jeffguthrie.com

Jeff June 28th, 2007

Why I’m Not Getting an iPhone : Gina Hughes : Yahoo! Tech

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

• Computers , Internet , Mobile
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Jeff June 26th, 2007

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/Default.asp?cc=1

• Computers , Flash , Internet
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Jeff June 15th, 2007

I cannot stand IVR systems when I call in to get help.  Give me the number pushing any day (as long as I can press 0 to speak to someone).  If you hate them as much as I do, lifehack.org came up with a good article to talk to a person immediately after calling.

• Computers , Life , Vent
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Jeff May 16th, 2007

We have been doing quite a bit of research into mobile development at work and the various different platforms that are out there.  I stumbled across this site somehow and noticed that he had some cool backgrounds/screensavers for mobile phones written in flash.  I have the Nokia 5300 which has Flash lite 2.0 installed and after getting the Nokia software installed, I downloaded a few backgrounds and loaded em up.  They are really cool!  Great work Final Home!  Check them out.

They may have inspired me to create a few of my own but we shall see how that goes.  I have Flash 8 installed at home and CS3 at work which has the Device Studio that makes it real easy to test apps on.  One of these days right?

• Computers , Flash Lite , Internet
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Jeff April 18th, 2007

So I dont usually do these sorts of things but I think it is really lame what our politicians are trying to do to music and the internet. The website it asks you to visit is actually really easy to send a message from. It takes about a minute to send an email and a fax to your states politicians. You can also print out a letter that all you need to do is sign and send in. Anyway, here is the text of the email that was sent out to all Pandora users:

Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,

I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.

I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

tim_signature.jpg
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

[EDIT]

Talk about a great turn around from Representative Adam Smith. It has been just a few hours since I sent in my email generated from the great tool above and below is a copy of what he said. And I agree with Tim, it is going to get VERY expensive…

April 18, 2007

Jeff Guthrie
6315 111th Avenue East
Puyallup, Washington 98372

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for contacting me in regards to Internet radio and a
decision by the Copyright Royalty Board. I appreciate you taking
the time to share your thoughts with me on this issue.

The Copyright Royalty Board was established in 2004 by the
Copyright Royalty Board and Distribution Reform Act. The board
is a panel of three Copyright Royalty Judges who determine rates
and terms for the copyright statutory licenses and make
determinations on the distribution of statutory license royalties
collected by the Copyright Office. The Copyright Royalty Judges
are full-time employees of the Library of Congress who are
appointed for six-year terms with an opportunity for
reappointment.

As you may know, in 2002, the Recording Industry Association of
America and Internet radio stations negotiated a royalty agreement
which required that radio stations pay performers a percentage of
the station’s revenue. On March 2, 2007, the Copyright Royalty
Board announced that royalty rates will be changed from a
percentage of revenue to a per-song, per-listener fee. Under this
decision, stations will be charged $.0008 per song per listener for
2006 as the ruling is retroactive. The rates will then increase to
$.0011 for 2007, $.0014 for 2009, and $.0019 for 2010. These new
rates will be applied to Internet radio stations, digital music
stations, and traditional broadcast stations that also stream their
programs on the Internet.

As a Member of Congress, I will closely examine this complex
issue. In the weeks and months that lie ahead, members of the
various House and Senate committees with jurisdiction on this
issue will be reviewing the implications of the Copyright Royalty
Board’s ruling.

Please be assured that I understand the value of Internet radio.
During my time in Congress I have focused on protecting the
interests of consumers while working to make sure the federal
government doesn’t “rush to regulate,” and do harm to many
innovative technologies. Should any legislation be introduced
which addresses the royalty rates which Internet radio stations pay,
I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with
me on this issue. Should you have any additional questions,
comments, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,

Adam Smith
Member of Congress

If you’d like to receive occasional e-mail updates from
Congressman Adam Smith, please click here -
http://www.house.gov/adamsmith/IMA/newsletter.shtml.

[EDIT] Murray finally responded today. (26th of April)

Dear Mr. Guthrie:

Thank you for contacting me regarding music royalty rates and how they affect Internet radio. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue.

