Category: Entertainment

When Opportunity Knocks…

Lorin Olsen


I am one of those odd folks who truly believes that each challenge you face is an opportunity to grow and become more than you were before.  Yeah, it’s trite.  And worse still, I’m not always a consistent example of this “life lesson.”  But this weekend has been a cool example of how a challenge can yield some unexpected (and welcome) changes.
Over the past week, I’ve run into quite a few problems with hard disk drives.  We’ve had some trouble at work.  And we’ve had some trouble here at home.  And this is not altogether unexpected as hard drives are the largest source of moving parts in any computer.  So they are the most likely components to fail.  And this week proved that point.
At home, we’ve had a hard drive fail in my wife’s old laptop.  When she had a power supply fail on the device last month, we quickly replaced the whole laptop.  And the new laptop runs very well.  But what about the old laptop?  Well, I’ve finally gotten around to trying to extract Cindy’s data from off of her old laptop.  And the results have been singularly unimpressive.  After pulling the drive out, I got some USB-to-SATA cables and hooked up the drive to my main system.  Unfortunately, all I am getting is a clicking sound and no recognition of the drive when it is attached to my system.  After confirming this with someone else at work, I’m coming to the realization that when we had the power supply problem, it zorched both the motherboard and the hard drive.  I’ll try a few more things this week [including the freezer trick].  But unless I want to send the hard drive off to a clean room, we may have substantial data loss (since the last backup).
And the situation got worse when I started to have serious problems on my own external hard drive.  I had a three-year old external, USB-attached hard drive.  And I started to get some seek errors on the unit.  After about four hours of fiddling with the device, I got it back to a “limping along” state.  But I knew that such states rarely last.  So I began the process of researching a replacement unit.
After a lot of research, I finally decided not to buy the NAS system with a RAID-5 infrastructure.  I didn’t have the cash for that kind of expenditure.  Rather, I got a simple, single disk NAS system at Best Buy.  And as of this moment, I am singularly impressed by the Western Digital MyBook Live device that I purchased.
This device is simple and solid.  It plugs into an AC outlet.  And you connect it to your network with an Ethernet cable.  In my case, I plugged it into the main router/switch that I have in my office.  And the good news is that this device will migrate to my gigabit Ethernet network – whenever I put that in place.
Once I plugged it in, the setup was utter simplicity.  Within a few minutes, I had a device that could act as external storage for every computer connected to our network.  And the performance seems reasonable – even for systems connected via WiFi (including our smartphones).  So within a few minutes, the core mission was accomplished.
Then came the fun.
The enclosure for this 1TB drive came with sufficient ROM and RAM to place real functionality within the chassis.  Obviously, there is a Linux kernel running Samba.  And there is also an instance of Twonky Media server.  So this device provides DLNA/UPnP services on the home network.

This means that I can have all sorts of devices consume the content – including my HDTV and my phone.  But at a minimum, every Windows device in the household can get streaming content from the NAS.

And the music and videos will stream directly through Windows Media Player.

At this moment, I have all sorts of content that I used to source from my desktop system (running TVersity) which can now be streamed from a purpose-built applicance.
All of this proves that cool capabilities can now be plugged right into the network.  Last year, I plugged a printer directly into the network.  Yesterday, I plugged disk storage ad a streaming media server directly into the network.  Before this, every desktop and laptop in the house depended upon my desktop system to be available.  I can now stop worrying about whether I am impacting other people’s work when I do some CPU-intensive or some disk-intensive task.  I can schedule desktop downtime during prime-time hours.  W00t!
Finally, all of this new stuff makes me realize just how far we’ve come in such a short time.  When I built my first computer system (i.e., a Heathkit H89), I had the option of installing one of the very first “Winchester” drives into the system enclosure.  I declined the option.  I knew how important disks would be for personal computers.  But I couldn’t justify spending over $600 for 10MB of storage.  And how could I ever use that much storage.  Yesterday, I installed a system with 100,000 times the capacity for 1/4 the price.  Times really have changed.
-Roo

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May Every Breath I Take Proclaim Your Majesty

Lorin Olsen

From the whisper of the lover to the lion’s roar
The command of the commander upon the field of war
The instruction of the father, the laughter of the friend
I’ve heard every utterance and I can’t comprehend
Just why I can’t decide, I can’t make the choice
Is it Your word that I’m in love with
Or the sound of Your voice?

