Top albums of 2014

The list is a little (or maybe a lot) late this year, but that's probably better than never.  I also feel like it is a bit lacking in quality, as I think I missed a lot of music this past year.  My blind spot for hip-hop seems to have gotten bigger, and I have no options to overcompensate with this time around.

I will continue in the spirit of last year's list and link to a YouTube video of my favorite available song from each album, with a playlist of all the songs included at the end.

Top 10
1. Alt-J - This Is All Yours
2. Hundred Waters - The Moon Rang Like a Bell
3. I Break Horses - Chiaroscuro
4. Phantogram - Voices
5. Interpol - El Pintor
6. Mogwai - Rave Tapes
7. The Bug - Angels & Devils
8. Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes
9. Run The Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
10. Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso

Best of the rest...
11. Lia Ices - Ices
12. Mimicking Birds - Eons
13. Caribou - Our Love
14. Tycho - Awake
15. Dawn Golden - Still Life
16. Vancouver Sleep Clinic - Winter
17. Bear In Heaven - Time Is Over One Day Old

On fingerprint security in Android

Yesterday I read this article about how the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 will probably have a fingerprint reader in the style of the recent iPhones, as opposed to the swipe style reader that didn't seem to work nearly as well.  This was mildly exciting, except for the fact that: (1) I'm more of a "stock" Android guy, and not a big fan of Samsung's TouchWiz UI; (2) this isn't the first tap style fingerprint reader on Android (see Huawei Ascend Mate7), though from what I can tell it will be the first on the front of the phone; (3) this will still rely on Samsung's fingerprint processing infrastructure, as fingerprint support didn't make it into Android 5.0.
 
But still...progress is progress.  And when Google does get around to putting fingerprint support in the Android OS, the fact that the biggest Android OEM will likely have decent hardware to support it is probably a good thing.

This gets me to the question of whether fingerprints are a good security mechanism.  The short answer is that they are probably good enough.  At least better than the most common methods people otherwise use to secure their mobile devices: no security mechanism, or a 4-digit PIN.  Fingerprints do have their downsides, though: (1) they can be spoofed, even just from public photos; (2) once you "lose" your fingerprint, you can't change it like you can change a password/PIN.

So this got me to thinking...  What if we could combine fingerprints with other security features?  The idea that popped into my head was a combination with the Smart Lock feature currently available in Android 5.0.  If you have a PIN or pattern lock screen, this feature allows you to skip the PIN/pattern if you are connected to a trusted device (e.g., car Bluetooth) or are at a trusted place (e.g., home).  It also includes face scanning (i.e., trusted face), but the potential for false positives there seems too large to trust.  Anyway, my idea is to combine fingerprint reading and trusted device (or maybe trusted place, though location data can be fuzzy).  So if you are connected to your home WiFi or your car Bluetooth, you could unlock your phone/tablet with a quick fingerprint scan, instead of entering your (hopefully long) lock screen PIN.

Someone please make this happen.

On iOS vs Android

This post will be a mere shadow of what I at one time intended it to be, but have delayed writing for a while now.  It concerns the two dominant mobile platforms, iOS and Android, and why I'm not in the iOS camp (and hopefully will still not be in 10 years).

This was mostly motivated by the releases of the iPhones 6 and iOS 8.  With these releases, Apple addressed a couple of the major gripes I had with their mobile phones and OS: screen size and extendability.  After a couple of years of marketing that 4 inches is the best screen size, Apple admitted that consumers demand bigger (but don't get me started on their hyperbolic and hypocritical marketing).  I fall in that bigger screen camp, though I do think some of the phablets are a little too big for me.  On the software side, Apple added the ability for apps to better interact with each other and added support for third party keyboards.  These are of course gross oversimplifications of what their fall releases brought to the table (and you can find a lot more detailed info with a simple web search), but those were two key points.

So after September I considered that an iPhone 6 might actually be a "usable" device for me (quotes because it's ridiculous to think that I couldn't use or even be mostly satisfied with previous iPhones).  So much so that I pondered testing one out for a week to see how I liked it, especially compared with the (then) upcoming release of Android 5.0 Lollipop.  Well, I never did the test drive.  And I don't really have much motivation to.  I'm still quite pleased with my two year old Nexus 4, and don't see much reason to upgrade to anything newer on either the Android or iOS side (let alone any of the other mobile platforms).  It got the Lollipop upgrade relatively quickly, it's still pretty responsive, and has the hardware to support just about all current features that I care to have in a smartphone.

This doesn't mean that I'm not open to trying out an iPhone sometime in the near future, especially if T-Mobile updates their test drive program to use the newer phone.  But I did have a conversation last night (at dinner with a couple of Claire's friends who were visiting) that reminded me of one of the issues that I would expect to infuriate me about using an iPhone: the forbidding of third party default actions.  One example that was mentioned (in addition to Safari) was how selecting an address link would open up the location in Apple Maps, and this behavior cannot be changed.  This sounds like a pretty "awful" user experience, given how terrible Apple Maps seems to be in comparison to Google Maps (and I also got first hand testimonial to this effect last night).  Obviously this is not the worst thing in the world - you an always simply copy and paste into Google Maps.  But it speaks to the general "closedness" of the iOS/Apple ecosystem, and I'm not a fan of that.  The other issues that I expected to have with using iOS generally involved extensibility of apps (e.g., getting a reliable scrobbler for Last.fm, and an automation equivalent of Tasker), but in the end they're not really world-changing features.  And that's why I think most people could be reasonably satisfied with either platform at this point, despite the fanboy flame wars.

