Mar 15
I purchased a Sony LF-B20 Location Free Wireless Base Station a few days ago. Overall, it works pretty well. Right now I’m at the office watching Sportscenter, streamed from my home PC to my laptop here at work. The image quality isn’t great, but it is certainly usable.
One problem I’ve run into is with regards to the remote control setup on the PSP. With the software installed on my laptop, I can change channels on my VCR. However, the VCR is not a supported device on my PSP meaning that I can not change channels via the PSP. I sent an e-mail to Sony support and I got this response from one Kavin Sather:
You can use the learning feature of the LFB20 to create a custom remote that can then be used on your PSP. Please follow the steps below to do this.
Mar 13
This week we added a heavy dose of Kraut Rock into the mix. Early Kraftwerk, Can, Ash Ra Tempel, and Neu!
Here is what allmusic.com has to say about Kraut Rock:
Kraut Rock refers to the legions of German bands of the early ’70s that expanded the sonic possibilities of art and progressive rock. Instead of following in the direction of their British and American counterparts, who were moving toward jazz and classical-based compositions and concept albums, the German bands became more mechanical and electronic. Working with early synthesizers and splicing together seemingly unconnected reels of tape, bands like Faust, Can, and Neu created a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll. Although the bands didn’t make much of an impact while they were active in the ’70s, their music anticipated much post-punk of the early ’80s, particularly industrial rock. Kraut rock also came into vogue in the ’90s, when groups like Stereolab and Tortoise began incorporating the hypnotic rhythms and electronic experiments of the German art-rock bands into their own, vaguely avant-garde indie rock.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Mar 07
Here are a ton of wallpapers I made for my Sony Playstation Portable. Download them and copy them to your PSP’s PHOTO directory. Once they are there, browse the photos. When you have one you want to set as the wallpaper, click the triangle button. This brings up the on screen display. Move around in the on screen display until you are on the “Set as Wallpaper” option and click the X button.
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Mar 07
I got a brand new Samsung A900 cell phone. This sucker can do just about anything you could want out of a cell phone. It’s bad ass. The only thing it can’t do is save battery life. Being a music geek, one of the most exciting features is its ability to play MP3’s. I’ve got four of them loaded into the user-accessible 50MB storage area, which is really cool. However, these MP3’s can NOT be used as ring tones for the phone, which is a serious bummer.Fortunately, a few Googles of the Internet turned up the magic formula. You have to upload your MP3’s via SMS to the phone, which then stores the MP3 into the non-user accessible area of the phone. Once you message these mp3’s to yourself, they then show up as options when selecting ring tones.
I’m kind of addicted to making a ringtone for all of my friends and family. It’s becoming really easy to figure out who’s calling me based on the song. My mom is German, so when I hear the fantastic song “Ein bisschen Goethe, ein bisschen Bonaparte” by France Gall, I immediately know it’s mom. Dad get’s Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” because he quit listening to music somewhere around 1958.
Anyway, I’m sharing the ringtones I’ve created for my phone with the world at large. Essentially, they are simply 10-20 second snippets of the songs. I’ve made 2 versions of each ringtone: one is a high quality MP3 and one is a noticably lower quality MP3. You really don’t need the high quality ones since the speaker on your cell phone can’t accurately recreate the subtle nuances of a high quality file.
All the current ringtones I’ve created are accessible via this dead link. Once you download them to your PC, you can go to this link if you are a Sprint user, or this one if you are on a different network to upload them to your phone.
Mar 06
This week we added a heavy dose of the 80’s band Swell Maps. Here is what allmusic.com has to say about Swell Maps:
Noisy and experimental, Britain’s Swell Maps experienced little commercial success during the course of their chaotic career, but in hindsight they stand as one of the pivotal acts of the new wave: not only was the group an acknowedged inspiration to the likes of Sonic Youth and Pavement, but their alumni — most notably brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks — continued on as key players in the underground music community.
And here is a picture.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Mar 06
This week we added a heavy dose of the 80’s band Swell Maps. Here is what allmusic.com has to say about Swell Maps:
Noisy and experimental, Britain’s Swell Maps experienced little commercial success during the course of their chaotic career, but in hindsight they stand as one of the pivotal acts of the new wave: not only was the group an acknowedged inspiration to the likes of Sonic Youth and Pavement, but their alumni — most notably brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks — continued on as key players in the underground music community.
And here is a picture.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Feb 28
I have a non-stop stream of music that I use for my own purposes. For fun, I’ve made it available to the world to listen to. A few people do which is nice. This stream is all done using WinAmp and their Shoutcast plugin.
Last.fm is a website that tracks all of the songs you’ve played. You install their little plugin into your WinAmp and it starts tracking all of the songs and artists you’ve listened to. The best part is that you can export that data into some charts to see which artists you listen to the most. For example, here is the chart of the most-played artists in my WinAmp world:
Who knew I played so much Arctic Monkeys. And The Perishers? I couldn’t tell you a song by them to save my life but I bet I could somehow sing along to the whole album based on how many times that band has been played.
You can also get a list of all the tracks played since I got my Last.fm account going in early 2006. Below is that chart:
More of The Perishers in here. So that’s totally an album I know the songs too. I must since I’ve heard it so often. If you were to ask me what they sound like, I have no clue.
Here is a picture of The Perishers. They are Swedish. Good for them.
Feb 28
I have a non-stop stream of music that I use for my own purposes. For fun, I’ve made it available to the world to listen to. A few people do which is nice. This stream is all done using WinAmp and their Shoutcast plugin.
Last.fm is a website that tracks all of the songs you’ve played. You install their little plugin into your WinAmp and it starts tracking all of the songs and artists you’ve listened to. The best part is that you can export that data into some charts to see which artists you listen to the most. For example, here is the chart of the most-played artists in my WinAmp world:
Who knew I played so much Arctic Monkeys. And The Perishers? I couldn’t tell you a song by them to save my life but I bet I could somehow sing along to the whole album based on how many times that band has been played.
You can also get a list of all the tracks played since I got my Last.fm account going in early 2006. Below is that chart:
More of The Perishers in here. So that’s totally an album I know the songs too. I must since I’ve heard it so often. If you were to ask me what they sound like, I have no clue.
Here is a picture of The Perishers. They are Swedish. Good for them.
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