I’m Not Ignoring You

Apologies for the generally worthless post, but I discovered the other day that I had inadvertently enabled a setting on my mail server which deleted all items from my inbox which were older than 30 days. There were probably 30 or 40 emails I still needed to return which are now gone forever. So if you wrote me something in the last few months and I haven’t responded to it yet, please write again!!! Especially if you’re the person who wrote in with those two really, really nice examples of sIFR-ized sites you’d designed or if you’re from that technical school in Seattle and wanted to say hi. Those are the two that I remembered clearly and tipped me off that something was wrong.

Anyway, that’s it. Sorry for the interruption.

P.S. Is anybody else as baffled as I am that after 10.4, 10.4.1, and now 10.4.2, Apple’s Mail program still takes 5-10 seconds to pull up a new mail window when you hit the “Reply” button? Is that really such a hard problem to fix?

P.P.S. Safari is also crashing on me about once a day now. Anybody else? Two years of virtually no crashes and now this? I think it’s a known issue with the newest Safari release but are we going backwards?

P.P.P.S. Anybody tried Vonage? Especially for a business? Any good?

iPod Giveaway #4: I Found a Shuffle

The 4th monthly Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition starts today and the rules are simple: I found an iPod Shuffle. In order to claim it, you must identify it and tell me precisely how you lost it. I have a feeling there is a rich story behind this little piece of plastic, and the person who successfully reveals it in the comments will be reunited with their baby. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on July 31st.

Special thanks to Mike Roberto for coming up with the idea for this 4th contest. Mike will receive a Shuffle from me, and of course, the contest submission pool remains open until the end of the year.

Extra special thanks as well to Dennis Lloyd and iLounge (formerly iPodLounge) who are once again adding a pair of $150 Etymotic ER-6i earbuds to the prize pool.

iPod Giveaway #3: We Have a Winner

Competitor “joshua” was right when he questioned whether most entries in the third monthly iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition correctly followed the instructions of exploring alternative uses of iPods. Luckily, however, we applaud the breaking of rules here at Mike Industries, and that is why I’m happy to announce this month’s winner and a new honor roll of the top 30 entries… some following the rules more closely than others.

So without further ado, congratulations to Charlie D., whose crudely assembled infomercial about sending iPod Shuffles full of music into space is available for viewing here. It’s an interesting concept for sure, and one which holds special significance after seeing NASA ram a spacecraft with thousands of names on it into a comet earlier this week.

Charlie will receive an iPod Shuffle from me, and a pair of $150 Etymolic earbuds from the nice folks over at iPodLounge.com.

Below is a slideshow of the top 30 non-video entries with the first 10 being the runners-up, in order of greatness. The last 20 are in random order:

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition slated to begin around the middle of this month. And as always, the submission pool remains open.

iPod Giveaway #3: alt.shuffle

iPod Giveaway #2: We Have a Winner

Did you know Bigfoot carried an iPod Shuffle? I didn’t. But thanks to Craig “Trailhead” Grunemeyer of Sparta, New Jersey, we now have video evidence to the contrary. Craig’s Bigfoot video is the winner of the Mike Industries “Great iPods in History” competition, overtaking the rest of the field with a combination of original concept and fitting execution. I will be shipping Craig his iPod Shuffle this week, and thanks to the generosity of Dennis Lloyd and iPodLounge.com, Craig will also receive a pair of top-of-the-line $150 Etymotic ER-6i earbuds and a sport case for his new Shuffle.

With almost 300 entries in this month’s competition, judging was particularly difficult, but in the end, the combination of Craig’s Bigfoot video along with his Iwo Jima photo (pictured below as the first piece in the honor roll slideshow) was enough to set him above the rest. The Iwo Jima photo itself was arguably the best photo entry submitted as well.

If I could award multiple Shuffles, I would, but I can’t, so the best I can do for everyone else is include what I believe to be the top 75 entries in the honor roll slideshow below. The first 15 are my top 15, ranked accordingly, and the last 60 appear in order of submission.

I also want to give special mention to a few of the entries that I think deserve special praise:

For the better part of the contest (and before Craig’s entries came in), I had almost already decided who the winner would be. Entry #111, submitted by Tommy Perez, hung on my screen for days. It was a depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but the subtle introduction of an iPod Shuffle into the scene in a non-obvious location transformed it from a statement about the way things were 2000 years ago to the way things are today. Here Jesus is, bleeding to death in one of the most important events in world history while detached warrior guy just sits there on the steps listening to Styx. If that’s not a statement about the effect iPods are having on our society, I don’t know what is. * Note: I’m not at all religious, so please no comments about how I’m belittling the plight of Jesus.

The second bit of kudos goes to Tomasz “Jarv” Dobrowolski of Poland who gets the award for best Photoshop skills. Tomasz’s Beethoven, Einstein, and JFK entries were all top-of-class in terms of execution and deserve special praise for their composition.

And finally, the “outside the box” award goes to Matthew Joiner for his “iPod Shuffleography” featuring the likes of Norman Rockwell, Benjamin Franklin, and Henry David Thoreau. Matthew’s mini site, created especially for this competition, is an exercise in creativity and deserves a heaping portion of compliments for its originality.

So anyway, enjoy the slideshow, and stay tuned for the next competition which will begin around the middle of this month (and every month until the end of the year). And remember, of course, that the submission pool for iPod Giveaway ideas is also open until the end of the year. If your idea is chosen, you win an iPod Shuffle.

And last but not least, thanks to Victor Paru of Intel for coming up with this month’s competition.

May Randoms

Possibly useful thoughts collected throughout May:

sIFR 2.0.1

Sorry about the point release, but we had a tiny regression bug between RC4 and 2.0 which was only noticeable under rare circumstances in old versions of Mozilla. It is now fixed, and the update, as usual, requires only the swapping of your sifr.js file. Head over to the Official sIFR Landing Page for the download.

The Other Mike D.

I’ve always loved Mike Doughty’s lyrics and vocals but could never figure out what I didn’t quite like about his former group Soul Coughing. Now I know. The rest of the band. I went to Doughty’s show in Seattle earlier this month, and it blew me away. Usually when singers leave bands to go solo, they get worse, but Doughty has not only gotten better as a singer, he’s a better songwriter as well. More soul, less coughing, as one magazine puts it. The guy loves touring too. Before the Seattle show, he stood on the streetcorner outside the club with his acoustic guitar taking requests from fans and cracking John Curley jokes. I’ve never seen anything like it. Oh, and not only does the man play for free on streetcorners, but he’s a Movable Type user as well. How can you not love that? *Note to Doughty’s IT guy: The man gives you music. Please get him onto MT 3 or WordPress already.

The Decemberists

Their latest album “Picaresque” is my Album of the Year so far. The band’s previous release “Her Majesty the Decemberists” never did a lot for me, but this effort is epic. Long live folksy pirate music.

Downloading Live Shows

Croftie may not like live music but I do. As a result, I’ve found myself downloading a ton of shows lately off of Archive.org. It’s a bit frustrating that most shows are only available in lossless (see: overkill) formats like SHN and FLAC, but you can convert these to MP3s with a program like xACT. Can someone please point me in the direction of an app which automatically tags your converted MP3 files from a playlist file or something? Manually entering song info for each track you download is a pain and a half. Is there an AppleScript perhaps (or Automator workflow maybe?) which will convert an entire folder of FLAC/SHN files to MP3 and then tag them? That would be of incredible use.

Hybrid Bikes

If anyone is in the market for a good city bike, I just picked up a Marin Fairfax and I love it. Hybrid bikes are usually either heavy, ugly, or both, but this thing is only slightly heavier than a road bike and made of brushed aluminum and carbon fiber. I got mine for $599 at a local shop, but you can get the 2004 model for $329 online at REI if you don’t mind different components and a few other details.

TV Season Is Over

Thank god the end of good TV season coincides with the beginning of summer. This year, we had some great reality shows and some dud dramas. Survivor made a strong comeback from last year’s miserable season proving that it’s still the king of all reality shows. The Apprentice was entertaining, if not much better than the previous two seasons, and finally The Donald hired someone who isn’t a white male. Surreal Life was its normal entertaining self, making you embarrassed to be a human being, in a good way. And the newcomer, The Contender, proved to be a great addition to Mark Burnett’s lineup, despite Sylvester Stallone’s and Sugar Ray Leonard’s complete incompetence as hosts. On the flip side, I’m sad to say that the hitherto spectacular show 24 appears to be on its last legs. This season went south after about the 8th episode when the plot climaxed prematurely, the most interesting characters were killed off, and the least interesting (a.k.a. Tony Almeida) were brought back. The most pathetic episode saw mild-mannered Chloe O’Brien wielding a machine gun and shooting up a Jeep. Ummm, yeah. Time to put this show to rest. Quit while you’re ahead Fox. Somehow I don’t think they’ll listen to me, and somehow I’m sure I’ll still watch season five.

New Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

Haagen Dazs Crème Brûlée. I can’t believe it took this long to invent this flavor… or maybe it just took me this long to find out about it.

Kicking the Soda Habit

I’m not too concerned with getting off of coffee, but if you’re looking to kick your Coke and Pepsi habit instead, I highly recommend replacing your thirst for fizz with high quality mineral water. I didn’t drink mineral water for the first 20-something years of my life, but I’ve really taken a liking to it lately and have been virtually pop-free for about six months now. I recommend San Pellegrino especially if you’re new to the stuff. It’s a lot milder on the fizz than most other brands.

