Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Contributing to OpenOffice also

Figured since I´d come clean about contributing to Songbird, that I should also mention the other project I´m contributing my rusty QA skillz to. I mentioned OpenOffice.org (aka OOo) almost a couple months back.

OpenOffice rocks the socks off of M$ Office for MANY reasons. There´s versions for ALL operating systems, includes all the same types of programs as Office &, probably best of all, you can save any file you work on as its Office counterpart (in case you´re, say, sending a resume to a company that uses M$). Oh, by the way, it´s FREE too!!!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Contributing to songbird

So like i mentioned a month ago, been using songbird forever. Been lovin´ it but found a few bugs so I´ve been contributing to the Songbird dev. community by putting my old QA skillz to use! ;)

Take a look (& listen), it´s a great product!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Aulterra's Neutralizer

So I first heard about Aulterra's Neutralizer on Fidel's Divine Forces Radio show on KPFK like last November. I held off on purchasing it because I wanted to do some more research on it. Well, the more I read about it, the more I'm amazed. I guess I'm amazed, though not very surprised, because of what the cell phone industry is NOT telling us! I remember back when cell phones started getting popular how you'd hear older folks talk about how "those things are gonna fry your brain" & how everyone dismissed those comments as ignorant & non-progressive. As it turns out, the elders were right & now we're the ignorant ones!

It's actually been researched, ad nauseam, & proven that cell phones DO emit harmful electromagnetic fields (EMF). You can find a nice, concise listing of research done here or do your own Google search like this one. It's clear that cell phone radiation does exist (a scientist in the Radiology Dept. of UC Irvine even tried to disprove it & found that what Aulterra claims is actually true...he's now a firm backer of their project). Aulterra now owns a worldwide patent on the technology to neutralize harmful EMF waves emitted by electrical devices (microwaves, computers, laptops, cell phones, hand-held gaming machines, radios, etc.) Even more interesting is that a laws were passed in various European countries (UK, Spain, to name a few) to disallow children under the age of 13 the use of cell phones as they consider it "child abuse." It's bad enough for us adults but children's brains are still developing &, thus, don't have the protective layer to their brain fully developed yet.

When I combine my professional experience with what I've researched about this, it makes sense. As a previous IT Manager at a dermatology office, it was my policy to disallow cell phone use of any kind (matter of fact, the sign read "please turn OFF all cell phones"). You might think this is harsh but have you ever had a cell phone on around a radio? You'll hear interference/static from the radio. That's because both radios & cell phones emit radio frequencies/waves (RF). The same is true for wireless networks, so having cell phones turned on had the potential of causing interference with our network (it actually happened a couple times until I got real adamant about our policy). So do some research & come to your own conclusions. If I know anything, I know I don't know much...but what I do know is that the science behind the Neutralizer is rock solid.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

BEST CONCERT EVER!!!

The Hip Hop 4 Education (benefit) Concert was by FAR the best I've ever been to (& I've been fortunate to go to many over the years). I decided to give my 'lil brother an early graduation gift (& appropriately enough, it was his 1st concert) as it was an "all-ages benefit. Hosted by Divine Forces Radio (DFR) & benefiting Krylon 13 (a non-profit helping our youth) what we were able to witness the night of 3/3/07 @ the LA Center Studios was pure musical bliss. I can't even begin to explain the beauty & positivity that flowed throughout the evening, but I'll try. The evening began @ 4pm & ended just after midnight & was filled with great music, lyrics & a positive scene (as Fidel said @ the end of the night, not even 1 fight ensued). Just great people, enjoying great music on a wondrous night. I met several cool peeps including the Native Guns, which really dropped it- fusing mind-churning lyrics, phat beats & even blending a little tagalog to spice it up. Pix of the evening aren't up yet (darn camera's acting up something bad) but they will be soon so check back. The event was hosted by Fidel & featured DFR's DJs, which were dope as ever!

My brother & I had a blast! Great event fusing hip hop, spoken word specialists (even one of the modern day innovators in this genre- Saul Williams) & thought-provoking speakers. It was really a treat for me as I'd never seen X-Clan nor KRS ONE live (especially since 1 of my 1st music purchases was an X-Clan tape- along w/Digital Underground & MC Hammer). But everyone really brought great energy. Medusa was super fly. Anomolies was an all-female group that really got down. Visionaries, Living Legends & Dilated Peoples always rock the house & did so again. KRS ONE freestyled for a good 10-13 minutes. The icing on the cake was Wil.I.Am showing up @ the end & freestyling for almost 7 minutes. Now that's hip hop! It was a pleasure to partake in the positivity & bathe in conscious lyrics fused with body-bumpin' beats. Below is a list of the event participants in chronological order:

1 - Olmeca
2 - Native Guns
3 - Anomolies
4 - Aztlan Underground
5 - Quetzal
6 - Visionaries
7 - Medusa
8 - Suheir Hammad
9 - Sabac Red
10 - Funkdoobiest
11 - X-clan
12 - Saul Williams
13 - Luis Rodriguez
14 - Congresswoman Cynthia McKenna (great speaker)
15 - Psycho Realm
16 - Soul Elevation
17 - Living Legends
18 - Chief Joseph Chasing Horse (special speaker)
19 - Dilated Peoples
20 - KRS ONE
21 - Will.I.Am (special, surprise guest)

You can see youtube videos of the evening here (including KRS ONE & Wil.I.Am's fresh freestyles).

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Music in the digital age

Paul McCartney just released his new album- his 21st solo edition- & even though he's 64, he's still keeping up w/the Jones'! He just ended his long-standing relationship w/EMI Records & this new record is being released completely as a music download.

Quote from the article:
"I was bored with the old record company's jaded view." "They're very confused, and they will admit it themselves: that this is a new world, and they're a little bit at a loss as to what to do. So they've got millions of dollars and X budget … for them to come up with boring ways — because they've been at it for so long — to what they call 'market' it. And I find that all a bit disturbing. "I write it, I play it, I record it, and that's all fun. And you go to the record company, and it gets very boring. You sit around in rooms with people, and you're almost falling asleep."

This is no surprise. As music moves further into the 21st century, you hear of SO many artists doing it their own way. Look at Maroon 5, they got in on the music via the internet thing just before MySpace started getting big & they've sold millions of tunes online. Reminds of me a GREAT article I read a while back praising the rise of indie labels & the mantra: “If you are an independent artist or record label and you don’t love LimeWire then you are just plain stupid!”

My neighbor's a musician & we talk about this all the time. Big record companies are upset because so many folks are downloading (for pay or for free) music instead of buying CDs so we've become all too familiar w/phrases like RIAA & DRM. It's the music industry's fault, if you ask me...I mean, how many years did we pay $15/album for 1-2 good songs? It's no surprise that artists are going to indie labels or doing it all on their own- they get a bigger chunk of the pie AND still maintain creative control. Besides, artists on large labels get more cash out of doing their tours than CD sales...so like I've always said: Support your music, go to a concert!

Lil' Bush

So there's not too much on TV that's ever worth a darn, but Comedy Central just premiered a new show tonight called Lil' Bush. It was hilarious, features a few politicians as lil' kids & even had a skit where they talked about "Halliburton Land" in Iraq. Give it a watch, it's great satire.