I am trying to figure out how to use my new digital camera. So far, all I really know is that it can do a lot more than I know how to do with it. I am reading Photography for Dummies.

I think Austin Stevens' job is safe for the moment.

A Newsome turns his lonely remote to you (woo woo woo).

If I sound bitter, it's only because I am.

The reason I write so much about the impending death of TIVO is because I love my TIVO so much. It makes me mad that I am going to lose such great (and expensive) technology. But if I (like a lot of TIVO's customers) am a DirecTV customer unwilling to go backwards to cable, then I have no choice but to find an alternative, since DirecTV is killing TIVO slowly, but surely.

Here's an article in Forbes that says DirecTV may start shipping non-TIVO DVRs next month. So the end that I have been dreading is about to begin.

What's that you say Mr. R. Murdoch, Mr. TIVO has up and gone away?

You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play.

Hot Rod Heart - John Fogerty (Blue Moon Swamp)
Floating - Blue Rodeo (Outskirts)
Like a Mole in the Ground - 5 Chinese Bros. (Stone Soup)
Spoonful - Cream (Fresh Cream)
Bluebird - Howlin' Wolf (The Chess Box)
Tall Trees in GA - Buffy Sainte-Marie (Im Gonna be a County Girl Again)
Grapefruit Juicy Fruit - Jimmy Buffett (A White Sport Coat...)
Couch - 15 Mary Thompsons (MP3.Com)
Coloured Rain - Traffic (Mr. Fantasy)
Ship of Fools - Grateful Dead (From the Mars Hotel)

I'm not all that excited about the (late next year) forthcoming new version of Windows (now called Vista, previously called Longhorn), mainly because it sounds like Microsoft has decided to leave a lot of the previously heralded features out and the end of next year is a long, long way away (plus the release date will undoubtedly move back several times).

However, Paul Thurrott (Windows guru) has an interesting review of the recently released beta version 1.

Installation seems to be easier. I'm dubious of the new desktop search, because it can't be as good as, but may spell the end of, my beloved X-1. My Documents, which is somewhat of a nightmare now, especially in Windows 2000, seems to have miraculously become more confusing, which is not what most computer users need. The Parental Controls stuff sounds promising, since my kids will be well supervised computer-wise by the time Vista ships. Tabs in Internet Explorer 7 looks very useful and is, as Paul points out, very overdue. Microsoft still seems to be optomistically pushing voice recognition, but everybody knows that its no more than a neat toy that is utterly useless for increasing productivity for most users (though undoubtedly of great value for people with disabilities). Networking (perhaps the most important thing) looks spotty in this release, but will undoubtedly be fixed in future beta releases.

I was a beta tester for Windows 95 and it was sort of fun. But these days I just want my computer to work. I think I'll wait until the end of 2006 or better yet, the middle of 2007.

Technorati Tags:
Windows Vista

I continue to read with interest (both the curiosity and vested kind) the discussions and debate regarding the future of PVRs and Media PCs, especially as it relates the the delivery of HDTV.

Here's where we are to date:

1) TIVO, which I have used for years but is dying on the vine due to its break with DirecTV, has a great interface and, for a few more months until the HDTV models become incompatible with the DirecTV stream, delivers HDTV, both via satellite and over the air antenna. This is good, but DirecTV is about to switch over to MPEG4, which the current HD TIVOs cannot decode- thus they will become $1000 paperweights.

2) DirectTV has abandoned TIVO in favor of its forthcoming DirectTV branded HDTV compatible PVRs. TIVO is not a medium or long term solution for satellite owners.

3) Media PCs are nifty (sort of), but don't truly support HDTV (over the air doesn't really count because not many TIVO or Media PC owners get most of their programming over the air).

Now the current debate, led by two smart guys whose blogs I read literally every day.

The Thomas Hawk camp argues that Microsoft is catering to the Hollywood cartel by not leading the charge to make Media PCs HDTV friendly. I dislike the Hollywood cartel second only to the record label cartel, so this argument is appealing to me.

The Ed Bott Camp argues that unless the voices of reason, led by the EFF, get the DMCA overturned by the Supreme Court (which Ed implies is unlikely and I couldn't agree more), Microsoft cannot bring HDTV to Media PCs because of the differential treatment of PVRs (closed box) versus Media PCs (open box) under the DMCA. Granted, I don't practice in this area, but based on my reading of the DMCA, I believe Ed is correct.

