Oh My Lord! This is the best bit of spam I’ve had in a bit:
Immediately made me think of good ol’ Zero Wing.
Category: Information Technology
I have an Associate in Technical Arts in Web Application Development degree, as well as certificates in:
- Business Systems Analysis
- Requirements Analysis
- Database Theory and Design
- Cisco Networking
- And I’m one class away from a Desktop Support Certificate
I have a deep knowledge of technical systems and have solved a variety of problems.
Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir Live “Cloudburst”
I love Eric Whitacre’s work. His music speaks deeply to me. His Virtual Choir pieces, though, achieves the highest levels of awesome.
This one, Cloudburst (where gets bonus points from me as he based on an Octavio Paz poem) is stunning. Inspired by a Midwestern thunderstorm, the song captures the audio essence of the storm. From a musical perspective, I adore his use of clapping and finger snapping to achieve the feel of heavy rain. And his interweaving of harmony and dissonance really strikes a chord (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun).
Regarding the virtual nature, in addition to the choirs in the auditorium we have 30 choristers in 30 countries, all Skyped in. Pushing the technical boundaries, too. I delighted at the way Eric dealt with the lag: the piece was written to use it. Turning a liability into an asset is genius.
So, please, enjoy Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir performing “Cloudburst” at a TED talk.
And now, Google Music
I value knowing what’s going on in the tech world. Yet, there is so much change, coming so fast, that sometimes I miss the obvious.
I subscribed to YouTube Red some time ago. My focus: ad elimination. So much of my family’s video time is spent on YouTube, so it was a prudent investment.
I didn’t realize that the subscription includes Google Music. I discovered this today, so used it as my music delivery mechanism. Music is such a core part of my being, that the way I access it has value.
I like the interface. So far, the selection has been solid. Spotify, of late, has been quite a resource hog. Accessing via a web browser seems to use resources better, or at least more gently.
Anyway, I’m exploring shifting over fully, and cancelling my Spotify account. I’ll be diving deeper into Google Music and share what I learn.
The importance of my calendar, and other tools
Oh, trying to stay on top if the mania of my life. It’s not easy right now, nor has it been so in ages. Trying to get everything I want to do done is hard.
My friends and family know that I need to enter anything asked if me into my calendar. If that doesn’t happen, it’s likely to get lost in the blizzard that is my life. Generally I grab my phone and plug “whatever” into my calendar. And those tools have evolved.
Up until a few years ago, I was a hard core Franklin-Covey devote. My lovely leather planner went pretty much everywhere with me. Now, I’m pretty fully electronic, for good and for ill. I believe there’s value in interacting with paper. Stuff seems to get into my brain better that way. But the convenience of tech, using multiple devices to access and manage stuff, and the ability to have reminders pop up have become crucial.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a took called IQTell. This was a solid blend, integrating my different streams of information, email, calendar, notes (including Evernote, one of my key organization tools), and tasks into a cohesive and thoughtful system. Sadly, they’ve announced that they’re discontinuing this guy. And so I’m, yet again, seeking a new system. Right know, everything is getting dumped into Evernote, which isn’t feeling too effective.
I’ll be writing about that over the next few days.
My weird brain, sci-fi and technology
My love of things geek manifests in strange ways at times. A huge fan of Ghost in the Shell, I wonder about Wi-Fi protocols and data throughput when people “think” at each other.
Or how many servers are on the Death Star? RAID drives? How much email gets sent daily? What kind of data connection is needed for holographic communications?
What about the Rebel Alliance’s security chief? I’d be wondering, loudly, why you’d throw someone with as much critical detail regarding the Alliance as Leia into operations with a high likelihood of capture and exposure to, um, enhanced techniques.
Imagining Rebel IT. I’m picturing Hoth. When we see Vader enter the base, all the equipment looks rather operational. I would’ve, at least run some kind of worm that destroys everything. I’d rather pull the hard drives, and bring them with us on the evacuation craft. Or manually destroy them.
So, that’s how my brain works…at night, when I’m weary.
Poor Microsoft Publisher
A few days ago I disparaged poor Microsoft Publisher. Now, I really meant nothing by it. Publisher is a fine desktop publishing software package…for what it is. Far lower prices than InDesign for one. Also, if you’re familiar with Microsoft Office’s structures and navigation, the user interface will be rather intuitive. I’ve created posters, flyers, newsletters and postcards with it. Again, it’s fine for what it is.
