My contact with Dell support today left me bewildered. Here is a company that understands the online model of sales. Great techniques to convince a potential buyer that their model really does exist. Fast, free shipping. Quality product. And then, the bump in the road.
posted in computing, politics | Comments Off on I would like to buy an upgrade | 419 words
Another year had passed, and another closing concert for the school bands arrived. Last time around, I’d tried to “tape” the show for posterity, using my MP3 player that can take voice memos. This procedure is not one that bears much musical fruit; the quality of the recording was about equal to the early efforts of Edison. I’m one that follows the advice of others, so when a little extra cash came along, the family invested in a proper digital tape recorder. After all, it could be useful some day.
posted in music, technology | Comments Off on Concert capture | 422 words
This house is filled with “game” machines that I don’t use. I don’t know how, I don’t intend to learn and I tolerate them in much the same way a cat “tolerates” people that aren’t in the small circle of friends. The word for today is “disdainfully”. However, they are computers, so I have a drive to “improve” them, whenever and by whatever means arises. Parts are my thing, I guess.
posted in computing, travel | Comments Off on Flash, clouds and time | 344 words
Another year, another child, another concert, another joining of like minds in a local pizza place. As a parent-in-training (is there any other kind?), I’ve been blessed by three boys who have followed, unwittingly, in my own footsteps, now faded after years of windy weather. Musicians, trained under the hard hand of a band director that will retire from service in the summer, leaving behind hundreds of students who have learned a lesson; nothing comes without lots of practice.
posted in music | Comments Off on Sibilance of seasonal sounds | 340 words
I’ve attached (for a long time) importance to who makes the music I like. Songs shouldn’t be reduced to a title; the artist did get involved along the way. From back when music was who we saw on Ed Sullivan, through the Teen Beat magazines that my sisters left around the house, across the covers of the LPs which showed up in the radio station; all of these led to there being somebody behind the whole thing. Maybe that’s why I never fell in love with anonymous piano concertos from long dead men played by faceless hands.
posted in music | Comments Off on The face of music | 397 words
For those of us who suffer from NMGANBCAI disorder, today was a difficult day on several fronts. (Oh right, always explain the acronym: Need More Gadgets And Net But Can’t Really Afford It). Although I still don’t have a cellphone, and my desire for an iPhone has waned, Apple continues to tempt me. The new iPod touch (a tactile, visual replacement for the now obsolete MP3 players that are found all through the house). Sweet.
posted in technology | Comments Off on Media envy (reductio ad absurdum) | 280 words
The day is over, and I have been well entertained. Today was “the day”, when son #3 and a host of other musicians gathered on the stage of the new Salle Raoul-Jobin, in the renovated Palais Montcalm theatre in Quebec City. A concert hall that still has the “new car” smell. And, from my point of view, excellent acoustics. I was there, and the concert was memorable.
posted in music | Comments Off on And let a hundred voices join together | 319 words
With a computer in “wait mode” on my desk, I decided to testdrive one of the newer Linux distributions today. Downloading the ISO image took about an hour, from a Canadian website, and the “burn” worked well once it chose “disc-at-once”.
posted in computing | Comments Off on First impressions | 162 words
