Disclosure: As of June 1, 2008 I’ve been helping with Zune podcast submissions in the Zune Marketplace. Do you need help with your Zune podcast submission?

I’ll get back to this disclosure shortly since it’s new to readers. It’s the first time I’ve mentioned this gig in a blog post here. This news has been part of the new MakeYouGoHmm about page added last week.

Zune links
A Friendfeed everyone search for keyword ‘zune’ just led me to a new Zune feature this morning: Zune links.

To use the tool, just enter in keyword(s) and the tool will return matching links to: artists, albums, playlists, music videos, podcasts and videos. I’m curious how the playlist search works especially because I have my privacy settings set to allow “everyone” to view my Zune social settings, but don’t see any of my playlists. Maybe that will be a future feature?

Here is an example link for the the Hmmcast (stale, I know, it’s been over 5 months since last update), which I added border=’0′ to it:

Hmmcast

You will need the Zune software installed on your computer to follow that link.

As Sean Alexander, a Microsoft employee, points out, the iTunes Music Store has had this feature for awhile so it’s nice to see the Zune team add it. Sean adds:

My personal favorite, the Zune Social experience. The links take you directly to Zune Social where you preview the songs, see stats on listenership, read a review and more.

Sean also makes a good suggestion for somebody to possibly create a Live Writer plugin. Developer readers, there’s an opportunity.

Why are you helping with Zune podcast submissions?
It shouldn’t be a huge surprise to long time readers that I’m helping out in the Zune podcast area. I have been podcasting and writing about podcasting since the word was penned and this gives me an opportunity to get knee deep in podcast submissions all over the world. I also have written positively of the Zune player since launch (do a search for past ‘zune’ posts). Also, my whole family has been beta testing at Microsoft HQ in Redmond for several years, although I think we won’t be able to do that any more (?).

Rob Greenlee who is the lead for the Zune podcast area, invited me to guest co-host several of his WebTalk podcasts some time ago and mentioned that they could use my help reviewing podcast submissions. I jumped at the chance and as of the first of June 2008, here I am. If you are a podcaster and reading and need help with a podcast submission pending in the Zune Marketplace, please feel free to drop me a line either through Skype, Twitter, email (Gmail to my name works great) through the Zune Social of course or any of the dozens of other ways to contact me online where I’m currently active. I’m also regularly checking the official Zune forum podcast area and have already gone through the 1,400+ posts made there.

I’m also doing keyword searches for zune podcasts and tracking conversations elsewhere on the web (hence the genesis of this post), so don’t be surprised if I show up in your comment area if you’re talking about the Zune Marketplace podcast area and/or blog here and trackback to you.

Without getting into too much more detail, this is a contract gig for our online business and will be additional work, not something that replaces any of my current jobs. I still very much co-own an offline business and our online business and have been happily self-employed for 14+ years. I am also happy to be helping in the Zune podcast area and helping the podcast community at large, which I hope is crystal clear in this post.

Accordingly, I’ve added a ‘Zune’ category and will be adding the disclosure at the top of this post to any Zune-related posts where relevant going forward so that readers are clear of my professional involvement with the Zune team. I think you’ll see me promoting more new podcasts I’m discovering in the coming days more than writing that much more than I have in the past about Zune, but felt it was important to make the professional connections clear.

This new Zune link feature will make it easier to post direct links in the Zune Marketplace to these cool podcasts other people share with me and I discover through helping with the podcast submissions. So far I’ve already found some really well done podcasts that I didn’t know about.

Today is high school graduation day for our oldest son. Congratulations to him for making it as one of 30 “thirteen year” seniors in his class of 2008 (a 13-year senior has gone to the same school all 13 years: kindergarten through 12th grade). My dad flew out from Arizona to watch the graduation ceremony later this evening. Last night we went to our son’s restaurant of choice: Red Lobster. There were seven of us total and the bill after tip came to $340 USD.

