One Billion

Apple is celebrating its 1 billionth song sold in the iTune music store with another contest. There are a couple of bad ass things going on here.

Apple’s iWork Second Only To Microsoft Office?

CNet’s news.com reports that Apple’s iWork took the number two spot in 2005 for retail sales for office software suites. At first, I found that to be a bit crazy sounding, but after a moment of reflection, I can honestly say I use iWork more than twice as often as I use Microsoft Office.

Blistering Bass Chops

Here’s a lesson for you: Don’t under estimate your bass’ ability to blister the ever-loving crap out of your seasoned, doghouse fingers.

Dreamweaver Dumbass Edition

Last weekend, the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia was completed. Its implications have been in the back of my mind since the announcements over the summer, some of which have already come to light.

Last week I voiced my concern over what would become of my beloved Fireworks workflow, and raised a thought about Dreamweaver's shortcomings as a professional web development tool. Now that the proverbial shit is starting to hit the fan, I've had one or two more thoughts about these shortcomings, or more appropriately, inconsistencies with the rest of the Adobe CS suite, and how they might just be able to turn them around.

Adobe’s Acquisition Closes Saturday

Some thoughts about the Adobe/Macromedia merger that should close this weekend…

Firefox: The Best Worst Browser Ever!

It's widely accepted in the Internet world that Firefox is the end-all, be-all of web browsers. Now that Microsoft's long forsaken Internet Explorer is starting to show its age to more and more of the general internet using public, people are touting it as such in record numbers. Come with me; wont you, as I describe in detail the intricacies that make the best browser for Windows, one of the worst browsers for the Mac.

Y Entonces Había Tres

I bought a couple of drives the other day—of the super and hard varieties—for my aging Quicksilver G4 tower. They came in the mail UPS today. Pretty easy install, minus the stupid power cables of the existing drives that they seem to have welded into place for the purpose of maximizing finger pain upon removal.

Rock Star Scabs

I've been playing in moderately professional bands off and on for about thirteen years now. In that time I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to how musicians are treated on the "Rock Star" circuit. I have also seen the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of how "rock stars" treat everyone else. This year, in particular, has been very enlightening.

Firefox 1.5 Beta Friendlier But Still For Windows

Just downloaded the Firefox 1.5 Beta and was curious to read about what people's first thoughts were. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one awake so far, so I'm going to take it upon myself to give you my first thoughts on the Mac version.

Too Buttoned Mouse

Now that most of my friends are Mac people, we’ve struggled with finding a good computer argument to replace the Mac vs. PC controversy of yore. The browser war comes into play from time to time, as most of us are involved in web development to some degree. However, I think the lines are most evenly drawn over the two-button (or multi-button) mouse issue.

Good Morning, Your Friend Is Dead

Until recently, my mom had a habit of titling her emails with only the name of the person she was talking about. Over the years I accumulated a number of emails with subjects lines such as "Molly", "Petie", "Your Dad" and "Bob." This troubled me quite a bit.

Fishman Out Of Water

I'm in the market for a new bass pickup. The one I currently use was a gift from my grandmother in high school. It still sounds great and gets the job done, but my playing style as well as my bass has changed quite a bit over the past 15 years. With that said, the reasons for my switch are mostly logistical. I am an anal retentive bass player, and the Fishman BP-100 has been real good to me for over 15 years.

Intel Outside

Okay, I guess it’s sort of expected that I say something about Apple’s announcement to drop the 64bit PowerPC, dual processor set up for Intel guts. My official stance can be summed up in one word: Crap.

The Macintosh Is A Niche Platform—The Niche: People

An unproductive and heated argument with key IT staff took place on Thursday. It started ugly, got uglier, and didn’t end very well. You see, I’m a graphic designer and web developer for a large company in a conservative industry. Actually, I was hired to be a web/graphic designer and Mac support person for the design department of an edgier, medium sized company in this industry, who was subsequently bought up by the large, conservative company.

Black Metal is the New Business Casual

Volkswagen recently release a new commercial for their new (and totally lame IMO) Jetta. It depicts a young professional driving a more mature client and his staff to the airport after a successful sales pitch or consultation. The client in the front seat decides to turn on the radio to check the latest scores, which subsequently fills the car with insanely loud death metal—A song called “Rise and Oppose” by Boston’s Diecast, for those of you on the inside.

Memo to myself: do the dumb things I gotta do

Number 32 was one of the best birthdays so far. I played on the internet at work, listened to lots and lots of my favorite music, shopped for new music, made a blog, soft launched thebigreason.com and had BBQ and beer.

Happy Birthday To M.e.

Today is my birthday. I’m one of the only people in my office at work today, so I thought I would get myself a nice birthday present. Hurray, It’s a blog!