I should also point out that Android is not without its faults.  One glaring area in which I think it is lacking is that of app permissions.  On Android, you basically must give an app all the permissions it lists in order to run it; and that list can get really long; plus it's hard to even understand why some of them are being included.  Google tried to help the situation a bit by categorizing the permissions so that once you install a version of the app that gives it a permission in a category, you don't have to re-approve updates with new permissions in the same category.  I'm not really sure if this made things better or worse.  On one hand, I get fewer requests to manually approve updates due to minor changes in permissions.  But on the other hand, the automatic updates are gaining new permissions without my knowledge (yes, I know I can turn off automatic updates altogether, but that's another hassle).  And the new categorizations make it harder to tell what specific permissions an app is listed as using, and what has changed between versions.  In contrast, iOS has much fewer permissions which each have to be specifically granted by the user for each app.  This means that iOS apps need to be written in a way that they sorta function (or at least don't crash) if they are not granted permissions.  If Google allowed revocation of individual permissions right now, Android apps would be crashing left and right.  I'm not sure what the solution for Android is at this point, but I would like to see a move toward revocable permissions (perhaps with stubbed content to help mitigate crashes if a permission is revoked).

I'm pretty sure I could come up with more areas where I would prefer the iOS implementation over the Android one (or lack thereof).  But in the end there's little doubt for me that right now I'd be happier with an Android device than an iOS one.  And I'll be sure to post some updated thoughts if I do give that test drive a try.

Alt-J @ The Pageant (12/3/2014)

Opener:

• Claire and I arrived a little later than desired (@ 9 PM), but still saw pretty much all of Vance Joy, who she wanted to see.  He didn't really do much for me, but I'm happy if she's happy.  Meg Myers was long gone by the time we arrived, so I can't comment on her.

Setlist:

• Considering that they only have two full-lengths out, it wasn't too surprising that they played lots of songs from both albums.  If there was any sort of segregation, it seemed that the first half had more older songs while the second had more from the new album.  But they ended with "Breezeblocks" (from the first album), so it's tough to say that there was really a split.

Stage:

• The drummer was right up front on the right side of the stage, as opposed to the typical positioning in the back center.  I liked this set-up, as it put all four members up front.
• The light show was pretty solid - looked like quite a few LED racks.  Not overwhelming, but a good match for their style.  It seemed that the band was mysteriously shadowed for a lot of the show - Claire commented during the last song that you could finally see them.

Observations:

• Interestingly, the keyboard player did all the banter, as opposed to the lead singer.  But he also held his own quite well on back-up vocals.
• No extended jams - I appreciate when a band doesn't noodle around.

High/low-lights:

• Although they led off with my favorite song on the new album, "Hunger of the Pine", the sound mix sounded pretty terrible for that song.  Thankfully, that improved quickly.
• There are several aspects that makes this band's sound unique (including the singing style), but one that worked really well for me live was the drumming.  The drummer's kit has a few non-standard items that really came through well, especially once the sound mix was fixed.  It also seemed like there was a bit more added drumming on the live renditions (especially on a couple of the quieter songs), but that could just be the live mixing emphasizing the drums more than the studio mixes.

Rating: 4.5/5

Wager with Nathan Rosenstock

Earlier this summer, Nathan and I made a small wager about my tech future.  I am documenting our e-mail exchange on the topic here...

---

Obi Orjih, 2 June 2014:

Let it be noted for the record that you (Nathan Rosenstock) predicted that I (Obi Orjih) will be using an Apple device as my primary personal mobile device 10 years from today (i.e., June 2, 2024). You are so confident in this prediction, that you would switch to a vegetarian (not vegan) diet for one month if you are incorrect.

Nathan Rosenstock, 2 June 2014:

And if I am correct, you may not watch or listen or monitor in any way either live or recorded the first world cup soccer game after June 2, 2024 in which a US team is playing. You may see unavoidable replays of short length, but you must inform yourself of the outcome of the game as soon as possible after the game has concluded.

Obi Orjih, 2 June 2014:

Agreed. But I want an out in case I "have" to make plans for that game... In order to watch the game, I must pay you USD$100. This all assumes that I lose the wager.

Thoughts on smartwatches in general, and the Apple Watch in particular

If you're a tech geek like me, then the concept of "wearables" (i.e., wearable computers/electronics) is kind of a hot field right now.  While this could include many possibilities, the ideas with the most traction right now are things that you wear on your wrist and things that you wear on your head/face¹.  There is more doubt that face things will be a thing, as Google Glass (and the like) doesn't quite appear to be catching on outside of a small niche community.  So, I guess that leaves wrist things to talk about...

