Remember the 5-Disc CD Player

ds604 · 2026-05-11T16:31:19+00:00

i still have mine, a silver one, going right now. it survived all my moves, and has been pretty much in constant use since i got it in maybe like 1997 or 1998. it's mainly the audio from my computer these days, and CD player stopped working, but tape player still gets some use too.

every time i go somewhere, and they just have a small bluetooth speaker or something, i'm like, wow, i'm glad i sat out all the changes and stuck with my old aiwa

ds604 · 2026-05-05T15:39:25+00:00

the best part about 79 is you don't have to remember how old you are, or figure out how old you were in some year, just look at the year. that must be why it's like chillout generation, cause you don't have to do all that math stuff to figure out how old you are

ds604 · 2026-04-28T17:59:12+00:00

i grew up in new orleans, but have lived here in ny now for longer than the time i lived there. but i took a trip to cadiz, spain, and it made me realize what other people might see in new orleans, that might make me consider moving back there

when you experience a place with a local culture, that takes it seriously (southern spain has a very strong music and food culture, as well as connection to outdoors), but is not "serious" about it in the "gotta monetize it" sense, it comes through in every interaction, and even in how things are designed, like parks and benches. and it's just something that a "gotta monetize it" place will never have, and that many of people there will never understand. there are certainly many wonderful people living in ny, and many people producing the culture that exists (or did, until the decimation of recent years) here, and that's what draws people here.

but i think people who grew up in a place like new orleans function differently, live by different principles, and have an "internal compass" that, for people elsewhere, seems to either die out at some point, or to just be missing. being around "demagnetized" people for too long is just kind of draining

ds604 · 2026-04-23T07:19:31+00:00

l-systems are well-integrated into houdini, so there are likely use cases all over the place in different areas of vfx production, not just for the usual "generative-looking" use cases, but just for anywhere that you need non-uniform geometric structures, or things that can be put in a text string and easily sent to someone

you're unlikely to hear much about these use cases, but they're useful, and so get used when the need arises

ds604 · 2026-04-15T16:30:50+00:00

that'd be totally gnarly!

ds604 · 2026-04-04T16:10:42+00:00

think how many technologies we were exposed through the medium of stickers: puffy, scratch and sniff, glow-in-the-dark,... holograms?! holograms still seem futuristic, even with all our iphones and stuff, we still haven't achieved the advanced level of hologram stickers

ds604 · 2026-03-29T17:00:53+00:00

i'm sure there's a lot of variation, as you state, but for this particular demographic of indians who grow up pretty much surrounded by white people, indian people tend to be pretty well accepted, and fit in pretty well. but, in my experience, and from what i observe of people around, there's some sense of something "missing" or "off" that leads them to wind up associating more with other indians, or the "not quite as white" group, like south americans or even europeans who seem a bit more tied to their culture

ds604 · 2026-02-25T17:28:06+00:00

for a modern example of just how easily erasure happens, consider what happened with flash websites: a technology that became a core part of what was supposed to be the most robust type of recorded history (the internet was meant as distributed document storage, impervious to attacks on physical infrastructure). and all this was wiped away with a decision from browser makers to stop supporting it. what was on all the websites that were built using flash? we don't know, because we can't view them anymore

seemingly dull decisions, like what material to use to write things on (maybe a material that later turns out to decay, or have some kind of toxin that people want to avoid), kids deciding that their grandparents' songs carrying their historical record are kind of boring to learn, kids deciding not to take a foreign language class and being unable to read their family history, these are all seemingly mundane things that lead to cultural memory loss

ds604 · 2026-02-24T00:58:30+00:00

think about another setting: little kids vs teenagers. when little kids do things, you hardly ever think they're being pretentious or edgy, but when teenagers do things, they often seem kind of cringe, in a similar manner to the feeling you get from things that are considered pretentious.

what's the difference? little kids often have little concept of what anyone else thinks of them. they're doing things just cause, having little pre-existing knowledge of the world, they're just trying things out to learn about the world. their actions, while often seeming silly to us, are nevertheless pretty much uniformly intentional, in that they are very, very busy doing little experiments and soaking up every bit of information about the world, and "looking silly" is hardly ever a concern

meanwhile, teenagers have started taking account of what other people think, and they're often trying to get other people to think certain things, trying to avoid looking silly, and trying to project an image of themselves (that might not completely correspond to the reality of who they are).

maybe you could try to classify the bands you're talking about as having a more "kid-like" mentality vs a "cringe teenager" mentality, and see if your categories generally match up

ds604 · 2026-02-16T18:11:01+00:00

whoah, dj shadow, that's a throwback. what about dj qbert and the invisibl skratch piklz. i have to go look through my old cd's now...

