After reading how a Minnesota woman was fined $1.9 million for downloading 24 songs I became morally outraged. Yes, downloading music that you did not purchase is not the right thing to do, but so is using vast financial and political influence to terrorize everyday Americans! Moreover, we have much more important things to worry about as a nation, especially in terms of our economic problems and political crises in unstable foreign nations. These things have been said before, however, they bear repeating because people continue to be opressed by what is ostensibly a ‘middleman’ lobbying organization that protects the public images of music executives and recording artists.

Firstly let me say that I personally don’t support getting stuff you don’t pay for. If I like an album and often listen to it, I buy it. Artists deserve to get paid for their work even though this generally doesn’t happen through the release of one’s first album. What follows are ideas you can use to both show your support of musicians while at the same time telling the RIAA to go screw itself.

Support non-RIAA artists and buy non-RIAA albums

Why is this important? Mainly because this is the primary corporate powerhouse trying to screw people by price fixing (Ever seen one new CD sell for more than another or a DVD? How does that work?), hunting people online, and trying to assemble our nation’s lawmaking political will against LEGAL digital downloads.

Go to these sites for more information:
http://www.riaaradar.com
Tool to tell you which albums are backed buy the RIAA

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

Buy Used CDs

This is a great legal way to get the music you want for less than half the price.
secondspin.com
half.ebay.com
Your local music store!

Use a private network to share

I am no legal scholar, but if I buy an album and rip it to my computer where my friends could play the file whenever no one else is using it, that would be called sharing. I should be allowed to share that music whenver I want. I believe iTunes has similar functionality built in already. but you could set up a Virtual Private Network to accomplish this on an ad hoc basis.

Share offline

Kick it old school. I’ve never used that phrase before, so I thought I would try it out. Make a mix CD, lend an album out. All of these things are the point of music anyway and it isn’t tied to your IP address.

Do not use Peer to Peer (P2P) services

There are a lot of legitimate uses for P2P networks, but in my mind the risk is just too great, especially where music is concerned. If you must trade files legitimately on the Internet, there are other ways to go about it that do not make use of this technology. The RIAA is spending millions of dollars trying to bulldoze the little guy and monetize every aspect of the album manufacturing process. They should be more concerned about the state of electronic media and distribution and how to put more value into the products they produce and unbundled media beyond 99 cents a song that actually make sense!

Use services like Pandora

Pandora is a great online muisc collection you can access (at this time) for free. Every artist I’ve ever searched for has come up. You can create custom music channels based on artists, genres or songs.

Tell your favorite artists you oppose the RIAA

OK- I’m not so sure how well this would work in actual practice, but for artists who are in touch with their fans, it couldn’t hurt? However, it seems to me that artists who have online communications with their fan base are probably doing independent types of things already.

For more information check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s page on file sharing and personal rights

Hanging out with my little guy is periods of work encased in a lot of fun. Our guilty pleasure is Kung-Fu Panda. He is only 5 months old, and it already is something he loves. He squeals at certain scenes in the movie. I try to talk a lot to him while we’re watching it, and he can’t concentrate that long on it.
We play a lot of games and I walk around the house with him in my left arm- this is by far his favorite activity.

I spent the whole weekend with him while my wife worked.

The Speck CandyShell is some of the best iPhone protection products I have seen. Hear me now and believe me later- And then hear me later because after my phone has exceeded the escape velocity of my hand, crashing to the unforgiving asphalt of my suburban surroundings I’ll still be able to place that phone call unless for some odd reason it lands roughly on a very sharp pointy rock onto the screen surface or drowns in a vat of deep fried chicken fat. Then I’m not so sure.

The CandyShell is aptly named. It has a hard exterior and a soft, gooey (hopefully shock absorbent) interior.

Still, it was a million times better than this horrible rubberized cover I got at BestBuy. I got a pink one cause all the many covers were taken. It was hard tot get in and out of my pocket, and eventually it tore after only a few months use. This CandyShell will take many licks I hope before I get to that soft center.

Check it out at http://www.speckproducts.com/products/candyshell/iphone-3g/162

They also make a tough skin that is the most testosterone-driven cover of all time.

I don’t know how Wizards of the Coast expects to comepte in a digital market using the same old books as a model for delivering content. Everythying ‘new’ they’ve tried up til now has been either half-hearted (as in the case of D&D 4th edition) or the ultimate in VaporWare (as with NeverWinter Nights, promising to be an online campaign delivery mechanism). And let us not forget those DM tools that were promised in 3rd edition, sourced out and played out to the max, the software title Temple of Elemental Evil which was riddled with errors, or the MMORPG which receieved lukewarm reviews at best.

From Ars Technica: Wizards of the Coast fails saving throw against pirates
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/04/wizards-of-the-coast-fails-saving-throw-against-pirates.ars

I’ve learned a whole lot- The last three months have been challenging, fascinating, and tiring. My little guy smiles at me a lot now- as long as he’s not in need of food, sleep or a diaper change- he is discovering the world and so am I.

