Found it! DJ Jazzy Jeff talks about music innovation

Innovation: The Digital Prophecy Of DJ Jazzy Jeff

10 minute draft timer

Thank goodness. Last years draft (which I watched all of) and this years draft (which I watched all of) took way to long. Finally they are going only have the first 2 rounds on day one and they are shortening the time to make the pick (which I think will lead to more Minnesota type draft day snafus).

Family tries

Well we pass through a few weeks since I last did a family update. Everyone's fine. Yup. Miranda had her 18 month checkup and the doc is pleased with the weight she has regained and with the motor skills. Also Miranda went to the pumpkin farm on the same day and thoroughly enjoyed playing in the mud puddles.

I'm doing ok and Michelle seems to be doing ok. We survived the windstorm. We've been playing way too much puzzle quest on xbla. Michelle is doing a bunch of alternative cooking where she puts pureed vegetables in various things (meatloaf, cookies, mac and cheese, brownies) and to be honest it is pretty good. I can definitely say that I could use the additional vegetables, so big win for Michelle. Miranda is still picky, but occasionally decides she will gorge...

Lately I have been reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Great book. The book centers around a book called Cryptonomicon and the families that have had a heavy involvement in it, covering both modern day and WWII. The writing is excellent and engaging and the characters are interesting. Once I get further I will put up a review but I have been working on it for about 2 weeks and am only half way through.

Finished Ringworld by Larry Niven and found it to be good and interesting, but at the same point it did not grab me and make me read till I couldn't keep my eyes open. The story of a vast engineering marvel created by an advanced civilization that doesn't seem to be around anymore in any great numbers, while the science was good, the characters were neat but not great or compelling. As I try to increase my reading base, I figured this was a book I needed to read although, I am thinking I should have read The Mote in God's Eye instead, although I may read that at a later time.

Next up on my reading list is Speaker for the Dead (Ender, Book 2) by Orson Scott Card, although I may insert Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) before it as I haven't read the first book in the series in about 8 years so maybe I should brush up on the story... Either way I am looking forward to reading some OSC.

Why George?

Dear owner of the Star Wars franchise,

I have been dumb enough to purchase many things that are part of this extensive franchise over the years. Some have been pretty good like the original trilogy and the Bioware games based on the license, but some have been just plain bad like some of the various books using the same recycled plotline or perhaps the Darth Vader voice helmet. I am really saddened by how much you have taken something that was iconic in our childhood and used that lovely nostalgic feeling to drain our bank accounts and destroy a memory. Sometimes tighter quality control can help, but sometimes it is just better to STOP.

Thank you,
Aaron

More on the mini music revolution....

Jeff Townes aka DJ Jazzy Jeff talks about his views on the digital music movement. It is interesting to see other artists talking about what music means and what the recording industry is trying to go through. One of statements:

As a result of his commitment to understanding the digital space his revenues from being a DJ have seen a dramatic increase now that he practically gives his music away for free and focuses on "super-serving" his customer with an "experience" vs just selling plastic discs. (Sounds very Long Tail right?) He is the first to say, "Music should be free, the experience is what you should be paying for"

is interesting especially if you have had a chance to the read the book, The Experience Economy. People pay will pay more for better experiences. Does that mean that music is now a commodity and all we are seeing is the industry fighting that fact. A fact that many other industries have had to face?


*** UPDATED: I removed the link. For some odd reason it was empty. I don't think I posted it empty. But maybe I did. Either way, my searching the net did not bring up the article :(

So, Amazon's not evil, right?

So it is kinda weird that I am writing this given I work for them, and to be honest, I don't think they are evil. However some believe we are near enough. Recently Amazon released digital music downloads sans DRM. This is definitely something I have been very passionate about. All the DRM solutions just seemed so damn hard just to listen to music that I spent money to listen to. Not to mention that the RIAA's view that I should feel privileged to even listen to these great <accent type="french">artists</accent> that they have tied to them. Where as I have felt that the Record companies should feel honored I decided to spend money with them for a non-essential purchase. Be honest, music doesn't sit up there with food, housing, heat, etc. Being an amateur musician (sorry if it isn't great) at one point, I know that getting paid for created content is important, but at the same point as a performer, it was much more important that people who want to listen to my stuff should not be inconvenienced.

