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[Continuing his
series of interviews with leading video game musicians for GameSetWatch, Jeriaska sits down with
Masato Kouda to discuss his contributions to Capcom's Japanese smash hit Monster Hunter series,
including a recent tie-in orchestral album featuring music from the franchise.]
Part of the success of the Monster Hunter franchise in Japan has been the immersive
depth of its creature-inhabited fantasy locales. Another draw has been the music.
Built on a mixture of classical and regional instrumental styles, the foundation for Monster
Hunter's signature sound was developed by composer Masato Kouda. His contributions to games scores
range from Devil May Cry titles to the Wild Arms series.
Just as Capcom attempts to secure for Monster Hunter in the West the heights of
popularity it has enjoyed in Japan, Kouda finds himself in a new transition: building his
Tokyo-based music studio, called Design
Wave.
In this music interview, Kouda offers insights into his multifaceted musical projects, from the
arcade brawler Mega Man
2: The Power Fighters to the Greek mythology concept album Istoria ~Musa~ and Monster Hunter.
Kouda-san, thank you for joining this discussion on your music for videogames. Something
people outside Japan might not know about the Monster Hunter series is that it is
frequently the subject of live orchestral performances. How have you found the experience of
witnessing your music from the series performed in front of concert audiences?
It's actually been a dream of mine since I started composing to hear my music performed by a full
orchestra. Being able to attend the recordings for the first Monster Hunter at Victor
Studio and later Press Start in 2006 was very meaningful to me, but because I had to perform at
that concert I was required to be offstage much of the time. Press Start in 2008 was my first
chance to join the audience, and I could hardly believe it was my music I was hearing.
Who has been responsible for orchestrating your songs from this series?
Shiro Hamaguchi adapted the original
Monster Hunter themes for the orchestra. I'm a fan of his orchestral work for Final
Fantasy and the Sakura Wars series. He places tremendous care in the treatment of
my original compositions. Beyond that, he invents devices that I would never have come up with,
which accentuate details of the piece. Especially with Monster Hunter he was careful to
preserve my choice of chord progressions.
Monster
Hunter themes in the key of E Flat are difficult for musicians to perform. If you lower the
key, it becomes much easier to play. Now, there is a huge difference in the sounds of a D and E
Flat chord. The way I might describe their textures is that D is like a primary color, while E
Flat is like a mossy green. Hamaguchi-san respects this subtle distinction and he chose to keep
the arrangements in E Flat.
That's an interesting observation. Have you always held these associations?
I guess I do. I'm not sure for how long, but it tends to make me particular about the differences
between sharp and flat keys.
What roles are you interested in pursuing at your new sound design company Design
Wave?
In terms of my position at the company, that might vary according to the situation. However, what
I would really enjoy doing more often is performing live.
Are there any live venues that have left a strong impression?
When I performed in Santa Monica for a Final Fantasy XI fan festival in 2008, the
reaction from the audience was extraordinary. It was totally different from what you see in
Japan, where usually the audience listens quietly. In Los Angeles, the cheering and the energy
was incredible. Even when the music we were playing was somber, or a jazz fusion piece totally
unlike what The Black Mages perform, the audience had this enormous reaction. Being around that
kind of energy motivates me to play live.
Would you be looking for another opportunity to play overseas?
I'd like to tour. That would be fun.
In terms of Design Wave's focus, do you see it as exclusively a videogame music
studio?
The company is not limiting itself to games, but that's our main focus at this stage. For one, I
am joined by composer [Masakazu] Sugimori, who arrived at Capcom a little later than me and has
composed for the Phoenix Wright series.
What kinds of difficulties have you encountered composing for games?
Sequels have their challenges, but I find embarking on a new game project to be particularly
tough. I first think about what kinds of themes would be appropriate to the musical style, for
instance whether to focus on regional or orchestral style music. Along the way I get to see more
of the game and often times it turns out to be different from what I had predicted.
For Monster Hunter, originally I had underestimated the impact that the title would have
on the game industry. My perception was that it was a modest idea for a game. When I saw it in
motion, I was deeply impressed and I knew the soundtrack needed more of the intensity of a
feature film score.
Are there film composers whose style you admire?
John Williams, for sure. I've learned a lot about composition and arrangement from him. When I
first heard the music for Jaws and Star Wars, I was blown away. I got excited every time a new
film of his came out.
The first Hollywood movie I ever saw in the theaters was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In
that movie of course there is this UFO flying around, communicating with people telepathically.
Do you remember how the film ends? It starts with that simple melody emanating from the saucer
and then grows more and more elaborate until the ship flies away. It's just perfect.
Seeing as you have previously worked as a staff member for Capcom, how did it come about
that you joined the Star Onions, a music band comprised of Square Enix composers?
Masato Kouda: I've been friends with Naoshi Mizuta since he joined Capcom in
1994, the same year as me. We continued to keep in touch after he became an in-house composer at
Square Enix. Our musical tastes have so much in common, and this might explain why he felt at
ease with the idea of my being a member of the Star Onions. On the album Sanctuary, "Griffons
Never Die" and "Wings of the Goddess" were arranged by Mizuta-san, and I added further
arrangement in addition. The tracks are in his style, and in fact he's the one on electric bass
on those recordings.
What is your impression of the world music influences that Kumi Tanioka has brought to
her music scores?
She definitely has a distinct way of expressing herself. For instance, on Final Fantasy
XI her theme for Gustaberg is full of ideas I never would have thought of. I was the
arranger on “Awakening” from the previous Star Onions album, and I was fascinated
while studying this song's structure. She knows how to offer variety to the composition and has
ideas about how to bring out feeling in rare instruments.
Tanioka is said to have drawn inspiration from working with Roba House on Final Fantasy
Crystal Chronicles. This is a group of musicians that specializes in Medieval and
Renaissance instruments. Are you familiar with them as well?
While I've never
worked professionally with Roba House myself, I graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, and
the college is in the city of Tachikawa. Roba House is located close to the Tamagawa-Jousui
station, so I used to go and see their live performances.
What was your experience working on the arrangement of the song "Distant
Worlds"?
Of course, this song was composed by Uematsu-san, and he was perhaps the greatest influence on my
decision to enter the field of videogames. When Final Fantasy IV came out, it made me
realize that the world of game music was unique. I had never before had the idea of becoming
involved in it.
All in all the Super Nintendo changed my perception of videogames entirely. It was the start of
conveying orchestral sounds in games. Just around that time I was in a band playing keyboard, so
I was starting to learn how to write electronic music. When I heard the background music in this
game, I started thinking about a career in the game industry.
What do you recall from your experiences playing Final Fantasy IV?
I remember the scene with the Red Wings and their airships at the very start of the game. Also,
the "Theme of Love" is a great song. Then there is the incredible opera scene in Final
Fantasy VI. Kefka's theme is great, too, especially how it pops up again in the final
battle. Doesn't the battle theme switch to a major chord midway through? That really made a
lasting impression on me.
Was this experience at all reflected in your treatment of "Distant Worlds"?
In terms of "Distant Worlds," I had no difficulty approaching this arrangement. Even before
getting started, I could already hear it playing in my head. If you listen to the original
arrangement, which incorporates the orchestra and features a soprano singer, it has a jazzy
approach to the chords. I wanted to bring that element of the composition to the fore.
Sometimes it can be a challenge to give a string section a recognizable jazz cadence. As a
consequence, I felt that if I changed the arrangement to a quartet, using instruments like the
vibraphone, I could emphasize the quality of jazz latent in the material. For that reason I have
kept the original chord progression. Just by changing up the instrumentation the music becomes
totally different in its feel.
By the way, the arrangement for the original was done by [Takahito] Eguchi. That means that
previously Uematsu-san composed the song, Mizuta-san arranged it, and Eguchi-san did the
orchestration. You can see it went through an elaborate process. Finally, for this album I
arranged the track once more.
In addition to your participating in the Star Onions albums, you contributed a track to
the image album Istoria ~Musa~ which includes nine songs dedicated to the nine muses of Greek
mythology. How did it first emerge?
I forget how long ago it was, but the videogame musicians who were involved in this album got
together around a table one night to have dinner and talk music. Kenji Ito, Yoshitaka Hirota and Akiko Shikata were present. That was how I
became involved. When I heard about the concept behind Istoria ~Musa~, it sounded like it was
well suited to Shikata-san's personal style, based on my impression of her music.
While the theme of the Muses informed my arrangements, just as significant was the need to
complement the character of Shikata-san's style. The Muses whose themes I was given were those of
history (Kleio) and tragedy (Melpomene).
How would you describe the style of your piano arrangement on the album?
The piano piece is reflective of the tragic theme. Rather than having it be energetic or
passionate, I wanted the piece to sound cool and subdued. To that end I intentionally placed
spaces between each note. I wanted the listener to be aware of the negative space in the piece,
so I was sparing with the sound that you hear on this track.
You were also responsible for arranging several tracks for the arcade fighting game
Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters?
Yes, three of the stage themes.
How were those three chosen?
I was asked if I would work on the game and accept the tracks that had not already been taken. I
was happy with the songs, so it was my pleasure.
How did you go about arranging them?
The chords found on "Dive Man's" stage
have been modified. I took the existing melody line and altered the harmony which accompanies it
to be more in line with my tastes. For "Pharaoh Man," I went with a Latin rhythm, which
I think worked to its advantage, while on "Stone Man" the first passage is downbeat in the
image of a saxophone.
Was it a good experience to collaborate with other musicians?
At that point I had only been in the company a couple years, so the others had more experience. I
was able to observe their work patterns and learned a lot about arranging. It was a chance to
come to understand their various styles and creative processes.
You've mentioned that you would like live performance to be part of your work at Design
Wave. Do you feel that playing in a band is important to becoming a composer?
For the purpose of arrangement, it's very useful. You come to understand things like the range of
a guitar or what the drums can do to create a particular atmosphere. Playing in a band you pick
up these kinds of skills.
Is this something you might recommend to aspiring musicians who are interested in
becoming game composers?
