Forget that last post; I really just want one of these for Christmas.

Here is (the start of) my Christmas list for 2005. The kicker is that I’m using Amazon referral links. So if you buy something by clicking on one of the links below, I’ll also get a % of the sale!

Please check with Kim (kim@strangerstudios.com) before buying anything below in case someone else is already slated to get that item. Also, let Kim know if you are planning on buying something from the list below.

Thanks!

…is coming soon.

Here are some exclusive screenshots of the StrangerStudios PHP-Portfolio web application in development. The first image shows how users will browse projects and screenshots. The second image shows the admin view where projects are maintained.

I would consider the project at around version 0.45 or so. When we hit v0.5, the portfolio software will be put to use for the upcoming redesign of the StrangerStudios site and will also be used to serve the personal portfolios of myself and my girlfriend Kim. After those sites go live, I plan on making the code more flexible and user-friendly before releasing it to the wild.

Let me know what you think.

It’s a bit late, but I figure I’ll let y’all know that my post this Tuesday at InvestorGeeks was about a little spreadsheet I put together to calculate your future wealth based on salary, expected raises, percentage of savings, inflation rate, rate of return, etc. It’s a handy little tool meant to get people excited about savings.

I showed something like this to Jeremy earlier this year, and I think he started contributing to his 401k. I figure if I can get him to save, I can get anyone to.

Check out ThoughtlessActs.com, a site by Jane Fulton Suri and IDEO.

The “preview the book” section has some pretty interesting snippets and makes me want to buy the book.

The creme de la creme though is the “what do you see?” section. Visitors can upload pictures of and comment on moments of instant innovation. An inspiring read.

I posted another article at InvestorGeeks.

Media Convergence: Confused Yet?

A couple buddies and I have just launched a project that I am very excited about (notice the exclamation mark in the title).

www.InvestorGeeks.com

I’m partnering with Chris Welch and Frank Sanders on this, and our intention to create a hub for young, intelligent people like ourselves who might be new to this investment thing.

Be sure to check back there tomorrow morning at 7am when my first post goes live.

…are belong to this guy:

Checkout Andrew Cantino’s new word association site. It’s a fun little toy, and (best of all) yours truly helped with the design and styling.

I closed out my Pay the Artists post with this little promise:

I don’t do these posts-in-series very well. We all know how the Making the Blog series went. My mind wanders, my ADD kung fu is too strong, the winds of change…

Well, let’s see if I can wrap this “pay the artists” discussion up promptly.

Let’s recap:

1. I get most of my music from non-CD, non-iTunes sources.
2. Currently, the main reason for this is that it is cheaper for me.
3. Because I save money by shunning CDs, I can afford to see more concerts.
4. The musicians I see in concert make more money (% wise) off these concert tickets than they would off a comparable expenditure on CDs.
5. The musicians I like enough (and have an opportunity) to see in concert make more money from me as a customer.
6. Artists who are good enough to peak my interest (to buy a CD), but aren’t good enough to motivate me to go to a concert don’t get any money from me.
7. Artists who are good enough to peak my interest, but don’t tour near me don’t get any money from me.
8. I feel good about giving more of my money to musicians.
9. I feel good about giving less of my money to record companies.
10. I feel bad about the poor guys on the end of (6) and (7) who might have gotten some money from me if I was more of a CD buyer and less of a concert-goer.

How do I (and others like me) reconcile that last item? That’s the point (or part of the point) of these ramblings. Here is a random list of suggestions. Most of this is not even possible for various reasons but fun to think about anyway.

• Low-Tech Option: Every musician must have donate button on their website. Optionally, the musician can post what their current take is per song. Now take a calculator and add up all the money each musician would have made (n x $0.10) off your jolly-rogered music collection. Go to said musicians’ websites and donate appropriate amounts of money.
• Post-Scan Option: Let’s build a web application which will scan my computer for music files. I can then select which n of those were obtained illegally. The app will calculate n x $0.10 and bill me the total. The company behind the app will be responsible for making sure the artists in question receive the proper portion of that money. In addition, artists can contact the company to report their actual earnings per song to be used in calculations. As an added feature (for Apple-bashers only), allow the users to calculate and pay all or part of the $0.55 the record labels would have gotten from iTunes-like services for each song.
• Integrated Option: Let’s build a service to sit on top of Kazaa, BitTorrent, allofmp3, or whatever tools kiddies are using to yo-ho-ho music these days. This service will keep a running total ($0.10 per song) of what is due to each artist. Users can then logon to websiteforservice.com to total their bill and submit their payment. Moneys are distributed in the same way as in my second suggestion.

Possible names for these apps: “Pay the Artists” or “Guilt No More Payment Systems”. My conscience wants a service like the ones kiddingly postulated above. My busy life and need to write 1000 word essays keeps me from pursuing the manual option (keep telling yourself this). For now I will stick to my system of keeping a rough tally for my “concert fund” and continue to support musicians that way, while robbing them of a little profit up front in order to listen to their wonderful work.

For those interested enough to read this far, here is a link to a pretty interesting article about iTunes, musicians, and the music industry. <a class='body' href='http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/
‘>iTunes: Facelift for a corrupt industry.

Thanks,

How come no one has produced a keyless entry for home doors yet?

Update: