Thursday, August 31, 2006
On hurricanes and music festivals and why you should go
I know the word "irony" gets used a bit too loosely these days, but I think I may have managed to achieve it this week. On Tuesday I inked this deal with the Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans, on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the city. Immediately after signing the deal, I began bringing furniture off my porch into my living room because they were telling us that we were about to get hit by a hurricane of their own. In fact, it was a bit of a rush to get the fax off before the power went out. Of course it never did go out, as Ernesto turned out to be the storm that wasn't, which came as more than a welcome relief.
Anyway, Voodoo is triumphantly making its return to New Orleans City Park this year, after having been displaced last year. The idea here is that by attracting outsiders (and their money) to events like this, it infuses a bit of revenue into the local economy, hopefully making things in New Orleans suck just a tiny bit less for those residents still trying to get their lives back a year later. And it's going to be a heck of a show this year, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duran Duran, Wu Tang Clan, and too many others to list. This festival is so much bigger than us that I feel privileged just to be allowed to partner up with them, but nonetheless iProng be there in full force. We're even going to figure out how to tape iProng Radio at Voodoo in one way or another. If you want to meet up with us at some point during the festival, just holler at me sometime between now and October 28-29 and we'll make something happen.
On a personal level, this is gratifying for me because I've been saying from the start that iProng was going to be as much about the content as it was about the technology, and while I haven't always been able to live up to that over the past few years, I think this qualifies. This is the kind of event I'd be attending whether we were involved with it or not. But more importantly, I'm hoping that our participation will in some small tiny miniscule way make things just a little bit better for New Orleans. If you want to do something yourself, attend this festival. See you there.
I know the word "irony" gets used a bit too loosely these days, but I think I may have managed to achieve it this week. On Tuesday I inked this deal with the Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans, on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the city. Immediately after signing the deal, I began bringing furniture off my porch into my living room because they were telling us that we were about to get hit by a hurricane of their own. In fact, it was a bit of a rush to get the fax off before the power went out. Of course it never did go out, as Ernesto turned out to be the storm that wasn't, which came as more than a welcome relief.
Anyway, Voodoo is triumphantly making its return to New Orleans City Park this year, after having been displaced last year. The idea here is that by attracting outsiders (and their money) to events like this, it infuses a bit of revenue into the local economy, hopefully making things in New Orleans suck just a tiny bit less for those residents still trying to get their lives back a year later. And it's going to be a heck of a show this year, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duran Duran, Wu Tang Clan, and too many others to list. This festival is so much bigger than us that I feel privileged just to be allowed to partner up with them, but nonetheless iProng be there in full force. We're even going to figure out how to tape iProng Radio at Voodoo in one way or another. If you want to meet up with us at some point during the festival, just holler at me sometime between now and October 28-29 and we'll make something happen.
On a personal level, this is gratifying for me because I've been saying from the start that iProng was going to be as much about the content as it was about the technology, and while I haven't always been able to live up to that over the past few years, I think this qualifies. This is the kind of event I'd be attending whether we were involved with it or not. But more importantly, I'm hoping that our participation will in some small tiny miniscule way make things just a little bit better for New Orleans. If you want to do something yourself, attend this festival. See you there.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Is there anyone else out there who can't get to iLounge.com today?
Very weird thing happening this week.
Each time I go to publish an iPod accessory review on iProng that I believe to be an exclusive, I first visit all the other sites that publish iPod accessory reviews to confirm whether it is in fact an exclusive. So yesterday afternoon I went to make the rounds, and when I went to visit iLounge, I got a rather strange error message:
Nothing earth-shattering, as these things can happen to any site (including mine) from time to time. I figured I'd just check back in the evening, but sure enough, the same error message. I began to wonder if something was wrong with my internet service, so I visited every website in my bookmarks, but I couldn't find a singe other site with the same error message. So I figured they must have just been having an outage, or maybe unplanned maintenance. Forgot about it, went to bed, and today I see that iLounge still sports the same error message. That's a much longer than normal outage for any commercial website, so I asked the friend I was iChatting with if he was getting the same message. Nope, he could see their site just fine. Getting more curious, I checked with half a dozen people across the country, and none of them had any problems visiting iLounge.
