Selection theory and human behavior

   I might agree it seems if anything of at times social movements should trend.  Sadly of embedding of a given 'social' Darwinism a given..  Though I am not certain how R/K selection is applied supposedly in all of this since in popularized science, the term 'rate' is less often used in describing the population models outright as it were factored to the notion of 'rate' as attached to 'education' or 'economy'.  As theorist offer, where perceptive fear appears to be a more common factor in relating to childhood mortality, likely increasing population size of offspring which in turn translates into a greater chance of survival of some offspring as opposed to the models of selectivity in another part of the world which offers less of the horrors of childhood mortality.  Though for any detractors, it also seems harder in outright stating there isn't sadly some truth by this, however, objectionable all of this is in so far as social behaviors.  Objection, I stress, is given to the notion of 'useful idiocy' in all of this...namely that 'K' selection offer  'superior' versus 'inferior' traits in following.  All of this for 'social hegemony' though, a class of 'ickkks' are defined and all the 'weeds' are supposedly a given for the offing.  In a given contrast of the world though as popularized in the movie 'Idiocracy' describes the K world has having changed in a given future more to the R selection world.  Though on the matter of gray area K and R might be supposed more mixed in the Americas relative to Europe.  Likely, however, there could be a misnomer to the notion of social values in all of this which speaks more of the artificiality of any monolithic K selection sub culture.  That is, perhaps, by elite classes, K selection abounds most powerfully, but there could be a vast and wide gray area on the matter of socio-economic classes and K selection relative to R selection.  As it served to the notion of any programmed social structure, it is not without a good dosing that the young male offspring is attentive supposedly to this...video games which speak of the responsible hand of humanity in culling off the 'sickly'.  Though in reality anything of detestable sickly green is a matter of perspective, one should imagine, and a respective culture lensing the attributes of the 'sickly'.  A rare moment is given to the notion, 'They cull our populations to keep our numbers in check relative to theirs' which speaks of a more likely truth in the matter of R/K selection, and as to 'useful idiocy' at present, for instance, has taken upon racialized 'white minority' Presidential election campaigning.  Though supposedly tonality has all changed for this.  As to selection theory, I thought the issue of combinatorics and genetics far more complex than as given by merely as singular switching as found in one specific gene controlling one and only one function.  'Useful Idiocy', however, relates most heavily to simplified models of anything and/or artificiality therein and sets about plaguing the world with its offspring.  Not withstanding that wuff apparently suffers from K Selection based genetic disorders for all apparent 'human' usefulness and for that matter a class of humanity in 'pure' breeding.

Collisions and Binding loss

Nothing exists without binding even if there is collision and loss.

Nothing it seems is without influence even if something is so ghostly so as to seem like neither having influenced anything.

A book called 'Hidden Dangers of the World'

  At least if it were written,  as I have seen suggested its practical to the degree of being useless, and it seems if it were useful to the degree of common knowledge, one should wonder if ever a purpose were served any longer where anything dangerous were no longer hidden.  Though one might have asked, 'Are there hidden dangers in the world?'  The sorts of dangers that are common knowledge but only extend so far.  I wonder of this myself in a way, or if anyone has compiled a travel book that contained the passages clearly as an emphatic warning, "DO NOT...I REPEAT... DO NOT TRAVEL THERE."  Sure the State Department issues its sets of warnings which given any reading of news might be understood...'Oh yes, such and such has been in a civil war for a few months now, government territories are far less secure and so forth...'.  Though I speak of the book of black books, a rather secretive book only known to a few.  The book were a sort of society/civilization survival manual.  What not to say, what to say, what not to do, what to do.  What not to wear.  How not to act. Though the book were certain to send, perhaps, some into a depression, its reading like having awoken into the world.  Though it seems in a way like a sad horror novel in the works, doesn't it?

Hidden Dangers of the World, survive them all.
Never be left coldly in the dark.
Hidden Dangers of the World,
the world isn't as it appears.

Climate Change and Future

How humankind never really escaped much of its fate.

