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Sweet CD of the Week - Spy Glass Blue - Shadows

Jeremiah Owen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:11:38 +0000

This weeks Sweet CD comes to us from the little known group Spy Glass Blue. Spy Glass Blue although no defunct (as far as I can tell) is headed by the somewhat infamous Allan Aguirre who’s reputation proceeds him as somewhat a controversial character in the Christian music scene (it seems at one point he admitted to using pot, to which he says he has been clean for the last 10+ years as of present). His previous band Scaterd Few is often heralded as the first Christian Punk band. Never the less Shadows is a unique blend of sounds leaning heavily on gothic influences rather than the punk influences which were more apparent in Scaterd Few. The best it can be described as a blend of Bauhaus and Bowie. It really is a unique sound and I can’t say I have ever heard anything quite like it. Highly recommended to give it a spin. You can pick it up on Amazon here.

Amazon Ship It Already

Jeremiah Owen — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:36:54 +0000

What’s worse than waiting for a new gadget to get delivered from our friends at UPS? Why waiting for Amazon to actually ship said gadget of course. So I ordered a Tablet PC on Tuesday night using the awesome Amazon Prime with $3.99 upgrade for overnight shipping. Typically that would put me for delivery on Thursday. Well today is Friday and it hasn’t even shipped. Lame. Even more lame is the fact it’s not even scheduled for delivery until Monday. Double lame. And even more lame is it’s not even “Preparing for Shipping”. Triple lame. Normally Amazon is great with fast shipping but really bummed this isn’t faster. Oh well, back to waiting…..

Sweet CD of the Week - Butch Walker - Letters

Jeremiah Owen — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:25:01 +0000

This week for the CD of the week we take a trip back a couple of years and who do we happen upon? None other than singer/song writer/producer extraordinaire Butch Walker. Butch lost his house in the SoCal wildfires last year which was a pretty big bummer as he lost all of the originals of his recordings and a bunch or other sentimental items. I can only assume this albums masters were also lost and what bummer that is. From the opening strums of “Maybe It’s Just Me” to the latter “The Best Thing You Never Had” this album spans the all sorts of rock elements.

Weaving piano, acoustic and electric covered over by some rich vocals this is in my top 10 albums of all time. Nothing beats driving out on the open road and just playing this album from start to finish. It covers ranges of emotions and tells stories that will leave you wishing this was the first half of a two-part album. Alas it isn’t. Do yourself a favor and go pick this album up today. Obligatory Amazon Link.

Deal of the Day - Call of Duty 4 $34.99

Jeremiah Owen — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:27:22 +0000

Yep by chance I was looking to find a sweet deal on COD4 for PS3 and lo and behold Amazon just happens to have an amazing deal on it today. $34.99 shipped for free. It’s today only so get it while it’s hot.

For PS3.

For Xbox360.

What’s up with Yngwie?

Jeremiah Owen — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:40:49 +0000

So Yngwie is busy recording a new album. Great! He’s got a new singer. Great! He’s touring. Great! Not in the US. Bummer. Here’s to hoping we see some US dates added soon. If you haven’t experienced Yngwie live it is highly recommended just so you have an understanding of how you will never be that good at guitar. Seriously. I mean it really is amazing to to watch him just shred. You know how when you are growing up you would be told that “There’s always someone better” well in the case of guitar playing Yngwie is that someone. Please come through the states soon Yngwie. The children need you.

Sweet CD of the Week: Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

Jeremiah Owen — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:17:52 +0000

Each week we will be posting a “Sweet CD of the Week”, basically a recommended album to listen to. First up this week:

Nightwish: Dark Passion Play

Dark Passion Play is Nightwish’s first post Tarja Turunen album. Anette Olzon’s voice is completely different from Tarja’s and although I loved Tarja’s I must say I think Anette fits perfectly and I couldn’t imagine Tarja working well with some of the new Nightwish songs. All that said head onto iTunes and give it a listen.

IR2BT Review

Jeremiah Owen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:22:29 +0000

So you have your PS3, your Harmony One remote, your nice large flat screen and a kickin 5.1 sound system you are ready to rock some Blu-Ray action right? Wrong! The biggest oversight or attempt to weasel another 30 bucks out of consumers is the lack of IR on the PS3. The issue for the uninitiated is that 99.9% of universal remotes only offer IR functionality (some offer RF too) and there are no other Bluetooth remotes available for the PS3 other than the one Sony offers. Cute Sony…. very cute. So what’s someone to do “2 Remote it?” Well for the past months this is how I had been functioning. Not ideal but it worked. Some issues included the following:

No backlight on PS3 remote so in the dark functionality pain in the proverbial neck.
Keeping around 2 remotes = one is bound to disappear
2 sets of batteries to keep handy

For months people have been offering all sorts of strange half baked solutions which would translate IR to controller commands but alas they all failed on 2 VERY important pieces:

None could send the power on commands to turn on the PS3 with the IR remote.
None could send the power off commands as done via the BT remote.

Both of these are deal breakers when it comes to having a completely 1 touch on and off provided by remotes like the Logitech Harmony series. Enter the IR2BT. The IR2BT excels where other solutions such as the Nyko Blu-Wave fail. So how does it work?

The simplicity is that the IR2Bt works by just translating all IR commands into the BT equivalent. Seems simple enough right? Yep it is that simple. Does it work? YES! Simply browse to the accessories menu register BD remote control, power on the IR2BT , press and hold the number 2 on your remote (if using a Harmony you may need to select the IR2BT as the active device first). After a second or two you will see the pairing process happen. That’s it. Works as advertised, I am now able to power on and off using my Harmony One with no problems.

Highly recommended. The only issues you’ll have with at this point is getting ahold of one. I was lucky enough to get ahold of one in the first batch to be released, however it’s now several weeks of wait time to get ahold of one and they are only producing around 100 a week. Bleh. Hopefully production will ramp up as I can see this as almost a necessity for anyone wanting to increase the WAF. I can wholeheartedly recommend the IR2BT. Great solution to simple problem.

You can order your own IR2BT straight from IR2BT.

It’s here! IR2BT

Jeremiah Owen — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:17:29 +0000

Review forthcoming but it has arrived.

Just kidding

Jeremiah Owen — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:43:01 +0000

So looks like the whole Airport + Time Machine backups is some kind of sick joke from Apple. According to this post , it’s not supported by Apple. So hmm Let’s add a feature then not support it? Strange even by Apple’s standards!

Apple updates Airport Extreme. Time Machine backup to network disk now enabled!

Jeremiah Owen — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:59:39 +0000

So Apple released a pair of updates for the Airport Extreme Base Station and Leopard today. Big whoop right? Wrong. The finally enabled Time Machine Backups to disks attached to the AEBS! There seems to be some confusion on how to enable so here are the steps hope they help someone out there out:

If you have a disk already plugged into your AEBS it may or may not work. I suggest you start by going to your System Preferences, Time Machine and see if your Airport Disk shows up. If it does then sweet you are all set!
Assuming it does not show up first open finder and attempt to browse your Airport disk, once you have opened a folder on it go back to the System Preferences, Time Machine and see if it shows up. If not proceed to step 3.
If you are like me it still wasn’t showing up. The steps were to first backup the files on your “AirDisk” to some other safe location. Then plug the USB drive into your Mac, open disk utility and format it “Mac OS Journaled” hook it back up to your AEBS. Open finder and browse the AirDisk, then proceed to System Preferences, Time Machine and you should be good to go!

Hope this helps if you have run into any problems like I did. Props to Apple for enable this much desired feature!