Thursday, February 26, 2004

Wired article about a UK professor who studies and writes about the social impact of personal stereo devices. Currently interviewing iPod users for an upcoming book.

Friday, February 20, 2004

My favorite DJs of all time: 1) Terminator X, 2) Jam Master Jay, 3) Hurricane. Although I'm not as familiar with their work, Mix Master Mike and DJ Shadow aren't bad either.
I might have paid big bucks to go to music school instead of a plain ol' liberal arts school if they had turntable class back then.
I find this to be incredibly funny... Polaroid warns customers not to 'shake it' - damn OutKast! C'mon folks... just smile at all the free publicity you're getting. Before this song took over the world no one even knew you were still in business.

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Microsoft launching special edition Xbox in Japan, complete with a dakimakura (sleeping pillow). Great quote from Japanese journalist: "I guess they're supposed to be used ... as pillows to hug, of course ... and for other obscene purposes that I would rather not mention."

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Silence available for just $0.99 from the iTunes Music Store!! The tracks mentioned in the CNET article are interesting... but a quick iTunes search actually turns up something much more intriguing. This track from the DDP album La Esquina Del Crem, which although not silence begins with an alarming message indicating that if you continue playing the track on your CD player you may ruin your speakers and your ears. Unfortunately you have to buy the whole album to get this track. "New Sonic Experience" indeed.

Monday, February 02, 2004

Sweet!! Apple is offering an RSS Feed Generator for the iTunes Music Store.
Annoying... I'm excited that a Mac sync solution is finally available for my Windows Mobile Smartphone, but the only trial available doesn't work with my Motorola MPx200. C'mon Information Appliance Associates, please start offering a trial of of the Smartphone version of PocketMac. I'm not buying unless I can try this out first.

Sunday, February 01, 2004

I need to try out a bunch of mobile phones and pdas in my job, so am looking for a car mount solution that will flexibly handle numerous devices of varying dimensions. A co-worker that's knowledgable on such things recommended I look at Gomadic's offerings. After looking over their product catalog I think I'll likely go for the Universal Auto Vent PDA Mount - might not be perfect, but it sounds flexible and only costs $20. Stay tuned, I'll post a brief review once I've had a chance to try this (or another vendor's product) out.
Now that the latest mobile phones are starting to incorporate fairly high quality still and even video cameras, I'm starting to get really interested in mobile imaging. Lots of pre- and post-Christmas shopping left me wishing I had a camera phone, both for comparison shopping and for getting quick spousal input (even when the gifts are for her). More recently I've been thinking it would be handy to snap pics of the open/close signs at restaurants, coffee shops, and stores I frequent (I'm always running up against closing time). Given that, I'd love to hear peoples' recommendations for camera phones and moblogging solutions.
Last one... my favorite classic NES games... Baseball Simulator 1.000, Contra, Double Dragon, Ice Hockey, Super Mario Bros., Tecmo Bowl, and original Zelda. And Final Fantasy, Kung Fu, Mega Man, Top Gun, and even Duck Hunt (remember the light gun!?!) weren't bad. Ah... when games were so simple but could still entertain you for hours and hours. Actually, I find I get far less enjoyment from most games released in the last decade than from any of these classic NES gems.
Same topic... I also found two pretty cool video game music sites... Video Game Music Archive and GameMusic.com.
Inspired by that Wired article, I hopped online and did some further investigation about Minibosses and NESkimos. I was able to locate quite a few song samples from both bands, and even found clips from a Minibosses' TechTV The Screen Savers appearance. I highly recommend you check these out. I found myself getting nostalgic for the classic NES, and discovered I could get my hands on a console and a few of the best games of all time for $20-30 - should I!?!