As far as I am concerned, the Red Hot Chili Peppers still have my favorite
track, "Dani California" which holds on to my personal top 10 at #1 for
the 5th week in a row.
The iTunes software on my main computer is still giving me trouble (like
it won't launch).... I suspect a bad sector on the main hard drive or even
worst a bad hard drive. I plan to run Disk Warrior on the G4 this week to
see if this can be fixed without having to buy a new hard drive.
The bad thing is that the iTunes XML file which I think controls and
manages all of my playlists is stuck in the bad sector and for some reason
can't be copied to another disk.
The good thing is that my music files exist on an external drive while the
player lives on an internal drive with Mac OSX. So whatever I do, I won't
be losing music anytime soon.
That said, here is my list of the Top 10 Hits for the week:
1 Dani California (5th Week @ #1) - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2 Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case
3 Again and Again - Jewel
4 Steady, As She Goes - The Raconteurs
5 Girl Next Door (Album Version) - Saving Jane
6 Bad Day - Daniel Powter
7 Who Says You Can't Go Home - Bon Jovi with Jennifer Nettles
8 Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
9 Everytime We Touch - Cascada
10 Wisemen - James Blunt
posted by mel at 10:35 PM 0 comments
Mom's Pretty Flowers
From time to time I'll post photos of flowers to this blog just to give
this place some color. Many of the flowers that I take pictures of grow at
my parents' place in Honokaa on the Big Island of Hawaii. Other flowers
that you will see posted here will have been shot at other locations. I
also plan to write stuff about Honokaa. If you would like to see more
photos of flowers that I shot, visit the following page links:
My Flicker Flower Garden
My BuzzNet Flower Gallery
There are more photos in my BuzzNet Gallery, though in time I suspect the
Flickr site to grow as I continue to archive my Flickr photo links at my
new Flickr photo blog.
posted by mel at 6:03 AM 0 comments
Monday, May 29, 2006
GOP Hawaii Convention Day 3
The third and last day of the Hawaii Republican Convention focused on the
platform. Delegates spent more than 2 hours reviewing, discussing and
approving various bullet point topics or "planks" on the 2006 platform.
The document which is updated every 2 years has been described as a
"living document" meaning that it is probably always in a state of
change... at least every 2 years.
The platform committee which I am a part of, spent several weekends
hammering out the document. Most of it remained unchanged from the 2004
platform. Changes were abundant in the end, as several were brought to
light on the convention floor during the final hours and minutes.
Fortunately for me, the items I revised in the economy plank went by the
committee and the delegation with nary a comment as we updated and revised
items relating to the standard deduction on state income taxes to match
the federal one, and supported an elimination of the Jones and Passenger
Services Act to enhance a more competitive cruise and shipping industry.
Floor amendments were proposed, discussed, debated, and voted on some of
the other planks.
Veteran's issues became an issue after it was decided that veterans should
be recognized for services rendered on behalf of our country. Another
plank item proposes to ensure that soldiers sent off to war be able to get
their civilian jobs back upon their return from service. In the end, it
was agreed that a Veterans' plank would be part of the 2008 platform.
In the area of Hawaiian issues, the plank was modified to provide
qualified native Hawaiians with home ownership on lands set aside for the
Hawaiian Homes program. A proposal to grant native Hawaiians the right to
own their land in fee was turned down after being opposed by the executive
branch. As current leases begin to expire this century, the issue of fee
simple ownership will surface again. I think it would be a good idea to
allow Hawaiian homeowners to get their land in fee and eventually end the
program over the next 100 years or so.
On the education front, governance and funding of the top heavy state
education system was once again discussed with some changes made to the
original plank proposals. Bottom line is that the education system will
remain the way it is for the foreseeable future even though the Governor
and many others believe major changes should be made in localizing the
system.
New plank items addressing the growing concern of identity theft were
inserted into both the crime and safety plank as well as the one for
senior citizens. I think everyone agrees that identity theft is a huge
problem that will not go away soon.
Lastly after the platform was approved and after some discussion, the
proposed resolution to address the issue of the Kuilima resort development
was brought up and approved by the delegates. Many people do not want the
North Shore to be touched with massive development. Supporters of this
resolution are quite passionate about putting barriers in front of the
proposed development in order to "keep the country, country." We'll see if
the City Council takes action based on this resolution and other public
sentiment to have the proposal's EIS re-evaluated.
In all the 2006 Hawaii Republican Convention like all others set the
course and tone for the next few months as candidates wage into battle for
those hotly contested executive level, congressional and legislative seats
in the fall elections. Let's hope the party can be victorious in some if
not all of its endeavors.
posted by mel at 2:20 PM 0 comments
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Nanue Waterfalls
Nanue Waterfalls, originally uploaded by macprohawaii.
This was shot on the Big Island of Hawaii earlier this month. Nanue falls
is located along Highway 19 on the Hamakua Coast.
posted by mel at 9:55 PM 0 comments
Sunlight Creeping In
Sunlight Creeping In
Originally uploaded by macprohawaii.
Flickr.com offers its users the ability to blog photos from the Flickr
website to Blogspot.com. So here is my first Flickr photo blog. This
particular picture was shot last December at my parents' home garage in
Honokaa on the Big Island. I used a Sony P50 digital camera to take this
photo in black and white mode.
posted by mel at 9:47 PM 0 comments
GOP Hawaii Convention Day 2
If there are some things that you should do in life is attend a political
party convention at least once. These events are huge pep rallies for the
party faithful and the second day of the Hawaii Republican Party
convention was no exception. The highlight of the day was the 4-hour long
general session which amounted to a huge pep rally where supporters cheer
their favorite candidates on.
Perhaps the group that made the biggest visual impact and the most noise
was the supporters of State Senator Bob Hogue who is making a run for the
2nd District Congressional Seat being vacated by incumbent Democrat
Congressman Ed Case, who is making a run for the U.S. Senate. Hogue's loud
group gallantly paraded to centerstage as they kicked off several
candidate lines with noisy celebration. The major candidates for the high
profile offices got to make floor speeches and rallied on the troops.
Candidates for various State House and Senate seats were rallied to stage
and all were celebratory for this day, knowing that the campaign trail
willbe long one until the fall elections. The goal of this year's
elections is to have the Republicans hold on the House and Senate seats
they now have, and hopefully even increase their numbers. There are 10
Republicans in the 51-member House and 5 in the Senate.
Lt. Governor James "Duke" Aiona is a popular candidate with the
conservative wing of the party. He also seems to be popular with women
voters as he was recently named one of the 10 most sexiest men in the
State of Hawaii. So much for electing a guy on issues, but if looks is
also what it takes to get into office then for the lucky candidate, by all
means, take advantage of that too. Over the last few years I have grown to
like Mr. Aiona mainly on his stance to get tough on crime and also on his
Christian conservative views.
The highlight of the general session was the appearance and speech made by
Governor Linda Lingle. For the first time in 40-years Hawaii Republicans
can chant "four more years" as we now have a sitting Governor from our
party in control of the executive office. The Governor focused on her
accomplishments in office and briefly touched on issues she wants to
further pursue. It was good to hear her talk about local school boards
again after the issue apparently went away for a few years after her
administration fought to decentralize Hawaii's top heavy public school
system in 2004 to no avail. She also touched upon some of her pet issues
including home rule and support for the Akaka Bill legislation in
Congress.
In the end notwithstanding some major flub-up, it is expected that
Governor Lingle should win re-election this year and get a second term in
the executive office. Despite some of the personal differences that I have
with her on some of the issues, in the long run she will continue to be
good for Hawaii.
posted by mel at 7:15 AM 0 comments
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Film Cameras Decline
Canon, the top maker of photo products including digital and film cameras,
announced yesterday that they are looking into the possibility of
discontinuing production of 35mm film SLR and compact cameras. They are
the latest in a long parade of camera manufacturers who have announced and
followed through with the discontinuation of film cameras. Bottom line is
that the bottom of the film camera market has fallen out as many people
all over the world have embraced the wild world of digital photography.
