So, to take a peek at some of my favorites, click on over to the Photos. I will still occasionally post photos in the main post, but these will mainly be photos that are decent and that I am OK with eventually disappearing.

Enjoy.

One of the first places I looked for keeping my ever-growing list of favorites online was the infamous del.icio.us. This website is the defacto king of bookmarks in the blogosphere, so I figured I would give it a shot. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed.

While the website is popular and a good amount of people use it, I just did not see it as being very practical for me. The official decision came down to two factors that I just could not live with. The first being that every bookmark is shared with the entire world by default. While browsing their website will quickly show you why they have this feature, I personally do not want to participate. It is interesting to see that a specific web address (URL) has 3,453 people linking to it, but it is not so great to have people scouring my bookmarks in detail.

The second feature was the layout. By default your bookmarks are listed by date, with the most recently added towards the top of your list. In a sidebar you have a list of tags (everything Web 2.0ish must have tags…i guess) that you assign to your bookmarks and clicking on one of these will display the bookmarks saved under that category. However, the bookmarks under that category are still listed by date (or title if you so choose) with the newest one on top. And while this system works for a few bookmarks, I do not see it being easily manageable once you get a few hundred pages bookmarked with 20 or 30 tags.

Maybe I am asking too much, but I want to conveniently find a bookmark from any computer using less mouse-clicks than it would using the traditional browser based bookmarking system. Is that really too much to ask? Apparently!

I tried a few other online managers such as MyWeb by Yahoo, MyBookmarks, Google Bookmarks and just about any other web-based service that will let you mark a page for later viewing and none of them really provide the type of experience I was looking for. So finally, at the point when I was ready to abandon the idea, I found salvation in the most unlikely place; Google Reader.

Google Reader is actually not an online bookmarking system. Instead, it is a news aggregator. Fortunately for me, most of the websites I visit on a daily basis and therefore care to bookmark have feeds that I can subscribe too. In addition, Google Reader allows you to “star” an item (anyone who uses Gmail will know exactly how this works) for later retrieval. This makes browsing a website, coming across an interesting article, and saving it to read later an absolute breeze. As an added bonus, Google Reader is accessible and easy to use from mobile phones.

Now what about those pages with no feeds that you want to save for future reference? Well, given the absolute letdown of the above services, I decided to go with the one I disliked the least; Google Bookmarks. I actually dislike Google Bookmarks because the navigation has the same issues as del.icio.us, but it wins my vote for no reason other than the fact that bookmarks are kept private by default. I understand everyone’s love for sharing, but I simply prefer to have the option of sharing something over the option of keeping something private.

In closing, I think there is serious room for improvement in the world of online bookmarking. While del.icio.us is great for finding interesting sites that other users have come across recently, it, like the others, does not do a great job of managing bookmarks in a way that is convenient for the user. So until that time arrives, I guess I will keep adding pages to the poorly designed Google Bookmarks.

Random Information: I did decide to use my del.icio.us account after all. I use it to keep a running list of “interesting” websites I come across that I want to share but not write about. You can find those in the “Notable Mentions” section in the sidebar.

1. I bought an Xbox 360 and it is taking up an insane amount of time. I love it.
2. I sold my computer (this is actually the biggest reason for the lack of updates) and it was probably the single most difficult decision I have made all year. So for the first time in about forever, I do not own a computer. It’s a scary feeling, and accessing the internet from a cell phone is convenient, but not fun.
3. I got rid of the picture section on my website. It will be back again shortly. I had some big dreams for my photo section, and really like the Gallery setup (you can see the benefits of it here), but it is just harder to keep up-to-date than I care to deal with. So, I am thinking I am going back to Flickr and it should be up and running sometime in the near future (maybe).
4. My house will no longer have Windows. I will post more about this later, but I am switching over to Apple in the very near future.
5. I am continually downsizing my life by parting ways with “stuff.” I have already said goodbye to one futon, a Roland XP-60 keyboard, my computer, a home theater system, and an absurd amount of nick-knacks. Next up is two more futons, a PSP, an original Xbox (with about 20 games), and enough clothing for a family of four. I may even start parting ways with my shoe collection.

