The Bass Geek

The new IMN podcast is available for download – get it here or listen at the site.

I’m also jotting down notes in a new blog for the good For Dummies folks, so feel free to enjoy my musings over there as well.  There are some other notable blogs over there, like Bob LeVitus’s Dr. Mac blog.  The Wiley folks are moving a good deal of their instructional content online at Dummies.com, and I’m happy to be a part of it.

And now I’m going to get some sleep and try to avoid a head cold on a show weekend with a book deadline rapidly approaching.

I forgot to mention that I received my advance copies of Laptops Just The Steps For Dummies the other day, and Amazon has them shipping out as of 10/6, so they may be at local retailers near you as I post this.  Who knows.  I just write the books and push them out of the nest.  In any case, if you have a laptop and use the Vista, check it out!

Not only does David Hasslehoff decide to open his own social networking site, but he commits MySpace suicide at the same time. No word whether he’s going to link it to OpenSocial or not, but we can always dream.

Somehow, I don’t think there’s a book in this one. Sorry, Hoff.

The weekend was full of quality overtime spent finishing some writing projects, and it’s probably a good thing that they’re done now. My wife gave me an Xbox 360 for my birthday (wisely withholding games until the weekend was done), and now I can see GTA IV and the Orange Box (my first two selections) eating up the formerly productive home time.

For a good long time, there wasn’t a modern console in our general living area – there’s an old Genesis moldering in the closet, and I occasionally fire up a PS1 to remember the good old days of the Pittsburgh Steelers under Kordell Stewart (such magical times – the mental equivalent of suffering a Theismann injury), but I know what kind of time drain I face when I’m around these things. I can probably justify it a bit as research into video game music, but that’s a hollow reason. It’s just time to accept a bunch of wasted time.

I wonder if my wife know she may never be able to use the big TV again?

Most reasonable people shy away from blogging about their day jobs, and I’m going to go ahead and stick by that rule.

Hypothetically speaking, though - if you’ve been busted for illegal filesharing, please at least acknowledge what you’ve been doing and have a well-reasoned and thought-out argument for doing so.  I can respect your logical viewpoints on the matter, even if I disagree with them.  A blank stare and stammering protestations will earn you nothing.  Especially if you’re asking for my help.

Enough. I’m linking to a photo from the Hamer Guitars website of a lovely 12-string bass. I got to hear the sound of it played solo on a documentary a couple of days ago, and it reminded me of all that is good and right in the world.

Part of the wonderful challenge of putting together a tech book is that the playing field is always changing – programs update, new versions come out, etcetera.  It can be a bit difficult to manage.

Now multiply that by the five versions of Vista I have to account for my current project, and all the fun should become clear.  I’m writing using Vista Ultimate, which includes the whole shebang, and I’m trying to take into consideration all the features and such people might not see.  Joy.

Also, the new IMN podcast is up.  Download it here or listen at the site.

If you want to listen to the radio interview I did for http://wsradio.com, check out this link.

I tried to sound intelligent.

Trying to cram rehearsals and writing into the same day after the normal grind may be a bit too much.  I’m having visions of explaining the basic operations of Vista running through my dreams, and that’s probably not healthy.  I’m hearing sections of King Crimson’s “Red” album substituted in for the Fripp-composed Vista sound effects.  That’s definitely not healthy.

Also, “South Park” was right this evening.  A shutdown or reboot of computing devices can help clear up scads of issues.  Learn that now and save yourself some time.

The new IMN podcast is up – download directly or listen at the site.