Thinking there might be something wrong with my computer, I took my MacBook onto my neighbor's wireless network (with permission) which comes from the same service provider, and sure enough, suddenly the error message was gone and I could visit iLounge in all its glory. This eliminated the possibility that it was a problem with my computer, my building, or my neighborhood. And it left only one remaining possibility.
Astoundingly, my inability to visit iLounge appears to be entirely dependent on my IP address. Are you kidding me? Please, someone out there tell me they're getting this same error message.
Very weird thing happening this week.
Each time I go to publish an iPod accessory review on iProng that I believe to be an exclusive, I first visit all the other sites that publish iPod accessory reviews to confirm whether it is in fact an exclusive. So yesterday afternoon I went to make the rounds, and when I went to visit iLounge, I got a rather strange error message:
Nothing earth-shattering, as these things can happen to any site (including mine) from time to time. I figured I'd just check back in the evening, but sure enough, the same error message. I began to wonder if something was wrong with my internet service, so I visited every website in my bookmarks, but I couldn't find a singe other site with the same error message. So I figured they must have just been having an outage, or maybe unplanned maintenance. Forgot about it, went to bed, and today I see that iLounge still sports the same error message. That's a much longer than normal outage for any commercial website, so I asked the friend I was iChatting with if he was getting the same message. Nope, he could see their site just fine. Getting more curious, I checked with half a dozen people across the country, and none of them had any problems visiting iLounge.
Thinking there might be something wrong with my computer, I took my MacBook onto my neighbor's wireless network (with permission) which comes from the same service provider, and sure enough, suddenly the error message was gone and I could visit iLounge in all its glory. This eliminated the possibility that it was a problem with my computer, my building, or my neighborhood. And it left only one remaining possibility.
Astoundingly, my inability to visit iLounge appears to be entirely dependent on my IP address. Are you kidding me? Please, someone out there tell me they're getting this same error message.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
The latest episode of iProng Radio is now available
On this week's broadcast of iProng Radio, the official podcast of iProng.com...
iProng Radio co-hosts Shelly Brisbin and Bill Palmer apply their schtick to the news of the week in the iPod universe. They also interview Lance Anderson of LA Podcasters and the "Verge of the Fringe" podcast, and take an extended look at some notable new iPod accessories.
This week's topics include (in no particular order) the iTunes Music Store, The Beatles, Q-prime Management, the Altec Lansing M602 speaker system, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Led Zeppelin, iBuddiez stands, Metallica, a brief appearance by Tim and Emile Bourquin of Podcast Expo, podcasting's popularity in Southern California, the Griffin Tuneflex, SanDisk, 30 Seconds to Mars, the chocolate phone, and "if you're listening to this on a Zune, please turn it off and throw it in a toilet."
On this week's broadcast of iProng Radio, the official podcast of iProng.com...
iProng Radio co-hosts Shelly Brisbin and Bill Palmer apply their schtick to the news of the week in the iPod universe. They also interview Lance Anderson of LA Podcasters and the "Verge of the Fringe" podcast, and take an extended look at some notable new iPod accessories.
This week's topics include (in no particular order) the iTunes Music Store, The Beatles, Q-prime Management, the Altec Lansing M602 speaker system, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Led Zeppelin, iBuddiez stands, Metallica, a brief appearance by Tim and Emile Bourquin of Podcast Expo, podcasting's popularity in Southern California, the Griffin Tuneflex, SanDisk, 30 Seconds to Mars, the chocolate phone, and "if you're listening to this on a Zune, please turn it off and throw it in a toilet."
Click here to subscribe to iProng Radio via iTunes (it's free!)
Saturday, August 19, 2006
The case of the mooing MacBook has been solved
Yes, my MacBook moos like a cow when it's been sitting idling for an extended period of time. And so do a lot of other people's MacBooks. I've never seen it as an issue, a bit humorous perhaps, but nothing that was going to disturb my workflow. And more importantly, it sounded pretty clear to me that it was a fan cycling for the sake of keeping the machine cool (after all, you can't expect a dual processor in a laptop to stay within the range of "no burning flesh" without some kind of unorthodox cooling system). But a lot of other folks have had a problem with the fact that their MacBook's fan cycles up and down during idle in a manner that eerily resembles a slow-mooing cow. Someone was so disturbed by it that they even started a blog in an attempt to get Apple to do something about the little laptop that could (moo).
