Where's my on-demand XM radio?

Earlier this week, I was stuck listening to FM in one of our work vans, while commuting to a job. There is nothing on FM worth listening to. Once in a great while a song that I like might come on, but most of the time I’m scanning the airwaves for something that doesn’t annoy me. Most of what I heard, was commercials and “light” music, because all the stations are too “PC” to play good music.

Usually, I’ll listen to a specific CD or XM in the car. But even these are limited. A CD only holds so much, and I still have no control over what XM plays. (But at least XM isn’t afraid to play real music.)

So here I was, listening to some light rock station in the Bay Area wishing I could listen to my personal collection of music. Of course, I could listen to last.fm or the music I have on my cell phone, but that would have killed my battery. I found myself wishing XM offered a monthly fee to listen to my music through their services and devices.

So how about it XM? Offer a service that allows me to sync my collection of MP3’s with your service. Then, the XM radios could be setup to brows these MP3’s like I would on my MP3 player or cell phone. So I would have on-demand music that I liked. Not a station that plays what it wants, not a streaming service of random music like Pandora or Last.fm, but my music on-demand anytime I’m in my car or have my XM radio with me.

With more and more car stereo’s coming out with things like Pandora on them that stream music for free, XM has got to step up to the plate and give me a reason to pay for their service. Just think about it. All the benefits of having your MP3 player in the car, without having to cart around extra cables/adapters or getting crappy sound out of your cell phone.

See through trucks.

Ever get stuck behind one of those big trucks that you can never see around? You try inching over to see around it, only to almost take out a motorcycle with your mirror. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just see though them?

I had this idea. What if you could look through these large trucks? They have rear view cameras on large motor homes. Why not reverse that camera? Put it on the front of the truck and pull the monitor from the dash, to the rear of the truck?

Maybe mount a fair sized display inside the rear door. Just above eye sight? The camera would be mounted on the front in such a way, that when traffic begins to stop in front of the truck, you’ll know in advance.

Of course, you would have to figure out how to keep it from being stolen, or someone spraying graffiti all over it. But I just come up with the ideas. I usually give it to Ryan or Jen to implement.

Mac vs. PC

I'm sure we all have our own opinions on this subject. Some prefer PC... some prefer Mac...
I get client's asking me this question all the time, so I figured I would put my answer online for all to see.

...and maybe even throw a few facts out there. =)

My official answer is, to get what is right for you. What do You need your machine to do for You?

• Do you need to game like there's no tomorrow? Then you probably need a PC.
• Do you use Photoshop and do web development? Most podcasts I see, they're on a Mac.

My current job uses Mac Pro's for their servers. This means I have recently had to get used to the Apple environment. I can honestly say that if you have been using one environment and then move to the other, it will be frustrating at times. I can't tell you how many times the Ctrl-C keyboard combo still gets me.

"But there's no viruses on Apple." People who say this, scare me. There are infections for Mac. These are not as prevalent because Mac is only a small percentage of the platforms out there. If Mac was the juggernaut out there, then it would have all the infections.

As you have probably guessed, I use a PC. (No, I did NOT say "I'm a PC." =/ ) I can't justify almost $1k for a refurbished Mac notebook. (And that wouldn't help my Microsoft stock anyway.)

/rant

...and that's all I have to say about that!
Oh wait, it's been 2 years since I've posted to this.
I guess I'm not one to talk about myself. (Online at least.)

OK. So I'm watching Tekzilla...
And the subject of formatting your Windows box comes up. These people that format Windows once a year, know just enough to get themselves into trouble. There is rarely a reason to format your Windows machine. The best thing about Microsoft, is the fact that you can fix ANY issue that arises. My rule of thumb, if you have to format your box, you gave up. (I give up from time to time out of pure laziness.)
I know, I know. There are always exceptions to the rule... I have client's with machines that they use for 2 to 3 apps tops and no local data. When something goes wrong, formatting and installing these apps are often the best solution. (Time is money.)
The fact of the matter is, I find the Apple OS requires it more often. Maybe I just need to try harder and not give up. =)