New Gmail Update

I have the latest version of Gmail and here is a full article to go deep in the new features.

Peace!

Apple Leopard Looks Worth The Upgrade

I just finished viewing the Leopard Guided Tour and am pleasantly surprised with the upgrades within the operating system.

Apple retail stores will open at 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. tomorrow and t-shirts will be given away to the first 500 people. Since I am dropping off my youngest daughter in the morning to pre-k not too far away from the store whose grand opening I attended, I may swing by to pick one up if they do not run out by that time.

My initial plan was not to upgrade right away just in case there are any bugs discovered but after seeing the video, there is a new itch that I am going to fight for at least a week:)

Some of the upgrades are so dynamic in nature while not being too complex for anyone to understand. It makes getting a Mac much easier and desirable.

One of the biggest strategies employed by Apple appears to make the Leopard upgrade its own network just like faxes were when they were first made available for public purchase.

Every Leopard user is going to become an instant evangelist for the new operating system since there are many features that are based upon at least two users both using Leopard.

Sharing desktops is something that you would only trust to a well versed technically literate friend before, and nothing appears to place your Mac in danger since you keep full view of everything taking place.

Collaboration is going to take prime advantage of Leopard as a result and iChat is going to be one application often used far more than it currently may be.

I also become more impressed with the upgrade made to the Mail program since I only used it with my .Mac account. After seeing the templates that I never looked for before if they were available, I can easily see myself using Mail more than before.

I would like to keep the emails remotely versus my Macbook though. Gmail absorbed this function and relieved my hard drives and I never wish to store e-mail locally again.

There were features called Cover Flow and Quick Look that worked very similar in the way you can browse album artwork within iTunes. They were very smooth. But you can virtually view any file created without having to open the application that created the file itself. This feature allows a ton of time to be saved and speed to be introduced for users.

I will probably buy Leopard from Amazon at a lower price and look to find which Mac buddy has it afterwards just to check out the advanced collaboration features out of curiosity.

So if you have a .Mac account just look for me at my first and last name Roney Smith.

Congratulations Apple and you have done it again!

Peace!

Looking westward in Mableton, GA

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Originally uploaded by wysiwysell

Here is a late afternoon photo snapped from my phone minutes ago!

Mableton, GA is within southern Cobb County and many gale force winds come from the direction the camera is pointing within.

The area where we live is almost like a ridge before the elevation falls as you head southeastward towards Atlanta 15 to 20 minutes away.

Peace!

Stepped Outside Into This!

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Originally uploaded by wysiwysell

The morning quickly went from a cool chill to a beautiful, blue sky.

I snapped this with my phone and the sun looks almost like an eye.

The glare was so bright that it was more of a point and shoot versus a look and shoot:)

One more photo to upload and share!

Peace!

Perhaps the biggest "I Told You So" is Necessary, Loud & Clear on Harry Potter

After this episode, hopefully the Babes in Christ most of all will sit up and pay closer attention going forward.

I have never read or watched anything related to the Harry Potter series of stories and characters and the author's recent revelation that one of the central characters being a homosexual is no surprise to me.

Clearly I was and still am more upset with those within the Church that lapped up the movie tickets, memorabilia, and anything associated with the author's work.

The unsaved world will never have its eyes opened spiritually with the wisdom of God and those who are saved and called according to God's purpose had to actively overlook or disregard the overt associations with the kingdom of darkness in order to accept the consumption of such material as acceptible.

Step back to altar and ask God's forgiveness in this matter if you consumed the ungodly as it relates to Harry Potter.

It is already stated that there will be deception in the world strong enough to deceive the very elect if we are not careful. There were more than enough red flags on this topic.

There will be no further appeals necessary within this case either. The case is indeed already closed and buried.

Peace!

My Verdict on Fox Business News (FBN)

My vote currently is neutral and I would not recommend any viewing or dissuade someone from watching the channel.

The undeniable NY theme is almost too restrictive and suffocating and I watched multiple programs on the network over a couple of hours.

I rather see regional correspondents, web cam tie-ins, or some other people in the field and throughout the nation to avoid the incestuous, homogeneous, and non-diversified reporting, pundit commentary, and analysis.

Were the words incestuous, homogeneous, and non-diversified redundant enough for you? Now you know how I felt watching the cookie cutter panelists and opinion dealers:(

Having worked in the financial services industry and traveled to Wall Street, Times Square, and other tourist and financial district sites in the Manhattan-Jersey City area (JC is my birthplace BTW), there has to be more business on-air talent than appears on all of the business networks and programming.

Clearly there also has to be more diversity than what I am seeing.

But after viewing enough of the commercials on FBN and CNBC, one can come away with the perspective that diversity in business reporting is not highly desirable after all.

Hmmmmm. Opportunity knocking? I may have to revisit this later and see if more energy and resources are available to tackle the issue.

FBN or Fox 5 Atlanta reading? Send me an e-mail or leave a comment.

I will give the new network several more glances to check if movement beyond the current point in the learning curve takes place.

Peace!