Oh speak, speak to me
Oh speak, speak to me
I’m as quiet as I can be
So speak, speak to me

From the Spirit on the water to the splitting of the sea
The beauty of Your form upon a raging Galilee
The cloud that filled the temple, the fire on desert sand
I’ve seen every step and still don’t understand
Why I can’t render a decision, I can’t seem to choose
Is it Your journey I’m in love with
Or just the way You move?

Oh speak, speak to me
Oh speak, speak to me
I’m as quiet as I can be
So speak, speak to me

I love the way You speak
In what You say and what You do
Give me ears so I can hear You
I need to hear You

From the burning of the bush that refused to be consumed
To the Spirit on a shepherd boy that ran through every tune
The terror of the King who carries vengeance in His hand
The love of the Messiah dying quiet as a lamb.

Oh speak, speak to me
Oh speak, speak to me
I’m as quiet as I can be
So speak, speak to me

The Waiting,  “Speak”

crank…crank…crank
I suck in air as I climb a rising hill on my way to the office.  It is so quiet.  All I can hear is the creaking of my pedals as I roll them over.  When the road lifts, I press on harder.  I lift my cadence and I get into a better gear.  And all I hear is the low whir of wheels on pavement.  It is quite cold out this morning.  Yes, it’s been colder.  But 25F is still cold.  And I see the evidence of my existence through the frosty breath I exhale.
And in that quiet and still time this morning, I saw a glimpse of His majesty.  Oh, my heart can’t express the joy and serenity God has shared with me over the last twenty-four hours.  We are doing a fabulous Bible study here at work.  We are reading and discussing John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life.” We talk and then we pray for one another.  Then we pray for the people we can touch while at work.  As we are nearing the end of this study, we have started planning for the next study.  So my heart has been drawn to read Francis Chan’s book entitled “Crazy Love.” Of course, there are so many good books to read and study – including the word itself.  But I was drawn to this book for a reason.
So I started to do a little research.  I used Google to see what others thought about the book.  And so I ran across a lot of amazing reviews.  And I saw some great links to videos.  One of the coolest was a link to images and video set to Chris Tomlin’s song “Indescribable.” That started a night full of God’s awesome presence.
And I woke to the same kind of joy.  At first, I was challenged not to ride today.  I was a little late in the shower.  And I just wasn’t moving very quickly.  So I was sorely tempted to ride with my wife and get a cup of coffee with her this morning.  Please know that such a trip would have been awesome as well.  But it was not what God had planned for this morning.  It was clear that the enemy didn’t want me to ride.  So he filled my heart with dread and fear about getting hit by some inattentive motorist.  OK, maybe I am just a little paranoid.  But you know something awesome is going to happen when the enemy tries to flip the fear trigger.  So I reminded myself that the God who can move mountains can also move cars.  And it was clear that God wanted me to ride.  So I strapped on my ankle lights, laced up my shoes and headed into the darkness.
My ride is about sixty-five minutes long – when I ride in the dark.  And every pedal stroke of the ride was a reminder of God’s grace.  I have two legs and the strength to pedal.  Thank you, Lord.  I was reminded of the blood clot in my leg that the doctors found in August.  Through His grace, the doctor’s skills and the miracles of aspirin and antibiotics, the clot dissolved in a matter of days.  And I am riding more now than I have been riding in the past two years.  Thank you, Lord.
I have lungs and the strength to inflate and deflate them.  Thank you, Lord.  I was reminded of my physical troubles this past spring.  I had horrible trouble when I developed pneumonia (after a sinus infection).  It was so very hard to breath.  So I am thankful to Him for every breath I take – especially when I ride my bicycle.
And I have eyes to see with.  Folks, sometimes it is hard to be thankful when you are legally blind.  I don’t think I’ve ever been ungrateful for my lack of eyesight.  But I am often not thankful for what I can see.  I can see to ride my bike.  I can see the smile on my precious grand-daughter’s face.  I can see the jubilation, the consternation and the sexy curves of my wonderful wife.  I can read the words of God written in a Bible.  And I can ride my bike.  I am so incredibly thankful for each image I see.  Each is a precious gift from my Creator.  Thank you, Lord.
And I have a mission while I am here on this world.  I am called to channel God’s blessings to my family.  I am called to represent God’s unfailing love to my wife.  And I am called to share God’s steadfast love to my neighbors and to all of my colleagues at work.  God trusts me with this mission.  I don’t always share His confidence in me.  But if He trusts me, who am I that I shouldn’t trust myself.  Thank you, Lord.
Lord, in this holiday season, I pray that I can be totally transparent.  I pray that people will see You when they see me.  I want everyone to know the same love that I know.  You are so awesome.  And I love you so very much.  Thank you, Lord.
-Roo

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DoubleTwist = Android Sync + Markets

Lorin Olsen


A few years ago, a fellow named Jon Johansen (aka, DVD Jon) exploded onto the scene with some really cool technology: he released DeCSS as a means to “liberate” DVD films from onerous copy protection.  I don’t want to go through the legal and moral arguments that his actions provoked.  But later, he became more legit when he helped to form DoubleTwist.
When DoubleTwist first hit the market, it was a means of decrypting iTunes music files for use by other applications on your PC.  This meant that it was a very speculative venture.  First, it was taking aim at folks who were ostensibly “protecting” musicians and their copyrighted works.  Second, the folks who needed decrypted versions of music (on their desktops) were a limited community: most of them were using songs that they had purchased as input to other programs (e.g., DVD authoring tools, etc).  So while I tried the product, I decided to buy music from Amazon instead.  So until recently, DoubleTwist was cool – but not very useful for me.
But Jon & Co. have finally pulled together a more expansive reason for DoubleTwist: syncing media with Android devices.  DoubleTwist is now a free product that can sync any (or all) of your iTunes files with your Android device.  The product is free to use.  So DoubleTwist is making its money in a different way – it is now a distribution channel and an advertising platform.  For those that have an Android device, you can buy apps from within DoubleTwist.  And you can also buy music and movies from Amazon through the DoubleTwist tool.
So the way that you can legitimize a hacking tool (that decrypts protected media) is to become a media intermediary.  I am sure that DoubleTwist is giving the media “market” owners a “cut” of their business.  That way, a previously offensive technology is now legitimized.
But is it a good tool?  After a few hours of playing with the tool, I am thrilled to have a free tool like this.  Yes, you can buy tools to sync with Android phones.  But I am happy to recommend this tool.  It syncs the music I want to sync.  It scrobbles to Last.fm.  It allows you to set songs as ringtones.  It also downloads and displays album art with ease.  After a few more weeks, I may revise and extend the recommendation.  But for now, I give DoubleTwist a qualified “thumbs up” on the Roo-meter.
-Roo

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Coincidence and Convergence

Lorin Olsen


It’s a Saturday.  That means I can play with things at home.  This weekend, my wife is in Houston with my oldest daughter (Meredith).  Bailey came home to “help” me with Jayden.  Of course, that means that she is out with her boyfriend – and I’m here alone with Jayden.  [Please know that this is very cool with me as my grandchild is a gem.]
But it is Saturday.  So I have to play with some kind of technology.  Earlier this week, I watched the new Iron Man 2 on Blu-Ray.  But before the movie began to play, I got a popup on the TV about a new firmware load for the Blu-Ray player.  So I loaded the firmware, rebooted the player and watched the movie.
But Saturday is for play so I had to know what had been loaded.  I went to the menu and noted that the Viera menu on the player had been updated.  OK, that must mean a problem was fixed, a feature was added or both.  I didn’t see anything in the Amazon Video on Demand screens.  But I did notice a “More” button that seemed new.  So I pressed it.
Lo and behold, there was now a menu option for Pandora.  For those who don’t know what Pandora is, you probably need to browse the web more often.  Pandora is an excellent streaming music service.  Yes, it plays your music – or music that someone thinks that you might like.  It is fairly good at picking music that I like.  But I like almost any music.
So I logged into Pandora and now I can stream any of the playlists/channels that I want to hear.  There is a fairly good on screen menu.  But most importantly, it plays the sound through my Blu-Ray player – which is hooked into a fairly good audio system.
Now I have good sounds whenever I want them.  What started as a good computer service has now morphed into a service that I can use with my home entertainment complex.  This is very cool convergence – and I wouldn’t have even noticed this except that I noticed the firmware patch that Panasonic released.
-Roo

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Social Music: Socially-Allowable Sharing?

