Author: Dolapo Soboyede

Circle of Fourths and the Number System

Hi Folks,

Here’s a quick interesting observation about circle of fourths and the number system in music.

If you move in fourth intervals in a given key, you will follow the pattern:

7 – 3 – 6 – 2 – 5 – 1 – 4 – ♭7 – ♭3 – ♭6 – ♭2 – ♭5

and then the circle repeats.

This means if you start at the 7th tone of the scale, e.g. B in the key of C, then move by a fourth interval, you will reach the 3rd tone of the scale, e.g. E in the key of C, etc.

Thus by memorizing this number pattern, you have a way of knowing where the next key falls on the scale when you move by a fourth.

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy music learning.

Tip on how to clean a lawn mower

Hi folks,

In this post I talk about a nice way to clean lawn mowers.

As a lawn mower gets used over time dirt builds up around the product.

First step is to use a brush to scrub off dirt from the lawn mower.

After this, here’s the actual tip: Use a flat blade screwdriver covered with a cloth.

Thus allows you to reach spots that may be difficult or impossible to reach with a brush.

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy gardening.

The importance of paying attention to what you believe in the Mass Media

Hi folks,

In this post I’ll share some insight I came about while reading the books My Watch by Obasanjo. The insight to be careful about what one believes in the mass media.

First, media outlets usually like to publish sensational news about people some of which are usually false. It’s not every time that newspapers take the time to verify information before publishing it. This happens even with supposedly reputable newspapers.

Second, how the media portrays a person depends to an extent on the person’s relationship with the media companies. For example, if one is nice to media staff, showering them with gifts, money, etc, the media is likely to write good things about the person. But if one doesn’t show as much camaraderie and generosity towards the media, then it’s likely the media will publish negative things about the person, even if those things aren’t true.

So, when you read sensational news in the media about famous personalities, it’s good to be careful about what you believe in such news.

That’s all for now.

Insights from disassembling a kindle

Hi folks,

In this post I share a few insights I gained when I disassembled my Kindle. It was an old D01100 kindle. Why did I disassemble it, well, it was working very well and I was just curious to see what the great Amazon kindle contained.

The most important insight i made is that no one accomplishes something truly great without relying on others.

when i opened brought out the circuit board, i found there were components from samsung and texas instruments, atheros, etc.

this means amazon had to rely on these other amazing companies to create the kindle. amazon didn’t just create the kindle itself out of thin air.

A minor insight i made is that i discovered the torx screwdriver and star screw. I had to use a torx screwdriver since all the screws used in the kindle were star screws. As I didn’t have such screwdriver on hand I had to quickly order a set. Luckily they’re relatively cheap.

So in conclusion, by studying the inner parts of a kindle I learnt that collaboration is needed to create things that are truly great. Also, I learnt that it’s a good idea to have a set of torx screwdrivers in your toolkit if you plan to tinker with electronics.

Below is what the kindle looks like afer disassembly. Not all parts present.

That’s all for now.

Fascination with Diwali

Hi folks,

In this post I’ll talk about an interesting festival called Diwali. A few days ago I noticed that some of my friends were celebrating Diwali festival and it looked very colourful. It included lighting diyas (stylish lamps), wearing saree and lots of other fun stuff. so I though I would do a little research about it.

Diwali is often referred to as festival of light. It is celebrated by people of different faith around the world, including many Hidu, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims and Bhuddhists. It is usually cenebrated over 5 days. It involves lots of feasts, sweets, making offerings to gods, lighting diyas, visiting friends and relatives.

The significance of Diwali festival is to signify peace and joy, the victory of good over evil, and light over darkness every day. What a wonderful festival it is!

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy celebration.

References

1. Diwali 2021: Significance, history, date, time, puja muhurat and all you need to know. https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/festivals/diwali-2021-significance-history-date-time-puja-muhurat-and-all-you-need-to-know-101635849456204.html

2. When is Diwali 2021 and how is it celebrated? https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/02/diwali-2021-when-how-is-it-celebrated-15522781/

How to enable or disable users in Windows 10

Hi folks,

In this quick post I briefly go over how to enable or disable users in Windows 10.

  1. Launch cmd as an adminstrator
  2. List all users by running the following command in cmd: 
    net user
  3. Once you find the user you want to disable, run the following command: 
    net user theusername /active:no
  4. To enable a user, run the following command: 
    net user theusername /active:yes

That’s all!

Till next time, happy system administration.

References

  1. How to Enable or Disable a Windows 10 User Account. How-To Geek. https://www.howtogeek.com/396117/how-to-enable-or-disable-a-windows-10-user-account/

One Line Script for Converting tiff to pdf files in Linux

Hi folks,

In this post I briefly talk about a one-line script to convert a number of tiff files to pdf files. This can be useful if you scan documents in tiff format and want to save them in pdf format for easy reading. Here it is

Suppose you have a few files 1.tiff, 2.tiff and 3.tiff and need to convert them to 1.pdf, 2.pdf and 3.pdf using the tiff2pdf library, here’s the command to do this on a terminal in Linux:

 

/bin/bash -c 'for i in 1 2 3; do tiff2pdf -o "$i.pdf" "$i.tiff"; done;'

That’s all for now.

