Recently in Randomness Category

I've been using Camino as my main browser for months now. A lot of the reasons I love Camino are echoed in this article, Why I Love Camino.

I was blown away by this bit from the article, though. I had no idea.

Find as you type. By default, just hit slash, enter your search string, and Camino scrolls to the appropriate point and highlights the text on the page. Command-G does a find next. Simple, efficient, useful. I even have CamiTools set so that I don't need to type the slash.

I made the pref switch in CamiTools. Beautiful.

I've never been so excited about garbage. Montgomery County is now publishing its holiday trash collection schedule via RSS. Check out their feeds page.

Leigh Steinberg, esteemed agent of Ricky Williams, talks Ricky up at the expense of #52. Quote from espn.com...

"I think he will come through this and be very productive as a player and be a good role model once again," Steinberg told Game Night on ESPN Radio. "We've seen so many situations in this world where people go through troubles and come back and are usually productive. There are players in the NFL who are involved in murder and involved in situations who are now doing endorsements. There are players who are involved in very serious situations where they hurt other people and somehow they are accepted. Ricky Williams was mostly destructive to himself."

After reading this at Hicks Design and this at Playlist, I installed Synergy. Synergy is a handy menu item, which controls iTunes. I had tried a bunch of mini iTunes controllers using Konfabulator, but none of them stuck around for long. They weren't very useful. Synergy flat out rocks. It is unobtrusive and highly customizable.

The latest version adds AppleScript support. I wanted to change my status in iChat each time a new song played. Scripts have already been written that do this, but I think they involve polling iTunes, which can eat up CPU cycles. I took the "Now Playing in iChat AV 1.8.1" script written by Doug Adams and remixed it for use with Synergy. This is my first foray into AppleScript, so YMMV. The script works. It runs for each change in iTunes status or when a track changes. It annoyingly pops up a bouncy script icon in the dock for a second when it runs. The icon disappears after the script runs. Knowing nothing about AppleScript, I'm not sure if that can be stopped. It also slows my old 12" 867MHZ G4 down a bit for a second or two when it runs, which will probably get old during extended listening sessions.

Download the Synergy to iChat Version 0.5 Script.

To install, unzip and drop the script in "~/Library/Application Support/Synergy/Track Change Items". You will need to start and stop Synergy for it to take effect.

This script is released with no warranty or guarantees. Please let me know if you improve the script.

Call me Harry. Harry Homeowner. Actually, don't. The wife and I have completed the death march known as house hunting. There's coffee and a gym close by.

Hilarious video mash-up featuring the dialogue from Office Space and the Superfriends.

Via Boing Boing.

The following have been updated lately.

• Transmit - my FTP/sFTP client of choice. Version 3 just released.
• LaunchBar - version 4 finally out of beta. They just released 4.01. Must have application for the Mac.
• Toast 6 Titanium - relatively minor update, seems to be mostly bug fixes. You have to sign in to download the update, tsk, tsk.
• Omni Outliner - updated to 3.01. I upgraded from version 2 that came with my Powerbook. I'm thinking this may be my main "keeping track of life" productivity tool. I used it to document a design meeting at work with great success. Kudos to The Omni Group for honoring the upgrade prices for Powerbook owners. I cringed at the new icon, mostly because of the colors. Mike Matas whipped up some replacement icons, which have put my dock at ease.
• iPhoto Diet - great tool for iPhoto library maintenance. Now compatible with iPhoto 5.
• Flickr Export - this came out almost a month ago, but it's worth mentioning. Flickr Export allows you to export photos from iPhoto to Flickr. It is now compatible with iPhoto 5.
• Photon - completing the iPhoto trifecta. Photon, used to export photos to your weblog, has been updated for iPhoto 5 as well.

I was just reading this on Seth Godin's blog, and I had one of thos "a-ha!" moments. It occurred to me that too many of us are playing American League style ball in our companies. We're swinging for the fences, and more than not striking out. I say we, but I mean them. Where are the double switches? Shouldn't we work towards advancing the base runner in to scoring position? I'm basically repeating what Seth said, but I think the analogy is fitting. We need more National League baseball inside our cubes.

Too much info bloat. Need to cut down. The ol' newsreader can't take it. Sorry Coffee Geek. I don't have time to read 6 reviews of espresso machines a day. Though, I did enjoy this. While the concept of Life Hacker seemed promising, the Sony sponsorship made me leery. And if someone I trust more than you calls you out, then you can kiss yourself unsubscribed.

Enough negativity, treat yourself to some Swervedriver live downloads. I'm rocking Duress. Howling guitars. Rock solid bass line. Out.

Update: I have re-subbed to LifeHacker.

c.s.

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of The Enchanted Forest. The Baltimore Sun brings us an update.

I was just reading "Why Social Software Makes for Poor Recommendations" by Chris Anderson, author of an interesting Wired article, "The Long Tail." He's turning that article in to a book. From the post I linked to...

...the music recommendations I actually follow are mostly from people I've never met, be they Rhapsody editors or MP3 blogs.  Same for virtually every other narrow category where I need advice; odds are that the real subject matter experts aren't anyone I know.

