DygiScape

You know you’re in Tucson when the local alt-rock station has their semi-annual rock concert featuring several newer bands and a couple headliners. Further, it will be at either the Pima County Fairgrounds or at the Tucson Electric Park (home of the Diamondbacks spring training and Arizona Sidewinders).

Instead of boring my mind out of bands I don’t know, my sister, Seth and I went around 5PM. ‘Against Me’ was just getting done with their set, then some non-live music and then Cypress Hill went on stage.

Also, I love how Tucson concerts always are kicked off with “F!&@ Tucson!” and some other crowd-pleasers. Surprisingly (note: sarcasm), despite the high presence of police, I smelled a lot of smoke that wasn’t from tobacco. CH performed quite well and played their most popular songs as well as classics.

Next up was Smashing Pumpkins who was the main headliner. Clouds moved in and thunder rocked the folks, but the show went on as planned. People squeezed in together and moshed for a bit. While I don’t (and can’t) crowd-surf, I figured I can help the younger patrons enjoy it by me giving them a lift. It was pretty fun, and I felt like I was 16 again.

“RAIN OR SHINE” was printed on the ticket for good reason. Rain came in from the south and started as a sprinkle but resulted in a downfall of a couple inches (in Tucson?!), and the concert was interrupted. Judging from the people, the show kept going on with the numerous jumping, flailing arms and screaming minors. After a few minutes and fans getting soaked, the chants began; when I even helped start a few since I felt very “viral” that moment:

“We Want More!” , “Smashing Pumpkins!” , “Rain or Shine!” , “Booo!” , and other jeering chants. Eventually, Billy Corgan responded, telling people to relax, stop throwing trash at the band, and to have patience as they check all the equipment. Everyone cheered and basically people just waited as it poured. Then the show resumed, everyone went wild and the moshing resumed. Three songs later, SP ended off with a mediocre slower song; and that was it.

On the way out, it was gridlock with no assistance from the local law enforcement. I always question why the police never seem to be there for traffic control or to assist in moving a large volume of people. Instead, they just do paperwork in their car, put their ‘red and blues’ on collect their overtime pay for the special event.

Made it home, tired, wet, cold, but very satisfied. I’ll be working tomorrow, but it’s my birthday. I didn’t put a lot of foresight into that, but I’m sure my managers will give me a little break and only expect me to check e-mail periodically. My manager’s boss’ boss gave me a birthday balloon on Facebook, which was a nice treat to end off tonight.

Back to watching Cops on CourtTV.

Blogging, Personal music

I’m pwnt. Sorta. I’ve been quite busy at work so I haven’t really had a lot of extra time to focus on my personal blog. Watch out, cause I’ve dedicated some time this weekend to catch up on it.

In my daily grind, I work very closely with current events, such as celebrity news and other major news — but not in publishing or editing (thank god!), but rather the community management aspect of it. For example, cleaning up the distasteful commentary from visitors, and helping make for a positive user experience. At times, I find it necessary to vent simply because of the fact I get wrapped up in the drama, and I also maintain equality in my moderation so, y’know. That said, here is my response to various news topics:

• Paris Hilton goes to jail — gets out — and goes back again. It needs not to be said that she is no better than everyone else in society, quite possibly worse. Her life is a party and it’s time she exhibits some responsibility for her crimes. I’m not sure if she is mentally capable of understanding her actions, I mean she has the same exact facial expression (sans, bawling), as if she was deserving to not be imprisoned. I’m so terribly sorry she has to go back to her detention center — be grateful it isn’t an overcrowded Maricopa Co. (The worst prison system in Arizona) prison. Seriously though, I hope she takes this moment to analyze her life and see if the party is over and to pursue a more mature role in life. My solution: Have her parents cut her off from money, cars, real estate and make PR about their disdain of their irresponsible daughter.
• ‘Jack’ Charged with MO Teen’s Death. No, she wasn’t abducted because of her short-shorts or physique. No, it’s not the liberals’ fault. No, it’s not Bush’s fault. No, it’s not MySpace’s fault. It was done by an individual who has yet to release the motive in the murder — so let’s just wait until more details unfold before we jump to conclusions.
• School Denies Diplomas Because of Cheers. You’ve got to be kidding me. This teaches our children that red tape and bureaucracy will ultimately determine their path in life. I don’t care if some document tells me that I can’t celebrate my graduation until you say so. In my experience, cheers, screaming, air horns and other forms of outdoor-expression is common while someone is speaking. While it is disrespectful, it does not warrant denying someone their diploma. I hope these people don’t make it to my Jury…

That’s all the news I’ll dish on for now.

I also have been playing researching Facebook and it’s many qualities (and limitations) as a social network. I was thinking of making a “Facebook Vs. MySpace” chart, but in all honesty, you can’t compare social networks this way because of the varying dynamics that can’t be explained in a spreadsheet. Sure, I can put down the numbers like monetization, users, and growth but who really cares about that? You can check out my Facebook profile, additionally, you can visit my updated MySpace profile, if you’re interested.

