Winter Break Projects

I've mentioned countless times before (although not necessarily on this blog) how much I enjoy my Xbox Media Center. I still find the quality of software that those open source guys kicked out to be incredible and I use it pretty much every day.

So...one of my projects that I ignored until my winter reprieve from work was to fix an Xbox of mine that didn't quite work right. Couple that with one that offered to fix for someone else, and I created the ultimate Pimp My Ride scenario in my living room:

"We put three xboxes on top of your TV!!!"
(Eat your heart out, Xzibit).

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about right now, there was an episode of that ridiculous show where they stuff 3 xboxes into the trunk of a Nissan 240SX. I was amazed to find a thread with the guy who owned the 240 today while searching a bit.

Super-cool web goodness

I always like when I run across some new web technology (no, I won't call it web 2.0). I'm still amazed daily at some of the stuff people can pull off. It's especially great when it does something very useful, in a very intuitive and clean way, and then a bonus when it is applied as a fairly old technology.

Lifehacker pointed me today to a site that allows you to take fully-interactive snapshots of any website. By snapshot, I mean it is literally as if you snagged a piece of the site verbatim. The throwback part is that it possible to create it as an image map, not just an actual graphic. All hyperlinks and images, as well as layout, are completely retained.

Obviously, there are some copyright issues to consider here. This is substantially different than just linking to a page. However, if you own the content, this is awesome. Here's a snapshot from this blog to show as an example:

Musings on Almost Anything (Occasionally) via kwout

I was initially just going to add this to my Google Reader shared items, but decided it was just too good and needed to be posted. However, I thought I would throw in here how much I am digging Google's new feature that shows your friend's shared items right in reader. It lets me basically have a feed of things I probably wouldn't run across, and they are from people who have mostly similar interests to my own. A very nice addition.

Potpourri

It's been a while since I did a post with several interesting items, so here goes:

• Completely Missing the Point
  I'm to the point where I'm almost entirely paperless with my monthly bills. I think the city water bill is the sole holdout at this point; everything else is either delivered directly to my email (fantastic), or I download from the web (better, but still not the best). I can now use email tags or folders of PDFs to store all of this data very succinctly, and in a searchable and usable manner.
  
  Maybe the biggest benefit though was time savings and reduction of effort. Quite simply, especially with automatically tagged email, there is little to no interaction with these bills any longer. I check them over and archive them.
  
  So, I was highly disappointed to receive the following email after downloading my latest telephone statement from the local co-op:

  eLation@southslope.com

  Data concerning your account was recently made available offline.
  If you didn't download this data, it may indicate an unauthorized individual has accessed your account.
  
  A PDF version of invoice 10224020 was downloaded.
  
  In accordance with an FCC ruling, you are being notified that data from your online account was downloaded.
  The text of this ruling can be viewed at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-22A1.pdf

  
  Needless to say, I was not "elated" about seeing this. What a pointless email. I can only hope they are taking this ruling too far, and that I won't start seeing this everywhere.
  
  
• Missing iTunes Feature
  Here's a sentence I'm pretty sure I've never said before: "Man, I wish iTunes had this feature I heard about in Windows Media Player." That changed after seeing a post on lifehacker today though.
  
  Basically, this is a way to put media player into a full screen mode and have it locked with a numeric password. So, the theory is that you can throw the player into party mode and go full screen with some cool visualizations. Now, somebody bumping or trying to use the computer won't kill the tunes. Simple, but cool.
  
  
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
  As always, this is a great mantra for living your life. Lately, near the holiday time especially, I have been very interested in the first. Looking at all of the pure excess and junk in the stores just leads me to believe we are wasting effort and resources on pointless junk.
  
  Without leaning too heavily into the preachy category, I thought I would share an interesting article about reducing the number of useless gifts given simply out of expectation and replacing them with things that are thoughtful and simple. In other words, something original and practical, not something overpriced and grabbed from an end cap.
  

Wiki Wiki

Everyone who knows me well, know that I love some wiki action. Usually when I say that, I'm of course talking about the super fantastic wikipedia.

However, tonight I found myself in need of just a general purpose wiki. I wanted one I could setup, with a variety of potential topics, and get a group of people together for collaboration. I googled for about 30 seconds (I sometimes forget how lazy I have become over time courtesy of Google) and had about 4 potential sites. I checked out wikisites, wikispots, and probably something else named wiki. In the end though, Zoho's wiki solution proved to be exactly what I wanted.

No ads, nice clean design, and ability to create my own sites for collaboration. Very nice.

Blowing it off

Sometimes there is nothing more soothing or relaxing than working on something completely pointless and fun. I'm trying to do more of this, as silly as that may sound.

You might notice my (hopefully) growing list of links on the side of this blog to my other various sites and projects. One of those has actually been around for a while, but I just added to it again tonight.

Here is my latest t-shirt design: http://www.cafepress.com/floydpink.105916729. In this particular case, I resurrected an old web classic, and brought it to textile form. Why? Because I can.

5 + 1

Rock and Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) - Handsome Boy Modeling School featuring Lord Finesse, Mike Shonoda, Chester Bennington, Rahzel, Qbert, Grand Wizard Theodore & Jazzy Jay - White People
I had to start with this one, as it really kicked off my listening for nearly the past month. I originally found this song when Ryan first introduced me to "Handsome Boy Modeling School". I was hooked immediately, but this song in particular is awesome. References and performances by some of the true greats of Hip-hop. These are the creators of the whole genre, and most of them still kick ass. I recommend taking down names, grabbing some Wikipedia info, and then working your way through some of their works.

Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
The song that pretty much kicked off her career (and continued to prove that Timbaland was really on to something). This track holds up perfectly yet today, I never tire of it. My kids never tire of the "Beep beep, who got the keys to the jeep?"

Shooter Jennings - The Wolf - Slow Train
Anyone knowing me or paying attention to my blog for any period of time knows Shooter might very well be my favorite artist right now. The perfect mix of country lineage and southern rock. I've been impressed as usual with his latest album, but this track with the Oak Ridge Boys takes it to another level. Nothing like working with some of the best to bring out the best in an already great artist.

Kanye West - Graduation - Homecoming
I've flipped on my opinion of Kanye completely over the years. I disliked him at first when "Gold Digger" was being overplayed. I slowly started to get into his music though, all the way until he teamed up with DJ Premier for the kickass "Classic" single. After that, buying "Graduation" seemed like an obvious move. I wasn't expecting it to be so good though. The Daft Punk-sampled track would be the obvious pick for a 50tn with its incredible energy. However, I went with a bit more intriguing track. His collaboration with Chris Martin of Coldplay would be intriguing by itself, but I find the lyric play in the song fantastic also.

Z-Trip - Kiss (Remix / 2006)
Raise your hand if you like free music. Okay, raise your hand if you like hip-hop and rock mashups done by the best in the business. Even if I'm the only one still raising my hand, you still need to check this out. Z-Trip invented and perfected the modern version of the rap/rock mash-up (Aerosmith and Run obviously creating the original...). On top of that though, he provides some great mixes for free on his site. His remix of Prince featuring Murs is more than worthy of a listen.
If you don't feel like browsing, here is a direct link to the song

Holiday Bonus (since I've had this post waiting for so long)
Sarah McLachlan - Wintersong - The First Noel/Mary Mary
It's that time of year, where my wife attempts to drown me in holiday music. I generally just ignore it, and sometimes become a bit annoyed. However, this CD and this song in particular are a different story. Her version of Noel is about the darkest Christmas song you will ever hear, bordering on a very Celtic sound. Incredible.
(Note: You can now get this for free right here)