Samwise rides again

I read recently on a particularly innovative trick being employed by British teenagers. Basically there was on anti-teenager device being marketed under the name Mosquito that played a high-pitched frequency which was almost imperceptible to adults, but really irratating to teenagers. Apparently someone has used the idea as a ringtone that can be used in schools so that teachers are unaware that a pupils phone is ringing. Very sneeky.

I read on BoingBoing that it was not believed possible.

Well I don’t believe everything I read on the net, so I just tried it, and it appears to work perfectly on my phone. However I am still to do a frequency analysis on the output from my phone.

You can download my version as an MP3 and/or a WAV.

Of course if your hearing is shot, then you may not hear anything, or I am playing a trick on you. You just don’t know.

Now if only everyone else would use ring tones that were completely imperceptable, I would really appreciate it … or just stick it on vibrate, you know you want to.

UPDATE : The original TeenBuzz ringtone, that has been passed around by teenagers via BlueTooth can be found here.

UPDATE : I have done a frequency analysis of my self produced TeenBuzz ringtone and can verify that the output frequency is the same as the frequency I used as an input ( around 14KHz. ) I have not verified yet that the mobile phones speaker is producing the same frequency.

UPDATE : I’ve done a frequency analysis of a recording of my phone playing my homebrewed TeenBuzz sample and although the recording appears to have the pitch slightly lower than I hear it, the analysis appears to confirm that the frequency is present ( in fact it is the only one that shows up, albiet faintly. )

UPDATE : The swines are now using Barry Manilow songs to deter teenage loitering. Oh the humanity !

UPDATE : Latest 17KHz MP3 available here, I haven’t uploaded to my phone yet, so I have no idea how effective it is.

UPDATE : The 17KHz MP3 works fine.

UPDATE : I found this thread discussing this post. I feel I should explain, the ringtones I created were to test the hypothesis that ringtones of 14KHz and 17KHz would be audible from a phone as a ringtone. At the time I created these ringtones Teenbuzz was merely a rumour circling the web, and after a while people started chiming in with opinions to wether or not it was possible without actually hearing it, if you pardon the expression. 14KHz was picked as it was the rumoured pitch of the ringtone, 17KHz was chosen because it was the pitch of the original teen repellent. How these tones actually work as a practical ringtone, I have no idea, I always have my phone set to vibrate.

UPDATE : CO OP are trying to discourage youths from hanging around their stores by playing classical music. Personally I am all in favour of playing Mozart, Beethoven or Bach to teenagers, a little culture won’t harm them, and at least it isn’t Barry Manilow.

UPDATE : I’ve just noticed this article is currently, as of the 17th January 2008, the second hit on Google for “teenbuzz” after the wikipedia entry, but not for “teen buzz“. Whoever is linking to me, thanks, let me know who you are.

Cripes ! we’ve been rumbledOriginally uploaded by samh101.
My parents found this in the newspaper. Probably from the Guardian looking at the typeset. It appears that my brother and I have been running a restaurant in London all this time. Came as quite a surprise to me.

In the 80s in the US, there was an anti-drug camapign known colloquially as “This is your brain on drugs”. It showed a man holding up an egg saying, “This is your brain,” he then showed you a frying pan and said, “This is drugs.” He then cracked the egg, fries the contents, and says, “This is your brain on drugs.” Finally he looks up at the camera and asks, “Any questions?”.

Well this Dutch site shows you what does happen to your brain on drugs.

Education, not terrorism.

Any questions ?

As of this time of writing, according to Yahoo!, the following women are serving as either presidents, prime ministers, or chancellors:

Michelle Bachelet of Chile

Helen Clark of New Zealand

Luisa Diogo of Mozambique

Tarja Halonen of Finland

Myeong Sook Han of South Korea

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines

Mary McAleese of Ireland

Angela Merkel of Germany

Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica

Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia

Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh

The real problem of course is that this is noteworthy

For a while now, I have been thinking of drafting a “Declaration of Impedance”

Apart from being a clever play on words, what does this mean ?

The key word here being a play on the word “impedance”

In electronics, impedance, is a measure of opposition to a sinusoidal electric current.

In this context it is a declaration of the level of oppostion, I, or any other, is prepared to make in relation to the powers that be.

I’ll try and start from the beginning.

A friend once said to me “All software should be free, and you shouldn’t have to pay for it”

It is a popular point of view, however I see things differently, I feel …

“All software is free, and you should pay for it”

I feel this is a more realistic, and unfortunatly, more controversial point of view.

