Posted by Nate on August 3, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I’m nauseated by Barry Bonds, refs fixing NBA fixed games, and I think Michael Vick should be fed to his own dogs. But all is not lost in sports… There are some awesome athletes on display at the X Games 13 this weekend, and you should watch it.
These guys are crazy good. I’m sure you’ve seen skater Jake Brown’s bailout from 50 feet up already. If not, it’s all over YouTube today. Same with the attempted double-backflip wipeout in MotoX. Serious drama and excitement. I can’t tell you how many times I said “holy shit!” last night, but it was a lot.
The fact that these are guys with regular-sized egos (except Jason Ellis’ maybe) who are as much fun to talk to and listen to as they are watch pull Kamikaze flips is the reason I think everyone should watch with respect.
If the other mulit-billion dollar leagues had half the character of the X Games athletes, they wouldn’t need conduct policies.
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Posted by Nate on August 2, 2007 at 3:22 am
Hey, who says it’s too early to watch the sports ticker for Hockey news?
One of the biggest jerks in sports, Sean Avery, got a raise today, but he didn’t get the nearly $3 million he wanted, up from $1 last year.
“According to the New York Post, the Rangers referred to Avery as “a reasonably effective player as well as a detriment to team,” in a brief given to the arbitrator. Management also said “Avery is not a mature player. He plays, at times, like an individual rather than a member of a team,” the newspaper reported.”
LMAO. I just can’t see this dude working out well with classy players like the Rangers’ newbies, Chris Drury and Scott Gomez. Maybe they’ll deal him back to Detroit or LA where sideshow jerks are appreciated more.
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Posted by Nate on July 24, 2007 at 8:53 pm
For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you know I’ve been struggling to listen to SIRUIS online for a long time… even chronicled a ridiculously stupid email conversation with the Tech support folks at SIRIUS a few weeks back.
Well, I’ve been saved. Sincere thanks to the developers at NiceMac.com for creating SIRIUSmac
Go get SIRIUS, and go get SIRIUSmac if you are a mac user. Immediately, if not sooner.
peace,
Nate
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Posted by Nate on July 14, 2007 at 11:20 pm
The first party at the new office is a wrap, and I’m really happy about the results. Combined with the good folks at eurie creative (my neighbors across the hall) we had a very good turnout.
Special thanks to the crew from Color Reflections, who supplied us with “downtown-style” drinks and snacks – A 40 oz. Old English 800, some Mad Dog 20/20, Pork Rigns (sp?) and the bottle of Strawberry Hill Boone’s. Classic!
If you missed it, don’t feel sad. The next one is coming up in just a few weeks….
thanks to everyone who came by to see the new place. Cheers, Nate.
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Posted by Nate on July 3, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I’m emailing you today to request added support for Macintosh OS X. Some friends and I joke about your Macintosh Help instructions. (More on that later). We love SIRIUS, but you make it very difficult to listen online – and enjoy it. I have two questions for you today:
1. Why is your only “official” supported browser Internet Explorer? You may or may not know, but this browser is no longer in production for the mac. It stopped years ago. That’s why there IS NO CURRENT FLASH PLAYER for it. Your instructions on your Help Pages request us Mac users to do the impossible. Frankly, I’m better off streaming my audio from iTunes radio, not SIRIUS.
2. Why, even after I paid the upgrade to get “CD-quality” streaming audio – does my programming repeat itself after a few minutes? I called about this last week, and the poor support representative seemingly had no clue about what I was asking, and gave me the appropriate help. None.
Look, the reality is – the Mac OS isn’t going anywhere. SIRIUS is a great new technology that shares a vital demographic with the Mac. i.e. young, affluent, tech-savvy men and women who spend on technology gadgets. Why wouldn’t you cater to that?
Frustrated,
Nate Ludens
Las Vegas, NV
——–
Here’s their response:
——–
Dear Nate,
Thank you for contacting SIRIUS regarding your Macintosh Computer. We
understand your disappointment with the lack of support for listening
online with your Macintosh computer. We are here to help you.
Nate, ActiveX is a set of technologies created by Microsoft for sharing
information among different programs. The ‘control’ is simply the use
of ActiveX. In the case of sirius.com, the ActiveX control is sharing
song and artist data found in the Windows Media Player plug-in with your
browser. It is similar to a Java applet, except that ActiveX controls
have full access to the Windows operating system only—they do NOT work
with Macintosh browsers and certain PC browsers. This is why we suggest
you use an Internet Explorer to listen online.
