GregoryBowers.com

Like many in my field, I was intrigued by the nifty “Coming Soon” page for Silverback when word started pinging around the design-o-sphere. A page with a cool parallax effect (all the rage for a few months there), an illustration of a rather nerdy-looking gorilla (by the ever-talented Jon Hicks), and a notification sign up. No one really seemed to know what the hell this Silverback was, but the page was great and it was coming from Clearleft, so that was all many of us needed. Some surmised that the app was some sort of stats package, ala Mint, due to the graphs on the ape’s clipboard, and since these were, after all, web developers. No one even mentioned that is might be a desktop app.

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Over the weekend, we were treated to two shows of the Blue Angels jet squadron, zooming around Lake Washington (and thus our apartment) as part of Seafair. We were thus also “treated” to the ungodly noise that accompanies six F-18 fighter jets screaming by at extremely low altitudes. Oh joy.

On a positive note, it was pretty impressive, and a lot of people seemed to have a really good time on our apartment complex docks, including this intrepid soul, who decided the flying shouldn’t be hogged by the jets.

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Let’s just say last night was a busy night here in Seattle. We officially launched the all-new Trusera.com at 9pm Pacific Time.

The devs running scripts to migrate old site info to new site

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I have to admit that they’ve really regressed in the selection of songs for the On-The-Go playlist. Normal iPods can add any song on the go to a special playlist simply by highlighting the song and holding down on the center button until it flashes. Simple.

On an iPhone/iPod Touch, however, to add a song to this playlist is an enormously more difficult task. Once in the iPod section, you have to go to the Playlists section (which, in my case, is hidden under the “More…” button), then choose “On The Go.” This pops up an “Add Songs to the On-The-Go Playlist” menu (you many have to hit Edit if you already have songs there, then tap the plus), which, if you’re like me and have quite a bit of music on your device, is quite a list to flick through. The helpful Rolodex-esque sidebar selector from the normal selection menus is missing, causing you to need to be extremely diligent, especially when you song starts with something far down the list, such as my fav Wilco song, Theologians. Somewhere in the process, I always manage to accidentally switch to the video or podcast menus, yet still be in On-The-Go selection mode, and somehow still not realise it, forcing me to start over again. Once you finally get to the song you want, tap the plus button, and it is added, strangely becoming greyed out, so you cannot add it again (my old skool trick of stacking the deck with a song I’ll want to hear more often). And strangely, sometimes going back to add more lands you in a completely different category (like albums, etc).

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Here I am. It’s sunday night here in Leschi, and the neighbour’s dogs are yapping—of course, inexplicably. I can hear the water outside… or maybe it’s just the sound of I-90 to the south. My brand new job starts tomorrow, and I’ll admit I’m a bit wigged out. You know, it’s that make or break moment: see if I actually live up to the interviews and hype that got me hired. If I live up to what had my wonderful HR rep driving me all over town for a day and a half. If I live up to my own expectations.

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...but you’re bringing me down.

Sorry, I was listening to LCD Soundsystem this morning, and the track “New York, I Love You” came on, and it seemed applicable. What I’m trying to say is that as of the 12th of next month, I will no longer reside in the town of my birth, Salt Lake City. I’ve accepted a position at Trusera (we’re hiring, btw) in Seattle, Washington.

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There are reports that $0.99 iTunes Plus (you know, the DRM free variety) tracks have been popping up at the iTunes Store. John Gruber speculates that it’s either a mistake (doubtful, having looked around, noticed all Sub Pop releases are the same), the introduction of variable single pricing (not entirely impossible… there are still a lot of $1.29 singles in the iTunes Plus section, including Smashing Pumpkins albums that I’m not sure I noticed before), or, perhaps, the early stages of a unilateral price drop to 99 cents for non-DRM tracks. ArsTechnica agree with the latter proposition:

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I’ll admit I’m a bit obsessed with good podcasts (and I’ve always loved video tutorials, so therefor screencasts are a godsend). I probably look for new podcasts to subscribe to every week. Not that I listen to them all the time (some I add and listen to once before discarding), and frankly some just annoy me in their “hey, let’s make this sound like talk radio with all the annoying sound effects and interstitials” approach, but still… when I find a good one, I’m all over that thing like the press corps on an outted homosexual republican. Example: the Maniacal Rage Podcast (neé Garrett Murray Podcast)... I listen to the show perhaps a bit too much. And I’m always showing off Dinner With The Band to friends that come by my house.

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When I was recently in the Seattle area, I went to dinner with my buddy Tyler and his brother Kyle. We’d just finished watching an inane Michael Bay movie, and I had to get up the following morning before 5 A.M. to be ready for the car service to the airport, so I was thinking of packing it in and heading back to my hotel when someone suggested dinner. I was pretty hungry, and it was only 9:30, so I figured what the hell.

Downtown Bellevue is a land of highly expensive bistros and the like. I’d made the mistake of plopping into one on my first night in town (frankly, I was sick of walking around and saw an italian restaurant), and walked away 20 dollars lighter in the pocket. And mind you, I’d only had a glass of water and one of the cheapest entrées. So, as we walked down the street my final evening in town, I was on the look-out for something that said “chain” or “fast” but most certainly “cheap.” Then Kyle—who, like his brother, had gone to high school in the area—suggested a Thai restaurant. By the sound of the name, I feared for my wallet…

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“One adult in five [in the US] thinks the sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science abandoned by the 17th century.”

U-S-A! U-S-A! Let’s blow some shit (or people) up!! WAHOO!!

Seriously… I’m beginning to think the movie Idiocracy is more a cautionary tale, rather than a comedy.