New Music Monday: Tyler Ramsey

I've been waiting a whole week to post this one (I didn't want to put too much up last week). This is Tyler Ramsey, who plays with Band of Horses, from his new solo album, A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea. This is really amazing.



Tyler's MySpace page.

Newton Virus - Art virus for Mac

Just in time for April Fool's Day:

New Music Monday

Here in Bloomington there is a great radio station, 92.3 WTTS. They play a lot of great music and, because they are not corpertly owned like most other radio stations (owned by ClearChannel) they are able to play a huge variety of new stuff, not just the pop-chart top 10.

Anyway, here's a new-ish band I have been listening to, Band of Horses, from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Enjoy.



*Can't really claim this as being a great video, but the song rocks --- in fact, you should listen with your eyes closed.

Propencity for Crime

This from a Wired article, March 19th:

The director of Scotland Yard's forensics division says that Britain should be collecting DNA samples from any primary school children who show signs of behavior that exhibit a propensity for later crimes, according to an article in the Observer.

The Yard's Gary Pugh says the idea that trivial offenses committed early in life can forecast more serious crimes later in life is supported by studies, and that identifying these individuals when they're children would not only aid crime-solving later, but possibly deter some of these suspects from committing crimes when they're adults.

I must admit, the idea of predicting who criminals may be and preparing for it is an interesting idea. Much like the film Minority Report issues would be raised over convicting someone of a crime they have not committed and would beg the question, would these children grow to be criminals if it were not expected that they would? Undoubtedly some would, in fact, continue a life of crime, but others may simply become criminals because that's what they know everyone is expecting of them.

Get a Mac.

I try not to post from work, and I try not to post about work. The above screenshot, however, is from work and it illustrates (though certainly not thoroughly) what I hate about PCs. Oh how I want a Mac!

P.S. The file I was trying to save (you can see a "Do you want to save" window) did not save. Thanks a lot Microsloth.

Ghosts I-IV

I am, by no means, a Nine Inch Nails fan. I do think what they are doing is cool though. Like Radiohead, NiN is allowing listeners to download 9 tracks for free off their web site. As you may recall, Radiohead allowed users to download the entire album, In Rainbows, back in October of last year.

After this decision to ditch their label and release the album on their own a lot of speculation began circulating as to whether this was the wave of the future or not.

Now with NiN jumping on the free download bandwagon (in a modified fashion) it seems we will just may be getting more free (and legally so) music in the future. The hope the bands express is that if people like the free tunes, they will be willing to buy the rest of the tracks (NiN) or extra material (Radiohead) or maybe even a solid-state copy of the album at a later date.

So what's the one problem with Nine Inch Nails approach? The problem is, after all's said and done, you're still left with Nine Inch Nails music*.

*In all fairness, I did really like the addition of Nine Inch Nails music to the original Quake --- it really made the game!

Cool Video

This from Radiohead's latest "In Rainbows" - Jigsaw Falling Into Place.