Absolute Nuts0
Joe M posted in music on January 6th, 2010
Nuts Optical Illusion – Watch more Funny Videos
Absolute Nuts0
Symphony of Science – ‘We Are All Connected’ (ft. Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye)0
Joe M posted in music on October 22nd, 2009
This is the second video I have seen, where someone takes snippets of science culture, and stitches them together.
The results are pretty impressive.
Carl Sagan Sings0
Joe M posted in music on September 28th, 2009
Featuring special guest vocals by Stephen Hawking.
You can actually download the track in MP3 here.
Vintage Stunt Footage0
Joe M posted in music on January 26th, 2009
Wonder if Jackie Chan was influenced by this guy?
An A Capella Tribute To John Williams0
Joe M posted in art, music on January 16th, 2009
If you are familiar with John Williams and his compositions, you will enjoy this.
iTunes Plus: DRM-Free, With New Pricing0
Joe M posted in music, opinion on January 7th, 2009
After spending almost a week wrestling with my friends two iPods, Apple announced today that changes will be made to the iTunes music store.
iTunes Plus will be offering releases from the four major labels and from thousands of Independent (Indie) labels.
The songs are offered DRM-Free, starting today.
DRM, Digital Rights Managment, is a strategy to which most of the MP3 users and movie fans have struggled to adjust.
Up until now, songs that you purchased through iTunes were downloaded and stored in your library in an encrypted file format. It has been an effort to keep songs from being copied and used ‘illegally.’ This also slowed down or prevented users from having flexibility with the songs they purchased.
Simply put, it’s copy protection.
In the end, it’s the honest people that were inhibited the most. The pirates quickly figured out ways around the protection.
Apple also announced a new pricing structure for iTunes music, which will be effective this April. The new pricing structure will offer songs at $0.69, $0.99 and $1.29.
The price of each song will be chosen / set according to the price that the labels charge Apple.
For iPhone owners, songs will be available for download, directly over the 3G iPhone service.
This is good news.
Thank God for competition and the free market.
Dealing With iPods and DRM0
Joe M posted in Howto, music on January 5th, 2009
I have had an iPod shuffle for a few years now.
It does the job for me, and I like the fact that it’s solid state. It has no moving parts and is a little more shock resistant than most of the other hard drive MP3 players, including some of the hard-drive -based iPods.
I was asked to help a friend transfer their songs from one iPod to another.
Remembering some of the hurdles I have had with iTunes in the past, I immediately went into panic mode. I remember some vague issues when I got mine: Windows crashing, losing my library, and subsequently having to try and recover everything.
My memories had me trembling in terror. DRM monsters were lurking under my bed while I slept. They were infiltrating my dreams, while I was contemplating this arduous task.
My friend had two iPods. A 60GB 5th gen video, and he had just gotten a 32 GB Touch for Christmas.
He wants to keep both operational, and keep both sync’d with his current library.
After Googling and reading extensively, I found out the following:
1. You can sync up to five iPods to one iTunes library.
2. The sync works like this: iTunes >> iPod. You can’t copy songs back to the PC.
3. There is a singular iTunes library to iPod relationship. You can’t sync your iPod with multiple libraries.
There are probably some idiosyncratic loopholes in the process that will allow you to perform different functions, but keeping it simple seemed like a good move on my part.
There are ways in which you can connect multiple user accounts to one library. Being that my friend is not an IT guy; I decided to withhold the information and avoid having that discussion with him.
Things I did notice; I had to shut down several programs running in the system tray. I had to pause some transfers that were problematic.
Without being able to pinpoint the actual issue, the software relationship between iTunes v.8 and Windows XP seem to have a couple of bugs. Several times, I received
“iTunes has encountered a problem and needs to shut down.”
This was accompanied by the regular “send info to” and “don’t send” info buttons to Microsoft.
I am not sure how that information actually gets collected at Microsoft. My cynical imagination always make me think of an electronic garbage can to which the electronic message gets routed at the Redmond facility.
About the third time I got the message, I let the message just sit on the screen. I watched the iTunes status keep copying files to the iPod in the background.