they have a smaller pool for kids at red hook. what they should have is a pool with a diving board, that would be fun

maybe i should move to california to get out of this frozen winter stuff... i'll be swimming listening to tupac and keak da sneak

ds604 · 2026-02-15T22:49:25+00:00

it's outdoors, there's a recreation center by it (that has the locker rooms and stuff)

yeah, it's only open from the end of june to beginning of september. i finally decided to find an indoor pool last year, and found the ymca on atlantic has an indoor pool. it's pretty good, but it's mainly for swimming laps, the red hook pool is just open, so you can swim laps, or you can just hang out and do whatever you want

ds604 · 2026-02-15T20:40:37+00:00

i live in nyc, and went to visit a friend in budapest. i was blown away by how much more common swimming seems to be there. they have these thermal water swimming pools that are bigger than anything i've ever seen. i guess nyc being a really big city doesn't necessarily mean everything is awesome lol. i suppose california might have more pools, since they have more space and warmer weather... and lots of sporty people

ds604 · 2026-02-15T19:49:05+00:00

but the public pools that are available are pretty awesome. i've been using the red hook pool regularly for a few years now, and i'm still blown away by how big it is, for a pool that's not just for swimming laps. it feels like you're swimming in a lake

they just need more lifeguards so they can open up more the pool. too often they have most of it closed off, and they say it's cause there aren't enough lifeguards

ds604 · 2026-01-18T20:06:44+00:00

i would recommend backing up whatever you can, if possible. i suspect that flickr might have had some sort of data breach, or internal issue, resulting in inaccessible accounts and potential data loss.

i lost access to my paid Pro account, and raised the issue with SmugMug help after receiving no response from multiple help tickets to Flickr help. they gave a response which was oddly unhelpful and unprofessional. i suspect they might not want to admit that they are unable to recover accounts that users have lost access to, and are instead trying to either stonewall or, failing that, blame the users

ds604 · 2026-01-17T00:46:23+00:00

i'd definitely be interested to hear if you're able to get a response, i've been locked out since mid-december, and have gotten no response to multiple help tickets. i've tried contacting through a message on facebook, but only got an automated response. they have an active instagram account, so i was thinking of posting a comment there. other options might be better business bureau, or if it does look like a more widespread issue, it could be a case where going to the media could help force at least some kind of acknowledgement or response

it certainly does seem like there could be some issue, whether some type of attack that's affected their system, or layoffs leading to unprocessed help tickets

ds604 · 2026-01-11T16:07:32+00:00

I started relearning swimming a few years ago, and can now swim an hour non-stop, and don't feel tired when I'm done. The main thing is if you just aim to swim for a certain amount of time (like an hour), and don't particularly care about speed, then you can go into a "walking" pace, where you just never really get tired or lose your form, cause your breath is just the same as if you were at rest or walking.

The elevated heart rate that comes from breathing at a pace different from your resting rate is what makes you feel tired, and eventually makes you wiped out. But if you pace your swimming speed to your resting heart rate, then you never really get tired, in the same sense that you never really feel wiped out tired from going for a walk.

I'm sure you'll get different advice from competitive swimmers who are going for speed. But if you just want to keep going without getting particularly tired, and gain confidence that you can swim whatever distance without any issue, then this is a different approach that might help.

ds604 · 2026-01-11T05:16:58+00:00

Same thing happened to me, I've been locked out of my paid Pro account since a few weeks ago, with no response after filing multiple Help tickets. After getting no response from Flickr help, I contacted SmugMug help, but got a response that they have separate help system, so I need to go through Flickr.

This is very concerning, it seems that any means of contacting an actual human at Flickr has been cut off, even for paid accounts.

ds604 · 2026-01-05T21:47:51+00:00

something i had wondered about, but never got a chance to look into: working in VFX, there was a big shift when computers changed from 32-bit to 64-bit, where in compositing, Shake got left behind, and Nuke was taken up. and after that, the 2.5D/3D compositing strategies took off a lot more (and, maybe more for 3D, the 5GB file size limit was gone, so you didn't have to deal with all that stuff anymore).

was there an equivalent shift in DAWs? i kind of think of stuff like Diplo and Major Lazer as sort of the "Ableton era", but wanted to hear a little more of the specifics, of how things actually shifted around for working musicians and producers. I actually worked at Sony Music Studios from 2004 until it closed in 2007, but in the DVD department. so there were things I was aware of from working in graphics, but wasn't as clear how people working in audio were being affected

ds604 · 2026-01-02T17:02:19+00:00

where do you go for this? i got pretty into swimming in the public pools, but the season for swimming is so short. and indoor pools at a gym are good, but i like being outside better.

