Underground Media: Reloaded

Blog SLOWDOWN!

2009-09-09T16:38:00.002-06:00

Well, loyal readers, I have strongly considered shuttering Underground Media. But, for some reason, I just can't hit the delete button. I will leave it up and accessible indefinitely, and perhaps I will occasionally post something. But for now, consider this blog CLOSED. Too many things to do, and too few hours in the day to get them done...

Why can't Apple share the toys with ALL the kids?

2009-07-15T16:15:00.003-06:00

Apple doesn't like to share.

From the article:

"The latest iTunes update, version 8.2.1, may offer up a few bug fixes, but its real purpose is to prevent the Palm Pre from syncing with iTunes. The move isn't a surprise. Last month, Apple warned that future versions of iTunes probably wouldn't support syncing with non-Apple media players."

Not supporting is one thing, but updating your software to BREAK that functionality is plain-old mean-spirited. But there are some workarounds. Again, from the article:

"So what's a Palm Pre user to do? The easiest option is to avoid upgrading to iTunes version 8.2.1, since the sync feature should still work with older versions of iTunes.

Another option is to trying a third-party app like Salling Media Sync, a utility that synchronizes iTunes playlists, music, and podcasts with your mobile device, and it's free for basic use."

Napster: Reloaded

2009-06-06T19:33:00.005-06:00

In the beginning, there was Old Napster. It was 1999, broadband was new, and music-swapping had just EXPLODED onto the scene via a peer-to-peer application invented by a college student who coined it's name based on his kinky hair (don't get me started). Those were the good ole days. Search for a song, click on it, download, and listen. If your online life began after 2001, this music model should still sound familiar? It is identical to iTunes. Except that your wallet ends up $0.99 lighter for each click these days. But clearly with the popularity of iTunes and other online music stores, this is how the public wants to consume music. Think for a moment if iTunes had come to market in 1998, BEFORE Napster? In any case, it did not. And instead of innovating, the music industry branded it's customers as thieves and shut down Old Napster in the summer of 2001.

But this was not the end of Napster. The brand name was so strong that it re-emerged a few years ago as a legitimate music store. And with distribution rights from three of the Big Four music companies, Napster had a decent catalog. But it still lagged behind iTunes and Rhapsody, and new competitors like Amazon and Walmart. Last year, electronics retailer Best Buy purchased Napster and slowly transformed its identity. Last month, the new and improved Napster finally re-opened its online doors.

And I have to say that I'm seriously impressed! The highlight of their new service is on-demand streaming; all you can eat for only $5/month. I am fully aware that streaming music is worthless to those of you who currently who use iPods and other MP3 players. I happen to have a home-theater PC, so streaming Napster throughout my home on my 5.1 surround-sound system is actually a perfect solution, but I recognize the limitations of not being able to take the music with me on the road. Streaming music ties you to a PC, and PC's are old-school. But I would also argue that iPods and MP3 players are old-school. The new hotness is smart mobile phones with unlimited data plans. IPhones and Blackberries can currently stream music from recommendation services like Pandora and Slacker. And by this fall, the full range of web-music services like Napster will be available on most smartphones via a new mobile phone browser called Skyfire. In short, I will soon be able to listen to any of Napster's song catalog on-demand from ANY location where I can get a mobile phone signal. For only $5/month!!! This is GAME-CHANGING for music lovers!

Now, a few caveats. Napster's catalog is not nearly as complete as iTunes or even Amazon. Some albums and artists simply aren't available. While others only have 30-second previews of certain tracks loaded, rather than the entire song. This was certainly a sticking point for me, but the value for $5/month (I keep coming back to that) is still overwhelming. Most of the music that I was looking for was available for streaming and within a couple of minutes of signing up I was listening to Aesop Rock, Akrobatik, Atmosphere, Blackalicious, Mos Def, MURS, Tame One, as well as many more of my favorites. I should also give full disclosure: I have a business relationship with a subsidiary of Napster's parent company. That being said, just trust me! The new Napster is awesome and you should try it! If it wasn't, I would simply be silent since whether Napster is successful or not does not directly affect my business relationships. Try it, and let me know what you think!

CHROMIUM!

2009-05-18T14:55:00.002-06:00

The browser wars are in full swing again, and Firefox (the current media darling) better watch out! Google's new browser, Chrome, is bringin the HEAT! Small footprint, fast, and intuitive, but thus far, no Linux version. And that's a dealbreaker for me. Until recently...

Chrome's underlying architecture is called Chromium, and it's open source. So while Google has been dragging it's feet and appeasing the Windows masses, the Chromium team has been hard at work developing a Linux version of the browser. It's in pre-alpha right now, so a lot of it is still non-functional. And they don't want people to blog about it yet, so I will not provide a link. But the current Linux version is very fast and stable, although there are no functional plugins like Flash. Watch this space for news!

Head to your basement! There's a Tonido warning!

2009-05-13T21:00:00.006-06:00

It just hit me today as I was updating my Facebook page. My boss (actually, my boss's boss) requested Facebook friendship. Hmmm, this could be tricky. Ordinarily I am okay some work-life/personal-life convergence in the online world. Many of my employees and peers are Facebook friends, but this would be the first time that someone I *reported to* would have that level of access. Switching into paranoia-mode, I gave my profile a hard look through the eyes of an employer. Starting with my profile pic, I ended up spending the better part of an hour scrubbing my entire profile by untagging pictures, re-wording descriptions, and resetting some of my privacy settings. Did you know that unless you adjust them, Facebook defaults to a fairly loose set of privacy settings? And those settings allow Facebook to pipeline some interesting information out to internet search engines. For instance, I did a simple Google search of my full name. In the first page of results, I found a link to my Facebook profile. Not the profile that I or my friends see, but the profile that any person with a web browser and my name can see. And do you know what's on this publicly searchable profile? My name, current city I live in, the names of seven of my friends (complete with their profile pics), and my favorite movies, music, and TV Shows. Concerned? I was. It also dawned on me just how much of my friends information was accessible to other friends. Looking through the "employer" lens, I could be put in an uncomfortable position if my friends chose Facebook as a forum to air political opinions, religious views, or just crude humor (which they frequently do). In fact, I honestly began to question whether I wanted my boss to know so many intimate details about my life. Or forget my boss for a minute. Of my 300+ "friends", how many were actual friends that I wanted connected so closely to the most intimate details of my life? Going through my friend list, it suddenly struck me that I have elementary, junior-high, highschool, and college school mates, past and present day business associates, old girfriends, non-work or school related friends, friends of friends, acquantainces, employees, work-peers, my wife and now my boss, ALL IN THE SAME PLACE, with access to all of my personal information, and the ability to communicate with each other! Never at any time in human history has something like this existed, and much like any other technological advancement, there are negatives that go along with every positive. And right now the privacy issue is bugging the CRAP out of me!

Luckily, there are some things you can do to protect yourself while still taking advantage of the benefits of Facebook. Start with the 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. Read 'em. It changed my online life. But what if you'd rather not expose yourself at all. I have two friends that absolutely will not go near Facebook or Myspace because they don't want to have to deal with the constant vigilance of maintaining an online presence. And they've also decided that they don't like entrusting 3rd party websites like Facebook with family photos, writings and such. But what's a paranoid netizen to do if you want to SAFELY and RESPONSIBLY share photos, music, or thoughts with your friends and family? Answer: TONIDO

Tonido is a web application that has anwered an unasked question. For the past three or so years, people have simply used Google, Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr while either holding their nose or ignoring the privacy and content ownership issues. Tonido looks to change all that by flipping the script. You become YOUR OWN Facebook or Flickr, with total control over your content and who has access to it. How? Let me put it in non-geek terms:

You download and install the thing on your desktop computer at home. The one that you hopefully leave powered on, connected to the intenet, and keep all of your photos and music on. All major platforms (Mac, Windows, and Linux) are supported. Next, create a profile and adjust a few settings. And done. Now, open a web browser and connect to your personal Tonido address. Usually something like http://myuser.tonidoid.com:10001. Log in, and you're good to go. You are now connected to the content on *your* harddrive: all of your music, photos, calendar, personal files, blog entries, etc. are all there and accessible through the mini-applications that Tonido has integrated. And each application lets you add guest users. So if you want your Aunt to see your wedding photos, all you need to do is add her as a user, and then send her your Tonido web address and her personal sign-on. Or create a single common username for your entire family. The point is that YOU decide who has access, and all the content stays on YOUR harddrive!

For me, the KILLER application is Tonido Music. I can connect from ANYWHERE and stream my own music like a personal radio station. Although Tonido is a beta-testing application right now, when they actually release a finished version with a mobile phone interface, it will be the final nail in the coffin for the iPod/mp3-player market. Instead of carrying all your music around on your iPod and synching it with iTunes, you will be able to stream all of it across your phone's data connection. This is a REVOLUTIONARY concept given that 4G data coverage(or WiMax) is rolling live in Baltimore right now and is about to hit Atlanta later this year. 4G will provide high-speed data (similar to speeds you get at home with cable or DSL) to an entire city. Right now, you either use wi-fi hotspots which are very small, or 3G cell phone data coverage which can be slow and often has dead zones. With 4G, you get the best of both worlds with coverage over the entire city. That means no interruptions as you are listening to that podcast on the train to work, steamed directly from your OWN computer at home!

I wish I could show you Tonido in action, but I don't really have a video or screencast. But here are some screenshots to show you what it looks like. Check it out!!!

Boxee's getting GOOOOOOOD!

2009-05-02T10:36:00.002-06:00

In my never-ending quest for the perfect media center app for my HTPC, I have been using the three best available for Linux today. The mighty and reliable MythTV, the stealthy and below-the-radar Elisa, and the wildly popular yet volatile Boxee.

Here's my setup: I'm currently using an Acer Aspire 5610 laptop (about 2 years old with the standard Intel graphics, 2 GB of RAM, HDA audio, VGA-out), 42" Insignia LCD HDTV, Yamaha receiver w/ 5.1 surround, and a Microsoft Media Center Edition remote control.

Here's what I need: A one-stop solution that will let me watch Hulu, watch TV and movies saved on my harddrive, listen to music saved on my harddrive, listen to internet radio, and browse photos saved online and on my harddrive.

Here's my experience so far:

MythTV has been my most reliable solution. For over three years it has been THE default Linux media center. (Although it's been around for seven years, it really began life as a TV capture and DVR application. It's full media center capabilities came later.) If you use Ubunutu or any of the variants (like Mint, for instance), installing Myth is a snap. Configuring takes about 30 minutes, and soon you're flipping between shoutcast radio, Apple movie trailers, and saved TV shows. The UI is VERY plain menu structures, but quite intuitive and easy-to-use. And it has a plugin architecture that allows additional functionality to be added. Myth is SUPER stable, well-documented, and has an EXTENSIVE support community. However, for me the killer-feature (broadcast TV capture and playback) is of zero value. This giant Insignia TV is nothing more than a fancy computer monitor; no cable, satellite, or rabbit-ears allowed. The killer-feature that I am looking for is Hulu. And as yet, Myth does not support Hulu. Too bad as Myth is really an awesome media center solution. It uses 2D menus, which means that even the slowest of PC's will be able to run it.

Elisa.... What can be said. Elisa was supposed to bring the revolution. But the SLOW development cycle has left it in the dust. Maybe slow development cycle is not the correct phrase. They release quite frequently, actually. But nothing seems to get better! I STILL can't use my remote control! Also, no Hulu support. In reality, I haven't even looked cross-eyed at Elisa for about two months. Maybe I should give it another try, but now that I have Boxee...

Boxee, as I've discussed in previous posts, is the hellspawn of the XBox Media Center (XBMC). Similar core and UI. But Boxee has thrown in a whole lot of new bells and whistles. In short, it does EVERYTHING I need, and then some. Easy install, zero-setup, intuitive UI, and no issues with my remote control. To date, however, there were two critical issues keeping me from using it consistently. First, it's totally an Alpha-stage project right now. So stability has been all over the board. Random crashes, audio glitches, etc. And second, about four or five months ago, Hulu formally "requested" that Boxee remove direct access to it's content. I think the theory was this: Boxee was making it WAY too easy for tech-heads to watch Hulu in their living rooms. So much so, that the studios began to think that Hulu-viewing was spreading beyond geeks to normal folk, and thus cutting into actual broadcast TV viewership. So, the message came down to Hulu from the studios: "Cut off Boxee, or else. Don't forget where your bread gets buttered." And I'm sure the "request" to Boxee was a veiled threat. Sure they asked Boxee to volutarily comply, but the manner in which Boxee accessed Hulu servers ensured that Hulu could identify and disconnect that access should Boxee choose to continue. Thus, Boxee shutdown Hulu. Until now. The latest version of Boxee is stable (mostly), and has restored Hulu access. And those clever bastards have ensured that Hulu can't identify Boxee users by integrating a firefox browser into the UI. INGENIOUS! I've been Boxee'ing for the last 24 hours straight!!! Try it for yourself! If you've got an HTPC, you'll never go back to anything else.

Evolutionary Television Part 2 - The Studios Strike Back!

2009-04-07T19:08:00.003-06:00

So remember how I was telling you all that stuff about the TV studios embracing Hulu (Fox and NBC sponsored the project), and how they had learned from the music industry's crippling Napster debacle? Well, that's only partially true. After a BANNER year, Hulu seems like it's becoming a victim of it's own success. Sometimes it seems like the site is overloaded, and even when using a fast internet connection, shows tend to "hang" for a few seconds while the stream from Hulu's servers catches up. Worse than that, the TV studios have somehow gotten it into their heads that they are losing some of their traditional TV viewers to Hulu. The reason they view this as a "bad thing" all boils down to one simple factor: advertising. Traditional TV advertising is literally the fuel for your favorite shows. Put simply, without commercials there would be no TV programming (PBS and Public Access aside). That is simply the American model. The Brits pay a TV tax and they get the BBC (which happily streams it's programming online to UK citizens), while we Americans rely on advertisers like Budweiser and Pfizer to interrupt our TV shows five times an hour with ads for beer and viagra. Unfortunately, the only advertiser that seems interested in buying time on Hulu is the Ad Council preaching about reckless teen driving. Mainstream advertisers just don't believe that it's worth the investment to buy online commercials. It's the same reason why newspapers can't seem to figure out how to make any money online. So, as Hulu has become more popular, the studios have gotten panicky about their content. Lately, whole seasons of shows have started to disappear from Hulu in the run-up to their release on DVD. It has quickly become clear that if masses of people begin to use Hulu as an alternative to traditional television, and TV studios can't monetize that audience, you can bet that Hulu's programming will dry up. But Hulu's audience will only grow so much, right? Only geeks like watching TV via the internet. Hulu will max itself out on the early-adopter crowd and then plateau out. Even if you plug your PC into a big-screen HDTV, who wants to click around with the mouse inside of a 42" giant web browser? Only geeks, right?

A few months ago, a few of these more progressive-minded geeks got together and created (I use that term rather loosely) an application called Boxee. All you needed to do was load Boxee onto an ordinary PC or Laptop, plug it into your big screen TV, and VOILA! You had yourself a set-top box that streamed internet TV. Plug in a remote control, and you didn't even need to get up from the couch! Boxee brought Hulu to the masses. It is an entertainment center platform allowing users to pipe internet radio, Picasa and Flikr photo-albums, and local hard drive content directly to their TV's for easy and intuitive browsing with their remote control. But the KILLER application was always Hulu. Literally, you could sit down on the couch, turn on the TV, select a show with your remote, and be watching the latest episode of The Daily Show in under 90 seconds. But you don't have to take my word for it:

quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

Alas, it was too good to last.

A couple of months ago, the studios began to notice that Hulu was exploding in popularity, much faster than SNL Tina Fey clips could account for. It didn't take them long to figure out that Boxee adoption was the culprit. The studios delivered a swift and stern message to Hulu. "Pull your content from Boxee, or else." And about 30 days ago, Hulu did precisely that. Or rather, they ordered Boxee to quit pipelining their content. And Boxee complied, outraging their community of users. Today, a new version of Boxee is about to drop, and rumor has it that Hulu content is back in, although Hulu won't be able to officially verify that users are watching their content from within Boxee or within a regular web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer. In the coming weeks, we'll see how Hulu responds. I hope they realize that Boxee is simply giving internet TV viewers what they want (a fast, intuitive interface), but maybe that's too much to ask for.

In the meantime, while the TV studios slug it out with the people who are trying to innovate on their behalf (the irony is killing me), the underground scene is JUMPING with Hulu competitors! I watched the Superbowl over on Justin.tv (with live chat!), and the NCAA Final Four on Ustream.tv. Those same sites, as well as one of my new favorites Joox.net, also have movie and TV channels that loop whole seasons worth of content. It may not be on-demand, but it's still pretty cool! But wait, there's more! Check out the full list of Hulu alternatives, carefully compiled and reviewed by the good people over at ZeroPaid.com (their motto is "if it's free, it's for me"). And I have a message of my own for the TV studios. Figure out your beef with Hulu and fix it fast before it dies. Because when some hacker figures out how to hook Boxee up to one of these other streaming TV sites, the genie really WILL be out of the bottle. And you guys will have learned NOTHING from the music industry's mistakes.

New underground hip-hop favorite

2009-03-13T14:44:00.003-06:00

Please tune into beatbasement.com. Yes, 56kbps sucks for quality. But the rotation is so incredible that I've almost stopped listening to smoothbeats.com. Almost. I think you can subscribe and get 128kbps access.

Also, if you have not downloaded the new Aesop Rock album, DO IT NOW!!! I can't stop listening to it...

Evolutionary Television Part 1 - How I cut the cord

2009-02-11T22:16:00.010-06:00

"It's been a long time. I shouldn't have left you;
Without a strong rhyme to step to." -- I Know You Got Soul, Eric B. & Rakim

Sorry for the hiatus, folks. Work travel, moving into a new house, yadda yadda. But I'm back and things should be a little more consistent here on the Underground Media. So where did we leave things? Ah yes, I think we were talking about internet media. My last two posts were about internet radio, so I decided this week to look at internet television.

I'm a relative new-comer to the great Southeast mecca called Atlanta. And, as I'm a social creature, I have been known to visit the local bar and live-music scene. Atliens are interesting folks, the music scene here is awesome, and I love meeting new people. Here's the way it usually goes: the wife and I are listening to DJ TBone (local flavor!) and enjoying some drinks; we meet some new friends, and have some laughs. And then, just as everyone is good and buzzed, and we're all feeling good, she drops the bomb.

Wife - "And you know we don't have a television," she says, giggling. (Somehow, despite my best efforts to steer her off-course, she works it into EVERY conversation.)
Our new friends - (blank stares. The laughs have stopped.) "You mean you don't..."
Me - "Uhm, we *do* actually have a television," I say, with a little nervous laugh, giving my wife the please-stop-making-us-look-like-nutjobs-to-our-new-friends look.
Wife - "Well, sure we do," she says. "I mean, it's physically a television-"
Me - "Forty-seven inch Hi-def LCD," I interrupt.
Wife - "But we don't actually GET television. No cable, satellite, or even rabbit ears! Tell them, baby," she says, looking at me, grinning.
Me - (At least she's proud of my geeky achievements.)
Our new friends - (More blank stares. Again. This time, their mouths are slightly open.) "How do you watch American Idol?" they ask, looking at me. "Or Dancing with the Stars? Or CSI?"
Me - (Yup. In the span of five minutes, we've gone from that cool couple they met at the bar, to them thinking that we are a complete freakshow. And when I explain to them our TV-watching process, I will most assuredly remove all doubt.)

