Station17

I’ve been listening to thesixtyone.com and came across Mustard Empire. It’s a company that has some talented people. The a record company so Mustard Empire is not a group but just the name that there listed under. My favorite song is “drinks on me”. Hope they keep up the good work.

Also check out my account.

Today has been eye opening. I’ve really have to break this down in sections. Work, Life, and Personal.

Work

My job at a PC servicing company just lost a contract. It was with Gateway and if you know anything about what happened to them over the years. Which is the spent to much money on new Gateway Stores and not on making a great product. But I work for the HP contract doing testing. So I’m not sure if I will be affected by this. But even so it’s bad when your boss lies about rumors. I’ll give you an update about this as it goes on.

Life

When to Club Purgatory last night. Had fun dancing with some of my friends. But I really did want to talk to some girl at a club unless you want to hook up. Here’s how the night started. Got to the club at 1030 because my friend were late for dinner. It was going to be at 8pm and they come at 930pm. So I get to the club and parking was 15 bucks. That’s just crazy to pay but there’s nothing else. The line was long but that’s good because of all the girls. Get in the club have two shots and two beers. Later start dancing and feeling good. So we later chill on smoking a hooakah. Which then my friends go to dance and I’m sitting by myself but I’m cool. Two chicks come by to what I think is to get free drinks or something. But I leave and I’m cool. Headed home but not before hitting up Denny’s for a GrandSlam Cheeseburger.

First things is that I love Songbird. It’s the best idea ever. I’ve had some problems with earlier versions and this release fix long list of problems. But now 0.6 is public release it kills all other music players. It’s the Miro of music. It’s simple to use and even better to find new music. With radio being the same 10 songs over and over again. Satellite radio is about to go though a merger. I’ve always wanted a place I can find new music and buy it.

Bookmarks

You have different bookmarks to the side that are music search engines and stores. Now you can search for any song that’s been posted on a blog and listen to it. And later if you have a songs that on Amazon, emusic, Itunes and Amie Street you link on the media area.

New Music

Sites like Hypem Machine is a great place to see what new, most searched, and most blogged about. Having a site like this really helps keeping you up-to-date about new artist.

Songbird has a long list of new features that I’m still finding out. Look at the new SongBird Roadmap

Started a new job last month after being let go from another company in Midland,TX. The new company does Hardware Servicing for HP, Gateway and Best Buy in Irving,TX. When I was let go. I was sad but didn’t know how good it was to leave that office. It was in a corporate environment and I like the idea but now I know it’s not for me. So I when back home in Arlington,TX. I wanted to sit back and have some time to think. That next Monday I posted my resume on all the usual job sites. And I didn’t know there were so many Insurance companies that were hiring. Most there Multi-level marketing companies. I didn’t want to do stuff like that. But something great happened that I didn’t know was great until later that week. I got a call from a staffing agency that wanted to submit me for a job. So I sent them a new resume and later that week I was on a new job. Didn’t know what I was doing because the agency didn’t explain everything to well. After working there for about a month now. I think I’ll like the job. I’m doing Motherboard testing and processing orders. After getting my degree I didn’t know what I would be doing with my life. I’m just happy I have something that I’m interested in.

My Brother-in=Law started working for RIM or Blackberry if you don’t know RIM. And he’s making some money. Don’t want to change my job now because I need a stable check coming. I think if something goes wrong with this job I have a back up.

I’ve played Wisest Wizard and I’ve leaned a lot about that night. So here are 5 things you should never do when playing Wisest Wizard.

1. Don’t get cheap beer. It taste nasty so you drink faster. If you get beer you like you won’t slam them like I did.
2. Try to have someone not drinking like a fish to watch you. Note: make sure they don’t have a camera.
3. Don’t try to walk to far you might end up locked out side the backyard.
4. Don’t think your so sexy you can call any girl and she will come to help you get things done like you wanted.
5. Wanted to dance but found out my legs can’t move.

Send an email with a link to your Wisest Wizard picture to Station17org(AT)gmail.com

Just installed Ubuntu 8.04. And I’m like the new background but I don’t see anything different but the some new apps and more hardware support. I know the Ubuntu website was updated but I was really hoping there was something new besides Brasero and Transmission replacing the older counterparts. I think there great apps and they work but I wish there was something more.

Now Firefox 3 beta 5? What’s up with this? It’s been crashing every time I load a youtube video. I’ve seen other Distros like Fedora do this but this was when they were a test for future Red Hat user. And the idea for that was try before you by the stable, long term, supported and get the same thing but you pay for it package.d that fine. I like Red Hat and there an ok. But I know Ubuntu is trying to be an free enterprise type of product. There not making you pay for it but when you want to be enterprise you need to have stable software. Not beta’s please. I really wanted to like how Ubuntu was a stable all around OS. But I really wanted to know why they did this. I know Firefox is about to release the Final Candidate for the masses but why would you wanted to make things confusing by having beta’s in Ubuntu’s LTS.

Now I love Ubuntu but I wish Firefox. My favorite piece of software. Be release early because it’s new and cool, but not stable. I’ll be waiting for a more stable version later.

PS. I don’t know much about Pulse Audio but I haven’t had any problems with it. Wanted to know if you had any problems.