Well that is it for the time being. I am sure some of these items will be expanded on in future postings. Until then, adios and enjoy.

Anyway, here are my initial impressions of the machine.

[GOOD]
Graphics: They are not astronomically better than the original Xbox, but definitely a noticeable improvement. Then again, I am not using a HDTV (although this machine may just convince me to buy one), so my graphics are scaled down significantly.

Demos: This is by far my favorite part of the 360. In the first day, I think I downloaded about 10 demos. And, the demos download in the background so you can play one game while another one downloads. I like it.

Arcade: The arcade section provides access to older games (Street Fighter II, anyone?) that you can download and play on the 360. The 360 also comes pre-loaded with the arcade title Hexic HD, which, is a good time waster. Nice.

Music: When you plug your iPod into the 360 it will recognize all of your music and playlists. This is a great feature and almost justifies the purchase of the system (for me). In addition, the 360 will charge your iPod while it is plugged up. You can also have the 360 pull music from your computer, and it does this almost flawlessly.

Video: You cannot play any video other than WMV and you have to be running Window Media Center. In short, this means that I will not be using this feature in the foreseeable future.

Xbox Live: With the purchase, I got a one month free Gold Membership. This is a smart move by Microsoft. I would never have purchased a membership but after playing around with the Gold Membership for just a few days, I am already considering purchasing a year long subscription. There is something about playing against people across the planet that is just oh so satisfying. And, for those who are in to the arcade titles, they are Xbox Live compatible also.

[BAD]
Music: I really only have two complaints when it comes to the music and both of them are rather small. The first is that the 360 will not recognize iTunes shares. This makes no sense to me. If it can recognize iPod songs and playlists, then I know it can recognize iTunes shares, songs, and playlists. This is a non-issue for me as I just plug my iPod into the machine, but it just annoys me. And yes, I understand Microsoft’s position as they want people to use Windows, but that does not mean I have to like it.

Second, the control scheme on the 360 is not friendly for larger music collections. You can sort by genre, song, artist, album or playlist, but you can only sort by one at a time. So if you have a collection of, oh, 1,000 artists, finding someone whose name starts with an M can be quite time consuming. But again, this is a non-issue for me as I only keep about 500 on my iPod at any given time anyway.

Noise: The 360 is loud. If you have your TV on a normal to low volume level, and have your 360 sitting out in the open, chances are you can hear the 360 in the background. To eliminate some of the noise, I had to place mine inside of the TV stand and keep the door shut which is not a good thing because the machine gets pretty toasty.

Price: Not the price of the system, but the price of the games. I actually think the price of the system is reasonable, albeit a bit high, for what you get. However, having 360 games cost $10 more than their Xbox, Gamecube, or PS2 counterparts even though the game is the exact same, is simply absurd. Thank goodness for online gems such as Gameznflix.com.

Well that is it. I just had to chime in real quick and let everyone know my good news. But now, it is time for me to get back on the sticks and go KO someone in Fight Night 3. If you got game, look me up online. Adios.

Well, the short version is that I moved. I no longer reside in Bellingham, WA (thank you!). So, as you would expect, during my move down South, I was without internet access and could not update my ‘ol blog. Sad.

Actually, that is not entirely true. I had internet access on my cell phone (you have just got to love Sprint), but there is no way I am updating via text-messaging. I think my thumbs would fall off.

Anyway, that is all. I just wanted to let everyone know I was still alive and well. Adios.

First, I will now have the option to host an almost unlimited amount of photos. With Flickr, I am limited to uploading 20MB of photos per month and only showing the latest 200 photos. I know I can buy a pro account to get rid of that, but why do that when I currently have plenty of space/bandwidth on my server. The second major benefit is the ability to have people comment on the photos without the need to go to, and register, at an external site. I never did like that.

