arsy

32 Years Old

2008-08-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

I turned 32 years old yesterday. With a pause for reflection I noted that I'm grateful for the choices I've made and the lessons I've learned along the way. I'm grateful for a family that I'm closer with than before and friends who are true.

32 is a significant number for computers. In the computer world 32 bit processors was a leap in computing power and 32 bit memory addressing was a leap in storage.

32 years is what I realistically think will be a third of my life span. 32 years of experience with knowledge makes me feel confident. 32 years of learning about myself will open me up to learn more about others.

Happy birthday

More in the news for 8tracks

2008-08-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

The numbers are still climbing. Since yesterday we've had a couple hundred mixes created by our users. Here's a recent interview from the Wired Blog:

Wired.com: Can you give me some sort of idea how widely/quickly 8tracks is being adopted?

Porter: 8tracks is still very small but growing rapidly. According to Google Analytics, we've attracted some 16,000 uniques over the last 30 days, the vast majority of which has come since Aug 16th, when Silicon Alley Insider ran a story on us.

Interview: David Porter, founder of 8tracks.

Imagine having access to thousands on tiny radio stations. Many more niches of music than you can ever imagine. This is what 8tracks is delivering.

Here are some cool mixes I've been listening to:

albertart's Jazz Revolution mix

Kiss with a Fist mix

Nhyrvana's Late Summer Chillout

More news about 8tracks

2008-08-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

"Our vote: What a great service. 8tracks strikes us as well-thought out company with a strong strategic plan — and, most important to you, a strong end-user benefit. We hope its model will survive what’s sure to be an incoming rush of users, and thus an upcoming increase in royalties. The guys behind it seem to know what they’re doing, though, so we’ll hope their vision is as solid as it sounds. I, for one, will definitely be returning to use this service again." -- INQUISITR

Nice write up about our baby: 8tracks

Tribute to Leroi Moore

2008-08-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Leroi Moore was a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band. He recently passed away due to complications from an ATV accident.

In memory, I created a tribute mix on 8tracks:

http://8tracks.com/arsy/tribute-to-leroi-moore

8tracks example

2008-08-18T17:54:00.001-07:00

Relating to my post yesterday about how sharing music benefits both listeners and artists:

Thanks Fred - great mix, would love to have the tracks linked to a DRM free purchase option. I have been searching around trying to find where I can dl a few of these.

- Nathaniel's comment on Fred Wilson's Mix

8tracks Notícia

2008-08-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

8tracks was in the news this weekend:

8Tracks: A Free, Legal Music Service We Love

But our favorite new service has taken a smart middle ground. 8tracks lets you listen to digital mix tapes that you or anyone else has made, filled with any music you can think of, as long as someone has loaded it into the system. And while founder David Porter, a veteran of online radio service Live365, hasn't made a single deal with a music label, it's all totally legal.

and

Learning To Live With Less: Constraints, Rules And Web Startups

David Porter, the founder of 8tracks, has been in the web music business for a long time and is intimately familiar with the rules (ie constraints). So he built a streaming music service that enforces the definitions of "internet radio".

It's exciting to be a part of change. I believe David's classy and legal approach will stand strong. The concept of sharing music is natural. Equally important, sharing helps artists with exposure. 8tracks can be a pivotal mechanism to make this happen.

8tracks is official!

2008-08-10T20:09:00.001-07:00

Friday we celebrated the launch of 8tracks in NYC!

Under a license that allows us to stream music, our service allows you to upload your mp3's to create a mix. You can share that mix with your friends through email or other ways like your myspace page.

As a listener it's a great way to discover new music. You can tune in to hundreds of mixes for free. Here are a few examples:

joemiller's Afrobeat mix

LIFE FOR SALE

Nothing but a 'G' thang

Mood to Cuba

Songs that make you feel better

8tracks write up on Thrillist

2008-07-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

"A good mixtape can say so many things -- you've got a powerful radar for unknown bands, you've got a powerful radar for hair metal, you want to make out -- but the message is always undermined by an awkward exchange that leaves the giftee thinking you want to make out. Send a link instead, with 8tracks." -- thrillist

This morning 8tracks was mentioned in Thrillist. Our team worked hard to meet this first push of invites.

Remember, drop me a line (caetano -at- gmail.com) if you want a prelaunch invite.

Jazz Born Again

2008-07-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

What is 8tracks?

2008-07-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to post a little bit about a project I'm working on:

8tracks is a simple way for people to share and discover music through an online mix — a short playlist containing at least 30 minutes, roughly 8 tracks, of music.

People can do 2 things on 8tracks: listen to a mix, or create a mix. Listeners can search for a mix by artist or genre, stream it in a legal, radio-style manner, and follow others who make compelling mixes. DJs upload MP3s or select tracks from the 8tracks library to craft a playlist, add context with description and art, and publish their mix on 8tracks.com and a personal webpage.

Jazz Band

2008-07-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

The Korsgaden's and I played at my cousin's wedding back in June. It turned out really well. I hope to play more of these.

More time in Brazil

2008-07-16T06:57:00.001-07:00

I want to spend more time here. MUCH more time.

With a virtual office I think that might be possible. Using tools like Skype this becomes a reality. Luckily, I've been working and conversing with clients from abroad.

I've posted more pictures at: http://arsy.tumblr.com (RSS)

Tijuca, Rio De Janerio, Brazil

2008-07-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

It's something like cool spring day in California.

I arrived in Brazil last week and took the first few days to soak it up before blogging about it. There's a way here that I can't quite explain. But's different than any other place I've been.

It's a beautiful city with a vibrant heart beat. The people are very warm of course. You'll notice that as strangers will tend to converse given any opportunity. But you won't find any of them fooled. They are always looking to make a move or prevent one.

I'm staying with my cousins. They are established in the area and very in tune to what's going on (pun intended). My "tia" is a travel guide for corporate visitors from America and my cousin is a software development manager for EDS Brazil.

Some cool things on the agenda in addition to a few sites include a visit to EDS Brazil and a bossa nova lesson from a musician who was part of the movement.

The first day I arrived, in true Portugese style, we had a feast. About 20 people showed up. After the meal the living room turned into a music studio with instruments galore. We played all kinds of crazy stuff, bossa novas, sambas, american rock? Later in the night my cousin Terza took me out for drinks.

I want to write about the Carioca (person from Rio) style of living but I don't have all the ideas formulated yet. This is it for now.

8tracks mix: jazz born again

2008-07-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

A mix of today's artists playing great jazz and reviving it from the death-by-smooth-jazz status it was once at.

Change for America

2008-06-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country

- President John F. Kennedy, delivered in 1961

I think the biggest downfall for any culture or society is a breakdown of values. Without the ability to come together on any foundation how can there be progress, movement, or stability?

I think America is in disarray. I find many destructive lines drawn between religion, class, race, and beliefs. To much ignorance to the real issues of war, health, family, and business. Some how between the lines drawn, the sides taken, and the ignorance of the issues America is broken.

This is not something that should be left up to the government to fix. It's a problem for the people to solve. But to start we need awareness.

I'm not big on politics but I've been paying lots of attention to Barack Obama. Everything up to now shows me that he's just the kind of person we need to build this awareness. It's what America needs.

Even if you don't vote, don't vote democrat, or don't care...listen to this message:

Musica Forte

2008-06-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

One thing that drives me crazy about a lot of music recorded today is the lack of dynamics. Through the song the volume of all instruments are pegged. I feel like the song is shouting at me. If I change the station, wham! Another song shouting at me.

"In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but also to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic (staccato, legato etc.) or functional (velocity). The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics." - wikipedia

Nude (radiohead cover)

2008-06-06T13:20:00.001-07:00

Big Ideas (Don't get any) from 1030 on Vimeo.

