Why I don't like Pandora

I really wanted to like Pandora when I first started streaming music there some several years back... the idea of audiomemes appealed to me, but, there were no PEOPLE there! Then one day I discovered WOXY, the greatest internet radio on the planet (who are launching a new music blog today), and never looked back. 6 months back or so, WOXY went off the air, to be resurrected a month later by lala.com, who now give them the support and resources they needed, but had the good sense to leave everything intact.

The lesson: don't mess with success, stand out of the way of the people... and don't mess with this developer's radio!

Cheers WOXY, and thank you lala!

Project CaseBook:

CaseBook is a collection of XML Schema, XSLT and XQuery which allow you to model an application's controls, pages and states at a high level in an XML document, then use this model to generate documentation for manual testing. Information can also be skimmed out of Bugzilla (or any issue management tool with an Atom feed). CaseBook is intended to fill a need for an easy to use knowledge-base for quality assurance data. I began this project as a way to replace a number of Word documents that were constantly out of date.

I am currently in the process of adding CaseBook as an open source project on SourceForge, under GPL.

Because a CaseBook knowledge base can be implemented using exclusively XML technologies which are freely available, it is by design a very extensible solution, as opposed to less abstract approaches to generating testing documents. This is intended to provide a mid-range between storing testing data as unformatted data (ie word) and using a costly solution.

The CaseBook Schema can be used as is with a XML-friendly editor like oXygen or StylusStudio for transforms, or can be staged on an eXist database equipped server (my preference).

Watch this space for more updates.



- Currently listening to WOXY's coverage of SXSW 2007 - wish that I was there right now.




She, Sir - It's my way of staying connected

"With all of these changes, XSLT 2.0 is able to assume a much more extensive “work-horse” mode than it has previously. Most of these modes have already been explored with older extended XSLT 1.0 processors, but because such implementations tended to differ in critical areas developers and IT managers tended to shy away from them for all but very specialized applications. "

- from his o'reilly blog, Kurt Cagle on XSLT 2.0, a very good summary of the technology and its ramifications.

One thing Kurt mentions is the ability to use unparsed-text() to build up-convertors - Michael Kay has a great paper on this topic, up-converting genealogical data to XML.

Currently still loving Loney, Dear, and more than a little obsessing over Mason Proper and She, Sir. Too bad it's not "Mason, Proper" - for symmetry, see?

Let's see: Michigan based, debut album self-released "There is a Moth in Your Chest" - Vocally, Mason Proper remind me a lot of the 90's experimental work of Ian Masters in the Pale Saints and Spoonfed Hybrid... and that's a really good thing for me, since I loved those bands a ton.

Listening to Mason Proper has the wonderful effect of cheering me up. That's also a very good thing. If you listen to the lyrics a bit closer, well, damn! they're pretty cool, never too obscure, and twee only to the point that it's fun, not obnoxious. Good stuff, I only wish they'd tour my neck of the woods!


Mason Proper - The World Is Smaller Than you Think
Mason Proper - Mr. Charm
Mason Proper - Lights Off
Mason Proper - Chemical Dress

MySpace - Mason Proper

Innovation = Insight + Judgment + Invention

Dan Safer [Adaptive Path] in Newsweek:

"Innovation is traditionally understood as a combination of insight
and invention, with insight being the 'Aha!' moment and invention
being the company's muscle to make it happen. This is all well and
good, but one crucial aspect of the definition is missing: The
ability to judge the inspiration and determine whether it is
worthwhile to spend the company's resources on the invention. Without
this judgment, innovation is just The New, and new isn't always
better. It's a louder sizzle, not a juicier steak. For innovation to
be truly important, it needs to resonate with consumers. Insights
need to be derived from the unmet needs and desires of people, not
simply the company's feeling that it needs to innovate."

The rest of the article is available online [1] (subscription
required) or at your local newsstand. Look for the March 5, 2007
edition!

[1] http://tinyurl.com/3b35rn

This is an interesting use of the XForms model

Planar Chaos Capsule Reviews

Courtesy of NicotineJones of MiseTings

Planar Chaos - White
Planar Chaos - Blue/Black
Planar Chaos - Red
Planar Chaos - Green/Gold etc

My thoughts? I really like Giants, and not so much Boros Deck Wins, so the extra stuff in RW is pleasant, but the Hammerheim dude doesn't do a lot for me. Shade of Trokair looks nice; Sinew Sliver-Cautery Sliver could be a lot of fun, and I really want to play Pyrohemia for something. Dreamscape Artist (the Harrow guy) seems really good too, maybe with the Ana Battlemage to back him up (so I liked BUG a lot too).

Oh p.s. happy birthday to me! Just discovered this little snippet of info:

http://www.w3.org/ — 23 January 2007 — Based on widespread implementation experience and extensive feedback from users and vendors, W3C has published eight new standards in the XML Family to support the ability to query, transform, and access XML data and documents. The primary specifications are XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language, XSL Transformations (XSLT) 2.0, and XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0; see the full list below.

These new Web Standards will play a significant role in enterprise computing by connecting databases with the Web. XQuery allows data mining of everything from memos and Web service messages to multi-terabyte relational databases. XSLT 2.0 adds significant new functionality to the already widely deployed XSLT 1.0, which enables the transformation and styled presentation of XML documents. Both specifications rely on XPath 2.0, also significantly enriched from its previous version.

W3C’s XSL Working Group and XML Query Working Group, who created these specifications, have addressed thousands of comments from implementers and the interested public to ensure that the specifications meet the needs of diverse communities.

Nice! Looks like some of my favorite technologies just became official! Thank yous to everyone involved!

Loney Dear

Okay, so Loney, Dear makes me happy, very happy, and I'm sure we'll hear more from them (him) in the future. The song I am John is so infectious, in fact, that I can't stop listening to it. The sound is kind of ABBA-esque, kind of Belle and Sebastian-esque, kind of Brian Wilson-esque, kind of its own thing. The song actually reminds me a lot of Broken Social Scene, which is odd, since Loney, Dear is really a one man band, one Emil Svanangen. It has a real "pass the mike around" feel, even though I believe it's all one guy with an impressive vocal range, guaranteed to cheer you up, and never gonna let you down!

I'm gonna go on record here with this one before someone beats me to it -- "Sweden's Robert Pollard"

Loney, Dear - I am John
www.loneydear.com
myspace

Sprites

To start, apparently, like Pixies before them, Sprites choose not to use the. Fine enough! I checked this out with a visit to their wonderful website, a real work of art by one Susie Gahramani. The website is all friendly and tweedy, much like Sprites' sound. I love grainy vocals, and head-sprite Jason Korzen's definitely fit the bill, reminding me in a way of Mark Kozolek or Nada Surf.

And who doesn't love horror movies? Dropping pop culture references like a genial Quentin Tarantino, George Romero is the track on Modern Gameplay that I can't get out of my head.

Sprites - George Romero
Sprites - I Started a Blog Nobody Read
Sprites - Do It Yourself

sprites.org.uk

Musical Quark: Collectives

Okay, I love the new K-OS track Valhalla. Love it. K-OS is a contributer to the Broken Social Scene collective, which Wikipedia describes as a "Supergroup." I'm also loving Lambchop's Kurt Wagner showing up guest vocals on a track by Morcheeba. Like Lambchop, Broken Social Scene is both a small (1 or 2) group of core members, and a whole bunch of people who also showed up for a particular session. Collectives are a wonderful thing, and the world should have more of them.

To quote the Sprites website:
People have frequently assumed that "Do It Yourself" was written specifically about Barcelona, but its not entirely the case. The song is really just about the difficulty of writing songs with other people, the compromises involved, and the inevitable disappointment. Jason felt so strongly about this that Sprites, the band, was intentionally formed with a changing cast of characters. Not a backing band, but a group of friends who could come together in different arrangements, write songs together, perform, and hang out. Nobody should ever have to be kicked out. The band would never have to break up.

I want to be in a band when I get to heaven; anyone can play guitar!

XML Conference 2006

Lots of good writeups around, and lots of good ideas to dig through:

Simon st. Laurent - day one
Simon St. Laurent - wrap up
Keith Fahlgren - day two
Keith Fahlgren - Day three

Currently listening to the Guillemots, redefining friendly and epic, and making my ears feel happy!

