Musical Archaeology - Rhapsody Playlists ('n' More)

This site is managed with GVIM, Filezilla and PHP, yeah I code my own stuff..

Due to the nature of this blog, archives have to be provided in seperate locations, to get back to the most recent blog, simply click on the default link. The site will always link to the most recent one.

Blog Archives: [Current, 2007], [2006], [2005].

For You Lazy YouTubers: YouTubeify It Bookmarklet + FREEDB = Easy YouTube music searches.
For Those Who Haven't Patience To Use YouTube: CHANN3L Z - What If YouTube was TV. (NEW!!!, 2/07) Quicktime (30MB), YouTube One and Two, Tutes.
Cheapest way to podify yourself: Buy this mp3 player (I own two of these with 1 gig SD cards ) (--> DEMOSTRATION VIDEO)
Cheapest way to listen to audio:Dell A215, Get Some Clip On Headphones, Sound Blaster Live!
Best way to veggitate:

www.chann3lz.com Youtube + Me = Chann3lz, a completely random music video playing jukebox of content, managed by the audience, no registration necessary, all mechanism, no policy.. www.youtube.com Videos, Videos, Videos and more Videos, and you don't have to download anything, you don't even really need a Video Codec. It's all FLASH!! Tubeify Everyhit Take YouTube, Combine with Everyhit.com, What Do you get? iTunes How-to-install iTunes (v) here is a downloadable tutorial (v) if you have a slow line. RSS NETCASTS (Hint: Drag&Drop These Links onto iTunes "Podcasts"): Wikipedia Synthesized Mind "Fart" Synthesized (Monthly) Musical Archeology Synthesized Wikipedia Turkeys Synthesized If you want your own netcast (netcast = podcast, Apple is trademarking podcast), but are not sure how to set one up, get my drop-it-in netcast generator script. Script is provided as-is, use at your own risk, thus I'm not liable if somehow you don't get it to work or it eats your cattle and causes you to lose a bunch of money. My tutorials require Real Video not because I'm a Real-Rhapsody fan, but because RealVideo happens to be the best format for low-bandwidth tutorials

Rhapsify Everyhit.com looks for albums of a date range precise to a month, providing links to rhapsody-online (and YouTube).
YouTubeify Everyhit.com is much better for tracking down music videos to precise songs on "YouTube.com".

BEST WAY TO PERUSE YOUTUBIFIED LINKS
1. go to url "about:config" in address bar of firefox browser.
2. toggle 'browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs' to true (pre 1.5; post v1.5, search Advanced Options )
3. then middle mouse click on each youtubified search link
4. click on the videos, bookmark, make into playlists, enjoy..

How Fast Is Your, Connection, Really!! a script I wrote that computes data connection uproute/downroute rates (here is mine, Comcast).

Where to Find Quicktime Pro Forums (and many disgruntled owners): Quicktime for Windows Forum.

Best way to secure your computer: Grisoft AVG (free), ZoneAlarm (free*!) {flash demo}, TCPView (free) {for semi-advanced users}.
Best way to discover music besides this one: Coverville.com
Best way to access your computer remotely: VNC, in particular TightVNC (stay away from www.gotomypc.com)
Best way to obtain/distribute huge files (bit-torrent clients): Azureus
Best way to make backups: Knoppix (Linux/DVD*R), Audiograbber (CD2mp3), DVD Shrink (FreeDVDBackup)
Free Knowledge: UC Berkeley Courses (no credit)

Interesting netcasts for programmers: Software Engineering Radio
How to painlessly publish/purchase a book: LULU.COM
Best of the Best (non-obnoxious): 46 freeware utils
Best webhosting: Geocities (free, commercially scaleable), phpwebhosting (commercial with ssh/sftp-access), Find Hosting.
Best information resources: Google (no brainer), Wikipedia (def)
Best place to lust for synthesizers: Vintage Synth Explorer
Best way to convert wikipedia articles to sound TextAloud, the Eddie voice, and my custom UserTranslations.chl file (put in install directory). TA also comes with a firefox/IE plugin that will read web pages for you, making it easier.. I use it when I hate reading web pages..

Alternative Content Discovery: Blogdigger, WebJay
Trouble Viewing Videos? You need some Codecs: Matroska Pack (good), free-codecs (works, but it may have a Trojan)
Need to convert Media format X to media format Y? Use Mediacoder its a freeware media swiss army knife, that is supposedly open source (its on sourceforge, huh?).
Need to convert video formats that Mediacoder doesn't? Use AVS Convert , I own a copy myself, and it lets me do stuff with Quicktimes and WMV's that neither Microsoft nor Apple will permit me (note the site looks kinda cheap, but the program isn't.
My most favorite rhapsody playlist: Smooth And Punchy Playlist
My most favorite bands (and most played): Level 42 (r), Nik Kershaw, Cock Robin, Double (not played, on my wishlist), etc.
My most favorite years (musically):1978 (r), pretty much any year from 1976 to 1989
My most favorite movie (note: works, and could be made on a low budget):Brainstorm
Most Favorite Music Video (5/12/07):Brinsley Schwarz - Surrender to The Rhythm..

