Better than the internet? No.

As the music industry tries to sneak their slimly hands back into our wallets, once again we’re being told tale of a new format that will save the ever aging industry.  It’s called MusicDNA and it’s the future.  Remember Liquid Audio?  Don’t worry, no one else does either.  Especially BACH Technology.  While music fans want quality music at a cheap price; the folks at BACH Technology are sure to give you something else completely.  The new format is a backwards compatible mp3 file with a new proprietary metadata storage  that will give you a fast link via their software to your favorite artists blogs, videos, and twitter feeds.

Once again a solution looking for a problem.

Those smart enough to survive in this ever changing industry would probably find this all very odd.  The majority of artists blogging or microblogging are more likely to use such mediums to bring in sales.  Fan apparently are have very little trouble finding ways to connect with their favorite artists.  Again this technology is being created by industry professionals who are outside the loop of how the modern Internet works.  Perhaps it might help if these authors of MusicDNA bothered to learn about twitter and blogs before investing a ton of money so that fans can use their proprietary software to do what they’ve been doing for years for free.

Conan O Brian might walk from NBC. I usually don’t give a damn about TV, but this is Conan. He released this open letter today:

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

Image added for awesome effect!

Holy Shit, CoCo means business.

It was better than I expected but I was not blown away.  I had no idea it was a Neveldine/Taylor film. Just thought it was a rip off Neveldine/Taylor film. Crank was awesome but this one was lacking that level of awesomeness.

Thought it was funny that everyone was “hacking” everyone. Of course as you can tell from the screen shot they we’re running Windows still, so maybe…

Finally started work on PJ and Dave again…

Awesome "Fallen Dave" Wallpaper

Well, I’ve been duel booting Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS off of a thumb drive just to scan.  At first I thought my 7 year old scanner had met it’s demise, but alas no.  The drivers are borked.  From what I can tell, they are the same revision build that was in Jaunty.  Me thinks that a tag or switch was missed during compile.  I’m probably going to see if I can compile sane myself if I must.  Maybe I’ll luck out and someone will have a fresh build via PPA somewhere.  Or maybe, and this is a big maybe, the Ubuntu maintainer will issue an update and bring my scanner back to life.  Here’s to hoppin.

There seems to be a fad that I really do like.  Optical drives are disappearing left and right.  I first noticed this with the EeePC.  To be honest at first I was a little applauded.  The idea of computing without a device that is rarely used yet takes up space a electrical resources was so damn strange to me.  I just couldn’t fathom it.  Once I realized that Linux can easily and smoothly be installed off of a thumb drive, at break neck speed I’ve rarely wasted a single disc on installations.

There is other benefits to this as well.  Slim laptops are becoming more and more the norm.  Slimmer designs and in a few awesome circumstances better battery life.  The EeePC 1000HE netbook has a stunning 9.5 hour battery life.  I know several people who are running this little jem with Ubuntu and Windows 7 on them.  They run like champs.  If you look for it you can sometimes find this laptop for around $250 with Windows XP on it.

The Dell Vostro v13

Then there is the Vostro v13.  This baby is all aluminium, a 6th of an inch thick and starts around $450 USD with Ubuntu Linux and $600 USD with Windows 7.  Sadly it’s only got a 5 hour battery life but it’s got a much larger screen than the EeePC.

For those with an endless pockets there is the new HP Envy i7 laptop.  It boasts a 4.5 hour battery life, 6Gigs of ram, a 500 TB hard drive, and has a optical drive as a add on accessory.  Literally a full desktop replacement it crushes my Duel Core Intel desktop hands down.  This mammajamma starts around $1800.  (Though the one at best buy had a price of $1400)  I had a little while to play around with it at the local best buy and this machine is fast.

One thing is for sure, the optical drive is dying.  There are so many awesome laptops out that don’t come with them and I’m not sure we’ll really need them in the future.  Most linux distros can be installed of a thumb drive and it’s not long until this becomes true with Windows 7 and OS X.  For everything else, usb drives are a small investment.