Guillemots - Trains to Brazil

An independent barbershop choir I'd really like to hear? Well, naturally, you'd need Stephin Merritt's baritone and Sufjan Stephens tenor... and maybe Jonsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros as a soprano? I'm not sure who the fourth member would be, but I'd buy a ticket.

Sufjan Stevens - She is (Tim Buckley Cover)
Sigur Ros - pop song #8

Musical Quark: Overdub v. Collaboration

When you consider the great musical collaborations in the past, you have to include Lennon/McCartney (poor George, everybody loves George). On the one hand, you have Paul, the poet, the sensitive thinker; on the other, John the innovator, the visionary. And when you read stories about the studio experimentation of John Lennon and George Martin, you have to be impressed also with that collaboration also. I mean, you ahve to, it's the Beatles, right? Believe me, this intro is going somewhere, by the way. One of the studio techniques Lennon used to the point where it defines the sound of his voice is double-tracked vocals. His voice would be recorded for the same part twice, and the two would be overlayed, fooling the ear into hearing a single, disembodied voice.

Collaborating with yourself is fine, but this has long been a pet peeve of mine. Back in the late eighties/early nineties, I loved (loved) the Lemonheads, and during that same time period, started listening to the Throwing Muses more and more. Both bands centred around a collaboration between a main songwriter (Evan Dando and Kirsten Hirsch, respectively) and another songwriter who, though contributing fewer songs, could just blow me away (Ben Deilly and Tanya Donnelly). Well, the years passed, and I started to appreciate Kirsten Hirsch more, listened to far too many Belly albums, and really miss Ben Deilly. Evan Dando? Well, enough about Evan Dando, already. I really like the new songs, actually, much as I'd prefer not to, and sure, maybe Syd Barrett was the real Pink Floyd (I've seen the movie, I know it was Bob Geldof).

Which brings me to my pet peeve. When a singer starts recording his/her own overdubs, even though there is no possible way he/she can sing backup for him/herself live, it pisses me off. There, I've said it. Felt good, too.


The "Lemonheads(/Dinosaur jr. jr.)" - No Backbone

Musical Quark: Familiarity

Yo La Tengo's 10th album, I'm Not Afraid of You, and I WILL Beat your Ass (or as I tend to think of it, I'm going to give you an ass-beating at One) begines with a tour de force of noise in "Pass the Hatchet...", an intensity which maintained in a variety of forms through-out the album. Listening to the song "The Room Got Heavy," I am reminded of the Wire song "Eardrum Buzz" from 1989's "live" album It's Beginning To And Back Again. Is the similarity intentional? Probably not, but still, YLT and Wire are both bands known as much for the influence they wield as for their own personal successes, both are innovators and mercurialists, pushing punk into poppiness and poppiness into punk. "Eardrum Buzz" arrived at a time when the critical hype around Wire had lost its lustre, and the song went on to become their most successful (and arguably most memorable) single. As for Yo La Tengo, they have clearly adopted (or are putting on) a take no prisoners attitude with this album, which draws comparisons with earlier, edgier work, such as 1997's Ican Hear the Heart Beating as One.

It amazes me that we live in a time when you can turn on the radio and hear songs playing from Echo and the Bunnymen, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and God-help them, the Lemonheads! I suppose the the cost of hairspray and feathering irons adds up.

Yo La Tengo - The Room got Heavy

Musical Quark: Thievery

Or paying homage... I am so excited that WOXY, the greatest radio station on the planet, is back on the air, and last week's Ben Kweller session was amazing. And lots of people have written good things about Ben Kweller recently, which is fab. Every time I hear "Penny on the Train Track," I find myself listening for one really specific moment in the song, after he sings "Pick up that guitar, and play, play, play that rock and roll for me..." and then proceeds to play a little bit of stolen, what is that, "Road Runner," or "Johnny Be Good"? In any case, the guitar part is about as rock and roll as they come at this moment in the song. Even moreso in the live version, and I can't wait until the WOXY live acts are back up.

Ben Kweller - Penny on the Train Track

Kurt Cagle's posts from AJAX World Conference (Courtesy of O'Reilly):

• Report 1
• Report 2
• Report 3
• Report 4
• Report 5
  

Thanks Kurt!

Time Spiral Capsule Reviews

Well, the new Magic set is out, and these are the best reviews you are going to find, from one "Nicotine Jones" at Misetings. I am a dweeb who doesn't have time to play this game anymore, but the new set looks danstucky, so I'm awefully excited regardless. With the new pack structure, you get an extra free vintage or "timeshifted" rare per pack, so for dweebs who buy packs just to rip them open, this is a good time.

Capsule Review: White
Capsule Review: Blue
Capsule Review: Black
Capsule Review: Red
Capsule Review: Green
Capsule Review: Miscellaneous

Musical Quark: Familiarity

Well, I really can't say enough good things about French Kicks. This track in particular, which kicks off their album Two Thousand, is a great example of what I'd like to call familiarity. Familiarity?!? Did anybody else have the same initial reaction when that skrangy guitar starts up? Wow, that sounds like the De La Soul song "Eye Know"! The funny thing is, that's kinda what makes it cool; it's actually just two notes, that the De La boys stole from Steely Dan (who stole their moniker from William S. Burroughs: the circle of life continues) in the first place.

I suppose one thing all of these folks all have in common is an ability to express themselves through experimentation. Or perhaps a need. And the more experimental you become, the more you can rely on otherwise familiar elements to express yourself.

French Kicks - So Far We Are

Myspace Page

Geek-cast part 3 has arrived! Okay, I have a great deal of respect for M. David Peterson, for his thoughts on open source and XML technologies, and on the software industry in general. I also read his site religiously (no pun intended) because I lived in Salt Lake City for three years (where I met my lovely wife), and it's always interesting to get a local take on some of the crazy things going on in that town from Mark Peterson and Heather Armstrong. I am linking these three podcasts mostly because I think there is a lot of value here, and I want to return to them again, and am too lazy to use del.icio.us, but they are definitely a beneficial listen for anyone involved in "the community"

Geek-cast - Part 1
Geek-cast - Part 2
Geek-cast - Part 3

The Story Box

This weekend we unpacked a big box from the move, containing a bunch of Jack's toys and other things. So, naturally, he spent the next two hours hard at play... with the box. This was on saturday, when he used it as a slide, turtle-shell ("Freakin-shell, Freakin-turtle" he screams. "Freakin" is Jack's pronunciation of "Franklin"), rocket ship, house...

The next day, Jack climbs inside the box with a crayon and one of his notebooks and starts to draw lemons and circles quietly by himself... which made for a relaxing 10 minutes, at least. Then he started to draw inside his "story-box"....

"Story-box! Story-box ! Hey, offa-bit!"
"Off of what?"
"No! Offa-bit, daddie, offa-bit."
"What's that, Jack"
"Of - a - bit!"
"Another bit... of crayon?"

He hides back in the box, disgusted with his father's stupidity.

"Oh, alphabet!"

Jack had discovered the writing on the side of the box that said "Jack's stuff, and added his own penmanship to it.

Downing a tube-steak at midnight, or "Homage" isn't just a descendents album

Okay, so the tube-steak sounds pretty good... but it's actually the name of a song by the Jam, sort of. I've just finished reading "A long way down" a Nick Hornby novel Katie got out of the library. I really enjoy the way Hornby refers to bands like Drive By Truckers and the Replacements in passing (not to mention all the lists in High Fidelity), without really seeming to care too much about explaining the reference. I respect that. And he's become enourmously successful doing it. I have a theory that most writers and computer programmers alike are music geeks because they spend so much time sitting in front of a typewriter or laptop with nothing better to do.

So would the Black Angels sound as much like Joy Division as they do if they hadn't named their album "Passover"? Maybe not. And really, they sound more like Spacemen 3 than Joy Division anyway, but, what's in a name? If they'd named the album "Walking with Jesus", that would have been the first thing I thought.

Also, speaking of Spacemen 3, this could well be my new favourite, favourite band: Soundpool out of NYC. The vocals are reminiscent of Seefeel or My Bloody Valentine (obvious influences). I really like the way these songs build and build. I want to listen to On High over and over again.

Black Angels - The First Vietnamese War

How cool is this?