Update: Why iTunes Sucks originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2010-06-22.

First off, Herik Jose doesn’t have an album per se, but he sure does have some great music. IDM-influenced with gorgeous vocals and strong melody lines, you can think of him as Postal Service without the bluster and bad metaphors. Free downloads too, by the way.

Jack Penate is a lot of things, but subtle isn’t really one of them. Ballsy dance-rock. “Be The One” stands out on Everything Is New.

I want you to listen to Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit because I they’ve mastered that sort of bluesy slow rock that goes well with whiskey and cigars. Also, great to play along with.

John Paul Keith and the Four One Fives (what’s with all the “and the numbers”?) are throwbacks to another, much more awesome time. Some clear 60s influences here. Awesome music. If it doesn’t force you to get up and dance your legs off, you’ve got problems. Or fewer legs than you should.

Oh dear Kanye West. You’re so ubiquitous that I won’t even link to you. Normally your albums have one, maybe two good songs on them. And then you come out with this. Autotune notwithstanding, 808s and Heartbreak is very, very good. “Paranoid” is wonderful, as is “Love Lockdown”. “Heartless”, though, is clearly the stand-out track.

If you don’t like Ohbijou’s “Beacons”, you clearly have no soul. This is the kind of pop music heaven should be filled with. Perhaps a touch too pitch-perfect, but still. Listen and weep.

Some New Music originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2009-08-25.

Things I Like

• CBC Radio 1: For those of you in the US, there’s NPR. For us in Canada, there’s CBC Radio 1. All the stuff the other stations won’t play goes here. No commercial pressure leads, I think, to much better programming. Insightful commentary, excellent in-depth news, and radio documentaries (why have I heard so few radio documentaries in my lifetime?) When I get in my car in the morning CBC Radio 1 is the default station.
• Zeugma: If you haven’t already heard, Laura and I adopted a cat. Not just any cat, mind you, but the cutest cat in the whole wide world. I’m usually a fan of short-haired cats, but Zeugma is a medium-hair grey, and still in the kitten stage of running-around-and-playing-with-everything. If it moves, Zeugma will bat a paw at it.
• Nasi Goreng: Best food in the world. Really. Easy to make, painless to store, and spiced with curry. How could I not love a dish so fine?
• Wordplay: I like puns. I like good puns and bad puns and puns that make you groan. Puns, however, aren’t all. I like other kinds of wordplay, like double meanings, irony, sarcasm, that sort of thing.
• Kretek cigarettes: Yum. That’s all I have to say. There are quite a few good things in this world, and Kretek cigarettes are definitely one of the top.
• Friends who give me espresso machines: Best gift ever. Period. I am now well on my way to being an Italian coffee expert. Coming up soon: latte art courtesy of WikiHow.
• WikiHow: Now that I mention it, WikiHow is — after Wikipedia — the wiki I most often visit. You should, too.
• My sister Becca: She does a great job at work. And is delightful to work with.
• And last, but not least, Laura: If there’s ever a moment I say to myself, “Why did I marry you?”, you should hit me with a bear or something, because that’s crazy talk.

These are some things I really love. originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-08-24.

Addendum:

• When you specify a tolerance to the fourth decimal place and then find it undersize to to the fifth decimal place by three hundred-thousandths of an inch, I’m going to explain to you the concept of rounding up, and how, if you want to specify five decimal tolerances, you can twenty thousand dollars per tool. Then you can either take the tool and use it, or throw it in the garbage and see if anyone else will kowtow. I tell you, I should not be in customer service.
• Language is important. It’s the language of deity, the great divider between humans and animals. This is why, when I hear people talking in hillbilly/hiphop slang, I think they’re stupid. They may not be, but they’re acting like it. Intelligence and language go hand in hand.

Bullet points for a Thursday morning. originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-07-26.

Which apparently means that I use a bunch of different ways to learn things. Which is, I suppose true. It’s accurate in that I remember much better the things that I read or do versus what I hear. I can remember motions and actions, I can picture the words and pages of a book, but I cannot for the life of remember sermons and lectures (at least what the pastor or teacher said; I can almost always remember my impressions of the content and delivery).

So… how do you learn?

Is this how you learn? originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-07-23.

1. 1. Find focus. Get rid of distractions.
• Do one thing and get it finished.
• Minimise interruptions amap.
• Prioritise. Remove sources of information with little value.
• Curb useless information addiction
• Take breaks from being “always on”.
2. 2. Be effective. Evaluate effectiveness. Do less.
• Don’t confuse being busy with being effective.
• Write down ideas and get back to them later.
• Know the opportunity cost of your actions and how long something will really take to do.
• Just say no and be willing to do the bare minimum.
3. 3. Use technology efficiently.
• Learn how to search instead of spending time organizing.
• Write first and format later.
• Learn keyboard shortcuts.
• Set up multiple Firefox profiles, one for work and one for fun.
• Technology is your enemy, not your friend.

Get more done. Use less time. originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-07-17.

I found it via Lifehacker. Which reminds me that the next time I purchase a vehicle, I am definitely going to buy smaller and more efficient. My Focus isn’t horrible, of course, but it sure wasn’t built with economy in mind; I want one that is.

The problem with that is this: if everyone cuts their fuel consumption in half, the price of gas will go down to the point where cutting consumption will no longer be economically viable. A free market, problem if you will. A tragedy of the commons. I hate to say it, but the only way to curb fuel dependency seems to be keeping prices high, even if that has be achieved artificially.

The price of gas. originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-07-17.