Perhaps my readers will reserve passing judgement. :-)

We watch all the TV shows and movies that everyone else does. We just watch them on-demand over the internet. I've said this before, and I'll say it again. I LOVE TV shows, but I HATE television. TV shows are 24 to 52 minutes of my favorite actors, writers and directors doing what they do best. Television is a 2000-channel, 24/7, screaming & ranting, commercial-break ridden, A.D.H.D. channel-surfing, wallet-busting, empty-headed political pudit-filled, NIGHTMARE of an experience. I stopped watching sometime in 2003, and I haven't looked back since. Not only was cable TV breaking my budget at the time, but despite all the bucks I was shelling out, nothing was EVER ON 90% of the time! So, we cancelled cable and I subscribed to Netflix for $20/month. We had a HUGE on-demand movie catalog, as well as a ton of TV series box-sets to choose from. Life was good, but like a good geek husband, I was always trying to "upgrade" the system.

In 2004, I discovered the wonderful world of peer-to-peer file trading, referred to by insiders as, "The Scene." (For background, here is a fairly brief, plain-English web article). Essentially, I was able to download TV shows on-demand only days after they aired (as opposed to months via Netflix). So, I did what any self-respecting TV-loving geek would do. I hooked up an old PC to my television and started downloading! As long as I was okay with engaging in quasi-legal internet file-trading, as well as the labor involved with searching and clicking on each show I wanted to watch, again life was good. By 2007, The Scene was EXPLODING and I was able to watch TV shows literally MINUTES after they aired. And, best of all, I had learned how to broadcatch (automatic TIVO-like downloading of my favorite shows), so now I didn't even have to work for it!

However, in 2008, a funny thing happened. Remember Napster? I mean the old free and illegal Napster of the 90's? It totally brought the music industry to its knees. And the RIAA refused to provide a cheap, easy and LEGAL alternative until iTunes hit the web, three years too late. Well, apparently the TV industry learned a valuable lesson from their music brethren. In March of 2008, Hulu launched. And there wasn't a minute to spare as broadcatching was just about ready go mainstream like the old Napster. (Non-geek friends of mine had actually heard the term bittorrent!) Not only did Hulu render my entire broadcatching setup obsolete, but it also changed the ENTIRE TV game. Probably forever.

Hulu is a Fox/NBC joint-venture that allows you to watch 90% of network and basic cable TV shows (ABC is doing their own thing) streaming and on-demand in your web browser. And I have to tell ya, blown-up to full-screen on a 47" LCD, Hulu looks frickin sweet! And did I mention they have movies? It's like TIVO, only free! Of course, the downside is the commercials. Yes, commercials on the internet. Only four or so per show, but they are usually boring and repetitive. A small price to pay, in my opinion, for true on-demand television. You can setup your own queue, follow a show's RSS feed, and even watch live events (they aired all of the presidential debates and the inauguration). But don't take my word for it. Check out this quick SNL clip on Hulu.

Next time, we'll talk about the recent Hulu competitors and some new directions that internet TV is taking.

More Twitter nonsense

2009-01-30T00:47:00.000-06:00

Using it regularly now. Still weird. But at least I "get" it now...

I sold out

2009-01-14T13:44:00.003-06:00

I just signed up for Twitter. Yes, the same Twitter that I have condemned as techno-heresy. Micro-F*CKING BLOGGING?!?!?! What the hell does it do that you can't do with Facebook??? AND Facebook does about 50 other useful things! Twitter JUST DOES ONE! Wait, why did I sign up for this? Oh yeah, so I can review it for an upcoming Urban Thought Collective series I am writing on "social networking". Hohum.

Can computers really predict the music I will like?

2008-12-28T20:07:00.003-06:00

In my neverending quest to find great music on the internet, I ended up moving beyond the simple streaming services. Not that I have anything against the staple of internet radio. In fact, as I've said before, I'm an avid listener of stations like smoothbeats.com and beatbasement.com. But sometimes I want to hear music that fits my mood. A playlist that goes beyond embracing a certain genre, and maybe goes two or three sub-genres deep. Usually that would mean firing up my own music collection. That is, until I discovered a site called Last.fm a few years ago. Their famed audioscrobbler is actually a computer algorithm that gathers info on the music you like, and matches it up with music it "thinks" you should like. I was addicted for a while until I figured out that the scrobbling game had some competition around town. I'll break a few of the major players down for you.

Last.fm
Ah, the apple of my eye. Last.fm was my *first* music recommendation site, and I still have a soft spot for it. Last.fm re-introduced me to underground hip-hop and started my love affair with internet radio. Their recommendation system was AWESOME to my novice ears. Basically, you allow Last.fm to "listen" to the music in your personal library, and then it can make recommendations based on similar artists. So I played some MF Doom (Mouse & The Mask) for them, and in response I heard a cut from what I would now describe as the greatest underground hip-hop album of all time: The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox. And I was in a FEVER for more! Their catalog of music was LIMITLESS, unlimited streaming subscriptions were CHEAP (like $6 for 90 days), and you could build your own playlist of music!!! But, alas, the years (and a corporate acquisition by CBS) were not kind to the O.G. of audioscrobbling. Their decline began in early 2008 as they started losing the rights to TONS of music. Playlists became worthless, and their music was repetitive. Today, I can still recommend it in good conscience. But the serious music fan will quickly outgrow it. Here are the highlights:

MULTIPLE listening clients for Windows, Mac and Linux. As Last.fm uses open source software, there are literally dozens of programs that support streaming including 3rd party clients as well as the official release. You can even stream tunes through their website using flash!
Playlist support. Even though licensing issues have watered down this feature, it's still killer. Hear something you like? Save it to your playlist for later listening...
Multiple streaming stations. Want to hear your just songs that you "love"? Or maybe just recommendations? Last.fm's got you covered.
Did I mention the social networking? Stream your neighbors' radio stations and connect with others of similar interests. For a while, this was my favorite feature. Unfortunately, there's only so much social networking that people are willing to indulge in within a week. The Facebook juggernaught is assimilating all others. Soon, I think sites like Last.fm will exclusively pipeline their social netowkring feature through Facebook. It's inevitable.

Slacker
Man, I like this site purely for the name. It's a little different from Last.fm. It can't listen to your music collection for clues, but as you listen, you can gives songs the thumbs up or down. This is definitely the hard way to do things (similar to Yahoo Music and AOL), but it works if you're patient. What puts Slacker ahead of the curve is its mobile lifestyle aspirations. Slacker takes the recommendation model one step further and offers a portable radio player with wifi. It syncs new music across the internet to the player, and voila! You got new tunes! In addition, they are deploying the player software into mobile phones on Sprint's network, so expect some big things from this rookie player. I don't use them for my everyday listening, but when they start supporting my mobile phone, I'm all over them!

Pandora
I saved my favorite for last. Pandora is quite simply the most ingenious music recommendation system ever invented. And it's a CRYING SHAME that they have not invaded the mobile space like Slacker!!! Do you hear me Pandora??? GET ON WINDOWS MOBILE AND BLACKBERRY! WE NEED YOU!!! Whew. Sorry. Got a little out of control there. But I REALLY like Pandora. The secret, my friends, is in the sauce. Here's what I wrote about them a few weeks ago:
"You're greeted by the site asking you for an artist you like. That's when the magic starts. Even obscure artists seem to have had their music BROKEN DOWN and defined for Pandora's recommendation engine. It literally knows what basic ELEMENTS (beat pacing, rhyme style, musical genre) define each artist, and matches those elements to other artists. This is FUNDAMENTALLY different from Last.fm's audioscrobbler which simply matches similar artists. It was so accurate that I listened my first night for HOURS! I am in music-love all over again! Pandora's my new home for underground beats."
Did I mention that I receive NO monetary compensation from Pandora. At all. My only issue is that the available streaming clients are a bit....... heavy. Other than their website stream, Pandora offers an Adobe Air client that throws in everything but the kitchen sink. You get music, recommendations, history, and advertisements. Might as well fire up the web browser with all that crap. That said, I would STILL recommend Pandora over all others. Seriously, their recommendation engine is *that* good!

Give me some feedback, folks. I know there are other services out there. Which ones do *you guys* use. Do you have a preference for any of the ones I mentioned here? Next time, I'll be talking about internet TV and the HULU invasion. Until then, Happy New Year, people!!!

I am a techno-pimp

2008-12-21T20:01:00.002-06:00

I just bought a bluetooth speaker with a built-in FM transmitter. Now, I can take mobile phone calls in my car and hear the other person through my car speakers. But more importantly, I can stream LIVE internet radio through my car speakers from my mobile phone. And there's NOT A SINGLE WIRE to get in the way! WhooHaaa!!! (GI Joe-style - see below)

What are YOU watching?

2008-12-14T10:55:00.003-06:00

The last seven or eight years have sort of been a renaissance for genre television, especially when I reflect back on my formative years in the late 80's when Star Trek: The Next Generation was *the* only sci-fi on the tube. And even more recently, some of the greatest television EVER has been sci-fi themed, occasionally escaping the confines of its genre niche. I think......and don't quote me on this.....but I think it all started with Buffy. There was a year, perhaps '02 or '03 where EVERYBODY was either quoting or talking about the Slayer. It had crossed over, however briefly, into the mainstream, and Joss Whedon had achieved television god-hood status.

Today, genre television has an embarrassment of riches (haven't heard that phrase for years, and I was dying to use it). And in a way, those shows owe their existence and acceptance to Buffy. Whedon created "the formula" for a genre television show that could attract men AND women of all ages. And more than occasionally he was able to capture the non-geek audience. JJ Abrams took that formula and created a new TV bible with shows like Alias, Lost, and now Fringe. And ironically, while Abrams (the Igor in this Frankenstein drama) is enjoying fame and fortune on the small AND the big screen, Whedon (the mad Doctor) has been booted from the hallowed halls of the academy after his failed Serenity, and is slumming it with Fox and the "doomed before it even airs" Dollhouse series. Talk about a twist of fate! I remember when Whedon was UNTOUCHABLE, but now he's paired back up with the "other" second-rate Slayer, on the network where genre shows go to die, the infamous Fox. How the mighty have fallen...

Whoa, I have seriously gone off-topic. Today, I just wanted to touch on some of the genre shows currently airing that I believe are exceptional, as well as booing a few that I think should be put down like a thoroughbred with a broken leg. And MOST of these are available on Hulu for on-demand viewing, in keeping with the tech focus of this blog.

The Good

1. First up is Battlestar Galactica! While modern network genre TV owes its roots to Buffy, everything on cable is six-degrees of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Galactica's creator, Ron Moore, is only one of Trek's former writers who went on to create excellent cable shows. If you ever watched Dead Zone, 4400 or Carnivale, give a little credit to Trek as their birth mother. Galactica comes to an end this spring. The first of 12 final episodes will begin airing in late January or February. Seriously, the writing on this show is so good, it has made other TV shows with average writing unwatchable for me.

2. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Summer Glau is the best Terminator to ever play the role. And that's a serious statement, as she's measured against Arnold. But, man she's intense. In fact, the entire show is intense. And that, plus the fact that it's on Fox, may be it's undoing. I just hope they get a chance to wrap up the story before it goes away. In any case, the cast and writers on this project have given us some of genre television's best moments.

3. Lost - This show gets better every year. And even though my faith was shaken during Season 2, that Desmond and Penny episode in Season 4 was absolutely, positively the BEST EPISODE OF TELEVISION EVER WRITTEN, genre or no. There, I said it.

4. Fringe - Hmmmm. This one barely makes my "Good" list. But it took a couple of years for the X-Files to get really good, so I'm willing to cut Fringe some slack. It's worth a look. Even though it's on Fox and will probably get cancelled.

4. Stargate SG-1 - Ever since Ben Browder of Farscape fame took up the mantle in Season 9, this unprecedented TEN (10) season series has reached a sort of legendary status. And even though the show has ended, they are still cranking out direct-to-DVD movies once per year. When Trek died, this is the show that carried the torch.

5. Knight Rider - PURE and utter trash, but it's a guilty pleasure. Just like the original.

6. Torchwood - After a shaky first season, Torchwood delivered a PHENOMENAL sophomore effort, bringing in heavyweights like Buffy's James Marsters for a few episodes. This is British sci-fi at it's finest.

7. True Blood - Soooo conflicted about this series. I was ready to throw in the towel after the first three episodes. I love explicit sex and gratuitous violence as much as the next guy, but I was wondering about the plot until episode five or so. The characters and side plots eventually grew on me, and I ended up addicted after the hippy vampire-killer chick turns up. But, can I tell you what's lame? The shapeshifter guy can turn into anything, but when the chips are down and our hero Sookie needs to be rescued, he turns into a little dog?! Wow...

The Bad

1. Doctor Who - No, I'm not bashing the good doctor. In fact, some of the best episodes in the history of the show were last season. But MAN, there were some stinkers! That season finale WAS A CROCK!!! However, with the prospect of a new female doctor, perhaps there's hope for this series.

2. Stargate Atlantis - Zzzzzzzzz. Is this show still on?

3. Smallville - Someone PLEASE put this show out of it's misery! Lex was the only thing interesting about last season, but recently, even Rosenbaum seemed to be phoning it in. Without him or James Marsters as Brainiac, this show is worthless.

The Ugly

1. Heroes - I sooooooo want to love this show. Season 1, although occasionally flawed, was a masterpiece. Season 2 was broken, but watchable and certainly had it's moments. But the current Season 3 is a crime against all genre television. After five episodes, I wanted to choke the writers. After another five, I was reinspired that perhaps there was hope for the show. And then, episode 12, "Our Father" did something that made me want to kick the writers in their collective nuts or ovaries, as the case may be. Hiro teleports to the past, gets his mother to heal his damaged memories, and has one of the best dramatic moments of the series as he tells her how much he missed her growing up, and vows to protect the "catalyst" that she has given him as he has become a real hero now. Then FIVE FRICKIN MINUTES LATER, Daddy Petrelli shows up, bitch-slaps Hiro, steals the catalyst AND Hiro's time/space powers, and drops him off the side of a building. And this is the true failure of the series: INCONSISTENCY! Characters change course every episode. No one BELIEVES in anything. The heroes are all accidental! Powers work one way in one episode, and another way in a different episode. The Haitian (why he doesn't have a name after three years is a mystery to me) can suppress everyone's powers within a 500 yard radius without even NOTICING, much less breaking a sweat earlier in the series. But in "Our Father" he yells, "Your father is too powerful, Peter. I can't hold him back much longer!" QUE?! I call bullsh*t. Remember when I mentioned the lame horse that needed to be put down? Heroes is that horse. Somebody shoot it. Please.

Sooo, what are *you* watching these days? Any good sci-fi that I missed?

And you don't stop!

2008-12-04T00:11:00.005-06:00

So, I went back and forth on this latest entry for my Urban Thought Collective blog, Check The Tech-Nique. First I was going to review some netbooks (Asus EeePC, Acer One, HP Mini-1000, etc). But a few days later, fresh from setting up my Home Theater PC, I was all set to talk about Boxee and the new online TV options that are cropping up (Hulu, et al). And in the end, my focus for the next few entries *will* be online media, but I have decided to start with music rather than TV or movies. My reasons are primarily selfish. :-) I tend to blog about the tech issues that are having the most impact on my life at the time. And right now, I am spending four days a week driving and living out of hotels. With so much windshield and hotel downtime, my music has gone from an important part of my life, to CRITICAL to my sanity. So, today, I am going to talk about the online music options that are available, some of the differences between them, and which ones are the best of breed regardless of your particular tastes.

DISCLAIMERS:

I am a die-hard, unapologetic underground hip-hop fan.
I have not listened to the AM/FM radio in five years.
I don't buy CD's, only MP3's
I don't own, nor will I *ever* own, an iPod. I *do* own an MP3 player.
I listen to more sheer hours of music per day than any other person I know
I LOVE music. Passionately.

Now that you know where I'm coming from, are we good? Awesome. So, for the online music novice, the playing field is divided into a couple of different categories. The first is your basic streaming radio station. The second is what's called a music recommendation service. Today, I'll be discussing the first. A streaming internet radio station is similar in concept to a traditional radio station, with some notable exceptions. AM/FM radio stations broadcast music or talk that focuses on a particular genre (i.e., sports, R&B, oldies, etc). Internet radio is similar in that respect. However, the key difference is in the loyalty to that genre. Internet radio has a MUCH tighter genre focus. If you want salsa, there is an internet radio station somewhere out there streaming all salsa, all the time. The really cool thing about the genre loyalty is that lots of artists that get zero airplay on traditional radio, end up with a ton of exposure on internet radio. For example, any serious underground hip-hop fan could tell you that Aesop Rock is one of the most gifted lyricists to ever pick up a microphone. Or that MURS is quite possibly the savior of modern hip-hop. Neither artist has ever been played on Power 106, Kiss FM, or Hot 97, but internet hip-hop stations can't get enough of them! The other key difference is commercials. Even though almost all internet radio is free of charge, most stations don't even play commercials. Or if they do, it's like one commercial an hour. Did I mention that most internet radio is also uncensored? So far, so good, right? Tight genre focus, no commercials, uncensored, and free. What's the downside? Well, unless you are ready to shell out some serious $$$ for an exotic specialty product, internet radio is tied to your computer, and you need a broadband internet connection. Don't get me wrong, products like the Squeezebox are slowly bringing internet radio to the unwashed masses, but it's still a niche market right now. Your best bet is to hook up some speakers to your laptop and call it a day. Internet radio in your car is still a geek's solution. So, if you're still ready, I'm going to run down a few internet radio index sites that will let you search for different individual stations. I will also recommend a few stations that I listen to on a daily basis.

Index Sites

Shoutcast - This is the granddaddy of all internet radio. Started by AOL almost 10 years ago, Shoutcast is the one-stop-shop for most net music surfers. It's easy to navigate, generates reliable results, and your music is only a click away.
000Audio - A relative newcomer to the scene, but they've got a lot of stations hooked up. The stations are all medium sound-quality, though. As opposed to Shoutcast which lists a range of sound-quality from CD down to AM radio.
Live365 - Another oldie from the 90's. They use an ad/subscription-based model. You can pay to listen to music ad-free, but if you don't, you end up subjected to the same Trojan condom commercial every 20 minutes. Seriously guys, at least rotate commercials. I understand that your sponsors are limited, but maybe record a *few* different ads instead of that same one with the pig squealing about the condoms (yes, it's true). I still give Live365 an honorable mention because one of their stations includes the most awesome beatbasement, one of the few quality underground stations out there.
1Club.FM - Another newcomer. They've got a bazillion stations listed, and they are free, but you do need to signup for their newsletter.

