From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V5 #211 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Thursday, August 31 2000 Volume 05 : Number 211 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: hi again? [Robin Thurlow ] Alloy: Surprise Mid-Atlantic/Pacific Joint Meeting [Elaine Linstruth ] Alloy: OT: Latest Beloit College list ["Beth Meyer" Subject: Re: Alloy: hi again? Nice to hear from you Beth! Thanks for thinking of me and my work-related confusion... One of the first emails I received at work was that my contract is renewed until July of 2001 - so I'm very happy :) At least I'm not being canned! Now I just have to be sure I get *paid*... I need to fill out more forms so they can cover for having accidentally terminated me while I was away. Beth, I'm sorry to hear of your own work problems. I'll keep all of my fingers crossed for you and Mark. This kind of employment hassle is becoming a creepily familiar story everywhere in the country. Last week Dave's brother was told the internet company he works for couldn't make payroll that week, leaving him without his income very unexpectedly. If not for the fact that he has to eat and pay bills, and that he and his wife just had their first baby, and that they just bought a small house and a dependable car, everything would be fine... It's horrendous! Robin T Beth Meyer wrote: > Hi, folks; > > I have been remiss in chiming in for a while, so just to get it all out at > once -- congratulations, Barbara, on finishing your degree, and welcome > back! (Woo-hoo -- ever more women with Ph.D.'s in the group...) Enjoy the > Smoky Mountains; we've spent many vacations there. > > Also, congratulations to Kathleen on the little one on the way. And good > luck to Robin & Melissa with your work-related trials -- I know how that > goes. (As a result of a recent merger, the organization where my husband > and I both work had just been effectively dissolved, and nobody knows for > sure where or even if they will be working in a month.) > > And finally, to get back on topic -- Thanks, Jon, for your wonderful little > essay about "One of Our Submarines." Indeed, I've always loved the song, > but I think I have often overlooked it. Your description really helped me > to appreciate it. I shall have to dig out my "Blinded by Science" EP and > give that version another listen... > > Cheers all, > Beth > > Beth Meyer > bethmeyer@mindspring.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 08:52:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Elaine Linstruth Subject: Alloy: Surprise Mid-Atlantic/Pacific Joint Meeting Well, I'll try to make this rather long story short: It looked like a no-go for the Elaine-Melissa meet. After my hemming and hawwing about going to my 15th high school reunion (gak) in Maryland, I finally bought the ticket. After the planned sleepover at Melissa's was cancelled due to her family's untimely unexpected funeral (:( big time), it seemed like fate was against us -- because Melissa would be leaving town the very day I was to arrive. We couldn't figure out why the fates wouldn't want us to meet. (This is not the first time we've been disappointed by one wrench in the works or another.) I guess the powers-that-be decided to give us a break, because at the end of my reunion weekend (which was a drunkfest extraordinaire and another story altogether, let me tell you), I called Melissa up, from Solomons Island, and said, "hey duuuuude." (That's what I am told I said constantly all weekend. I've been in California too long.) "I'm going to be free Monday, flight's not leaving til 8 p.m., what are you doing for lunch?" The reply was, "Chica! Coffee and food, and here are some really excellent directions that you can't miss!" Ok, I am filling in the blanks, but that's fine... cause they were. Anyhow, I was not only treated to meeting the fabulous Melissa, but also her trusted friend James, and I left feeling like I was SO GLAD I made that phone call. It was SO good that we finally met up! As you all would expect, she is particularly gracious and accommodating -- excellent conversationalist, and general all-around fun person. I only got to spend about an hour with them, but it was literally the highlight of my whole trip. Thank you Melissa and James, and I hope we can get together again very soon. And thank you, Thomas, for helping me find such awesome friends. :-) - -- Elaine Linstruth Palmdale, CA (USA) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 12:48:21 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Alloy: Recent Beatnik news Here's a news item that came out two weeks ago while I was away. I hope this will 'wrap' properly when I forward it... And once again.. congratulations to everyone at Beatnik for all that you've achieved! :) Robin T REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- (http://www.oracle.com/tellmemore/?267063) Oracle Corporation, (Nasdaq: ORCL) the largest provider of software for e-Business, today announced that Beatnik, Inc., a leader in interactive audio technologies and content for the web and digital devices, is using Oracle8i(TM) to power Beatnik Production Music, its music and sound licensing site at http://www.beatnik.com. Oracle(R) database technology allows Beatnik to achieve its primary goal of delivering creative professionals and consumers a faster, easier way to search, audition, download and license a rich source of music and sound files through a one-stop, secure e-commerce-enabled site. "By using Oracle's amazing technology, we provide our production music customers the ability to transform the Internet and broadcast production into truly interactive showpieces," said Lorraine Hariton, president and CEO of Beatnik. "Oracle is the ideal back-end database for our music and sound licensing site because it is scalable and highly reliable. Users can quickly and easily find the perfect music for their creative projects, listen to it, digitally download it and license it -- from one secure e-commerce destination." Founded by Thomas Dolby Robertson, Beatnik launched Beatnik Production Music in April 2000. Beatnik's Oracle-based site caters to the needs of creative professionals with more than 100 features including high-quality auditioning, online project collaboration, storage and enhanced search capabilities. Oracle8i powers the site which allows users to search for and license audio content to create fully interactive, customized web sites, films, videos and CD-ROMs. Enhanced content management search capabilities permit users to search for music and sound clips by keyword description or by one or more music characteristics such as beat, tempo, genre and