So I haven’t been using this ‘Baby Blog’ as a baby blog. Hopefully this will change because I have a few insights that might help other new fathers, particularly when it comes the practicalities of fathering. My wife works part time again as a rehab nurse- and so I am responsible for his care when she goes to work. This is an interesting juggling act.

OK- so nothing is new under the sun and dads have been taking care of kids a lot longer than I’ve been around. However, there are some things I want to address:

1. Diapering: Cloth versus Disposable
2. Meal times: Feeding the kid with Momma’s milk
3. Crying and how to help the kid calm down
4. The most fun
5. Peoples’ reactions in public
6. How to multitask with the baby on board
7. Attachment centered parenting
8. How to get over yourself to be a better parent
9. Technology to the rescue

If I can cover half these topics in the next few weeks I shall claim victory.

Also I’m playing around with things on the sidebar- ads and videos. I know this is annoying and it probably wont make me any money, so I will probably do away with them or at least peddle things only that I’ve personally used like babybjorn which I’ve found just awesome.

My favorite site as I prepare for my own drafts is Footballguys.com. They are a first rate service, and have greatly enabled me to consistently make winning picks.

Wikipedia says:

Miracle fruit is available as freeze dried granules or in tablets – this form has a longer shelf life than fresh fruit. Tablets are made from compressed freeze dried fruit which causes the texture to be clearly visible even in tablet form.

The effect of Miracle fruit is made possible by contact with the tongue, not through digestion. For this reason, tablets must be allowed to dissolve in the mouth. The most pronounced effect can be achieved by coating the entire tongue in a paste of Miracle fruit for up to 30 seconds.

The tablets are currently very difficult to get outside of Asia, where they are popular among diabetics and dieters.^[4][5] However, in many countries they can be purchased on the Internet.

I am now on the hunt for some dried miracle fruit!

Check out these links:

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/miraclefruit.html

http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/02/miracle_fruit_review.php

http://www.miracleconnect.com/

http://www.bennadel.com/blog/780-The-Miracle-Fruit-Miraculous-Berry-Turns-Sour-To-Sweet.htm

Flock Announces New Fashion and Entertainment

Edition of Award Winning Social Web Browser

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Flock (www.flock.com), the innovative social Web browser that helps its users connect, share and discover the best of the modern Web, today announced the availability of the Gloss Edition, the world’s first and only fashion and entertainment browser. The Gloss Edition is based on the latest version of the award winning Flock browser, and comes pre-populated with best of breed news, photos, videos and feeds from more than 35 fashion and entertainment content partners across the Web.

Flock’s Gloss Edition is designed to deliver the latest fashion interviews, red carpet events and the hottest style trends to users allowing them to easily share content and information with friends. Flock’s Media Streams, News Feeds and Favorites features have been pre-programmed with content recommended from today’s leading lifestyle sources like Popsugar, InStyle.com, Glam.com, ThisNext.com, Ecorazzi.com, DesignerApparel.com and other leading style and entertainment brands.

“Flock makes the organization and presentation of this content intuitive and helps users easily discover and share media, feeds and information with their social network profiles, family and friends,” said Shawn Hardin, CEO of Flock. “The Gloss Edition, together with the recently released Eco-Edition, demonstrates the power of Flock’s platform to serve diverse groups who are deeply passionate about a variety of interests.”

“Glam Media is excited to be a part of Flock’s Gloss edition,” said Ryan Roslansky, Vice President, Products & Content, Glam Media. “With integration at the browser level, we’ll be able to reach new audiences while providing an easy way for consumers to access content from our more than 500 popular lifestyle publishers in the Glam Network.”

Additionally, Popsugar and InStyle fans will have the option to download special Popsugar and InStyle versions of the Gloss Edition browser. The content of the two versions will remain with the same great fashion and entertainment features, but will include default homepages featuring the respective partner sites.

The Flock Gloss Edition Browser is available as a free software download for Mac, PC and Linux at http://www.flock.com/gloss.

About Flock

Flock is the first and only social Web browser that helps users connect, share and discover the best of the modern Web. Flock delivers a more personal Web experience, where users are in control and more connected to what they value. In 2008, Flock received the Webby Award for social networking, the SXSW Community Award and was listed #6 in PC World’s 100 Best Products of 2008. Built on Mozilla’s constantly improving Firefox architecture (http://www.flock.com/mozilla) Flock is free to download and use at http://www.flock.com. Founded in 2005, Flock is based in Redwood City, Calif. and has an office in Victoria, British Columbia.

I completed the requirements for my Masters of Public Administration. I have to say I am really happy not to be in school any more. I feel the pull of wanting to take classes in much the same way someone with Stockholm Syndrome probably feels about his captors. I’m really super happy and can’t wait to further reap the benefits that this course of education has given to me.