For my son’s birthday in March we also went to Red Lobster. My wife and I went about six months ago on our own. When we got to the restaurant around 7:00pm, and keep in mind this was a Monday night which is typically the slowest night of the week, we were told our wait time would be “15 minutes.” We sat and watched people come right in and get seated ahead of us for 20 minutes before they finally sat us on the back side of the restaurant where we almost literally were alone in the complete side of the restaurant.

The first thing we did was wonder why we weren’t seated sooner when we were surrounded by empty tables? The waiter, Peter, proceeded to wait on us right away and he did a great job overall. I don’t blame him for anything that went wrong during our visit. He was actually the most positive part of the dining experience.

Two of the last three times we’ve dined at Red Lobster in the last year, including last night, I had to return my lobster to the kitchen to be recooked. The first time it happened, they brought me a brand new lobster tail and it was cooked great. Last night they did the same, but I was eating lobster while everybody else was eating dessert. The lobster that came back the second time in both cases was cooked properly.

Note to Red Lobster cooks: if the lobster is opaque, don’t send it to the table!

This morning I started thinking about the situation. Having come from the restaurant business, but admittedly being out of it for the last 15 years, I wondered why the manager never appeared in either case when food was returned to the kitchen. There’s an old saying about the fish stinking at the head. How appropriate.

The person waiting on us in both cases was apologetic for the restaurant, but we never had anybody else come out and say a word about having not being able to cook successfully an item on the menu that is in the title of your restaurant.

Customers who don’t voice their dissatisfaction
So the bill arrives.

No coupon off next visit, no discount of the price of the meal, nothing. It wasn’t just one Red Lobster location, it was two different ones. I think after last night’s dining experience, I won’t be going back any time soon.

How many of your customers never share their dissatisfaction with you? They pay their bill and go along with life and then one day they stop doing business with you.

There is probably a very small percentage of customers who have blogs rolling through Red Lobster’s doors, but I saw from a Yelp search that the local Red Lobster was given 2.5 out of 5 stars. Apparently we’re not alone. If a savvy PR rep or district manager reads this, you might want to print this out and deliver to your Federal Way and Silverdale location and revisit how to cook half the title of your restaurant.

Just before posting this I decided to dial the Federal Way store. I spoke to the kitchen manager Tim. Very nice guy and quite professional. He sounded disappointed that the manager on duty didn’t come out last night but indicated it was possible that Peter didn’t tell anybody that my order was messed up. He took my name and address and promised to send a gift card so we could have a better experience the next time out.

Maybe we will give them another chance after all. My question for readers is when you have a negative customer experience, do you tell the manager at that time or do you wait until the next few days? Or do you say nothing at all? How many things have to go wrong before you go that far?

Managers can’t improve things better if they don’t know, which is ultimately what prompted me to call the restaurant this morning.

Update 11:13am PST: Looks like Sterling wrote about an interesting restaurant experience too. Saw his post after writing mine. It had to be something in the weather yesterday that threw off the local restaurants.

The website Inflationdata compiles some hmm-inspiring historical charts that show inflation adjusted pricing. For example, the Gasoline Inflation Rate Chart shows us that despite current $4.20+ gallon pricing locally, the average annual price of has been higher at another time in US History.

way back in 1918 when Gasoline was a luxury item and people still rode horses as their means of transportation…  gasoline in inflation adjusted terms was about $3.50 a gallon

While grimacing at the price of the pumps, you might be wondering how this could be. By following the article linked, you’ll see that the annual price of gas takes into account peaks and valleys in the price and is across the entire country. While some areas are seeing well over $4/gal pricing, there are still some areas where gas is at or below $4/gallon. And if we go back to January the price was a $1 or so less per gallon which brings down the average.

So the next time you hear some news guy talk about "gas prices are at an all time high" he isn’t factually correct. Yet. I’m sure by the end of this year that statement will ring true. You can be safe in the knowledge that during horse and buggy times, again adjusted for inflation, it was actually more expensive to fill up than it was at the time this post was written some 90 years later.

Disturbing nonetheless realizing that in 1976 gas cost $0.76/gal and didn’t cross the $1/gal mark until 1980.

