I heard a great story about Les Paul's invention of multi-tracking in an old (long ago defunct) basement coffee shop in Harvard Square called Passim, featuring Guy van Duser (guitar) and Billy Novick (whistle, vocals).
Guy is a local Boston guitar phenomenon, playing stride guitar with 3+ parts at times. (Rounder Records carries his stuff--highly recommended.)
Anyway, Guy told the story of growing up adulating Les Paul, struggling for years to learn to play some of his recordings, until he got it right. He finally got to meet Paul, told him of his admiration, and showed Paul his licks. Paul's jaw dropped as he told Guy, "I double-tracked that recording!" Of course, that left Guy floating on air...
Remembered something by Tolkien. "Death was a gift to men. Though elves did not die, as they aged they became more sorrowful". [paraphrased]. I don't think that living forever is a good thing.
Living forever is only hell if you remain human. By the time I turn one million I will be an entity of nearly infinite wisdom, more powerful than the God of the Christians.
Absolutely, I believe that is an important part of living forever. My immortal soul will get bored sometimes and have part of himself reincarnated.
Interesting knowledge will continue to exist into the future for a while. If no one has built a particle accelerator the size of a planet yet by the time I get my PhD in Physics, I'll build one for my dissertation. Then once we find the second and fourth dimensions, we may discover the actual secrets of the universe. Or AI will do it for us.
Ultimately I think the thing to do will be to colonize the universe for humanity. To try and reach the next type on the Kardashev Scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
I think recently, another interesting proof for this is the Joker's note. Watching the Dark Knight behind the scenes commentary, Hans Zimmer talks about how he thought the most chill-inspiring theme for Joker wouldn't be an intricate composition, but one slightly sour note played at length. Other sounds and effects were layered upon it to fit with the soundtrack, but the effect is amazing, simultaneously warning the audience of the joker's presence and inspiring suspense at the same time.
This is the kind of seemingly non-hacker RIP post I love seeing. I didn't know much about him before seeing this post, but the comments made me read more about him and I'm glad I did. Great stuff.
If he isn't a hacker, I don't know who is. Multitracking was innovative and early multitracking was a straight up hack. The first solid-body guitar was made out of a 2x4 mounted into an acoustic guitar. He may not have hacked computers, but he was a great hacker.
Les Paul has been a personal hero of mine since I was a kid. It's really sad to see him go, but at least we can continue to enjoy all of the wonderful creations and creative spirit that he brought into the worlds of music and engineering.
Though less well known than Les Paul, Tom Dowd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dowd) was another amazing recording industry hacker. If you're interested in the Les Paul story, you might also like the documentary about Tom Dowd: Tom Dowd and the Language of Music.
I live in New York, I heard that he used to play here every week, as recently as a year ago. I regret that I never saw him play. I regret even more that I never took my fater to see him play.
They were talking about this on the Bob & Tom show this morning and apparently he played as recently as June 1, '09 and did so every Monday. They told a story about how Jimmy Buffet sat in and Les was cracking jokes...great stuff. I hope to have so much spunk should I make it that far.
...and just when I was thinking about buying that black-to-blue sunburst Les Paul I saw recently...I bet the price tag has already been changed. ;) RIP Les, you were a Legend long ago and always will be.
I got to hear Les Paul at the Iridium when I was in New York in April. So glad I got hear him live at least once. Thanks for the music and the inventions. Play on!
I think it's interesting that so many people on HN recognize Les Paul - it shows how many hackers are music lovers as well, which is definitely a curious data point.
Guy is a local Boston guitar phenomenon, playing stride guitar with 3+ parts at times. (Rounder Records carries his stuff--highly recommended.)
Anyway, Guy told the story of growing up adulating Les Paul, struggling for years to learn to play some of his recordings, until he got it right. He finally got to meet Paul, told him of his admiration, and showed Paul his licks. Paul's jaw dropped as he told Guy, "I double-tracked that recording!" Of course, that left Guy floating on air...