Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is the concept of a version of the web where ideas and content between web users are connected through the use of web assistants. This would be made possible through the use of user preferences and user history while using said web assistants. It can loosely be referred to as artificial intelligence, where an application or process functions with little to no user input. Where Web 2.0 linked people with content, Web 3.0 would connect people and content through the use of complex algorithms, streamlining the process of Web 2.0. By analyzing common user content and processes, a web assistant can turn that into meaningful information that can then be used to later automate similar processes on behalf of the user. This is not to be confused with “auto-fill” features common in browsers today. Those simply take the exact details that you have previously entered and re-enter them into fields that contain the same labeling as previously entered fields. While Web 3.0 does keep track of user details, it works actively to turn that information into intelligent functions. Web 3.0 search engines would be able to differentiate between like words, filtering out unwanted search results and providing exactly what the end user is after. Instead of looking at character inputs as hard data, keywords could be expanded upon by analyzing the meaning of the word through the use of a living vocabulary on the web. Logical links are created between data to identify search needs to the particular end user. With intelligent searching in mind, databases must acclimate to the new method of searching through the use of the same vocabulary specific to the web assistant of the user. All of this in mind, Web 3.0 can be thought of as a living informational environment where documents and files are shared and respective data is created to expand upon that. Processes are created in real-time and promptly executed to the unique situation at hand in a manner that takes into account the user themselves. Further information can be found at the W3E Semantic Web webpage: http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/

Flickr Slideshow

I have created a short slideshow of just a few pieces of physical media from some of my favorite albums.  Every single piece comes from my own personal collection.  "Whenever, If Ever" is currently my album of the year for 2013, and stands as one of my top 10 albums of all time.  Some great "twinkly" emo with some post-rock tendencies, resulting in some great crescendos.  Also shown is my copy of the recent repressing of "Geogaddi", including the sticker sheet exclusive to this repressing.  "Jesu" is one of my favorite drone metal albums, and the album art is the source of my icon on many online sites.  Finally, "Giles Corey" is a somewhat rare release from record label "Enemies List Home Recordings".  This particular copy is in good shape, and comes with the accompanying book.

You can view the slideshow here.

You can view the set itself here, where you can view the notes for further information.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "F♯ A♯ ∞"

"F♯ A♯ ∞" (pronounced F sharp A sharp infinity) is the debut album by Canada's post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  The band is very well known among the post-rock community, and this particular albums tends to be a fan-favorite.  It is one of the band's darkest recordings.  GY!BE's style of post-rock consists very heavily of field recordings among the band's climactic instrumentation.  It was originally released on August 14th, 1997 under Constellation Records on vinyl LP.  A CD release of the album was later made available through Kranky on June 8th, 1998.

The definitive release of this album is questionable.  The vinyl LP and CD versions differ quite a bit.  The original vinyl LP release consists of one track on each side, clocking in at about roughly 20 minutes each.  The CD release has a some portions moved around and removed, and a little over 30 minutes of new content.  Both versions of the album are excellent, and comes down to personal preference.

The CD release is readily available in-store and online for a fair retail price.  The packaging is nothing out of the ordinary, but the booklet that serves as the cover is fairly well put together.  The 12 page booklet contains eight pages of artwork and four transparent overlays that follow the "apocalyptic" theme of the album.  The two tracks are shown split into movements in one of the booklet's pages.  A bit of an introduction to the "story" of the album is also made available.

The vinyl LP release of the albums is one of the most interesting that I have personally seen.  The first 500 copies of the album were and numbered.  Newer copies are not numbered, but come with all of the original packaging.  The album comes in a maroon, textured sleeve with one of three different photographs glued to the cover.  Inside of the sleeve there is also a manila envelope containing many different inserts.  In the envelope there is a sheet with the albums credits, various pieces of artwork (some by the band), an old handbill from a previous show, and a train-crushed Canadian penny.  To this day, the album remains intact with all of these inserts and remains available at a retail price.  In addition to these, the B side of this album contains a "locked groove", meaning that the record will continue to play until you remove the needle (a reference to the infinity in the album's name)  A visual of the album and the inserts follows below.

