Indeed. Cope's musical grammar would be a great place to start hacking around. This reminds also of the iMUSE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMUSE) from the SCUMM game engine, which would improvise soundtrack transitions based on motifs and in-game events.
Extra stuff: when you click the "buy" link (in one of the last slides) it takes you to the book's page on Amazon. Now scroll down and check the Video reviews. You'll see a video of the writer interviewing her book, talk show style, with the stove in the background :)
Classical guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, folk guitar (in standard and some alternate tunings), 5-string banjo (clawhammer style), 5-string bass and learning the erhu and drums now. Yeah!
A few months ago MIT's Technology Review (http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/22764/) said this could be in the market in 3-5 years, so it makes sense to see a product testing the waters and reaching out for early adopters at this point.
You can always opt-out of civilization, just relocate yourself to the middle of nowhere, and nobody will bother you or be bothered by your racist rant. I doubt you'll have to worry about terrorists crashing at your place ever again.
Cool! Works for me on a firefox 3.6b4, but I found the interface a bit clumsy and lacking visual feedback, and also some may not notice the commands area in the lower-right corner. Otherwise, thanks!
Any camera can do this, "rendering" in the sense of "an objective, accurate, realistic view of the world".
Distortions and imperfections in the artwork convey the artist's subjective view of the world, and you need an artist for that.
Imagine a perfect rendering of what's depicted in Picasso's Guernica. It wouldn't work. And that came from someone who could probably do academic realism in a handstand and blindfolded ;)
How surprising that no reply mentions a child-like approach to the world: curious, inquisitive, playful, fun-seeking.
I believe the simple and sad reason most people won't recognize problems or unaddressed issues around them is because they've been trained not to.
It's called "education", and is a double-edged sword. It'll take you places, but then it'll take places away from you, too, if you're not aware. The very places you need to "think out of the box".
The brain will stick with "what works" and "what's often used", but great insights and breakthroughs don't come from the masses, but rather from individuals exploring the less-traveled paths.
As Pablo Picasso says, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child".
Funny things, a child asks "why? why? what if?" and most people won't pay attention. Then a bearded grownup asks "why? why? what if?" and gets to be called a visionary!
>PROBLEM: corporate meetings that accomplish nothing
Well, I work from home, meetings happen on IRC or conference calls. Now, this being news.ycombinator.com, remember that when you launch your own startup, being "the boss" gives you the power to summon and dispel meetings at will! :)
>PROBLEM: nagging girlfriend
High-maintenance relationships aren't a fact of life, they're choices. It's only a problem if you want it to be.
Telecommuting make these seem a lot less threatening :)
> PROBLEM: an IT department that's incompetent
> PROBLEM: annoying neighbors
Well, I don't really have a solution for these. Sometimes you just gotta work with less-qualified-than-we'd-hoped-for people, and you also gotta live somewhere.
I take those as facts of life, and then you have to decide what mindset you'll take on when dealing with those "problems".
Realizing you too can be annoying and also incompetent in a number of things can surely add some perspective do it.