Not sure the 101 Dalmations montage works, but this is a great song. My dog totally could have written this song.
Adios, UserLand
I feel out of the loop. I just now (thanks to Steve Ivy), realized that UserLand had shut down.
In reality, UserLand shut down for me years ago. UserLand Frontier was the environment that helped me learn to program. I was first drawn to it as a tool to make it possible for me to publish an E-zine by myself, and manage the hundreds and thousands of static HTML pages that went into it. It was a fun time in the late 90s building what the web would become — and I think Dave Winer’s influence, particularly through the software he made at UserLand — was a huge part of it.
Working for Macrobyte Resources, I was one of the primary programmers on Conversant, which I think I can safely say was the largest piece of software built on Frontier outside of UserLand. While building it on Frontier would ultimately be one of the failings of an otherwise very advanced web application, it also enabled us to accomplish a lot with a small team.
This blog was originally managed in UserLand’s Manila, running in Frontier on a Mac Quadra 650 sitting on my desk on a 128k DSL line — circa 1998.
There were a lot of smart, fun people in the UserLand community. Kinda sad that the punctuation mark on the end of UserLand’s story is a period and not an exclamation point.
Top Tunes, 2009
My friend Tim’s effort to guilt all his friends into providing him new music to listen to — otherwise known as his annual “Top Tunes” email, has finally made it online on his new blog. Of course, this is a mutual benefit society and everybody in the loop finds some great new tunes this way…soooooo, without further ado, I present my list for the year.
There are likely some glaring omissions to this list since I put it together ad-hoc, but it’s all solid music. Add a couple of “rediscovered” gems at the end as a bonus incentive for paying attention. Enjoy.
Recent Stuff….
Avett Brothers, I and You and Love
Wussy, heart-on-your-sleeve, jam-grass…and I love it. More production on this record, but it doesn’t suffer because their material just keeps maturing. Love these guys.
Monsters of Folk
I’m not typically a big fan of supergroups. They are the musical equivalent of NBA All-Star games. Enough said. However, this one is more like the first Dream Team. It works and everybody brings their A-game and top quality material. And really with Conor Oberst and M. Ward, I don’t see how you could go wrong (Somebody from My Morning Jacket, too).
Rench, Worn Down Low
Everything I’ve heard from this guy is great. Mixed hip-hop DJ’ing with classic country and a sharp political wit and well selected covers. He was also involved in the great (free for download) Rap/Country mashup, Gangstagrass.
The Dodos, Visiter
Not really anything to say about this one, other than that it’s a fine record. If you like the Animal Collective, you’ll probably dig this…
Deer Tick, Born on Flag Day
This Brooklyn band reeks great influences, but keeps it’s own voice in there….great mix of mello and hard rocking stuff. I expect we’ll here more from them in the coming years. Their first record, “War Elephant” is excellent as well. They do a lot of great covers, too. Not on the record, but if you look around YouTube.
The Gourds, Haymaker!
Ok, so it’s getting boring that the Gourds are on my list every other year, I suppose. I just never find any bands that really stack up to them in my book. They’re records have been a little spotty on the last couple outings, but this one is solid back to front in both material and performance – one of their best.
Todd Snider, The Excitement Plan
Todd Snider is a gem. He’s a performer you may never quite grasp without listening to live performances, but he is our generation’s John Prine and you can’t really go wrong with his insight, humor and storytelling ability. If you don’t know Todd, I’d start with “Near Truths and Hotel Rooms” — but this is a fine record, too.
Tinted Windows
Oh crap…this, technically, is another “supergroup” — though it doesn’t really feel like it. Cheap Trick’s drummer, some guy from Smashing Pumpkins and that MMMBop kid (Yea, Hanson)…but, f*ck, it’s a great power pop record. This is a killing upbeat driving record, good at work, too.
Rediscoveries…
Richard Buckner, Bloomed
I liked this record when it came out in the mid-90s, and it has aged really well. I didn’t have a copy for years and re-downloaded it this year, and have listened to it dozens of times this year. I’d put it up against anything from Jay Farrar or any of the other alt-country songwriting heros for song quality. It’s also a really, really awesome rainy day record.
Yo La Tengo, Fakebook
Another old favorite that I spun again this year and found it holds up well. It is actually the only Yo La Tengo record I’ve connected with, but I love it. It’s a unique blend of folk/country/indie pop with a very happy edge to it. Also probably one of the only bands that really captured some of the Velvet Underground influences in a way that reflected the lighter, more pop side of that band that I loved.
John’s PickyPlates interview
via youtube.com
From Saturday at Startup Weekend. John lays out the idea and introduces the PickyPlates team.
Yea, I drink the iHOP coffee.
via youtube.com
Two of my ultimate icons of coolness being cool. What a perfect match. Tom Waits, the laid back sultan of cool. Iggy the poster-child for manic coolness.
Instrumental #1
Every once in a while I like to listen back to some old recordings and remind myself I was a pretty good guitar player back when I actually practiced.
The Secret Life of Machines
via youtube.com
“The Secret Life of Machines” is one of the great informational shows every produced. If you are interested in modern technology, how it works and it’s historical context, you will love this show.
Incredible use of demonstrations, cartoons and diagrams in communicating the science and mechanics behind inventions.
BoxFinder live at the iPhone App Store
I’m happy to announce that our first iPhone application, BoxFinder has arrived at the App Store. BoxFinder is a tool for the Atlas Quest letterboxing community, making it easier to use the location awareness of your iPhone to locate letterboxes. Check it out!
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.
Windows 7 Party Planner
via minimalmac.com
Owwwww, this makes me hurt. Is Microsoft paying people to do this?
Freddie King Rocks
via youtube.com
Not only do I wish I could play like that…I want that shirt!
Cloudy morning
Cloudy morning. Remastered Beatles lined up.
Agile Tortoise, Inc.
Agile Tortoise, my company, is now Agile Tortoise, Inc. Mixed feelings, simply because of the increased administrative burden of being incorporated, but it seemed like a necessary and important step for the long term.
I’ve got some new projects to launch soon, and want to branch out into more different areas, and having the appropriate legal infrastructure in place will become more and more important to functioning.
Now, I just need to figure out how to run a corporation. Little details, like how I go about paying myself suddenly become a bit more interesting.
Things are likely to continue to be slow around here, too. I’m blogging on the Agile Tortoise site now, and will be moving more content there.
Servoy: mod_datejs v0.5
I’ve checked in mod_datejs v0.5 to Google Code. This is a Servoy module that adapts the functions of the excellent Date.js library for use in Servoy, and is distributed under the same MIT-style license.
I haven’t fully adapted the test suite from the original, but I have pretty good test coverage and everything in the library is now functional, so you should be able reference the documentation at the Date.js site.
This version finally works out a little niggle I was having with the parse method, so Date.parse() now works with all the varieties of cool options for translating natural language dates. When used in combination with “converter” field types in Servoy, you can get rid of the clunky default date control and just let users type things in your date fields. I’ll post documentation, and probably a screencast, on this technique in the coming weeks.
Enjoy!