Cat Whisperings...

Ok, so I know, I haven’t blogged in a long time.  Again.  Whatever.

Here’s an update on our pregnancy/baby status:  The baby and mom are  healthy, we are at just about 29 weeks, so there’s not much time left to go (about 3 months).  We’ve gone for our first ultrasound (about 6-7 weeks ago) and the doctors and technician were very happy. 

We tried to go to UC Baby to get some 3d/4D (3D + time) photos & video, but the baby was being very uncooperative.  We will be going back again next Thursday to try again.  They said they will try 2-3 times before they give up (We’d only end up paying a sitting fee).  We got the baby’s heartbeat on a bear, but we really want the pictures to show it when it gets older. 

We do NOT want to know the baby’s sex.  We will be happy with either.  we have names picked out for both. though my sister stole our girls name, we may use it anyway.  people may find that strange, but I don’t really care, its a name we both love and we can actually agree on.

We are pretty set when it comes to clothes, and we have a basinet, but we still have to buy a crib & change table (and start stocking up on diapers, and other essentials).  We will probably get the crib this month, we just have to find one we like.

We are also hunting for a good used car, preferably of foreign make (I am a bit against domestics), so If you know anyone with a year 2000+ car for sale at a reasonable price (read: sub 10k), let me know.

We’ve been taking pre-natal classes, which for Rhonda is a complete waste of time (She’s been a nanny for 12 years and was a doula for 2).  I also find them a bit of a bore, they only go over what you’ve already read in books.  I was hoping they would get more into the "what-ifs", etc.  Or go over local resources, where to get things, etc.  That’s the stuff I don’t know.

At the first class however, we got a predictions quiz, and I finally got Rhonda to fill her’s out.  So here’s our answers, we’ll see how close we were when the baby is born:

* Rhonda pointed out that almost all baby’s are born with blue eyes that change colours with a short period of time.

Neither of us saw the other’s answers.  I just saw hers now as I was typing them in.  My answers were hidden from her as well.  Its pretty cool that we both answered so similarly, the only thing we’ve really discussed in the names.  Neither of us really has a good gut feeling on the sex, so we both just guessed.

It’ll be neat after the baby is born to see how close/far we were from reality.

Anyway, I gotta get back to work.

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So a week ago, Radiohead launched their latest album to the masses sans-label.  They are offering it directly to their fans.  That in itself is something pretty rare.  But what makes them even better is that they are offering their music to you for whatever you feel like paying them.  That’s right, you decide. $0.01 or $30.00 (or more), its your decision.

Some industry people were wondering if the gamble would pay off.  Apparently, it has.  It is rumored that Radiohead sold somewhere around 1.2 million albums in the first day alone, speculation is that they probably made $10 million in the single day.  The best part? Its all theirs, no cut for labels, no cut for stores.

Soon after Radiohead’s announcement, Trent Renzor of Nine Inch Nails fame followed suit.  He’s going to offer his next album online in digital form.  This comes not long after his giving permission to fans to steal his music.  He is/was annoyed that the labels & stores are ripping off his fans by charging more for his albums than for most anyone else’s knowing his fans will pay it.

I have no doubt that if he does indeed go the digital route, that he too will reap the rewards of going label free (apparently he has already dropped his label).  I wonder how many others will deem to follow suite?  How many other smaller bands may band together to offer their music on "private" labels, amounting to hosted sites that take care of the distribution and payment processes.

My buddy John asked a good question:  "What will this mean for the Record Stores?"

Well, frankly.  Times are changing.  Music Store chains are feeling the pinch.  Those who see what is coming and adapt will survive in at least a fashion.

Personally, I see these stores turning into more of a media boutique, offering their patrons access to media lounges and offering terminals that allow users to brows music, listen to new artists or artists similar to what they have on their devices, the terminals would scan an attached media player, see what that user likes and suggest similar artist or even highlight local artists & shows/events.  The user could then download new songs (paying for them, unless they are promotional or paid for my the user watching a brief ad or two).  These stores could also offer traditional media (CDs, DVDs, Records, etc) as well as specialized or collector box sets, (similar to Radiohead’s offering on their site).

Stores that adapt in this or similar ways will survive, those that don’t will frankly perish as many have already. 

Locally, our Sam’s closed down last year blaming Music Piracy (which I believe was a bullshit accusation).  There has been news of others shutting down or down sizing as well.