My history with desktop publishing goes back into the 80s and Pagemaker. For DOS. Iterated through a few programs to Quark. It was fantastic to do paste up work digitally. Everything in one file, delivered directly to a printer. Back then, it was mostly on Zip drives.
I’m remembering the launch of InDesign. It was nice to have photo editing in the same ecosystem, essentially the same program. And very quickly, or so it seems, InDesign took Quarks’ lunch. (Ok, you can still order Quark) so that’s the atate of the, as the cool kids call it, industry.
So, Publisher is great, I’ve used it a lot. But I’m glad I have access to InDesign. And that’s all I got.
Dropbox Supports Multiple Editors In The Same Document
This won’t be news for many of you, and I’ve known about it for some time. However, I received a question about this so I thought it was time to dive in a bit deeper.
Multiple users can edit Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, etc. They both need to access the document through the Dropbox website, though. And they’ll be editing via the Microsoft Office online tool. If you haven’t already, you’ll need to link Dropbox and Office Online.
To re-link a Dropbox account to an Office Mobile app:
- Open the Office Mobile app.
- Tap the folder icon.
- Tap Add a place.
- Tap Dropbox.
- Tap Allow next to the Dropbox account listed (if you’re already signed in to the Dropbox app). Or, to link a new Dropbox account, tap Use a different account.
If you want to take a deeper dive into this, here’s the post over at Dropbox’s site.
My poetry site has been making me proud
I created this site a couple of years ago to be a focus for my poetry.
I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Just was following the advice to focus your content. My writings scatter across many interests, so I broke apart my stuff into more focused sites.
Well, A Poet’s Journey has done quite nicely. 1266 subscribers, and the most stable/solid stats (sessions, pageview, etc).
Funny that another experiment, Not Just Seattle, has taken up most of my vanity SEO. The Carl Setzer who opened a brewery in Beijing, getting featured by Fortune magazine, amongst others, has the lion share of SEO for my name. But my Keller Williams Realty page, and Not Just Seattle are on page 1 as well.
As of today, my namesake page, CarlSetzer.com, is on page 3. Crazy that an experiment took over the whole thing! And the site that’s getting the most action is down on page 3.
Android Malware In The Google Play Store
This morning I read about a newer mobile malware variant. It’s a traditional Trojan concept.
Beware! New Android Malware Infected 2 Million Google Play Store Users
From the article in Hackernews, I’ve pulled their advice to protect yourself from such things. I’ve highlighted a biggie, one that’s terrifying to me that people do: grant an app administrative rights.
We need to be thinking more about mobile security than we do. Clearly, this is the new frontier in cybercrime.
Anyway, be safe out there.
How to Protect yourself against such Malware
There are standard protection measures you need to follow to remain unaffected:
- Always download apps which are from trusted and verified developers and stick to trusted sources, like Google play Store and the Apple App Store.
- Always verify app permissions before installing apps. If any app is asking more than what it is meant for, just do not install it.
- Keep a good antivirus app on your device that can detect and block such malware before it can infect your device. Always keep the app up-to-date.
- Do not download apps from third party source. Although in this case, the app is being distributed through the official Play Store, most often such malware are distributed via untrusted third-party app stores.
- Avoid unknown and unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots and Keep your Wi-Fi turned OFF when not in use.
- Be careful which apps you give administrative rights to. (bolding is Admin rights are powerful and can give an app full control of your device.
- Never click on links in SMS or MMS sent to your mobile phone. Even if the email looks legit, go directly to the website of origin and verify any possible updates.
The future of video content
Just spent a moment exploring what’s available on YouTube, content-wise. Now, I love YouTubers like Casey Niestat and the like, but I was thinking about professional content. Things like Star Wars Rebels, movies, and other stuff. I was pleased by what I saw.
A nice thing about purchasing content through YouTube: it can be watched on any device. Apple tv, Android devices, and, I expect, even my kindle. I hate having my videos and music held hostage by platform idiosyncrasies. And I hate Apple’s unwillingness to play well with others.
Anyway, I’m thinking that YouTube might be the way I go to buy Rebels season 4. It’d be cool if I could burn the movies and such to DVDs. But I won’t hold my breath.
I think I might have seen a glimmer of the future. If so, is pretty bright for YouTube. For now, at least.