Jazz Song Review: Kalimba Suite by Bobby McFerrin [5/5]
12 Mar 2008 10:50 PM / Filed in: Music
[Jazz] Kalimba Suite by Bobby McFerrin
From the album Beyond Words.
Bobby McFerrin is one of my favorite artists. I highly regard his amazing voice and incredible musicality. He is a frequent guest of my iPod playlists and I often listen to his records when I need to relax, be it for sleep, for work or just for kicks. Circlesongs, released in 1997, is so far my favorite album. But I have a feeling that Beyond Words -released in 2002 and the subject of this post- might replace it.
Two weeks ago, I had a cursory glance at some online music news (which I have a hard time recollecting what kind of site it was) when I saw Bobby's name cited. So I decided to have a look at Amazon.fr and see if I can find an El Cheapo (as in price, not as in Music of course) record of the Man that I don't own. That's how I first heard about Beyond Words and also that one of the guests invited by Bobby McFerrin was Richard Bona, an amazing African bassist with a very nice voice of his own. As for the El Cheapo condition, I ordered it through Market Place (from Import CD Specialist if you care, they have top service and I ordered quite numerous times from them with no troubles so far).
When I got back from work today, the CD was waiting for me in the mailbox. After minding the kids, getting dinner and helping my dear half with housework, I ripped the CD, put on my headphones and hit the Play button. In a instant, I was travelling to Music land. I looped through the whole record once and on the second iteration, I realized how Kalimba Suite stands out. It's like being in a wonderful garden full of amazing flowers and when you go through the whole thing your preattentive processing kicks in and you realize that one particular flower stands out.
Kalimba Suite is truly exceptional. Mind you, it's a 2-in-1 song. Around 2 minutes of playing this 3:40 song, the tone changes and a synthetizer kicks in (which somehow reminded me of Tom Grant's 1990 record Edge Of The World) with a weird reverb effect. Surprising at first, it just flows nicely afterwards without really breaking the magic initiated by the first 2 minutes. And just to add to the joy I felt, the bassist is of course Mr. Bona!
Beyond Words is a very nice record that you can get with your eyes closed (and listen to with eyes closed as well to maximize the happiness).
I truly thank you Bobby for your excellent Music. Keep up the excellent job!
Meta information:
From the album Beyond Words.
Bobby McFerrin is one of my favorite artists. I highly regard his amazing voice and incredible musicality. He is a frequent guest of my iPod playlists and I often listen to his records when I need to relax, be it for sleep, for work or just for kicks. Circlesongs, released in 1997, is so far my favorite album. But I have a feeling that Beyond Words -released in 2002 and the subject of this post- might replace it.
Two weeks ago, I had a cursory glance at some online music news (which I have a hard time recollecting what kind of site it was) when I saw Bobby's name cited. So I decided to have a look at Amazon.fr and see if I can find an El Cheapo (as in price, not as in Music of course) record of the Man that I don't own. That's how I first heard about Beyond Words and also that one of the guests invited by Bobby McFerrin was Richard Bona, an amazing African bassist with a very nice voice of his own. As for the El Cheapo condition, I ordered it through Market Place (from Import CD Specialist if you care, they have top service and I ordered quite numerous times from them with no troubles so far).
When I got back from work today, the CD was waiting for me in the mailbox. After minding the kids, getting dinner and helping my dear half with housework, I ripped the CD, put on my headphones and hit the Play button. In a instant, I was travelling to Music land. I looped through the whole record once and on the second iteration, I realized how Kalimba Suite stands out. It's like being in a wonderful garden full of amazing flowers and when you go through the whole thing your preattentive processing kicks in and you realize that one particular flower stands out.
Kalimba Suite is truly exceptional. Mind you, it's a 2-in-1 song. Around 2 minutes of playing this 3:40 song, the tone changes and a synthetizer kicks in (which somehow reminded me of Tom Grant's 1990 record Edge Of The World) with a weird reverb effect. Surprising at first, it just flows nicely afterwards without really breaking the magic initiated by the first 2 minutes. And just to add to the joy I felt, the bassist is of course Mr. Bona!
Beyond Words is a very nice record that you can get with your eyes closed (and listen to with eyes closed as well to maximize the happiness).
I truly thank you Bobby for your excellent Music. Keep up the excellent job!
Meta information:
- Rating: 5/5
- Label: Blue Note
- Release year: 2002
- Related Artists: None, absolutely None!
- Bobby McFerrin's official website
- Listen to Kalimba Suite (full-length, not so bad quality) on Deezer
- An awesome improvisation featuring Bobby McFerrin and Richard Bona from your friendly YouTube
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Slides De La Présentation OpenSSH Disponibles
12 Mar 2008 06:53 AM / Filed in: I.T.
Tel que précisé dans un autre billet, j'ai effectué une présentation sur des nouveautés d'OpenSSH (directives Match et ChrootDirectory principalement) et un tour d'horizon de quelques principes de durcissement présents dans des documents de durcissement de ce logiciel et généralement rédigés par des maîtrises d'ouvrage ou d'oeuvre mais dont l'applicabilité est improbable.
Pour vous donner un exemple, prenons les clés d'authentification. Il est généralement de bon ton de demander l'abandon pur et simple de l'authentification par mots de passe et de passer à une authentification par clés. Mais c'est beaucoup plus simple à dire qu'à faire. Comment gérer leur génération (est-ce qu'il y a bien une passphrase, la passphrase choisie est bien conforme à la politique de sécurité en vigueur) ? Leur diffusion, leur mise à jour (notamment de la passphrase avec une modification tous les N jours pour rester conforme à la politique de sécurité), ....
Les outils et les contrôles traditionnellement utilisés pour aider à générer des mots de passe de qualité et de contrôler cette dite qualité dans le temps etc. ne sont pas utilisables tels quels pour les passphrases des clés ou pour les clés elles-même.
Les clés facilitent énormément la vie (pensez ssh-add/ssh-agent), on en génère seulement quelques unes au plus si on est "pragmatique" et on en change très rarement voire jamais la passphrase. Mais est-ce pour autant un problème de sécurité ? Ce n'est pas plutôt à la politique de sécurité de savoir gérer des exceptions ? J'ai pointé le problème du doigt, je vous laisse réfléchir à toutes ses facettes.
En attendant, vous pourrez télécharger les slides au format PDF à l'adresse suivante : http://saad.docisland.org/docs/files/openssh-nah-sur20080311.pdf.
Edité pour ajouter : le lien de téléchargement affichait le nom d'une autre présentation, bien qu'il pointait là où il fallait. C'est désormais corrigé. Merci à Nicolas Legrand pour avoir relevé la coquille.
Pour vous donner un exemple, prenons les clés d'authentification. Il est généralement de bon ton de demander l'abandon pur et simple de l'authentification par mots de passe et de passer à une authentification par clés. Mais c'est beaucoup plus simple à dire qu'à faire. Comment gérer leur génération (est-ce qu'il y a bien une passphrase, la passphrase choisie est bien conforme à la politique de sécurité en vigueur) ? Leur diffusion, leur mise à jour (notamment de la passphrase avec une modification tous les N jours pour rester conforme à la politique de sécurité), ....
Les outils et les contrôles traditionnellement utilisés pour aider à générer des mots de passe de qualité et de contrôler cette dite qualité dans le temps etc. ne sont pas utilisables tels quels pour les passphrases des clés ou pour les clés elles-même.
Les clés facilitent énormément la vie (pensez ssh-add/ssh-agent), on en génère seulement quelques unes au plus si on est "pragmatique" et on en change très rarement voire jamais la passphrase. Mais est-ce pour autant un problème de sécurité ? Ce n'est pas plutôt à la politique de sécurité de savoir gérer des exceptions ? J'ai pointé le problème du doigt, je vous laisse réfléchir à toutes ses facettes.
En attendant, vous pourrez télécharger les slides au format PDF à l'adresse suivante : http://saad.docisland.org/docs/files/openssh-nah-sur20080311.pdf.
Edité pour ajouter : le lien de téléchargement affichait le nom d'une autre présentation, bien qu'il pointait là où il fallait. C'est désormais corrigé. Merci à Nicolas Legrand pour avoir relevé la coquille.
Pictures From DocIsland Dinner At Chez Max
10 Mar 2008 07:07 AM / Filed in: Misc
In February, 12th, 2008, many DocIsland members got together for a dinner at Chez Max, a correct restaurant located in Les Halles in downtown Paris. LVDTime, a founding member of DocIsland, came over from Nice where he lives to Paris and we took this opportunity to organize a dinner. The restaurant was suggested by bana who got dinner there a few times before.
LVDTime made some nice shots that I have finally cleaned up a bit and published on the DocIsland Pictures section. Better late than never or so they say!
We got a few drinks at Le Sous Bock Tavern, a traditional geek beer venue located a few meters away from the restaurant.
LVDTime made some nice shots that I have finally cleaned up a bit and published on the DocIsland Pictures section. Better late than never or so they say!
We got a few drinks at Le Sous Bock Tavern, a traditional geek beer venue located a few meters away from the restaurant.
