Entries from September 2007 ↓

My apologies for being so inconsistent for the past several days, I had a bit going on.  During the Saturday of the last weekend of September, I was able to finally find a Wii at Future Shop!  Imagine my pleasant surprise and excitement.  And don’t turn green with envy yet - apparently, Wiis are finally in stock and are widely available (heck, if I could get my greedy little hands on one, you certainly can).  And today, Sunday, I was volunteering in the Run for the Cure and then attended the University Fair being held downtown.  Overall, a very exhausting day; but just because of my love for you readers, I’ve dragged up the motivation to write this short post.

Now I know for a fact that many people are still using the boring ol’ Bliss or Doggy wallpaper that came with their Windows XP, or the Aurora wallpaper for Vista.  Now I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with it, but it does get a bit dull doesn’t it?

Don’t worry about it - if I brought it up, I’ll have you covered.  I introduce you to InterfaceLIFT, my personal favourite site to collect quality wallpapers.  There are several new wallpapers being published on a weekly basis, with a wide variety ranging from nature shots to rush hour, all seemingly professionally shot with excellent quality.

All I can suggest is that you don’t go crazy downloading wallpapers; I’m not too sure that would be a wise use of your storage (if you’re lacking in hard drive space) nor would it be necessary, as InterfaceLIFT won’t go offline anytime soon (I say this with acknowledging that there might be a fraction of a percent that I might be wrong).

So you can finally change the wallpaper on your computer at work?  I’d suggest recommending the site to your supervisor or boss first, and see their reaction before doing anything yourself.

Amazon’s been a provider of many goods; CD’s, DVD’s, electronics, and the like. So everybody knew that it was just a matter of time before it expanded into the field of digital music. And this time, I can surely say that I might seriously consider purchasing from Amazon now. Why such a hasty decision?

I assume that you, dear reader, would have heard or read about what Digital Right Managements protection is and how it affects music files (it severely limits the number of computers or digital audio players that your music can be transferred to). And it was only till recently that major online music stores began shying away from using DRM (for example, iTunes with the launch of iTunes plus). I’m very pleased to see that Amazon’s decided to fight DRM as well, because it’s a very ridiculous system if you ask me. It’s practically punishing the customers that support purchasing music for the consumers that choose to pirate or illegally acquire their music. Sound unfair?

That’s why I’m so eager to jump onto Amazon’s bandwagon! I’m sure that this will not be a passing fad - with music price at $0.89 apiece, a very flexible .mp3 format, and a higher than standard bit-rate of 256 kbps, it’s an excellent price for high-quality music. Much cheaper than iTunes, and appealing to a greater market, I find it difficult to believe that Amazon might be able to fail.

What are you waiting for? Well, if you don’t live in the USA, then you’ll be (like I am) patiently waiting for Amazon’s music store to debut in my country. I sure hope that it doesn’t take long, but in the meantime, there’s always Spiral Frog.

Amazon’s store can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=gw_br_mp3/002-0866464…

If you’re like me, you probably think the internet is the best thing that’s happened since sliced bread. The internet has helped you accomplish many various tasks and seen many sights around the world that you otherwise would not have been able to access. It’s also been able to connect you to old friends, new acquaintances, or just various people you meet in the abundant numbers of social networks. And so you add them onto your favourite instant messaging application, and you realize that text can only take you so far: text is great, but I think hearing someone’s voice is just on a completely different level.

Skype is no newbie to the world of voice-conferencing. Sure, there are many applications out there that can perform similar tasks: Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and Skype’s arch-rival Gizmo. But, I still think that Skype gets the job done best.

As my cousin lives across our vast country of Canada, we have this obstacle to cross whenever we want to communicate. Until recently, we mainly used Windows Live Messenger to chat: then, he introduced me to Skype and I grew to enjoy the convenience (of course, no singing along to music anymore). I found a microphone in my closet and plugged it right into my computer (you can purchase a decent microphone at your local electronics/computer retailer for probably around ten dollars).

Now you might be thinking that you can do this with something like Windows Live Messenger. But would you be able to hold a conference call with three people? I discovered that this was quite a hindrance, as I was chatting with a few fellow APH members. So I happily booted up Skype to find out that this was a feature - and within a couple of seconds, I was able to connect and chat with them.

Skype sure is convenient! You can even call land-lines if you are lacking a phone (for a fee, of course). And best of all - Skype is free! It’s both free money-wise and spyware-free, so you won’t have to worry about installing unwanted software (actually, keep an eye out for Google toolbar, but that’s not exactly spyware).

You can download Skype at it’s site: http://www.skype.com/

Windows Vista was (and still is) Microsoft’s product. Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft’s product. So when Windows Live Messenger 8.0 and 8.1 were released, I was wondering where the Vista integration was (it wasn’t even an option). And when Yahoo! Messenger was made available with Vista integration, I was just plain ol’ confused. Since when did Yahoo! impress me more than Microsoft? I think that would have to be the one and only time I even considered getting a Yahoo! account to use Yahoo! Messenger.

So when the newest beta version of Live Messenger (WLM 8.5) was released, I was finally relieved to see the Vista integration. It gathered my desktop under what I would call “Vista-Unity”, and I never looked back. Of course, the beta had a few problems (none too obvious), so I could hardly wait till the kinks were worked out.

And today, I finally got what I was waiting for; an auto-update saying that there was a new version of Windows Live Messenger. And yes, WLM 8.5 is finally officially released! I’m pleased to say that it’s interface didn’t change a single bit, and it looks exactly identical to its beta version (albeit the title has changed).

Well, at least, that’s what I initially thought. Turns out after a bit of searching around that Windows Live Messenger 8.5 is still in a beta state - it’s just that “beta” was removed from its title, and it’s actually a second beta. What a disappointment.

Kidding! I don’t mind having a beta version of a product that brings “Vista-Unity” to my computer. And so, the wait for WLM 8.5 Final continues…

Don’t have a digital audio player? Want to share your music? Just recorded your garage band’s new single and want to get it out to the world? Look no further - Imeem would be of perfect service.

Imeem’s also got a pretty decent-looking interface - mainly flash-based, it’s very animated and has graphics that are very aesthetically satisfying. There are various premade themes to choose from, and even more HTML coded themes that you can copy and paste from its users.

Imeem is another one of those social music networks - albeit one of the more convenient social music networks. Unlike Last.fm, Imeem allows its users to upload their own songs - if the artists allow it to be broadcasted it will be made available at full-length. Otherwise, it’s just a thirty-second preview (a decent sacrifice for a greater good).

This means you can add the track someone else uploaded to your own playlist, and then you can have access to your playlist wherever you can get on the internet.

A last but certainly not least feature is its music discovery ability - want to listen to that song you just heard on the radio? Just type it into the search bar - usually, it’ll be available (if not in full-length, then you’ll get a preview).

Imeem’s certainly something that I value using, as I don’t have to suck out my iPod’s batteries while still being able to enjoy my music. And it’s GUI isn’t even half bad (well I guess nothing can succeed with a lame GUI, but still).