And here is another audio clip, this time in MP3 format. Back in January the Cybersquad talked about Apple's new MacBook Air. It's a cool product, I guess, but I was underwhelmed by what you got for the money. For a couple hundred dollars less, you can get a much better laptop computer ... FROM APPLE!
Here is another audio clip from Website Wednesday Night, this time talking about what antivirus and antispyware programs are and why they are essential to protecting your computer. If you have Real Player [or an alternative audio player like Jet Audio or Real Alternative that can handle .rm files], you can listen to our recommendations online.
It should come as no shock that experts have predicted that the music industry as we know it is doomed. But what will take its place? One possible replacement is music that you purchase and download directly from the artist. For example, multi-platinum English alternative rock band Radiohead recently released their seventh album, "In Rainbows," not on compact disc but rather as a DRM-free digital download. Two things made "In Rainbows" unique. First, the album was released without a record contract. [Radiohead left record label EMI in the early 2000s.] Second, Radiohead employed a "pay what you want" system. If you didn't feel like paying anything for the album, all you had to do was pay a 45 pence [approximately 90 cents] credit card transaction fee.
American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails is following Radiohead's lead. The band's latest album, a 36 track instrumental collection titled "Ghosts I-IV," was released online last Tuesday. The first nine tracks are available for download as free, as high-quality, DRM-free MP3's at http://ghosts.nin.com/. You can purchase and download all 36 tracks for five dollars, and for $10 you can get Ghosts I-IV shipped to you on a two CD set. The CD is not yet available in stores.
Even if you are not a fan of Nine Inch Nails, take a moment to review the Ghosts I-IV website or the media player below. I think that what we're looking at here is nothing short of the future of music distribution. In the not too distant future, you will purchase your "corporate" music--e.g., Metallica, Usher, anyone from American Idol--from an iTunes-like online store and your "independent" music--e.g., Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails--directly from the artists.
One of my favorite things about the Grand Theft Auto games was the in-game radio stations. I have fond memories of driving around Staunton Island listening to "Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso" from Le Nozze di Figaro on Double Clef FM, driving around Little Haiti listening to Talk Talk's "Life's What You Make It" on Flash FM, or driving along the railroad tracks in Flint County jamming to the southern national anthem--Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird"--on K-DST.
Over the next month and half, the folks at Rockstar Games will be unveiling the 16 radio stations that will be built into Grand Theft Auto IV. Snippets from two in-game radio stations are available today. The first is IF99, an international funk station that plays classic funk songs from West Africa, the U.S., and elsewhere. The second is Vladivostok FM, a Eastern European community radio station that plays popular music from Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine, and beyond.
Yeah, this game is going to rock.
On Wednesday, November 28, Steve & Johnnie and the Website Wednesday Night Cybersquad [of which I am a founding member] talked about some dos and don'ts you need to keep in mind when doing your holiday shopping online. If you have Real Player [or an alternative audio player like Jet Audio or Real Alternative that can handle .rm files], you can listen to our recommendations online.
About three weeks ago I had the honor of being a featured speaker at the 20th annual Georgia Educational Technology Conference. As in years past, the folks at the conference recorded two of my sessions and turned them into podcasts:
Keeping Up With the Googlebots: What’s New at Google (as of November 2007)
What’s New and What’s Different in Microsoft Office 2007
Podcasts for presentations of many of the conference's other featured speakers--including David Pogue, Leslie Fisher, Gail Lovely, Curtis Bonk, Doug Johnson, Annette Lamb, and many others--can be found on the GaETC Podcast page.
Enjoy!
One last podcast. A few days before heading out to Vegas to get hitched, Steve and Johnnie held an on-air bachelor party for me. While it was more of a roast than a bachelor party, I can assure you that fun was had by all.
As promised, here is the podcast from a few weeks ago where Steve, Johnnie, and I talked about what you should look for when buying a new computer for a student. While Gray recommends that you get a Mac, keep in mind that Gray makes his living from servicing Macs. I respect Gray's opinion, but I still stand by my original recommendation: Don't buy a Vista or Mac computer until you first talk to your campus' helpdesk.
Is there such thing as a safe browser? Not really. But in this podcast from mid-July, Steve, Johnnie, and I talk about some alternative web browsers that may be be safer, faster, and better than the default Internet Explorer or Apple Safari web browsers that came pre-installed on your computer.
Near the end of this podcast I mention IE View Lite, a free Firefox add-on that lets you open Internet Explorer-only web pages in Firefox. Once you install IE View Lite, there are two ways to use it:
