Darkleaf is the next band from the crew that spawned Jurassic 5. Worth checking out if you like non-mainstream hip hop, J5, or Ozomatli.
Hello. I opened my pool yesterday. I lost six pounds in the first week of my diet, and I’m off to the gym in a moment.
Looks like August 6th is the day that the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring will be released on DVD. Wish I didn’t have to wait that long. Especially when some people I know already have obtained a reasonably high quality DVD version.
Show Ends for the Yanks' Sojo It’s got to be so tough for an old school manager like Joe Torre to have to part ways with so many of his staple players over this off season. Sojo is the most recent to go. You may remember him as the guy who always seemed to come up with that big hit in the clutch situation. I’m certain that the Met’s fans among you will remember him:-)
As a Yankees fan, I can't say I'm not a little concerned about the tean chemistry going into this season. They replaced so many of their core players, and these guys were the ones who set the tone in the clubhouse. Players aren't just interchangable parts that you can easily swap in and out. It could be worse, of course, look at the situation in Texas. I'd hate to be a fly on the wall in the Ranger's clubhouse these days. Regardless of all this stuff, I find myself really looking forward to baseball season. I hope labor disputes don't end up ruining the game for me again.
I started a new nine week exercise and diet plan today. I’ve remained in pretty good shape over the last year and a half, but I’m ready to take a jump up to the next level of fitness. Anyway, the diet seems pretty sensible and I read the book which documented the plan’s choices with studies and whatnot. The workout plan is somewhat similar to one that a trainer I worked with a year ago had me on, but seems a bit more intense. I’ll let you all know how I make out.
Sony taking pre-orders for CLIE NR series in US This looks like the most compelling Palm based device to date. Still, I remain unconvinced at this point that there is any reason not to buy a Pocket PC device instead.
Ars Technica reviews gobe Productive 3.03 This office suite, formerly the standard for the BeOS, is now available for Windows and will soon be available for Linux. I think there is a market out there for a suite like this one. It’s competitively priced, and I don’t think everyone really needs the full power(or price) of Office XP. I, for one, haven’t upgraded from Office 2000 on my Windows machines yet. What is the compelling reason to do so?
NY Times: Online Surpasses Catalog at J. Crew Here we are in the depths of an industry depression, and there seems to be continued evidence that the Internet is going to be a key to commerce in the next few years. Of course, J. Crew was an easy transition seeing as how they were primarily catalog based. I’ve bought things online and returned them at their Atlanta retail locations a couple of times, and somehow that seems easier than sending things back.
Doing my spring cleaning and putting the winter clothes in the attic today. While I work in the house, I have my tower playing music through my stereo that I can hear throughout the house. One thing I love about iTunes is the ability to filter your library usng keywords. This means making a quick mix of songs whose titles all contain the same word quick and very easy. Right now I’m listening to my “me” mix. Some highlights: Bittersweet Me by R.E.M, Try Me by James Brown, Knocks Me Off my Feet by Stevie Wonder, and All That Scratching is Making Me Itch by Rob Swift.
Apple Introduces 10GB iPod They’ve also updated the iPod software to support contacts. I don’t think I’ll be using that feature.
Alison has posted a hip new design tonight. One of the best things about this year’s SXSW was getting to know her.
I apologize for neglecting my weblog duties since I’ve been back. It’s primarily a symptom of some strange blog malaise I’ve been experiencing. I’ve been putting the time away from the keyboard to good use though. My pool is just about ready to be opened, my gardens are much better tended than they were a week ago, and I’ve either hit the gym or gone inline skating every day. That last item is directly related to the first, I don’t want to be flabby computer boy at my own pool. I’m quite sore today as a result of yesterday’s bench press extravaganza. Updates should resume as normal tomorrow morning.
Okay, so I was distracted by the NCAA basketball tournament yesterday. Considering that the Final Four is right here in good old Atlanta this year, I figured I’d pay attention. As a result, very little computer work that was scheduled for yesterday actually got done. There are more games today, but perhaps if I get the TV Tuner installed in the one machine back here in my office, I won’t have that problem today. I’m finally beginning to feel normal again post-SXSW. This is accompanied by the realization that I left my house a mess, and so I have returned to a mess, and that needs to be dealt with. Oh, and Happy Fourth Birthday to Kottke.org.
So, I’m back from the show, and it was well worth going. I’m quite mentally and socially tired, but I’ll sit down tomorrow and write something up about the people, places, panels, and parties. I’m thinking that it should be with a minimum of name dropping. That would probably be good, but difficult to avoid. A couple of quick observations though. 1) There are a real lot of bloggers. 2) When confronted with groups of people larger than fifteen, I am seemingly unable to remember anyone’s name. Nighty night.
Ranchero: Web File Types CM Plugin If you do any kind of Web development or design work on a Mac OS X box, this is a must check out tool. I relied heavily on the Mac OS 9 version back when that was what I used. Best of all, it don’t cost nothing.
Just picked up my badge. I doubt that there will be many updates here for the duration of the show. Seems like a real fun bunch here this year.
Hello from Austin!
NY Times: You Listen, You Pay: Post-Napster Music Services The Times reviews three of the label backed online music services. After reading the article, I’m not enthusiastic. I almost think that the labels want these offerings to be a worse choice than purchasing physical cd’s.
I was watching an episode of Real Sports on HBO last night. Among their reports was a story about gymclass dodgeball. Apparently, there is an increasing movement among schools in this country to ban the game of dodgeball. The rationale is that it is “an excessively violent lesson to be teaching children.” I don’t even know where to begin reacting to this. I loved dodgeball in gym class as a kid, and I was far from the star athlete of my class. As far as it being an excessively violent lesson, there are plenty of other, more violent, things that kids are exposed to these days. It’s a sport, and, win or lose, I think that competitive sports teach kids valuable lessons. It’s amazing to me with all the crap kids have to negotiate through in life these days that some fool is using his precious spare time to fight the scourge of dodgeball.
I'm getting my act, and my house together today for my trip to SXSW. The house really has come along nicely in the last couple of months, but it still sometimes feels way too big for just me. I seem to switch back and forth between hanging out in the living room, and hanging out in the office. Having a wireless network that actually works anywhere in the house, including my screened in porch and by my pool in the backyard, is going to get much cooler when the weather gets nicer.
Anyway, I'm going to Austin a bit early, bringing my skates, and I'm hoping to get to see a little more of Austin than I did the last time I went to SXSW two years ago. The other thing that is happening today is that I am finally going to deal with the mess of hair on my head. Had a bad haircut a year ago, and I have spent the entire time since trying to grow it out. As a result, my hair is halfway down my back, and it's getting really tiring.
DJ MarWax - The Turntablistic Site It’s mostly technical stuff for DJing, but I didn’t want to forget it.
If you own and travel with a notebook computer, the Logitech MouseMan Traveler is the way to go. It’s small, but not too small. It works with all of my machines and all of the operating systems I use. It’s optical, so it works well on any non-reflective surface. Finally, it comes with it’s own little carry case to prevent it from getting crushed in my bag full of junk, and to keep the cord nice and neat. No one paid me to say that.
Webmonkey: Flash MX Overview This article actually has some hands on details, which I haven’t really seen anywhere else. (via mac.scripting.com)
The Register: Macromedia Unveils Neo
Macromedia: ColdFusion MX FAQ