The wrist thing market is basically split into two categories - fitness trackers and smartwatches - though many smartwatches are now also doing fitness tracking.  The fitness trackers include the Fitbit Flex's and the Jawbone UPs of the world.  And more recently Microsoft got into the game with the Microsoft Band.  I think there is a legitimate market for these things, but I don't really feel like they are mind-blowing or game-changing.

I'm still trying to decide whether smartwatches can be mindblowing or game-changing.  The first thing that I can remember being a proper smartwatch is the Pebble.  This was one of the first big Kickstarter projects, and is probably one of the biggest successes.  Although the display is not particularly fancy (it uses an e-paper display), it last for days without needing a charge (7, reportedly) and works with Android and iOS devices.  The compatibility and battery life are a plus, but the integration with more powerful pocket computers (aka smartphones) is superficial at best.

Deeper integration is where Android Wear and Apple Watch come in - they are designed to provide richer integration with their respective mobile OSes.  Android wear has been out for months now, and seems to be getting a bit better as more features are added.  Initially, the functionality didn't go too far beyond the sort of things Pebble could do - notifications, music controller (i.e., the phone still plays the music, but the watch can pause, skip, etc.), turn-by-turn directions, and the like.  Oh, and they tell time too.  Recent updates have solved issues with custom watch faces and added the ability to play music directly off the watch itself via Bluetooth.  There are also fitness capabilities built in - for example the Moto 360 (aka 270, if the flat tire of a screen doesn't quite do it for you) has a heart rate monitor built in.

But even though I'm firmly in the Android camp, these smartwatches don't quite do it for me.  I think they're an interesting concept, and I'm glad they exist, but they don't really fill a need that I have.  Everything that they do, I can do better with my phone.  I will grant that glance-able notification can be helpful (especially in situations where pulling out your phone would be socially awkward), but I don't really think that's worth going back to wearing a watch.  The other potential value add would be fitness tracking capabilities, but that's not something that I'm into.  And (while it doesn't apply to me at the moment, but would have in the past, and could again in the future), I know plenty of people who literally would not be allowed to wear a smartwatch into their workplace at Boeing.  Oh, and these things have to be charged at least every other day, if not every day.

There are other smartwatch platforms out there (Samsung has a couple of Tizen watches, among other players in the game) but none is terribly compelling.  That is, perhaps, except for the forthcoming Apple Watch.  I've read way too much about this thing since it was announced a couple of months ago, and I still don't quite "get it".  It seems to me that Apple is trying to do way too much with it.  For example, why on earth would I want to scroll through photos or read a map on a tiny screen on my wrist?  And don't get me started on the doodle feature, or the heartbeat-sending gimmick.  Some other smarter (or at least more respected on the Interwebs) people have different takes on the thing, and they could end up being right.  But I don't see the watch being someone's main computer any time soon, unless some unbelievable breakthroughs are made in battery technology and processor packaging.

What I will give Apple credit for, though, is creating the most fashion-forward entry into this product category (even though I'm a bit surprised at how bulbous the thing appears, especially for Apple).  They also created a very clever and functional mechanism for attaching/detaching the straps - like previous precedents (e.g., lightning connector), they eschewed compatibility with standards in favor of creating something functionally superior.  I can see them selling a lot of these things as fashion items, in addition to their simply being Apple products, even though the rumored price points for the gold version sound crazy to me.  And even though I tend to kind of root against Apple (for reasons that I might explain in a future post), I'm curious and excited to see what happens with this new product.
 

---

1 There are other current wearables that you can attach to a piece of clothing, but I don't really see many people talking about those.^↩

Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard

This one goes in the category of solving first world problems...  One of the reasons that it took so long to post my Brazil 2014 travelogue is that the quality of the original composition is questionable.  Back in 2008 or so, I realized that I have a terrible memory, so composing the travelogue after the trip didn't work too well.  So I started typing up the travelogues on a mobile device while on the trips.  Well, it turns out that I'm a terrible phone/tablet typist, on top of the fact that typing on those things sucks anyway.  Despite this I persevered, and continued to crank out travelogues.  But this sucky typing experience makes for poor quality posts.  And this is further exacerbated by my robotic matter-of-fact prose style.

All of this is background info for why I was in the market for a more "typable" mobile device this year.  I initially considered something like the Surface Pro 3, or a similar convertible tablet type thing, but decided that $800 (or even $500) was far too much money to spend on something that I would essentially only use for one two-week trip every year.  So I was pretty excited when a couple of months ago I stumbled across an article touting the upcoming release of the Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard.  I just bought one last week (see picture above), and can definitely understand why the black model is in short supply.

First, the product basics.  It is a Bluetooth keyboard that folds up for easy transportability.  It has a supposed battery life of 3 months (it comes with a USB charging cable), and supports paring with up to 3 different Android, iOS, or Windows devices.

