daveryder.com [the official dave ryder website]

Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision’ (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

[signature of Ty Coon], 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice

From the NEW YORK TIMES:

“What if Google knew before anyone else that a fast-spreading flu outbreak was putting you at heightened risk of getting sick? And what if it could alert you, your doctor and your local public health officials before the muscle aches and chills kicked in? That, in essence, is the promise of Google Flu Trends, a new Web tool … unveiled on Tuesday, right at the start of flu season in the US. Google Flu Trends is based on the simple idea that people who are feeling sick will tend to turn to the Web for information, typing things like ‘flu symptoms; or ‘muscle aches’ into Google. The service tracks such queries and charts their ebb and flow, broken down by regions and states.”

Here’s the full article

Here is the google app: http://www.google.org/flutrends/

Wow it’s kind of scary, google is not only big brother - it’s big mother. Soon it will remind me to wear my coat if it’s chilly and find the best deals for chicken soup when I’ve got the sniffles.

Don, Kent and I wrote a Christmas song (called Christmas Time - CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD) last year, a collaborative effort that has languished (for the most part) forgotten until now. There were quite a few editing and mixing issues that I hadn’t had time to tackle until recently, and after all (I thought to myself), what’s the hurry? Christmas is months away…months I tells ya….

Guess what? There are only -12 days left until Christmas! AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!
(That’s a little php script that will update with the correct amount of time left, cool huh.)

Anyway it’s really amazing and dark, and probably the second saddest Christmas tune ever written - THE saddest Christmas song is this one. I like Perry Como’s version, but Bing’s is all right, too.

Session Notes: For those interested Don came up with the piano part, then we all sat around bouncing lyric ideas around - the majority were written by Kent (if I remember correctly), which is only appropriate as he also sang it. Then me and Don laid down some overdubs (eerie, spaced out guitar and synth guitar by me, and muted trumpet by Don). Then I mixed it and made a few edits and viola! - instant Christmas classic…I remember a strong feeling of happiness and goodwill during the session, as well as the sense that we were doing something very special.

Of course, those could have been caused by the worm I drank from the bottom of the Tequila bottle

I’ve always wanted a Talkie Toaster (with a volume knob, of course), but I could settle for this:

[This is the mouseover text for our RSS via email readers: "I find your lack of toast disturbing..."]

This XKCD comic makes you think, and then makes you angry:

[This is the xkcd mouseover for our RSS via email readers: "I spent more time trying to get an audible.com audio book playing than it took to listen to the book. I have lost every other piece of DRM-locked music I have paid for."]

This fits in with my PIRATE ME policy, and is why I have only 3 DRM Mp3’s in my entire collection (which I stupidly purchased from crApple iTunes a long time ago). They only play on the PC I used to download them (it is the only PC I have that has iTunes on it). Needless to say, this pisses me off. Of course, I could burn the songs to a CD then rip them as mp3s, but technically this is against the law WTF.

I wish everybody would JUST SAY NO TO DRM-LOCKED MEDIA, but you know what?

Ain’t gonna happen.

It turns out the masses of humanity are simple sheep easily led around by the corporate dogs who decide these things for them. Except for the comparatively few sharp persons who say, “fuck THAT noise” and ONLY obtain DRM-free media, pwn.

All Dave Ryder Band music is DRM-FREE and can be downloaded here for free.