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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Happy Days Are Here Again - 10 Free Junior Frosties for $1 at Wendy's!!!

The economy may be in the toilet right now but if you're a fan of the Wendy's Frosty there's a little sunshine headed your way.

With Halloween just around the corner, Wendy's has once again begun selling coupon books for 10 FREE (as in market) Junior Frosties.

All you have to do is 'donate' a dollar to Dave Thomas' adoption charity to get the book.

I suppose you could hand out the 10 coupons to trick or treaters (what they're intended for), or you could be a selfish jerk like me, turn off the front porch light, forget the kids, and keep them all for yourself.

That's 10 Free Junior Frosties for a buck!

Break out the Lactaid, it's going to be a long night!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

eBay sues Craigslist... no really

So I woke this morning to the usual headlines, Hillary did this, Obama did that in the PA primaries, blah blah blah. But, when I headed over to my favorite tech news sites (Slashdot, Techmeme, news.ycombinator.com, and TechCrunch) I stumbled across a most confounding of tales.

Online auction giant eBay is suing Craigslist. As if that didn't raise enough questions on its own, the reasons for eBay's suit only add confusion to the mix. Normally I can read most news stories and pretty much have the ins and outs of them down pat. This one, not so much.

First, at some point in the history of Craigslist (in 2004 to be precise), someone sold eBay their share of %28 in the company. Ok, so maybe some guy or gal was offered a lot of money by eBay to buy them out, fair enough. That's how a free market works. But %28? Why did eBay even bother? The company that was Craigslist was, and is a small group of people. Ebay must have known that they wouldn't be able to get a controlling amount of stock. To this day the company is still privately held.

Ok, fast forward to 2008 and eBay is saying that Craig Newmark (hence CRAIG'slist) and Jim Buckmaster intentionally acted to dilute eBay's economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent. Now, I'm no slouch, but I also don't have a degree in economics or finance. Would someone mind translating that into something the general public can understand?

Why in the world would the behemoth that is eBay, the same company that had enough capital to buy (and now sell) Skype, want to sue a company that still operates out of Victorian houses in San Francisco? Is it the money? I doubt it. It would seem that eBay could only have one possible motive, and as Craigslist said on their blog today eBay sees them as a main competitor. As a person who has done business on eBay, I've gotten the feeling over the past year or so that the powers that be want to exercise more and more control (not to mention fees) over the way things are bought and sold. Craigslist on the other hand, is a free for all. Think of it as WalMart vs. the flea market.

I really don't see the logic behind any of eBay's actions regarding Craigslist. Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens next. While I'm at it, does anyone want to buy a corn chip that looks like Abraham Lincoln?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Future of Music Looks Bleak

Every so often I'll break out my guitar(s), write a song or two, and maybe even feel compelled to record something. At times I'm asked by others why it is that I don't pursue music as a career. Well aside from the obvious crap-shoot that music can be, it's a question I return to myself as I do enjoy music and musical creation more than most activities in this world. The simple answer to the question is that I don't pursue music because the music industry is a mess right now.

Now before anyone turns violent with images of curbing me ala American History X, let me say that I do NOT blame file-sharing for the current woes of the music industry. No, far from it. Music needs to change its business model, a topic I discussed in a previous post here. My master's thesis was based on the issue of file-sharing and I have yet to see any hard evidence through my own research of over 100 college students, studies published by Harvard School of Business, and many others, that file-sharing has led to the downfall of the music industry. This all leads up to an interesting video I found the other day when doing some research on a man easily considered a former vanguard of the recording industry.

John Kalodner is probably one of the creepiest (look at him!) and most famous A&R men of the twentieth century. For the un-initiated, A&R stands for Artists and Repertoire. It used to be that if you wanted to get a record deal, you wanted to get your tape in front of an A&R man. This is the guy that would go to the other execs and say hey, we need to sign these guys, they're going to be big!

Kalodner has worked with Aerosmith, Foreigner, AC/DC, and many other large rock/pop groups. Sometime around 2003 or so, the record companies decided that Kalodner was too much of an expense and not worth keeping, even though he had made some groups very, very large and in turn made the record companies very, very large sums of money. In the following interview taken during Januray of 2006 Kalodner, out of work and disillusioned, weighed in on the state of the industry.

While he says he would love to see a new delivery system, he still calls file-sharing stealing and likens it to someone going into Target and stealing everything. Additionally he says that everyone who does not admit to this is a liar.

