thrice

Horace Parlan-On the Spur of the Moment

Epica-Design Your Universe

Is haggis a bizzare food? I've also had sea urchin right off the beach. We went to Greece when I was a kid and my dad (from Greece) pulled a spiky black urchin out of the water, cracked it open and offered a pinkish goo to my brother and I. Other than that, nothing too exotic.

A lot of the people I know with Kindles don't seem to be the target market for an Apple tablet. Anything Apple puts out will probably have a standard display (unless there's a killer touch enabled color e-Ink display out there). A device with that kind of display will never be able to compete with the Kindle battery-wise. I don't think the Kindle is the most important part of Amazon's eBook effort. I think it's a device that they are using to leverage their ebook marketplace. Amazon is already on mobile phones with their Kindle app that syncs across your devices (phone and Kindle). While the Kindle is a great device for reading books, it can't handle color or larger media (newspapers and magazines well). While I have no doubt that Apple has some sort of plan for those sorts of media, I don't think their tablet will trounce the Kindle.... yet. But beyond all of this, it seems like the Kindle and other devices that are trying to get newspapers and magazines on them and faithfully display their content are missing the boat. Instead of trying to put old wine in new bottles, it seems like they could take this time to re-imagine themselves and create some new form of media with a new format that's based on these sorts of devices. Instead they're trying to recreate an old model on something that's far more robust and capable. One thing is for sure, whatever Apple is planning, if it targets newspapers and magazines, it might just be the spark that really kindles the fire.

In case this sort of thing matters to anyone: Is Your Kindle Spying On You? (Yes.) - Kindle - Gizmodo

The Swell Season- self-titled (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)

One pack of Huggies "Little Snugglers" diapers.

On a completely unrelated note, my newborn daughter will be offering a cable-cooking service via Rockhopper soon. We even got her a cable cooker for Christmas:

It's become a little routine for me to play that in the car on the way home from picking Abi up from daycare. I think it helps settle her in the car. She's also likes Kate Rusby.

The future single ended Beta 22 amps (3-channel active ground) will be priced around $1800-$2000 depending on specs. The balanced amp posted on the site right now is a bit negotiable since it's a current customer that is looking to sell the amp. I've posted it on my site to help them sell the amp. Anyone interested in it can contact me and get an initial quote and contact information for the seller. Stock price for the Balanced Beta 22 with 2 Sigma 22 PS is $2500. That includes one Balanced input/output, two Single-ended inputs /outputs. So that's the ballpark.

Bill Evans-At Shelly's Manne-Hole

Hey folks, It's been a bit quiet at Rockhopper Audio. I've been working hard to finally clear out the build que and get to pre-builds only. Well that time is here. Rockhopper Audio I've got a new site and two great balanced amps for sale right now. A balanced M3 and a balanced Beta 22. There are 10 single-ended Beta 22 amps on the way starting in January as well. Cheers, Stephen (thrice)

x2 handbrake

Drobo 4-Bay FW800/USB HDD Storage Array $300 - dealmac.com Good Drobo deal.

I'm not sure. I'm a pretty heavy iPhone user at work so I have a charger on my desk... I use the iPhone for Omnifocus, news, music, video at lunch....etc. This did add to the battery drain, but it's hard for me to say how much. There is a slider in the application that allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the app. So you have have it look for the iPhone less often thus diminishing the impact on iPhone battery life.

I'm digging the Ran Blake album right now... very good.

Not sure if this has been posted: Welcome to The M.H.A. Airlock. It's an application (PrefPane app really) that allows you to pair your iPhone with your Mac via Bluetooth. Then it can lock the screen on your Mac when you're out of range and unlock the screen when you and your iPhone are back in range. Tried it out today at the office and it works!

No issues here either, but it was at a store as well.

64GB iPhone and 128GB iPod Touch Possible in 1st Quarter 2010? - Mac Rumors moar GB please.

Interesting new app from AT&T: AT&T Releases “Mark the Spot” iPhone App for Network Quality Feedback | The iPhone Blog

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/technology/companies/05apple.html?_r=1 Apple acquires LaLa. I haven't used the service (just heard about it) but the acquisition points to some interesting possibilities.

Maybe you already know about this, but iFixit has great guides for opening and replacing Mac products: iPod 5th Generation (Video - iFixit)

I'll let you know in a week or so.

Looks like the RedEye Universal Remote for iPhone/iPod Touch system went on sale today: https://thinkflood.com/buy/products/redeye/

Yeah, I bet the market for an integrated speaker amp was much larger than the headphone amp market. I wonder if it's a response to Headroom's computer desktop system (sans headphone amp of course)? Or more generally, an acknowledgement of the growing number of audiophiles that might want a higher quality speaker system at their computer.