Journey needs a Revelation, literally. They need to Escape to Steve Perry’s house and convince him to take up the microphone again. I was blissfully unaware that Perry replacement Steve Augeri had throat problems on the 2006 Journey tour and was replaced mid-tour. At first by Jeff Scott Soto and then permanently by Arnel Pineda who sings the 11 new tracks on Journey’s newest studio album Revelation, available now at Wal-Mart exclusively.

Major props to my music buddy Matt who yesterday through his good blog Addicted To Vinyl tipped me off to this news. There have been a lot of 80s bands releasing new music recently like Asia, Dokken and Whitesnake which I’ve bought and been listening to as well. I’m feeling a small 80s-type uprising. Good time to be a rocker again?

I went out yesterday and bought the Journey CD and have been (mostly) listening to it since. Although I’ll expand in greater detail below, I share many of Matt’s feelings on the vocals:

as much as Arnel Pineda might have the goods vocally, there is NO doubt in my mind that Cain and Schon kicked his ASS in the studio to get the results they wanted to hear on the album, and you can hear it.

Let’s cast aside my irritation that Journey pulled the same stunt as The Eagles by forcing me to get in the car and pay too much for gas to visit the local Wal-Mart. I would have much rather bought ‘Revelation’ online through AmazonMP3 or one of the other non-DRM stores. These music exclusives might be good for the band but they suck for those of us who would rather buy the music from our music retailer/e-tailer of choice.

Must admit that I agree with Matt on the Journey Revelation package as being a good deal for $11.88. Not sure if we should thank Journey, Wal-Mart or both for this one. How many new albums come with 11 new songs, a new singer singing 11 old songs completely re-recorded, plus a DVD of a bonus concert in April of this year.

First up, the re-recorded songs aren’t as good as the originals. They sound old — and not in a good way. Pineda is a somewhat plastic version of Steve Perry. Dude needs more emotion. On one hand I like the fact that they included examples that Pineda could sing the songs, but on the other this feels kind of Karaokeish.

“Wheel In The Sky” - too fast! Come on, Neal Schon, you’re great on the fretboards, listen to the timing of the original and compare. When Journey plays Wheel live they always play the tempo faster than the original and it doesn’t work as well fast. I imagine with a few beers in you, it wouldn’t be as noticeable, but without a buzz it’s easy to hear. Pineda hits most the notes, but seems labored.

“Faithfully” - this is Pineda at his best singing the classics, I liked this one. He’s close to feeling it here. Music is about as close to the original of any of the re-recorded tracks.

“Any Way You Want It” - Remember Caddyshack? This song will always remind me of Rodney Dangerfield cutting it up on the course with a dancing gopher. Pineda’s vocals and the music are faithful to the original. Nice job.

“Who’s Crying Now” - listen to the weak vocals right before the guitar solo at the end and that’s all you need to hear from Pineda as to how he inserts emotion into a classic (answer: he doesn’t). Disappointing. Schon smokes the guitar and the keyboards and bass are there. Sometimes it is the singer, not the song, and that can be no clearer than listening to Journey.

“Separate Ways” - the guitar isn’t mixed as heavy in this re-recording and it’s noticeable. It needs more layering in the mix and some more distortion. Sounds a little too raw for my liking and normally I like raw. The keyboards are as haunting as ever. This is a great Journey song. Pineda covers it ok until he reaches the part about “in vain - vaaaaiiiinnnn” it chokes. I’m surprised they didn’t have him do another take there. Major misstep.

They also do semi-decent re-do versions of “Only The Young”, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Lights”, “Open Arms”, “Be Good To Yourself” (w/ extended solo? I like that) and “Stone In Love”. I think you get where this extra disc goes. It gives you an idea of what you might expect if Pineda had been Perry or [gasp] even Augeri. Bottom line: I don’t think it would have worked as well.

Onto the new tracks.

The 11 new songs on Revelation
I’ve been listening back and forth to the new songs and waiting for something to gel with me like a couple of the tracks from Arrival with Augeri on vocals and it’s not happening enough yet. Going to keep trying because some of the riffs are starting to stick out.

