Wireless Hobo

Rent versus Buy

Gamefly.com is offering $9.99 for the first month, $22 a month after. I was gonna do Blockbuster first, but at $10, I will give the Tampa Bay distro point a chance. I loaded it up completely with new games that I would want to play and listed as to be shipped or low availability. Let’s see how they do.

Mirror’s Edge and Gears 2 are first on the list with Left 4 Dead after that.

My son saw a bit of Mirror’s Edge tonight. The demo is pretty harmless at a Teen rating and he liked the idea of disarming the opponents and tossing the gun.  Me too.  I will check it out the full game when it comes in and make my decision on whether he can play this one or not.  Right now, I am inclined to let him do the training session over and over for free. =)

Have I mentioned lately that I think the ESRB is pretty dumb?  If I haven’t mentioned it, let me reiterate that the ESRB is NO substitute for sitting down and playing the games your kids want to play or you would prefer them to play.  Night.

Tags: children, esrb, games, kids, purchase, rentals, saving money

Service Essentials: Pandora

Browsing through the top 25 free iPhone applications tonight, I saw this application called Pandora.  Knowing that curiosity killed the cat, I opened Pandora’s box.  Before I get started, Pandora is not just an iPhone application.

One of the obstacles to getting Michelle to adopt an iPod is her affection for the radio.  Just put something on and let it rip.  Pandora seems to cater to her and others like her.  Pandora just streams music to you.

Ok, not quite.  I am the type of person that really doesn’t care much for the radio.  I prefer to make my own radio.  The iPod single-handedly force me to develop a love of a lot of different kinds of music.  (Yes, I still love Christina Aguilera, Alex.  Yes,  you did embarrass me enough that I changed my ringer to an old telephone.  Yes, you were right, it was a bit lame.)  Back to Pandora.

After creating an account, I created a new radio station called Creedence Clearwater Revival, and renamed it to Gulf Shores Classics.  Pandora now creates a radio station based on music that is similar to CCR’s music and style!  After CCR, it queued up Simple Man by Skynrd, Stuck in the Middle with You by Stealers Wheel, and Taking It Easy by the Eagles!  In the reggae/hip-hop channel it went from Lauryn Hill to Eryka Badu, to John Legend, to Bob Marley.

Now the cool part, in my opinion, is going in and editing stations by seeding songs that you like or artists into the channel, helping Pandora customize your radio stations to YOUR ears’ desires.  Now that it is on the iPhone (and other mobile phones), well, that is just one of the coolest things I have seen heard.  Also, if you click on an artist you are directed to a page that will allow you to buy the music on iTunes, Amazon CD, or Amazon MP3.  Very, very convenient — and perhaps bad for my bank account.  (I promise to be good, M.  Really.  My fingers aren’t crossed or anything.)

Check the right most sidebar.  I have posted my channels.  Hope you like them as much I do.  If you do, please comment on this article.  Thanks.

Tags: amazon, customize, Internet Service, itunes, mp3, music, pandora, radio, streaming

Housekeeping

Quick and dirty post.  First, we have moved all of the sites to a new Dell that Kevin and I purchased this summer.  We now have more control over the processing power of the server.  Secondly, I have moved the sidebars on the right around a bit.  You may see a new section called Interesting Web Stories. Those links are actually power by my Google Reader account!  I can now read something in my website subscriptions and share it with the public at large.

Now that I have cleared pending moonlighting projects and moved the services, perhaps I can get back to posting a bit more?  We’ll see.

Tags: google, housekeeping, reader, server, systems management

Software Essentials: Picasa and Picasa Web Uploader

Yeah, I am a Google fanboy.  If you have never perused their impressive list of services, please go do so now.  I’ll wait.  Done?  Good.  Currently, I use iPhoto on my Mac to manage 6000+ photos.  Much of my online digital life centers around my various Google accounts though as I haven’t really seen the need to pay for .Mac and I am still waiting to see if Mobile Me works out.  That said, much of the stuff in Me is available somewhere for free, so why not use it?

If you are a Mac owner and use Google, adding the Picasa Web Uploader plugin to iPhoto to publish your photo galleries is a must!  They even have a great little tutorial there on how to upload your photos!

Now, if you use Microsoft Windows or Linux, you have access to one heck of a great application in Picasa Photo Editor.  If they ever put out the rumored free version for Mac, I have to say that it could easily give iPhoto a run for its money.  Also, you can upload photos to your Google Picasa Web account.

If you are the photo editor for you family, friends, or [insert group or organization here], you should definitely give Picasa and/or Picasa Web Albums a look.

Tags: iphoto, photo editing, picasa, picasa web albums, plugins

Service Essentials: AmazonMP3

I haven’t used compact discs for some time now. I download all of my music now.  Thank you, Amazon.  When iTunes was the only real game in town for my Mac and iPod, I still purchased CD’s because I didn’t want to deal with digital rights management (DRM).  Find them on sale and rip them to MP3 format.  Easy, right?  Enter AmazonMP3.  Amazon put out this great little application for Mac, Linux, and Windows, that not only handles the downloads for MP3’s you buy, but puts them into iTunes as well.  The music tends to be cheaper, higher quality, works with all browsers I have tried, and in fact, has a better preview method.  iTunes is still good for video that you want to buy, but I buy my music from Amazon and I think you should take a look too!

Tags: amazonmp3, download, itune, mp3, music