Canon will be joining other camera makers in the discontinuation of film
cameras. They include Nikon, who announced the same earlier this year,
Konica-Minolta, who pulled out of the camera business altogether (selling
their digital assets to Sony), Olympus, Pentax and Kodak. About the only
market that film still thrives is at the very low end where disposable
cameras are still popular.
It is kind of sad to see film go, but I like millions of others have
embraced digital photography with a vengeance. The entry into digital
photography is a bit steep no matter what kind of camera you buy. Digital
cameras are simply more expensive than most of their film counterparts,
especially at the high end where digital SLRs now rule. Still in the long
run, digital is cheaper because you eliminate the cost of having to always
buy film and in most cases taking the film to the procesor and having them
develop it all. With digital we get an almost unlimited supply of "film",
and instant gratification to see the results of what you shot and the
immediate ability to do with your photos whatever you want to do with
them.... as long as you have a computer (in most cases).
I've been shooting pictures for many years and have gone through a long
parade of film cameras. Fact is I have several perfectly good film cameras
like the Minolta X700 that is pictured above. Sadly, I hardly ever use
these cameras and shooting digital is more satisfying and immediate.
Still, I hang on to my film cameras for those times when I may feel
nostalgic and want to spend money buying and processing film.
posted by mel at 6:57 AM 0 comments
Friday, May 26, 2006
GOP Hawaii Convention Day 1
This weekend probably marks the unofficial start of the 2006 election
campaign season. Both the Republican and Democrat parties in Hawaii
started their conventions in Honolulu today. GOP Hawaii's convention is
being held at the Sheraton-Waikiki hotel.
I am a delegate from District 22 in the Republican Party. So I attended
the convention for most of the day. The first day crowd numbered at around
200 or more people. Most of the events planned for today revolved around
candidate workshops, informational forums, speeches and a platform
committee meeting. Most people pay for and attend these kinds of
conventions for camaraderie with like minded people, mingling with
candidates and other people in the party, to learn something new, and
hopefully feel the energy that a collective brings in order to start a
vigorous election season with a bang.
What I got of the convention is some insight on education issues that were
presented by a panel of experts in government and the media. Panelists
Linda Smith of the Governor's Policy office, Laura Brown, education writer
for HawaiiReporter.com, State Representative Lynn Finnegan and former
Board of Education member Laura Thielen addressed many issues before the
televised panel with moderator Beth-Ann Kozlovich of KHPR radio. Among
items discussed were weighted student formula, charter schools, vouchers,
HSTA union, performance standards, SAT scores, and budgeting.
One of the interesting items discussed was how teachers and schools
control only 4% of the funding allocated to them. Most of the decision
making is handled top down... from the all encompassing State Dept. of
Education, the State Board of Education and the Hawaii State Legislature.
Those are the people currently making decisions that may not be benefiting
Hawaii's students, but instead, benefiting those in control...
administrators and legislators. Now isn't that a crock?
The 4:00 pm Platform Committee Hearing turned out to be a longer than
planned discussion that revolved around family issues, health care,
education and development. I am on the platform committee and I was in
charge of the economic plank. Proposals from my plank were minimal as I
decided and the committee voted in favor (at earlier meetings) of
amendments equalizing the state standard deduction on income taxes to
match federal levels, the elimination of the Jones Act and Passenger
Services Act to enhance economic competition and offer the State better
options and prices in the transport of goods between the islands and
places afar. A minor change not discussed was a change in verbiage on
creating a "diversified" instead of a "sustainable" economic base "built
by the people of Hawaii."
Essentially most of the economic platform that was crafted in previous
years is still agreeable to most people including myself in the party.
Some of those items still holding strong in the economic plank include
lowering taxes and fees, lowering the cost of government, ending
duplication of state and county services, and recognizing the importance
of tourism, supporting the military as well as diversified agriculture.