Why is this page so huge: Google can cache it all, audience is broadband users, I use less than 50% of my quota per month.
Your most favorite rhapsody playlist: The Brian Eno Playlist
Big application wish: SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! PRESET EXPORT, so I can share with you some of my killer rooms.

Cool way other than Chann3lz for listening to audio.

Say No To Software Patents
Thanks to: JESUS (CHRIST) *, Richard Stallman (AVI, RM, RM2-SP), and the respective creators of these packages and places.

Bag 'O' Tricks Directory lists tips/tricks and reminders and other stuff I would love to clog my header with.

* - Wikipedia is edited by anarchy, don't use for christian inspiration. Christian Bahai is a oxymoron BTW.
*! - I use Zonealarm Pro, which is what that flash demo is demonstrating, ZoneAlarm costs about fifty dollars a
year with updates, but is well worth it, it also comes with spyware weeding software, so there is no need for an application like "Ad-Aware",
"Spybot Search & Destroy" or "Spyware Doctor".

Companies/Organizations I Currently Consider Evil or Stupid:
Why?: Claims to save time and accelerate processing but Wastes Hours of Time Submitting Rebate Offers no Recourse if Rebate Fails!! DELIBERATE THIEVES

All Rhapsody Playlists found in this page (and some not).. All Rhapsody Playlists YouTubeified

Tip Jar ->

or my Amazon Wish List

-[  Mind 'Burp' Blog (July 2006) ]

Web www.bl3nder.com

[ Index ][Top] blog:[Current,07][2006][2005] [YouTube-ified Playlists]

(07/28/06 8:38 PM): Well it turns out that that feature I said that wasn't in Firefox is, it was just turned into a hotkey combination, but I hate it when they move stuff around like that.. I guess they were just trying to make it unpopular so people wouldn't abuse it..

(07/28/06 6:40 PM): YouTube feels like it is dieing, it's getting slower and slower for me... But everything else seems okay, could this be the end of you tube, or is comcast trottling bandwidth because you tube in competing for attention??

(07/26/06 10:38 AM): No, this is not Britney Spears.. But she inspired Britney.. No it's not Madonna either..

(07/26/06 8:48 AM): I'm wondering when the world is going to realize that the Firefox(w) _ _ is not progressive, that the developers take steps back too. I don't use Firefox 1.5 because they reogranized the features to a disadvantage, and even removed features.. For instance, the feature that allows one to create/use multi-site bookmarks, like say I have my work, and I have several sites open that I want to bookmakr and come back to. That feature exists in 1.07, but it doesn't exist in 1.5. At the very least you can get the binaries for every version of Firefox previous to 1.5, but it makes you wonder what the purpose of updates for firefox are for.. I haven't been hacked on 1.07, there is no security issues here that I can see..

Note they are receiving extra revenue through Google.. The original source code came from the Mozilla project, which was from back when Netscape released its sources after being beat out by Microsoft Internet Explorer (to Spite Microsoft). Anyhow, the firefox platform is becoming a bit of a "brand". And the only major feature that will be added to Firefox 2.0 is a sped up browser, supposedly more security (if there was a lack of it since 1.07, I don't know but it's got more supposedly), and the big feature, realtime google-based search auto-completion..

Oh just what I always wanted, google to guess what I'm searching for by auto-completing my query..

(07/26/06 11:57 AM): I found another cool Polysics video..

(07/25/06 9:02 PM): How to measure Honey without it sticking to the measuring cup? Here is a tip from my father.. Put some pam in the cup, then pour in the Honey.. When you have to pour it out it will all come out into a dolop..

(07/25/06 7:15 PM): Ah Mark Mothersbaugh(w) _ _ had offspring in Japan.. Polysics (M) _.. Funny Video..

They should call this group The Boyfriends Biff.

These guys are not bad, actually, for 1979 maybe its just because NYC is in the backdrop.. It seems all the CBGB's style stuff is making this channel at YouTube.. Who ever knew that stuttering could become cool..

(07/25/06 6:34 PM): ARGH!!! I screwed up the netcast dates on the feeds when I transferred to the new host, because the netcast dates are based on the file timestamp.. Argh!! WEll I just need to write a script that will "touch" all the files in a specific order, and that will fix the ordering.. I may just leave it as is.. At least it will get more people in touch with my previous netcasts.. I know, I will create a script that randomizes the netcast dates so they get shuffled around..

(07/25/06 6:00 PM): Okay FATCOW Officially Sucks!! ..

I was only getting 100KBps transfer rates from fatcow on any connection (FTP or HTTP), and I went and purchased web service from DH2 for half the price, and transferred files there at about 1MBps, that's a factor of 10 better than fatcow.. I'm never buying from fatcow again.. I'm also paying abotu 48 dollars a year versus 89 dollars a year with fatcow.. And I get 5 GB storage with 100GB of bandwidth.. Well it's tough to see what will top this.. But I assuming I won't have troubles with the PHP on DH2.. One thing I noticed that was really cool, DH2 puts the web account in a public_html directory.. Fatcow is so bleeding stupid and paranoid, they can't even do this much.. This means I can move stuff in and out of the web page without changing file permissions or downloading/uploading to the server.. I don't see how I was so stupid as to go with fatcow.. Well maybe there will be flaws with DH2.. If there is I will tell you more here.. The server I have my blog on can't be used for high-bandwidth transfers, I use it more for the main part of the site, and it has a backend SSH connection, so I can directly login and do linux type stuff.. I really miss having this kind of access with webhosts.. They are usually either running on IIS with Frontpage and minimal FTP access, or they are a FTP server with a Web Server running on either Windows or Linux, with no concept of what a user is.. Anyhow.. BTW, Fatcow was in Albuquerque, but a friend of mine who worked there told me they sold it out to some place in Chicago.. But the customer support is in Albuquerque.. Oh great!!! DH2 is based in Ohio..

(07/24/06 8:04 PM): I know a use for Google's book reference engine that would make it acceptable to the authors and publishers.. How about this, the ability to determine if content is "plagiarized _".. That is, you could run a web site, wikipedia, or a blog through google's book repository search, and determine if any content in the page submitted is committing plagiarism _.. Then offer capabilities of plugging this facility of search into word processors.. Allowing writers to avoid potential copyright infringement..

I bet that "SitePal _ _" was either directly made or inspired by the work of Ken Perlin _ _, because it reminds me of his "dancer" behavioral animation _ _ software that he developed in the 90s.. It would probably be pretty easy to make something liek that, possibly in Open Source, but I don't believe in commercial web-based applications, it's so easy for them to disappear.. The drawback to such services is voice synthesizers will never be able to pronounce everything correctly, I don't care what research AT&T has done, to properly pronounce words a computer must have human knowledge and human thinking ability, and that is impossible.. So there will always be a need for an individual to be involved in the text to speech conversion.. But it's easier than it was in the 80s, for instance..

(07/24/06 7:20 PM): Someone needs to get Mark King together with Neil Pert. I wonder if these two ever played together..

(07/24/06 7:05 PM): My father was given a reference for exercises for people with back pain, I thought I would just pass on the link.. Who knows it may prevent some unecessary surgery..

(07/24/06 3:10 PM): Sorry guys about fatcow's 100KBps transfer rate, I think it's packet shaping that is responsible, or something of the sort.. I'm going to be looking for alternative Internet services, as this is a serrious bandwidth limitation, it should be about 500KBps at least..

(07/24/06 2:22 PM):

They also have it so that people can't use any other kind of email client than theirs.. Earthlink is almost as stupid, but they allow me to receive email via my own Email client.. Anyhow, if you are on Juno and are getting spam, best just to get off Juno.. It will never get better.

(07/24/06 12:42 AM): Boy I'm sure glad Phil Collins shaved off that beard.. I guess it was the style in 1980.. But look how out of place Genesis (M) _ is in Hollywood(w) _ _ in Misunderstanding..

Wow I had no idea Kim "Bette Davis Eyes" Carnes(w) _ _ did this song.. Cool Video.

Whoa this is soooo early 80s now where have I seen that guy before?.. Oh I think he's a member of Devo(w) _ _.. Well I guess not, but Mark Gane _ _ does look like someone from Devo.

This is the coolest Devo Music Video, I mean "That's Good"..

Oh yeah, Pseudo Echo (M) _, they did "Listening (yt)" and "Funky Town (yt)" (a Lips Inc. (M) _ remake, I always think that's a Donna Summer (M) _ song, I don't know why).

(07/23/06 9:43 AM): My girlfriend's parents bought me this shirt for my Birthday, well not the exact same one, but one that looks just like it.. It's cool.. This is just where I recall seeing it.. No, not the Orange one.. BTW, I have the "Huh" version of this and it has more..