Subsequently, with the error message still on the screen, iTunes reached a ‘completed’ status and “OK to disconnect.”
Once it was complete, I clicked “don’t send.”
iTunes closed.
I checked the iPod. The transfer worked, in spite of the error.
My recommendation is going to be for him to wait for an iTunes update, rather than un-installing and re-installing iTunes and the other Apple software.
I had to jump through a couple of hoops on this little assistive task, but I did learn a couple of things.
This time, I may declare the battle with the DRM monsters a draw, and I may sleep once again.
Even though it can be ‘a pain,’ I think the exercise is a good one to help keep you on your IT toes.
I was lucky in this instance, because the Touch was new, and blank. Should my friend have wanted to preserve the songs on it in addition to the library sync, that would have been another issue and hurdle, altogether.
The regular iPod interface is cool. There is no other interface quite like it… except for another iPod.
The Touch… is really cool, too. That is only the second time that I have gotten a chance to play around with one.
I would love to have one, but I don’t know if I could ever give myself permission to spend that much money on something, just for the cool factor.
Understanding How The Music Died0
Joe M posted in music on September 29th, 2008
This caught my attention on YouTube. It’s an in-depth explanation of American Pie, by Don Mclean.
Regardless of which elements you agree or disagree, one thing is for sure. Don Mclean has an astonishing and overwhelming grasp of symbolism.
Seems as if the older I get, the more I appreciate and like this song.
Google’s PR Machine0
Joe M posted in free stuff, music, opinion on September 13th, 2008
This evening, I sat down and read the Google Chrome Comic Book.
It describes the ideas, the opinions and the creative process behind Google Chrome.
I have heard a few criticisms around the web and some podcasts about the comic book.
With a pretty good IT background, I follow the comic book pretty easily.
You have to give the guys at Google some credit.
When they conceive a product, they seem to think it through pretty well.
Even though the comic book is going to go over the heads of some non-technical people, you have to give Google an A+ for originality and effort.
I can remember having to dig in and learn some subject matter. The documents were heavy with the proprietary jargon.
When the companies create their own proprietary jargon and spread it on real heavy in papers and documentation, it gets very confusing at first, until you tune in to what all of the terms mean and how the concepts fit together.
I like the idea of the comic book. I think it’s a stride in the right direction.
I’m not a Google Fanboy, but I have to give credit where credit is due.
Since most people are better at learning visually, I think more companies could follow Google’s lead on this one. Realizing that they need to relate to their audience (which is a pretty wide demographic), they made a pretty good stab at relating to all of them.
Can you imagine reading a Microsoft or a Cisco comic book?
That’s a little tougher to imagine for me.
When Music Met Internet0
Joe M posted in music on May 25th, 2008
Sometimes, when I am at home and I slow down, I find different ways to relax.
For a long time, one of my favorite things to do is to sit and listen to music. Sometimes I listen to old stuff, sometimes I listen to new stuff.
It may be just about any type… hard, soft, fast, jazz or blues.
I like being able to listen to stuff before I buy it. Today, that market is different from when I was in high school. You have a few more options for getting an idea of what you are buying.
Jango and Pandora fit the bill perfectly.
On each, you can enter songs or artists that you enjoy. The more information you provide on your favorites, the better the selection of songs matching your entries within your stream.
Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project. Since 2000, artists and technologists have been working to classify and group different aspects of the industry. This has helped them work toward a model that ultimately will offer “If you like that, you will like this” relationships between songs and artists to a prospective consumer.
Jango is geared toward the social aspect of music and bookmarking.
Ultimately, I think the services and the benefits are similar for the users and the artists and the industry.
I have discovered several new artists listening to Pandora.
I have a PC connected to my DLP TV that also has a wireless card for internet access. I log into it via VNC and control it remotely. I log into Pandora for something a little different over the sound system.
In my opinion, it’s services like iTunes and Pandora that continue to change the way in which we select music for purchase.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, you had to buy an entire album to listen to all of it. Sometimes you were lucky enough to hear it through a friend, hanging out in a record store or sometimes on the King Biscuit Flower Hour.
With iTunes, you can select which songs you want now. No more buying a whole CD or album in the $15 to $25 range to get one good song.
