The rockband stage kit (smoke machine and lights) doesn’t exactly know when to stop. Its either on or off so be prepared to have a fan for ventilation.

Now …. LET THERE BE ROCK !!!

Just recently I mentioned to some friends the Buckeye Traffic website and they were totally surprised such a service existed.  Its a State of Ohio, Department of Transportation website which overlays the state’s traffic cameras on a Microsoft visual Earth map.  Its not pictured below but there are a series of options to select various areas of the state, zoom in and out, select warnings and notifications, but most importantly open a link to a live feed (image snapshots) from specific cameras on the state’s highways.  This is what is pictured below. Clicking on a purple camera icon will open a dialogue box with the most recent picture from that camera. At times it can be hard to tell the orientation of the camera, which cardinal direction its pointing but a quick observation of where the sun’s position is should be a good indicator.  So far on a day  like today, where OSU is closed and most of the city is on a delay or shutdown its a totally handy tool.

Now its time to go shovel the driveway. :(

Recently I received an excellent recommendation that I should listen to a band called ‘Fleet Foxes’. As my tastes in music lean a little more towards the folk genre right now this is a very welcomed listening experience. Their Wikipedia page says the band describes their music as “baroque harmonic pop jams”. Being from Seattle I would expect Fleet Foxes to have a bit more ‘pop’ after listening to ‘Sun Giant’ yesterday. But rather than typing on and on you should scroll down a little further and press play.

I’ve listened to this song previously but just found a video was made for it. To me its a relaxing song and interesting video to watch. Samuel Beam uses a lot of imagery in his folk music; not something I’m heavily into bit a nice departure from other forms of musical entertainment.

Marketing is ubiquitous. You and every single person you meet at some point is a marketer ranging from managing their personal brand to the profession of marketing the world’s most recognizable corporate images.

Its interesting to note that in the world of ‘tech’ there has been a huge marketing shift in the making among the industry’s two major brands, Apple and Microsoft. Philip Schiller replaces Steve Jobs at MacWorld and Steve Ballmer replaces Bill Gates at CES as their leading corporate front-men. Now that they’re here lets see what they talked about:

Philip Schiller, Apple

• New 17 inch Mac book with prices and a general release date for Jan ‘09
• iTunes gets new pricing and goes DRM free with pricing for an upgrade in April ‘09
• iLife ‘09 with pricing and specific features such as facial recognition in Jan ‘09
• iWork ‘09 with new productivity features and milti-pricing levels available now
• iWork.com launches in beta 

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

• Ballmer speaks about Windows7, best windows OS to come
• Ballmer speaks about Windows7 have touch functionality
• Release of Windows7 in beta on 1/9/2002 (alredy leaked in Dec ‘08)
• Next game in the Halo series coming in Feb ‘09
• Announced partnership with Dell for Windows Live

Its keynote season for a lot of companies and these are two of the best; but looking at how they both use their marketing opportunities.  Its no wonder Apple fanatics are lining up around the corners of the retail stores to purchase what they just heard about from the man at the top.  

It really begs a simple question…

So now that everyone is a marketer, are you a news maker?

Of the many times of year this is one of my favorites. Having long lived on the north end of Columbus I’ve always been around large neighborhoods with their many lighted streets. With the close proximity of these neighborhoods, Polaris mall, and the great cloud cover this time of year offers there is a night-time reflection of lights in the sky. It makes for a nice glow, almost like summer time with a full moon lighting the sky.

One of my favorite bands, songs, and videos. This fall it was amazing to see this performed live again in Columbus; can’t wait for the next NIN tour.  If you havn’t checked it out NIN has a concert DVD from their last tour. When exercising at home I’ll put this on the big screen and crank the speakers.

edit: google video removed the video, replaced from one with youtube

Note: song gets NWS at 2:24

Click here

Right now the goal is every few days to complete a chapter of the book ‘Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK.”  I’m not a big fan of the title but then again its the title that sells most book; a double ’iPhone’ in the text seems a bit awkward. The book sets out to walk you though the fundamentals of the SDK and being a few chapters in its doing a decent job. Its been some time since I’ve done C development with a language like like Objective-C and development tools such as Xcode. Transitioning from C# and .Net 3.5 is a little bit of a leap but thankfully I did some linux GUI programming back in the day. Having worked with Apress and being familiar with their style guidelines for Curtis’ book; my only critique would be a few minor formatting and style issues in the early chapter. IMO, some links and tips should be formatted differently.

Chapter 3 covered basic interactions and in this case a two button demo. Consisting of a label and two buttons you work though the steps of defining outlets, actions, builder, and linking it all together. When you finally build the project the the iPhone simulator comes up, loads your app, and lets you click left button and right button until your heart is content.

Its nothing to write home yet but getting the fundaments of iPhone development so far is pretty straight forward from a pretty good book.  Next comes working though some advanced interactions and then diving into specific library objects such as sliders, tables, images, network functions, etc…  I’ll keep working a couple of chapters but I’m sure at some point I’ll break from working page to page and begin actual application development; keeping the book on my desk as a reference.

When working with my friend Eddie he would often make some great music recommendations that were posted on my old blog. One of them was Zero 7’s song ‘Destiny’. Its one of my favorites so I’m going to add is back to the site and place it on my 4gb Zune (the one that didn’t get Z2k9′d)

click here

My truck is now for sale and will be available in Feb ‘09. This vehicle is my daily driver which I’d continue to drive it daily if a family member wasn’t selling the Tahoe I’m getting.

The Facts

• 2001 Chevrolet S10 - Still gets 20/24 MPG (city/highway)
• ~130,000 miles - Mostly highway as I used to travel inter-state a lot
• ZQ8 Suspension - Lowered from the factory/OEM
• Premium Wheels from factory/OEM
• V6 Engine - 4.3L with 2WD automatic transmission
• Extended cab with 3rd door and bed liner
• Single Owner - Adult Owned never in a collision
• Will be available in February ‘09

The Price

• $5350
• Have title in hand
• Overall KBB vehicle condition is ‘good’ to ‘fair’; surface blemishes but mechanically very strong
• Price will go up - As I fix items and improve its condition, will have receipts.

The Good

• Well maintained interior and mechanical
• New electrical in Dec ‘08 - plugs, wires, rotor, cap
• New performance cold air intake and filter in Dec ‘08
• New cooling system in Jan ‘07 - water pump, intake gaskets, radiator, hoses, fluids and flush
• New tires at ~110,000 mile mark - good tread condition
• New battery in March ‘07
• New headlights in Nov ‘08
• Recent alignment and tire balance check - Nov ‘08
• Transmission serviced with a fluid, filter, and gasket change - May ‘09
• Drive shaft serviced with u-joints checked/replaced and new drive shaft mount - May ‘09

The Bad

• Normal wear for a 2001 vehicle - it is ~7.5 years old
• Some minor rust spots on rear bumper - A good detail job would really clean up the truck
• Fuel level sending unit sometimes goes flaky - fuel level gauge will flick to ‘E’ for a moment and then back to its correct reading
• SES light from a blocked emission valve - apparently has no effect on MPG performance though
• Two lights on the radio are out - preset buttons 3 and 6

The Trades

• Would only be interested in an older Ducati or RC51