Rock Star alter egos are growing in numbers "You're forming a fake band -- that's what you do," says Sadri, calling the game "the best part of karaoke, adding in a drummer and guitars."
The Magpie Developer Jeff Atwood is one of the best programmer/writers around. I love reading his stuff, some I agree wholeheartedly with, other stuff we disagree, but this post is about a dead-on as they come. This idea has been floating in my head for a long time, but it is hard for me to conceptualize it in words, Atwood does a brilliant job at it. Must read for any developer.
Andy Olmsted's Last Blog Entry. (Warning: Pretty rough) No matter how you feel politically about the war, this reminds you that each number people throw around as statistics is a human life. This is extremely well written, and pretty rough on your soul towards the end, but something everyone should read. Its a shitty situation all around, but there is always a human face behind the statistics and I want to make sure I never forget that.
To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.
Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood.
making vodka pills in 24 hours Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms.
Strategy Letter VI - joelonsoftware.com As a programmer, thanks to plummeting memory prices, and CPU speeds doubling every year, you had a choice. You could spend six months rewriting your inner loops in Assembler, or take six months off to play drums in a rock and roll band, and in either case, your program would run faster. Assembler programmers don’t have groupies.
Entire Article is Dead On. A must read for anyone in the software biz.
it's earliy in the morning, ive been up for like 28 hours working on finals, I'm about pissed off at anything that moves... but that clip made me laugh so hard i cried... and then i kept crying because i hate urban goverments and the process of gentrification.
I admit it. I barely ever read manuals to electronics I get. I should I know. I put tons of time into research on what to purchase, but after the purchase I never read the manuals. If I had read the manual for my Sennheiser HDR 65 headphones that i researched into the ground when I was purchasing I would have been so much more happier with the purchase.
Let me explain. I love these headphones, they are by far the best sound quality and most comfortable headphones I have put on. Ever. They were kinda pricey $100+ but totally worth it with the amount of music that I listen to at work. (To atest to this take a look at my last.fm log that I started ohh 4 months or so ago, it already has 4000+ songs on it). So the only major pet peeve I had about the headphones are that they last a total of about 5-6 hours per charge. I generally have headphones on about 6-8 hours a day, so inevitably at about 4pm or so I used to switch back to some other cheap sony wireless ones I had. It was is always kinda a downer in my day to tell you the truth. It is like drinking a tasty cold coke then someone ripping the glass out of your hands and replacing it with a Tab or some shit. Alas, I love my music so I would weather the uncomfortable sonys for the rest of the day. At about 4:30 or so I get this IM from the bunny, who bought the same pair of headphone a few weeks ago:
Bunnyspatial says:
Just realized I can take the battery from my headphones and there is a slot in the back to charge it by itself. Theoreticaly, I could swap batteries if I can find another one
Cyanbane says:
Oooo
Cyanbane says:
nice find
Bunnyspatial says:
What we get for not reading instructions
Cyanbane says:
now to find some extra batteries and a houseing to charge while we listen
Bunnyspatial says:
Housing?
Cyanbane says:
yeah how are you gonna press an extra battery up against that thing while you listen to your headphones?
Bunnyspatial says:
Mine has a slot in the back for the battery
Cyanbane says:
??
Bunnyspatial says:
The back of the charger
Cyanbane says:
HOLY SHIT
Bunnyspatial says:
hehehe
Cyanbane says:
I toally have 2 batteries
Cyanbane says:
im a fuggin idiot
Bunnyspatial says:
There is one in there?
Cyanbane says:
yeah
Bunnyspatial says:
hahahah!
Cyanbane says:
holy crapola, you just made my day
Cyanbane says:
HOLY SHITE
Cyanbane says:
you rock
Bunnyspatial says:
Now i just have to find another, L
Bunnyspatial says:
L(
Bunnyspatial says:
Cyanbane says:
i shall help you on your search
Bunnyspatial says:
[Shop.com Link]
Cyanbane says:
[Ebay Link]
Cyanbane says:
you know I always wondered why the charger light was lit up, it iwas lit up because the battery on the back was always charging
Bunnyspatial says:
Hooray!
