Two iTunes gift certificates worth $45 (not pictured) – redeeming for various apps and songs
Amazon gift certificate for $50 (not pictured) – redeemed for iLife ’11
Thanks to Buddy, Leroy, Tom, Jan, Michelle & Ric, Tina, Thomas, Graham and the Kittens. I know I’m hard to shop for and appreciate when people do so anyway.
If you were a teen in the 80s like me then you probably remember the short-lived sketch comedy series, Fridays, on ABC. Although it only lasted two seasons, it left an indelible impression on my young brain.
Sadly, a DVD release of those two seasons is reportedly held up by Michael Richards. Luckily, YouTube has most of their great sketches including the ones I’ve included below the fold: Continue reading “Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll”
Here’s a fun little exercise you can do in iTunes:
In iTunes, click on your music library in the sidebar.
Turn on shuffle, ensure that you have “By Songs” selected in the Shuffle menu (which is in Controls in the main menu)
Type the first word that comes to mind in the search box
Play one of the songs that is displayed
Pick a new word or name from the currently playing song, type that word into the search box
Listen
When song changes, repeat 5
Note that in step 5 that you must pick a word that will include the currently playing song or iTunes will get confused and stop playing after the song is over. Obviously, having a large music library (23847 songs for me) and lots of metadata helps make the game interesting.
Remember Gnarls Barkley‘s first single in the summer of 2006? “Crazy” was the first single to chart in the UK based purely on online sales. Now one half of that duo, Cee-Lo Green, has released an equally enchanting single called “Fuck You” off his upcoming album, The Lady Killer. Here’s the first video for the song:
I spent most of last week in Milwaukee (actually Menomonee Falls), Wisconsin, searching for the cause of a crash in our software that is adversely affecting a client. I flew into Milwaukee on Monday, spent three days on the client site and planned to fly back home Thursday evening. Thursday morning I glanced at my Google Calendar on my iPhone for my departure time. This is what I saw: Continue reading “An Extra Day in Milwaukee”
I’ve been in Portland since 1990 after a short detour to San Diego after graduating from Wartburg. I met and married my wife, Tina, in 1992. We have two awesome boys who dictate how we spend most of our time. Both are very active in Boy Scout Troop 820 (troop820.org) and both play the double bass in the school orchestra after converting from the cello.
Graham is a nerd of the first order and thinks I’m the coolest nerd on the planet. He loves to play video games on our Xbox and Wii but is enthusiastic in almost everything he does — even when I enlist his help in yard chores. Since he was a baby we have known that he is strong-willed and joyous. He’s also very intelligent and somewhat arrogant about that fact, regarding it as a fact of life that he’s smarter than everyone else. I’m trying to work that out of him.
Thomas is more reserved than Graham and less likely to risk looking uncool. A year ago I helped him buy his first electric bass. Since then he has learned to play all of his favorite sons and a few “classics” that I asked him to learn. He can also has pick up Tina or my guitar and play them much better than either of us. In many ways he’s very much like I was at that age: long hair, quiet except with friends, stubborn and often inconsiderate. He’s also very smart but not always willing to work hard for great grades.
I use a piece of software called Toodledo. If I had a list of the most important software in my life, Toodledo would be in the Top Five. As you might guess from the name, it’s a task manager, a “to-do” list. Of course, it’s much more powerful than a simple list of to-do’s you might write on a piece of paper. You can set priorities, group together tasks and set due-by dates. When it became apparent that it was time to phase out my Newton, I discovered Toodledo.com with a simple web search. That was over two years ago near the time that I bought my iPhone. Toodledo is especially elegant because it’s available wherever I go. They have a web client that you can use on any computer and they have special clients for iPhone and iPad. Those clients synch with the web version so your list is always up-to-date no matter which device you might be using. It’s essential to me because I’ll often think of something that needs to be done but I am not logistically able to perform the task at that exact time. If I don’t note it at that moment, I will often forget it for a very long time. Continue reading “Toodledo Reveals a Part of My Soul”
I’m very excited about Apple’s new product. You may have heard of it, it’s called the “iPad.”
In all seriousness, though, from the day Apple publicly announced it, my feeling has been that this device could be groundbreaking with the right software. The video below demonstrates just how powerful and remarkable iPad software can be. In the video, Robert Scoble interviews DJ Rana Sobhany, who demonstrates the software she uses with two iPads to create music.
In order to get the full context, you have to watch the whole video. However, I’ve attempted to summarize below just how amazing software on the iPad can look and feel:
3:00: Demonstration begins for the Korg software
5:20: Explanation of what the Looptastic app does
6:10: Demonstration begins for how she puts it all together
6:50: Notice as she adds more music on the left iPad, she uses two fingers to drag two different things into the mix.
8:00: Again multiple simultaneous finger interactions with the controls.
15:44: Demonstration of using audio effects like the high pass filter
What I find amazing about this demo is that how obviously simple it is to use this software. When she drags things in from the musical palette, the motions she uses look completely natural and it’s obvious she doesn’t have to think about how to get where she wants.
At the beginning and end she makes the point that iPad applications are going to get better now that developers actually have iPads. The initial influx of apps were created using Apple’s software simulator that runs on a Macintosh computer. While it gives you a good idea about sizing of controls and such, there are many lessons you learn once you pick up the iPad and try to use an app. In the case of the Korg app (the first she demonstrates), it is obvious that the developers were seeking to mimic a “real” (i.e. hardware) component by having things like dial controls. Although they look cool, such controls will likely morph into other controls that are easier to control on the iPad (for example, sliders).
Yesterday I donned gloves and shoes for trimming back some of the blackberry vines in our yard. As I put them away in our shed, it occurred to me that I regarded them in an equally utilitarian way — occasionally useful for protection but usually just an encumbrance that I don’t need.