Streaming Stations

Smoothbeats - There can only be one. This is, in my humble opinion, the absolute best underground hip-hop station on the internet. I've been listening for six years and counting. They broadcast in CD-quality 24/7 for free with zero ads (unless you include a few station sweepers an hour). They even do some live DJ shows. PLEASE listen to them.
Beatbasement - Even broadcasting in AM radio quality, I will STILL listen to them. Hell, I used to listen to 1580 KDAY when I was a kid, and I didn't even know the difference!
Club 977 - The 80's - I include this only for my wife who is a die-hard 80's rock fan. If you need a fix of Phil Collins or Robert Palmer, this is your station.
Rhapsody - Yes, I know they are a commercial company. But their service is actually really cool. For a $15/month subscription, you can stream any song in their library ON-DEMAND! And they have a HUGE library.

In two weeks, I will review the most popular music recommendation sites and tell you which ones are worth your time and your hard earned cash.

Boxeeeeeeee!

2008-11-23T20:41:00.005-06:00

I was going to review netbooks for my next Urban Thought Collective blog, but screw that! I just installed Boxee on my HTPC, and although it's got a few bugs, I am FEELIN IT!

Boxee is an internet startup that continues to get millions in venture capital, even *with* the current economic downturn. (That should tell you something.) The software is a quick download that, once installed, turns your PC into a TV that streams programming (youtube, hulu, Apple movie trailers, etc.) from the internet, your harddrive, your home network, or whatever. Sound like Apple TV? Well it is, except you BYOH (bring your own hardware). There are a few other competitors in this space, but even as alpha-level software, Boxee STILL outclasses them all! At least it does for me, in the 15 minutes that I've played with it. We'll see how I feel in 24 hours...

STEP OFF!!!

2008-11-20T15:05:00.002-06:00

And I mean YOU, all you Blackberry Storm haters! No it is NOT the iPhone, so quit talking about how it's NOT LIKE the iPhone. Yes, some crappy review phones were released into the wilderness. That does suck. But I have used ACTUAL consumer units and I have not experienced the much talked about lag. I LOVE the click when you type or intentionally open an app. How tough is that concept to understand??? Touching highlights or selects, clicking opens or executes. And after using both the iPhone and the Storm, I have to tell you that my typing was 1000% more accurate on the Storm!

The iPhone is a toy that some people are trying to convince themselves is a business productivity tool. The Storm is a business phone with some eye candy on top. Feature comparisons are stupid as the target audiences for each phone are different.

And for the record, I think the Storm is WAY cool. (Couldn't you tell from my tone?)

ABC is showing it's true (Apple) colors

2008-11-18T00:45:00.002-06:00

"No, I don't have television." That's when I get the really weird looks. The response is usually, "Seriously? How can you not have a TV?" Well of course I have a TV (a 42" LCD, to be exact), but I don't get television. No cable, satellite or rabbit ears. My LCD is hooked up to a home theater PC. And my TV content comes from various sources, including bittorrent, usenet, and increasingly from a website called Hulu. You name it, Hulu has got it. My favorite TV shows are mostly available on-demand, with minimal enough commercial interruption as to still be watchable. I said mostly.

ABC doesn't seem to want to join the party. If you want to watch Lost or Pushing Daisies (the only good shows on ABC), you'll find a Hulu link pointing to ABC's own site. And while Hulu shows are watcheable on all versions of Windows, Mac and Linux computers, ABC's TV viewer ONLY works on Windows XP or Vista PC's. What's worse is that the user interface SUCKS! On Hulu, I click and go. On ABC, I click, wait, search, click again, wait, get locked into a commercial that doesn't seem to continue on to the show, close the windows, click again, and then finally watch my program. Yes, video quality is good. And the commercials are way more interesting than the ones on Hulu. But I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. Reminds me of how Apple ties the iPhone and iPod exclusively to it's iTunes music store. Hmmmm, there's another way ABC and Apple are similar? Let me think. Don't tell me. Oh that's right! ABC is owned by Disney, and Steve Jobs sits on Disney's Board of Directors! If it wasn't for Pixar movies, I would call Steve Jobs a witch and recommend burning him.

Pandora's basement

2008-11-17T22:29:00.004-06:00

As many of you know, I am a big fan of last.fm. My fascination with the site began a couple of years ago. During my quest for new and interesting music, I stumbled upon last.fm. It billed itself as a music recommendation service, so I decided to give it a listen for a while. I was not initially impressed. It played some random but bearable music based on an artist I suggested (Prince, I think), but then quickly lapsed into heavy metal and then country, after which I promptly turned it off. Days later, I read that there were two ways for the audio scrobbler that powers last.fm to recommend music that I would like. Either I could listen to it's recommendations based on an artist, giving each song I heard a thumbs up or down, or I could let the scrobbler "listen" to my music collection. Basically, if I wanted to speed things up, I needed to play *my* music in my audio player of choice, along with a plugin that would feed that information to last.fm. After last.fm had collected enough data, it could play some stuff I would like. So, figuring that I would be a smart-ass, I decided to point my audio player at my ENTIRE music collection located on my home server, consisting of several *thousand* songs. I hit play, and went to work for 10 hours. And I continued to let it play after I went to bed that night. The next morning, I shut everything down and fired up last.fm. Suddenly, my formerly empty homepage was populated with all of the artists and titles from my basement collection. But I was still skeptical about the scrobbler's recommendation abilities. Until I launched the last.fm player. What I heard over the next few hours fundamentally changed my entire musical perspective and listening experience. No, I'm not kidding. I was re-introduced to the thriving world of underground hip-hop.

Until then, I thought underground had died with Jurassic 5 back in 1999. As a disciple of the underground scene during my teenage years in South L.A. at places like The Good Life, I had mourned the loss of good rap music.

Check this snippet of my buddy Ava's documentary of The Good Life

But I was wrong. Underground was alive and kicking! Many would say it was THRIVING! Internet radio had helped to breath new life into it's fan base! No longer did I have to be subjected to repetitive "ridin' dirty" lyrics and mumbling, droning hooks. Now I got to listen to Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Aesop Rock, Murs, Atmosphere, Cannibal Ox, El P, Slow Suicide Stimulus, MF Doom, Smash Bros., and host of others. And then a really weird thing happened. I started BUYING music again. LEGALLY! From Amazon and Emusic. Musically speaking, I was fat and happy. That is, until a few months ago.

Over the summer, I began to notice some changes at last.fm. As a paying subscriber, I was able to create playlists out of my favorite tracks. It was an awesome feature when I wanted to hear a good mix of high quality tracks. At some point, this feature was crippled. Suddenly about half of my 150 song playlist was reduced to 30-second previews. And the last.fm radio seemed to be getting seriously repetitive, playing the same tracks from the same albums. User chatter on their forums seemed to point to some licensing agreements that had fallen through. But what really pisses me off is the fact that the powers-that-be at last.fm, to this day, haven't said a WORD to their PAYING users about what the hell is going on! Seriously, if I'm going to give you any of my hard-earned dollar, you can at least tell me that my listening experience is about to change. In the end, after two years, I have decided to let my membership with last.fm lapse. And I am giving the competition a little spin.

Pandora, for the uninitiated, is visually much simpler than last.fm. But that same spartan layout concerned me. Since there was no scrobbler to listen to my music library, I wondered how it would figure out my tastes. So, I went to pandora.com and here's what happened:

Hmmm, that guy could be a little less excited. Trust me, it's awesome. You're greeted by the site asking you for an artist you like. That's when the magic starts. Even obscure artists seem to have had their music broken down and defined for Pandora's recommendation engine. It literally knows what basic ELEMENTS define each artist, and matches those elements to other artists. It was so accurate that I listened my first night for HOURS! I am in music-love all over again! Pandora's my new home for underground beats. Give it a spin, and let me know what you think. Did I make a hasty decision with last.fm, or are you a Pandora groupie?

The Blackberry Strikes Back!

2008-11-05T23:03:00.009-06:00

So there I was, standing at the very center of the Obama celebratory hurricane at a club called Sugar Hill in Atlanta's Underground. A couple of friends and I were crowded around a table, drinking cold light beer, talking about the electoral math, and watching Wolf Blitzer on a 300ft projection screen, along with about 150 other people. As the moment approached, you could feel the electricity in the air. When CNN would break for commercial, Earth Wind and Fire would crank through the speakers around us. Everyone was talking at once, sharing their personal stories about the significance of this election with complete strangers. It was awe-inspiring and beautiful. And as I tried to live-blog the event on my Palm Centro's TEENY TINY KEYBOARD, all I could think was, "I'm going to choke the life out of that Sprint rep for not getting me my demo Blackberry!!!" Needless to say, my blog entry was limited to a few emotional phrases, tersely typed using my frickin' pinkies.

Twenty-four hours after one of the most important events of a lifetime, I contemplated several personal resolutions.
I WILL volunteer my time to community-based initiatives that are important to me.
I WILL discuss politics more openly with those around me. Political discourse is what keeps democracy healthy.
I WILL use my abundance of technology to capture and immortalize more of the moments that are happening around me every day. Cameras, camcorders, laptops, and yes, my mobile phone.

The Centro failed me when I needed it most. It's camera is crappy quality and doesn't have a flash. And the keyboard.... Don't get me started again.

Look at those tiny, squashed-together keys! I thought I could overlook the keyboard when I first got it, but no more. I was mistyping every other word between live-blogging the Obama event and responding to my wife's instant messages. Now, I am *sure* that I need something different. Although I have recently blogged about the iPhone and Google's G1, these are still "leisure" phones, in my opinion. They are an attempt by non-traditional mobile phone companies to seize a certain "early-adopter" segment of the market. Their applications aren't always well-supported, and their respective manufacturers don't seem to mind releasing phones that are seriously buggy. What I need is a proven and reliable platform built to support a business customer, but enhanced with some of the niceties that create a satisfying leisure experience. I *think* I need a Blackberry.

Unlike Apple and Google, Research in Motion (RIM) just makes smart phones. It's literally ALL they do. And to their credit, they've been doing it well for the better part of a decade. Today, the Blackberry Curve and it's slimmer cousin, the Pearl are the workhorses of the smartphone industry. They are standard equipment at almost any company where employees require regular "on-the-run" access to email. RIM's strategy over the years has been pretty straightforward. Produce reliable smartphones, and dominate the business market. However, in reaction to Apple's recent encroachment on RIM's corporate busines, RIM has decided to play a strong offense and go after Apple's core iPhone market. And they think that their more stable and reliable platform, with all of the eyecandy on top, will be a recipe for success. I'm sure you're thinking, "Yeah right. A Blackberry that compares to the iPhone? Not likely." That's what I said, until I saw this:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Blackberry Storm, available soon from Verizon. All the strengths of the iPhone, and none of the weaknesses. Plus, it's still a Blackberry, so all of your corporate applications are still at your fingertips. And if that's too rich for your blood, or you need instant gratification, take a gander at the Curve's successor, the freshly released Blackberry Bold.

Even as the other handset manufacturers like Motorola, Nokia and Samsung are clamoring to produce Google-powered phones, RIM is continuing to directly challenge Apple while allying itself with no one. The real fighting should begin in earnest this spring. The mid-range Google phones, as well as the mighty G2, will begin to hit the market around May. But I'm sure *you're* not losing sleep over this. The smartphone wars don't scare you! Now that you've read my blog, surely you've figured out which phone is for you!

Or not. :-)

If I've left you all with anything, I hope it's the understanding that a certain design and marketing philosophy goes into each company's final product. This philosophy DRIVES the end-user experience to a far greater degree than a simple set of features like a touchscreen or a QWERTY keyboard. In six months, most smartphones will have the same features anyway, so these features are increasing irrelevant to your purchasing decision. The question you have to ask yourself is, based on the company's philosophy, what kind of an end-user experience will you get. If you're an early adopter who likes eye-candy, and a very consistent (albeit locked-down) experience, go for the iPhone. Early adopters who prefer to live closer to the edge and experiment with their phone should check out the G1 and soon to be released Google brethren. Or maybe you're like me. Not an early adopter at all. You want something that works reliably, is well supported, and has a proven track-record (as well as the eye-candy). Then you're firmly in Blackberry territory. Don't let a confusing market keep you on the tech sidelines. Sooner or later, you'll need a smartphone. So make sure you get one that fits YOUR needs, not necessarily one that your friends are currently raving about.

I hope this series was informative and interesting to everyone who read it!
Next time, I'll be talking about the new netbooks that will be hitting stores just before Christmas!

Candidate Dance-Off!

2008-10-27T16:19:00.001-06:00

Joost: A Eulogy

2008-10-26T17:44:00.004-06:00

I know, I know. I swore I would never mention Joost again. But they made some rather radical changes, which I thought merited a *new* final blog. Joost launched a year and change ago, promising to revolutionize television over the internet for ALL computer users (read: Windows, Mac and Linux). Unfortunately, their freshman effort produced a Windows-only client that was a disappointment even for it's target audience. The program, which utilized P2P technology similar to Skype, was plagued by stuttering video and audio, frequent crashes, and sometimes you couldn't even connect! All the meanwhile, Mac and Linux users waited patiently for a promised beta-version of the client, so we could have..... something. Multiple broken promises and disappointments later, Joost has returned to the internet TV game with a flash-driven browser client. This time, Mac and Linux users can join the party. But there are still problems...

First off, Joost still sucks. I click on 30 Days of Night-Episode 1, and Episode 2 plays instead. Also, the same lame shampoo commercial plays the SECOND you click on ANYTHING! And finally, they don't actually have any mainstream TV or movie content. Everything is either 20 years old, or ridiculously obscure. The user-interface also leaves something to be desired.

Second, Joost is a day late and a dollar short. While they were trying to put the wheels back on their Windows client and designing a Windows webbrowser plugin (which also failed), Hulu was amassing a HUGE user-base by bringing users EXACTLY what we were asking for. Easy-to-access and decent quality TV over the internet. Hulu's flash-based service works for Windows, Mac and Linux, it's reliable, the ads are less frequent than TV (although somewhat repetitive), and there are even some social networking features that are being worked in. Best of all, it has CONTENT! Heroes, Burn Notice, Terminator, Family Guy, The Office, you name it. And if you want older shows, look no further. While Joost has a bunch of old crap like Starhunter that no one watched when it first aired, Hulu has got stuff like Miami Vice. I just watched half of Season 2! On a sidenote, that was a STARK reminder that fashion has changed A LOT since the 80's. Whew!

Final word: Joost should pack it in. They made critical errors and seem not to have learned anything from the experience. They broke promises to the early adopter community. They oversold the capabilities of their Windows client. And in the end, they took too long to course correct. In the words of my little sister when she was 8-years-old, "too bad, so sad." Vive le Hulu!

On a roll tonight

2008-10-16T20:42:00.002-06:00

I had to post this. It's too funny!

More internet radio choices

2008-10-16T19:53:00.003-06:00

Caution: There's some geek-speak ahead. Skip ahead if you're a noob. I'm too tired to translate right now...

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Man, sometimes I wonder how Windows users tolerate the lack of good media players for their operating system. I mean, seriously, you've got Windows Media Player which is a complete pile. Then you've got Winamp, which only marginally sucks. After that you're on to iTunes, which is only useful if you pledge allegiance to the Cult of Jobs. Your only truly good media player is VLC, but that's only good for videos. I have yet to find a really robust audio/music solution for Windows. Thankfully, Linux has some really good choices. Banshee and Exaile are absolutely top-notch for Gnome users and they are both installed on my laptop. Depends on my mood as to which one I'll use. But for my KDE desktop, AmaroK has clearly distinguished itself as the best of breed. It's polished, intuitive, fast, and executes it's feature-set WELL! Last.fm support, internet radio plugins, you name it. Which brings me to the point of this post...

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End of geek-speak...

Internet radio has got something for everyone. Sometimes, I want to discover new stuff, so I listen to Last.fm. Other times, I want a reliable mix of underground and I end up on Smoothbeats.com. But today I got the itch for some quality old-school. It was probably because I just watched that VH1 "100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time." VH1's hip-hop retrospectives are so tight, they sometimes brings a tear to my eye. Anyways, I had this old-school itch, so I did some channel-surfing with AmaroK, and ended up at 1club.fm - old school. Hmm, let's try that again:

1Club.FM - Old School

There's the occasional commercial, but the stream is high-quality, and zero interruptions over the nine or so hours I've been listening. Give it a try. Let me know what you think!

World's finest airport

2008-10-15T09:11:00.002-06:00

As an avid traveler, I am disappointed in our nation's airports, from a tech-head perspective. LAX is tore up from the floor up. Ohare and Midway are in the same state of perpetual construction. Milwaukee rolls up after 7pm. Cinci and Nashville are overpriced and under-equipped. My current faves are Las Vegas and Atlanta. But today, they were unseated by the mighty Charlotte. With rocking chairs, a great restaurant selection, cheap drinks, wi-fi, strong mobile phone reception, and friendly staff, a tech-head can't go wrong.

Do you...... Hulu?

2008-10-07T18:48:00.004-06:00

Man, who says that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. The recording industry was torpedoed around the turn of the millennium because it CHOSE not to deliver what its consumers were asking for. Consumers asked for a cheap and easy way to download music. When the recording industry turned up its nose, the market delivered a solution: Napster. When a legal solution was finally made popular by Apple years later, the genie was already out of the bottle. The music industry is now in free-fall having missed its opportunity to course-correct.

Over the last couple of years, Hollywood has been feeling some of the same market pressures. As mobile devices have become more popular and laptop prices have fallen, consumers have increasingly demanded a cheap and easy way to watch TV online, and on-demand. Until now, broadcatching via usenet or bittorrent has been the only option. An illegal option, I might add. But one that has become increasingly easy using programs like Vuze and T.E.D.

But just when it looked like Hollywood was about to be Napsterized, along came Hulu. If you've never visited, take a peek today. It's a service that streams current TV shows (as well as a surprisingly wide selection of movies!) in full-screen 480p resolution, with only 1/3 of the ads that you would see on television. It's as easy as finding the show you want to watch, clicking on it, and reclining...

Today, I discovered something unprecedented. Hulu has the live, streaming presidential debate. Yes, I said live. By the way, I don't care who you support, but you should educate yourself about the issues. Apathy is the greatest destructive force of a democracy.

The gPhone Cometh!

2008-10-06T16:55:00.007-06:00

Well, folks, the other shoe has finally dropped. Google has entered the mobile phone space. And the iPhone has it's first serious competitor. Allow me to introduce you to the HTC G1.

What's that you say? You haven't seen or heard anything about it? Not surprising, as Google is easing into this market. If the iPhone was the shot heard 'round the world, the G1 release was the equivalent of a BB-Gun. First of all, they launched with T-Mobile, the bastard red-headed adopted and later abandoned step-child of the mobile phone industry. Second, they partnered with handset manufacturer HTC, which is not exactly a household name these days. And finally, Google itself is not really promoting the phone. If there is such a thing as under-hyping a product, that's what Google is doing.

Critical error or clever tactic? To understand Google's angle, we first need to look at what Google has invested. Unlike Apple, who branded their entire phone as an Apple product, Google is clearly okay with T-Mobile and HTC having branding rights. And in reality, Google didn't have the kind of creative influence over the G1 that Apple had over the iPhone. That's not Google's game. The search giant doesn't want it's own phone. What it really wants is to *be* on EVERY phone. That's why it bought the Android operating system in the first place.