This struck a chord. First, I just bought an an album by Trespassers William based solely on a recommendation from Chrome Waves. I had never heard of Trespassers William, prior to reading about them. I don't know the guy that publishes Chrome Waves, but I know he he has great taste in music. This guy is a subject matter expert (SME). He knows his sh*t. I bought the album off of iTunes 15 seconds after I read his post. The fact that the album included a cover of Ride's "Vapour Trail" didn't hurt. Few of my friends, even the ones that have good taste in music, could spur me to pick up an album so fast. Thus, I could relate.

The real point of this, think about your job. Who are the SMEs in your department or on your project team? Are there any? Are you an SME? I have such a broad range of responsibilities, I'm not the SME I'd like to be all the time. I am resourceful, though, and I know who the SMEs are and how to get the information I need. And these SMEs I utilize, they don't work for my company. Just like I wouldn't rely solely on friends for music advice, you can't rely solely on your co-workers to get your job done.

I'm reinforcing the point I made yesterday about why blogging is so important. I can only relate to things within the scope of an IT shop, but if you are confined to your cube within the four walls of your office building, and you're not putting yourself out there, you are doomed.

Step one to recovery is to start reading blogs. Find the SMEs for your skill set. I only recently made it to step two, which is to start producing and engaging in the conversations. With 110 feeds in my newsreader, I reached an impasse recently. I read and I consumed, but I did this passively. I needed a bit of yin to that yang, thus the renewed drive to improve this site; to engage.

And Chrome Waves was right. This album is absolutely sublime.

np: Let You Down (Bonus Track) by Trespassers William

The hardest part of maintaining this site is that I feel every post needs to be a home run. A home run in the sense that it should enlighten all who encounter it. It should be a shining beacon of... okay I'll stop there. Eight out of ten posts on Gaping Void make me wanna shout "amen, brother Hugh, preach on." Hugh often talks about why blogging matters. I agree. After seeing the influence that the "bloggers" had on Lotusphere and after seeing collaboration with relative strangers on a co-worker's blog, I'm sold.

If you work in IT, I don't think you can afford not to blog. You will never know everything you need to know to do your job. Your IT Department will downsize. You will find yourself covering technologies that you are not too familiar with. Use your blog to build relationships, and get help when you need it. I do believe in karma, thus I am going to try and give away as much code and insight into my current job as I can. That has two side effects. One, I'm building my own knowledge base, which may come in handy. Two, I'm building my resume, or as Hugh would say, I'm building my own micro-brand.

Added a search box to the site. It's a work in progress, but it works for now. I have also opened up comments for y'all. Another work in progress. I added the code from the default MT templates, and it looks like there's quite a bit of work I need to do to clean them up.

I'm in Orlando at the Yacht Club. Not to be confused with the Yacht Club in Bethesda. Broadcasting a playlist, Radio Free Lotusphere, tune in or not. There's one other person sharing their music via iTunes. Unfortunately, they have no taste. Corporate parties rule. Where else can you see a hired break dancer do a move called the crippled spider?

The best/only poet I know is finally publishing online. Damell has started Cerebral Excursions, which sounds like a crappy trance mix circa 1996, but isn't.

After a few hours of troubleshooting, I managed to get my iSight using iChat AV working nicely with my brother's Logitech camera using AIM 5.9 on XP. I opened the following ports on the Mac firewall-- 5060, 5190, 5297 and 5298. [Screenshot]

I then configured the following on the Linksys router firewall. [Screenshot] I did not enable UPnP on the firewall.

My brother installed the latest build of AIM, which is 5.9. He uses the XP SP2 firewall. He does not have a router.

We immediately established a video connection. He could hear me, but I could not hear him. The fix was to install this component from AIM. After he installed that, we had video and audio working. His frame rate was incredibly choppy. I think I was only pulling about a frame a second. The audio was satisfactory. My video on his end was in a tiny window that you cannot resize.

Vowe.net has some good information on this topic.

I think we will give Trillian a shot, to see if it works better than the AIM client.

This will come in handy if you need to justify your weekly habit of watching The OC. It's a listing of music played on The OC by episode.

There are some major renovations going on here behind the scenes. Some of the site may be broken, while I'm fixing it. Expect it to be finished sometime next week. Abuse by a few people on the internets has lit a wee fire under my arse. I found a couple of sites that were leeching images. I guess I should be flattered that others are posting my pictures. The problem is that they're doing it on my dime and without proper credit.

Update: Thanks to this article at A List Apart, I put an end to the image leeching. The more I looked, the more I found my pictures being served on other web sites. Don't tell Damell, but I think someone was selling this mix that he did.

This just saved my arse. I managed to lock myself out of my main computer at work this morning. Running XP SP2, it would only boot in safe mode, and I could not login with any of the accounts. Downloaded the ISO image, used Toast on the Mac to burn it. Hint: in Toast you can burn ISO images, but you need to open the drawer on the left and select “Image File.” Hopefully this will help somebody.

The 100th Apple store is opening right down the street, here in Bethesda.

Bethesda Row - Bethesda (Md.) - At 4829 Bethesda Ave., a 1,700 s.f. space within a large shopping district in this Washington (DC) suburb, and only 3-1/2 miles from the existing Montgomery Mall retail store. Next door to the Cameron Seafood restaurant, in space formerly occupied by Walpole's home furnishings. Also just 1,500 feet from the Apple reseller MacUpgrades. Appeared as a job location on Aug. 29, 2004. Construction began Oct. 11th, with Dec. 12th grand opening. Officially identified as a mini store location during Oct. 16th press event announcing the other mini-stores.

