Lex Parsimoniae

Lex Parsimoniae is Latin for "Law of Parsimony", which pulled out into its simplest form is the The Law of what can be spared, should.

This is a theory that I have been studying for the past year and through observation believe that this can be applied to all situations that require a more efficient, functional solution. This paradigm has many names, but is best know as Occam's Razor. His razor suggests that when resources are limited or when speed of function is essential, design / complexity trade-offs should be based on what does the least harm to the probability of success, however that is defined.

Form is Function

There is a school of thought that beauty in design results in good function, but I prefer to subscribe the fact that just concentration on the functionality will by its very nature, create its own aura of design. Sometimes, the focus on functional efficiency inspires a feeling that goes beyond aesthetics and ultimately give us the sense that its form is of a higher echelon.

Barrier To Entry

The brain is an amazing piece of kit. One of its most amazing functions is its ability to optimise when processing data. Each brain has been trained over many years (or maybe it inherently has the ability) to simplify individual objects into groups. Instead of seeing each individual blade of grass, the mind sees a field. Millions of pieces of data grouped into one object because it knows, to comprehend millions of pieces of grass would take and enormous amount of effect. Effect that could be focused elsewhere. So it generalises to make life easier. This sort of information overload can happen in design as well; Too much will distract from your likely objective. Remember that 7 Second Rule? If your web app or website has 7 seconds to impress then wouldn't you prefer showing off your functional muscles? How useful your app is? and not long it takes to load the really cool (bandwidth crunching) design? Remember how it easy it is to make your mind up about someone when you them for the first time. Same rules apply.

Just Do It!

What are your objectives and goals? Hopefully, when developing a web app or website, to make your (or your users) life easier! And let's remember, this 'thing' we call the Internet is broken. So don't break any further with dodgy CSS and bloated javascript. Functional Turn Around is the most impressive aspect for me these days. Spend time developing how the app works, refine it, refine it again, then again. Then when it works, design around the edges. If you like Latin phrase then try this one:

"entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem", or "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity"

or just remember, K.I.S.S - Keep it Simple, Stupid!

For more information about Occam's Razor and various other development theories, read this Design and Development Blog at www.gammatan.co.uk

Liked what you read? Check out Richard Healy's other ramblings on Design and Development at http://www.gammatan.co.uk

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Common Usage Errors

i.e. vs. e.g.

Use i.e. , to re-name, restate, or to clarify, as in, "He fell out of the window, i.e., down." This is an abbreviated Latin term (id est) that roughly translates as, "which is to say..." or "meaning..."

Use e.g., to provide examples, as in, "He liked falling from heights, e.g., out of windows, from airplanes, off of ladders." This is an abbreviated Latin term (exempli gratia) that translates as "For example..."

[And don't forget the comma after either one.]

Data is plural

Example: "The data are complete; we conclude that falling is dangerous." [We hear data used as a singular noun so often that the mistake seems right, but it isn't.]

Like vs. Such as

Use like to show similarities, as in, "He was falling like a rotten tomato that missed the stage."

Use such as to provide examples, as in, "Everything falls at times, such as tomatoes and bodies from windows." [Not: "Everything falls at times, like tomatoes and bodies from windows." Another correct way to say this is "Everything falls at times, e.g., tomatoes and bodies from windows."]

Everyone is singular

Example: "Everyone needs to jump out of his window." [Not: "Everyone needs to jump out of their window." You could use "his or her" to be politically correct.]

Comprise vs. Compose

Comprise means to gather multiple parts into a single whole. A good synonym is assemble. For example, "The band comprised [assembled] many different players." [Not: "The band was comprised of many different players."] Here, you have a whole and are describing its parts.

Compose means to make a whole by putting together multiple parts. A good synonym is create. For example, "The band was composed [created] of many different players." Here, you have the parts and are showing how they are put together to make a whole.

The difference is subtle, but what you need to consider is whether you are emphasizing the whole (the band) or the parts (the members of the band).

Staff is not a person

Use staff to refer to the entire group of employees and colleagues, and it is singular (the plural is staffs). A good synonym is team. For example: "The staff [team] is upset with the pay raise."