“Never Walk Away” - made me feel a bit like I did when I first heard Higher Place on Arrival, but I like Higher Place better because it has a better bass riff. I wish this jammed a little more. The Neal Schon guitar solo smokes, but stops short of really breaking out. It’s not a very strong introduction to Pinera vocally. He’s competent, we get that, but what else? This might have been something on Trial By Fire as a B-side reject, maybe.

“Like A Sunshower” - has a rhythm that goes something like “Lights” but with a lot less charm and sans the catchy lyrics. Somebody turn up Ross Valory’s bass. It’s like they mixed him down. It’s not the same with him toned down.

“Change for the Better” - the only thing I’d change about this track is change to another song. Again, this feels like B-side filler from Perry’s worst Journey album: Trial By Fire. I’d add track 4: “Wildest Dream” to this list. Forgettable.

“Faith in the Heartland” - I learned from Matt’s post that this is a remake from a track on Journey’s last album with Augeri singing called Generations which I barely remember listening to on Napster (the legal one) and giving a C+ grade. Never bought that one, but might go out and hunt it down on AmazonMP3, iTMS or the Zune marketplace if it’s available. I like the opening riff, but it just feels like a dozen other (better) Journey songs to me.

“After All These Years” - has the familiar Journey ballad components, but Pineda lacks the passion to go with the score. It comes off like something one of the American Idol voted off finalists would sing instead of Journey’s lead pipes. This track is getting some airplay. It sticks out.

“Where Did I Lose Your Love” - Like the last track, I totally dig the opening riff, but then it we get to the verses and it doesn’t work as well for me. The chorus is very catchy though. Feels like something that might have been on Raised on Radio. B-side again, but I like this one overall. It’s starting to stick.

“What I Needed” - With the piano/keyboard opening you’re thinking Open Arms but it gets heavier. Jonanthan Cain can still tickle the ivories. Ok track overall, nothing groundbreaking.

“What It Takes To Win” - Love the delay and other guitar effects. The chorus isn’t catch enough, but this is among my favorites on the album for guitar work. This might be my favorite track of the whole lot in fact.

“Turn Down The World Tonight” - Next to “After All These Years” this is mellowest track on the album. One too many mellow songs, even for a Journey album. These guys aren’t Air Supply. Crank up the amps already. Give us some anthem rock. A ’show us the lighter’ song every once in awhile is ok, but we need that rocker to mix up the tempo.

“The Journey (Revelation)” - Instrumental. Journey isn’t known for having that many instrumentals so it’s a nice break. The music is ok, it’s no YYZ by Rush or anything but it fits the album.

Summary
I wanted to like Revelation more than I actually have so far. At least I bought it, unlike Generations, but once I lay down $$, I tend to even be more picky, not less. It’s kind of sad that after a day worth of listens I can only point to a single song that I will continue to listen to going forward. That song ironically titled “What It Takes To Win” doesn’t win me over for the whole album. I’ll keep trying to listen and see if something will stick because I feel like I’m missing some sort of brilliance here. I think it’s that I want to like this because it’s Journey more than anything, not because the music is that good.

Must admit I feel badly for Steve Augeri. He seemed like a nice guy and I could hear passion in his voice that I don’t hear with Pineda. I don’t understand what throat problems he had, if it was brought on by the stress of touring or something else, but I would have liked to see him stay — if he could medically anyway. From what I could find from some searching around on the web, it seemed like an amicable split, possibly due to medical reasons more than a fallout with the band. If you know more on the story, please use the comment section below or your blog to trackback in and tell me about the details. I’m curious.

Better yet Journey, just bring back the real Steve. Perry has been in the basement too long. It’s time for him to come out of hiding and do a real reunion with Journey. It’s kind of sad to see a band of Journey’s caliber playing smaller gigs when they used to pack concert arenas. If Diamond Dave and Eddie can hook up and Zeppelin can get together with Jason Bonham what’s holding back Perry?

