danbruno.net/blog

The Mac Mini, Apple says, is 6.5″ square and 2″ tall. Not small enough, apparently, since this guy built the thing into his kitchen wall. (via)

Great show last night. Phish’s Trey Anastasio came out for a song, as did Robert Randolph. Interestingly, the Daily News’s take on things seems to be “thank God they’re not a jamband anymore.”

EDIT: Blurry cameraphone pictures.

EDIT 2: One more insight from the concert: Trey’s “guitar face” evokes a man who has had to pee for a long time and is currently relieving himself. Exhibit A.

OC Weekly has a helpful critical analysis of “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani:

Oooh, this my shit, this my shit
Gwen repeats this four more times. She wants to make sure that we are well acquainted with her shit.

I heard that you were talking shit
And you didn’t think that I would hear it
Gwen has been the victim of some slanderous high school gossip, and she doesn’t appreciate it. Gwen is 35 years old sliding into MILF status at this point, but we’ll grant her some poetic license.

A short short story from Filthy, funny, flawed, gorgeous:

They will forget everything she ever did for them. How she would stay up late until they were all home. How she would wait until they were all served before sitting down to eat. Or how she would fast so that they may pass an exam or get a good wife or not get chicken pox. They will remember what a good cook she was and how they miss her food.

And that’s it. There are dozens more on the site. (via)

Dave Matthews Band is the gateway drug of popular music. They’re pop enough to be mainstream and jamband enough to be hippie, and there are enough nods to other genres (jazz, African, rock) to subtly broaden the listener’s taste. 1994’s Under the Table and Dreaming single-handedly launched me out of the MTV world and into, well, music that sucks less.

Tomorrow I’m seeing DMB for the first time in three years. Their studio albums seem to be receding into pop, but the concert setlists have remained surprisingly innovative. (To see what I mean, and for a taste of the fan community, look at the meticulously edited DMB Almanac.) It should be a blast.

Nighthawks is a photoblog that aggregates the best of Flickr’s night shots. It’s only three days old but there are already some phenomenal pictures in there. (via)

It looks like Gap and Apple are planning to team up for a promotion. From August 8th to August 31st, if you try on a pair of Gap jeans, you get a free iTunes Music Store song.

“The relationship between jeans and music is a hallmark of Gap’s identity, so we’re thrilled to team up with iTunes to bring this connection to life for our customers,” Jeff Jones, executive vice president of Gap marketing, said in a statement.

I know that when I think Gap, I think “relationship between jeans and music.” Why, just the other day I decided that rock music sounded better with carpenter jeans and I nearly ran to the mall in excitement.

I love Flickr, as you can tell if you read this site with any regularity, but it’s not perfect. You can’t organize photosets beyond one level (i.e., no sets within sets), the advanced search is lacking, and you can’t yet order prints like you can with other picture-hosting sites.

To remedy that last problem, you can use this Greasemonkey script to order prints of your Flickr photos…through Shutterfly! Oooh, aaah.

Regarding the subsets and better searching, Flickr staffers have said they’re working on both. Not perfect yet, I guess.

I hear good things about Rogue Amoeba’s software. I haven’t bought or tried any (yet), but it does look like they have some cool stuff. I’ll post more if and when I try out one of their programs.

more bouncy balls

Originally uploaded by sem.

This looks like fun, eh? (This is me testing out Flickr’s post to blog feature.)

From an IM conversation with Matt T:

Matt: i sent out a bunch of letters at work (about 70 or 90, i guess)
Matt: and about 10 of the addresses were wrong
Matt: and the post office sent them back
Matt: and they normally checked off on a list why the address was wrong
Matt: or they wrote NSN (no such number)
Matt: but then i noticed on one envelope that the address must have been really screwed up because the only thing they did was cross it out and write WTF

Coolest invention ever?

The Slingbox is a compact and elegantly designed, state-of-the-art electronic device that connects to the back of your TV. It redirects, or “placeshifts,” the TV signal from your cable box, satellite receiver, or digital video recorder (DVR) to your computer or laptop of choice, no matter your location — so long as you have a high-speed Internet connection.

The bad news: you need to hook it up to a router, and it costs $250. Also, it may be on questionable legal ground; then again, maybe not, since it would presumably stream the commercials as well as the shows. The over-the-net broadcasting would likely get you in trouble, though. (via)

Attention jamband fans: WFUV is broadcasting a Phish retrospective Wednesday night at 9. If you’re in the NYC metropolitan area, tune in to 90.7 FM; if not, you can try the stream on their website, but I don’t know if they’ll be able to play it because of the DMCA.

Since it looks like the author already took care of the obligatory Who reference: a blind 17-year-old Nebraskan is rocking the local arcade with his Soul Calibur skills. Aside from lots of practice and listening for sound cues, he has no explanation. (via)

If I ever make it to the rest of the United States — aside from Iowa and Michigan, I’ve haven’t been anywhere outside of this coast — I’ll need to take this list with me so that I have something to eat. (via)