Too Busy For Words - the PaulWay Blog

I, as some people may have noticed, teach Irish Set Dance ¹ - er, Dance. To do this without developing a voice that can kill at ten paces, I bought a PA system with a built-in wireless microphone, CD player, echo (!) and can run off its own internal batteries, which, when combined with my music player, means that I can go pretty much anywhere ² to do a dance.

Of course, the Karma is plugged in via line-in, and it doesn't have a remote control, so I have to race back to the player to turn it off, all the while avoiding getting too close to the speaker to set up a quick bout of ear-pulverising feedback. I've got a belt-pack and somewhat uncomfortable headset to wear, which has some niggling internal fault that causes its gain control to not work, meaning that 2.11 on the dial on the back of the PA system is too soft to hear, and 2.13 is dangerously loud. I also occasionally have to carry around an index card with the notes for the dance on it, due to Irish Set Dance's one consistency: there's no rule about how a particular movement is done that isn't broken by at least one historical set. (Occasionally I even have to refer back to the book because something isn't quite clear in my notes, and sometimes even the book doesn't clarify it perfectly...). If I had a remote control, that'd be another thing to carry.

A while ago I started work on the Irish Set Dancing Markup Language, my "what's a DTD?" attempt at writing a XML specification for encoding set dance notes. (As an aside, here, I think that Irish Set Dancing and American Contra are the two forms of dancing that programmers and techies grok best: they involve keywords that code for a set of specific, usually standardised movements, they have recursive and iterative structure, and you almost always get to dance with members of the opposite sex.) The idea was that, with an appropriate browser on a palm computer, you could get the entire instructions for a dance in a modest size; and you could increase or decrease the complexity using some simple controls. You might have "{A&R, HHW}x2", but at the click of a button it turns into "Advance and Retire (in waltz hold) once, then House Half Way (in waltz hold), and repeat those two to get back to place". Sometimes all you need for the same instruction is "Slides". The ISDML was to try and give a short description at each level, so that each subgroup would have an abstract when 'rolled up'. If someone better at speaking XML and with time on their hands could email me, then I'd appreciate it.

And now that palm computers can play standard media files like mp3s (and possibly oggs), we can start to construct a palm device that can act as a reminder card and a music controller. I think what I need next is a bluetooth audio interface - a bluetooth device that provides an audio plug (two RCA sockets, a 1/4" jack, a 1/8" stereo jack, whatever), so that the palm computer can send its audio across the room wirelessly to my PA system. If the palm computer could also simultaneously have a connection to a bluetooth phone headset - i.e. a wireless microphone - then I'd throw all the other stuff away. Hell, half of this my Nokia 6230i (link not shown because it requires MacroDictator Flash 8) could do.

I'd be willing to pay $1000 for software that could do all this, and would open source it with whatever license you want. Anyone interested?

¹: While 'Safe For Work', this picture may cause involuntary vomiting and the uncontrollable desire to poke ones eyes out. Be careful. And don't ask why all eight men in the set are dressed up as women. It's safer not to know.

²: A set dance weekend away camp at Katoomba YHA, where I'm told that they have a big wooden floor just right for doing set dancing on? Why, whatever made you think of that idea?