We’re looking forward to seeing family and friends in December! 

I learned in December that I still love playing the piano.   I hadn’t played in years but the many feet of snow outside inspired me to sit in the warm basement and remember how to play.  Since then I’ve been thinking more about it and recently a few piano playing friends pointed me in this direction for buying a digital piano:

• Pianos need all 88 keys.
• Pianos need to make beautiful music and must handle 32 notes polyphony.
• Pianos need weighted keys.

I’ve started to narrow my search for the brands and models that I want to try.  If you have any extra digital pianos around the house you no longer play or if you have recommendations (and I know family members and friends who play are reading this) please let me know.

• You know I love eating at Chipotle but I didn’t know that the restaurant purchased food from local growers when possible.  That makes the burrito bowls that much more delicious.
  Local Growers Help Companies Cut Costs [Marketplace]

I compiled the requested info and called back at 7:20 PM Eastern Time (4:20 PM Pacific time) only to hear an automated message saying that the office is closed for the day.  What?!  While it was after 7 on the east coast it was not 7 PM yet on the west coast.

Not to be deterred, I tried to beat the system.  My wife Amanda has a phone number from Colorado so I dialed with her phone and got right into the phone system and through to a representative.  Apparently the office wasn’t closed if you live in Colorado but it is closed if you live in DC.

Next time you need to reach an office with a fancy automated system shielding you from real people, keep this trick in mind.

The song that Last.fm was playing at the time was Chopin’s Étude No. 5 in G-Flat Major “Black Keys. All I knew about the ring tone was that it was the only pleasing music that would suit a call from Amanda and that it was named melody07.mid.

Think I am going crazy and hearing things? You be the judge. (more…)

Here’s last night’s Daily Show.

[via]

Wired magazine wrote about Wakerupper back in November and I immediately tried it but it was not fully available then except for beta testers. Without an account all you can do is schedule a single call. My single reminder calls worked well but the real beauty of a service to call a phone number is to schedule multiple calls on a schedule.

Wakerupper is basically a service that calls a telephone exactly when you want with the message of your choosing. According to the company:

“Wakerupper is an experimental service that aims to make telephone alerting as easy and inexpensive as possible. In one easy step, on one simple web page, Wakerupper enables users in the United States and Canada to schedule telephone reminder calls.”

Today I got an email inviting me to be a beta tester for the servce (yay, right on time!) and it is working great. Details on how it works are below. (more…)

Update: this is not where we decided to have the wedding but it is one of many places we investigated. (more…)

Digital rights management (DRM) is one of the downsides of subscription services because the tracks can’t go on a portable mp3 player unless you pay more per month and then the tracks only work on certain players. You can get around that by purchasing tracks and albums and burning to CD and then rippping the tracks to your computer and then after all of that you can add them DRM-free to your favorite mp3 player. Annoying!

The problem with DRM is hinted at in this question & answer from Yahoo! regarding the migration of the subscribers to Rhapsody (emphasis mine):

I purchased tracks and albums through Yahoo! Music Unlimited. Can I play them in Rhapsody?

Yahoo!-purchased tracks can be imported into and played on Rhapsody. Instructions on how to import tracks after you’ve migrated will be available soon. We strongly recommend you back up your purchased tracks to CDs in the event that they do not play successfully using Rhapsody’s Music Software.

This is exactly why I bought zero tracks from Yahoo! in these two years. I didn’t want to lose them when the software stopped working or the company was sold. Looks like playing it safe worked this time.

Are you going to switch to Rhapsody or take your business elsewhere? Do you have a better way to fill your life with music? (I’m keeping my eye on Last.fm and their upcoming subscription service.)

It’s late and I need to get sleep so let me get straight to the point. The movie is well done with inventive and engaging animation. The adaptation from graphic novel to movie is a success and the texture added with music, sound and motion bring the story alive. I have never learned so much about the Islamic Revolution in Iran and now I want to know more.

So yes, the movie is worth your time. If you have the inclination, do it. But go early because otherwise you’ll be stuck in the only available seat… the far edge of the front row.

Having just read The 33 Things That Make Us Crazy in the latest Wired magazine I must add my own item to the list: Movie theater seating. So let me get this straight: I get to pay more than ten dollars to sit in the front row, far right side of a subtitled movie and the only way I can see is by slouching down far enough so that I can see the screen. After 20 minutes my legs are going numb and my neck is getting sore. I look over at Amanda and I can tell this isn’t her idea of a great movie experience either.

How about if the seating at the theater were priced like it is at the theater… movie goers could buy a specific seat and the theater could vary the charge depending on the desirability of the seat. Why would theaters have different pricing? Because my living room is the competition and I always get a comfortable seat at home.