Thursday, June 30, 2011

"Power 1490"/KJYK playlist


"Power 1490"/KJYK playlist, originally uploaded by S!ick.

1994 September 5

Friday, June 24, 2011

Black Radio Today...listening has declined



...Black Radio Today 2011...uses Arbitron audience estimates to develop a...profile of radio listening among Black consumers...

About 94% of Black consumers listened to radio every week.

Black radio’s decline in Time Spent Listening continued.
...All formats were down year-to-year except Religious, which gained 15 minutes per week, while Adult Contemporary and All News held steady.

{I'm not surprised.  I greatly doubt that Black radio is serving their communities and providing all of the public service they could. - S!ick}

Listening by older Black men increased.
...men aged 35 or above have tuned in during weekday middays, afternoons and evenings.

Urban Adult Contemporary continued as America’s favorite format among Black listeners for the fifth straight year.

Gospel was a Time Spent Listening powerhouse.
Gospel enjoyed the longest Time Spent Listening rates of all formats targeting Black listeners. It was No. 2 only to Urban AC among those 12-24 and in various adult demos. Its TSL decreased just 15 minutes per week overall, but gained among 18-34s—the only music format to do so.

================================

to letters@ebony.com
date Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 5:26 AM
response to an "Achieve" article

regarding:
April edition
page 68
"The Death of Black Radio?"

I have never worked for Cathy Hughes or Radio One.  I HAVE worked for radio stations formatted for Black audiences, that were Black-owned...and am very hesitant to again do so.

I once worked at WYCB in Washington, a gospel station, and to my great surprise found the most "two-faced Christians" I have ever met.  When KDKO in Denver was Black-owned, it was unnecessarily stressful with expectations of staff to genuflect to management.

Working for a Black-owned radio station in Milwaukee that was mass-appeal formatted, "Churban/Rythmic", I did not make a lot of money...but the owner, Willie Davis, and the rest of management (that were at All-Pro Broadcasting) were very kind to me.  I will again work for him/them if ever given the opportunity.  But based on what I have heard about Radio One from those who have been employed by them (and are) does not give me great desire to seek a position with that organization.

Black people in Black radio are killing it.  We've abandoned what made it great by mimicking the mistakes and weaknesses of large radio broadcasting corporations.  Of course it's a business, but it should also be "a calling".

 

Friday, June 10, 2011

FCC Working Group on the Information Needs of Communities



...It effectively tells media companies that the government can’t do much to help them, and the companies had better start adapting.

One of the biggest trends that the FCC flags as important in the report is the loss of what it calls “accountability” journalism, in which news outlets on a local and/or national level cover the government and thereby act as a check on power...

And what does the FCC think can be done to fill it? Not much. As the report notes, it’s not clear how that kind of journalism — which doesn’t tend to attract much advertising interest — is supposed to pay for itself on an ongoing basis...

...media companies need to adapt to the new shape of the industry, and try to learn from alternative models and businesses. Probably the biggest move it recommends is that the government shift some of the $1 billion or so it spends on advertising its own services to smaller and/or alternative news sources, as a way of helping media outlets on the revenue side.

...the report more or less leaves media companies on their own to evolve and adapt without any help from the broadcast regulator...

http://gigaom.com/2011/06/10/fcc-to-media-dont-look-to-us-we-cant-help-you/

FCC report on media warns of decline in quality local news

Local TV is singled out in the report for not covering important issues enough. Alhough the number of hours of local news has increased over the last few years, too few stations "are investing in more reporting on critical local issues," the report said. Furthermore, the report said that although stations may be adding newscasts, they are doing it with fewer reporters.

Even with the additional newscasts, the stories often focus on crime and the reason for that has more to do with with how cheap it is to cover crime stories than it does viewer demand.

"As technology offered consumers new choices, it upended traditional news industry business models, resulting in massive job losses," the FCC said.

The result has been "gaps in coverage that even the fast-growing digital world has yet to fill." Although the digital media may someday can fill the void left by diminishing traditional media, "at this moment the media deficits in many communities are consequential."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/06/fcc-report-on-media-warns-of-decline-in-quality-local-news-.html

FCC Report Recommends Moving Government National Ad Spending to Local

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/469464-FCC_Report_Recommends_Moving_Government_National_Ad_Spending_to_Local.php

http://www.fcc.gov/info-needs-communities


Monday, June 6, 2011

record on an iPod/iPhone from a guitar/mic/source


If you have an iPod, you might have the beginnings of a mini-recording studio available to you. And with another piece of equipment, the i-GX Guitar Effect Processor with iPod Player/Recorder, more options...

The Jammin i-GX will allow for playing a guitar while using an iPod for practicing. It will also record the session...to the iPod.


There is a 6.35 mm (1/4-inch) input port for a guitar, one (unbalanced) for a microphone, and one that allows for the unit to be connected to an amplifier. And there is a 3.5 mm (1.8-inch) stereo line-in auxiliary input port.

Input sensitivity
AUX (3.5mm stereo): 250 mV
iPOD: 500 mV
GUITAR(6.35mm Jack): 8mV
MIC(6.35mm Jack): 10mV



With a 3.5 mm (1/8-inch) stereo headphone output port, the audio can be monitored as the i-GX is used as a 4-channel mixer (with the iPod, guitar, microphone, and the auxillary input port).

The 24 bit/96 kHz effects processor includes:
5 amplification simulations (acoustic, clean, overdrive, distortion, and microphone)...
4 digital effects (chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremelo)...
and 2 ambience options (reverb and echo).

The "Compatibility Chart" included in the packaging noted some generations of iPods and iPhones:
iPods, from 3rd to 6th generations
Minis, 1st and 2nd
Shuffle, 1st and 2nd
Nano, 1st through the 4th
Touch, 1st and 2nd
and 3G and 3GS iPhones.

Certain features are supported by specific models: some units can be recharged by the i-GX, and record using the “Voice memo” application in the iPod.


And another tool that is built-in is a harmonic tuner (E/A/D/G/B/E).

The i-GX measures 147 mm (5 inches) × 162 mm (6 inches) x 58 mm (2 inches)...which is about as large as my open hand. And it weighs only 0.4 kg (14 ounces)...about as much as a "heavy" cellphone.

Four AAA batteries are needed to power the unit, but there is a port for the connection of a 9-volt (1 ampere) AC adapter.

http://www.jamminpro.net/products/guitar_effects/igx/index.html

http://www.jamminpro.net/minisite/igx/index.html

PURCHASE AT AMAZON.COM:
Jammin i-GX Guitar Effect Processor with iPod Player / Recorder

======================================


Other products available from Jammin Pro include the StudioMix 702 7 channel mixer...



It can record to USB flash drives up to 32 GB in size.  "Channel 1" has 1 XLR input, and 1 1/4-inch, mono input..."channel 2 and 3" are line level inputs...and "channel 4 and 5" have RCA inputs.

----------------------------------------------------

The Jammin Pro StudioPack 202 is a 3 piece bundle mini-studio to allow for recording performances to a computer.



The SoundBox 202 audio interface connnects to the USB port.  From the Quick Start Guide (that's included in the package), the supported configuration is to:  "Connect the Microphone...to Input 1 of SoundBox 202, or you can connect your guitar/bass to the input 2...at the same time."

The C-10 (condenser) microphone has a cardioid (heart-shaped) pattern.  A table stand, and large windscreen is provided.

And the comfortable HD-65 headphones have a 10 foot long cord.  They have become my "go to" headphones.


Thursday, June 2, 2011

the most secure version of Windows



{SLICK}

At this time, the most secure client version of Windows is the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

I've tried to edit the following to something that is as easily understood as possible...

================================

An Introduction to Kernel Patch Protection

The kernel is the lowest-level, most central part of a computer operating system and one of the first pieces of code to load when the machine starts up. The kernel is what enables the software of the machine to talk to the hardware and is responsible for basic OS housekeeping tasks such as memory management, launching programs and processes, and managing the data on the disk. All applications and even the graphical interface of Windows run on a layer on top of the kernel. The performance, reliability, and security of the entire computer depend on the integrity of the kernel.

The kernel is the most carefully coded piece of the entire operating system. Since all other programs depend upon it, a glitch in the kernel can make all other programs crash or perform unexpectedly. You're probably also familiar with the term, "Blue Screen of Death" (BSoD). This is the result of an error in the kernel or in a driver running in the kernel that is so severe that the system can't recover from it. The BSoD is bad, so we want to do everything we can to keep customers from seeing it. One of the ways we can do that is to maintain the integrity of the kernel by restricting what software is allowed to run in and interact with it.

"Kernel patching" or "kernel hooking" is the practice of using unsupported mechanisms to modify or replace kernel code. Patching fundamentally violates the integrity of the Windows kernel and is undocumented, unsupported and has always been discouraged by Microsoft.  Kernel patching can result in unpredictable behavior, system instability and performance problems—like the Blue Screen of Death–which can lead to lost user productivity and data...

...Kernel Patch Protection was first supported on x64 (AMD64 and Intel EMT64T) CPU architecture versions of Microsoft Windows including Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows XP Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. (Patch protection is currently not supported on x86 or ia64 architectures.)

======================================

{SLICK}

So, the lesson here is:  whenever possible, use software and hardware designed for the (64-bit version of the) operating system that you are using.

=====================================


The Windows 7 Software Logo Program

The ‘Compatible with Windows 7 logo’ helps customers make better purchase decisions by identifying products that have passed Microsoft designed tests for compatibility and reliability on Windows 7. The logo provides the ultimate seal of approval...

======================================


The Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals is a Microsoft Office Excel-based spreadsheet listing software applications which have met Windows 7 Logo Program testing requirements for compatibility with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7, and have thereby earned the right to display the Windows 7 Logo Program logo with the application. These products are identified with the compatibility status “Compatible – Windows 7 Logo.”

...this list includes applications with the following compatibility statuses: “Compatible,” “Free Update Required,” “Paid Update Required,” “Future Compatibility,” and “Not Compatible.” These statuses are based upon the software publishers’ statements of compatibility. These products have not met the Windows 7 Logo Program testing requirements. For an explanation of the various compatibility statuses, please see the Release Notes for the Windows 7 Application Compatibility List on the first tab of the Excel spreadsheet.

For the latest catalog of compatible applications and hardware devices, please visit the Windows 7 Compatibility Center and select a region and language from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. You can also leave feedback on compatibility and suggest new products to get added in future reports.