mrshl | blog

Today the Mozilla foundation is releasing the third iteration of their popular Firefox browser. Only “release” doesn’t quite capture the hype they’re generating. No, they’re trying to set a world record. You can help them by downloading a copy today beginning at 10 AM. If it’s still too early when you read this, you can “pledge” to download it once they turn on the spigot. Seriously.

But why should you download it? Because it’s the best. browser. ever according to the Chronicle’s Dwight Silverman. Walt Mossberg agrees.

My opinion? The singular “awesome bar” is reason enough to give it a chance. Your new address bar does so much more than auto-complete. It learns your preferences as you browse. Sort of like Tivo for the Web. Just start typing in the address bar, and you’ll quickly find what you need. You won’t need bookmarks anymore. It’s that good. Remember when the first Firefox browser added tabs? This new location bar is a similar leap forward.

But there are lots of other reasons you should download Firefox. That is, if setting a record doesn’t interest you.

UPDATE: Turns out the 10 AM start time is Pacific. You central timers can start downloading at noon.

As Weezer gets ready to release another of their single-color, eponymous records (you will remember the legendary Blue record and the not-totally-terrible Green record), I thought I’d take a moment to provide an alternate take on the frequently attacked rock band.

Next week, we’re getting the Red record. And its ridiculous self-portrait suggests something interesting. The band has reached its "a-ha" moment.  "Yeah, we get it," they’re saying. "You’re upset that we’ve never been able to match the bubblegum-metal awesomeness of our debut. You’re pissed that we’ve never again explored the socially-impaired pathos of Pinkerton, our relatively dark and unhinged masterpiece. And yeah, you’re probably puzzled that we’re not even trying to replicate our blandly catchy, but good-natured third record. It was at least listenable. You’ve might have heard our last few records…or not, but you think we’re total crap. Hell, you might even be right."

(deep breath)

"Guess what? We. Don’t. Care. Anymore. In fact, we’re gonna simultaneously enjoy, exploit, and mock our fame, ourselves, and our past. We’re going to drive a stake so deep into the dark heart of pop music’s cynical present, you won’t even be able to listen to ‘In the Garage’ without knowing we’ve buried that sound forever."

Strong hints of Weezer’s evolving sardonic commercialism were definitely present in Make Believe’s "Beverly Hills," but they’re really laying the hammer down with the first single from the Red Album. If you’re recovering from some kind of horrible sickness and haven’t seen the video yet, here it is. I’ll wait a moment while you watch.

What I loved about this video and this song was how Rivers Cuomo finally, if somewhat cryptically tells you he’s figured things out. This interview with the video’s director explains the attitude better than I can. So do the lyrics:

Imma do the things that i wanna do
I ain’t got a thing to prove to you
I’ll eat my candy with the pork and beans
Excuse my manners if i make a scene
I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like
I’m fine and dandy with the me inside
one look in the mirror and i’m tickled pink
I don’t give a hoot about what you think

So what’s so cryptic? Well, I love the layers here. Weezer’s recent singles seem to have consciously abandoned their initial indie-rock fans in favor of younger kids who can’t tell the difference between Weezer and the Jonas Brothers. So the simplistic top layer of kitchen-table rebellion is for the kids. But look at the diction here: hoot? dandy? tickled pink? Dude might as well be wearing sock suspenders. Tell me he’s not evoking that nostalgia of going your own way for the first time in a long time. He remembers what it was like to strap on a guitar instead of shoulder pads. Now, he’s an old man eating the meal he made himself.

Rivers Cuomo has always been a metal head trying to figure out how punk won the battle to be a new generation’s classic rock. In a world where metal and hard rock can only be found in Guitar Hero, he’s pointing to the heart of what it means to be himself. This is a new start for a guy who never quite made his peace with coolness. He is a famous weirdo; and he’s finally getting into the finger-paint absurdity of fame. Rather than accept fame begrudgingly, he’s remembering what his idols in KISS did with it. They took their 15 minutes and ran. They enjoyed it. They swam in it. They had action figures and lunch boxes. They might not have been the best, but they weren’t shy about jumping the claim.

When you think about it, the least Cuomo and Weezer can do to honor their 70s metal heroes is moisten their eyebrows with cocked middle fingers and point them at their fickle former fans. Two indisputable classic records is way more than you have a right to expect from any band, much less a band that’s been covered by both Dashboard Confessional and the Olsen Twins. They really don’t have a thing to prove to you.

