So, I finally stopped stalling and cleaned the apartment. Mind you, it is not spotless, but it doesn't look like quite the disaster area it did earlier. I'd like to do some more cleaning before I go home for winter break. The apartment tends to get away from me during finals, so I'm glad that I made it look somewhat nicer.
So, I'm done with finals for this semester. It's nice. Now, I have time to do some free reading, which is something I don't really have time to do during the school year. I love just going to the library and perusing through the shelves and picking some book that seems interesting to me to read. Right now, I'm reading True Grizz (and I don't have the author in front of me). It's about grizzly bears, and so far seems good. Anyone else have any suggestions for books to read? Anything law-related is probably out, unless it's really good...but I'm open otherwise (fiction/non-fiction, etc.)
Those of you who are observant may have noticed that I added an "Add to Google" button to my blog. This will enable you, if you are signed up for Google Reader/Google's Personalized Home Page, to add my site to it, so that you can view it more easily. I like Google Reader quite a bit, it has a pretty slick interface, and lets me view a lot of blogs in a quick manner, and also is independent of what computer I am using.
So, , while I was at home I turned on my NEC Powermate 2+ (which was purchased in 1987 and has an Intel 80286 processor running at 10 Mhz) It runs WordPerfect 5.1, and used to be able to run Windows 3.1 The reason I say "used to" is because of a fire inside the computer which killed the extended memory card.
The story is:
I was looking up the stairs in my house, and noticed my cat staring upstairs into my room, which was unusual. I decided it might be worth investigating, and walked upstairs to discover a cloud of smoke coming from the computer, along with a strong smell of burnt electronics. The extended memory card had shorted and caught fire. That was the end of the extended memory card, and the end of Windows 3.1 on that computer (which requires extended memory to run). Now it runs DOS 5.0.
Anyway, I played some retro games on the computer, including Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, and a game called Intel Memory Hog Hunter. Intel Memory Hog Hunter is essentially like Pac-Man, only Pac-Man is an Intel circuit board, and the ghosts are hogs. The object is to try to catch the hogs and keep them away from the memory chips, you "win" software, it's neat to see the ancient designs for Software (Windows 286, WordPerfect, Lotus 123, etc.) Eventually the game starts to get very slooowwww because it can't handle moving all the hogs around.
Old West Hall on Dickinson College's campus has what I think is an unintentional work of art. As you walk to Old West at night from High Street, you can see in almost all of the windows (and there are probably between ten and twenty of these) three candles lit for the holidays. In one, though, there is a menorah. It would actually make for a nice picture if I could somehow take a detailed enough photograph at night.
Stan Berenstain, the author of the Berenstain Bears books, died on 24 November. NPR had an interview with this bookstore owner, Peter Glassman. Mr. Glassman criticized the Berenstains for rushing out their books, and said that the books had forced morals and were therefore not as good. Honestly, I think many children's books have morals in them. I really enjoyed the Berenstain Bear books as I was growing up, even if they did have morals in them.
My favorite books growing up, though, were probably Robert McCloskey's books, not Make Way for Ducklings, but Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, and Time of Wonder. I used to go on vacation near the locale of these books when I was younger, and it was fun to read about places that I actually was (or could go visit) in the books. There actually really is a Condon's Garage (If you read One Morning in Maine, you'll know what I mean)
So, the latest version of Firefox is out (Version 1.5) I use Firefox as my primary browser, and hardly ever use Internet Explorer anymore. Why should you?
It has tabbed browsing (so instead of switching from window to window, you can just click a tab at the top of your browser to switch to another web-page session)
It's very fast, and can be customized with lots of different extensions that will enhance it, much more so than Internet Explorer.
It's less prone to viruses than Internet Explorer is and is really easy to configure.
On 18 November, I was listening to Dickinson College's radio station, WDCV, and was surprised to find out that they were offering a free CD if you wanted it, you just had to call up and ask for it (you did not have to be the 51st caller or whatever. I called up, and gave them my address, and after I got back from Thanksgiving, the CD (Return to Cold Mountain) was waiting for me.
I haven't listened to the whole thing, but for now I will say that I am glad I did not pay for it. It's ok, but so far I have not fallen in love with any of the songs on it.
Besides this, I was pretty surprised awhile ago to find Alison Krauss and Union Station's "The Lucky One" and "Every Time You Say Goodbye" downloadable for free on Amazon. If you'd like to download them, just type in the song title and Alison Krauss, and it will allow you to download it. You will need an Amazon account to download it, but they don't charge you. Both of these songs are really good, and Alison Krauss has an awesome voice.
As long as we're on the subject of free music downloads, check out:
Crooked Still. I like Look on and Cry, but Darling Corey is also a free download.
And on the preventing music downloads front...
I think Sony BMG may have gotten itself into a heap of trouble with their digital rights management software. If you did not hear, Sony BMG basically sold CDs which had software on them to prevent you from turning them into MP3s, or listening to it on your computer without using their software. However, their software makes computers vulnerable to viruses and also hides itself, so it cannot easily be removed.
Because of this, Sony is replacing all of the CDs with this software free of charge (and paying shipping costs both ways), and according to their website, is, ironically, offering MP3 downloads to anyone who submits their CD.
The State of Texas has sued them (at $100,000 each incident) because they think that the software is spyware , and so have others. The link I provide above goes to Texas' lawsuit against Sony BMG, which actually has a very clear (and relatively non-technical) explanation of how the software worked, and why it was so horrible.