The issue I have is not so much why Microsoft doesn't turn its nose up at the Hollywood cartel and do it anyway - because the feds have a history of beating up Microsoft over alleged federal law violations, and all they need is an excuse and a bunch of compaign contributions to try it again. My question is why can't Microsoft and everyone else with a brain cell to dangle and a dollar to be made line up against the Hollywood cartel and let it know that it needs movies distributed at least as badly as a Media PC needs HDTV. Tell them that they can be reasonable and play fair, or they can keep churning out copy-protected DVDs that can languish on the shelves of empty Blockbuster stores (though Netflix would stand to profit nicely from such an outcome).

One of the first rules of negotiation is that when you have no bargaining power in a certain situation, change the situation so hopefully the disparity in bargaining power will be lessened.

I say let's make this issue not "how we will be forced to distribute your content" but instead "we are the gatekeepers to the new generation of viewers and if you want us to distribute your content, here's how we will do it." Yes, that would put Media PCs at a disadvantage over DVD Players and whatever replaces TIVO, but there is plenty of content that would readily be licensed and before long someone would break ranks with the cartel. Once that happens, momentum has shifted and truth and justice will prevail.

Technorati Tags:
DMCA, HDTV, TIVO

I added a new A-Z installment on the Err Bear Music page. It's a bluesy tribute to a hard working guinea pig named Sooty.

There are a couple of interesting new posts regarding a topic that is dear to my heart: trying to keep a balance between your work life and your family life. Fred Wilson writes about a lecture he attended a few years ago at which the speaker said that if you don't connect deeply with your kids before they become teenagers, you never will. I bet now the applicable age is even younger. Kids grow up so fast these days. One day they are learning to ride a bike and the next day they are heading to a friend's house for their 3rd sleepover of the week.

As my kids move into primary and elementary school, I've noticed all levels of parental involvement, from almost none (my kids have some friends whose parents we have never met, but whose nannies we know well) to very involved (which is the position we and our close friends have achieved and work hard to maintain). Some folks won't like to hear this, but based on my experience the more involved parents have the happier kids. I'm talking happy here, not well behaved. My kids, while very happy, are not always so well behaved, but (most of the time) I'll take that trade. A kid may listen to her 24/7/365 nanny, but I can't help but believe on some level she wonders where her parents fit in the equation. To be clear, I am not equating nannies with uninvolved. Lots of involved parents have nannies. Lots of uninvolved parents have them too. The test is whether or not the nannies are accretive (good) or parent-substitutes (not good).

Complicating things is the fact that when it comes to connecting with your kids, you only get once chance and then only for a short time. I feel like my oldest (now 7) was born a couple of years ago. I feel like my youngest (now 4) ought to be maybe 18 months. If you don't show them from day one that you are very interested in them and their daily activities, you'll lose that important connection. I have seen it happen with guys I know who never intended to ingore their kids- their kids just grew up while they were working on some deal (or more accurately a series of deals). It wasn't an intentional thing. But it happened and now there's no way to get it back.

So how hard is it? Maybe it's me, but I sense that people in general are pretty understanding in 2005 if you aren't available on a certain date due to a family event (I refuse to use the word obligation). When I first had kids, I felt a little uneasy telling someone I couldn't make a meeting because I had to go to a soccer game or ballet recital. Even now it feels residually odd. But I (and lots of other big firm lawyers I know) do it fairly regularly. We do it because if we don't we'll miss out on those special memories that bond families together. Not because they are related, but because they are a family in every sense of the word. Plus, it's fun to see your kids play or dance or swim. I can't think of one time where a client has reacted badly to it, nor can I think of one deal I lost because of it. In fact, most of my clients are committed dads who appreciate my priorities. The lawyers who work with (for) me know that it's not only OK to make a soccer game, it's expected. If we have to work a little later that night after the kids go to bed, that's just fine. Improved technology makes it much easier now to be efficient and productive from home. My colleagues know that if need be, I'll review a document or respond to an email after 10:00 p.m. Better that than for all of us to miss the dance recital or swim meet.

