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Apple and EMI Announced Change In The Music Industry
On Monday, Apple and EMI Music announced that EMI will be taking DRM off of their music on iTunes. The DRM-free singles will cost $1.29 instead of $0.99, but besides being DRM-free, they will also be twice the audio quality. Also, if you purchase the whole album, it is the same price and is the higher-quality, DRM-free tracks. They announced that this would be going live in May. Apple's Steve Jobs says that he expects that more labels will jump on the bandwagon and that by the end of the year, more than 50% of the music in iTunes will be higher-quality and DRM-free.
So is this good? Heck yes. Steve Job's open letter really paid off. People will like it because it has no DRM and/or is better quality. I like both and will be more inclined to buy off iTunes now. However, I still think CDs are a bit nicer and I like the album artwork and such.
Adobe Apollo: Install Flash Applications on Your Desktop
I recently heard about Adobe Apollo, a new system developed by the new Adobe/Macromedia. In a video demonstration, they showed an eBay application using Apollo technology. With Apollo, eBay was able to make a downloadable and installable application that will work on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. You can browse the eBay site, post items to sell, etc. The application still functions if you're offline and will post your for sale items when you get back online.
This could have some big potential. It sounds like Google could easily write a Gmail application in Apollo that uses most of the existing Gmail code and allows you to browse or write offline. Plus, if there isn't already, there will be a cooler, nicer interface to browse YouTube videos as well. And for those of us who are web developers, it could be easier to use this technology to make a website work right off a CD. I guess we'll find out.
Web Developers and Linux
If you're a web developer or designer, you may not run a form of Linux as your development environment, but you still have your websites hosted on a Linux server and have to do some administration of it.
The folks at Search Engine Optimization company SEOmoz are also in the same boat, i guess, and one of them shared a whole bunch of invaluable stuff that I can use when administrating my Linux server. After this, SSH will become even more of your friend, I guarantee it.
I learned how I could pause a task that's running, how to keep that running even after you logout, and how to save the task output to a log file. Really, if you use Linux a bit, you should read it.
25 Reasons Why Dan is "da Man"
My three amazing sisters sent me this via e-mail for my 25th birthday. It's all true, really.
Dan is da insanely awesome man because:
- he can head bang like NO ONE'S business
- he can pull off loud outburst/singsong/theme songs to any event, anytime.
- its easy to know what Dan wants for lunch--meat!!
- Dan always has a hug for ya
- Dan can recognize those he loves from a mile away--layzor vision
- wherever Dan goes he brings his geeky t-shirts, awesome dvds, backpack, cellphone/laptop and the music, Basically.... Dan brings the party home
- when Dan's angry, it's like because there's crappy music playing or he has to use dial-up. basically....Dan only lets his temper fire up for good reasons.
- Dan loves the Lord, you can just tell, he loves christian music and loves to praise God!!
- Dan started gadget land---at least in my mind he did, he introduced email, dvds, ipods, laptops, and much more to me... thanks Dan, without you i would still be in the dark ages.
- Dan is pretty chill and just enjoys being with people
- He never hesitiates to treat me (well, the only exception is when I'm buying from PB loco)
- Dan is INCREDIBLY generous with his time - always there to help
- Dan sings like an angel ...a really cool angel
- Dan has a SUPER laugh. Usually it starts a whole crowd of people laughing. Sometimes, it leaves our sides in pain! (esp late nights playing monopoly)
- Dan has good taste in movies. I love that whenever it comes to Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, we always watch ALL episodes, AND we can watch the extra tracks! Dan is ALL OUT!
- Everyone around him just enjoys DAN. And so do I :)
- Dan is the best geek I know. (A very high compliment coming from the technology household) He has some mad skills.
- He is looking to serve the Lord in whatever ways he can. He took a step of faith and dove into the campus division! PRAISE GOD!
- he is an excellent body guard when it comes to crazy concerts! (especially when Dan plus me make a stellar team to mosh our way to the front of the stage!!!)
- Dan has the best air guitar that anyone has ever seen. Especially when it is while jumping on a trampoline and listening to some old school DC Talk a.k.a. CD Silent.
- Dan's friendship with others extends beyond his own need for friendship and looks out for others' needs.
- Dan knows where to find good food, at a nice place called Chipotle! which unfortunately does not exist in Italy =( and also at Nordstrom Cafe! (yummy)
- He is not afraid to shop at Patina (shriek!) or Old Navy to be a wonderful friend and brother.
- Dan's worship is so pure and heart-felt, that he inspires others (me, for one) to praise the Lord with every fiber of their being. (This deserved a second mention.)
- He is not afraid to wear whatever the heck he wants, whether 'emo' shirts of his fave band or a purplish dress shirt.
Overall, Dan is da man because he is himself, a man of God.
Yes, I refused to pay for $6 Peanut Butter sandwiches. What can I say? There wasn't any meat in 'em so they don't count as lunch!
