Amazon's $5 albums for April 2011

Every month Amazon sells 100+ albums in mp3 format for $5.00. It's why I've been doing most of my music shopping from Amazon rather than iTunes. It's a relatively inexpensive way to check out some really good music. Unlike the iTunes store, where a sale is a clue to crap, Amazon puts the good stuff on sale. For instance:

Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It.  Old School R & B. Saadiq's band backed Mick Jagger at the Grammys this year.
Lucinda Williams Little Honey  I haven't heard anything of hers that I don't like. Sort of Americana/Country something.
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme  Right?
Old Crow Medicine Show.  O.C.M.S.  Modern Bluegrass.

There's also greatest hits packages for the Ramones, Creedence, R.E.M., Patsy Cline, Ray Charles and others. I like those for artists that I'm curious about but don't know where to start (Like Patsy Cline).

Technical Debt

There's been a discussion about MySpace's fall from grace. This post just went  up and it includes this phrase:

… they were racking up technical debt at an alarming rate. 

Really interesting idea that I'd not heard expressed that way, but which I understood immediately.

Diablo Canyon

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant


Diablo Canyon is designed to withstand a 7.5 magnitude earthquake from four faults, including the nearby San Andreas and Hosgri faults.[1] Equipped with advanced seismic monitoring and safety systems, the plant is designed to shut down promptly in the event of significant ground motion.

In case you've forgotten, the quake that Japan is reeling from was a 9.0 magnitude quake. Next time someone from PG&E says safety is job one, ask them about San Bruno.

After Today's iTunes update

iTunes was unable to load data class information from Sync Services. Reconnect or try again later. and iTunes could not back up the iPhone "Lee Hinde's iPhone" because the backup session failed.

That's happening on the iPad and the iPhone (4).