So it becomes very interesting to me when Ian Rodgers of Yahoo! Music talks about MP3s and Amazon in a recent presentation. Excerpt from the presentation:

But now, eight years later, Amazon’s finally done what was clearly the right solution in 1999. Music in the format that people actually want it in, with a Web-based experience that’s simple and works with any device. I bought tracks from Amazon (Kevin Drew and No Age), downloaded them, sync’d them to my new iPod Nano, and had them playing in my home audio system (Control 4) in less than five minutes. PRAISE JESUS. It only took 8 years.

And I get even more excited when two of my favorite bands decide to connect in a more directly with their fans by going without a music label. Hey artists, you need to do this. I am more likely to give you money for your work than the suits and paying for them to prosecute music lovers, albeit some that are really guilty. Put it out there, I will buy it. Make it easy and I will buy it. Because in the end, even though it does not stand up there with food, housing, heat, etc, it still has some magic way of touching us and moving us in good ways.

Review: Halo 3

Maybe I should support subtitles. You know something along the lines of Halo 3, now with uber-nerd helmet. That is exactly the edition that I bought. First off the helmet is surprisingly good quality and about the size of a regulation volleyball. Unfortunately, the design has the inside of the helmet be a 3 inch by 6 inch slot, which makes it not able to fit on anything really but the base. There goes my plans to have Master Cat with a kick-butt helmet on. I am sure Tigger is happier because of this.

Alright, enough of my banter, tell me about the game.

I have read a number of review sites that either say one of two things. Either it walks on water and turns water into poptarts, or people find it ok and actually a bit turned off by the hype. So to set the story straight, I can say that if you have not played the first 2, then you will likely fall on the it's ok standpoint. If however you have played both Halo 1 and Halo2, then you will likely feel that this one walks on water. Basically this falls into the category of run of the mill first person shooter where you go out and kill aliens and zombies. However, if you have played through the whole story you will discover a depth here that many games don't have. There are novels that go further. Entire games that exist in the same universe that expound on the backstory (see Marathon). It really is a good story of the end of the world and one super soldiers fight through it. Sound like a movie you have seen? Even if it does, Bungie has captured the essence feeling like the star of an action movie. You feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger during the movie Commando. Except killing aliens and zombies instead of taking out rogue mercenaries.

Some of the improvements are better party capabilities for multiplayer mode, tweaks to weapon capabilities, more vehicles (I personally like the new human flight vehicle), as well as just gorgeous textures and graphics.

Ratings:

• For those that have played both previous games: 5 out of 5
• For those that have not played either: 3 out of 5

Kalaloch Lodge

Well I am home sick after a thoroughly fun trip to the Olympic Peninsula. We decided to take a trip with both the Vassigh and Dykstra families over to the Pacific Ocean and the Kalaloch Lodge where we got a two family cabin for the weekend. The more surprising part is you got two xbox addicts to leave their boxes alone at home on halo3 launch weekend. But I digress. It was fun and it was great to see the kids play in the surf even if they got stuck inside on day 2 because of classic PacNW fall rain. So rather than tell you about it, there are loads of pictures you can look at.

One of my faves....

Easily impressed

Video of someone stacking dice with a cup

Halo 3

Wooooo!




Wooooooo!



Ok. I can say the multiplayer is fun, but haven't really tried single player yet.

Software: Optimized compilers and Moore's law

Joel, fromJoel on Software, recently talked about how software strategies should include features additions as opposed to optimizations. I recommend reading this article mostly because Joel is a pretty good writer, but I will attempt to distill his points.

• People buy features and things that do jobs for them
• People are unlikely to buy super slow software
• Features and software take time to build
• Hardware gets faster according to Moore's Law
• Time spent optimizing code and trimming features is time not spent building new features
• If you like optimizing, build an engine or a compiler since optimization is the feature

I think that covers it. The part I am not in total agreement on is his points around NewSDK. First off, you need to be able to identify NewSDK before you can port your apps to it, because it does not make sense to port to one that isn't going to be the DefinitiveSDK and porting to all PotentialXSDK is plain a waste of time. But when the DefinitiveSDK is found/created/agreed upon, build it ye shall. Errrr, you should really hop on that wagon.

If Trent says it, it must be ok

Article on Slashdot

I haven't read the whole interview so it is likely out of context. But it seems that Trent Reznor believes CDs are too expensive. It is interesting to here someone in the music industry say that. From what little I looked into manufacturing costs, I can see where the big ones are turning over enormous profits. They just want them to grow more. Only really they are hurting the artists and then in turn hurting the fans.

Especially you Sony. Keep your damn rootkit off of my PC.

Robert Jordan passes away

Slashdot article

My condolences to his family and friends.

Andy, I need a caption

Ok, so let me hear what you have.

Social Networking...