Earlier this week, I went to the Fall Out Boy concert. It was fun and I was happily delighted to be blasted with watts and watts of bass from Paul Wall, too. I admit, that it was was odd to have Paul Wall at an Emo concert, but it looked like everyone had a good time. I waited in the pouring rain to get in and I snapped 240+ pictures like an overzealous photographer. All in all Sarah and I had fun. She blogged about it, without me suggesting it. Yay!

Just to test if anyone of my family actually reads my blog, I’d like to confess that I’ve smoked cigarettes even though I know it is completely antithetical for me to do so. Personally, I enjoy Djarium Blacks and despise American cig’s. I know they are a waste of money, bad for you, and will kill you. Sometimes, we all need a little poison to end off a long day. Snarkily, there you have it. I’m not lying, though I do feel eerily guilty. :: Innocent grin ::

On a related thought — I haven’t gotten piss-ass Irish (yes, I know I’m Italian) drunk in a long time. Damn, I crave some Irish Car-Bombs, Jaeger-Bomb, and Vodka. You know you are a real drunk when you start planning your future vacation around which bars you will be going to. Haha, I kid.

Thanks for making it this far in this entry. Will you be kind enough to share your thoughts in the comments below?

Blogging, Personal music, News

I was reading the story that NY Times ran on Pandora and the impact of Copyright Royalty Board’s royalty rate increase. I predict that the Internet Radio Equality Act will die in the House. There is just too large of a gap between politicians and Internet users. Don’t believe me?

…Ask Senator Ted Stevens. Alright, I’ll keep off the Series of Tubes meme…

Never fear. Restrictions like this force innovation. It happened with Napster, Suprnova, and now Internet Radio. Well, if you were a good musical thief, you should have gigs and gigs of music to share with other people. Winamp (has finally) caught up to making it easy to remotely broadcast over your broadband connection with Winamp Remote. This allows you to listen to your collection of music for free via the internet. The caveat is that its intended for single-use.

Setup your own online radio station (albeit soon to be illegal) with Shoutcast. You can queue up all your music and let listeners find you. This takes a little more skill to setup and more bandwidth to run, but hell, go for it. At least you are fighting for your digital freedom.

Now, if that isn’t for you, you can try downloading music of course from Limewire (Gnutella network). The only thing there, is that you run the risk of getting a ‘DMCA Takedown Notice’ and possible termination from your provider. You are essentially biting the hand that feeds your downloading if you go that route.

Finally, you can also go old school with burning it and trading it with friends. The updated way of doing this so it doesn’t look like you’re a birdman, is to lend your iPod to a buddy and load songs with iTunes. It’s fast, friendly and is somewhat cool.

Anyhow the purpose of my semi-educational/mischievous entry today is that no matter what restrictions are placed, the average person can still circumvent them. This is the Windows Genuine Advantage of Internet Radio, it will slow it down but not eliminate it. I mean, it was only hours until WGA was bypassed. We don’t need to panic.

Leave me your reactions to this, as I compare prices on DVD-Rs.

Blogging, Geeky, Politics Government, internet, music, Rants

If it weren’t for IRC, FTPs and our favorite — KaZaA, would we know about how great Adobe Photoshop is? The $700 professional photo-editing application was (and is) widely available on piracy networks. Same for the beta copies of Windows Vista and formerly XP. What if software companies embraced early adopters instead of fighting them?

I know I used Photoshop when I was younger, and I assure you I couldn’t afford it at the time. Since I became “hooked” on the Adobe and Macromedia series of software applications, I used it all the time and recommend it to friends and family. In turn, my momentary loss of a sale turned into prospects and sales simply because I used the software.

What if a software company released their software to the seeders on a pirate network? No cracks or keygens needed, just a private release for that network. For example, a special copy of that favorite graphics program just for The Pirate Bay. Allow the folks to spread it, use it will in turn recommend it. This can potentially spread the buzz about that product by enabling the influencers to use it, without them paying a dime.

The business folk might ask how to monetize it. This can be a tough choice, but you can limit certain features of the software and prompt them to upgrade to a full license. This can lead to potential sales as people require more heavy duty uses of the program. Another option is embedding an optional advertisement window into the software. Nothing intrusive or would upset a user, but something balance the “free” user out so you can churn some dough.

This might not be feasible for large software corporations like Microsoft or Adobe, but perhaps the lower-tiered ones have a chance to get their software out there, in front of the people to spread the word. I know that I’d try a program that was meant to be free versus one that isn’t.

A very timely blog entry from CrunchGear explains the history and the aspects of piracy in simple terms. Is this something that the “elite” lost their domination of? Are simple users (aka, n00bs) getting into it? This is probably the biggest fear the RIAA and MPAA have is when the average person is ripping, seeding, and burning seamlessly. Oh, wait — that was years ago.

That said, I discourage software piracy, but I do support companies embracing their “threats” and finding innovative solutions for them. This can happen with software, music, games or even movies. Just think if that hot new movie you downloaded was sponsored by Verizon?

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

[tags]warez, software, appz, gamez, movies, solutions, business, piracy, consumers[/tags]

Blogging, Geeky music, PR, Software, Torrent, videos

If you actively listen to streaming music online, you might recall hearing audio PSA’s about Saving Net Radio. Internet radio is on its way of being axed thanks to the Copyright Royalty Board. We all need to stand up and fight for the right to listen to independent online radio. Luckily, there is a glimpse of hope.