As for my thoughts after playing with it for a few minutes...  I like it a lot.  Well enough to post about it.  One thing that I was initially concerned about was the 3 device support - the device switch has 3 positions, one each for Android, iOS, and Windows.  So I figured that if I wanted to switch between pairing it with my phone and my tablet, which both run Android, I would have to redo the pairing process while keeping the device selection on Android.  Well, it turns out that the keyboard will pair with Android devices even when on a non-Android switch position - I accidentally tested this out with my Android tablet and the Windows switch position.  The downside is that you lose the OS-specific functions (which are a really nice feature) when you mismatch, but most things still work great.  And I guess it's a little confusing to have to remember that the Windows position is actually for the Android phone/tablet, but you would have to remember the pairings with a generic 1/2/3 switch anyway.

The other minor "complaint" I have is that the keyboard is pretty cramped.  This obviously makes sense when you consider that mobility is one of the goals, but I did find myself making quite a few typing mistakes the first couple of minutes while using the keyboard.  I got used to it pretty quickly, though, and my error rate began approaching normal.

Overall, I'm really glad Microsoft released this product.  The compact design is great for traveling, and typing isn't too terrible on it.  And I love the multi-OS support.  This should hopefully improve the quality of next year's trip's travelogue.  While this keyboard doesn't end poverty or bring about world peace or anything like that, I feel that it is an excellent product that is worth the $80 and my recommendation if quality mobile typing is a use case that you have.

Sharon Van Etten @ The Luminary (10/15/14)

	Someone gave Sharon a rose during the encore. She hung it on her capo while she played the last song.

I'll forgo my usual (as of late) review structure for this one, as I don't have too much to say.  This show was focused purely on the music - there were no fancy lights or other stage bling at all.  It's a bit unusual for a national act, even in such a small venue, but it works for her.  The music itself didn't blow me away (not that I expected it to), but it was still a good show.  It was understandably heavy on the latest album, which is a bit hit or miss for me.  One stand-out new song performance was "Your Love is Killing Me"; and in general I liked it when they turned up the volume (so to speak).  And Sharon has some cutesy and adorable mannerisms that kinda make me want to be her friend.

As for Tiny Ruins, I only caught their last couple of songs.  I don't think they're really for me, but (like Sharon) their singer seemed to have a great voice.

Rating: 4.0/5

Brazil 2014 pictures and travelogue finally posted

Better late than never, right?  I finally got around to organizing all my (and Raj's) pictures and editing my travelogue from my trip to Brazil 1.5 months ago.

The travelogue, organized by day (with pictures for each), can be found here (in reverse order, sorry): http://excursions.obezma.com/search/label/Brazil%202014

If you only want to see pictures, my favorites can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111166923064372764694/albums/6045651244470199489?authkey=CIverLze2aqKGw

Lastly, for a bit of amusement...  While I was uploading my selection of Raj's pictures, Google+ prompted me to tag some faces in the set of pictures.  I found the screen presented pretty funny, due to all the various faces that I made in the pictures:

Hundred Waters @ The Luminary (7/15/2014)

Opener:

• I saw half of one song by Golden Curls, so I can't comment on them much.
• Mas Ysa was an interesting happening.  He's one of those button-pusher/knob-twister types, though he also sings.  When he first started out I was pretty sure I was going to hate him, but some of his stuff turned out to not be so bad.  The parts that sound like real music with a beat are sometimes interesting.  But, unfortunately, it comes across to me as music for people with ADD, or ADHD, or whatever they call it these days.

Stage:

• At first glance it didn't look like Hundred Waters' stage set-up offered much, as there were no crazy lights or anything - not that one would expect much at such a small venue.  But they made amazing use of a fog machine and (what looked like) two projectors that they set up on either side of the stage.  They basically created videos that projected as if they were an expensive light set-up, almost looking like lasers at times.  I tried to capture this in a couple of photos, but they didn't come out too well (blame my Nexus 4, which takes crappy low-light pics).

Observations:

• Basically, this was a band that I had only heard of 5 days ago (from Pitchfork's Best New Albums list).  Before even getting through my first listen of the album I knew that it would be one of my favorites of the year.  And then while buying tickets for Sharon Van Etten in October I happened to find out that they were in town in 4 days.  I debated whether to go to the show since I barely knew the band, but then decided to go only if tickets were still available at the door.  And I'm very glad that I went.  The music was pretty great and the projector light show was fantastic.  Their rating is probably a bit inflated for being such a pleasant surprise and exceeding my low-ish expectations, but their show was definitely a good time.

Rating: 4.5/5

Mogwai @ Wooly's (5/17/2014)

Opener:

• Don't know, don't care - some electro dude that wasn't very good.  Only caught the last bit.

Setlist:

• Opened with first track off the new record, and then spanned most, if not all, of their albums as far as I could tell.  With instrumental music like theirs it's hard to pin down names of songs and where they're from.

Stage:

• For a relatively small club, they brought more lights that I expected.  But I guess this band has been around for a while.

Observations:

• The most unexpected thing for me was how freaking loud they were.  It didn't help that I was pretty close to the speaker on the right side of the stage.

High/low-lights:

• I liked just about every "song" they played, even the ones I didn't know (or wasn't quite sure if I knew).  The glaring exception to that was the last one, which seemed like a lot of loud noise followed by a lot of quiet followed by a lot of loud noise.

