A little over a week has passed and the local scene in Dallas seems to be richer than it has ever been. This is a brief account of the evenings proceedings.
Date : 8th January, 2016
Day : Friday
Venue : The Prophet Bar , Elm Street , Dallas (TX)
Bill : Native Fox | Wolves Reign | Duo Contra | The Louisiana Purchase
Entry : $10
I walked into the the bar while Native Fox was still performing on stage. The vibe was very cozy. Native Fox’s style of music draws heavily from indie rock with simple rhythms sprinkled with interesting effects from various pedals.
The next band to go on stage was Wolves Reign. I met the lads backstage and got to speak with them before they went on. They have a very interesting stage dynamic. The drummer and keyboard duties are alternatively performed by two members. The style is very eclectic and draws influences heavily from some punk, indie, Mars Voltaish arrangements and metal. It was a very nice change of pace. Their singer is very talented, interspersing western Opera style with Indian Classical.
Following Wolves Reign, Duo Contra graced the stage. Their sound is very calming, with intermittent bursts of hard-rock. They remind me of the Indie/Garage rock scene from Sheffield,England. The vocal style has some very obvious reggae/Jamaican influences that changes the dynamic of the songs. They have 5 song EP out called ‘An Ode To The Sun’. Do check them out.
The last band to play, was The Louisiana Purchase. They rock. Really hard. Crazy hooks, an avalanche of drum fills and soaring vocal chorus’s. And all that in just one song. They have a knack for writing catchy songs and don’t shy away from changing the pacing within each track. The vocal style reminds me of 90’s grunge scene, similar to Chris Cornell.
I’m kicking off this season of Album Reviews with COMA ECLIPTIC by Between the Buried and Me.
Coma Ecliptic
In the follow-up effort to Parallax II : Future Sequence, the boys from Between The Buried And Me find themselves in familiar territory. The concept is thick and cohesive, and production is as slick as a sincere lads well oiled hair. There are a few changes that one can see almost immediately from their last record and these changes are welcomed with all ears wide open. I won’t divulge the concept for it would be a disservice to the listener. Let me give you a hint though- It is as science fiction as it gets with twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat.
The opening track Node is predominantly a soft-intro, eerily reminiscent of Opeth’s Heritage and it builds up remarkably well. There is a bunch of lyrical foreshadowing going on this track, which becomes very important to anyone who’s setting himself/herself up for this journey of sorts.
The Coma Machine opensin a grandiose fashion. Odd time signatures will be a regular affair from hereon. Swelling piano chords, tight drumming and start-stop phrasing take the listener from scene to scene. In familiar BTBAM fashion, we encounter the harsh vocals with alternating styles comfortably interspersed. This is a track that one cannot necessarily head-bang to, but one that needs to pay attention to.
Dim Ignition caught my ear almost immediately. There is something about the atmosphere that this song paints. Reminded me of Gojira’s A Sight To Behold . It’s heavy use of techno samples with effect pedals and synths pave the way for what a concept record to should strive to establish : A solid narrative. This is the quintessential transition track which leads us into …
Famine Wolf – Haunting open strings welcome some fancy guitar lead guitar shredding. The rest of the song is your usual BTBAM business, till we reach the 4 minute mark. Then things slow down, the narrative takes center stage and guitars take prominence… easing us all into a jazz based jam. There is something recurring here. The feeling that you’re in a coma.
King Redeem-Queen Serene is what Opeth’s latest effort should have sounded like. The ode to Ghost Reveries is pretty clear at some instances, while still keeping their signature sound. If you’ve listened to Parallax II as often as I have, you will undoubtedly hear similarities. This can get repetitive and for a moment you wonder why. I found this to be a bit troublesome, however there is enough prog-laden structural ingenuity that we have been fond of from the works of King Crimson , Yes and Genesis.