Hmmm, I guess some background is in order for those non-geeks among us. The operating system of a phone is essentially its brain. It controls the all-important user-interface. You know, that menu structure and application list that you either hate or are in-love with? That's the operating system, or O/S in geek-speak. Google, in it's neverending quest for new strategic directions, decided to pursue ad-revenue via mobile phones. And to that end, it figured the most efficient course of action was to own an operating system that could be deployed on ANY mobile phone. Thus, a couple of years ago it purchased Android, a small company with a slick mobile phone O/S. And in the meantime while the O/S was marinating, Google perfected a suite of mobile applications that can be accessed from ANY mobile phone. Seriously. Any mobile phone. Point your mobile browser at http://m.google.com. Go there right now. I can wait. No, really, go right now. You'll thank me later. Cool, right? Search, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, Docs, News, Photos, etc. All tailor-made for mobile phones. It turns any phone with a data connection into a smart-phone. Yes, even that $14.99 Pay-Go phone from AT&T. Google's throwing a party and EVERYONE'S invited, not just those who can afford $300 for an iPhone and a $100/month phone bill. (You can see where this is going, right? I struggle with concealing my bias.)

So, even though the HTC G1 seems like a half-hearted release into a space that Apple is dominating, it is only a first step for Google. Soon there will be an army of phones running Google's Android O/S. And the true beauty of Android is that, unlike the iPhone, it is an open platform. Anyone can develop an application without paying the Apple tax. So, while you can still shop on the Android marketplace for vetted, proven apps, it will only be a matter of time until FREE (ad-driven, ironically) or cheap application stores open and begin to spread. Google's plan is that you'll either have a Google phone, or you'll have a phone that can run Google apps. Market dominance built on top of an open platform. Can it really happen? We'll see. Google is running a marathon, not a sprint. So it could easily be another year until we see a critical mass of gPhones. At the same time, Apple's a one trick pony. It's the iPhone or nothing...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there's still the G1 that T-Mobile just released. Is is it worth your dollar? With a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard, it had me at hello. Those on-screen keyboards (ala iPhone, Instinct, Dare, et al) all SUCK! But, alas, the G1 is still on T-Mobile's network. In all seriousness, I have a soft spot in my geek heart for T-Mobile. They are the "Little Engine That Could" of the mobile industry. But they need some more freakin cell towers, plain and simple. Until then, much like the Lakers, all the G1 will do is get you excited, and then disappoint you when you give it your full attention. Don't get me wrong, it is a geek's wet dream:

But, regular folks should wait till next year. By early summer 2009, the mobile phone game will have changed. Permanently. A Storm is coming. A Blackberry Storm.

The bandwagon I'm NOT on, but that's okay...

2008-09-30T10:57:00.004-06:00

So, it looks like Google went out and wrote themselves a web browser. Chrome is the official name, and like all things Google, it was rushed to market with bugs, flaws, and no support for Linux or Mac. As I am a self-professed Google-groupie, I can forgive these things. I know that soon, Chrome will support all platforms, and the bugs will be ironed out. I actually like the fact that Google pushes out beta-class stuff. Plenty of software toys for a geek like me to tinker around with is a good thing.

But will I use Chrome? Probably not. Yes, you heard me right. As a Linux user, I have about a dozen web browsers to fool around with including Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, Konqeror, Epiphany, Flock, K-Meleon, Amaya, and even Internet Explorer (yes, you can run IE on Linux). Firefox is clearly the best of breed for a few reasons:

Marketshare - With 25% of the market, 99% of all websites FINALLY support Firefox! So, it's a rare day that you run across a website that demands Internet Exploder. Although, every once in a while, it happens. AT&T, it's time to step up your game...
Customization - Through extensions and skins, you can turn Firefox into a little slice of home. My essentials? DownloadHelper, Google Notebook, and Google Toolbar. Somebody stop me!
Development Cycle - "Active" is one way to describe Firefox's development cylce. "Insane" would be more accurate. Firefox was born in early 2001 during the aftermath of Browser Wars I, when IE delivered a resounding defeat to Netscape. During that time period, the Firefox developers understood the most important lesson of Browser Wars I: INNOVATE OR DIE! Thus Firefox later sparked the Browser Wars II by simply out-innovating Microsoft's IE every few months.
Multi-platform support - Windows, Linux, Mac? Firefox loves you all the same...
Polished end-user experience - Firefox doesn't feel like a beta, like a lot of other open source software. It looks and feels like a finished product. Personally, this doesn't mean a lot to *me*, but for normal folk like my wife, it means everything.

Thus, as much as I am fascinated by the Chrome, it will be a flash in the pan for me. The bigger question is, WHY did Google choose to create a browser? The answer is "control". As my old college chum Mike Arrington explains over at TechCrunch, Google is not going after the browser market with Chrome. It's got Windows itself in the crosshairs. With all of Google's online offerings (Documents, Calendar, Youtube, Messaging, News, Search, Shopping, etc.) within a browser that Google produces and controls, Windows becomes irrelevant. I may not end up using it, but picture this:

A $200 laptop "netbook" weighing in at two pounds, booting up in 10 seconds via a tiny, embedded version of Linux that really does nothing other than provide essential functionality with the hardware and an internet connection. Then you launch Google's Chrome to connect to all your online applications. THAT'S what Google is after. All they're doing right now is rattling the spurs...

Nashville airport sux!!!

2008-08-28T17:51:00.004-06:00

Nashville airport sux!!!

No cell phone reception, so the aircard won't connect. Their wi-fi is through Boingo for $4.95 an hour, and Boingo can't even seem to take my frickin money! And they are making me install some ridiculous Boingo connection manager. And my connection stength is VERY LOW! Give me a freakin break! Did I mention that there are only two restaurants in my gate area and both are jam packed?

So, I am typing this blog from my phone that's got a half bar of signal strength, just so I can rant and let Nashvillians know that they should not accept this crap! This is worse than LAX and that place is a pit! Out...

Online streaming music continues to grow!

2008-08-27T21:49:00.003-06:00

I am well aware of the fact that Satellite Radio is the current media darling. In fact, after six weeks of traveling across the country for my new gig, I have fallen passionately in love with Sirius Radio Channel 43 - BackSpin. All oldschool hip-hop, all the time. Driving out of Atlanta airport in my rental car a couple of weeks ago, I tuned in randomly to BackSpin only to hear the almighty Kurtis Blow introduce the next track: Public Enemy - Night of the Living Baseheads. He had me at hello. Now I can't live without it. Great DJ's, no commecials, and no edits!!! Seriously, life doesn't get any better.

Or does it? After being suitably impressed by my alternative music options in the car, what's a guy to do when he's sitting on the tarmac for an hour on a delayed flight to Baltimore? Streaming internet radio on my trusty Palm Centro, that's what! I didn't even know the Centro *did* internet radio! As a consummate underground hip-hop fan, I was more than gratified to see Smoothbeats.com listed under the station list. But there was also a newcomer: Live365's Hip-hop Lounge. Between these two stations, I have been in music bliss during my airport downtime. The DJ's at these stations clearly have a true passion for their chosen genre. They transition effortlessly from Diggable Planets to Gangstarr, Jurrasic 5 to Pete Rock, Murs to Common. Please, please, please give them a listen. Support something, ANYTHING other than big radio. I assure you, great music is still out there!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to return to this Goodie Mob track...

The two faces of Apple

2008-08-24T15:45:00.013-06:00

I would like to extend a heartfelt "thank you" to all of my new readers from Urban Thought Collective! I am sincerely proud and humbled to be a part of this community. Now, on to the tech!

Last week, I gave you an overview of the major players in the coming mobile-phone slugfest that's about to hit the market. Apple vs. Google vs. the handset manufacturers (Motorola, Samsung, et al). If I were to portray this market conflict in terms of a boxing analogy, I would invite you to recall the Tyson vs. Spinks fight circa 1988. I was all of 14-years-old and I vividly recall watching the pay-per-view event at a friends' house. We were glued to the screen as my buddy's mother got up to fix herself a drink in the kitchen about 30 seconds into Round 1. When she returned ONE MINUTE later, the fight was OVER!!! Iron Mike had knocked Michael Spinks into dreamland at 1:30 in the first round. I remember seeing Spinks' eyes roll up into his head and thinking, " Damn Tyson hits hard!" while listening to my buddy's mother say, "You're KIDDING me! The fight is OVER??? And I missed it???"

In this case, Apple is Mike Tyson, and the rest of the industry is Spinks. When the iPhone hit the market in June of 2007, it literally knocked the industry on it's collective ass. It had an intuitive touchscreen that would respond to finger touches as opposed to random other knocks and jostles. The applications included a shockingly cool webbrowser! (check it)

For the first time, a phone could display regular (as opposed to mobile-formatted) websites, either portrait or landscape, and with touch-driven zoom options! And that was just the tip of the iceberg. ITunes was seamlessly integrated making this a truly multimedia phone. There was GPS, wi-fi, instant messaging, video, and more all driven through a miniature version of Mac's much-lauded operating system. There were even select 3rd party applications you could buy (more on this later).

But even as the early-adopter segment cleaned AT&T and Apple stores out of their inventory, there was a growing discontent among some of the fanboi's. To give you some perspective on the origins of this anti-Apple angst, I invite you to take a trip with me back to the year 2001. Steve Jobs was in the 4th year of his second go-round as CEO at Apple, Pixar Studios (Jobs' baby) was still riding high on Toy Story, and a new digital audio player called the iPod had just debuted to the general public. The iPod, although slow to pick up steam, proved to be a gadget juggernaut and within three years it was a pop-cultural darling. Uber-trendy Apple was revered for creating a device that "just worked" for the average consumer. The iPod was simple and intuitive; a stark contrast to Microsoft and the Windows gauntlet. However, the blissful Apple experience came with a hefty price tag: thirty percent more $$ on average than it's competitors. And then there was the dreaded vendor lock-in.

(SIGH) This is where things get complicated. Although Apple's iPod was revolutionary in the digital music player market, many a consumer had no idea that upon purchasing it, the music they purchased via the iTunes music store was largely playable ONLY on the iPod. The actual songs were copy-protected and encoded in a format NOT playable by other MP3 players! Many consumers were shocked to find out that they could not share their iTunes music with a friend, or even back it up to another computer. Apple kept tight control over every aspect of purchasing and playback, all in the name of "stability and usability" for the consumer. It was like buying a car that comes with a driver. But that driver will only take you to destinations he deems appropriate or safe.

Fast-forward to 2007, and the iPhone is attracting the same criticism as it's iPod brethren. Only this time, the lockdown is positively stifling. Although consumers have the power of a portable computer in the palm of their hands, only "Apple approved" applications can be sold via the iPhone application store.
Hackers ultimately produced a "jailbreak" application to open the iPhone so that consumers could use features the way *they* wanted, not necessarily the way Apple wanted. Observe. So easy, a caveman can do it:

In under 60 seconds, a plethora of non-Apple approved applications became available to iPhone owners. Thus began the war between Apple and the Hackers. You see, the one constant about Apple, Inc. is that they *MUST* be in control at all times. Hackers jailbreak the iPod, Apple updates and overrrides the jailbreak, Hackers patch the override, and so on ad nauseum. It is a never-ending war to either keep the iPhone locked down or open it for all.

And that is the real decision that potential iPhone consumers must ultimately make. Do you want Apple to drive? Or would you like to be in the driver's seat, constantly vigilant for Apple updates or killswitches that will replace you at the helm? Do you trust Apple to always accept the "best of breed" applications into their store? Or would you rather "roll the dice" and figure out what works for you while dodging sniper shots from Apple?

Next time, I'll be discussing Google's new Android operating systems and the first phones running on that platform. There is so much COOL innovation happening with cell phones right now, I can't stand it!!!

The coming Mobile Phone Wars!

2008-08-06T16:29:00.011-06:00

Sounds ominous, right? Well, it should. Most tech shootouts do more harm than good to the consumer. Anybody remember Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD? Lasting for over two years, this Hi-Def DVD format face-off split the entertainment content community and left consumers standing on the sidelines scratching their heads. And Blu-ray's eventual victory earlier this year surely tasted of ashes. They were left with either angry customers who had spent hundreds on HD-DVD boxes and its respective media, or hopelessly confused customers who still didn't know that simply owning a Play Station 3 had put them in the winners' circle.

What does that mean for the looming Mobile Phone slug-fest? More of the same consumer confusion. Perhaps I should explain. Recently, in a test market, smart-phone owners were asked about the capabilities of their phones and how they used them. It was determined that, although the smart-phone owners confidently claimed to use 100% of their phones' features such as texting and pictures, on average the group was *really* only using 40% of their phone's true capabilities. Advanced features like email, web-browsing, calendaring, instant messaging and mp3's were largely unused. In fact, some of these consumers carried multiple devices to accomplish the other tasks, completely oblivious to the fact that their phones could do all of these things and more!

So, what's the big deal? Who cares if you've got a Blackberry Curve that you only use for texting??? Well, I contend that YOU should care. Really good convergent devices do a couple of things to improve your life. If you live a mobile lifestyle (real estate agent, pharma sales, home office, small business, etc.) the smart-phone allows you to turn downtime into productive time, ultimately making you more efficient. It also allows you to (if you're smart) get closer to that holy grail that we all call work/life balance. Picture this: While you were standing in line at the bathroom for the Brewer game for 10 minutes, you could have read and responded to four emails, updated a meeting in your calendar, edited that staffing spreadsheet, streamed a youtube video of the Sausage Race you missed while you were waiting in line, and sent an IM to your wife telling her you're running late because your boss told you to finish those TPS reports TONIGHT! By the time you get home, your work is done, and family time is REALLY family time.

That should be enough to whet any gadget-consumer's appetite. But what about this war? Even if you're on-board to squeeze more stuff out of your smart-phone, the market is about to change soooooo dramatically, that you'll need a ringside announcer just to keep up.

In one corner, we've got the iPhone. Pretty, sleek, thin, intuitive, and feature rich. In a market run by the carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, et al), this was the first major push to market by a handset manufacturer (Apple) where THEY actually dictated the terms to a carrier. Apple *pwned* AT&T for every penny, charging full price for the phone as well as demanding kickbacks from every 2-year contract. AT&T was left to salvage scraps from the table. Although Apple is widely criticized for their restrictive design and barriers to 3rd party developers, everyone can clearly agree that the iPhone is an 11 on a usability scale of 1-10. In fact, one can say that Apple has set a new bar for smart-phone usability.

On the other side of phone design is Google. Yes, the same Google that is a search engine. As software developers and handset manufacturers look to push the carriers firmly into the backseat, non-traditional companies like Google are looking for a piece of the action. They envision an "open" phone where everyone is free to develop applications, and online content is ad-supported. The problem is that as far as anyone can tell, only a few prototypes exist. Check the video below. If you can get past the ridiculous level of excitement (you'll see) from the narrators, there are some really cool phone demos.

The final player is represented by the handset manufacturers themselves. Motorola, Samsung, and a few others got together one day and called themselves a foundation. The LiMo Foundation, to be exact. Similar to Google, their goal is to create an industry-standard open phone design, so that application developers can "write once, and run anywhere," as opposed to supporting many different versions of the same program. Unlike Google, LiMo's got some product in the market. Not much in the way of smart-phones yet, but it's still a good start.

Over my next few blog entries, I'll be doing an in-depth review of each of the three major players in this market. This will include a comparison of some of their handsets, as well as their market strategies and what it means to us as consumers. For those who are new to my blog, these won't be traditional reviews. Want a teaser? Watch this iPhone usability video...

Man, I love this video. Something about a puree'd iPhone that makes my toes tingle...

Where we're headed...

2008-07-22T17:12:00.006-06:00

My company is launching an entirely new business venture, and one of the test markets just happens to be.... you guessed it. Hotlanta! And I just found out that I get to be on the team!!! It worked out really well, as my wife just accepted a post-doctoral fellowship to the CDC. So, we've both got brand new adventures ahead of us! Cool, hey? (Ugh, I still sound like a Cheesehead. I wonder what I will sound like after a year in the ATL?)

Here's where we're going, courtesy of Google Maps.

Click on the image to blow it up. Have I fessed up to being a Google-groupie??? Man, Google apps are like crack. You can't stop using them! Maps, Calendar, Email, Blogger, Documents, etc. And they've got a mobile version of EVERYTHING! And they support open source and linux. And they are launching an open cell phone O/S in the very near future. Wait, was this blog about me and Atlanta or Google? I forget. In any case, I'll be in the ATL in t-minus 30 days. In honor of Hotlanta, I present this fine Outkast video, Bombs over Baghdad:

Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad
by hushhush112

Hmmm, I suppose a disclaimer is in order. Although I fully believe that Outkast is the greatest hip-hop group ever, and B.O.B. is one of their best tracks, this video ultimately disappoints. I'm not sure how hot chicks in maple-leaf pasties dancing on poles is relevant to the lyrics. Not that I have an issue with hot chicks, maple-leaves, pasties, or pole-dancing. It's just that I expected something a little more..... substantive. Ah, maybe it's an Atlanta thing...

On to warmer climes

2008-07-20T10:55:00.002-06:00

Well Cheeseheads, it's been real. Yeah, REAL COLD!!! (At least from November to May, that is, 'cause right now it's 90 degrees outside and I'm roasting like a pig on a spit.) I'm headed south to....... the South. Yeah, as a sidenote, I'm re-thinking this whole "anonymity" thing. I was paranoid about my employers finding out about my blog and raining wrath down upon me, but then I found out that they really embrace the whole social networking thing, as long as I don't really talk about them. So, I guess I really don't care anymore. I don't even use uncensored expletives in my blog, so I don't think I have much to worry about.

But, I waaaaay digress. Circumstances have changed in a really good way, and the wife and I are departing Milwaukee in the near future, bound for the ever-growing Atlanta megalopolis. Hmmmm, cheap property, more money, good public transportation, mild winters, and I get to live in a big city again. Not a tough decision, right? Actually it really was a difficult decision. We'll be hundreds of miles from our best friends Richmond, Wxman, and their wonderful kids, which will seriously suck. But our hand has been dealt and we've gotta play our cards. See ya, Wisconsin. You were a cold, bitter b*tch half of the time, but I really liked you the rest of the time. Peace out.

Needless to say, my blog updates will be pretty irregular for the next 90 days or so. But who knows? I have a laptop, and an aircard, and a new smartphone. I don't seriously think I have any excuses for not updating the blog, so keep watching this space. ATL, here we come!!!

Loving the Centro

2008-07-20T09:46:00.003-06:00

Well folks, I have finally decided on a new smartphone. But first, I'll expand a little on my quest. It began with the En-V, LG's Frankenstein monster of a cellphone. Candybar scheme on the outside, flippy full-keyboard and widescreen goodness on the inside. And for a few bucks more, I got the GPS add-on. Life was good for a while, but over time I began to discover what I really *wanted* out of a cellphone. Surprisingly, the voice/phone part was really a small part of it. I wanted a full qwerty keyboard for texting and IM, a decent camera, a good picture viewer, and a decent web browser so I could connect with Google mobile and view things like my calendar and email. Most of all, I needed a more robust platform so I could later add on programs depending on how my needs changed. What I needed was a smartphone.