The "family, social and housing" issues got a lot of discussion. Someone
on the conference floor asked why the party did not include a "definition
of marriage" as a bullet point in the family plank. Good question all
agreed. The issue brought about a lively discussion on traditional
marriage and the fact that 70% of Hawaii's voters did approve a
constitutional amendment in favor of defining marriage as "a union between
a man and woman."
Since this definition is already part of Hawaii's constitution, the
committee felt that it was not needed to be included in the plank. Instead
we had an item on stressing the importance of a strong and viable family
unit, attached to an item relating to abstinence-based education and
teaching youth the responsibilities of parenthood.
Personally I would not mind seeing the definition of marriage bullet point
inserted, though I can also live with the family plank the way it is now
proposed. A marriage definition bill has been circulated in Congress by
the Bush administration, so in light of that bill, perhaps this could be
inserted either now or in the future.
Education got more discussion as the Platform Committee discussed
zero-based budgeting and a simple definition that a layman could
understand. Several of the points brought up in the earlier education
panel discussion also came to light.
Lastly a resolution was proposed by State Representative Colleen Meyer and
State House candidate Carol Phillips on the proposed Kuilima Resort
development. What we have here is a proposal to expand the Kuilima Resort
property to include up to 5 major new hotel developments, possibly more
golf course and housing developments on property that is one of the last
tracts of open land on Oahu's North Shore. Increasing traffic congestion,
infrastructure upgrades and population growth cloud this issue as the
developers are planning to go ahead with the development based on an
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) they made and got approval on more
than 20 years ago. The proposed amendment that Ms. Meyer and Ms. Phillips
want would recommend that the county government re-evaluate the proposed
project and perhaps force the developers to do a new EIS.
The resolution proposal was met with both support and skepticism by
members present at the meeting.
In the end, floor proposals brought up in today's Platform Committee
meeting may be developed over the next 2 days and presented to the
membership in a floor vote when the entire platform and the Kuilima Resort
resolution is subjected to approval on Sunday.
Photo: Panelists discussing education issues.
posted by mel at 11:22 PM 0 comments
Powerbook 3400 as an MP3 Jukebox
A few weeks after I brought my Powerbook 3400 back to life, I decided that
one of its main uses will be as an oldies music jukebox. Believe it or
not, older Macs running on at least the Power PC 603 or 604 chip can
handle the playback of MP3 files. The Powerbook 3400 has a PPC 603
processor. My particular model is maxed out with a total of 144MB of Ram
memory, enough to run Mac OS 8.6, standard (but older) internet programs,
word processors and simple imaging software. It can also play MP3s.
SOUNDAPP PPC
We are not talking about iTunes here. With a Mac this old running on OS
8.6, not even the version of iTunes that ran on Mac OS9 could run on this
little puppy unless I upgraded the OS to version 9 (which I have no
intention of doing).
The freeware application known as SoundApp PPC version 2.73 will do the
job for MP3 playback and CD ripping for the Powerbook 3400. This Powerbook
is running off a 1 GB compact flash memory card. SoundApp was installed on
the compact flash card.
You can download a copy from places such as TuCows or from the Headgap Web
or Telefinder BBS (I'll write on this another day). I think development on
SoundApp PPC was discontinued a few years ago. While no longer supported,
this program is useful for anyone who wants to play or rip MP3 music files
to their older Power PC Macintosh.
Installation of SoundApp is simple. Just unstuff the compressed .SIT file
and make sure it goes to the correct destination on your hard drive or
other media storage device during the installation process. Be sure to
carefully follow the simple installation steps.
INSTALLING YOUR MUSIC
Next is the music. I have a Power Mac G4 with a large external hard drive
where I keep my music and sound library. Most of the songs and other files
on this volume were ripped from my CDs, with a few converted AIFFs coming
from other sources such as my vinyl record collection. I also have about
120 AAC files of tracks I bought from the iTunes music store. These and
podcasts downloaded from iTunes can all be played on my Power Mac G4,
iTunes or loaded to my iPods.
Since we are talking about an older Mac here, all of the AAC tracks
purchased from the Apple Store are out. SoundApp doesn't support the file
format. Everything else it does, which is mainly MP3.
From backup CDs that I had previously burned off the hard drive, I
installed those MP3 tracks that I wanted onto the rather measly 4 GB
internal hard drive on the Powerbook. Mind you that this drive is kind of
flaky, and may someday totally give up the ghost. But since all of the
songs are duplicates of what I already own, I have no fear in installing
them to the Powerbook 3400.
USING SOUNDAPP PPC
After the MP3s were loaded to the Powerbook 3400 hard drive, it was time
to organize them into playlists on SoundApp.
One of the easiest ways to use SoundApp is just to go to the file menu and
press the PLAY option. A dialog box will open up, you navigate to the song
title you want, select it and play. The selection will play and when it is
over, you repeat the process again. This is great if you only want to play
one selection at a time.
The real power to SoundApp (like almost any other MP3 playing software) is
to create your own playlists. SoundApp allows you to do this by going to
the file menu and selecting NEW PLAYLIST. Once you do this a blank window
shows up and you fill it by selecting the ADD option. Navigate to your
music library folder and select the songs you want to show up in the
playlist. If you are adding multiple songs, hold down the SHIFT key and
keep on making selections from your music library folder until your
playlist is done.
You will notice that SoundApp PPC only lists song titles by file name. It
is not very good at doing that either as songs with long titles have their
names truncated. Bottom line is that you are going to have to know your
song titles very well. There are no artist listings whatsoever, which
means you also need to know the artist names to each song title if you
want to create a specific playlist for a particular artist.
Once this is done, it is a matter of playing back your song list. SoundApp
offers several options which are listed at the bottom of each PLAYLIST.
They include PLAY which allows you to play a song one at a time from your
list, or PLAY ALL at which time SoundApp PPC will play all of the songs in
order how they are listed or at random if you also check off the SHUFFLE
option. If you want to have the music play all day long, select the option
to REPEAT your playlist.
Besides the Playlist window, SoundApp PPC also provides you with a
CONTROLS panel that allows you to set volume, play, pause, skip forward or
backward and stop your music.
Playing music through my Powerbook 3400's tiny stereo 4-way speaker system
is adequate though somewhat "tinny" in sound reproduction. Like most
computers, if you want to get full sound from your music files connect a
headphone to the output jack or connect the computer to a powered speaker
or full size stereo component system.
On the Powerbook 3400, users need to beware that running SoundApp PPC all
by itself when playing back music files is recommended. If you are going
to run another program at the same time as SoundApp and actively use your
Mac for another function, playback will stop at several occasions as the
processor has to switch back and forth from one task to another.
RIPPING MUSIC FROM CDs
To rip tracks off a CD, you insert the CD into your CD drive, Go to the
FILE menu and select the option to CONVERT. Once you do that, navigate to
the desktop, select your CD and a dialog box with track selections from
the CD will show up. They are generically labeled as Track 1, Track 2,
Track 3, etc. Select the track(s) you want to rip and the format you want
to rip it to. Best to select AIFF, though beware that AIFF are large
files. Unfortunately you this version of SoundApp PPC will not allow you
to convert your files to MP3. If you have a newer Mac move the AIFF file
to iTunes and convert it there or just simply rip the CD in iTunes to MP3
and move the tracks to the older Mac.
One thing I noticed is that SoundApp allowed me to rip a supposedly copy
protected CD and move its AIFF tracks off the Powerbook 3400 and to my
newer Mac for conversion to MP3 or AAC in iTunes.
FILE FORMATS SUPPORTED
SoundApp PPC plays back a myriad of sound file types including MP3, MOD,
snd, Windows WAV, AIFF, audio CD, and several other obscure types which I
know nothing of. The program does not support newer file types such as
Apple's AAC, Windows WMA or Sony Altrac.