Cyanbane says:
i am so happy right now
Cyanbane says:
no more of my shitty second pair of head phones
Bunnyspatial says:
Just wish mine had come with an extra
Bunnyspatial says:
I prolly threw it away
Cyanbane says:
mine must have already been in the thing, becuase I know I woudl have wondered what I was putting in
Moral: RTFM
The Battery (Upon a Image Search):
It has been awhile since I posted about some new tunes, so here is a few CDs I am looking forward too and also a few that I have been listening too this past few weeks. First some albums coming up that I am really excited about:
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
Already preordered this baby. I am extremely excited about this album by The Raconteurs Jack White [White Stripes], Brendon Benson , Jack Lawrence [Greenhorns] and Patrick Keeler [Greenhorns]. I have heard about 5 tracks off of it and I have enjoyed every single one of them. In the player are 2 BBC sessions and a song Blue Veins that Fred posted on his site earlier this week, also you can get 'Steady as She Goes' as a single on iTunes. I think Blue Veins and Store Bought Bones have to be my favs so far. I usually won't tell people to preorder an album if I have not heard all of it, but this one might just be too good to pass up.
Jars of Clay - Good Monsters
We went and saw Jars of Clay last weekend, and they played 3 songs from the forth coming new album (Sept?) called Good Monsters. There was one song (didn't get the name sorry) that I swore I was watching CSNY perform, the band sang almost the entire song in perfect harmony, and I really think it will be as big of a radio single as they have ever had. They also played the title song from the CD and I enjoyed it immensely also. The songs sound a little more alt-country than previous CDs (I have to admit though, I have only heard 3 albums of their massive catalog).
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
I really enjoyed Riot Act immensely when it came out, although I liked Binaural, No Code, and Yield, they just didn't appeal to me as much as my favorite PJ album Vitology. I have not heard a single thing off this album, but I have heard comparisons to Vitology, so I am hoping for the best. You really can't go wrong with a Pearl Jam album though.
Also included on the player that I have been listning to this week a bunch:
Heavy Mojo - Polly : Awesome Cover of Nirvana's Polly. I saw these guys 3 weekends ago at Tabernacle, awesome live show. It Is What It Is (at Amz).
Eagles of Death Metal - Poor Doggie : I love this band, I loved Peace, Love and Deathmetal and the new album Death by Sexy is just as good. This is one of my favorite tracks off it. Whole CD is awesome. Wish these guys would come to Atlanta. Pick Death By Sexy Up here.
Willie Nelson / Merle Haggard - Pancho and Lefty : I have been on a big Willie Nelson kick here lately, and had forgotten about this Duet till I bought the CD off iTunes. certainly this is the highlight of the album, but the whole album is great. The Cover always freaked me out a little bit in that Uncanny Valley/Bad Photoshop way, but the music is awesome. Pick Up Pancho & Lefty.
Lewis Taylor - Stoned Pt. 1 : One of my favorite artists is Maxwell, and although this isn't Maxwell it does sound like the smooth sound of him. Again, I wouldn't post it unless the whole CD was good. Stoned.
David Gray - Nos De Cariad : Me and the wife were in the car the other day and had the ipod on shuffle and this came on. I listened to the CD a decent amount, the first single off the cd was very John Mellancamp (not a bad thing) but this song really struck a cord with me. It is dark, but great. Life In Slow Motion Here.
Also included is the Raconteurs's Blue Veins mentioned earlier, and 2 BBC session that were posted over on avc. Great stuff.
Brainstorm it:
I'm so stoked about the Racconteurs CD . The only song I've heard has already made an excessive number of rounds on my iPod.
Everyone knows my fascination with the power glove, so I saw this hack and thought it was one of the coolest things I had seen in awhile. The guys has rigged up a gyroscope to the powerglove, and is playing UT2004 with it. Looks pretty sweet. I have my hopes up for the gyroscopic Revolution controller (will probably buy that console when it comes out). I think it would probably hurt like hell to keep your hand that strait for such a long time in this case, but I would love to see the powerglove come back as a gyroscopic USB device someday.
Brainstorm it:
Very cool but I wouldn't want to play for very long with it. I agree with you on the revolution though. If the games are going to be good then I'm all over it. Right now I'm still salivating over the PS3. My Iraq hookup for a 360 fell through so I'm stuck waiting.
Yahoo picked up Meedio today. I don't know much about Meedio except that it is similar to BeyondTV and has an open plugin interface. I will probably download their free version tonight on my main pc just to play around with it, looking at the website it looks pretty cool (and only $50 for the full version). This puts an end to the speculation of Yahoo picking up Tivo. I assume they are probably still on the block. Is Tivo looking at a Googly future? I have a feeling that it might look like a nice purchase for the big G. Especially now that Y! has their own face on the TV.
Important News About Meedio
Brainstorm it:
I have to say it again - this is one of the best blogs I've seen. It has loads of info that is all sorted very well. It stays true to a blog by being focused on one person's ideas and thoughts. Damn good blog!