In a nutshell, the Copyright Royalty Board raised royalty fees [pdf] that an online radio station must pay to be permitted to rebroadcast copyrighted material. The staggering raise on the fees will put all internet radio out. This is not a solution to piracy, it does not compensate the artists, it accomplishes nothing! Further, when thousands of users and internet broadcasters appealed, they were denied a hearing. It only exemplifies the corruption in decisions like this.

One has to really anticipate how people will react to this, you know the average person. What has historically happened, when a method to disrupt someone’s ability to enjoy something online, they will just go for it overseas. This has happened with KaZaA when their software was deemed illegal on US territory. This also happened with The Pirate Bay, when they were raided (with a country who enforces copyright infringement). They’re about to be back up standing stronger than ever.

I’ll say it again — Silencing Internet broadcasters does not and will not cease copyright infringement.

For every step they make to halt downloading of music or video, I’ll download three. If you are ‘leet, then you know that sound similar to Maddox and his approach to vegetarians. This isn’t about compensating the artists, is the fact that people are relying on our government to regulate the Internet. This is only just the tip of the iceberg, I encourage anyone who values their right to privacy online to question authority on this one.

Luckily, there is a bill (H.R. 2060, “Internet Radio Equality Act”) that will nullify this. The only thing though, you need to get your congressman to help sponsor it. Go to SaveNetRadio.org and follow the steps. It’s easy, and it may make the difference if we hear silence on May 15th.

[tags]Radio, Music, Internet, SaveNetRadio, Equality, Copyright, CRB, Piracy, Users, Shoutcast[/tags]

Blogging, Geeky, Personal, Politics Government, internet, music

I rarely, if ever, listen to radio. In Tucson, the conglomerate like elsewhere is ClearChannel, and I happened to hear the new Weird Al tune “White and Nerdy”. It’s a parody of Chamillionaire’s Ridin’ Dirty song. I found it quite funny, and rings home to me. Just in case you want to check it out, I have the lyrics and the links to the video/sound to it so you can hear it.

Lyrics: Wierd Al Yankovic ‘White & Nerdy‘

They see me mowin’
My front lawn
I know they’re all thinking I’m so white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Can’t you see I’m white and nerdy?
Look at me, I’m white and nerdy
I wanna roll with
The gangstas
But so far they all think I’m too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
I’m just too white and nerdy.
Really really white and nerdy.

First in my class here at MIT
Got skills, I’m a champion at D&D
MC Escher - that’s my favorite MC
Keep your 40, I’ll just have an Earl Grey tea
My rims never spin, to the contrary
You’ll find that they’re quite stationary
All of my action figures are cherry
Steven Hawking’s in my library
My MySpace page is all totally pimped out
Got people beggin’ for my top eight spaces
Yo, I know pi to a thousand places
Ain’t got no grills but I still wear braces
I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise
I’m a whiz at Minesweeper - I could play for days
Once you see my sweet moves you’re gonna stay amazed
My fingers’ movin’ so fast I’ll set the place ablaze
There’s no killer app I haven’t run
At Pascal, well I’m number one
Do vector calculus just for fun
I ain’t got a gat but I got a soldering gun
Happy Days is my favorite theme song
I could sure kick your butt in a game of ping pong
I’ll ace any trivia quiz you bring on
I’m fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon

They see me roll on
My Segway
I know in my heart they think I’m white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Can’t you see I’m white and nerdy
Look at me, I’m white and nerdy
I’d like to roll with
The gangstas
Although it’s apparent I’m too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
I’m just too white and nerdy
How’d I get so white and nerdy

I’ve been browsin’, inspectin’
X-Men comics, you know I collect ‘em
The pens in my pocket, I must protect ‘em
My ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored
Shopping online for deals on some writable media
I edit Wikipedia
I memorized Holy Grail really well
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL
I got a business doing websites
When my friends need some code, who do they call?
I do HTML for ‘em all
Even made a homepage for my dog
Yo, I got myself a fanny pack
They were havin’ a sale down at The Gap
Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap
Pop, pop, hope no one sees me
Gettin’ freaky
I’m nerdy in the extreme
And whiter than sour cream
I was in AV Club and Glee Club and even the Chess Team
Only question I
Ever thought was hard
Was do I like Kirk
Or do I like Picard
Spend every weekend at the Renaissance Fair
Got my name on my underwear

They see me strollin’
They laughin’
And rollin’ their eyes ‘cause I’m so white and nerdy
Just because I’m white and nerdy
Just because I’m white and nerdy
All because I’m white and nerdy
Holy cow, I’m white and nerdy
I wanna bowl with
The gangstas
But, oh well, it’s obvious I’m white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
I’m just too white and nerdy
Look at me, I’m white and nerdy

Downloads:

MP3 - http://f9.putfile.com/videos/24412412355.mp3
Google Video (streaming) - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5850712885114934940&q=White+Nerdy

Funny, Geeky internet, memes, music, web