(07/23/06 5:08 AM): Woke up this morning, to the most wonderful sound.. A group called "Muse (yt)", with the song "Glorious _ _". I was listening to "Bands Under the Radar _ _" netcast. But I didn't flip to it, I was just playing through my netcasts, in a dream state, and I know if something is really good, it's something that will wake me up.. I sort of woke up in the middle of the song. Anyhow, I'm now looking at footage from a concert on "You Tube".. I think it's good that the netcast host also thought that Tom Petty's (M) _ new album was pretty good and out of the ordinary.. I mean it's a bit like his previous stuff, but less than Jeff Lynne (M) _ influence, so it is really Tom Petty.. I don't know if he is still collaborating with Jeff Lynne, just it sounds like raw petty.. I also picked up a bunch of cassette tapes (yeah cassettess), for 25 cents apiece, and they don't sound as bad as I remembered, I got some Modern English (M) _, Al Stewart (M) _, etc.. I gues snow I'm going to have to hunt down a retro walkman to play it with or convert them to mp3's.. It's yet another cheaper way of listening to good music on a format that people have left behind. Cassettes like Netcasts, you can't just skip through and listen to something else, you are forced to filter feed it, like a sea urchin.. It's and antidote for the short attention span.. Essentially a habit that the elder rockers want the younger rockers to inherit, listening through an album, not getting just what you want.. Listen through a netcast, you might be amazed what you will find.. However if you really have a short attention span like me, you can always sleep on it.. Risk some hearing loss, but you will wake on a nice song every now and then.. You know I think Julian Lennon (M) _ is the offspring of Al Stewart (M) _ and John Lennon (M) _..

Here's a gem of the mid 70s.. Hey, the youtube suggestion feature, that ends videos now, suggested a recent Cock Robin performance, note this is a old song of theirs from the same one that had "When your Hear is weak (yt)"..

Another great name for a band "The Relic Sea Urchins _ _" then look something like "Modern English (M) _" form "Melt With You (yt)". It would fit in with that Deep Sea 80s Genre _ _ (you know, like Split Enz's Dirty Creature (yt), Six Months in a Leaky Boat (yt), or B-52's(w) _ _ style stuff, or Big Country (yt), There was a definite Sea Urchin presence in the early 80s, although it was coming of the coast of the UK somewhere, or maybe it was Ireland..

Yuck who was it that tried to modernize Modern English ?? This typical of 1986, everything sort of died about 87-89, I graduated in 88, it was the worse time in music history as far as I'm concerned.. Except for Cock Robin (yt) of course.. Ah a Cock Robin music video I haven't seen Ah a Cock Robin music video I haven't seen.

What do you want to bet that they went to "Long John Silvers" _ _, "Red Lobster" _ _ or Steak and Ale _ _ after the making of this Music Video.

(07/22/06 2:32 PM): Read about how Mambo _ _ (PHP(w) _ _ CMS(w) _ _) is now Joomla _ _, got it from the PHP Architects netcast.. I'm also going to look into PHP Frameworks, I'm looking into a good system base for my website designs.. Because frankly I'm getting tired of coding my own..

I analyzed Joomla 1.1, and it looks like its only object oriented in the includes, the libraries.. I guess this makes sense as the libraries are where you want that to be done.. Considering that all Java and smalltalk are is just one large library that executes it's branches, or something like that.. However a majority of the classes in Joomla are chocked full of methods, which may imply some of the coders are "C" coders.

(07/21/06 3:40 PM): Added a advertisements box, no need to be alarmed, I'm just trying it out..

Actually I played around with a few things and ended up with the bumper sticker above and the google search box, supposedly I can gear this thing to give favorable ads to this page, which would make it a better google search bar than the generic google bar.. Well we'll see.. I want to make this as painless as possible.. However I wish I could fis the "adsense crap so it would actually show something more creative that incremental keywords like blog, blog creator, blog editor, playlist, blog host.. Come on, google is supposed to be great, where is the greatness in selection of keywords, is this all you can do? Why not give that power to the site designer..

(07/20/06 10:46 AM): Which comes first the chicken or egg? Well in the case of Level 42 (yt).. I don't know.. Badadandude, I think actually this is a "lessons in love (yt)" video put to some basement tape pre-release of the same song just no lyrics. The song came first and then the lyrics, but it's funny to watch the video.. Skip the smurf version, it's just some jerk that applied a pitch shifter to the audio.. This is the original..

(07/19/06 9:58 PM): My half-aunt suggested this one, Heywood Banks (yt) (direct link), I wonder if this guy is Tony Banks brother, seperated at birth..