In fairness to Pineda, he’s a competent singer and sings the songs well. I haven’t watched the DVD yet of his concert and maybe he tears it up vocally there. As a package for value I give Revelation high marks, but at the end of the day it’s not how many extras and much filler you jam into a CD package, the music must do the talking. Sorry, Journey’s Revelation is mostly lips sealed. Grade: D+

I can’t do what with my own name until I earn 40 Karma points?

This has to be among the most idiotic uses of karma point motivation I’ve seen on the internet, but I’ll get back to that.

If you’ve been Rip Van Winkle the last year, let me update you on the status of the tech web: the Attack of the Clone Wars are still upon us. And trust me it’s about as interesting as the Star Wars flick sharing the same name. I’ve been looking into and spending more time in other areas looking for, and at times finding, inspiration and excitement. More on that by separate post.

On the chat/conversation/social front, Pownce and to a much lesser extent Jaiku (acquired by Google last year) used to be the hip, cool services to visit when Twitter was down. Both those services are getting a lot less buzz, at least from the people I’m following. FriendFeed is continuing to gain traction as it offers something a little different than the others: a master aggregator of your activity stream. At least the activity you are exposing through FriendFeed, anyway. FriendFeed has added more features to share new content and create conversations around links like their quasi-chatroom called simply, rooms. I haven’t dipped a toe in there yet, but am open to suggestions for good rooms to join.

I’ve also been reading some praise being left at the welcome mat of Plurk. This morning I went and registered and what’s the first thing I see when I hit the form submit button?

The expression on Mr. T’s face is priceless. I couldn’t help but smile. Resisted the urge to add the caption: “Hey suckah, if you think Plurk is going to beat out Twitter I’ll bust you up.”

I’m a fan of the A-Team and all but how is this any positive sign of the future for Plurk when with a pinprick amount of the traffic and users that Twitter has currently they are having downtime and error screens during registration? I know, it’s a new service and we’re supposed to be patient, give the new kids a break. Label this premature extrapolation but I’m weary of cutting any of these wannabe clone services slack.

I should point out that despite the error screen above, it appears like my registration actually worked. I was using Firefox 2.0.0.14 in case any of the Plurk devs are lurking and curious. No matter, I doubt seriously it was a browser issue.

To me this illustrates the biggest problem with too many Web 2.0 services these days. Are we truly analyzing if using these clones are a lateral or downward move over more popular, similar services? My excitement level for a lot of these ‘new’ services has waned considerably in 2008 because I don’t see much in frequently writing posts like this one asking what is new here? What’s different, what’s fresh? Plurk has a somewhat interesting post that shows messages on a different style timeline. Woohoo, somebody get Murdock out of the mental ward. And karma points to encourage more activity at a site are a breakthrough? Not.

No loyalty for web services
I haven’t seen anything that exciting and different with Pownce and Jaiku versus Twitter. Sure, there are a few features that differ between them but by far the most useful component of the three is the number of people using the service (Twitter). Whatever service has the crowd in a service geared around social interaction, has the lion’s share of eyeballs and mindshare. Wrong or right, like it or lump it, that’s the way it is. Due to sheer numbers MySpace and Facebook remain leaders in their field, despite the attempts to nip their ankles by clones.

Today, what’s the #1 complaint about Twitter? It goes down too much. Any service — new, old, experienced, inexperienced, in beta, etc — has no breaks in this department. I don’t care if it’s FREE now, or ad-supported or whatever, because we all know it won’t be free forever. It’s surprising Twitter hasn’t busted out a monetization strategy by now, maybe the reality is what they keep saying: they don’t have one. The Twitter crew doesn’t strike me as being the most organized team. They just got a $15 million cash infusion, so maybe they’ll be able upgrade the backend. They say they’re trying.

I’m in Plurk now (lol, big deal) as of June 6, 2008. Feel free to add me as your friend/follower/fellow virtual drifter and I’ll try and return in kind. Name squatter more likely, as I was in Twitter originally.

