Death to IE6

The web company I work for finally gave the development axe to Internet Explorer 6, which was released in 2001. Surprisingly some people have not upgraded to the current version, which is 8, and which is FREE. Developing for IE6 really slows and limits a designer/developer, since IE6 cannot easily do many of the things current browsers do, and is not compliant with current standards.

Booting IE6 opens a new world of creative possibilities for the web designer, like a rock band not having to write songs on ukeleles, or an oil painter not having to use Crayola anymore, or an author not having to write for stupid people.

The Nature of History at Wikipedia

Here today...

I spend time wandering around Wikipedia, like most people who take a virtual break from computer work. And I occasionally hit the pages that pertain to people I'm affiliated with. I was a bit surprised this time, when I hit the Positron Records page, and saw it was slated for deletion due to unreliability and not being noteworthy. I've noticed this happen to a lot of pages I look at on Wikipedia, but Positron Records seemed like a pretty safe article for years.

This makes me question the historical value of Wikipedia. Something can be noteworthy for years, but as its popularity falls off  and people forget about it, and articles and other references that were written about it disappear as other websites go down and print publications are forgotten, the "editors" that troll Wikipedia are quick to, um, edit. This circumstance indicates to me that Wikipedia is strongly subject to the bias of trends and culture. Rather than an accurate record of our shared history, Wikipedia will be an edited, deleted, and rewritten history. The same strength of having all people able to edit the wiki is the weakness that will bring out that bias.

I suppose it can be argued that truly noteworthy events, places, and people will stand the test of time. And maybe our cultural memory works like our own brain, having a short term and a long term, and needs to forget some things after a while, to make room for new memories.

end of 2009, new in 2010

The holidays, funerals, and the flu are over for me finally. The holidays always seem like a big pause in life to me. Like holding your breath for one out of every twelve minutes.

Beatserv did well in December with Bombs and Bits, and the free pack and sale. We'll be doing more of those quick, inexpensive sound libraries like BnB, but I think we'll continue with some more massive beat packs as well. Sometimes people attribute value to a product based on how it's priced, so cheap isn't always good.

Number Nine

I spent a couple weekends recording my friend's band, and then a week or so mixing it. The band still has to review the mixes and we'll make changes I'm sure, but the tracks have turned out good so far. I learned a hella lot about engineering and producing for someone else's band. Stuff like the producer also has to babysit everybody, er, I mean conduct and work everybody like an orchestra. And how to mic a mandolin. Additionally, we recorded a couple Beatles tunes, so I could closely compare what we were doing with what the Beatles did (we did things differently).

I started writing new songs this week. Finished sketching one out already, lyric, melody and structure. Writing a good song is a better high than any drugs, you know.

I've also been listening to a lot of CDs this week for some reason. I have this urge to go out and acquire more now.