As replacing the En-V was not an emergency, I took my time shopping around. Even though I was with Verizon, I was willing to break the deal and jump to another carrier if the phone was right. I looked at the Blackberry Curve, the iPhone, the Instinct, the Voyager, the Blackjack, and all the other usual suspects. Let me first say that the iPhone is a hot little number. The new 3G has integrated fixes for many of the complaints that people had about the Gen 1, and it is really a pleasure to play with. The functionality and intuitive nature of the UI is second to none. But a couple of things killed it for me. $200 and two years in bed with AT&T?! Yeah, right. But more importantly for me, it is Apple's outright hostility towards the hacker community that is a deal-breaker. I'll rant more about this later. Anyways, the other phones like the Voyager and Instinct were just iPhone knockoffs in my opinion. Poorly implemented touch screens, varying levels of unresponsiveness, yadda yadda. The only two that held my attention based on my needs, were the Blackberry and the Centro. Part of me wanted to just wait for the FreeRunner or the first phone with Google's Android platform, but all at once my phone situation suddenly became urgent. I had dropped and severely damaged my En-V.

So, I drove to my local Big Box and test drove the Centro for a bit.

Oooooo, it was a cool, refreshing blast of pure Palm. It has an excellent touchscreen, proven and reliable apps for things like pdf's or Word documents, and a really slick Google Maps application! Who cares that it's ultimately a legacy device? When Palm decides not to support it anymore, the Centro's not going to vanish in a puff of smoke. And the software developers might well continue to update their wares, with or without Palm's blessing. However, my gut tells me that the recent breakout success of the Centro just might be making Palm rethink their long-term plans for the O/S. In short, the Blackberry never had a chance. Centro had me at hello.

After 48 hours of playing with it, I'm a pretty happy consumer. I did a dead-easy hotsync with my contacts backed up from my En-V on my linux desktop. Then I installed the newest Google Maps (complete with the new "my location" feature), a PDF reader, Facebook, and Solitaire. I can easily access my Google Calendar from the built-in web browser (which also renders other mobile pages very well including Youtube). And a surprise bonus is that I can retrieve my corporate email using Palm's Versamail application. My only complaint at this point is the battery-life. I almost didn't make it through a full day. But I'm sure I can cure that problem with a high capacity battery.

Getting the Flock out of here

2008-07-10T19:03:00.005-06:00

Sadly, after a couple of weeks using Flock, I have to say I'm not too impressed. Sure it's nice to have a media bar at the top with your chosen Picasa or Flickr pics. And yes, it's cool to see Facebook updates in realtime on a sidebar. But when it comes to anything akin to real browsing, Flock fails. It's based on Firefox, but the experience only leaves you wanting for the real thing. In fact, I think it's overkill to design an entire browser to do some things that a few Firefox extensions could probably take care of. Too bad, as I thought it sounded like a cool idea. But over the course of two weeks, all I did was fire it up, watch the Facebook updates load, say, "Cool" and then load up Firefox to get my real browsing done.

Ugh.

2008-07-06T18:20:00.001-06:00

I just found out I'm the same age as Mark Shuttleworth, the creator of Ubuntu. He's also worth north of $500 million. I'm not. Damn.

A Flock of what?

2008-06-30T23:03:00.001-06:00

So, I'm experimenting with different web browsers these days. Not that I'm unhappy with my default Firefox 3. On the contrary, Firefox 3 is the BEST I've ever used (despite the occasional crashiness on Flash 10 sites). No, the decision to experiment came when I saw an article on alternative browsers and how they have matured. Opera, Epiphany, and the like. Ho hum. But then I saw Flock, the browser expressly designed for social networking. Hmmm, as my life has recently become CONSUMED with the social network sites, I figured this must be a "good thing", so I decided to give it a spin. And it's based on Firefox, so how bad could it be?

In fact, I'm blogging from within it right now. And I have sidebars with Facebook, Picasa, and GMail updates. It takes a little getting used to as the UI is quite a departure from Firefox, but it certainly enhances the "immediate gratification" effect. It converts a "pull system", whereby I go to a website like Facebook and seek updates on what my friends are doing, to a "push" system that displays updates from those sites immediately after opening my browser. Many would call this information overload, but we'll see. I'll spend a week using it, and then report back.

UPDATE:
Hmmm, the spellcheck doesn't seem to work properly. That could be a problem in light of my tendancy to blog while intoxicated. Apologies in advance if the above text is a bit...... mangled. :-)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Who knew Kid Rock was funny?

2008-06-18T19:27:00.003-06:00

Or that he "gets it" with regard to downloading and the music biz. Most blockbuster artists (cough) Prince and Madonna (cough) are content to label their fans as thieves and distribute their content according to how the RIAA sees fit. They do a few public service announcements about how downloading is stealing, and stealing is wrong, and as far as they are concerned, the discussion is over.

However, for the majority of NON-blockbuster artists (aka, the musicians who have a small but passionate following), mp3 distribution has allowed them to reach an audience far wider than they would have been able to reach without it. Thus the industry is seeing the rise of tiny local groups to more mainstream visibility.

Kid Rock recently took the argument one step further. He's boycotting iTunes, the #1 online music retailer, because of the DRM'd chokehold they have on the industry, and how it's simply a replay of the old system where the rich artists get richer, and the poor ones get nowhere.

"Now, in 2008, Kid Rock is boycotting iTunes because he says that artists are not getting their fair share of the revenue generated by the Apple store. He is annoyed at this ‘old system’ “where iTunes takes the money, the record company takes the money, and they don’t give it to the artists”. Kid Rock crucially talks about how the Internet should’ve been a “great opportunity for everyone to be treated fairly, for the consumer to get a fair price, for the artist to be paid fairly, for the record companies to make some money.”"

He wraps up the interview with this tongue-in-cheek rant. If you're an illegal mp3 downloader, don't stop at music. STEAL EVERYTHING!

The new Firefox is THA BOMB!

2008-06-17T20:59:00.003-06:00

I started using Linux back in 2002. In those days, a good web browser for my O/S of choice was tough to come by. Linux browers were in a sort of "wilderness" phase. We had Mozilla (the open source version of Netscape), which had just reached version 1.0. But it was HUGE, slowed my system to a crawl, and rendered some web pages poorly. There were no plugins for flash or video, and overall the experience was crappy compared to IE on Windows or Mac. There were a couple of alternative browsers around like Opera and Konqueror, but the experience was similar.

But something happened a few months after that Mozilla milestone release. It spawned an experimental fork, codenamed Phoenix. The goal was to create a fast, lightweight but extensible, cross-platform browser that would render pages at least as well as IE. Six years, three name changes, and three milestone releases later, Firefox 3.0 has achieved that goal. And in a world where Windows is on 98% of ALL PC's and IE comes preinstalled on each and every one of them, Firefox has clawed it's way to a 20% browser market share!

A few of my favorite features:

It's so lightweight! It uses so little memory every with tabs open that my laptop barely registers a performance hit! 200% better than version 2.0!
Opens tabs from your previous session.
New bookmark system let's you tag bookmarks, so you can type something like "email" and it will display all bookmarks tagged as email so you don't have to go rifling around for it!
New address bar is SMART! Based on your browsing history you can type in the name of a site you've visited and it will just take you there!
Undo close tab!!!!!
Crazy new anti-phishing feature. It can be a bit aggressive, though.
New cool download manager.
Still as customizable as ever!

Get it, and let me know what you think!

Windows or Linux, which is easier?

2008-06-16T11:00:00.004-06:00

I am a participant in an on-going debate with a colleague of mine. He's a Windows loyalist who happens to believe that Windows is a far superior O/S than Linux or Mac. He knows I'm a Linux user, so he takes a few digs every time he sees me. Usually, I just smile and joke back with him. Until a few days ago. That's when he crossed the line.

J: Dude, Linux is so much more complicated than Windows. How can you stand it?

Me: ??? More complicated? Noooo. Did you just seriously say that? You only THINK Windows is easier because the whole world's been using it for 20 years.

J: No, man. It's way harder to use.

Me: You're on crack. I'll tell you what's hard. Windows wireless networking. How in the HELL do you tolerate it?

J: Networking? What are you talking about? Windows is soooo easy to get networked wirelessly.

Me: Let me paint you a picture. I turn on my wife's Vista laptop, and I am greeted by the network card's sh*t wireless applet competing with Vista's sh*t networking program to be the first to tell me, after five minutes, that I have wireless networks available. No sh*t, Sherlock. Then when I try to connect, they wrestle with each other for another five minutes until one crashes and the other connects with "very low" signal strength. Very low??? I have a Mimo router that is broadcasting a signal that knocks my neighbor's cordless phone offline from a HALF BLOCK AWAY! My Linux laptop connects instantly at boot-time with a "strong" signal from the back-frickin-yard. And I have no IDEA why her's doesn't work!
AND OUR LAPTOPS ARE IDENTICAL!!!

J: Um, well. I'm not talking about Vista. It was way easier in XP...

__________________________________

As to which O/S is *better*, I will not engage in such a debate. But easier? Bring it on. If Linux had become the dominant platform, the masses of fanbois would be gushing about how much easier *it* was than ANY of it's competitors. That's just market forces at work. And Linux is faaaar from perfect. I decided to use WPA security on that new Mimo router, and after 20 minutes of cajoling and cursing at my Gnome NetworkManager, I was ready to pull my hair out! Instead, I pulled the NetworkManager out. All of it. And I installed Wicd, a slick, lightweight alternative. And I was conected and surfing in just under 60 seconds.

But I can't really do that in Windows, can I. I have to use the crap they serve up to me. And the soup de jour is Windows Vista. Check please?

I LOVE the geek girls!

2008-06-16T10:34:00.002-06:00

I guess that's why I married a sci-fi loving geneticist, right? Well, that and she brought a couple of other assets to the table.

{ahem}

But, I digress. Apparently, I was an "early adopter" of the geek-girl worship trend way back in the 90's, because the mainstream media is only now figuring out that scientist chicks can be both smart AND hot. Newsweek wrote this article, and there are some follow-up blogs.
Pictured above, the "Nerd Girls" of Tufts University. Engineers. Yeah. THIS is why the cheerleaders never caught my attention...

I'm baaaack and I'm MINTY fresh!

2008-06-11T20:10:00.005-06:00

Whew! Vacation, illness, and a hectic work schedule have kept me away, but no more. Today, I want to introduce everyone to a good friend of mine. Her name is Elyssa. And she's the BEST!

The best OPERATING SYSTEM, that is! Now, I know most of you suckas out there are using Windows XP or Vista, and I am certainly not here to evangelize to those of you who are happy Microsofties. But if any of you are feeling adventurous, there are some O/S alternatives out there that you should seriously consider. Yes, I am talking about Linux.

It's core written in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, Linux has been a geek's wet dream for the better part of 15 years. Linux comes in MANY different flavors (called distros), all presenting competition to a market that was monopolized for too many years by Microsoft Windows. However, it's only been in the last two or so years that a few distros have made Linux accessible to the unwashed masses. Novell's Suse Linux, Mandriva Linux, Fedora, and Ubuntu. All are popular alternatives to Windows, but Ubuntu's runaway success across the globe is particularly fascinating. Ubuntu, roughly translated as "humanity towards others", was the brainchild of South African millionaire businessman Mark Shuttlesworth. It is a hip, usable, well-marketed, and fun to use operating system. And like any other popular open-source system, it has itself spawned variants. One of those Ubuntu variants is Linux Mint.

Okay, I'm sure I lost a few people. Let's start again. There's Linux, which is an operating system like Windows. And Linux has these different distros such as Ubuntu, but they're all still Linux. And then those distros have variants. And the Ubuntu variant that I use is Linux Mint. For the last year, I have been a loyal Mint user, using it exclusively on my laptop and desktop. Why Mint and not Ubuntu? A few reasons. Mint comes read-to-use with a lot of the little niceities and courtesies that Ubuntu left out. Things like browser plugins (flash, java, etc.), a customized menu, a DEAD EASY software install system, a desktop customizer, and media codecs for easy DVD playback. In short, it creates a more polished and elegant desktop experience.

And a few days ago, Linux Mint reached new heights. The latest release, code-named Elyssa, was unleashed among the rabid linux fanboys. And from my own personal experience, as well as what I've heard and seen from other users. it has been a HUGE success. Linux Mint Elyssa is nothing short of bliss on my laptop. Here are a few of the routine tasks I accomplish weekly with Elyssa:

1. Convert videos with iriverter so that I can watch them on my mp3 player while I work out.

2. Download mp3's from Amazon and Emusic with customized Linux download software.

3. Edit videos from my digital camera with avidemux.

4. Rip DVD's with dvdrip.

5. Keep up with podcasts with gpodder.

6. Listen to streaming music from last.fm with the neat program last-exit.

7. Watch streaming movies, TV and listen to music via tunapie.

8. Watch DVD's with VideoLanClient (VLC).

9. Download my phones pics to my desktop with bitpim.

10. Read PDF's with Adobe.

11. Um, I use Google Earth. For what? Who knows...

12. Surf the internet and check out my favorite sites like Facebook with the mighty Firefox web browser.

13. Use my aircard to connect to the internet when I'm out and about using ppptray.

14. Edit photos from my digital camera with Picasa, Gimp, Phatch, and/or gThumb.

All of this with only an occasional crash or hiccup, which happens far less frequently than in the Windows days, and without any viruses, spyware or malware. My operating sytem, my way. Check out the website at least... Tell me what you think!

Still alive

2008-06-05T14:56:00.001-06:00

To all my loyal readers, I'm still here. Had some vacation and other items that pulled me away, but I shall return soon!

This is HILARIOUS!

2008-05-21T11:00:00.000-06:00

Groping For Money
Uploaded by thexcity

You've gotta wait for the punchline...

Being Human...

2008-04-30T18:48:00.003-06:00

So stop me if you've heard this one. A werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost all walk into a pub...

Sound like a joke? Well, it's not. In fact, it is the basis for a new British TV series called, "Being Human". The pilot aired a few months ago on BBC3. I saw the pilot floating around usenet and on a whim decided to give it a watch. And this was truly a whim, let me tell ya. When I read the synopsis,

"Being Human was a 2008 British television drama/horror, shown on BBC Three. Its pilot episode starred Guy Flanagan, Andrea Riseborough, Russell Tovey and also featured Adrian Lester. The programme concerned three twenty-something characters trying to live a normal social life, despite being a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf."

I almost decided to pass. It was the phenomenal review comments that made me click the download button. Expecting the worst, I was absolutely floored after the first five minutes of a howling, screaming, utterly painful-looking werewolf transformation. The rest was about the most riveting two hours of television in recent memory. The acting, writing, dialog, and cinematography were all top-notch.

The show has been in limbo for a few months, but this week, the BBC just confirmed that a first season has officially been commissioned in light of overwhelming viewer support for the pilot. If the pilot airs on BBC America or SciFi, do yourself a favor. WATCH IT! It's scary, witty, thoughtful and dramatic all at the same time. And it does what scifi truly does best. It deeply analyzes the *human* condition. Why do vampires, robots and aliens do this best? Who knows?

Enjoy the first 10 minutes. Then catch the rest over at Youtube. Did I mention they play some Amy Winehouse?

The Neo is coming

2008-04-17T21:36:00.004-06:00

After much delay, the first open source phone is about to be released. It's the Neo FreeRunner! Picture the iPhone, but with an open developer API enabling a PLETHORA of 3rd party apps! No, that's not quite right because it has a bunch of features that iPhone owners only wish they had. True 3G data speeds, wireless-N wi-fi, built-in GPS, Micro-SD expansion and a 400Mhz processor! Only $400 and available at the end of THIS month. I'll tell you who's about to have one...

Netflix streaming is goooooooooooooood!

2008-04-17T21:00:00.003-06:00

I had a little time this past weekend, so I decided to test out the Netflix's movie streaming service. Yes, in this day of ginormous HDTV and Bluray DVD's, I am perfectly willing to stream in 480p (standard def) to my 15" laptop screen. First up, was Justice League: The New Frontier.

Bruce Timm, the genius behind Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited decided to dish up a period piece set in the 1950's. As an avid comic superhero fan, I've got to say that it was too cool to see the Silver Age versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. But, as sci-fi and fantasy often does, it focused much more on social relevancy than on the wonders of having super powers. In fact, the story opens with Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern) flying a combat mission over North Korea. Conscious of the pro-propaganda nature of that decade, it presented traditionally pro-American themes in a very different light. For example, Wonder Woman is in Cambodia freeing enslaved women, arming them, and allowing them to torture and slaughter their captors. Yup. And when Superman confronts her, she basically tells him that she's brought freedom to these women and it's the "American way", something that he should surely be familiar with. That's when I knew that this flick was different. It deals head-on with how incredible American ideals are, but how often it falls short of these ideals presenting stories of intolerance, sexism, and prejudice as evidence. And in the end, it is up to us as individuals to decide what kind of America we want to live in. It is up to us to hold our country accountable. Very sobering stuff. And it's a frickin CARTOON! And here's the fanboy stuff:

Man, who knew that Superman would get whacked in the first battle and that Green Lantern would bring home the gold!!! And the Flash was a rare frickin form! Doubting himself and his ability, but literally giving it 120% to save humanity. I felt like I was a kid again watching it. I give JL: The New Frontier AND Netflix streaming a BIG "thumbs up". Now, if only they supported Linux....

And that's all she wrote

2008-04-13T22:00:00.002-06:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, this concludes my experimentation with online data storage. My experience has totally and completely sucked. After spending the better part of two days uploading my music, I find out that JungleDisk doesn't actually do "streaming." When I try to play a song that I have stored remotely, JungleDisk actually connects to the Amazon S3 and *downloads* the complete song and caches it on my local harddrive. Then it plays. My local harddrive's cache size is about 5GB. My entire music collection was maybe 9GB.

Let me paint this picture. I uploaded my music collection to JungleDisk/Amazon so I could stream it from anywhere and reclaim some local disk space on my aging laptop. But when I connect to play music, it downloads the entire music collection again! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! I wanted to *stream* my music on-demand. If I wanted to copy something, then I would copy it. The point is NOT to use my local harddrive space. In any case, the experiment is over...

It took 48 hours!

2008-04-11T22:41:00.002-06:00

That data backup took an ENTIRE 48 hours to complete! Things are all fine and dandy now that everything is parked remotely, but daaaaaaamn it took a long time. Unless you've got a TON of upload bandwidth (at least 2Mb's) I would pass on the online data storage option. The cart is truly ahead of the horse on this one...

