“I Like B-sides” discontinued!

I Like B-sides was a project I ran publicly from February 2009, until today. It was quite unique, in that it found “b-side” tracks from your favorite artists. — In other words, songs that you wouldn’t hear about in the top charts would be shown, as long as they were trending above average for each particular artist. It also separately alerted you to songs in your music library that were good, but ignored in the event of having an entire album downloaded for just a track or two in particular that you liked.

There was a lot of magic involved in the algorithm, and people liked it. The service was a hit and was written up in Lifehacker, on CNet, + others popular spots.

Nearly 4 years later, during routine system migrations today, I decided to pull the site down finally. It was still getting traffic, but hadn’t been updated. As we move to a more mobile and “Cloud-like” infrastructure in our lives, I felt that uploading a zipped copy of one’s iTunes Library’s XML file seemed a bit frivolous, and that it was time for something better to come along in its place.

The technology might make a comeback in another form, as the code has certainly not been erased from my system. However, I Like B-sides is now a legacy, and we’ll see where things go from there. :)

Thanks for giving it attention all of these years!

CDJ’er project retired.

CDJ’er was a site I started in 2010 to help DJs print track lists for their CD booklets. Each CD usually contained about 10 songs, and making a list for each disc was time consuming.

The site allowed DJs to automatically print labels using iTunes playlists or albums and saved a lot of time. I used it, and it was great!

Nowadays, I don’t really DJ for fun anymore … and also, most DJs have moved to using USB memory sticks with their Pioneer CDJ decks. So, I figured 2012 was a good time to retire the product. :)

So long, CDJ’er!

The new Flip cameras. (Review; with image stabilizers!)

So, I am a big fan of Flip video cameras … and brought one along on my trip to Japan. However, what was a minor nuisance was the lack of an image stabilizer. It caused action footage to come out a bit “jagged”.

This is no longer an issue on the new Flip cameras with image stabilizers. I ordered one, and decided to try it snowboarding this weekend.

Much better, even without any stabilization hardware/rigging!  A trick I’d used in the past was to placing the camera on a steady surface, but many video editors can also try to fix older footage. (such as using the “SmoothCam” filter in Final Cut Pro) Why not prevent it altogether? Or, make the image even smoother?

Mobile17 v3.0 released

So, I’ve spent the past year working on this third, and final version of Mobile17. 

It’s pretty cool. Really simplifies everything and streamlines the “make your own ringtones” process. Very easy to use, fun, and with less clutter! Check it out, and be sure to tell your friends or post your ringtones to your Facebook wall. :)

New wheels/tires for the $1400 Jetta!

So, including the car, I’ve barely even spent $3000 total at this point. This includes the stereo upgrade, new wheels/tires (below), all maintenance/repairs, etc.  Insurance is roughly $100/mo, and I barely even use a single tank of gas in that time. The car’s in great shape and the project is going very well.

In the past, I installed a new stereo (Sony CDXGT550UI MP3/WMA/AAC Player CD Receiver with iPod Direct Control via USB) and also a pair of rear decklid speakers (Sony XSGT1626A 6-1/2-Inch Coaxial 2-way Speakers). Now, I’ve added wheels and some snow tires.

I installed this set (today) of 16” Sport Edition F2 wheels from TireRack, with the same Pirelli Sottozero snow tires that I ran on my last car… a Volkswagen R32. Since the wheels were shipped having already been mounted and balanced with these tires from their warehouse, I was able to simply swap them in the driveway using my impact and torque wrenches.

The car itself is a real “creampuff”, haha. Engine and drivetrain are in excellent condition, body is decent, and the interior looks the best of all. A great addition were some OEM Volkswagen winter floormats from about 10-years ago, which my friend Matt found in his garage for me. Note that, because this is a California car, there is no rust anywhere!! That’s unheard of in New England, and hopefully it will stay that way for a while if I wash it quite often.

This latest addition (the wheels/tires)… really completes the car! And, just in time for snowboarding season! Stay tuned.

Dubspace project retired.

Throughout my teenage years and early 20s, I became fascinated with modified Volkswagens. However, I am no longer. I love my new car (1998 Volkswagen Jetta GL, the story) but my heart just isn’t in running a site like this anymore. So, I’ve closed it down.

Life goes on.

Sorry guys! I will forever miss this project. … The good times.

The $1400 Jetta project.

So, I sold my car. The modified, twin-turbo’ed Volkswagen R32.

The car was really fast, but in reality I couldn’t really use it for anything and it was not much of a “winter” car. So, it sat in storage and I was forced to use Zipcar 5-6 months out of the year. Not very economical… also not even factoring the terrible gas mileage resulting from 600+HP!

