Someone asked me today where the good places are to dance Salsa in Seattle. I put this list together for them, but thought I would stick it on my weblog as well. So, here are my picks for Salsa dance clubs during the week.

Monday no good clubs that I know of

Tuesday Wilsonian Ballroom -- 4718 1/2 University Way NE, University District
Quite a few beginners, but lots of dance space and a good bunch of experienced dancers after 10:30

Wednesday no good clubs that I know of

Thursday Century Ballroom -- 915 E Pine, 2nd floor, Capitol Hill
Probably the biggest night of the week in Seattle. Huge space with dancers of all skill levels.

Friday a couple of okay choices this night but none that I would recommend

Saturday Century Ballroom -- 915 E Pine, 2nd floor, Capitol Hill
Similar to Thursday, only not quite as many people. Still lots of dancers, but with a little more space to work with.

Sunday Rock Salt (aka Latitude 47) -- 1232 Westlake Ave N
I like this place, but it is very small. However, there is still usually room to dance since the crowd is also small. Mostly experienced dancers. 3:29:52 PM    comment []  

Here's a nice parable of using SWAGs (Silly Wild-Assed Guesses) [Greg Compestine]. 3:26:10 PM    comment []  

Since I bought an iPod, I have found myself using iTunes more and more. I have started editing artist and album names through the UI and have been using the interface to create playorders and to sync tracks to my iPod. iTunes supports ripping and encoding CD's into AAC format, so I decided to check this feature out and am now considering moving 100% to the AAC format.

I currently have 15248 tracks in my library all encoded in 128kbps MP3. So, moving to AAC will take a lot of work, but since iTunes and my iPod already support both formats, the transition doesn't actually require that I convert my entire library. I will be sticking to 128kbps in the AAC format, but this should translate to improved sound quality with no change in space requirements. As a result, I will probably not attempt re-rip and re-encode my entire library, but I will at least redo the albums I listen to most often.

The one concern I had in making the transition was playback of the AAC files on other players besides iTunes. However, I downloaded an AAC decoder that allowed me to play back the iTunes created AAC files on Windows Media Player [3ivx]. There are also plugins available for WinAmp [Softpedia]. So, I don't know any good reason not to make the transition now. 9:15:07 PM    comment []  

Here are some rants from a software developer about how administration is killing efficiency in software development projects [Software Reality][via Dave's Blog]. Unfortunately, I agree with about everything that this guy says. I have been dealing with the same obstacles in my own development. 10:20:18 AM    comment []  

A review of Sun's Java Desktop System (JDS) [OSNews]. JDS is a new Linux distro being distributed by Sun and based on SuSE. Looks nice, but doesn't seem to offer the advanced user anything that Debian doesn't offer. It's probably a bit easier to setup for the novice. 10:26:44 AM    comment []