Use staff person or staff member to refer to an individual person on the staff. So, you would write, "Six staff members are not coming to work today." This refers to the individual people. If you want to refer to the entire staff at once, you would write, "The staff is not coming to work today."

David Bowman is the Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit, a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development. Click here for more information about Precise Edit's services.

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Zune MP3 Downloads - Aiming to Beat Competition

With the numerous and high-quality Zune MP3 downloads, there is no reason why you should not consider shifting to the Zune technology. In a period when portable music devices are very popular, there is an increased competition. That is why Zune is constantly developing different and attractive contents that would surely lure more consumers and possibly poach a significant number from arch rival iPod of Apple Inc.

Microsoft Corporation certainly would not be left out cold in the middle of the competition. It has always been a leader in every sector and technology it enters into. Thus, when it formed and instituted the Zune, its own brand of digital music playing products, many loyal followers and consumers immediately shifted gears and tried how the company cut-throats competition. Surely, Zune is cutting edge, ripping market shares from earlier and predecessor portable music players.

The rise of Zune gives way to the rapid and robust rise in demand for Zune MP3 downloads. Analysts and market observers are quick to assert that Zune is relatively and comparatively swifter in the development and introduction of new content materials.

Zune has portable music players as well as client software, making it abler to reach more and wider base of digital music consumers. If rival iPod has iTunes, Zune MP3 downloads are facilitated through Microsoft's specialized online music store Zune Marketplace. The downloads are unique and are highly attractive in that such contents can be integrated with software. When the online store was launched in November 2006, it initially offered two million songs. As of the end of 2007, the lineup surged to up to three million digital songs, and is still counting.

On top of that, Zune MP3 downloads are getting more attention with its updated versions, which also incorporates available music videos. Music downloads are legal and are provided from the titles and archives of four of the world's most gigantic and hit-making record labels, namely, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony BMG, not to mention the smaller and local music labels around the globe.

What's more, Zune is bent on further improving its products and download lineups. In the near future, analysts are positive that the music playing technology would soon beat rivals, great and small. Zune has more advantage and a greater edge. With the advanced technology, capital advantage and technology interconnectivity provided by Microsoft and Xbox, expect that more are to come from Zune MP3 downloads.

Learn how you can get access to unlimited Zune downloads.

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Making Djembe Drums From a British Columbia Rainforest

For the last 35 years, my partner & I have played world hand drums, djembes, congas, bongos, ashikos, tabla & temple blocks. Mostly, we have played for the fun of it and the mystery of how the powerful sound affects us the drummers, as well as those who hear it. We played in an all hand percussion band for a few years and found it wonderfully challenging and very very satisfying.

In all those years, the thought of actually making our own djembe drums never even once occurred to us, even though it was a struggle back then to buy a decent hand carved djembe anywhere but Africa. We even traveled to Sierra Leone, West Africa in our quest and spent a couple of years teaching high school there. At that time, 1980, it was frowned upon for white people to play or touch the drums and it was riot provoking for a woman of any colour to do so. We managed to come back to Canada with two drums; one, a 14 inch sengui, from the Sierra Leone National Dance Troupe, the other a small tourist grade djembe. We never did get that one to sound like a drum at all, but the one from the dance troupe is still in our collection and is a great little drum. Our next drum purchases came from a music store in Mexico, a pair of gorgeous congas.

For maybe 10 years we were happy enough with these and with our ability to pound along with our favourite world music and reggae songs on the stereo. Then in about 94, we saw an ad for a 7 day African Drum workshop with the late great Babatunde Olatunji. We signed up, pronto, and ended up learning about a whole world we had no idea existed for drummers: Drum Language. I have written another article about this on our djembe drum website, so I won't go into that adventure in drumming here. However, it was at THAT workshop that we met another fabulous Trinidadian 'Trini' lead drummer named 'Sanga'. 'Sanga o the Valley' was his official full name on his business card. We had 3 little kids by now(Drumming isn't all we do!) and had been planning a trip to the Tobago (Trinidad & Tobago) for the coming winter. Meeting Sanga and he being from T & T was a huge coincidence/sign for us that our trip was meant to go ahead. Sanga gave us the contact info for his close buddy in Tobago who was a superb drummer, a great guy and a drum carver. We couldn't get out trip together fast enough. Sanga said that we should not even take our own drums with us, because his buddy would have drums for us there. SWEET!

