Posts referencing posts...content referencing content...

Newfangled's Chris Butler recently pointed out some of the Google's many functions that I did not know about.  For movie showtimes, type in movies and a zip code.  Airline flight status, package tracking information, local weather forecasts and many more types of information are quickly available.

Here's a bit of my background for context:

My gut instinct has always been against computers. As a kid I enjoyed Asteroids, Galaga and trading Atari game cartridges in my neighborhood (yes this dates me), but when some of my friends got into Commodore 64's I couldn't have been less interested. In high school I was in the sole computer class for a while, but I found absolutely no purpose or thrill in instructing a dot to move across a screen and repeat on command, so I transferred back to Trig where I could cut up again with my friends.

I was a Luddite. As a musician I scoffed at electronics (I still do, mostly) and I've never liked digitized music (a post yet to come).

But I've accepted much. A few years ago I finally decided to step into the present, at least with one foot, and now I'm beginning a career in web development at Newfangled Web Factory--a great setting with really nice, smart people who take a very human and educational approach to web development.

In this blog I hope to record "ah ha" breakthrough moments and post shortcuts as I learn them to benefit anyone. Nothing will be too obvious for inclusion. And I'll post some about music and culture too.

I first saw Airtight Interactive's Simpleviewer on a friend's website (see Meredith Brickell's great art pottery) and was struck by its elegant simplicity. Its image navigation is intuitive, the images fade in nicely and the background and frames can be as unobtrusive as you want.  Most of all, it's pretty simple to install and free.  (There is a more customizable deluxe version which costs $45.)  

At the time I was taking an introductory JavaScript class and was struggling to customize some code (lifted straight from the book) for image viewing.  Little did I know that Simpleviewer was so easy to download, setup and customize.  The directions are clear, even for a web-building novice, and once I had it up and running my site easily jumped to the next level on the "looks pro" scale.

I did hit one snag involving Macs only, but Simpleviewer's online forum proved very useful.  The author, Felix Turner, answered my question quickly and pointed me to the fix, and several other users answered as well.  Airtight Interactive also offers a few other very smooth looking, free image players.

So the business of selling recorded music is dying, as we can all see. The big guys are struggling (record company giants) and the small guys (local mom and pop record stores) are dropping like flies. In Raleigh there is only one independent store selling new CDs left, and in Chapel Hill a longtime fixture, Schoolkids, closed this year.

But maybe there is a good side to this.

First of all, I have to admit that I've never really liked CDs. They still sound too trebly next to my LPs--who needs that much in the the cymbals? And who can have an emotional connection to a shiny lightweight disc in a case designed for the plastic hinge tabs to break off? I still prefer great big cardboard album covers, warm, bassy sound, with pops and scratches I've inflicted myself.

MP3s sound even worse than CDs—but they're all about convenience—and as a listener I don't too much mind the move from discs to downloads. But everyone knows what downloads are doing to the business, big and small, and artists are making even less of the miniscule share that traditional record companies pay them.

So what's possibly good here?

Live music! You can't file-share a live experience, and more of the money goes directly through the performers. Maybe in a roundabout way the digital age will boost a non-digital side market, live music. Maybe recordings should be free or nearly free (they are anyway if you look hard enough) and from a business standpoint serve primarily as promotion for the live experience.