Paul's blog

What am I working on, you asked?
I’m looking into some voice quality issues on one of our platforms that utilizes a G.729 codec.
What is a G.729 codec?

I’m glad you asked!

A G.729 speech coder is an 8 kbps Conjugate-Structure Algebraic-Code-Excited Linear Prediction (CS-ACELP) speech compression algorithm.
Since G.729 is based on the Code-Excited Linear Prediction (CELP) model, each 80 bit frame produced contains linear prediction coefficients, excitation code book indices, and gain parameters that are used by the decoder in order to reproduce speech. The inputs/outputs of this algorithm are 16 bit linear PCM samples that are converted from/to an 8 kbps compressed data stream.

I’m sure you, too, are glad you asked.

Last month I was at the freedomfest in Vegas. There were many speakers and they covered a broad range of topics, but it was very heavy on ‘investing’.

During the ‘fest’ I learned that the organization originated in the investment world. That explained a lot. In fact, the organizer of the event was a certain Dr. Mark Skousen, PhD, Economist. Apparently a very well known figure in the investment world. I attended a few of his presentations.

Clearly a gifted speaker.

In one of the presentations he thanked us for attenting, and showed his appreciation for us showing up at his conference by giving us a HOT stock buying tip, that he recently had shared with his customers. He told us about a company by the name of Luminent Mortgage Capital Inc (stock symbol LUM). It was an excellent buy, was going to declare some healthy dividend and … well, it was just a steal! Ok, it had gone up a little the past few weeks, due to Mark recommending it to his top customers, but when it leveled out at about $10, we should all load up!

He humbly bowed to the applause.

I invested some money in it. And then I sold my stake.

I more than trippled my money in, oh, about a week’s time. Made a couple of thousand bucks. It paid for the trip and the conference and then some!

Don’t you just love ‘stock tips’?

(Yes, of course there is more to the story! Subject of a subsequent post)

Off the coast of North West Africa, close to southern Morocco and West Sahara lies a group of islands called the Canary Islands. One of its most western islands is called La Palma (the islands belong to the kingdom of Spain). La Palma is basically just a volcano. It has erupted many times (last time in 1971), and, although controversial, there are predictions of it being close to erupting again soon, with devastating results: it is thought to be very likely to dislodge a 12 mile-long slab of rock that will crash to the ocean floor, causing a dome of water a mile high, causing a tsunami, travelling at 500 mph.

It would reach the US mainland  in 9 to 12 hours and the 165 ft high waves would simply wipe Boston, New York and Miami off the face of this globe.

And, of course, Palm Bay, the town I live in, would be gone as well.

Last night I was reading about all these interesting facts and wondering why I wasn’t packing up my stuff and moving to Nevada. I may make that the subject of another post, but anyway, pondering all these fatalistic scenarios made me sleepy, so I went to bed.

For some reason, ever since my ‘heart attack’ scare back in May, I seem to need a lot less sleep than I  used to. As so many times lately, I woke up around 4am, and, also as usual, started to read.

It must have been around 5:30am that I heard a faint noise. Kind of a rumble, like a truck driving by on the nearby highway. But it didn’t fade. This is probably where this subtle noise entered my consciousness: I laid down my book, and I’m sure I must have looked puzzled: I’d never heard anything like it. It still was very faint and sounded like it came from far away, but it appeared to get louder. “There’s a UFO landing on my lawn” I thought. But I’m a rational guy and parted, with slightly sad feelings, with THAT notion.

Then I noticed the slight trembling of the house, the windows rattling… it was a VERY subtle and a barely noticeable vibration, but it was definitely there!

I got up to investigate, by now I was REALLY puzzled by it.

And then suddenly it hit me! That tsunami! La Palma! It had happened! A wall of water was headed down the street and soon it would all be over.

Then something strange happened: instead of panicing, I was overcome with a deep feeling of peace and I became extremely calm. It was something that I have experienced before .. in dreams! Where I was in situations with a disastrous, really inescapable and irreversible outcome, I would simply ‘resign’. If the outcome is truly inevitable, there is no point in wasting energy in trying to reverse it.

I have mentioned my fear of flying here before. During flight I’m constantly in a state of semi-panic. But when that day comes, that my plane’s wings fall off (and it WILL come), I am convinced that I will then suddenly become very calm again. I probably will even smile, and while everyone around me is panicing in utter chaos, I will grab my book, start reading, and think “told you so!”.

Likewise, realizing the magnitude of what was happening, I calmly walked to my computer to see what I could find out about it. What else was there to do?

And then, while the sound and vibration, while ever so slightly, became more apparent … the light went out.

Fortunately that lasted only a split second. But I had to restart my computer. While it was rebooting, I opened the front door and stepped outside in the dark … expecting strong wild winds.

