voltage

Covering Radiohead

2008-04-29T01:28:02Z

I don't have much desire to go to big festival shows these days, I'm much more into smaller, more intimate venues where the musicians (and drinks) are close. But seeing Prince cover Radiohead at Coachella would have been cool. And there's always something to be said for laser light shows.

Record Store Day

2008-04-17T03:28:01Z

This saturday, April 19, 2008, is Record Store Day. Go support your independent record store this saturday, and any day you can. Small record store are cool. They usually have well selected collections of music - you can feel a bit better picking out random stuff, knowing it at least meets some level of quality. And you can be sure the staff, surly though they me be, knows their music.

I'm buying more music electronically, but I'm still somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that as time and technology progresses, my music 'format' gets progressively lesser quality - CDs are good but still a compromise due to the storage limits of the medium when it was developed, and MP3/AAC files are compressed, although maybe soon uncompressed FLAC files will be more widely available. I pick up CDs whenever I can (sadly, not too many records these days, although I hope to get another turntable soon!) so that I can at least have an uncompressed source to go back to. Seems like more small record stores are getting into the electronic downloads game - they'll probably have to to really survive.

Awareness Test

2008-04-07T23:27:09Z

Take this awareness test. It's good. It's short. It's better with sound - there's voice narration, but it's not loud or crazy or anything.

Gas Prices Actually Making a Dent

2008-03-26T04:45:28Z

The TSTC blog noted from an article in the Wall Street Journal that it looks like there is finally evidence that Americans are responding to the high price of gas by driving less. This graph from the Federal Highway Administration is pretty interesting – constant increase for two decades except for the last year. You can see a couple inflections along the graph where there were recessions in 1991 and 2002, but this time it is far more serious a dip in the graph. As the price of gas has risen, lots of people have wondered at what point it would start to affect the driving habits of this mobile country – well, it looks like we’ve hit that point.

Hoover Dam - for what?

2008-03-13T02:52:15Z

Photo: arbyreed

A couple scientists from the Scripps Institute released a paper about a month ago that puts even money on Lake Mead being dry by 2021. Just as bad, really, is that they also put a 50% chance that by 2017 the lake will be too low for the Hoover Dam to generate power. The authors give three main reasons: drought, water demand/use, and human-induced climate change.

Apparently Lake Mead is currently at so low a point (around 50% of its capacity) that the main water supply 'tube' for Las Vegas is in danger of rising above the surface. The Hoover Dam generates around 2 gigawatts of electricity and serves about 1.3 million people - not sure how it would be replaced if that generating capacity were lost.

Holy Cow

2008-03-13T02:29:34Z

I met this guy Steve a while (a way while...) back. He used to run a record shop in Park Slope, but closed it in 2004 and now deals online as holycownyc.com. Check it out.

Why Be Early?

2008-03-07T23:33:11Z

Photo: lakelandlocal

Anyone else remember the rush by various states to move their primaries up to the beginning of the year, or even before it, to steal the thunder from Iowa and New Hampshire? Well, seems that isn't such a big deal now as we come into mid-March and Obama and Hillary are still fighting it out and the late-schedulers like Pennsylvania and Wyoming are interesting places to get voting results from (at least on the Democratic side).

Reusable Bag

2008-02-04T23:44:29Z

Now that it seems that the rest of the US outside of SF and some other crunchy places has caught on to the fact that using zillions of disposable plastic bags might just not be the best idea, the next question is - what's a good reusable bag? Well, if you don't have something already that works for you, Onya Bags makes a great nylon bag (lightweight parachute fabric) that collapses into a tiny little carry pouch so you can always have it with you. The cord that secures the pouch also doubles as a should strap if you want when the bag is in use. They're a great design, definitely a step up from the random nylon bag.

Carbon Policy and 'Alternative' Energy

2008-01-27T21:45:56Z

A great summary article on 10 issues in the realm of energy policy. Lots of hype and bluster and this list hits a bunch of nails on the head.

Mobile Fish

2007-12-29T19:09:00Z

You've probably seen the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list to know what fishies are good or bad to buy. Instead of carrying around the folding wallet sized card or trying to remember what's what, they now have a mobile friendly website (www.seafoodwatch.org) and a texting service. Text 'fish monkfish' to 30644 and you get the important details sent back to you right away. Very useful.

Do Not Dry

2007-12-15T16:12:02Z

I have a white shirt I'm trying to get a stain out of, and I'm trying to figure out how best to wash it. I'm looking at the tag on the inside and for the millionth time staring at those strange little care symbols. What do they mean? Some of them are vaguely straightforward, but others are very hieroglyphics. Well, now I've got a nice (if dense) reference card (courtesy of KG Industries).

The next question is, does my dry cleaner actually pay attention to this stuff? And does it matter, since my clothing seems to come back looking good...?

We are what we throw out

2007-12-05T02:13:35Z

NYC now has a program where you can officially be a recycling champion (some might say 'nag') for your apartment building, which they've apparently based on 'market research' (focus groups for trash?) plus the results of the waste characterization studies. I guess the latter tell them that they need some help getting people to recycle in big apartment buildings, since apartment owners tend to ignore mail from the city or not care about sorting their recycling or something, I guess.

Get Miro

2007-11-20T22:47:40Z

The Participatory Culture Foundation released Miro, a great TV/video app for Mac OSX. Free and open source, just the way we like it.

Everything on OSX seems to be taking on the iTunes UI to some degree - I guess it's the starting point for many an OSX user, and it seems to work pretty well for media browsing. A decent combination of intuitiveness, efficiency, and room for some customization (in certain bounded ways). Consistency, really, has been one of the strong points of using a
mac for so many years, even among shareware and freeware. The randomness of interaction design that can manifest itself in windows apps is one of that platform's bigger annoyances.

Frankenstein?

2007-11-08T02:09:21Z

The German company Optimal has developed a CD-vinyl hybrid. A real cd with 3 minutes of 'vinyl' on top. You can plop it on your turntable with a little adapter (45s, anyone?). Can you scratch it, though?

Vinyl has been enjoying something of a revival for a bit, so while this seems strange in a way it makes some sense. The look like they'll make cool promos or concert sale CDs.

Fortune of the Day (Week? Year?...)

2007-11-02T01:28:54Z

Your good fortune thought for the day.