Selective Visibility

Shazam!

7 or 8  years ago I received a cool Christmas gift. It was a small USB Keychain that had a single button on it. The purpose of the button was to mark the time you pressed it. The idea was that you would press it while listing to the radio, while a song you wanted to remember was playing. Then later at home when you put the USB thingy in your computer it would go to a website and that website would have a list off all the songs that were playing on all your favorite radio stations around the time you pressed the button. You could then easily figure out what the song was (if your radio station updated the service which odd are it did not). You could then go march down to the record store (remember those) and buy that album. It was a pain and it didn't work very well (but if the person who bought it for me is reading this it... was a great Idea and I was flattered to receive it  especially as seeing as how I got them nothing).

OK so now it is 2008 and we have the iPhone and the iTunes app store.

Today I downloaded a app that is everything that little USB Keychain wanted to be.

Shazam is the coolest thing I think I have ever seen. Just hit "tag" and hold the iphone up to the radio and and will record a snipit of the song and identify it. accurately. really. With Links to buy it at iTunes or watch the video. It will also save the info in a list so I can remember to look for it next time I am browsing at Ameoba. 

this is a test.

This is what it looks like when I blog from my phone. The iphone is great but the keyboard is not quite there yet

Gettysburg in Powerpoint

Years ago when I abandoned the theater to go work for a large corporation, I very much had the sense that I had sold out. 10 years on, I generally find myself numb to the horrors I once so despised. Sometime I can't even remember what it was about corporate America I found so objectionable. Yet every once in a while I someone manges to shine a light on the horrible truths I have so successfully locked in the closet of denial. This "what if" power point presentation of a re-imagined Gettysburg address reminds me that I have, in fact sold my soul - or at least that great ideas usually can't be helped with Power Point.

Link from Wired magazine's website

Drumkit 101

Link: Roadievision: See the Rock Band drum kit setup - Joystiq.

I just can't get enough info about the up-coming videogame Rockband.

This may seem like minutiae, but is actually pretty useful. I need to start thinking about where I am going to keep all this new gear, since as excited I am about this game I am unwilling to give up my minimalist ascetic for my new rock and roll lifestyle.  In this video we see how the drums are set up and broken down. Looks like they get pretty small but not quite as flat as I might have hoped.

I can't wait for this game!

I can't decide...

...If I like this coffee cup or not. I may have to order one just to try it out.

Link: The Ultimate Coffee Cup by Lux-Delux Design.

It looks cool, althought the designer seems to take himself a little to seriously:

The shape breaks free of a nearly universal design constraint of cups, the linear vertical axis, which is dictated by the starting point for most designs being a blank made on a lathe or other such device. By sculpting my prototype from a lump of clay using only the simplest of hand tools,  the design no longer is dictated by the design process.  Unlike most coffee cups you see in the big coffee shop chains, this isn’t just a gimmicky variation on a tired old shape. - From the product website

Worst Video Game ever

Thrill to the first video of Dirty Dancing: The Game - Joystiq.

Seriously?

A disturbance in the force

I missed the iPhone launch (I was in Tokyo, where cell phones have been cool for years) so I couldn't get my iPhone till yesterday. It was a busy day, we had lots to do and I couldn't just run right home to play with my new toy. Some how I managed not freak out. When I finally got home I could not activate the thing.AT&T hast taken their computers down for maintenance (maybe they could have done that last week when no one had the iPhone in stock anyway). Buying an Apple product is always such a golrious event (just the packaging is exquisite) and At&T has managed to screw it up.  If there is one company that can destroy my beloved apple it is At&T. No wonder their logo is the Death Star.

Zune?

So it turns out I am what marketing people call an opinion leader. It sounds cool but what it really means is that people at work ask me questions like "Which iPod should I get". They are usally un-happy with my answer because it is rarley the cheapest option. I suppose I could just say "Yes avid music fan the 512mb shuffle is all you will ever need" but I don't.

Anyway, last week at work someone asked me about the Zune, Microsoft's attempt at an iPod killer. My first reaction was to dismiss it out of hand (iPod fan-boy that I am) , but for some reason I forced my self to do several seconds of sould searching and try to give the guy an honest evaluation.  As so here loyal (and extreemly rare Selective Visibility reader) is my take on the Zune:

Martini Shot

I love my Ipod. But I have never quite gotten Podcasting. I suppose like anything it is all about content, and I just haven't found much out there that is all that compelling, but every once in a while I find something I great. Today I downloaded a bunch of Rob Long's Marti Shot's from KCRW. basically they are 4 min long comic essays about working as a TV Writer. I love all that Hollywood lingo stuff. Anyway if you get a chance listen in at 6:44 on Wednesdays or download from iTunes.

Homestar Wikipedia

Any one who knows me knows I loves me some Homestar runner. What always amazes me is that no matter how into something I am there is always a bigger nut out there. Yesterday I found that there is a whole Wikipedia devoted to strong bad and the gang. crazy shit. people officially have too much time on their hands.

I also discovered that some crazy computer science major at U of Virgina has created the Oracle of Bacon so you can cheat at six degrees of Kevin Bacon. I knew the IMDB was good for something.