2008 has seemed to just fly by. It seems like not too long ago I was on Himmershee Street with a bunch of my friends saying hello to 2008, and here we are already at the end of it. This year has been one of the bigger years of my life, mainly in the fact that I’ve finally landed a job that I extremely happy with, and can see myself at for a very, very long time.

What I figured to do here is list a few of my things from 2008 that I found memorable, and as well my favorite albums of 2008.

Favorite Movie: Obviously Dark Knight. Watched this again last night and its execution it pretty close to flawless, save a few corny lines in it. My favorite scene is where the joker is telling the story of how he got his scars from his dad. His tone and the situation are chilling.

Favorite Sports Event: Giants winning the Super Bowl, seriously, no one saw that coming.

Favorite Video Game: This is really hard for me to say, as most of my friends would automatically assume id say gears of war 2, but I just can’t. Metal Gear Solid 4 was just too great. The graphics are insane, story is awesome, and is just an all around excellent game, I hadn’t been that excited during a game since the first Gears of War.

Favorite guilty pleasure: Twitter. I think I may have an addiction.

Favorite Nerd Stuff ‘08: my iPhone 3G, .net MVC, Mint

Favorite Albums of ‘08

Blu and Mainframe - Johnson & Jonson

Blu is one of my favorite new MCs , and this new album with production by mainframe, is a certified banger from the beginning to end, some of the samples are super catchy, youll find yourself singing them out loud during work (I know ive done it)

Heltah Skeltah - D.I.R.T.

This might be my favorite album of 2008. Rock and Ruck are back, this time as Da Incredible Rap Team, and it doesn’t disappoint. Well , sean price doesn’t at least. I find lately that Rock just is filler for Sean P to take a break and destroy the beat. 09 is gonna be insane with P dropping an album with Ill Bill, and another one with Black Milk, and Guilty Simpson.

Guilty Simpson – Ode to the Ghetto

This album is dirty. I have to admit I slept on it for a good bit, but finally started to listen to it. The production is amazing, and guilty is nasty on the mic.

Killer Mike – Pledge Allegiance to the Grind 2

I was watiting for this one for a long time. To me, killer mike is super slept on, and he doesn’t put out enough music lately (due to label issues I believe). This album isn’t as hot as I’d hope, but it’s a great offering from the “King Kong of the South”

Nas – Untitled

I was worried about this album not being good, as with all his releases lately, they’ve been hit and miss, luckily enough, this one is a hit. Sly Fox is my joint off this.

Blue Sky Black Death – Slow Burning Lights/Late Night Cinema/Evil Jeanius

BSBD is a duo from San Francisco, and released 3 separate albums this year, I wasn’t even sure what song to put for them, so I put two on here, one from Lights, and one from Cinema. All of their beats are dope. I suggest checking all of them out.

Friday Night – Self Titled

I heard about this album from okayplayer and decided to get it just due to the fact that im really a music snob and figured I needed to check out more new groups. This album is definitely not for everyone, basically its 2 MCs doing a concept album about 2 coworkers and their journey on a Friday night. The electronica type beats are pretty fly. Check this out for sure.

Santogold – Self Titled

I know santogold isn’t new to some people, but like ive previously mentioned, im trying to listen to new things, and I was pleasantly surprised by this. Her voice is different, and I like it.

Yak ballz – Scifentology II

Amost forgot about this album, due to the fact that I thought it was released in 07, but luckily my boy yak reminded me that it wasn’t. Pretty solid offering with guest appearances by weathermen/CC brethren cage and tame one. The song I included is really ill, I love the beat, and the chorus is dope. Check this out.

And there you have it, Ill be back in a few days to post my new resolutions!

So here we go.

• New season for television is finally here, so far all the shows I’m digging are Fringe, and the Mentalist.  Haven’t had any time for any comedies, although my aunt tells me that worst week ever is pretty “effing funny”.  Might have to catch up on that online or something.  My faves that have returned seem to be in good form as well, Heroes,The Shield, House, Prison Break, and Terminator.

• New mixtape from The Hamiltization processhas dropped a few days ago.  Basically a newer MC named Charles Hamilton is coming out, guns a blazed you could say. I think this is really interesting in the fact that he is dropping all these mix-tapes for free just to get his name out, so far ive been pretty impressed, make sure you check it out.
• New issues on the linq/MVC front, mainly coming from needing to use a checkbox list using a many-to-many table, luckily found a nice article on how to alleviate this issue, here (this work was based off another blog, however i find this one a bit easier on the eyes, as well a little easier to comprehend)
• New crisis! Apparently gas is short, at least according to the people in Atlanta, where gas is almost impossible to find due to the hurricanes in the gulf.  Kind of weird that Atlanta is the ONLY city i think this is happening. (they’re also a red state, so who knows. yes that’s a diss)
• New nike zoom tremodeled after Marty McFly’s sneaks in Back to the Future II (do want, new ones not old) 

During lunch today we talked briefly on a topic that I found quite interesting, what is the best way to obtain information from a user without making it seem like they are divulging just information over and over?  Obviously this becomes a battle of two sides, the client (for us) and the user (the public). 

The client ideally gets as much information as possible with as little investment as possible.  The user, on the other hand, doesn’t want to just go through page after page of forms with little to no reward.

So wheres the middle ground? 

The client has to provide a site that has  to reward the user, all while doing it in a manner that will retrieve information from the user, with zero to little awareness of the knowledge transfer.

For me, one of the more basic examples of this is the achievement system for the xbox 360.  While it may or may not gather information that could enhance society, it does however show you how far a user is willing to go to get recognition for doing a simple or sometimes not so simple task (little rocket man anyone?).  Im wondering if game devs or at the least MS has the ability to sort all users by achievement, it’d be interesting to see which achievements are the hardest/easiest to get, in order to perhaps balance the next game coming out for a wide base of users.

This same achievement idea has been pushed onto http://stackoverflow.com where users get “badges” for interacting with other users, and the site as well.

I mentioned that users have to have little to no awareness of the transfer of knowledge but I do know that there are obvious contradictions to that (wikipedia, any open source project, etc etc)  but in my opinion the number of people who don’t contribute freely vastly out weighs the other. 

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, been real busy with work, life, and vader’s birthday (turned 4!).

I’m thinking about writing my own CheckboxList HtmlHelper because apparently we don’t really need one for MVC .net. So ill make sure to chronicle that adventure!

Stay tuned.

My friend rickey recently posted a question about music on his blog and instead of answering quickly on his blog I’ve been trying to give myself a little bit of time to think about what my answers are and its a really hard decision.  His question asks about what 3 pieces of music would you put on your portable mp3 player first (where you could argue a piece is a certain song, i think an album is acceptable as well).

1) A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders

The second album in the ATCQ discog, I find that this is THE definitive ATCQ album, ive been listenin to this album through and through since it came out in 1993 (Thanks Columbia House!)  This was one of the first albums i could listen to over and over without skipping a single track, pure unadulterated hiphop.

2) Outkast - ATLiens

Outkast’s sophomore album, when this bad boy came out in 96, i was in highschool in key west, and was the ONLY dude rocking it down there, on a walkman no less.

3) Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus

Best. Album. Ever. The entire album was what in my opinion sparked the underground hiphop shift, in other words, there was already an underground, this was the shot heard round the world that told major acts/labels “that’s it were through with you”.

After looking at that, it looks like i only listen to hiphop, but OH NO, not so.

My friend Mike put me onto Do Make Say Think , real dope music, kidna experimental rock, i guess, i dunno i hate labeling music sometimes.  I HAD some of their tracks on my muxtape, but apparently muxtape is fighting with the RIAA. Interesting.

While checking out okayplayer.com recently I came across the free mixtape by THEO entitled “The Birth”.  Pretty good, he has some potential, we’ll see where he goes.  Im super excited about all this new talent coming out recently.  Wale, kidz in the hall, theo, cool kidz, keep it coming.

Rest in Peace to Isaac Hayes. Here’s a mixtape highlighting some of his work mixed with hiphop that sampled it.

Lastly, here are some videos ive been checking out lately.

N.E.R.D. “Everyone Nose” (Remix) - Dope throwback look. Interesting Topic they’re talking about, are that many chicks doing blow in the bathrooms?

next up is Heltah Skeltah on DJ Green Lantern’s Mixtape show on sirius, watch the vid if you want then ill give you me opinion..

If you actually got through the whole thing without fast-forwarding through Rock’s part (the second dude rhyming) i salute you.  Back in the day i used to love Heltah Skeltah as a whole, but its CLEARLY evident that Sean Price has matured into a seriously sick MC and Rock has just sat around and let himself diminish.  They have an album coming out end of september, and while i’ll be picking it up, its only for Sean P’s verses.

