There have been some good albums this year, but I think this might be my favorite.
The debut album from S. Carey, All We Grow, is the result of a young lifetime spent immersed in music. As a band member of Bon Iver from the very beginning, Sean Carey witnessed a flip of his formal training to step firmly into a worldwide-touring rock band. His performance degree in classical percussion from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and his love for jazz drumming prepared him for a central role in the inspiring force of the Bon Iver live show.
I like pretty much everything about Michael Gungor and his band of musical gypsies (I don’t know that they’re gypsies, just speculating.) I started to write a dissertation on “Christian” vs. “Non-Christian” music, but for Michael’s sake, I will leave that for another post. Let’s just say that it was a musically refreshing experience to see Gungor play an unfortunately under-promoted and undersold show at Crossroads in Vancouver, WA.
The band has graciously given me permission to post a free download of their song “Call me out” for one month. Get it before it’s gone, and be sure to check out their latest album, Beautiful Things on iTunes or Amazon!
Gungor – Beautiful Things (Stream only):
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For the past couple years, a theory has been growing vaguely in the back of my mind, but recently I’ve finally been able to shed some light on it. In a nutshell, as the Web becomes more ubiquitous in my every day life, I’ve felt a ramping level of stress and mental fatigue – and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
Here is a quick little how-to on backing up your SMS database on your iPhone4 or 4.0 firmware 3G/3GS.
First of all, why backup SMS.db by itself when you can backup your entire iPhone? There are many reasons, but the biggest one will probably be so that you can restore your text messages without moving over other potentially unwanted data that comes with restoring your iPhone from a full backup. Personally, I wanted a fresh start when moving from my 3G to my iPhone4 – except I had 2 years of text messages stored on my 3G that I’d rather not lose. Now that the iPhone4 jailbreak has been released, it should be no problem to pull the sms.db from the 3GS filesystem and copy it over to the iPhone4.
The short-version of the process is as follows:
Upgrade to 4.0 (iOS) firmware first, if you’re on a 3G/3Gs.
For 3GS and earlier models, jailbreak with redsn0w. You can get the latest here. For iPhone4, simply open jailbreakme.com on your device and follow the instructions.
Install OpenSSH in Cydia.
SSH or SFTP in to your phone using the IP address listed in your Wifi settings. (Port: 22, username: root, password: alpine)
CD to the directory: /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS
Copy sms.db to your local computer
If you have any questions, feel free to use the comments below. If there is enough interest, I’ll further explain any of the above steps in case they aren’t clear enough.
This is a technique that has been covered by a few other sites for the 3G, and hasn’t changed very much with the iPhone4 (Really the only difference that I found is that the path of /var changed to /private/var.) I’ll have to do another post on some more creative reasons to get your hands on your SMS.db. If you know your way around SQL Lite (it’s easy to learn), there’s pretty much no limit to how you can use your iPhone’s SMS database!
Update 06/30/10: This post may have been a bit premature since the iPhone4 has not been (officially?) jailbroken yet? I have not gottten around to attempting to restore SMS.db to my iPhone4 (just don’t have the time for it at the moment). If someone can post a solution that would be great, or I will post my findings here once I get around to trying it.
Update 08/04/10: Now that the jailbreak for the iPhone4 has been officially released, you should be good to go!
In the spirit of the iPhone 4 launch tomorrow, I figured it would be a good opportunity to collect a few thoughts on the latest wonder-device from Apple. (more…)
Just a quick observation I made this morning – maybe I’m behind the times. Facebook users can now “Like” comments of content they “Like”. Sounds a bit circular, doesn’t it?
This is how it works: A friend posts a picture of a kitten taking a bath in a bowl of oatmeal on your wall. You find it adorable, but since Facebook doesn’t have an “Adorable” button, the next best thing is to “Like” it. You also leave a comment reaffirming this mixup, and even go so far as to explain why, in your opinion, Facebook MUST create a “Love” button. Naturally all of your friends love your idea, but – because Facebook has not received your suggestion a million times yet – must also settle for “Liking” your comment.
Personally, I’ve been suggesting a feature that allows users to “Like” their friend’s “Likes”. Perhaps some of the more obnoxious Facebookers would get caught in an infinite loop.
Been listening to these guys (and gal) the past week, and I must admit they’ve grown on me. Subtle, percussive, nice composition. I don’t have much more to say than that. Keep it coming.
Check out their upcoming album release titled “Pink Graffiti” at Western Vinyl.
Hailing from Austin, Texas, Balmorhea (pronounced Bal-moor-ay) is a 5-piece instrumental ensemble that delivers a satisfying blend of classical and post-rock. They’ve released four albums to date; their latest, titled “Constellations”, was released February 23, 2010.
I am an excessive person, it is my nature. With most things in my life, I go through phases of obsessive focus. I need everything to fit (assuming I care one way or the other). If something won’t fit, I can’t find rest until it will. This brings me around to my point: an obsessive-compulsive personality can be hell to a Blog. Especially a Blog severely lacking focus. So, as with most similar problems, the answer is deconstruction. Rip out everything that doesn’t keep the heart pumping. Maybe my analogies could use some work too.
If you’re looking for stuff that’s missing, don’t worry, I will restore some elements (my blogroll in particular) once I figure out a user interface I can live with.
Liking comments on Facebook
Just a quick observation I made this morning – maybe I’m behind the times. Facebook users can now “Like” comments of content they “Like”. Sounds a bit circular, doesn’t it?
This is how it works: A friend posts a picture of a kitten taking a bath in a bowl of oatmeal on your wall. You find it adorable, but since Facebook doesn’t have an “Adorable” button, the next best thing is to “Like” it. You also leave a comment reaffirming this mixup, and even go so far as to explain why, in your opinion, Facebook MUST create a “Love” button. Naturally all of your friends love your idea, but – because Facebook has not received your suggestion a million times yet – must also settle for “Liking” your comment.
Personally, I’ve been suggesting a feature that allows users to “Like” their friend’s “Likes”. Perhaps some of the more obnoxious Facebookers would get caught in an infinite loop.