When you copy a file on a computer, the copy is, for all intents and purposes, an identical copy of the original. No ifs. no buts, it is.

This has caused no end of headaches for the commercial sector.

Part of the problem is that the biggest media companies, say SONY, not only produces the equipment to allow you to copy digital media, but also have divisions that work in the moving picture, musical recording and other digital arenas. This is a good example of big industry being so big that the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

Now this wasn’t always the case.

In the 80s, the BPI pushed the idea that “Home Taping is Killing Music”. The idea seems ridiculous now, when you copy a record, CD or tape to magnetic media, a certain percentage of quality is lost, the more the copy is copied, the worse the quality. It just deteriorates.

Nowadays we have digital radio, digital tv, digital recording and playback, your choice of digital formats and media .. you can move from one medium to another without much in the way of noticable loss of quality, and there, my friends is “The Rub”

So I’m going to try and get to the point, as this is my first draft of this posting.

The compression algorythms now, do not compare to the the original, but they do not deteriorate it to the point where is unusable, and once it has been compressed, any copy is exactly the same as the original.

This has been a problem since day one for software, and licensing such as the GPL and BSD are all about, you can make perfect copies of the software.

So, all software, and by extension, all digital media , is free.

So, why pay for it ?

In a capitalist society, you get one vote, and that is to vote with your feet.

You buy a product, or you don’t, or I guess for a third option, you become a share-holder in a company.

When you by a product, you are supporting a company, wherever there money goes to, wether it be securing our futures and the futures of our offspring or baby mulching machines, it’s an all or nothing situation. Thats the same for free, as in non-pay, media.

If you are paying for a film, or a tune, or a piece of software, you are doing it because you want the parties involved in producing that, to continue.

My theory for a “Declaration of Impendance”, is this, I am prepared to pay for digital media, wether that be software, films, audio .. whatever, thats fair enough, but I retain that it is all free, and so if I cannot purchase said media, I am prepared to copy it.

Now if I can copy anything I want for nothing, and there are services available to allow that to happen, then I am prepared to copy it, if I cannot obtain it legally.

For example in the case of P2P or other forms of file trading, I can obtain the latest, greatest ( sic, ) tune available, no problem, but that is also available to purchase legally, no problem. The problem for me is that, not everything I want is available to purchase legally, not because it is illegal, but because there is no legal channel to purchase it from.

My thoughts regarding a “Declaration of Impendance”, is to state exactly the level of resistance I am prepared to make, in order to enjoy the media I want.

If there is a legal channel available to me selling what I want, I will use it, otherwise, it is fair game. However I would rather not be prosecuted for it, if there isn’t a legal alternative.

There have been certain items that I have obtained, as it were, illegally, and whenever possible, generally by searching eBay or Amazon or whatever, I have obtained legal copies of said items. That is the way I want to play it, I’m not out to rip anyone off, but you have to understand the power is in my hands, and I vote accordingly.

An example ? I was talking to a friend over a year ago about an album that I wanted, and could not obtain for love nor money ( and I had tried both, ) within days they had found a copy. I was sooo happy. A couple of months later I found an original copy on eBay, so I bought it. It was like an upgrade, because I could sample it at a higher resolution.

Why are these just thoughts ?

I have not decided how to draft it yet, you see there was another album I wanted, but the only copy I could find was unreasonably priced, I mean completely ridiculous. So it would be nice to state how far I am prepared to resist, if I state I am prepared to pay no more than Y, then anyone can charge Y and I’ll have to accept it, alternativly if I say that if it costs Y then I will get rid of my copies, then any company can then charge wel lover the odds for something forcing me to erase my copies.

The “Declaration” is about obtaining the media that I want legally in a way that is reasonable, or being left in piece to enjoy my copy, providing I can not source it, and believe me, whatever you’re experiences, it is not easy to obtain exactly what you want, and if it is, you can probably obtain it legally.

As a final note, I spend an awaful lot of money on iTMS, I love the fact I can buy just the tunes I want ( in most cases, sometimes they try to sell you the whole album, ) each track costs 99c, honestly it is ridiculous how much I spend. I cannot however buy everything I want, and I cannot also download everything I want. Sometimes I will buy an original to justify downloading a different mix from elsewhere, sort of like, if you own a copy of the Grey Album, you owe it to buy a copy of the White Album and the Black Album, and maybe a DJ Dangermouse album, because you cannot buy it legally.

This is just an idea, maybe I’m wrong, but I am going to flesh it out, and I would appreciate comments.