Or, as they might say, "If you want to rediscover what it’s like to be a Weezer fan, listen to us again on OUR terms. There’s something you’re not hearing. There’s depth. There’s humor. There’s hooks. We’re like the Darkness, except we’re aware that ‘post-punk’ and ‘post-hardcore’ are even more hilarious than hair metal."

I dunno what to think when they say it like that. I guess I might take another listen to these last few records. With new ears, and maybe a few new tricks I learned from Guitar Hero. Music is fun again. 

Holy crap. Jordan and I spent much of last night playing Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. We picked up the Wii game for 19.99 at Target, and couldn’t pass it up since we had played the earlier Gottlieb Collection on Nintendo GameCube and loved it. The moment we put it in, Jordan freaked out because the first table you see is Taxi, which her mom and dad actually owned until recently. Jordan knows that table incredibly well from playing it thousands of times as a kid.

The game looked just the real thing, but as we played, she was more impressed that the physics had been carefully preserved. For example, She knew I was toast before I did when the ball went dead after hitting a certain spot and fell right between the flippers. She said it did the exact same thing on her old table. The Wii controls are perfect, too. The flippers are the triggers on the Nunchuck and Wiimote. The analog stick on the Nunchuck is a great substitute for the plunger, and you can nudge (or TILT) the machine if you shake the Nunchuck or Wiimote.

Here’s a video of the table in action.

There are nine other tables included in the Williams Collection, but we mostly played Taxi until I managed to get the high score and complete all the "Wizard goals." I got nearly 7 million. Jordan says her high score is 10 million, but I’ve got no way to verify that, do I? Anyway, for only 20 bucks, I recommend the hell out of this game. It’s received very favorable reviews on Metacritic, and the faux-Satriani soundtrack is so, so good.

Get it.

As you know, I ordered Radiohead’s new record, and today I downloaded it. That process was a little bumpy because I tried to use my download manager (Down Them All), and received an error message. When I contacted Radiohead’s customer support link, I received an instantaneous e-mail response (I’m not exaggerating) with a new link that worked perfectly.

Now I’m listening. It’s my second time through. I’m not going to tell you my fave tracks or bore you with detailed observations. I love music, and this record just invites me to love it. I can’t help myself. There will be haters. There will be people who are bored and disdainful. I don’t care about these people. I’m sure they are having a valid listening experience. Feel free to tell me about it.

This is what I say:

Radiohead have made a record that learns from and synthesizes all their experiences making music. Past recordings seemed a little too consumed with learning the process (Amnesiac) or fighting their process (Hail to the Thief). With In Rainbows, it sounds like they’ve reconciled their will to invent with the comfort and sense of purpose that envelops you once you realize a rock band is only a rock band.

In Rainbows is a record I want to listen to over and over again. It hits my pleasure centers. It might say something interesting or important, but I won’t hear that for weeks and weeks because the f**king hooks are in the way.

Radiohead is a band that discovered a new country. Then realized lots of people were already living there. Then, they said, “let’s make some music we enjoy. We hope you like it.” And that’s what rock bands do. It happens all the time.

It’s happened again.

You should get this at whatever price. And enjoy it. It’s not a miracle or anything. It’s what happens when a rock band makes a really good record and demonstrates some pride and some confidence.  

It looks like one of my favorite sites, the bookmarking utility Del.icio.us, is getting a new name and an entirely new Web site, built from the ground up. The new site will be called Delicious.com, but don’t worry. When it launches in the new location, it’s still going to have all your old bookmarks. For now, the new version is available only to invited users, but Mike Arrington of Techcrunch got a sneak peak and he’s broken down the new features:

• Navigation
  The navigation bar is now organized into Bookmarks, People, and Tags. The tags section features a new MyTags page where you can see all of your tags in an expanded cloud. On the bar, you can search bookmarks amongst your own, networks, everyone’s, or the set you’re currently looking at.
• Tag Bar
  The tag bar features tagging auto complete and sorting alphabetically, by date, and popularity.
• Bookmarks
  The bookmark summary can adjust the view detail, so you can either get more or less info with a single click. Also, the popularity of a bookmark can be determined quickly by the width and shade of the blue box around the save count. In addition to a complete history of everyone’s bookmarks for that web page, you can now see who in your network has saved the page.
• Side Bar
  The side bar lets you easily see a person’s list of top tags. You can also refine your view of bookmarks to specific categories as well. You can also give members in your network nicknames.
• Action Box
  Act now! The action box provides you with a list of commonly used actions for the current page.