There was no wind whatsoever, although I definitely could still ‘sense’ the noise, but by now it was getting fainter and fainter. There was definitely something ‘out there’. But clearly, not the dreaded wall of water that my brain had concocted. Soon it was all over, and I was standing in a quiet warm dark central Florida night, wondering what the heck I’d just experienced.

About an hour later I realized what it had been.

And I also realized that, had I stepped out on the patio, instead of the front door, I immediately would  have known what this was and I would have stood there in pure awe and admiration …

I kicked myself for picking the wrong door, and went back to bed.

In an earlier post (link) I wrote about the Irish company Steorn, who claim to have invented a working free energy device, I made several predictions, the first one being:

No demonstration of a working ‘free energy’ device will take place in July 2007 

Well, I got THAT one right (and fully expect the other ones to come true as well).

According to a statement on Steorn’s website (link):

… technical problems arose during the installation of the demonstration unit in the display case on Wednesday evening.

These problems were primarily due to excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area.

Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures and as a result we have to postpone the public demonstration until a future date 

As was to be expected, some really silly excuse was given for the failure. Sometimes it’s the weather, sometimes it’s too much metal in the room, sometimes it’s studio lights, sometimes it’s the presence of an unbeliever.

They went for the classical “it’s the lights” cop out.

*yawn*

Zero points for not even trying to come up with an original or somewhat ‘believable’ excuse, like “the government has stolen our device”.

This all is a text book example of the so common “we don’t understand it, so it must be super-natural” fallacy (since an over-unity device breaks all kinds of laws of nature, it is by definition super-natural).

Here’s a tip for you geniuses: turn off those lights!

And here’s another one: “when you find yourself  in a deep hole, stop digging”.

To top it off: “if something looks to be too good to be true … it probably is”

Ah, yes, I said I would continue the death threat post… Well, here goes.

First of all, I feel I should apologize, not only for waiting this long with the follow-up, but also for my overly dramatic intro to what I really wanted to post about: some of my readers interpreted my post as if I was fleeing from the mentioned threat. This was not the case.
Let me quickly go over my previous post, beginning with the end: my “if I survive this” was not a reference to forementioned threat, but was solely triggered by my fear of flying: every single time I board a plane, I’m CONVINCED it’s going to crash.

The “… it stays there” was, of course, a reference to a popular TV commercial for a city in Nevada “What happens in Vegas, STAYS in Vegas”, and yes that was the far away place in the desert where I went to attend the Freedom Fest conference. As for things staying in Vegas … it’s clear that they are referring to your money! It definitely stays there! It’s an amazing city .. but also a city built by losers.

So, what about the threat then? Was there a death threat? Well, to be honest, the man uttering the threat doesn’t know me personally and he threatened MANY people. But still, I do, kind of, take this personally, and yes, I think this is one scary dude … and so are his followers: VERY scary people.

Who am I talking about?

I’m talking about an extremist fundamentalist group of Christians calling themselves Reconstructionists and their leader, a certain Gary North.

In brief, they simply want to implement THEIR very extremist religious views and laws as this nation’s law and anyone opposing this idea should be put to death.

I can assure you, that I, personally, am NOT in favor of implementing biblical law in this country: hence the death threat!

To keep this post short (I could go on and on about this, but it would be detrimental to my blood pressure) I’ll just quote something from an article I just read (link here) [emphasis mine]:

North has called for the death penalty … for youngsters who curse their parents, gays and others who violate HIS interpretation of biblical law.

He has argued that stoning is the preferred means of capital punishment, noting that it is a communal activity and “the implements of execution are available to everyone at virtually no cost.”

So.

There you have it.

This poor excuse of a man, this incredibly stupid ignorant idiot, thinks stoning people to death for … whatever he is afraid of … should be made lawful. And oh, it’s also cheap and a stimulating social activity (unless, I have to assume, it’s YOUR child that’s being stoned to death).

Incredibly scary! Just suppose that this man gets his way. Then he will manage to do what the worst weapons of mass destruction would never be able to accomplish: He would wipe out the entire human species within one or two generations!

Given the fact that all teenagers have their genes hardwired to ‘disobey’ their parents, they will ALL be stoned to death. As said, that will take care of the human species REAL fast. Good riddens.

Anyway, if you think gays are human too, and if you want your kids to live past age 18, even though they just informed you that you know NOTHING and that you’re only here to make their lives miserable, or if you simply don’t like stoning people to death for not agreeing with something … then you just have been warned!

From another source: [link]

The members aren’t necessarily dangerous, but the movement is Very Disturbing in it’s [sic] ideology.
And if it ever came to political power, it would be disasterous [sic] for this civilization.
Freedom under a Christian Reconstructionist government would be similar to that of Stalan [sic] or Hitler.

(and that’s ‘not necessarily dangerous’ HOW?)

And here’s another, quite readable, article that mentions that even some fundamentalist associates of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell find these reconstructionists ‘scary’: link to article.

Now… if Falwell followers find people ‘scary’ for being too fundamentalistic, you KNOW you’re on to something REALLY creepy!

