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2005

Google Acquires Dodgeball

Ya know, I post this morning about the cool things Yahoo is doing in connecting their users, and how I think Google is doing more around services, and web services than around user inter-connection.

And then Google goes and acquires a company like Dodgeball just to prove me wrong. Ok, they’re not out to prove me wrong, but Dodgeball is the definition of a service that connects users.

If you haven’t heard of Dodgeball (they were getting a ton of press late last year) you need to check the link above and follow it to it’s home page. It’s all about using text messaging via cell phones to connect with friends, and more imporantly, friends of your friends to meet new people. Cool stuff.

Yahoo Music Service Launches

Via Slashdot:

Betanews has the story that Yahoo has launched their music service to compete with Napster & iTunes. Yahoo has quite an interesting strategy in the music business. With pricing 60% less than Napster & Rhapsody ($4.99 / mo with an annual fee), 79 cent downloads (99 cents if you’re not a monthly subscriber) (and at 192k WMA!), a media player that integrates with other Yahoo services with support for other formats, and support for Janus portable players just like Napster2Go.

The first user post on the Betanews story, is a link to one of the developers’ blog, who has a ton of information on the Yahoo service and player.

What’s interesting to me about Yahoo right now is their focus on their users. Including their acquisition of Flickr, the launch of Yahoo 360, and now music, they’re very focused on tying these services together, and user communication between members (look at your friends music list for suggestions, or Flickr tags and friends lists). While Google is focusing on web and desktop services applications, Yahoo is going in a different direction in creating communities, and tools for these communities to share and grow closer together.

Now if only their music engine / services worked on Linux…dammit, I’d buy music online if I could.

TV Stuff

I was disappointed to read in USA Today yesterday that ABC has pulled Eyes for Mays sweeps. I was really enjoying it, it had great humor, a good plot, and good pacing.

24 this season has been excellent. Instead of switching antagonists halfway through, they’ve done a good job with the plot and the focus on the current villian. The latest plot twist with China has been well done. Best of all, what they’ve done with Jack this season has really given me pause as you can see the stress of the job, the effect and toll it takes on his personal life, and how it effects him. I was surprised to read today that NBC is making a strong bid to steal 24 away from Fox next year.

I’m very impressed with Lost, which gives Desperate Housewives a run for it’s money as best new TV show this season. (Worst? American Dad). The plot has been very well done (how long can you have a show about plane crash survivors on an island?), and the way every charater is inter-connected is fascinating. With Lost, you have more questions than answers… (Though I do have some concerns with some of the rumors about casting changes for next season. They’ve focused on 14 of the 48 survivors this season, which gives them the ability to bring in other actors, but it will be interesting to see how the chemistry and the plots will work).

And damn Fox for yanking Arrested Development. Just like Alias, which we’ll get to in a second, the network needs to commit to the show, stick it in a time slot where it can be successful, and drive it. They also need to pick this show up for next season. The comedy in this show is one of a kind.

I’m glad Alias has found it’s viewers being after Lost. I’m all for what FOX & ABC did with 24 and Alias respectively this year, in starting the seasons late, so they can show a new episode every week. With episodic shows like these, that have major plots that continue, breaking them up (like Lost or Desperate Housewives) sucks when you’re waiting a month at a time for new episodes. I was pretty skeptical with Alias at the beginning of the season as they rebooted…again, but Alias has really found it’s voice in the latter two thirds of the season. They’ve kept the Rambaldi stuff topical, Sidney’s sister hasn’t been a bad addition to the cast (not great, but done well), and they haven’t overplayed the Vaughn / his dad angle too much, while keeping Sloane and Jack in the mix as well. Kudos to JJ Abrams and ABC for a good job. It’s sucked me back in as I was about to give up on it.

And Desperate Housewives? I dig it, it’s a good solid soap opera, and I appreciate it for what it is.

Here’s to all the upcoming season finales!

Music Updates

The music server is still coming along. I’m almost done ripping my CD collection, with less than 100 CDs to go. I have about 50 CDs I need to check the tags on that I ripped this weekend that I haven’t updated yet.

From there, I move them on to the backup box, get all the file directories set up correctly (that’s going to take a while), check all the tags one more time, and put them on the web server.

I’ve been ripping my CDs in Ubuntu, with the MP3 debs. Sound Juicer doesn’t have quality settings, so I used GooBox to rip to MP3 at 192k. I use Easytag to update the tags, specifically the year and genre. GooBox unfortunately doesn’t capture the year from CDDB when it rips, and the genre’s are never right.

For whatever reason, whether it’s my DVD-RW is too sensitive, the OS, or the application, some CDs won’t rip, even with minor scratches. Even after burning copies of the CD, and using the burn to attempt the rip, it was no joy. Using my Windows box, I used CDex to rip, and didn’t have any issues, so I have a handful of those to rip as well.

The good news is I’m almost done. The bad news (for the music) is we completed the electrical in the basement this weekend (yay!). Once we pass inspection this week, then it’s a lot of manual labor to get all the insulation up in the ceiling. I’m in Seattle two weekends from now, so the goal is to get that all done this weekend. Fun.

Broadcast Flag Struck Down

On Fri., May 6th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the FCC overstepped it’s bounds when it created the Broadcast Flag.

The EFF has the story, as well as CNet’s News.com.

This is big, very big. It was unexpected, especially a unanimous decision by the Court. Congress needs to legislate, not the FCC.

My favorite quote from the judges:

“You’re out there in the whole world, regulating. Are washing machines next?” asked Judge Harry Edwards. Quipped Judge David Sentelle: “You can’t regulate washing machines. You can’t rule the world.”

Here’s to all the groups that opposed the travesty that was the Broadcast Flag, from the EFF article:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined Washington DC-based advocacy group Public Knowledge in fighting the rule in the courts, together with Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association. The coalition argued that the rule would interfere with the legitimate activities of technology innovators, librarians, archivists, and academics, and that the FCC exceeded its regulatory authority by imposing technological restrictions on what consumers can do with television shows after they receive them.

Zoe & The Flowers



DSC00040b, originally uploaded by silwenae.

Kelly was out at the housing association, and Zoe wanted to look at the flowers. A stranger happened to be out there and asked to take Zoe’s picture as Zoe looked at the flowers.

You can tell by the look on Zoe’s face she doesn’t know what to make of strangers.

New Release Tuesday

I saved up from last week, and splurged this week on all the new stuff that has come out in the last 8 days.

Movies:

  • Blade 3

Music:

  • Aimee Mann
  • Nine Inch Nails
  • Ben Folds
  • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Soundtrack
  • Ryan Adams
  • G. Love & Special Sauce (slightly older release, but they didn’t have last week’s New Order)
  • Mike Doughty (former lead singer for Soul Coughing)

The new Nine Inch Nails and Ben Folds are dual discs, with DVD content on the back of the disc. The Ben Folds dual disc has the entire album in 5.1 and some video content. We’ll see how good it is.

The new Mike Doughty album is fantastic. It’s been too many years since he’s made music, and 89.3 had him live last week acoustically so I got a preview then. The new album, produced by Dan Wilson of Semisonic, has blown me away. It’s much more emotional and raw than his previous work with Soul Coughing.

Next week: Weezer!

Receiver down, receiver down

My center channel on my receiver has stopped working for no apparent reason. I’ve swapped out speakers, cable, checked the connections and the settings, and all I get is warbly static out of my center.

No idea why it picked now to stop working. It’s 6 years old, and with the basement on the horizon, I really don’t feel like buying a new one for the living room.

Dammit.