Urban Puddle

This is a professionally produced track and is being made freely available courtesy of Salon.com. The band is called Norfolk and Western but don't be fooled -- this is not a Country/Western song. That being said, it's also not death metal either. Instead, you'll find a slow, winding track that could easily be found on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Grab it here and happy listening. The song is called "A Voice Through the Wall".

It seems all I post about these days are free music downloads. I will get back to some more technical topics as soon as I solve them. :) In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this new track by Justine Electra (no relation to Carmen Electra that I know of..) It's called Defiant and Proud.

It's a slow, sad track that reminds me a bit of Aimee Mann. Enjoy!

Ah Ladytron.. how far we've come from the days of Paco... This song actually has some sort of pattern that resembles a song. Now don't flame... I really like Ladytron. It's just that this is a little different than their usual stuff. Still, it's good and it's free so grab it now!

This is a cool little track from a band called Roy Yarkoni & the NightHawks. It's a strange song that I imagine would be good listening on a rainy day in your college dorm. So, all you college students should grab it right away. And for those of you who have already graduated, download it anyway and reminisce about the old days.. you know, before you got a girlfriend. The entire album is available for download here.

I've been using NeoOffice for the Intel Mac for a few days now. Through the Early Access Program, Planamesa Software allows users to download the software before it's final scheduled release in July. I'm an open source advocate and, although I'm not swimming in money, believe in supporting people who do good work. Usually this works in the form of shareware where you get to try before you buy. The story with NeoOffice is a little different though; you have to pony up the cash to get the download.

Just when I thought that maybe journalists had called it in, I'm delighted to have found a piece of writing that reminds me of the storied history of journalism and why it is such an important and carefully stewarded part of our American society. Enjoy.

I use FreeNX a lot. It's faster than VNC and works through the same port as ssh which means that it's very convenient for me. Also, unlike VNC on linux, it will automatically log you in to a desktop session. It's ideal for people who remotely manage linux boxes and need a GUI. Unfortunately, I seem to have run into a lot of problems getting it running lately. I can't get it working on AMD64 at all, but finally found a repository that made install on x86 a snap. Here's how:

Here is a short track from a great band called Zero 7. One of their earlier discs, Simple Things, is absolutely fantastic and is worth owning. This song, called "Left Behind", is a collaboration with Sweden's José González. Dude, since when does Sweden have people named José?

This track is slightly different than what I usually listen to. But

• These guys are from my home town of Montreal
• It's always good to expand your horizons
• The track is free!

The band is called The Stills and they are great musicians. You can sort of tell that the drummer is singing on this one though. Check it out here.

I found another great track that I'd like to share. This is by a band called 'Hot Bitch Arsenal'. While the name may not be the greatest, you really can't argue with the results. This track is a catchy Manu Chao beat with some nice lyrical tricks. Like the last track, this is released under the Creative Commons license. Download it here.