Online data storage is a pain

2008-04-08T20:20:00.003-06:00

Recently, I decided to give JungleDisk (powered by Amazon's S3 service) a test-drive. JungleDisk provides a toolkit for online data storage. Basically, I can store a bunch of stuff (music, docs, videos, etc.) remotely on Amazon's servers instead of my own local harddrives. The benefits include safe and super-reliable access to my data from wherever I am, at any time. I was thinking what a cool idea it would be to store all my music there , so I could stream it from any computer. In fact, I think storing things like pictures and music on local harddrives is a total waste. For the most part, this media just sits around on a harddrive doing nothing. Perhaps you occasionally search it for that wedding photo your mom wants to see. And then, at some point, the harddrive fails for some reason or another. Then you're really screwed. Online data solutions, on the other hand, have backups for their backups. And streaming pics or music is just fine for me. As long as it's on-demand, I'm happy. The transfer AND data storage are encrypted so I decided to give it a spin.

I installed the linux client for JungleDisk, fired it up, and started copying. My entire music collection. Hundreds of songs. Maybe thousands? I'm not sure. I started at 8pm CDT on April 7th. It is now 9:30pm on April 8th, and IT'S STILL UPLOADING!!! Let me be clear that this is NOT JungleDisk's fault. I happen to be the proud owner of a business-class 5Mb down/512Kb up cable internet line. And therein lies the bottleneck. The 512Kb upload speed is CRAZY slow. I have never really appreciated that until now. My upload speed is maxed out and I'm only to Jay-Z. At this rate, I won't be done till Thursday! But I'm in with both feet, so I'm damn sure not stopping now. I'll post an update when this is complete...

Residential internet is just not ready for online data storage/backup. My business-class line has DOUBLE the capacity of my provider's residential plan, and this is still taking me forever. What we all need is a strong dose of the Verizon FIOS 20Mb up/20Mb down. That's the sweet spot. Until then, do yourself a favor and buy a portable harddrive that I told you was a waste of time a couple of paragraphs ago. They're really cheap now...

DRM is worthless

2008-03-31T21:13:00.003-06:00

At least that's what Random House has concluded after doing a study on it's audiobooks sold with and without DRM. Here's an exerp from the AnythingButIpod article:

"The really interesting part of this story is the experiment that Random House conducted on piracy. They sold DRM free books online and water marked them to track them on P2P networks, but what they discovered was the pirated copies on these networks were from ripped audiobook CDS and cracked from DRMed audiobooks. Legitimately, purchased DRM free audio books did not show up on P2P networks. Random House concluded, “Our feeling is that D.R.M. is not actually doing anything to prevent piracy.”"

Wow. Sell people what they want, the way they want it, and for a fair price, and they won't pirate your stuff. Amazing concept. (Can you sense my sarcasm?) The entire NYTimes article is here.

Oh, the joys of virtualization...

2008-03-30T13:38:00.005-06:00

I'm sure the question on everyone's lips these days is, "Hey Akshun J, how do you linux users get around in the internet world without Windows?" Yep, I know you were thinking it. Well, as I said in a previous post, the last two years have been really good for linux users. We've got a SMOKIN web browser (Firefox), with a suite of cool plugins including Java and Flash. Instant messaging (Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc) is handled by either Pidgin or Kopete, either of which are darn good and handle all the major protocols. Music streaming is particularly robust with either Amarok or my current favorite Exaile. I can grab podcasts, stream radio, or listen to my music library all with the same program! All of this stuff gets me to the dance, and the steady stream of online browser-based apps like Facebook and Last.fm get me to the after-party. Did I mention that I paid exactly ZERO for all of these programs??? Paying for software is for suckas. It's all about the services, baby. Let me select the *free* app that I prefer to use, and then hit me up for a few bucks for the service. Data backup, MP3, what have you. I'll pay, but you can't get my money twice for the app AND the service. Ain't gonna happen. Check the technique:

But once in a while, there is an app that *requires* Windows without exception. Sometimes this is a program I can live without, like Joost. Not only does it suck, but it has an awesome cross-platform alternative in Miro. Other times, it is a program that I *really* want to be able to run such as Netflix's online streaming service. It needs some wacky Active-X plugin that is ONLY supported by Internet Explorer. Ugh. If there is an ass-end of the internet, it is truly the piece of crap known as IE to loyal Microsofties. This plugin provides some DRM functionality and supposedly protects the content thus making the MPAA happy. It also leaves every Linux (and Mac) user out in the cold. As I love and support Netflix, I have decided to find a work-around. (Am I letting Netflix off the hook? A little. But the real *ssholes here are the MPAA for being so tight-fisted with their content. But that's another story.)

When I need a little Windows in my Linux world, I've got quite a few options. There's WINE, Qemu, KVM, Xen, Vmware, and VirtualBox. The current best of breed is without a doubt Vmware. It literally runs an entire guest operating system (Windows, for example) within *whatever* O/S you happen to be running at the time. Why run virtual Windows when I can just install the real thing? Well, outside of the fact that I love Linux, virtual Windows is my way of taming the beast. I can literally take a snapshot of the current Windows state and if things get unstable I just revert. Accidentally install a virus? No prob, just revert to a snapshot. For once, *I* get to control Windows, and not the other way around. But, as good as Vmware is, at $189 it's a little pricey for my taste. My preferred virtualization program is VirtualBox.

VirtualBox is free, fast, easy-to-install, has most of the same features as Vmware, and even includes a few killer features that are exclusive to VirtualBox. My favorite is the "seamless-mode". Basically it lets Windows apps seamlessly integrate with your Linux desktop.

Yes, that is IE running the Netflix streaming app on my Linux desktop. That's the really sweet spot of open source. Free apps and cheap services. If you want to get started, bounce on over to virtualbox.org. And if you're a Windows user, try out VirtualBox to test the latest version of Linux. You might like what you see...

Oooo, I gots traffic!

2008-03-30T13:36:00.003-06:00

I don't know where you guys are coming from , but I'm getting some serious hits on this blog. Well, serious for me is over a dozen a day. Over the last couple days, I've gotten about 100. Nice. Was it something I said?

Smoothbeats.com is KILLIN it!

2008-03-22T18:56:00.002-06:00

Live DJ Dr. Madness over at Smoothbeats.com is tearing the HELL out of some turntables right now. Or virtual turntables. Or whatever he's using. Who the hell cares, anyway! The point is that he is doing some next-level work over at Smoothbeats, and every hip-hop fan needs to hear it. It is NOT Top-40 crunk crap. It *is* a genre mash-up. I think he's on every Saturday evening, so please listen to him. Remember that old disco line, "Last night a DJ saved my life." Yep, after the day I just had, it was kind of like that...

I am officially an Amazon groupie!

2008-03-22T17:49:00.002-06:00

I'm a pretty cheap date. Nachos and merlot, or some slick internet services that support linux, and I'm yours. Google kicked things off a couple of years ago with stuff like Google Earth and Picasa, all of which are cross-platform and run precisely as intended on my linux PC's. Google's online offerings like GMail, Google Chat, Google Docs, and YouTube are also deliciously O/S agnostic. In the span of about a year, linux users like me went from the back to the internet bus to the comfy "old people" seats up front! Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, Amazon drops in out of nowhere with a linux-supported MP3 store. And even better, it's DRM-free! Crazy, right? Now I can cozy right up next to iPod-owners so they can truly savor my cheaper, higher-quality, DRM-free MP3's from Amazon, on my cheaper, higher-quality no-name MP3 player.

And the Amazon just keeps on giving! Although I'm late to this party (hey, if it's new to me, it's new) by about four months, the Amazon S3 online storage service has been rated "The Bee's Knees" by the vast majority of the progressive linux community. Others have referred to it as the slightly less prestigious "Cat's Pajama's", although we're splitting hairs at that point. (Give me a break. I live in Wisconsin. I listen to this crap all day.) To be precise, Amazon provides the storage, but the real magic comes from the 3rd party interface. In this case, I'm referring to JungleDisk, my cross-platform interface of choice. Here's a quick blurb from their site:

"Jungle Disk is an application that lets you store files and backup data securely to Amazon.com's S3 ™ Storage Service.

* Store an unlimited amount of data for only 15¢ per gigabyte
* No monthly subscription fee, no startup fee, no commitment
* Your data is fully encrypted at all times
* Data is stored at multiple Amazon.com datacenters around the country for high availability
* Access files directly from Windows Explorer, Mac OSX Finder, and Linux
* Automatically backup your important files quickly and easily

Unlike other services, with Amazon S3 ™ there is no minimum and no maximum amount of data you can store. You pay only for the actual amount of storage you are using."

Seriously, this is the first time I have ever really looked at an online storage option. But now it's too cheap and too convenient NOT to use. For a few bucks, I can put my files in the cloud, and download or stream them whenever I want. Has anyone out there used this? How's the service? Good, bad or meh? I will soon try it and blog about my experience...

Keeping up on the social networks is TIRING!

2008-03-03T22:50:00.002-06:00

Between Facebook, Last.fm, various web forums, and my blog, keeping up with my social networks has become a full-time job. I wish somebody would pay me for it!

Did you know you can even get the Facebook on your cell phone? Non-stop, man.

Comcast is playing a new game with some old tactics

2008-03-03T20:29:00.004-06:00

I think I've got it pretty good here in the frigid north/central part of the US, from an internet connectivity perspective. I've got good speed (up and down), short latency, and pretty cheap prices. And I'm with a cable company that doesn't seem to mind that I use their fiber optics to download all of my entertainment from sources all over the world, mostly via bittorrent. Well, at least they've never officially notified me that they have any issues. Um, knock on wood.

But apparently, some folks aren't so lucky. It seems that Comcast has broken the Net Neutrality de facto armistice and has turned the guns on it's customers. Reports from users, including some noted experts in the field, show that Comcast is blocking bittorrent traffic and shaping/throttling other "heavy" download traffic. And they are denying everything. That's some sneaky sh*t, Batman! Users are paying for bandwidth, but simply not getting it. It would be different if Comcast changed their terms of service and imposed a tiered pricing structure based on usage. But to resort to these kinds of deceitful practices is pretty dang low.

All is not lost, though. The FCC recently had a public hearing in Boston on Net Neutrality. Surely once they heard the voice of the many concerned citizens, they would gain some valuable insight on how the public truly feels about Net Neutrality and act to stop Comcast's shenanigans. Um, that's not quite how the hearing went...

Yup. Comcast paid a bunch of yahoos to pack the house, leaving the true concerned citizens literally out in the cold.

Look, I'm sooo not a fan of FCC meddling. They usually do more harm than good. I generally prefer they keep their noses out of things that don't concern them. But the internet is a communications INFRASTRUCTURE. Most companies and average citizens can't just lay a million miles of trans-atlantic fiber and start their own internet. Keeping the internet equally accessible to everyone MUST fall within FCC scope. And they need to wake up, quit bending internet radio over, and refocus on this Net Neutrality issue before it blows up in somebody's face.

Amazon rocks!

2008-03-02T15:48:00.003-06:00

So, $0.99 per track is still pricey, but Amazon's MP3 store is still pretty frickin slick. And they will discount full albums, sometimes by 40%. Linux support is complete and easy. I just grabbed a Murs album that I could not find on EMusic. My name is Akshun J and I endorse this service.

Linux is taking OVER

2008-03-01T19:52:00.005-06:00

My favorite little Eee PC is on-sale on Bestbuy.com in 3 DIFFERENT FLAVORS!!! Well, only two of them are manly. I openly reject and oppose the pink. Even though I am color-blind.

If Best Buy is selling it... Dude. That's gotta mean something.

Too cool, man. Too cool...

I'm loving some Amazon

2008-03-01T18:41:00.003-06:00

Remember those chicks who wore armor, kicked ass, and burnt off their right breast so that it would not interfere with their ability to draw a bow and fire an arrow? Not that I am even remotely in favor of breast mutilation, but THAT is what I call commitment!

However, it is a different Amazon that I am loving today. Amazon.com to be precise, and although the book-selling e-company could not be further from historical Amazons if it tried, it has certainly displayed a level of commitment worthy of its warrior namesake. First, it muscled all of the major record labels into providing DRM-free music through their catalog. And then today, it has released download clients supporting most desktop computing platforms including Windows, Mac AND Linux. In the span of 6 months, Amazon.com has jumped to the top of my music download list, although $0.99 per track is still a little rich for my underpaid blood. Has anyone tried their service? If you have, what do you think? I will report on my experience in a future post.

HD-DVD is dead. Long Live Blu-Ray!!!

2008-02-26T22:59:00.004-06:00

And who the f*ck really cares anyway?

I am man enough to admit I was dead wrong about this. I was sure HD-DVD was going to stand victorious in the end. It was cheaper, the same quality (picture not content) as blu-ray, and the porn industry was all over it. It was VHS part deux, right?

Wrong. Porn did certainly drive VHS adoption, but the alternative in 1975 was a seedy movie theater with sticky floors. VHS *saved* porn and brought it safe and sound into the home of Joe Sixpack. In 2008, HD-DVD was a possible porn outlet, but the industry is certainly in no need of a savior. Thanks to the internet, it's a multi-billion dollar industry with plenty of outlets into the consumer's home. Pay-per-view, network cable (they fuzz out the naughty bits), websites, magazines, cell phones, and let's not forget good old fashioned standard def DVD's! This was the first flaw in my analysis.

The second has to do with customer apathy. Retails and industry experts have concluded that consumers were "confused" by the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD debate. I'm sure they were. But they also didn't give a rats ass. They still don't. Regular DVD's look great on a regular TV which most people still have. Worse yet, regular DVD's look *good* using an upconvert DVD player on an HDTV. What's that compelling reason to upgrade again?

So, in my opinion, BOTH formats will eventually fail. Blu-Ray just had more short-term life support. In the end, on-demand internet streaming will put the final nail in the next-gen DVD player's coffin.

Sick

2008-02-25T15:07:00.001-06:00

I have the flu. I haven't been sick for three years, but this bug took me OUT. Stay tuned for more Underground Media..... After I get some sleep and hot tea...

You gotta see this!

2008-02-10T15:42:00.001-06:00

Anyone familiar with this blog should be well aware of my disdain for all things Apple. Thus, imagine my glee when I happened upon this video for a Super Blender! Why do I love this blender? Because it can blend an iPhone! Observe:

Holy sh*t! That thing turns into a *tornado* of liquid crystal and metal. Ah..... Very satisfying.

Artists you're not listening to: J Dilla

2008-02-07T16:56:00.000-06:00

Recently someone asked me which sites I frequented for music downloads. Legal ones, that is. Heh. I really didn't have to consider the question for long. Over the last two years, I have settled into a fairly predictable music routine that costs me about $15/month. I stream Last.fm tunes while I'm hanging at the house doing things like blogging or laundry. It's a "smart" music recommendation system that learns what I like and what I don't like. This includes distinguishing an artist I don't like from a track I don't like. And if I like what I hear, I bounce over to Emusic.com and download it.

As I've blogged in the past, Last.fm and Emusic were my first steps into a much larger musical world. And while much of what I listen to is new to me, I rarely download a new release. In fact, most of the time, the stuff I listen to was released a decade ago. Sometimes this is awesome as I have ten years worth of albums by the artist to sift through. I "discovered" MF Doom last year and realized that over the last ten years he had released more tracks than my MP3 player could actually hold. But sometimes things can go the other direction. Cannibal Ox released one of the best hip-hop albums OF ALL TIME back in 2001. Hoping to download all their subsequent albums, I tore through Emusic only to find that the group had broken up after their groundbreaking The Cold Vein album (please go listen to the samples I linked to the album). What's even worse is to find out that the new apple of your hip-hop eye is no longer alive...

R.I.P. J Dilla

After hearing one track J Dilla did on the Chrome Children compilation album from Stone's Throw Records (a must-listen, by the way), I was hooked and had to find everything. To my surprise, it turned out I had been listening to his stuff for years:

"After hooking up with two high school friends, T3 and Baatin, they formed the crew called, Slum Village (circa 1988), and Jay started to polish his rhyming skills to match his dope production. As Slum Village began to show themselves in Detroit and around the east coast Jay was also busy getting his production noticed by other artists in the music industry. One thing led to another and by the end of 1996, Jay Dee had produced joints for the likes of The Pharcyde, Keith Murray, Busta Rhymes and De La Soul. After hearing Jay’s ill production’s Q-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest) brought him in to lend his production to their 1996 release “Beats, Rhymes and Life”. Jay Dee became one-third of the ghost production team now known as the Ummah, which included Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed. That year also saw the first release of Slum Village with “Fantastic Vol. I”, a classic hard to find item. A chance meeting with Janet Jackson, led to his 1997 remix of the chart topping “Got Til’ Its Gone” single that paired Janet’s smooth vocals with Jay Dee’s intoxicating drum kicks.

Now dabbling in other music genre’s, Jay went on to lace beats for artists like Macy Gray, D’angelo, N’Dea Davenport and Erykah Badu. 2000 was a stellar year for Jay Dee, with his group Slum Village finally releasing their critically acclaimed “Fantastic Vol. II” through Goodvibe Recordings, he also received notoriety with many other acts. With the Ummah production team defunct (due to the breakup of Tribe Called Quest in '99), Jay Dilla became a member of The Soulquarians, which includes Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson (The Roots), James Poyser and D’angelo. Jay produced a substantial amount of Common’s 2000 release “Like Water For Chocolate” which not only reached the homes of 500,000 consumers (LWFC went gold) but also secured Jay a distribution/recording deal with MCA Records for his McNasty label."

J Dilla was one of the most proliferant and consistently quality producers in hip-hop over the last decade. I celebrate him by downloading an album of his a month from Emusic. I am almost to the legendary "Donuts", and I'll have a special blog after I listen to it. In the meantime, give this a listen...

Poor Apple fans...

2008-01-31T19:54:00.000-06:00

Steve Jobs serves up a pile of steaming crap to his fans, and guess what they do? Get in line for seconds. Apple TV has apparently jumped on the streaming movie rental bandwagon. Except that "Once you’ve started watching a movie, you have 24 hours to finish it or it self-destructs. And it does the same if you don’t watch it within 30 days."

As I was reading this article to my wife she laughed and said, "What are they scared will happen?!" Indeed. What ARE they scared of? I can rent a movie from Blockbuster, rip it, and burn copies whenever I want. Ripping the poorer quality streamed copy from the "sealed white box" Apple TV gives me more hurdles to traverse for a less than desirable outcome. From a pirate perspective, that is. And yet, I'm sure loyal Apple fanboys and girls will stay up all night with glasses of champagne in hand, waiting for their Apple TV firmware to update so they can pay $5 for a movie they've got 24 hours to watch. Maybe they deserve what they get.

Netflix, on the other hand, is hitting closer to the mark with their competing service. You can now stream movies on demand from their catalog, with ZERO time limit, and there is no extra cost other than a regular subscription. I'm still pissed that their service is Windows-only, but then again, it's a Windows world and Netflix is still a pretty cool company. The rumor is that they are partnering with LG or Samsung to create a set-top box to deliver content directly to TV's. As long as the price is right, I think Netflix will continue to dominate this market...

Pretty slick device!

2008-01-31T00:11:00.000-06:00

So I finally got my hands on one of those Asus Eee PC's today. Weighing in at a whopping 2lbs, with a 6" screen, a solid-state flash drive, low-voltage Celeron processor and 512MB Ram, this thing is a bargain at $299. And did I mention that it runs Linux? I have to admit that I was skeptical about the Eee after watching the Linux fanboy stampede. You could install Linux on a microwave and those guys would go nuts. I figured that with a weak processor and limited memory, it would only be an exercise in frustration.

