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I've decided to open up the weblog archive. At one point is was closed off except to registered members due to an incident, However, that company has since closed its doors so they can just eat it. Use the search to find something that youmight be looking for. Maybe you'll find it.

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Holy crap! I hadn't heard about this until this morning although he officially passed away on Sunday. I always eNjoyed Peter Jennings' style of broadcast news and he wasn't afraid to put himself out there right in the middle of things. His weekly nightly news on ABC was a warm and welcoming part of the day in my house growing up. And like Tom Brokaw, Mr. Jennings helped to launch national news coverage into a 24-hour a day business. I know the broadcast industry is definitely mourning the loss of a great man.

I heard about this disturbingly amusing story last night on the news...

As the 2005 Chrysler minivan crawled down 26th Street, its driver lowered a window. Out wafted a scent that was unmistakable: marijuana. Unfortunately for the man behind the wheel, the smell didn't go unnoticed . . . by a nearby squad car. Police pulled over the minivan Saturday on West 26th and made quite a large discovery: roughly 355 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of nearly $1 million. "The officers are part of a gang suppression mission team, they're in their vehicle, they're driving, they pass this vehicle . . . the subject was lowering his driver's side window," said Chicago Police spokesman John Mirabelli. "A strong odor of cannabis vented from that vehicle." After police pulled over the white minivan, they saw inside what appeared to be compressed cannabis on top of large duffel bags, Mirabelli said. The 21-year-old driver, Prospero Pesqueira, was charged with possession of cannabis and is scheduled in court on Aug. 30, said police spokeswoman Laura West. Pesqueira, of Tucson, also was cited for having a fictitious driver's license. It showed an expiration date of 2048, police said.

Hey, idiots: if you're going to be smuggling 355 pounds of marijuana make sure you have your shit together! Have a VALID driver's license. Keep the cannabis IN the duffle bags. And holy schmoly - don't, under any circumstance, SMOKE it while you're driving around! Unbelievable.

This whole ringtone business is out of control. It's a cash cow that is taking cell phone users for a ride. The ads which are absolutely geared toward the youth are often misleading in their offers. Jamster, for instance, has already faced a lawsuit in the US. The claim is a common one: Charles Ford of San Diego County, says his daughter got stuck with unexpected charges after accepting an offer for a free jingle. The commercials are all over the TV and with offers of the "hottest ringtones and coolest songs from your favorite artists" it can be an enticing solicitation. But that's for the birds. If you're like me than you realize that most phones today can play MIDI or even polyphonic WAV files. The trick, however, is knowing how to format them correctly. Take this Super Mario Brothers MIDI Library page from GameZero.com which contains a decent sampling of familiar sounds and music from Super Mario Brothers 1, 2 and 3. I noticed that they have the Super Mario Brothers' theme song which would be a good replacement to my School House Rock theme song that I have been sporting ever since I got my MPX200. So, I download the MIDI file, played in on my computer using Windows Media Player, verified that everything sounded good and then used ActiveSync to upload it to my phone. I then went ahead and changed my ringtone to the SMB theme song and, as you would imagine, it didn't work. The reason for the failure took some time discover but I eventually found the answer to my question.

Ringtones on the MPX200 have to be midi0 or .wav format

I said what any rational person would say: WTF is midi0?! Like many things in life MIDI comes in many different flavors. The delicious flavors are Type 0, Type 1, and Type 2. You can learn all about the fascinating world of MIDI from here. I didn't bother to read it so I won't pretend that I care. I only cared to know that the file that I had download was obviously not a MIDI File Type 0 file format. So, I just needed to change it. And although there are a number of greedy bastards selling their terrible wares that claim to convert your files for you I settled on the FREE MIDI File Converter. It does one thing and one thing only and that's convert your MIDI file to anyone of the three flavors. That's it. The interface could not be any more simple. Select the file you want to convert, click the button and you're done. I uploaded the converted Super Mario Brothers' theme song (now of MIDI File Type 0) to my mobile phone and since then I have had no problems with the MIDI. So knuckleheads, find out if your phone supports MIDI. If it does follow my lead and make and upload your own ringtones. Throwing away $2.00 for every damn ringtone is gonna add up and the 'rents are sick of schilling out dime after dime for your lazy habit.

Following up on my previous musical post, Using a MIDI on your MPX200 phone, I've got a few other tasty morsals to whet your appetites. Lets first take a look at Numark's latest announcement - the iDJ:

Numark's ground-breaking iDJ is specifically designed to provide a simple and inviting "plug and play" approach to becoming a DJ. In addition to being an easy-to-use DJ Mixer, the iDJ also works as a basic playback device and dual charging/docking station.

At about $400 you might be inclined to think "hey, that's not *too* bad" but I have to agree with what the folks at arstechnica.com said back on July 21 - without pitch/tempo control WTF is it good for? Also lacking is any cue functionality, looping and MIDI support. The complete product overview (PDF) answers very few questions as far as I can tell. I'm no DJ, but even if I wanted to pretend I was I believe Numark missed the boat with this product release. Hopefully they'll get it right next time. Onwards - I recently heard about some deep house resources available on the internets. Of particular mention was fleep.com with its downloadable MP3 mixes. While, it's not Digitally Imported (di.fm) or undergoundhouse.net both of which stream their music, at least with fleep.com you can take the music with you. Oh and it's really good.

I'm talking about the Drum and Bass gathering "Versus 2" that took place this past weekend (August 20) in the Diamond Fork area of Utah. Wikinews has all the info on what actually happend:

Armed with assault rifles and tear gas, the police used dogs to sweep the crowd for narcotics. At least one helicopter was used in the operation. The scale of the police response was apparently due to the ineffectiveness of a smaller force used in the previous "Sequence Five" rave. Prior to dispersing the partiers, several police informants had reportedly infiltrated the rave and observed widespread illegal activities.

Holy mother of GOD!! Assault rifles? Tear gas? Dogs?! All for a party in which the officials alleged that the promoter didn't have the right permits? Word is the promoter DID have all of the appropriate permits. This seems WAY over the top and a lot of people are rightly questioning the authorities' motives. Consider this: lets say you were doing some work on your house and lets say that you thought you got all the right permits. So, you go about your business doing your housework when all of a sudden a helicopter flies overhead, lights up your backyard, and out drops a bunch of camo storm troopers who beat you down with batons and start shooting tear gas into your living room. That's pretty much what we're talking about here. You wouldn't stand for that sort of militaristic behavior from your government so why should these guys? There are already a number of lawsuits being filed against the sheriff and the county. Have a look at the video to see how quickly everything gets out of control. Best of luck, folks.