Posts from — March 2005

My musical tastes change every now and then. Right now I’m in a dance/electronic music phase. I have been for a very long time. I have no interest in rap or country music and vocalists (like American Idol contestants) are boring to me. For me, a song needs a good beat and some sophisticated rhythms. Dance, trance, techno and house music has all that. It’s upbeat, fun and great to dance to.

Radio is useless, they play mostly crap and I can’t stand the commercials. And they don’t play any dance or electronic music. I can’t remember the last time I actually listened to the radio. When I do tune in, it’s usually the local jazz station. They play some great music but it’s the same songs over and over. I read somewhere listeners are migrating away from radio in droves and listening to this jazz station shows me why.

The radio industry had better rethink their programming and start innovating. More competition would be nice and satellite radio is a good start. Podcasting is even better. I want radio that I can tailor to my own tastes - not from some corporate suit using irrelevant focus groups that tell me what I should be listening to.

Technology should help. I imagine something like “Radio On Demand” isn’t far off. To be effective, it should allow me to choose what I want to hear and give me enough choices to customize my listening to suit my tastes. For now, I use my “favorite gadget of all time”, my iPod.

With the purchase of my iPod a year ago, my interest in music gained a new momentum. Now a good portion of the time at my computer is spent acquiring music and copying it to my iPod. I take it with me everywhere and listen to music any chance I get. Crammed full of songs, I make playlists to suit my every mood. “Driving Home Tunes” and “Gym Mixes” are my favorites. I also like my “Working at the Computer” and “Ambient Traveling Tunes” playlists.

So who needs radio? I’m creating my own station that plays only the stuff I like. Without commercials.

Star Wars: Clone Wars
The animated series is back - a prequel to the upcoming film
Lost
One of the best shows on TV right now.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
I’m recording the old shows to watch again (and again).
Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real
The advertisements for this special compelled me to record it.
Jeepers Creepers 2
I liked the first one.
Survivor: Palau
This show is getting a little old. We’ve watched every season since the beginning.
The Apprentice
The Donald is fun to watch.

After weeks of rumors, Yahoo! has bought Flickr - the coolest photo-sharing site on the internet. I hope they’ll leave the Flickr design team and their “precious DNA” alone to continue to develop this special web site.

Next up for Yahoo is their weblog endeavour called Yahoo 360. The beta starts at the end of the month and promises to have some powerful features. Yahoo 360 will integrate many of the services offered by Yahoo like IM, photos and even shoutcast. I’m sure the interface will be easy to navigate to make it fun and easy to create a blog in no time. There goes the blogosphere.

This week I’m mourning the loss of a good friend, the Mobil gas station on the way to work. With my trusty Mobil SpeedPass, the visits with my friend were so brief they rivaled the race car’s pit stops at the Daytona 500. I waved the pass at the pump, Pegasus lit up and I refueled instantly.

The part I’ll miss the most, besides my Pump #2, is the lack of human interaction. I didn’t have to cheerfully greet anyone, scramble for cash or wait in line to pay. I speedpass’d the transaction and never once went inside. It was almost like getting free gas, like I was getting away with something.

I know there are other Mobil stations in the area but none are as convenient as my friend. There were right-turns in and out of the place and along my route to work in the morning. It was part of my routine for many years and I’ll have trouble adjusting. My eye twitches at the thought of having to exchange pleasantries with the station attendant at some new place. My therapist and I will have plenty to talk about this week.

On a good note, the SpeedPass still activates the S.I.T.S. underground transportation system run by that secret government agency. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the huge conspiracy I uncovered in college.

Remind me to tell you about it sometime.

What to iPod: BT - Emotional Technology

What to drive: Chrysler 300c

What to say: “I’ll be in my booth if you need me.”

What to read: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

What to install: Blinkx desktop search.

What to watch: Sideways

It seemed nothing was going right for me today. First the sonic shower wasn’t calibrated properly and it sputtered all over the bathroom. Our maintenance bot fixed it quickly but I was still late leaving for work.

Last night I had a scratchy throat and by the morning my voice was really crackling. The car had trouble recognizing some of my voice commands. I actually used the retinal scanner to start the car manually after it failed to recognize my voiceprint ID!

Problems with the car continued on my way into the office. The HoloMap didn’t alert me in time and I got stuck in a traffic jam before it could reroute me. I really should be using the MagLev-2 transport to get to work but I enjoy riding in the car catching up on the television news and reading my email.

HomeNet sent my med readings to the doctor and he is forwarding over some nanobots to clear up my sore throat. I hear he’s got some new ones that stay with you longer and should help prevent a huge array of ailments. He did want me to do a telepresence meeting tomorrow to follow up but I’m sure I’ll be fine by then.

Since I won’t be able to do much while the nanobots are working, I transferred last season’s Star Trek 12 to my handheld to watch during my downtime. The transfer took over 3 minutes and it was only 2 terabytes of programming - way too long. I really have to get the new XL21 model with the two-month powercell. It would have had all my programs already sent to the handheld without me even asking. I heard they are going on sale at CompWorld, I have to go over this weekend to check them out. It shouldn’t take very long to get over to Iceland this time with the new mods on my car. Holomap should be self-repaired by then too.

Bad news about the Mars colony. They’re saying the dome won’t be ready for another six months. I know the other four took longer than predicted so they should be used to these setbacks. I suppose they just want to make sure everything is safe for the tourists. They don’t want another incident like the one in ‘79.

We’re picking up the cat tonight. The cloning went fine even with such a small sample. They promised the problem with the finicky eating is gone this time. You’d think they’d get it right after the third one. We also asked for green eyes this time, the blue ones were always a bit weird to me.

Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful day.

In the news, the Michigan Secretary of Roads announced a new licensing plan for drivers. Labeled the Complete Idiot license, it will be provided to those who demonstrate certain habits while driving on Michigan roads. A spokesman for the state, Ekim Nietsdlef says, “To obtain this new license, drivers will need to pass a road test. Their proficiency with tailgating, no blinkering and discourteous behavior will be graded. If the driver passes, they will be issued the new license.”

“I have a feeling many people will be eligible for this new license here in Michigan and especially around Metro Detroit.” Nietslef added. “If the Complete Idiot license works out, we may expand the program to include the Blonde Bimbo license, the Wannabe with Booming Bass license and even the Old Fart Driving During Rush Hour license.”

I came in contact with one of these newly licensed drivers the other day. Another other driver cut me off in traffic and never once acknowledged that he almost caused an accident. When I caught up with him at the next traffic light my temper got the best of me. I yelled out the window, “What’s the matter with you? Are you a complete idiot?” The driver looked at me, smiled and showed me his new Complete Idiot license and said, “Why yes, I am.”

Scientists yesterday reported that a new standard of measurement will be implemented. Relating to body parts, the Huckabyte will be used to measure very small objects. It will replace units like the centimeter or inch with smaller linear measurements to get more accurate readings.

“We’re very excited about the new Huckabyte.” said Professor Ekim Nietsdlef of the FSB Polytechnic Institute. “The Hb will be used in many math and science applications to save hours of tedious calculations. To convert; one Huckabyte is equal to 2.2 inches.”