I’m one to hold off to the last minute and by chance a few ideas came to mind when I read what others are doing (on pownce). Somehow I am usually good at keeping them so I’m about to give myself a bunch of work to do.

so here it goes

1. Blog more
2. Start a Video Podcast (need some actors)
3. Get back into Yoga
4. Get back into rock climbing
(ever since my sis moved to Seattle I’ve been slacking)
5. record an album with my band

Tags: newyears eve, resolutions

So I finally redesigned my site. Still have some work to do, but was tired of the old design. The navigation is better and I finally unified all the deferent sections so the podcast, blog, and homepage are all the same. I stripped out all of my social web presence, though it will be back at a later time, I just want to make it fit in a little better.

I now have a site that I’m not ashamed of, being that the sites I create for other people are looking better that my personal site. This also leaves me in the position to finally leave my old blogspot blog behind. I might keep posting there since I’m using flock and it would be easy to repost but if I drop of the face of the internet you might want to check my site or add the new rss feed..

Tags: newsite

So I am writting this new post from the comfort of a new browser called Flock. If you are used to Firefox or Mozilla you will be right at home for it is built on top of the same source code though it is a bit more forward thinking. The development team over at flock has built in some nice features into this browser including many social networking tools.

For instance if you login to your Flickr, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, or Twitter account it will ask you if you want to integrate that account into the browser. For the photo and video sharing sites (i.e. flickr, Facebook, & YouTube) the browser has a media bar built in to navigate through the pictures and videos. There is also a person sidebar built in that will display your friend’s updates to twitter, facebook, flickr, and YouTube. de.licio.us bookmarking is also built into the browser so that you can save your bookmarks to the browser and to the de.licio.us web site at the same time.

If you are a blogger then you can take advantage of the blogging feature which brings up a window with an editor similar to what most blogging sites use. You can type in text in the editor section (basic WYSIWYG), fix up your html in the source section, and see what it will look like in the preview section. It also allows editing previous posts making for a quicker experience in getting your job done.

And if you are worried about leaving your favorite Firefox extensions behind you are in luck because most of them will work in Flock.

Overall it is a great browser and I can see there is potential for it to grow. I have switched over fairly successfully in the past few days. It imported all of my cookies, bookmarks, and passwords that I had saved in Firefox though I don’t think that the people sidebar it quite up to snuff when it comes to twitter, as It had a hard time keeping up with tweetr.

Blogged with Flock

So I posted a poem I had written the other day. Today I decided to turn it into a song and use it as my first seesmic video. Now To teach it to my band :-)

Now if you are wondering what seesmic is, it is the video version of twitter. People post short videos (5 min limit) and others respond creating an online conversation. You can also hook seesmic up to twitter so when you post a new video your twitter followers will know. Currently it is in its alpha release so an invite is hard to come by, keep your eyes out for one.

Blogged with Flock

Strings of characters go flying by

A count of 141 they’ll always shy

Seesmic utterz flickrd on a twittergram

Blogposts podcasts and talk of no spam

mySpace and facebook bring home the bacn

thez cheezburgers are de.licio.us if I’m not mistaken

c’mon digg me up my voice must be heard

Screaming at the end of my fingers to the sound of a bird

I’m here I’m there and everywhere else too

Socializing, my tongue I do not talk through

From a phone to the im or in a feed

We communicate at light speed

while I’m pownceing you that must have file

iPhone, PS3, and Xbox lines stretch a mile

I’m flipping through Joost, Netflix, and youTube

Stopping by the Tikibar to drink with the crew

Then to the winelibrary to find a good red

While the Ninja promises I’ll be dead

Hanging around in me.dium with ½ a duo

Logging into root using sudo

I’m checkin on my stats with authority

And googling my ego, brave I must be

All of this to stimulate my mind

Or maybe just to see what I’ll find

Zach Chisholm

Sitting in a starbucks with itunes ads all over the place I am reminded of the last apple event announcing the online store coming to the iPhone & iPod touch. Theoretically I could buy that Marvin Gaye song I’m listening to, but one thing stands in my way … Apple.