Humankind were much too short sighted to handle its problems.  Its world leaders resided on the action given by tangibles (i.e., bombs falling in the backyard) too much as opposed to taking necessary actions much earlier when they were needed in terms of long term planning.



    

Milestones

1.  Some years in passing, there isn't a whole lot new that has been learned in a way.  In other ways, plenty.

2.  Jumble of dreams that are vaguely recalled up to now.  

3.  Any point along the path potentially might have been substituted time wise for another point. 

4.  Where are the people?

5.  Half of your life at least weren't an infomercial.

6.  New study confirms that life is archipelago of likely isolated islands.  Prior to the age of 25 are golden years for human existence.  Where are the people?   

7. Prank calls ended technically in the 90s as did phone calls in general, as did being able to communicate generally.   

Building a Midi Pedal Board Part 6: Electronics supplies and configuration

I've found some decent sites (notably a DJ site that provided some excellent information on this).
His site furnishes information on connecting potentiometers (control knobs) and linear analog faders alongside digital switches (he suggests arcade switches which are cheap and available through Amazon...though you can use, footswitches, I imagine just fine).

Electronics supplies:

Teensy 2.0 USB development board
-  I've tinkered around with UNO, Raspberry PI, and while these do provide working interfaces in developing something like a USB board (that is a board that plugs in through a USB serial interface), it isn't as arguably as easy and ready to go as the teensy board.  UNO generally requires additional work (MIDI look back interface) and thus is not really a true USB Midi system.  Though with UNO you can hack the microcontroller, but you'll lose USB write/to access in uploading Processing/Arduino scripts and you'll have to have a special programming device that actually writes using a dedicated serial port in uploading scripts for the microcontroller each time, you want to write scripts.  Teensy on the other hand, has a dedicated switch for the purpose of micro controller programming versus its existing state (once programmed) that has the controller acting as a stand alone USB dedicated device, thus why I have liked it.  If you are scared of soldering there are boards that are plug in ready to go with pin connectors already soldered on the board array, although I've found a little bit of practice and experience with soldering goes a long way.  You could afix the teensy, for instance, as I have done using a backer prototype board and solder the leads on this board which potentially offers a disconnect remedy from the cheaper board if necessary.

-Soldering Iron and Desoldering pump
- Solder
-Resistors appropriate for LEDs (I've used a bit of a higher resistor on mine at 1k)
-Foot Switches - I've used single pole momentary foot pedal switches in my cases, connected to the digital output ports.  You'll want to do a mock up test run on a bread board checking all channels before doing any of the soldering work.  Here is a parts supplier for instance.
-LEDs (using 5 mm here)
-Some PCB prototype bread board  - Arduino makes em and there are a whole host of options out there.  If you get one, I may suggest especially if you are new to all this stuff, going with something like Single Side Copper Prototype Paper PCB Breadboard 2-3-5 Joint Hole  at least.  I've used a double sided board personally on my end.  I do have another cheaper PCB prototype board (with teensy shown attached on this board), but in my opinion if you have no experience connecting the array from single hole entry to another (using copper wires in routing), it is slower work.

- Jumper cables, or wire - I like the jumper leads a bit better even if the cost is a bit more at the moment.  I've personally found that a single lead (not coiled wire) seems to be quick and easy, though I'm sure pros have solutions on working with this stuff.  I have male to female socket types for my cable endpoints.

-Cable stripper, cable snips, and pliers (needle nose and stuff like this).