Rating: 4.4/5

Phantogram @ The Pageant (4/8/2014)

Opener:

• Teen.  I missed them.

Setlist:

• All of the "hits" and my faves were thrown in there, except for "Bloody Palms".
• A few songs didn't really work well for me live; or at least they didn't sound much like the studio version.  These were generally songs that I wasn't a huge fan of anyway.
• In general, I liked the performances of the songs that I liked from the albums.  The others were hit or miss.

Stage:

• I don't now why, but I liked how neat and uncluttered the stage was.
• They had some very bright lights that nearly burned out my retinas on a couple of songs when they happened to be shining pretty much directly into my eyeballs.

Observations:

• They apparently now tour with 2 additional members, for a total of 4 - one on drums, and another on synth/guitar/effects.

High/low-lights:

• Not really a low-light, but the really cool bass part on the chorus of "Howling at the Moon" was missing (or inaudible) in their live performance; although that part just about makes the song for me, it was still a good live rendition.

Rating: 4.2/5

Top Albums of 2013

I think my 2013 edition of top albums is another good one.  This year saw an uptick in the number of very strong hip hop albums, as well as a continuation of my tendency toward electronica.  Alt/indie rock is also represented by a couple of prominent selections.  You can compare this to 2012, or 2011.

A new feature this year: the album name link is to a YouTube video of my favorite (or one of my favorite) song on the album.  I have also embedded a playlist of all the videos at the bottom of this post.

Top 10
1. James Blake - Overgrown
2. Sigur Rós - Kveikur
3. Local Natives - Hummingbird
4. Kid Cudi - Indicud
5. A$AP Rocky - LONG.LIVE.A$AP
6. Beacon - The Ways We Separate
7. The Range - Nonfiction
8. Jay-Z - Magna Carta...Holy Grail
9. Tricky - False Idols
10. Snowden - No One In Control

Best of the rest...
11. Foals - Holy Fire
12. Until the Ribbon Breaks - A Taste of Silver (EP)
13. Pusha T - My Name Is My Name
14. Nosaj Thing - Home
15. Atoms for Peace - Amok
16. Son Lux - Lanterns
17. Natasha Kmeto - Crisis
18. Bonobo - The North Borders
19. Moby - Innocents
20. Cut Copy - Free Your Mind
21. Black Milk - No Poison No Paradise
22. Buke and Gase - General Dome
23. Weekend - Jinx
24. Junip - Junip
25. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito
26. Sleigh Bells - Bitter Rivals
27. The Besnard Lakes - Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
28. Washed Out - Paracosm
29. The Naked and Famous - In Rolling Waves
30. Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
31. Gauntlet Hair - Stills
32. Phoenix - Bankrupt!
33. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
34. Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

Brief thoughts on Spotify's business model

A couple of weeks ago, Spotify outed details of how they run their business.  The main gist of the story, especially as reported by some media outlets, is that they don't actually operate under a pay-per-play model, despite references to this sort of figure even in their own literature.

Before continuing onto my thoughts on their business model, I should make sure that anyone reading this knows what Spotify is (which I would expect most would).  The super simple version of the story is that Spotify allows you to play pretty much any song by any artist.  They offer a subscription version ($10 a month) that allows you to listen to anything in any order via the web or on any mobile device without advertisements.  The free version comes with ads, and limits listening to shuffle mode on mobile devices.  There's more to the story than that, but it will do for our purposes.

Under a pay-per-play model, Spotify would pay the rights holder (read: record company) some fixed amount for each time that a user played one of their songs.  The rights holder would then pay the artist some portion of the proceeds, depending on their contractual arrangement.  So more plays always equals more money.  Presumably, it would be up to Spotify to make sure that they are generating enough revenue from subscriptions and advertising to cover the cost of content as well as operations.  As I mentioned earlier, this is NOT how Spotify operates.

What Spotify actually does is pay rights holders approximately 70% (actual figure depends on regional contracts) of their gross revenue from subscriptions and advertising.  The breakdown for individual content owners depends on what proportion of total plays their music got.  This seems good for Spotify in that they're pretty much guaranteed to have money to cover operational costs, and if they get enough subscribers/advertisers they can make a healthy profit.

It may not be a great deal for artists, though, as they are essentially directly competing against each other for a slice of the same pie.  It is possible in this system for an artist to achieve a dramatic increase in plays from one month to the next but yet see decreased income in the second month due to the misfortune of some other artist or group of artists blowing up even bigger than them.  So this probably works out alright for more mainstream artists, but not so much for alternative/niche artists.  And remember that the artists usually (unless they're super huge) only see a tiny portion of that 70% cut that goes to the record label.

To be fair, Spotify argues that as they gain more and more users the cut that goes to record labels and artists will increase.  They provide anonymized numbers that indicate that even niche artists aren't doing so badly at current levels, and that they will be doing even better as the service grows.  However, I'm not sure how to reconcile this with some recent complaints by some established artists that services like Spotify are screwing over emerging artists.

