10 Things You Wish You Could Tell Your Boss

What with pay freezes, the threat of lay offs and the ever-present sense that there’s a mile-long line of unemployed workers itching to do your job, the recent economic turmoil hasn’t been great from employee-manager relations. Even in offices where the lines of communication are open and employees work along in relative good cheer, some tension simmers away beneath the surface. So what do employees wish they could tell their bosses, but rarely do? Fast Company blogger Roberta Matuson rounds up ten: [read]

Top 10 must-install software Gems [Mac]

Choose only ten Mac Gems? Are you kidding? As Macworld’s resident Gem-meister, I not only test every Mac Gem, but I also end up using many of them regularly, so choosing a list of ten must-haves is an excruciatingly difficult task. (The last time I tried to come up with a list of “Gems I’m thankful for,” I ended up with two articles covering 31 products!) But if I’m forced to choose the First Ten Gems I’d Install On A Desert Island—or however you want to phrase this cruel hypothetical—here’s my current list [Editor's note: Yes, Dan was forced by his editor to stick to ten Gems.]: [read]

Checking drum tracks for phase issues

When working with a multi-miked drumkit recording you need to be aware of phase issues and how to correct them.

Recognizing the phase issues will take some practice but if you go step by step you should have no problems.

Before doing any processing or even setting levels, go through one mic at a time and check the polarity.
What you’re listening for is improved punch and low end. [read]

5 Social Media Trends Artists/Musicians Need To Understand

For musicians, proper marketing and networking using social media can be tough. The possibilities are seemingly endless and as such, musicians are likely to spread themselves too thin. But not all forms of social media will give you the big pay-off. In fact, some methods are a complete waste of time for musicians looking to grow their fanbase, sell more albums, tracks and tickets, and who are ultimately achieve enough success to sustain a viable career within the industry.

It is very important for musicians not to get caught up in the semantics of every new thing, yet is just as crucial to follow and understand the current trends of social media so that their efforts are not in the wrong place. Why is it important to follow the trends? Simply put, the bigger the trend, the more likely it will be that you see quicker and more significant advancements within. [read]

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Shameless plug – “If you need help with your social media needs, give me a holler” 3 Penguins Design

How to Tell When You’ve Ignored Your Marketing Strategy

If you already suspect that you’re not doing enough marketing, then chances are you’re right.

Doing the right of marketing should feel like you’re doing too much.  It’s a lot like applying make-up when you’re about to appear on television.  When you look at yourself in real life, it looks over-exaggerated.  But when you appear on TV – you look natural.  Your marketing strategy runs the same way.

Here are a few real-life hints that you aren’t exaggerating enough when it comes to marketing: [read]

Sound waves could someday cool down your refrigerator

Refrigerators are the source of much joy in the world, and the fridge is made possible by continually-cycled, selectively-pressurized gas. But someday, sound waves may replace this system in your fridge.

In your modern refrigerator, the gas (called a refrigerant) starts its journey outside the fridge, where it is pumped through a series of coils which compress it. The compression heats it up, and it bleeds heat into the air around it. After it has shaken off enough heat, and is still under a great deal of pressure, it condenses into a liquid.

The liquid refrigerant is then passed through a valve which allows the liquid, a bit at a time, to move from a very high pressure chamber to a very low pressure one. The refrigerant goes from liquid to gas, and the gas expands rapidly. [read]

Album Sales Hit Record Lows. Again.

The month of August — like, basically, every month for the past 10 years — has not been kind to the music industry.

Between August 8th and 14th, only 4.95 million albums were sold, the lowest weekly level since Neilsen Soundscan starting tracking sales in 1991. This past week, sales were up, but just barely: just over 5 million albums were sold, an increase of only 2 percent from the record low.

As you can see from the chart above, album sales have been on a steady decline since their peak in 2000. Digital album sales are growing, but not fast enough to make up the decline in sales of CDs. [read]

Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license

It looks like cash hungry local governments are getting awfully rapacious these days:

Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To [Marilyn] Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

The Largest Cause of Your Insecurity

I used to live my whole life without a clear sense of direction.

Everything was being paid for by my parents. The threat of getting murdered or ending up homeless couldn’t put a dent in the confidence that my mother and father would always be there to protect me. I was happy and carefree.

I assumed that in the end we’d all remain together as one happy family.

Then in a blink of an eye, everything changed. My parents separated and divorce proceedings were underway. It shattered the rosy image of my future. [read]

5 Reasons Why Facebook Places Won’t Succeed

Perhaps you have heard of Facebook Places.  If not, your one sentence summary is this: Facebook has introduced a new service that will allow users to “check in” to places and share their location with their friends.

The majority of speculation from those watching this roll out is that it is going to destroy other location based services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrll, Loopt, etc.  I don’t think it will, and I’ll give you five reason why I think this.

First, let’s start with one reason, and one reason only,that Facebook Places might succeed: they have a user base of over 500 million.  The sheer volume of that might let it see life into 2011. [read]