Kalisty

2008-05-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

My past Pelco manager, Barry, has released a pretty cool social networking service called Kalisty:

"Kalisty is a collaborative tool that lets you organize and share through the use of simple Lists.
You can keep private lists, share them with others, collaborate with friends, and make your lists public so anyone can watch or add to them."

Here's a neat list:

One App A Day For the Month Of May for iPhone

Mix Tape Mastery

2008-05-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

Remember how fun it was to make mix tapes and CD's?

Here's some quotes:

"The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules." - John Cusack, High Fidelity

"Picture this: You're in love. Great. Everything's perfect. Well, at least that's what you think in the beginning. Slowly you'll realize there is a missing void, a certain something begging to fart out. And what's worse is that this certain something is tearing up your relationship. So what is it and how can you fix your relationship? It's a mix tape is what it is, and you can start by making one." - How to Make the Perfect Mix Tape

Film Scenes:

Boogie Nights has the scene featuring the tape titled "awesome mix," a utterly warped scene with Night Ranger blasting in the the backgound. Side A of the mix ends abruptly mid-song (don't you hate that?) adding tension to an already tense scene. - The Art of the Mix Tape

Data Centers Pollute more than Airlines

2008-05-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a twist:

"The world’s data centers are projected to surpass the airline industry as a greenhouse gas polluter by 2020, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co." -nytimes

I think this is very interesting. As programmers we've been preaching about trading CPU cycles for programmer cycles. Meaning, why write efficient code (uses less servers for the same amount of process) when we can use higher level languages to write (less efficient) code.

These tiny tradeoffs become huge factors when scaled up.

At a $100 million per data center could they factor in solar cells?

eSolar describes its approach as a "market disrupting solar thermal power plant technology." Generation can be scaled from 25MW to over 500MW at energy prices competitive with traditional fossil fuels. The company, which ios based in Pasadena, Calif., intends to provide modular solar power plants that scale in increments of 25 megawatts.

Buy tickets for The Bad Plus + Lunchbox in Visalia

2008-04-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hey friends,

As you might know, one of my favorite band, The Bad Plus, is coming to Visalia's Cellar Door on May 16th.

Here's a description from Last.fm:

The Bad Plus are a jazz piano trio consisting of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King. The three musicians first played together in 1989, but didn’t come together as an established act until 2000. Perhaps to make up for lost time, they proceeded to record their first album, a self-titled effort released on Fresh Sound, after playing only three gigs together

Opening for them is a group I play bass for called Lunchbox. The group blends elements of jazz, rock, and funk to create a thick sound scape of instrumental music.

If you have the night open I'd would love to see you come down. Tickets are expected to sell fast. You can purchase your tickets from Ticketmaster for $10.

Shift to Tumblr

2008-04-14T23:34:00.001-07:00

I've started a Tumblr log and like it for the sake of simplicity and integration with lots of other services.

Feel free to check it out: arsy.tumblr.com

pseudo communities

2008-04-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Cass Writes:

"... I think in some cases gated communities are communities -- but they are communities unto themselves. To me they feel Isolated, cutoff, a walled-off patch from the greater community-at-large. It doesn't feel like they add to the vibrancy of a town."

I've been obsessing with this concept for some time. We're all connected, at the very least as humans. As humans our most horrific form of destruction is the "wall". Walls of class, society, religion, expression, or race.

Walls divide and destroy respect for diversity.

2008 Visalia Blues Brews and BBQ

2008-04-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends! This friday, April 4th, is the first Visalia Blues, Brews, and BBQ event on Main Street. Come down, have a drink, and hang out.

The Mercury Blues Band is kicking off this year's first friday of the month series. We're going to have shirts and CD's for sale.

We'd love to see you!

The Bad Plus on Conan

2008-03-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Bad Plus played on Conan recently*. I love their sense of harmony as well as their compositions. I've been listening to them a lot since finding out about them. Great band.

Btw, our band, Lunchbox, is opening for them at the Cellar Door here in Visalia on May 16th.

* Watch the Mar 14th Episode