Does anyone know what happened to the PDF Band Music Library?

I hope it is only a temporary issue, but this evening I was trying to locate the PDF Band Music Library (www.pdfbandmusic.org), and it is not loading.

Does anyone know what happened to the site? Did it close because of a lack of funding? Is this related to some of the recent actions that shut down “sharing” sites?

Did a publisher find a work under copyright and request the whole site to be shut down like IMSLP?

Or did the site just change hosts and is in that period where it won’t appear until all the net servers are updated?

If you know can you please send me an e-mail?

UPDATE:

I just received an e-mail (Thanks, Rich!) that mentioned that the site was hacked and that they are working on getting the site back up as soon as possible.

This happens to be one of those rare situations where searching Google (i.e. beyond a single search) didn’t turn up any information on why the website was down. Even a Twitter search for “PDF Band Music Library” (and some derivatives) resulted in finding my own post!

I’ll try to remember to update this post when the PDF Band Music Library website is back up again.

 

27,000 Google ChromeBooks to Schools

 Daring Fireball’s John Gruber linked to this article, which discusses the implementation of Google ChromeBooks in schools.  The selling points of ChromeBooks remain the same:

• 8-second startup times
• 8.5-hour battery life
• Self-updates
• Easy to manage on a network

Ironically, the article actually lavished the most praise on tablets (not specifically on the iPad).

But here’s the item for me: The ChromeBook is generally useless for music education.  You should be able to use some web-based music games, musictheory.net (whose developer now writes iOS apps), and perhaps even NoteFlight.  But let’s be honest…are you going to be able to use these devices daily in Band? Choir?  Orchestra?  General music?  Can they become part of your daily music curriculum?  Probably not.

So from a standpoint of a music educator, I have to say “Boo” to the adoption of ChromeBooks.  They may be useful for web research and Google Docs.  Unfortunately, those tools don’t impact our subject matter on a daily basis–and in fact, they might not impact a numbers of subjects.  Are all textbooks web-based and thus accessible on the ChromeBook?  What about its uses in other subjects like Art, Business (Programming?), or Math?

I’d just like ChromeBook adopters to be honest and say that a school of ChromeBooks sends a message that technology is for specific subjects or kinds of projects.   What really matters in a ChromeBook school is the ability to access the web and to write papers and make presentations, with a physical keyboard.  It doesn’t matter if the devices are adaptable for multiple subject areas.

iPads aren’t perfect.  So far, there are less than a dozen new interactive textbooks in the iBook Store.  If you want to type on a physical keyboard, you need to buy one.  There are over 170,000 iPad apps, some of which are ideal for education.  But some apps aren’t great, and others are lacking features.  Even so, the iPad gives a new level of flexibility to more subjects, rather than to simply be used for searching the web and putting projects together.  So unless you’re looking at the bottom line of cost, isn’t the iPad the better fit for education?  Or is it possible that I’m such a “fanboi” of Apple products that I can’t appreciate what the ChromeBook brings to the table?

 

A Nest in our home

 This isn’t a music education post…it’s a post about a new product, called the Nest.  It’s a wi-fi enabled thermostat that learns your preferences  It’s also customizable.  It’s a $250 purchase, but it will pay itself back in energy savings over time.  It was designed by the father of the iPod, Tony Fadell.

Some tech bloggers have complained about the set-up of the Nest (a “C” connection is typically required, but not connected on all heating systems), but I had tried to install a 3M50 wireless thermostat last summer to no avail.  I tried three different 3M50s, and all failed to connect to the Internet reliably.  I ended up returning that thermostat and getting my $125 back.  I’m glad I did.  At twice the cost, the Nest is 100 times better than the 3M50.

The Nest was well labeled, came with all the accessories I needed (including a multi-purpose screwdriver), and connected in minutes.  The biggest potential issue would be people living in a home without a “C” wire (a “C” wire provides power to the thermostat) and thus might need to pay a specialist to run that wire.  At the same time, most thermostat wiring includes extra wires for situations like these.

The hardest part of the setup was using the click wheel (remember that the designer of this device invented the iPod) to enter my wireless router’s information into the device.  The device then connected to the Internet, downloaded an update, and has been good to go since.  Turning the thermostat up or down is as simple as rotating the clickwheel left or right.  It also has a motion sensor, and if the thermostat senses no motion in your house, it takes your house into energy saving mode (at the temperature you choose).  If you walk past the thermostat, it lights up, and if it saved you energy, it lets you know with a message.  It also indicates if it is heating (glowing orange), cooling (blue), or at temperature black)

The theromstat also comes with iOS and Android apps, allowing you to control the thermostat remotely, and to set heating schedules.  You can have up to five thermostats in one house, and up to two locations (think about the cabin, if you have one).  Our house, like many others, only has one thermostat.