Well now it's all over with, apparently. This week Apple released a Firmware update specifically for the MacBook which, while it doesn't say so, appears to be the cure for the mooing. And hence the end of an era. I'm almost sad to see it go, as anytime my MacBook would start mooing from across the office when I wasn't using it, it was almost like having a pet in the office that I didn't need to feed, bathe, or walk. But technology marches on, so I fired up Apple's "MacBook SMC Firmware Update" and now I assume the mooing is likely gone forever (my machine hasn't gone into long-term idle yet, which was the only time mine mooed, so I can't say yet for sure).
The kicker for me, though, is the name Apple chose for this curious and vaguely named updated: SMC updater. I have no idea what that could possibly stand for, and I can't find it anywhere, so I have a funny feeling that it's an inside joke from the people who wrote it: Stop the Mooing Cow.
Yes, my MacBook moos like a cow when it's been sitting idling for an extended period of time. And so do a lot of other people's MacBooks. I've never seen it as an issue, a bit humorous perhaps, but nothing that was going to disturb my workflow. And more importantly, it sounded pretty clear to me that it was a fan cycling for the sake of keeping the machine cool (after all, you can't expect a dual processor in a laptop to stay within the range of "no burning flesh" without some kind of unorthodox cooling system). But a lot of other folks have had a problem with the fact that their MacBook's fan cycles up and down during idle in a manner that eerily resembles a slow-mooing cow. Someone was so disturbed by it that they even started a blog in an attempt to get Apple to do something about the little laptop that could (moo).
Well now it's all over with, apparently. This week Apple released a Firmware update specifically for the MacBook which, while it doesn't say so, appears to be the cure for the mooing. And hence the end of an era. I'm almost sad to see it go, as anytime my MacBook would start mooing from across the office when I wasn't using it, it was almost like having a pet in the office that I didn't need to feed, bathe, or walk. But technology marches on, so I fired up Apple's "MacBook SMC Firmware Update" and now I assume the mooing is likely gone forever (my machine hasn't gone into long-term idle yet, which was the only time mine mooed, so I can't say yet for sure).
The kicker for me, though, is the name Apple chose for this curious and vaguely named updated: SMC updater. I have no idea what that could possibly stand for, and I can't find it anywhere, so I have a funny feeling that it's an inside joke from the people who wrote it: Stop the Mooing Cow.
Monday, August 14, 2006
The CampusBook is here!
Not only is it on time, it's half a day early. Presenting the iProng CampusBook, the 88-page free downloadable book for every iPod and iTunes user who's ever attended or even so much as driven past a college campus. It includes the iProng Buyer's Guide as well, which features more than 250 iPod accessories, all of which work with current model iPods. In other words, we don't waste your time by packing in a bunch of long-since-discontinued products in an attempt to make it appear that we're covering more products than we really are.
CampusBook is our fourth book, and it's also our fourth different book theme. I've said from the start that we're not going to be content to just sit back and release the same book over and over again, with a "2.0" appended to it or whatever. I'm not saying we won't do another CampusBook if this one is well-received, I'm just saying that you can expect something new and different each time out. The next book will be three months from now, and I can't tell you what its theme will be, mainly because we're still working on the theme.
But in the mean time, enjoy the CampusBook. Even if you have no connection to college life whatsoever, the Buyer's Guide should be of value to you -- particularly the "next generation" section which includes several new and essentially unclassifiable iPod accessories. Download the 2006 CampusBook
Not only is it on time, it's half a day early. Presenting the iProng CampusBook, the 88-page free downloadable book for every iPod and iTunes user who's ever attended or even so much as driven past a college campus. It includes the iProng Buyer's Guide as well, which features more than 250 iPod accessories, all of which work with current model iPods. In other words, we don't waste your time by packing in a bunch of long-since-discontinued products in an attempt to make it appear that we're covering more products than we really are.
CampusBook is our fourth book, and it's also our fourth different book theme. I've said from the start that we're not going to be content to just sit back and release the same book over and over again, with a "2.0" appended to it or whatever. I'm not saying we won't do another CampusBook if this one is well-received, I'm just saying that you can expect something new and different each time out. The next book will be three months from now, and I can't tell you what its theme will be, mainly because we're still working on the theme.
