Monthly Archives: October 2007

Well, here’s the epitome of Web 2.0.

It’s a fancy pants directory of Web 2.0 sites, done in Flash. And the UI is horrendous. To scroll through the apparently massive list, you click on the funky purple folder tab at the bottom of the screen. It doesn’t look like a scroll button at all. And once you start scrolling, there’s no feedback on how far you’ve scrolled or how close to the bottom you are.

Yep, it’s a perfect showcase for Web 2.0.

At some point in the possibly distant future, I’m going to buy a new guitar. The last guitar I purchased was my 12-string Alvarez in 1999. I rarely play this guitar. I skimped on it, and I shouldn’t have. It doesn’t hold its tune any longer than I can hold my breath. But I digress. Before that, it was my Rickenbacker 330 and my Alverez White Fusion, both in 1996. That was back when I was playing regularly in a band.

These days, I still play regularly, but it’s at church. On any given week, I play during our Wednesday night practice and during our Sunday service, so I still get lots of playing time in. For leading worship, I have almost exclusively used my Alvarez White Fusion. I can’t remember the last time I seriously played my Rickenbacker. But that’s okay, because I’ve grudgingly come to accept that I’m not much of an electric guitarist. I’m a solid rhythm player, but don’t ask me to solo.

So when I’m ready for a new guitar, it’ll be pretty tough to justify an electric. In fact, it’s pretty easy to justify trading in my Rickenbacker, although I’m still not sure I could bring myself to do it. But if I trade in my Rickenbacker for a new acoustic, that leaves me without an electric at all. I have not needed an electric guitar for a gig in nearly ten years, but rest assured, the day after I sell the Rickenbacker, I’ll get a call to play a gig where I’ll need an electric. Just the way my life is sometimes.

All of this leads me to ponder the hybrid guitars that are starting to come out. These guitars are, quite simply, amazing. They promise down and dirty electric tones or sweet and dainty acoustic tones at the flip of a switch. That’s just too good to be true.

As far as I can tell, there are three main entries in this category. The heavy hitter seems to be Taylor, who has never really been known for their electric guitars, but who makes a really nice acoustic guitar. Taylor’s hybrid is called the T5 (short for Thinline 5-way), and I’ve been lusting after it for months now. For starters, it’s an absolutely gorgeous guitar, clean and curvy and just a bit understated. Check out the video of Marc Seal playing it here. But all this flexibility doesn’t come cheap: you won’t find a Taylor T5 for less than $2,000, and that’s for the standard model. Expect to pay up to $3,000 for the custom or for a maple top.

While trying to come up with a way to convince my wife that the Taylor T5 was a necessity, I happened across the Ovation VXT. Like Taylor, Ovation has never been renowned for any work with electric guitars, but their acoustics have a fanatical fanbase. I’m fond of the Ovation sound, but not the round back they traditionally sport. But the VXT is flat. It’s a hybrid. Looks nice and sounds nice. The VXT blog has some videos worth watching. The VXT is more reasonably priced than the T5, weighing in at around $1,600 retail. But I had trouble convincing myself that this was the right guitar for me. The T5 has some natural reverb, but the VXT doesn’t look like it does (confession: I’ve looked at it up close but not played it).

Tonight, while leafing through the new catalog that Guitar Center sent me in order to keep me hooked, I found Parkwood’s new Hybrid Blackwood, which looks really, really sweet. See it in action here. This is much more in line with the feature set and styling of the T5, but get this: it’s retails for $1,000, about half of what the T5 costs. I honestly don’t have any experience with Parkwood guitars, but from what I’ve read, they seem to be well-respected and well-liked. This one is definitely worth checking out.

So which one am I buying?

Well, let’s just say that I’m currently examing the budget and leave it at it.

This is possibly the most awesome news story I’ve read this year: Stallman Attacked by Ninjas. Yes, folks, Richard M. Stallman, known to several as the founder and leader of the Free Software Movement, was attacked by ninjas while taking the stage to give a speech at Yale.

Now, for the bad news: they weren’t real ninjas, and they weren’t trying to hurt him. Turns out, it was just some pranksters acting out one of my favorite web comics.

From the Yale Daily News: Before the debate began, four student pranksters dressed in ninja garb jumped in front of Stallman as he prepared to take the stage. After posing for pictures with him, they ran out of the room amid audience laughter. The prank was inspired by an XKCD.com comic depicting a failed assassination attempt on Stallman by four masked men from Microsoft.

Find out here.

Post your score in the comments. I scored a 27, recipe and quite frankly, I find that horrifying.

Plus meme is a stupid word.

According to the LA Times, the wheels are turning on the forthcoming live action Star Wars series: “[Producer Rick] McCallum is interviewing writers for the [Star Wars] live-action series.”

Here’s a tip for you, Rick: Stop the interviews. Hire Timothy Zahn as the head writer. Then hire any combination of Michael Stackpole, A.C. Crispin, Kevin Anderson, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch as his staff. There. Done. Let Lucas cast the vision, but leave the rest up to Zahn and his team.

And for the director, get Joss Whedon. Seriously. I can’t stress this enough. He would do it exactly right.

You all know that I’m big Star Wars nerd, but you have to admit, this is pretty funny.

Via Daring Fireball (who got it via John Welch).

Okay, since September 12, I have found four freaking slugs in my office/laundry room. I don’t know how they’re getting in or what they want from me, but I’m starting to get seriously freaked out.

That is all.

Despite delays, false starts, and rumors to the contrary, it appears as though NBC is indeed prepping its adaptation of the British sitcom The IT Crowd for a midseason replacement. Looks like it will even feature Richard Ayoade, reprising his role as Moss. Good thing, that, because I can’t imagine who could do it any better.

NBC has a long and storied history of adapting British sitcoms for American audiences, The Office, of course, being the most famous, most successful, and generally accepted best adaptation. But before we get too excited, remember that this is the same network who gave us the American version of Men Behaving Badly, also known as Justine Bateman’s triumphant return to television. Oh, sorry, you had forgotten about her, hadn’t you?

Anyway, here’s hoping.

So it’s official: Leopard will ship on October 26. Great quote from Steve Jobs: “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version…” Compare and contrast.

Apple has a nice, long, comprehensive list of new features here. Looks like a nice upgrade. Maybe not as revolutionary as Jaguar or Panther were, but still solid.

This one’s for Tom.

Via Think Christian:

At Christianity Today, Roger Freet finds challenging spiritual insights in the music of Tool, a prog-rock band not known for their positive attitude toward Christianity. The Tool lyrics Freet’s chosen to highlight in the article are direct, brutal, and demand answers. Perhaps it’s a shame that I’m not accustomed to music, Christian or otherwise, that talks so earnestly about spiritual matters. Speaking of Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan’s lyrics, Freet concludes:

The Holy Spirit is the giver of all gifts. If someone elects to use those gifts in the service of God, good. But those gifts are not rendered dormant or defunct by virtue of our intent. An artist who explicitly rejects God, as many have done, nevertheless remains a “sub-creator,” as Tolkien said, a creator in the Creator’s image. We should be suspicious of our tendency to insist that God only shows up in the right places. Sometimes, pagan sources can most accurately reflect back to Christians the power and lasting impact of genuine witness. You never know when and where God might reveal himself.

Reference