Happy software development.

Song: My God is good

Hi folks,

In this post I share a new song I just composed. It’s been on my mind for a few days so I decided to record it once and for all and share.

It’s a song I created to reflect my gratitude to God for being so good to me so far.

Here’s the recording.

The lyrics of the song is:

My God is good
Every day
My God is good
Every day my God is good
My God is good

God is full of grace
Every day
He makes me to succeed
In what I lay my hands upon
God is full of grace

God is merciful
Every day
He forgives me of my sings
Every day he’s merciful
God is merciful

My God is good
Every day
My God is good
Every day my God is good
My God is good

Here’s how you play the song on the piano.

First, it’s in the key of A major.

On the left hand you essentially play 2 chords: Amajor7 and Gmajor7 both in root position, sometimes with a run up to the chord

Each bar has 4 beats

It’s played as

Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7 (2 beats)
Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7 (2 beats)
…

i.e. the third instance of the chord is played for 2 beats.

So in short you play a 1 major7 chord and ♭7 major7 chord

Verse 1

Voice My God is good
RH E C♯ B A C♯
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice E ve ry day
RH C♯ E F♯ C♯
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice My God is good
RH F♯ C♯ B A C♯
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice E ve ry day my God is good
RH C♯ E F♯ A F♯ C♯ A B
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice
RH G A B A G E D
LH Gmajor7 Gmajor7 Gmajor7
Voice My God is good
RH E E C♯ B A C♯
LH Gmajor7 Gmajor7 Gmajor7
Voice
RH G♯ E F♯
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice
RH C♯ E
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7

Instrumental verse

Voice
RH G♯ B C♯ E F♯ G♯
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice
RH F♯ E C♯ B A
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice
RH G♯ B C♯ E F♯ G♯
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice
RH G♯ E C♯ F♯
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice
RH E D
LH Gmajor7 Gmajor7 Gmajor7
Voice
RH E
LH Gmajor7 Gmajor7 Gmajor7
Voice
RH
LH Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7
Voice
RH
LH E F♯ Amajor7 Amajor7 Amajor7

The remaining verses have the same instrumental.

That’s all for now. Happy listening.

Song: Oh My!

Hi folks,

In this post I share a new relaxing song I composed recently while practicing on the piano. It’s titled Oh My!

It is in G♭ pentatonic scale.

On the right hand I play just one single chord: G♭9 (add 6) – that is D♭ E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭

Each line comprises 4 beats. The right hand chord is played on every beat, except on the last verse where we play the chord once per line.

On the left hand I play the melody.

Here’s the recording of the song.

And here is the transcription of the melody.

E♭ E♭ E♭ E♭

D♭ D♭ D♭ D♭

B♭ B♭ B♭ B♭

E♭

E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭ B♭

D♭ E♭ G♭ A♭ A♭

B♭ D♭ E♭ G♭ G♭

E♭

E♭ B♭ A♭ G♭ E♭ E♭

D♭ A♭ G♭ E♭ D♭ D♭

B♭ G♭ E♭ D♭

E♭

E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭ D♭ B♭

D♭ E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭ B♭

B♭ D♭ E♭ G♭ A♭ A♭

E♭

E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭ A♭ G♭

D♭ E♭ G♭ A♭ G♭ A♭

B♭ D♭ E♭ G♭ E♭ D♭

E♭

E♭ B♭ A♭ G♭ E♭ E♭

D♭ A♭ G♭ E♭ D♭ D♭

B♭ G♭ E♭ D♭ D♭

E♭

E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭

D♭ E♭ G♭ A♭

B♭ D♭ E♭ G♭

E♭

E♭

D♭

B♭

E♭

That’s all for now. Happy listening.

Considerations when choosing a spouse

Hi folks,

In this post I’ll discuss something a bit different from my usual topics. It’s in the area of relationships, specifically, a few things to keep in mind when choosing a spouse. I learnt some of these things only fairly recently so I thought I would share. They are as follows:

Character – it’s good to choose a spouse whose character is compatible with yours. Make sure you’re generally comfortable with the person’s character e.g. if a man who is very gentle marries a woman who is super aggressive, it could be a recipe for trouble.

Physical appearance – your spouse should be someone you would feel proud presenting to others in society. Ask yourself this question: how would you feel if your child looks just like your spouse? Would you be happy? Ideally there should be some kind of balance in your appearance versus the other person’s appearance. If you decide to break this rule, make sure your partner has other qualities to compensate for the lack of desirable appearance.

Pedigree – pay close attention to a person’s education and family history e.g. parents and other relations. Make sure your pedigree isn’t too far off from your partner’s, otherwise there could be wide gaps in way of thinking which can cause issues if left unaddressed. Also, ideally you want someone with a good pedigree.

Compatibility of genotypes – make sure the genotypes are compatible, unless you really know what you’re doing.

World view – make sure your world view e.g. religion, philosophies, etc. is reasonably well-aligned with that of the other person. Also make sure your life goals are well-aligned.

Health – have good knowledge of the person’s health so you know if there’re any health issues to keep in mind and, if so, how to handle it should you choose to marry the person.

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy relationships.