XM Radio’s Promotional Channels

Recently I posted about how I had just came across a nice little channel on XM Radio – channel 51. Soon after I had started checking that channel, they changed it to “30 Days of Coldplay” and I almost puked. I waited out the 30 days and sure enough they changed it.

Now it’s “Mandatory Metallica” which I can stand a whole hell of a lot more than Coldplay. The plus side of things is that you get to hear some of Metallica’s old / good stuff (1983 to 1988) – the stuff that rocked and is worth a shit. The rest of the crap (1991 – 2008) is just that, crap. I haven’t liked Metallica since their album “…And Justice for All” and from what I can tell, never will again. They sold out big time. There’s a fucking love ballad on their new album for shit-sakes. Their new stuff is so predictable, so cliche, and so untalented that you just can’t help but to cringe.

Anyways, the point is that I just found another new channel that didn’t used to be dedicated to any one band in particular. Now on channel 53 they have “AC/DC Radio” which as you can guess plays nothing but AC/DC. I’m sure this will change at some point, but the cool thing is that you can now listen to shitloads of AC/DC, good or bad.

Since XM Radio seems to dedicate channels to help promote some bands’ upcoming new releases, it has me wondering what in the blue fuck AC/DC could be coming out with besides a compilation album? So I decided to do a quick search and sure enough, AC/DC is releasing an album in this year 2008 called “Black Ice” due in mid October.

Son of a bitch. While I seem to be liking the dedication on certain channels to a band, I dislike that it’s for such a long period of time – which only means you get hear the songs everyone hates just that much more. I also don’t like that XM Radio so far only seems to do this for big bands with upcoming releases – which is basically just a marketing gimmick to help promote the bands’ new album.

At any rate, there it is. A channel dedicated to something new that you might sometimes enjoy and might not otherwise have known about.

Seriously, Stop That!

I can’t believe in this day and age that you can still visit a site that wants to take control of your main browser window by resizing it. Are you kidding me? That shit went out as soon as it came in. It’s totally annoying and way too intrusive. I can understand doing this to a popup window, but a main window? No! Typically websites entirely in Flash violate this rule more than any other, however I’ve been noticing a few other relatively high profile sites doing this crap. Once it happens to me, I’ll never visit that site again.

Another gripe I have is websites that use fonts that are unreadable unless you’re using ClearType. Not everybody uses it dipshits. Matter of fact I’d be willing to bet most people don’t use it. Just stop, or I’ll never read another damned thing you write – because I can’t without straining my eyes until it feels like I’m having forks jabbed in them.

Just these two examples alone make me feel like I’m bitching about midi music in the background of a web page, or animated cursors on a web page. That’s how ridiculous these things are and nobody should be implementing them. So stop.

Pop vs Soda

This “debate” has always intrigued me for some reason.
Apparently it has done the same for others as well – hence this map.
Personally, I say “soda” when making a general reference.
Interestingly, it would seem the southern west coast, center Midwest around St. Louis, and northern east coast all typically share the same term for a soft drink.
And to think the west and east coast will ask us if we grow corn in our front yard.
Believe it or not, you can actually see a bit of history in this map when you start to think about things like the first railroad lines being built across the country.


[via: strangemaps.wordpress.com]