Songbird

1. The endless Music

I at first I fell in love with this program. I like being able to find music on the web with out using spam catchers like Limewire. We all download music and sometimes we actually pay. But for me I’ve tried ITunes and the quality is not what I paid for. Oh and one important factor is that I’m using Ubuntu. And there’s not that may resources for paid music. (Meaning I can’t pay for the music I want because it’s lock away in CD or DRM music.) So searching for the music I want is so easy I just need to click download. I know what you’re thinking. You just think I don’t pay any of my music. That’s not true. If I get the single later I will buy the CD. But only if the CD is good. Songbird does have music stores so it’s a great way to promote your music and generate sales.

2. Podcasting issues

This could be the ultimate podcasting program if it did video. I know it looks like ITunes but it’s not ITunes. It’s ITunes for Linux. Subscribing to feed is so easy or if you want you can download a single podcast because there treated like music to songbird. As I said before it needs video. If you could just find a way that will push video to an external player then this would be the only player I would use. Is there an extension for this?

Miro

1. The endless Video

I’ve spent a whole Saturday watching video. When you start you really can’t stop. I started with Diggnation. Then I started to watch news of there new shows like ABC News. I don’t watch the news on TV but I did on my computers. Weird? I think it was shorter segments so that it wasn’t so boring. It highlighted things around the world more and wasn’t so USA all the way idea. Real journalism in the US? There were other shows like Democracy Now which I show Kevin Rose was looking for in a episode of Diggnation. (He said something like I wish there was a daily show that did real news professionally.) This is the show he was looking for. I also found 2500 other videos though there Miro guide or just add any you RSS feeds into it.

2. Podcasting issues

The issue here is that it’s a memory hog. I like to have it in the background with the torrents a flowin’. But I can’t have that for too long. It’s great with video but with audio not so good. The playlist are too clunky for me. I use XMMS or Banshee. Making this another player I need to just get my video. And the funny thing about the torrents is that there legal? Never thought of that.

PenguinTV

1. The endless Video

PenguinTV was a good idea for RSS and Podcasting. But this is for people who already know what they want to watch. I love this idea. Cut out the player just have the RSS reader and download manager. Straight and simple programming. Why didn’t any else do this. Other than Juice (Ipodder). You can read other RSS while you play your audio or video in another program. It takes up less memory and you can see the show notes.

2. Podcasting issues

One problem is the some RSS feeds come with it but it would be nice to have a network to find more. I know where to look but for new users? Were would you (as a new user) go to find podcast or even RSS if you didn’t know what it was. There’s a help area but please give a clue to some network for that user. This is small but they could put some podcast like Daily Source Code in because it highlights other podcast.

After some down time. I have started to do some research on some more projects that may or may not come out. But at this time I will try to have something to show you soon. I’m putting up a projects page that will so off new ideas of mine. But now you’ll have to wait.

Don’t worry this is your StationAgent signing out.

I was watching TV show online thought ABC.com and NBC.com. And I thought of see what’s on CBS.com The only shows I watch on that channel are The Big Bang Theory, Jericho, and The Unit.

Now I don’t know why I went to CBS because the Writer Strike is still on. But I happen to see a listing for a pilot called “Welcome to the Captain”. I thought it would be a something about sailing or a restaurant. It’s about a guy how moves from New York to L.A. because of a friend. Now I know it sounds stupid but it’s really a good show. It’s funny, smart, different and new. New meaning there’s nothing else on. But it was funny. I’m going to watch the other episodes later and hoping the show will get picked up. But with most mid season shows it will die like some of the canceled fox shows.

Also Joanna García is in it. And I loved her in Reba.

Update: The writer’s strike is over. But it’s going to take 2 months until we see something.

When buying software you need to have stages you go thought to find the right type of software.

Stage 1: Searching

I would say Google it but that’s not as safe as it us to be. Try finding other companies that might need the same software you need. Go to online stores to shop around. Find the section you need and look at the reviews below them. That will tell what your really getting from there users. I’ll list good software stores below. I’ll also list some websites that have free software that might replace your paid versions. Because free is nice.

Stage 2: List

List all the software that you liked at the store. Have at least 5 different software’s listed. Any more than 5 and you’re wasting your time. On that list you just need to have the name, price and website. If the software company doesn’t have the price. Go ahead and call them. I just might be the right software for you. If they try to sell you something too pricey then hang up. If the company doesn’t have a good website. Then see the software looks like. If it’s confusing then don’t use it.

Stage 3: Test

Testing the software is really important because you want to have a real life trial of the software. If it’s for databases. You’re really going to need to put a real database in place to show if it’s what you want or if you need something else. Most software companies have trial versions on there websites. If they don’t, you might be able to call tech support for help. Or even have a demo mailed to you. If you can’t test it, it’s not worth it.

Stage 4: Buy

Look at the site I’ve listed below. Try to find one that has what you need for the right price. It’s ok to shop around even try the companies’ website if you can get it cheaper. Digital Downloads are cheaper but if you like to have physical copy then watch for the shipping price. And you can always just call around to your local computer store for a price check.

Stage 5: Using

Now you’ve bought the software you needed. Try to see if you need any other features you need. If so write them down. Have a list and see what other software would work better. Have other co-worker work on it to see what they think. Don’t try to work around problems; you might waste time not learning the ropes. And when you’re really in trouble Read the Manual.

Good Software Websites

Newegg
Pricewatch
Mwave
Frys