Ring Tones

... And, still speaking about music, I heard my favorite radio commentator (Leo Laporte) share the news that ring tones have become a GIANT industry. Okay, I had already knew this, but he said, for example, the top ring tone in Great Britain was making more money than the top band. It has become a 15 billion dollar industry. I didn't know ring tones had become THAT big. Whew!

Today, I am changing my own cell phone service to play a ring tone OUT when it is ringing. The caller will hear a song instead of a phone ringing. Hehehe -- Life is fun right now.

P.S. To amend that previous note. My husband tried to call my cell phone from a government installation (Redstone Arsenal) and all he heard was silence. Anyone else calling my phone will hear the song instead of a ring, but the government has done something to block the return music - figures - oh well, I will set the tone for him to a default setting.)

 GarageBand.com

I heard one computer commentator talk about music that independent groups are doing today. He said it was better than the commercially-labeled stuff in many cases. I decided to check it out for myself and visited GarageBand.com. From what I have seen so far, I am shocked. This stuff is fantastic.

Anyone making their own podcasts or videos will find the "free-to-use" music is better than ever. It's truly good. Let's show the RIAA that we don't care for their heavy-handed ways by supporting independent artists who are willing to share their music.

And speaking of music, my husband tunes in Shoutcast whenever he gets a chance. We both love the "Smooth Jazz" channel.

And, again, still speaking of music, I enjoy downloading a podcast (just an mp3 file - is all it is) and listening to it in the car or walking. I don't tune in commercial radio anymore -- amazing to stop and see the world changing in so many ways.

 Current Stock Report

Thanks to Jennifer C. for the current stock report.

 National Genealogical Society Conference

Since the NGS Conference is being held so close to home this year (Nashville), I am attending it today with friends from all over the country. I used to go to these to set up and manage a booth for our online group at AOL (now GenealogyForum.com). We don't travel to conferences as much or set up a booth, but it will be fun to go and see some of our old friends again. I am posting photos at BamaPhotos.com - postings made with today's date will be about the conference and people there (they will be up later tonight and tomorrow).

POSTNOTE: Here's a direct link to the 32 images posted --> NGS Reunion & Tennessee Trip.

 Deviled Eggs - New Yummy Recipe

I sent for a free issue of "A Taste of Home" and it arrived yesterday. This might be worth subscribing to. I love one recipe they had for deviled eggs.

 W. Mark Felt - Friend or Foe?

People have come on TV and said that Mark Felt was a hero, exposing a crime. Others explain how he actually broke the law and obstructed justice. (He would have gone to jail for some of what he did.)

When I was a child, I learned quickly that teachers do not like "tattlers" (and neither do your peers). Are we supposed to tattle on every little crime we see, even from loyal friends and employers? Does that make us traitors? On the other hand, tabloids love tattlers. Revealing news can get high ratings and make money and maybe stop a crime.

Felt was embittered, reporters say, having been passed over for promotion, so he felt no loyalty to Nixon, and I believe that. But Nixon was doing wrong.

Is Felt a hero in righting a wrong or is he a jerk by not doing it in the first place through the proper legal means? Heck, I don't know. At any rate, I think it was a tad nasty of him not to let the Washington Post have his story first. They had kept his secret for so long, that they deserved to get the breaking story over Vanity Fair.

Homemade DVD Tip

I've had fun creating a DVD movie from a slideshow collection of personal photos. I worked with a friend who provided the music, photos, theme, etc. We had a great time assembling and perfecting this, then making about 25 copies. While, most of them played fine on other DVD players, a small percentage of folks had trouble.

I used DVD -R because -R is compatible with the most players (inspite of +R's claim otherwise). Upon hearing of problems, I made a few +R versions. (I know that fixed the problem for one person.)

This CD was an "autoplay" movie. No opening menu was included. It would just play when inserted in any standard DVD player and that was the problem for a few folks. Their players required some kind of menu and, not finding one, refused to show the movie.

Well, now I am ready for next time -- the program I used, Photo-to-DVD 3, defaults to not including a menu option so if I can just remember to always click the menu creation "on," these will probably be more compatible.

 Making Menus

I am using Xara.com's Menu Maker. It's a cute program (free trial download). Here's what I came up with to display groups of photos. I am not sure if I want to put it in my photo blog or not. Anything that delays downloading - even just a bit - is not always desirable -- so I will post it here and see how it looks for a few days and then maybe try it. Are most of you using broadband? Does this seem to take a long time to come up?