Boards of Canada - "Geogaddi"

"Geogaddi" is the sophomore LP from mysterious electronic duo Boards of Canada.  "Geogaddi" is not your typical electronic record in the sense that it does not purely rely on synthetic sound.  "Geogaddi" and Boards of Canada in general bring a particular "warmth" and "life" to their music through the use of light instrument sampling and vocal samples and loops in their music.  This album in particular is noticeably darker in terms of mood when compared to every other album in the Boards of Canada discography.  Reception for this album is generally very favorable, but "Geogaddi" is certainly a fan favorite.  It was released on February 18th, 2002 through Warp Records on CD and vinyl LP.

Thankfully, track-listings remain solid and intact through most releases of this album.  The only on that differs is the Japan release of the CD.  It contains a single bonus track at the very end of the album, but is usually not considered necessary material when listening to this album.

The original CD release is still fairly common, and can be found at any decent music shop for the standard price of a new CD.  There does exist a sort of limited special edition CD.  It does not contain any additional tracks, but it does come in a hardbound cover with some extra artwork.  Decent copies can be found for roughly $30, it is not exactly rare by any means.

Finally, we come to the vinyl LP version of the album.  The album is separated into three LPs with five playable sides.  The B side of the third LP has a bit of artwork etched onto the vinyl.  There is a sort of a flaw in the packaging of the album.  The packaging comes in the form of a gatefold.  One of the LPs is stored in one side of the gatefold, and the other two are stored in a slightly larger pocket on the other side of the gatefold.  This became a problem later on when older copies of the album began to tear along the seam due to the weight of the two LPs in one pocket.  Despite this flaw, copies of this album would regularly demand prices of around $200 dollars for an acceptable copy.

Very recently, the vinyl LP release of the album was reissued by Warp Records as part of a massive vinyl reissue of every major Boards of Canada release.  It is now available again for retail price ($25).  The packaging of this release is different from the original.  As opposed to the gatefold of the original release, the packaging of this reissue folds out into three separate panels.  Each LP is stored in one of the panels, effectively eliminating the flaw of the original pressing.

Despite the reissue, the original pressing is still highly valued among collectors due to the different packaging.

Modest Mouse - "The Lonesome Crowded West"

"The Lonesome Crowded West" is the sophomore LP from Washington's Modest Mouse.  This is personally one of my all time favorite albums.  The album is considered one of the very best indie rock albums of the 90's among critics and music listeners in general.  It is vaguely a concept album on the subject of the urban sprawl in the west.  Through it, the members of the band expressed their frustration with what the massive urban development did to the western landscape.  The album was release on Up Records on November 18th, 1997 on CD and vinyl LP.

This was a very simple release, but it has some very odd quirks.  The vinyl LP release of this album contains a bonus track and a slightly altered track-listing.   The CD release is usually considered the definitive release simply because it is the most accessible.  CD's can very easily be found for $10 in any good music shop.

The vinyl LP release is the real gem here.  It is released on two LPs, but unlike most records that either use a gatefold to hold the two LPs or store both LPs in a single jacked, it is released in two separate jackets.  On the subject of the jackets, the track-listing is actually printed incorrectly.  It does not match up with either the CD release or the actual tracks on the vinyl LP itself.  This version of the album demands ridiculous prices and can easily get $300 for a decent copy.  I have personally seen an impeccable copy of the album go for over $400, and I've seen a sealed copy of this album go for over $800.

Recently front man Isaac Brock has stated that he intends on reissuing "The Lonesome Crowded West" on vinyl LP soon.  Unfortunately, the masters for the album have been lost.  As a result of this, the entire album must be remaster from scratch in order for a vinyl reissue to be possible.  When/If this will ever happen is unsure, but fans and collectors wait eagerly to this day.

