BrianAndPamela.com

Link to Awaken the Dawn : Awaken the Dawn

I’ve been really remiss in posting.  Sorry about that.  I’ve been exceptionally busy with audio production for Awaken the Dawn (see link above).

I’ll get back soon.  Promise. 

Meanwhile: check out Zillow.com.  Housing prices are wacky.

Link to Lawrence Lessig

Larry Lessig (more about him later) has essentially told Steve Jobs to put his money where his mouth is.  After Jobs’ “blog heard round the world” telling Big Content to back off and allow iTunes to sell music unDRMed, Lessig notes that there is music on iTunes that isn’t controlled by the Big Four, including some CreativeCommons stuff where the artists actually requested that iTunes skip the DRM.  Apple refused.  Now Steve has made the pronouncement… let’s see if he follows through.  The particular artist that Lessig mentions is Colin Mutchler, who you should also check out.

Link to Apple - Thoughts on Music

I made a bold statement back in October that the only people that are inconvenienced are legitimate customers.  That people who are serious about stealing music are going to do it anyway.  I'm not by any means the only one saying it.  Bloggers have been saying it.  DefectiveByDesign has been saying it.  The EFF says it. Bill Gates said it.

Now one of the biggest names in Digital Music is saying the same .  Arguably THE biggest name in digital media distribution, Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc. released what amounts to a blog post today in which he says exactly that. (more…)

Dress Up Games

Alright, recently we launched theCaffeinated (our discussion forums) and some of you who've been there have been wondering about avatars (those little pictures to the left of our posts.) Have no fear, TheDollPlace.com is here with the DollMaker. (more…)

Link to Many Eyes : Co-Occurrences of Names in the New Testament

Some of you know, I have a soft spot for data visualization.  I love interesting ways that people come up with to show data connections.  I've mentioned this love before, and have been meaning to talk about digg swarm and digg stack for a while now.  But this latest find is even cooler… all the people of the New Testament, organized into social networks.  Guess who has the most "friends"? (more…)

Link to Awaken the Dawn : Awaken the dawn podcast #1 now live

It's been a long dry spell and I don't know if it will go on after the conference, but I'm back on the virtual air. 

I've been doing a lot of work with Grace Church of Fredericksburg audio post production lately, and we're all getting ready for the Awaken the Dawn conference which is being held at Grace in February.  Saturday night, I posted the first episode of the Awaken the Dawn podcast.  I could spend a really long blog post explaining what is Awaken the Dawn, but it's better to just point you at the website (which we're working on) and the first podcast episode.  My co-host (Missy) and I interview Steve Dornbush and find out about what ATD is all about.  Give it a listen.  You can download it, or listen online, RSS feed is coming soon.

The more observant of you will have noticed a new tab in the site menu of late.  the Caffeinated at BrianAndPamela is the latest addition to the site.  At the most basic level, it's web forums for y'all to interact with us and with one another.  What else can it be?  Well, it could be a brooch or a hat or a pterodactyl… sorry, I was channeling Airplane.  It can be what ever your little heart desires.  Just a place to chit chat, ask us questions, and contribute your two cents.  You will need to register to post… sorry about that, but as an incentive there are special members only topic areas available!  (There are also private areas for friends and family, so if you register with a weird screen name that I won't recognize, make sure you tell us who you are.) 

Link to Privately, Hollywood admits DRM isn't about piracy

Ken Fisher has a good little piece over at Ars Technca about DRM.  He's basically saying what we've all been saying for a while now.  DRM isn't about piracy for Hollywood, it's about profit. 

DRM is about nickle and diming away what used to be "fair-use".  I won't repeat all of Fisher's arguments, but quite telling is his link to a Business Week article by Ron Grover.  Grover quotes an anonymous Hollywood exec complaining that Apples DRM policies are already too lax, because you can authorize up to five devices on one iTunes account.  Quoth the exec, "His [Steve Jobs] user rules scare the heck out of us."  Why?  Because I might lend my authorization to a friend?  The way I might lend a DVD? 

I've got more to write about DRM, maybe it's time for another long DRM rant, but not today.  Lucky you.

There are tons of Online Deal aggregator. I'm going to tell you about another one… And yeah, it's got a weird name: Wubee.com.
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One of the things that differentiates many Web 2.0 sites from the "old guard" companies is their logos.  Rounder, softer, shinier, these are the marks of a Web 2.0 logo.  So here's an image that wonders, "What if the same design principles were used for logos we're all familiar with from the non-web world?"

Link to image

I especially like AT&T (subtle enhancements), The USA, 3M (mmm!), Quaker (awesome!), and UPS (beta! rofl)