The next track – Turn on the Darkness is another one of those transitionary tracks that doesn’t do much but maybe one of those tracks that grows on you in the grand scheme of things. The crowning jewel of this record for me is what follows next – The Ectopic Scroll. I love this track for many different reasons (That piano intro is so much fun) . It reminds of a lot of Bloom from Parallax II and if that wasn’t enough, it’s got enough diverse influences to keep you interested but not so much so that it saturates you. The nod to Queen and Dream Theater is so obvious, its almost funny. This track is pretty much the reason by Between The Buried and Me are so fine in their vision – nothing held back. Quirky, strange and downright illegal from the sense of traditional sense of what Metal is. But it works, and boy – BTBAM make it work so well, you don’t even notice the genre hopping.
Rapid Calm is another synth-centric track that keeps the tempo around the mid range, and features some core guitar work. Nothing too flashy, but catchy and noteworthy. It forms another nice concept track to lead us into Memory Palace – the first single off this record. Bring out the hammond organ, flashy guitars – lush with great backing, harmonies, intelligent use of wah-pedal and over all grins on our melted faces. The inter-play between guitars and synth is the crux of this track. Tommy explores his vocal range more prominently on this track than the others going from soaring highs to haunting lows and bone-crushing screams in between . This track is huge, its big and it’s fab. It will be a live staple for multiple tours and a crowd favorite. The ballad-esque interludes will force you to take your lighter out and wave it about. Queen influences shine bright as a supernova across your face! Option Oblivion is a logical extension of the previous track and there is nothing much to talk about it apart from the fact that it kills. The album comes to a close with Life in Velvet which does start off soft and slow but builds strong and ends with a bang.
This record was all kinds of fun. The guitars were more prominent on this record than any of their previous ones that I have listened to. Very Van-Halen-esque. The drumming and bass work is tight as ever, and I would not expect anything less from Blake Richardson and Dan Briggs. It is a great record on an initial listen and will grow more profound as you listen to it multiple times. Another very strong, diverse and coherent record from Between the Buried and Me.
Buy This record : http://www.metalblade.com/btbam
Tour dates : http://www.songkick.com/artists/391106-between-the-buried-and-me
This post is about eating habits and diet in general. I figured this is the right moment to talk about it because ..
I’ve had a good few months from the beginning of the year to understand food and consumption of food better.
I have also had a chance to see, what can be asserted – as constant physical changes.
It feels like the timing is perfect.
Having said that, I do say that whatever I speak of is purely my personal point of view and may be different to yours and that is perfectly alright. Everyone has a valid say on the internet so, do read on and if you disagree, then we have something to talk about, and that is an exciting outcome for me and I hope for you as well.
Food and I have had a very special relationship. It’s been a delicious journey so far. Early this year though, I was exposed to a couple of books and videos on YouTube. There is also a movie coming out that I urge you to watch closely. It seems like a new trend now, but trust me, it is one for the best. Check the resource section at the end of this post to learn more about what I learned.
So, the Elephant in the room was clearly- eating habits. Years of food abuse and I call it abuse because it was literally – abusive with very seemingly uncomplicated results, but just like a malware, it was lurking in the shadows. It’s very slow in its activity. The famous comedian Ricky Gervais cleverly put – One does not wake up one day looking fat and obese. It is a gradual thing.
So after learning about how Sugar is bad and everything in our super-markets had some kind of hidden sugar, I grew really weary of the things I was eating, for many many years. I started (and still do) cooking everyday.
But I’ll be brutally honest. Drinking warm-hot green tea or chewing on green vegetables – not the most tastiest things to eat on the plate. In fact, I abhor it. I buy these bags of green-leafy veggies – Kale, Baby Spinach, Arugula.. you name it, I buy it. But they sit in my fridge, and eventually rot away. I’ve since thought, why is it that I am repulsed to something that is essentially super healthy for me. Then, it hit me. My mind and body have been subject to tongue-tantalizing treats for all these years. That taste of nearly-burnt melted cheese, dancing on a sea of marinara sauce, with the crisp toppings , laying on a soft and tasty pizza bread is heaven for me. My body chemistry is totally skewed and it is by far the hardest thing I have come across. I have beaten many odds in life, made some tough choices and braved heavy tides.
But if you love food as much as I do, it’s a goliath – this giant. It’s usually not about the quantity, but all about the taste. If it tastes good, I will go through it in a jiffy. That is scary. Very scary.
