A few weeks ago I started playing around with Pandora.  If you’re not familiar with Pandora it is a free streaming radio service that lets you build playlist based on your musical tastes.  For example I can put in “Miles Davis” and I get a station that plays a lot of Miles Davis with other similar artists peppered in.  It’s a great way to find new music and enjoy a refresh of your favorites.  I like it because it’s so quick and easy to use.

There has been one problem so far, I can’t use my multimedia keys on my keyboard.  Play, Pause, Next, Previous, etc.  Usually this isn’t a huge deal as I just let it play and mute the sound when I get a call or someone comes in.  While that works ok it’s not as good as using a real player (sorry did I mention that Pandora is written in Flash so it’s browser based).  Along comes OpenPandora to the rescue.

OpenPandora is a small desktop application that wraps itself around the Pandora web interface.  This gives you the ability to run Pandora independently of your browser AND gives you the ability to use the multimedia keys on your keyboard.  Sweet!  So if you’re a heavy Pandora user give OpenPandora a try, I think you’ll dig it.

I know it doesn’t sound too grand or anything but this was easily one of the best things I’ve ever made. Rather than repost the receipe I’ll just link to Epicirous where I got it…

A few things I changed were:
- Added a good bit more red pepper flakes and salt/pepper
- Added 2 large cloves of garlic, coarsely diced (would double this next time)
- Used fresh spinach fettuccine
- Went a little heavy on the olive oil and vegetable broth to make it saucier
- Only kept the top third of the asparagus
- Used shitake mushrooms

Was pretty quick and easy and tasted fantastic. No question I’ll make this one again.

Cat that is.  While she might be semi-insane most of the time (what cat isn’t) generally we get along ok and I don’t feel too odd being a mid-30′s guy with a cat.  At first when I saw the below headline I thought “holy shit that’s sorta mean to all those cats” – then when I realized the only alternatives for these lucky animals is death or the harsh Russian streets I realize how great this person really is.  Seriously I think it’s pretty amazing to share what little you have with so many…

If you read my blog I’m sure you know I’m no fan of DRM.  I have no problem with the underlying goal of keeping people from profiting from piracy but in general I believe that DRM simply makes things more difficult (or costly) for regular consumers.  While I’m not really a regular consumer and am pretty out on the fringe when it comes to digital media I’m doing what everyone else will at some point.  So why did DRM cost me $85, I’m so glad you asked…

This weekend my new Bluray drive finally showed up and I sat down to install it.  Everything went great with the hardware install (took about 20 minutes to physically install it) so I quickly moved to install the software.  Once I got that installed and going I popped in my first Bluray title and sat back on the couch ready to be blown away ready to be disappointed.  And disappointed I was.  The disk started to play and the FBI warning came on screen (since I must be a criminal).  A few seconds later an error message popped up which lead me to a tool to test my system for Bluray support.  I ran the tool and it found only one problem, my video card doesn’t support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection) – DRM.  So while my system runs great, my current video card works perfectly and looks beautifully AND everything I’m trying to do is perfectly legal (I’m not ripping, stealing, etc) I’m screwed.  I’m trying to play a disk that I rented in a machine that I own in my own home.  And because someone somewhere is afraid I’ll try to capture a digital stream of the 30GB movie as I watch it I have to get a new video card.  This is utterly ridiculous.

So thanks to DRM I still am unable to enjoy the $250 Bluray player I bought with the Bluray disk I rented.  I completely understand I’m out on the fringe here doing this in Windows Media Center, my point is if DRM is going to stop me from doing something that should be totally legal then how is this ever going to work for normal consumers.  The answer is it isn’t which is why we’re all seeing DRM slowly fall away.  Too bad it couldn’t have happened sooner, I really wanted to use the stuff I bought to entertain me, not give me another reason to bitch.

I’ve been on the fence for a long time in the current HD disk format war.  Being a huge A/V buff you’d think I would have chosen a format long ago and while I did own the HD-DVD drive for the XBox360 for about a week (and returned it) I haven’t really cared.  Why?  Well there just hasn’t been much content and I didn’t want to pick the losing format.  So why now?

Well a few reasons, namely because I think the war is over (or ending).  While there may be a few more shots fired by the HD-DVD guys (like dropping the hardware to crazy cheap lows) I think ultimately the decision of almost all the major studios to support Bluray sorta seals it.  It doesn’t hurt that Bluray can store more data than HD-DVD (50 vs 30GB).  So this weekend I threw in the towel myself and ordered a Bluray drive for my HTPC.  It’s supposed to be here tomorrow and as my first shipment of Bluray disks just arrived from Netflix I’m dying to get it installed.

While I was sorta hoping HD-DVD would win given how much I just can’t stand Sony these days I’m just happy to see that a winner is finally emerging. Of all my friends that have chosen a HD format (other than Ryan who won a HD-DVD player) they are all Bluray. So I say long live Bluray, HD-DVD it’s time to throw in the towel…

Today is a day of semi-unusual posts for me.  The latest comes in the form of a YouTube clip of the new Star Trek XI teaser trailer.  I will admit to being a pretty big Star Trek fan (no, not an over the top one) and I’m pretty excited to know that the francise didn’t die with Star Trek: Nemesis which I actually really liked (it’s no First Contact but good none the less).  So without further adieu here it is: