If you have a fast connection, I'd say head over there RIGHT NOW. Jamendo. The interface is nice, and there is a lot of legal free music, most of it under Creative Commons licenses. Awesome… albums and albums of free music. Good stuff there, too.
This was one of the items on the list I linked to not too long ago, just so you know.
I was checking out this blog. It belongs to StormEffect, one of the users on NBR (Notebookreview.com forums). On it I found a couple things that looked really interesting, so I thought I'd link them here. As far as the oil-filled computer goes, you can see for yourself that there is a measure of doubt about it from the comments below the article. However, if you go to the actual website, you can find hard facts--bench marks and the like. Anyways, looks interesting. And the possibilities...aquarium computers? =]
Oh, and the Cooliris. I only just got it installed, so I can't comment too extensively on it's stability and productivity, but it sure seems fast and pretty slick. One thing I like about it, if I'm getting this right, is that it allows you to view the full image when you click on one from the wall, without actually following the link as in Google search. Anyways, it seems like it could be useful.
So, that's it for now. Merry Christmas!
For my birthday, I just received a Canon PowerShot SD790 IS Digital ELPH. I must say, my parents did an excellent job in picking this camera out. I, of course, wanted to get some perspective on it, so I found this article from PCMAG.com. Turns out it was their Editor's Choice! For a point-and-shoot, I like the variety of settings available, such as exposure, shutter speed, and ISO speed. It's pretty loaded. And it's a looker, too, with sleek, brushed metal lines. Oh, and a nifty little feature. When you rotate the camera around, the display on the nice, big screen rotates to fit your perspective! Anyways, it'll be nice to have some digitial uploadability, as much as I like learning how to use my oldschool 35mm Canon. I can't wait to put it to use!
I don't remember why, but a while ago I ran into and read this blog post from late last year (I suppose I could probably dig through my Google Web History…) about the origin of the word "woot," aptly named The Real History and Origin of Woot and w00t. The post is long by itself, casting away various theories of origin and giving its blessing to the 1993-dance-catch-phrase theory, but the comments are much longer. Like a big long argument. Hummm. Some interesting stuff, but not without less polite interruptions.
I actually first heard the word from a guy who used to go to our school (he was in high school, I'm thinking, and I probably in junior-high). I just thought he made it up at first. We picked it up at school, and I saw it online later on which told me it was something others said, too.
So, where and when did you first hear woot? What does it mean to you? How do you use it?
Maybe.
It's actually become fairly like the OS X dock. The idea is, "why show a button for an app that already has one in Quick Launch?" So Quick Launch is getting consolidated. This is actually a pretty big move, considering how long the taskbar has been relatively the same. And I'm told there will not be an option to go back to the old style. It's a pretty cool idea, but of course it has risks and naysayers. One person pointed out that taking the text off of the title bar could remove a source of information via changing window titles (e.g. a game score or inbox count). Good point. Also, it was asked in the comments, "how do you know what's running and what's not?" Also a very good point. I think if the W7 team can pull off making it concise, clear, and useful, it's worth it (and customers might even like it).
Also interesting: Aero Peek. Move the mouse over a window thumbnail from the taskbar and that window appears and others fade away. Sounds like a cool feature to me. Not actually switching, but you can get a bigger look if you want to.
This post over at the Engineering Windows 7 blog (yup, from the MS team) illustrates and talks about the new taskbar in depth. Definitely worth reading if your interested in that sort of thing.
Edit by Nathaniel, January 08, 2008: It looks like that post was actually a rip, or a repost of this Download Squad post. Or possibly the other way around, but I would guess DLS had it first.
I ran across this list of legal free music a while ago and took a look at it again recently. It has 35 different sources, which sort of seems strange in a world where bootlegging music is just a matter of clicking on that strange looking "u" or that familiar lemon. The ones I've used before on the list are:
They also mention on the page Nine Inch Nails' free release of The Slip. I had actually heard about it before I saw that, but in any case, the music is still available, though a hard copy has been released, I think (or get it anywhere… it's legal to torrent and share it). The nin site has the files in all sorts of formats, and if you're an audio freak, you can always grab the FLAC files and transcode them to whatever you like. My track recommendations are Discipline and Letting You. And, by the way, this is industrial, so if you dislike such heavy music, you'll probably want to skip it.
Finally, I thought I would discuss the YouTube way. You can find a lot… and I mean a lot of music on YouTube. Videos that are just blank or a picture or the like the whole way through just for the sake of the audio track are pretty obviously pirating (albeit low quality pirating) if it's copyrighted. But what about music videos? Is it fair use to upload a self made or mixed video with a copyrighted song? I don't know. How about snagging official music videos made officially available? It's pretty easy to grab the audio with FLV Extract. But is it legal and right? I haven't found out, but it is on my mind (at least in the back of it). Feel free to share anything you know or think about this or any additional legal free music sources.
