PaytonPlace » Audio

Get a Song Out of Your Head

~SP — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Been singing the same refrain for what seems like hours on end and can't seem to get the annoyingly catchy ditty out of your head? Here's how to rid your mind of the song.

Photo by Ferrari + caballos +fuerza=cerebro Humano.

Real Simple Magazine consulted James Kellaris, a University of Cincinnati professor who studies why catchy tunes stick in our heads. James says that to stop the looping, "listen either to complex music, like Mozart, or unfamiliar music that lacks a hook, like New Age."

And if that doesn't work, try singing the song all the way through or simply listen to it in its entirety. This will give your brain a sense of completion and should relax your need to continue repeating the lyrics. As for situations where you can't remember some or all of the lyrics, just rewrite the end to get the song out of your head.

If you have suggestions for complex and unfamiliar music that you've used to thwart the song in your head (or other tricks to achieve the same goal), leave them in the comments.

HALOsonic Electronic Sound Synthesis

~SP — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:43:09 +0000

Although I’ve never had opportunity to drive and electric vehicle, I hope to own one someday soon. Strangely enough, my ultimate vehicle wish is to own an electric pickup truck. I’d like a four door truck that’s about the size of a Honda Ridgeline but better looking. Perhaps an electric vehicle the size of the …

VortexBox Turns Your Old Computer into Music Server

ShowMeMO — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

VortexBox is an open-source CD ripping and media server solution. Based on Fedora 10, VortexBox is capable of streaming in multiple formats allowing you to hear your music on your other computers, iTunes, media centers, slim devices like squeezeboxes and other media devices. Installation is straight forward, download the ISO file, burn it to a disc, pop the disc in the unused computer you want to turn into a jukebox and you're on your way. Once the installation is complete you can access the box remotely with the build in web server. Ripping is completely automated, just pop in the disk you want it to rip and it rips, tags, and gets the cover art. VortexBox is an open-source linux-based media server.

FormatFactory Centralizes DVD Ripping, Media Conversion

~SP — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Windows only: Free media file converter FormatFactory is a handy all-in-one utility for taking one kind of audio, video, or picture file and converting it to another. The interface is a dead-simple drag-and-drop affair, and it's meant for running batches of files through converters—FLVs to Windows Media, MPEGs to iPod-friendly video, DVDs to DivX files, etc. You won't get a lot of options for quality control, compression rate, or other tweaks, but for some folks, that's really a benefit. FormatFactory is a free download for Windows systems only.

How to upgrade your Apple In-Ear headphones

~SP — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:51:47 +0000

The project: This is probably one of the easiest and cheapest mods I’ve ever done. The idea is from Kristian Engelbrecht - a Chaosprojects.com member - who passed it on to me. When he told me about it, I knew right away I had to do it and pass it on. Oh god oh [...]

The SpyPhone – and remote recording

~SP — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:55:20 +0000

The project: How to record a meeting in such a way that even a strip search wouldn’t blow the agents’ cover and also store the recorded intel in such a way that should the agent be compromised, the intel would be safe. Oh god oh god oh why: The list of movies in which an [...]

Sniping the security

~SP — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:22:45 +0000

The project: How to remotely disable security cameras nondestructively from quite a distance… Oh God oh God oh why: It’s no secret. A lot of my inspiration comes from movies and for quite some time I have become more and more annoyed by Hollywoods sometimes rather silly solutions for an agent to shut down [...]

Shutting down OSX with a sound

~SP — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:14:04 +0000

For some unknown reason I got into my head that it would be really cool if my Macbook Pro would say something when shutting down. This is how I went about it… OSX doesn’t natively support configuring a shutdown sound so the first thing I needed to do was finding a plug-in that would bring me [...]