Category Archives: Technology

Unboxing Review: Ninja Standing Desk

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A couple months ago I wrote about using a standing desk. In that article I mentioned a Kickstarter project for a portable standing desk. I did contribute to that project, it was funded, and today I received my Ninja Standing Desk.

I made a quick an unboxing and initial test video:

I haven’t had a chance to work on it yet, but here are some initial impressions:

– Assembly was quite easy (once I refreshed my memory with their video. They have not yet printed up instruction sheets – I had an early-bird delivery).

– The shock-corded aluminum tubes that support the shelves and let them fold in half for packing work well, though it took a bit of wrangling to pull them apart once assembled (which is not a bad thing when you plan to put a computer or monitor on them).

– The long straps onto which you fasten the shelves are all “loop” velcro on one side. I would have liked it if they had a bit of “hook” velcro on one end in such a way as to keep the strap coiled when in the bag (they were tacked with a pin for delivery).

 – The door hooks worked well. It also comes with drywall hooks.

– It is packed in a carry bag that has enough room for some other items like an iPad or a small keyboard.

I don’t know when I’ll next take a trip for using this, but I’m happy to have it. Once they fulfill their Kickstarter rewards I’m sure this will be a big hit – visit their website for more info and ordering.

And if you like the music in the video, that’s one of my pieces…

Cover Arrangements: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

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If you are a musician who is hired for weddings and other events you are probably asked to cover popular songs. Many of these are so ubiquitous that charts for them are readily available in “Real Books” and “Best of the Decade” collections.

But your customers have a wide range of musical tastes. While you may charge extra for obtaining the sheet music for their request, sometimes it is either not readily available or you need it arranged for a particular combination of instruments (e.g., string quartet, violin and guitar, etc).

If your usual method of arranging a pop song is to play the mp3 or YouTube video over and over while you attempt to transcribe what’s being played, here are a couple of helpful hints:

Continue reading →

Seeing a Landmark If You Are Not There

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Most people know that Google Maps includes Street View – they have vehicles mounted with cameras that cruise the streets taking photos every few feet. That’s a LOT of territory to cover, so at this point a portion of these images are likely to be several years old. But unless there has been major reconstruction in an area these photos are still a good way to actually see what a location looks like before you drive there.

Last week I used this feature to find something a friend mentioned in her blog, but regretted that at the time she had not taken a photo to post. Continue reading →

Friday Faves 8/31/12

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Some items that drew my attention this week:

If you are a bicycle commuter you may have wished for a way to charge your mobile devices on the go like your hydrocarbon-burning peers – now you can, with the Ecoxgear Ecoxpower Pedal Powered Headlight + GPS/Mobile Device Charger:

 

Besides being an awesome musician with his band The Army of Broken Toys, Walter Sickert is a perhaps even more amazing artist. Check out this time-lapse video demonstrating some of the things he does to create one of his art pieces:

 

My friends Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola’s Kickstarter project has (as of today) 12 days to make another $5,700 to their minimum goal. You should donate at least a dollar  even if you don’t care for horror movies for no other reason than they are making sure to personally thank every single donor at any level, plus communicate constantly about how it’s going and what they are learning about Kickstarter in the process:

 

Somewhere in the Boston subway system this weekend look for me busking with geek guitarist extraordinaire Matthew Lister. We’ll be covering tunes like this: