LeRoi Moore 1961-2008

RIP LeRoi Moore

We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. [read more]

Wow, I didn’t even know he had been in an accident. So sad. I loved the sound of the sax in the DMB. I don’t listen too much to DMB anymore but it’s great nonetheless. I guess DMB played that same day he passed away. During the concert LeRoi was mentioned.

“We all had some bad news today,” Matthews told the sell-out crowd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles after the first song. “Our good friend LeRoi Moore passed on and gave his ghost up today and we will miss him forever.” Fans shouted Moore’s name in tribute as the band resumed playing. Two songs later, Matthews once again made reference to Moore, saying: “It’s easier to leave than be left.” [read more]

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Very interesting! Compared with McCain I see Obama being much more tech savvy and realizing the importance of technology. Now, I don’t think a president has to be a tech nerd to have a good stance on technology – he can hire people to do this – however, if you don’t understand and believe the importance of it I think it’s hard to prioritize it. I was surprised to see Obama on Twitter. I just looked up John McCain on Twitter and there are a few accounts about him but I do not believe any officially run by him. I thought the notification by email and/or text message was a clever idea.

Of course Obama’s embracing and understanding of technology relates more towards the younger crowd, but did he already have much of the younger crowd? I wonder how much his “web presence” is helping him out. I think having a web presence (whether it’s political, musical or just wanting to get your name out there) is highly underestimated. Maybe it’s just because I’m a computer geek and I’m online all the time but I really believe embracing the Internet and technology can have some huge advantages. Sort of getting off-topic here–but sort of like musicians trying to fight the Internet and the whole copyright issue. If they spent the same amount of time they do on lawsuits and legal stuff than they do on using the Internet I think it would have a much more positive impact. In college (a year ago) I did a paper on the Internet and it’s impact on the music industry. There was a lot of research on the positives but there was no real hard, cold facts. Well, I officially got off-topic! Follow Obama’s Twitters if you’re interested. Don’t know what Twitter is? You’re living under a rock, so check Twitter out!

“Elgg is an open, flexible social application engine, designed to run at the heart of any socially-aware application. Building on Elgg is easy, and because the engine handles common web application and social functionality for you, you can concentrate on developing your idea.”

I’ve been testing out Elgg 1.0 for a couple of weeks now and it looks great so far. I never used the classic version of Elgg but from what I understand Elgg 1.0 is a big, big update.

Every day they are updating and adding new features, changing the look and working out bugs. The release date for Elgg 1.0 is August 18th, 2008. Today they posted a blog asking for more users to help test the product.

The reason why I have a big interest in Elgg 1.0 is because I work in a school district with technology and we are looking at Elgg 1.0 as a possibility as a staff intranet.

I highly suggest checking this product out even if you pass up the opportunity to test it out. Elgg has already made a huge impact in the education world (and will continue to) but now they are trying to emphasize the use in the business world.

The Fischbowl made a recent blog post about a slideshow by Jeff Brenman called “Thirst“.

It’s a slideshow similar to his slideshare version of “Did You Know?” (originally from The Fischbowl). Just like that version it gives the audience some startling facts that you probably never knew were true. Some facts are very alarming and make you think and say “wow, really? interesting!”

Take a look at this slideshare and learn about the importance of conserving water and the future of water. There is a lot of focus on oil and using alternative energys but you don’t hear much about water conservation.

The slideshow is also a good example of using images to get your point across instead of using a lot of text.