Cool article from EDN on pedal effects – be sure to check out the references on page 3 for additional reading as well.

A common source drain amplifier, based on the LSK489 JFET, is one basis for a distortion pedal circuit.

If you want to replicate the music of your favorite musicians, you will need to know the pedal effect devices they use and the circuitry within them. Furthermore, if you want to design new pedal effects that please your audience, you will need the right tools, the right design flows, the right components, some circuit know-how, and a little creativity.

The design of pedal effect circuits, i.e. circuits that modify the waveforms of musical instruments, is an art and science that has been practiced since the 1920s. Fundamental to the reproduction of era-specific and musician-specific music is the technology contained in these pedal effect gadgets. Different artists prefer different component technology: tubes, germanium transistors, silicon bipolar transistors, MOSFETs, diodes, JFETS, op amps or any mix thereof.

The passive components used in pedal effect circuits, like inductors, capacitors and resistors, complicate the process of analog sound reproduction. Of specific mystical interest to many professional musicians is the “magical inductor.” Thought to be enchanted music’s key, the magical inductor, once placed inside a circuit generates harmonics that separate it apart from all other inductors. The idea of a magical inductor keeps musicians wondering. Is music’s holy grail locked inside the pedal device of a long-ago musician? Is the magical inductor made of a special material? Is the magical inductor lost in time and do the music giants of our times have access to it? One thing most of them agree on is that the magical inductor is one of the analog Muses and not one of the digital Sirens.

Read more.

theactioneer:

Ethan Lurie, Hologram Man (1995)

I think that we can all agree whether we’ve seen it or not – I haven’t – that Hologram Man is the greatest film of all time

Also: Goat Husbandry 101:

Personality: Friendly and gentle, but can be spirited
Personality: Calm and affectionate
Personality: Curious, friendly, and independent
Personality: Easygoing and quiet
Personality: Generally gentle but can be pushy with each other
Personality: Social but somewhat stubborn

We are never going to do this. I learned my lesson with “funny” covers in the 90s. Bands generally speaking have to be really careful about doing anything funny, because people then want you to make the same joke for the rest of your life. There are approximately 10,000,000,000,000,000 worse problems to have, so I am not complaining, but I am explaining why, while it would be funny to do this, I would regret it: the next night. And the night after. And forever. People would absolutely see to it that I regretted it but good. One of the discreet joys of growing older is learning to stop yourself from doing stuff you might later regret. Other people take this weird “I regret nothing!” attitude toward everything they’ve done but I have never really understood that whole stance, if a person regrets nothing then I wonder what their whole deal is honestly. Anyway. Covers that would be totally hilarious are generally, with very occasional exceptions, off the menu, because they become millstones almost immediately. Neolithic and Upper Paleolithic citizens used millstones for grinding nuts, rhizomes, grains, and probably a lot of other stuff we don’t even know about. Did they sometimes get curious, what if I ground my finger in this millstone, fuckin’ ouch, that was stupid? I bet they did, and that’s how I’d feel if I covered “All-Star.” I have, after a long apprenticeship, finally left the Neolithic Era behind and entered, with much ceremony, my own personal Bronze Age. 

Pursuing Romney voters (who?) isn't a winning electoral strategy, it's a decision about who you want your coalition to be.

Thus, former Hillary Clinton adviser Jesse Ferguson writes at Politico, Democrats should pursue Romney voters — that is, comfortable suburban professionals, mostly white, who are supposedly appalled by President Trump's antics — to win elections in the future.

The dirty little secret about "nice, polite republicans" is that they are neither nice, nor polite. Discuss. White suburbanites went for Trump. Bigly. You can argue that Hillary Clinton was, in their eyes, so horrible that they couldn't vote for her, or you have to accept that they just weren't appalled by Trump. Maybe some mix of the two. I'm not making that case, I'm just saying that Democrats have been chasing affluent suburban voters for a long time, basically because of class affinity. They're educated! They're professional! They're people like "us!" (affluent DC election professionals). They can't possibly vote for those evil racist assholes!

Yes. Yes they can. And they do. Why the fuck do you think they live in the suburbs? (#notallpeoplewholiveinthesuburbs)

Uber, Lyft returning to Austin

Uber and Lyft will relaunch services in Austin on Monday, now that Texas lawmakers have passed a bill overriding local regulations on ride-hailing companies. [...]

Uber and Lyft left Austin after the Austin City Council passed an ordinance in December 2015 requiring ride-hailing companies to perform fingerprint background checks on drivers, a stipulation that already applies to Austin taxi companies.

Uber and Lyft fiercely opposed the rules, gathering petition signatures to force a public vote and spending nearly $9 million on an unsuccessful campaign asking voters to overturn the regulations. Following the vote, both companies halted services in Austin, and the resulting ride-hailing vacuum attracted several start-up ride-hailing apps that agreed to comply with the city's rules. [...]

Following the passage of the bill in both chambers, Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued a statement saying he was "disappointed" the Legislature voted to nullify regulations the city had implemented.

"Our city should be proud of how we filled the gap created when Uber and Lyft left, and we now must hope that they return ready to compete in a way that reflects Austin's values," Adler wrote.

Previously, previously, previously.