Google Grabs GrandCentral

Posted on July 2, 2007 by Michael Koby

If you have never heard of GrandCentral, it is an online phone service, but not the kind you think.  GrandCentral brings credence to the “one number for life” mentality.  You get a GrandCentral number that you can give out.  You can then add your contacts to your GrandCentral address book and then assign the individuals to groups.  You can set up those groups so that certain groups can either all or only certain phone numbers (ie work, cell, home, etc).

You can also set telemarketers to “spam” and ignore their calls in the future, as well as other useful features.  Pretty nifty stuff.

Google has officially acquired GrandCentral.  I wonder what Google has planned for this, some people have some ideas but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  I think we can expect to see some kind of integration with Google Talk and Gmail.  Maybe even integration with Calendar, along with the addition of a “call” event.  Can’t wait to see what they do.

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Changing the World

Posted on July 2, 2007 by Michael Koby

It seems a lot of people wish the world would change. Be it the geek who wants the RIAA or MPAA to understand that piracy does not really hurt their business, the intellectual who thinks the president is an idiot, or the average joe who things Washington should worry more about a particular issue. They wall want the world to change, and they usually want it to change into some image they have in their heads.

We have democrats and republicans battling over who can run this country better. We have hackers wanting to crack that latest DVD encryption scheme. There are the content makers wanting to make it harder for the consumer to purchase their product or use it their liking. Continue reading →

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Power of Information 2007-07-01

Posted on July 1, 2007 by Michael Koby

This week on the Power of Information, Derek and I discuss minimalist word processors, plans to ban all DVD copying, and identity theft. We also talk about Photography resources and the affects of violent video games. All this and more on this week’s Power of Information.

poi-small.jpg

You can hear Power of Information Sundays on KCAA 1050AM in Loma Linda, California at 5pm Pacific Time. You can also download Power of Information in podcast form from our website at http://www.powerofinformation.net. The Power of Information is part of the America First Radio Network.

Special thanks to AngelsEye Inc. for donating the bandwidth to Power of Information. AngelsEye Inc. specializes in corporate branding and promotional marketing. Created to help companies of all sizes promote their own business and events. Visit AngelsEye Inc’s website today. Also, thanks to the band Pushmonkey for supplying music for our program. You can find out more about Pushmonkey and their music at http://www.myspace.com/Pushmonkey.

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Songs & Such: “Could be a Lot Worse” by Vigilantes of Love

Posted on June 28, 2007 by Michael Koby

This week we are looking at the song “Could be a Lot Worse” by Vigilantes of Love. This song continues our series on the songs by Bill Mallonee. As always, the songs by Bill Mallonee and Vigilantes of Love can be found at the Bill Mallonee Mp3 Store. The songs sold in the Mp3 Store are of high quality (320kbps Mp3) and are DRM free so they can be put onto any portable player and should play on any computer that can play mp3 files.

audiblea3.jpgThe song “Could be a Lot Worse” is off the album Audible Sigh, the second to last album to use the Vigilantes of Love moniker. The more noticeble alt-country tinge does not detract from the lyrics or rock-ish vibe the song wants to give off. In fact, that tinge is what makes the song work in its best possible way. As usual, Bill spins some of his best work when looking on the dark side of things. The odd thing is that while this song is about looking at life and saying “it could be worse” it shows hope in lines like “Gonna die a failure, but the happiness awake. You can go to sleep in hell and wake up at Heaven’s gates.”

Christians in general live off the idea of hope. We believe in hope because hope and faith are what, in the end, redeem us.

But the lyrics are not the only thing that shine here. The music greatly compliments the lyrics, especially with those splash cymbals that perfectly accent the some of the smaller words like “kiss”, “hope”, “love”, and “faith” done in such a way that one could be made to think that Bill might have wanted the focus there on purpose.

Overall, I think that Bill was trying to speak to the common man here but to also himself. No stranger to issues (especially when it came to dealing with his record company), he might have been trying to tell himself that “it could be worse” but that is something we will probably never know for sure.

Lyrics after the jump… Continue reading →

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Songs & Such: "Could be a Lot Worse" by Vigilantes of Love

Posted on June 28, 2007 by Michael Koby

This week we are looking at the song “Could be a Lot Worse” by Vigilantes of Love. This song continues our series on the songs by Bill Mallonee. As always, the songs by Bill Mallonee and Vigilantes of Love can be found at the Bill Mallonee Mp3 Store. The songs sold in the Mp3 Store are of high quality (320kbps Mp3) and are DRM free so they can be put onto any portable player and should play on any computer that can play mp3 files.

audiblea3.jpgThe song “Could be a Lot Worse” is off the album Audible Sigh, the second to last album to use the Vigilantes of Love moniker. The more noticeble alt-country tinge does not detract from the lyrics or rock-ish vibe the song wants to give off. In fact, that tinge is what makes the song work in its best possible way. As usual, Bill spins some of his best work when looking on the dark side of things. The odd thing is that while this song is about looking at life and saying “it could be worse” it shows hope in lines like “Gonna die a failure, but the happiness awake. You can go to sleep in hell and wake up at Heaven’s gates.”

Christians in general live off the idea of hope. We believe in hope because hope and faith are what, in the end, redeem us.

But the lyrics are not the only thing that shine here. The music greatly compliments the lyrics, especially with those splash cymbals that perfectly accent the some of the smaller words like “kiss”, “hope”, “love”, and “faith” done in such a way that one could be made to think that Bill might have wanted the focus there on purpose.

Overall, I think that Bill was trying to speak to the common man here but to also himself. No stranger to issues (especially when it came to dealing with his record company), he might have been trying to tell himself that “it could be worse” but that is something we will probably never know for sure.

Lyrics after the jump… Continue reading →

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Google Desktop for Linux Released

Posted on June 28, 2007 by Michael Koby

Yea, title kind of says it all.  Google has released a Linux version of their Google Desktop.  I have just installed it and I am going to let it index overnight.  I’ll follow up later today as I play with it more.

I have to say though, this is exciting news. I’m glad Google is taking an interest in the Linux desktop and releasing products for it.  I like Beagle because it is written in C#, but Google Desktop is definitely worth at least checking out.

Again, I’ll post a follow up once I have experimented more with the software.

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