Leave that bulky desktop battery charger at home - flip the lid on these clever AA batteries and charge over USB using the in-built, standard USB port! A must-have for digital cameras and other devices still using AA cells.
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So you wanna be a digital worker? Here’s what you need to know:
Search Engines - Know your search engines and what they’re good for. Google, Yahoo, Live(MSN), Answers.com, A9, Technorati, and delicious all search in different ways and in some cases search a very specific catalogue of information. Try doing the same search on each of them and you’ll notice that the responses you get aren’t all the same. Know what their strengths and weaknesses are, how to use the advanced search like searching in a specific language, removing or requiring keywords, and searching over a period of time. A9 is meant for the text of books, Technorati for blogs, and delicious for user ranked results.
Blogs - Blogs are your your doorway into the minds of experts and amateurs alike. You should know how to find them, and have at least a few blogs a day that you read related to your sector. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a technology that allows you to be notified anytime there’s a new entry from your blogroll. Use RSS aggregators (nothing to do with alligators) to easily read all of your blogs from one place, less clicking around makes more effective use of your time. I really like NetVibes (which does a whole lot more than RSS including my podcast!) as an all in one website, or Sage as a Mozilla Firefox extension. If you’re still using Internet Explorer all the time, you consider your free time worthless and your friends are probably just not that into you anymore.
Tagging - The World Wide Web according to you. With certain tools like del.icio.us and diigo you can apply certain keywords, or tags, to pages that you visit. That way next time you want to find the page, you can search by the tags that you labeled it with. If you find several pages that would work well for a certain client, you could tag them with the client’s name. Have pages you want to share with certain friends, tag pages with their names. Both sites keep track of all your searches, and they also let you share your pages with friends. I recommend using diigo because you can highlight and comment certain parts of web pages… you’ll see later.
Remember that there’s a lot of crap on the net in the form of pornography, rants, and people who think they are worth looking at. They’re not, and you’re probably wishing that you hadn’t clicked on that pornography link right now aren’t you. It’s easy to get distracted is my point. Like a newspaper editor, you’ve got to keep in mind several principles to make sure that you get the information that’s best suited to your audience whether that’s your boss, your client, or your spouse. Always keep these in mind when searching for info: timeliness, impact, proximity, trends, and audience.
So now that you have this huge wealth of information at your fingertips, how are you going to get it all together to make your point? Well if you’re using diigo, you can highlight and comment on web pages, a technique called social annotation. Even your highlights can have notes attached to them. You can also forward your annotations onto other people via e-mail. Your other option is a tool called Wizlite, but this name reminds of a rhyme about staying away from electric fences - besides wouldn’t you rather one tool to do it all? Your other other option is to copy and paste into Word. Sissy.
That’s a good primer on what tools you should have and use on a frequent basis. If you’ve got questions or want to suggest something else feel free to e-mail me at ME at ACADEMIK.ORG
This week on the show - more fun than midget tossing, err… maybe. A sundry mix of dance, rock, rap, and mellow yellow. Don’t go to the Folsom Street Fair if you can avoid it. Or unless you are male and looking for a same sex partner…or you’re straight and female and you want to see buff oily guys doing various inappropriate for public viewing acts like masturbating, whipping, and peeing. Yes. There was a golden shower booth. Blech.
Track - Artist
Intro - Basement Jaxx
Dream Machine (Downtempo Mix) - Mark Farina featuring Sean Hayes
Olvidela Compa - Nortec Collective
DARE (Soulwax Remix) - Gorillaz
She’s Good for Business - MSTRKRFT
Take Me Back to Your House - Basement Jaxx
Push - Pharoahe Monch
Down with Prince - Hot Chip
30 Day Hump - Evamore
Calling All Cars - Sean Hayes
Not California - Hem
You Belong to Me - The 88
As always, let me know what you think! Have a new song that’s really speaking to you at the moment. Let me know and set the music free so that everyone can enjoy!
Friday night was a big night.
1 Long Island Iced Tea + 1 Jack on the Rox + 1 Red Bull + 1 Ticket to 2 Many DJs/Soulwax + 2 friends + 1 random guy + 1 club manager’s sister + 2 Many DJs = magnificence
Friday night I was out at Cellar in SF for a friend’s good bye party. Cellar rocks because their happy hour includes $1-$2 Coronas depending on what time you get there. Then it was off to Mezzanine for Soulwax + 2 Many Djs with a French guy I met named Solon at Cellar and my friend Paul and his date. We arrive at Mezzanine for the first time and the place is really well laid out - big enough to accomodate a roomful of screaming fans and still have room in the back to dance in the fashion and style that I’m accustomed -at least 5 ft diameter in space. There’s also an upstairs that has a decent view of the stage from everywhere upstairs.
As the night progresses people move from the lounges upstairs down to the dance floor… Soulwax comes out in all white - a drummer, a guitarist, and 2 keyboard/synth guys proceed to rock me until I’m not sure where I am or if I have taken any illegal drugs - surely it must be illegal to feel this good. 45 minutes or so passes and I wander upstairs to watch the crowd and generally catch my breath.
I’m bookended by a tall brunette and a cute blond. Brunette looks way too high maintenance. I should also mention that I’m wearing white pants, and my yellow Hose down, G’s up shirt. The blond, Jodie, and I start talking. She asks if I’ve been here before and what I think of the club… I’m honest and say it’s cool, but I’m not overly excited about it. Her sister helps run the club. shit. lol. She’s really cool and I find out that it’s her birthday, but that she’s being a loner and hanging out here so that she can watch the group/crowd - VIP faces the crowd, but there’s only a small bit of railing where you can see the band.
Anyone who can appreciate this type of music is good by me. We go to the VIP to meet her friends and fam and grab a drink. I grab a quick glass of red bull because I know that my energy will be soon crashing, and somehow manage to get in on a Champagne toast to the birthday girl (thanks Jill!). We talk for a little bit more and then 2 Many DJs come on. I try to get Jodie to come down to dance with me - but she’s not having any of it, strange for a birthday girl not to want to dance, content to watch from above - I make my way back down to the dance floor and begin the immense set by 2 Many DJs that hits on many of my favorite songs of the moment. Although one gripe - they played the original track by Digitalism, Zdarlight, instead of the Axwell remix - big disappointment. I want my Bucky Done Gun!
I dance my tookesh off with all the other people in the front of the club. It’s great when you know the songs that are coming because you get even more excited about the build-ups and breakdowns. I remember standing just in front of the stage yelling come on! and moving my hands front to back like I was a bull-dozer throwing the contents of my basket over the top of my head - Come on! Come ON! GIVE IT TO ME! YEEEEEAAAAHHHH! Highlights included Popper by Christopher Just, Walking Away (Tocadisco Remix) by The Egg, We are your friends (Justice Remix) and the aforementioned Zdarlight by Digitalism. And I’ve got to hand it to 2 Many Djs - there was never a moment where they weren’t doing something - playing with the sound, mixing, sampling, getting psyched. It was awesome. I went home thoroughly enthused and looking forward to the next event at Mezzanine - which I’m now a big fan of.
It always helps to know people : ) Now that the place has a face to it, I’m much more likely to go back.
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