(no subject)

[ewt]

I dreamed of snow - big, white, fluffy flakes falling thickly from the sky. Don't think it's going to happen this week, though. Not in London anyway.

The Wii - interesting device for a rainy day. I wonder what improvements they'll make in the next few years. I'm thinking in terms of fingerless gloves that could tell me whether a remote student is using the correct fingering for playing a scale on the piano, for example - current webcam technology makes this difficult if they're going at anything like a decent speed. But I think martling has already done something a bit like that which could perhaps be adapted.

I know I've already said this, but I also know a lot of you have been away/offline. Please do fill out this poll, which is about the project I have been referring to as the Mammoth Project - YourMusicHouse. Also please feel free to pass it on to others - more data is good.

I am still horrible about tagging entries. I must get better at this. I quite like rosefox's system of tagging and I think it might be good to adopt something similar.

Back to London today, probably late afternoon-ish I'll leave. This means now I need to eat and pack and do things.

I shall miss the cat especially much. He is such a wonderful animal.

I wish I thought I could ever afford a house. Even a small flat with no garden would be okay if it were mine. Meh. I guess I'll see what happens.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I dreamed of snow, too - but sharp, icy driving stuff :-(

I wish I could ever persuade my family to live in an intentional community...

[welikegoats.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of affordable places within commuting distance of London if you go outside of the M25. This seems to be a little known fact for people who never leave zones 1-3.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I would like to be within easy commuting distance of the following locations:
Hendon, NW4
Enfield, EN2
Leytonstone, E11
Bethnal Green, Esomething
Bayswater, Wsomethingorother

and preferably some of the better Tube stations for busking.

Also, I don't drive, I do need to commute at weekends when the trains are crap, and buses make me feel ill.

[reddragdiva]

You need an invisible airborne base and a commuter helicopter, obviously.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Or a Tardis.

I can't quite get away with putting the majority of my stuff in storage and living half of each week with a boyfriend. I could just about do it without the horn, I think, but neither of them currently have enough space for me to keep full wardrobe at either location.

[pungoose.livejournal.com]

Even a small flat with no garden would be okay if it were mine

I think you mean "the bank's". HTH...

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

There is that. It's cheaper to rent the property than to rent the money, at the moment.

[sci.livejournal.com]

I'm still thinking the only way I'm going to be a homeowner in this country is building a houseboat.
Found this website storing up vintage project plans. A 25ft cabin cruiser's not perfect, but it'd be a good start!
http://www.vintageprojects.com/boats/25-foot.html

Canalboat plans are about £70 off ebay.

[martling.livejournal.com]

Our stuff is not small enough for tracking fingers, yet. And it'll be pretty pricey when it is, at first, though I can see remote tutoring like that becoming feasible within the next few years.

The problem with webcams, unfortunately, is not really the cameras but rather the available bandwidth. A camera that shoots 640x480 at 30fps can probably be had for £150, but an internet connection fast enough to carry that stream reliably might cost that monthly. And considering how long it's taken to get the country from dialup to ADSL/cable, the next major mass upgrade probably isn't going to happen any time soon.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

*nog*

Do you think this would be less information with finger-tracking gloves?

[martling.livejournal.com]

Yes, certainly. Then all you're sending is numbers saying "fingers here, here and here" rather than a big fat video image.

What are you actually looking for in the fingering when you teach? If, say, you could just see the keys and a white dot marking the tip of each finger, would that be enough?

[martling.livejournal.com]

(also see stuff like this (http://synapse.vit.iit.nrc.ca/piano/))

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Need a bit more information than that, generally, but other problems (like really bad hand/wrist position) tend to be more obvious from webcam work.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

The Wii - interesting device for a rainy day. I wonder what improvements they'll make in the next few years. I'm thinking in terms of fingerless gloves that could tell me whether a remote student is using the correct fingering for playing a scale on the piano, for example - current webcam technology makes this difficult if they're going at anything like a decent speed.

I suspect it'll be almost exactly the same for the next couple of years, with maybe a few very small improvements. This'll be our lot for this generation of consoles.

I am still horrible about tagging entries. I must get better at this. I quite like rosefox's system of tagging and I think it might be good to adopt something similar.

I still don't tag much, I'm sorta semiconsciously happy with it all being a bit random.

I shall miss the cat especially much. He is such a wonderful animal.

You could bring him back and we could keep him?

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

flannelcat and penguin_worship wouldn't let me.

And we'd need a catflap.