Music/Life

So what’s been going on with this site, me, and where is this leading to? This site…probably nowhere. It’s a place to be humorous and occasionally discuss tech and music (mostly). The past year I took a long break from technology (although not completely absent). Also had the chance to catch up with people I haven’t seen in a very long time. Which to me, is more valuable than anything else I have to talk about here or elsewhere. Often times I think tech interferes with our vision of the world, perhaps persuades and manipulates our viewpoints. Sometimes things are black and white, but often times things that should be pretty straightforward get translated in the wrong language (I am talking about foreign languages to you and me, due to mindset, agendas, values, and understandings of the world).

I mentioned Sirius/XM radio in another post somewhere, and I’ve been introduced to a lot of good music. Do you ever come across that one song you hear only one time and know you have to purchase it? It plays in your head for hours, perhaps days, and finally you either buy the digital download or the whole album. This has been that song for me (the recent one).

Crazy thing is, these guys were almost certainly playing at some festivals/shows I’ve been to in the past. Perhaps I didn’t make it over to their stage. But it’s great to see them still going strong. Definitely recognize the name, had a couple songs on some comps/mixed lists back in the day. Excellent tune. Beware of the internal disc jockey spinning this constantly in your head.

Radio/TV

It was about 15 yrs ago when antennaweb and other similar sites were starting to get popular. Lots of folks were cutting the cable, checking their tv specs for “built-in” tuners…AND beginning to use tv boxes OR PCs to stream everything from local news, radio, YouTube, etc. Of course, this wasn’t the beginning of “cut the cable” culture, just the time when a larger group of consumers started noticing the trend (and switching).

Is it time to VPN everything? Good question. YouTube is much different than when it started (especially after being purchased by Google). With the popularity of tv boxes and streaming comes forced advertising and data mining. VPN’s can help resolve many issues, but they are not a full scale solution. As always, the devil is in the details. So be sure to check logging policies and also where the vpn company is located. You may be defeating the purpose of purchasing vpn service, by simply handing your data over to another data miner.

As of right now, I am getting personalized ads from Seattle and San Francisco. It’s kind of nice seeing what’s going on on the west coast. I’ve seen a couple of advertisements for school teachers and programs at local schools. Another for animal rescues. And another for state funded prescription coverage. YEAH!!!

It’s not as easy these days, but sometimes you just have to change the dial.

I think I’ll kill the radio, don’t want to hear this song..