The car fetched $34,100 on eBay. Even though I’d put a lot more than that into the car (including the car’s initial cost about 5 years ago) … I kind of “called it a day” and said goodbye. Done.

So, realistically… looking at my finances before now, I was spending:
$250/mo on Zipcar (+ overages + snowboarding trips in the winter … $50-$80/each), $300/mo insurance on the R32 (appraised for higher value, so higher premium), $50-150/mo on fuel whenever I could drive the R32

The two downsides to Zipcar were that, even though I was prepaying $250/mo and any unused balance would rollover up to 2-months later… I was generally spending $300-400 (sometimes more) on Zipcar time. Obviously this wasn’t a bad deal considering you’re driving brand-new cars and don’t have to pay for fuel (and it’s convenient, great for traveling in different cities/countries) ………. But that’s a huge investment considering the lack of miles I drive and that I don’t get to keep the car in the end. Money down the drain for the non-occasional driver.

So, on average … not including any maintenance to the R32… I was spending around $700/mo on car stuff. Sometimes more, sometimes less. That’s too much for someone that works from home and doesn’t commute.

Solution to all of this? Buying a 1998 Jetta GL from Craigslist for $1400.

I’ve had this car for about two-weeks now and I love it. It’s low maintenance, old, good looking but not “new” looking, and easy to work-on/maintain/drive/enjoy. It’s safe, has airbags, well built, not rusty (came from San Francisco, this is key), and has had all of its timing-belt/water-pump and other things that are required done in the past 10,000mi.

What’s not to like? It’s not a new car, but all of my friends like it and it was cheap. Perfect for the city. My plan is to make it “somewhat” nice by upgrading the wheels, stereo (which I’ve already done), and touching-up the body to look as presentable as possible. Otherwise, the car is virtually perfect as-is.

I installed the stereo myself because it was a factory fit and I’d seen so many installations in the past. Very satisfying and saved ~$100!

Here’s the finished installation, with iPhone cable attached. Awesome! So modern, yet a nice old car.

My car related finances now break down to this:
$4/mo on Zipcar ($50/year minimum.. divided by 12-months is roughly $4, I keep Zipcar active for emergencies or breakdowns), ~$100/mo for decent insurance and $50/mo on premium fuel for the Jetta… even though it’s a 4-cylinder and doesn’t need Premium. Why get it then? I barely drive and can usually make a single tank last a whole month. So might as well spend the extra $2/tank and get the good stuff and use good oil/filters when doing oil-changes. All this keeps the engine healthier and adds performance… although not much.

That’s a savings of at least $500/mo, and I get to have my own car parked here at all times. Obviously there are maintenance and upgrade costs to factor in addition… but they will never exceed this allowance within my ownership’s lifespan of the car. If they did (for some extreme reason), I’d just junk the car and buy a different one! It was only $1400 :)

Part of what made this cost so exorbitant in the first place was the fact that I was paying to insure a nice car … I agree, this was stupid. However, even if you subtract that… I’m still saving money over Zipcar based on the amount of driving I do vs. the lack of miles. At least a couple hundred bucks a month.

So, after a little while, the car will have paid for itself based on my previous budget AND my Zipcar budget. Plus, I’ll have made it nice/unique using some of that saved money. I think I’ve done pretty well… we’ll see. Do I want another fast car? No way…. Been there, done that. Not worth it.

Bitsmash project retired, as well.

Today I made the end-all decision to cancel the Bitsmash project. Reasons being:

1. The project was making basically no-income, yet cost $1300/month to run.
2. Lack of public-awareness. Lack of my own dedication as well.
3. Needed a lot of work, and couldn’t justify it since there was just no money in it. (this also ties-into the lousy economy we’re presently stuck with)
4. Need to consolidate my focus onto things that matter, rather than saturating the market.

My whole reason for starting any project is to fascinate people and/or make their lives easier. For this one, there just wasn’t that much interest. However, I did learn a lot more (as with any project) about various technologies that I usually never use, and therefore it was still worth my time, I feel.

So long, Bitsmash!

“i like b-sides.” …. do you need a new mix-tape?

I launched this site today, it’s pretty cool.
Basically it suggests songs to you that you wouldn’t normally have or listen to, but are still good. It’s kind of like a reversed iTunes Genius… it actually more of a iTunes Librarian that can help you find interesting books to read by just showing up to the library with a list of what you already have… except, for music. hah.

So yeah, basically the site works for just about anyone with any usable information in their iTunes Library (whether it be star-ratings or only Play Counts, as well as other factors like quantity of songs by that particular artist, etc.) — so give it a try and grab some new tunes from those artists you already know and love! http://ilikebsides.com