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Saturday, June 15, 2002
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Good Slide Guitar
Since I'm so bored with tech, maybe I'll try a little non-tech. I was asked by someone to recommend some other good slide guitar players beyond Kelly Joe Phelps.
Son House is definitely one of my favorites. His technical skills aren't great, but this guy plays the true blues like no one else. He was recorded at three different periods. In the 60s, the 40s and the 20s. The stuff from the 20s is pretty bad sound wise, but incredible musically. The stuff from the 40s is probably the best overall but again not great sound. The stuff from the 60s is the most accessible because it has the best fidelity and also what I consider the best single song in Death Letter Blues. If you buy any of the 20s or 40s material just be aware that it is public domain and has been released by several different labels, so make sure you don't buy the same thing twice.
Tampa Red is another old time great. Unfortunately his music isn't particularly accessible because of the poor fidelity. It was recorded in the 20s, but if you can get past the sound quality he pulls things together well.
Leo Kottke is easily one of the most amazing guys around. He doesn't play the blues, usually more folk with his really old stuff tending toward bluegrass, but man can he play. His best stuff, in my opinion, are the solo recordings. This is especially true for the live solo recordings. For slide I think the album "Six and Twelve String Guitar" has the most. It also has his earliest and most aggressive fireworks filled music. His later albums tone down the playing a lot due to injuries to his hands.
You know the sad thing about this? I feel kind of guilty for recommending music now because I'm so angry at the music industry. I just hate the idea of supporting their greed. This is really frustrating, because the artist is the one that really gets hurt. Of course Son House and Tampa Red are no longer alive. Actually their music from the 20s and 40s is public domain so I guess it would actually be legal to download it. Of course finding it won't be easy, it's not exactly pop music.
3:16:51 AM 
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Yawn - The Tech Industry is Boring
So I just finished going through the news and if you read down the page you'll see that mostly what I found interesting is negative press about Microsoft. Talk about sad. This is another one of the reasons I didn't post for a while, there's just nothing interesting going on.
Right now Wi-Fi is about the most interesting area that I'm aware of. Hardware is boring, Java is boring, Web services are boring, XML is boring, .Net is definitely boring, Linux is boring. Apple is the only company I really see innovating and even they've been boring lately.
Lately the greatest innovations I've posted about are faster ethernet and smaller 802.11b cards. Neither of those is real innovation, they're just evolutions. I guess blogging is a hot topic right now, but really it's not that interesting either.
I know we're in a trough and things will pick up again in a few years when the next great innovation catalyst comes along, but it's just so painfully boring right now. I guess it's a good thing my interest is research outside of commercial concerns now.
2:51:13 AM
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Oh, why not? Even More Negative Microsoft Press
Microsoft Finds More Critical Software Flaws. In a preemptive strike against hackers, Microsoft has posted advisories on TechNet about
newly discovered security vulnerabilities in the company's SQL Server software and three
of its operating systems. The most critical hole is in the company's remote access
service software, which runs as an option in Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. [osOpinion]
It's sad really. Yeah, I know it's getting old too.
2:14:11 AM
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Andreessen Interview
Interview: Browser wars aren't coming back. Internet visionary Marc Andreessen says browser metaphor doesn't work on wireless devices [InfoWorld: Top News]
As a former Netscape employee, It still bothers me to hear Marc Andreessen saying things like this.
"Generally, Microsoft is a partner of Loudcloud, and we work really well with them at Loudcloud because we support their technology and we have a bunch of customers running on Windows. So we don't take formal positions on remedies or lawsuits."
2:08:48 AM
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RIAA wants Royalties on Used CDs
Record Industry Wants Royalties for Used CD Sales [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
How long is it going to take for the record industry to figure out that maybe they've simply priced them self out of the market? I know I personally avoid buying CDs now simply because they cost too much money. At some places up to $19 for new releases, sorry just isn't worth it.
BTW, no I don't pirate CDs either. I just continue listening to the 2500 or so I already have. And yes I'm ripping them to MP3. No I don't share.
I have no problem paying for music, non at all. There has to be a value proposition there though, right now there isn't. I'd pay for MP3s, $.50 per song or $7 on average for a full album. I'd almost always buy the album too since I don't really listen to the type of music where there is only one good song on an album. I will only pay for 100% unencumbered MP3s (or equivalent like ogg). Add any kind of digital rights management into the equation and the game is over.
There just has to be value, if I could go to a site and have access to just about any song ever produced for $.50 ea.? Hell yeah I'd buy. This file sharing thing to me just isn't worth the effort. It works OK for pop music, but for the kind of stuff I like, it's way too much effort to find anything. Besides, I actually like paying people for their work.
In addition there's a huge untapped market for material that in the past would have been too costly to distribute. Live performances, outtakes, demos, whatever. Fans will pay for this stuff. I would absolutely love to be able to purchase live recordings of someone like Kelly Joe Phelps. Hell, I'd probably buy recordings of the entire tour. Of course this only applies for people who are actually artists and therefore have a unique presentation in each performance, Back Street Boys need not apply.
The two key words here are convenience and value. Provide that and people will buy. Treat people like criminals or squeeze them for every penny and they just get pissed off. I know I am.
1:49:30 AM
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SAP to Microsoft "Support Java or ..."
Tear down the wall.. InfoWorld: Tear down the wall. [Hack the Planet]
OK, so my title isn't quite accurate, but I still love to see this. I wish more companies would take a stand like this against the plague from the northwest. It's getting kind of old listening to Sun.
1:16:47 AM
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SD Card Wi-FI
Secure Digital Wi-Fi cards on the way: the Secure Digital (SD) format is not only gaining popularity, but it's small and low-power. [80211b News]
This will be sweet, I have an iPaq and now a Sharp Zaurus that could make good use of something like this. I already have a PCCard sleave and 802.11 card for the iPaq and a compact flash 802.11 card for the Z. But in both cases it would be much nicer to be able to use those slots for memory or an IBM microdrive with the built in SD slot for Wi-Fi. Of course better yet would just be a new device with built in Wi-Fi, but my budget for such toys is non-existent now.
Wonder how long it will take to get Linux drivers for the cards?
1:04:56 AM
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2002
Kimbro Staken
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