Well were ever NOT dissappointed. We met up with Sangas buddy within a week of arriving and we really connected immediately. Wayne Guerra and his wife Carol and 2 sons same age as ours were such a great bunch of people. We got to play with Wayne & Carols drum band called Culture Stop and Wayne made each of us a drum in just a few days so we could really get into it. Holy Smoking Drumskins! Could those guys play. The way they played their drum music, so tight, all choreographed with signals and drum pattern communiques all built in differently to each song. We quantum leaped on that trip in terms of our drum skills & knowledge and we were even able to tape our drum sessions and actually write down the rhythms that we learned from Wayne.

The most extraordinary thing we learned though was how to carve, skin & tune djembe, djun djun & and ashiko drums. Wayne did it all with hand chisels and gouges, going at a log of mango wood like a mad man at first and then gradually, gradually shaping and smoothing the drum body until it was just the right thickness a feel. We sat for days, in the tropical heat, eating grapefruits from Wayne and Carols' backyard and watching him work. He was just a few years younger than we were, but yikes! What a powerful intense effort he was capable of, even thought the heat made us a pair of zombies all day until the sun went down. They were all that way when it came to their drum performances as well; some claiming to experience bleeding out various places from the strain of it. We were humbled and impressed. Their sound was incredible.

We got to watch as Wayne measured and made the welded steel rings that would stretch our freshly soaked goatskin over our new drum bodies. It was hypnotic really, the whole scene. One inch wide strips of scrap fabrics were torn from some bodys' old something, and then these long thin strips were then wound round and round the metal rings to soften and snug the connection between the rings and the rope that would pull the skin tight. Very pleasant work. It's kind of cool the way the pattern on the fabric looks when it is cut and then wrapped up against its' own edges.

The heat really got turned up for the next stage, which is to weave the rope through the rings at the top pair and down at the smaller single ring at the bottom of the drum body bulge. These top and bottom rings are then brought closer together by the woven/knotted rope that is made tighter and tighter with each knot. Wayne spent one whole afternoon of his life teaching us that knot. Over and over. And over. It was hard for us to get it, despite having it shown to us dozens of times. We blamed it on the heat. We all laughed for hours. When we finally got it, we were astonished at the genius and simplicity of the whole process. Wayne made a little sing song out of it for us to remember. Under, over, round & under. It went something like that.

It is the tightening of the skin that is the really strenuous part of drum making and tuning. MAN do you ever have to haul on the last 6 knots to get that skin tight enough. Being a woman exempted me from having to do this part. I didn't object at being treated differently than the guys for once. My partner, being a guy was not so fortunate and really busted a few parts of himself getting the hand of just how hard you have to pull, bracing your 2 feet just so on the drum body and then pulling the rope with a piece of hard stick to hold it with. Correct breathing must be practiced so as not to rip the drum skin. (Or your stomach lining!) The new drum is massaged and played just a little bit in between knot pulls to get the skin tighter & tighter. Finally, our drums were ready to play and we went nuts like a pair of colts released into clover. All this drum making was great, but we had come along way to play.

And play we did until it was time to pack our family back to BC Canada again. We were there 2 months in all, and that was about all the heat we could take. Beach or no beach, it is really really REALLY hot down at the equator. We made plans to have Wayne And Carol come to stay with us at our place. Maybe do a tour of shows and drum workshops around southern BC. Our new drums came on the long plane rides home, 3 flights, 20 hours. CHOKE!