As you know, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) issued a ruling on March 9, 2007 that established a new structure of rates to be paid by commercial and noncommercial Internet radio webcasters. For commercial Internet radio webcasters, the CRB did not include any exceptions for “small” webcasters, or webcasters with small audiences. The CRB reasoned that no party had presented any evidence that could be used to create a different rate structure for “large” and “small” webcasters. As a result, all webcasters, regardless of their listening audience, will be subject to the new rates.

This ruling will affect many people who enjoy and listen to Internet radio, and many groups are informing Congress how this decision will affect their lives. I support open access for all consumers to the Internet, as well as efforts that increase innovation and competition on the Internet.

It is very likely that this issue will come up for consideration in the 110th Congress in order to deal with many different aspects of the CRB’s decision. If legislation is introduced, it will likely be considered in the Judiciary Committee, which I do not sit on. Rest assured, should legislation on this issue come up for debate in the full Senate, I will keep your views in mind.

Sincerely,

Patty Murray
United States Senator

P.S. I’d like to invite you to receive Patty Murray’s Washington View, my weekly legislative update by e-mail. If you are interested in receiving my update, please sign up here: http://murray.senate.gov/updates.

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Jeff April 13th, 2007

Fun site to listen to music for free.  Kinda nice because you can discover new songs and artists.  Check it out.

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Jeff April 11th, 2007

Aha!  I always hated how anything downloaded from Itunes made it so you couldnt play the stupid mp4a file on anything but an IPOD.  Seeing as how I got a new phone that has a gig of space for mp3’s I needed a converter.  Free Audio Pack to the rescue!  It converts those ridiculous files (as well as many others) to mp3s that I can load onto my phone or burn to an mp3 cd to play in my car.  The price was right too.  My summary:  Bo ya.

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Jeff March 26th, 2007

I was skimming the channels the other night and came across this show “40 GREATEST INTERNET SUPERSTARS“

Most people have probably heard about a lot of these guys (Star Wars Kid, Numa Numa guy, and the ninja dude) and it was funny to hear how many have contracts, agents, and are doing quite well for themselves.

I was really sad to see that the Star Wars Kid couldnt take advantage of his popularity! Sounded like he was trying to hide from all the videos and attention and sued the guys that put the video on the internet. If he rolled with it, he could probably be in music videos, commercials, etc… He could be like Hung! I mean check out that guys website, he has customized e-greetings for crying out loud!

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Jeff March 14th, 2007

Tivo2dvd

If any of you Tivo owners out their are linux users, this is great news for you. Get all your tivo recordings burned onto a dvd. Can us Windows users get some love too?

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Jeff January 18th, 2007

Well after a long hard battle with Quicken, I think I finally have it figured out.  After much reading of the help file (most applications help systems have come a long way!) and reading/posting on their support forum, I am worken it!  I am also thankful that it looks like it was actually worth the hours spent getting it to work as it certainly beats the Excel spreadsheet I was using for budgeting.
If I can pass on one huge ‘n helpful tip for you Bank of America people (such as me) it is this: Do NOT sign up for their one step update during Quicken’s install as it will mess up your accounts and place transactions from one account in another and vice versa.  Instead, I would highly recommend performing the following steps to save you a bunch of time.  (after you have installed it)

1. Create your individual accounts in Quicken (savings, checking etc)
2. Log in to your B of A account online
3. Go to each account that created in quicken (ie checking, savings etc)
4. Download the Quicken file
5. Open it with the Quicken tool
6. It will automatically import to each account

Do this with all of your accounts as it will save you hours of headaches trying to get the account set up within Quicken. I believe it is primarily a Bank of America issue as their computer systems are ancient. (especially if you are a member in WA or ID).  If you want a little more detail on the problem I encountered, it was that when I tried to do the one step update while installing Quicken, it told me it failed at one point but succeeded at another.  When I finally got Quicken installed, I noticed that my account balances were way off and transactions were in the wrong accounts etc.  Apparently the problem is that my checking account has an account number of 12345678 and my savings is 0012345678 and Quicken wasn’t recognizing the difference for some reason.  After banging my head on the desk for a few hours, I went to their website and got in line for tech chat.  I ended up with a guy named “Bob” from India and after he went through his 20 minutes of reading scripts to me from his computer screen, he dropped this bombshell of a great idea on me: Tell my bank to change my account numbers.

Right.

Thanks Bob!

So I hope this long post helps some of you out there that are trying to get a solid budget going and learn just how much money you are NOT saving each month. 

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