This video from Quarterflash (M) _ is a bit overdone, but it rocks. Man Quarterflash was on the charts much too short a time.. Here's another. I bet the reason was that she could easily be confused with Pat Benatar (M) _, it was probably just a matter of going for some other kind of image.. But there was also The Motels (M) _ that they had to compete with..

(07/18/06 4:34 PM): Wow blender is really improving, I'm amazed at how much new stuff is in the latest release.. Much of these remind me of features I suggested early on.. I'm sure lots of people had input into this new release, but I'm happy to see it coming along.. It's beating the crap out of Maya(w) _ _ and XSI(w) _ _'s margins, pretty soon there will really not be much of an advantage to purchasing Maya and XSI, if blender continues at this rate.. Hey why should I care, both are Canadian companies now..

(07/18/06 12:36 AM): I was listening to this netcast, which serves almost as redundant as watching some political speech about the war, but caused me to think.. Are people thinking too much about this?? Anyhow, I just thought of a great way to market music!! Put it out in high quality monophonic.. And sell the stereo version.. Or put it out in stereo and sell the quadrophonic version.. or distribute the quadrophonic version and sell the octaphonic one.. Or ... Or change method of presentation, and give away the stereo version but charge for the virtual head-tracked environmental N-ary-phonic version.

(07/17/06 3:17 AM): Yeah baby.. I can't wait for Battlefield 2142..

(07/15/06 9:57 PM): Air(w) _ _, on Rhapsody, is said to be influenced by Pink Floyd(w) _ _.. I can hear that, maybe "Dark Side of the Moon". But I feel like there is some Genesis(w) _ _ and Alan Parsons(w) _ _ in there too.. Maybe some Moody Blues(w) _ _ as well.. Well I guess I could throw just about every early 70s progressive band at it and say Air was influenced by that.. But they have a sense of humor too, so I guess I could say they are a half-serious parody of a 70s progressive tech band..

(07/14/06 12:38 PM): Bangladesh(w) _ _'s flag looks like one of those optical illusions that if you look at it for long will probably look like a Japanese flag(w) _ _.

(07/12/06 12:24 PM): Besides being a really cool video, there is one minor technicality, they are playing "Pong" with Joysticks, obviously these French boys never played pong..

This video Reminds me of Shields & Yarnell(w) _ _

Reminds me of my Girlfriend, by the way this is the group with the spooky music Christine. Ain't it spooky, another French thing, I just seem to like French stuff, I don't know why..

(07/11/06 2:19 PM): Wow there is this service with downloadable games, they don't have Battlefield 2, my favorite, but they have some interesting titles like Far Cry for $9.95 (it includes the ability to change the levels, something I wish Battlefield 2 gave players easy access to), oh yeah Far Cry 2 will have HDRI(w) _ _ images and next generation shader stuff for the newer graphics cards, like realtime Radiosity(w) _ _ and Raytracing(w) _ _ effects.. Oh and Call of Duty 2 (my brother is hooked on this one), and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (if it's anything like Ghost Recon, it's got to be pretty darn good).

Wow Madonna on Solid Gold, now this is rare..

Whoa another one, ha!

(07/11/06 9:58 AM): Major problems I have with the Pure Digital Point&Shoot _ _ Camcorder from Target: the video compression method creates "warpy" video (probably having something to do with how it compresses video using fields of delta-vectors), the buttons on the back are ultra sensative and it's very easy to delete videos, there really shouldn't have been a one-step delete feature, there is no way to mount the camera on a tripod, and the notch that one threads the wrist leash is at a corner that makes it impossible for one to take videos hanging the camera from a wrist, or neck, or from a nail (say, in case you don't have a tripod). The video compression use a constant rate, not a variable rate, and the video is filtered so that only the details are not compressed and the wide areas of color are not, there is no raw mode for video encoding (not even a video out jack).. Yeah there is a video out jack, but the camera is made ultra aware of it, and when you use it, the lcd screen shuts off, so you can't use the video-out to do periscope-style video recording.. They obviously never completely thought this one out..

(07/10/06 6:20 PM): Trader Joe's(w) _ _ is selling some veggie chips _ _ that one should take a good look at.. One could easily assume that they are healthy snacks, as they look like they are made of puffed rice or something "alternative" like something from some oriental nation like Japan, but if you look close at the sack, it will say "potato snacks", how is that much better than a potato chip? It's not fried? Should that even matter at all that it might possibly baked?

Wait one second it's full of oils.. Let me see, oh it's got 10 grams of fat, and 16 grams of carbohydrate, and one gram of saturated fat, 160 calories - per serving, with 6 servings to a bag. 60 GRAMS of FAT!!

Be careful what your intuition tells you is healthy and what is not.

