If your like me and you love perusing online music instrument stores you may have already found your favorite place to shop for musical equipment online. What if you don’t know where to shop online for musical instruments though? Maybe your a parent of a musician and have never played a Gibson or played out of a Mesa Boogie amp.

Well I am a active musician and can say I have probably seen 99% of the music stores online. Many of the sites online are nearly identical, but some do stand out in regards to pricing and brand selection.

Where do you shop online for your music gear?

Disclaimer: The State of Affairs received no compensation for writing this articles and is in no way directly affiliated with Musician’s Friend, American Musical Supply, or Craigslist.

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The Yes Men Strike again. If you are unfamiliar with the the Yes Men, they are a group of about 300 members who specialize in impersonating large corporations and criminal organizations in hopes of exposing the true nature and crimes committed by these organizations.

This time the Yes Men have impersonated the US Chamber of Commerce. The pretend claim was that the Chamber would be reversing it’s stance against the new climate change bill and would support a carbon tax. Needless to say, the Chamber of Commerce is highly against any regulation of green house gases or any tax associated with pollutants.

The news that the Chamber of Commerce was reversing it’s stance and siding with scientist even made it onto Fox News. This is the video coverage, from DemocracyNow, which shows the Faux News clips and a interview with the impostor.

Multiple members of the US Chamber of Commerce have withdrawn membership based on the fact that the Chamber’s board has decided to not back a climate change bill. This new spoof has put the spotlight on them, but they have yet to back down on their rejection of the bill.

Regardless of your stance on climate change, this at least show how easily major news organizations can be swayed to report false news. Apparently all you need is a suit, tie, and a microphone to make national headlines.

The Yes Men are currently releasing their new movie, The Yes Men Fix the World.

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I have been looking at inexpensive camcorders or video cameras for quite some time now. My brothers new baby boy is about to turn one and he needs a decent video camera to capture all of those moments that wont come again. For example, the first walk outside without a stroller or the first hike up a mountain… ok it may be a bit early to conquer a mountain, but a walk outside sounds reasonable.

The problem is up until recently, there has been no real quality camcorders available on the market for under $500 dollars or so. Digital still cameras can be picked up for $100 and will take great 10MP pictures that look stunning and amazing. Digital video cameras are a different story, at least they were, until now.

Introducing the Kodak Zi8 Small HD 1080p Pocket Video Camera

I literally just read every review on the web showcasing the Kodak Zi8 and have found nothing but positive comments and experiences. Here is a short list of what I think makes the Kodak Zi8 stand out against the other under $200 camcorders on the market.

1. True HD 1080p, a lot of cameras are still limited to the acceptable, but not great, 720p resolution.
2. Small pocket hand-held design, while still maintaining a great feature set.
3. Excellent image stabilization (and it actually works!) This eliminates the majority of blur seen in other similar cameras.
4. This one really surprised me, a external microphone input. Everyone knows built in microphones are very sub-par, so if you really want to get serious and capture every detail of the moment, you have the option and power to do so.
5. Uses SD or SDHC cards for storage. Cheap, convenient, and simple.
6. Last, but not least, the video quality is great. I won’t lie and say it’s as good as a $1500 camcorder, but with a price tag of only $180, the quality is far better then similarly priced video cameras.

Recently Cali Lewis, of geekbrief.tv, reviewed the Kodak Zi8 and paired it against two competitor cameras that are in a completely different league. To my surprise though, the Kodak Zi8 was not blasted out of the water and didn’t look like a simple kids toy in comparison. This is a must watch video if you want to see how this camcorder performs in low light as well as under professional studio lights.

What do ya think? Worth $180? I have looked at all of the other cameras in the same price range and can say without a doubt this one takes the cake. The biggest downfall to inexpensive video cameras is the fact that they don’t perform well under low-light conditions. Yeah, I wouldn’t say the Kodak Zi8 is fantastic in low-light conditions, but no camera under $1000 truly is, so unless were willing to shell out the big cash, it’s just something we will have to work around.

Great camera, great features, great price. I’m sold.
Read more about the Kodak Zi8 at Kodak.com

Do you have a Kodak Zi8? How has your experience been in terms of features and quality?