We’re Hiring In a Pretty Big Way

Just a quick note to let all Mike Industries readers know that the Walt Disney Internet Group is looking to fill over 80 positions in our North Hollywood and Seattle offices right now. These are mostly technical positions ranging from the creative side of things to the engineering side of things, and I can tell you from the over four years I’ve worked here that it’s a great place to get your groove on.

To list every position available in this blog entry would take quite some time, but just in the Seattle office, I know we’re looking for engineers, technical producers, designers, managers, Java people, SQL people, project managers, and a handful of other positions. The North Hollywood office has other openings as well.

If you’re a talented, motivated person who is interested in working for Disney, please check out the Walt Disney Internet Group job site and submit your information through there, or also feel free to send me your stuff through “disneyjobs at mikeindustries.com”. I’m not sure every opening is listed on the WDIG Jobs Site so if you’re a talented web professional, send us your stuff and we’ll try and see if there’s a fit.

UPDATE: If you’re interested in WDIG jobs out of the Orlando office, there are some openings there as well.

iPod Giveaway #2: Great iPods in History

UPDATE #2: Maybe the big red exclamation mark will help here — all images must be EXACTLY 418 pixels tall by 418 pixels wide. Not 418×200. Not 500×500. It is not a “maximum width”. 418×418 please. The management thanks you.

UPDATE #3: iPodLounge.com has just offered to send a pair of $150 Etymotic ER-6i earbuds and a sportcase to the eventual winner. Thanks iPodLounge!

Baton Ruse

What is a musical baton?

I don’t know, but my beard idol Rob Weychert and my Google-juice idol Keith Robinson just passed me one. I will now waive it over my head and tell you all sorts of things you never asked about!

Total volume of music files on my computer:

18.05 GB… Mostly from actual pressed CDs

The last CD I bought was:

“The Runaway Found” by The Veils

Song playing right now:

“Mojo Pin” by Jeff Buckley

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

1. Ten Years Gone by Led Zeppelin
   Best group ever. Any suggestions to the contrary will be deleted.
2. Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns by Mother Love Bone
   If you live in Seattle and you’re in your 20s or 30s, this is your anthem.
3. The Pink Life by Mike Doughty
   This pick is currently in ridiculously heavy rotation. Over 50 plays in the last few months I’m sure. And I’m seeing Doughty live tomorrow night. Bam!
4. Salvation by Citizen Cope
   Unclassifiable music is the most impressive music of all. Citizen Cope and Calexico are two of the least classifiable bands I know.
5. Bonnie and Clyde by Serge Gainsbourg
   The all-time winner for song most ahead of its time. Sounds like it was composed in 2005. Was actually composed in 1968.

* Honorable mention: Any of Inman’s favorites from the “Video Game Beeping” genre.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:

• Andrei Herasimchuk (as a last gasp attempt to revive Design By Fire)
• Jeff Croft
• John Gruber
• Matt May
• Stephen Lodefink

iPod Giveaway #1: We Have a Winner

He entered early. He entered often. He is Davin Risk, master food sculptor and photographer from Toronto, Canada, and he is the winner of the Mike Industries “Make a Meatspace Shuffle” creativity competition.

Davin’s first entry, made entirely of goat butter, arrived only hours after the contest began and set the pace for a field of over 40 excellent “interpretations of iPod Shuffle as food”. Davin followed up his well received goat butter creation with a Parsnip Shuffle, a Tofu Shuffle, and the eventual winner: The Banana/Apple/Spaghetti Shuffle (shown above as the first piece in our honor roll slideshow).

Davin’s winning entry was both creatively assembled and brilliantly photographed, which helped it withstand the onslaught of entries throughout April. Stephen Lodefink’s Spam Shuffle garnered the most attention around the web and gave Davin a run for his money, but the toughest test came only 90 minutes before the contest closed when iPod case designer extraordinaire Nikki Sevcik submitted her tantalizing “Morning Shuffle”, consisting of a frothy espresso drink, chocolate covered strawberry, and exquisitely placed “Shuffle wafer”. Nikki’s entry is the second in the slideshow.

The Mike Industries staff (me) thought long and hard about how to pick the winner, but in the end, there was no perfect solution. At least 12 entries were award-worthy, but since Davin had four of them, his food sculpting prowess was the most clearly established of all the contestants.

I’ve provided an honor roll of 20 of the most worthy entries above and I thank everyone for participating in this first of 9 contests. Besides the first two slides, the honor roll is in no particular order. Enjoy.

Thanks also to Jason Anderson for concocting the first competition. His baby boy is already enjoying his Shuffle. Remember, the submission pool is open until the end of the year.

And finally, although I can’t award a second place prize, I’m happy to point readers in the direction of Nikki’s portfolio of custom iPod cases. They’re one of a kind.