Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Notre Dame, the Conclusion of Paris Vision by Erika Olmsted NotreDame. mediaburn.net posted a photo: By (mediaburn.net). [mediaburn.net's Photos] 9:10:50 PM

Moe Tucker Band The Lady. The Moe Tucker Band, Augsburg 1993. The tall one is Sterling Morrison (No, not the big one - that's John Slugget!). And there's a Tardis in the background. Photo by Jutta Brandt. We were booked in this tiny little hotel in Augsburg. In the morning, Sterling entered the breakfast room, all dressed in black, sunglasses, obviously suffering from a hangover. He sat down at a table, opposite a woman, a tourist. She looked at the tall, big man from America, stared at the black clothes. Sterling just stared back from behind his sunglasses. The lady, distressed, dropped her breakfast roll and left the room. Sterling looked around and ordered a full breakfast. Augsburg is in Bavaria after all. Last Night I said Goodbye to my Friend [MP3, 5MB] [The Cartoonist] 7:51:07 AM

Singles and Posts Singles and Posts. Something dawned on me while reading that Gawker has launched a couple more weblogs including LifeHacker. It looked pretty interesting, so I signed up. In doing so, however, I started questioning the business model of these sorts of blogs. What happens when all the niches have been filled? And what happens when we're all using our aggregators for most of our online reading? Then I started to think about the coming advertisements we're going to see in RSS feeds. There's already some sites out there doing it, and I assume it'll become more common soon. I started realizing some of the effort I put into some posts lately to drive traffic, but how for the most part I still use this blog for personal rants, etc. What's happening is that online content is becoming a series of single serving content bits, sent around and filtered in a variety of ways. It's the same way that online music stores like iTunes have pushed singles back to the forefront again. Remember when you used to buy singles on records, and then it became a waste and you just bought the whole album? But now kids just buy the one song they like and don't waste money on the rest. Those that really like the song will explore the rest of that artists catalog, but for the majority, the one song is fine. [unmediated] 7:45:32 AM

in da house The Shuffle Has Landed. My new 1GB iPod Shuffle arrived late last week, and it's every bit as fantastic as I assumed it would be. The first thing you notice about the iPod Shuffle is the size of the box it ships in -- approximately the same width and height as a CD jewel case, but about an inch thick to hold the instruction book, software CD, and the Shuffle itself. Once unpacked, the Shuffle is so ridiculously light that when held you barely feel it. I expected the Shuffle to be at least the weight of a AA battery, but it's less. Or put another way, it's the size of a pack of gum, but much lighter. And this is the 1GB version too (the largest drive it comes with). Despite its light weight, the Shuffle doesn't feel flimsy or cheap. The construction is tight, and the navigational buttons are responsive and user-friendly. Some have bemoaned the lack of a display, but in the case of the Shuffle I believe less is truly more. The refreshing lack of futz, widgetry, and other stuff would only further complicate what should be a simple experience. Most people will wear the Shuffle around their neck, on their arm, or in their pocket, and would never look at a display anyhow. I admit it would be useful if you wanted to que up a specific album before placing it out of sight, but as someone who listens to music almost always in random mode, a display wouldn't do much for me anyhow. Speaking of random, Auto-Fill in iTunes is a dream. Plug the Shuffle in, select a particular playlist or your full library, and let iTunes do the heavy lifting. I'm now in the habit of auto-filling my Shuffle in the morning before leaving home and listening to it nearly all day. Silly, I know, but it's actually kind of fun to see what Shuffle picks for you. I've honestly found myself thinking, "nice choice, Shuffle" at a good track and "where the hell did you find this?" at others. I know I know...iPods don't have brains or moods...right? The next time you Auto-Fill, iTunes overwrites your previous fill with a fresh batch. The whole process takes about 3 minutes or so, and on average I fill about 160 songs (almost all my mp3s are 192kpbs or higher, so they're heavier than most). The one fault I found in the Shuffle is the lack of an EQ or additional amplification. Unlike the other iPods, the Shuffle plays your mp3s as-they-are, which could be an adjustment for those accustomed to listening to their digital audio with an additional level of processing. A decent pair of headphones though makes all the difference in the world. I use a pair of Grado SR-80s at work, and the Shuffle sounds fantastic. Be prepared though for funny looks from people when seeing a small white pack of gum attached to the end of your headphone cable. [What Do I Know] 7:41:18 AM