It would be another year before Waynes' drum making lessons would call to us from part of psyche; giving us a strong urge to carve and skin more drums. We carved our collection of Djembe Drums from the heartwood of Douglas Fir trees from right here on our Vancouver Island acreage of rain forest. One of our hundred year old Douglas Fir trees died that year. It was 4 feet across at the base, plenty of heartwood inside for a couple of huge drums. We didn't have a djun djun set in our collection and this tree looked like it could definitely have a pair of djun djuns in it. We dreamed of a djun djun so mammoth it would need a special cart to get it to gigs. On the day we first stood in our yard contemplating it as our drum tree, a great big old Pileated Woodpecker landed on the dead top and called out loudly all that day. The woodpecker is the special wild creature that is a totem for drummers all over the world. maybe you have never thought of it before, but the woodpecker is a drummer. They often beat out patterns to us and each other on trees rooves and even our metal wind vane. We knew we would do it then. And we did.
That tree provided enough wood for thirty three djembes and two giant sized djun djuns that required two elk skins to make heads for them. Goats don't come that big.

My partner made the first three by hand, but then had to change the methods up a little bit to include power tools when his carpal tunnel of the wrist issue got ugly. After that, we used chainsaws, chisel bladed grinders, reciprocating saws and even power sanders in the end. The drums he made were gorgeous to look at, all of them, but just about half of them never did produce that certain popping sound of a great djembe. We never did figure out what had gone wrong with those, or what was so right about the excellent ones. Certainly, we learned from every drum, mostly that it is what is in your hearts' thoughts that determines the spirit and sound of each drum. It was amazing to hear the different personalities of each new Djembe as it was carved, smoothed, skinned and tuned. We had always felt the spirit of our drums as we played them, but this was remarkable. They seemed to come into this world like our children had, with their parental resemblance, dwarfed by their very own individual personalities and natures.

It was certainly interesting to make African Djembes & Djun Djun drums from the wood of Canadian rain forest trees, using the skills we learned on the Caribbean island of Tobago. The BC Douglas Fir tree makes an excellent sounding drum. The djembes we made from it had very strong, powerful voices and easily produced the loud, lively popping notes just like Waynes' mango wood and mahogany drums. We were proud and floored, really, that we could actually go ahead and make djembe drums with our own hands. Our white skin and North American spoiled childhood had not left us entirely 'drum useless' after all. It just took being shown how much sweat had to be shed and then pushed into making the tremendous physical, mental and spiritual effort required.

Thanks again Wayne Guerra, drum master, for your patience, humour and love while you taught a pair of unlikely people like us to drum and then how to make a drum. The ability to make a drum, skin a drum and tune a drum has changed the level at which we play the drum. I don't know why, it just gave us such a deep connection and comprehension of who the drum is and who we are in the drum world.

So djembe drummers; don't be afraid to try making a drum. I promise you, carving & skinning your own drum will make you a better drummer. These days, there are lots of books and videos on how to make a djembe as well as workshops all over the world. Highly recommended to make at least one drum in your drummers life. You will open up a whole new valley of drum in yourself and you will not regret it.
Diane Lennox

We carved our collection of Djembe Drums from the heartwood of Douglas Fir trees right here on our Vancouver Island rainforest. For our methods of construction, we ended up needing power tools to get the bulk of material out of the center of the djembe drum body, and then did the rest of the carving by hand. This is a test of strength and I highly recommend it to all the younger dudes out there wanting to prove their manhood through feats of strength and power. We made a variety of hand drums and about half of them turned out really hot, the other half so so. Certainly, we learned from every drum, mostly that it is what is in your hearts thoughts that determines the spirit and sound of each drum. It was amazing to hear the different personalities of each new Djembe as it was skinned and tuned. We had always felt the spirit of our drums as we played them, but this was remarkable the way they seemed to be born like our children, with the stamp of us, the parents, dwarfed by the in-born nature of the beings we had birthed.

There are several great videos of people playing Djembe Drums from all over the world, including a two year boy. To view the other videos, just click the Menu button of the video player and the list of Djembe Drumming videos will slide out.

Djembe Drum Shop On-line featuring djembe and other world percussion instruments from Africa, Caribbean, Latin America, Cuba, India, the middle east and around the world. Djembes, Ashiko, Djun Djun, sengui, congas, bongos, doumbak and tablas. Huge selection of hand drums, marimbas, xlophones, shakers, cowbells and temple blocks. Free How to make a djembe, play a djembe and tune a djembe articles, videos and tutorials.http://djembedrums.artbeat.name

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History of Music - Part I

Ancient and Pre-historic Music

When you have no words to tell your feelings, silence is the best way to express it. But sometimes when silence fails to do its work, we take refuge to music. To quote Aldous Huxley After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. Music has the magical powers to tell the world your thoughts and feelings. It is the best creation of the Gods' best creation (man). A song floating from any distant place would fill your heart with sudden joy and remove your sadness. There are different kinds of music to describe the different kinds of moods.

