Geekfather.com

iTunes songs, not necessarily for a song

   I like to think I'm a fairy honest person. If you go through my extensive music library on my computer, you won't find any pirated songs. Really. I believe in playing by the book when it comes to downloading media.

There are 3 sources for most of my digital music purchases; eMusic, Amazon and iTunes.

By far my favorite method is Emusic. It's a flat monthly fee and for that I get 50 dowloads. It's extremely economical, but unless you have very diverse tastes, you may get frustrated with eMusic quickly because most artists are not mainstream. Though there are some that are, and for that reason I reccomend checking it out. I probably download 65-75% of my music from eMusic.

Next up is Amazon. I really like Amazon. It has a pretty good selection, about the same as iTunes, and they have bargains, and lots of free songs.

iTunes is the old standard. It's easy to use, great selection, but until yesterday, no bargains, and only a few freebies. It's big drawback was DRM protection. The stuff they spray on the file to make it tough to pirate also takes away sound quality. But yesterday Apple pretty much removed all the DRM, but is now allowing record companies to charge more if they choose. They have a new tiered pricing system; $1.29, .99, and .69 per song. I don't think this is necessarily a bad move. In fact, I like the idea of paying $.69 for some songs.

The point of this is, if you buy your music online, shop around.

iSoap?

iPhone soap? Yes, iPhone soap. Why? Why not I suppose.

Is it practical? No. Will it clean better than other soaps? Doubt it.

Do I want it? Sure.

Wii really want to play, but...

So it's a slow Sunday morning around the house. The wife's tending to some stuff and I'm looking after the kids. The boy, 3, seems fascinated with the Wii.

You see, we recently moved, and the Wii, along with most of my toys were in a separate part of the house, not accessible to him. But now it's there, calling to him.

So I said, sure son, let's race. I pop Mario Kart in the system and hand the steering wheel over to him, hoping finally someone in this house will play video games with me. He's excited at first. He sits in my lap and we steer for a bit, then I give him control and he's stuck. Loses interest. Alas, 3 is too young. And it gets me to thinking, should I even allow/encourage him to play? I shudder to think he'll be a rotund video game player, and not a fort-building, tree climbing boy who can't wait to hop on his bike after doing homework in a few years. This is the Geekfather's dilemna this week.

iPhone software 3.0

I am a proud (and somewhat obsessed) iPhone owner. The device is invaluable to me, I use it to read books, surf the internet, update my Facebook and Twitter account and even this site, and much, much more.

That said, it's lacking in a few rather obvious areas. But it looks like Apple is going to make good. Of the new features they announced today to be released by summer are; copy and paste, and MMS messaging.

Hopefully this new trend of Apple responding to customer concerns will continue!

The Geekfather returns

We've been busy here at Geekfather as we've been moving to our new headquarters at the beach. Of course our staff of 100's is happy with the new digs, unfortunately, I had to lay them all off as a result of Geekfather corporate cubacks.

But the good news is, the Geekfather is back and ready rock your world with more observations and information about all things tech and dad.

Crisis of credit

The Geekfather loves media, and current events. When a coworker recommended the video below, he scoffed, thinking it would just be some fear-mongering hype. Instead it's a very cool explanation of the economic meltdown, melted down so just about anyone with two sticks to rub together can understand. Check it out:
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The transition continues

The relocation of the Geekfather.com world headquarters is still underway.

Once the move is complete, expect regular posts, and all that Geekfather goodness you've come to know.

One of the best movies ever, remembered..

I stumbled on this article recently and really enjoyed thinking about Office Space again. What an awesome film. A true Geekfather classic.

I saw it in the theater when it came out by accident. The girl I was dating then (pre married days) really wanted to see it, I'd never heard of the movie. I grudgingly agreed, and was I surprised.

That's all for now, I have TPS reports to write.

Accept Geekfather's sincerest apologies, or else...

Yes, the Geekfather hasn't been posting much lately. But there's a good reason, Geekfather world headquarters are in the process of moving from Central Illinois to the beach. 

Regular updates will resume soon. Maybe.

My iPhone apps, page 1

My wife and I went kind of nuts the day after the original iPhone went on sale. We happened to be vacationing in Chicago, and went to the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. with the intention of possibly getting one iPhone, instead we left with two.
That was about a year and a half ago. I embraced the device, but didn't fully fall head over heels until the App store came online giving owners the chance to get programs for the phone, some are free, others aren't.
That said, I thought I'd run down the Apps that currently sit on my phone. This is a run down of my apps on page 1 of the phone.

1. Clock. Simple, really it's an application that gives you a stop watch, timer, world clock and alarm. It's native to the iPhone and works really well. I use it exclusively as my alarm clock.
2. Calendar. Like clock it's native to the iPhone. You can enter events, it syncs with my macs Calendar program. You have the option of setting alarms for your events, which keeps on top of kid's doctor appointments and haircuts.
3. Maps. Another native app, this one is the Google Maps based program which works very well if you need directions or want to look up a business or address.
4. Camera. Yet another native app. Takes pictures. I wish it was more powerful, but there are some programs I use with it to get more out of the phone's camera, I'll talk about them when we get to them in a page or two.
5. Notes. A nice native app. My wife and I use them to create grocery lists and send them to each other.
6. App Store. A pretty self-explanatory application, no?
7. Stocks. Native app, lets you track your stocks. Not for the faint of heart these days.
8. Photos. The pictures you take with your camera go here.
9. My Weather. An app I purchased in the app store. I like it because it gives you live radar. However, I would go with the free Weather Channel app, it wasn't available when I purchased this one.
10. Weather. Apple's native weather application. No frills, nice, I'd use it, but I like having radar.
11. The Weather Channel. Great free weather application. Track storms, get your 10 day, even connect to watch video forecasts.
12. Settings. Obvious native application.
13. iTunes. This is the only game in town when it comes to buying music on the iPhone. Apple has it locked down, I wish you could use eMusic or Amazon on the iPhone.
14. eReader. I've used eReader for years now, this is the iPhone version, you can move your eReader library to the phone. The best ebook reader I've found for mobile devices so far, it's one of two application on the iPhone I used to use on my Treo.
15. Twitterific. Most of my twitter entries originate here. This is the free version, I can handle the add or two that pop up now and again.
16. Facebook. Come on, you know you're addicted. The iPhone version has been updated several times and is very solid.

The bottom row on my phone is the default. It can be changed, but as they are 4 buttons I use frequently; the phone, mail, internet, and ipod, I haven't bothered making any changes here.

Stay tuned, up next, page 2.