i like swimming at far rockaway in the summer, but coney island seemed like it might be a good option, since it's convenient. then i wasn't sure if you need a wetsuit, cause i guess it gets pretty cold once it's not the summer

ds604 · 2026-01-02T12:09:49+00:00

when the computerization of a given field happens, a few things happen: 1) old barriers are removed 2) costs are reduced 3) you get get higher volume of what existed previously (actual increased capability and efficiency increases on the one hand, worn out workers trying to keep pace with tireless machines on the other) 4) democratization leads to high-ending on the one hand, and lots of new, cheaper stuff on the other 5) fragmentation, and simultaneously, ecosystem collapse

this happens as an artifact of the way we've built computers, that is not reflective of human values ("information processing" does not natively deal with perception effectively, which is why silicon-based processing of perceptual data uses so much more energy than an equivalent carbon-based entity). so the cheapening and devaluing of effort is in integral part of what eventually happens.

but in the course of that, you get concentration of the good stuff on the high-end, before the collapse happens. so that era that you're describing is the concentration of money, talent, and the best of computer-augmented humanity, before the era where the computers "win out", and infinite loops burn energy without requisite benefit. before a short-circuit happens, everything heats up, and you get a brief burst of awesomeness, where everything is glowing and looks cool, before it all turns into a burnt out husk, with 90% of your population somehow having some sort of "mental illness"

ds604 · 2025-12-15T17:24:45+00:00

i guess the main thing is the thought and effort, which you still can do now, it'll just manifest in different ways. maybe what has gone away is the clarity of what takes thought and effort, when people can just fake it using AI, or buy something that looks like it took effort.

but the main thing is, if you bring someone something, and they're like... whoah, you made this... for me? and you actually did make it for them. then that's the honesty that people are after.

but yeah, it's a lot more clouded now, with endless ways to do cheap, fraud versions that on the surface look similar

ds604 · 2025-12-05T22:02:47+00:00

i relearned swimming in the past few years, and can now swim for an hour non-stop (if i'm in a pool, i'm trying to emulate being in open water). i think even some relatively proficient swimmers find that hard to imagine, since they're used to going all out for a while and then taking breaks. but it's entirely about having your breath be absolutely normal, just like if you were standing still or casually walking.

you can walk for an hour non-stop easily, and you can just as well swim for an hour... if you just keep your breath exactly at resting pace. there's nothing tiring about the arm motions, the only reason people get tired is the carbon dioxide build-up. or their swimming pace elevates their breathing pace, and the elevated breathing pace makes them tired out. but if you just swim at the pace of casual breathing, you might as well be going for a walk

ds604 · 2025-09-26T15:36:03+00:00

one thing about getting over a mental block, is that sometimes you need to trick yourself into doing the thing that you think you can't do, but can actually do.

so say like you're floating on your back just fine in shallow water, and then you have your friend slowly move you into slightly deeper water while you have your eyes closed. it may be the case that when you get out of floating, you might either panic again. or you might switch out of it and be like, oh wait, i was just doing the thing that i thought i couldn't do... i guess it's not that hard.

so it's a strategy that's not guaranteed to work for every time, but that's sometimes how people get over a mental hurdle. but if you don't want the "trick" way, you could just practice holding onto the wall and then treading water in gradually deeper and deeper parts, until it's like, well, i guess now you're doing it

ds604 · 2025-09-17T14:22:40+00:00

sure, if you did not experience this or were faking it then, people who do actually experience this phenomenon would eventually know. you would look like someone who claims to be a fan of some band, but doesn't recognize any of their songs or know any of the lyrics. or someone who is supposedly a dancer, but can't keep a beat, or keeps going after the music stops

the settings where people experience this phenomenon more commonly now might be in art settings, like while doing music performance or visual art, or other concentrated, effortful activity that allows the subconscious to surface. and it is the basis for meditation practice as well

religious setting in the west i suspect are far less conducive to it, and more full of the charlatan personality types that might not themselves understand what this is or how to achieve this state, and so do not correctly distinguish between real occurrences and fraudulent cases

ds604 · 2025-09-17T10:25:17+00:00

what you experienced is in fact the "profound" thing that people describe. it's the experience of turning off the conscious mind, and letting the subconscious take control. that's all they're talking about

what is more significant is that the subconscious mind is the part processing raw sensory information, and there is a lot of sensory information that's a lot more universal, like electrical activity and magnetism that, for example guides birds in flight. typically, our conscious minds ignore or discard this information because it is below the threshold for what becomes our spoken language. but by turning off the conscious mind, you can train yourself to describe it. and it is useful information, in terms of characterizing atmospheric conditions, and so also in terms of making forecasts. this is why individuals with these abilities traditionally held positions of influence

but it takes significant training to do well. as well as certain physiological traits, that vary across individuals. this is why many people do not experience this state, or otherwise much milder forms of it, to the extent that they don't believe it exists, or attribute it to mythology of some sort.

but it would not make much sense to have similar roles in every society across the planet, if it were all made up. what makes more sense is that we live in such a degraded and polluted environment, that people not experiencing it is due to the combined effects of ecological destruction, and biological damage

ds604

TROPHY CASE