Digital Photo Design: How to Compose Winning Pictures
Paul Comon
I saw this book earlier this year, I think, reviewed in a photography magazine. The idea of a book just about composition appealed to me. My mom gave me a copy for my birthday in August. I took a while in reading it. The writing style is a little formal, but fortunately it's not hard to digest.
I actually felt like I had become a student of the Paul Comon school after I read it. But, I still certainly realize, like he says in the book, there are no hard and fast rules. Therefore, fear not to read it; you are not required to follow. ;)
That being said, the book is excellent. The principles are well laid out, and I suppose he covers everything in the usual gamut of photographer's composition (though I haven't read very many books on composition…). His approach is generally non-technical; whether you just have your old point and shoot or a brand spanking new DSLR, you can benefit from the reading. Matter of fact, though digital is more powerful in ways, you can still definitely take away stuff from the book if you're using a film camera.
I also like the design of the book (I have the paperback) very well. The pages are quite clean, using color and shapes in a pleasing manner. The font is fitting and pleasant, and the new age lowercase look actually works. Comon is also a very good photographer. His pictures illustrate his points well (and he specifically talks about the pictures; teaching by example, comparison, and your perception). A good chunk of the photos are in black and white, but color pictures are interspersed throughout, and he does have a whole section on "Color & Shades."
Recommended.
This is the rewrite of the review; the first version I put up felt pretty contrived… I disliked it, so I am replacing it with this rewrite/edit. I hope you enjoy it, and apologize for any revulsion caused by the previous version. I felt like I didn't really know *how* to write a book review, so I did some research. This page seems to be a pretty good guide, but my results were meh. And… if you still want to read the old version, I put it up here.
You know what? I don't think rock music is going to die, to fade back to folk and classical… if we still have the skill and complexity of classical music (and the style is still alive… neo-classical, anyone?), we shall still have that of rock.
Viva la rock!
Dare to disagree? Say on.
Just in case anyone's interested, I learned how to run Winamp visualizations in foobar. That was one of the major things I felt was missing in foobar. Simply download the zip file posted here, and follow the readme instructions.
I didn't want to have Winamp installed just for the visualizations, so I ran a quick install, as minimal as possible, and checked to see if the foobar plugin worked. It detected the visualization files in the Winamp install folder.
I then tried moving the plugins folder into the foobar directory, and then uninstalling Winamp, but, although I think there's a way somehow, I couldn't get the foobar plugin to point anywhere other than the Winamp folder, and didn't want to spend any more time on it.
So, I made a folder called 'Winamp' in the Program Files directory, and then just stuck the files straight in there. It still wasn't very happy with that, so I put them back into a directory called 'plugins', as they were orginally. That worked. So then I wanted to make sure I had only the necessary files, so I moved them out of the folder one by one and checked each time to see if all the visualizations were detected. I pared it down to these:
the AVS folder
the Milkdrop2 folder
milk2.ini (this may have been created as soon as I first ran it; not sure)
nscrt.dll
vis_avs.dat
vis_avs.dll
vis_milk2.dll
vis_nsfs.dll
So, that's it! Cool.
-pixelot
{o,o}
|)__)
-"-"-
A Different Christmas Poem
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Really it's all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my father's before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
Matthew sent me an email with this poem. It was requested that it was sent on. I liked it pretty well, so I decided to post it here. It is important to remember those who serve to defend our freedoms.
Also, this was the address at the end of the email:
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq
So, today I stopped in at J's Place on my Christmas shopping rounds, and vaguely wondered if he had any mics. I was looking for one for my harmonica, as I have a Leem GA410D amp that was given to me, but no mic to go with it. It's just a small guitar amp, but that's perfect for that essential blues harp sound. Also, I had checked at WC Marketplace while shopping there, and saw a few cheap $15 mics, and one nice $188 Shure SM58 Vocal, which is pretty much the standard for vocal mics. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for....I knew what Adam Gussow recommends, but not sure if I could find that kind of mic, especially as he got his a long time ago in some obscure store. Anyways, I was just looking around, and saw this box that said "Shure" on it and "microphone" and had a little picture of a mic, but kind of a strange-looking mic, more like you'd see on an old ham radio or something. I asked the guy if he had any mics, and he said he was out of stock, and asked what I was looking for. But when I mentioned harmonica, he went over and pulled that mic out, and said it was a harmonica mic he'd had around for a few years (the box says 2001 on it). It's a Shure 520DX, also known as the "Green Bullet". If you looked at the picture linked there, you can see why. He told me it listed at $150, but I could have it for $85, which I think is a deal, considering current online prices are a little above that, and no shipping and handling.
When I got home, I plugged it in and tried it out. I was getting some undesirable feedback with sudden attacks on the harp, but it sounded pretty good. Then I looked up the manual online, only to have my mom point out that it probably came with one, which I quickly found in the box. Funny. Anyways, once I followed it's recommendations, I got a better sound. It's pretty sweet. The only thing that I'm not completely happy with is that, with a normal vocal mike, you can use your right hand quite well for vibrato, whereas this is a little bigger around. Oh well. Anyways, it IS pretty much the standard, time-tested favorite for blues harmonica. So, cool.
Also today, the Dell tech came and replaced my motherboard and LCD screen on the good old Vostro 1400. I had called Dell on Monday complaining about some graphics issues. I had initially seen my display divide into little, rectangular pieces, and start rapidly jiggling back and forth, and then go black. I powered it off. I ran it in safe mode, and uninstalled my nVidia drivers, then installed a different version, 180.70, although I see a newer version is now available from LaptopVideo2Go. I had no problems until a couple days later, while sitting in Bucer's in Moscow, ID. My screen did the same trick, except this time in a tasteful shade of pink, broken up with little black strips here and there. I powered off and back on, this time resolved to call Dell as soon as possible. I did so, the representative, after a little troubleshooting, advised that he would send a tech out with a new mobo and screen. In my opinion, they could've just replaced the mobo, or even just the gfx card, although it's kind of better to replace the whole deal in these cases, but I wasn't complaining about the screen, especially since I had a minor scratch on mine. At any rate, out he came. It was the same guy who replaced my mobo last year, when I complained about audio issues often experienced with this line of Vostros and Inspirons. The condition is pretty widespread, and solutions range from DIY frequency adjusters, tape between the wifi card and speaker cables, and installing drivers for different graphics cards. Not to go into the technical details right now, but there's supposed to be some conflict between maybe the wifi and audio, and/or gfx and audio being on the same PCI or something.... (Speaking of which, my new mobo audio sounds just as good, if not better, than previously. Great!)
Anyhow, he disassembled it, replaced the motherboard and screen (giving me an opportunity to clean out some of the dust with compressed air and oil the screen hinges), and reassembled it! Sweetness. And, so far, everything looks wicked awesome.
As a sidenote, I also finally put my MD button to use. I still am afraid to hit it when the laptop is off, for fear it will screw up my boot partitions, but, in Windows, I now have it set to turn off my screen (using Monitoroff, of course). Instructions here. I downloaded the zip file, and just edited the registry entries before incorporating them, and used Monitoroff instead of the other program.
Next on the list? Maybe try out KDE in Ubuntu, perhaps set the MD button to boot Ubuntu per this guide, perhaps buy a 9-cell battery....options, options.
Well, that's it for now!
-pixelot
Update, March 30, 2009: I updated the post to note that the Vista folder is in a bit of a different place. Also, I found out today that version 2 of the plugin was released in January. And I didn't even notice until when investigating the Vista path via my bro on his Vista laptop, I saw the file name and the extension of the plugin was different and that he actually had a Facebook icon in his Picasa. Also, the new version seems to install fine automatically (just a couple of boxes to click through). I did a small test and it seems to work fine using my Picasa 3 installation. The new plugin is for Window/Mac Picasa 2 or 3 (still no Linux, augggg!). The old version of the plugin seems to be working, still, and is still downloadable by the address I specified in the post (as of 03.30.09) so if anybody wants it, get it there; if that link goes dead, I uploaded it here. Oh, and I couldn't say anything about manual installation of either plugin on a Mac... sorry, I don't own one and don't feel like chasing down the correct folder. /end of update
The Picasa Facebook plugin is brilliant. There is a Linux version of Picasa, too, but unfortunately, the plugin only works with the Windows (and now Mac) version.
It downsizes the images in Picasa and uploads them to Facebook, which makes it tons faster. Pretty seamlessly. Which is nice, especially if you're on dial-up. And a great solution for anyone, considering you can't download the full size images off of Facebook anyway (not as far as I know).
I would just link and leave if that was all there was to it. Unfortunately, I had to manually install the plugin. There is a installation button on the Facebook page, but it doesn't work (at least for some people). So, I knocked together a guide in a Facebook note. This is the rewrite. Please note, although I have heard the plugin works with Picasa3, this guide is for Picasa2. It may or may not work for installing it in Picasa3. I don't know. If anyone has info on this, please tell me.
So, if the installation doesn't work automatically for you, follow these instructions. These are for XP, but pretty much the only difference in Vista is that the folder to put it in is different:
C:\Users\[your username here]\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2\buttons\
Notes: if you're not a power user, you probably will want to turn off hidden files. Just follow the same steps you used to turn them on, except this time select Do not show hidden files and folders.
Feel free to ask questions and otherwise comment.
