Dave Enjoys » music

Kingdom Bound (Darien Lake, NY).

davemackey — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:02:01 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

So, the blog has been a little quiet for the last week or so – and I apologize for the lack of notice – I was out of town…but didn’t really want to broadcast that for the entire world to know. I know, I know, my audience consists entirely of fine upstanding individuals – but on the off chance that some creeper was out there looking for a chance to break in, I figured it would be best not to disclose. That said, I’m back and its time to start writing again.

Today I’d like to talk about Kingdom Bound (where I’ve been for the last so many days). Kingdom Bound is an annual Christian festival held at Darien Lake in Darien Center, NY. Darien Lake is a pretty amazing place in and of itself – a gigantic amusement and water park with numerous rides…and when you are attending Kingdom Bound you get free access to all of these for the entire multi-day festival:

The Predator – A huge, old wooden rollercoaster that still delivers serious thrills as it shakes and rumbles along the track.
The Viper – With its multiple loops and underground tunnel has not decreased in excitement with age.
The Mind Eraser – Legs dangle free, flips abound, and once in a while a poll or the ground feels just a little too close – an exciting and breathtaking ride.
Ride of Steel – Want to drop around 208 feet and reach speeds exceeding 70 mph? This is your ride.
Tornado – Affectionately nicknamed by some “The Toilet Bowl” its a fairly crazy water ride for two to four individuals on a water tube that drops into what appears somewhat like a giant toilet bowl – whirling you around the sides and then down and out into a large pool of water.
One could go on and on to mention the Big Kahuna, Grizzly Run, Shipwreck Falls, OCC Motocoaster, and the Boomerang…but you get the picture.

Now add onto this a seriously unbeatable and diverse lineup of Christian musical artists that in and of themselves are worth the price of admission and you have a must-go event. When I attended this year I saw Skillet put on perhaps the best live concert I have ever seen. I listened to Hawk Nelson getting everyone hyped up with their bouncy, upbeat tunes. I was there when Michael Tate led the Newsboys in an absolutely amazing concert and was joined by the original lead singer. Ahh, but that is just the start – other bands I personally saw include Salvador, Family Force 5, Pillar, and Relevant Worship. Other awesome artists included Matthew West, Francisca Battistelli, Natalie Grant, Israel Houghton, and on and on. While I’m not a hip-hop guy myself each day there was four solid hours of hip-hop!

Finally, there are the speakers and seminars. Kingdom Bound always brings in several high quality speakers who present on important issues of Christain faith. This year the highlight for me was David Nasser, an individual who during a regime change in Iran needed to escape with his family or risk the death of his father (a formerly high-ranking general). Nasser has an amazing and convicting message of his pursuit of happiness in the world and God’s eager pursuit of him.

Various seminars are available on a number of topics – including numerous seminars are various aspects of leading musical and drama ministries as well as topics such as personal modesty and a compassionate engagement of those who disagree with conservative Christians on gender identity topics.

Napster – Free and Legal Music?

davemackey — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:39:58 +0000

Napster became a household name for its early days when it offered massive peer-to-peer (P2P) music sharing – the large majority of which was illegal. After attracting significant legal attention (and conflict) it was recreated as a legal music venue – but by this time many other competitors had come out of the woodwork and Napster’s free business model had suddenly become pay. Since then Napster has held on at the periphery of existence. By Alexa’s ranking Napster is now in the top 5,600 sites, by comparison Apple’s iTunes ranks #61. Just a tad of a difference.

That said, Napster still has a lot to offer. First off, they offer full-length audio streaming of just about their entire music library. Just go to free.napster.com. Sure is, you can only listen to a song three times for free – then you either have to buy it or stop listening. But hey, how many songs do you really want to hear more than three times? And if it is worth listening to more than three times, isn’t it worth $.99?

Napster recently came out with a really impressive deal that I’d jump on if I was an audiophile…but I’m not. Its a $5/mo. package which gets you full streaming access to Napster’s massive (7 million+ songs) library and five permanent MP3 downloads. Snikes. Apple’s iTunes will charge you the $5 for the five songs, forget about being able to stream unlimited songs all month long!

So, what am I saying? Take a look at Napster. They are trying so hard – and in my opinion, while the hype is no longer on their side they are doing a great and innovative job of offering music to the masses at reasonable prices.