Finally I have a video that you may or may not have seen, it’s an oldie but good, travis barker killin it on a Soulja Boy “Crank That” Remix.

I’ll probably update this with some audio clips tomorrow.

talk to you soon! comments are appreciated!

How old were you when you started programming?

I had my first experience with programming oddly enough when I was with the boy scouts, at summer camp in 93, so when I was 13 to get some kind of computer merit badge. Funny thinking back on it, I was at a summer camp, but I chose to be inside playing on a computer! It was only BASIC, but I caught onto it really quickly, and ended up doing things more advanced than what the class had called for.

How did you get started in programming?

I pretty much always enjoyed the thought of creating something on the computer, so I began to create AOL member homepages, with all sorts of clichéd animated gifs and fonts (Brooklyn kid anyone? It’s so hip-hop). While I was doing that at home, I was taking a computer class in high school in which used basic as well, and like summer camp, got my projects done quickly and ended up doing more than was required.

What was your first language?

As vie stated already, my first language was BASIC, but my real first language that I started to really do things with was C++, which I actually started with my first year at college (I had been doing HTML websites, but I don’t really consider that a programming language)

What was the first real program that you wrote?

I guess the first real one that I wrote, that actually could do something really functional was my final project for my C++ class, in which I had an input file of weather information for 5 years, and I had to sort it via user input for a variety of options, I’m pretty sure I was the only one in the class that got an A one it (brag brag), but it was a moment in my programming career that really gave me some confidence in what I was doing.

What languages have you used since you started programming?

I’ve used PHP for an e-commerce site for a friend, C/C++ for my first real programming job, C#, VB, VB.NET, and I’m now getting into Ruby on Rails.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?

I would’ve started earlier on learning patterns and practices. I think the best thing about being a developer is that you are always getting to work with new tools and practices, unlike marketing or something where it’s more or less the same thing all the time.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know something or how to do something. When you’re new, you have to know that you don’t know everything, and not be afraid to ask an older person. There were numerous times at my jobs where I spent way too much time trying to figure something out, finally asking a coworker on how to approach an issue, and learning something new that almost immediately solved the problem. The best thing I experienced was that through these discussions with co-workers we’d talk about even more things programming related, therefore learning even more.

THE ACTS (in order of appearance):

• B.o.B - Some group from atlanta, didn’t like them at all. Luckily i was just getting in, so i didnt catch much of them
• Murs - Murs is a dope MC from LA, who’s had hits on the definitive jux laebl, as well as a new album Murs For President coming out in september.  He put on a pretty sick show, and even for being in an early slot, he rocked it pretty good.  He also mentioned that he has a FREE mixtape out, I downloaded it yesterday and it’s pretty solid.
• Immortal Technique - A political MC from NY, i’ve never been a fan of his, and this didnt change my opinion.  I dont know, he just tries to be too hard.  He did however tell fans that he was walking off stage and through the crowd to the merch booth, which he did, no security.
• Wale - New guy coming from Washington, D.C. you might have heard him on The Roots new album.  Pretty good stage show overall, especially since no one really seemed to care to listen to the guy, will definately keep my eyes on this new up and coming young MC.  He also released a FREE mixtape, check it out.
• Dead Prez - Good group from tallahassee, hit it big with “Bigger Than Hiphop”, then had a few more mixtapes come out, and a new album dropping soon, kinda good, kinda blah.
• De La Soul - I was really looking forward to their set, and they didnt disappoint, they went through most of thier hit songs, and a lot of their underground hits.  The best part was when they brought out dres from Black Sheep and dide some Black Sheep songs. Hotness.
• Raekwon and Ghostface - KILLED IT. I’ve always wanted to see Wu together, but mainly so i could see these two MCs perform.  They did a medley of their songs going back and forth, and even playing some of the new songs off Raekwons Only Built For Cuban Linx 2 (which were pure fire.)
• Mos Def - Blew. Highly disappointing. Hardly did any of the hot shit he’s known for (umi says, ms fatbooty).  He did however close with travelin’ man (possibly one of his best songs ever).  He did complain about the heat every 5 seconds though. WE KNOW ITS HOT, ITS MIAMI IN THE SUMMER.
• The Pharcyde - Did a really good set, however I honestly havent really listened to their music through the years, so I enjoyed the set, probably not as most as others in the crowd.
• Method Man and Redman - Probably the most live group/set of the day, they really know crowd control, and how to keep it going.  Once again they went along with the medley approach, playing their best solo stuff, as well as hits of their blackout! album.  One cool thing was that they got the “king of miami” noreaga out to perform a song.
• Nas - Finally got to nas. Started off with hiphop is dead, then went through his albums hits chronologically, and played a good bit off his new album too.  The only thing i didnt like was how much crowd participation he was trying to get.  I think he was winded and just didnt want to rap, but who knows.
• QTip,A Tribe Called Quest - So they said ATCQ was the headliner, but then right before they are supposed to come on, the announcer (Q-Tip) is all “Q Tip is gonna play some solo stuff, then we’ll bring tribe out” so i peaced out on that.  Seen ATCQ before, wasnt gonna stand for getting bamboozled like that.

