It's a new month, what does your desktop look like?
Smashing Magazine has posted a number of desktop wallpapers with a December theme. They do this every month and this month's selection is especially good. I chose the one pictured above.
Check it out for yourself: Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: December 2011
Today I played around with Google Music's Uploader for the first time in quite a while and here are a few things that I dislike about it and a word about ogg vorbis and Google Music. So in the spirit of Festivus, here's my Airing of Grievances regarding Google Music Uploader.
You can only select which folders for Google Music Uploader to monitor. It will then tell you if new music files are available to upload to Google Music but it won't tell you what they are. If I had known that Rathole Radio, a podcast, (in screen cap above) was to be uploaded then I would not have done so.
Once an upload has started there does not appear a way to stop it. I would have stopped uploading Rathole Radio if I could have.
When you first download and install Google Music Uploader the default setting is to start up each time you start up Windows. I don't like this but fortunately it's easy to turn off. Just go under the Advanced tab and deselect Start automatically when computer is restarted.
You can upload ogg vorbis music files to Google Music but they will stream in mp3. Rathole Radio is in ogg vorbis.
I don't use Google Music that much because I cannot select the individual songs or albums to upload.
I recently finished reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It's well worth reading especially if you're into design, business or technology. Here's a few of my quirky notes from the book.
"People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint."Steve Jobs, page 337.
Weniger aber besser.(Less but better.) Steve Jobs admired Dieter Rams, the German industrial designer for the electronics firm Braun.
Memento mori.(Remember you will die.) A reminder to victorious generals in ancient Rome to keep them humble, page 461.
"I thought he [Steve Jobs] was calling to say something nice about it [Comcast's HDTV service]. Instead, he told me 'It sucks.'"Brian Roberts, Chairman/CEO of Comcast.
"You're blowing it with Fox News. The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you've cast your lot with the destructive people. Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is going to be your legacy if you're not careful."Steve Jobs to Rupert Murdoch, page 508. Hey, but they were still friendly and worked together on The Daily.
"We spoke about furniture in theory for eight years. We spent a lot of time asking ourselves, 'What is the purpose of a sofa?'"Laurene Powell, Steve's wife, page 276.
The Autobiography of a Yogi, Steve first read this as a teenager, again in India, and once a year for the rest of his life.
The Innovator's Dilemma deeply influenced Steve but he figured if another product was going to replace one of his he might as well be the one to make it too.
Furniture wasn't the only thing that Steve had trouble deciding on for his home. Finally after a lengthy family discussion lasting weeks, they decided on a Miele washer and dryer. They take twice as long to wash clothes but use less water and soap in addition to leaving less detergent on them. The clothes come out much cleaner and softer and last longer. In short they don't trash your clothes.
Previously I used WinAmp with a plug-in to rip CDs into Ogg Vorbis but then I upgraded WinAmp and the plug-in didn't work. I tried re-installing the plug-in but no luck.
MediaMonkey doesn't require a plug-in and it also rips into FLAC which is nice. I sometimes use FLAC for classical music.
MediaMonkey has a reputation for being able to handle very large music libraries. I doubt that I'll get the chance to try this out, my music folder is not big at all. MM does seem to do all the things most people would expect from a music player. In the day that I've used it, I don't have any complaints but I plan on using it mostly for ripping into Ogg and FLAC..
Warning! The free version of MediaMonkey doesn't allow you to rip into MP3s. MP3 is a proprietary file format and the owners want money for it. The premium version of MediaMonkey (called Gold) allows MP3 ripping and other little perks, it costs $20.
MediaMonkey.com | Ogg Vorbis | FLAC (at SourceForge.net)
Wednesday I picked up the new Nook Touch that I pre-ordered at Barnes & Noble. So far I really like it, it's teh awesome! Here I'll go over setting it up and my plans for my new Nook Touch.
Set-up was easy enough, there were no real problems. You will need a Barnes & Noble account to use the Nook Touch. I already had an account so all I had to do was enter my account information (email & password) and I was just about set. If you don't have a Barnes & Noble account then I would go to their web site and set one up first. You can register on the Nook but I think it would be easier if you do it from a computer or laptop first.