Lorin Olsen


For anyone’s who has read more than one of my blog posts, my next statement won’t be a surprise: I truly love music. I love all kinds of music. And music has always been a social experience for me. And whether you believe that we were created by an all-powerful God or you believe that we were fashioned through fortune and natural selection, rythmn and music have always been a part of the humanity experience.
Music is a means of communicating messages of all kinds.  Music is in commercials. Music is in pageantry. Music is in exaltations of faith. Music is in calm moments of reflection.  And while music can stir emotions even in solitary settings, its most powerful manifestations are found when the composer/performer is communicating emotions to the audience.
And ever since there was “technology” to harness, music has been present. And today is no different. Whether access to music is dampened by concert ticket prices, concert hall construction, the requirements for expensive instruments or even the existence of digital rights management, there are those people who seek to control access to music.  Some control music in order to generate income for themselves.  Some control music in order to control the emotions and the actions of others.
But as the technology wheel spins ever faster, it is increasingly harder to erect frameworks of control.  And it is becoming increasingly easier to scale any such barriers that are erected.  Indeed, music is becoming more plentiful and it is becoming more accessible. AND I LOVE IT EVEN MORE.
So before I wander off into even deeper philosophical weeds, let me get to the point.  In the past few days, I’ve run across new modes of music sharing.
As most folks know, I use many music players. But my favorite players are Songbird and iTunes.  I also use many tagging and metadata tools. And I also use many sharing tools. I have used Last.fm for years.  And I used to be very active on Blip.fm.  I have fiddled and played with iLike (in Facebook) for almost as long.  I’ve used Pandora for over a year.
I buy most of my music via Amazon.  And now that I use Songbird more frequently, I’ve bought a few songs via 7Digital.  Nevertheless, I’ve been known to purchase a few tracks from the iTunes music store.  And now my youngest daughter just got me turned on to a new streaming source (i.e., Grooveshark).
So here are my big questions:

  • What is Facebook planning to do with music?
  • Is iLike the Facebook music play or is Facebook going to do something else?
  • Is Facebook’s music approach going to be just another means of using me as a market data point or as a sales target?
  • Just how much music sharing is enough? [This one is a tough thing to answer as the answer varies from person to person.]  But how much musical “attention” data is too much?
  • How are new sharing tools (e.g., Grooveshark) going to monetize their services?

And if those aren’t enough questions to ponder, I have a few more question for my brothers and sisters in Christ:

  • How will the Christian community exploit all this new technology?
  • How can we demonstrate a moral context for file sharing.
  • And how can we ensure that the music we create and share affirms the Gospel message?

We really need to remember musicians like Keith Green.  He had the world as his musical oyster – so to speak. But he gave up massive financial gain when he realized that the gifts and talents he could use to generate money were not given to him for that purpose.  God gave him the words and the music as a means of communicating the Gospel. Therefore, he turned his back on “success” and “fame” and chose the life of a prophet and a pastor. May God bless us with men who share Keith’s heart for the world – and his wisdom for the role of music in that world.
-Roo

What? No Serpentine Fire?