Here’s a fact for you to ponder: originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-07-16.

And, as always, I’m excited as expletive about the release of Amarok 2 for Windows (do I have the version right?). Finally, finally something better than iTunes on Windows. Not that it could miss.

I’m looking forward to using on Windows at work what I use on Ubuntu at home. You know, familiarity and all that expletive.

A tip of the hat to the Amarok Team. originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-07-04.

1. Changing the name
2. Clearing out the old plugins
3. Changing the theme
4. Cleaning up the links

The only functionality I’m keeping for sure is the tagging bits. The rest of it, especially Extended Live Archives, is going the way of the dodo.

Edit: I’ve replaced Ultimate Tag Warrior with Simple Tagging, as Simple Tagging is just a way better plugin. And smaller.

Starting over… originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-06-28.

1. Pirate Bay, one of the flagships of the anti-copyright movement, makes thousands of euros from advertising on its site, while maintaining its anti-establishment “free music” rhetoric.

Probably. But to clarify, do the profit from it, or do they simple make enough money to cover the server and bandwidth related stuff? That’d be a nice question to answer. In any case, tPB’s rhetoric is its own, and I doubt many people who use it to facilitate their downloading actually care about the rhetoric.

2. AllOfMP3.com, the well-known Russian web site, has not been licensed by a single IFPI member, has been disowned by right holder groups worldwide and is facing criminal proceedings in Russia.

True. AllofMP3 is pretty much a skank joint, and if you’re buying music from them, you might as well just download it via The Pirate Bay.

3. Organized criminal gangs and even terrorist groups use the sale of counterfeit CDs to raise revenue and launder money.

This may be true, though who really knows. In any case, physical piracy is another beast altogether from digital piracy, and I’m not sure why it’s included on the list. You might remember that no one really (with the exception of the Pirate Bay and the people who index trackers) makes any money from digital piracy.

4. Illegal file-sharers don’t care whether the copyright-infringing work they distribute is from a major or independent label.

Doubtful, but what’s the point here? That people aren’t all a bunch of RIAA-boycotting freedom fighters? Sure. Free music is free music.

5. Reduced revenues for record companies mean less money available to take a risk on “underground” artists and more inclination to invest in “bankers” like American Idol stars.

Absolute hogwash of the worst kind. Record labels are some of the most conservative companies in the world. They’ve always been reticent to develop new artists vs milking cash cows, from the 1930s to today. If piracy went away this very minute, they’d still be doing it, because they’re entrenched companies and are scared of change.

6. ISPs often advertise music as a benefit of signing up to their service, but facilitate the illegal swapping on copyright infringing music on a grand scale.

Good, shoot the messenger. Is it not true that bandwidth providers also facilitate people downloading from iTunes and its ilk as well? Clearly these monsters must be stopped!

7. The anti-copyright movement does not create jobs, exports, tax revenues and economic growth–it largely consists of people pontificating on a commercial world about which they know little.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is why so many people hate labels and copyright organisations. Because they don’t like anything that comes between their hand and your pocket. They don’t like piracy because it costs them money. They don’t like the internet because it makes sharing trivial and breaks up the cartel on physical distribution. They don’t like copyleft and Creative Commons because you generally don’t have to pay for these things, and because if there’s an ecosystem of free music out there, that means less revenue for the labels.

8. Piracy is not caused by poverty. Professor Zhang of Nanjing University found the Chinese citizens who bought pirate products were mainly middle- or higher-income earners.

Are you telling me that poor Chinese farmers with a subsistence living aren’t interested in downloading music from the internet? I’m socked. Shocked!

9. Most people know it is wrong to file-share copyright infringing material but won’t stop till the law makes them, according to a recent study by the Australian anti-piracy group MIPI.

This is partly true. The reality is, however, that even laws won’t stop them, because guess what, there are simply too many people for the law to deal with. Even in the US, where the most strict laws ever are in effect and the most piracy happens. Period. PS: A study by a group with a particular bias comes out supporting that particular bias? You. Don’t. Say.

10. P2P networks are not hotbeds for discovering new music. It is popular music that is illegally file-shared most frequently.

Which is what the labels fear the most. The most popular music is their cash-cow. Their big revenue stream. They don’t actually care about independent music as you might think from point number 4. What they actually care about is money. Pure, hard cash. And they’ll do anything (from suing their own customers to lobbying and bribing the US congress and by extension the world to making ever so slightly deceitful lists of “truths” to support their viewpoints) to make sure that these cash-cows are protected.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. If you can get away with selling crap to people for $20 a pop, by all means, it’s a free country. But if it stops becoming a free country because you want to protect a revenue stream instead of inventing new revenue streams, then at least let’s stop wrapping the truth up in frilly pink dresses.

I mean, record labels can call pirates leeches who eat from their revenue streams, and the pirates can call labels leeches who bottomfeed off culture itself, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a binary issue where one side is right and the other wrong.

Call a spade a spade: they’re both wrong, they’re both scum, and they both deserve to disappear, both labels and pirates.

The Inconvenient Truth about Ten Inconvenient Truths about piracy. originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2007-06-01.

links for 2006-11-05 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-11-05.

links for 2006-11-04 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-11-04.

links for 2006-11-03 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-11-03.

links for 2006-11-01 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-11-01.

links for 2006-10-31 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-10-31.

links for 2006-10-30 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-10-30.

links for 2006-10-29 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-10-29.

links for 2006-10-28 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-10-28.

links for 2006-10-27 originally appeared on We Should See Other Blogs on 2006-10-27.