Line6 Follow-Up

So in a sense of fairness I got a hold of the User's Manual for the Line6 Bass PodXT Live and combed it for uncoolness.

I got rattled when they went rule-head on me with this:

1. Obey all warnings on the POD XT Live and in this Pilot’s Handbook.

But the only thing that I read about volume levels was actually phrased in a way that made it seem like they cared about you and not necessarily the people around you first:

8. Prolonged listening at high volume levels, especially with headphones, may cause irreparable hearing loss and/or damage. Always be sure to practice “safe listening.”

Note that the suggestion that Roland offered was to do exactly the thing that Line6 is warning you about - listening to loud music through headphones.

The way that I choose to interpret "safe-listening" in this context is to wear ear-plugs on stage and crank it up for the world to hear. Incidentally, if I find myself with front-row tickets I think they're a wise move too.

Interestingly this unit has a sweet-spot setting for the Bose PS1 Cylindrical Radiator™ which I find very interesting technically. I have been told by a beautiful woman that I trust however that they are not sexy.

I will say this - Line6 writes a far better manual than Roland. I think the proof is in the sound though... I guess I will have to harrass some poor salesman into letting me try them both. That sounds like an ordeal for us both.

'Reasonable' Rock & Roll

I am interested in buying a multi-effects unit for my bass. I narrowed it down to two contenders:

Line6 PODxtLive or Roland GT-10B

I was pretty much sold on the Roland unit and have been saving my pennies to pick one up. But I was reading the Owner's Manual & I came across this little nugget that just bent me out of shape:

To avoid disturbing your neighbors, try to keep the unit’s

volume at reasonable levels. You may prefer to use

headphones, so you do not need to be concerned about

those around you (especially when it is late at night).

What kind of corporate liability lawyer dreamed up that bizarre bit of legal advice? There are multiple settings in the device specifically designed for the playing of Hard Rock and Heavy Hetal music, amongst others. What are they thinking!?

Whatever happened to "This goes to eleven"!?

I suppose to be fair I need to check the Line6 copy next...

iTunes Uses "Pentium Math"

I am sure that there is some kind of technical explanation for this one, but whatever it is - the UI designers gave me a laugh:

But what is one ridiculous message when two in a row can make you keep scratching your head?

Dropping the Ballmer

If you are a Micro$oft stock-holder - I suggest that you start a vote of no-confidence against your CEO.

I love to lampoon this guy - because he makes it so easy.

But honestly, just because you were Bill's sidekick does not mean that you have the tenacity of vision that Bill Gates does.

Here is the latest dippy thing that he had to say about a serious subject that strikes at the heart of the M$-Ca$h-Cow:

Ballmer on Google Chrome OS: “Who Knows What That Thing Is”

I am pretty sure that a lot of people know what it is - and what is more they are very interested in it. I know that I am.

The fog of multi-generational FUD is starting to clear as the blogging-generation grows up. No more will the middle-class buying dollars be swayed from their techno-toys by silly mud-slinging.

How do I mock thee? Let me count the ways:

• Vista - an industry-wide joke that even Jerry Seinfeld couldn't make funny
• Zune - a pathetic also-ran
• X-Box - never turned a profit
• X-Box360 - this product dumping thing is expensive! Still never turned a profit
• Sync - You can't keep your OS from crashing and you want to put it in my car!?
• MSN - An online service that no one paid for that became a brand name for awful TV channels

What exactly has come out of Redmond since he's been at the helm that is worth anything?

My Next Phone?

This is tasty...

Now that Pandora is coming for Android I just might end up with something like this as my next phone.

What You Weren't Allowed To Know...

...Unitl after the election...

I don't know which is funnier - the meat of this story or the repeated use of the ?word? "Knowledgeability"... (Isn't the proper word 'knowledgable' - used as an adjective? You guys were communications majors, surely you do not need to butcher the English language in this way?)

Oh here we go again - How about simply using the word "Knowledge"...

Dude, Where's My Party?

Is is unforgivable quotes like this that make me ashamed of the Republican party:

"I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." - George H.W. Bush

"We don't have to protect the envionment, the Second Coming is at hand" - James Watt, former Secretary of the Interior

Do you see me using the word 'polemicist' at the top of this blog? Let me be clear - I have nothing in common with the likes of Ann Coulter. No one would pay any attention to that twit if she wasn't somewhat attractive. At the time of my writing this - she is 47. I can't wait until she hits the wall and is squelched into irrelevancy.

Let me be clear about this:

The reason why I am a Republican is because I believe in small & limited government. I want the government out of my life and off of my property. The religiously intolerant Fundamentalist Christians¹ whom have hijacked the party and are constantly trying to extend the influence of law into the wombs of women are completely out of control and need to be kept in check.

In New York state you must belong to a party in order to participate in the Primaries. I believe that change is best effected from within - so I participate. But I disagree with almost everything that my fellow Republicans seem to be for these days.

GWB expanded the federal government more in his first term than Clinton did in both of his terms. It took a jackass like him to make a weasel like Bill Clinton look good.

I miss the prosperity of the 90's in the worst possible way.

But neither do I forgive the Democrats for their complacency while the proverbial excrement was hitting the rotating blades.

IMHO the American people now expect politicians to be utterly corrupt and forgive them for it. I want you to think about that because it means that you are giving a shooting license to Ceasar. It only took 8 years for the Greatest Country In The World to drag the global economy down with it.

Now ask yourself - what, if anything, is getting better?

¹ Fundamentalist Christianity - because bothering to believe in ALL of it is a lot of work, and that Love Thy Enemy stuff must be some Hippie Nonsense, right?

A Plea to All iPhone Developers

FACT: iPhones get dead-spots on their screens

Most people that I know who have them have a dead spot somewhere. Mine is a line about 1cm tall extending across the screen.

If you have a button on the screen somewhere, someone is likely to never be able to press it.

There is a simple answer to this:

ROTATION, ROTATION, ROTATION!

Please Please Please support rotation in your applications whenever possible. If I can flip the screen around then I can get all of the buttons in any app to work.

Freedom of Speech is not Freedom from Spam

I am the sort of person who can withstand the constant onslaught of slings & arrows from critics and detractors alike.

But if you are going to comment on a posting - please do not use it as a forum to post nothing but links to yourself. Please write an actual comment.

I was apparently link-spammed by the author of tradeskillsllc.blogspot.com (Happy with your link now?) or someone using their account who posted a comment including all of the text of their two most recent blog entries. These had nothing to do with the posting it was 'commenting' on at all. I am going to delete it.

If you want to debate a topic & tell me that I'm a shitwit - that it one thing. As long as you are vaguely on-topic I will not so much as moderate. But blatant self-advertising is just rude and a waste of time for the few people who read this blog. I am for free-speech. But if you just want to shout out your name, go stand on a NYC street-corner & start rappnig free-style or something and get off of my lawn.

A Blogspot Feature

It would seem that if I am going to meditate a little longer on a blog entry that I need to finish it before moving on to the next one. I added 2 new postings today that had been brewing for some time now - but they appeared chronologically not in the order in which they were 'published' but rather in the order in which they were created.

I suppose I will need to be a little better about that kind of thing from now on!