The Florida Supreme Court publicly reprimanded two attorneys and sent them to the Florida Bar Advertising Workshop because they used a pit bull in their law firm's advertising. The attorneys claimed that it was indicative of their tenacity, but the court felt that using a pit bull was inappropriate. The opinion is a PDF, docket number 04-40 on the Florida Supreme Court's website. I actually learned a bit about pit bulls from reading it.
After going to this link, click on the left arrow, go out the door, and then click on the penguin. Thanks Caley of The Sweetest Things for this link.
So, I was listening to Mike Harding's Show on the BBC the other day, and heard a song I liked. Mike Harding's Show is a folk music show. The song was a Steve Earl/Shannon Sharon with Galway Girl. Usually I have little luck finding these songs on iTunes, since many of them are
by independent artists and therefore Apple may not have negotiated whatever agreement with them. I was able to find the song, and download it, without having to buy the whole album. Here's a link to it on iTunes, if you are interested. Note that you will need iTunes to view the link.
Sarah's birthday was this weekend, and she wanted to see Trick Pony at a free concert that we saw in Harrisburg, at the Hardware Bar. They were pretty good, I was impressed with Heidi Newfield's harmonica skills. I was a bit surprised by how few people were there (pleasantly surprised (because I we were able to get pretty close to the band), mind you, but still surprised. It was nice to get out of Carlisle, which is somewhat necessary to retain one's sanity.
If you want to add someone's address to your contacts in Gmail as you send them a message (like if you just looked them up in the Penn State directory and were typing the message to them), just type in the "To" field as shown in the comments to this entry.
As much of a fan of Gmail that I am, I must admit that Yahoo! Maps is better than Google Maps. Even before Yahoo! Maps got its facelift, it was better. The test that I use for any mapping service is to ask it to plot a route from my house in New York to a place that I used to go on vacation in rural Maine. Sometimes mapping services have tried to plot me a route across the water on this route, but not this time. While I think both of them take me along the same route, Google Maps refers to the roads by name, rather than state road number (as Yahoo! Maps does in addition to calling it by name) It makes it much easier to spot the road if you have the road number, since you see a junction and a large sign with the road number, as opposed to just a little tiny green sign with the name, which is not easy to spot if you're moving at a good clip. Plus, Yahoo! Maps remembers previous addresses I have looked up, Google Maps does not.
Yahoo! also has a new mail service, which I'd like to try, but right now it looks like it is still in Beta and unavailable to most people.
So I went to New York on Friday, and when I was in Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, I noticed that there was a Virgin Records store there. (It's a modest store, not like a Virgin Megastore that you might be picturing) However, it gave me something to do while Amtrak switched engines. In any case, I noticed that, among the things they were selling, were coasters made from the center portion of records (where the track listings are, along with the hole to put the record onto the spindle for the record player) To do this, I imagine that Virgin had to destroy the record, and I think this is a sin. There was at least one artist that I recognized, and even though I did not recognize it, I'm sure that someone might really want a record by an artist, and now, because Virgin must have gone through its inventory and destroyed a whole bunch of records, they'll never be able to get one again. It's really a sin to do that.
Google came out with a version of their toolbar which is compatible with Mozilla Firefox Beta, which is really nice, because that was holding me back on upgrading. I like the spell checking option of it especially, since if I am filling out a webform (as at the New York Times to send an article to someone), I like to check my spelling.
Apple's new iPod Video is nice, but I'm not about to run out and buy one. I usually like to listen to music while I study, and so the video portion of it would not be useful. I guess it might be useful if I was taking a long airplane flight or something, but for that I might as well buy a portable DVD player, which I would imagine are at least somewhat comparably priced.
Google came out with a new blog reader, reader.google.com It's nice because I can get to blogs that I am intersted in watching for new postings from any computer.
There is a post on Ernie The Attorney's Blog about his return to New Orleans, I think it is really well written.
http://www.ernietheattorney.net/ernie_the_attorney/2005/10/new_orleans_ret.html
Cold Case is my favorite show to watch on TV right now. What I really like about it is not only the story lines, but the music that goes along with it. Whoever picks the music for it does an excellent job, because they pick songs that toally mesh with the plot. They're picking songs from whatever era the show is set in. Last Sunday they had, as the ending song, Sarah McLachlan's Fallen, which was really appropriate for last Sunday's show.
Although, as I was watching it on Sunday, I called out "Seized!" when the police officers restrained someone from leaving that they wanted to question. Sigh. I suppose I've been in law school too long.
I'm going to link to Will Huynh's blog, he has a really clever post on his blog for how to determine who will ride shotgun.
There's been a series of articles where Apple and the record companies (some of them) have been disputing the amount of money that Apple charges for songs that are downloaded from iTunes. Basically, some of the record companies want to raise the price that Apple charges for songs. I think that the record companies need to read Aesop's Fables. In particular, the fable of the Golden Goose. (One sentence synopsis of the Golden Goose: Goose lays one golden egg a day, farmer likes this, and wants more, so he kills the golden goose to get all the eggs out of her, but there are no more left, and he is left with a dead golden goose)
According to this article in Time magazine:
http://www.time.com/time/2003/inventions/invmusic.html
the record companies get 65 cents per song that they sell on iTunes. This is pure profit for them. They did not have to manufacture the CD, ship the CD to the record store, or produce the plastic needed for the case/CD, or produce the album art (other than to transmit to Apple
a computer file that has the image of the cover on it) They want to raise the price for some songs, and claim that they will lower the prices for others. I'll believe the lower prices when I see them. My big concern is that I think that the record companies make too much money as it is. I think that it is important to reward artists, but the problem is that much of the money does not go to artists, but goes to the record companies.
See:
http://www.ascap.com/musicbiz/money-recording.html
for information on this.
I think that the record companies should leave iTunes alone.
