How to Convert iTunes Song to a Ringtone
Great article over at Lifehacker on converting songs to a ringtone for the iPhone. You’ve got to be a Mac user as you have to use Garage Band as part of the iLife ‘08 suite. Doesn’t sound like there is an easy way to do it with Windows yet except using a bunch of open source stuff. Hence the reason you should get a Mac anyway.
What’s my ringtone? I chose a ringtone for Jenn using Justin Timberlake’s “LoveStoned”. Cheesy? Yeah. Do I care? Not really. We love having a good time with one another…
It’s Mike: 1-Year Anniversary
Well, exactly 1 year ago today I started writing and blogging on my own server! I’ve written 167 articles during that time frame and can say that I’ve really enjoyed keeping up with my blog. It initially started out to simply write about life, technology, and work, but grew to so much more. It ended up being more about articles on items that I’m passionate about (excluding work for obvious reasons) such as Technology, Internet, Athletics, as well as a lot about my family, pictures, and videos. So I guess I would classify my blog as more of a multimedia type experience given the videos, content, and pictures that I have published. I even had fun with some photoshop to spice things up a bit (sorry Ella, I love you though!)
I’m also amazed at all the folks that visit my site as well. While I obviously don’t get many comments (55 to date), I am often told by friends, family members, and colleagues that they visit my blog frequently. So many thanks to all of you that read it and have a glimpse of the different aspects of my life and family. We are truly blessed by it all and love sharing in our experiences.
To my Ella - You are truly a blessing in my life. Watching you grow over the past 14 months has been amazing. Words cannot express the joy that I have when I am around you and when you smile, talk, garble, yack, clap, hug, kiss, slap, and gaze at me. You are an inspiration to your Mother and I and we will always love you, teach you, care for you, be an example of God’s word to you, pray for you, and provide you the best life we are physically able to provide. You love it when I sing to you, play with you, walk and talk with you, kiss and hug on you, and read to you. Your smile, your cute little curls, and your big-blue eyes will always be forever burned in my mind.
To my Wife, Jennifer - Since the day that I met you I have loved you. You constantly amaze me with your patience, gratitude, warmth, desire for Christ, and being the best Mommy in the world. I truly could not succeed at life without you and know with out a doubt that you are in fact my soul mate. Your encouragement and voice are always on my mind, bringing peace to me daily. It’s been a joy and blessing to be married to you for 5 years, 6 months! You are my best friend, my companion, my love, by sweetheart, inspiration, and motivation in Christ. Words can’t begin to express my thanks and all I know to say is “Thank you for loving me”.
Nike + iPod > I’m a Superstar
Some of you may recall that Jennifer & Ella gave me an iPod Nano this past father’s day. What you don’t know is that I have purchased the Nike + iPod shoes/iPod adapter for the Nano. What does it do? Simple - it calculates your runs, calories burned, tracks all data on the Nike + iPod website and allows you to create challenges, join groups, and collaborate with your other Nike + iPod friends. It’s a great way to track progress and keep one accountable with running and exercising. So what’s the verdict? I love it and it works great! I’ve been using it quite a bit and have been trying to use it quite a bit, although the winter has been either wet or cold as of the past couple of months and haven’t used it as much as I’d like. For those of you that have a Nike + iPod, we should hook up and create a group together! I’m currently doing the lone-ranger thing flying solo, but would be happy to join a group.
Apple’s iTV & iPhone
With Macworld happening this week (not to mention CES), I was actually impressed with Apple’s latest offerings coming about. As most of you are aware, I’ve been looking to build a media center PC or Home Theater PC (HTPC) within the past couple of months. I was actually fixing to pull the trigger on either the VoodooPC Aria or Niveus Rainier Media PC. However, lately I’ve run into a couple of set-top box solutions, such as an amazing Helios X3000 product, that stream your media from a storage server (which I already have) and play it in high-definition over your TV. Considering that I want to mainly stream music, photos, and movies from the file server - this is looking more like the traditional path I should take. However, I decided to wait until Apple came out with their stuff as there was a rumor about the iTV coming out.
Monday Night Howdy
Here’s some recent news that’s exciting to me:
Verizon introduces multi-room DVR. Nice product made by motorola, but doesn’t allow for play-back of digital media such as movies. However, I’m sure that’s soon to change.
Good video talking about WiMax for you new.b’s. Sprint also announced a $4 MM investment into WiMax. A few weeks back we spoke about how that I believe WiMax will power the next generation ISP, which could very well be a media based firm like News Corp.
HP Comes out with Streaming media TV. Uses WiFi or ethernet from your media center PC. Not bad.
Team USA is romping again. Two words: Coach K.
Thursday Night News Round-up
What’s Hot:
Pics of MP3.com liquidation. Say good-bye to the dotcom erra.
Golden Nintendo w/ Zelda. Oh the days.
MyKey is out. Only thing is if the batteries run out, you’re toast.
Finally more iPod car integrations. About time!
Remind me, what’s YouTube’s biz strategy again? Exit, Exit, Exit…
Pretty good iPhone design. Only it will never happen.
Web-based mp3 Player; Server Upgrade
Web-based mp3 Player
As some of you know, I just implemented a flash player (FLV) on my website. It’s nothing set in stone and will probably change, but because I have my own server I plan on slamming all my music onto another partition and then stream it using a web-based mp3 player. I think I’m going to use the XSPF Web Music Player over at Sourceforge, which is flash based. I haven’t read much on it, but I’ve got about 3.5GB of mp3’s I want to put up. I especially like the fact that it’s open source, as I’m a big fan of open source. We’ll see how it does for around 750 songs. I’ll see about putting something unique in place of the iPod category.
Server Upgrade
I’m going to throw all my videos and pics online as well, so that will definitely cause for a server upgrade. The machine’s already a dual proc, but I need to upgrade the memory on it and add some more drives. I’m thinking 250GB SATA drives should do it in a raid1 configuration. I’m not sure when I will get around to it, but I’ll throw up a post when it happens.
Apple launches web-based iTunes for server admins
I love Apple’s iTunes, but they need to make a version with a web-based gui interface that resembles the same features as what’s used on the desktop. Steve, can you hear me? Holler at me.