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation for the SoundApp program is built into the ABOUT SOUND APP
option that you pull from the Apple Menu. There is also a READ ME file
that is included with the program and rudimentary help files accessible
from the HELP menu.
IMAGE: Select to see a large image of the SoundApp PPC program windows.
posted by mel at 7:33 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Reviving My Old Powerbook 3400
The following post was orignally published on my BuzzNet and MySpace blogs
earlier this year. I decided to put this here and will need to post it at
my Macintosh website when I get around to updating that.
Vintage Macs: Powerbook 3400
My Powerbook 3400. I bought it used about 8 years ago. It was for a while
my primary laptop computer until I bought a used iBook 700 last year after
the hard drive on this computer went south... sort of.
The computer sat in my closet for about a year when I read an article
about having this boot up from a flash card. I figured this was worth a
try. So this is what I did:
I purchased a compact flash PCMIA adapter that fits into the card slot
built into the Powerbook.
I had an extra 1 GB compact flash card laying around. Used that.
I formatted the compact flash card for Macintosh.
Booted the Powerbook 3400 with an OS 8.5 CD ROM.
Installed the operating system and the basic network package onto the
compact flash card.
Rebooted the computer with the compact flash card after I changed the
start-up settings control panel.
Installed older software that I have sitting around to make the Mac useful
again.
Now I have a bunch of word processors, text editors, and HTML converter,
JPEG viewer, iCab web browser and internet connectivity restored to this
old Mac. It sits next to my Power Mac G4 where it is also connected to my
network and uses the DSL net connection.
Makes for a great little internet machine and word processor.
The operating system was upgraded to OS 8.6 a few weeks later.
My next post will be on how I turned this little old Mac into an oldies
MP3 jukebox player.
Visit my Powerbook 3400 page at my Macintosh Universe website.
posted by mel at 6:46 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Top 10 Hits of the Week
Over the years I have been a "chart freak" of some sort, listening to
local radio station countdown shows and the old "American Top 40" show
with Casey Kasem. I used to write down and keep lists of the weekly song
charts. Did that a lot when I was a teen.
Today in the internet age, we have entire websites devoted to music charts
of all types. Oldies, current hits, mainstream, Billboard, eclectic and
iTunes to name some. This past year I revived my personal music chart
after I tied it in to songs that I buy or rip into my iTunes and iPods.
Starting with this week's post, I will list my favorite Top 10 iTunes
current tracks of the week. Here they are for the week of May 14:
1. Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. Bad Day - Daniel Powter
3. Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case
4. Who Says You Can't Go Home - Bon Jovi with Jennifer Nettles
5. Steady, As She Goes - The Raconteurs
6. Girl Next Door - Saving Jane
7. You're Beautiful - James Blunt
8. Crooked Teeth - Death Cab For Cutie
9. Not Tonight - The New Cars
10. Again and Again - Jewel
For a complete list of my Top 20 Hits of the week, select this link.
People who create personal music charts get to have their charts compiled
at places such as Top Hits Online and Beyond Radio.com.
posted by mel at 10:54 PM 0 comments
Monday, May 15, 2006
Welcome to Mel's Internet Universe Blog
Welcome to the first official post of Mel's Internet Universe Weblog. I
have had this blogspot since last year but haven't done anything with it
until now. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a regularly updated
blog.
What I will publish here are my random thoughts on a wide variety of
topics ranging from media to music, from politics to life in Hawaii and
America. There will be a lot crossposting from a few other sources that I
publish and even from other blogs that I do on a periodic basis. There
certainly will be a lot of photos here as I have them published at several
websites all over the net.
In order for you to get acquainted with what I do or where I am coming
from, I will offer you a list of web links to sites I already publish and
maintain. Check em out and enjoy. Hear from you all soon.
Hawaii Radio & Television Guide
HonokaaHawaii.com
Mel's Macintosh Universe
Mel's BuzzNet Photos
Mel's Flickr Photos
Pukas in Hawaii
Small Business Hawaii
posted by mel at 4:10 PM 1 comments