Along with Gmail, Google Reader, and Facebook, Del.icio.us is easily a top-five web site for me. How do I use it?

• Three years of online research (legal and otherwise) is stored there.
• The Life Partners list in the right-hand column is automatically updated using Del.icio.us.
• I use the Del.icio.us Firefox add on instead of the built-in bookmark manager. Bookmarks are synced with any computer as long as the add on is also installed. See my review on my personal blog.
• I often look there first for items I can post on Life is a Thrill. The del.icio.us homepage is a kind of Zeitgeist for the Interweb. Hundreds of thousands of people use the site to bookmark their favorite pages. It’s not a bad idea to see what other people think is worth saving.
• I can share bookmarks with my pals. So far I’ve only got about a dozen friends on the site, but more of you should join. I’m mrshl.

Strip Generator is a site that lets you create your own Web comics. You use their pre-defined humanoids, objects, and text bubbles, edit them however you wish, and presto. You’re a web comic genius. I put together the strip above in about 5 minutes. Someone with a bit more talent, but not a lot of time or know-how, could probably do much better:

There are other “do your own comic strip” sites out there. But they’re mostly not very good. Certainly, Strip Generator has them beat on several fronts:

• Strips actually look like web comics.
• The flash editor is superb. The tools aren’t complicated, but they’re generous. You can do just about anything you want with the simple text/graphic editor and the library of humans, beings, and objects.
• You don’t have to register, but if you do, you can save your strips to a running blog. All strips are embeddable and readers can comment.
• The site design and copy. I wouldn’t ordinarily single out a Web site like this for its general savoir-faire, but everything about Strip Generator suggests a love for Web comics, and an understanding of the medium. They truly want you to enjoy creating a pro-style comic. It’s just really well done.

Anyway, try it out. It’s fun.

Matt (thekassette) pointed me to Simplify Media a while back: a free program that lets you share your iTunes library with friends over the Web. Now, you can stream music to your pals in Austin and Chicago—or vice versa.

Interestingly, the software leverages capabilities iTunes has had all along. When iTunes 4.0 was first released, the included Bonjour software (then called Rendezvous) allowed users to share their libraries with friends over the Internet as long as they were connected to the Web. Unfortunately, Apple crippled the feature shortly after release when they discovered people were actually using it. Since 4.0.1, only people on a shared network have been able to share libraries. A number of software developers released plug-ins and programs that got around this restriction, but they’ve always skirted the edge of legality.

Now, Simplify has restored the lost capability and done so in a way they claim is completely legal. You can invite up to 30 of your closest friends and share your iTunes library, no matter where you are. My guess is that the 30-invite limit is part of what keeps Simplify on the kosher side of copyright law.

User limit notwithstanding, being able to check out tracks on your pal’s computer is pretty swell. As soon as your friends come online, they show up in the iTunes interface. Then, you can click on their name in the left-hand menu, and browse their library just like your own. Oh, and you know what’s really cool/scary? Your friends don’t even have to be running iTunes in order for you to see their songs. I found this out the other day:

Matt: someone should throw a band together to cover “transaction de novo” from beginning to end and do it at like the rothko or something
me: i don’t know what or who that is.
Matt: oh sorry, awesome bedhead album. i’m listening to it from yr machine right now!
me: oh! is that the new one?
Matt: no, it’s super old
me: ah. i’ve not hit it in quite a while. i downloaded that a while back and haven’t given it a shot. i love most everything by them, though. i’ve been really digging the new one a lot.
now i remember it’s called 23. easily their most poppy record.
me: wait, i’m not even running itunes, i didn’t know you could access my library.
Matt: that’s the beauty of simplify, as long as it’s pointed at yr music folder and running, i can use it
me: okay. THAT is cool.

Anyway, I’ve been using the software, and it works pretty much as advertised. If you fancy sharing music beyond your home network, I highly recommend it. If you’re not an iTunes user, the Simplify Web site promises they’re working on versions for Windows Media Player and Winamp.