Steve Hill
I’m optimistic, and I’m really looking forward to World of Concrete in June…
Originally published by DK on January 11, 2021 at 12:42 pmI’m optimistic, and I’m really looking forward to World of Concrete in June…
Originally published by DK on January 11, 2021 at 12:42 pmFor most of my life, I’ve been a music hoarder. Visiting record stores all over the world, I’ve collected rare (and not so rare) records, tapes and CDs from a core group of artists that I like. I did vinyl the first time around, made mix tapes on cassette, fell in love with the “pure” sound of CDs and have spent countless hours ripping CDs to MP3/AAC files to be synched with laptops, iMacs, iPods and iPhones. Things I’ve never done: Napster, the resurgence of vinyl and streaming services. A week ago, I decided to do something about that last one.
My daughters are probably thinking “about damn time, old guy.” They are both big fans of Spotify and each gave me a few tutorials on how they use that service and what they like about it. It seems to me that the real competition in this space right now is between Spotify and Apple Music, so I decided to look at that option too. They both have family plans available for about $15 per month, so I signed up to try Apple Music first. They are different in some ways, but similar in most of the important areas. Apple Music probably gets the initial nod from me, just because I am so invested in the Apple ecosystem.
What do I like so far? I finally understand how the integration works with my current library, so it’s cool to have my existing files available in the cloud to be played across all devices automatically. I like the curated artist stations and themed playlists (even if they seem to be somewhat repetitive) and it’s nice to have real radio station feeds integrated again (hello, KROQ). I love that you can download up to 100,000 files locally, as I don’t always have a reliable network connection. It’s great to be able to just listen to things by anybody instantly, without having to risk money buying something you end up not liking (or only need to listen to once).
What are the bad things? The $180 I’ll pay annually to Apple is money I probably would’ve spent at places like the Electric Fetus. According to Jimmy Page, questions abound regarding the fairness of streaming royalty payments to artists and writers. I don’t like the general concept that I’m renting access to these songs and don’t really own them. I don’t have to worry about Apple going out of business any time soon (cough, cough, Zune), but once you start down this road, you are locked in to pay or your stuff goes away. And you can also have the Netflix issue of artists deciding to pull their stuff at any time.
Right now, though, Apple Music seems to be a nice middle road for me. I get the benefits of streaming services, but can still buy things the old way whenever I want. The price isn’t unreasonable and there is still a lot of functionality for me to learn (profiles, interacting with friends and family, music discovery, MusicKit, Apple Music APIs). Strangely, scrobbling via Last.fm only seems to work with the old files in my library, so it would nice to figure out how to integrate between this site and my Apple Music profile.
Originally published by DK on January 1, 2021 at 11:23 pmhttps://www.startribune.com/from-play-ball-to-play-bally-s-sinclair-betting-on-legal-gambling-to-boost-viewership/573452881/
Originally published by DK on December 22, 2020 at 11:03 amThere will be wine too
Originally published by DK on December 9, 2020 at 2:59 pmOriginally published by DK on November 25, 2020 at 4:39 pmClark County Takes $11.6 Million From Reserves to Meet Raiders Stadium Payment
Is he related to Mr. Sparkle?
Originally published by DK on October 19, 2020 at 1:02 pmhttps://www.theverge.com/21507966/foxconn-empty-factories-wisconsin-jobs-loophole-trump
Originally published by DK on October 19, 2020 at 11:32 amI love life on the big river
Originally published by DK on October 14, 2020 at 2:22 pmIt’s exhausting reading about the issues of 2020, but there is one topic I can’t stop thinking about. What will be the long-term impact on the economy if people change their thinking (and spending) on what’s really important to them? On one hand, I feel like there will be a lot of pent-up demand for things like travel. On the other hand, how many industries will find demand drop-off for good? My own personal spending priorities have shifted quite a bit during the pandemic (out of necessity), but I can easily picture some of these changes being permanent…
Originally published by DK on August 31, 2020 at 7:43 pmPros: Comped soup, and lift tickets. Cons: They got rid of the soup
Originally published by DK on August 19, 2020 at 8:01 pmThe SSD drive upgrades do help
Originally published by DK on August 19, 2020 at 1:35 pmI forgot that was one of my first ever projects – NWA Newswire, February 11, 1992
Originally published by DK on August 15, 2020 at 8:47 pmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_OfficeVision
Originally published by DK on August 15, 2020 at 8:23 pmHighland Bridge construction site
Originally published by DK on August 10, 2020 at 5:10 pmOriginally published by DK on July 14, 2020 at 5:09 pm
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-blackbird-restaurant-closing-chicago-20200629-wd6vrgjm4ffejdlahihvauzhji-story.html
Originally published by DK on June 30, 2020 at 10:07 pmWhen I first heard that the company behind Basecamp was going to release a new email product, I was skeptical. Many others have tried to improve on the pitfalls of email, but nothing has really stood out. I’ve gone through several phases of email management, both personally and professionally. Running your own email server is not for the faint of heart, but I very briefly tried to do that with a mix of Exim, Postfix and a few other tools that tried to deal with the huge amount of junk mail on the internet.