Since you can select the songs individually, it creates a more competitive atmosphere for the songs and content being produced.
In the end, this competition makes it much better for the consumer.
If you don’t like a song, you don’t buy it.
Managing Your iPod on Linux1
Joe M posted in Home Support, free stuff, music, products on April 6th, 2008
When I first switched to Ubuntu, I went for about a week without loading anything new to my iPod shuffle.
I tweaked settings and set up my applications.
I downloaded several MP3 files that I wanted to transfer to it.
After a few searches and reading a couple of forums, I found gtkpod.
It does a great job.
I installed it from Synaptic Package Manager.
I opened SPM (System… Administration… Synaptic Package Manager).
I click the Seach button.
I type in gtkpod and click Search.
I click on the checkbox next to gtkpod and choose Mark for Installation.
I click Apply.
Click Apply.
When it’s finished installing I get a confirmation.
I plug in my iPod.
I close Synaptic Package Manager, and open gtkpod.
I click the Load iPod(s) button:
The first time you load it, you may receive an error message about not being able to find the directory structure.
Click Yes.
I click Browse.
My iPod is listed in the media structure as IPOD.
I highlight it and click OK.
Notice the case has changed, and remember that Linux is case sensitive. It can recognize the difference between I and i.
I click OK. Now I download my podcast or song and I am ready to add it to the iPod.
The above steps you should only have to perform once, unless you uninstall, upgrade or reinstall Ubuntu or gtkpod.
The following steps you will perform each time you want to transfer music or podcasts to your iPod.
I click the Files button:
I navigate to the file I downloaded. By default (meaning if you don’t change anything) it should be on your desktop, your home folder or one of the subfolders.
I highlight my file and click Open.
My podcast is added at the bottom. Now, I have added it, but I still have to write the changes to my iPod.
I click the Save Changes button:
I get a progress indicator.
When it’s complete, I get a Database Saved at the bottom of the gtkpod window.
I can close gtkpod now.
The next two steps are very important. Since you are using Linux, devices have to be unmounted before you unplug them. If you fail to do that, it might damage your files or even your hardware.
Now I find the IPOD icon on my desktop.
I right-click it, and choose Eject.
I am now ready to listen to my iPod.
Still fascinating after all these years0
Joe M posted in music on February 24th, 2008
I was in a store the other day and heard, “Listen to what the man says.”
I remember riding with a friend of mine in my early twenties.
He had a tape that we listened to, a recording of a story flirting with the possibility that Paul McCartney may have died in a car accident in the 1960’s.
According to the show, there were several clues placed in the songs and subsequent albums. Paul appearing ‘propped up’ on one album cover, barefoot on another. There are several symbolic references to death and a funeral.
The song I heard stimulated my curiosity. I had not heard of the story or theory before that day in my twenties, nor had I heard of it since.
I was searching for this via Google and came up with several hits. Amazingly, there are flash video comparisons before the alleged death, and afterward. Very well produced.
I also came across the Wikipedia article, wikipedia.org/wiki/paul_is_dead. The following excerpts:
Evidence for McCartney’s death consists of “clues” found among the Beatles’ many recordings, most of which are treated as if they were deliberately placed by The Beatles or others. Literally hundreds have been cited at various times by various people. They include statements allegedly heard when a song is played backwards, symbolism found in obscure lyrics, and ambiguous imagery on album covers. A few of them are well known, such as the fact that McCartney is the only barefooted Beatle and is out of step with the others on the cover of Abbey Road, but others are far more obscure, such as the claim that using a mirror to bisect the words printed on the drum on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover shows a coded message.
According to believers, McCartney was replaced with the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest. The name of this look-alike has been recorded as William Shears Campbell, Billy Shears (the name of the fictitious leader of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), William Sheppard…
Regardless of how you may choose to characterize this story…
You have to admit… either it is one of the greatest stories or one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time.
And… if you don’t think the story is true, think about how many people have bought the albums to look and listen to the clues?
Regardless of the article, the legend, the theory; whatever you call it, I still catch myself stopping and listening whenever I hear one of his or the Beatles songs.