Anyway, consider this the official announcement, and be patient from now until it is finalized. The photos section will probably go offline frequently while I fix/break/fix/break things. In the mean-time, feel free to look around. Oh, and the comments feature is currently working. You just have to hit the “detail” button and then select “add comment” from the drop-down. It is annoying, and I am working on fixing it. Adios.

I have yet to try it (and I probably will refrain from trying it), but there are a few things that stand out right away that make me cringe just a bit. The first is that I know this little myspace addition will include a toolbar, a search bar, and the same “take over the desktop” mentality that all of the major instant messaging clients have. To me, that translates into a few friends saying “…fix my computer?” The second is that it “requires” the use of Internet Explorer. This means that folks will happily install this, use Internet Explorer, and get hit with the latest and greatest piece of spyware/virus/you name it. To me, that translates into a few more friends saying “…fix my computer?” Double grrr.

Maybe I should start charging by the hour?

 Artist: Saigon

 Album: Warning Shots

 Song: Shok TV

 Purchase |  Download

 Play: [See post to listen to audio]

[Verse]
I said listen, I’m a ***** on a mission
Do what I gotta to get my people in position
Help ‘em envision a better living condition
Stop putting so much trust in your religion
They couldn’t conquer without division
Boy you still black, I don’t care if you Catholic or you Christian
Police’ll still **** you up, young buck
Bust you in your head, leave your body by the dump truck
Revolution got me pumped up
But it’s still a fact black people think so ****** up
How they got money to go war with whoever wrecked the buildings
And none for Africa’s HIV infected children
That mean the money for a life they can save
They rather use it to send a life to a grave
And that’s not righteous ways
That ain’t even half, my real-a-real
I could write for days
But I don’t know how they might behave
You seen what they did to the ‘Pac’s, Martin’s, and Marvin Gaye
Could you picture the Black Panther party today?
Usin’ hip hop to say the same thing Marcus Garvey would say?
Imagine Malcolm X over a beat
Tryin’ to rally up the troops and take control of the street
Still in the window holdin’ the heat
But now we got soldiers on the corner like police patrollin’ the beat
**** G.E.D.’s – ****** need DP CD’s
We don’t need PCP; we don’t need flat screen TV’s and DVD’s
We need more knowledge of who we be

[Chorus]
Do we really know where the guns come from?
Do we really know where the drugs come from?
How come it only affects us and not them?
How come Jesus Christ has still not come?
Why am I wrong if I kill a ***** that punch me?
But it’s alright for you to blow up a whole country…

In addition, why am I addicted to this video from Lupe Fiasco called “Kick Push”? The video and song are just nice. He may just be a future Verse of the Moment winner.

 Artist: The Last Emperor

 Album: Hidden Treasures

 Song: Do U Remember

 Purchase: Here

 Play: [See post to listen to audio]

I listen to a lot of music; a “lot” of music. I listen to music while driving, while studying, while riding the bus, while at work, etc., etc. And from time to time I come across verses which I feel are nearly perfect. With that, it is my hope that every month (or so) I will be able to share with you a verse which is almost touching perfection.

So what makes a perfect verse? Well, a number of things (in my opinion). Obviously the content (words) of the verse are important. However, they are only a portion (a small one at that). I have heard many of verses that were phenomenal but had no impact on me because the beat was no good or the delivery was terrible. Therefore, when I think of a perfect verse, I think of the word selection, the method of delivery, the beat, as well as the effectiveness in making me “feel” what the artist is trying to say.

So why only a verse? Well, mainly because 99.9% of songs (of all genres) do not keep a constant theme throughout the song. Most songs have that one verse that sets the tone, and then the other two (or so) which fill up the empty space. With that, if I was to make this a “song of the moment,” letting people know of almost perfect songs, this would probably be an annual or biennial post (not good for blogging).

With that out of the way, enjoy the verse, and let me know if you agree/disagree and why/why not (if you want). If you have a recommendation for next months verse, please send me an email through the contact page. Thanks.

