We were due for a new printer — the old Epson i550 we had was ready for retirement and just didn’t do as well over a wireless network. It was really only meant to be a one-machine printer and beyond that you really couldn’t manage it at all.

I purchased the HP Photosmart 2570, an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier — well, all-in-one if you don’t want fax, which many other “all-in-one” devices offered. And just how easy was it to set the device up on my network? Let’s just say that I have been at it for three hours and I’m finishing the second computer setup.

(more…)

March 12, 2006, 12:14 am

Filed under: Awareness, General
1 Comment

Just when you thought that you had to go on tour to make the big bucks…some have come along and found a better way. Bring the tour to your basement — literally.

After the runaway success of the Arctic Monkeys, who built up their international following on the internet from their base in Sheffield, Sandi Thom, a 24-year-old Scot, is using the web to entertain nightly audiences put at more than 60,000.

Seating at the venue underneath her home in a Victorian terraced house in Tooting, south London, consists of six stools bought from Ikea for about £3 each.

Thom uses a webcam to record a nightly performance before broadcasting it on the net later in the evening. In the past eight days she has entertained more than 250,000 fans worldwide. By contrast, her live audiences usually total about 200 when she plays in clubs around Britain.

More from the source >>>

This artist, Sandi Thom has a good thing going for her. And despite its success and the degree of visibility that she achieves, she is missing perhaps one of the most important factors and reasons for doing music [in my mind anyway] — and that’s the connection and interaction with the audience; feeding off of their energy and giving it right back in the performance.

Sounds like an interesting premise. It’s working for her anyway.

March 8, 2006, 11:45 am

Filed under: Artists, Performance, Websites
No Comments

I like playing BF2 occassionally and hop on a few servers here and there. One server I play on now and then (and I’m not even sure why) is this “Christian Gamers Online” server. I think the idea of a “Christian” gaming server is kinda funny, espcially that we’re playing a war-oriented shoot-em up game.

God bless me as I blow mine enemies to little bits.

Well, a few months back I got kicked from the server for saying literally “OMG”, which commonly is understood as “Oh My God” or “Oh My Gosh”. Lame, right?

My contention is simply that they’re taking the idea of taking the Lord’s name in vein FAR out of what it really means. The name “God” is simply a title… not a name. Same as Lord, Savior, and even Christ. “Lord” is a title for a being of authority. “Savior” is one who saves. “Christ” is a title or name for one who saves. And “God”… well, that’s a deity — real or not.

So I’m playing BF2 this evening on their server and someone got kicked because their name had “crackhead” in it. Naturally he complained and a dialogue started up as to how/why people were getting kicked. Naturally I piped in about being kicked for saying OMG. A little sarcasm kicked in and I said, “the next thing you know, we’re going to get kicked for not praying enough.”

Kicked.

So here’s why I contend that it’s not a Christian server. If they were truly Christians, they would have let it go and got on with the game. But no, they kicked me for making a snide remark — offensive or not. I simply ask the worn out old question, “what would Jesus do”… and I think Jesus would have been a lot more loving and not so quick to deal out punishment because someone challenged the “system” and the ways of thinking.

I don’t plan on going back — they’re just too prudish there for my taste… all for the sake of trying to make a non-offensive, “clean” gaming environment. I think you can still have that without being a prude. And the CGO server? Prudish!

March 1, 2006, 9:15 pm

Filed under: Gaming, Websites
2 Comments