One of the many great things about living in Hawai’i are the fresh Pineapples. In the UK, where I first had Pineapples, they are obviously not … indigenous ? … so they have to be shipped into the country from .. well .. Hawai’i, and as a result they are normally more of a brownish colour … and slightly shrunken and even slightly wrinkled, basically not so fresh. I had no idea what fresh Pineapple was like until I came to Hawai’i and saw the more greeny golden Pineapple and experienced it’s sweeter taste.

Now apparently Pineapples are no more a fruit then say a bunch of grapes is a fruit, a grape is a fruit, but a bunch of grapes is a collection of fruit. In the same way, a Pineapple is a collection of fruit. This of course could be a lie, I read this in a magazine on a plane flying between Hilo and Honolulu, if you can verify the truth of this, or uncover the lie, let me know.

Now I’m going to try and describe how to grow Pineapples, this may or may not go well, I don’t really have much experience of growing Pineapples, I am still working on my first, however most of the following information comes from the local newspaper, the Tribune Herald, which in turn was based on ‘Pineapple Cultivation in Hawaii’ (UH CTAHR Cooperative Extension Service bulletin F&N-7) by D.O. Evans, W.G. Sanford, and D.P. Bartholomew.

The full article can hopefully be found here. The following is edited.

“Pineapples are generally grown from crowns which are twisted off from the top of the fruit. They should be allowed to cure (dry) for several days in an area with good air circulation out of the direct sun. Any fruit attached to the crown should be removed to reduce the likelihood of rot.”

“Good soil drainage is essential and pineapples do best in acidic soil; at a pH of 4.5-5.5 there are fewer soil-borne diseases. Pineapples do not do well in soil with a pH of 7 or higher.”

“The soil should be well tilled to prepare it for planting. The addition of animal manure or compost will improve the soil tilth, add nutrients and may improve the availability of some micronutrients. Water the area well to check the drainage, and if it is not well drained it may be necessary to build a raised bed at least eight inches high. Raised beds can be built with sides to hold the soil or by building a low mound.”

“While pineapples do tolerate drought, production will be much better if supplemental irrigation is provided during extended dry periods. About 24-inches of rainfall is sufficient for good growth and production, but it needs to be well distributed throughout the year. Give the plants a good soaking, especially as the roots develop, but don’t water too frequently, let the soil dry out a bit between waterings. Applying mulch, organic or otherwise, around the plant (but not touching the base) will help to conserve and moderate moisture.”

“Pineapple has high requirements for nitrogen, potassium and iron and relatively low requirements for phosphorus and calcium. It is advisable to test your soil annually to determine the nutrient levels and pH. If you can’t test before planting, add a small amount of a complete fertilizer and work it in to the soil. If calcium is needed, use gypsum as it supplies calcium without lowering the pH, unlike most other calcium sources.”

“For the first five months after planting the need for fertilizer is quite low, it increases sharply in the sixth month and peaks a few months before flower initiation. Fertilizer can be applied around each plant or in a band down the row, or as a foliar application. Foliar applications should be made in low volumes to avoid rundown into leaf axils. The nutrients will be taken up by the green leaf tissue.”

“Pineapple flowers are initiated during cool, short days. They become visible about 45-60 days later depending on location. Fruit is ready to harvest approximately six to eight months after flower initiation, again depending on location. Fruit at lower elevations will mature earlier than those at higher elevations.”

“It takes 15-20 months after planting to get the first fruit. ‘Smooth Cayenne’ is ready to harvest when the individual eyes become flattened and glossy and the skin turns from green to yellow or yellow-orange. The colour change begins at the bottom of the fruit and works its way up. Pick when at least half the fruit has turned color; experimenting to see how ripe you prefer it.”

“After the fruit is harvested, one or more suckers will continue to grow and produce one or two of what is called ratoon crops. Ratoon crops are usually smaller, sweeter, and less acidic than the first fruit of the plant. The first ratoon will be ready to harvest in about seven to nine months after the first fruit.”

Now the real question is, can Pineapple be grown outside of Hawai’i ? and the answer is, I don’t know, however with modern growing techniques, namely artificial environments with lamps and heat sources, I cannot see why not, the fact that the source fruit obtained outside of Hawai’i may not be as fresh does not mean that it cannot be used, remember the part where it said “They should be allowed to cure (dry) for several days in an area with good air circulation out of the direct sun.” ?

If you succeed in growing one in outside ( or even inside ) of Hawai’i. let me know.

Now I’m off to tend to my Green Tea plant …

UPDATE : Instructables guide.