 Artist: Little Brother

 Album: The Minstrel Show

 Song: All For You Ft. Darien Brockington

Purchase: Here

Play: [See post to listen to audio]

My next option is to use a media player (a built-in Windows Media Player app maybe?). This seems like a good idea, only that not everyone who visits my site uses Windows, and I do not want to alienate any of my visitors. In addition, using a media player implementation means that I cannot customize the look/feel to fit the theme of my site. Grrr.

So, since I cannot make up my mind, I am asking you to make it up for me. Should I use Flash or WMP? Or, if you know of another option, please suggest it. I am completely open at the moment. My only real requirement is that it has a play/stop button, as I refuse to have any sounds attacking my visitors without their direct consent.

Anyway, that is all. Let me know what you folks want / prefer / suggest. I need some help. Thanks.

I personally think this is a pretty slick idea. It would be nice to not only read what folks have to say about the articles I post, but also to hear their opinions. Hmmm, I wonder how hard it would be to incorporate this system into the current text-based commenting system I currently have on this blog. What do you folks think about that?

The first time my website went MIA in Google’s listings I thought I got my site delisted (which I probably did – on accident of course). So, I killed my old blogs (they had a few repeat posts), killed the redirect (it pointed to this domain), and scoured the net for any other websites which I previously ran which could have caused me to get delisted. And then, just like that, a few weeks later, my website was back into Google’s listings. However, that did not last long.

The next day (or at least it felt like the next day), I was once again delisted. Only this time, I was relisted within a matter of minutes. Hmmm. I figured they had a glitch with their database or something, and simply paid no attention to it. But then, a few hours later, I was once again missing from the ranks. And it has remained like this for just over a month.

If you do a search for “Fonzo” or “Fonzo’s Biz“, sometimes you get my site, sometimes you don’t. It is (or at least seems) completely random. I cannot figure out how, why, or what is getting my site the on again off again treatment. It is really bothersome.

Ironically, or maybe it is just a coincidence, but right about the time this started I did two major things. One was sign up for Google Sitemaps, and the other was switch from Google Adsense to Yahoo Publisher (review/comparison coming soon). I guess either or could have played a part in the odd behavior of Google, but I would like to believe that they did not play a part in the whole ordeal. However, I simply cannot rule out the closeness of the events.

And regarding Google Sitemaps, my sitemap says that it has been updated recently (last post), but Google’s cache of my site (when it happens to be available), is from about a month ago. So what gives?

Anyway, has anyone else had a problem with Google and their website? My site shows up fine in Google Blogsearch (but who uses that anyway?) and just about every other search engine, but not in Google (well, at least not sometimes). I want to get to the bottom of this.

However, since I am a somewhat of a nice guy, this is my warning to 216.224.117.180 (and any other spammer) to stop with the comment spam. I do not want to blacklist people from my server, but I will if I need too. So, do us both a favor and kill the comment spamming. OK? That is all. Now it is time for me to go back to my vacation. Peace.

As I updated my iPod with new songs and deleted the old ones, I noticed the album art problem slowly but surely getting worse and worse. It got so bad that the artwork it showed in the “Now Playing” screen would not even match the artwork it displayed when viewing the artwork Full Screen. Huh? How is it possible that the iPod was looking in two completely different places for artwork. It made/makes no sense.

Well, being a Windows user, my first plan of action (idea) was to go ahead and format the drive, wipe it clean, and start over. Well, thank goodness when it comes to my pricey piece of fun I play on the cautious side, as Apple clearly states that doing such an action is a bad idea. A very bad idea.

Do not use a disk utility program, such as Disk Utility, Drive Setup, or Windows Explorer, to erase iPod. Erasing songs from iPod this way can disable its music playing capabilities and you may have to update or restore iPod to get it to work again.

Whew! I got lucky with that one. I would have had to smack myself if I disabled the “music playing capabilities” of my Nano. So I am happy that I did not kill my little machine, but that did nothing to fix the problem with the displaying of incorrect album art.

Well, I researched, researched, and researched. And, after Googling, MSNing, and Yahooing, I came to the conclusion that I must be the first person ever to break their iPod in such a fashion. I could not find the slightest tidbit of information which listed ways in which I could get my iPod back to normal (well, I could do a restore, but I was hoping for something a little easier).

Then, by pure luck, I decided to open up iTunes and have a look around in the iPod Preferences pane. I noticed a check-mark which enabled or disabled album art on the Nano, and figured I would go ahead and give it a shot. Well, when you disable support, it does exactly what you would think. It makes it so that your iPod will not show any album art. So basically, it forces the Nano to display song information in the old center justified format (AKA ugly).

Thinking that I had conquered my troubles, I once again enabled album art. It took a few minutes for iTunes to optimize the album art for the Nano, and when it finished it quickly transferred over all of the artwork. And, surprisingly, it worked! Wooohooo. My Nano is now back to its original greatness and displaying the correct album art (both in Now Playing and in Full Screen). Sweet. I am happy.

Oh, for those wondering, I think I managed to break it by enabling “disk use” and disconnecting the iPod without actually hitting the eject button in iTunes or disconnecting the device through Explorer. I know I should not do that, but sometimes you are just in too much of a rush to actually go through all of the necessary steps. It is just easier to pull the plug on the device.

Update (12/07/05): Since this seems to be such a big problem, and to make life easier for everyone, I have created some simple steps for you to follow to get your iPod Nano (or Video) to display the correct album art.

Edit: Old steps removed. Please see update.

Update (10/14/06): Some people in the comments section have reported problem using the above methods in iTunes 7, while others have had great success using the above methods within iTunes 7 (please note that in iTunes 7 the iPod options are NOT located under edit -> preferences). I have tried looking into it but have been unable to get my iPod to have the same problem. Therefore, the above fix may or may not fix your specific issue. Either way, please post a comment, your version of iTunes, and any steps you had to perform differently, so that others can benefit also. Thank you.

Update (05/06/08): The steps have changed slightly for iTunes 7.x. Thanks to everyone in the comments that pointed this out.

Update (12/24/08): I’d like to say THANK YOU to everyone who has given this post praise in the comments below. I definitely appreciate it.

Follow these 8 simple steps.
1. Plug you iPod into your computer and open iTunes.
2. In iTunes, goto iPod -> Music
3. Deselect “Display album artwork on your iPod” -> click apply.
4. Your iPod will update. So wait (should take a few seconds).
5. Repeat step “2″
6. Select “Display album artwork on your iPod” -> click apply.
7. Your iPod will update. So wait (may take a minute or two).
8. Tada! Your iPod / iPhone should be back to its original greatness.
– - – - – - – - – - -
9. Add this podcast to your iTunes collection and enjoy (Shameless plug. I apologize.).

PS. Now that I have my first piece of comment spam, does this mean my blog is officially reaching out into the far corners of cyberspace? Probably not.

OK, when you click on the “photos” link above it takes you to a page that has nice little pictures for you to look at. The problem however is that the thumbnails (the small photos for those who do not know what a thumnail is), is created on the fly. This is absolutely horrible, because when too many people click on the link, or I have too many pictures to display, my hosting company thinks the code in my site has gone amuck and kills the connection to my site. Leaving my visitors staring at a nice bright red “CPU cycle blah blah blah” message. Not good, not good at all.

OK, so I changed the above ‘photos’ link to go to a Flickr based photo album. My initial thoughts are that it looks pretty good (and works well). However, there are a few things (most notably the inability to leave a comment unless you register with Flickr) which I dislike. Either way, I will leave it up for awhile and we will see how it all works out over the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, I noticed that a lot of blogs use flickr as their photo gallery of choice, so, I decided to give it a try. Maybe I’ll keep it, maybe I won’t. Who knows?