I would. These days it's common to make music all by oneself, from the composition to the
arrangement. For videogame music it's natural to go about doing all the encoding and mixing
alone. However, that way you never come to understand what actual guitars and other instruments
are capable of. Having an in depth knowledge of various instruments' characteristics can be
essential to fulfilling your potential as an electronic musician.
[This article is available in Japanese on Game
Design Current. Interview conducted by Jeriaska. Translation by Takahiro Yamamoto. The
Monster Hunter 3rd Anniversary Commemorative Best Track album can be imported from
Amazon.co.jp. Images courtesy of Capcom, Vagrancy and Square Enix.]
Collaboration freaks that prefer Google Wave to Gmail and Sharepoint to Outlook Express will have
yet another collaboration platform to poke and prod in the near future. As part of the March 21st
kickoff of its Brainshare Conference, Novell is expected to debut its new Pulse collaboration
platform which is based upon the Google Wave Federation Protocol, an open source collaboration
architecture released by Google. As such, the new Pulse platform will let users upload files
including Adobe PDFs, Office documents, and audio/video files as well as create new files that
can be shared and edited by multiple users simultaneously, in real-time. Social features will
also permeate the Pulse platform with users being able to participate in an in-site commenting
system, make use of an in-site suggestion system, and integrate outside social networks that will
deliver updates directly into their inbox. With its Wave roots, Pulse will also
support third party gadgets such as a whiteboard and a mini-spreadsheet and offer
interoperability with Wave, allowing a Pulse user to easily collaborate on a document with a Wave
user. Tailored for the enterprise, Pulse will include increased security options and more
stringent document controls than its public counterpart. It’s slated for launch as a cloud
platform in the first half of 2010 and as an on-site solution in the future, and Novell hopes the
new Pulse platform will replace its aging GroupWise platform and bring the company back up to
speed in the highly competitive enterprise market currently dominated by Microsoft Sharepoint and
Lotus Notes.
Vous avez peut-être vu apparaitre puis disparaitre le générateur
de QR code sur Facebook.
Le code QR (Quick Response) a été créé par l’entreprise japonaise
Denso-Wave en 1994. Celui-ci est très utilisé au Japon, où c’est
actuellement le code à deux dimensions le plus populaire.
Personnellement, je n’ai pas su récupérer celui de Facebook mais pas de soucis
car il n’est pas nécessaire d’utiliser Facebook pour obtenir son code
personnel.
Plusieurs générateurs sont
disponibles sur le net, la plupart utilisant l’api de Google.
Mais à quoi ça sert ?
Le QR code est un codebar en 2 dimensions lisible avec un simple téléphone portable. Il
existe des lecteurs pour iPhones, Android, mais également en Java2Me et donc utilisable sur
la majorité des photophones.
Une fois généré, vous pouvez déposer un QR-code sur votre carte de visite,
sur une annonce, sur une invitation, en fait, sur n’importe quelle affiche. Vous pouvez
également le déposer sur un site internet, mais son intérêt est plus
limité bien que vous puissiez également scanner un écran avec votre GSM.
Le QR-code existe en plusieurs formats et peu contenir jusqu’à 4296 caractères,
et même plus si on se limite à une série de chiffre. Il trouve son utilité
dans de nombreux cas :
Fournir la version numérisée de sa carte de visite avec nom, adresse,
téléphone, e-mail, ....
Partager un lien Google Map
Partager une url, une la page facebook par exemple
Partager une adresse E-mail
Partager une Numéro de téléphone.
Partager un évènement à placer dans son agenda.
Le QR-code est également utilisé au Japon pour partager une adresse internet à la
télévision, pour tracer les aliments ou comme moyen de payement.
On peut déjà imager des utilisations diverses pour les prochaines années, une
version axé rencontre avec la vente de Tee-shirt sur lequel on retrouve votre QR-code perso,
des jeux de pistes, ...
D’ailleurs, une marque de vêtement a déjà été créée
autours du concept, preuve que cette tendance touche déjà fortement les jeunes.
Malgré son succès énorme en Asie qui s’étend de plus en plus dans le
reste du monde, les nombreuses applications dédiées sur téléphone mobiles
sont encore rarement complètes.
Elles permettent généralement de récupérer un numéro de
téléphone, un texte, une url ou une carte de visites mais pas encore
d’évènements ou de code de géolocalisation.
Le QR code est donc avant tout un système de partage de liens et de numéro de
téléphone multi-plateforme qui doit son récent succès aux
téléphones sous la plateforme Android de Google.
From the UK's Sonodrome, the
Posc handheld electronic musical
instrument:
The Posc is a battery powered, pocket sized oscillator. It has two square wave oscillators, one
of which is controlled by changes in the user's skin resistance over two metal contacts. The
pitch of the second square wave oscillator is controlled by manipulating the amount of light
received by the light dependent resistor. The Posc can be set to work in either stereo or mono
output through a standard 1/4" audio jack, so is compatible with a wide range of audio equipment.
It is ideal for use with guitar amplifiers and effects pedals, PA systems, and can even be
plugged directly into your computer or Hi-Fi audio inputs....A free effects rack for the Posc is
also available from our software page.
