Month: June 2005

Bif Naked's Superbeautifulmonster

Post ImageI dunno what it is, but for the last couple days now I just keep finding music I like! The latest is Bif Naked’s new album, Superbeautifulmonster. And damn, that’s a catchy album title, especially spelled the way it is.

The first single, which you’ve probably heard, is called “Let Down”, and it’s what I would call “classic” Bif Naked. Has the power and emotion that reminds me of “I Love Myself Today” from the Purge album. Some of the other tracks on the new album that stuck out for me are “Ladybug Waltz”, “The World is Over” and “Abandonment”.

One of the best songs on the album is actually a remake. Bif Naked does “Nothing Else Matters”, originally by Metallica, and it actually sounds really great! I hate it when an artist redoes a song and completely changes the way it sounds. Fortunately in this case, it’s evident that “Nothing Else Matters” a Metallica song. It’s interesting to listen to the original and the remake – same song, different gender for the lead singer.

I really enjoyed the album, and if you’re looking for some good girl rock music, you might too.

Read: Bif Naked

Gates considering Xbox clones?

Post ImageI don’t think there is much to this story, but it’s interesting enough to mention. Apparently Chairman Bill Gates was recently asked in an interview if Microsoft would consider allowing third parties to manufacture Xbox units, and he gave a very open answer. Now, some people think that Microsoft is looking at paving the way for Xbox clones:

“Clearly, everyone at Microsoft is thinking out of the box to increase sales. I mean look at the nontraditional way of introducing the Xbox on MTV,” [JupiterResearch analyst Michael] Gartenberg said. “It sounds like they are just testing the waters with a hybrid of the (white box) PC model and the (proprietary hardware) video game model.”

I can see the reasons why such a move would be considered – Microsoft makes far more money on games than consoles, so increasing the market for their games is a good idea. On the other hand, I am not sure if this would fly with end users. Even if Microsoft kept the base standards for a console very strict, one of the best things about consoles is that everyone has the same stuff – the playing field is level. I suspect that hardcore gamers would not react favorably to a clone culture.

Read: CNET News.com

Freedom Tower

Post ImageThe design for the new Freedom Tower to be built in Lower Manhattan was announced yesterday, and you’ve got to admit, it’s quite impressive. The new tower is built to last, with a base that is just incredible when you think about it, but it will also have reminders of the two World Trade Center towers:

The newly configured building would have no occupied space other than the lobby for its first 200 feet. It would be set at least 40 feet farther away from West Street-Route 9A, a heavily trafficked state highway. Many of its windows would be tempered, laminated and multilayered for extra protection against explosions.

“The tower we have now is even better than the tower we had before,” [Daniel Libeskind] said, congratulating Mr. Childs, with whom he famously quarreled two years ago over the first Freedom Tower design. “It asserts what the site is all about. The tower relates to the memorial, and rises in a symbolic way.”

The only unfortunate part about the building is that because it had to be redesigned, it’s construction has been further delayed, and is not expected to wrap up until 2010. I can’t imagine having lost someone in the famous attacks of 2001, but I suspect that having the new building up and complete would help close the book on that dark day.

Read: New York Times

Tonight's Whidbey Event

Post ImageTonight the Edmonton .NET Wizards (don’t bother clicking, the site is horribly out of date) which Dickson and I manage hosted an event talking about Whidbey, or Visual Studio 2005. We had John Bristowe come up from Calgary to tell us all about the new changes in C#, VB.NET, the IDE, and the framework itself. The talk went very well, and it was really nice to finally meet John in person and have a chat.

The stuff I am most looking forward to is SQL Server 2005 and ClickOnce, two technologies we only had time to touch on tonight. They will probably affect my day to day development most. Hopefully we can host another talk on those topics in more detail some time in the future.

If you came to the event tonight, be sure to watch John’s Blog for more information, and check out the Visual Studio 2005 site at MSDN. And if you’re interested in the user group, rest assured we’re going to fix the website. It might be as simple as a Wiki, but it will be much easier to use and update than it is now!

Read: John Bristowe’s Blog

NewsGator 2.5 Released

Post ImageThe latest version of my favorite news aggregator, NewsGator Outlook Edition, was released last night! I’m really happy with the way it works. Here are some of the new features, as described by Greg Reinacker:

Read/unread/deleted status of individual items is now synchronized between Outlook edition 2.5 and NewsGator Online (and all other applications using our system – more on that in a bit). Folder hierarchy is now synchronized between Outlook and Online. It’s all as it should be. As someone on the beta said, “it all worked exactly as I expected it to.” Nice.