For the record GeniSoy _ _ sells Soy Crisps _ _ that have about 3 grams of fat per serving, with 7 grams of protien, and about 17 grams of carbohydrate, and I purchased those from a Smiths (Krogger(w) _ _). And they taste so much better, puting the fat on the surface of the chip where it hits the tongue, and with oodles of flavor. I've so far only eaten the BBQ Soy Crisps.. They beat most every snacking food I've tried for sake of being healthy. Trader Joe's(w) _ _ should get rid of the Veggie Chips or further tarnish their image (whatever that is).. It's really not much of a health food place, it's just alternative foods, like the kind of stuff you find in a convenience store in Manhattan.. Not necessarily good for you, just different..

(07/10/06 2:17 PM): I came to the realization the other day that the reason the movie theatres sell buttered popcorn is to camoflauge the smell of foot odor.

(07/10/06 7:51 AM): The movie "Devil Wears Prada _ _" is "to a T" exactly like living in New York working near an executive position. I actually worked in about the same place that Ann Hathaway's(w) _ _ character did, I mean the Fashion District. So this scene brought back all sorts of awful memories. In particular, how dark and sinister the lighting is there, how the sun only really shines on the street some of the day, but most lighting in indirect, off buildings, and such, it produces a light that is unique to that side of town.. It's a small thing, but it like triggers all the other memories, it's like working in a place where the sun refuses to shine, where people work non-stop, and never live life except through the pages of a magazine. In fact you can see the invertedness of the New York lifestyle just by visiting a magazine stand. The people who you'd work for, are nice to you if they want something from you, and piss on you otherwise, this movie presented people with more soul, but you never really see this much, unless it is from people with soul and heart. I have to admit there were plenty of people there who like Meryl Streep(w) _ _'s assistant editor (or whatever he was, the fashion consultant), who believe in helping one like himself. Anyhow.. But this movie captures the mentality pretty well.. Millions of people would kill to be in that position. It's so nice to be us.. To live here.. TO eat this food.. TO wear these clothes, and so on.. It's the narcissist _s dream come true.. Of course the rest of the country is a desert, people elsewhere don't live nice, don't have good experiences, etc..

It's like living in self-centeredness hell, essentially.. And because there are so many people there, and so many on the streets, there is no accountability, unless you are really high up on the ladder (more people know you, like Meryl's character), but its like in two months you might see someone you know, this chance occurence goes up with the number of people you know, but you don't bump into people you know on the streets of New York, it's improbable, so just extrapolate this out, consider how this would affect how people treat other people?

(07/07/06 8:17 PM): I was watching Don Juan(w) _ _ with my lady, and upon seeing the credits I noticed the music by Bryan Adams was done on A&M(w) _ _ records.. I was thinking, considering Herb Alpert(w) _ _'s past, I wonder if he had anything to do with this film.. Oh well, may just be a coincidence or Herb is the real Don Juan!!

(07/07/06 4:52 PM): I looked at a couple of Content Management Systems, in particular TikiWiki(w) _ _ and Wordpress(w) _ _, and I've lost all hope in the CMS trend.. Well let me explain:

TikiWiki = Feature Bloated, designed to be everythign to everyone but attractive to nobody, it's over-bloated and impossile to reduce to nothing without being useless, it was designed to have certain features enabled, and without those features enabled, it can't be used at all.. And having more people fixing it just makes it worse, it's a CMS that started off on the wrong foot and it's been hopping on it ever since..

