Don’t Feel Well

I’m not feeling too well today. I feel like I have to throw up, but I’m making it to all my classes and work. Not only that, but then I’ll be going to the library to do some more research for my 20 page paper on Def Jam. I spent 2 hours yesterday looking at microfiche of Billboard from 1986 just to see when The Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill hit the charts and what it debuted at. Since this was such an independant release at the time, the only thing I could find as far as a release date was the year of 1986. Of course, it turned out to be released in November, so there was a lot of searching before of previous months before I struck gold. Now at least I know the few months of 1986-1987 to look for them in Rolling Stone. By the way, microfiche sucks. Microfilm is the way to go.

Oh, and by the way, how much ass does Google Scholar kick?

Google Desktop Search 1.0

Google Desktop 1.0 launched today. The beta version has been out for a while. The new official release version brings increased searching ability. Now it searches in text pdfs, mp3 files, and more.

I did a simple search for Paul Barman (as in MC Paul Barman) and the results came up. What’s cool is you just click the mp3 file you want that came up, and it opens in your default media player. This is a lot quicker than the windows search function. Thumbs up to Google for another great service. (click picture for large screenshot of search results)

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Giant Steps

Giant Steps

What do you get when you mix Jazz music and really cool flash animation?

Answer: Giant Steps

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QN5 Podcasting

Podcasting
WHAT IS PODCASTING?

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, Podcasting is the syndication of audio files using RSS. Podcasting works the same as a standard RSS feed reader or news aggregator, the only difference is that the feed you subscribe to contains an audio file in it.

Instead of reading content in your RSS feed reader or aggregator, you can listen to the contents of your feed using a reader or aggregator that supports podcasting, or you can listen to them on an iPod or similar device. While podcasting was named for the iPod, you do not have to have an iPod to listen to a podcast. Podcasts can be displayed on websites with clickable links to audio files and many of the standard RSS readers, like Doppler have begun supporting audio enclosures. For Mac users, iPodderX is the definitive client.

That being said, QN5, home of tonedeff, CunninLynguists, and others, have launched the first ever Hip Hop label podcast. Check out their first show here: WQN5. Just copy that link into your RSS aggregator and enjoy.

If you don’t want to podcast, you can simply dl the 1st show mp3 here: WQN5 First Show

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Cool Programs I Use

Here is a list of programs that I use that I think are really cool.

  • PSPad- Great multi language editor
  • Firefox- the far superior browser
  • Trillian Pro 3.1- great multi-messenger
  • No Name Script- great script for Mirc
  • Photoshop
  • Winamp 2.8- far superior to their current offering
  • CDEX- great cd ripping utility
  • DVD-Shrink- Shrink’s dvds. for backup purposes only
  • DVD Decrypter- Decrypts the DVD code on dvds
  • jetAudio- great audio player
  • Feedreader- reads rss feeds from blogs and news sites
  • FlashFXP- great ftp client
  • Microsoft Outlook 2003
  • SwishMax-Great flash making program
  • Google Desktop-Searches your files like a google search
  • AVG Anti-virus- great free anti-virus. Bogs down your system less than Norton
  • Registry Mechanic- slims down your bloated windows system registry
  • Adaware- removes adware and spyware
  • Spybot Search and Destory- Same concept as Adaware
  • i-Tunes- for the simple fact that they have great free radio, some stations only work in i-Tunes.