Good Friday, Work, and Play
Easter is coming in less than two weeks. For me and my family, Easter was always an important, holy time. We'd often go to services that week. Good Friday was especially different, for there were a number of traditions that day. First, I think for something like 15 years of my life, I attended the peaceful demonstrations organized by Pro-Life Action Ministries in from of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul. Not only was it a demonstration, but it was a great time to pray for our country, worship God, and reflect on his sacrifice. Also, it was our tradition to spend the Noon-3pm hours, when Christ was believed to be hanging on the cross, in some quiet prayer and reflection (or at least more quiet and reflected than usual).
As I've grown older, it has gotten harder to keep these traditions. It wasn't too much of a problem during college because I went to a Roman Catholic college that did give us Good Friday and Easter Monday off of school. (Mom and Dad weren't happy one year when we went to see Switchfoot on Holy Thursday, but it had to be done.) The last couple years have been the hardest, I guess, as I have begun to work full time.
The owner of my company just announced that next Friday we're going to have a fun afternoon where we're going out for lunch and watching a movie (or something like that, I was in the bathroom while he announced it). It just so happens it's Good Friday, and even odder is that last year we watched Office Space and gorged ourselves on candy on Good Friday.
I know that I'm in a mostly non-Christian, great work environment, but when these kind of things come up, it just makes me feel wrong. How do I reconcile these types of things? Maybe I should start taking Good Friday as a personal vacation day? I'll probably just go with the flow (and remember not to have meat in my lunch), but I guess that someday I'll have to deal with bigger moral dilemmas.
The People of Praise, Businesses, and Housing
Yesterday there were a couple interesting meetings in the People of Praise in addition to the weekly meeting. It was a great testimony to our desire to live even more in common with each other. Members of our branch talked about doing life more in common through living closer together and working together on small business ventures. It was a great time to talk to members of the People of Praise that I rarely get to see. I hope to hear even more about it in the future.
At the housing meeting, we learned a bit more about a committee formed to look into options here in the Cities. All of the 125 people who were at the meeting filled out a questionaire detailing what kinda of housing they were interested in and what they could afford. There were a vast array of people there, from seniors and empty nesters looking to downsize to post-college adults looking for a bit more trendy place or to raise a family. The thing that brought us all there was to live in closer proximity to their brothers and sisters in Christ. The committee is still in the really early, formative stages, but it will be interesting to connect with others who are looking for more deliberate, common life on a regular basis.
The other meeting was for people interested in starting or fostering Christ-centered businesses. About thirty people of all different ages and backgrounds attended and we talked about really practical ways to get a small business off the ground. We talked about good business ideas, how to finance a startup, and more. The committee is lead by a couple people who have started small businesses of their own. I think it's a great idea to help others out and if something interesting comes up, being a part of a startup could be really exciting. This group is also in the early stages, but there is already another meeting planned and the expectation that we're working to get new business ideas to fruition with the next six months to a year, depending on how well research and other ideas go and if anyone actually wants to take on the business.
This Week In Movies
So, well, this week was quite the exciting week for movies and, well, Lisa asked.
On Sunday I received the DVDs of A Mighty Wind, Waiting For Guffman, and Best In Show for my birthday and we watched A Mighty Wind that night. These are a bunch of fake documentaries where the actors are playing realistic yet still over-the-top characters. A Mighty Wind is a documentary that shows a folk reunion concert of these 60s folk artists. Really funny music and really funny characters ensue.
Friday night the guys went to see Children of Men at Coffman on the U of M campus. The video quality was, at best, painful - but the movie itself was amazing. It was an amazingly thought-provoking movie, although it definitely wasn't easy to watch.
Last night after most went to bed I watched Robin Hood: Men In tights. It was the first time that I had seen it in years, and well, Mel Brooks always has some great (but sometimes crude) jokes.
This evening we went to see TMNT, the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It was pretty good. I thought the animation was pretty nice and it had a pretty good amount of action. It definitely wasn't the best movie of the week, though.
Mute Math's Crazy First Music Video
I love Mute Math. 'Nuff said.
The Drupal Dojo
By the end of next week, I'll probably be either a Drupal ninja or I'll be fired. So what am I going to do this week? I'm going to be downloading lots of screencasts from the Drupal Dojo site. They've got plenty of stuff to get you thinking about the ninja-like moves you could do in Drupal too.
What Happened To The Daily Update?
Some might be wondering such a thing. Well, it depends on what you're really asking.
A couple weeks ago I dropped the "Daily Update 3/21/2007:" from the post title. I realized that was not really helping Search Engine Optimization at all. Plus, well, it doesn't look cool. Plus, trying to make it include a "da" wasn't working well either.
Most of you may not have noticed that the posts were also posted at 8am Eastern every weekday morning. I also realized that it's a bit suspect and decided to let the posts flow a bit more freely. So now there's no real schedule, but just good content.
Am I going to keep posting daily? Hopefully, yes. I'm thinking that I just took the last couple days off after my birthday. We'll see if that happens, but that's my aim.