Catchy electro-pop song of the moment

As I’ve written previously, I’m quite the connoisseur of Ukraine’s broadcast music video channel, M1. Most of the music is just god-awful packaged Ukrainian pop music, but I appreciate the fact that Ukrainians have access to a broadcast music station that still mostly plays music videos–unlike other well known music channels.

In addition, the M1 rotation has its fair share of foreign music, as well. Most of it is Justin Timberlake, Beyonce or, unsurprisingly, Lady Gaga. But I have come across a few catchy electro-pop songs that I have had brief, intense infatuations with. Mostly because of the videos. Probably the first one was a song called “Let me think about it,” which was/is huge in Ukraine. Then there was MGMT’s “Electric Feel” last summer. After that a song called “Merrymaking at my place” by a guy name Calvin Harris.

And without further adieu, I present the lastest M1 song and video that I’m bound to listen to way too many times, get sick of, and never listen to again…

Picasa 3

Because I don’t have Internet access in my apartment and wifi is a rare commodity in my city, I haven’t had nearly as many opportunities to mess around with new software innovations. In 2008, my PC was connected to the Internet maybe three times.

So, obviously, when I was home in December, I ended up spending a fair amount of time updating various programs and looking into new ones. Because I desperately needed a good photo organizing program, I downloaded Google’s Picasa 3 photo organizer/viewer/editor.

After messing around with it for a few months, I’m ready to extol yet another Google product. It’s far faster, user-friendly, and powerful than any other program of its type I’ve ever encountered. I’ve virtually stopped using Fireworks 8 (my previous default photo editor), as so many of the things I was using it for—horizon straightening, cropping, and brightening dark photos—are about 1000% easier in Picasa, not to mention better looking. The horizon straightening, fill light, and export tools by themselves make the program worth downloading. In addition, it integrates well with other programs, and publishing content to the Internet appears to be extremely well organized. I haven’t started using the web albums yet, as I still have limited access to the Internet with my PC, but I intend to use this feature heavily when I’m back in an Internet-rich environment. Regardless, there is no extra fee for multiple albums and other features, things that have kept me from using Flikr.

I’ve also began to relax my personal prohibition of altering photos I’ve taken. Other than correcting horizons and lightening dark photos, I’ve resisted altering pictures in any way. However, because all changes made through Picasa are reversible and don’t necessarily alter the original image, I’ve been far more willing to experiment. As a result, I’ve been able to substantially improve otherwise imperfect photos. For example, this slightly overexposed photo from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp…

…becomes this more evocative image:

After familiarizing myself with the various tools in Picasa, it took me all of 5 minutes to alter this photo. Like I said, powerful. And insanely easy to use. If Picasa 3 were a car, it would drive itself. I can’t wait for Google to turn out some music library software.

Elements used to modify this picture:

• “Tint” (white=base color) with generous “color preservation” for hand-colored photo look
• “Graduated tint” to compensate for overexposed sky
• “Fill light” to brighten underexposed areas

Consumer electronic reviews

Usually when I get a fancy new gadget, I hesitate to post any sort of review on amazon.com/c-net/whatever. I tell myself I’ll do it after a few months, when the thing is good and tested. Basically I’m afraid of the device breaking right after I post that glowing review. But, predictably, I never get around to giving my opinion for potential consumers to read. With this post, I’ll try to make up for it. Even if some of these items are quite outdated and/or difficult to buy…