Author Archives: BettyW

What Do Others Think About that Guitar/Amp/etc?

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Many online music stores (as well as Amazon) include user reviews of gear they sell, and that’s certainly a place to start when you are considering a purchase. But also visit this one-stop site containing years of reviews, especially if you are considering buying a used item that is no longer sold new:

http://www.harmonycentral.com/user-reviews

Since the review format is uniform and detailed, you may get more information than the frequent Amazon “I bought it 3 weeks ago – it’s awesome!”

Also see my post about determining a fair price for used gear if you missed it.

Where to Find Free Cash This Weekend

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I’m old enough to remember the trick of checking the coin return slot when passing by pay phones – you can still do that for vending machines, but spare change isn’t worth what it used to be. And there’s far too much competition now for redeeming soda  and beer cans/bottles (though if you live in a household of heavy drinkers of either sort, you can probably redeem enough for an occasional latte).

But if you want better odds of finding a minor windfall, do this:

Visit bar parking lots at dawn (or before, if it’s safe) on Sundays!

My father had a regular route in his Lynn neighborhood, and would frequentlyy come home with $10-$25 left behind by bar patrons (who probably shouldn’t have even been driving) missing their pockets or pulling out loose bills as they fumbled for their car keys.

Is your password “password”?

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After arriving at my timeshare resort on Saturday afternoon, unloading, shopping, and making coffee jello >;-0 Joann and I sat down with our MacBooks to catch up with the world. The venue provides free wifi, though signal strength depends on how far one’s unit is from the router located in the clubhouse. So I was happy to find our unit was practically on top of it, and I was getting a strong signal on my iPhone…

Until I discovered that while I had an equally strong signal on my MacBook, I was NOT getting out to the internet :( Joann was fine with hers, so I suspected something about my somewhat newer OS (Snow Lion) was different. I found that unlike her I wasn’t getting a domain name server IP in my DHCP config from the router, though it was assigning me an IP (translation – my Mac wasn’t being told where to look in order to translate a web address like “Google.com” into the numeric IP address the guts of the web uses to shuttle data around).

I looked to see what Joann’s Mac was using for a name server IP – it was something I wasn’t expecting – 192.168.1.1, which is the usual address of the wireless router itself. Because I’m a geek, my next thought was to learn more about what was happening on the router. And because I figure it’s always worth a try, I pointed my browser at the router’s address.

This brought up a login window – which was good, because it at least confirmed that I was connected to the router. What was bad (for the resort) was I tried the most simple login combination one would expect for it: username = admin, password = password… and I got in!

Because I wasn’t trying to be evil, I just looked at the settings and logged out. Further tweaking on my Mac eventually resolved the issue. I will stop at the office and attempt to communicate to the staff why they should change the password, so that some less scrupulous person (e.g., a bored teen visitor) won’t mess it up for everyone else.

Moral for you: if any internet-connecting device you buy has a non-unique password that allows it to be configured (e.g., modem/router, smartphone, mifi, game console) change it to prevent losing control of it to a stranger…

 

Hearing Protection For Musicians

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Whether you play in a rock band or an orchestra  (e.g., viola section in front of the timpani, woodwinds in front of the brass, etc), you NEED to protect your hearing.

The cheap foam earplugs many bars will sell you for a buck are better than nothing, but you will rightly complain that you cannot really hear music properly through them – it’s all muffled with lots of frequency loss.

Which it why it’s best to plan ahead and obtain “musicians’ earplugs” which are designed to filter sound evenly over the entire spectrum, low to high – protecting your ears from damaging sound levels while still allowing you to enjoy all elements of the performance.

Depending on your budget, musicians’ earplugs are available from around $10 for a basic model to $150+ for a custom fitted set.

Alison Brill & Alison Murray, who I met at Ladies Rock Camp, recommend these custom plugs. They say:

Best investment I’ve ever made, seriously. They allow you to hear accurately while protecting you from damaging sounds. They’re $150 and you can get them at Brookline Hearing Services, or from most audiologists. Keep rockin’ (safely)!

And if you are not up for that cost at the moment, I recommend Alpine Musicsafe earplugs – not custom, but they do a good job, are comfortable, and have 2 different interchangeable filters depending on how loud your environment is. These go for about $22 ($28 if you want a choice of 3 filter levels).

There are more choices in the $8-$20 range here. Frankly, the best earplugs are the ones you have with you everywhere – if you suddenly find yourself in an uncomfortably loud movie theater or other event, are you really going to run back out to your car for them?! Most models come with a case that fits on your keychain. In addition to my “good” pair on my keys, I also have a $10 pair on EVERY instrument case, and a spare set in my car in case my partner forgets hers.

My father had 80% hearing loss by the time he was 80, due to firing anti-aircraft guns during WWII with only cotton stuffed into his ears – don’t be that cranky old guy/gal!