Fred's post cites another post by Brad Feld. Brad writes a great post about failing and then finding balance. Brad sets forth a 5 part plan he uses to create balance. While there's little I can add to his ideas, I have a couple of additional things I try to do to keep a deep connection with my kids.

1) I try to never, ever blow them off when they want to tell me something or show me something. It blows my mind how often I see (even good) parents blow their kids off. Soon enough my kids won't want to tell me anything as daddy transforms from best friend to teenager fun police. So I try to treat every single story as a blessing. I try to ask questions- not throw away questions, but real ones to show that I am listening and I care. It sounds cliche, but this one trick works wonders when I remember to do it well.

2) I try to spend some one on one time with each child at least every other week. We are blessed to be a part of a wonderful group of families who do family-oriented things en masse several times a week. But it's also good to go one on one with a kid on a regular basis, so she can get all of my attention. My kids know they are lucky to be part of the "tribe," but they also look forward to our Saturday lunches at our "secret place" (a local hamburger joint).

3) I try to let my kids be kids. There seems to be a movement lately to make kindergarten on up into some sort of Harvard-light. I want my kids to do well in school (trust me), but I also want them to have fun. There will be plenty of time to obsess about academics later. Go play. Catch a frog. Set up a lemonade stand.

I don't do these things perfectly all the time. But I try hard to do my best, and I believe one day my kids will look back happily at the stuff we did together. I am sure they won't look back and wish I had worked harder or closed more deals. Yes, balance is a hard thing to achieve in this highly competitive rat race that most of us run. But it's too important not to try and you only have once chance to do it.

Here comes my daughter with a deck of cards. Time for some Go Fish. Maybe tonight daddy can win his first game of the week.

Technorati Tags:
balance, family life

About once every 2 years I decide it's time to update the look and feel of Newsome.Org. I've been doing that for the past month or so.

I'm good at computers. I built the one I use now myself. I used to be good at software, having written shareware and served as a game designer. But time passes fast when it comes to software and related applications. Now, every time I get into the recreation of these pages, I have to learn a bunch of new technology that has made my pages obsolete in the 2 years since I last went through the exercise. This time, I've had to learn CSS, RSS and XML (surprisingly, at least to me, the hardest by far for me was CSS). In the process, I've picked up a trick or two that I think makes website creation and management much easier for the technically proficient as well as the technically challenged. Hopefully, my trial and error will benefit those of you who decide to create a new site or update an existing one.

Here, in no particular order, are some things I have learned:

1) Use blogging software, whether you consider your site a blog or not. It automates the creation, addition, editing, archiving and deletion of content. In sum, it makes what used to be time consuming and difficult fast and easy. I use Blogger as a front end (although the pages are actually located on my server), because it is convenient and enables me to add content from anywhere. If you don't have a server, you can easily set up a site via Blogger- and Blogger will host it for free. If you want more flexibility (and you are good at computers) there are other options, such as Movable Type and Wordpress. My advice, start out with Blogger and work from there.

2) Look around for helpful add-ons that make your site more user-friendly. I use Haloscan for my trackbacks (Blogger has no native trackback capability). It's free and seems to work well. On the other hand, I don't want my comments hosted somewhere else, where they might be archived or deleted after a period of time, so I use Blogger's built-in commenting system (in lieu of Haloscan's) along with Haloscan's trackbacks. The place to go to see how to do this, and to learn about many other blog add-ons, is the excellent A Consuming Experience blog, and specifically this post. I also use Forret.Com's free trackback tool to send trackback pings to other sites that I quote or write about. One word of caution- use add-ons that make the site more useful for your readers. Resist the ones that merely add cyber-bling bling.

3) Once you get your site up and running, syndicate it. This makes it easy for people to subscribe to it in their news readers. I use FeedBurner, another free service, for syndication. If you use Blogger, the FeedBurner page has easy step-by-step instructions for getting set up.

4) Add some photos with Flickr. Flickr is simply the greatest photo site on the internet. You can upload photos for free, and show them on your blog via a Flickr Badge. Flickr integrates easily and deeply with your blog, so adding and managing photos is simple. Plus you can share photos with friends and family for free. You can also create sets of photos that are only visible to the people you select- family, friends, anyone or only yourself.

I'll continue this discussion in Part 2 later this week. If anyone has any additional tips, please add them via Comment or Trackback.

Technorati Tags:Website Creation, Blog Add-Ons

I added a Trackback feature to this page tonight. Hopefully it works. If anyone has any problems with it, please email me.

More evidence that TIVO is dying on the vine. I'm sure glad I bought all of those HR10-250 HDTV TIVOs at around $1000 a pop.

While I really love the TIVO interface, more and more my issue is becoming:

(a) what are my alternatives; and
(b) how much will it cost.

I uploaded a new Rancho Radio set tonight. I took the Jukebox, Uncensored thing to a new level. I hope it works.

Eamonn Sullivan has another installment in his extremely helpful series on using Flickr. If you are thinking about starting a Flickr page, a blog or just a web site in general, Eamonn has some great tutorials on his web site. Highly recommeded for all of you who have thus far ignored my Flickr invitations.

Let me just say once more that Battlestar Galactica is the best show on TV. The writing is phenomenal and the cast is excellent. Many more episodes like last night's and it may surpass Millennium as my all-time favorite TV show.

I love Flickr. And Here's a neat API app that lets you spell words using photos on Flickr. Stuff like this is what makes the internet such a wonderful place.

Yesterday, after reading Randy Charles Morin's post about the internet "A-List," I wrote about the difficulties in promoting a web site to its target audience. There were a number of interesting replies to Randy's post, including a good one by Richard Querin, who wrote that it's the writing, not so much the reading, that makes all of this rewarding. Brad Kellet agrees.

I agree too, to an extent. I don't think you need to have 2000 hits a day (much less 2 million) to make all the effort worthwhile. On the other hand, as I have written before, my goal is to encourage the exchange of ideas which in my experience is the first step to community building. Communities can be built around a location, a relationship or a common interest- anything that a few people who know about each other care about.

I spent a lot of time writing the policies that apply to ACCBoards.Com (spam is a problem with big message board sites, but it pales in comparison to schoolyard-type fighting and the protection of a user's right to express unpopular ideas). The terms of service there is an evolving document, even today 9 years after we started that community. The main thing is to encourage the respectful exchange of information and ideas. If that happens, the commnunity will grow naturally and police itself. The trick is to figure out how much of the stuff we learned there applies to web sites and blogs. I think a lot of it does.

For example, if I'm in a group that's discussing photography, whether that group is at dinner together, on a message board or on a blog, I love to listen and learn. But at some point, I also want to ask a question or perhaps make a point. If I can't be involved, even in a small way, in the conversation, eventually I will get discouraged and bored. I can tell you from experience that graduate students are that way too. I believe most of us are. The only difference is the method of cimmunication.

So while I obviously enjoy writing, I want this site to be more than an online journal or a living Christmas letter for my extended family. I want it to be my side of a discussion on whatever topics come up. If my extended family was more interested in the internet as a way to stay connected, I could community build around that. If our friends had web sites (fat chance, it took all I had just to get them to sign up on flickr), I could build around that. I don't have that luxury, so I look to build connections with other people who write about the things I'm interested in.

In sum, for me it's a lot about the writing, but it's also about the building, and the reading and even the being read. The potential for conversation and community is why I'm here.

Technorati Tags:Blog Promotion, Community Building

On the internet, but no one saw it. One of the hardest things about creating and operating web sites is trying to attract enough traffic to make it worthwhile. You can have the best web site in the world, but if no one notices, it becomes a ghost site. Often, web sites that one might think should be popular go unnoticed while others become popular overnight.

I have created a ton of web sites: AVBoards.Com, The Cats Domain, The Cardinals Nest, Songwriting.Org, ACCBoards.Com and others. Of those, I caught lightning in a bottle exactly once- with ACCBoards.Com. It became the most visited Atlantic Coast Conference sports site almost overnight. Not because of some nifty angle I dreamed up, but because it filled a need. Once the dot.com bust forced me to affiliate with a network, ACCBoards was surpassed by other sites, but it still gets a ton of traffic. The Cats Domain and Songwriting.Org are still active, but neither of them get a fraction of the traffic ACCBoards.Com used to get. In fact, I keep those sites online mainly because I am grateful for the small group of core users who have used them for years. The other sites are but memories of a virtual day gone by (the links above are from the Internet Archive).

