Flute Player .net

Chrome for Mac and Linux - it's fast!

2009-12-10T06:39:00.000-08:00

I've been using Chrome for PC since last year and the Chromium project Linux and Mac versions as well. A few days ago, Google released beta versions of both Mac and Linux. I'm noticing a significant boost in speed over Firefox, Safari, Opera and Camino using Chrome. Wish it had a normal status bar as the browser looks somehow cut off to my eyes, but other than that, no complaints. Thanks Google!

Editing hosts file on a Mac

2009-12-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Finder ->
Go ->
Go to Folder... ->
/etc ->
hosts (open with Text Edit) ->
edit file then Save to desktop ->
drag hosts file from desktop to /etc folder and overwrite

SSU Latin Jazz Band, Dec. 3, 7:30PM

2009-12-02T17:07:00.001-08:00

The SSU Latin Jazz Band presents a free concert Thursday, Dec 3, 7:30 p.m. in Warren Auditorium (Ives Hall). Contemporary and classic Latin Jazz compositions from South America, Cuba, Europe and the USA!

Matt Camgros, drums/percussion
Samuel Coble, trumpet
Paul Coker, bass
Scott Decker, guitar
Anthony Denove, guitar
Marc Ikeda, drums/percussion
Dom Mancera, piano
Brendan McGill, drums/percussion
Adam Mick, sax
Zachary Morris, drums/percussion
Marc Rudlin, trombone
Ruth Weingartz, timbales/vocals

--
For more info, contact Jenny Parkinson
Box Office Manager (707) 664-2325
Center for Performing Arts

Campus Map:
http://www.sonoma.edu/university/maps/pdf/ssucampus.pdf

On Upcoming:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2804625/

A Christmas Carol

2009-11-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

Saw the new movie in 3D today - what an incredible animation job. The detail and shades of colors on Jim Carrey's face is worth the admission alone - if you like animation, this is a must see movie!

Cyworld shuts down US service

2009-11-05T06:24:00.001-08:00

I just got an email in my Spam folder from Cyworld about shutting down it's US service. There were a number of typos and broken English in the email (see below), so wasn't sure if the email was legit or not. Apparently, it is.

Thank you to all members with Cyworld
Due to Cyworld shuts down US service, US Cyworld will no longer be able to service.
We sincerely apologize for shutting down the service with unavoidable reason.
Before US cyworld close the service, you will continue to access to US cyworld contents but not
purchase items. Also, you will not use your acorns.
If you have unused acorns, you will be given a full refund for paid acorns only.

With the rise/dominance of Facebook in the US, can't say I'm surprised that Cyworld would call it quits here. In September of 2006, I opened up a free Cyworld account after visiting their kiosk and talking with their reps at the Power to the Peaceful Festival concert in San Francisco. However, that's as far as it went for me - I just didn't get Cyworld.

http://www.powertothepeaceful.org/
http://us.cyworld.com/
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/27/technology/cyworld0727.biz2/index.htm

Two great new books from Sher Music!

2009-11-04T07:33:00.000-08:00

Foundation Exercises for Bass by Chuck Sher

Jazz Guitar Voicings: Drop 2 by Randy Vincent

Ubuntu, back to 8.10

2009-11-03T01:28:00.000-08:00

Upgraded to 9.10 on both of my Ubuntu machines. Unfortunately, 9.10 killed the wireless for the old Pentium 3 box, so it's back to 8.10 on that box. :-(

Ubuntu 9.10 - Firefox freezes, sleeps but won't wake up

2009-10-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 last night. Right away, Firefox 3.5 locked up (thankfully, Chrome seems stable). Left the computer alone for awhile and it went into sleep mode, didn't wake up. Restart. Aside from that, 9.10 looks nice!

UPDATE 11/5/09
Inspite of several minor updates from Canonical, 9.10 remains unstable. It's locking up more frequently and doing so whether or not I'm in Firefox. Something's messed up.

UPDATE 11/12/09
A bunch more updates from Canonical - NOW things seem a lot more stable, yay.

Mozart's Musical Diary - online!

2009-10-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

The British Museum has a virtual copy of Mozart's Musical Diary and it's fantastic!

Mozart's Thematic Catalogue

This manuscript is Mozart's record of his compositions in the last seven years of his life, and thus is a uniquely important document.

During this period, from February 1784 until December 1791, he composed many of his best-known works, including his five mature operas, several of his most beautiful piano sonatas, and his last three great symphonies, as well as several famous lesser works. It was a turbulent time of his life, with financial crises, family tragedy, and his ongoing unsuccessful search for a permanent court position.

Mozart organised the entries in the catalogue in the order in which they were completed. On the left-hand page he entered five compositions, each with its date, title, and often its instrumentation. He sometimes added further information such as the name of the singer, where it was composed, or who had commissioned the piece. He divided the right-hand page into five pairs of staves on which he wrote the opening bars of each work.