Lorin Olsen


It’s been a very odd weekend: lots of tech frustration, lots of tech success, and a few lamentations.
Last Thursday night, I spent a lot of time trying to solve a home theatre issue.  I was trying to get my TV set up to show content from my main media source.  Based upon the specs for the Samasung LN52A750, I was trying to play content from my PC onto my LCD.  I tried the Samasung PC Share solution first.  But I couldn’t get the PC to recognize the TV using PnP.  So I switched to using TVesity. [Note: TVersity is absolutely the coolest free software solution to stream videos and photos. In particular, it can do on-the-fly transcoding. It is well worth setting this tool up.]  So I set up TVersity to support DLNA as well as Windows Media Center.  I got my son’s XBox to work perfectly.
But after several hours of fiddling around while Texas lost the national championship, I finally realized something: I didn’t have a Samsung LN52A750 LCD.  Indeed, I had a Samsung LN52A650.  So all my efforts would bear no fruit with my current LCD.  Rats.
But my frustrations were only starting.
I had a few dollars left from a Christmas gift certificate (from Amazon), so I decided I needed some music to chill out.  So I got onto Amazon and decided it was time to download a few Earth, Wind & Fire songs.  So I bought a “Best of” album.  Unfortunately, it didn’t load properly.  In fact, Amazon said I downloaded the songs when they had failed to download.
So I started a search for a means to contact Amazon support.  In the past, I’ve had no trouble reaching them.  This time was different.  The only way I could reach them was via email.  But when I reached them, they were eager to help.  They reset the album so that I could download the music.  So as Saturday wound down, I tried again – and it failed again.  So I left another support request and moved on to other matters.
I had been having trouble with my video driver for a couple of months.  Every now and then, my system would get a blue screen in the video driver.  And over the past couple of weeks, I had been getting a number of notifications when the video driver would fail and successfully restart.  The problem seemed to happen whenever I was driving the CPU and the graphics processor heavily.  Sometimes it would happen when I was using Media Center.  Sometimes, it would happen when I was streaming something from Hulu.  And sometimes it would happen when I was using VLC to watch some of my videos.  But the result was frustrating.
As the problem became more acute, I began to suspect a possible hardware problem – though I wasn’t convinced.  I had noticed that I had gotten a driver update in late October.  And it seemed as if the problems began after that.  But I could find no correlation to recent increases in reboots.  Nevertheless, I started down the path assuming that I had a video error.
I got onto Intel’s website (as I use an Intel Graphics Media adapter).  They did have a new update.  So I gave that a whirl.  Unfortunately, I got the typical message that this driver would not work with the custom HP implementation.  Indeed, the new software refused to install.
But I never let error messages deter me.  So I unpacked the executable file to my hard drive.  From there, I updated the driver via Device Manager (and selecting the path myself).  I was able to load the driver.  Now I had to reboot, wait and hope.
After ten hours of complete stability, I am ready to declare an interim success.  After a week, I’ll flag the issue as resolved.  But in the meantime, it sure seems to be resolved.  And as the weekend was quite frustrating thus far, I was glad to declare a success somewhere.
So it was time to return my attention to Earth, Wind & Fire.  My desire to seriously chill out had subsided but had not disappeared.  So I had to solve the Amazon issue.  Since their technical support was providing little real help, I decided to solve it myself.  Figuring that this would take some time, I decided to download a couple of podcasts so I could listen while I surfed/researched.
But I couldn’t download any podcasts.  Now I was starting to sense a pattern.  With a new release of iTunes and some recent sharing changes (for TVersity), I started to wonder whether I was having permission problems with my media libary.  So I dug a little deeper.  And voila, the problem became manifest.  Somehow, my file permissions had changed.  I was no longer the owner of my media directories.  And even though I was an administrator of the system, I could not update my own files.  Arghhhh.
So I went ahead and formally took ownership of all files and directories in the media library.  From there, I changed file permissions.  Of course, it was not quite this simple.  In the end, I had to delete all permissions on all files and then rely upon inherited permissions only.  But once I did this, things started to whirl into action again.  My podcast downloads worked.  And I could finally download files from Amazon.
In the final analysis, I got the problem solved.  But I still am not entirely sure how permissions on my media library were changed.  In troubleshooting parlance, I had a solution – but i had no root cause identified.  So I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again.  But as of last night, I understood my home theater  challenges, I fixed my unexplainable reboots and I could download the media comtent I wanted.
In celebration, I’m finally listening to some exceptional music.  And it does help me chill a bit.
-Roo

Windows 7 Media Center: A Tale of Two Experiences

Lorin Olsen

win7mce
In a very short time (less than two years), I’ve become addicted to Windows Media Center.  I can turn the TV on while I go about all of the other chores I have to do.  Yeah, I’m not using an extender to run it on a huge screen.  Instead, I am running it on my primary system where I am able to lean in and watch TV without disturbing the rest of the family.  [For those who didn’t know, I have serious vision problems and I have to be within a few inches of the display device before I can even focus on the image.]
In the short time that I’ve used Windows Media Center, Ive become accustomed to the easy interface of the “Guide” functionality.  And I’m really liking the new Windows 7 features.  But after a few days of running the new Media Center on the new Windows 7 system, I was stunned to see that the Guide no longer functioned.  And I kept receiving download errors  on the system.
And I’ve been looking for answers to these problems ever since early February.  I am still able to watch all TV content.  And I am able to watch DVD’s and digital files w/o trouble.  But I can’t get the guide to work. This is terribly frustrating as I like to surf the guide via a Windows sidebar gadget – and this n0o longer works as the guide info isn’t downloading.
After stumbling through lots of dead ends on the Internet, I ran into http://www.sevenforums.com.  This is a GREAT support site for those who have taken the plunge into Windows 7.  If you are having trouble with something on Windows 7, this forum probably has an answer – or can link you with someone else who is having the same trouble.
So did I find an answer? Well, not exactly.  No one has a solution.  But I now know that many other people are having the same trouble.  I have noted that I am getting what appears to be DRM-related errors in the event viewer.  Beyond that, it looks like I’ll have to wait for Microsoft to fix the issue (hopefully in the April RC).
Nevertheless, I did find some very interesting hacks through the unofficial Windows 7 forums.  These forums sent me to http://hack7mc.com where I found some very cool mechanisms to change the default background and overall theme of the Media Center.  So while I don’t have guide functionality, Windows Media Center looks really cool now!
-Roo