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I am not a fan of watching television. If you want to catch your favorite shows, you have to actually plan on watching them as they are only available at certain times of the day. When you watch shows online, they are available any time of day.

For me, I am online only from here on out.

This is a short categorization of what I am watching online right now. Some are informational, some are hilarious, and some are just plain entertaining. I’m sure not all of these will appeal to everyone, but I can guarantee you will enjoy at least one of these shows if you give them a try sometime. Check em out

News

Comedy

Sports

Blogging

Obviously, every show on TV should be available online, television is a antiquated medium that is slowly being phased out of existence. In retrospect, I can also see a couple reason why media companies would not want their shows online, one, the advertising revenue gains are much higher for television and two, if every show was online, no one under 30 would need a television subscription package.

What are some shows or YouTube channels that you enjoy watching online?

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If you’re currently a user of Internet Explorer, you can now make your internet speeds faster with Google Chrome Frame. Google Chrome Frame is a simple, easy to install addon for IE that makes Internet Explorer faster by using the Google Chrome Engine, instead of the built in IE render.

Adding Google Chrome Frame to your IE installation is comparable to adding a new engine to your car. Not only will your car be faster, but it will also be more reliable.

Steps to install Google Chrome Frame

1. Open Internet Explorer (works with IE6, IE7, and IE8)
2. Navigate to the official Google Chrome Frame page
3. To the right, click “Get Google Chrome Frame”
4. Optionally choose to, help make Google Chrome Frame better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google. (I always do, if it’s a Google product. They actually use the information to make the product better)
5. Done! Now your IE browser will be faster and more reliable

In addition to the fact that the Google Chrome Frame engine is faster and more reliable then the built in IE engine, the GCF engine is compatible with many features of HTML 5. IE is not. For example, Google’s Gmail service will soon be utilizing the new features in HTML 5. If you don’t have the Google Chrome frame engine installed, you won’t be able to use all of the new features with Internet Explorer.

The one hitch to the Google Chrome Frame engine is, the website you are viewing must be compatible with it. It took me less than one minute to make the entire State of Affairs website compatible so, as long as the sites you visit are on the ball with maximizing compatibility, they should be compatible. If a site isn’t, then IE will simply use the slower built in engine.

Being a early-stage release, Google Chrome frame could possible be expanded to have additional benefits in the future. I’m sure there will be more to come from this cool new product from Google.

Do you still use IE? Does Google Chrome Frame sound like something you might be interested in? Let everyone know with your comment below

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For one day only tomorrow, September 26th 2009, you and a guest can receive free admission to hundreds of museums nationwide. The free admission is not restricted to only Smithsonian museums, but is instead available for countless museums across the county.

I play on visiting the Experience Music Project \ Science Fiction Museum here in Seattle, WA. The museum features the Jimi Hendrix: An Evolution of Sound exhibit, which should be very exciting to see. The EMP is just one of 14 museums to choose from in the Seattle area alone.

Other Great Museums in the Seattle area to choose from are:

• The Museum of Flight
• Seattle Art Museum
• Nordic Heritage Museum
• KidsQuest Children’s Museum
• Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

This is a great opportunity to take your son, daughter, nephew, niece, cousin or just a good friend out for a nice day of fun and learning.

For more information and to download your free admission card you can visit the Smithsonian Museum Day page.

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If you are unhappy with your current cell phone company, now is the time to speak up. The FCC just recently launched a large investigation into how the cellular industry is charging its customers (us) and how it is competing as a market.

Over the last 10 months, many Verizon Wireless customers have been outraged for being charged out-of-line megabyte usage charges for actions they can’t even verify were them. These mysterious charges started appearing about a year ago and are one of the things the FCC will be looking into as possible violations by the wireless industry.

FCC Chair Genachowski said,

“Many Americans are learning to do more with less. A surprise charge on a monthly bill or a new service that does not perform as advertised can be a major budget-buster, especially as household spending on communications grows ever larger. Today’s notice will help the Commission build a record on ways to ensure that consumers understand what they are signing up for.”

If there is a time when the FCC will actually listen to complaints against the few giants that rule the Wireless Industry, it is now.

If you wish to file a official complaint with the FCC in regards to your cell phone service, you can follow the steps provided below.