So here we are in 2005. I don't start many new web sites these days. I still write and speak frequently at seminars and conventions; I still make music; I still write articles for various publications. Other than my music, all of these endeavors, which generally cost money to attend, are popular. I also write almost every day on this site, which is both free and much less popular. Why is that? A couple of reasons come to mind.

First, a lot of people who attend my seminars and read my articles are less comfortable using computers to gather information. That will change over time, but it hasn't yet. Second, I am not an A-Team internet commentator. Randy Charles Morin's interesting piece yesterday about this problem got me thinking about what to do about it. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I know this: just because people will pay money to hear me speak and read my print articles doesn't mean they will bookmark my web site and read my posts.

So how do the rest of us get noticed? Here's my approach so far:

1) Let folks know you have a web site- I have just begun adding a reference to this site to the bio I use when I give speeches and write articles. It will be interesting to see how this affects traffic, since previously most people I interact with in that way didn't know I had a web site. My guess: moderate traffic.

2) Use blogrolls and trackbacks- I link to other writers fairly regularly. Eventually, the hope is that some of them will link back to me. It's not cool (at least in my book) to ask for a link, so I keep writing and hoping. My guess: not a short term answer, but some potential for traffic over the long term (limited perhaps by the fact that it will be harder and harder to get linked as more people clamor for the same audience).

3) Cross promote- I have started linking to this site from ACCBoards.Com. I have to be careful because that is a college sports site and this is not. But occasionally there are things here that might be interesting there. My guess: steady traffic (the most promising so far).

4) Keep on keeping on- I think my legal/musical/technical experience gives me a somewhat unique perspective. Everyone else may think it's the cure for insomnia. But I'll keep writing in the hopes that if I build it right, they will come.

We'll see how things go. In the meantime, check out Randy's interesting RSS blog.

Technorati Tags:Blog Promotion, Community Building

to using VCRs. I don't watch a ton of television. Not because it's somehow beneath me (people who claim that TV is beneath them are generally the same ones claim that they spend all their leisure time reading biographies of world leaders, but who are usually found drinking $8 coffee at Starbucks while debating the color of their next BMW), but because I can't find anything I like, now that The Deadliest Catch is over. Battlestar Galactica is back on now, thereby cementing my belief that the Sci-Fi Channel is about the only channel on the dial that I can count on for something interesting. Other than that, I have to scan the listings for the few movies and shows that interest me.

All of that makes the ability to record shows that come on at odd hours very important to me. Like a few other idiots, I bought (several of) the HDTV Tivos that will soon be (a) obsolete and (b) filled with ads. TIVO is dying on the vine. The problem is that there are no good alternatives.

In theory, I'd like to try a Media Center PC. But that's not going to work because Microsoft is going to cripple it with restrictions demanded by Holywood in the name of so-called digital rights management. Who exactly is this digital rights management intended to manage?

In my 44 years, I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on records, tapes and CDs, beginning at age eight with this record through today when I received this CD from Amazon. I do not pirate music. But I have never bought and will never buy a song that has DRM protection. If I wanted to steal songs, I could figure out how to do it. Having someone else try to micro-manage what I can and can't do with music I have bought is simply unacceptable.

Now comes Hollywood. I do not know of a single instance where anyone I know has ever pirated a second of video. Not one second. But Hollywood, taking a page from the priority-challenged RIAA, thinks we're all waiting around to spend hours and hours to save $15 by pirating a DVD. The industry's answer of course is to add a ton of restrictions to the videos we buy. Well, that and making sure that HDTV never comes to Media Center PCs in any usable fashion.

In sum, all of this is actually making everbody's whipping boy, cable TV, sadly appealing again. In the big race to keep some kid in Belgium from making a copy of a $15 DVD everybody (consumers, manufacturers, even the movie industry itself, loses). Everybody except the kid in Belgium who will crack any restrictions in the time it takes the rest of us to extract our DVD from all of the anti-theft wrapping.

You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play.