The Avalanches - "Since I Left You"

"Since I Left You" is the debut and, so far, the only album to come from plunderphonics collective The Avalanches.  This album is constructed mostly out of samples, and is considered one of the best in the genre.  Thousands of samples were used in the creation of the album, many of which were not credited in any way (leading to some issues with releasing the music; discussed later).  Specifically, samples of vinyl records were used in the making of the album, giving the album a somewhat lo-fi sound.  "Since I Left You" was released through Modular Recordings on November 27th, 2000 on CD, Cassette, and vinyl LP.

Due to the very heavy use of unlicensed sampling, there are a few issues with later releases.  Every original 2000 release is the definitive release, no problems here.  However, later issues of the album have had many samples either removed or replaced.  Though the track-listing remains the same all around, the original 2000 release is most certainly the preferred and definitive release of this album.

The cassette release is very rarely seen, and can demand prices in the $50 region when shown in online auctions.  Not much else to be said other than its rarity.

The CD release of this album comes in one of two versions.  There is the original, definitive version from 2000, and an altered version from 2001.  Neither is very difficult to obtain, however the original 2000 version will obviously demand a bit more (nothing overly pricey though).  You can find an original for a reasonable $20 and reissues for less.

As always, the vinyl LP release tends to be the most sought after, and thus the most expensive.  The original 2000 vinyl release on Modular Recordings can easily go for $200 if it is in physically good shape.  Later 2001 reissues (with some of the samples removed or altered) from XL Recordings can go for roughly $120.

There also exists a very special vinyl release of the album through XL Recordings.  This is a release is from 2012, and is special in that the vinyl record is colored blue with laces of dark blue in-between.  The result of this is a vinyl record that resembles the waves shown on the album cover.  Unfortunately for collectors, this release of the album VERY RARELY goes on sale.  I have personally only seen this album go on sale once in an online auction for $200.  This vinyl LP has to be seen in person to get the full effect, but I will provide a picture below for curiosity.

A Very Brief Podcast

This was originally going to be a video recording of myself showing off some of my favorite records of this year, but my upload speeds proved to be uncooperative and I sometimes ran into errors mid-upload.  Instead, this is just a very short recording, not meant for entertainment purposes but for demonstration purposes.

This is showing off how enclosure links function in Blogger for Homework Assignment #8: Question #3.

Company RSS Feeds

Locating a recent article on how a company uses RSS to provide information to employees or customers gave little results, unfortunately.  There is an older "article" that provides examples of financial companies which use RSS feeds to provide information to customers (it can be found here http://www.feedforall.com/finance-companies-use-rss.htm).  One of the most popular uses of RSS feeds in terms of finances is to notify people of rate changes.  Another popular use of the RSS feed in terms of financial companies is to provide stock market alerts, giving investors the ability to quickly respond to market trends.  The federal reserve even provides an RSS feed to provide updates on currency exchange rates for those that regularly travel abroad.  Finances are very important and time sensitive, so RSS feeds in that field make a lot of sense.

Using A Feed Reader

After using a feed reader (feedly to be exact, because Google Reader has been discontinued), I can't say that I'm a big fan.  Though having a single source from where to check all of your websites for new content may be convenient, I found myself still visiting the websites themselves to read the content.  In addition, I already have many "website updates" in the form of email messages, and many of the websites I regularly visit don't have an RSS feed.  This in mind, going to check Feedly was a bit redundant.

PROS:
1.  Can be used as a single source to check for website updates without having to visit all of the websites themselves.

2.  Allows you to sort your web interests and feeds so that you can manage your interests and check for updates at a glance.

CONS:
1.  Can be a bit redundant given the many e-mail subscription services already available.

2.  Does not provide a "rich" website experience due to the removal of formatting.

Some of my subscribed feeds are shown below:

My Bloody Valentine - "Loveless"

Loveless is one of a select few landmark albums in the shoegaze genre.  Known for it's lush guitar and ethereal vocals, Loveless stands and perhaps the best album shoegaze album to this day.  The idea was to create something focused on sound textures as opposed to traditional instrumentation.  Noisy and fuzzy guitar has been molded into something peculiarly catchy, poppy even.  Every track is one delicately crafted dreamy gem after another (as to be expected of an album that cost a rumored £250,000 to create).  Though released under the band name My Bloody Valentine, Loveless is more so the creation of front-man Kevin Shields.  A true perfectionist, Shields aimed to shape the album exactly as he thought of it, leading to great stress for all involved in the recording up until release.  On November 4th, 1991 Loveless was released under Creation Records on CD, cassette, and vinyl LP.