But what made man to create this rhythm or what is the source of his inspiration and creation? To answer this question we have to travel thousands of years back, when man was nomadic or was not fully civilized. It might be that long-long ago man was enticed by the natural beauty and sounds. The chirping of birds, the quivering of the lissome rivers or the gushing wind must have created some ripples in his heart and led him to produce this melody. So we can say that nature taught man to give birth rhythm. Every object of nature is steeped in music. Man learned to create music against the natural backdrop of sound. The music produced by the animals and birds in the form of sound which use to communicate, taught them to make this melodious discovery. Music is found in every culture and society, both past and present. However there is gulf of differences in their type and style.

Scientists believe that the modern human beings have emerged from Africa some 160,000 years ago. Around 50,000 years ago, they began to disperse to all the habitable continents around the world. As music is traced in all the cultures, including the most isolated groups of people, so scientists hold the view that music must have existed even before the dispersal of human beings. Thus it has been concluded that the first music must have originated in Africa. Some evolutionary biologists hold the view that the ability to recognize the sound not created by human beings as musical gives them a selective advantage. Prehistoric music or also once called as primitive music, is the name given to all kinds of music in the prehistoric culture. The prehistoric era ends with the development of writing and so with that, ends the prehistoric music.

The oldest known song was written in cuneiform in harmonies of thirds using Pythagorean tuning of the diatonic scale, about 4000 years ago from Ur. It was deciphered by Prof. Daffkorn Kilmer. At that era double pipes, bagpipes, double flutes were most prevalent. In Indus Valley Civilization, however, seven holed flutes as well as uses of string instruments prove that music was well cultured art in ancient period.

All these information clearly present the idea that, from the very beginning of human civilization and even before that, music was a great companion in the struggles for existence. The buoyancy of music relieved wretched prehistoric people from their grief, sorrows, fear and loneliness. It is those feelings which led man to explore more and more into the fields of music.

Kanquona Bhattacharjee is a freelance writer and bloger. She has completed her post graduation in English from the University of Calcutta. She has some deep insight into social problems and often present these infront of the most strongest medium. Her personal website url is http://www.wertex.org/ She can be contacted at kanquona@wertex.org http://www.ezinearticles.com/?expert=Kanquona_bhattacharjee

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Apple iPod Downloads And The Legal Maze

Is copying Apple iPod downloads to your iPod illegal?

The simple answer is no.

The only thing that is illegal is taking copyrighted material that you haven't acquired legitimately - and, of course, distributing copyrighted material that you have acquired legitimately.

You are well within your rights to copy your own music collection onto your computer or your iPod, as long as you don't then copy those files onto your friends computer or iPod.

As for music on the internet there are numerous legal options, including online services that sell individual tracks to download and keep, others offer unlimited access to a music archive in return for either a monthly fee or a one off membership fee,

There are also plenty of Apple iPod downloads that are both legal and free, these include one-off promotions from the major labels, as well as songs from little known musicians or upcoming bands who are more interested in exposure and making a name for themselves than making a profit.

As we've already seen there is nothing the record industry fears more (for obvious reasons) than the uncontrolled distribution of its copyrighted material.

It is difficult (impossible?) to see how the record companies can stop people sharing files they have copied from their own CD's even if the manage to legally kill off the underground file sharing networks.

The major labels do however have a strategy for stopping people freely distributing tracks they have legally purchased.

Its called Digital Rights Management or DRM, it involves embedding special pieces of code into music files (or Apple iPod downloads or other formats for that matter) which digitally impose certain restrictions on what you can do with that file.

Peter Ward writes on a variety of download and digital recording issues. For more information on Apple iPod Downloads visit.... http://www.best-music-download-site.co.uk

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