There's a Wall in Washington - Iris Dement (The Way I Should)
Rain Dogs - Tom Waits (Rain Dogs)
Me & Your Memories - Ronnie Jeffrey & Kent Newsome (The Caution Children)
Don't Give Your Heart to a Rambler - Travis Tritt (It's All About...)
Can't Let These Blues Go - Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials (Chicken, Gravy...)
I've Been Working on the Railroad - Uncle Tupelo (Cover Story)
Beyond and Before - Yes (Yes)
Airstream Bohemians - John Gorka (Between 5 and 7)
Fools Blues - Jorma Kaukonen (Too Many Years)
I Hope It Rains at My Funeral - Tom T. Hall (100 Children)

There's a new A-Z installment on the Err Bear Music page. It's an alternative country number written about a man I learned a lot from.

I uploaded a completely new playlist to Rancho Radio tonight. About 16 hours worth of great Alt. Country, Americana and Classic Rock.

Consistent with the recent trend, this set rocks a little more than some of the older ones. There are a few Allman Brothers cuts as well as some other southern boogie. There's also the usual supply of great alternative country. Real time play list here.

I have two very different movie recommendations.

I have always loved horror movies. I remember being scared for weeks after watching The Fly with my mom and sister. Since then, I've seen more horror movies that almost anyone I know.

Until recently, the last movie to really scare me was The Ring. I'm not sure I can explain why, but that movie really gave me the creeps. I watched it in a hotel room when I was in Dallas speaking at a real estate seminar. The images stayed with me for days.

Well, last night I happened across a movie called Boogyman. I almost didn't watch it because it got trashed by a lot of people at IMDB, generally a good reference for possible movies to watch. But there was nothing else on, so I gave it a try. And it was very creepy. In fact it has a similar mood and feel as the prior movie. More than once I actually jumped out of my seat. Granted, the ending was a little unsatisfactory (not uncommon in the genre), but the first 80 minutes is very, very scary. I actually thought I had figured it out (when the main guy and Kate were driving back to the hotel) and had my suspicion been correct (that he was the boogyman, but didn't know it), it might have been an even better movie. But it's still a good one if you like scary movies.

Tonight, I am watching a new John Wayne movie. That's right, after thinking for years that I have seen every John Wayne movie ever made, AMC is showing two restored movies that haven't been shown on TV for decades. Tonight it's Island in the Sky. Sort of a Flight of the Phoenix (the original Jimmy Stewart one, not the horrible remake) thing, but in the ice and snow as opposed to the desert.

Even better, another long unavailable but recently restored John Wayne film, The High and the Mighty, will be shown tomorrow.

Good things on TV at a point when the pickings are pretty slim.

I've been in the (slow) process of scanning old photographs and adding them to our more recent digital ones. Otherwise the prints will be rarely seen and eventually lost. As part of this process, I came across some of my deceased parents' old scrapbooks.

In order to preserve the layout and intent of the scrapbooks, I scanned them a page at a time, except for my dad's World War II scrapbook which was too big to fit on my scanner. So I scanned that one a half page at a time and then created individual jpegs of each photo and the corresponding description (where there was one). This took approximately forever, so I decided I should go the extra step and make a short video out of the results.

As I worked on this project I again came to realize how hard it is for someone of my generation to appreciate how heroic these guys were. They were farm boys and college kids who left the easiest time of their lives (college) to go to the most difficult (flying fighter planes off of the U.S.S. Intrepid). A lot of these photos look like movie stills, but they are the real thing, taken directly from the scrapbook.

As I have mentioned previously, dad was a highly decorated fighter pilot, receiving 2 air medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Not bad for a country boy in his early twenties.

Here's the film, served from Castpost. You can right click and zoom to full screen once it starts if you like.

If I'm going to talk about music from time to time, I ought to at least let you hear a little bit of what I'm talking about.

The Jukebox has returned, at least temporarily. At the moment it has a few of the songs I've mentioned lately. The music is not downloadable. Take a listen and if you like this music as much as I do, buy the CD (we have a rotating list of recommendations on the right side of this page).

Now you can see just how hard Southbound rocks and why Elizabeth Reed made me a huge Allman Brothers fan. Cold Mountain (Col. Bruce Hampton) rocks pretty good too.

Again, if you enjoy the same sort of music I do, you can listen to songs from our huge library of songs legally and free by tuning into Rancho Radio.

