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• Review of December Events

  December Section Meeting "Audio and Computer music in the Present Age":  (Review by Charles Gervasi)  Greg Taylor's talk was called “Campfires Seen from Orbit” because it approached the subject from a philosophical view of how electronic music fits into music over human history. When Max, an early music creation software, started 36 years ago, it required a whole room of computing equipment to run. Now it runs easily on a laptop, making modern musicians think of a laptop as an essential musical instrument. New technology tends to affect music in unforeseen ways. Originally someone put a microphone on a guitar to make it louder.  Imperfections like clipping or feedback became part of music and became more important than the original purpose of adding a mic. There is a modern type of music called Congotronics that uses older electronics repurposed playing traditional music from the Congo in completely new ways. 

  
  Taylor talks about the broad question in technology of “what’s the next big thing?” As engineers we want to know because have an interest in cutting-edge technology and there’s potential for great wealth. Taylor says the question is based on a false premise of a linear progression of technology. There is no “next big thing”. We have access to things down “the long tail”, not vetted by gatekeepers, and not geo-local. The talk touched on chaos theory of “attractors”. Starting with the phonograph, music has been getting easier and cheaper to record and transmit, making it seem natural for music to be free. The perception of the cost of music is affected by the cost of the media. Every new development in music technology influences music in unpredictable ways.
  
  There are countless new pieces of musical hardware and software people are creating and sharing on the Internet. Taylor showed us an example of a keyboard with lights that is really nothing more than an I/O device for a computer that lends itself to music. There are musical instruments that run entirely on a tablet computer. In one example, the musician can drag things around on the screen to change the nature of the sound. In the past musical communities formed to develop music. They admitted or rejected people based on certain aesthetic judgments and biases of the members. These musical communities have gone online. They serve the same purpose as musical communities throughout human history except everyone can join regardless of initial judgments of members, opening music to people who in the past would have not been part of a community. This will affect music in unknown and exciting ways.

  
  
  Photo:  Greg Taylor's Section Meeting Talk: "Campfires Seen from Orbit: Audio and Computer Music in the Current Age"
  

December ECN Meeting: Was held on Thursday, December 3rd and included free pizza and snacks  It was a social/professional "Meet and Greet" where attendees shared their background and had an opportunity to pitch what it is they do. Topics ranged from manufacturing temperature probes in China, to not exporting jobs to China. There was a particularly lively discussion of software job opportunities ranging from "I need one (Software Development)", to "My job was exproted to India (database Programming)" to "I see opportunities for the foreseeable future (Embedded Controllers)".


• Upcoming Meetings

  January Life Member Affinity Group Meeting: Chuck Kime will be giving a dynamite image and video presentation of his photos from Denali.  Chuck has used time in retirement to polish his considerable skill in photography and videography. Don't miss it! Check out some of his work Chuck Kime | Flickr.
  
  January Madison Section Meeting: Professor Vasquez, the current President of the IEEE Magnetics Society will give a lecture on CoFe Nanotubes. NOTE THE DAY change -- Monday rather than the usual third Thursday. 
  

• IEEE Madison Election Results

  Madison Section Officer Elections: Chair: Charles Gervasi, Vice Chair: Matthew Bartlett, Secretary: Steve Schultheis, Treasurer: Thomas Kaminski,
  Members-At-Large: Sanford Rotter, Mitchell Bradt, Craig Heilman, Dennis Bahr, Clark Johnson.  In addition, the following positions have been affirmed: Membership Development: Scott Olsen, Webmaster: Timothy Chapman, Engineering Consultants Network (ECN) Chair: Thomas Kaminski, Educational Activities: Ann Thompson, Newslstter Editor: Thomas Kaminski, Engineers in Medicine and Biology Chapter Chair: Dennis Bahr.  As previously reported, Charles Cowie is Chair and Charles Kime, Vice Chair for the Life Member Affinity Group (LMAG).

• Volunteers Needed
  

  Micro Volunteers: Do you have some time to spare to help IEEE-Madison Section?  Perhaps you have a meeting topic that you would like to see us host and could find a speaker.   Maybe you have time to call a few members who might have forgotten to renew their membership. 
  
  Please consider sending some time helping with the Section activities.  Let me know (tjkaminski (at) ieee.org).

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