Geoff Livingston co-founded Zoetica to focus on cause-related work, and released an award-winning book on new
media Now is Gone in 2007.
Despite some initial flaws, Google Buzz continues
to show promise as a social marketing platform. It has a significant (though somewhat latent)
user base, with an increasing number of loyalists who swear by it.
When a green field lies before you, so does opportunity. Some non-profits stand to gain from
being part of the early Buzz adopter community. Whether a cause needs to further the dialogue
with a tech-savvy crowd, or is attracted to the functionality of Gmail integration, Buzz does bring some new capabilities to
bear.
Here are four great uses for Buzz in cause-based activity.
1. Manage Public Conversations Better
A useful feature of Google Buzz is its public threaded conversation stream. This format has
significant advantages over Twitter’s disjointed @reply conversations
and hashtag-based threads, as well as Facebook’s often high privacy walls.
“We’ve been looking at using Buzz to have public conversations about Mothers Fighting for Others‘
work with an orphanage in Kenya,” said Jeff Turner, President of Zeek Interactive. “We want to be able to facilitate a consistent thread
of conversation, but we want it to be more public and open than Facebook or [Google] Wave would allow. With Buzz, we feel like we
can maintain a clear stream of thought around a topic, and at the same time, do it in a public
forum where someone we might not be able to envision being interested could join in.”
2. E-mail Integration Means Better Workflow
Non-profits could use Buzz to manage workflow across a group. This can be
useful for an organization with project teams spread across multiple offices or in the field.
With e-mail integration, it saves
the organization from having to set up a separate account with another private conversation tool
like Basecamp.
“An example would be to set up Buzz as a private group for a project team, large or
small,” said Shireen
Mitchell, a Washington D.C.-based digital activist. “Twitter updates, blog posts, and
other related content that has an RSS feed can be connected to individual [Buzz] accounts
tracking topics related to the project. The team can make comments and select “like”
to provide a consensus of interest on each update. This would keep the team updated on news,
topics and content for any existing issue-driven social media campaign of the organization.
[It's] sort of a mini crowdsourcing of the team.”
3. Finally Connect to “Unsocial” Users
Another interesting aspect of Buzz’s workflow and e-mail integration is the use of a system
that blends 2.0 functionality with a 1.0 system. Non-profit managers can use this to
intelligently blend workforce conversations between younger and older, or tech-savvy and
entrenched members of their teams. Crossing
the streams may enable better communications.
“Google Buzz allows users to publish private streams to specific contact groups,”
said John Haydon, a non-profit social media
strategist. “This is a perfect way to include staff members who don’t use social
media in important real-time conversations, especially during news-worthy events like the
earthquake in Haiti.”
4. Geo-Location Adds a New Element
When Google launches a social network, it brings more to bear than your average start-up.
Consider the ability to integrate geo-location with Google Maps into your social network activity. People
can see social activity on the fly.
“Fast forward to a cause marketing campaign like Starbucks’ partnership with Product
RED,” said Joe Waters, author of the Selfish Giving blog. “Buzzing about the latest campaign to a really large
audience with geo-location features [enabled] lets people see in real-time all the people
[talking] about the campaign in their area — especially in densely packed areas in New York
where [Starbucks] are practically right across the street from each other.
“In short, Buzz can potentially broadcast a cause marketing campaign to a much larger
audience than say Twitter. And the geo-location feature, if it takes off, can give a program a
real-time, tangible quality that can’t be replicated on another [social media]
platform.”
Publication Date: 2010 Mar 19 PMID: 20299593Authors: Dong, W. - Xiao, C. - Wang, T. - Dai, D. -
Yang, X. - Zhang, D. H.Journal: SciencePartial wave resonances, quasi-bound resonance states with
well-defined rotation in the transition state region of a chemical reaction, play a governing role
in reaction dynamics but have eluded direct experimental characterization. Here, we report the
observation of individual partial wave resolved resonances in the F + HD --> HF + D reaction by
measuring the collision energy-dependent, angle- and state-resolved differential cross section with
extremely high resolution, providing a spectroscopic probe to the transition state of F + HD -->
HF + D. The agreement of the data with the high-level theoretical calculations confirms the
sensitivity of this probe to the subtle quantum mechanical factors guiding this benchmark
reaction.post to:
CiteULike
Justin Bieber remains an immutable force of Twitter trend power, taking the top slot again for
the third week in a row. Tweeters also showed their love (and/or disdain) for a number of other
pop singers, and celebrated a few holidays this past week.
Thanks to our friends at What The Trend, we have yet another interesting stats-eye-view of the Twitterverse.
Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart below.
Beyond Justin Bieber, Follow Friday, and Music Monday — the reigning trend champs —
St. Patrick’s Day made an appearance as people tweeted their revelry, and Lady Gaga crept
up on the list with the premiere of her new video on
Vevo and a tour in New Zealand.
The Jonas Brothers hung tight near the middle, while circle enthusiasts everywhere tweeted
vigorously about Pi Day on March 14th, spurred on no doubt by the charming Google doodle that commemorated the occasion.