According to the description on the front cover, Mozart planned to include all his compositions, but there are a few minor omissions. Intriguingly, there are also entries in the catalogue for a number of works that have since been lost.

Mozart made his last entry in the catalogue just three weeks before his early death in December 1791. His last great work, a requiem, was not entered as it remained unfinished at his death.

British Library, Zweig MS 63

Check it out!
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/virtualbooks/index.html#
(I recommend using the SilverLight plugin)

SSU Latin Jazz Band - Thursday!

2009-10-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

SSU Latin Jazz Band
Thursday October 15, 2009 at 7:30pm
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park

The SSU Latin Jazz Band presents a free concert Thursday, October 15th, 7:30 p.m. in Warren Auditorium (Ives Hall). Contemporary and classic latin jazz compositions from South America, Cuba, Europe and the USA!

Matt Camgros, drums/percussion
Samuel Coble, trumpet
Paul Coker, bass
Scott Decker, guitar
Anthony Denove, guitar
Marc Ikeda, drums/percussion
Dom Mancera, piano
Brendan McGill, drums/percussion
Adam Mick, sax
Zachary Morris, drums/percussion
Marc Rudlin, trombone
Ruth Weingartz, timbales/vocals

Special Guest Artist:
Doug Leibinger, trombone

--
For more info, contact Jenny Parkinson
Box Office Manager (707) 664-2325
Center for Performing Arts

Campus Map:
http://www.sonoma.edu/university/maps/pdf/ssucampus.pdf

On Upcoming:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2804623/

Jeffrey Kahane with Santa Rosa Symphony tonight!

2009-10-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate to be able to catch Jeffrey Kahane with the Santa Rosa Symphony yesterday playing the "Rach 3," Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. I've seen Jeff play some amazing piano over the years (Beethoven Piano Concertos, Chopin), but I think yesterday's performance was probably the most phenomenal display of pianism I've ever seen from him. Way to go Jeff!

iPhone - Different email alert colors?

2009-10-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

I recently added another email account to my iPhone. However, the email alerts are Red, regardless of what account has unread email. In Yahoo! Mail, I can assign different colors to different email accounts. This visual cue makes it easy to tell which account has mail. Is there any way to have more than one email alert color on the iPhone?

An iPhone app with clave?

2009-10-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

I looked for a metronome app for the iPhone that has 2-3/3-2 Son Clave and Rumba Clave, but couldn't find any - so I ended making my own using the Visual Metronome app ($1.99). Works OK (that is, once I figured out how to program the thing!). Any other metronome apps with clave?

Thanks!

Stradivarius - how much did they cost back then?

2009-10-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Stradivarius violins today can sell in the millions of dollars, but how much did Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) originally sell them for? It's my understanding he only sold his violins to the nobility (Princes, Dukes, Bishops et al), probably the main reason that some 600+ instruments still survive today. However, it's unclear to me just how much they actually cost. Were they astronomically expensive or just expensive? I've asked several professional violinists this question and nobody seems to know. So I'm turning the question over to the Web. Anybody know?

UPDATE 10/9/09
Looks like I *may* have found the answer in an old newspaper on the Library of Congress site -- from The Amador Ledger, December 21, 1900

Costly Violins
The current value of Stradivarius violins in London is said to range from £80 to £800. In Stradivarius' own time one Cervetto of London received a consignment of the master's instruments which he was commissioned to sell for £4 apiece. But he was obliged to send them back, as no Englishman at that time would buy them at any such figure. Stradivarius himself is said to have asked a price of 4 louis d'or for each of his violins.

"Stradivarius himself is said to have asked a price of 4 louis d'or for each of his violins."

4 louis d'or? According to Encylopedia Britannica, "They had a value of 20 francs." So then, apparently the equivalent of 80 francs is what Stradavari sold his violins for - and a franc could buy what circa 1700 again?? ;-)

Turning off Mentions in Twitterific iPhone app

2009-09-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ged at Iconfactory, I can once again use the Twitterific iPhone app without it being overrun with mentions spam.

You can turn off mentions in your account settings but this will turn off ALL @replies directed at you entirely. If this is something you want to do, head to
Sources > Edit > Account Name > Mentions > OFF.

