Big Wheel

I went into more detail on this in a thread in the political forum, but this is covered in Al Gore's upcoming book and movie. I encourage you to check them out.

The point of the bulk uploads is to eliminate manual data entry - assuming you already have the data, of course. Stores use this feature to upload a ton of products at once. Interesting quesion on data portability. I know that they encourage you to have the data in a portable format before you add it to Google Base (that's why they talk about XML and so on for bulk uploads). The problem I forsee with porting data out is the labels attached to everything. I assume that's metadata, and I think the eventual goal is to use that to facilitate natural language queries. So there's probably a lot going on behind the scenes and a lot of data may be getting added that you can't see. I guess they could add a feature where you could still be able to port out all your original data, but a lot of the "meaning" - the way the system understands the data - could get lost.

Google Base is a thing Google put up to enter structured data onto Google, so I was thinking, why couldn't this work with discographies? As an example, I entered some data for True Blue into Google Base. (Clearly not perfect yet, but not too bad-looking, either.) The cool thing is that you can do "bulk uploads" of certain formats of data, so if you had things in a compatible format you could enter a ton of stuff very quickly. Does anyone know what format BRIAN uses to store its data? It could be a cool (and easy) project to get discographers to do uploads of their BRIAN listings, if they are in a compatible format. ...thinking about this a little more, I wonder if the best way to enter data is by each song, rather than each recording date? You can tag any data you like with identifying "labels", so it wouldn't be too difficult to group "Theme for Doris", "Good Old Soul," and so on together with a common "album" or "recording date" label. And you could group "recording dates" into sessionographies, and albums into discographies. Or something like that. And put up reviews. I notice AMG's interface has gotten kinda crappy lately. Maybe there's a better way...

The consensus around here is to use Exact Audio Copy ( http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ )in tandem with the LAME encoder (often comes already installed on EAC, I think) to copy CDs to your hard drive (aka "ripping" them). EAC has a built-in feature that should get track information from the internet. This information (including track order) is automatically entered into the new mp3 files. It can be a hassle to do this manually, which you sometimes have to do, especially when you are dealing with mp3s of live shows that have no wide-circulation CD out there. P.S.: Most people here hate Windows Media Player for ripping.

In other news, scientists have hypothesized that the water-to-wine miracle may have actually been accomplished by "some guy named Gary," according to James F. Lifshitz, professor of chemistry at Western Idaho University. "Ancient scrolls recently discovered around Beersheba mention that Gary was a big hit around the punchbowl."

Disagree completely. TV may not be the best way to get in-depth reporting (and perhaps even accuracy) but it's the best way to get breaking news and "you are there" coverage of an event. What, you'd rather wait up to 24 hours to read about it in the paper, a week for a magazine report, or even longer for the book? Radio has more limitations than TV, imo, and the internet has little credibility when it comes to breaking news. Duhhh....there's nothing TV news can do that the "breaking news" headline on CNN.com or another news site can't. Or, at least, nothing particularly newsworthy. I don't need to see every house slowly sinking underwater or every additional person that jumps from the building to accurately get the gist.

Them's fightin' words, bub! Trader Joes is one of the best grocery store chains on the planet, and I miss 'em something fierce down here... I've never been to one (I think the nearest one is in the Detroit area, but I could be wrong)... I just keep hearing about them and how great they are and it makes me think that they'll soon take over the world, like Sam's Club or something, and drive all the local guys out of business. A new Trader Joe's just opened here in Albuturkey, but I haven't been yet (there's been one open in Santa Fe for a couple of years). We always stock up on the nototrious "Two Buck Chuck"; Charles Stewart, a drinkable California wine for two bucks a bottle ($2 in CA, $3 here in NM). Need to check out the pickle aisle, I guess. Actually, it's Charles Shaw, not Stewart. I miss having a Trader Joe's a 10 minute walk away. I almost never bought the gourmet prepared stuff, but as has been noted, they can't be beat on staples like bread, milk, and eggs. They are also my favorite place to buy beer and wine. Many of the wines are roughly 25% cheaper than you would find in a liquor store - the delicious Lolonis organic fume blanc is like $11 at TJ's versus $15 at most other places. And the store's beer buyers seem to have some a knack for getting great deals, though the selection is limited. Definitely the only place in Boston where you could get a 6-pack of the Anchor Liberty Ale for $6.99, and local microbrews sometimes for under $5.50. Maybe I'll make a run to one of the SF stores this weekend...too bad they're so much further away now.

I had trouble getting used to the idea of putting pickles on a falafel or other Middle Eastern-type sandwich. It doesn't seem right to me, for some reason, yet I was told that's the most authentic way to do it. The Falafel Palace in Cambridge's Central Square was the first time I had the combination, sometime last year. How about non-cucumber pickles? My grandfather used to pickle unripe tomatoes, and one of my father's friends used to do habanero peppers, or something like that. I've done a couple of kimchi experiments - the first batch came out pretty good, the second, not so much (but the carbon dioxide buildup in the jar did lead to hilarious results when I opened the thing). I'm sure I wasn't doing it the authentic Korean way, though...aren't you supposed to bury the jar in the ground or something?

Answer: enough people to make it worthwhile to continue manufacturing these things. The cars and trucks that GM is making today is the result of decisions made many years ago. Let's hope things are considerably different 10 years from now. And the core of the problem is not the car manufacturers, but us. All of us. The hybrids may be a good start, but I'm still astounded (disillusioned?) that we haven't seen any serious talk about better public transportation. Heck, how about just carpool lanes -- if California can do it, why not SE Michigan? High speed rail? Incidentally, I seriously looked at buying an Accord Hybrid. The numbers just don't add up, unless you are driving an obscene number of miles per year. Erik, I also read many articles on the subject, and the bottom line (from a purely financial perspective) is that Hybrids, in many cases, aren't the most economical choice. For one thing, the layout of newer cities (versus the East Coast, SF to some extent, and the core of LA) makes it a lot tougher to create well-functioning rail systems with a non-crazy price tag. At least that's how I understand it. Car pool lanes should sort of be an obvious short-term solution, as long as they can be shown to not make traffic in the other lanes way more awful. In fact, I'm riding in the carpool lane on the 101 Freeway as I type this post! One company I know of is giving $5000 on top of the federal tax break to employees if they buy a hybrid. That makes it pretty close to a smart financial decision as well as an environmentally friendly one.

The EX71s are great-sounding low-end earbuds, but are made like crap. I've gone through several pairs, some lasting months, others days. The wires and connections are really fragile, and the wires' rubber coating wears off very easily. (My last pair went bad within the 30-day warranty period, but you have to spend $10 to send it back for a replacement.) My EX51s just went to shit on me - I think the wire on the left earbud broke somewhere, as only the right earbud works now. I've been sort of soured on Sony products and am trying not to buy any more, even though I rather liked the sound out of the EX51s. Anyone have any other recommendations than the ones covered here already?

Another unfortunate wrinkle to the story is that shortly after I moved out here my cousin broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of the house that I sent the boxes to. She's not on terrible terms with the ex, but she is finally changing her address on Monday. Does this mean that the box will not be delivered, but will instead be returned to sender (or worse) by the post office when it sees that she no longer lives at that address? I was under the impression that regular mail forwarding doesn't apply to packages, but I could be mistaken.

I sent a box of books to my cousin from Boston to San Francisco before I moved out here, around February 27 or 28. I believe I sent it either Media Mail or Bound Printed Matter. It's now March 25 and the box still hasn't arrived. Should I wait another week or more before presuming it's lost? (The check of mine that hasn't reached Chuck Nessa in 5 months is a different postal matter altogether. My apologies, Chuck - I'll finally have a permanent address in a week so I can finally place that CD order...)

I just spoke briefly with the roommate last night about this. It turns out that she actually handles a lot of the Japanese ITunes store. Honestly, I wouldn't hold out hope of ever seeing Japan-only tracks in the US store - apparently ITunes has strict rules about this, although I don't really understand why. Maybe one of the Japan-based board members can figure out how to send these tracks to us? I don't use ITunes, so I have no clue how it works, but I'm guessing it's not gonna be as simple as simply sending the files by email. Probably some sort of re-encoding from the analog signal will be necessary.

Dexter Gordon was Lars Ulrich's godfather!?

My probable new roommate works for Itunes. Maybe I can pump her for info.

I've seen 4 or 5 episodes so far. I think my favorite (warning: minor spoilers ahead) is the one where Larry gets roped into supporting his friend at her incest survivor's group, then realizes that he's the only non-survivor present and makes up a terrible incest story so he'll fit in. Or maybe the one where he brings the hooker to his dad's house, where they all smoke pot and the hooker starts teaching Larry's 80-something year-old dad how to talk like a gangsta.

http://www.nbc.com/Video/videos/snl_1439_natalieraps.shtml I haven't laughed so hard in months...

Dick Oatts may be underrated by the critics, but he certainly isn't underrated by the young alto players I know.

Way too slow. Someone else took the apartment an hour after I posted.

Well, it seems as though this might not be a problem. I can't set up a bank account for at least 2 business days anyway, and the guy doesn't accept Paypal credit card payments. So it looks like I'm in limbo no matter what...

I'm putting down a deposit on an apartment, and since I'm coordinating things from three time zones away the guy i'm renting from wants a deposit sent via Paypal (bank transfer only, since he doesn't have his account set up to accept credit cards). I'm a complete Paypal novice. The guy looks like he's legit based on a quick google search, but I'm still a little concerned about this transaction just because it's $200. On the off chance this guy is a scam artist, what recourse do I have to recover my money?

Epilogue: My last day at work was yesterday. (I accepted a new gig out in the Bay Area.) On Thursday we had a farewell lunch which turned into a roast as everyone recounted my various workplace shenanigans. The boss mentioned my interview and said that "it was only your knowledge of Tina Brooks that got you this job." My going-away present: the Hill, Patton, and Moncur Mosaic Selects.

Has anyone tried contacting yourmusic's customer service? I have what I think is a bad copy of Ready for Freddie--there's a terrible skip right in the middle of "Crisis", and there's no sign of a visible scratch. The problem was present from the first playback, when I ripped it to my mp3 player.

Since according to the 2000 Census the median age in the U. S. is 35.3 , the sampling error is huge and of a type that could explain the under-reporting of females if we assume that the more promiscuous females tend to be younger females . Not necessarily. Doesn't this just mean that nobody was surveying 8-year-olds?

Thanks - not a bad idea as it's looking like I am moving to San Francisco in a few weeks. Tonight is Mexican food though.