Let's Set Our Music Free

Lorin Olsen

songbird-rc2
I am not someone who believes in music piracy.  I buy music.  And if I download a song for some reason, I have to go out and buy the music at some point in the near future.  I guess I have a finely tuned inner voice (call it the Holy Spirit) that doesn’t let me get away with stealing.  But I do believe that I should be able to listen to music (that I have purchased) anywhere and everywhere I go.  For this reason, I rip every CD I have into MP3 format.  And when I download music, I try and buy music that is not encumbered with DRM technology.
But like most music enthusiasts, I have had to settle with Apple’s music ecosphere for far too long.  I do love iTunes.  But it is a very pretty walled garden.  I can have anything and everything that Steve Jobs wants me to have.  I can even have video and games – as long as I buy them from him.  And I can even have “DRM free” music (called iTunes Plus) – as long as I buy it from the iTunes store.
But if I buy content from other sources (or rip it from obscure CD’s I own), it is dreadfully difficult to add it to my iTunes library.  Yes, I can use Amazon’s store and install their add-on software.  And I can use MusicPass (from Sony/BMG).  But both of these technologies have an uneasy feel about their integration with iTunes.  It’s all getting better and better.  But integration advances are under the control of Apple.  All they have to do is change iTunes versions and unilaterally disable anything done by other people (or organizations).
And that’s where Songbird comes in.  Songbird is an open source media player that is based upon the Mozilla foundation.  And this week, the Songbird team is getting very close to offering a competitive product to the iTunes ecosphere.  This week, they released the second release candidate for Songbird 1.0.  And while they ask bloggers and editors to refrain from comments until the software is stabilized, I still have to provide a glimpse into what will soon be available – a world free from the rules of Steve’s Matrix.
Songbird does the basics with ease.  You can organize all of your music/media files with ease.  And the interface is familiar enough.  I am a little concerned that too much of iTunes’ “look-and-feel” may be incorporated.  And with that, there is risk that Apple may take legal action against the Songbird team.  But there are enough differences in “look-and-feel” that this will be difficult to prove in a court of law.  And I hope that Apple will not challenge Songbird in court.  Rather, I hope that Songbird will be seen as the competition that Apple needs in order to make their product even better.
While Songbird gets the basics down cold, it is the new and innovative touches that are so much more impressive.  Songbird is trying to make a competitive ecosphere to the iTunes ecosphere – and they are doing a pretty good job of it so far.  So what is the Songbird team doing rght:
– There is an add-on / plugin architecture that is showing some initial success – and a whole lot of promise.  If developers start creating new add-ons, the future promise of the platform will be amazing.  As new technologies are developed, they can be plugged straight into Songbird.  So we won’t have to wait upon a new mega-release from Apple.  Rather, we can incorporate those changes that we need from any number of competing software developers.
– The core HTML rendering engine (Gecko) is quite an improvement over the rendering that is based upon the Safari engine.  Yes, there is a great deal of similarity between Gecko and Webkit.  And there is a lot to like about Webkit.  But Gecko is still a superior application infrastructure – at least, for now.
– Using the add-on foundation, there is some excellent Last.fm integration already available.  There is insufficient room to discuss all the cool things about Last.fm.  But here is the short version: Last.fm is an exceptional system for collecting immense amounts of metadata about personal music libraries.  And I can use Last.fm to build a community around the music I listen to, the music of my friends, the music of my favorite bands, and the music of bands I might like to listen to.  And whereas the Last.fm folks do have a plugin for iTunes, the integration in Songbird is “out of the box” – and can be revised/extended via the add-on / plugin framework.
– There are a couple of very good add-ons for the Twitter community.  Unlike the iTunes add-on (from Last.fm), I have direct control over which songs I want to tweet about.  So I can send an occasional tweet about who I’m listening to – rather than flooding my Twitter feed with every song every few minutes.  This is incredibly important as I want folks to know when I’m listening to music – but don’t want to swamp them with a flood of tweets.  When I was scrobbling all 5500+ songs in my library (over a two-week period) this would have been catastrophic to my followers.
– There are some very cool add-ons that are still a little bit unstable.  For example, I really like having access to a lyrics database that is online.  But at this point in time, the lyrics add-on is a little unstable.  So I’ve turned it off.  But the fact that I can enable and disable this features with very little effort is so very encouraging to me.  It shows that the plugin framework is robust and manageable.
– I can’t wait to see the next series of plugins that will show up.  Personally, I am very interested in seeing Musicbrainz integration.  Musicbrainz has a very nifty song fingerprinting system that can be used for obscure CD’s that might not be in Apple’s library.  And up until a few months ago, this included Beatles CD’s.    So I used MusicBrainz to determine which album art and which ID3 tags to associate with CD’s I couldn’t get recognized by iTunes.  Again, I would rather work with a community source of metadata rather than a corporation that seeks to “provide” and “manage” metadata about my music.
There are a couple of things that still need to be ironed out before the final 1.0 release.  Some of the add-ons that are available need to be stabilized.  And some of the core needs some performance tweaks.  And I still think there are some race conditions present in hte Vista code.  But I’m sure that will all get ironed out in the next couple of weeks.
But the single largest element that is missing is the tight integration of a music store.  I’m a little conflicted over this item.  Songbird really needs this to be competitive.  But it needs to be done in a way that any number of stores could be used.  I would love to see integration with Wal-Mart, Amazon and a host of others.  But I wonder how that can be done in short order.  In any case, I really would love to see cleaner and sharper purchasing capabilities.  That way, I can buy new songs I find.  I don’t want to go through ridiculous hoops in order to purchase and import music into my library.
Bottom Line: Songbird is an exceptional platform for building an entire music ecosystem.  And its architecture is fundamentally extensible in a way that iTunes never will be.  I can’t wait to see how my new media player evolves.
-Roo

