I finally got real hosting. It’s costing me almost nothing and gives me the freedom of access to the database, freedom in styles, CSS, CMS, plugins, etc. 

The domain jrod.cc, which currently redirects here, will begin redirecting to Simple Nerd at the beginning of the year.

Additionally, jaredbschmidt.com and jaredbschmidt.info (hey, it was $0.99/year, why not, right?) also redirect to the site. I’m essentially squatting on the names after the huge debacle with my ex-domain of jaredschmidt.com (registration slipped by 14 hours while I waited for a paycheck to clear and I lost it to a backorder squatter).

So everyone, please update your URLs to point to Simple Nerd.

That said, I’ll be phasing out Facebook use. I’ll keep my profile there, but it’s going to be pretty bland and point to my forthcoming website that’s being put together. I’m getting content added to it now and getting things setup the way that I’d like before announcing it.

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I remember my faults.”

Genesis 41:9. I keep my copy of The Holman Illustrated Study Bible by my bedside.

The next closest book within my reach was CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide, so worry not my friends, the nerdiness is still within me.

Congratulations to Barak Obama on being elected in a fantastic outcome! Congratulations to Vice President-Elect Joe Biden!

Congratulations to the United States of America for welcoming change. And welcoming it in insanely larger numbers!

As so, it is with giddy pleasure that I introduce Ariel to the world! She has been unboxed and photographed. She even has a profile page here on the site now.

Being the avid matte supporter that I am, it might come as a surprise to many that I would pickup a glass MacBook Pro. But the display is gorgeous. And bright. The lowest brightness setting is almost as bright, if not brighter, than Natalie’s display was. Incredible!

Ariel is quickly being brought up to speed with all of the software that one has to go through installing on a new machine. Windows Vista, Office 2007, Fusion, CS3, iWork, Xcode, Aperture, ARD, SubEthaEdit, CrossOver… the list just keeps on going. Luckily the virtual machines don’t need to be reinstalled – though I did just cobble together a Desktop and Server vm of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid.

I also never thought I would say this, but I love the keyboard. While I do miss some aspects of the aluminum keyboards from Natalie and Iris, but the feel is just spectacular. I agree with Bailey, that is is very similar to how the Titanium PowerBooks felt.

I’m eager to see what Ariel can really do in the coming months. Being a dual-core, dual GPU machine, I am now anxiously awaiting to see what Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will be able to do when Grand Central and OpenCL become a platform reality. Even still, as it is, Ariel flies. There is more power in this portable than I could have ever imaged asking for.

Britney’s first single from the latest album, “Womanizer“, kind of caught me off guard. Sure, it’s poppy, but it is in the Pop genre. This canned, electronic, dance stuff is what the genre is all about! And it fits well with me for mindless, upbeat, background fill that is the morning drive when I forget my iPod or iPhone – thank you HOT 99.5!

But now the video is out. Holy crap! It’s been since the “Toxic” days that she’s looked this good – 5 years ago! Speaking of “Toxic”, this video is from the same guy, Joseph Khan, who also did the video for “Stronger“.

I echo Sir Tyler Durden’s thoughts. Check the link for the video as well.

This very well might be a successful comeback for Britney if the rest of the album isn’t all filler tracks. Only time on the radio or interwebs will tell (no more Britney albums for me, not since the 2nd album).

The new MacBook Pro has been dubbed Iris, the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods in the Greek pantheon. An appropriate name, as she is portable and my messaging/communication portal to the world and well has having a gorgeous LED-backlit LCD display. Pearl suggested the name and I liked it.

Iris will become my primary workstation as I yet again intend on making myself truly portable. She is equipped with the standard 2.4GHz configuration. This is plenty of machine for me, though I will be upgrading the RAM to 4GB as soon as possible (Rei had 3GB – her maximum – for virtual machines).

She will be a loved machine in the new family of Macs in the house.

Do I have to re-upload the Genius information yet again for another country’s iTunes Store?
No. Fortunately, it looks like the iTunes Genius data is setup to use your data globally. I suspect this will help the system learn faster which artists, songs, or albums go together. This is a smart move for Apple and one I figure everyone else probably already knew.

Is the Genius information limited to the country that you are signed into? 
Yes. I figured that suggestions would be limited to the realm your account was logged into, but figured it would be worth a shot to see if the iTunes Store would give accurate suggestions of artists, even if they were unavailable in your country.

iTS US: 倖田 來未 cannot be found.

iTS Japan: 倖田 來未 is found by Genius with plenty of Recommendations

Do Genius Playlists work properly with varied languages in the library?
I have found that the Genius playlists are actually pretty accurate. Choosing “Evolution” by 浜崎 あゆみ brings up an appropriate selection of Pop and Electronic music that is on pace with the music itself with languages including Japanese, German, Russian, and English.

Evolution Genius Playlist

But, Ayu is available in the US store. So what happens if an artist is not available in the current list? Well, I tried with “緋色の空” by 川田まみ and got some “interesting” results. I’m not quite sure about “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” by Chicago, but for the most part it has created an accurate and enjoyable playlist.

緋色の空 Genius Playlist

What about songs that aren’t in iTunes at all?
Nope. It just isn’t going to happen. I tried with “LAST ANGEL” by 倖田 來未 featuring 동방신기. Kingdom isn’t available on iTunes in any country. iTunes will give you an error.

Genius is unavailable

I was slightly disappointed that iTunes couldn’t even take a guess just from the artist, who iTunes is very much aware of. There is some information you can get from song metadata that it could attempt to make a playlist, even if it isn’t present in the store. You can try to Update Genius as the data warehouse is always being updated, especially as more and more people adopt iTunes 8. Just be ready for waiting awhile if you have obscure tracks.

I must say that for a new system that has not borrowed from technologies like Last.fm or Pandora, the Genius system is pretty accurate with the majority of songs in my excessive library. I can only image how accurate it will become in the coming months as more and more folks update and opt-in to the Genius features.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

I, very much like Steve, am not dead, just very busy.

WARNING: Excessive foul language ahead. Don’t click if you don’t want to hear what every game is probably thinking when they come across something that is near-impossibly stupid in a video game!

Click more for hilarity ensuing.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3