A short quick experience on soldering:  A third hand tool may come in handy if you have it especially in maintaining a board's position while soldering leads.  Guides out there provide excellent information, but a short synopsis is as follows:  Hold the tip of the soldering iron on the copper point on the bread board with cable lead touching the tip of the iron.  Gently stroke the cable lead tip with the solder, once you see the solder melting release gently the solder from the cable lead, and then remove the soldering iron.  The solder will be attracted to the heat source (which is the tip of the iron and where thermal conductivity is greatest which is on both the cable lead and at the PCB breadboard copper connection point.  The PCB board is not nearly as much of a thermal conductor and thus if you don't overly supply solder, the solder will be drawn to the copper on the PCB board and the jumper cable and potentially to your iron.  Ideally there is at most a surface bubble above the board with the cable lead end poking through this, and certainly not too much of a bubble that has bridged on the array especially on the row side of the board (where as in breadboard fashion) the rows are not interconnected and you have accidentally bridged rows.  A double sided PCB board will draw solder to both ends of the connection hole.
   One you feel the soldering is completed well enough, snip off excess wire.
Watch it with the iron and components (especially plastic ones).  Too much heat can and may damage component switches.

You'll need Arduino software and Teensyduino
Programming the micro controller for USB Midi and setting this up for your Midi controller device:
All is written here

I've used this function for control change outs:

usbMIDI.sendControlChange(control, value, channel)

Channel is by default fine at 1.

Control can be any one of the control change channels.  If you are using other USB MIDI or

MIDI devices,you'll want to check with these devices when programming your controller to 

ensure avoiding conflict signaling.  I've chosen non dedicated channels like 14 to 24 

for my control outs for each given switch.  

Value can take a range of 0 to 127 (your choice).

You'll be using the digital outs on the Teensy board (array just below GND (ground) side).  These digital outs are sequentially from 0 to 10 on the left with the bottom most out on the teensy board with the mini USB jack position in the upside and the component side of the board facing you.  The first digital connector is nearest to the GND connector on the board (digital 0)
The diagram that I've used is pretty simple.  Full signal from the digital out goes to the switch from each digital connector on the Teensy board while LEDs will have to have resistance applied to their respective digital signal out channels.  I run from the digital out series.  (Inputting the signal to the big PCB prototype board from the Teensy board) then on a given row.  In series this is InputTeensy>OuttoSwtich>Capacitor (1k)>OutToLED  for each row on the main PCB Prototype breadboard.  I use a negative rail on the Main PCB prototype bread board (shown to the left in image above) in connecting to GND to all ground terminals on LED and switches alike.

The nice thing with Teensy is that once it is programmed, it is recognized immediately by Ableton which furnishes a native interface to the Teensy driver shown in Ableton properties> MIDI where you can through Ableton enable input and output of the USB Midi device, that is again, it is just like any midi device you buy in store and plug and play in so far as usage...the Teensy people eliminate all the USB driver programming stuff so you don't have to mess with any of this stuff.


The goodnews is if you have any experience with Processing you may feel welcome with Arduino's IDE interface which is basically the same deal.  In fact Processing.org provides serial interfacing references for UNO, Raspberry PI and many devices like this.

Designing a midi pedal board Part 5: Box building phase

Tools needed:

-  Jigsaw with decent blade.  I bought a set of Bosch blades (12 tpi) for cutting.

-  Set of Rasps or some related tool used for planning an irregular surface after cutting.

-  Orbital Sander for finishing surface of the plywood and with a a very rough grit paper can actually be used (with care) for planning edges on thin soft plywoods (like Birch).

- Woodworking clamps, general purpose C Clamps (6 to 8 inches or as necessary for your project for glue working.

-Titebond glue.  I haven't really used anything other than Titebond and highly recommend it.

-Spray Adhesive, or any decent adhesive in adhering your printed template to the surface of the wood.  Ideally you should after finishing necessary cuts and having drilled holes, be able to remove the paper and adhesive with some preferably lighter sanding, so it shouldn't be on the order of super glue strength in terms of adherence or having left any significantly stronger and more resistant than the wood itself behind in terms of residue (omit epoxy or resins of this type).  :)

-Wood worker's square

-Angle Gauge 

-120 grit, 220 grit and 400 grit paper for sanding (for Orbital sanders).

-Miter saw (optional: for cutting woodstock)

-Additional woodstock for joining plywood on glue up schedules.

-Stain, Finish, and wood filler
-Plywood (Birch or whatever you like).  (I used approximately 5 mm thickness for mine). 