Forgive me for going Lemming on this one because I’m not seeing what makes Plurk special. And the whole karma points motivation thing I started this post with is lame when somebody — including a freaking bot — can setup a competing Twitter account (assuming it’s not down) and have access to all that services benefits instantly. No hoop jumping. No spamming your friends “in real time” to sign up.

You have the comment space below, your own blog (trackback in), or use another service to show me the way; I’m not only listening here. If a miracle happens and Plurk somehow becomes more popular and stable than Twitter, I’ll use the service more. Ain’t web loyalty a peach?

Although I’d put your money on Mr. T making a comeback with a ‘new’ version of the A-Team happening first.

Think I’m going to get my own 800 psychic line going. Call me and pay me several dollars a minute so I can predict what happens 1/10th of a second into the future.

Bummer that I’m not special, a study says you have this not so mystical power too:

Researcher Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York says it starts with a neural lag that most everyone experiences while awake. When light hits your retina, about one-tenth of a second goes by before the brain translates the signal into a visual perception of the world.

Next time you’re complaining about lag on your game du jour, remember even you have lag. How about that? Somebody get Madam Mortuus The Misfortunate Teller on the line.

Being a videoblog/podcast host is a transitory profession. Don’t sign any long leases.

Remember Amanda Congdon who had a popular gig at Rocketboom and then went onto presumably bigger, better things at ABC, only to last less than a year. Enter example two, Veronica Belmont, the initial video host of Jason Calacanis’ current video brainchild: Mahalo Daily. Belmont ditched Mahalo Daily awhile back and is starting June 5 as the new videoblog host for Qore, a paid subscription-based videoblog show which sounds to me like paying to watch commercials for games on the Sony Playstaton 3.

In fairness, let’s review what the official PS3 blog says will be part of the Qore subscription:

Qore has been developed to give PS3 users early access to game related content at a level of quality, interactivity and depth. Everything is filmed in HD. Qore will feature exclusive news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews and behind-the-scenes looks at PlayStation games and special access to game demos, special beta invitations, game add-ons and other downloadable game-related content.

Calacanis was smart enough not to charge viewers for his paid advertorial for Mahalo, what is Sony smoking? Why are they are charging for “special access” to game demos? Some commenters on the PS3 blog post are rightfully complaining while at least one commenter says this is in line with print game magazines which charge too much for information you can usually find on the web already. Nevermind that many of these print game mags are struggling to stay afloat. This is 2008, not 1998.

Shooting the video in all HD is smart and the game add-on part might be worth paying for if they are giving away songs to games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero but my guess is most of these add-ons will be lame things like different characters or backgrounds. Yeah, yeah, maybe it will be only [sarcasm] $24.99 a year for a Qore subscription of 13 episodes, but I’m skeptical that it will be worth $2.99 (single episode price) per episode. For Sony’s and fellow gamer’s sake I hope I’m wrong. I will happily buy in if they put some good exclusive add-on content in there.

Let me throw Sony a bone. Get us access to HOME — for free. Quit delaying and give us more games in the Playstation store. I’ve only been saying this since launch day and doubt any gamers will disagree. Sony could have bought Atari (ATAR stock had been floundering) dirt cheap and put all of their games in the PlayStation store and didn’t do it. No, instead they want to charge us for the privilege of being teased about some bright gaming future (Look at what’s coming in months … years). Advice to Belmont: don’t put all your eggs in the Qore basket. As popular as the Wii is (where can one buy Wii Fit at anyway? Sold out everywhere), she would have been better doing a Nintendo Wii show — perhaps an exercise show to go along with Wii Fit — that was offered for the special price of — drumroll please — free. Strike that, horny gamers would pay $2.99 to see a good looking girl doing Wii Fit workouts.

Come on, Sony. Really.

Bought my first album from the Zune marketplace this morning.

Wasn’t my intention to shop there as I’ve been enjoying shopping for DRM-free music at AmazonMP3, but decided to do some comparison shopping on the Whitesnake Live In The Shadow Of The Blues album between AmazonMP3, Zune and iTunes Music Store (iTMS). The AmazonMP3 price being higher was what motivated me to look around a bit.

