Sara Mather was an early favorite in 2005 on AMERICAN IDOL. She didn’t make it past the first live vote, but she did cut an album that came out this past spring.
Read all about it on her blog.
You’ll remember her as soon as you see her picture.
Who wants to live in The Real World? - (37signals)
The Real World must be a truly depressing place to live. It’s apparently a realm where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose. I’m told that the only thing that works in The Real World is what its inhabitants already know and already do. No matter how flawed or inefficient that way may be.
Much more at the link. Great stuff.
I keep a piece of paper in my pocket at all times. It’s my To Do list, a reminder of all the things — small and large — that I want to or need to do. It’s a great way to ensure I don’t forget little things, that I get the big things done, and that I can do a quick visual check on my progress.
Is it wrong, though, that I’ll sometimes add an item to the To Do list just before I do it, only so that I’ll feel like I’ve done more work in the day?
At work today, I noticed there were more open parking spaces than usual.
It seemed quieter in the office.
I saw a lot of people taking “meetings” in the cafeteria.
It’s the second to last week before the kids go back to school. Lots of people are on vacation. It’s a Friday, so lots of people take it easier and just watch the clock, waiting for the end of the day.
And I said this to myself: “Looks like everyone around here has a case of the Fridays.”
I wanted to slap myself.
Song Premiere: Jordin Sparks, ‘Tattoo’ - PopEater Music Blog
It’s official! ‘American Idol’ winner Jordin Sparks will release her as-yet-untitled debut album on November 20 through 19 Recordings/Jive.
Click through to listen to it.
It’s not nearly as bad as previous Idol singles, but it’s not terribly great. Typically overproduced.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the runaway AT&T phone bills being mailed to iPhone owners. AT&T is itemizing every byte of data being transferred, resulting in some fat packages being mailed out. One video shows a 300 page phone bill mailed in a box that cost AT&T seven dollars in shipping costs alone!
It doesn’t surprise me at all, though.
Three months ago, I dropped my AT&T cell phone plan to join up on a plan with my wife. We saved some money this way and simplified one segment of our monthly bill-paying.
Just this week, I got my third bill in the mail from AT&T since I dropped them for $0.00.
Greenpeace ought to look into marching in front of AT&T’s headquarters one of these days. . .
Sony Defeats Truman - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog
For the record, NPD reported domestic sales of 425,000 Nintendo Wiis, 170,000 Xbox 360s and 159,000 PlayStation 3s in July. […]
While Microsoft and Sony battled it out for second place in the next-generation console competition, Nintendo continues to ride its less powerful processor, simpler graphics and gyration-inspiring game controller to fad-defying results. Nintendo’s July sales bested its June figures by around 50,000 units, further stumping analysts and video game software companies who keep waiting for the Wii to peter out.At this point, predicting a quick demise for the Wii might not be the wisest maneuver; it’s something even the folks at Sony wouldn’t attempt — at least not this month.
And the Wii is a “gimmick,” they said, that would die early because of Nintendo’s inability to manufacture it quickly enough. They’re right — Nintendo is probably not making as much money as they could if they could push out enough units, but look at it this way: They’re going to have two HUGE Christmas seasons in a row with the same console. And this Christmas holds the promise of many more better games than the last. it might sell better in its second go-around. Stay tuned.
Update: Overall sales on the Wii have now surpassed the XBox 360.
Nobody is ever doing any photocopying — until I approach with a paper in my hand I need a copy of. Then, there’s a line.
I’ll always get a close parking spot in the morning when I’m running early and have time to kill, and a further away spot after lunch when I want to get on the road quicker, or need to get back in the building sooner.
The air conditioner never stops. On the bright side, I never need to worry about my bottle of soda going cold, even if I nurse it for eight hours. Just leave it on the desk under the a/c vent and I’m good to go!
Half the meetings in the conference room across the hall from my desk end in after-meeting meetings right outside my door. Just what I wanted to hear. . .
That guy running up my heels as your walking down the hall? He’s going to turn into the bathroom with me.
My break for the front door of the building at the end of the day will run smoothly, until halfway there when someone turns a corner out of the hall in front of me and is too busy talking on the cell phone to realize there’s anyone else walking around.
That’ll be the same person who gets to the exit and can’t find his or her badge to swipe themselves out.
And you just know it’s the same person who digs in the bottom of her purse for the exact change at the 10 Items or Less lane at the supermarket.
There are a dozen empty visitor spots right next to the front door every day, and I’m parked on the far corner of the roof.
The fax machine I’m stuff using will max out at 9600 baud, when the receiving fax works at 14.4 or 28.8, no doubt.
Digital50: News and more Business News
Exactly 25 years ago tomorrow, on August 17, 1982, Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the world’s first compact disc at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, just outside of Hanover, Germany. The invention of the CD ushered in a technological revolution in the music industry as CDs — with their superior sound quality and scratch free durability — marked the beginning of the shift from analog to digital music technology. The CD became a catalyst for further innovation in digital entertainment, helping pave the way for the launch of DVD and the current introduction of Blu-ray optical media.
Yes, I’m a little late in posting the story, but it does raise an interesting question: What was your first CD?
I can remember when my sister — who’s four years older than I am — got her first CD player for Christmas and there was a warning in the instructions that you had to call some governmental agency to register the laser in it. As I recall, the phone number was called and the person on the other end said not to worry about it. Can anyone remember something similar? This must have been in the early 90s or so.
I didn’t own my first CD until I got to college. It was the summer of 1995, and that disc was — the VR.5 Soundtrack. I knew it was a niche show with a limited audience, and a CD that wouldn’t be out in the world for long. So I snapped it up while I could. Computers back then didn’t come with CD players standard, so I couldn’t listen to it until that Christmas, when I got a CD-playing stereo (or was it a flat out boom box?) to play it in. I can also remember my mother enrolling me in Columbia House music club, just so she could give me ten CDs with it as part of the present. She’s nothing if not economical! ;-)
I don’t remember what I bought after that. My car barely had a tape deck — I had bought one to put in it after high school graduation. I was a hard core tape listener for a long time. I didn’t own a car with a CD player in it until 1999, as I recall.
Now, I’d kill for a car with a cassette deck in it, just to have something easy to plug the iPod into. ::sigh::So, which CD was your first purchase?
We all know that DRM — the “Digital Rights Management” stuff that keeps you from pirating digital files, in theory — is evil, and is finally starting to wane just a little, with EMI and Universal dropping it from their music downloads this year already. DRM keeps you from buying something once and being secure in the knowledge that it will always run. Apple could — again, in theory — decide tomorrow that they want to break every song you’ve ever downloaded through the iTunes music store with a simple flip of a switch. No, it’s not likely, but it’s not impossible.
Google recently drove this point home when they ended their video rental/download-to-own program. (They had launched it a year and a half ago.) They charged you for each video ($2, I think?), but you were forced to authenticate ownership of the video everytime you played it. You needed an internet connection to validate the video before it would play on your machine. So when Google decided last week to kill off their program, it meant that every video you may have downloaded became an immediate virtual brick. The file was dead, worthless, useless. It wouldn’t play anymore. Your money just went down the drain.
Not completely, though. Google’s not that dumb. They credited the money you paid for those video files to your Google Checkout account, whether you had one or not. In order to get your money back, you had to spend it somewhere else for something else, AND use Google’s Paypal competitor, whether you wanted to or not.
That didn’t fly too well. Now, Google has changed their mind and are offering to refund your credit card directly, and are asking those with new credit card numbers or expiration dates to please update their info on-line so that they can do so. They were hoping the Google Checkout thing would be quicker and easier, and I can understand that. But it locks their users into another product that not all of them need or want.
As a bonus, Google is letting those users keep the Google Checkout credit, too, and keeping the authentication server running for a couple extra months.
In the end, then, DRM became a double-your-money-back proposition.
It’s still evil, though.
But good for Google for fixing a bad situation they helped to cause.
Two Studios to Support HD DVD Over Rival - New York Times
But money talks: Paramount and DreamWorks Animation together will receive about $150 million in financial incentives for their commitment to HD DVD, according to two Viacom executives with knowledge of the deal but who asked not to be identified.
The incentives will come in a combination of cash and promotional guarantees. Toshiba, for instance, will use the release of “Shrek the Third” as part of an HD DVD marketing campaign.
It’s a payoff. This is one nasty battle, and I can’t help but feeling one both sides will bankrupt themselves fighting, while digital downloads win in the end.
It’s a relatively slow week. Here’s the full list.
And here comes mine:
This is, by far, the pick of the week. I remember getting it off Netflix many years ago and enjoying it. Ever since, I’ve wanted to own it. It’s a missing piece of the David Mamet corner of my DVD library. Who could ask for anything better than a Criterion Collection edition of it?
The highlight of the disc is a commentary track from David Mamet and Ricky Jay. There’s also some interviews with the cast and a behind-the-scenes featurette type of thing. All in all, it looks like a great release for just $26 at Amazon.
This must be the week for special editions with really sharp cover designs. I love both of these boxes.