Adhere the template:

Check for grain orientation as related to your design.  How do you want the grain running?

I don't use nails, screws, staples or anything of the sort for my joinery work.  If you have routers and the like or have any fancier equipment, likely for more decorative or better joinery work include dovetails, box joints, and the like included in joining this surfaces.  I've kept mine as simple as pure surface contact joining while incorporating interior wood stock cut to the interior of the necessary pieces and having glued these prior to joining plywood pieces.  The reason for this, in my case, relates to increasing the surface contact area of the joinery work for the gluing which provides overall greater strength to the integrity of the contact surface especially where the joints are likely to receive overall potentially any greater load stress (i.e., gravity and potentially foot pounding).  The Titebond as advertised is (as long as the surface contact is good) as strong as the wood itself (and probably exceeding), and generally is considered superior to nails, screws or staples.  Some might prefer the other types of joinery mentions (dovetails especially) since with fine work, these potentially could be used without glue reinforcement (and again being superior to nails, and screws).  

Cutting edges:

I generally don't use rulers or any sort of measuring device, outside of the templates which should have enough metric precision for design layouts and provide visual guidance when planning cut edges.  Any wood stock that need be cut for the interior can refer to the actual cut plywood piece when measuring and marking necessary cuts.  

When I've cut, work as slowly and carefully as needed to avoid chipping the plywood while maintaining slight small equal distance as needed from edge boundaries of the template.  I usually gap this to no more than 1 mm if I can do it, and generally maintaining a straight line in doing so.  If you feel you can incorporate fences or rails in augmenting your cuts it may be worth it, but keep in mind the precision of the cutting instrument that you are using here.  A jigsaw isn't exactly a circular saw in terms of being rigidly maintained in it articulated vertical position as it is cutting (the blade is somewhat flexible and any cutting stress could throw lateral articulation off) which means that you may need to readjust the position of the jigsaw as necessary depending on the cutting medium that you are working, so even with higher end precision cutting instruments, ultimately the blade is responsible and guidance of the machine is as good as the cutting. 

Plane edges:  Use care when planning the surface of the plywood, the veneer depending on quality of the plywood may be prone to splintering and chipping.  Check for any possible curvature of your rasp (if you use these).  You should use a square in checking overall square for pieces as necessary.

Glue ups:  I use clamps.  You shouldn't need to apply too much clamping force.  If you have a glue up jig ready to go, this is probably one of the more superior setups especially used in mass production setups, but your step up can be as simple depending on how much time you want to invest with as simple as direct clamp contact with the plywood.  With irregular angles you will likely want to have (as shown below), contact blocks which establish a perpendicular contact surface.

  

My simple configuration, for example.  I didn't want to invest too much time here.

Apply glue to all necessary contact surfaces, and generally outside of visual line of sight, you can use touch running your finger for calibrating the piece in terms of a discernible edge.  For, instance my side pieces were laid out visually, checking with my square, and then having run my finger across the edge to check for gaps, and then having readjusted a necessary.  When all is said and done post sanding, you should be able to run your finger across joinery and not be able to discern any discontinuity between one piece and the next.  Most importantly everything should visually look good.

Woodfiller: I use these in some cases in filling areas as necessary are filling in edge work on the plywood.  Really depends on what you are looking for, maybe you want something that actually looks a bit rough shod and banged up anyways, so it doesn't matter.  

A bit of advice on sanding:  First wood cutting project that I have had in awhile.  Watch over sanding, for instance, don't be tempted to sand to the extent that you plow through the plywood veneer.

Finishing:  Consult with your stain and finishing products.  Just sand between coats as necessary as directed with specified papers.  I usually have used cloth products.  Lambs wool has been suggested for high gloss finishes (e.g. wood floors) watch for bubbling which can be a sign of improper finish contact...polys do this if you don't sand between coats properly and the poly doesn't have a proper surface contact with itself.  I've used something as simple as a cloth usually.