I'll be in line to get one of the 500 commemorative shirts. Store opens on December 11th at 10am.

via ifo Apple Store

It's been a month, and still no comeback. The more things stay the same, the more nothing changes. Something to that effect. How bout an exclusive Arcade Fire track at the iTunes Music Store to tide you over.

Don't call it anything, at least not yet. See that random picture of the Washington Monument floating over there on the left? Ignore it, for now. There's some stuff going on behind the scenes at the offices of Jet Row Inc. The people have spoken and I now have a mandate. Less Morrissey, more posting. Shouldn't be too difficult.

np: Fog Over Frisco from the album “Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo” by Yo La Tengo

Congratulations.

If you happened to be in the same room as a TV with the final episode of The Bachelorette on, and you heard a guy say, as he's proposing to said Bachelorette, "God, I can't believe I'm doing this," you might think that this relationship is not going to last. I'm certain that's a run-on sentence, but it's been a while. Welcome back.
[Posted with ecto]

Here's a time waster. Damn, this is hard.

Where I live, it's impossible to get a cab. Even when you go to the cab stand, you have to wait, but not because there's a line, but because there are no cabs. The Washington Post exposes the sordid underworld of cabs in Montgomery County. A good read if you've ever had the displeasure of catching a cab in Bethesda.

Chad 1 - Hurricane Isabel 0. And so I celebrate with a triple iced grande caramel macchiato from Starbucks. I have to rehearse saying that in my mind as I stand in line waiting to order. Over and over.

Two thirds of you think that Saddam had something to do with 9/11. He didn't. I still think that he's the reason the Beatles broke up, though.

Just read an interesting article (via vowe.net) by Clay Shirky at corante.com, entitled Wikis, Grafitti, and Process. This quote, about process, struck a chord...

...an organization slowly forms around avoiding the dumbest behaviors of its mediocre employees...

There is an interesting discussion regarding this topic atvowe.net and on the comments page of the article. A few people have been quick to dismiss this article and Clay's reasoning. The thinking is that process is necessary and process does not always arise because someone "fucked up." Both points are correct, but I wouldn't dismiss Clay's logic based on those assumptions. I've seen this scenario with my own eyes, for I have walked in the valley of the shadow of mediocrity. I've seen it taken a step further, where medicocrity invokes process, but process fails, which in turn invokes technology. If leadership and responsibility can't guide an organization, surely zeroes and ones can. I'm not buying it. I've heard the quote, "People are our greatest asset," well they might just be your greatest liability as well.

I'm redesigning the site. The picture of the kid at the top of the page probably tipped you off. Above, I've included a screenshot of the prior Jet Row design, purely for posterity. The redesign is inspired by Zeldman's latest book Designing With Web Standards. The site looks well in IE6, Firebird and Safari. I have not worked in all of my hacks for other browsers, so your mileage may vary considerably.

The Twilight Singers re-launched their website. The new album drops on October 14th, preceded by a limited edition 3 song ep that will drop this month. Massive world tour to follow. The website also features a streaming track from the new album.

Charlatans front-man, Tim Burgess, is about to drop his first solo album. Pitchfork talked about the pending release, but they failed to mention that you can preview 5 of the album's tracks. Prepare to be incredibly under-whelmed.

Bored with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot already? Wilco has been road-testing new songs for months. Now you can download them. The download process is a bit convoluted, but it works.

This site is slowly fading in to oblivion based on my reluctance to post with any kind of frequency. I've convinced myself that I've been too busy to post. And yet, somehow I know that Dave has no business being on Paradise Hotel. F*ck. How could I know this and convince anyone that I was too busy for anything?

Saw Wilco/Sonic Youth at Constitution Hall a few weeks ago. Sonic Youth absolutely rocked. It was the first time I'd seen them with O'Rourke, who went ape-sh*t during a sick version of "Radical Adults..." It was the first time I'd seen Wilco. It was a fairly mellow show. Opening with "Poor Places" and "Reservations" isn't exactly my idea of kicking off a rock show. Regardless, when called upon, Tweedy shredded. He was a far better guitar player than I imagined. Kotche put in one of the all time top performances by a drummer that I've ever seen. That guy was falling off his chair he was playing so hard. Alright, I'm out. I was trying to beat the word count of Scott's prior post, but I'm not gonna make it.

• np: Yo La Tengo - "Tears Are In Your Eyes"
• nd: Red Stripe

I was in Boston two weeks ago on business. Got tickets to the Red Sox/Cardinals game. Finally, I would get to see a game at Fenway. Unfortunately, the tickets were for the .406 Club. The .406 Club is club seating billed as "luxury seating in a climate-controlled environment". The .406 Club amounts to a stadium-style movie theater that sits up above and behind home plate with the ballpark sounds piped in from the ballpark over speakers. There is a big sheet of glass separating you from the even the remotest feeling of actually being at a ballgame. It's like watching a baseball game at an iMax theater. Sure, there's "luxury" bars and and an "upscale" all you can eat buffet, but I wasn't impressed. (Though, they did have Harpoon on tap, which was cool) It didn't help that the game time temperature was a perfect 80 degrees. I wanted to be out under the sky pounding beers and eating hot dogs. Despite my rant, I am gracious for the tickets. I do feel like I need to go back, I'm not sure that I really visited the park. A guy I work with snapped some pics and stitched them together of our view...

All you budding bedroom laptop mixologists can get busy mixing Radiohead audio loops over at The Loophole.

Catherine Wheel is gone, but a bunch of fans got together to release the Catherine Wheel Cover Compilation. The CWCC is a bunch of bands covering their favorite CW songs. Volume 1 is currently available for download.

Apple is officially wooing independent record labels for inclusion in the iTunes Music Store. We're talking Sub Pop and Matador, among others. This is good news. Unfortunately, you'll have to go to mtv.com to read it.

In response to some pointed Jet Row feedback, here's some music related links for your downloading pleasure. First up, you can download Sad DC, which is a bonus track on the Japanese version of Happy Songs For Happy People, which is Mogwai's soon to be released epic. There's a live Interpol show that sports two new tracks. Finally, I was gonna send you off to citizenerased.com for a nice Sigur Rós show, but it looks like they exceeded their traffic limit, and are shut down for the moment.

I saw this coming. Their disastrous last national tour. Their bassist, Scott, leaving the band. The crappy distribution of their latest record, which, incidentally, I still don't own. The lack of updates to their website. Well, we can all start talking about Lenola in the past tense. I'll go first. Remember that time we saw them at the Black Cat, and there were only about 6 other people there, besides the 6 that were in our group. They rocked all twelve of us. They took requests from us, as we pounded Fosters oil cans. That was the sh*t.

In this article at time.com, Apple CEO Steve Jobs comments on independent music labels

They've already been calling us like crazy. We've had to put most of them off until after launch just because the big five have most of the music, and we only had so many hours in the day. But now we're really going to have time to focus on a lot of the independents and that will be really great.

Before I forget, oddly enough, Madonna doesn't have any albums listed in the Apple music store. She went after illegal file traders, but apparently isn't down with legal file trading. At least not yet.

I know that all of these songs in the Apple Music Store are freely available via peer to peer file trading networks, but using the Apple Music Store, for me, is the right thing to do. My conscience is with the artists more than it's with record labels. I wear my seatbelt. I look both ways when I cross the street. I take vitamins. I even sober up prior to operating heavy machinery.

I dowloaded the necessary software, and signed up for the Apple Music Store. iTunes 4 installed effortlessly. I then loaded the iPod 1.3 updater, plugged in the iPod, and got that updated. Browsing the store is simple enough. Selection varies. I got the Nas track, 'Made You Look', that I wanted, and it bumps. They didn't have any old Soundtrack of Our Lives, or anything by Interpol, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Wire or Zwan. Those were just a few randoms that I looked up. They only had two tracks from Queens of the Stone Age, both Apple Music Store exclusives...Gonna Leave You (Spanish Version) and Tensionhead (Live). They had some Afghan Whigs and Catherine Wheel, which was surprising. They had a crap load of Flaming Lips, including some exclusives. They had a bunch of Sonic Youth, but not their latest, Murray Street. Bunch of Wilco. Some Soundgarden. Speaking of which, I just bought 'Pretty Noose'. No Sugar, but plenty of Sugar Ray. The moral of the story is that they still have work to do. There's a ton of major label music, but it seems they haven't gotten the independent labels on board, yet. The good news is that the store has only been open for a few hours, and this service does have tremendous potential. Just ween yourself off the indie rock a bit, and learn to enjoy Kelly Clarkson, until Matador signs up.

Once you've found that special major label song, downloading and purchasing is incredibly simple. I did all of this while on a broadband internet connection, so results for you dial-up types might vary. Songs are $.99 a la carte, with albums going for $9.99. I think that ten bucks for an album is a bit pricey, even if it's half of what Tower Records is charging for CDs these days. I'd like to see the album charge drop to around $7.

Finally, this service is long overdue, and props to Apple for giving it a go. The last few CDs that I've purchased haven't made it into the CD player. I'm ripping them to MP3, and then strictly using the iPod for listening to music. This will make that process a bit easier.

Big day for Apple. Get all the details at Apple - Music. There are new iPods and a new music download service. Download tracks for $.99 a piece. Burn those tracks to CD or dump 'em on your iPod. As soon as I can download iTunes 4 and the iPod updater, I will be downloading this Nas track that I've wanted for a while, but could never justify the purchase of the CD.

And you thought the sun had set on The Twilight Singers. Looks like Dulli and co. might be releasing a new album after all. [via summerskiss.com]

Mogwai have re-designed their website, have a look. While yr there, don't miss a chance to purchase controversial political t-shirts. They've already slagged Blur with their 'blur: are shite' shirts. Need I mention that the Blur shirts don't seem so controversial anymore? Blur, must be shite now, particularyly without Graham Coxon. I digress. Mogwai have set their sites a bit higher this time. Namely on Blair and Bush. Surely, it wouldn't be proper to mention the shirts without mentioning their new album Happy Songs For Happy People that drops in early June. That is why they made the shirts, right?