Was I ever wrong! I got to play with the Eee for three hours today and I was really impressed. It's designed to be sort of a small web browsing appliance, not an all-purpose PC. Thus the UI is very basic and task-oriented. You just click a button to "browse the web" or "make a call with Skype". The built-in wi-fi works reliably, the system boots lightning fast, and if you really want to use it as a true linux system with a full KDE experience, it's only a few apt-get commands away. Yes, the Eee is running Debian under the hood! Or rather a very polished variant. What really surprised me was the overall responsiveness of the system. Just goes to show you that you don't really NEED a muscle-computer to get the job done. Anybody else have any experience with this little gem?

Make's me wanna holler!

2008-01-28T19:18:00.001-06:00

I was driving home today and listening to the radio. Yeah, yeah. *I* was actually listening to the radio. Oh how I fantasize about the day when Wi-Max brings internet radios to cars. Anyway, it was Marvin Gaye who caught my ear. Inner City Blues:

Inflation no chance
To increase finance
Bills pile up sky high
Send that boy off to die
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life

Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs
Natural fact is
I can't pay my taxes
Oh, make me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Yea, it makes me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands

Man, I was FEELING him today. I don't know what it was, but I was feeling him. Maybe it was a random remembrance of my youth growing up in the "inner city"? I had just come from the oral surgeon who finished the visit by giving me the dreaded news: the wisdom tooth has GOT to go. As we talked about insurance and dates, I flashed back to when I was 15. I had emergency surgery and a 2-week hospital stay for a burst appendix. My mother did not have insurance, and spent the next 10 years paying off the debt. My father overdosed the day after I checked out of the hospital, on my 16th birthday. It was a year that rippled forward throughout the remainder of my teenage years on through young adulthood. As Marvin said, "Bad breaks, set backs..." And now at age thirty-something, I get to cruise through my local hospital in Whoseville, Wisconsin, flash my corporate insurance card, and get the red carpet treatment. Things get better. They ALWAYS do. But you never really forget. And maybe you shouldn't...

And speaking of my favorite lyrics, I was also reminded of another unnervingly accurate one:

I dream filthy
My moms and pops mixed me with Jamaican Rum and Whiskey
Huh, what a set up
Shoulda pushed 'em dead off

--Notorious B.I.G.

Well then. On to more uplifting things! :-)

I knew they had something cooking

2008-01-28T19:11:00.000-06:00

These Brits are about to bury they're competition:

"As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website.

Something we’ve wanted for years—for people who visit Last.fm to be able to play any track for free—is now possible. With the support of the folks behind EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner—and the artists they work with—plus thousands of independent artists and labels, we’ve made the biggest legal collection of music available to play online for free, the way we believe it should be.

Full-length tracks are now available in the US, UK, and Germany, and we’re hard at work broadening our coverage into other countries. During this initial public beta period, each track can be played up to 3 times for free before a notice appears telling you about our upcoming subscription service. The soon-to-be announced subscription service will give you unlimited plays and some other useful things. We’re also working on bringing full-length tracks to the desktop client and beyond.

Free full-length tracks are obviously great news for listeners, but also great for artists and labels, who get paid every time someone streams a song. Music on Last.fm is perpetually monetized. This is good because artists get paid based on how popular a song is with their fans, instead of a fixed amount."

When did THIS start?

2008-01-24T00:40:00.000-06:00

The recent unpleasantness began two months ago when my good buddy Wxman asked me to grab a copy of Queen's "We Will Rock You" for him. I jumped over to the much-lauded DRM-free (giggity!) Amazon.com MP3 store.

Queen - Check.
"We Will Rock You" - Check.
Only $0.99 - Check.
Emailed to Wxman - Check.

Five minutes later, Wxman calls. "I don't know who the hell this is, but that's NOT Freddie Mercury." Hmmm, something was rotten in the state of 70's classic rock. Two hours of searching and a Pirate Bay torrent later, I had Queen's Greatest Hits on my hard drive. Just to make sure Wxman wasn't yanking my chain, I played both tracks for my wife in a blind test. "Who the hell is that? And why can't he sing?" she asked of the Amazon.com track. After some research, it turns out that Amazon.com was not licensed to carry Queen's stuff, but they did have some "great" cover bands. Ho hum, I thought. Seventies rock is not my bag. All I needed was my indie hip-hop from Emusic, and by the next day, I had forgotten about the whole thing.

Fast-forward to last weekend. I'm browsing through my local big box retailer when I "discovered" two box sets titled "Pure Disco" and "Forever 80's". The price? Ten dollars for each 3-disc set! Now I could work-out at the gym and listen to "Disco Inferno" and "Play That Funky Music"! (Yes, as I have asserted in the past, I am heterosexual. Yes, I love disco. Yes, I'm okay with people knowing this about me.) So, obviously I bought the box sets. Along with a brand new set of Skull Candy headphones so I could better hear Isaac Hayes's or Donna Summer's crooning. A few hours ago, I sat down to rip the discs and transfer them to my MP3 player. After the first disc, I noticed that the artist for each song was listed as "The Countdown Singers." Wondering what the hell was going on, I played a track. It was Kool and the Gang, "Celebration". Except, it wasn't Kool or his Gang. IT WAS THE FLIPPING COUNTDOWN SINGERS! A FRICKIN COVER BAND WHO COULDN'T CARRY A TUNE IF THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE WAS ON THE LINE! WHY???? Why wasn't there a HUGE disclaimer on each box saying, "THIS IS NOT THE REAL TEARS-FOR-FEARS, ONLY A BUNCH OF POSERS WITH FAKE BRITISH ACCENTS WHO CAN'T REALLY SING." Cover bands perform at birthdays and barmitzvahs, THEY DON'T SELL CD's!

KAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, that's EXACTLY how I felt!

This just in...

2008-01-19T22:19:00.000-06:00

Joost may be dying! And in the words of the immortal Captain James T. Kirk (in reference to the Klingons), "Let them die!" For the noobs, Joost was this cool new application that let you stream TV shows (full screen) to your computer. Real TV shows from real networks! Initially, I was a big fan as they openly used open source technology and pledged to have cross-platform (i.e. Linux) support. Unfortunately, weeks and later months passed, and no Linux client was ever released. And when I did try out the Windows client, I was SORELY disappointed. Since then, the Hulu's and Miro's of the world have arrived on the scene to eat Joost's lunch. And with the recent firing of their CTO, it appears Joost has even larger problems. NewTeeVee has a more in-depth story...

I AM SCIFI (NOT!)

2008-01-19T20:53:00.000-06:00

This little bit of Tron (and Tony Hawk) was part of a really endearing ad campaign popular on the SciFi Channel when it was hitting it's stride about 7 or 8 years ago. The year was 1999 and Farscape was the jewel in SciFi's crown, along with little gems like Lexx (damn, that chick was hot), The Invisible Man, and First Wave. And let's not forget Star Trek, The Outer Limits (new and old), and the Twilight Zone. It was a good few years for geeks on SciFi. And believe me, it didn't start out that way. The network started out running old episodes of Land of the Giants and G-Force. How far we had come!

But by 2001, weird crap started to happen. SciFi sold off the rights to series' it had fought hard for. Star Trek went to TNT. And they cancelled Farscape, which was their number one money-maker at the time. By 2003, SciFi was all about it's self-made monster-of-the-week flicks, and all the good TV was just about gone. Why? Who knows? Personally, I think they were never willing to take any risks, and they failed to listen to their fans. But that's just me.

I always wondered if I was the only one to mourn the passing of such a conceptually GREAT TV network. It was OUR television network, and before it imploded, it was the BEST! Apparently, I am not alone in my hatred of what SciFi has become. Entertainment Weekly has an open letter. And Penguin Pete expands on some of the themes. I especially like his sample lineup if he were the exec in charge. So, let's hear it sci-fi fans! Where do you go for your fix? Or do you still think SciFi has a heartbeat?

Wake up and smell the proxy!

2008-01-09T21:46:00.000-06:00

So, apparently, Hollywood has finally exerted enough pressure with the telecoms such that AT&T and it's brethren appear ready to cave in to their demands. According to the New York Times, "AT&T and Other ISPs May Be Getting Ready to Filter"! Scandalous! That means any content that your ISP's filter deems to be "pirated" or "copyright" simply won't load in your web browser. So what's a downloader to do?!

Absolutely nothing. No serious pirate worth their salt is downloading in the open anyway. Encrypted proxies (or VPN's for rent) are springing up all over the place. Giganews offers encrypted SSL downloads. Bittorrent client Azureus can similarly mask downloaded content, while also choosing to only download from others who similarly mask their content.

All filtering is going to do is PISS OFF HONEST WEB SURFERS! When your favorite website is blocked because it is using a keyword that your ISP happens to be filtering, it will piss YOU off, too...

I'm Alive!!!

2008-01-04T23:07:00.000-06:00

Honest, I am!!! The holiday season is over, and very soon the blogging will continue. The weekend is near!

Tis the season

2007-11-28T23:06:00.000-06:00

And Akshun J is pretty dang busy. Ridiculously busy, actually. Thus, the blog is a little slow right now. But don't worry! I'll fire off a few posts in December, and I'll be back on the blogroll come January.

Please Stand By

2007-11-28T22:20:00.000-06:00

Remember that line from the Outer Limits? I was not a fan of the 60's series, but Showtime did it up right in the 90's with great writing and underpaid Canadian actresses that were willing to go topless. Yes, I'm just a tad intoxicated. But drunk or sober, I swear there's nothing better than scifi and boobies. For me, it began with Elvira on KHJ Channel-9 Sunday afternoons in Los Angeles in the 80's. Movie Macabre had two hours of campy sci-fi and horror, interspersed with comedy bits starring "The Hostess with the Most-ess." Observe her appearance on the Tonight Show, with a really young Jay Leno filling in for Johnny Carson.

What was the point of this blog? I forget. Anyways, The New Outer Limits (on Showtime and later on SCIFI) is being released on DVD, slowly but surely. Netflix has got it, as well as Amazon if you want to purchase. This was the most cutting edge sci-fi on TV for about eight years. No sh*t. It tackled social issues head-on without batting an eyelid, and there was cursing, violence and boobies in almost every episode. Oh yeah, *that* was the point of this blog. If you're a fan of the Twilight Zone, you MUST see The New Outer Limits. Let me know what you think. Giggity.

Here's a clip of the intro:

And here's a clip from one of my favorite episodes with one of my favorite actresses, Jennifer Beals (A TRAGICALLY underused actress, IMHO.)

FIGHT! FIGHT!

2007-11-10T18:19:00.000-06:00

In this corner, the challenger, weighing in at 105lbs and standing 5'2" in his Cuban heels, the front-man for The Family, The New Power Generation, and The Revolution, the only man to take an unpronouceable symbol as his stage name, the man who only wants your extra time and your uh uh uh uh uh kiss, PRINCE Rogers Nelson!

And in this corner, wielding multiple high-capacity servers with more internet bandwidth than they know what to do with, the Swedish torrent-website that publicly flipped the bird to the collective American entertainment industry, with a litigation record of 5-0, the reigning heavyweight champion of filesharing, THE PIRATE BAY!

DING! DING!

"Continuing an aggressive campaign to defend his copyrights, pop star Prince is preparing to file lawsuits in three countries--including the United States--against The Pirate Bay, CNET News.com has learned."

I love both Prince AND The Pirate Bay, so this is particularly fascinating for me to watch. My first impulse is to say that Prince's sentiment is valid but grossly misplaced. Up until a year ago, he had embraced a business model that cut out the record industry as the middle-man. If you wanted Prince's music, you could go directly to Prince and purchase it. He seemed to really "get it" in terms of an internet distribution model. But now, the website is dead, and much like George Lucas a few years ago, Prince seems to be on a rampage to crush his fans. Check out the first thing you see at prince.org (an unofficial fan site):

"Some facts for the media:

* We have not been sued (yet). We have been served "cease and desist" letters which threaten that we MAY be sued. These C&Ds also ask for monetary damages, and even threaten criminal prosecution.
* prince.org has never engaged in bootlegging of his music. We won't link to any eBay sales of bootlegs. We don't link to YouTube videos of his music. We don't post his lyrics in full. We always give credit, including copyright, on every image we post when the information is available.
* If Prince himself was not involved in the cease-and-desist letters we received, someone new must be running Paisley Park Enterprises, or the lawyers are misrepresenting themselves. According to records as recent as 2005, Prince is "the sole owner of" Paisley Park Enterprises, which is one of the three entities listed as clients being represented in the C&D letters.
* "prince.org" is not capitalized. It's "prince.org" NOT "Prince.org".
* Direct inquiries about prince.org (specifically, not the PFU) to the founder, Ben Margolin."

Wow. I was honestly surprised. For months now, I have talked about how the industry doesn't understand it's customers, but in reality, plenty of artists don't get it either. Sure it sucks to have people download your works for free over the internet, as opposed to paying for them. Especially if you're a consistently quality artist like Prince. But you can certainly minimize the collateral damage by EMBRACING your fans. Bring them in, observe their discussions, and listen to their ideas. Don't threaten them with "cease and desist" letters. If you make it easy and cheap for your fans to get your music, and maintain some sort of dialog with them, you are the winner. Radiohead recently did this, asking their fans to pay whatever they wanted for their new album, including zero. And although 60% of people downloaded their album for free, 40% paid about $6 for it. This was a statement, to be sure. I imagine if they had priced the album for around $6 instead of the optional free, the same number of people would have downloaded it.

And picture me, last night, scouring the internet for "We Will Rock You" by Queen. It was a special request from Wxman. I went to Rhapsody, Amazon, Napster, Walmart, iTunes and Emusic, and either they did not have the song, or I needed to install a bunch of extra software and jump through a bazillion hoops to finally get it. And I was willing to PAY for it!!! I had $1 all queued up and ready on my debit card. But I could not go to a single web site, and just give them a buck and download the song. So, guess where I ended up? The Pirate Bay.

My wife hit the nail on the head when she said it was all about control. And I would argue that the artists who will successfully transition to the new Web 2.0 business model will be willing to give up some of that control. After all, these are FANS doing the downloading. Fans who LOVE Prince. Isn't time for Prince to show them some love?

In terms of the law suit, all I have to say is, this is going to be goooooooood.

Broadcatching on the cheap

2007-11-08T20:26:00.000-06:00

As an avid TV-show broadcatcher who doesn't own a single actual television, I'm always looking to tighten up the process. I use an old PC as my server ($20 from SWAP for a 600Mhz Compaq with 384MB of RAM) and a light version of Linux to keep things snappy and responsive.

Therein lies my problem. The most popular broadcatching software is not exactly made for old hardware. Azureus is an awesome swiss army knife of a program, but on my old server it's a HOG! After about 4 or 5 weeks of continuous use, RAM and swap memory run out and Azureus actually comes close to crashing the whole system.

So, this evening I began my hunt for a low-resource alternative. I ended up with a two-program solution. The first is TED, the torrent episode downloader. Unlike most RSS readers, it is specifically designed for broadcatching TV shows. Written in Java, it's cross-platform, easy to use, and feature-rich.

TED grabs the torrents as they become available, and then hands them off to Transmission to do the actual downloading. Transmission is the lightest bittorrent client with a GUI that I have ever seen. One config screen, one display screen, and done.

Both programs are open-source (of course) and cross platform for you Windows and Mac users. Give them a try and let me know what you think!

UPDATE:

So, the Transmission is a POS. It's got some ridiculous memory leak that makes it as unusable as Azureus. So, I tried the console/curses version of BitTornado. Basic interface using minimal resources, but I can't figure out how to change any settings. So, I ended up at Deluge. Much better solution for low resources...

So, the gPhone is really an ANDROID

2007-11-08T15:24:00.000-06:00

I think it's a smart strategy. Instead of releasing a single, branded gPhone, the plan seems to be to get mobile carriers to release phones that run Google's Android platform. That's seriously clever. You end up with hundreds of gPhones, and an open platform for developers to create neat applications. Apparently Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile have already signed up. AT&T has been iPhoned, so count them out. That leaves Verizon. I have a love-hate relationship with the "Can you hear me now?" company. On the one hand, they have phenomenal customer service, they usually have the latest and greatest phones, and I can actually understand my bill. But on the flipside, they are ridiculously expensive and their phones are all locked down with the same proprietary "Brew" software. I doubt Verizon will sign on to the Open Handset Alliance, but if they do, the ENTIRE game will change.

The PC or MAC debate has moved to a whole new level

2007-11-02T19:31:00.000-06:00

Please, please, please watch this. If for no other reason than it's really funny to watch white people with no rhythm try to rap. I laughed out loud.

A SERIOUSLY geeky moment

2007-10-31T21:47:00.000-06:00

I'm a stealthy uber-geek. Stealthy because you don't know I'm a geek until I confess to it. And uber because.... well, I'm fun, social, good-looking, and chicks dig me. Find me another geek with all those qualities.

So, anyway, I'm all alone on Halloween and I decide to do what any self-respecting uber-geek would do on a night like this. I logged on to FEARnet.com and watched a live, original horror movie. Uh, correction. A live, original horror movie WITH a geeky chat room. And do you know what? It was really fun! I mean, the movie was absolutely rotten. So bad, it was funny. And that was the beauty of the experience. If you've ever watched Mystery Science Theater 3000, then you know what I'm talking about. I think I might do it again sometime.

For those horror fans whose tastes extend beyond Halloween (or Dia De Los Muertos on 11/1), run on over to Fearnet.com. There's some good stuff going on over there.

I'm back at home...

2007-10-30T14:06:00.000-06:00

And it's cold. Boo.

Hiatus

2007-10-11T22:43:00.000-06:00

UM: Reloaded will be on hiatus for a week. I'll be out of town, and my internet connection will be limited. So, dear readers, have fun with the new gadgets on the page and I'll see you all in a week!

More changes

2007-10-11T22:42:00.001-06:00

This place is starting to feel like a real live tech blog. I got my tech chick to the right, my updated headlines below her, and I'm feelin' pretty good about it...

That Webb Alert tech video is pretty sweet, actually. Very much in line with topics I cover. Check it out.

Music You're Not Listening To: The Brand New Heavies

2007-10-11T09:10:00.000-06:00

Somewhere in the middle of high school, I decided to expand my musical horizons beyond hip-hop. One of the first groups that captured my attention was The Brand New Heavies. Although technically classified as Acid Jazz (huh?!), they are an electrifying soul ensemble, with vocals by the incomparable N'Dea Davenport (on and off through the years). I rediscovered them last night on last.fm. I thought they had disappeared in the mid-90's, but now I find that they've done a PILE of albums since them. Man, I've got some downloading to do...

Page changes!

2007-10-06T13:02:00.000-06:00

I've changed the layout of the blog a bit. Gone is the weather vid-cast. I thought it was cool, but not really keeping with the theme of the blog. And Wxman thinks Accuweather is crap.

Now I've got my favorite headlines on the right including Richmond, Curlykid, and my new favorite, the SciFi RanterGirl. I also laid out the Last.fm widgets a little better. For your reading pleasure, I present UM: Reloaded version 2.1.