Blues Song Review: Hold On by Eric Bibb [5/5]
08 Mar 2008 07:24 AM / Filed in: Music
[Blues] Hold On by Eric Bibb
From the album Spirit I Am.
The first time I heard about Eric Bibb was back in 2003. I went to a FNAC store in downtown Paris and asked the guy at the Jazz/Blues section if he can advise artists similar to Keb' Mo'. I recall very clearly how bright his face went and he answered with a smile, handing Eric Bibb's Natural Light record. I bought it without any further question or comment and when I was back home, I put it in the CD player and I enjoyed it a lot. Since then, I am keeping a close eye on that artist. He has a great sense of Blues and uses elements of Folk and Soul as well.
Spirit I Am is his latest release. Published by DixieFrog Records in France, it is a double-album. The first is the "official" album (Get On Board) and the second (Field Recordings) is a France-only release. Field Recordings is a traditional Blues record. And my favorite song is Hold On, the fifth track of this album. Featuring Eric's warm and very soothing voice with an acoustic guitar, it instantly touched my soul. This is what I call a wonderful song. The other songs of Field Recordings and Get On Board are very good.
When I buy an album, I rip it (if it's a soft/hard shell CD) or convert it (if it's an eMusic MP3 album) into AAC using iTunes. And I usually listen to it using my Sennheiser PX200 headphones. When I received Spirit I Am, I got Omar Sosa's Afreecanos as well and a CD Sampler from Vibrations. I started by ripping Afreecanos first, then Spirit I Am and I finished with the CD Sampler. When I started listening to Hold On, my eyes fell on the Cover Flow part of iTunes' display. I took the following screenshot, which speaks for itself and for my emotions:
Meta information:
From the album Spirit I Am.
The first time I heard about Eric Bibb was back in 2003. I went to a FNAC store in downtown Paris and asked the guy at the Jazz/Blues section if he can advise artists similar to Keb' Mo'. I recall very clearly how bright his face went and he answered with a smile, handing Eric Bibb's Natural Light record. I bought it without any further question or comment and when I was back home, I put it in the CD player and I enjoyed it a lot. Since then, I am keeping a close eye on that artist. He has a great sense of Blues and uses elements of Folk and Soul as well.
Spirit I Am is his latest release. Published by DixieFrog Records in France, it is a double-album. The first is the "official" album (Get On Board) and the second (Field Recordings) is a France-only release. Field Recordings is a traditional Blues record. And my favorite song is Hold On, the fifth track of this album. Featuring Eric's warm and very soothing voice with an acoustic guitar, it instantly touched my soul. This is what I call a wonderful song. The other songs of Field Recordings and Get On Board are very good.
When I buy an album, I rip it (if it's a soft/hard shell CD) or convert it (if it's an eMusic MP3 album) into AAC using iTunes. And I usually listen to it using my Sennheiser PX200 headphones. When I received Spirit I Am, I got Omar Sosa's Afreecanos as well and a CD Sampler from Vibrations. I started by ripping Afreecanos first, then Spirit I Am and I finished with the CD Sampler. When I started listening to Hold On, my eyes fell on the Cover Flow part of iTunes' display. I took the following screenshot, which speaks for itself and for my emotions:
Meta information:
- Rating: 5/5
- Label: DixieFrog Records
- Release year: 2008
- Related Artists: Keb' Mo'
- Eric Bibb's Official Website
- I Heard The Angels Singing (YouTube Video Of A Live Performance of Eric Bibb)
Nouveautés d'OpenSSH Et Quelques Principes De Durcissement Au Groupe SUR
08 Mar 2008 06:27 AM / Filed in: I.T.
La prochaine réunion du groupe SUR aura lieu le mardi 11 mars. J'y présenterais en seconde partie de réunion les nouveautés d'OpenSSH et quelques principes de durcissement à appliquer pour augmenter le niveau de sécurité de cet outil ô combien essentiel de nos jours.
En ce qui concerne les nouveautés, je parlerais principalement des nouvelles directives de chroot en natif (et par utilisateur) ainsi que des directives Match.
Les réunions du groupe SUR étant gratuites et d'entrée libre, je vous invite à y participer. Et si vous avez des idées de présentation ou des salles à nous proposer, n'hésitez pas à me contacter.
En ce qui concerne les nouveautés, je parlerais principalement des nouvelles directives de chroot en natif (et par utilisateur) ainsi que des directives Match.
Les réunions du groupe SUR étant gratuites et d'entrée libre, je vous invite à y participer. Et si vous avez des idées de présentation ou des salles à nous proposer, n'hésitez pas à me contacter.