Conversely, he readily admits that music was marked-up beyond reason by record company executives (or 'pigs' as he calls them) which should have not been the case, and that music can never “be for free”. What is so deliciously ironic is that Kalodner was ONE of the pigs himself! This is a man who was paid a lot of money to do what he did. I have to wonder if folks like Kalodner are only upset over the fact that their paychecks aren't as fat as they used to be.

Meanwhile artists such as Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails are doing exactly what Kalodner said was impossible. They are giving their music away and asking for donations etc. Where we go from here is a mystery. Where do you think the music industry will be in the future, what will it
look like? I look forward to your comments.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Excellent, Alternative Software (Oh Yeah, It's Free)

Not so long ago, in fact a week ago to be exact, I was a student. While there are downsides to the academic lifestyle there can be benefits as well. For one, software retailers tend to give you discounts that they deny to the general public. For instance, I purchased from two separate retailers, a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium edition for $70 U.S. That price included shipping. So, for what it would cost a regular consumer to buy just one copy of Vista Home Premium, I was able to buy two (one for the desktop, one for the laptop). If you're interested in where I found these deals, check out the Academic Superstore or CCV Software.

But let's say you're living off of Ramen noodle soup and microwave popcorn. In other words, you're hoping that by rubbing two pennies together they'll have children. Well in that case you'll need some free software. And not just free software, but software that actually works well.

Software For Starving Students was created for this very purpose.

From their website:

"Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone). We've gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one disc for OS X, one for Windows), including a fully-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more."

Each platform has a different set of programs but here's a list for the curious:

OS X

Windows

I can personally attest to the usefulness of many of the programs offered for both Windows and OS X platforms. Need to unzip or compress files? 7-Zip will fit the bill and then some. Want to record podcasts? Audacity to the rescue! Need to edit images without paying $600 to Adobe? Try the GIMP! Need to turn in that paper in Microsoft Word format but don't have the money for the Microsoft Office suite? Try OpenOffice and stick it to the man! It really is a great software package to have in a pinch, and the best thing is that it comes as an ISO file so you can burn it to 1, that's right I said ONE cd. Tell your family, tell your friends, tell the money hungry software developers to take a leap! Check out Software for Starving Students!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Next Logical Step

Out of all of the stuff that's out there on the web regarding technology, I'd have to say that my primary interest revolves around technology and music. This is probably due to the fact that I've been a musician since I was 6 years old, and involved in technology at about 10.

I can still remember sitting at my father's brand new (at the time) Packard Bell 286 and going through a DOS tutorial program at age 11. (I miss DOS sometimes, one of the benefits that Windows 98 had over more current operating systems.)

Then I found music in a real way, where I was actually able to read music on a sheet and follow along (which the piano lessons at 6 never seemed to accomplish). From there I picked up a number of different instruments with success, finally settling on voice and guitar. This of course led me to join different bands and performance groups and I am currently the lead guitarist in a progressive metal band.

So I'm doing this blog, I'm into technology, I've worked in radio and now video, and I've just completed my Masters of Science degree where I authored my thesis on the subject of legal downloading services vs. downloading services that 'violate' the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and I've been a musician for over a decade. Add to this the fact that I have professional recording equipment and software, and it sounds to me like all signs are pointing to me starting a Podcast.

As I survey all that's available, no one seems to be tackling the subject of the recording industry and file-sharing, at least as far as what's available Podcast-wise.

I didn't want to begin a Podcast without anything to talk about, but I think I can safely say that after publishing a thesis and adding up all of my experiences, I definitely have something to say, and I hope that all of you as readers will appreciate my efforts and become loyal listeners.

I need to get a tabletop mic stand, but other than that, the equipment is taken care of. Then I need to find a place to host the podcasts (I'll need to check into iTunes, but I think that costs money, just not sure how much yet.) At this point I'm thinking one a week, just a few minutes long, starting from the beginning with the advent of the MP3 file format since there's a lot of ground to cover and it's all very important. Sponsors, donations, a name, and music are all things that have to be ironed out before the pilot episode. Hopefully I can nail all this stuff down and get the first one out soon.

So, as life turns a page, so do I and I am very optimistic about the opportunity.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Music of Castlevania 1-3 recorded with live band

All of the original music of the legendary Castlevania series recorded by a metal band in downloadable MP3 format. This stuff kicks ass!

read more | digg story

Sunday, April 29, 2007

RIAA claims rights to all artists' royalties

The RIAA is looking more and more like the Mafia. Not only is it trying to kill Internet radio, but its royalty-collecting subsidiary, SoundExchange, is now claiming the right to collect royalties for ALL artists, even those who want nothing to do with the RIAA and its jackbooted henchmen.

read more | digg story