May 2009

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Create a wireless network in your hotel room using AirportExpress

May 25, 2009 in tech by George | 49 comments

I spend more time than I’d like in hotel rooms, and while most have wifi access, often the wifi signal is weak; I’m thus forced to tether myself to some four-foot Ethernet cable. Also, between LaLa and Pandora, I have most of my music in the cloud, so the set up I want — one where I can stream said music to some speakers connected to AirportExpress — really does require an in-room network.

Apple represents this feature as one of the big selling points of the AirportExpress. However, unlike most Apple developed functionality, setting up an in-room network doesn’t “just work.” It’s hard to really blame Apple on this. I’m certain that if the other items along the critical path were Apple made it would just work. Alas.

Just because it’s not exactly plug and play, doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Unfortunately, the process (based upon my research) isn’t well documented.

Here’s the document:

1. Start by doing a hard reset on your AirportExpress. Do this by pushing and holding the reset button in while plugging the AE into the wall. Keep holding it until the yellow light blinks fast (about 30 seconds).

2. Plug the Ethernet cable into your laptop. Pay for whatever jive ass fee you need to in order to get online.

3. Unplug the Ethernet from the laptop, and plug it into the AE.

4. Open Airport Utility. It will find your AE (it’ll be identified by a string of letters and numbers). Go through the process to name the AE and give it password protection.

5. Click the “manual” set up tab. Then – at the top – click the Internet tab.

6. Select the following: Connect using: “Ethernet”; Configure IPv4 to “Using DHCP”; Here’s the key: Set Connection Sharing to “Off (Bridge Mode).”

Number 6, above, and really the bolded section is the vital part.

I hope this helps some of you road warriors.

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Why I bought Pandora One

May 23, 2009 in innovation, music, tech by George | 24 comments

I twizzizzled out the other day that I had bought Pandora one:

I’ve gotten a lot of questions as to what I like/don’t like/why I took the plunge and bought etc.

As I can’t – sadly – sum it up in 140 characters, here’s my rationale:

1. I was never that keen on Pandora – seemed like a novelty, and not deep enough for someone with as varied and erudite taste in music as mine (I keed, I keed). However, I found that by adding songs to the stations I created (rather than using artists alone to define the station’s parameters) it vastly broadened the spectrum.

2. The iPhone app, when combined with a direct connection into my car, makes for excellent “radio.” (As does the Wolfgang’s Vault iPhone app, by the way).

3. The integration into Boxee, made it accessible via my AppleTV.

4. The integration into my blu-ray DVD player made it accessible that way.

5. the release of the Squeezebox Boom
made it easy enough for my wife to use.

6. The Adobe Air powered “One” Service is REALLY nice. between the “growl“-like floating alerts, and the simple clean interface – it “just works.”

7. The price falls – in economic terms – into the category of “the importance of being unimportant.” While it’s nice not to have the ads, and the hour time out, I wouldn’t have paid for this if the price had been north of $50. At $36, that’s not even a crappy bottle of wine. For $50 I can get a decent bottle of wine.

So, as you can see from above, the main things that caused me to pull the trigger were the depth of music, and the integration into other things into my life.

This is an important point, and one I’ll blog about in more detail soon (I know, everyone’s on the edge of their Che’s Lounge).

Basically, what seems to be eluding people – be they those who produce musical content, film content, newspaper content, book content, or – really any other kind of content – is that the issue you have to contend with isn’t a content issue (of course, you’re content must be awesome or why bother – but everyone thinks their content is awesome), it’s a distribution issue.

The labels were the first to not learn this; had they more rapidly embraced new means of getting their content from creator/content holder to content user, life would have been much more bearable for them. Same deal, of course, for TV, movies, newspapers, etc.

Guess who’s next? Education. If colleges, etc. don’t start understanding that while they may very well be great content sources, if they need to grasp that those who will use their content don’t want to get it the same way Plutarch got his content, they’re cooked.

In any case, Pandora – via its myriad integration techniques – allows for the seamless distribution of its content into my life. That’s ultimately why I bought.

Some images of my Pandora One in action:

Now, what I want: The ability to link my Stitcher podcasts into Pandora. If I could do this, and have a news/Onion podcast come up every hour or so on Pandora…well, goodbye terr radio.

