I have an old laptop set up next to my home theater stuff.  I believe there are others that likely have a similar setup.  I primarily use mine to play music from a big external drive nice and loud through the best speakers in the house via a little USB sound “card” thingy.

So what, right?

Well, there’re a few things that are important (aside from the above):

1. I’m lazy.
2. I stream music to my Moto Droid and other computers with Subsonic.
3. I access the machine remotely with LogMeIn.
4. The laptop would often, inexplicably, enter the SLEEP state even though I had it set to NEVER enter sleep.

That third point is especially problematic when I’m away from home and want to listen to some music, get some files, or test something remotely.  Or, even hear some music over the nice loud speakers when I’m sitting right in front of them, initiated over good old Windows Remote Desktop from the laptop on my lap while I sit on the couch.  BUT I CAN’T DO THAT IF THE DAMN MACHINE IS IN SLEEP MODE.

After much googling and fellow geek consultation (I'm looking at you, Anthony and Leonard), I stumbled upon a loathsome (but useful) Experts Exchange link.  Luckily I was able to view the solution without signing up for a lifetime of spam.

I installed the following from this wacky site that has all kinds of stuff that can seriously mess up your machine that’s running XP:

I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep that comes from attending a show in the city and getting up for work four hours after getting home.   It's been worth it so far, since Thom Yorke and friends put on an amazing show Tuesday night (and probably Monday, too).

The night started with an explosion near Times Square, which delayed the start of the show about an hour. The entrance line was around the block, starting on 53rd, around to 8th Ave, and down 51st. Fortunately my tickets were purchased on Thom's site, w.a.s.t.e., and I was able to skip most of the line to grab my presale will-call tickets and head right inside.




I don't think anyone was expecting to see or hear real instruments used in place of electronic synths and drum machines and the like, but that's exactly what we got: a great multi-instrumentalist/keyboard guy; excellent drummer; unbelievable multi-percussionist dude; Flea on bass (mostly); and Thom on piano, guitar, and vocals (of course).  And they all put on a great show.

Now, like the girl on the phone said,

I'm down to hang, but I have work early in the morning.

Nine trees fell within the grounds of St. Anthony's church in Oceanside, NY due to the rain and high winds the area experienced on March 13th, 2010, but none of the buildings or statues were seriously damaged.

Click the images to enlarge.

A few more pics of destruction around the neighborhood:

...I'm upset that I missed it.

North Mississippi Allstars played at Highline Ballroom on 2/26, and nyctaper was fortunate enough to attend the show. As usual, his recording of the show is top-notch and helps to take some of the sting out of missing it live.

Here's the second song in the set (at much lower quality than you'll get from the download):

Thanks for the great recordings, @nyctaper!

Hit play and follow along... (yes, I know it's not The Beatles)

Wow, this has been a long time coming!

Have I mentioned that I really like Lala.com?