Somebody's giving them booze!

2007-09-29T20:48:00.000-06:00

Or so you'd think after watching the movie industry attack anyone who shows even the grainiest of bootlegs. Their latest target is the online video sites. It's all a game of Whack-a-Mole to them as the MPAA smacks one, and another pops up. Such is the ferocity of their assaults, you'd think they were starving in the streets.

Somehow, I don't think so. In fact, I think they've had a record summer. To the tune of $4.1 Billion. I can't freaking believe it! They raise ticket prices, produce a record number of crappy movies with astronomical budgets, have a banner year in revenue and profit, and try to tear anyone who touches their content to shreds. The slimy bastards are having a non-stop drunken orgy and we're footing the bill. Reminds me a scene from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. It's hilarious that Youtube has it. I post it because it's appropriate, and to thumb my nose in their general direction.

"I was in the middle of a f*cking reptile zoo, and somebody was giving booze to these goddamn things!" Man, I love movies, but I hate the industry something fierce.

High Def commercials?!

2007-09-17T21:10:00.000-06:00

As I don't have a TV, I don't get to see many commercials. Even when I'm at Wxman's house watching the season finales of 4400 and Dead Zone, we still fast forward through all the commercials. However, after the shows, we were watching the Eagles/Redskins game, and I finally saw one. An HD commercial. A television commercial in high definition. The industry is WAILING about piracy, but they're springing for 30 fricking seconds of 1080i of a gecko walking around talking about............whatever. All I've got are crocodile tears for these fools.

Apple is biting the hand that feeds it

2007-09-16T16:53:00.001-06:00

Apple cuts us off

"So, it's finally happened. Unhappy with other media players being better than iTunes, Apple have apparently decided to stop them from working with the new range of iPods.Who does this affect?This affects Linux users - there's no iTunes for Linux, so popular Linux iPod management tools like gtkpod and Rhythmbox will not work with the new range of iPods.Windows users who just plain don't like iTunes and perfer an alternative like Winamp, Ephpod or many of the other iPod management applications out there."

ipodminusitunes: Apple cuts us off

Blogged with Flock

I love it when a girl gets messy!

2007-09-16T16:47:00.001-06:00

"BUFFALO, New York (AP) -- When it comes to wolfing wings, Sonya Thomas is a whiz. The 105-pound competitive eater who goes by name "The Black Widow" bested a dozen beefy rivals Saturday night, scarfing 173 wings in 12 minutes to win the wing-eating contest at the National Buffalo Wing Festival."That's 5.17 pounds of wings," said Brian Kahle, spokesman for the annual Labor Day weekend event in the city where Buffalo wings were born. Thomas, 40, of Alexandria, Virginia, also held the festival's previous record of 161 wings in 12 minutes, set in 2004. "She's the crowd favorite," Kahle said. "It was 12 huge guys and her." Thomas has set numerous records in competitive eating events, including 37 hot dogs in 12 minutes; 35 bratwursts in 10 minutes; 11 pounds of cheesecake in 9 minutes; 44 lobsters in 12 minutes; and 250 Tater Tots in 5 minutes."

CNN REMOVED THE ORIGINAL PHOTO. THAT SUCKS!

I think it's the string of saliva from the water-bottle to this chick's chin that really makes this photo precious. I love a woman who's not afraid to get a little messy with chicken wings. And yet I married a vegetarian. Hmmmm, I must think on this...

UPDATE:

It looks like CNN removed this story, but here are some additional photos of the "Black Widow". She's awesome!

Apple takes one on the chin

2007-09-16T16:37:00.001-06:00

Yeah, I know it's old news. But it still brings a smile to my face. NBC decided to pick up their toys and leave Apple's playground. Very Cartman and Southpark-ish.

Embedded Video

People are speculating which party was more injured by the deal. Well, the last time I checked, NBC still has television as a distribution channel. And Apple doesn't produce a lick of content on it's own. But then again, I think they both suck for continuously giving consumers the shaft.

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Are Mac users smug and arrogant?

2007-09-16T16:15:00.001-06:00

As someone who's been called "smug and arrogant" to his face by a former employer, I can certainly identify. But, I hesitate to use the phrase for Mac owners. I think the term "blissfully ignorant" better describes Jobs' cult. And some of them are my best friends! My own sister owns a Mac! Observe the Mac-dude below. Arrogant? Or wide-eyed and misguided. You decide...

» Are Mac users smug and arrogant? | The Apple Core | ZDNet.com

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Stocks & Humor meet the video-blog!

2007-09-16T16:01:00.001-06:00

As I get more and more into stock trading, I realize how much I actually don't know. About the companies, and about the mechanics and legality of trading. So, over the last year or so, I've immersed myself in stock and finance stuff. Marketplace Money, The Motley Fool and Money Magazine have been just a few of my resources. Then I found Wallstrip, "where stock culture meets pop culture." Good humor and good information. Give it a spin and let me know what you think.

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Why Libertarians Should Celebrate Free Software

2007-09-16T15:28:00.001-06:00

I often find myself identifying with the libertarian end of the political spectrum. Especially as I get older and more "dug in" in the family & kids sense of that phrase. As an open-source/free software addict, I often find myself in debates with my conservative-minded friends about whether or not open-source equals communism or some wacky erosion of capitalism or democracy. The article below sums up the concepts pretty well. It's from the CATO institute, I believe. A modern-day bastion of libertarianism. Read on...

"There's no reason that free software should make libertarians uneasy. To the contrary, it is precisely the kind of decentralized, voluntary cooperation that libertarians should be holding up as an alternative to the coercive power of the state. Free software is produced by volunteers donating their time, without a government program in sight. If that's not a libertarian success story, I don't know what is."

Why Libertarians Should Celebrate Free Software

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GOOD COPY BAD COPY

2007-09-16T14:59:00.001-06:00

GOOD COPY BAD COPY - a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture

I've been meaning to post this for a while. It's a documentary about the collision between today's infinitely available digital media via the internet and the old-school politics of copyrights and intellectual property championed by the RIAA and MPAA. And the film is from Denmark, which is hardly surprising. The Danes and the Swedes are waaay progressive with copyright law. And weed-smoking. And prostitution. I'm KIDDING! The documentary is very well-done, informative, and surprisingly funny. Give it a watch and let me know what you think. Did I mention that almost all of the examples in the documentary are hip-hop? Oh yeah!

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Private or public?

2007-09-04T18:20:00.000-06:00

That's the question that Marketplace Money asks Andy Taylor, CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Every year, there were rumors that Enterprise would go public, but it never happened. And in this interview, Andy talks about the value of staying private. In a nutshell, you have no reactionary shareholders to contend with. Sure there are downsides to not being publicly traded, but Enterprise gets to do some things that other companies just can't get away with. Enterprise is HUGE now, and has changed from the old "value-driven" company that I grew up with. But I still think they're cool. And I'm sort of glad that I can't buy they're stock...

Google has a phone?!

2007-08-27T21:00:00.001-06:00

That's the rumor. And I hope it will put the iPhone in it's belly. Here's the Wired article, and a link to a blog entry with some details:

"Other tidbits that I'm trying to recall based on questions I've recieved from readers:

It's a modified Linux kernel
There is integrated GPS and GoogleMaps
(there were other things, I'll probably update this list once my memory is jogged by conversation during the show)"

And the GPhone is a cool-ass name...

UPDATE:

Laptop Logic has a brief article which brings all of the rumors together and pieces together what may (or may not) be in store for the cell phone market in the next few months. The key words here are open, cheap, and Google. I'll be first in line!

Artists you're not listening to: El P

2007-08-27T18:50:00.000-06:00

aka El Producto, aka Jaime Meline (his real name). He's the front-man for my new favorite record label, Def Jux. But first, let me provide some background...

Around the 4th of July of this year, my wife and I were visiting our good friends, Richmond and Wxman (actually it was a Richmond-sponsored bloggerfest). We were walking back to their house from the fireworks show, when one of the local "wiggas" drove by with their stereo system pumping out the deafening beats of........whoever was currently rapping on KISS FM. Richmond, knowing that I am a hip-hop aficionado, asked me who the artist was. I was at a loss. I had zero idea about who was currently popular, with the exception of those videos and songs that loop every few minutes at my Big Box store (and I have learned to tune those out). I haven't listened to the radio in five years. So, how can I call myself a hip-hop expert if I'm not up-to-date on current events? Hip-hop currently dominates the airwaves! Supposedly...

In reality, true hip-hop fell off the radar screen right around the turn of the millennium. Just as mainstream music began to absorb hip-hop, a splinter faction broke off and began to innovate in a new direction. These neo-oldskoolers found refuge in a new kind of record label: Definitive Jux. All indie hip-hop, all the time, and with a producer that really understood the culture and the music. So while the radio was obsessed with "ridin' dirty" and Lil John, indie (or underground) hip-hop thrived in live venues, and later proliferated over the internet. In fact, I would say that it found it's true home on streaming radio stations like smoothbeats.com.

So, while I have no idea what the wiggas next door are listening to, I am still a hip-hop head. And thus, I listen to almost every Def Jux artist, especially to their resident producer, El P.

"The son of jazz pianist Harry Keys (born Harry Meline), El-P (born Jaime Meline) became involved with the hip hop culture of New York City at an early age. After being expelled from several schools for problems with authority, Meline decided to whole-heartedly pursue a career in music. At his 18th birthday party, he met Mr. Len, whom he had hired as a DJ for the night. The two quickly became friends and formed Company Flow in 1992. They released their first vinyl single, "Juvenile Technique", in 1993. Bigg Jus later complemented the group and in 1996 the trio EP, Funcrusher. Subject to a major label bidding war after the success of the EP, Company Flow waited until they could get a contract on their own terms. They eventually signed to Rawkus Records, and released their debut full-length album, Funcrusher Plus (1997), which is now widely recognized as one of the most ground-breaking and influential alternative hip hop albums of all time."

What makes El P an innovator? It's the beats AND the lyrics, baby. His tracks are utterly absorbing in their originality, although he's not ashamed to sample when he needs to. And his lyrics reflect the soul of a true poet. No sh*t. Here are his lyrics from TOJ (Time Out of Joint). Any guy who has loved and lost.......and matured, will understand this. As will the woman.

"And you can tell that maybe time is out of joint my love
So this is maybe just a SOS shrapnel, an echo of dead sentiment
Measurement across the nothing for no one awaits that effort to shrug
Or maybe resident incurable romantic defunct in the face of fact
Blackboard formula waits by the next class
with the outlines still intact, and I see it
And I'm still not sure of the meaning
But I'll say it, write it down, and read it for you

No protective leathery flesh of emotional chain-mail
(No running shoes) no running, no locking doors, no anger
(No e-mail) no voicemail communicational strangulation
Or distortion of purity sentiment
No fantasy of reconciliation or delusion of no revenge
(No bullshit) no culture hidden agendas, no preaching
(No pedestal) no standing on the pulpit, no ego, no new speaker freakish lingo
(Here I go...)

I haven't loved many people
I grew up afraid that I was crazy
And one time when I was deep inside your body you purred
And I was sure that you were gonna have my baby

And you can tell that maybe time is out of joint my love
So this is maybe just a SOS shrapnel, an echo of dead sentiment
Measurement across the nothing for no one awaits that effort to shrug

And you can tell that maybe time is out of joint my love
So this is maybe just a SOS, shrapnel, an echo of dead sentiment
Measurement across the nothing for no one awaits that effort to shrug

I used to be in love...

Everything you said I took it all to heart
And you spurred a change in me
Before I could become a new sun I had to fall apart
And I can see that now
And I wish you well
Cause you saw what was good in me
And I'll be god damned if I didn't see that myself
And everything you are
I know you got to cry
Before I could become a man I had to lose my mind had to lose my mind

And I see that now
And I wish you well
Cause I see what's good in you
And I'll be god damned if you can’t see that yourself"

(Here's the mp3. Download, listen, and discuss. It's that deep.) Incidentally, Time Out of Joint is also a short story by Philip K. Dick. That's another cool thing about El P. He's a huge fan of both sci-fi literature and cinema, and it ends up reflected in all of his works. Give El P a listen. Try last.fm or Pandora. Let me know what you think...

I'm VUZED!!!

2007-08-20T15:16:00.000-06:00

At this point, I'm ready to tell Joost what I really think of them. Linux is in the midst of a renaissance amongst geeks, and a revolution within the mainstream of computer users. But Joost thinks it's okay to ignore us. (For those of you just tuning in, Joost allows you to watch full-screen TV shows on your computer. As long as you run Windows XP or Vista.) So, until I see a linux client, I'm done blogging about them. On to the alternatives:

Vuze is the most promising. This is the Azureus bittorrent client with a makeover. Well, it's really a tightly integrated Firefox web browser grafted onto the bittorrent client. Or at least that's what it looks like to me. I'm running version 3.0.2.0 for linux. All the Java and Flash slows the program down, even on my desktop (AMD dual-core 4400+ X2 64 with 2 GB RAM). But it's still usable, just a bit sluggish. The interface is slick and easy to use.

The innards are still accessible for geeks. And it seems pretty stable!

Basically, there's a bunch of downloadable content on different channels. Click one, and wait while it downloads via bittorrent. Then watch it. Easy, eh?

Mostly it's a lot of promos and trailers, but most everything is in high definition! And there are even a few stations like Stage 3 Media that are producing some independent content that is pretty good quality. Also, Showtime and HBO have made some shows available for paid download like my personal favorite, Dexter. So far, I like...

The second alternative is Miro. I used it for a while when it was called Democracy Player. It's good for video and regular podcasts, but the interface is still pretty flaky on linux. Lots of crashes and such. Clearly not my first choice, but I wanted to mention it. And I'm sure it will evolve.

The race will be for content. Whoever gets the most content agreements will win this deal. Joost is waaaaay ahead of the curve here, but Vuze is not far behind with Showtime and HBO in their pocket. If you've got the hardware, give some of these a spin (yes, they all support windows). Let me know what you think...

I just popped a Mint

2007-08-20T14:09:00.000-06:00

A Linux Mint, that is! Ordinarily, I would have a "non-geek disclaimer" for a post like this, but this time, I invite my non-geek readers (if I actually have any) to read on.

My premise is simple. Choice is a good thing. For the consumer, and for the economy as a whole. So why do 90% of all computers run Windows? Is that choice? Not really. And I'm not a Microsoft-hater. Seriously, I'm not. Bill Gates, in my opinion, is a genius and an innovator. But, his company took some wrong turns with their company values. In any case, 20 years of an operating system monopoly has given us Windows Vista as the high water-mark of Microsoft software development. Here's what the editor of PC Magazine (a noted Windows fanatic) recently said about Vista:

"I could go on and on about the lack of drivers, the bizarre wake-up rituals, the strange and nonreproducible system quirks, and more. But I won't bore you with the details. The upshot is that even after nine months, Vista just ain't cutting it. I definitely gave Microsoft too much of a free pass on this operating system: I expected it to get the kinks worked out more quickly. Boy, was I fooled! If Microsoft can't get Vista working, I might just do the unthinkable: I might move to Linux."

The real tragedy here is that few people know that there are REAL alternatives out there today. Yes, Mac is one of them. If you want to pay 30% more for the same hardware and join a cult, then, sure let's put Mac on the table as a choice. Um, let's look at some others before I start another rant. How about linux? I think I heard some groans from the audience. Yes, linux has been a geek's wet dream for the last eight years. But I swear to you that it has matured. Yes, there are 1001 different flavors, but like every other competitive environment, the cream has risen to the top. Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, and Suse are polished, easy to install, and give you tons of free software. They're even pre-installing Ubuntu on Dells! (I swear pigs are flying somewhere.)

After a few weeks of cursing Vista on my shiny new Acer desktop, I decided to give Ubuntu a whirl. Specifically, a Ubuntu offshoot (there are several) that gives the desktop some beautification, and adds some conveniences. It's called Linux Mint, and it's simply the best out-of-the-box linux experience I've ever had. I spent the better part of 8 hours getting Windows "secured" and customized. And all the software I had was Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. (Yes, the fruity version that wants to hog all the resources.) I had Mint installed in 20 minutes with more software than I knew what to do with. All my hardware worked, and as an added bonus, I got some wicked eye-candy that seriously put Vista's Aero to shame. Take a peek at my desktop:

Yes, that's a transparent window on the right.

Yes, my desktop is on a 3D cube that I can rotate.

Yes, that's my web browser doing a weird peel-away effect so I can see the window below it.

Did I mention that Mint was free while Windows Vista retails for $199? And you can run it as a LiveCD (without installing it) first, so you can see all the cool stuff firsthand with zero risk. No viruses, no spyware, no adware, no problems! Are you game? I'm thinking of having my wife try it. That will be the true test...

Underground Media: Reloaded

Blog SLOWDOWN!

Why can't Apple share the toys with ALL the kids?

Napster: Reloaded

CHROMIUM!

Head to your basement! There's a Tonido warning!

Boxee's getting GOOOOOOOD!

Evolutionary Television Part 2 - The Studios Strike Back!

New underground hip-hop favorite

Evolutionary Television Part 1 - How I cut the cord

More Twitter nonsense

I sold out

Can computers *really* predict the music I will like?

I am a techno-pimp

What are YOU watching?

And you don't stop!

Boxeeeeeeee!

STEP OFF!!!

ABC is showing it's true (Apple) colors

Pandora's basement

The Blackberry Strikes Back!

Candidate Dance-Off!

Joost: A Eulogy

On a roll tonight

More internet radio choices

World's finest airport

Do you...... Hulu?

The gPhone Cometh!

The bandwagon I'm NOT on, but that's okay...

Nashville airport sux!!!

Online streaming music continues to grow!

The two faces of Apple

The coming Mobile Phone Wars!

Where we're headed...

On to warmer climes

Loving the Centro

Getting the Flock out of here

Ugh.

A Flock of what?

Who knew Kid Rock was funny?

The new Firefox is THA BOMB!

Windows or Linux, which is easier?

I LOVE the geek girls!

I'm baaaack and I'm MINTY fresh!

Still alive

This is HILARIOUS!

Being Human...

The Neo is coming

Netflix streaming is goooooooooooooood!

And that's all she wrote

It took 48 hours!

Online data storage is a pain

DRM is worthless

Oh, the joys of virtualization...

Oooo, I gots traffic!

Smoothbeats.com is KILLIN it!

I am officially an Amazon groupie!

Keeping up on the social networks is TIRING!

Comcast is playing a new game with some old tactics

Amazon rocks!

Linux is taking OVER

I'm loving some Amazon

HD-DVD is dead. Long Live Blu-Ray!!!

Sick

You gotta see this!

Artists you're not listening to: J Dilla

Poor Apple fans...

Pretty slick device!

Make's me wanna holler!

I knew they had something cooking

When did THIS start?

This just in...

I AM SCIFI (NOT!)

Wake up and smell the proxy!

I'm Alive!!!

Tis the season

Please Stand By

FIGHT! FIGHT!

Broadcatching on the cheap

So, the gPhone is really an ANDROID

Can computers really predict the music I will like?