For my personal email, I got in early enough with Google that I get to use their current G Suite service for free. On the work side, one of the first decisions I made in my current job was to move to Office 365 (now Microsoft 365) instead of having an on-site Exchange server. So right now I use the Apple Mail clients for my 7minutemiles.com account and the Mac Outlook clients for work (I like to keep them separate and use both iOS and macOS apps). Spam prevention could be better (especially on the Microsoft side), but I’m mostly OK with my current setup and routine.
I’ve been a fan of Basecamp CTO (and Ruby on Rails creator) David Heinemeier Hansson for quite a while. I agree with a lot of his business philosophies (“It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work”) and he is usually a good follow on Twitter (just avoid the weeks when he is feuding with Apple). When DHH announced that they were doing a new email thing called Hey, I sent in a request to be one of the early adopters. When my invite code came last week, I grabbed kingsbury@hey.com and started to kick the tires.
Things were kinda hard to test out until I auto-forwarded my 7minutemiles.com traffic to this new account (custom domains are not yet supported). The video I watched from Basecamp CEO Jason Fried got me pretty excited about the features, so I was starting to think this might be worth $99 a year. They give you a free 14 day trial to test things out and here I sit with seven days left, an “Imbox” full of sample messages and a growing sense that this is not really for me. So, what are my main issues with Hey?
This would really only be worth $99 to me if I could move over my domain name, which they say is coming soon. Do I roll the dice and subscribe next week (both in anticipation of that feature and to keep the vanity address)? Most signs point to no – Google doesn’t charge me anything now and I’m mostly happy with how I manage email overall. I will keep messing with Hey until the trial expires, though. Who knows, maybe things will click in another day or two?
Originally published by DK on June 22, 2020 at 10:12 pmWelcome back Steve (and crew)
Originally published by DK on June 18, 2020 at 8:04 pmI hope this one is for real – lunch plans for sure
Originally published by DK on June 16, 2020 at 10:09 pmVirtual Cisco Live! 2020
Originally published by DK on June 16, 2020 at 11:09 amhttps://magazine.golfcourseindustry.com/article/june-2020/rethinking-golf-carts.aspx
Originally published by DK on June 13, 2020 at 6:41 pmSupport your local restaurants
Originally published by DK on June 3, 2020 at 7:43 pmEric at James Irving Grooming, Uptown Minneapolis
Originally published by DK on June 2, 2020 at 6:04 pmLong lines today at the grocery store (but thankful they were open)
Originally published by DK on May 31, 2020 at 12:30 amCanadian Pacific train crossing the Mississippi in Saint Paul
Originally published by DK on May 23, 2020 at 7:15 pmI’ve waited almost a week to write this post, as my initial shock turned to anger, and it’s never a good idea to write when you are angry. On April 30, 2020, co-owner Eric Dayton tweeted that our favorite Minneapolis restaurant and bar would not reopen.
How could this be? If anyone should have the resources to weather this storm, you’d think it would the Dayton family. They owned the building. Their mother is a Rockefeller, for crying out loud. They are fighters for the North, do-gooders trying to feed the hungry and solid fundraisers and organizers. How could they throw in the towel so early?
I’ve never met Eric Dayton, but by all accounts, he’s a good guy and outsiders never know the private facts and details behind public decisions. I’ll even cut him some slack for hating skyways. To be honest, though, I was mad at him for this decision, mad for taking away the place my wife and I visited more than a dozen times, mad for taking away our Cocktail Club destination, mad for quitting while others battle on.
Of course, life changes even in “normal” times. When my favorite bartender of all time, Pip Hanson, left in 2015 for London, we were sad. When Chef Paul Berglund left in August of 2017 (a year after winning the James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest), we were sad. When Erin Rolek left in August of 2019 for the beautiful shores of Santa Monica, we were sad. Happy for all of them, but sad they were no longer in that special building in the North Loop.
Now we are sad for the current groups of stars who carried on the tradition. Jonathan Gans started in November of 2018 and re-earned the four star review from Rick Nelson. The Forager Chef Alan Bergo had joined the kitchen. Monday pork chop night was as good as ever.
Now we mourn the loss of the toast racks, the Swedish meatballs, the popovers, the wine board, the red books, the individually-wrapped cookies, the purple door, the “secret” staircase. Gavin Kaysen had some wonderful comments on his Instagram, Erin had an inspiring series of pictures on her Instagram story (that are now sadly gone) and Chef Jonathan is asking for financial support of his team via GoFundMe (done, Chef).