I don’t know how many folks out there have gone through this feeling where they eat, and they feel satiated, then they feel like something is amiss and more is required, and get lured towards the ‘tasty treats’, that are oh so forbidden. I took notice of my eating habits and the portions I went through in one sitting, if something was inherently tasty.
Only when I stepped back and took notice of what I was eating and how much, did I realize the dangers of binge eating. It’s pretty amazing while you’re doing it, but when you see the results on your self and the lethargy just, gripping you tight, it makes so much sense to not do it anymore, till the next time you do it all over again. A bit like a drug addict, wouldn’t you say?
So my top tips for dealing with this … syndrome (I guess that’s what I am calling it now) are :
1. Pack a lunch. That makes you aware of how much you’re having.
2,Restrict portions to only enough for you to feel happy about. Like, actively restrict it.
3.Drink plenty of water. It’s true. It helps. It really really does.
4.Green tea may taste awful, but bite the bullet and do it anyway. Bit like doing multi-variate calculus.
5.Stay away from packaged foods, fast foods and places that give you Cheap Food. They are dangerous.
6.Cry if you may, but got to get those greens in your body. I hate it. I do. Tastes awful. But got to do it.
7.Exercise everyday. Just a bit, but goes a long way. It actually works. Needs discipline, but what serious venture doesn’t, eh?
8.Snack carefully. I love snacks, but you got to be careful.
That’s all the advice I have so far. Thanks for reading.
Let us learn by designing DMA- this design is a behavioral model. Nowadays , you get everything in the form of system on chip. No one does it this way , but I’m charting everything out so that we understand a bit better.
DMA Requirements –
3 Types of transfers
–> Memory – Memory DMA moves
–> I/O to memory moves DMA (Recording Audio , reading data from HDD/ethernet packet)
–> Memory to I/O DMA (sound conversion using PCM) or writing data to hard-disk or ethernet
Transfer Modes
Single- transfer one byte/word per request (Slow peripheral)
Block – transfer N byte/word per request (do not stop)
Demand – transfer byte/word as long as request is asserted and transfer is not complete (N transfers)
[A2D]=>[FIFO]==> D0-D15
When FIFO is 3/4 full , it sends a DMA request and then until the buffer goes all the way down to zero , it drops the request. Then the filling starts again.
Transfer Size Width
16-bit data bus – must support even word transfers (byte transfers (odd/even).
Transfer Size (design made for 8086)
Up to 1M transfers (bytes) , 512 K transfer (words) , 1 MB memory
Support for 2 Channels (two different devices can be set up to use DMA) Triggers : S/W triggers – user can trigger it (mem-mem, I/O<–>mem) , H/W triggers – Device triggers it (I/O <–> mem) Notification – send an interrupt to the cpu when the transfer is complete (all N samples are done)
CPU Negotiation – HOLD/HLDA
>DMA will assert HOLD to request bus use.
>CPU will assert HLDA to grant bus and
>DMA will deassert HOLD to release the bus.
======================================================
Memory to Memory transfers
T1 T2 T3 T4 T1 T2 T3 T4
I/O to memory
T1 T2 T3 T4
ADD – ——————————–DST_Address—————————-
(MWTC)’ ———————————LOW———————————
(IORC)’———————————–LOW———————————
(DACKn)’———————————LOW———————————
DATA ———————————–DATA<io to mem>———————
‘fly by’
Mem to I/O
T1 T2 T3 T4
ADD – ——————————-SRC_Address—————————-
(MRDC)’ ———————————LOW———————————
(IORC)’———————————–LOW———————————
(DACKn)’———————————LOW———————————
DATA ———————————–DATA<mem to IO>——————–
‘fly by’
Here is the problem we have : So the registers hold the BHE , BLE and A0 value and determine which transfer to establish.
Introduce waterfilling scheme to MIMO ::
Pi* = (μ – [N0/(λi*λi)] ) ^ t with μ chosen to satisfy the total power constraint
Summation(i=0 to <nmin>) Pi* = P
C = Summation(i=1 to <nmin>) log ( 1+ ( [Pi*.(λi*λi)]/N0) //like , seriously improved channel.