Thankfully(?), there exist no form of bonus tracks or altered track-listings.  Every known release consists of all 11 tracks and only those tracks.  Whatever official release you can obtain is true to the original release, song-wise.  Album art and packaging remains consistent for all releases.

The original CD release is easy enough to obtain.  Used copies of the original CD can be found going for roughly 10 USD given a decent quality.  Newer copies of the standard release go for just as much.  Of course, a sealed copy of the original CD will go for much more (around 50 USD).  However, an "original" CD would be difficult to differentiate from a later release given how nearly identical every release of this album is.

In 2012, a double CD reissue of the album (shown above) was released under Sony Music.  One CD is labeled as "Mastered From Original 1/2 Inch Analogue Tapes" and the other is "Remastered From Original Tape".  Both have the same exact track-listing, but have subtle sonic differences.  Strangely, the two CD are mislabeled, both referencing the opposite CD.  These are still easy to locate, and can be found for about 20 USD.

The cassette release of this album is significantly more difficult to obtain than the CD, but not impossible.  There exists no other issue of the cassette other than the original 1991.  If you are lucky enough to catch an auction for the cassette release, you can expect it to go for somewhere around 45 USD for a good copy.  Not much else can be said about the cassette release other than its rarity.

The vinyl LP release is EXTREMELY sought after, and can go for as much as 200+ USD in online actions.  However vinyl copies of the album regularly go for sale online, and can be easily obtained if you are willing to cough up the cash.  The original Creation Records vinyl release can be found regularly going for ~150 USD.  It is inarguably the best sounding vinyl release of the album.  Less sought after, but still fetching a good ~80 USD is the 2003 repress on Plain Recordings.  It is a bit less desirable for being sourced from a CD as opposed to the original master tapes.  That same year a red colored vinyl edition was released also on Plain Recordings, limited to 1000 copies and numbered.  It can be found going for roughly 100 USD.  This repress is also sourced from a CD, thus still not as desirable as the original 1991 release.

Sometime in early 2013, some mysterious vinyl copies of Loveless began to emerge in auction sites.  These 2013 copies of the album are unofficial, but can be easily differentiated from earlier releases thanks the the obvious "MADE IN EUROPE 2013" text.  Those who have obtained copies of the bootleg have claimed that, while it does not match the quality of the original pressing, it sounds much better than the Plain Recordings release and thus has been speculated to be sourced from something other than a CD.

Thankfully for collectors and fans, Kevin Shields has claimed that a vinyl reissue would be created months after the the double CD reissue from 2012.  However, it is now the later part of 2013 and no further comments have been made regarding this.  We remain hopeful.

An Introduction

Greetings, and welcome to my blog.  Here you will find a personal selection of music albums from the past, alongside information on what media the music lives on today.  In this digital age of music, nearly anything can be listened to in just a few clicks through the use of the internet  With this ease of access, there was seemingly no reason for physical media such as cassettes, vinyl records, and even CDs.  After this decline however, physical media has seen a bit of an increase in popularity, even more so in the form of vinyl records.  The reason behind the recent surge of popularity is up to debate; whether it be an increase of audible quality, or the desire to have some tangible form of the album.  Along with this, many older music albums have seen reissues and are again available for purchase in all sorts of physical media.  Some albums are not so lucky.  An unfortunate amount of music has gone out of print in the form of vinyl records.  Some albums have been so heavily modified through the years that it is uncertain what the definitive version is.

This blog is to serve as a guide as to where and how this music can be found today; whether something freely and easily available to anyone with the slightest interest or a valuable rarity in the music world.  Though definitive versions are up for debate, I will give my informed opinion on the matter.