Monthly Archives: October 2007

Please Don’t Ride Your Bicycle on the Train Tracks

So my friend who was in the Train Crash last year tends to have more problems on the train than most people I know. Delays at the start of the trip and at the end so we tease him about it. Today I called him after he left for his parents and the train left about 20 minutes late, no crisis. But, he calls me about an hour later, they’re stopped west of Ann Arbor and they hit someone on the tracks. He didn’t have much in the way of details.

So I just called him for a status and it turns out it was a guy on a bicycle (I’m assuming on the tracks); I guess the conductor said he saw him before they hit him (I’m surprised they gave them that much info). The train was stopped for a while (I’m guess less than 2 hours) while things were checked out; he could see flashlights and cameras going off. The odd thing is they never found the guy, but they found the bicycle.

Update – This mLive Ann Arbor Article says no one was hurt and contradicts a bit of what my friend says that he heard the conductor say. It’s the only article I can find and it was from early last night, so I have no other way to verify info. (This is the right link, their whole site just seems to be having problems right now)

I Barely Passed The Internet Quiz…

Wow, it was pretty hard. Some geeky stuff in the quiz (and that’s not even the parts I got wrong).

JustSayHi - Dating

I did miss a few obvious ones (I over-thought a few). I found it at Amy’s.

Fined $222,000 for sharing music.

So MacWorld reports that ‘a U.S. jury found her guilty of copyright infringement and fined her a total of $222,000’.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota could have fined Jammie Thomas as much as $3.6 million, but opted not to. The mother of two was found guilty of stealing and giving away via Internet peer-to-peer Internet file-sharing service Kazaa a total of 24 songs from companies including Capitol Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Bros. Records.

Macworld Oct. 5, 2007

Did you see the important part? It was only 24 songs!!! Ouch! I assumed it was thousands of songs when I saw the fine…

I’d really like to comment that all of that is pretty harsh. But she was breaking the law so I guess there isn’t much to say. Actually, I will make a comment, file-sharing is bad, but she’d have to share an awful lot for the record companies to lose that much money. Although, 24 songs is probably what they specifically proved, she may have done thousands of others that they just didn’t have the details on (but that would probably be inadmissible too). How would you even pay a fine like that?


Here’s the direct link.

Update: Turns out there were 1,700-ish songs, they just focused on a smaller amount for the case. Scott (over at Dean’s World) has some more info and a few more links.

Trailers vs. Previews

I love movie trailers, I could watch them all day at the theatre, at the QuickTime site or on AppleTV. And I like TV previews for shows coming next season.

But I can’t stand TV previews for the next week. I’ll generally leave the room if other people are watching or skip over them. Occasionally I’ll catch them (and occasional they’ll excite me) but usually I’ll pass. I think it’s that they give away too much of the plot of the show and depending on the show, I don’t feel like I need to watch it (I guess). I just watched the show, if that’s not enough to get me to come back next week the preview probably won’t.

Speaking of trailers, have you seen:

  • Iron Man
  • The Nines (which had a very limited release, not in MI yet)
  • Beowulf
  • Feast of Love (which I didn’t realize opened last week)
  • A Fine Frenzy – 19 songs and 5 videos for only $5.99

    AfinefrenzyonecellintheseaSo I’ve mentioned A Fine Frenzy more than a few times lately; they tour with Brandi Carlile and hit Detroit next Sunday (not this Sunday). And I can’t get enough of their album. Plus, I’ve specifically mentioned that their 14 track album of One Cell in the Sea was only $7.99 at iTunes (even higher quality DRM-free) or at AmazonMP3. But they sent me an e-mail advertisement stating that it’s temporarily only $5.99 (in the US), for fourteen tracks, that’s a deal so if you considered it before it’s even a better deal now. The ad made it sound like it was a deal for me since I’ve purchased their music before but it looks like it’s that cheap even when I don’t log in. I have no idea when this will last, please let me know if you see that it goes back up.