—————————————————————————
So , after doing all of this – improving the capcity and all that – we also need to consider –
The parameters that determine the performance.
Ofcourse – the best place to start is with SNR (high or low)
1.High SNR – equal power allocation has almost the same performance as waterfilling. Therefore in each subchannel , the
transmit capacity (considering k = nmin) :: P / k
total C = summation(i=1:k) log(1+ P/k * (λi*λi)/N0)
This k is basically minimum of (nt,nr)<— number of spatial degrees of freedom.
in case of high SNR , we ignore the 1 in the C equation , so we get ::
C = summation(i=1:k) log(P/k * (λi*λi)/N0) further simplifying…
C= summation(i=1:k) log(P/N0) + summation(i=1:k) log(λi*λi)/k) …
but we know .. log(P/N0) = SNR
SO… C= summation(i=1:k) log SNR(Cawgn for high SNR) + summation(i=1:k) log(λi*λi)/k) :: HIGH SNR
So.. A MIMO channel provides Nmin spatial degrees of freedom.
If we go ahead and divide C by k , we get this whole thing where the summation pretty much turns into an expectation E of log(1 + [P.(λi*λi) / k.N0])
Then if we go ahead and use the Jensen’s Inequality (cuz log is a Concave function)
where … [summation(i=1 to k) (λi*λi)] = Trace [ H.H*] = summation(i,j) { |h<i,j>|*|h<i,j>| }
So , the total power gain of the matrix channel among the channels with the same total power gain , the one which has the higher capacity is the one with all the singular values equal.
The condition number of H is the ratio of => max λi : min λi => 1 cuz when all the singular values are equal , min λi = max λi = 1 . Sooo… —> H is said to be well-conditioned and also in this case we have the highest capacity.
Well-Conditioned channel matrix facilitate communication in the high SNR regime.
Phew… so much for high SNR. What about LOW SNR ?
Using the Waterfilling scheme to allocate power to the highest (λi * λi) (that is the best channel)
Best Channel = max of (λi*λi).
Best Channel Capacity = C = log ( 1 + [ P . max<i>(λi*λi) ] / N0)
C ~ P/N0 . max<i>(λi*λi) . log(base 2) e ….. cuz [ log (1+X) ~ X log(base 2) e at small X )
C~ { max<i>(λi*λi) . log(base 2) e }. SNR
Fast Fading : L. Tc (time diversity)
MIMO : Spatial Diversity
C > Cawgn
Want to read more? : Read here
Cε (capacity for epsilon outage) = log (1+ (math.pow(F,-1)*(1-ε)*SNR)
For High SNR – Cε ~ Cawgn – log( 1/(math.pow(F,-1)*(1-ε)))
For Low SNR – Cε ~ Cawgn and also – Cε < Cawgn
——————————————————–
Now , if you want to improve the capacity you need to introduce diversity techniques.
1. Receive Diversity (using h = [h1,h2,h3….]^t) C = log (1+ ||h||*||h|| * SNR) where ||h||*||h|| = |h1|*|h1| + |h2|*|h2|
2.Transmit Diversity
If we don’t know the transmitter info ,use equal partition. If you know all the transmitter characteristics , use Completely correlated signals.
These are for slow fading channels. For fast fading channels …
Model the fast fading channel as L parallel sub-channels which fade independently.
Transmission Side –
TX { CSIR (equal power allocation) CSI (Tx & Rx)= Full CSI}
For full CSI , power allocation scheme is :
1)Channel Inversion Scheme (Slow fading)
2)Waterfilling (fast fading)
Channel Inversion – Very straightforward – P = (1/ |h|*|h|) where C : a constant
Advantage: No outage , disadvantage : channel is bad => huge power p (in-feasible)
Waterfilling scheme –
Gmax = max (over all L) {|hL|*|hL|)
C ~ Gmax * Cawgn
E{ |hL|*|hL| } = 1 & Gmax > 1
=> C > Cawgn (cuz it takes the advantage of peaks in fast fading because of the channel gain Gmax)
The Quasar Syncopation 