Not that this will in any way affect the lives of people on the planet, but after reading this article, I've decided to take a break. I want to rethink my blogging efforts. Decide if it's really for me. What I would want to accomplish with it. So for the time being, I'll be pondering and not writing.
I'll still be producing the podcast though.
Catching up on some great publicity this podcast has received, Apple picked it as a Staff Favorite. Thanks Apple, and thanks to all the fans who have downloaded the show over the past year.
Check out the podcast at jazz.thepodcastnetwork.com
Norah Jones is about to release a new album Not Too Late. There is a great video available on Amazon.com of her song Rosie's Lullaby. You can also hear a track called Thinking About You.
This was a mediocre book at best. I was really hoping that it was much better than it was. I had read several reviews which stated the writing style, the grammar, the pace, was poor. I have to agree. While I think a biography should include a wide range of experiences which gives the reader a real sense of the person, dragging on for pages about the same topic is boring.
I guess my expectation was set too high, and that was my fault. I was on a waiting list at the library for months. Once the book came in I was very excited. The anticipation was quickly lowered to dismay after the first few chapters.
Anyway, read it or not, but my suggestion is to pass. There is some good material on the early Apple days, but in the end you'll be disappointed. I was.
After a short battle with cancer, race car driver Benny Parsons is dead at age 65. Personally I like the way he called a race. He seemed to get along with the other announcers. He was a soft spoken guy. He was also a pretty good driver. There aren't too many of the "old timers" left. The guys who drove cars with little if any safety gear and did it for nearly nothing but the fun.
I agree with Chris Brogan that YouTube can change politics. People in Utah saw that happen in November of 2006 when a video of a sitting court Judge having a tantrum in court, and making off handed religious comments, was posted on YouTube. It basically cost her the job. Here is one video of the Judge, but the other one has been removed.
In Utah, Judges are given a vote of confidence. They are not really elected, they are appointed, but must be given a majority "confidence" vote to stay on the bench. If the voting public doesn't give a judge the majority, they are supposed to be removed from the bench and another Judge appointed in their place.
This is the first time that I can remember while I've been able to vote that something like this has happened. Honestly, I'm glad it did. I wish we could see more of what goes on in the courts because I never know if these people are actually doing a good job or not.
In any event, I agree that in the future, more than politics will be affected. Anywhere a phone can be taken a video can be shot. Board rooms, court rooms and the bed rooms. It does kinda suck that we have to always be on the alert.
As many of you know I produce a podcast called The Jazz Show on The Podcast Network. The podcast features indie Jazz artists who might not get a lot of ear time. I've been doing it for some time, and I have a blast meeting the artists and listening to endless amounts of great Jazz.
I also enjoy Jazz artists who are on major record labels, or at least major Jazz record labels. Some you may not have heard before, and I am glad to share them with you.
The first artists I would like you to meet is Nick Colionne. Nick is a Jazz guitarist. He has a smooth sound that really gets you into the groove. All of Nicks music is available at your favorite music store or download service (such as iTunes).
Please check out Nicks albums on Amazon.com for sample tracks. My favorites are Always Thinking Of You (Keepin It Cool), High Flyin' (Just Come On In) and It's Been Too Long (Just Come On In).
I really wasn't in the market for this type of service, but after reading the post at LifeHacker, I thought I would give it a try. I checked out both YouMail and CallWave. For me, the really cool feature of being able to call back someone from a voice mail right in the web app is pretty cool, which is why I am using that service. YouMail has a cleaner more user friendly interface, but lacks the call back feature. Who knows, maybe I won't use the call back feature as much and will want a nicer user interface.
I still think there is so much hype around the iPhone it's insane. I admit the device has a lot of cool features, and even though it's touted as a phone, the phone part is really just a small part. The real cool features are in all the mobile web capabilities.
It remains to be seen if the product will survive the hype, or will Apple once again breath new life into a market that has been fairly stagnate for the past few years?
Ok, reading this post got me thinking, I can do that. Microsoft just sent out hundreds of laptops to blogger's in order to "buy" some loyalty for the Vista operating system. Hey, Apple, send me an iPod, an 80GB would be nice, so I can show the guys in my Microsoft development shop how much cooler it is than the Zune.
Oh, and I would love to show them how much cooler a Mac Book Pro would be over a Dell Laptop, and how I can run Mac OS X and Windows applications on the same machine.
Please, I beg you, help me, help you, spread the word.
Ok, so everyone's had their orgasm over the new Apple iPhone. Can we stop now? It's a phone; cool maybe, but a phone none the less. I may own one someday but my gosh you would think Apple had just invented fire.
About a week ago my Apple iBook, 12" little laptop had a hiccup. I thought it was fatal. I turned it on and it would boot to the desktop but then the screen would go all blue not desktop icons or tool bar, then all of those things would show up again, then disappear. This happened every few seconds. I couldn't click on anything.
I finally stumbled onto this link which had me boot in Safe Mode (didn't even know there was a safe mode with OS X), and delete my profile, then reboot. That did the trick. Of course I had to reset all my preferences, but at least the machine is usable again.
Here is a link to my Christmas assignment on digital-photography-school.com.
