>> its annoying habit of occasionally "calling home" to check licensing information

Calling home for the latest NSA exploits to inject in to your application? /tinfoil-hat-no-so-paranoid-these-days-dept

So that means no more posting on Slashdot while drunk?

Not sure If this post is funny or insightful ;-)

Please don't do this. Updates are good, but not every day via email. It's just annoying and a waste of everyones time. Can you imagine if everyone took this advice? 20 status update emails each day at 4:30, ffs ;-)

As for the main question: go make tea a couple of times a day, or grab some water instead of staying chained to your desk. Set an alarm if you have to. Walking around the office you will bump in to people, which is a good opportunity to say hi, tell them what you're up to or find out what they are up to.

Classic water cooler stuff, really.

Also don't make the mistake of thinking it's really easy for everyone else to start up conversation, and that you have some problem. Pretty much everyone one of us has some kind of hangup, phobia, social awkwardness that makes communication difficult - it just manifests itself in different ways. For example, someone might be an extrovert to compensate for feeling inadequate around other people. Inside, the same voice of self doubt is telling us "don't do that, it will only end in failure".

Hint: it won't or rarely does. There is nothing to lose from saying Hi to your colleagues.

Peace,
Andy.

The slow motion replays of Chess have nothing on this.

Note: for the true sporting connoisseur only.

In related news Dianne Feinstein has turned around her opinion and stated she is now 'totally opposed' to NSA surveillance of US allies.

Quite surprised at this, hopefully it is not empty rhetoric and actually goes somewhere. Very interested to see what the two leading goons of the NSA have to say for themselves in front of the House intelligence committee on Tuesday.

Peace,
Andy.

The GPP is absolutely not overstating the case. I love Linux and open source, but it really isn't ready for audio recording and MIDI processing, let alone the myriad of other apps and plugins required for effects processing and mastering. I would be extremely surprised if there are any serious audio professionals using Linux as a DAW.

As for the rest of us: inspiration can be difficult to find. When an idea for a song strikes your chosen platform and toolset must be ready to record perfect audio with low latency now. No configuration, no messing about. Load host, press record, start playing. Anything else is a compromise and will hamper your creativity.

OS X and and Windows allow this to happen with very little configuration. The plugins are available, both free and paid. Linux does not. It may do in the future with host like Bitwig being made available (soon ...), but until that day it's Mac or Windows for consistently repeatable high quality audio work.

Peace,
Andy.

I'm guessing the answer would be no ;-)

Sox (free, open source) is what you want for that type of processing.

http://sox.sourceforge.net/

Peace,
Andy.

There is another option for Linux which is open source - PyDAW. Check out the project here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/libmodsynth/

Although I have no experience with PyDAW, it has been in development for some time and should be very stable.

Peace,
Andy.

Forget using an audio editor for song composition, what you need is a proper audio host (commonly called a DAW).

The options for Linux have been a bit lacking but that is about to change with the impending release of Bitwig. Developed for Mac / Win / Linux, it functions similar to Ableton Live, which is incredibly popular for a good reason - it's unique take on music arrangement means it is great for jamming, live performance and experimenting with ideas. Check it out here:

https://bitwig.com/en/bitwig-studio

Peace,
Andy.

One of the most telling omissions from the reasons GCHQ cite for keeping the surveillance a secret is the so called War on Terror. It's not mentioned at all.

Their biggest fear is / was the public finding out, and challenging their right to spy in the courts.

Something feels very wrong about that ;-)

Peace,
Andy.

No doubt that was a factor, but we had access to Play Station and yet we always returned to the N64 games I mentioned above. ;-)

Oops, correction: Eternal Darkness was originally planned for the N64 but actually released for the Gamecube.

Yup!

N64 may not have had the numbers, but some of the games were among the most played of all time among my group of friends. We had the most fun with the N64 and that is really what counts.

Diddy Kong Racing was freakin' awesome.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is one of the best ever horror themed titles to hit the shelves.

Peace,
Andy.

It's an admirable goal, but it comes down to trust. How does Google know, or more importantly how do we know, that someone from the NSA has not embedded themselves in the implementation team in order to weaken the encryption or insert a back door?

At this point it's kinda like introducing time-travel as a plot device to the Star Trek cannon. Once time travel is introduced, absolutely anything is possible. In terms of encryption, hence forth it will be very difficult to trust anything related to computing.

Peace,
Andy.

Except, apparently, one Edward Snowden. Which means for all of the paranoia, someone still got through.

What about the other Snowdens that aren't whistleblowers but real, actual spies?

This is another reason the NSA et al are foolish to dismiss Snowden as a threat, another reason why he should be embraced as a hero for shining light on a serious problem!

Peace,
Andy.