"According to the New York Times' interpretation of this study, 65% of women between the ages of 25 and 34 play video games while only 35% of men in that same age bracket play video games.
The big difference is that women choose to play so-called 'casual games' that are commonly found on portals such as Pogo.com, MSN.com, and Yahoo.com (and Xbox Live Arcade, too) while men favor games that are sold at places like GameStop. There's no hard data on why the sexes have such different gaming preferences, but many believe it's because women favor less competitive games that lack the violence and complicated control schemes so prevalent in 'hardcore' games enjoyed by men."
This is a HUGE untapped market if you ask me. My wife takes her Sudoku book almost anytime we are going to be in the car for more than 5 mins. I am not sure if the PC (other than online games) will ever be able to really take over a female market, but companies like Nintendo (DS/Revolution) are probably going to be the first to jump on this compared to Sony/MS. Nintendo just needs to get an online delivery method kicking that includes social user context applications (im, email, etc).
65% of women, 35% of men aged 25-34 play games - Joystiq
Brainstorm it:
only 35% men? apparently these people didnt give the survey in Milledgeville (scoff).
I have written about network neutrality and the peril that if the telcos (Bellsouth, Verizon, & AT&T) were to introduce fees to the service provider it would cripple innovation and also stifle new businesses ideas across the country. If an entrepreneur has a kick ass idea for something like Zillow that would have high bandwidth costs for data aggregation then the idea of creating said app (if they were indeed going to be hosting some of that data) may not be worth the cost of invention. As of now, when creating something off "web 2.0" apis for data aggregation the bandwidth is "generally" utilized from the api provider's end (ie the main service offering the data [ie Google, Amz, ebay, etc]) Now if carriers want to charge the providers for this "extra bandwidth" (generalized term) then I believe it will force these companies to be unable to provide their api for free, which hurts everyone, developers, idea harbors, and users alike (basically, no more fun web stuff). Basically the carriers want a piece of the pie here in this 'web2.0' economy, the only problem is that technically they already got a slice ("pass the cake, Milton") because they charge each of us monthly fees to utilize their pipes that go into out homes. This is very akin in my mind to George vs the non-Double Dipping wake attendee. I would be considered the attendee, the carriers would be George.
Now I wrote about GoogleNet towards the end of last year, and I must admit that it has been progressing a lot slower than I honestly thought it would. I believe I just read a few days ago that Google and Earthlink maybe? was awarded the ability to start blanketing downtown San Fran with what I believe is the first stages of 'GoogleNet'. San Fran might be the beta testers, if you will, for an entire nationwide coverage of wifi. Now To accomplish this Google is expected to pick up some new frequencies (to carry this new wifi channel) from the FTC. I expected that they would try to do this for this specific reason. What I didn't expect was that rumors are flying that it might not be only Google attempting this. From reading this article and also this article at IBD, some people are thinking that the carrier's wanting of charge for the providers bandwidth might also warrant a consortium of companies (virtual large scale enemies if you take into acct Microsoft and Google) to form a consortium to purchase these frequencies for a large wifi blanket that would probably come much sooner with multiple players involved.
So if this were to happen, what do I think it would mean for the avg consumer?
1.) Competition is always great, for me personally I think that this consortium could faaaaar better innovate than some of the hulking telcos in regards to creating better service for customers. When it comes to customer service though I think avg Joe would be screwed either way. But a non-end point service (ie wifi) would be much easier to provide to a consumer (with less hassle) than an end point pipe (telcos wires running to your door where a service man needs to come check on). there would still be overhead with the wifi, but I think it would be smaller just with the nature of a centralized broadcasting system for any given area.
2.) I think eventually it would kill the telcos. Unfortunately they started this fight, but if from what I was saying would happen in the next few years it would obliterate them. I do not believe they could out-innovate this consortium, especially if it came down to developing new advertising models for this service (by providing this service for free you agree to see some advertising) because telcos have had that ability for years, and nothing has come of it (that I am aware of). I know I still pay $65 a month for my cable modem.
3.) Privacy/Security issues, I personally would feel safer knowing that my data is going over the wire instead of floating through the air. So I think this is a positive for the telcos, but eventually everything will be flowing through our bodies on waves so there really is nothing that I can do about it.
4.) A wifi VOIP network would eliminate the need for cellular services, and could double as mapping, gps devices related to the servies offered by the companies's providing the apis.
It is a very interesting time for broadband providers (and some that might become broadband proviers) I am eager to see how it all plays out and if any of these predictions might be correct.
Internet, Media Outfits Could Bid For Spectrum
Links to Places that might be commenting on this further:
Om Malik's Broadband (GigaOM)A VCSiliconBeatArs TechnicaWiredFederated MediaI, Cringley
Brainstorm it:
Zillow.com is a great idea if they can get it to work properly. Looks like it is just using the tax assessed value of your house, which in no way represents the value.
I agree, they know nothing about the inside of the house, nor the upkeep, but it is a great starting point to try to look at trending analysis or just general area calculations. The tax assesment val is the only thing they have I belive that is within the public domain (ie we can go find it out about any piece of property from the county courthouse). I have already seen calculators on zillow, I assume that will be where the configuration comes into play. It may even still be in beta.
I weighed 186 lbs on Jan 1st, since then through just eating better and also fairly regular exercise I am now down to 171. My ultimate goal was 160, but since I lost a decent amount of weight fairly quickly, I went ahead and decided to try to get down to 155. The only problem is that since I have made that goal, my weight loss rate has been dropping slowly but surely to the point now where I am almost stagnant. As of last week I still eat probably around 1600 calories a day and was hitting the gym at least 3x a week (around 500 calories burned each time) but I guess my body has adapted to my switch to diet coke, and the exercise so I am in a phase now where the weight loss is slow. So I decided to revisit the now world famous Mes Del Agua. I started yesterday and will drink the ceremonious "Heavy Mojito" on the last day at midnight (Thur May 11th at 12:01 pm). But until then no liquids except water. As with last time, slightly flavored waters are ok, just nothing on the juice front.
Being the second day I started to get the caffeine withdrawal headache this morning. It is not to bad as of right now, but I am really going to be hurting tomorrow. If I remember from my previous 'Mes del Agua' it should be gone around the end of day 4. I also am going to make sure that I burn 10k this month so that is 2500 calories a week (5 x 500 Calorie cardio sessions) to see if that will help. If I do lose weight, it will probably be obscured so I cannot tell which was the real catalyst for the loss (mes del agua vs 2500 cals per week), but I figure maybe this will kick back in the weight loss. Since the last Mes Del Agua there have probably only been a handful of nights that I didn�t enjoy a tasty Cuba Libre night cap, which will probably bother me the most, but I figure if I can�t sleep the best thing to do is to just stay awake and make sure I am tired the next night. I did it once I can do it again. Bring on the Propel. I honestly plan to blog about this mes del agua much more than the last one. I think I only had one or two entries on the first one.
Brainstorm it:
It's not about eating less. It's about eating regularly. I have lost 35 pounds now, and I eat 6-7 times a day. Breakfast, lunch, dunner, and snacks in-between. This keeps my metabolism going strong and makes sure the food is processed correctly. You should see my nutritionist. :)
"Greg Torre, director of the Georgia Department of Economic Development's (GDEcD) Film, Video & Music Office, was pleased with the announcement:
'We see interactive entertainment as a vital element in the entertainment industry as a whole. Since Georgia has colleges and universities dedicated to cutting-edge technology sitting alongside mainstays in the broadcast industry, this tax incentive seems an ideal way to highlight the fact that Georgia can be an incubator for new and exciting entertainment technology. All the resources are here. Now, we help publishers afford it.'
Georgia is home to several digital entertainment developers, such as mobile phone game developer Blue Heat, streaming technology company GameTap, 3D game engine builder and multimedia host Kaneva, machinima production company RoosterTeeth Productions (Red vs. Blue & The Strangerhood) and online developer Studiocom."
Smart, Strategic Thinking. Helps a decent amount of companies ALREADY doing interesting things here that have not been released, AND ALSO helps those looking to piggy back on that. Kudos to Greg Torre for the forethrought (If it was him that brought it about).
gamepolitics: Georgia Approves Tax Breaks for Game Developers
I didn�t get a chance to post last week's Audio Notes, so this week I went ahead and put up a stream to some of the songs.
I have REALLY been enjoying that Rocco DeLuca & The Burden Record. The whole album is certainly top notch. I picked it up off iTunes, but it you can get it from Amaz now. I choose to stream Colorful because even though it may be the most popish sounding song on the CD, it is certainly the most catchy. The other songs on the album are just as good, I just have a feeling that if any of them were to be on the radio (and need to be catchy) that song would probably be the one that does it. Other highlights on the album for me are Swing Low and Soul. Soul is a lot darker than most of the album. But the intro break in is great. Esp with the slide.
