The Race to the Bottom in Retail

Free shipping. 30, 45, or even 60 days to return items. Razor thin margins. This is all the norm now, with companies like Amazon primarily, but also Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and specialty market chains like Guitar Center. But shipping isn’t free. Shipping a 15 pound amp head costs at least $50 for UPS Ground, regardless […]

Modeler wars are getting out of hand.

Ooh, Kemper released a floor version of their popular Profiling Amp, previously available on in head (“toaster”) form, and rackmount. Cue up fanboy venom from Line 6 Helix fans and Fractal Audio fans! It’s hideous. Disgusting. Old technology. The UI is awful. Too expensive. Those are actual quotes from Facebook user groups about it. Never […]

Jony Ive (or whoever’s designing Apple stuff these days) needs to be canned.

Apple laptops, iPads, iPhones. All elegant, beautiful works of art, as well as being (for many, anyway) a joy to use. They’re thin, they’re light, the battery lasts hours. The screens are amazing. Did I mention they’re thin and light? It’s the latter that seems to be causing issues these days. In an effort to […]

Android: Am I Wrong?

I recently posted an article about how I had a failed attempt at switching from iOS to Android (and from MacOS to Windows as well, but this’ll just be about phones). My friend Adam read it, and it seems we disagree on some points about each OS. I still think most of it comes down […]

The reports of my death, er I mean, move away from apple, have been greatly exaggerated

I was going to move away from Apple products, en masse. No more iPhone. No more Macs. No more Apple Watch. So I began to pick away at my dependence on Apple, by buying an Android phone, testing all the stuff I do on a Windows machine, etc. Why would I do this? Don’t I […]

The end of Mac os? (for Me)

I’ve been looking at getting a new laptop soon, something smaller than my current 15” MacBook Pro, and hopefully a little lighter too. Naturally, I started looking at the 13” MacBook Pro’s, as they now come with a quad-core processor (the MacBook Air is nice, but I’d like something stronger) and weigh right at 3 […]

Halloween 2018

The first year in probably 20 years that I’ve dressed up for Halloween. 😉

Naperville in the fall

Positive Grid BIAS Amp is cool, but it could be better

I’ve been a user of Positive Grid’s stuff for awhile, as far back as when JamUp Pro came out for iOS. Currently, I have BIAS Amp, FX, and Pedal for iOS, and the same for MacOS. It’s ability to cross platforms is very cool, and the sound quality is good; so good that I’ve now […]

Random musical ideas: is it the journey and not the destination?

This morning, as I stand in the shower wondering why someone with barely any hair still uses shampoo, I had a thought. I wouldn’t classify it as an epiphany, because that’s probably giving the idea and myself far more credit than it deserves. No, it was just a thought. But that in itself was fascinating, […]