So, basically, I don't really know that this post has a point, other than to briefly explain the situation - I don't know enough at this point to be for or against this business model vs per-pay-play or something else.  I will say, though, that I greatly enjoy being a user of Spotify-like services.  I personally have a subscription to Google Play Music All-Access, which is pretty much the same thing (though I'm getting it for $2/month cheaper since I signed up early).  At this point, I have no need to buy albums or acquire them through "other means" (since I think that a lot of albums are overpriced) any more.  This does mean, though, that I'm definitely contributing less money to artists than I used to, even though I'm actually consuming more (or at least a wider variety) of their content.  But the ones that I really like still get concert and merchandise money from me.

Musings on the state of TV

This post is inspired by this article from the Washington Post about a new proposed bill that would increase the access that online video services have to the programs currently provided on cable and satellite.  This comes on the heels of another bill proposed a few months ago that would require cable and satellite TV providers to give their customers the option to pick channels a la carte - i.e., individually, and not in a bundle.  These are relevant proposals as more and more Americans are "cutting the chord", or dropping their pay TV subscriptions, and using online services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.

Being a member of the segment of the population that does not watch much TV (in fact, the only TV I seem to watch these days is Premier League soccer on NBC Sports), I would welcome increased content choice and access via online services.  However, I seem to have a philosophical objection to regulating this into being.

It seems to me that if a la carte channel selection is something that customers are increasingly clamoring for, then smart providers would realize this and begin providing such options in order to increase their share of the market.  Of course, we must consider that a cable/satellite company will likely make much more money off an individual customer subscribing to a bundle than choosing a few individual channels.  But at some point customers should start voting with their wallets, and drop the expensive bundles that they greatly under-utilize.  The question, then, is what customers have as an alternative.

I guess this is where increased access for online video services plays a part.  Ideally, the Youtubes and Netflixes and Amazons should be able to strike content deals that make sense for them and their customers without the government dictating the terms.  Here, I'm less sure whether such access would be possible without regulation - content providers probably have a financial incentive to keep the deal structures that are favored toward cable and satellite companies.  I would still like to believe that the market can work out that increased access is better business.

Another issue that comes up in this discussion is that of net neutrality.  If online video services are allowed access to content that is currently exclusively provided by cable and satellite companies, the cable companies (who also happen to be the major broadband Internet service providers) may have an incentive to reduce the quality of service for the online video providers.

So it seems that there are several factors that are currently tipped in favor of cable providers especially.  Ideally, I would love to see things like a la carte channel selection and online content access come into being due to market forces and without regulation.  But, similar to my feelings on municipal smoking bans, if it takes a bit of legislation to nudge things in that direction, I won't complain too loudly.

Cut Copy @ The Pageant (11/11/2013)

Openers:

• Larry Gus, Kirin J Callinan; I missed both, and from the sounds of things I should not regret it.

Setlist:

• Some old stuff, some new stuff, it was all in there...especially (what I would consider) the hits.

Stage:

• At first it looked pretty minimalist...but I was wrong.  Lots of lights...or at least they made ample use of the lights that they brought.  It went very well with the music.

Observations:

• Their performance was pretty much a 1.5 hour dance party...and it was mostly pretty great.  Plus the surprisingly thin crowd allowed room to get one's groove on.
• The lead singer had just about the perfect amount of energy and animation.  You need plenty for this kind of music, but he never overplayed to the crowed.
• I couldn't quite tell how much the drummer was contributing and how much was the backing track (of which there was no shortage).  He was pretty active the whole time, so it's possible that he was responsible for most of the beats.
• On a similar note, the guitarist and bassist alternated from playing their instruments (including some percussion) on guitar-heavy songs to knob twiddling on electro-heavy ones.  Though there were a couple of songs somewhere in the middle where I wasn't sure if the guitar was actually adding much.
• Did I mention that the light show was pretty great?

Rating: 4.4/5

Tycho & Beacon @ Plush (11/6/13)

Setlist:

• Most of the songs they played were off their debut full-length, but they played a couple of songs that I hadn't heard before - likely off their EPs, but perhaps new
• My favorite song of theirs, "Split in Two", was missing

Stage:

• They used the same projection system that Tycho used later, but not a couple of the stage lights

Observations:

• There's not much of a performance when it comes to watching this band.  One guy twiddles a few knobs and pretends to be occupied, while the other mostly sings (but looks pretty good doing so).
• But you can't argue against the music - this was the first time in a while that I've come to see the opener as well.

Setlist:

• They threw in many songs from Dive, including my two faves back-to-back
• They also played a few older songs (with which I was less familiar), and a couple of new ones from the forthcoming album (including my new favorite single, "Awake")

Stage:

• Like Beacon, they projected artistic video/imagery onto the stage and back screen throughout the show

Observations:

• Definitely more of a performance than watching Beacon - Scott (the real brains behind everything) plays a little guitar/synthesizer/knob-twiddling, while the other two play the guitar/bass and drums
• They do a pretty good job with their live renditions

Rating: 4.5/5

Animal Collective @ The Pageant (10/25/2013)

Opener:

• Deradoorian.  Not particularly fond.

Setlist:

• Seemed like they mixed in stuff from a bunch of their albums.  Considering that I really only like (and am familiar with) their last two albums, despite having them all, I coulda done without some of it.  But my BIGGEST complaint is that they didn't play their best song - "My Girls".

Stage:

• Blow-up lighted semi-arch things with video projection the whole time.  Interesting.

Observations:

• Geologist wears a head lamp while performing.
• Most of the song transitions/intros/outros were too long for my taste, especially the glitchy ones.
• Their live sound doesn't quite match the studio magic.

High/low-lights:

• The live version of "Brother Sport" is apparently a dance party.
• I was literally dumbfounded when they closed the encore without having played "My Girls".

Rating: 3.8/5

Sigur Rós @ Fox Theatre (10/1/2013)

Opener:

• Juliana Barwick is too mellow for my taste.  But she at least has a good voice.

Setlist:

• Lots of songs from Kveikur, which was a good thing, since it's probably my second favorite album of theirs.  Three of my all time favorites from Takk... (their best album) - Glósóli, Hoppípolla, and Sæglópur.  None from Ágætis byrjun.  Track 1, and maybe Track 8, from ().  A couple from Valtari.  And one song - Festival (the closer) - from Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.

Observations:

• Jónsi really loves playing his guitar with a bow.
• The crowd sat for most of the show, but stood up for the crescendo of a couple of songs.  It was a little awkward, especially when we all sat back down.  A couple of people tried to keep up the energy by standing and dancing toward the end.

 High/low-lights:

• The highlights were many.  The band (including the many backing musicians) is pretty good at replicating the studio sounds live.
• They include all the extended outros from the songs in their live performance.  This could be viewed as a good or bad thing.
• The Fox is a visually stunning place to see a show.  However, I feel like the acoustics messed with a couple of songs a tiny bit.

Rating: 4.7/5

Mobile apps to make your (first world) life better

Perhaps the last thing the Internet needs right now is another list of app recommendations - you can easily find more comprehensive lists with a simple web search.  But in case you want to get *my* take on things (this general topic has come up with a couple of my friends recently) or you don't keep up with sites like Lifehacker, I'll post some of the apps that I use to get things done.  These are geared toward Android (I'm currently rolling with the Nexus 4 and both generations of the Nexus 7), but most of these (or similar) can be found on iOS and perhaps Windows Phone.

---

Google Authenticator - Free

I set up two-factor authentication on all my accounts that support it, and pretty much everybody (except Twitter - which I don't actually have an account for, but their two-factor scheme is pretty novel) uses Time-based One-time Password (TOTP) for it.  Apps like Google Authenticator and Authy make managing your accounts with TOTP two-step verification super easy.  If you use long and distinct pseudorandom passwords (see KeePassDroid entry below) for your online accounts, then you're probably fine.  But two-factor authentication may (I'm less convinced than I used to be) add some extra protection that could put your mind at ease.


AutomateIt - Free or $1.99

Some would argue that Tasker is the premier mobile automation app, but it does not offer a free version.  AutomateIt is probably not as powerful, but the freemium model it uses makes it a bit more attractive.  For the uninitiated, these apps allow you to set up rules so that your phone performs certain actions when specific events occur.  For example, my favorite pair of rules use my phone's coarse location data (i.e., w/o even turning on GPS) to disable WiFi when I leave home and enable WiFi when I return.  This conserves battery power in both instances because WiFi is more efficient for data transfer than cellular when you're connected, but your phone wastes power by searching for WiFi networks when you're not around a network that you can connect to.

There are battery management apps, e.g., Juice Defender, that provide/use more complex rules in this arena, but I prefer general automation apps because they provide benefits outside just power management.  Triggers can be include battery level, time, e-mail, SMS, NFC, GPS, bluetooth, WiFi, weather, and many others.  Actions can include notifications, changing settings, launching apps, and others.


ES File Explorer - Free

There are many apps that take advantage of the access that Android gives to the underlying file system, and this app is a prime example.  This app, however, is much more than a file explorer, as it includes a cloud storage client and an FTP client.  Another good alternative (which I tried ages ago, but chose this one over it) is ASTRO File Manager.


Evernote - Free

In case you've been living under a rock...  This is probably the most robust cross-platform note (and more) taking application out there.  It also integrates well with many other apps and services.


Google+ Hangouts - Free

There are other worthy video chat apps out there - some even cross-platform - but this one is cross-platform and offers group chats for free.


HD Widgets - $1.99

The main reason I installed this app was to get a lock screen weather widget that shows a multi-day forecast.  But then I ended up trashing the other widgets on my main home screen and using widgets from this app instead.  All of its widgets, whether on the lock screen or the home screen, are fully customizable with options ranging from time to weather to a veritable cornucopia of quick settings toggles.  While this app takes the cake in terms of customizable widgets, I've also read good things about Beautiful Widgets (available in free and pro versions).