I don’t believe it will happen overnight, but it will happen in the next few years.  People don’t want to buy CDs anymore, especially since they only use the cd as a method of getting the music on their MP3 player.  many more are buying their music from online stores such as iTunes or Amazon. 

This leads to another beautiful change, one that both Radiohead & NIN are embracing: DRM free media.  Those in know are realizing that DRM only slows pirates down, it doesn’t stop them.  DRM only annoys your paying user.  You have no right to tell me that the music I PAID FOR can’t be played on my MP3 player, and my home computer/media center.  I should be able to listen to it where ever and whenever I want. 

The recent changes we are seeing in the online marketplace shows that end users want DRM free music and are willing to pay for it.  Apple recently (today I believe) reduced their DRM tracks in price to be equal to DRM music.  Amazon I think has been DRM free from the go, and others as well.  Give me a choice & I’ll get DRM free or crack the DRM with tools like fairPlay4WM.

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So I got sick and tired of my old cell phone needing to be charged every night even though I hardly talk on it more than 15-20 mins/day.  So I went to the Rogers site & upgraded my phone to the new Sony-Ericsson w580i.  OMG I love this phone.

Features:

• Cell Phone (obviously)
• MP3 Player (mp3, aac, aac+, wma, etc…)
• Video Player (mp4)
• PDA (Organizer, date book, contacts, etc)
• Trainer (pedometer, running assistant, graphs, etc)
• Games (java based)
• Bright, "hi-res" screen (240×320)
• Misc features (shake to change, matrix-style keypad, calculator, Bluetooth, email, sms, mms, etc, etc, etc…)
• USB/Bluetooth Synchronization!!!
• Expandable memory (M2 - Memory Stick Micro)

It’s small, light and stylish.  It slides open (instead of flippingopeN0 I like that because it is harder to accidentally sit on it when it is open and snap it in half.  as well, with the large screen, the hidden keyboard keeps it small.

The battery seems to be pretty good, I used it a lot the other day (listening to music, playing with apps, putting in phonebook entries, etc) and the battery barely noticed it.  According to reviews on the web, you can expect about 4-6 hours of actual use (not standby) before a charge.  The official site says 9hr talk & 370hr standby.  But those number are always optimistic to an extreme.  As long as I don’t have to charge it every night when I’m not using it…

The MP3 player is great.  As good as or better than my Samsung in audio quality.  The controls aren’t as good, but then again this isn’t a dedicated music player.  It has a programmable EQ, and come with 4 presets, including "Mega Bass ", which really pumps the bass up (I don’t use it…).  It also features stereo widening and visualizations, playlist compatibility, etc.  It is actually more functional than my Samsung yp-t9, in that it supports aac and aac+ as well as wma and mp3.  It does not support ogg to my knowledge, but only Linux geeks use that anyway.

The video player is fine, but I never used the video player on my yp-t9, but that was mostly due to having to use Samsung’s proprietary format.  The w580i uses standard mp4 (apparently, h264 is a little sluggish, hopefully it will be fixed in an update).  Speaking of updates, the phone can update its firmware over USB from the web.

Overall, I’ve been using it about a week now, and I’ve been pretty happy with it.  The default earphones that come with it are great, they are the in ear type and come with 3 different ear-size inserts.  The only irritating thing is that the connection to the phone is a proprietary connection (surprise) but the cord has a standard earphone jack on it, it just converts any pair of earphones to a hands-free headset.

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Just in case the Doki-Doki pillow, and weird vacuum bed fetish weren’t bad enough for you…  this is a "boob pillow" for a dating sim game.

ahh.. yeah.

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If I wasn’t gay enough for this game yet, I am now… OMFG… *drool*

Some people don’t understand how a grown man can look so forwards to a game.  Well, if you don’t get it, you don’t get it. 

At least I didn’t skip work for the Halo 3 launch

PS: There’s a wicked deal at dell.ca’s Small Business site for "Viva Pinata" and "Perfect Dark", they are $4 each, with free shipping.. together, they cast $9.12 (tax in)… I also threw in a play & charge kit…

PS: in case the creepy Japanese pillow wasn’t ban enough.. here’s more Japanese creepiness from Kotaku: How Haruhi Was Wrapped In Porn Plastic (NSFW - well, sort-of).

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