I received a death threat today.

Not a simple ‘drop dead!’ one, but a seriously meant one, complete with details as to how I should be put to death (in a non-pleasant fashion, I can assure you).

I’m scared. VERY scared.

More on it later, because for now … I’m leaving for a few days.

Packed my bags and I’m outa here. To a far away place in a desert.

Where I will ponder ‘freedom’.

And maybe take care of a few other things, but whatever THAT is … it stays there.

To be continued (if I survive this) …

Leave the Tinky Winkies alone!

Yelled by Hustler Magazine’s publisher Larry Flynt in a telephone conversation with … Jerry Falwell, referring to Falwell’s warning to parents that “the purple Teletubby character was, in fact, gay”.

In 1988, Jerry Falwell sued Larry Flynt for $50 million for libel, after Flynt had published a parody on then popular Campari ads where he had Falwell describing his “first time” as having been with his mother, “drunk off our God-fearing asses,” in an outhouse, while obviously referring to having sex, rather than the ads’ “first times of drinking Campari”.

Flynt lost the case three times in a row, but, to his own astonishment, won the case in Supreme Court.

Yet these two men … became ‘friends’. A more unlikely friendship is hardly imaginable.

And maybe ‘friends’ is stretching it a bit. It’s not that there was ANY form of mutual respect or admiration, but Falwell would visit Flynt whenever he was in California, and Flynt had a ‘direct’ line to Falwell and called him personally whenever he thought they needed to discuss certain issues.

Read Larry Flynt’s own account of this unlikely ‘friendship’ here: –link-.

I bet Larry Flynt misses the late Jerry Falwell … maybe we should hook ‘m up with Fred Phelps! Now THAT would be interesting!

WHERE was this picture taken? (Yes, it’s snow, and yes, it was taken July (added correction: NOT July, obviously, but June!) 27th, 2007)

(Thanks to Tim de Waal for providing this picture)

I have decided to post more ‘diary’ entries: posts about nothing much else than what I’m doing or did on a certain day, no matter how boring or irrelevant to others (or myself). I even created a new category for it ‘diary’.

Take today: The morning started fairly early for a Saturday: Dawnell left early for her yoghurt class, gleefully reminding me of my excursion to the vet. Her smile, when she left, screamed the German word ‘Schadenfreude‘!

I saw her again at the vet, where she dropped by when the kids were already safely back in the carrier, while the vet and his assistants were changing their shredded and blood soaked scrubs. She was on her way down to Jupiter to meet her daughter Laurilee who needed a new ‘ensemble’ for her interview next week, and God knows, a 30 year old child can NOT buy clothes all by herself.

So I was all by myself for the rest of the day.

What did I do?

Absolutely nothing!

So. There you have it.

Let me break it down for you.

First, since I had to get up in the middle of the night (9 am) to take the kids to their annual torture, I went back to bed.

Then, after having felt REALLY pittyful and sorry about himself in the closet for a while, Clyde snuggled up with me and informed me he would forgive me if I would give him ‘wet’ food for the rest of the week .. and not just a serving he had to share with Bonnie, but FULL portions.

I concurred, but now we have to find a way to hide this from Mamma, who does NOT condone such bargaining tactics, and calls Papa a ‘pushover’ whenever he falls for what is called here ‘the faces!’.

After that … I went into the pool, swam ONE lap, then drifted on my floating throne, beer in hand, for a LONG time, got out, read a bit, dried up, went into the pool, skipped the swimming and went straight for the chair with a fresh cold beer, drifted around for a LONG time, got out, read a bit, dried up, went back into the pool … enfin, you get the idea… all the while listening to Beethoven in the background.

Then I conceived of this ‘diary’ idea, went to my office, typed this post, and now I’m getting back to the pool, after making a slight but necessary detour, passing by the fridge to grab another fresh ice cold beer.

Life is good.

And if it’s not good, you have to MAKE it good.

But it’s good.

And short.

So let’s keep it good.

Our cats Bonnie and Clyde were due for a visit to the vet.

This is something that my wife usually takes care of, but last time I received reports about extremely bad behavior by Clyde, involving biting the vet and a note in his file that said ‘patient declined procedure’.

So, I wasn’t totally surprised when it was announced the other day that it was MY turn to take the kids to the vet. Which I did. This morning.

Of course, the calm, relaxed and protecting father figure I am, I was sure they would completely trust me and we’d be home before they’d notice we’d left.

There was only one minor issue that I’d overlooked:

Clyde does NOT like having his temperature taken with a rectal thermometer and is NOT shy about making this clear.

To make a long story short .. as early as next week, they start redecorating, if not completely rebuilding, the Minton Animal Hospital.

(It’s now 3 hours later, Clyde is in the closet and hasn’t spoken to me yet .. all I get are dirty looks: I think next year we should try to trick daughter Laurilee in taking them – IF the vet still ‘invites’ them, which is by no means certain -)