KeePassDroid - Free

If you take online security seriously, you should use distinct pseudorandom passwords for each of your accounts that you care about.  This means that you either better have an amazing memory or you should use a password manager (and preferably one that can generate random passwords for you).  The idea with a password manager is that it encrypts and stores your various passwords, so you only have to remember one (hopefully very long and random) password.  You can then sync your encrypted password database among your various (some potentially mobile) devices, each with a program or app that can decrypt the database for you when you provide the appropriate password.  There's more to be said about password management, but that should suffice in this setting.

I use KeePass because you can use it to do all this for free, though it requires a bit of setup.  There are easier options out there, such as LastPass and 1Password, but their services cost money.


Mint - Free

This is mostly a way for me to sneak in a recommendation for Mint - a free personal finance management service that you can use to get a holistic view of all your financial accounts.  Since I have all my bank accounts, credit cards, 401K, and real estate property hooked into it, I can easily determine my net worth and see how it changes over time.  You can also track your spending relative to budgets that you set, as well as set up savings goals.  It doesn't hurt that the mobile app is pretty fantastic as well.


Google Play Music - Free, though All Access requires a subscription

You can use it like iTunes Match, except for free, or like Spotify (in which case you pay a subscription fee).  I wouldn't recommend switching if you already use Spotify or Rdio, but it may be a better option if you haven't yet made a decision.


Pocket Casts - $3.99

Hands-down the best podcast management app out there.  But you pay a (relative) premium for that.  This app is the main enabler for me getting back into podcasts.


ringPod - Free

A simple and powerful ringtone editor - I used it to make ringtones and notifications from some of my favorite songs.  It's a simplified version of Ringtone Maker that doesn't require access to your contacts.  If you want to be able to set ringtones for contacts within the app itself, you can give that a shot.


Shush! - Free

If you're like me (or at least like I used to be), your phone is unintentionally on silent/vibrate most of the time because you often forget to turn the ringer back on after going somewhere that requires silencing it.  Fortunately, this app can hook into the Android system so that whenever you turn the ringer off (or put it on vibrate) it prompts you for a duration of time to keep the ringer off.  So sometime after you get out of that meeting, movie, or whatever, it will automatically turn your ringer back on, if you haven't already.


Slice - Free

Slice is a service that hooks into your mailbox to figure out when you've made online purchases.  It then extracts shipping information from your confirmation e-mails and the app can notify you when your packages are shipped and/or delivered.  The potential worry is that you are giving a third party access to your e-mail.  There are alternatives - Google Now can also hook into e-mails and give package notifications, but that works for GMail only.  Hotmail/Live/Outlook.com can offer quick access to tracking info from the shipment confirmation, but you must find/open that e-mail first.


Slider Widget - Free

This simple widget offers quick access to the various volume settings (ringtone, media, notification, alarm, system, voice call) in the Android OS without having to go hunt for them in various settings menus.  It also includes a slider for display brightness.  Not too fancy, but quite useful at times.


SugarSync - Free, though some storage options cost money

This is another case of me sneaking in a service recommendation.  There are quite a few quite good cloud storage options out there, and I've tried a good number of them (SkyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and others).  The two main reasons that I eventually settled on SugarSync (for now, at least) are:

• The ability to sync arbitrary folders on your computer.  Most other cloud storage services only sync items in a certain folder in the filesystem.  For example, I have all my data on my PC on a separate hard drive from the OS.  In order to sync these files using the other services, I had to either use another program to sync the real data files with copies in the cloud sync folder, or use symbolic links in the cloud sync folder to the real data folders.  Each of these workarounds had its issues, though the latter was preferable to the former.
• File versioning - SugarSync keeps the last 5 versions of synced files, in case you do something bad and need to restore an old version.  Dropbox keeps 30 days of history, which may be better or worse depending on the situation, but is at least pretty good.  SkyDrive only offers version history on Microsoft documents, but does include a recycle bin for deleted files.  Similarly, Google Drive only provides versioning for Google Docs.

Despite these advantages, it may not be worth switching if you already use a cloud storage service that works for you.  It is also worth noting that all these cloud services provide pretty good mobile apps. 


Tasks - Free or $0.99

If you use the task functionality in Google Calendar and/or GMail, then this app is among the best mobile companions - its only essential function is providing a nice interface to Google's tasks.  Both versions offer the same functionality, but the free version is ad supported.  There is quite a bit of competition in this category, though - there are other, more full-featured, task management apps that also offer synchronization with Google: Any.do, Astrid, and GTasks are examples.  Honorable mention also goes to Calendar++, which provides an amazing interface that integrates Google's calendar and task functionality (basically, what the Google Calendar app *should* be) except for one fatal flaw - it destroys your battery life for some reason.


TripIt - Free

TripIt is a nifty travel organization service that works by having you forward your flight/hotel/car/event/etc confirmation e-mails to them.  It automatically organizes everything into an itinerary for you.  They also provide a nice mobile app.


Wifi Analyzer - Free

This is a handy tool for troubleshooting congested WiFi networks or helping configure WiFi networks to avoid interference with other nearby networks.  It shows graphs that indicate what channels nearby networks are using in addition to their signal strength.

---

So there's my list.  If you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to let me know via either comment or direct message.