Pandora and Mac

Been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I might share a tip with my Mac using, Pandora loving friends.

It took me a while to catch on to the Pandora craze, but now that I have, I'm a huge fan. While I've never actually hit my free Pandora limit, I've come awfully close pretty much every month. I've been tempted on a number of occasions to become a paid member for two reasons: the desktop app, and the higher quality streaming. On occasion, I listen to Pandora on my home stereo system, so I could certainly benefit from the enhanced audio quality, and I hate having a browser tab dedicated to Pandora (I'm kind of anal retentive about having a clean desktop).

While I don't have a work around for the higher quality music, I do have one for the desktop app, and I think it actually one ups the mac integration factor of the Pandora developed one.

If you are running a Leopard or Snow Leopard, open Safari and use your "webclip" feature on your Pandora page.

If you take a look at the screen capture above, you'll notice the pair of scissors that have a dotted box running through them. This is what I'm talking about. If it's not already in your browser bar, you may need to ctrl-click and and select customize toolbar to add it.

Now, navigate to the Pandora page.

Once there, you'll simply want to click on the webclip button discussed above. Once you have, mouse over the player portion of your Pandora page so it's highlighted as in the image below.

Then click once and move to the Add button on the purple toolbar. When you do, it should open Dashboard with a clip of Pandora. Like so:

If you mouse down to the lower right corner, a little "i" will appear and you can click it to open up the options for the clip. Uncheck "Only Play Audio in Dashboard" and you're all set for Pandora to play in the background. This is especially useful if you have dashboard assigned to a key on the keyboard so you can pop in and out of it at will. It takes up no space on the desktop, doesn't require a subscription fee and provides all of the features of the web based version of Pandora without having to keep a window or tab reserved for it.

When I first thought of this it was a "well, duh" sort of moment.

Tradition!!!

My wife and I had the great pleasure of seeing Fiddler on the Roof early last week. We make it a point to see several shows a year, and as this is Topol's farewell tour, we figured we needed to see a stage and film legend in the role he is most well known for. Needless to say, it was wonderful. Although the man is in his 70's, his stage presence and voice were matchlessly powerful. We'll get back to the show in a minute.

On Sunday, the sermon centered around what we base our Faith on. Brian talked about basing our faith on a relationship with God, not on the comfort of religion or any number of other things. As I was sitting there, thinking over what Brian said, a couple of thoughts from the production mingled with the ideas from the sermon.

Tevye, the one whos eyes we experience all the events of the show through, says in the first scene of the show that, "Here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance?" With that he exclaims one word, "Tradition!" The first song of the show explains the relationships in the town, and Tevye explains that through their traditions, everyone in the town knows "who they are, and what God expects of them."

The interesting thing is, throughout the play, Tevye displays something far greater as his source of identity. As each scene unfolds, we see Tevye's tradition challenged from within his own family, and in what could be identity shattering moments, Tevye turns (as he does so often in the play) and speaks to God. It's much like I imagine Abraham might have talked to God, and much the way I wish I could talk to him. As the traditions of Tevye's life are challenged, he finds his identity in the relationship he has with his maker.

While I'm not entirely sure this was the intended message of the show (I've seen it a million times and I never came away with this before), I find it a great reminder of the power of prayer.

Of Big Cats

So, I never thought I'd be "that guy". You know, the one that's lined up outside of a store for a piece of software (and I'm not talking about video games). I'll admit, I've been the first person in line for a couple of movies, and I even waited for 10 minutes outside of GameCrazy when the Wii and DS launched, respectively. However, I never thought I'd be such a big nerd that I'd actually wait outside of a store for a piece of software.

Today marked the launch of Snow Leopard, which Apple has Dubbed "The world's most advanced operating system. Finely tuned." I became "that guy". I was not only waiting for Snow Leopard this morning, I was the first one to the store. Was it worth it? Well, early on I'll say yes.

The install was quick (for an operating system) and painless. The installer estimated 45 minutes, and from the time I hit install to the time I was back to the desktop for the first time it took just over 40 minutes. Before installing, Leopard was reporting 34.23 GB of available HDD space. After installing Snow Leopard is reporting 46.73 GB available. It's never a bad thing to regain 12 and a half gigs of space (Okay, it's bad if you accidentally delete a video file that you need to give to a customer or your picture folder and you haven't backed up your files, but then, shame on you).

As for performance, I've seen a dramatic change in the time it takes to boot my system (from a over a minute down to 45 seconds), better load times for my applications (Aperture loaded after only once 3 bounces in the dock, Final Cut opens in what appears to be about half the time), finder seems to get my results just a hair faster. Overall, I can say that I notice the difference in day to day work.

There's not a lot in the way of user interface changes and major new features, but what changes there are are more then welcome. I'll get into those (and their usefulness) when I've got a couple more days to play around with them.

So, day one, is it worth the $29.00 point of entry? By all means, yes. Would I have picked it up day one if it were $129? Again, give me a few days and I'll make the verdict.

Sony's New PlayStation 3 Ad Campaign

So, you remember back when the PlayStation 3 launched and Sony put out a bunch of really creepy adds that told you nothing about the system? No? Okay, let me refresh your memory:

Okay, so now that I've reopened old wounds, you remember why you don't remember it, right?

So, everyone knows that Sony recently released the new PS3 Slim, and along with a significant price drop, they've also started a new add campaign. The first of these adds is pretty cool. It actually tells you something worthwhile about the console, namely, the new price point. And it's funny:

And it only took three years to decide to actually advertise the system in a manner that works. Even better, the second video tells us about the internet/networking capabilities (don't laugh Xbox 360 fans):

While I don't find the second one quite as funny as the first, it still manages to get my attention without invoking memories of some nonexistent Chucky/Exorcist spinoff.

Well done, Sony.

Why?

Why a blog? Well, everyone else has a blog, and I don't feel like attaching this to my website (www.dunningvideophoto.com). That might just seem a bit tacky from a business perspective.

In the past, while I was still preaching for the Southeast Church of Christ, I had a blog where I shared thoughts on life from a Christian perspective, commented on positive and negative trends within the Christian community, talked about life as a minister, and generally discussed Church related matters. I don't think I'll be doing that here. Which is not to say I wont at some point, but it's certainly not my intention.

So, what will I be doing? Discussing hobbies, reading I'm doing, iPod Touch/iPhone applications that I download, TV shows I'm watching, and other mundanity that people hate blogs because of. Yeah, I know, usually someone's first blog is about this type of stuff and it's their second blog that has a general focus. Hopefully in the next few months I'll figure out what I'm going to focus on, but in the mean time I'll treat this like the self indulgent, self important, self gratifying online journal that my generation has become known for.