I looked at Wordpress thinking it couldn't be much worse.. Well Wordpress is designed to be a bloggers tool, it is supposed to make blogs easy to setup and manage, while it does do that, or seems to, I figured it could be reduced to nothing, like I tried with tikiwiki, but how it does this is by giving you complete access to the PHP files that give the site it's look and feel, which looks like a security hole to me.. I figure they could at least do something that is a bit more secure like offer some kind of templating engine, but they give you (and your blog hackers) access to whatever is needed to hack yoru site, like I could probably go into the theme editor for the "headers" of the blog, add some php code to allow me to run Unix commands through the header, then type in the word "rm -rf /" . That would be the end of that.. Bad bad bad bad.. Well maybe I didn't look at either close enough , but on the surface they don't seem to be capable enough to solve the general problem of creating content, they at best do well on one piece of content.. I guess I will have to look around more.. You'd think that given these packages are database driven you could store all the content in the database.. I'm trying to think of a base design for a catch-all that would work, I think I have some ideas how to make such a thing work, but it's amazing someone hasn't done it already.. It seems a lot of the tools are designed to do one thing, they are modified to do other things, than to be a catch-all for everything from the beginning, like an operating system of sorts for web sites.. I'm sorry, PHP and MySQL ar not enough to justify and operating system. An operating system is something that offers all the services needed to construct stuff, and is at least the tools needed to start doing something, but in itself is not enough to do anything but "start doing something".. Like at the very least a coputers operating system in the operating environment that runs the tasks, facilitates communication between the tasks, manages memory, performs system cleanup tasks, maybe offers backup capabilities, and provides a command line interface with a set of commands that allow one to load in a program, and a programming language (such as a "assembler", such as "debug" in MSDOS, or the smalltalk language in a smalltalk environment) in which a user can create the tools to execute on the machine. While wordpress looks like it has some of the features, including access to the machine code (php in this case), it's not a secure solution because it doesn't even seperate the user from the base-operating-system with a virtual machine layer (such as how Java runs on a JVM and not on the native operating system). This allows code to be more portable than if someone were allowed direct access. While PHP is a bit of a virtual machine, it offers access to the underlying file system, database, and the ability to execute commands that could corrupt the system. Even MSDOS wasn't designed to be accessible over the Internet, so with a web application comes responsibility to protect the server from hacker's ability to compromise the system through the CMS. Also the extra bloat in TikiWiki doesn't attract me, it distracts me. I mean I don't know how to start from zero with that, I can't build what I want, I can only build what it was designed to be.. A wiki.. Anyhow..

If you are wondering about my own content management system here.. I'm writing everything in PHP, even my blog is in a PHP script, it has no web interface, it does some content management, but the tagging system is ever changing, as I need it, the web page is in the code, but I figured out a way to keep the two seperate without making the elements inaccsible to me.. It's a but more of a pain to manage in some respects, but it would be much easier for me to make this into a content management system than to learn to use an existing content management system and try to project my design upon that and make it as secure as the usual "login/password to a ftp site, modify file, upload" process.

(07/07/06 11:58 AM): I was listening to the "In the Trenches _ _" netcast for IT professionals (system administrators), and they mentioned that someone in Holland has way too much time on their hands.. A Telnet version of Star Wars.. Okay this link will use a URL that doesn't use a web browser, because back when the web was still getting formed, there were multiple kinds of Internet technologies like "gopher" and "telnet", this link uses the last to connect.. Obviously, this was made for System Administrators by a sysadmin, say you are spending a long lonely night, say a friday night, fixing a machine, and the machine only has a VT100 terminal window or something worse, you can use this link with your "Lynx" web browser (which is a web browser that works on ascii terminals), and you point it at telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl, you can also use that with a normal web browser, but if you are a little melancholy about old technology, you might try using "Lynx" instead..

(07/06/06 6:57 PM): If you are trying to learn a song, either to sing or play on an instrument, the combination I use: Winamp _ _ + Loopmaster Winamp Plugin _ _ + Pacemaker Winamp Plugin _ _, I've used it in the past and these are a great combination for playing mp3's slow, and for repeating certain parts of the song since repetition is the best way to get a part down.

BTW, if you know anyone who is disabled, there is a fantastic netcast that brings some comic relief to the rescue, called "BBC Ouch Netcast", I listened to it this morning and it was 100% entertaining, it's disabled people talking about idiosyncracies of being disabled, but without much if any tears.. Like they had a spastic comic, a one minute quiz where one has to name at least 7 disabilities as either mental or physical or both, it really sheds light on the fact that "the crypts", in their own words, are people too.. It's really just a netcast now, it's not a full fledged show, I guess the BBC is using it as a pilot to see if there is enough interest, then will make it a radio show once it gains popularity.. IT seems to me, it's quite interesting in its own right, I think it would be great if it was.. But I'm a netcast subscriber, so...

(07/06/06 5:16 AM): This has to be about the coolest ELO Music Video I've ever seen.. Hey since all these music videos are online I should do a tribute to backlit animation, afterall, it inspired the movie Tron, and about a hundred music videos, such as this Music Video and the Jackson's "Can You Feel It (yt)".

I so Want the Jeff Wayne version of War of the Worlds, f'get Spielberg he doesn't understand the appeal of creating a Mars invasion set in the early 1900s, it would be so much more errie.. I mean wasn't Metropolis kind of spooky too? Something about the industrial era.. It still can be milked guys..

(07/05/06 3:33 PM): My netcast on iTunes is appearing towards the top of the list, but I'm lacking of iTunes specific tags in my RSS, so I'm going to have to update my drop-it-in netcast to generate iTunes specific tags.. I may design it such that iTunes is the only ones to get this tag information, so that it doesn't disrupt service to any of the other netcast services.. In any case here isthe specification, and the google search I did _ _ to obtain this information..

(07/05/06 3:04 PM): Called by some guy at Comcast to verify my satisfaction with Comcast, and the things I mentioned I will list here, just in case that wasn't Comcast (say a competitor, or maybe a loot smuggler to research on my house), so at least the world knows..

• Overall comcast rates a 3 in my book.. Good but not fantastic..
• Our telephone lines are above ground because the Cable and Telephone companies are too lazy to put them in the ground with the power lines. The birds sit on the wires that hover over the parking spots, and drop crap on the cars..
• Service support is usually unmanned or has an answering machine, explanations for problems are not clear.
• The service people don't usually use diagnostic tools when testing lines. The last guy that visited my house looked at a cable and replaced it because it looked shabby, he didn't bother to test the line. The service person was dressed in shorts and shirt, which made him look like a schoolkid, making me feel like the service was unprofessional. If he had used a line-diagnostic tool, his appearances wouldn't have mattered..
• Uproute speed of Internet line is 600Kbps, and not something liek 5Mbps or even a third that rate. Comcast seems to be afraid that I would route my cable TV into the Internet and share it with my friends..
• My mom has verizon's DSL in Roanoke, TX, for fifty dollars she can get 15Mbps downroute with 5Mbps uproute..
• I would be willing to pay for access on an hourly basis (pay-per-view for Internet, like 3 dollars an hour, maybe if just to avoid the distraction of having so much access)..
• We hardly ever watch TV anymore, just Fox and CNN.. I subscribe to a number of netcasts, me and my father go on walks with our mp3 players, it makes exercising fun.
• Bottom line, the service is pretty good, but the technical help is virtually non-existent, only recently has it improved, they don't seem to value their customers, and I don't value cable TV, I see Comcast as an Internet Service Provider more than anything else, and I told the survey collector that if I was offered a faster Internet line through DSL, I would switch..

(07/05/06 11:07 AM): I think TIVO stands for Tv In, Video Out..

(07/05/06 10:15 AM): On "NOW" There was a story about this healthcare company called "Mega Health Insurance", I wonder if this is a real insurance company.. I mean their site looks like it was bought in a dime store. And hence that "NOW" even has a realistic story.. BY the way, I used to live near Richland Hills, I wonder if this really is the company they are talking about.. Let me see, is this for real?? Let's check the "sucks" search of mega life. What is bizarre about this is Richland Hills is not very large, it's around northern Fort Worth, TX.. North Richland Hills Church of Christ is one of the largest churches in Texas.. I wonder if there are any Christians working in this insurance company.. As I said Richland Hills is not very large.. Although such buildings do exist in Texas, that building is raytraced, that means this buidling probably doesn't exist, it's probably a one man operation, or something that small.

(07/04/06 1:04 AM): Whew, what a day, I added three netcasts, plus two redone netcasts, an uncooked version of the one I did yesterday on Microsoft and a slowed down version of the ACLU one.. That was a request of my father which considered the ACLU one to be quite interesting. Anyhow, I realize that I'm now supposed to podify the blog for the last month, I'm note completely sure I want to do this tonight.. So I guess I will rest on it.. It is 1 in the morning after all.. Also I was looking at some music videos on Youtube after glancing at my netcast on the four musicians I covered, all from wikipedia articles. In particular Lene Lovich(w) _ _, Klaus Nomi(w) _ _, Nik Kershaw(w) _ _ and Adrian Belew(w) _ _. The last music video I played was a King Crimson(w) _ _ song.. A few others that appeared in the articles include Thomas Dolby(w) _ _, David Bowie(w) _ _, Crash Test Dummies(w) _ _ and Peter Wolf(w) _ _ (if you can't get Peter, try the J. Geils Band(w) _ _.. Now given the names of these groups and their associated Youtube links, you should have enough to go exploring through YouTube and the Wikipedia pages.. If not, check ou the netcasts.. Oh, and, Enjoy..

Wow this is one crazy freaking video, I never even saw this on MTV.. Is this really Peter Wolf jumping all through this? What a character..

Ah some of my most favorite Thomas Dolby songs.. Radio Silence, Dissidents (note this si a bit shortened from the original album version, just a warning), Europa And the Pirate Twins, I Scare Myself One of our Submarines Too bad it doesn't have Weightless(w) _ _, that's by number one most favorite Thomas Dolby song of all time.. .

I found this somewhere else on the Internet.. I guess it's from the Flat Earth Society.. Wow Thomas is 48 years old, and this tribute was released in 1998. I mean it's pretty impressive for a tribute..

I admit Thomas looks kinda silly in his music videos, but I quite enjoyed his albums, not really knowing what the music videos looked like.. I guess you could say I imagined my own little music videos..

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