arsenicnet

Technology: Blessing or Curse

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:05:58 -0500

I’m working at home today (and getting a ton done, go figure) when there’s a knock on the door.

It’s someone from the Jehovah’s Witnesses offering me a booklet called “Technology: Blessing or Curse.” Nice meaning guy, but obviously not of the “know your audience” school of marketing.

I said I’d be glad to talk to you about the evils of technology. Let me do the following things first.

- Stop watching Netflix on my PS3.

- Turn off Slacker streaming radio.

- Stop writing blog posts for ErieBlogs.com

- Playing Bejeweled on Facebook

- IM’ing with my work colleagues in the office

- Writing a review of a cloud-based management app.

- Charging Evan’s iPod

He’s coming back next week. I think I’ll be in the office that day.

Smoky Bacon Crisps Thanks, Adam Palin, for the suggestion to get...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:46:30 -0500

Smoky Bacon Crisps

Thanks, Adam Palin, for the suggestion to get these. They were great.

(University of Essex, July 2009)

Pity Party - Overnight Success 6 (via chrisbrogan) This is an...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:21:20 -0400

Pity Party - Overnight Success 6 (via chrisbrogan)

This is an interesting series of videos.

Weezer Time Machine

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:57:16 -0400

I wish I had a time machine so that I could go back in time and sit down with Rivers Cuomo. I’d want it to be exactly the day before Pinkerton comes out. I’d sit him down and tell him what a masterpiece the blue album was, and Pinkerton is amazing - it’s deep and it sounds different, which is very good. The songs on Pinkerton are amazing and it takes a while to dig down deep into them and pick out little nuggets of fun, little bits of pop inside the jangly guitars.

Don’t be discouraged, I’d say. Pinkerton’s going to tank, initially. That’s going to be really hard for you. Trust me, I know disappointment. But in time, people are going to love this album. Whatever you do, don’t give up on making great pop tunes and wearing your heart on your sleeve.

To reinforce this, I’d take him in my time machine to the present day, and make him listen to what he’s created post-Pinkerton; show him he’d lost his way. I’d make him listen to “Beverly Hills” and I would force him to listen to the abomination that is a new song with Weezer and Lil’ Wayne. It’s so awful, it’s like you’re not even trying. Look at these lyrics:

Monday to Sunday I hit all the clubs
And everybody knows me when I pull up
I got the real big posse with me, yeah I’m deep
And if u lookin for me I’m in vip

That’s not even trying. Take El Scorcho. You’re trying and you’re telling stories in each of the songs. There’s no story to tell in “Can’t Stop Partying.”

I asked you to go to the Green Day concert
You said you never heard of them
How cool is that?
So I went to your room and read your diary:
“Watching Grunge leg-drop New-Jack through a press table…”
And then my heart stopped: “Listening to Cio-Cio San
Fall in love all over again.”

It’s too late now, but if I had my time machine, I’d tell him to keep on keeping on and write music that means something to you. If you are true to yourself, it will show through in the music and you will find an audience. Seeing what they are now is just sad.

‘Low Rising’ by Swell Season on Q TV This song on...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:17:15 -0400

‘Low Rising’ by Swell Season on Q TV

This song on the album sounds very Van Morrison-y. Which is good.

"Woman, your fine ointment, brand new and expensive could have been saved for the poor. Why has it..."

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:11:46 -0400

“Woman, your fine ointment, brand new and expensive
could have been saved for the poor.
Why has it been wasted? We could have raised maybe
Three hundred silver pieces or more.
People who are hungry, people who are starving
matter more than your feet and hair!”

- Everything’s Alright

Damien Dempsey - Sing All Our Cares Away

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:27:11 -0400

Damien Dempsey - Sing All Our Cares Away

CBC HNIC Opening Intro Penguins vs Leafs - Oct 10th 2009 (HD)...

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:52:16 -0400

CBC HNIC Opening Intro Penguins vs Leafs - Oct 10th 2009 (HD) (via HockeyWebCast)

Movie Award Leftovers (via FatalFarm) The Dark Knight one is...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:58:34 -0400

Movie Award Leftovers (via FatalFarm)

The Dark Knight one is funny.

Captain Scott Memorial Statue, Cardiff Bay

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:53:58 -0400

Captain Scott Memorial Statue, Cardiff Bay

The Swell Season Perform New Songs at an NPR Music Tiny Desk...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:34:00 -0400

The Swell Season Perform New Songs at an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

I very much like the Swell Season stuff, but I want a full Frames record + tour.

The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond (via alun.vega) ...

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:32:34 -0400

The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond (via alun.vega)

4 Ways to Improve YourErie.com

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:42:23 -0400

Here are 4 ways to fix YourErie.com, free of charge. These are easy to implement updates they can put into place today to make it a better experience for site users.

1. COMPRESS!

The header image on the left hand side of your site is 480 pixels by 400 pixels and a shocking 196kb. Yes, we live in the age of broadband, but since you’re resizing it to 240 x 200 pixels, do that ahead of time and speed up your site. Adding a bit of JPEG compression gets that down to 37k. That’s a nice savings right there.

While we’re talking about compression, you’re not compressing your PHP pages. You seriously have to just one line of code to your PHP app. Here it is:

That’s it. You could get your pages to compress a crazy 80% leading to a 376% increase in speed. Here’s a screenshot from PipeBoost:

2. RSS

You have no way for people to subscribe to your site’s main news RSS feed. You have a news feed, but I had to dig for it. You only have the Riehl Gardener RSS and a “MyMedia” feed set as the defaults site wide. Fix this, and let people subscribe to it via reader, widget and email. Try Feedburner. We use it at ErieBlogs.com. It’s great and it’s free. Want to learn more about Feedburner? I blogged about it here.

3. When is a blog not a blog?

A blog isn’t a blog when its a forum. Call it like it is. Forums make it difficult for people to leave comments and engage you, and its very difficult to syndicate content throughout your site and the web when you have it locked into a forum. Use Wordpress, even the hosted Wordpress and sell ads on the increase in pageviews.

4. Social Media

Where are your social media efforts? You have no Facebook fan page, ~~no Twitter~~ and 1 Twitter account for sports. Take that news RSS feed I mentioned earlier and send it right to Twitter and Facebook. Take your news headlines to where the people are, not the other way around.

You need to take an active role in your social media outreach. Your Twitter feed hasn’t been updated in a week.

Carl Sagan - ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking...

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:56:05 -0400

Carl Sagan - ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed) (via melodysheep)

Beautiful.

Roald Dahl Plass Cardiff, Wales August 2009

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:17:01 -0400

Roald Dahl Plass

Cardiff, Wales

August 2009

DKM - 413 Another track made in 2002. For a time there, I was...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:34:48 -0400

DKM - 413

Another track made in 2002. For a time there, I was really good in Fruityloops. There are a lot of layers here. Listen with headphones to really get it all.

Jim Norton KILLED on Leno last night. Hilarious. Fruncas.

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:56:09 -0400

Jim Norton KILLED on Leno last night. Hilarious.

Fruncas.

DKM - Ephemera Comprar (2002)

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:15:29 -0400

DKM - Ephemera Comprar (2002)

Letters to a young poet

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:01:53 -0400

Letters to a young poet:

I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

The first 30 seconds or so sound just like the opening theme of...

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:40:39 -0400

The first 30 seconds or so sound just like the opening theme of old school Doctor Who. All that’s missing is a TARDIS.