No record on earth is more associated with the beginnings of my love of music than The Allman Brothers' Brothers and Sisters album. I became an Allman Brothers fan the very first time I heard Idlewild South (and specifically In Memory of Elizabeth Reed). Then when I heard At Fillmore East, I decided they were my favorite band (they've been neck and neck with the Grateful Dead pretty much ever since). The future was bright with the promise of new music until Duane Allman and Berry Oakley were killed in motorcycle accidents within about a year of each other.

When Brothers and Sisters was released after various delays, no one knew what to expect. What we got was an instant classic, with Dickey Betts moving easily onto center stage and Greg Allman sounding as soulful as ever. The record epitomizes southern rock and roll- it's a soulful mix of rock, blues and country. It is not an overstatement to say that if there was a soundtrack to my youth, this would be it. When I listen to it, every single song reminds me of somebody I knew back then or some crazy thing we did. At one time or another during every stage of my life, I have rediscovered how much I love this record and created a new set of memories and associations. That's what is happening now in my house. My kids are sick of hearing how incredible the opening of Southbound is; and how great the piano is in Come and Go Blues. When I saw the Dickey Betts concert on HDNet, I made them watch it with me (fantastic show; check it out).

There are 7 absolute classics on this record. The song most people know, Ramblin' Man, while a great song, is no better than the 5th best song on the record, behind Wasted Words, Come and Go Blues, Southbound and Jessica. The other two songs (Jelly Jelly and Pony Boy) are also tens on a 10-scale.

I didn't have this record on CD until a couple of weeks ago. I realized that it was crazy to have as much music as I do on my music server without having maybe the greatest rock and roll album of all time. So I bought the CD and have been listening to it non-stop ever since.

If there's a song in the world that rocks better than Southbound (playing on my stereo right now), somebody point me to it.

Castpost is a new service that hosts audio and video files for use with blogs and other web sites. It is in alpha testing now, and is free during testing. Better yet, alpha testers get a free one year subscription once the site goes live. Run, don't walk, over there and sign up for a free (for now) account.

I just signed up tonight and am beginning to put the site through its paces. I uploaded some very old video I renamed 3 Short Films from the Vault. It's comprised of two test films I made when preparing to make Bride of Gibster, my first more or less full length film, and the beginning of another film that never got made. The first test film is some animation I was practicing in preparation for a scene in Bride. The animation in the later film was much more detailed and included dialog (I'll try to post that scene later). It's amazing (at least to me) what we got done back in 1991, without the use of a computer. The second test film is a bunch of random photos I shot to learn how to film still photos. I was shooting these photos on a TV Tray with the JVC video camera on a tripod pointing straight down. I used this exercise to figure out the lighting, timing and distances. You can easily do something much better and more complex in minutes using Photo Story or any of a hundred other programs today on a computer, but it was a lot harder in 1991. A lot harder.

The last film runs about a minute, but it is my favorite, only because it features my mom and you can hear my sister laughing in the background while I filmed her. My initial plan was to film mom sleeping for an hour or so and then superimpose some silly photos and music that would approximate imaginary dreams she was having, but she woke up. When she figured out that we were trying to film her, she was very careful not to sleep in plain sight anymore.

Here's that old video from the early 90s, served by Castpost.

That if enough people blog loudly about an issue, they can make a difference.

Microsoft was rumored to be negotiating to purchase Claria, a company that has been associated with spyware. Everybody from Ed Bott to Dwight Silverman wondered why Miscrosoft would do such a stupid thing.

Today word was leaked that Microsoft is not going to buy Claria. One of the reasons- the adverse PR that would have resulted.

Mark one up for the good guys.

I have posted another A-Z installment on the Err Bear Music page. It's a pop/rock number which was inspired, in part, by an empty apartment and a full bottle of Jack Daniels.

One of the problems with having a web site is that what looks good today looks awful tomorrow, as tastes and technology change. There is nothing more depressing than knowing that you want to change the look of your site, but also knowing that you have hundreds of pages that will have to be changed individually to facilitate the new look. Yes, CSS (which I now use religiously) can help a lot in this regard. But many older pages, including until last month all of mine, either don't use styles at all or have the styles embedded in the page itself (talk about defeating the purpose).

So when I decided to update the look of Rancho DeNada, that was one thing, since it only has about 3 pages to worry about. But when I decided to update the look of the Err Bear Music page, that was another thing altogether. The EBM pages contain a main page, 5 index pages and literally hundreds of song pages, one for each of my songs. It would take days and days and days to reconfigure each page individually- I know this because I have done it twice in the past. This time I decided to see if technology could make it easier, and boy did it.