The most expensive (not pictured above) was iTMS at $19.98 for 256kbps bit rate AAC encoded. Next was AmazonMP3 at $17.98 and the best price by a mile was 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00 USD) in the Zune marketplace.

I was somewhat skeptical of the Zune marketplace pricing being so much lower. What would be the bit rate of the files? Unfortunately, the Zune store doesn’t tell you — or if they do, I couldn’t easily find the answer.

I did some searching around and tried to find out what bit rate the Zune MP3 files were encoded at, but didn’t find the answer anywhere. I decided $8 or $10 was too much of a savings not to at least pull the trigger. After juicing my account with some more Microsoft Points I purchased the Whitesnake album. Then I went to Windows Explorer and right clicked on the properties of the track to see the bit rate was 320 kbps!

Very cool! I didn’t know the Zune store sold MP3 tracks at 320kbps bit rate. This will make a new spot for me to comparison shop for new MP3 music. I didn’t check Napster to see what their price and bit rate was like, but that’s another possible place to buy MP3 albums from these days legally. Too bad with Zune, iTMS and Napster you need to run their software to surf the store. Score a point for AmazonMP3 in the convenience department.

In the above comparison shopping the Zune store had the best deal, but I’m sure there are/will be other cases where the Zune store isn’t the best. For example, Whitesnake’s newest album Good To Be Bad is selling for $8.99 at AmazonMP3 and $10.89 at iTMS (iTunes Plus) and in the Zune store for 900 Microsoft Points ($11.25). Even though I prefer the 320kbps I bought Good To Be Bad at AmazonMP3.

My ears can’t tell the difference between 256kbps and 320kbps, but a couple months back I re-ripped our entire CD collection to 320kbps. I’m fine with anything 256 and above.

For those stuck on the Microsoft Points to $USD conversion, just multiply the points by $0.0125. I wish Microsoft would show the $USD price in parenthesis or something, but it’s not that big of a deal to use a calculator or remember that 100 point multiples are $1.25.

Another example of a recent purchase: Def Leppard Songs From The Sparkle Lounge bought from AmazonMP3 for $8.99. That one isn’t even available in non-DRM version from iTMS or the Zune Marketplace.

Don’t think that the iTMS is the only place to get DRM-free music these days. Comparison shopping is required to find the best deal. Too bad these online stores don’t put out an API so somebody can mashup a best deals for DRM-free music to save music shoppers even more time. There’s an idea.

Today I’m doing my first ever reinstall of Mac OS X. Why? Too many Leopard lock-up problems and crashes. I never had any problems with Tiger and Leopard worked good for the first month. Since then, nothing but problems. Unfortunately I keep running into the following error screen:

The first part of the error message seems self-explanatory: “The installer could not validate the contents of the ‘Essentials’ package.” It’s the second part that disturbs me: “Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.” So I’m suppose to call Apple and say? Hey, I need some help validating my package, my Essentials Package, you know.

Seems a little crazy.

To all the Mac gurus out there, what does this mean? Shouldn’t this ‘Essentials package’ already be stored on the Leopard disc? I cleaned the Leopard DVD and am trying again. I’m going to Google this as well. Got to be something simple like a dirty disc …

Update 12:18pm PST: Looks like RAM issues might be the culprit here.

Friday May 30, 2008 8:08am PST: Later yesterday I got the Leopard install working. I didn’t replace RAM, I just kept trying/retrying the installation. The 4th or 5th time (I didn’t keep count) it worked. The first thing I did was conduct all the updates and it is working good again.

Probably the coolest part of the OS reinstallation was being able to use a Time Machine backup to get back to a reasonably recent snapshot of what was on the system. Nice, I didn’t lose any applications, files or network settings. Time Machine is a lot like System Restore on Windows and runs on an external USB or Firewire drive. Very handy.

Where did you go over the Memorial Day weekend? Or did you stay home and save the wallet stress at the pumps? Can’t blame anybody on that front, we’re seeing $4.09 prices here and Diesel at $4.99/gallon.

We went to Montana, then over to the Grand Coulee Dam, a majestic, serene place.