They released the update with the music store for the iPhone but I’m not upgrading. Why? Well I’m on another turn of this rollorcoaster ride of being an iPhone owner.

The anticipation of this ride was the best part. We heard rumors for months before hand stocked with patent filings, fake ads on youtube, and the leaked announcement on diggnation.

Then there was the line to get on this ride, people were lifecasting, the news was all over it, and people were calling it the launch of the century.

Of course we early adopters will never forget the $200 price drop & $100 credit.

The next high I got was when I found my way through jailbreak and started installing third party apps. I could now play games, keep track of my checking, and draw on my iPhone.

Now apple has come out with a new update that will kill all those apps if I install it. So I like so many iPhone owners are holding out on the install. Who is the biggest loser in this situation? I say it is apple. Now they won’t have their music store on these phones for impulse buys and they also have a core group of users making awsome apps that make this phone more appealing to potential buyers. Sure people like the photo capabilities and coverflow but I get more ohhs and ahhs with ttr (iPhone Guitar Hero) and sketch (high tech etch-a-sketch).

I would like to think someone at apple will read this and have an epiphany but I’m thinking I have a better chance of mutating into a superhero.

Me.dium has been pushing the boundaries of the web ever since it started its beta release earlier this year. I first found it through the podcast Tiki Bar Tv when Dr. Tiki sent an invitation through the tiki bar facebook group to come and hang out and chat during the next episode premiere. Now they are hosting RockMe which they are dubbing the online mosh pit.

Me.dium is unlike other social networks. It exists in the sidebar of your browser (firefox or internet explorer). There you can see a visualization of where you friends are on the web and chat with any number of users. While you go from site to site a link below your name changes letting people know where you are and likewise you can see what site your friends are on. By clicking on your friends you go to the site they are looking at. It makes sharing new sites more interactive.

This is where Tiki Bar Tv excels because fans of the show can chat with other fans and stars of the show while everybody watches together.

I can see RockMe accomplishing a similar task by music fans sharing their favorite music and videos along with talking to musicians. The whole thing is hosted by Rose Hill Drive and features the Willowz, Gosling, Jeffrey Lewis, the Fiery Furnaces, and last but not least J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. will be showing up on the 22nd. It lasts from Sept. 18 - 24 so go on over to Me.dium and check it out.

Apple anounced a new line of iPods today and a update to the iPhone which adds the iTunes music store to this wonder gadget.

from: engadget

Apple did it to us once when they first announced the iPhone, they left out the youTube button only to announce it at a later time. Now they have announced that they will be adding the iTunes store to the iPhone, but there are still three spots left on the homepage. Will we be seeing a games button there soon? What else could they be plotting to add. It does look out of place, that new little button there on the bottom of the screen, a little lonely.

Will there be the addition of sanctioned third party apps in this void at the bottom of the screen? With the abundance of iPhone hacks out there that prove this can be done, will Apple give in? There is already a hack that allows multiple homepages on the iPhone and one that allows you to scroll this page so the possibilities are endless. It is doubtful that Apple will implement these hacks but they still have a little over three months till Christmas to entice those who haven’t given in already.

I wrote this for the tiki bar tv / me.dium contest http://www.me.dium.com/node/863

With only the light of the full moon I sat on a park bench with my new acquisition and awaited my contact. As I sat there I wondered why was I giving up such an priceless artifact and to who. Was this person worthy of such an item, had my travels been all for naught? I thought of what I had gone through to obtain it, the endless miles I had to walk, the endless hours of research, the awful cocktails I had to drink. This was a truly unique item and I was giving it up for monetary gain, what kind of fool am I?