The one of the best things about Apple and Mac OS X is Apple's new web browser Safari. It's clean, elegant, fast and blocks pop ups. It's still in beta, but it now features tabbed browsing. For those of you that use IE on a daily basis, you really should check out a browser that uses tabbed browsing. If yr using Windows, I'd suggest Phoenix, which sports tabbed browsing along with pop up blocking. I've gotten off track, but the moral of the story is that Safari Public Beta 2 is available for download.

Could the Pitchfork review of Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun have possibly been more accurate? This album, unfortunately, is a disappointment. Granted, I wasn't crazy about And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out when it came out, but it has pleasantly grown on me over the last few years. I don't see that happening with Summer Sun. The album is just a bit, how can I put this nicely... flat. I tried listening to it again this morning, made it through track 6, "Tiny Birds", which I enjoy, but after that I dumped it for I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, and am blown away by how good that album is. It just (maybe unfairly) reinforces how flat and boring Summer Sun is.

Get yr lazy arse to the record store. Sonic Youth releases the super snazzy deluxe two disc re-issue of Dirty today. Yo La Tengo, drop Summer Sun, which is a super snazzy album of new stuff. Guitartist/lead singer Ira Kaplan took part in an online chat at Washingtonpost.com. (may or may not require registration) Hurry on over to find answers to incredibly thought provoking questions like, "Where is the best BBQ?"

This came through my inbox a while ago. This happened to a colleague, and clearly any coffee drinker could sympathize with his plight. The following is his email with a few responses below.

From: Eric
This morning around 8:15AM I filled my coffee mug with DECAF ? to the top!? First, I?m OK, I saw the empty bag in the trash before ingesting the liquid.? I?m looking for some insight and advice.? I have a 2001 Starbucks Coffee Company 16 oz. stainless steel vessel, well proportioned with only a few aftermarket improvements.? We think we flushed it out quickly enough in a bath of 200-degree water to avoid any permanent damage.? (My thanks again to those who stepped up, put their own safety aside to help a man in need.) Obviously I?ll continue to monitor, but the steel seems to be OK.? I?m concerned about the plastic top and rubber gasket.? Because they only came in contact with the vapor and exposure was brief (few seconds), do you think they?ll need to be replaced?? Any help would be appreciated.

P.S.?? A simple labeling error seems to have been the cause, I don't believe any malice was intended, but the formal inquiry should resolve the matter quickly.? We have safeguards in place, but revisions will need to be made.

From Ted:
What kind of people are you hiring? Who the fuck makes decaf at 8 AM? Take action! A two week suspension without pay, bare minimum, plus a mandatory psychological screening. "Zero tolerance" should be your standard.

P.S. Do some work.

From Puck:
I think it must be a conspiracy. I too had a close encounter like this the other day! I had just filled my mug, added the necessary half dozen sugar packets, opened the trashcan lid to throw the empties away, and there sitting so delicately on top of the trash pile, it was! I was in total shock, a green empty coffee packet instead of the normal red ones! I felt lied to! Who would try to trick me like this? Who else had actually been fooled into believing this was normal coffee and will they ever be the same? I did the only thing I could think of, I couldn?t find any police caution tape, so I found one of our ?Caution Wet Floor? signs, and posted a note over the WET FLOOR part that said DECAF! I think I deserve a medal of honor or something! I saved countless people from emotional turmoil that day. So unless you brew your own coffee (which I will start doing from now on) be afraid, BE VERY AFRAID! That is all.

From Bradburne:
We encounter these kinds of problems in our labs all the time working with biological warfare agents. Just a couple of suggestions:

1. Chlorine dioxide gas works well to remove both anthrax spores from surfaces, and decaffeinated anti-nerve agents from containers.
2. For the rubber top and gasket, I would suggest heat/steam sterilization in an autoclave at 200 PSI, 121C for 2 hours on a dry cycle, repeated 5 times, and then throw it away and buy a new one.
3. If you were able to save a sample of the 'decaffeinated substance', send it to me, and we can get to work using various molecular techniques such as RT-PCR, Mass spectrometry, Bio-chip micorarrays, and Simon Says to be able to characterize this diabolical decaffeinated agent, and determine who in their right mind would unleash such a devastating compound on the world.

They're going overboard. Suing file traders is clearly not the solution to re-energizing cd sales numbers. Maybe we could just ground them, or send them to bed without dinner, instead.

Peter Arnett, was fired by NBC and National Geographic. And I quote Mr. Arnett...

I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment over the weekend by giving an interview to Iraqi Television

He was quickly hired by The Daily Mirror. And I quote again...

I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologize for it.

Think I'm late to the dance on this, but it's interesting, nonetheless. Kiddy bloggers are selling out to the corporate marketers. Kids are being compensated for linking to, and talking about sites like Raging Cow, on their blogs. I had seen that site, but didn't realize that it was trying to sell me something. After reading, The Web Diarist as Pitchman, (registration required) at NY Times, it's all starting to come into focus. Particularly, Raging Platypus, which is a joke, that up until now, I didn't get. However underhanded the tactics of the marketers may be, they are effective. Though, I want nothing to do with Raging Cow, I just read an article on a major website about it, just linked to it in my blog, and chances are, you're going to click that link out of curiousity. Marketers 1, Jet Row 0.

Apple has released the iPod Software 1.2.6 Updater. Promising improved battery performance, so go get it, quick. Don't have an iPod? Get one of those first.

