About time. And product. And being more deliberate.
Phew.
After what felt like 7-to-10 days without my laptop, I picked it up from the Roseville Apple Store this afternoon.
It was a complete zoo there; line half-way to the door, people packed in the aisles, boxes of iPod Nano cases everywhere.
Crazy.
Anyway, the PowerBook is all shiny and clean, speakers work, mic works, modem is recognized, SuperDrive is burning a back-up as I write this. Yeah! Almost like it’s my birthday.
Oh, Sam – if you’re curious, PowerBooks go to Texas.
A couple weeks after Cooper was born, Sam sent over National Geographic Around the World Lullabies. Of course, it went straight into Cooper’s playlist on the iPod.
Tonight Cooper was inconsolable. None of the usual settling down techniques were working and we were scratching our heads with what to do. Attempting to think strategically between screams is a very useful skill in times like this.
And when the going gets tough, the tough…refresh their RSS aggregator?
Well, I’m glad I did – in it, a well-timed reminder from Sam:
Brilliant.
I cued up the lullabies in iTunes, flipped the speakers to the radio (thanks to the Airport Express) in Cooper’s room, then ran down to rock him into it.
Update: Cooper slept through the night. Rock on.
Yes, Sam’s a genius.
Oh, and Sam on your cassette-to-MP3 problem: try connecting the cassette players output to the audio input of your iBook using a common 1/8″ jack (might need something like the Griffin iMic) and record into Audio Hijack Pro.
AHP can automatically start a new track when it hears the silence between tracks in whatever format you’d like. After that it’d just be a matter of burning the CD.
Just thought you (those of you that aren’t my mom) should know.
I don’t know about my other blogs – so you should be safe commenting there. 😉
Aside from making me think I should stop posting some of the more technical topics, I’m happy for it.
Blogging is shorthand – right. Those of you that keep up with this site know what’s on my mind when you bump into me at the bus stop and vice versa.
Mom, seriously, when you want to start blogging, gimme a ring.
Hitting shuffle on the ‘unlistened podcast’ playlist this evening I hit Steve Gilmor’s conversation with Doc Searls on Attention back in November and the just published On the Media on the NSA eavesdropping on Americans for the last 4 years.
Yes, in fact, I would like to see an AttentionTrust badge at nsa.gov (btw – why does the NSA have a Flash intro?).
“That’s not an idea that’ll make you a million dollars tomorrow, that’s an idea that’ll make you a billion dollars some day in the future” – Patrick Kuntz
Calling up your sister with DSL and asking her check something online for you.
Apologies for no Tuesday Triple Play this week. Perhaps a review of Pandora.com will make up for it.
On a tip from Steve Borsch – I started a couple Pandora stations using two of my favorite bands as starting points (Too Much Joy Station, Transplants Station).
On the plus side
I’ve got nearly a solid work day of listening behind each and all the recommendations have very much been in the same vein as the originating artist. Even some other songs from other artists in my library have popped up.
Without Pandora, I wouldn’t have found Lucky Boys Confusion. So, a win for Pandora.
I’ve been using the jrc’s Pandora Dashboard Widget – which is more convenient and persistent than a browser window for me.
I’m only rating the songs (thumbs up/thumbs down) if I feel strongly one way or another – and just letting ‘OK’ songs run unrated. Hopefully that’s a feature and not a bug.
Giving a song the thumbs down stops it from playing and automatically jumps to the next song. Nice.
On the downside
Everything about Pandora is in Flash. Everything – from handling account info, to emailing the station links, to controlling volume, and rating tracks. Annoying.
Especially annoying because a double-click is needed within the Dashboard widget to trigger anything.
I’d like an easy way to see all the songs played in a station since it’s conception and how I rated them. Bonus points for providing it as an RSS feed. I’ve only seen what I’ve rated, and I now don’t remember where I found it. Yes, I’m talking Attention.
A station’s URL should be obvious. I shouldn’t need to email it to myself to add it to a weblog post.
Thats all for now.
UPDATE 31 Dec 2005
Hearing the same song twice in the same listening session is annoying. This is the problem I’ve had with broadcast radio for years and with my iTunes/iPod pre-podcasting. Sure, I have playlists set up to play and repeat. I’m controlling that. When I’m listening to Pandora, I want to continually discover new music. If I want something repeated, I’ll hit replay it myself. Conceiveably, Pandora has access to all the music in the world. Unfortunately, after 10 days, it sounds like I’ve hit the limits of their catalog.