I’ll bring you up to speed, when I was in the far east studying with a few Tibetan monks I had a vision. Now this was no drug induced hippy vision, this was a vision of enlightenment brought on by a long meditation. In this vision a Tiki came to me. He spoke of a small island that held a Tiki Mug with a unique power. I asked where this island was but he could only say, “Find the one who breathes with another’s breath”. With those words he was gone.

For weeks these words ran trough my head but I could not make light of them. One day I was walking down a corridor towards the main hall, as I had everyday since I came to stay at this monastery. When I came to a small shrine I looked at a statue that stood before me. A large carving of a ancient man stood before me playing a flute. “One who breathes with another’s breath”, that is it. Upon further inspection I looked in the flute and a old scroll was buried deep in it. I pulled it out and to my amazement it was a map. I spook to no one of this and promptly set out on a voyage to this island.

As I sailed to the far south east edge of the Polynesian islands the ocean beat upon the ship as if a force beyond our control wanted to keep me from my destination. The crew took one look at the dormant volcano at the center of the island and refused to set foot on her banks.

So I set out on a trek to the center of the island by myself. When I finally reached the base of the volcano, I stumbled across an iceberg, literally tripping over it as it had melted down to the size of a pebble thus sending me into a crevasse head over heals. When I finally came to a stop I realized that my liquor supply had been smashed in the fall. Covered with booze I quickly tore off my shirt and wrung it into my mouth. To preoccupied with the salvation of my liquor I neglected to heed my surroundings.

The fall had brought me to a cave far below the base of the volcano and after only a few drops of rum had reached my tongue did I notice that a green glow was filling the cave. There before me stood a pillar, atop rested a green tiki mug that was producing the glow.

I ran over to it squeezing various pieces of clothing and gear until I produced a Cocktail called “Cave In”

Ingredients :

- 1 oz amaretto

- 1 oz Cuban rum

- 1 oz peach liqueur

- 1 splash orange juice

- 1 splash cranberry juice

I took one sip and a weird sensation came over me. Proceeding to finish the drink I then gathered my gear, packed the tiki mug safely away in my pack, and made my way back to the ship. As soon as I got there the captain said. “Are you done monkeying around”?

As soon as the words came out of his mouth I began to jump around, swing from branches, and I even threw my feces at the crew members. Then I knew the power of this mug. I had “caved in” to his words. Little did the captain know what power he held at that point, a person with such knowledge could have had me doing anything they pleased. When I came to my senses I went straight to my cabin and locked myself in until the effects wore off.

I tested the mug out on unknowing subjects and every time I did I felt guilty. Without the will to use the mug to my advantage I decided to get rid of it but how?

Then one night in a bar a man approached me, “Bartenders, I vould like to order a some vodka, makes me a screwdriver,” After taking a sip, he turned to me and asked, “You looks familiar, haves I seen you before?”

“I don’t think so,” I replied.

“You haves been to the islands?”

“Islands, what Islands?”

“You have beens to the Polynesian islands.”

“Yes I have, but I don’t think we have met.”

“No, but I believes you might haves something I vant. I talked with a crewmember of a ship you sailed on and they described an item I have beens lookings for, a green Tikis Mug.”

“What do you want with it?” I asked.

“Only to collect, I have the biggest collection of tikis in ze world at the Learnstitute Museum.”

I pondered this offering, if he is truly just a collector the mug would be safe in the museum and not used for ill gotten gains. “You have a deal, Mr…”

“Mr. Ambassador”

Did I sell the Tiki mug to Mr. Ambassador? Does the green mug find its way on to a shelf in the Tiki Bar? Find out next time.

facebook links
Originally uploaded by artifishall.

So While I was posting my last blog post to facebook I noticed a new feature. There are now icons located under the profile picture that take you to where the application is nested on your or your friends profile.

This is a simple but very useful way to get to that wall or pirate application that could be hiding anywhere amongst the explosion of applications that have hit facebook in the past few months. It even highlights the app after you click on it.