Heart-less

It was about 30 years ago, in a galaxy far, far... gotcha!... this ain't no Star Wars thingy. I was listening to the radio--FM (we still did that back then), and this song came on. I was mesmerized; she had the most beautiful-powerful voice I had ever heard. (Janis Joplin's was the most powerful; Karen Carpenter's was the most beautiful.) I listened for the artist's name, but the guy didn't back-announce it... damn! Well, eventually, I heard it again: Heart. Ann Wilson... or was it Nancy Wilson? No one made it clear at first which of the "Wilson sisters" was singing the lead. (It was Ann, of course.) It was months before I saw what she/they looked like. (As you may recall, video was not very prevalent back then, and we didn't really care that much--music is about listening, not watching.) When I did finally see Ann Wilson, my God!, she's the most beautiful, totally hot rocker-chick I've ever seen. Still, I've never seen anyone who's better looking than Ann Wilson was back around 1980.

Fast-forward about 25 years. I find out that in the early/mid-80's that Heart's recording company executives were pressuring her to lose weight. Now, as we know from following the RIAA, those guys are not exactly a "brain trust", but, really, how stupid can a bunch of guys be? Did they really think more than a few people bought Heart's albums because of how they looked? or any artist's albums? And anyway, she was absolutely beautiful (and still is) and totally hot (meh); so I tend to believe that the only thing their constant pressuring accomplished was to coax her to gain even more weight--the more you're made to worry about something you don't want, the more it seems to come about. More worry/pressure --> more weight --> health problems --> fewer performances --> less listening pleasure for their fans. Damn, I was pissed about what had been going on.

My point is that a beautiful, healthy woman with immense talent was not simply allowed to be herself and do what she loved to do. Recording industry executives: what a bunch of a$$hole$, then and now.

Bit of a design flaw...

I have this monitor. It's a nice monitor--nothing special: 17" LCD, 1280x1024, integrated speakers. They're not bad speakers actually, for being so small... no bass, of course. There's only one problem with them: when the monitor goes into power-save mode the speakers go with it. This makes it somewhat difficult to get the notification alarms that programs issue... OK, impossible. So, I went out to get some cheap 2.1 speakers--why get speakers without a sub? I found some fairly good and cheap ones for half off with $10 rebate and $5 instant savings at CompUSA (they've always got something useful on "sale"): OK sound, on/off switch, analog volume knob... everything I need, but mostly no more "lost" alarms. And for only $15 plus tax, it's a steal.

Now, when they were designing this monitor, did they even consider the possibility that users would want to keep listening--for alarms? to music?--once the monitor was "off"? Probably not. The integrated speakers were a space-saver; I just wish they had been a little less integrated--a separate power circuit split off before the power-save control would have been a nice feature.

Feeder... rhymes with 'reader'

I'm not a "news hound". I'm not much concerned with everything that's going on all over the place around me but has no effect on my life at all, or hardly at all. There are, of course, some things that interest me, some things I like to "keep tabs" on. There are sites I like to visit every day and others I like to visit only once in a while. As such, I use a feed reader now and again. Right now I'm using Google Reader. I started using it quite a few months ago, but its feature set wasn't sufficient to keep me as a user. I'm trying it again now, and it's quite a bit more useful than it was. It's simple, efficient, and straight-forward; plus, I can use it everywhere. I'm sure they'll be adding more new features in the future, but I can't think of any more right now that I'd need.

Now, if they'd only improve Google Bookmarks some more.

Pidgin download and review - multi-platform instant messaging from SnapFiles

Pidgin download and review - multi-platform instant messaging from SnapFiles

Pidgin. Pidgeon? Carrier pigeon? Pidgeon English? (Hmmm... what are pigeons most known for--what they leave behind.) Well, I'm GAIM if you are. (No, I'm not into IM. And as for 'texting'? Hell, no!)
:-D

SaveNetRadio

Better yet, kill off the RIAA (Recording Industry A$$hole$ of America). Frankly, it wouldn't bother me very much if the music "died". Something needs to happen to teach the RIAA (and anyone affiliated with them) that 20% of something is better than 200% of nothing. Anyway, too many people take music for granted--they could stand to be without something constantly blaring in their ears for a few hours, or days, or weeks, or longer. Is it really so hard to be left with your own thoughts for awhile? I think some people use music like a drug, and they're addicted.

Frankly, for all the free advertising that the RIAA/artists get from radio, TV shows, and movies, I think the RIAA should pay them. I mean, broadcast radio stations get stuff sent to them for free as part of industry promotions. Why should one type of radio station be treated any differently from another type? (Yes, I actually know why.) Why should TV shows have to pay anything to anyone for playing a 20-second snippet that actually encourages viewers/listeners to go out and buy the song/album?

Look at "WKRP in Cincinnati". The music used in the show was paid for when it was produced--it was part of that era. Now, the RIAA and the artists want to rip-off the show's producers for even more money. This is common for all "vintage TV shows" being brought to DVD that have any music in them. Instead of being able to keep the show as the work of art that it was, they're forced to substitute some other music, totally screwing up the art that the show was but now isn't. I say, just throw in a super that lists who wanted how much money for what song so I'll know just who it is I can boycott and never buy anything from again. I want "WKRP in Cincinnati", but I want it the way it was when I saw it during its first run broadcasts, and that's the only way I want it--unless I can be sure the A$$hole$ are getting no money at all from its DVD sales.

Damn the man! (from the movie "Empire Records")

Playing around with Google Reader... again

It's been some months since I last used Google Reader (as well as having posted anything here--blogging can be such a pain). It hasn't changed a whole lot as far as the layout is concerned, but they have added some nifty new features. (Yes, Google is taking over the world!) One new thing is the "blog share" hook-up: share something in Reader and you can link to it on your blog (and using Google's Blogger makes it quite simple--puts a new widget in your layout). You can see it off to the right above the archive listing.

At the moment, I've got a series of tabs showing in my browser (Firefox, by the way): Gmail, Google Reader, Picasa, Google Calendar, and Blogger. It makes for something of an "office app" running in a "Firefox desktop". Throw in several more Firefox Portable instances, and you've got several virtual desktops... as many as you want (depending on how much memory you have--Firefox will gobble it up very nicely: I'm using 170MB right now, but I still have half a gig free, so no big)... ooo, look, a feed update...