. The loudness scale you usually see with speech around 64 or so and pain up near 120 are in dB(SPL). A-weighting gives larger numbers for high frequency sounds of the same actual amplitude because they are perceived as louder). I have now literally "learned" the same information four times in the past six months, and assume that Biamp (another DSP manufacturer) will teach me the same thing. I'll soon start dreaming in decibels.

On the technical side, acoustic echo cancellation is a neat thing and explains one of the reasons one needs signal processing in commercial conferencing installations. If someone calls from the outside, you'll hear their audio through room loudspeakers - usually ceiling mounted. These will likely be directly above table-top microphones, creating kind of a loop in which the remote presenters will hear an echo of themselves (usualy with a significant delay). Your echo cancellation will filter the incoming telco line from the mic to fix this, so AEC on the near end removes echo at the far-end.

Overall, it's a good start. The best thing is I get to do the Clear One stuff (and AutoCad training later this month) as a series of interactive webinars. The instructor shares his screen, gives a live lecture, and can answer questions via text or voice chat. The rest of my training will take me to distant and wondrous places such as Beaverton OR, Anaheim CA, and Rockleigh NJ.

More to come. Look for a writing post later in the week in which I might share a scrap or two of poetry.

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Brain Crack!

This will be my first fiction writing post. For those who don't know, I write fiction. Look over that way at the links for a couple of samples out in the wild --------->

Thanks to Jenny Jo Reinhart (through the one and only Brad Parks) for sharing this on G+. It leads to the most important thing to remember if you want to be a writer, the single piece of advice every writer, teacher, or writing coach gives: write. This should be obvious, but it's the act of writing that makes one a writer. Otherwise, you might be a hip frood with a headfull of awesome, but unless you let that awesome out somehow nobody else will ever see it.

The biggest thing that helps me is socializing my writing life. It's easy to fall into the stereotype of the isolated, solitary writer. Think Thoreau alone in his cabin. Virginia Wolfe in her own room, with lock and key. Hemingway drinking alone because he's threatened to punch out everyone else. Go get the drift. Writing can be solitary. Especially if you have a full-time job and a family and can only write at 4AM when everyone else is in bed (it's 4AM now). So what to do?

One choice is a critiquing group. Not is avoiding the shame of having to face the same people every few weeks without a new work to show a tremendous motivator, but everyone can benefit from an objective eye telling them whether or not they're as awesome as they think. I've had a room full of people not "get" a story in which I really believed, or tell me what was wonderful about something I wasn't sure about. More about those experiences in a later post.

Another experiment I've been tinkering with are "writer hangouts". You can meet other creative types in a coffee shop, a bar, on a rooftop, or through the magic of the internet, chat for a few minutes, then get to work. I tried it the other night on G+ (hosted by the one and only Mary Robinette Kowal) and, while at first other faces flitting too and fro on my screen were a touch distracting, the "ticaticataptaptap" of fingers on keyboards is a great motivator to keep my fingers dancing across they keyboard.

Now, that being said, back to work. After all, none of the stories here in my head are going to write themselves.

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SONOS INTRODUCES THE PLAY:3

SONOS INTRODUCES THE PLAY:3

Sonos has just introduced the SONOS PLAY:3, the compact, all-in-one Sonos player with wall-to-wall HiFi sound. Users can start with one PLAY:3 in any room and expand wirelessly over time. In the process, bringing a world of music to every room of the home. The PLAY:3 and all your music can be controlled from anywhere via the free Sonos Controller Apps for Mac, PC, Android, iPhone and iPad. The PLAY:3 is ideal for any room where you want music and versatile enough to work both vertically and horizontally. The PLAY:3 is available globally beginning today for $299.

“PLAY:3 gives music fans an incredibly easy way to listen to all the music on earth,” said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. “PLAY:3’s innovative design sets a new bar for Hi Fidelity audio in a compact package and makes it simple to amplify the music experience in any room of the home.” PLAY:3 is connected to the Internet, giving you access to your entire digital music library and unlimited supply of Internet music including: AUPEO, iheartradio, Last.fm, MOG, Napster®, Pandora®, Rdio®, Rhapsody®, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Spotify, Stitcher SmartRadio™, TuneIn, Wolfgang’s Vault, and more.                                                     Other features of PLAY:3 include:

• Sonos HiFi sound: 3 integrated speakers and 3 dedicated digital amplifiers provide crystal-clear, wall-to-wall sound.
• Innovative, smart-directional design: Internal sensor detects if the speaker is positioned vertically or horizontally and modifies the speaker’s output to ensure clean, balanced, room-filing sound in any position.
• Multi-room: Put several PLAY:3s around your home and enjoy perfectly synchronized all-over-your-home music.
• Stereo pairing: Add two PLAY:3s to the same room and enjoy even bigger sound with each playing a dedicated Left or Right channel.

The PLAY:3 features three Class-D digital amplifiers and three drivers - one tweeter and two 3” mid-range. One passive, rear-firing bass radiator for rich sound. The cabinet features volume and mute control. PLAY:3 dimensions are 5.2 x 10.5 x 6.3 in. (132 x 268 x 160 mm)/ 5.7 lb (2.6 kg).

