On Saturday night Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band pulled into the Tallahassee Leon County Civic Center. Needless to say, I was there. It was the first time Buffett played Tallahassee since 2002, when I was a freshmen.
The show was great, of course, and even though I was behind the stage the view was great. It was a fun weekend 18 hours seeing old friends and enjoying some great music.
For those who care, you can find the set list here. It was cool seeing some old stuff including Pencil Thin Mustache, which I hadn’t seen in concert since 2003, as well as some others that I had never seen in concert like Bama Breeze, Changing Channels and the new rendition of Floridays. There were also a cool video called Here We Are (you can find it on iTunes) which shows Parrotheads through the years.
Ok, so I know that as of late a vast majority of the stuff posted here has been pro Apple in some regard. Well, I’m trying to find other stuff to talk about, but this article just couldn’t be ignored. The Chicago Sun-Times has reviewed Microsoft’s “iPod killer,” the Zune digital media player, and it’s quite possibly the strongest review I’ve ever read, for anything, ever.
I’ve spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.
Andy Ihnatko, one of the Chicago Sun-Times’ two technology columnists, penned the Zune review and, as you can see, it is less then pleasant. Throughout the article Ihnatko talks about how the Zune is really just a way for Microsoft to play nice with the music industry — attempting to give in to demands where Apple has stood their ground. The result, according to Ihnatko, is that the Zune serves the industry rather then the user. He even goes as far as basically saying friends don’t let friends buy Zunes.
You’ll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry’s Bizarro World, where users aren’t allowed to do anything that isn’t in the industry’s direct interests.
I’ve pulled a few choice quotes for the purpose of my covering the article, but you should really read the whole thing, especially if you are considering purchasing a Zune, iPod, or other device this Christmas season.
Result: The Zune will be dead and gone within six months. Good riddance.
So tomorrow Microsoft’s iPod killer, the Zune, comes out. While this MP3/video player might slow iPod sales slightly, and only until a new iPod comes out, Microsoft’s attempt at capturing any market share from the iTunes Store will fail miserably (which means so will the Zune). But please, please don’t take my word for it. Check out this hilarious look at just how crazy the Zune music pricing scheme works.
As we all know, purchasing songs, videos or games from the iTMS only requires a customer to create an account and have a valid credit card. Thus, like most other business transactions, you purchase a good and the price of that good is billed to your credit card. It works the same way at the grocery store, at the gas station or in a restaurant. And for the most part it seems like a pretty good system. Plenty of people have credit cards and they understand the concept of purchasing items with them. So, how, you ask, could Microsoft screw this up? No, first you might ask, what is there to screw up? I mean, the system already works. All you need your customer to do is show up with a credit card? Right?
A few days ago I was reading the Apple Hot News RSS feed and came across a cool article about Arno Salters, a music video director. What caught my attention is he directed the video for Mates of State’s Fraud in the 80’s song. I happen to like Mates of Sate and so I checked out the video — this is some pretty crazy stuff. The video is a mixture of stop motion and live action filming. It’s actually pretty increadable. There are 5,760 still shots in the video, 2,500 of which Salters cut out by hand! It was on the Apple site because he used an Apple G5 PowerMac to edit and put the video together. It’s really a pretty cool piece of work.
It’s been quite awhile since I last posted anything meaningful. I know the24reviews have been highly captivating and all, but a lot more has been happening in my life. Without boring everyone to tears — and by everyone I mean the two people who will actually read this — I’m going to try and capture the last few weeks of my life in a few paragraphs. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
A few weeks ago I started the arduous process towards SCUBA certification. This means countless hours of not actually doing anything. Well, not really. I read a book, answered some questions, and dove in a pool for a few hours. Today I went down to DeLeon Springs (think cold water) and spent another few hours underwater performing various skills. I am now one ocean dive away from being a full blown PADI Open Water diver. Look out world, here I come.
Last week I was in the Golden Isles/Brunswick area of Georgia with the sixth graders on their mission trip. It was a lot of fun and the kids did more work then I could have imagined. They built cabins so that future TEAMeffort work teams will be able to come and help out the area. It was a great trip and I only had to take one person to the hospital — that was a first.
Last night was the fourth of July. Fireworks. Bang.
I am currently counting down the days until Intel releases the Core 2 Duo — stupid name I know — processor and Apple puts it in the iMac. When that glorious moment comes, I will be buying a pimped out computer that will then be cooler than yours. I’m a geek, I know.
The week before I left for the mission trip I officially became the Associate Youth Director of First United Methodist Church of Orlando. I’m on the letterhead. Cool huh?
Saturday I leave with the seventh and eighth graders on their mission trip to Asheville, NC. I don’t really have a clue what we’ll be doing. Should be fun though.
A few days ago I was reading the Apple