The addition of the iPod to my gadget collection cast Apple in a new light. I was impressed with everything about the iPod, so I got curious about Apple computers. My experience with Apple computers was limited to playing Lemonade Stand, Hard Hat Mack, California Games and Montezuma's Revenge on an old Apple IIc that my family got in the mid 80's. I decided to switch. Maybe not "switch" as much as "experiment" or "dabble", as I am tethered to the PC at work. I picked up a YaoBook. So far, I've been incredibly impressed with this machine.

Bill Simmons over at ESPN's Page 2 muses on the Grammys.

9:02 -- The Dixie Chicks cover "Landslide." Wait a second ... the Smashing Pumpkins already covered this song. Shouldn't there be a rule that you can't cover a cover? Is that a re-cover? What happens when P. Diddy samples it for one of his crappy rap songs, does that make it a re-re-cover? I'm really annoyed.

(By the way, the Dixie Chicks are fascinating -- none of them are overwhelmingly cute, but all of them keep your interest, give you different looks and keep you guessing. It's the same dynamic that worked so well for Blair and Jo on "The Facts of Life" -- you weren't bowled over by them, but you also weren't ready to write them off, either. All right, I'm babbling.)

The only thing I'll add is that wasn't it wrong for John Mayer to not have thanked Dave Matthews in his acceptance speech?

Even if A Mighty Wind seems at face value to re-tread the formula used in Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show, I thoroughly enjoyed both of those movies and eagerly await the next from Christopher Guest and co. Check out the trailer. (via Scott Andrew)

I just stumbled across this site, Excellent Online, that is dedicated to all things UK indie music related. This matters to you because they posted a bunch of MP3s in the form of an online complilation called Flirt. One of the tracks is by the resurgent Velocity Girl. This is a new track, not some old demo or b-side.

The big snow of 2003 found Ashley, Phil and I playing Risk, which is described as, "the classic game of global domination." I had never played before, but I could definitely relate to the objective of the game. Be warned that this is a game that will end in shouting, broken friendships, hurt feelings and possibly violence. A good time was had by all, but mostly by me, since I won.

I now know why they call the Daytona 500 the Super Bowl of automotive racing. It's because it's about as exciting and dramatic as most Super Bowls. I am a fan of NASCAR, but what a boring race. To not run 500 miles is heresy.

Despite Maryland being under a state of emergency. Despite today being a holiday for most civilized corporations. I am here at work, and god bless the good folks at Caribou Coffee for being open.

A woman skied past my cube window this morning. Something tells me I will never see that again.

let it snow let it snow let it snow

Ride co-front man Mark Gardener is heading out on an acoustic tour of the U.S. in March and April. He's promoting himself as a solo artist, but promises to play some of your old Ride faves. Check the Mark Gardener - Ticket to Ride microsite for more information.

This design is pretty much complete. I'm working on adding a stylesheet switcher. Correct that. I've added a stylesheet switcher. Don't know what I'm talking about? Click on the little color squares on the right side of the screen. The grey one in particular. Requires cookies and javascript. The code was graciously borrowed from zeldman.com.

Tantek made note that Andrea Peltrin noted his use of the OBJECT tag to display his sidebar. The OBJECT tag can be used in lieu of frames, or more likely the IFRAME tag. Note to the aspiring web developers that know less than I do (that means both of you), you gotta give the OBJECT tag a width and a height in order for it to render properly in IE6. I took the basic object tag code to play with. It looked great in Mozilla and NS6, but did not render in IE6, due to the lack of the dimensions being stated. Tantek had his width and height buried in a css file. After some sleuthing, and digging through like 5 or 6 css files, I found the selector in the style sheet, and thus got it.

Site re-design in progress. Pardon our dust as we try to serve you better.

Dipping into the Jet Row mail bag, Kris writes, "If you were to die in a freak accident would you want the last thing you leave on earth to be a short tidbit on Yo La Tengo?" The answer is no. I'd rather it be a short tidbit on Mogwai. Mogwai have placed their drummer's pacemaker up for bidding on ebay. It's for charity, mind you.

You can now download Don't Have To Be So Sad from the forthcoming Yo La Tengo album, 'Summer Sun', due in stores 04/08/03, courtesy of Matador Records.

Reflections on turning 29. I'm suddenly listening to and enjoying Yo La Tengo's "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out ". I guess I didn't have the maturity or the patience to enjoy this album back when I was 27 or 28.

Undoubtedly, advertisers and marketers around the world are upgrading me to the 25 - 54 demographic over the 18 - 34 demographic. That's a scary thought.

Though the ever increasing prospect of getting old looms on the horizon, I still don't listen to Steely Dan, which is more than Damell can say.

From an article on CNN, regarding the Slammer worm...

The voice of reason, "Any piece of complicated software will have bugs in it," he said. "The important thing is not just that [Microsoft] release good software, but that also customers listen to them and protect themselves."

Now, the voice of litigation that plagues this country, "Bruce Schneider, a tech manager at Counterpane Internet Security, said that it's time to consider holding companies legally liable for the security of their software and networks."

There was a patch released six months ago that would have stopped the Slammer worm. Should those that didn't install the patch then also be held liable? Most system administrators would say, "No, it's too much trouble to install patches." Then it all boils down to a simple cost/benefit analysis, doesn't it? Is it more cost effective to deal with patches or the aftermath of viruses?