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The Death of Flip

May 21, 2009 in marketing, tech by George | 4 comments

Great (as always) post by John Gruber on the upcoming iPhone release (he’s nearly always right). Beyond the details, this particular passage relating to the Flip camera is worth taking note of:

The Flip succeeded in the same way the DVD player succeeded. It jumped the life cycle adoption chasm by improving people’s lives, while not forcing them to learn new skills (more on this, and its relationship to music: HERE).

Of course, the iPod/iPhone crossed the chasm the only other way any product or service can: it improved people’s lives by a factor of ten, even while forcing them to learn new skills.

Now, however, by achieving dominance in the sector, and – thus – having a customer base who has acquired the skills, Apple can start hopping chasms like mad. The first being the addition of the video camera that Mr. Gruber references above.

This is bad news for Flip.

Just as the still camera in the iPhone eliminated the need for people to carry a second camera for casual pictures, the video function will do the same.

We own several Flip cameras currently, and I can pretty much guarantee that once the new iPhone with the video function is released, our Flips will be relegated to the same junk box where our other still cameras and video cameras have gone to die (it’s perched in the basement upon – not kidding – a VHS player).

As an aside, Flip could have at least forestalled their demise by not having such an utter crap UI for their video management tool. Of course, Apple has that covered pretty well.

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“Artists cannot market” is complete crap

May 9, 2009 in Uncategorized by George | 8 comments

Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid.com and the soon-to-be-published Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity tells it like it is in a recent interview:

“Artists cannot market” is complete crap. Warhol was GREAT at marketing. As was Picasso and countless other “Blue Chips”. Of course, they’d often take the “anti-marketing” stance as a form of marketing themselves. And their patrons lapped it up.

The way artists market themselves is by having a great story, by having a “Myth”. Telling anecdotal stories about Warhol, Pollack, Basquiat, Van Gogh is both (A) fun and (B) has a mythical dimension… if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have had movies made about them. The art feeds the myth. The myth feeds the art.

The worst thing an artist can do is see marketing as “The Other”, i.e. something outside of themselves. It’s not.

I’m the proud owner of, “The Bluetrain,” one Mr. MacLeod’s prints:

(Gotta get that booger hung and framed; get your own at Mr. MacLeod’s Gallery.)

I highly recommend you read the whole interview. A lot of it aligns with my recent rant during the Artists House live webcast, where I implored those watching not to wait around for the “Industry” or “Hand of God” to come pluck you out of anonymity (FF to about 10 minutes in for said rant).

While Mr. MacLeod is speaking about visual art, methinks it applies to music too:

Rich patrons are nice, but… (A) there aren’t too many of them and (B), “Get in line, Dude”. It’s not like you’re the only one who thought of that business model. New York and London are FULL of young, aspiring hopefuls, just waiting for Charles Saatchi or some celebrity to come along, “discover” them, and make their Hollywood Ending a reality.

And as statistically unlikely the Hollywood Ending may be, even if your plan works, it can still come back and bite you in the ass. A friend of a friend, an artist, sold a sizable chunk of her work to Charles Saatchi a couple of years ago. She thought she was set for life. Then Mr Saatchi went ahead and sold it all back a year later. Her prices plummeted. In one fell swoop, Saatchi’s action had pretty much marked her forehead with an “X” for life. Nice try, Ma’am, but… Piss off. She was very bitter about it.

As Hugh would say, “Rock On!”

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Just What Time it Is

May 7, 2009 in Uncategorized by George | 5 comments

We inch closer. Something’s going on, and it’s starting to emerge. I’ve been prattling on about it for eons, but we’re starting – just starting – to see a big important shift in the music business that will move us closer to a workable system.

What?

Yeah: labels, content holders, etc. are starting to realize that it makes sense to sell their content from everywhere, rather than limit it to a few online retailers (iTunes, Amazonmp3, etc.).

This is spurred on somewhat by the ability to reduce transaction costs.

More, however, by a growing psychological understanding (finally) of how the Internet works.

Smart ones are (finally) realizing, you can’t create a community; they already exist. All you can do is identify them, and put your crap in front of them, and then – in the words of this dude – provide elegant organization.

All of a sudden, those who have given people a reason to show up — because they’re a trusted source/a filter — become real powerful.

Not there (quite) yet, but soon come.

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