From the sounds of it, social networking is little more than digitally removing fleas and ticks from our allies fur...

How social can we get?

I will not pontificate on the value of facebook, myspace, orkut, or any of that lot. If people use it, it will survive. I have found it useful to me on one occasion. I guess that is good enough.

Wow. I feel old... and fat

I thought I was really tanned / burnt, but turned out that this was grease paint from when I played J.B. in the play J.B.

So this would be 1998/99.

Review or Rant: NCAA Football 08 Online Experience

Alright I already reviewed one mode of NCAA 08 for the xbox 360. Everything with the game was going super well in terms of playability. The menus were never great but you just eventually deal with them. Some complaints.

1. Why do I have to save? Shouldn't this be automatic?
2. Why do I have confirm that I want to save? I pushed the hardest to push damn button on the controller, I really want to save.
3. How can I quickly get my depth chart from the recruiting menu?
4. Why, oh why, is it so slow to navigate the menus (see more in my later section)
5. Why is it so slow to switch guys before the snap?

So last night, I tried the online experience. First off, the lag is completely unbearable. If you haven't played the single player game a lot you are at a disadvantage. You have to retain your originally timing because of the lag in what is shown on screen. Punting and kicking is damn near impossible. Pass timing as well is extremely difficult. The voice chat is garbled. I get disconnected from games frequently. Just a horrible experience. Not to mention in play selection for defense, I tend to like to gear my defense to the offensive personnel. This is impossible, because by the time I see the personnel, I have 12 seconds to find my play. Normally not a problem. But online, the menus are so slow, I rarely can get to page 3 of a play listing. For those keeping track that is 5 button pushes in 12 seconds is near impossible. So EA, get your crap together before you ship out a game, or don't even bother to add online capabilities.

Silly girl

Well, while Michelle and were cleaning the house a couple of days ago, we handed Miranda the xbox controller. It seemed like a perfectly harmless thing to do as normally she just randomly click buttons and she navigates the menus of Carcassonne or Solitaire. However this time she bought 1600 point from xbox live. This cost $20. I think I may want to parental control this if I can.

Lions predictions....

Well, I might as well...

versus	outcome	comment
at Oakland	Lions win	Beating Oakland during this stage of their development should be easy. They are rebuilding
Minnesota	Vikings win	The Viking defense will be too much for the Lions. In addition, the run game will eventually just wear out the Lion D.
at Philadelphia	Eagles win	An Eagle team that is not far out of the race from being the Conference champion will have some troubles with the Lion offence, but in the end stopping McNabb and Westbrook will leave the Lions short of the win.
Chicago	Bears win	The Lions shutdown the anemic Bears offense, but unfortunately the Bear defense scores more than the Lion offense.
at Washington	Lions win	The Lions D steps up and does its job. The hold the Redskins to 21 points, while the Lion offense racks up 39. All in field goals.
bye	No one win	Lions bearily beat no body.
Tampa Bay	Lions win	This is probably the best game of the year for the Lions. This will be one of those games where you wonder why the Lions aren't a contender. Then you realize you are watching them play Tampa Bay.
at Chicago	Bears win	See previous Bears comments as the same crap will happen again.
Denver	Broncos win	The Broncos run game perfectly sets up the pass game as the Broncos D, particularly Bly with 3 INTs, shut down the Lions' offense.
at Arizona	Lions win	In general, this is a close one where the total score is over 100 pts.
NY Giants	Lions win	Eli forgets where the end zone is. Either of them for the matter, and only scores for the Lions in the form of a safety. Kitna is injured. There goes the season. Of course I never thought I would say that in regards to Kitna.
Green Bay	Packers win	Farve has stellar game at Detroit. Sets touchdown record.
at Minnesota	Vikings win	The Lions put up a bigger fight again, but without Kitna the timing offense of Martz is completely screwed.
Dallas	Cowboys win	Romo, Romo, Romo and the blitzing D of the Cowboys.
at San Diego	Chargers win	Even though the game is meaningless for the Chargers as they have locked the division, the backup players still kill the Lions.
Kansas City	Chiefs win	LJ LJ LJ. Even with the upgraded run D, the common theme this year is using the run game to setup the pass game against a depleted secondary.
at Green Bay	Lions win	Green Bay was out of the playoff run so they bench Farve (as management could give a rat's ass about a legend) and the Lions completely shut down Rodgers.

All that said we are looking at a record of 6-10. The best record we have had in years!!! Go Lions. Make me proud.

Weird game name...

Sometimes I wonder where they get the game names that they have.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.