    On her debut album, Cell In the Sea, Alison Sudol evokes adjectives like enchanting and wistful. A self-taught pianist, she took the name A Fine Frenzy from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Inspired by fantasy writers such as C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll, and musical artists Keane and Sigur Rós, the chanteuse’s sublime melodies are guided by her delicate piano work and feminine vocals, which sometimes sound reminiscent of the Sundays. The beautifully sad “Almost Lover” is a surprisingly confident song, and “Hope for the Hopeless” is a perfect remedy when you’re feeling down.

    – From the iTunes Description

    Plus you can go the the A Fine Frenzy site, and download 5 songs and 5 videos for free (some look like the same odd singles and EPs you can buy at iTunes); these 10 items are free if you purchased a CD or got it from iTunes. You do need to have a CD in the drive so you need to burn it if you don’t have a real CD; the download bonus process even works well on a Mac (for similar promotions for other artists I had to go to a Windows machine and sometimes the files only played on Windows). This really is a deal for $5.99 so I had to share it…

    Is anyone going to the Sunday, Oct 14th concert in Detroit? Leave me a message if you are. And if you’ve never been to St. Andrews Hall it’s always way too hot in there so dress accordingly.

    Monday Night Television is Evil

    So I have some conflicts on Monday nights.

  • Chuck
  • How I Met Your Mother
  • Heroes
  • The Big Bang Theory
  • Journeyman
  • Two and a Half Men

    I’m sure some of it will start to get old but right now it’s kind of entertaining.

    That’s four-and-a-half hours of TV in three hours, but if I FF through the commercials, I can probably do it in 3.

    I really like Chuck but I think it’ll start to get old. And I’m certain Journeyman will get older sooner. The other 1/2 hour shows will be handy for something to watch while I’m eating breakfast or maybe at lunch via the laptop….

  • I Revise My Blog Posts (sometimes).

    So I’m always editing my posts. Generally, just in the first hour (or two) but occasionally (rarely) up to a day later. I’ll see little things I want to change/correct or I’ll notice typing errors. Sometimes I’ll remember something I left out and I’ll add it. I’m trying to make the blog post better, more readable and more complete.

    I don’t change the slant or idea of something I had but I’ll firm up the idea sometimes. Sometimes I wonder how that info gets around the ‘net though. I know some people will read me via RSS or Atom or something, but once their software grabs my feed, if I change the article do they get the latest version if I don’t revise the date (and if I do revise the date do they have two copies?)?

    I know sites start to index pages and RSS feeds and update Technorati and other sites like that and I’m not sure what version those end up with in the end, or how often it takes to re-index those files. Continue reading

    myTunes Widgets

    So Apple and iTunes added these myTunes “widgets” you can add to your web site or MySpace page or whatever. This isn’t new news (2 months old?), it’s just that I never got around to trying them. Here’s the thing, the options are limited, they don’t show the album artwork unless you click on something and it’s not very configurable. You have to activate it on-line through the iTunes store, so someone can’t just track your music history by adding a widget with your ID in on to a web site and then create the widget. That’s nice from a privacy stand point, although I’m generally not too picky about my privacy.

    On the whole lack of configuration: it’s got a few options 3 sizes and a few color options, but still limited. One thing that bugs me is that the “My iTunes Favorites” widget it lists people that I’ve bought just one song, that’s not a “favorite”, heck it could be only one song because I hated them! Actually most cases seem to be from a compilation album, (possibly) a free song, or I bought a song for my Mom or something, either way I should be able to set a minimum limit before they list it (or something like that). Maybe it would be more reflective if I’ve spent more money on albums (and less on songs).

    It seems a little slow for just moving text around too. I don’t think I’ll be using it (other than in this post for a sample).

    And it someone clicks on my widget and buys a song from iTunes, I think I should get a few pennies credit at the iTunes store from them :)