Unklejam Is Not Faking the Funk

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Originally uploaded by unklejam

I discovered a new group through a blog tonight and their sound is just as refreshing as the band's name which pays homage to Funkadelic's 1979 album "Uncle Jam Wants You".

The official Unklejam website is located at:

http://www.unklejam.com

The first CD is scheduled for release this coming Tuesday, October 22nd.

The band is all over the internet on MySpace, Flickr, Bebo, and YouTube, so check them out as soon as you get a chance.

I sent a message to the Tonex group that I started years ago that I thought one band member's moves reminded me of gospel artist Tonex's dance steps:)

You will not regret it if you love the funk, the whole funk, and nothing but the funk!

Peace!

Come On People, Fulfilling the Dream, & Let's Work!

Earlier this morning, I was "drafted" by my wife to volunteer at our oldest daughter Rachel's school.

Volunteering did not scare me since I was a former high school teacher of grades 9-12, a youth pastor and minister since 1996, a stockbroker with some the richest customers or deadbeat-foul-mood-because-my-buddy-told-me-a-bum-stock-tip-that-took-all-my-money-after-I-bought-it people that anyone will ever meet:)

Everything went as my wife indicated that it would but when I arrived in the classroom, I knew that rubber was going to meet the road in a 21st century way that I had never experienced before as a student or teacher.

The classroom was divided into smaller groups of 4 students on average.  My daughter attends a new charter school within our county by the way.

The smaller groups instantly had an advantage over other educational philosophies in that each student could receive special attention at a faster rate than having a single classroom mass of students.

But the smaller groups also have a dual-edge in that if the student wants to drift off mentally or has problems with learning, the tasks at which the group does not receive hands on instruction will find the student driving off a cliff without any chance of hitting a guard rail or safety net.

As a former teacher, I had a learning curve in that the groups were rotating faster than I thought they should but I later realized that it was for the better.

In today's culture, I now believe that the gaming world, entertainment companies, and education institutions had better get married shotgun-style if American youth will have a chance globally.  The attention span of American society today requires that the small groups change tasks faster than they would when my deceased mother taught school or when I was a teacher or student.

Only a three-way marriage is going to give the masses an opportunity to not appear in printed documents posted within post offices or facing three strikes nationwide.

It is now clear to me that even a charter school will not be able to save some who have not been adequately prepared at home intentionally or unconsciously.

I was assisting first graders with the task of locating vocabulary words within a dictionary and categorizing the words as nouns of either people, places, things or animals, or verb (not a noun).

Some words may have been both a noun and verb and a few words did not actually appear within the dictionary being used.

The first group assisted were already working when I got there.  Almost immediately, I found one young girl to be as equally a drama queen as my own girls whenever things were not flowing her way.

I almost thought it was a ploy to get more attention.  But wait, it was:)

The bell or beep to change tables and move to a new task came faster than I realized.  I kept wondering if they were going to have to leave the classroom for some reason.

Then it hit me like lightning during the second group I was assisting.

One young man came to the table without any tools as the other kids had, appeared to not have been present the previous day, and sat down in a position to watch the computer monitors of kids who were working in another group even though he could not hear the sounds they heard through headphones they were wearing.

The gentle way but slightly mocking tone another young boy spoke about him let me know that the first kid was not going to get the star for the day.

3 of the 4 students rapidly jumped in to locating words while the unfocused kid found other worlds to dwell within.

So I moved beside him and squatted down to get on everyone's level of eyesight and more doors started opening up.

Although I had heard it during the first group, I was surprised to see the children more focused on what page a word could be found versus knowing how to locate the words within the dictionary.  Working together in groups is one thing, but not knowing the process involved is weakness that subverts the teamwork.

The fight to get them to not call out the page numbers was gentle and nonviolent but highly irritating at the same time.

Since the young kid was more focused on the computer monitors I asked everyone the question, "How many of you have played video games before?"  Everyone said yes or raised their hands.

I then explained to them that looking up words within a dictionary was just like playing a video game and counting at the same time.

I confirmed that everyone knew how to count from one to ten.  I then asked them "How many letters are in the alphabet?"  The fork in the road was then reached at warp-nine light speed.

The kids who were bright and appeared in tune with everything kept calling out numbers either too high or too low.  Upon each recount, they reached a higher number surprisingly.

It was the unfocused kid who changed positions away from looking at the computer monitors and made the 180 degree turn that stunned me.

He simply and calmly counted the letters of the alphabet and gave me the correct answer on his first reply.

"26!" was his answer and the rest of the kids even within the other sections did not get it right on their first attempt.

I then explained that they had a code of 26 letters that they had to use just like numbers in order to locate the words by using the beginning letters of each word.

From this point on, those who used the system would find the words quickly and easily while those who focused on the page numbers spent more time starting over and wasting time.

But the correct answer did not sustain the kid and he went right back to looking at the monitors as he had done before.

I stayed beside him and kept asking him about the letters within the words.  He understood the logic involved but would not get to second base of actually looking for the words.

The sessions continued without any further difficulties and by the time the last group reached me, I was back in rare teaching form. 

