Getting Used to Trackballs

At least once a month I spend an extended weekend in Oklahoma City with my long distance girlfriend as she works through a 3 year residency.  Given that I’m not privileged with monthly 4 day weekends, I’ve been slowly setting up a secondary home office in her apartment.   Looking to equip my secondary laptop docking station with an above standard pointing device, I found my way to the dark side of mousing, the trackball. Read more

MixShare’s Rapid Evolution

I first heard about Rapid Evolution from my friend Glenn.  Actually, it was from my friend Cash.  He was describing Glenn’s poor taste in showing up to his house for DJ night with a stack of burnt CDs time stretched to the same BPM and marked to indicate matching keys.  This ensured a relatively low effort maximum mix potential for Glenn.  Last night I bit the bait and analyzed my small but growing drum n bass collection.  Amazing.

If you’re a DJ, I recommend checking out Rapid Evolution to see what it can do for your mix.

Happy Brick Day

 

 

Today is the day that Apple announces their new notebook line internally named ‘Brick.’  I’ll be anxiously awaiting the 10am pacific announcement following any of the tech/mac resources like engadget, gizmodo, or mac rumors.  Yes!

LaCie 5big Network Storage Array

I’ve ran out of space for media long time ago.   I want this based solely on sex appeal.  Look at this thing!

One Thing I Wish my iPhone Did: Remote Sync

I like to listen to BBC’s Global News every morning on my way to work.  It’s a little frustrating to pull out my iPod at the bus stop only to realize that I don’t have the latest programming.  I wish there was some way to remote sync my podcasts either via my home wifi or my wall plugged doc in my bedroom.

Does This Exist: Digital Typewriter

I would like something so that I can write digital content, but I don’t want to have a standard screen.  I stare at a monitor for work 8-10 hours a day, and when it’s writing time, I’d prefer to have a different interface.  Any ideas?

Why I’m Using Google Chrome Right Now

 

 

My online banking keeps freaking out Firefox.  Admittedly, it’s the bank’s crap ajax implementation that’s robbing my memory.   For whatever reason though, Google’s Chrome is handling it a lot easier.  I still need firefox for everything I do in my 9 to 5 life (my work requires the firefox plugins), but for personal browsing, it’s Chrome all the way.

Latest Posts Link

Ask and you shall receive!  Reader and good friend Thomson suggested that the front page widget area “Latest Posts” have the title linked to the blog page.   It was a really good idea, so we updated the site.

Do you have a way we can change the site to make it easier for you to use?  Let us know.  Email tips@urbanmonarch.com.

Questions: Why isn’t there an LED Light in My Fridge?

I think I left my fridge slightly open last night.  I woke up this morning to discover the mozzerella cheese I left on the top shelf a little translucent and a little gelatanous.  After investing the rest of the items in the fridge, they all seemed relatively cooler than their top shelf counterparts.  Playing with the door I began to realize how warm that light bulb gets.  Why isn’t this an LED light?  Less heat, less energy, practically infinite life…

How To Setup iTunes in 5 Minutes for Maximum Podcast Enjoyment

There are two things essential to a good podcast listening experience, a decent program and an easy sync process.  I’ve used a few different downloading programs from Creative’s native Zencast to open source Juice.  My favorite overall browsing, downloading, and syncing experience has been iTunes.

The second part, syncing, is crucial for regular listening.  A podcast not on my portable player is a podcast that I don’t listen to.  With iTunes this is done easily on the device’s podcast tab.  I sync all unplayed podcasts and it has yet to let me down.

For the a super easy video to follow check out the podcast tutorial from apple.

the google navy

This article, about Google considering moving its data centers to ocean borne barges makes me think of exactly two things.  First?  Scientolgy’s own “Sea Org“.  Second?  “Terrorist Bullseye in the water”.

How long before Google needs their own military forces to ‘defend’ their investments?

Sieg heil Fuhrer Googler!!

“Do no evil” indeed.  Cough, cough.

Moleskine Cahier

I just ordered a few Moleskine Cahiers to replace my janky hipster PDA.  I was convinced by this blog post.

Index cards are great, but let’s just face it - they make you look like a crazy person. The Moleskine Cahier is fountain pen friendly, classy, and conveniently fits in your pockets without dragging your pants down your hips (face the facts - you have to carry a lot more crap than just your notebook).

Read the rest here: An Ode to the Moleskine Pocket Cahier

Anyone Have an AppleTV

Ok.  I’m really trying not to let my new iPhone turn me into an all out raging Apple fanboy… But, anyone have an AppleTV?

Universe Building Machine Going Off

I heard about this on the BBC global news podcast this morning…

It is the biggest machine ever built. Everyone says it looks like a movie set for a corny James Bond villain. They are correct. The machine is attended by brainiacs wearing hard hats and running around on catwalks. They are looking for the answer to the question: Where does everything in the universe come from? Price tag: $8 billion plus.

Sweet, right?  Check out more info from the Washington Post.

imperial fleet week, san francisco

This sweet slice of A/V dorkery needs to be seen, and heard, to be believed.

Don’t miss the goods that start around 1:35 especially.

Keep the sound up and your eyes open.

Nod Mike for the link. 

urban scavengers

Cutting thru Denver’s Civic Center park on my way home from work thru the brisk, fall-like night yesterday I saw something strange.  

A man with a metal detector; making slow sweeping arcs across the freshly cut lawn.  He was definitely a civilian, with a big beer belly spilling over his dingy, stained jeans.  My first thought naturally was, ‘another kook, doing something kooky in the epicenter of kooksville, Civic Center park.’

Then I saw the others.

Read more

You know what I love? Twitter

I was late to hop on this bandwagon, and have opted to use my account mainly for professional networking, but damn, I love this thing.

How I use it:

• Updating My Current Location (Not starbucks, but different cities)
• Looking for services
• Looking for discounts
• Requesting information
• Publishing quick snippets/links I find useful (mostly technical)

Are you twittering?

practice what you preach: i.t. edition

Having spent plenty of time as ‘tech support’ both for less computer savvy friends and my family (not to mention spending a large chunk of my day doing the same thing), there’s two hard and fast rules to fixing 99.9% of problems:

Read more

Kindle or Sony Reader

Anyone have an ebook reader of some sort?

I’ve currently abandoned the notion of working on the metro rail, so I’ve been wondering if an ebook reader would be a productive tool.  Not only for reading books, but news and blogs as well with the added ability to save snippets for things like Urban Monarch.

the real boob tube

Fyre Tv is a new set top box that delivers on demand, DVD quality porn to your TV.  Hook it up to your ethernet connection and away you go.  The list of participating studios is HUGE, with the only glaring omission thus far, sadly, being Vivid.  Once this thing starts to take over the adult entertainment world however, I’m sure they’ll be throwing their goods onto the Fyre as well.  

Charges will eventually be based on actual content watched (browsing, fast forwarding and rewinding will never incur fees).  Right now however?  They’re looking for a few good men to participate in the free beta trials.  

Who’s signing up?  This guy.

joox video service

Joox is an online ‘video bookmarking’ service that allows you to immediately watch thousands of movies and televison shows.  Sounds a lot like Hulu?  You’re not entirely wrong.  The difference?  All its offerings are commercial free, which sadly means its days are probably numbered.

I gave Batman Begins a test drive yesterday and was impressed with the immediate start and stellar video quality.

Try it now before the RIAA & MPAA have their wicked way with it.

Thanks to $2 bill aficionado and UM friend PJ for sending this my way.

 

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