There are lots of under the hood changes too, so it runs pretty fast, and very stable now. If you’re like me and you spend a lot of time in Outlook, there is no better aggregator than NewsGator. And with the purchase of FeedDemon, it’s only a matter of time before that application is also integrated into the new synchronization platform.

You can read the official announcement, the update Q&A, and download the new version.

Read: NewsGator

My Gallery Updated

Post ImageIf you followed any of the links to pictures in my posts from Seattle, you probably already know that I have been using Flickr. I finally decided that my old gallery just couldn’t cut it anymore and it was time to do something about it. So, I got a Pro account at Flickr, and I’m loving it!

Now when you click on the Gallery button above (if you’re reading this on the web), you’ll get taken to my new portal for photos. You can see my three newest photos in Flickr, and I’ve linked the old gallery archives too (the old site can be browsed exactly the same way as before at http://gallery2.mastermaq.ca if you so choose). The RSS and ATOM links now point to my Flickr feeds. Moving forward, all new photos will be posted to my Flickr account.

If you’re in the market for a solid online photo application, there is just no question you need to get Flickr. You can tag photos, add notes to photos, leave comments, and much more. I definitely recommend Flickr.

Read: My Gallery

Have you heard…Anna Nalick?

Post ImageOne night before the trip to Seattle I was watching MuchMusic before falling asleep, and saw the video for Anna Nalick’s first single “Breathe”. I liked the song enough that I actually got out of bed to write it down.

Well now that I’m back I finally went and got her album, entitled “Wreck of the Day”, and I rather like it! Her music is very easy to listen to. To my very unmusical ear she sounds similar to Jewel, Vanessa Carlton, and Michelle Branch. Actually, there are a couple songs where if I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was the pre-razor-selling-song Jewel.

If you haven’t already heard “Breathe”, I am sure you will eventually. It’s a very good song, catchy and radio friendly, so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it there later. A couple other songs that stuck out for me were “Catalyst” and the title track “Wreck of the Day”.

So if you’re looking for something new to listen to, check out Anna Nalick!

Read: Anna Nalick

Apple launches iTunes 4.9

Post ImageApple today launched the new version of iTunes. Version 4.9 adds support for podcasting:

With iTunes 4.9 you can now browse, find, sample and subscribe to thousands of free radio shows – called podcasts – then sync them to your iPod and listen anytime, anywhere.

I installed the application tonight to see for myself what it’s like. There is now a “Podcasts” button on the left, that shows you all of the podcasts you’re subscribed to. You can change some basic settings, like whether or not to download just the newest episode for each podcast. In the top right is a big button that lets you update your subscriptions.

I think it’s great that Apple decided to add podcasting support into the program, because it will probably help increase adoption of the technology. On the other hand, I am pretty unimpressed by iTunes 4.9. It seems like a very half-hearted attempt by Apple.

Read: Apple iTunes

Seattle Trip Day 6

Post ImageYesterday was, as you probably already know, our last day in Seattle. With that in mind, we tried to make the most of it! We started early, and went on a three hour tour. We were easily the youngest people on the little tour bus, and only one other person was Canadian.

The tour itself was quite interesting. We went to the Pike Place Market (where we had been yesterday already), to some of the original areas of the city, near the harbor, to some of the fancy residential districts, to the fish ladder, and a bunch of other places. We learned about the historic fire that almost wiped out all of Seattle, how the city prospered during the Gold Rush, how the city used to be eight feet lower than it is now, and lots of other really interesting history. All the pictures I took are up in Flickr, so you can take a look at where we went and read the descriptions too.

After the tour we checked out of the hotel, went for lunch at McDonalds (we’re on a budget), and headed toward the Space Needle. After the short 90 second ride on the Monorail, we were at the Space Needle, on our way to the 520′ viewing deck. You get a pretty good view of the city, even though they have these thick wires going all the way around the observation deck. You kind of have to sneak the camera in between to get an unobstructed shot. Inside the viewing deck there is lots of history, facts and figures on the Space Needle. It’s am impressive building.

Our flight home was quite late, so to kill some time we walked around downtown a bit, and then went to Barnes and Noble. Starbucks, some reading, and some wireless Internet – what more do you need? We left for the airport relatively early, and ended up sitting around there too because our flight was delayed. We finally arrived back in Edmonton after midnight, and got through customs around 1 AM.

Now that we’re back home, it’s time to get back to work. Fortunately, after seeing all of the cool things at Gnomedex, and after reflecting a little on how successful the Podbot turned out to be, I am excited to get back to programming.