March 8th, 2009 by djb
As you may have noticed we here at Spectral Review have been very quiet lately. We have learned when “you keep an eye on the paranormal world”, one is apt to get the feeling of being poked in that eye from time to time.
It’s taken us a while to get our bearings but we are on our way back. Some things you may notice:
New Web Site Layout
Perhaps because your editor here at Spectral Review has acquired bifocals, we wanted to make the site easier to read.
- Two columns instead of three
- Less of those annoying advertisements
- Smaller banner at the top to reduce screen space usage
- Overall a bit more white space
Our Report Card feature articles will be making a comeback. There will be some changes in their format for sure. We hope you will think these changes are magical. 
Our plan is also to do some more “hands on” ghost hunting this year. Now that the Northeast Headquarters of Spectral Review is beginning to thaw out we will get the chance.
We have a couple of other ideas that are not quite ready for prime time. When they are we will let you know. In the mean time we will try to keep you up to date with what is happening in the paranormal world, and the people working hard in it in their pursuit.
October 16th, 2008 by djb
Well it’s been a fun and interesting first year here at Spectral Review. We wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has stopped by the last year and that we have appreciated your comments on the stories we felt were interesting.
From very humble beginnings Spectral Review has managed to grow each month. Some numbers:
- Over 135,000 visits to our humble site
- 405 Stories Posted
- 36 Pages Defined
- 800 comments from Readers
- Over 5000 Spam comments
Of course the first four items are great. Luckily the last item has been managed by the Wordpress spam filter.
By far our most popular story was our Paranormal State demon post from season one. Matter of fact the comments on that story has turned into a world of it’s own!
From our point of view, here are the five best posts we have come up with this past year.
We can’t finish without mentioning our series on People in Paranormal Research, especially the one with Brad Klinge.
As the site has matured, we think the case files from paranormal groups has been interesting and important. Most readers have found Spectral Review by googling for Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State and other entertainment shows. They have come here because of those shows, but perhaps have learned more about the paranormal field by finding stories about real people while being here.
So again we thank you for stopping by. We look forward to year number two!
September 27th, 2008 by djb
Work has continued on with the Box Research Achieved In Nifty Software (BRAINS) project. For more info about BRAINS see our last release announcement.
The 0.6 release has the following added functionality:
- New sound filtering capability added to the RS Hack Simulator
- An optional random sweep mode added to the same simulator
- New program called the Audio Sifter
The Audio Sifter program allows the researcher to connect their real RS hack box to their computer via an audio cable and then process the live sound via the new sound filtering capability added to this release. You can read the Audio Sifter Guide for more information.
You may need to download a new live CD (right click, save link as…) as some filtering support libraries were missing on the original live CD. And you will need the new installer (right click, save link as…) program. You can see our original guide on installing as it has not changed from the original other than the additional Audio Sifter program.
You should be able to install over the previous release or you can install to a new folder. Any saved settings can be reused with the new release.
I was also able to clean up some code and fix some bugs. The source code (tar gzip) (right click, save link as…) or as a zip file.
One last thing to note. You could run the installer on Windows. I mean it will install BRAINS but the RS Hack Simulator will not find any radio devices as code is still to be written to support them on Windows and the Mac. In the next release we plan on Windows support for the Audio Sifter program. And perhaps also on the Mac.
To enable these two ports the project GStreamer needs to be built on Windows. I nearly was able to do it for this release but the GStreamer project is not quite there yet for what the Audio Sifter needs. Much is there but missing two or three pieces.
Perhaps in the coming weeks.
September 6th, 2008 by djb
“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?”
– Albert Einstein
That quote was written on a big sign that I read when I went to work the first day on my current day job. Of course I like it because if good ol’ Albert sometimes gets confused then the rest of us should be cut some slack too.
I write software in my day job and I have wondered if I could bring those skills to the paranormal community in some way. I must admit the paranormal field is very interesting to me. It’s fun to read about, listen to people talk about it on podcasts, watch on TV whether it be reality or fiction. Of course some may say that it’s all fiction but we here at Spectral Review take an approach that we Humans really can’t say we have all the answers. Thanks to folks like Albert we do understand much about our physical universe but our feeling is what we know is less than what we don’t know.