But in the mean time, enjoy the CampusBook. Even if you have no connection to college life whatsoever, the Buyer's Guide should be of value to you -- particularly the "next generation" section which includes several new and essentially unclassifiable iPod accessories. Download the 2006 CampusBook
Monday Night Football is back (on Sundays)
Ah, it's nice to have football season back. Even if it's just the pre-season. Even if the biggest topic of discussion so far this pre-season is whether there should be a pre-season. And even if Monday Night Football is now on Sundays. Huh?
I guess the best way to put it is that the Sunday night game and the Monday night game switched places. That of course leads to the question of what defines each of the two games anyway. Despite what the networks would have you believe, neither game has ever been defined by which station carries which game (I suppose a few folks out there who still don't have cable are miffed about the move to ESPN, but those same folks are probably also miffed that new music no longer comes on vinyl). And since the teams change from week to week, the two games are only truly defined by their announcers. Even their impact is far less than they wish it were (and too many of them try to actively force that wish upon us with their performances), but Monday Night Football has come to be defined more by Michaels and Madden than anything else over the past few years, so now that that particular pair has moved to Sundays, I consider the game on Sunday night to be the Monday Night Football game.
Of course some folks would argue just the opposite, that the day of the week is what defines these two games. And back when I had a Monday to Friday job, I might've agreed with their assessment. Sunday Night Football was how I ended my weekend, and Monday Night Football was my opportunity to re-live the weekend a day after it was definitively over. But now that my workweek is fluid (I generally work seven days a week, but the cool part is that I get to choose which seven days I work each week), it doesn't much matter to me which game is on which day.
Anyway, the pre-season is what it always is: a series of games that are interesting for a good fifteen minutes before the starters begin leaving the game and the reality sets in that this particular game doesn't count for anything. It's then that the announcers attempt to save the sinking ship, and the inevitably end up interviewing some retired equipment manager on a split-screen. Meanwhile, in the game, the fourth-string quarterback is scrambling for his life and throws up a no-look pass, and the split screen is so small that you can't tell whether or not the pass was intercepted. You figure the game producers must own stock in the big screen TV companies, because they're working hard on trying to get me to invest in one.
One unique thing about the preseason comes at the end of the game (if you can stand to watch all the way until the end, when the waterboy is lined up at wide receiver next to the concession stand cashier). Players from both teams head toward midfield in order to greet their friends on the other team, with the winners typically consoling the losers. But after a preseason game, all the players on both teams are smiling. What's there to be upset about? The game doesn't count anyway.
Night before last, on a Saturday night of all non-traditional things, I got to take in a Miami Dolphins pre-season game (or had to, more accurately, as they force you to buy preseason tickets as part of the season ticket package), and I got to see the team's new franchise quarterback throw two passes for two yards before calling it a night. By the fourth quarter, I'm pretty sure the guy playing quarterback was the same guy who had been sitting next to me during the first half. Such is the pre-season.
But hey, football's back. Just don't ask me what day of the week it is.
Ah, it's nice to have football season back. Even if it's just the pre-season. Even if the biggest topic of discussion so far this pre-season is whether there should be a pre-season. And even if Monday Night Football is now on Sundays. Huh?
I guess the best way to put it is that the Sunday night game and the Monday night game switched places. That of course leads to the question of what defines each of the two games anyway. Despite what the networks would have you believe, neither game has ever been defined by which station carries which game (I suppose a few folks out there who still don't have cable are miffed about the move to ESPN, but those same folks are probably also miffed that new music no longer comes on vinyl). And since the teams change from week to week, the two games are only truly defined by their announcers. Even their impact is far less than they wish it were (and too many of them try to actively force that wish upon us with their performances), but Monday Night Football has come to be defined more by Michaels and Madden than anything else over the past few years, so now that that particular pair has moved to Sundays, I consider the game on Sunday night to be the Monday Night Football game.
Of course some folks would argue just the opposite, that the day of the week is what defines these two games. And back when I had a Monday to Friday job, I might've agreed with their assessment. Sunday Night Football was how I ended my weekend, and Monday Night Football was my opportunity to re-live the weekend a day after it was definitively over. But now that my workweek is fluid (I generally work seven days a week, but the cool part is that I get to choose which seven days I work each week), it doesn't much matter to me which game is on which day.
