There’s so much I could say. Rothbury without a doubt topped any live performance I’ve ever witnessed. Not just one or two but most of the bands throughout the entire weekend were stellar. It took me until the third song to convince myself 311 wasn’t lip-synching. Dave Matthews completely lived up to all the hype after jamming for almost three hours then dancing like a total spaz during most of his encore. Later that night STS9 gave all the rave fans a 4+ hour set. Widespread Panic with guest Ann Marie Calhoun playing up until the fireworks at midnight was absolutely epic! Zappa Plays Zappa was surprisingly good and Snoop Dogg was a hilarious addition to the lineup (especially since he was so messed up he thought he was in East Lansing!)
The biggest difference (amazing lineup aside) between Rothbury and other festivals such as Bonnaroo is Rothbury’s unique location. Instead of being thrown out in the middle of a hot and muggy Tennessee field, Rothbury transformed the picturesque JJ Ranch and Sherwood Forest into one giant art exhibit. There were plenty of shade trees and hammocks to relax in and constantly something different to see or do. At night the Sherwood Forest was illuminated by synchronized multicolor lighting and eerie geometric artwork, enough to freak you out while completely sober! My photos are here but check out the crapload of coverage from MLive.com
I remember reading a while ago that PocketNester had been developed to emulate NES games on smartphones. This is by no means cutting edge but I was curious how well it worked with the newest version of Windows Mobile. I was surprised how relatively easy it was to get running perfectly!
Whatever happened to software doing exactly what you needed it to and nothing more? Only a few years ago I was an avid user of popular programs like Nero and PowerDVD. The setup files were a few megabytes a piece yet the application still included more than plenty of useful features. Fast forward a few years and version numbers. Programs are now so large and bloated beyond control, thanks to pointless “add-ons” intended to hijack your system, that I’m afraid to install almost anything!
Let’s take a look at some past and present version numbers and their relative sizes just for comparison:
Nero 4.0 - 4 MB
Nero 8.0 - 185 MB
PowerDVD 6.0 - 28 MB
PowerDVD 8.0 - 116 MB
Microsoft Office 2003 Professional - 240 MB
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 - 3 GB
Guess how much of the added bulk contains features you will actually use? Almost none. It seems the majority of commercial software developers have gotten pretty greedy and just assume that since hard drives are so large and home Internet connections are so fast, the average consumer won’t mind downloading a 2 gigabyte setup file for a simple text editor. Little does the customer realize the program then installs a dozen “utilities” and “extras” that conveniently add themselves to the Windows system tray and Startup folder insuring constant nag screens to be the sole application you use for EVERYTHING while chugging your system resources like a thirsty frat boy. No wonder open source software has become so popular for Windows. Not always, but most of the time the free alternatives end up being better than what you would pay for - weird eh?