Honestly, I can’t remember what the bonus features were on the original release of this movie. This version has a cast and director commentary, plus some behind the scenes featurettes and cut scene stuff, by the looks of it. Not sure if it’s worth buying a second time, unless you want to show support for a sequel — a long shot, I should think — or are a rabid Whedon fan.
Next week: HEROES, Season One and the great ROWAN ATKINSON LIVE! Good stuff.
Paramount adopts HD DVD, kicks Blu-ray to the curb
Just when many observers are beginning to believe that Blu-ray has the next-gen HD format wars all wrapped up, Paramount throws us a major curveball. The studio has announced that it is abandoning Blu-ray in favor of HD DVD. Is a shake-up in the works?
Both Paramount and DreamWorks Animation SKG today announced their backing of HD DVD, which will entail exclusive use of the HD DVD format. The decision will see movies from Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films available in standard definition DVD and HD DVD, exclusively.
This is crazy. The format war is back on.
I played seriously with Lightroom this weekend. It’s the relatively new photo organizing/editing tool from the folks who make Illustrator and Photoshop. It’s a direct competitor to Apple’s Aperture program. All reviews I’ve read say the two are pretty close. Aperture gets the edge in some places because it’s been around a little longer and that head start counts for something. It’s also a native Mac app, so it takes advantage of some built-in OS X design and functionality that a cross-platform release like Lightroom can’t.
I went with Lightroom in the end because it was only $200 when I bought it, as opposed to Aperture’s $299 price point. They’re both at $299 now.
I had to sit down with a book in order to understand how the program works, though. There’s just way too many buttons and panels and options to wrap my head around it completely on my own. I’m sure Aperture isn’t as complicated, but this is the road I picked.
The book I chose is Scott Kelby’s “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers.” It’s an entertaining read, as Kelby cracks jokes constantly through the text. Sometimes it gets to be a bit much, but it kept my eye on the page, rather than the dry technical manuals so many other books explaining applications can be. If that kind of thing might annoy you, then do yourself a favor and avoid the introduction text - the “Unexpected Q&A Section” — like a plague. Stay far far away from it. It doesn’t tell you much; it’s more Kelby exercising his stand-up comedian muscles. it’s fine for what it is, but it’s mostly a waste of time if you’re a “serious student.”
The other problem with the book couldn’t be helped: Lightroom evolved during its development, from its major open beta release to the final shipping product. Some of the screen shots and options presented in the book aren’t there anymore, or are in slightly different places. Honestly, it looks like some decent options were stripped away between the Beta and the final product, but I’m sure Adobe had a reason for that.
When you get to the meat of the program, though, it’s exactly what I was looking for. The front half of the book gave me an overview of how to import photos into Lightroom in a very useful way, including metadata, filenames, organization, keywords, the works. It shows you different ways you can look through the files, organize them into folder and categories, search via keywords, etc. Most usefully, it taught me how to use keywords. My first attempts at those were dismal failures, where I would end up with the same keywords on all pictures, whether they deserved them or not.
The real revelation to my digital photo handling, though, came in the next part of the book, which is a brief demonstration of how to use Lightroom’s basic photo editing options to clean up pictures. I didn’t realize just how blue or dark my photos looked until the book showed me the “Auto” setting on “White Balance.” After that, some basic introductions to the histogram, recovery options, contrast, and more helped me create photos that jumped off the screen instead of just sitting there. They didn’t look like pictures anymore — they looked like grabs of real life images. I was impressed. And, thankfully, Kelby shows you how to apply those same changes across multiple pictures, which is really handy when editing a sequence of files.
Lightroom makes all of this fairly easy to control and remember once you learn the process. The key commands are obvious — “G” for grid view, “L” for loupe view, for two quick examples — and the options are presented along the left and right columns in a way that’s both easy to find and easy to hide.
The funny thing is that I’m not even halfway through the book yet. I have to delve into advanced photo editing features next, in which I’ll no doubt learn why an “S” shaped tone curve is the best option. Everything after that is probably not all that necessary for me, though. I probably won’t be using Lightroom to create slide shows or web presentations. It’s nice to know that’s there, though, should I need them in the future.
Since Lightroom makes all of these changes to the photo in a way that’s completely reversible at any time, I can learn as I go and not damage the original pictures along the way. This makes it a lot easier to experiment, learn, and grow.
Next step: Import the other 5000 pictures over from iPhoto into Lightroom. The book explains how to do that, but it’s a “big step” I wanted to make sure I was prepared for before starting it. That’s a big commitment.
Once more into the breach — !!!
Augie De Blieck Jr. doesn't know when to shut up, which makes him the perfect blogger. That, and he reads a lot of other blogs. You can e-mail him, if you really wanted to.
