Greg Wilder

Author: Greg

  • FRB 121102

    FRB 121102

    Sometimes you can’t see the answer, even though it’s sitting right in front of you.

    Such is the case with Fast Radio Bursts, a phenomenon whereby new pattern discovery algorithms are used to analyze old, archival data collected from radio telescopes to uncover information about our universe.

    January 2019 | Fixed Media, Stereo

    FRBs are short, powerful signal bursts and since their discovery in 2007, no one has been able to determine exactly what causes them.

    Some think they’re the result of interactions between large extragalactic objects. Others imagine they point to the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. And until recently, they were thought to occur in single instances — as one-offs.

    But since 2012, one particular pattern known as FRB 121102 has been found to be repeating itself (based on dispersion measures and sky position of the original data) and in 2017 researchers pinpointed it’s location.

    It seems FRB 121102 is coming from a dwarf galaxy about three billion light-years from Earth…

  • Fiery Winter Sunset

  • Happy New Year!

  • Live Music & Film: Vampyr (1932)

    Live Music & Film: Vampyr (1932)

    Vampyr: Live! is a live music and film experience that pairs music and arrangements from Blix Byrd and myself with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s groundbreaking 1932 film, “Vampyr”.

    The concept involves integrating dark, edgy songwriting with my human/machine collaborative works for piano and computer. The aim is to develop an evening of adventurous and theatrical musical performances that tightly synchronizes with the natural drama of the film.

    How It Started

    We were first introduced to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s films in early 2019 and immediately went on the hunt for more. Before we had even finished our first screening of Vampyr (1932), we knew we had discovered our next musical project…

    Vampyr (1932) Script
    Vampyr (1932) original screenplay excerpt

    Although Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr is one of the earliest films to include recorded sound, it contains minimal dialog and relies heavily on the rich imagery and extended mood-setting techniques common to silent films of the era.

    After becoming more familiar with Vampyr and its historical context, we got our hands on Dreyer’s original screenplay (excerpted above) and sketched out our interpretation of the dramatic form:

    Vampyr Spotting Session

    Since then we’ve been extremely busy in our respective studios developing a wide range of sound concepts and show ideas. After months of testing, the range of options has narrowed and the shape (and sound!) of the show is coming into focus.

    Current Status

    Before the pandemic we had tracked and mixed ~35 minutes of music along with an additional 20 minutes of demo tracks. We’ve now picked things up once again and are working toward our first “test” shows during the summer of 2022. Check out the journal entries below to track the continued progress…

    Vampyr (1932)

  • Tracking Stops Here (and now)

    Over the last two years, we’ve been working to rid ourselves of web services that track and gather personal data. As of today, we’re officially untracked.*

    Becoming untracked was a difficult and time-consuming process, so I thought I’d share a few of our solutions in the hopes that you might find them helpful. But before I start, I’d suggest the somewhat obvious step of navigating the web with Opera and Duck Duck Go.

    Oh, and if you have an account on any social media platform, delete it. Immediately.

    Tally-Ho Calls For Vigilance

    Productivity Services

    For us, productivity services are the daily-use applications necessary for organizing, sharing, and archiving digital activity. These include local (and remote) file and photo storage, calendar events, dynamic news feeds (rss), task management, and web bookmarks.

    Our Solution

    For all of these services (and a few more!), we’ve implemented a privately hosted NextCloud server. NextCloud provides a device-agnostic, reliable and self-contained replacement for most of the Apple/Google ecosystem.

    Our data syncs/updates across all of our devices and operating systems — instantly. Snap a photo or add a calendar event and it’ll be uploaded for sharing/editing in seconds. Implementing this particular solution safely is a task for an IT professional, but if you can manage it, the benefits are significant.

    Email and Contact Management

    When it comes to reliability, spam filtering, and integration, nothing (outside of an enterprise-level system) can beat Gmail. That said, we’re tired of paying for email with targeted advertising based on the contents of our private conversations.

    Our Solution

    The key for us was to find an established, device-agnostic platform with a zero-knowledge protocol. In a word, Proton Mail. (OK, that’s two words…) Bonus: for a small fee, they offer a wonderfully versatile and fast VPN service.

    Cloud Storage

    For us cloud storage means “cold storage” or long-term archiving. Most importantly, it needs to happen in the background because who wants to think about data archiving?

    Our Solution

    SpiderOak. As before, this is a zero-knowledge service (with end-to-end encryption) that performs instant (on demand) automated backups from our local storage servers (described above). The desktop application isn’t quite up to snuff, but all things considered, it’s affordable and it gets the job done.

    Interrogation of No. 6

    Outstanding Issues

    We have not yet found a decent replacement for Google Maps.
    Our cars have GPS which simply cannot be turned off.
    Collaborative file editing (Google Docs) is no longer possible.
    We’re still wishing for a 100% Google/Apple-free phone option. Linux, please?

    * — almost (or at least we’re no longer giving away our personal data unwittingly)

  • Christmas with the Conards