There are a number of search and replace programs that will work with html files. I tried several of them and found Alias Find and Replace to be the best. It made a 30 hour job a 2 hour job, and the only reason it wasn't a 30 minute job is because I had to figure out what to tell the program to replace to get what I was after.

The hard part was the individual song pages. Those pages are identical except for the lyrics part in the middle. After a little trial and error, I changed hundreds of my song pages in a few minutes in 3 steps. First I used "Search & Replace Blocks" to remove all of the header tags and embedded styles in favor of a uniform header and a reference to a remote style sheet (which will now allow me to globally make any subsequent changes to all pages merely by modifying the style sheet). Second, I used "Search & Replace Blocks" again to replace everything in each page before the beginning of the lyrics with the new code from my new page template. Third, I again used "Search & Replace Blocks" to replace everything after the lyrics with the new code from my new page template. Worked like a charm.

Alias Find and Replace works with all kinds of files, so it's not only a time saver for html files, but also any other files where you need to make the same change a lot of times.

It's a great timesaver and I highly recommend it.

Here's this week's list. You know the drill. Open up your jukebox of choice, point the shuffle feature to your entire library of songs and list, without exception, the first 10 or so songs that play.

Poison Love - Doug Sahm (The Atlantic Sessions)
Uncloudy Day - Willie Nelson (Greatest Hits)
So You Are a Star - Hudson Brothers (Super Hits of the 70s)
Mary Brown - Dave Alvin (Blackjack David)
First Meeting - Lightnin' Hopkins (And the Blues Summit)
Everything's Gonna Be Allright - Drivin n Cryin (Drivin n Cryin)
The Great Compromise - John Prine (Diamonds in the Rough)
St. Tropez - Country Joe McDonald (Vanguard Years)
The Rope - Martina McBride (The Time Has Come)
Sad Lisa - Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman)

to take my TIVO away? Or is it Rupert Murdoch. More unfortunate evidence that TIVO is dying on the vine. I like my TIVO, but I know that it is not a long term DVR solution. When Direct TV turned its back on TIVO after allegedly trying unsuccessfully to buy it, the end was beginning. A lot of early adopters like me are going to soon have some very expensive paperweights. The problem is being accelerated by the fact that the current HDTV models do not support MPEG-4, and Direct TV is about to switch to MPEG-4 in order to create more bandwidth for additional HDTV stations.

Like a lot of things (VCRs, tablet computers, etc.) the person who invents something isn't always the one who capitalizes on it. If Direct TV says subscribers need a Direct TV branded DVR to record HDTV, most subscribers will get one. I don't know how (or even if) TIVO thinks it can survive without the support of Direct TV, but it can't.

To make matters worse, TIVO recently hired a contraversial CEO.

Looks like rough waters ahead for TIVO and its (so far) loyal customers.

Ed Bott agrees with my reservations about Podcasting and the real world.

I actually spent some time last night considering doing a Rancho DeNada podcast, but then I remembered that it would take forever to do it, I couldn't use any music other than my own without risking the wrath of the priority-challenged RIAA, and even if I did, no one I know has the knowledge, hardware or inclination to listen to it.

I've been listening to the new Dwight Yoakam CD. I have heard a lot of records in my life (trust me). When I hear one now that jumps into my Top 50 all-time, that's a rare and exciting thing. This one is Top 20 after two listens. If you like music at all, you simply have to own this CD.

It is country music the way real country people (that's country folk- not the suits that have ruined mainstream country music) like it. It rocks from the first note through the last. It makes me want to turn up the stereo in a way I haven't experienced in a long time.

There is not a good song on the record. There are 12 excellent ones.

I have posted another A-Z installment on the newly rewritten (as of today) Err Bear Music page. It's a folk/blues number with a line inspired by a Neil Young song.

The City of Bellaire held its annual Fourth of July parade today, which was a slice of small town fun for kids and parents alike. After the parade, we walked over to the nearby festival, where Cassidy once again climbed a high wall. The wall was much higher than it looks in the photo and Cassidy climbed it in about 90 seconds in flip-flops.