Cell phone reception at 2000+ feet

2009-08-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

Coming into SFO today, my iPhone alerted me to a new voicemail (I'd been listening to music during the flight and had the phone in my pocket when I felt it vibrate). What was odd was we were at least a couple of thousand feet high and well over the bay when this happened! In disbelief, I looked at my iPhone. Not only did I have a new voicemail but the 3G signal was very strong too, so obviously plenty of power coming from the AT&T towers. Figures... I get lousy reception at best in Sebastopol but try calling me when I'm in a jet some 2000+ feet over San Francisco Bay, no problem. :-|

myLite vs Mail

2009-08-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

Like millions of others, I downloaded the myLite iPhone app. For the few times I've used it, the iPhone-as-flashlight has worked OK. However, since this is not an app I tend to use very much, it isn't on my front page - nor is it on the second. As such, when I need the flashlight I've got to first find the app and then wait for it to boot. Enter Mail.

By default, the Mail app is on the front page (I couldn't move it off the front page if I wanted as it's part of the iPhone layout) and when launched (at least to my eyes), emits a comparable amount of light to the myLite app (plus, it boots a lot faster too).

Perl - adding "nofollow" to links

2009-07-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Change this
<a href="http://example.com">http://example.com</a>

To this
<a href="http://example.com" rel="nofollow">http://example.com</a>

$link =~ s/(<a href=\"http)([^\"]*\")/$1$2 rel="nofollow"/gsmi;

How to edit Google iPhone app

2009-06-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

Don't like the order of Google Apps? Rearrange them (for example, I like Reader on top).

Launch Google app ->
Edit (top right corner) ->
Drag the three stacked horizontal lines on the right to sort ->
Done

Why doesn't the iPod Touch have a camera?

2009-06-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

So what's the reasoning Apple? Is it that putting a camera on the Touch would 'somehow' cannibalize sales of the iPhone? Seriously, what gives?

Buying the $99 iPhone 3G with no contract instead of the iPod Touch - how much would it cost?

2009-06-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

The 8G iPod Touch and the 8G iPhone are very similar except for the phone and camera (which the iPhone has, and the Touch doesn't). Now that Apple is selling the 8G iPhone 3G for $99 (with AT&T two-year contract), I wondered just how much more it would cost to get it over the 8G iPod touch if I tried to buy it without a contract. The answer? $499 (plus tax).

iPhone - Copy and Paste to phpMyAdmin?

2009-06-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'd hoped that the new iPhone 3.0 software with Copy and Paste would allow me to be able to work with phpMyAdmin, but so far I can't get it to :-(
Anybody know why iPhone Paste doesn't work in phpMyAdmin?
Thanks!

UPDATE 8/6/09
Found another MySQL manager, called Adminer, which the iPhone 'Copy & Paste' does work with, yay! However, timestamps don't update automatically like in phpMyAdmin, so if you have a row that has a timestamp you might need to select 'now' from the drop down - other than that, works great!

'A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist' on serious sale on Amazon.uk!

2009-06-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to David Oliver on flutenet, I got tipped off to Susan Maclagan's new book 'A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist' on sale on Amazon.uk for 1/50th of the price!

I ordered mine yesterday for £1.00!
With shipping to the USA, total came to $13.06
Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810867117/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

UPDATE 8/27/09
oh well...

Dear Customer,

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.

We regret to inform you that we have been unable to obtain the following item:

Susan J. Maclagan "A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist"

We apologise for the length of time it has taken us to reach this conclusion. Until recently, we had still hoped to obtain this item for you.

This item has now been cancelled from your order and we can confirm that you have not been charged for it.

We are no longer able to offer this item for sale. Our supplier has informed us that this item has been discontinued and is no longer available.

Please accept our apologies for any disappointment or inconvenience caused.

UPDATE 9/4/09
Order Restored! :-)

Your order ### (received June 22, 2009)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Amazon.co.uk items (Sold by Amazon EU S.a.r.L.):

1 A Dictionary for the Moder... £1.00 1 £1.00

Shipped via Royal Mail

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Subtotal: £1.00
Shipping and handling: £0.00

Total: £1.00

This completes your order.

UPDATE 9/10/09
Got it!
Total came to $1.68
Book looks great! :-)

Twitterfeed?

2009-06-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

I'm using Twitterfeed to post RSS feeds, but the updates are VERY far apart - days, even weeks! Does anybody know if Twitter has/or will be offering a direct way to do this with reliable updates rather than having to use a third-party like Twitterfeed just to import RSS?

Thanks!

Yahoo! Mobile Mail app - where's the checkboxes?

2009-06-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

I really like the Yahoo! Mail app, because now (finally!) I can read emails in any folder at the same easy-to-read full size font like the iPhone's native Inbox has. But where's the checkboxes like in the regular Yahoo! Mail? Unless it's tucked away somewhere I haven't seen, there doesn't seem to be a way to select emails using checkboxes (Delete, Spam etc.) in the Yahoo! Mail app.

UPDATE 7/30/09
Yahoo! has added the boxes, yay. However, I don't see a 'Check All' option to be able to do bulk moves like in the regular Yahoo! Mail. Hopefully, they'll add that next.