If you own a TV or computer, you probably know that March Madness is upon us, and
bracket-related tweets have been flying around the web all week, landing the term at number
seven.
Rounding out the chart are two more singers who made some news this week. Demi Lovato, the 17
year old actress/singer, stirred some buzz with her admission that she’s dating a Jonas
Brother, and Chris Brown, the career-stunted R&B singer, reached out to his fans on the web
for some help on making a comeback.
Strangely, tweets about the ongoing South By Southwest
(SXSW) conference — one of the most talked about topics in tech and a favorite of the
Twitter community — did not reach critical mass to make this week’s list. This is
likely due to the lack of big announcements or product launches from the conference this year.
You can check past Twitter trends in our Top
Twitter Topics section as well as read more about this past week’s trends on What The Trend.
Top Twitter Trends This Week 3/13 – 3/19 RankTopicTop Index This
WeekChangeDescription#1Justin Bieber1Justin
Bieber’s new album My World 2.0 comes out on March 23rd & his fans are excited. He also
appeared on Z100.com, QVC, and GMTV in the UK.#2Follow Friday1Follow Friday is a tradition where
people tweet people they believe are fun/interesting to follow (on Fridays).#3St. Patrick’s
Day2NEWPeople are tweeting "Happy St. Patrick’s Day" and showing their Irish spirit.#4Lady
GaGa22Lady GaGa is currently touring in New Zealand.#5Music Monday2Music Monday is a tradition
where users recommend music they appreciate every Monday.#6Jonas Brothers7Mentions of the Jonas
Brothers.#7March Madness1The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division 1
Men’s Basketball tournament started this week.#8Happy Pi Day2NEWMarch 14th is Happy Pi Day!
Pi is, roughly, 3.14. And today is 3/14. And March 14 is also the birthday of Albert Einstein#9Demi
Lovato3March 13 2010, "Jemi" is confirmed. Demi Lovato admitted to dating Joe Jonas in an interview
by Billy Bush. Many people are tweeting their opinions about this new couple. Joe Jonas and Demi
also recently released a new song, "Make a Wave."#10Chris Brown1NEWSinger Chris Brown asked his
fans to help revive his
career. They have been obliging with a variety of trends.
Plus on utilise Twitter et plus le nombre de personnes qu'on suit augmente...on devient vite
boulimique jusqu'à rendre indigeste le nombres des personnes qu'on "follow" (qu'on
suit...).
Souvent on a même tendance à suivre systématiquement tous nos nouveaux
followers pour leur rendre la pareille. Mais il faut savoir que certain cherchent à
augmenter virtuellement leur nombre de followers en suivant puis "qwittant" (quittant)
très vite un grand nombre de comptes Twitters... il faut donc éviter de suivre
n'importe qui juste pour lui faire plaisir et bien choisir ses contacts en fonction de ses
centres d'intérêt ou des objectifs d'usage de son compte Twitter. Bref, la
gestion de followers sur Twitter n’est pas à prendre à la
légère…
Et puis...comme le printemps est bien souvent l'occasion de faire un grand
nettoyage, je me suis dit qu'il serait temps de passer un coup de balai sur
Twitter !
Je me suis donc mis en quête d'outils qui pourront vous permettre de faire le tri
parmi vos contacts sur Twitter et de ne garder que ceux qui vous intéressent
vraiment. Du coup, plutôt que de rédiger cet article tout seul, il m'a semblé
intéressant d'en faire un billet collaboratif et c'est donc à plusieurs blogueurs
que nous avons rédigé ce dernier (grâce à Google Wave).
It wasn’t too
long ago that the path to success for mobile carriers was a straight one: Simply offer compelling
handsets at competitive prices and maintain a top-notch network and your customers would be
happy. And for those
that weren’t, manage a competent customer-care division. That model is
rapidly changing, though, as we reach the point of market saturation.
Carriers in Western markets have precious little room for growth unless they poach customers from
their competitors. Cell phone penetration in the U.S. stands at 89 percent, according to CTIA,
and Chetan
Sharma pointed out earlier this month that mobile’s market penetration in America is 99
percent for people over than the age of five. The increase of machine-to-machine
connections and the coming wave of connected consumer electronics (non-phones) will help, but
carriers will have to evolve beyond being simple network operators if they’re to thrive in
the coming world of mobile data.
Another factor beyond market saturation is at play here, too. Mobile is no longer just about
being a provider of wireless phones and connectivity; it’s about adding value with
applications that leverage Web 2.0 features like presence and community and combining them with
mobile’s unique characteristics, such as portability and location awareness.
While the rise of mobile Web 2.0 is a looming threat for network operators, it also presents an
opportunity to develop and market more compelling “over-the-top”
offerings — applications and services from carriers that can be
targeted at users on other networks. In my weekly column over at GigaOM Pro, I’ve
taken a closer look at this topic, with a special focus on AT&T’s Buzz.com
offering. I’m sure we’ll see more examples as carriers attempt to
make a very difficult transition beyond their established business model into uncharted waters.
What kind of opportunities do you see?
Our top story this week was about bad news for the big guys: Google,
Facebook, Digg's top users. As you catch up on the news, be sure to watch the conversation about China, tech and
democracy that took place between activist/artist Ai Weiwei, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and
ReadWriteWeb's Richard MacManus. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet
trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things.
Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly
Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010,
as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your
thoughts on the new format.
Sponsor
Story of the Week: Nexus One's woes, spies love Facebook, top Diggers lose power
We
recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone
app. As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch,
we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and
Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to
download it now from iTunes.
Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Vol. 89, No. 3. (01 April 2003), pp. 269-284.
This work reports on the performance of a volatile organic compounds (VOCs) identification system
based on a surface acoustic wave (SAW) multi- sensor array with four acoustic sensing elements,
developed in dual configuration as multiplexed two-port resonator 433.92Â MHz
oscillators and a reference SAW element, in order to recognize the different individual components
in a binary mixture of VOCs such as methanol (CH 3 OH) and 2-propanol (C 3 H 7 OH), in the range
20–140 and 5–70 ppm, respectively. The SAW
sensors, operating at room temperature, have been specifically coated by sensing thin films
belonging to various chemical classes such as arachidic acid (fatty acids), carbowax (stationary
phases), triethanolamine (amines), acrylated polysiloxane (polysiloxanes) to ensure
cross-sensitivity towards VOCs under test. By using the relative frequency change as the output
signal of the SAW multi- sensor array with an artificial neural network (ANN), a recognition system
has been realized for the identification of tested VOCs. The features extraction from output
signals of the SAW multi- sensor array, exposed to the binary component mixture of methanol and
2-propanol, has been also performed by pattern recognition techniques such as principal component
analysis (PCA). The feedforward multi-layer neural network with a hidden layer and trained by a
back-propagation learning algorithm has been implemented in order to classify and identify the
tested VOCs patterns. Both the normalized responses of four SAW sensors array and the selected
principal components (PCs) scores have been used as inputs to the multi-layer perceptron ANN by
resulting in a 100% success recognition rate with the four SAW sensors normalized responses and
with the first two principal components scores of the original data of the primary matrix. The
different strategies used to recognize the VOCs patterns by the ANNs such as the
‘Leave-one-out’ method and ‘Training-and-Test’
method are discussed. Our experimental results have evidenced that the proposed binary vapor
mixture classifier based on the electronic nose system, developed by inexpensive and poorly
selective chemical SAW sensors, is highly effective in the identification of tested VOCs of
methanol and 2-propanol. Moreover, the combination of PCA, as data pre-processing technique, and
ANN, as patterns classification technique, provides a rapid and accurate recognition method of the
individual components in the tested binary mixture of methanol and 2-propanol. M Penza
J’interviens actuellement au sein de l’IUP Infocom de Clermont-Ferrand. Ma
série de cours concerne les outils collaboratifs et leurs capacités dans le cadre
de la communication interne comme externe.
Dans ce cadre je leur ai proposé une petite expérience pour tester en grandeur
nature un outil comme Google Wave qui est tout de même normalement l’outil
collaboratif par excellence.
J’avais donc envoyé des invitations aux étudiants intéressés,
une bonne dizaine, et créé une première wave très courte sans la
moindre indication :
Le principe de l’expérience est de prendre ici même des notes sur le cours du
jour. C’est donc une prise de note collective, pour ne pas dire collaborative.
Apprentissage
Je n’ai volontairement donné aucune explication sur le fonctionnement et sur la
manière de travailler ensemble. Comme aucun ne connaissait Wave avant, la première
phase fut celle de l’apprentissage.
Elle était plutôt marrante puisqu’ils ont tous ajouté des messages, des
commentaires, un petit sondage ou, par erreur, une carte Google. Ils ont un peu
hésité à ajouter directement du texte à la suite du mien dans le
premier message. Surtout aux phases d’expansion incontrôlées ont
succédé des phases de grand ménage.
Le playback de la Wave montre 109 étapes pour cette partie qui a duré une dizaine
de minutes. Mais surtout à ce moment-là une Wave presque dans l’état
de départ.
Prise de notes pendant les exposés
Deux groupes d’étudiants faisaient ensuite des exposés sur le Wikis ainsi sur
les outils bureautiques Google et Google Wave. Ils ont donc utilisé la Wave pour saisir
leurs notes sur les deux exposés. Au départ ils ont commencé à saisir
du texte brut puis le document s’est enrichi petit à petit.
Certains se sont chargés de la mise en forme, ont ajouté des titres, du texte en
gras, mais aussi recherché les liens complémentaires ou les vidéos
citées dans les exposés. Au final, on obtient un document structuré et
enrichi. Le groupe ayant fait son exposé sur Google Documents et Wave a même
spontanément ajouté son PowerPoint à la fin.
Prise de notes pendant le cours
Spontanément un étudiant a créé une nouvelle Wave pour saisir la
partie cours et invité tous les autres élèves y compris moi. Là
encore, le document s’est enrichi petit à petit. Certains sont allés chercher
sur internet les illustrations que j’avais utilisées ou ont ajouté des liens
vers des services cités. Le résultat final ressemble ainsi à mon cours
ressemble plus quelques ajouts.
Bilan
Présenter comme la révolution du mail, Google Wave ressemble plus à une
révolution de Google Docs. La prise de note en direct à une dizaine de personnes
n’est peut-être pas le projet le plus adapté, mais cela permet de montrer en
accéléré les capacités et le potentiel de l’outil.
Pour l’élaboration collaborative de documents, Wave donne un sacré coup de
vieux aux wikis et Google Docs c’est certain. Si l’insertion du sondage a
été un moment marrant pour eux ils ont aussi vu rapidement
l’intérêt de pouvoir l’insérer et surtout de changer
d’avis.
Dans certains cas la question du sondage pourrait être « Validez-vous le
contenu ? » Je rêve qu’une telle méthode soit employée
sur de la rédaction d’articles, leur relecture et leur validation.
Maintenant il y a une vraie difficulté dans la prise en main mais c’est valable pour
beaucoup d’outils.
Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20237285Authors: Liao, F. - Taishi, P. - Churchill, L. - Urza,
M. J. - Krueger, J. M.Journal: J NeurosciGrowth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) promotes non-rapid
eye movement sleep (NREMS), in part via a well characterized hypothalamic sleep-promoting site.
However, GHRH may also act in the cortex to influence sleep. Application of GHRH to the surface of
the cortex changes electroencephalographic (EEG) delta power. GHRH and the GHRH receptor (GHRHR)
mRNAs are detectable in the rat cortex, and the expression of cortical GHRHR is activity dependent.
Here, we microinjected a GHRH antagonist or GHRHR small interfering RNA (siGHRHR) onto the
somatosensory cortex surface in rats. The unilateral application of the GHRH antagonist
ipsilaterally decreased EEG delta wave power during NREMS, but not wakefulness, during the initial
40 min after injection. Similarly, the injection of siGHRHR reduced cortical expression of GHRHR
and suppressed NREMS EEG delta wave power during 20-24 h after injection. Using the fura-2 calcium
imaging technique, cultured cortical cells responded to GHRH by increasing intracellular calcium.
Approximately 18% of the GHRH-responsive cells were GABAergic as illustrated by glutamic acid
decarboxylase-67 (GAD67) immunostaining. Double labeling for GAD67 and GHRHR in vitro and in vivo
indicated that only a minority of cortical GHRHR-containing cells were GABAergic. Our data suggest
that endogenous cortical GHRH activates local cortical cells to affect EEG delta wave power
state-specifically. Results are also consistent with the hypothesis that GHRH contributes to local
network state regulation.post to:
CiteULike
During my recent trip to India, I flew down to Bangalore for one
reason: To meet N.R. Narayana Murthy. Murthy is the co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO
for 21 years of Infosys, the first Indian company to go public on Nasdaq and effectively the
company that began the $30 billion Indian IT outsourcing market.
Murthy’s idea was so successful that it quickly became controversial—not
only within the United States where some Americans feel Indians are “stealing jobs,”
but also in India where many are concerned about a tech economy that doesn’t make
anything. I wanted to meet with Murthy, because in many ways he’s the best person to
address what Indians at home and abroad are facing and where Indian entrepreneurship goes from
here.
Here are a few highlights from our meeting:
His Day Job. Murthy thought he was stepping down from Infosys back in 2002, but
he couldn’t fully let go. As such, he still works pretty much full time for the company,
traveling to meet with customers and running a lot of the company’s mentoring and training
programs. The more surprising aspect of his job: He personally signs off on the architecture of
every building on each one of Infosys’ campuses that employ some 17,000 people around the
world. The one we were sitting in was spread of eight acres and had some remarkable buildings,
including one that looked like the Luxor casino in Las Vegas.
I asked why this was a top priority—after all, many Valley campuses are plush
but from an architecture standpoint look about the same. He said when GE and other American
multinationals were starting to come into his business everyone thought Infosys would lose the
local talent war. So Murthy studied why people want to work at a particular place. One of the
results was the comfort and design of the facilities. That was in 1994 when Infosys was designing
the very building we were sitting in as we had this conversation. “I’ve been in
charge of every building since– all over the world,” he says.
Hurting or Helping Local Entrepreneurship? Given exactly how plush Murthy and
his colleagues have worked to make Infosys, has he indirectly hurt Bangalore’s
entrepreneurship scene by making the risk of leaving so daunting? He smiled when I asked this and
said, “We may have unwittingly. But I do feel like the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive
and kicking in Bangalore.”
Further, I asked about Bangalore’s Zippo-flipping, free-spending generation of young
techies who’ve graduated to a huge wave of multinational jobs that pay them far more than
their parents ever made, in many cases more than the rest of their families combined. Murthy
didn’t deny that that instant-gratification, “gimmie” contingent was strong in
the city he helped build, economically speaking. But he blames the Internet and the
mass-cross-pollination of Western pop culture, not the bigger paycheck from companies like his.