Another thing, wouldn't market forces dictate that Microsoft can not continue to perpetuate insecure software? They are a business, right? This is a free market? Some might argue that the Microsoft monopoly eschews market forces, but I tend to disagree. If Microsoft can't make secure software, someone will come along and do just that, and make a ton of money doing it.

This is Bailey, my sister's dog. This is also why I don't have a dog.

According to allrecipes.com, prix-fixe is "a French phrase meaning 'fixed price,' referring to a complete meal served by a restaurant or hotel for a preset price. Sometimes a menu offers several choices for each course for this set price. " What it really means is that if you live in NYC, you should get off your arse and try some new restaurants.

I just listened to "Ears Ring" from the soon to be released new album from Rainer Maria. You heard this crap? Throwing Muses did this 10 years ago. The song was called "Hazing", and it was a hell of a lot better. You can download that track and another from their label, Polyvinyl Record Co. Judge for yourself.

You can also download the latest demo by The Fire Theft. The Fire Theft is three fourths of emo pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate. The first demo they posted, "It's Over" was promising. The current demo that's posted, Sinatra, is a load of prog garbage, complete with a looped sample of some "Moby-esque" strings and some voice loop manipulation a la "Everything In Its Right Place" by Radiohead. The band does warn that this is only a demo.

I am on antibiotics, I am drunk, and I just got home and watched "The History of Moshing" on MTV 2. I have so many things to say I think I might explode. To avoid what might become a novel, I'll begrudgingly paraphrase my thoughts, hopefully in order:

-- Moshing was born as "slam-dancing" in the late 70's/early 80's as a result of punk music. It was goofy, but cool.

-- I spent the better part of my formative years listening to and worshipping heavy metal; Metallica, Iron Maiden, Exodus and Anthrax were the sounds I related to.

-- I saw Anthrax open for Iron Maiden in 1990. I stood on my seat and banged my drunken head all night long and screamed every lyric. My friend puked all over my workboots. Neither of us missed a beat, and all of our angst was spent by the time "2 Minutes 2 Midnight" steamrolled through the stadium.

-- I have not yet moshed to this point in my life. I have not yet seen the need.

-- Fast-forward to the summer of 1992. At the second Lollapalooza, I decided to join a mosh pit during the Alice In Chains set. I got a boot in the neck and was crowd-surfed a mile away from my friends. It was the dumbest thing I ever did at a concert. It served absolutley no purpose whatsoever.

-- In 1993, after my taste in music had changed lanes, I saw Toad the Wet Sprocket at Scranton University. Khaki-clad people started a mosh pit during "All I Need". The band stopped playing, and the drummer took the mic and said, "Guys, we're Toad the Wet Sprocket. Get a grip." I proceeded to take turns with my friend in yanking crowd-surfers to the ground. The absurdity of moshing and surfing had sunk in.

-- H.O.R.D.E. tour, 1995, Great Woods, Boston. I have smoked more dope all day than God could create. Three guys in front of me start their own mosh pit to Blues Traveler's "But Anyway". My thoughts about moshing are upheld.

-- Woodstock '99. I was not there, for obvious reasons. Reports say the concert was a disaster, with thousands of mosh-pit injuries and women crowd-surfers getting groped and borderline raped. Fred Durst took the mic and said, "Fuck peace." Later he would say about all the mayhem, "Hey, it's not our fault." I tend to agree; everyone who bought a ticket deserved what they got, because there was no point to their attendance.

-- Fall, 2001. I catch Candiria at Northsix in Williamsburg. The mosh pit has clearly become a calculated art form; no one is really hitting eachother. Instead, kids take turns doing some spastic hybrid of capoera dancing and judo. I am speechless in regards to how gay it is.

-- Friday, January 10, 2003, 10:31pm. Adrenaline is a personal thing, and can only be shared with others within its obvious confines. Taking your adrenaline and ramming it into someone else's is fucking stupid. Just bang your head, for christ's sake. Metal health will drive you mad.

Some people say that video games blur the line between fantasy and reality for those that play them. I agree. I've played the Tony Hawk series of video games enough that I've fooled myself into believing that if I had a skateboard, I could probably, with a little practice, be pretty damn good. So I'm now in the market for some old school Vans and a skateboard.

You can check that hot new Zwan video at MTV.com. I was also going to remind you that Interpol is on Letterman tonight, but that was last night. I can't imagine spending $500 on a jacket, but I'll wear it if someone wants to get it for me, I'm a size large.

For your downloading pleasure... Interpol live in Rennes, which I think is in France, from way back in November of 2002. Find the links to the tracks in the picture.

I know this is kind of sappy, but hey, it's Christmas. A happy and safe holiday season to all.

Love,
Uncle Velvet

While most of you are at home taking it easy, wrapping gifts, or getting lit on egg nog, I, of no vacation days, am stuck here at work. This Toboggan Jump game has been a pleasant distraction from the usual web surfing/time wasting I do here.

Zwan.com has relaunched the Live Zwan Fan Media Collective. Check out streaming audio of Zwan shows and tracks. I can't stop listening to "Mary Star of the Sea", which amounts to 15+ minutes of self-indulgent guitar wankery. Amazing.

