Five words I have added to my Firefox spellcheck dictionary October 24, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Technology.1 comment so far
- Rockett
- doughnut
- okay
- bloggers
- Scrabulous
Words I have added and then subsequently edited the persdict.dat file to remove:
- compuetr
- afetr
WordPress theme for your evil business blog June 27, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Intarweb, Technology.Tags: web design, Wordpress
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This awesome WordPress theme makes me desperately want to start a business blog with the tagline “I am going to kill ALL OF YOU.”
Via Kung Fu Grippe.
eMusic rolls back the Stones: why you must own your music May 6, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Music, Technology.add a comment
Tech podcasts frequently debate the best model for consuming digital music via the Web. Is it buying and downloading songs and albums, as with Amazon and iTunes? Is it a subscription model with unlimited access to an entire catalog of songs as long as you pay a monthly fee? Or is it a hybrid such as eMusic, where you pay the service a fee in exchange for a certain number of monthly downloads?
Usually these discussions end with someone saying, “Well, the perfect setup would be a subscription service where you had unlimited access to all of the music that’s out there. It would supply you with music the way the water company supplies you with water. Then there would be no need to own anything.”
The sudden removal of the Rolling Stones catalog from eMusic less than a month after it was uploaded is a great example of why that proposed model gives me the heebie jeebies as a consumer: If I don’t own my music, then someone else does. And they can turn off the tap any time they please.
Thankfully I grabbed three Stones albums before eMusic’s deal with ABKCO went pear-shaped and it had to pull the entire catalog. Once again the message from the music industry is unmistakable: fans don’t matter anymore, lawyers do.
It’s getting to the point where I can’t buy music at all anymore without feeling bad about it. Like the joy has been sucked out of the whole thing.
Feh.
These Rolling Stones boys are pretty good, though.
Oh no, Robot lost his hand! Also our service is down again. February 1, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Technology.add a comment
Twitter is an exciting Web 2.0 platform for delivering whimsical error messages created by some of today’s top graphic artists.
What, no love for Corey Feldman? January 29, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Webmastery.2 comments
What brings people to The Journal of Rockett Science?
According to my stats, it’s mostly Google searches for “my coke rewards” and “corey haim”.
That’s one hell of a niche.
Hey, Netflix! As a subscriber can I watch streaming movies and TV shows at home? January 15, 2008
Posted by Wade Rockett in Technology.add a comment
Not yet. Although Netflix opened this service up to all subscribers above the most basic subscription level, it still requires the Windows operating system and Internet Explorer 6 or above. Why? DRM, of course! The consumer’s friend!
I hope the studios are getting enough profit from DRM to make up for the losses they must be seeing from treating their customers so badly. As a Netflix subscriber, I should have access to all of the Netflix services covered in my subscription agreement, unless there’s some technical reason that it’s impossible for me to do so. In this case, there isn’t. The studios are turning my business away because I use an Apple computer.
Man, what a crazy industry.
From the Netflix FAQ:
A:Currently the Netflix Movie Viewer requires Internet Explorer Version 6 or later running on Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista. You’ll find more detail on current requirements on our Instant Watching System Requirements page.Our goal is for Netflix members to enjoy movies and TV shows on whatever screen they want. We’re required to use Digital Rights Management to protect movies watched instantly online, and right now we only have approval for this protection on Windows Operating systems, not the Mac.Apple does not license their DRM solution to third parties, which has made this more difficult, but we are working with the studios and content owners to gain approval for other solutions. As soon as a studio-approved DRM for the Mac is available to us, whether from Apple or another source, we will move quickly to provide a movie viewer that enables you to watch movies from Netflix instantly on your Mac.
In the meantime, you can use your account to watch instantly on any compatible PC, and Intel-based Macintosh computers can watch movies instantly using Boot Camp, Parallels, or Fusion to run Windows. And, your Macintosh is fully compatible with adding titles to the Instant Queue for Netflix-enabled players on your TV.
Philosopher: 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation August 16, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Games, Geek, Life, Technology, What.add a comment
From the New York Times:
Dr. Bostrom assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or “posthumans,” could run “ancestor simulations” of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems.
…There would be no way for any of these ancestors to know for sure whether they were virtual or real, because the sights and feelings they’d experience would be indistinguishable. But since there would be so many more virtual ancestors, any individual could figure that the odds made it nearly certain that he or she was living in a virtual world.
…“My gut feeling, and it’s nothing more than that,” he says, “is that there’s a 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation.”
Via Buzz Out Loud
WordPress, Linux, Windows, and GoDaddy July 17, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Podcasting, WFP, Webmastery, Wordpress.7 comments
Last night I got the debit card for my new bank account, dedicated to my nerdy Web projects. I immediately purchased a hosting plan from GoDaddy, and this morning attempted to install WordPress. I got the error, “”Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL which is required for WordPress.”
Crap!
However, a quick search of the WordPress support forums revealed the truth of the old axiom “When you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.” Given the choice between Windows-based and Linux-based hosting, I’d opted for Windows. The trouble is, Windows-based hosting doesn’t support PHP. So I need to switch operating systems.
However, the hosting setup is apparently still churning on GoDaddy’s servers and I can’t switch until it’s finished. Which is fine, I’m not in a hurry. I’m just eager to get it done.
Interviews with talented writers Jaq Greenspon, Wolfgang Baur, and Zia Munshi are in the can. The first episode of the Writing For Pay podcast is almost finished - I just need to tweak my intro a little more and record a final segment. Then I’ll switch operating systems, set up WordPress, sign up for AdSense, configure the Blixkrieg theme, upload the audio files, pipe them to iTunes, and start promoting the ‘cast.
And I need to create a 300×300 graphic for the show, or pay/persuade someone to do it for me.
Your page views are sad to me. Maybe you like sad things? Look here! April 26, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Advertising, Google, Marketing, Webmastery.2 comments
When I checked the MapStats page for the Redeemer Arts and Music blog, this Google ad appeared in the sidebar:
Yes, I’m dying to see the “Saddest Thing on Internet”. Please Internet, make me sad!
EMI goes DRM free, and the 99 cent iTunes song begins to disappear April 2, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Apple, Technology.add a comment
“Apple said iTunes would make individual tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29, 1.29 euros and 99 pence.”
I’m glad that EMI decided to sell digital music without DRM. No, seriously. It’s awesome.
But on the other hand:
Imagine if every car was built with an onboard computer that prevented you from driving it on certain streets. The auto manufacturers claim that while it may seem restrictive, this onboard computer is actually a feature that makes the whole car manufacturing and owning experience better for everyone.
Consumers become dissatisfied. They think to themselves, I own the damn car, I should be able to decide what streets to drive it on.
So then one of the car companies–let’s say Ford–announces that you can now buy a car that does not have the onboard computer built in. Plus, it’s faster than the old type of car. And it costs more.
Consumers might rightly ask, “Since it doesn’t cost you extra to not put the onboard computer in a car, why am I paying more?”
To which Ford might reply, “You’re paying for the extra speed and functionality.”
“But that’s functionality that ought to be part of the car to begin with. You sabotaged it, and now you’re selling it back to me like it’s an extra.”
“Okay, then you’re just paying for the extra speed.”
“I never asked for a faster car. Just one that drives where I want it to go.”
“Look, do you want a car that drives on every street or don’t you?”
My guess is that this is the end result of a lot of backroom dealing, where EMI would only agree to sell its music without DRM if Apple agreed to sacrifice its policy that every song on the iTunes Music Store would cost 99 cents, no more, no less.
Now that there’s a leak in the 99 cent dam, how long before every song is $1.29?
An even bigger cliffhanger: Will EMI take a step further and stop suing file-sharing music fans through the RIAA?
UPDATE: Boing Boing has some more info. The price of DRM-free albums and music videos will not go up, and you can replace your old DRM’d tunes with shiny new ones by paying the difference!