category. The Oracle8i database manages more than 120,000 music and sound files and the metadata pertaining to those files, enabling users to quickly and easily find the perfect piece of music. By using Oracle8i, Beatnik's site also provides users a unique degree of personalization. Users can download or stream compress digital-quality music and sound formats, store tracks in the database and license selections through Beatnik's Oracle-based secure e-commerce engine. Beatnik chose Oracle8i due to its impressive scalability and rapid performance capabilities. As rich media formats for music and sound become standard, Beatnik's site provides a premier solution for licensing high-resolution audio files for use in professional multimedia and digital devices, Internet and broadcast productions. The company needed a solid database platform that would support their growth as demand for audio content increases and broadband technology matures. "Beatnik is on the cutting-edge of technology, transforming web sites into musical masterpieces that will be critical to attracting and retaining web surfers as the Internet goes broadband and devices such as TVs evolve into dominant Internet appliances," said Mark Jarvis, Oracle senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Beatnik holds the key to next-generation web sites, digital devices and to the transformation of the musical rights industry into an e-Business." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 21:29:40 -0400 From: "Beth Meyer" Subject: Alloy: OT: Latest Beloit College list Hi, folks; One other thing I've been meaning to pass along. I thought y'all might find it interesting, given that most of the people on this list remember the 1982 time frame pretty well. Sorry to make you feel old, though...:-) - -Beth (Oh, and apologies to our members outside the U.S. for all the references to American politics in this list, but I still thought you might enjoy some of the other items.) Beth Meyer bethmeyer@mindspring.com - -----Original Message----- Say Hello to the New Freshmen. To Them, the 'Kennedy Tragedy' Was a Plane Crash Beloit College-in an effort to help its faculty members understand freshmen-releases an annual "mindset list" to help professors think about what their new students have experienced, and have never experienced. This year's list, released today, notes that most members of the Class of 2004 were born in 1982, the year the Equal Rights Amendment was effectively defeated and C-SPAN started 24-hour coverage. The complete list follows: 1. Most students entering college this fall in the Class of 2004 were born in 1982. 2. Grace Kelly, Elvis Presley, Karen Carpenter, and the E.R.A. have always been dead. 3. Kurt Cobain's death was the "day the music died." 4. Somebody named George Bush has been on every national ticket, except one, since they were born. 5. The Kennedy tragedy was a plane crash, not an assassination. 6. Huckleberry Finn has always been a "banned book." 7. A "45" is a gun, not a record with a large hole in the center. 8. They have no clue what the Beach Boys were talking about when they sang about a 409, and the Little Deuce Coupe. 9. They have probably never lost anything in shag carpeting. 10. M*A*S*H and The Muppet Show have always been in reruns. 11. Punk rock is an activist movement, not a musical form. 12. They have always bought telephones, rather than renting them from AT&T. 13. The year they were born, the death toll from AIDS was in the hundreds; finding a cure for the new disease was designated a "top priority" for government-sponsored research. 14. We have always been able to reproduce DNA in the laboratory. 15. Wars begin and end quickly; peacekeeping missions go on forever. 16. There have always been automated teller machines. 17. The president has always addressed the nation on the radio on Saturday. 18. We have always been able to receive television signals by direct-broadcast satellite. 19. Cities have always been trying to ban the possession and sale of handguns. 20. Watergate is as relevant to their lives as the Teapot Dome scandal. 21. They have no idea that a "presidential scandal" once meant nothing more than Ronald Reagan taking President Jimmy Carter's briefing book in "Debategate." 22. They have never referred to Russia and China as "the Reds." 23. Toyotas and Hondas have always been made in the United States. 24. There has always been a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. 25. Three Mile Island is ancient history, and nuclear accidents happen in other countries. 26. Around-the-clock coverage of Congress and public affairs, weather reports, and rock videos have always been available on cable. 27. Senator Phil Gramm has always been a Republican. 28. Women sailors have always been stationed on U.S. Navy ships. 29. The year they were born, The New York Times announced that the "boom in video games," a fad, had come to an end. 30. Congress has been questioning computer intrusion into individuals' personal lives since they were born. 31. Bear Bryant has never coached at Alabama. 32. They have always been able to afford Calvin Klein. 33. Coors beer has always been sold east of the Mississippi, eliminating the need for Burt Reynolds to outrun the authorities in the Smokey and the Bandit films. 34. They were born the same year that Ebony and Ivory lived in perfect harmony. 35. The year they were born, Dustin Hoffman wore a dress and Julie Andrews wore a tuxedo. 36. Elton John has only been heard on easy-listening stations. 37. Woodstock is a bird or a reunion, not a cultural touchstone. 38. They have never heard a phone "ring." 39. They never dressed up for a plane flight. 40. Hurricanes have always had men's and women's names. 41. Lawn darts have always been illegal. 42 ."Coming out" parties celebrate more than debutantes. 43. They only know Madonna singing American Pie. 44. They neither know who Billy Joe was, nor wondered what he was doing on the Tallahatchie Bridge. 45. They never thought of Jane Fonda as "Hanoi Jane," nor associated her with any revolution other than the "Fitness Revolution" videotape they may have found in the attic. 46. The Osmonds are talk-show hosts. 47. They have never used a bottle of Wite Out. 48. If they vaguely remember the night the Berlin Wall fell, they are probably not sure why it was up in the first place. 49. "Spam" and "cookies" are not necessarily foods. 50. They feel more danger from having sex and being in school, than from possible nuclear war. Copyright (c) 2000 The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. Thursday, August 24. ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V5 #211 ***************************