While digging up the logo I shared with you yesterday, I uncovered this article I wrote back in June 1999 for an internet magazine lasting all of 2 issues. It was pre-blog, and every article was coded by hand. I know – Dark Ages.
I found it an interesting read both for how much has changed and how the ideas I discuss in here have stuck with me.
Enjoy this trip in the Way-Back Machine.
Music is dead, slowly it is becoming another casualty of electronic technology along side carbon paper and the sword. Each day the global network of computers becomes a greater opponent to traditional music retail and distribution channels. This causes some problems, not only for music retailers but also the record companies, currently focusing 80% of their resources on the manufacturing and distribution of atoms. The web is slowly making an entire infrastructure obsolete. Quick moving upstarts like Goodnoise and Mp3.com are taking advantage of the web’s cost-cutting opportunities by splitting their profits 50/50 with the artist, compared to the 13% artists receive in standard contracts.
This new paradigm asks the question, ‘who needs the record companies and all their middle men between the artist and the fan?’ What is preventing every musician from setting up an ecommerce website and accepting transactions on a per track basis?
Or artists could promote a subscription-based model were fans pay a fee upfront, then receive access to downloadable tracks as they’re released, in addition to deals on tickets and other merchandise.
Artists sites are then not only the clearinghouse for all things related to the artist; tour dates, interviews, fan chats, but also the distribution channel and even a streaming audio / video channel for all Brian Eno all the time.
The European Imperatur MusicTrial study found that users preferred streaming over downloading audio 12 to 1 anyway.
The combination of on-demand streaming with the speed of tomorrow’s bandwidth could easily eliminate the need to archive audio onto a CD by bringing the ability to access any artist, any track, at any time.
With tools like Shoutcast and legislation designed to open low frequency FM waves to consumers, it is plausible that the future will not be about access to 500+ channels, but rather about 1 channel, yours. Plug a low cost FM transmitter up to you home PC, rip you favorite tracks to mp3 and press play. Suddenly your entire cd collection is accessible seamlessly from your car, office, home, and walkman. Time to upload the cd’s and throw out all the broken jewel cases , discs, and inserts.
At a time when college students are purchasing 17 GB hard drives to support 20 track mp3 collections, dubbing a cd onto cassette for a friend seems archaic, it’s much easier to simply email the track across campus. Yet in both situations the branding and visual recognition of the artist and the collection of work is nil. The only visual difference between a Too Much Joy mp3 and a Pan_sonic mp3 is the name of the file, which can be easily changed. Recorded music while entering the ethereal datasphere and leaving the corporeal realm behind, is also leaving behind the visual identification and marketing mechanisms used to promote music and create demand. Leaving in limbo the future of music promotion and all those who shift radio-friendly units.
Though the age of assembly lines and uniformity is decades behind us and each web portal worth its IPO has a customization feature, recorded music is still designed to sound identical each time it is replayed. This leads to the overplayed song, annoyance, and physical nausea. The answer lies in generative music.
Generative music allows the musician to compose like an urban planner, designating themes and setting limitations, making the broad strokes.
The music then finds its own path through the instruments, tones and frequencies designated, creating an ever evolving song. Each track develops its own storyline, its own characters, and its own climax, continuously a part of the ambience until it stopped (considering no two playbacks are identical, ‘paused’ may more accurate). When restarted the music has the same feel, but the storyline has changed, creating a role playing game for your ears.
UPDATE Oct 2008: Giles Bowkett’s Archaeopteryx may be this system I describe. Very cool.
(his presentation from RubyFringe)
The laptop is in the shop this week. Nothing as serious as Sam’s iBook problem, just a handful irritations I wanted to eliminated before the new year.
That list:
Until the PowerBook returns, I’m working on an eMac. This particular eMac isn’t happy with the situation. My standard collection of persistently open apps; Mail, NeoOffice, Adium, MarsEdit, NetNewsWire, Safari, iTunes – is just too much for it.
I just noticed BMW.com isn’t running Google AdWords. Huh.
Dave Winer talks about why (it’s his metaphor anyway) – same reason this blog isn’t either (or any of the blogs I contribute to).