In other news today, Sonos makes it even easier and more affordable to get started with Sonos. Sonos has lowered the suggested retail price of the BRIDGE to $49. BRIDGE connects directly to your router and initiates SonosNet, the world’s most robust wireless music network. This gives you the freedom to place the PLAY:3, or any other Sonos players, anywhere in your home.

Additionally, today’s launch features an update to Sonos Software. Along with support for PLAY:3, Sonos Software v3.5 adds several improvements to the Sonos Controller for Android, including the option to install the app to SD cards and localization in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Swedish. FOR MORE INFORMATION:
For more information about Sonos or to locate an authorized Sonos dealer in your area, please visit www.sonos.com or call 877.80.SONOS.

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My my, what a big screen you have!

We've all seen them. Conference rooms the size of a walk-in closet in which the client wants (and the salesperson sold) a display the approximate size of Rhode Island. As a pointless just-for-the-heck-of-it mental exercise you calculate the optimum viewing distance and, as experience and common sense tell you, it's someplace in the next room. You put it in anyway, and the client is not only delighted, but seems underwhelmed by the reasonably-sized display in the net room over. You go on to the next job, your faith in clients to make good decisions at an all time low. Until the next time.

So what really is happening here? Is everyone being seduced by the "wow" of an oversized display? If you take the time to ask (and can do so diplomatically) the answer is often an attempt to duplicate the home-theater experience.

Commercial applications are all about transmitting information. Displays need to be readable with enough detail for given tasks. If you can read the text on the powerpoint presentation and see the facial features on the far-end videoconference participants you're doing fine.

Home theater, on the other hand, is about an experience. To see the image isn't enough, you need to be immersed in it, almost overwhelmed by it. SMPTE and THX each have guidelines which specify a display that essentially fills ones field of vision. If a commercial installation is to be used for conferencing or document review, there's little need for this. If it will sometimes play media then many clients want at least as engaging an experience as they get at home. And that means BIG.

So the moral of the story? One size, in this case literally, does not fit all. When you see something strange and outside of normal best practices, ask. Knowing that a more theater-like experience could create an opportunity to upsell, adding upgraded speakers, for example, or a surround sound processor. If it's a more vague, "We just want everything to be big" or that there's a similar size room with a huge display in a different facility and they want them to match -- well, you always keep the right to secretly believe that some people are a little crazy when it comes to their AV choices.

At the very least you'll better understand what your client wants and why they want it. Knowing, as they say, is half the battle.



Look for my next entry (a writing one!) later this week.

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Greetings and Introductions

Welcome to my blog. As you can see from my profile, I'm a parent, technologist, and in quiet stolen moments, a writer. For those wondering:

• As a technologist I manage commercial audio-video projects for AVI-SPL. My favorite thing about the job is the blend of technical, social, and time-management challenges it often involves. There's a real feeling of accomplishment when in turning over a large-scale, sophisticated system to a satisfied end user knowing that ones efforts made it happen.
• I'm the parent of two wonderful children; a four and a half year old girl and a 6-week year old boy. The smartest thing anyone told me on the birth of our second child is that I should be prepared to learn that I know nothing; that different children are so different that it's easy to be complacent and not realize what a grand adventure of exploration you're in for. Again.
• Finally, writing. I'll add links here to published works as I finish them, but they get finished very slowly. All short fiction. My first love is science fiction, but as of late I'm writing more and more fantasy and less and less SF. There's even the occaisonal story with no speculative element at all.

That's the introduction. This blog will be mainly about the wonderful world of commercial AV and about writing. 

Why put them together, you ask? Wouldn't it make more sense to have two blogs? Perhaps, but one thing I feel video on demand, internet searches, and online searchable newspapers have cost us is the serendipity of stumbling across something you'd not have ordinarily sought out, but finding it interesting anyway. So, I encourage my writer-friends to read my musings on AV and my AV friends to explore my writing hobby with me. 

See you on the blog!

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ThinkFlood releases the RedEye Pro

ThinkFlood releases the RedEye Pro

ThinkFlood, the company behind the RedEye and RedEye Mini, have just released the RedEye Pro. The RedEye Pro goes beyond the home theater control of the original RedEye and allows users to manage a wide variety of equipment, including lighting and security systems, HVAC, pumps and sprinklers, and more. The RedEye Pro still lets control the system with a PC, a smartphone, or a tablet.

The RedEye Pro comes equipped with:

Eight (8) dual-purpose 3.5mm infrared emitter/contact closure sensor ports

Four (4) contact closure relays

Two (2) RS-232 ports

Four (4) USB ports

10/100 Ethernet (via RJ45 with an internal switch)

802.11 b/g Wi-Fi

Probably due the more involved setup, the RedEye Pro is only available through authorized dealers and custom integrators.

During the month of April, ThinkFlood is offering a loyalty trade-in program for customers who purchased a RedEye product from their website prior to April 1, 2011.

For details about the trade-in program, please contact sales@thinkflood.com or call +1 617-299-2000, option 2.

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