One of the best things about today was that the comfort zone of only dealing with my own daughters was broken and meeting and working with kids other than your own will keep you more in tune with your own children and you will see some of the nuances that your own kids pick up while attending school.

The time went into fun zone and I really enjoyed it.

But the unfocused kid made me realize some things that I rather not have witnessed but now realize that I can help others like him who have grown up and attending college may not be a workable goal for them.

The kid made me realize that only through a video game or logical flowchart of a video game will American citizens regain the leadership in the quality of life.

Other countries have the lower health standards, higher crime levels and threats of violent wars, but America will slide into the same pits if the inequalities between the haves and have nots continue to multiply.

The creativity involved in creating a video game will capture and motivate youth and young adults above and beyond the criminal lifestyles that pop media is decaying into.

The criminal lifestyle appeared to be within this kid's future but we can flip his script early enough to keep him off that path.  I later thought to myself that the kid clearly has a future of being either Forrest Gump, Nino Brown, or the beautiful mind of a hedge fund quant if he can be reached.  Otherwise, somebody better get a football in his hands and show him a three-point position:)

But back to the breakthrough and turnaround.

People who have taken the paths of dirty money can and will finally see that they can lower their risks of being separated from their families and friends or the threat of being incarcerated if they begin to learn some simple, life-sustainable skills in how to earn clean money that can be taught to their circles of influence and descendants.

It still amazes me that rapper and music mogul Jay-Z and even deceased Biggie have been credited with the ability of not having to write down their lyrics before recording them.  This feat is nothing short of Shakespeare or Einstein in my opinion.

Clearly the skill has the seeds of mathematical finesse only commonly found within financial centers around the world.

Today's youth can turn the country around by learning these skills.

The primary downside or threat that I see is that without the proper guidance and selection of worthy values and moral compasses, earning generational wealth of such magnitude will more rapidly destroy them or be simply in vain.

My calling that was confirmed today is that I know how to share both requirements with them as a minister, teacher, and entrepreneur.

My 20th entrepreneurial anniversary is approaching on November 1st and with each day I am becoming more energized for this new task and the next level that it will usher in.

I realize that I have only a tip of the iceberg in skills to create such a video game.  I know that through the power of God as revealed within the internet and web 2.0 world that the remaining tools can and will be discovered.  I can start to compile the rest of the components that I have within my reach however.

It is indeed the dawning of brighter new world:)

So I am keeping hope alive when it comes to today's youth in spite of all the traps and negative opportunities that await them.  They can and will survive!

Peace!

Middle Atlantic Products Knows How to Delight and Keep Their Customers

Every now and then one will have an encounter with a company that is so far above the norm that you must take the time to tell others about how exceptional the company is and how pleasantly surprised you are at the company's response to your concerns.

Some time ago, we had purchased a pop screen for various audio recordings which keeps any hard sounds during speech and singing from distorting the audio recordings.  When the pop screen was purchased was unknown to me since such a purchase never fully registers in your mind as a significant purchase.

But recently the knob that secured the pop screen had broken and could no longer be attached to a microphone stand and during my daughter's recent recording of her song , we each had to take turns in physically holding the screen while focusing on delivering quality vocals at the same time.

I went on the web and found the manufacturer Middle Atlantic Products Inc. and sent an e-mail requesting information on how to obtain a replacement knob.

After several messages were exchanged, I arrived home tonight to find a package at my front door.

Inside was not a replacement knob as anticipated, but the latest version of their pop screen that the company manufactures.

All I can say is "WOW!!!"

As a result, I am posting this message even before replying to the sales rep to thank them since their service has been just that exceptional and far above our expectations.

This company has firmly secured a customer for life for their audio hardware and furniture equipment.  My daughter will even become a customer as she grows up as well.  The company is clearly a legend within our household and music business:)

I am still floored at their response and they never will have to spend any advertising dollars to get our attention.  We will clearly become proactive customers and seek them out for future purchases.

Thanks Pavia and many companies and individuals can learn from your company's fine example!

Peace!

Electric Slide.com Domain for Sale

The ElectricSlide.com domain is being placed on the market for sale.

The global dance with the name Electric Slide makes the domain a no brainer for its popularity.

The time given to the project was not sufficient enough to capitalize on the multi-sensory domain name since it works for music, motion, and information.

The domain has a built in market and has produced royalties consistently since the domain was obtained in 2000.

The domain should easily work for any music related project or company.

If you have a sensible offer, please send it to:

wysiwysell@gmail.com

Part of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit agency fighting domestic violence in honor of my late mother.

Peace!

My daughter Rachel's Song "Trick or Treat"

Today my 7 year old daughter Rachel and I recorded her song entitled "Trick or Treat". I thought that it was her first song, but it is actually her second after we composed an avant garde tune entitled "Spaceship".

It is the scariest seasonal song since "Thriller".

Check it out on MySpace at:

http://www.myspace.com/seedoflife.

We took the photo above after we finished the song which is represented by Seed Of Life Music via BMI. The track should appear available for purchase below within 24 hours.