I’m sure this won’t be last of these stories before all this is over, but very few will hit us as hard as this one did. Maybe a road trip to Rochester will help a little…
❤️TBF
Originally published by DK on May 5, 2020 at 11:00 pmI’ll take any kind of home opener at this point
Originally published by DK on April 28, 2020 at 4:35 pmhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/03/the-woman-shaking-up-the-diamond-industry
Originally published by DK on April 19, 2020 at 9:57 amNo hockey, no fancy French food, no live music
Originally published by DK on April 6, 2020 at 7:29 pmAlways hustlin’
Originally published by DK on April 5, 2020 at 11:56 amhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/eveturowpaul/2020/03/22/how-restaurants-innovating-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Originally published by DK on March 24, 2020 at 9:31 pmMan, I hope the Stones still get to play
Originally published by DK on March 16, 2020 at 7:29 pmColleen in the Allina command center
Originally published by DK on March 15, 2020 at 3:59 pmLive at five with Nive…
Originally published by DK on March 15, 2020 at 1:50 pmBut what about Saint Paul?
Originally published by DK on February 25, 2020 at 12:20 pmHow did I get on that list?
Originally published by DK on February 13, 2020 at 1:04 pmGift card sale ends today
Originally published by DK on December 22, 2019 at 2:56 pmEverybody is in your way, but it would be cool once or twice
Originally published by DK on December 18, 2019 at 2:31 pmhttps://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8546537/brooklyn-bowl-nashville-venue-expansion
Originally published by DK on December 17, 2019 at 10:27 amhttps://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21020885/foxconn-wisconsin-deal-renegotiate-tax-subsidy-lcd-factory-plant
Originally published by DK on December 13, 2019 at 2:50 pmHadn’t heard of Clover, but Apple Pay worked well
Originally published by DK on December 12, 2019 at 7:58 pmThanks for the memories, Mortenson
Originally published by DK on November 30, 2019 at 5:35 pmhttp://m.startribune.com/who-s-running-the-show-women-promoters-dominate-twin-cities-concert-scene/565605112/
Originally published by DK on November 30, 2019 at 3:43 pmMarketing geniuses, I tells ya
Originally published by DK on November 21, 2019 at 11:07 amMood.
Originally published by DK on November 19, 2019 at 2:23 pmComputers are so last year
Originally published by DK on October 24, 2019 at 12:38 pmThank you Target Center (and Shelly)
Originally published by DK on October 4, 2019 at 4:37 pmWhy isn’t this just permanent?
Originally published by DK on August 8, 2019 at 4:06 pmAre the stories about rats really true?
Originally published by DK on July 23, 2019 at 11:36 amI remember the old NSP bills (green envelopes too, I think)
Originally published by DK on July 13, 2019 at 1:59 pmPractically neighbors
Originally published by DK on July 9, 2019 at 4:35 pmhttps://mentalfloss.com/article/578591/best-record-stores-in-america
Originally published by DK on June 20, 2019 at 10:00 amDon’t know how I’ve missed it all this years
Originally published by DK on June 15, 2019 at 9:50 amhttp://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/26740441/one-year-legal-us-sports-betting-learned
Originally published by DK on May 14, 2019 at 4:40 pmThere’s nobody that’s trying to kick the crap out of Philly cream cheese…
Originally published by DK on March 14, 2019 at 8:13 amhttps://www.enr.com/articles/46430-hard-rock-hotel-builders-deliver-a-rock-and-roll-icon
Originally published by DK on March 8, 2019 at 2:48 pmhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/03/04/there-are-more-bills-circulation-than-bills-it-makes-no-cents/?utm_term=.94e5e66b55a6
Originally published by DK on March 5, 2019 at 12:40 pmhttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/
Originally published by DK on February 25, 2019 at 2:51 pmOriginally published by DK on February 22, 2019 at 10:25 am
The little ones on the concourse were pretty nice, eh?
Originally published by DK on January 31, 2019 at 1:42 pmSome interesting numbers about our big game last year:
With the legal landscape changing this year, things should be way crazier for Rams-Patriots. I love that the Westgate SuperBook has 442 different prop bets for SBLIII. I mean, how do you even come up with a spread for Phil Mickelson fourth-round bogeys at the Phoenix Open versus Josh Reynolds receptions?
h/t to Marc Meltzer (and good luck to my tech friends in Atlanta)
Originally published by DK on January 28, 2019 at 2:03 pmOriginally published by DK on January 18, 2019 at 8:29 am
While millennials have dominated headlines in recent years, baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) have continued to dominate consumer spending in the U.S. In fact, consumers over 50 now account for more than half of all U.S. spending…
Originally published by DK on December 17, 2018 at 3:37 pmhttps://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/touring/8488873/the-year-in-touring-charts-ed-sheeran-claims-2018s-top-tour-taylor
Originally published by DK on December 5, 2018 at 8:39 pmThe $300 Lyft credit and 11-month Metro Go-To card would be awesome…
Originally published by DK on September 26, 2018 at 10:59 amStill wish they would’ve blown it up
Originally published by DK on September 13, 2018 at 12:34 pmI don’t think your camera rental business will rent many cameras when you require a $4K deposit
Originally published by DK on September 10, 2018 at 12:25 pm