One of my favorite genres of music is early nineties shoegazer. I've got albums and imports from Catherine Wheel, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Jesus and Mary Chain and Lush. Apparently, there is a shoegazing revival afoot. You can read about Shoegazing's Slow Comeback.

Radiohead offered up an early Christmas gift to its fans in the form of a webcast. Among other things they performed 4 songs live, 3 new ones and a cover of "Walking In A Winter Wonderland". Download mp3s of the performance at greenplastic.com.

Morrissey lives. Download a show from October 2002 in Copenhagen, courtesy of Mrs Shankly.

It is with great pride and happiness that Jet Row extends its congratulations to Hundertmark and Castro on their recent engagement.

If you'd like to announce your upcoming engagement on Jet Row, contact us.

We're all going to hell in a handbasket. I'm no Nostradamus, but look at what's going on. North Korea has a nuclear weapons program. It looks like Iran might be working on a nuclear program, as well. And now this!

I'll stop whining about the freaky relationship I've developed with the web browser, but hey, I am a web developer of sorts. Head on over to Citizen Erased, and download a Coldplay show from Glastonbury 2002 and/or a The Catherine Wheel show from the Bowery Ballroom 2000.

I was just reading this artictle about Mozilla. And it made me wonder. First, Mozilla is not the depressed, city destroying offspring of Morrissey and Godzilla. It's a web browser. I've recently begun to use Phoenix, which is essentially a version of Mozilla, and have made it my browser of choice. It offers some nice options, like blocking pop-ups and blocking ad images on web pages. So I want to share my enthusiasm for this browser, a la Jake Howlett, who got me into Phoenix. And yet, I do so with a sense of restraint. It's just like the kid who brags about how great his favorite indie band is, and yet frets at the notion of that band selling out, joining a major label, getting radio play and actually being heard by the masses. I fret at the notion that if Mozilla were to catch on, then certainly the crafty advertisers would catch on, and work around some of the ad busting features in Mozilla. I've got this nice little browsing experience going with Mozilla, I only wonder how long it'll last. For info on Phoenix check out the Phoenix help page, which has some good info along with themes and some useful tips and tricks.

Generally, I am a Nazi when it comes to tipping well. 20% is standard if you have any kind of class, 15% is good if you're still living in 1984, and 10% is reserved for senior citizens and Europeans. For the first time, I tipped on opposite ends of the spectrum today.

7am: I hail a cab for work, as I do every morning. The driver makes no effort to acknowldege my existence in his car. He drives like a maniac the entire way, cutting people off left and right. When I reach my destination, the meter reads $6.20. I hand him a twenty dollar bill and tell him to give me ten back. He moans, turns around, and says angrily, "Don't you have anything smaller?" I tell him no, to which he replies, "Well, I can't break this." Growing more annoyed by the second, as I am tired and running late, I tell him again that it's all I have, take it or leave it. Then he turns around and actually says, "Funny how all you people always have twenties in the morning, when you know I can't make change." Since he has decided to generalize me, while managing to completely piss me off in the process, I reply, "Yeah, we all do it on purpose." He hands me my change without taking out his tip. I say, "Cheer up, champ," and walk. His tip: ZERO DOLLARS. F*ck him.

11:30am: I leave work early and decide to stop at a diner on the way home. I have two eggs over easy, home fries, bacon, toast, coffee and juice. My waiter is busy, says only about two words to me, but is polite. The bill is $8.85. His tip: $6.00.

Moral of the story, I think: If you don't have something nice to say, keep your big frickin' mouth shut.

I drive around for hours trying to find a KFC. I buy a bucket of extra, tasty, crispy fried chicken. I eat 12 pieces of chicken. I try the bucket on for size. I deem myself ready for the show. G N' R cancels the show.

I had off today, and I got nice and banged up last night. So I've been pretty much laid up in bed flipping back and forth between MuchMusic and VH1 Classic. Thoughts and observations:

• MuchMusic is 92.3 KRock with videos. I swear on my life it's the same songs in the same order.
• Korn is unbelievably gay.
• That part where the water comes through the screen in "The Reflex" is still cool.
• When all is said and done, there's a good chance Ringo Starr will be the last Beatle standing. That scares the living sh*t out of me.
• When did Jimmy Eat World morph into Blink 182?
• P.O.D. is more gay than Korn.
• The cheapest video ever made has to be "Separate Ways". They're not even playing instruments through half the video, for christ's sake.
• 3 Doors Down should be renamed 3 Down's Syndrome. Have you seen these guys?
• If David Bowie ate Dick Clark, he'd live to be 400 years old.
• "Take The Skinheads Bowling" just came on, and I'm happy.
• "Whiplash" is the greatest metal song ever even attempted.
• Holy sh*t, there's a video for "Sheila Take A Bow"?
• 24 oz. of Dunkin' Donuts coffee is completely unnecessary.

I just got my ticket for the big Guns N' Roses concert at the MCI Center, Monday night. So you're thinking I've gone mad...but I didn't pay for the ticket. Being the company man that I am, I got hooked up with a free ticket in the corporate box. This is inherently wrong, I know. Going to a G N' R show in the corporate box is heresy. Or is it? Alas, it's not really G N' R, is it?

Is Jet Row anti-Ryan Adams? Of course not. Don't be silly. Nothing but love on this site. Or not.

Seriousl