Also you will need a wifi connection to set-up the Nook. You can set-up and register your new Nook while the battery charges. The quick start-up guide says the battery could take as long as three hours to fully charge but mine was done in about an hour.
A credit card is NOT required to set-up the Nook, however you will not be able to download any of the 'free' ebooks at Barnes & Noble or use any of the 'free' B&N extras without setting a default credit card. I don't want any of B&N's DRM infected ebooks so I have not registered a credit card with them. If you do give B&N your credit card information then you may want to set the Nook to require the password before each purchase. You can do that under Settings > Shop.
Sideloading
Loading your own content onto a Nook by using the USB cable is called sideloading. It's easy enough. My Windows 7 PC recognized the Nook Touch as the E: drive and I simply dragged files onto the appropriate folder under My Files on the Nook. I sideloaded a ebook but I haven't added any photos or graphics yet which are used as screensavers.
Reading
I quickly got lost in a book, page turns are quick and just once every sixth page there is a flash of black which isn't even very noticeable. Reading through the Quick Start Guide on the Nook is very helpful. When you get a chance, skimming through the full guide is also worth it. Three full books come with the Nook: Dracula, Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. I'm about half way done reading Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Going Forward
Here's what I have planned for my new Nook Touch:
"Stonehenge! Where the banshees live and they do live well!" ~ Spinal Tap.
I really like the selection of wallpapers this month at Smashing Magazine, check them out. As always many sizes are available and you can choose to have the month's calendar on them or not.
I often surf the web with the Flash add-on for Firefox disabled for security reasons. Normally when I come across Flash content I get a boring message but not so with Vimeo. Also I tell you how to disable and enable Flash in Firefox.
Vimeo is a video sharing site, yes like YouTube. It uses Flash for its videos and when Flash is disabled instead of a boring error message like "Flash required to view this content" like many web sites Vimeo shows something like the screen cap above. I have also seen "Oh Dear!" in addition to "D'Oh!"
It's like an application in your web browser that bad guys can use to do bad things. Also there are Flash cookies that web sites can use to track you. Ever notice you get pop-ups and pop-unders even though you told your browser to block them? Yep, that's Flash again in a lot of instances.
Tools > Add-ons > Shockwave Flash > Disable .
Tools > Add-ons > Shockwave Flash > Disable . Then Reload the browser.
Happy and safe web surfing!
Last week I heard that in the U.S. the internet uses more electricity than the auto industry. Shortly after I read about that Netvibes, my web browser's start-up page, notified me that it is now using less energy.
Netvibes is saving electricity by not refreshing the page and widgets while users aren't paying attention to the page. That's fine with me, things with Netvibes are working fine despite this change. I'm glad they're saving energy.
Technology is wonderful - when it works (library edition).
Last Friday a book that I have checked out of the library was due. Thursday I checked online and no one had reserved it so I figured that Friday I would re-new it. Then Friday rolls around and I find the book in this strange situation: there's a hold on the book but there is one available in the system (shown in the screen capture above).
The hold means that I cannot re-new the book online. What I don't understand is why if there is a book available in the system it's not matched with the request (the hold)?
I waited all day Friday to see if the system would fix itself but it never wised up. So Saturday I took the book to the library and asked if I could re-new it. The library had no problem re-newing it for me!
Here's the book that I re-newed: Healing Spices. Highly recommended. There are some spices in here that I never even heard of before.
As the screen grab shows my feed reader can somehow see into the future!
The other day I was just going through my news reader when I noticed the feed for Science Daily showed the time/date as "in the future." Now if it will just do this with something like sports scores or the stock market then it will really be useful!
By the way, I use Netvibes for reading RSS feeds. It does all sorts of great things like play podcasts right in the browser. There are also plaenty of widgets that work with it. I highly recommend Netvibes. It's not an application, it's all done on the web through the browser.
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