I may be biased, because my son plays violin in this video, but these kids were incredible!  Just had to share with my friends, family, and thousands of total strangers.

Tonight I found it interesting that the blogosphere was all a twitter (ok, sorry, couldn’t resist!) about NiN again! Sarah posted about them yesterday, and today, I found out a bit more about what they are up to.  Nine Inch Nails is not exactly what I consider mainstream, and there are only a few songs I know by name, but being a musician, of course I know the impact they’ve had on music!  What I am most impressed by is their embracing the new music revolution, and getting on board with the Creative Commons Licensing agreement.  As a podcaster, I really dig this.  Podcasting News had a bulletin that since NiN is using this format to distribute freely their latest album, “The Slip” , you can OWN a free copy, and share it with your friends! Or, in my case, your Podcast listening audience! 

Without a CC license, we cannot play, distribute, or post any copywritten music without the sincere risk of being sued by the RIAA (Don’t even get me STARTED on THAT rant!)  Musicians that don’t own their copywrites (which is MOST who are on a major label, by the way) are not even able to give us permission to use it in a podcast, no fair use, no way.

With that being said, Kudos to NiN for being ahead of the majority of the artists who think we are all just a bunch of pirates, waiting to steal them blind.  Oh, wait, I’m a different kind of Pirate!

I can’t believe how hooked I’ve become on all the new social media sites. Beyond YouTube and MySpace, or those that have some entertainment value, I’ve begun to discover real business uses for some of the applications and networks that seem to be springing up every day. I’ve officially joined Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, Webshots, MySpace, YouTube, Reunion.com and Classmates.com, not to mention Skype, Windows Live and Yahoo, Google, and all the PODCASTS newsletters and blogs I’ve been reading on these topics. There’s not a day that goes by that someone “adds me as a friend” “sends me a tweet” “signs my “guestbook” or other related method of “reaching out” virtually. This amazes me coming from a culture of paranoid privacy concerns and identity theft! Regular readers will remember my post about “hiding in the open” by putting most of my information out to the world, but being smart, and safeguarding things that would expose me to threats, But, I dare say that where people used to either have my cell phone number, or an email address, now have close to a dozen ways to find me, or become my friend. My decision to live my life open and online is one that has proven out, and I think my friends agree.  I’m not a fan of the term “friends” for everyone that is in your list of contacts online…hell, most of these people I have had no previous contact with! I do like Linked-in’s term “connections” but for that list at least, I know most of them personally, and it makes it sound so impersonal! So is there a happy medium? Is there a better way to keep track of all your blog subscriptions, friends, social sites, user id’s,
photos, videos, and other related minutiae? There is a new aggregator called “Socialthing“, but it is early stage, and very limiting. I’m addicted to Web 2.0 and Social Networks. By their nature, they are social proof marketing on steroids.  What about the applications? Is there one way better than another to read blogs or subscribe to  Podcasts? The biggest in the world, by usage and sales, is Apple Tunes.
Personally, I can’t stand the interface. I think it is clunky and difficult to navigate, unlike everything else Apple. Not my choice. I LOVE the new program called  Ziepod. It is a RSS aggregator, which is a fancy way to say it gets your blogs and podcasts for you automatically, and organizes them where you can read them easily. I-Google has some of the same features, but no where near the functionality of Ziepod. Try this, I think you’ll like it better than Juice or Apple iTunes. Now go listen to a great   PODCAST will ya?!?!  

Another Krewe of St. Yago Illuminated Knight Parade was a smashing success last night in Ybor city.  We had lots of good food and drink, good friends, and a few special appearances by local celebrities, (besides Flash and myself!).  Jeff Fisher, from 970 WFLA was our special guest…

with his lovely wife.  They seemed to be having fun flinging beads to the throngs along 7th ave.

And another special visitor to the Knights parade was Melissa McGhee from season 5 American Idol, lovely as ever.
Even our Captain, Jim, seemed to be enjoying himself as he does his Peter Pan imitation, being hoisted around by a crane…


(sorry Jim, couldn’t resist!)For more photos, and full size edits….check my webshots album by clicking here

Until next year, keep your powder dry!

My name is Chuck Palm, and I’m a PIRATE!

So, it’s almost been a week since Gasparilla, our annual pirate invasion of Tampa Bay, and I finally got some photos posted at http://community.webshots.com/user/chuckpalm . As usual, it was a rip-roaring riot, riding our pirate ship float into town, throwing beads, dancing the day away…ahhh what a tough life!
We we honored to have Jack Harris, Tedd Webb, and Sharon Taylor from 970 WFLA AM Tampa Bay riding along as our special VIP guests, you can see by the photos that they looked like they were enjoying themselves, I know we did.
So, I’m filling in as DJ at The Rack for my friend Flash as I write this tonight, thinking how can he do this after a couple of shots of Patron? I’m really wimping out after 2 lite beers! The Rack has great sushi…I wonder if eating sushi goes against the pirate code?
I’ve been promising a new debut of the “palmcast”…but I have a good excuse. Besides being pirate season, my partner was on a cruise for his honeymoon, and I’ve had to pretend that I could do his job and mine! Thank god he’s back.

Well, as you can see below, someone thinks that they’re teaching me a lesson.  Fair enough, blogging is about creating a dialogue.  So, in that vein, I offer this to the hacker punk (I use that term endearingly), tell us your story.  You were KIND enough to point out our weaknesses, of which I freely admit.  I guess I should take more time to have different passwords for every site, email address, web login, FTP account, web hosting account, etc. etc., but, like most people, I’m lazy.   I take it on good faith that when I do things online, in my public life, that I can be open, and not try to hide anything, except maybe for the server code that keeps my vein little effort to stay in touch with the world!  The difference between me and most people online is that I am not bashful, shy, or introverted, and I try to keep and open mind.

I think I have a pretty good grasp of why hackers do what they do, I was born in this community, grew up with PC’s in my school, and even have kids that use them every day.  I’ve held several jobs that involve the virtual world, including some network security jobs (yeah, see the irony?!?).  But, I never get tired of hearing the same story from clients and friends that ask me the same question over and over; “Why do hackers to what they do?”

The best answer I give them is usually, “because they want to show the world that they can”.  So, I give you the chance that you didn’t give me…tell us your story.  Tell my friends, family, colleagues, and total strangers what drives you.  They’re dying to know about you.  You’ll soon see that I’m a pretty reasonable guy, and like that reasonable guy, I appeal to your sense of ego, bow to your skills, and “respect your authoritaay”.  I know the thrill of accomplishment, the feeling of victory, and the appeal of rubbing someones face in it, when they think little else of you.  But, don’t be shy, tell the world, I assure you, it will be a greater victory for you, and those that you mock will gain a better understanding of you.

If you really wish to tell your story, I’m willing to listen, and provide you an anonymous forum, from which you strive to stay in the shadows to work your magic.  Sound reasonable?  Care to comment? 

If you are one of my usual causal readers, comment below, and share your message with our friend.  Don’t be a hater, be a communicator!