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Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

A Mini-Rant Against Songsmith

February 2nd, 2009

Apart from the Youtube meme, I’m unsure what the importance of Microsoft’s Songsmith is. I get that it makes music creation insanely simplistic, and you can re-create old songs with a few presets. But whatevever happened to just picking up an instrument and learning to play it? In the youtubes I watched, I noticed a common theme among all of them: they sounded cold, mechanical. There was nothing organic about any of the re-created songs and I found myself wishing I could just hear the originals instead. Even original work I’ve heard from it has felt real artificial. Perhaps I have written this technology off early, but I’m not so sure. Have you played around with the program? What do you think? E-mail or comment.

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Episode 12: Mature Titties

January 21st, 2009

This episode marks the beginning of the new site and name for the podcast. This has been under development for awhile and we’re excited to finally be able to go live. We have a lot in store for you this week so let’s just get right to it.

Today’s intro music is Tripping by After the Ice.  You can find more of their music at http://www.aftertheice.com/

Picks of the Week:

Extra links:

Be sure and follow us on twitter!

Jon’s TwitterMattie’s Twitter | Mike’s TwitterGeek Troika’s Twitter

Without further delay, Geek Troika episode 11!

Download

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Episode 11: Round Robin

January 15th, 2009

Hey there folks, it’s that time again. We’re here to bring you another hour of laughter, tears and tech talk straight from your listening device!

The intro music for this week is “Sad Robot” by Pornophonique. You can get more info about the band, as well as links to download their music on their website.

Picks of the week:

Jon - Hip-thrusting MP3 player

Mattie - http://www.totallylookslike.com

Mike - The Bitten Blog

Other links mentioned in the show this week:

Jon’s TwitterMattie’s Twitter | Mike’s TwitterGeek Troika’s Twitter

Without further delay, Geek Troika episode 11!

Download

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Episode 6: Cakefarter

November 26th, 2008

Hey folks! It’s that time again! Another Geek Troika podcast is in the can and ready for your enjoyment! We’ve got a wicked rad show for you today so let’s get started:

Intro song: “Making Me Nervous” by Brad Sucks.
Mattie gets her own adult rating by Logical Extremes.

Our picks of the week:

Mike - Abandonia: http://abandonia.com/

Mattie - Crescent City Radio: http://www.crescentcityradio.com

Jon - Bringit: http://www.bringit.com/

Matt - True Blood, Season 1: http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/

Remember to follow us on Twitter!

Jon’s Twitter | Mattie’s Twitter | Mike’s Twitter | Geek Troika’s Twitter

Without further ado, here’s the link to download episode 6!

Download

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Windows 7

November 19th, 2008

Matt tells me he will be trying out the spiffy beta of Windows 7 that’s out on the torrents.  I used it not too long ago to try it out and I absolutely love it.  It’s definitely chooses a new aesthetic, but one that’s not so foreign to users.  I also enjoy the building on Vista’s failures and correcting them.

Has anyone tried Windows 7?  How are you enjoying it?

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“I’m a PC” Kiosks Outside of Apple Store!

November 1st, 2008

This is absolutely awesome.  Microsoft is putting guerilla marketing to pretty darn good use!  They’re putting small kiosks where you can record your own “I’m a PC” advert outside of Apple stores.  Priceless.

I haven’t been a very big fan of the Apple advertising campaign using John Hodgman and Justin Long.  I see the humor in them and they do make me chuckle from time to time, but I’ve also found them to be inaccurate, pithy, obnoxious, and pretentious.  Everytime I’d like to buy a new Apple product and I happen to see one of those adverts, I become very discouraged and no longer want to purchase that product.  I’ve feel although the Seinfeld adverts were a bit baffling that Microsoft’s adverts have been much classier thus far.  You can say what you’d like about whether they’re “good” or “effective,” but they are definitely of a different calibre than the Apple adverts.

Apple has spent a long time trying to convince me that it is hip and chic and so totally now.  But I still cling to the stereotype that Apple users are obnoxious twats who use their laptops as a fashion accessory rather than a computing tool.

This interesting use of guerilla marketing by Microsoft is not obnoxious, if you ask me.  It’s clever and the correct use of competitive advertisement.  You’re supposed to place your adverts next to your competitor’s.  That gas station has gas for $2.15?  Well, MY gas station has it for $2.05!  That’s the great part of advertising, coming up with new, interesting and engaging ways to attract your customer.  Apple has done that with adverts that can really irritate and annoy a lot of possible customers.  Microsoft has done that with adverts that may not truly articulate its point to the customer.  They’re both flawed, but so far I’m siding with Microsoft in this marketing war*.

*There really is no war happening.  It’s just regular ole marketing.  Let’s not hyperbolize everything.

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