1. Visit the FCC Consumer Complaints Page
2. Click the 5th option, “Wireless Telephone”
3. Next, most likely you will want option 4,

   “Billing, Service, Privacy, Number Portability and other issues”

   or Option 3,
   “Deceptive or unlawful advertising or marketing by a communications company (does NOT include Telemarketing)”

4. Select your filling method; online, phone, postal, or fax
5. Fill out the simple form with your information and complaint
6. Optionally: Add this statement, in your complaint, to request that your name be kept private.
   

   In regards to Form 2000B and article 4 of the FCC NOTICE REQUIRED BY THE PRIVACY ACT, I explicitly requests that the FCC withhold my name from public disclosure.

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If you’re a soccer fan like me, you will definitely be interested in this great service from mlsnet.com. I live near Seattle Washington so I am obviously a Sounders FC fan, but sometimes I can’t watch the local game because FSC (Fox Soccer Channel) owns the rights and I do not pay for the Comcast sports package that includes FSC.

Luckily I can watch the game and every other game of the season anytime I want by signing up for the Match Center on the mlsnet.com website. Here are a few great things about signing up.

1. It’s a one time fee for every game of the season, as opposed to a monthly subscription plan to only watch select games (FSC)
2. Half a season is $10, a full season is $20
3. Watch every game of the current MLS season online for free after signing up
4. If a game is only being shown on FSC, then as soon as that game is over it is posted on the mlsnet.com match center, where you can watch it as many times as you would like
5. Most of the games you can watch live online, only a small amount of them do you actually have to wait for the game to finish to watch

I signed up late in the season for the $10 half season package and have been happy ever since. One month of the Comcast sports package has to cost more than that.

I am not a die hard sports fan, but I do love the sport we Americans refer to as soccer, so why pay a monthly subscription for more sports then I really want?

If you love soccer you will definitely want to check out the Match Center on mlsnet.com

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A while back I created a video tutorial explaining, in full detail, how to rewire Reason in Cubase. If your not familiar with those two programs, they are both used for audio recording and creation.

Just recently, that video was featured on Winksound.com in their “Must Watch” series. Winksound.com is a community site where members upload videos and recommend YouTube videos for other users of the community.

Here is the episode featuring my tutorial, I use JanJmusic as a username on Youtube.

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Recently a good friend of mine brought to my attention the alarming fact that; as we are trying to decrees our energy bills and sustain the quality of our environment, we sometimes forget that doing one of the two, may not coincide with doing the other.

The recent push over the years towards using CFL, aka compact florescent light bulbs, is a push towards reducing energy cost in our home, but is also the cause of widespread mercury contamination. That sounds more like “grey” bulbs, not “green” bulbs.

CFLs Must Be Disposed Of As Hazardous Waste

CFL’s contain a small amount of mercury, as all florescent bulbs always have, but the problem is that these bulbs were never used widespread in homes around the world and were usually used in a industrialized setting. It never dawned on me that these bulbs must be disposed of as hazardous waste.

Even more alarming is the clean up process should one of these bulbs break in your home.

The EPA states:

• you must leave the contaminated area for at least 15 minutes
• after that you should not use a vacuum to clean up the mess
• instead should use a sticky tape, such as duct tape, to remove the spilled chemicals.

That is just a couple of the 19 steps you should follow if you break a compact florescent bulb in your home.

LEDs Should Be The New Standard

The European Union just announced today that they are official phasing out traditional incandescent light bulbs and will replace them with more energy efficient bulbs. In the US we have adopted the CFL option and are currently working on replacing incandescent bulbs with them.

Instead of shipping mercury around the globe, we could easily be working towards implementing LED light bulbs which can reach the same brightness as the other two options as well as be even more energy efficient than CFL light bulbs.

The main problem with bringing LEDs into your home right now is the cost. The average bulb can range from $20 to $50+ which might be hard to justify as “cost saving”, but what it does guarantee is that the next time your child or you breaks a light bulb in your home, you are not stuck dealing with a hazardous waste spill.

What do you think about the effects of using CFL in our home and what do you see as the best solution to reduce energy cost while at the same time be environmentally conscious?

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