“We are moving towards a uniform, global culture with an intense competitive spirit and an
intense desire for instant gratification,” he says. “But I have a firm belief that
each generation is better than the previous one. The Indian entrepreneurs today are more daring
than we were.” (This from a man who became a capitalist after after hitchhiking across
communist Eastern Europe and getting thrown in jail for chatting up someone’s girlfriend on
a train. “More daring” is a tall order, young Indian techies.)
Is India’s Tech Community Too Addicted to Services? Clearly, services has
been a great business for Infosys and the hundreds of dollar-millionaires and even more
rupee-millionaires that the company’s generous stock program has created. But a lot of
Indian CEOs and investors complain that in most cases services-based tech businesses are a great
way to get revenues quick, but not a way to build a huge, high-growth business. There’s a
big question of whether India’s tech sector has a worrying lack of product-building
know-how.
Murthy says it’s a progression. “India missed the industrial revolution, but Indians
had intelligence,” he says. “We had to make do with pen and paper. We were always
forced to look at the abstract. What is happening in India today is the creation of jobs.
Let’s create jobs as long as they are legal and ethical, it doesn’t matter, as long
as we make money. The time will come for creating products. I wouldn’t lose sleep over
this. If we create enough jobs we’ll raise the confidence of the youngsters and
they’ll create products.”
India’s Infrastructure. Here’s something it’s hard for even
Murthy to be upbeat about: India’s shoddy physical infrastructure. Murthy has traveled the
world and it’s frustrating that so much money has poured into the country he loves, and
yet, the infrastructure is still so shockingly bad.
There is progress—Infosys for instance has benefited from a new overpass that
cuts down on the drive to the campus by more than thirty minutes. (See!) But it’s
not moving nearly fast enough, he says. “I don’t know if we will reach the level of
the United States or China,” he adds.
Murthy gave a more nuanced explanation than the usual “it’s corruption” answer
you get in India. He explained that 65% of India’s population lives in rural areas and 35%
live in cities. And there’s such polarity between the quality of life that politicians have
to appear to be doing more for the villages than the cities if they want to get re-elected. That
leaves prosperous economic cities blighted by poor sewage systems, pollution spewing generators
and beggars weaving through traffic tapping on car windows. “Different emerging nations
take different paths,” he says. “In China, they chose to emphasize giving people
economic freedom first and political freedom second. In India we chose the opposite path.”
Hurting or Helping US-based Indians? All you have to do is read the comments on
one of Vivek Wadhwa’s posts to see the ugly, anti-immigrant, anti-Indian fervor
that’s been whipped up in America, post-recession. A lot of it has to do with outsourcing.
I asked Murthy if he felt his company and industry’s huge success has indirectly made life
harder for Indian-Americans. He turned the blame on xenophobes like Lou Dobbs and grandstanding
politicians who use the wedge issue to get viewers and votes.
But it’s an issue he has to address a lot. He answers it by saying every morning he gets up
and gets a Pepsi out of his GE Fridge and drives his American car to work where he sits down at
his Dell computer. India used to have companies that made soft drinks, refrigerators, cars and
computers. But the American ones were better. Allowing them in hurt Indian workers in the short
term, but provided a far better quality of life for a much bigger swath of Indians long term. He
argues outsourcing has done the same thing for US companies. Greater efficiencies and
cost-savings enables these companies to stay competitive and there’s no reason they
can’t—in theory—plow those savings into better local
jobs or job training.
This argument isn’t going to pacify hate-mongers, because nothing will. Murthy knows that
too and while he regrets it, he seems to accept it as reality.
Advice for Entrepreneurs. Murthy has started a $170 million venture fund, so
although he spends most of his time still at Infosys, he clearly cares about encouraging the next
generation of entrepreneurs. He had two big pieces of advice for them. One, be able to articulate
what you do in one sentence. If you can’t, you don’t have a good idea. And two, make
sure the market is ready. Businesses are killed, not congratulated, for being ahead of their
time.
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[Continuing his
series of interviews with leading video game musicians for GameSetWatch, Jeriaska sits down with
Masato Kouda to discuss his contributions to Capcom's Japanese smash hit Monster Hunter series,
including a recent tie-in orchestral album featuring music from the franchise.]
Monster
Hunter themes in the key of E Flat are difficult for musicians to perform. If you lower the
key, it becomes much easier to play. Now, there is a huge difference in the sounds of a D and E
Flat chord. The way I might describe their textures is that D is like a primary color, while E
Flat is like a mossy green. Hamaguchi-san respects this subtle distinction and he chose to keep
the arrangements in E Flat.
While I've never
worked professionally with Roba House myself, I graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, and
the college is in the city of Tachikawa. Roba House is located close to the Tamagawa-Jousui
station, so I used to go and see their live performances.
![denimcode0[1]](http://techtrends.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/denimcode01.jpg "denimcode0[1]")
Non-profits could use Buzz to manage workflow across a group. This can be
useful for an organization with project teams spread across multiple offices or in the field.
With 
Justin Bieber remains an immutable force of 
Our top story this week was about bad news for the big guys: Google,
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