Do you remember what life was like before we had the internet in our lives?  I certainly do.  As a somewhat heavy internet user, there isn’t any facet of my life that hasn’t been affected by it.  What I do on a day-to-day basis is enhanced by having access to so much information at my fingertips.

I can’t do everything on the internet, but there is plenty that I’ve found that has been helpful to me over the years.  Being an early adopter, I was a member of Compuserve back before the internet became an avenue of public access.  Compuserve’s information service was like a scaled-down version of the internet, but all contained in one place.   Things have grown by leaps and bounds since them, but the basic premise is the same.  How so?

I grew up listening to Edu Lobo’s music.  I didn’t have any of his own recordings up until the past decade or so, but by listening to Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66, and the Tijuana Brass, I became familiar with a few of his songs.  Back then, I had no idea how influential he was to Brazilian music in general.  After reading Ruy Castro’s Bossa Nova, I learned the roots of Brazilian music, and how the bossa nova originators and later Brazilian musical movements all fit in together.

Edu Lobo came onto the scene in the early to mid 60s, and he recorded his debut album in 1965: A Música de Edu Lobo por Edu Lobo. Even better: he’s accompanied by the Tamba Trio, which was already a well-known bossa nova group that leaned more toward the jazz side of the music.  Do they fit well together?

Today is a big day for Zune fanatics! First of all, the long-awaited Zune HD has been released today.  In 16GB (black) and 32GB (platinum) configurations, the Zune HD with its new touch-screen control, HD radio, HD video capabilities and web browser (among many other new features) is now available for sale.  With the new model comes other updates to the Zune system’s software and firmware, which are detailed below.  Read on!

Many of us on the internet use alternate DNS servers.  If you have an internet connection, you are already using a DNS server, but in most cases, you are using the DNS server operated by your internet provider.  In the past, I’ve had problems accessing sites on the internet when I used one well-known national cable internet provider.  Their DNS would fail regularly, leaving me unable to visit many sites on the internet (as well as hamper my work).  For years, I was using the Genuity free DNS servers, in the range 4.2.2.1 to 4.2.2.6.  They’re still available and they still work, but I found something better that has turned out to be not only reliable, but very useful in handling our incoming internet traffic.

This just shocked me today: I visited a very well known online store that sells computer parts and electronics, and read a description of one of the items, which is a Pioneer CD/radio for the car.  I don’t know what is failing in society today, but check out how many grammatical errors there are:

A good CD receiver doesn’t have to break the bank. Pioneer’s DEH-11E proves how the point. The DEH-11E is a reasonably-priced, car audio CD receiver with a 200W MOSFET speaker system. It supports CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW formats for versatility. In addition, with Pioneer’s Supertuner IIID technology, the receiver also provides exceptional FM and AM performance — and it doesn’t scrimp on the sound quality. The receiver provides exceptional sound quality to match your taste.

With the built-in AUX input, plug in your portable media devices is easier. The DEH-11E is specially designed to expand your system and add stunningl sound quality! At such a low price, a good opportunity to check out!

Terrible. I left in the spelling error, the factual error (“200W MOSFET speaker system”–no such thing!), and the sentence fragments that make absolutely no sense.  The underlining is mine.  Did we skip grammar class, or is this how our kids are being taught today?