Apple iPhone.

davemackey — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:35:38 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

My Cingular 8125 was on its last legs. I’d never been particularly impressed with the device but now it would randomnly reboot during calls – you just can’t have that. So as I prepared to leave Collages.net Inc. for the unpredictable world of the entrepreneur, I needed a new phone. I had a contract with Cingular – recently become AT&T – and I had no real complaints, so it made sense to stay with them. I looked at their opens. They had a brick for around $175, or I could get a flip phone for around $225. I chose the latter – and made a mental note to return it as soon as the iPhone became available. Why pay $225 for a little, wimpy flip phone when you can get an Apple iPhone for $200? I’d be saving money.

So, the iPhone is relatively inexpensive – but $200 is still a pretty significant amount of money to shell out for a phone, especially if you are a new cellular customer just locking in a contract and the mobile company offers a free phone with the package. Its important that we take some time to discuss the iPhone and what makes it a worthwhile purchase.

First, its important to note that the iPhone is much more than a “phone.” It falls into an upcoming category known as “smartphones” which are essentially mini-computers that including voice communications technology. So, let’s just take a quick tour of the features I consider most important:

Voice – Apple does voice fairly well. With the latest update to the iPhone software reception is much better (I was having an occasional issue with dropped calls when inside buildings). One nice touch is that the screen turns off when you put it against your head and turns back on when you pull it away. This means that that little hot display isn’t radiating against your skull but becomes instantly visible as soon as you need it – I guess it uses some sort of proximity detector to determine distance from an object and turns off when it is too close. Additional, it has visual voicemail. Okay, this isn’t as exciting as it sounds – but it means you can see who called and listen to the messages in any order instead of having to listen to all the messages and deal with each one in the order it was recorded (as is common with most phones).
Music – If you are considering buying an iPod DON’T. The standard iPhone comes with 8 GB of storage. 8 GB is huge. Unless you have thousands of songs you have to have stored on your iPod at any given moment, the iPhone will do the trick. Additionally, using applications like Pandora[1. We'll receive the magical wonders of Pandora another day.] and Flycast you can listen to almost anything you want anytime you want.
GPS – Some works needs to be done in this area, but the GPS on the iPhone is pretty amazing. You see Google Maps (which are extremely high quality) and a little dot shows you your current location and another your destination. On practically a second-by-second basis your location moves. Additionally, the GPS can automatically find where you are – great if you are lost on some backroad and need directions to some distant location. It doesn’t have voice for the GPS which is a major bummer – but I expect some applications to rectify GPS’ shortcomings in the near future.
Camera – The photo functions aren’t overwhelming…but still are decent for the unexpect photo opportunity. The camera is around 2 MP and I’ll just say right now – Apple, give us a 5-6 MP!
Internet – The iPhone uses 3G cellular data networks meaning you can be connected to the internet anywhere you have a cell signal and the speeds are faster than on traditional phones which utilize these slow networks that feel like dialup. The Safari browser is absolutely amazing! It doesn’t show you mobile versions of webpages, but the full thing like you’d see it on your computer. You can zoom in and out simply by moving your fingers around – very intuitive!
Applications – One of the real killer features is the slick integration of applications into the iPhone. Most phones come with a relatively static set of applications – not the iPhone. Tons of developers are constantly writing awesome and innovative applications for the iPhone. I have just a few installed – items like a mobile version of Wikipedia (the most extensive encyclopedia in the world), Facebook, Twittelator (both let me catch up on social networks while on the go), Stanza, eReader (allows one to read/purchase ebooks), YouVersion (multiple versions of the Bible, easily readable and searchable), gFlash+ (prep quizzes and tests on anything – I’m personally using their Mounce Greek Vocab set), and games like BubbleWap and reMovem Free.
Upgrades – I hate software that stays static, but Apple has shown a commitment to ensuring that its customers have the latest and greatest – at no cost. While the original iPhone may not have all the neat new features of the iPhone 3G Apple did give users an upgrade to the latest software included in the new iPhone. I’ve received several updates since I purchased my iPhone and some significant advancements have been included. This compared to traditional phones which oftentimes aren’t updated after initial release or only for minor bug fixes – not new feature enhancements.

The iPhone isn’t perfect. The lack of a real keypad, the open faced display (no protective cover), the previous signal issues, a weak camera, a feature-limited GPS, all take away from this great device. But it is amazing. At this juncture I haven’t gotten my hands onto the new Google Android phone from T-Mobile, which looks like a beautiful device…and I imagine over the next six months we’ll see a number of new phones coming out to rival the iPhone 3G, but for the time being it is certainly at the top of its game.