The Windows Media Player is not compatible with all browsers. If you
would like to listen to SIRIUS online we recommend that you use either
Netscape 6.x or Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.
We are committed to providing you with the best in customer care. If
you have any more questions, please feel free to contact SIRIUS Customer
Care. For your convenience, we are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week at:
1-888-539-SIRIUS (7474)
As well as by email at:
www.sirius.com/customercare
Sincerely,
Debra G
SIRIUS Customer Care
——
…and my reply…
——
Thanks for your explanation and your effort, but your recommended advice does not work.
A) regarding Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, I thought I’d share this link with you so you don’t advise some other mac user to do the same.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/internetexplorer/internetexplorer.aspx?pid=internetexplorer
B) regarding Netscape 6.x – see attached Netscape 6 from 2000!
Any other advice?
thanks,
Nate
——
and another useless response…
——
Dear Nate,
Thanks for taking the time to email us in regards to your SIRIUS Player
issues. We’re happy to help!
To listen to our music channels online, we recommend a high bandwidth
Internet connection (T1, DSL or ISDN line, or a cable modem), Windows
Media Player version 6.0 or higher, and either Netscape 7.x or Internet
Explorer 5.5 or higher. Unfortunately, we are unable to fully support
other browsers at this time. Flash is not required for using our
website, but we do suggest that you download it to enhance your overall
viewing experience on our website. The SIRIUS Player is
Macintosh-compatible. The Macintosh version of our player works with
the latest versions of Safari on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. For more
information about getting SIRIUS on your MAC, we recommend contacting
your Internet Service Provider. If you have any further questions, we
will be more than happy to help.
Have a great day, Nate!
We are committed to providing you with the best in customer care. If
you have any more questions, please feel free to contact SIRIUS Customer
Care. For your convenience, we are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week at:
1-888-539-SIRIUS (7474)
As well as by email at:
www.sirius.com/customercare
Sincerely,
Ashley
SIRIUS Customer Care
——
my response:
Thank you for your time and your response, Ashley. The newest version of Safari fixes the repeating song-bug that Firefox has. (Safari 2.0.4 does loop once, which is weird, but tolerable).
You may want to note in your database that Netscape 6.x and Internet Explorer 5.5 are not actually valid for Mac users to listen to SIRIUS online. (Debra G from Customer Care advised me to use those – and it was quite entertaining trying to downgrade 7 years of Netscape releases, and trying to locate an IE 5.5 version).
I’ll eagerly await a Macintosh-compatible ActiveX version. It’s too bad that Mac users cannot enjoy your visual song info, and the “last-5 songs” feature, like PC users can.
regards,
Nate Ludens
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Posted by Nate on July 2, 2007 at 12:54 am
Who says TV only has crap on it now? When it’s 110 in Vegas, one tends to stay in – which is what I did this weekend, mostly.
I’ve been enamored in this new (to me, anyway) TV channel called Ovation. In the last 24 hours I’ve seen – or should I say studied – some great creative legends. Ovation has special programming from July 1 – 15, called American Revolutionaries. Its phenomenal!
Last night we watched Johnny Cash play a live show from 1994. Incredible how much fun the guy actually had on stage. You wouldn’t get that from his music alone, or even with the aid of the motion picture featuring Joaquin Phoenix as The Man In Black. Next, this morning BB King put on a seminar from a Jazz Festival – again – he was much more humble and enjoyable than you’d assume for a blues Legend. Now I’m watching Basquiat, documenting the graffiti artist-turned gallery whore. Jean-Michel (a.k.a. SAMO, like “Same Old Shit”) is one of my favorites, because of his clever use of text in his pieces. It’s also cool to note that the guy was broke and homeless, using without a doubt primarily found materials – and he got such great color in his pieces.
I’m looking forward to some of the coming attractions featuring Elvis, Cobain, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Chuck Close, Jackson Pollack, and more. I recommend you tune in or set your TiVo, too.
Additionally, I’ve found some great inspiration from the 2nd season of the Henry Rollins Show on IFC. Hank’s one of my heroes. I love Black Flag and most of his solo stuff, even his stand up comedy is great. I love that Henry is a walking Fuck You! to conventional marketing, politics, and music. His rant last week about low-key underground punk bands being featured in car commercials, etc. and how that’s OK was intense, and made a lot of sense. He closed the Teeing Off segment by saying:Â “pay them. pay them double. pay them now. It’s about fucking time!”
… back to the tube. cheers!
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