All in all, it was the first full hiphop show i’ve been to in a good 5-6 years, and was quite refreshing to get back into the mix.  Definitely not going to wait that long again before going to another one.

Below is a link to the pics i took.  Im no photographer, so they’re not that great, but feel free to look at em.

Rock The Bells 08

Sorry for all the non-professional/business like posts, but this week has been a lot of fun!  Back on track this week!

http://imjameshall.muxtape.com

Comments are appreciated.

Most of my coworkers have been doing their development with Ruby on macs, and have told me how much of a breeze it is(mainly due to it coming installed already).  I finally got everything installed and decided to use the RadRails plug-in for eclipse for my IDE.  I began to work through Agile Web Development with Rails and got through the first 5 chapters with no problems, only to find out that I’m working with the 1st edition, which doesn’t cover Rails 2.0, so I decided to stop until later(tomorrow).  My initial reaction however is: WOW. I’ve missed out.  Never again will i let my Microsoft fan-boyism take precedence to advancing my knowledge/skills.

The more that I keep working with MVC.net, the more i begin to work with having all of my code in one location.  In my previous job I had worked with the code behind pages for my server side code, i was pretty adamant about keeping the two separate.  As I was reading Jeff Atwood’s post about Tag Soup, I couldn’t help but be in total agreement with what he was discussing. 

It’s very easy to get super lazy and just let your code get very sloppy, especially having up to three different types of tags together (JScript, Html,and Server Side).  I will admit that I am very new at working with all of my code in one location, so I’ve noticed that some of my pages are indeed a nice helping of tag soup.  Luckily, however, Rob Conery has posted a retort to Jeff’s post, in which it goes into good detail on how to clean up Tag Soup with MVC.NET, definately a good read for everyone working with, or hoping to work with the new framework.

A great thing about my job is that we always strive to work with the most current frameworks and components.  Ive been getting to use linq and its Linq-To-SQL DAL and I have to say im pretty impressed with it, it has made me respsect IEnumerable and Collections a LOT more now that I get to use them more now.  Even if your project or work isnt using it, i highly recommend it.

On to some non-work related Items, one of my favorite brands, Mishka has begun to implement a “custom” clothing editor ala NikeID (which is FAR better executed).

While I see what they’re doing, going for the one shirt a month limited edition type thing, I still think it’s kind of all hype.  Plus I’ve never been a fan of the death adder line.

That’s all for today, I’m gonna update again this week with some new hiphop albums i’ve gotten lately, so stay tuned for that, as usual, comments are appreciated, and if you wanna trade links, hit me up at james [AT] agencynet [DOT] com.

Anyways, this is a quick post, as I’m getting tired but wanted to mention that I’m working with .NET’s new MVC framework, and it’s pretty exciting stuff for me, mainly due to me not using the MVC pattern before, and from what Ive been doing so far, I’m really sad that I’m only just now hearing about/working with it.  I am somewhat concerned that we are still working with a preview build that we may getting bitten by major changes from now to release, but I think it’s definitely worth the risk.

I’m going to attempt to install Rails,Ruby and a working IDE on my Vista Laptop this weekend so that I can start learning that language, I’m going to document everything I go through and post about it on Sunday or so, I expect a frustrating, yet fun experience with that.

Also make sure to check out my friend Ben’s blog, its recently redesigned and really dope, designed by another co-worker Chris.

• Programming principles, issues i face, and opinions
• Videogaming,Videogames, and the Videogame industry
• Music, mostly of the hiphop nature
• Fashion (rarely)

Im hoping to change the image above, i was going to attempt something tonight, but couldnt really find the images i was looking for, then pretty much figured it’d look like complete garbage, so i stopped.

I’m going to try and keep things going around here so feel free to comment on whatever and i hope you enjoy your time here!