One of the CD's I picked up this week was Matt Costa's 'Songs We Sing'. Me and the Wife first heard Costa at a Jack Johnson concert where he and the Animal Liberation Orchestra were the opening acts. I had heard bits and pieces of songs from him since then, but grabbed this CD as soon as I saw it. Again the whole CD is great, but I really like 2 of the songs Behind the Moon and Wash Away. I put Behind the Moon up on the flash player, just because I flipped a coin, but after listening to it another 2 or 3 times, I do think it may be the best song on the CD for me.
If you look at my last.fm stats over the past 3 weeks you will see that I have been listening to a lot of Arctic Monkeys. The whole CD is just a mesh of sound, and jumps speeds not only in between songs on the album, but also in specific songs. My favorite song of the CD has got to be Vampires is a harsh word but.., although I also enjoy Riot Van immesensly. Certainly worth the pickup, again whole album is great.
Aceyalone and RJD2 was an interesting combo for an album, but it turned out pretty good. When I saw the two had paired up I imagined something along the lines of a Gorillaz-ish album. This really isn't that, but it also isn't bad. This is by far my favorite song on the CD, but the rest of the CD is worth the purchase. I do think All For U is the highlight though.
In a couple of previous entries I wrote about the awesome Thom Yorke solo show that Cable and Tweed posted this week. This is his version of Morning Bell (one of my favorite songs of Amnesiac). Good stuff, do yourself a favor and check out the whole show.
Last I included 'Always Love' off Nada Surf's latest album; the Weight is a Gift. It isn�t really a newer album, but the songs is just a great song that makes me smile and certainly worth a listen.
My Wife just emailed this to me:
On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 (am
and pm), the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
"Thom Yorke has compared writing for Radiohead's new album to that on 'OK Computer' - but has declared the lyrics will be even more terrifying!
The group are recording with new producer Mark 'Spike' Stent (who has worked with Keane, Madonna and Oasis in the past) and in a world exclusive interview, Yorke said that despite rumours that the follow-up to 'Hail To The Thief' will have a political feel, in fact the opposite is true.
He said: 'It's about that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking, 'I'm sure I'm supposed to be doing something else'.
Interestingly enough it's similar to 'OK Computer' in a way. It's much more terrifying. But 'OK Computer' was terrifying too -some of the lyrics were.'
Up to 16 tracks are being considered for the band's next album, with current favourites including 'Nude', '15 Step', 'Arpeggi' and 'House Of Cards'."
Travis - The Boy With No Name Travis is back. I wouldn't say I hated 12 memories, it was meant to be very political, I just thought it went a little overboard and was somewhat preachy. Then when the greatest hits CD came out to be honest I was really hoping it didn't mean the end to one of my favorite brit bands. Boy With No Name is everything they were capable of. Supurb CD all the way through. Every song is brilliant. Big Chair is probably my favorite song and the opening to the CD on 3 Times is as good as it gets in music imho.
Pop! Why Bubbles are Great For The Economys (Gross) One of the better economic books I have read in while, where the author gets their premise across in a well written, clear and concise manner. Basically Gross believes that the infrastructure left over after economic bubbles, provides companies with the ability to move forward (maybe more than the original bubble did). Not a hard read, I would definitely suggest it for a day and the beach/lake.
Feist - The Reminder I CANNOT GET "I feel it all" OUT OF MY HEAD. Period. Great album, angelic voice.
Catan - Xbox Live Arcade I am hopelessly addicted to this board-turned-video game on the xbox360. I had never played the board game but had seen it being played in some comic shops growing up. Click the Pick and play the demo, it isn't the 360 interface, but same game.
Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worse Nightmare No Sophomore slump here. Just as good (if not better) than Whatever they Say.
Beautiful Evidence (Tufte) Tufte reads like a text book, most people would say bleh, but the information about "information" that he can deliver is top notch. My first Tufte book was "A Visual Display To Quantitative Information" and it was extremely well done, albeit confusing at time. I think beautiful Evidence is a little easier of a read (I am still only half way through it) and a little easier for myself to understand the ideas he is presenting..
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather Fountains of Wayne are the Gods of pop music. If Welcome Interstate Managers was a collection of short stories in song form, then Traffic and Weather is an even better collection with more humor. I already feel like CNN has the hottest female anchors, imagining them throwing their lust around like the Title track to the CD makes it even better.
Game of Thrones (Martin) I started this book assuming it was going to be a high fantasy novel. Elfs, Dragons, Magic and the like. It isn't. It IS fantasy but more surrounding the politics and cunning of a few high ranking families. Incest, Murder, Intrigue, unscrupulous midgets. It has it all and more.