I was very intrigued by an interview that was on KAPS Paranormal Radio in June. They had a gentleman on by the name of Bruce Halliday. The interview discussed the research people are doing on real time spirit communication. Shortly after we heard that interview we put together a primer on real time spirit communication.
There are several methods that researchers try to conduct real time spirit communication and one of them is by using a radio. The radio is “hacked” so it scans the frequencies at a high rate of speed. This has the effect of creating a sound made up of bits and fragments of radio noise and sounds which a spirit uses to form words.
I got to thinking that this same result could be done in software as there have been many computer devices that can tune FM radio.
Introducing the Box Research Achieved In Nifty Software (BRAINS) research project.
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June 27th, 2008 by djb
Well not really. But is does explain why your editor has not posted much the last few days here at Spectral Review!
The Ghost was a tree stump. I didn’t see the stump before I tripped over it and I haven’t ever seen a Ghost so through some very convoluted logic I can come to that assumption.
Of course that logic is wrong. Jack the 18 week old puppy (future K9 unit member) saw a rabbit in the back yard and chased it. Apparently he likes chasing rabbits as much as ghosts. Well anyway he went into a thicket of trees which border our property and separate it from a highway, so I went in to find him.
Then that ghostly tree stump jumped out and tripped me fracturing the fibula at the ankle. Ouch! But I can report I didn’t even say any naughty words.
Hopefully we will be able to get back to our regular schedule of bringing you the most interesting paranormal news!
May 20th, 2008 by djb
We here at Spectral Review recently had the opportunity to visit and stay at the Myrtles Plantation.
We have a photo gallery to share with you. None of the photos are paranormal in nature but they do give you an idea on what Myrtles Plantation looks like.
Enjoy!
May 20th, 2008 by djb
We here at Spectral Review took the opportunity to accompany the paranormal investigators of Everyday Paranormal to the Myrtles Plantation on May 20, 2008. We were able to investigate the Myrtles Plantation with them and since we were newbies, they taught us some of the basics and allowed us a glimpse into the real world of paranormal investigation.
It is an experience that we will never forget and one that will be hard to top.
There is a ton of stuff we will be sharing over the coming days but I wanted to let everyone know right now that if you have a chance to go on a future event with Everyday Paranormal you have to jump on it.
See the Myrtles Plantation Photo Gallery, and you can read the investigation timeline.
So here is a huge thanks to Brad, Barry, Steve, Hector, Steve, Mike, and Gretchen. Thank you for allowing us and the other dozen or so newbies to come along. We appreciate the extra work that you undertook because we were there, along with all the regular work that goes into an investigation.
Not only are these people terrific in what they do, they also turned out to be really nice people too.
Everyday Paranormal rocks!
May 16th, 2008 by djb
The time has arrived.
The staff here at Spectral Review will soon be heading south to spend an evening at the Myrtles Plantation. The Myrtles Plantation is known as “One of America’s Most Haunted Homes”.
Not being paranormal investigators we are fortunate that we will be accompanied by the very experienced paranormal investigators of Everyday Paranormal.
We can guarantee that upon our return we will:
- Tell some stories
- Display some photos
What we cannot guarantee:
- We won’t pee our pants
- Run screaming into the night
In the future, keep an eye on the Everyday Paranormal Event Page for future investigations that YOU could be a part.
If you listen to the EVP at the bottom of their evidence page on their last visit to Myrtles Plantation, you can hear one of the creepiest EVPs we have ever heard. It was captured in the “General Bradford Suite”. That is the suite in which your friends from Spectral Review we will be staying.
Gulp.
April 30th, 2008 by djb
We have to apologize as we here at Spectral Review haven’t posted much news recently. It’s really for two reasons. The first reason is that it’s actually been kind of slow news-wise with not too much happening.
Here is the second reason.
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April 8th, 2008 by djb
We are very happy to announce that Spectral Review has received some terrific photos of the casements at Fort Mifflin. It was in these casements where William H Howe was detained while he was tried twice for desertion and murder. Please check out the Fort Mifflin Photo Gallery.
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These photos were sent to us by Dr Robert Alotta who wrote the definitive book about William H Howe entitled Stop The Evil. These photos were taken by Kevin Coyle. Kevin was one of the first members of the Old Fort Mifflin Guard. He’s been devoted to the Fort for almost 35 years.
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