Anyway, the pre-season is what it always is: a series of games that are interesting for a good fifteen minutes before the starters begin leaving the game and the reality sets in that this particular game doesn't count for anything. It's then that the announcers attempt to save the sinking ship, and the inevitably end up interviewing some retired equipment manager on a split-screen. Meanwhile, in the game, the fourth-string quarterback is scrambling for his life and throws up a no-look pass, and the split screen is so small that you can't tell whether or not the pass was intercepted. You figure the game producers must own stock in the big screen TV companies, because they're working hard on trying to get me to invest in one.
One unique thing about the preseason comes at the end of the game (if you can stand to watch all the way until the end, when the waterboy is lined up at wide receiver next to the concession stand cashier). Players from both teams head toward midfield in order to greet their friends on the other team, with the winners typically consoling the losers. But after a preseason game, all the players on both teams are smiling. What's there to be upset about? The game doesn't count anyway.
Night before last, on a Saturday night of all non-traditional things, I got to take in a Miami Dolphins pre-season game (or had to, more accurately, as they force you to buy preseason tickets as part of the season ticket package), and I got to see the team's new franchise quarterback throw two passes for two yards before calling it a night. By the fourth quarter, I'm pretty sure the guy playing quarterback was the same guy who had been sitting next to me during the first half. Such is the pre-season.
But hey, football's back. Just don't ask me what day of the week it is.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Excuse me, my email is not mack.com, it's not max.com, it's mac.com.
So I make a hotel reservation awhile back and I never get the email confirmation I was promised, so I call them up and they tell me that they did indeed send a confirmation to billpalmer@max.com. Oops.
Minor random slip-ups like that don't bother me on their own, but I've seen way too much of a pattern on this one. So much so that I've taken to spelling out the "mac" part of my email address anytime I'm giving it to someone outside the industry, because it seems folks just have that much of a mental block against being able to understand what "mac.com" might possibly be referring to. If I don't spell it out, I get quizzical looks, misspellings, and my hotel confirmations going to the wrong address.
I don't know if it's because these same people already have such a mental block againt the word "Mac" when it comes to computers, or because the word "Mac" is just too generic out of context to be recognized for what it is. There are Mack trucks, people named Mac (and Mack), and so on. Still, I don't know how they managed to come up with max.com. On the other hand, the letters C and X are right next to each other on the keyboard, so maybe in this case it was just a matter of a simply typo, which to be honest with, I have much less of a problem with.
But in any case, even in this new heyday for the Macintosh platform, it's a subtle reminder of just how little concsious thought the general public puts toward computers in general. Come to think of it, I'm surprised Apple has yet to offer up some kind of @ipod.com email address for iPod users. Certainly no one would misunderstand that particular address.
So I make a hotel reservation awhile back and I never get the email confirmation I was promised, so I call them up and they tell me that they did indeed send a confirmation to billpalmer@max.com. Oops.
Minor random slip-ups like that don't bother me on their own, but I've seen way too much of a pattern on this one. So much so that I've taken to spelling out the "mac" part of my email address anytime I'm giving it to someone outside the industry, because it seems folks just have that much of a mental block against being able to understand what "mac.com" might possibly be referring to. If I don't spell it out, I get quizzical looks, misspellings, and my hotel confirmations going to the wrong address.
I don't know if it's because these same people already have such a mental block againt the word "Mac" when it comes to computers, or because the word "Mac" is just too generic out of context to be recognized for what it is. There are Mack trucks, people named Mac (and Mack), and so on. Still, I don't know how they managed to come up with max.com. On the other hand, the letters C and X are right next to each other on the keyboard, so maybe in this case it was just a matter of a simply typo, which to be honest with, I have much less of a problem with.
But in any case, even in this new heyday for the Macintosh platform, it's a subtle reminder of just how little concsious thought the general public puts toward computers in general. Come to think of it, I'm surprised Apple has yet to offer up some kind of @ipod.com email address for iPod users. Certainly no one would misunderstand that particular address.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
The rise of iProng Radio
Well kids, I've been promising you a consistently co-hosted podcast for two and a half years now, and I'm finally proud to say... here it is.
Enjoy!
Well kids, I've been promising you a consistently co-hosted podcast for two and a half years now, and I'm finally proud to say... here it is.
Enjoy!
