What’s so fun about YouTube are the old school videos that get uploaded. I went looking for 90’s era techno tracks from BG The Prince of Rap and Brooklyn Bounce from the early 2000’s. Before you roll your eyes take one look at your playlists of crap before you throw stones.

Example: Brooklyn Bounce’s Bring it Back. You can’t buy this song anywhere let alone the video. I found it on YouTube, saved it my favorites, and now it’s gone. Forever pulled from their massive hard drives due to a TOS violation.

I understand fully about copyrights and the DMCA. What I don’t get is the music industry’s attitude of “lock it up so no one can get it.” As a consumer I can’t buy Bring It Back nor can I enjoy it for free on YouTube. I’m certain the stupid video played ad naseum on some music channel back in the day (free to the viewer I might add) but today? Nope.

Options? Rip the video from YouTube and save it, forever, locally. It’s as if the music industry encourages piracy by withholding content. TubeSock, you are my friend.

Now that we’re in our new digs I’ve started exploring the neighborhood. Down the street to Tomboy’s Famous Chiliburgers I went. Adoring their walls are restaurant reviews, the first which dates to 1984 when the joint was run by friendly New Yorkers who (obsessively quoted by the author) say “caw-fee” to the locals. Judging by the clerk’s name on my receipt I’m certain the New Yorkers have fled for greener pastures.

I took notice of the wallpaper all around me. Something from the 70s, maybe early 80s, with a silvery reflection and wide vertical bars with interspersed verticals of complementary colors. The wallpaper was old…ugly…the equivalent of shag were it carpeting.

It got me thinking of our home’s innards that hint to its age. Metal stair railings. Hideous ceiling fans and blinds. Dark brown kitchen cabinetry backed with wood paneling from a by-gone age. Fortunately every wall is painted in light or pleasing colors with no wallpaper to speak of. Oh wait…crap. The guest bathroom has wallpaper, dare I say it, almost the same as Tomboy’s.

Day in, day out we’re busy working, solving problems, raising children, and doing whatever. Suddenly a year goes by. Then two, five, and ten. How much exactly?

Imagine your life as a passenger train hurling down the tracks at breakneck speed. Are you the engineer or the passenger? One is responsible for where it goes and maintaining it for safe passage. The other is simply along for the ride staring idly at the passing landscape.

The next time you’re wondering just how much time has passed (and if you’re the engineer or passenger) take a look at your walls. If the same crazy paper is staring back at you I think you’ll know the answer.

I (well, we) bought a rental property a few years ago. The process was a piece of cake really. Our realtor took the bull by the horns and charged on through. Everything was handled, gotchas caught, tell us where to sign, done.

Monday we close on a townhouse and the experience has been very different. Rather than tirade about the details here’s a summary of what I learned:

• Don’t use a mentor-less novice realtor: they mean well but don’t know the details that make you pull out your hair. Even if they “partner” with a seasoned realtor, think twice.
• Get a safety inspection performed very quickly after the seller accepts your offer: if you, the buyer, are crunched for time you lose negotiation power.
• Have ready cash reserves: at every corner you need to spend money you didn’t expect (inspections, buying down points, repairs the seller won’t); how much additional to your deposit/down payment? Thousands.
• Be ready to walk away: depending on your market the seller may shrug off significant repairs they caused. Informing your agent, lender, and escrow officer that you’re considering bailing out really gets things moving.

In all, it’s been more difficult to buy in California than it was Dallas. Perhaps it’s the difference between a Buyers Market and a Sort-of Buyers Market and the expertise of the parties involved.

Whatever the case, your home-buying knowledge, ability to make (and keep) a plan, and intuition (gut feeling) wil keep the ship on course.

It’s been about two months since I last wrote about Spodtronic. A recent email from Keith prompted me to see what’s new with Spodtronic and give my two cents.

Keith mentioned Spodtronic is adding live events to their program line-up but I couldn’t find any reference to a press release. (Standard disclaimer: the web is a big place and I didn’t spend more than five minutes looking.) Tuning your mobile into live events, normally reserved for desktop platforms via Windows Media or Real, is an excellent extension of the Spodtronic software.

What’s less clear is the development going into the Spodtronic software. It hasn’t been updated since May and the same glitches still exist as I noted in my other post. I have one more to add: when a channel is removed from Spodtronic’s line-up it remains orphaned on your device, forever trying to connect and never throwing an error message.

Spodtronic should be managing the channels on your device, not simply aggregating them. I can aggregate easily enough with Nokia’s built-in player or a third-party product like LCG Jukebox. The user experience is based on integration and ease-of-use. Spodtronic is pretty to look at, and quite usable, but needs more work to keep you connected and retain your loyalty.

When Digitally Imported (silently?) pulled some of their channels out of Spodtronic, I lost a large degree of interest. There’s a saying, you get what you pay for.

For months I’ve been trying to send my Lita Ford CD to someone, anyone, at lala.com. Each time I get an email asking for it, some former mullet-wearing dude has already mailed theirs.

Yesterday afternoon I was victorious when I pounced on the email asking for Lita. Finally, rather thankfully, that craptastic CD is gone from my collection.