Let’s Set Our Music Free

Lorin Olsen

songbird-rc2

I am not someone who believes in music piracy.  I buy music.  And if I download a song for some reason, I have to go out and buy the music at some point in the near future.  I guess I have a finely tuned inner voice (call it the Holy Spirit) that doesn’t let me get away with stealing.  But I do believe that I should be able to listen to music (that I have purchased) anywhere and everywhere I go.  For this reason, I rip every CD I have into MP3 format.  And when I download music, I try and buy music that is not encumbered with DRM technology.

But like most music enthusiasts, I have had to settle with Apple’s music ecosphere for far too long.  I do love iTunes.  But it is a very pretty walled garden.  I can have anything and everything that Steve Jobs wants me to have.  I can even have video and games – as long as I buy them from him.  And I can even have “DRM free” music (called iTunes Plus) – as long as I buy it from the iTunes store.

But if I buy content from other sources (or rip it from obscure CD’s I own), it is dreadfully difficult to add it to my iTunes library.  Yes, I can use Amazon’s store and install their add-on software.  And I can use MusicPass (from Sony/BMG).  But both of these technologies have an uneasy feel about their integration with iTunes.  It’s all getting better and better.  But integration advances are under the control of Apple.  All they have to do is change iTunes versions and unilaterally disable anything done by other people (or organizations).

And that’s where Songbird comes in.  Songbird is an open source media player that is based upon the Mozilla foundation.  And this week, the Songbird team is getting very close to offering a competitive product to the iTunes ecosphere.  This week, they released the second release candidate for Songbird 1.0.  And while they ask bloggers and editors to refrain from comments until the software is stabilized, I still have to provide a glimpse into what will soon be available – a world free from the rules of Steve’s Matrix.

Songbird does the basics with ease.  You can organize all of your music/media files with ease.  And the interface is familiar enough.  I am a little concerned that too much of iTunes’ “look-and-feel” may be incorporated.  And with that, there is risk that Apple may take legal action against the Songbird team.  But there are enough differences in “look-and-feel” that this will be difficult to prove in a court of law.  And I hope that Apple will not challenge Songbird in court.  Rather, I hope that Songbird will be seen as the competition that Apple needs in order to make their product even better.

While Songbird gets the basics down cold, it is the new and innovative touches that are so much more impressive.  Songbird is trying to make a competitive ecosphere to the iTunes ecosphere – and they are doing a pretty good job of it so far.  So what is the Songbird team doing rght:

– There is an add-on / plugin architecture that is showing some initial success – and a whole lot of promise.  If developers start creating new add-ons, the future promise of the platform will be amazing.  As new technologies are developed, they can be plugged straight into Songbird.  So we won’t have to wait upon a new mega-release from Apple.  Rather, we can incorporate those changes that we need from any number of competing software developers.

– The core HTML rendering engine (Gecko) is quite an improvement over the rendering that is based upon the Safari engine.  Yes, there is a great deal of similarity between Gecko and Webkit.  And there is a lot to like about Webkit.  But Gecko is still a superior application infrastructure – at least, for now.

– Using the add-on foundation, there is some excellent Last.fm integration already available.  There is insufficient room to discuss all the cool things about Last.fm.  But here is the short version: Last.fm is an exceptional system for collecting immense amounts of metadata about personal music libraries.  And I can use Last.fm to build a community around the music I listen to, the music of my friends, the music of my favorite bands, and the music of bands I might like to listen to.  And whereas the Last.fm folks do have a plugin for iTunes, the integration in Songbird is “out of the box” – and can be revised/extended via the add-on / plugin framework.

– There are a couple of very good add-ons for the Twitter community.  Unlike the iTunes add-on (from Last.fm), I have direct control over which songs I want to tweet about.  So I can send an occasional tweet about who I’m listening to – rather than flooding my Twitter feed with every song every few minutes.  This is incredibly important as I want folks to know when I’m listening to music – but don’t want to swamp them with a flood of tweets.  When I was scrobbling all 5500+ songs in my library (over a two-week period) this would have been catastrophic to my followers.

– There are some very cool add-ons that are still a little bit unstable.  For example, I really like having access to a lyrics database that is online.  But at this point in time, the lyrics add-on is a little unstable.  So I’ve turned it off.  But the fact that I can enable and disable this features with very little effort is so very encouraging to me.  It shows that the plugin framework is robust and manageable.

– I can’t wait to see the next series of plugins that will show up.  Personally, I am very interested in seeing Musicbrainz integration.  Musicbrainz has a very nifty song fingerprinting system that can be used for obscure CD’s that might not be in Apple’s library.  And up until a few months ago, this included Beatles CD’s.    So I used MusicBrainz to determine which album art and which ID3 tags to associate with CD’s I couldn’t get recognized by iTunes.  Again, I would rather work with a community source of metadata rather than a corporation that seeks to “provide” and “manage” metadata about my music.

There are a couple of things that still need to be ironed out before the final 1.0 release.  Some of the add-ons that are available need to be stabilized.  And some of the core needs some performance tweaks.  And I still think there are some race conditions present in hte Vista code.  But I’m sure that will all get ironed out in the next couple of weeks.

But the single largest element that is missing is the tight integration of a music store.  I’m a little conflicted over this item.  Songbird really needs this to be competitive.  But it needs to be done in a way that any number of stores could be used.  I would love to see integration with Wal-Mart, Amazon and a host of others.  But I wonder how that can be done in short order.  In any case, I really would love to see cleaner and sharper purchasing capabilities.  That way, I can buy new songs I find.  I don’t want to go through ridiculous hoops in order to purchase and import music into my library.

Bottom Line: Songbird is an exceptional platform for building an entire music ecosystem.  And its architecture is fundamentally extensible in a way that iTunes never will be.  I can’t wait to see how my new media player evolves.

-Roo

Davies Brought Back "The Shooty Dog Thing"

Lorin Olsen

Russell T. Davies should get a medal from the Queen. While the Time Lords could live beyond a single lifetime through a process known as regeneration, Mr. Davies has done something far beyond their capacity: he has resuscitated this timeless series. And while the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) was a great new Doctor for a new generation, David Tennant (under Mr. Davies’ writing) is just as wonderful.
So far this season, we’ve seen talking cats (that were dressed as nuns), werewolves, and now “bat-things” who want to become gods. And they are willing to bribe Time Lords and despoil school children to make this happen. The writing in the first three episodes has been magnificent. Each new episode has gotten better. And this third episode is now one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes ever.
Why? That’s simple. Two of the first companions I ever saw were Sarah Jane and K9. And in this episode, we see both of them. And we also see something uniquely witty and wonderful: the transformation of Mickey. Just as K9 was more than the “tin dog” for Sarah Jane, Mickey maybe come more than the doe-eyed, puppy dog that follows Rose around. He became a man – and he may become a companion (if even for a short time).
I can’t wait to see each new episode. I sure hope that the Sci-Fi channel will pick this series up as well as last year’s episodes!
-CyclingRoo-
BTW, the name “Torchwood” can also be found in this episode. So it’s now three for three.

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