I particuarly like that my wife can control the thermostat in the bedroom, without having to come all the way downstairs.  Sometimes our house seems colder or warmer, even though the thermostat reads a specific temperature…so if that happens in the middle of the night, she can easily adjust the thermostat.

We’re also finding that the house seems warmer…we used to live at 72 degrees (winter), but now have the thermostat set at 71, which still seems warmer than the old thermostat at 72.  The Nest also monitors humidity, and may adjust for the feeling of humdity in the house while heating or cooling to a specific temperature.

We really like our Nest, even though it was expensive.  But I’ve tried other wireless thermostats…some are just as expensive as the Nest…but none are as easy to use or install.  If you’re looking for or even considering a thermostat…check out the Nest.

 

 

iBooks 2 and iBooks Author

I’ve just finished the first solid draft of “Practical Technology for Music Education” in the new iBooks format. I’ve had a chance to view the book on iBooks with iBooks Author’s preview feature, and it looks good. I still need to do some more reviewing, as the expanded first edition for iBooks has a number of new chapters.

So, I went to create an iTunes Connect account so I could upload the book for sale. I discovered that an ISBN number is required to publish your book for sale. A single ISBN costs $125, ten cost $250, and the price goes down from there. You pretty much need to buy the pack of ten, in the event that you write a second edition of a book, or publish it in a different format that needs an ISBN number. In other words, it is a required piece of publishing that is certainly detrimental to the individual who publishes their own book–and it certainly favors the big publishing houses that can buy 1,000,000 ISBN numbers at a time.

And that also doesn’t include the $30 you need to copyright your work.

And finally, there’s no guarantee that Apple will choose your book to publish, either.

So you have a potential investment of $155 (1 ISBN) or $380 (10 ISBNs) to possibly have your iBook rejected. And if you do sell your iBook, perhaps at $4.99 each, meaning that you need to sell 45 books before you break even at the $155 (109 books at the $380 investment). What if you write on a somewhat limited topic, like practical technology in music education?

I need to think this through…you don’t want to throw away money!

 

More MakeMusic News: Finale Reader for iPad and free Finale Notepad 2012

 The Finale Blog had two large bombshell announcements as the NAMM convention approaches:

1. Finale is going to release a Finale Reader for the iPad in the near future.  They are going to demonstrate it at NAMM (note to ViolaJack, if you go to NAMM, could you get some photos of the app?).  I’m hoping the app will offer some of the features of Scorch for the iPad, such as audio playback and transposition.  As I’ve mentioned over and over again, I’m also skeptical of any reader that does not have the ability to annotate a score.  I have not seen the app, other than an image on the Finale Blog that may or may not be a capture of the Finale Reader app for the iPad.  Nonetheless, I’m open to being “wowed.”  The most important thing about this announcement  is MakeMusic’s continued entrance into the world of iOS, making me desirous for Finale for iPad and SmartMusic for iPad.  At this point, I’d guess that both are a done deal, it is just a matter of “when” rather than “if.”
2. Perhaps more importantly, Finale is going to make Finale Notepad 2012 free.  This is a return to Finale Notepad 2008 which was free.  For Finale 2009, MakeMusic decided to charge ($10) for the program.  This was problematic to me as a teacher, as we had Finale Notepad installed on computers in our labs, so I could take my theory classes to a lab.  While in the labs, we would use Notepad to complete assignments that were based on what we were learning in the theory class.  Most of the time, I would create a template that students would complete.  This became problematic as I moved to newer versions of Finale, but Notepad was still at 2008, because we didn’t have $350 to install Notepad in one lab, or over $1000 to install it in several labs.  I liked teaching with Notepad because it is limited in scope and teaching the program was straight forward.  We bought Finale 2010 for our MIDI Lab when we opened our new high school in 2009, and I stopped using Finale with my theory classes because the full version of Finale was too advanced and offered far too many options.  Ultimately, I was spending more time teaching Finale than supporting the theory concepts we were trying to learn in the lab.  Finale Notepad for free is a welcome re-addition.  I truly believe it is a better option for high school theory labs, it gets students used to (addicted to?) using Finale, and it will compete with MuseScore, which has grown in popularity because it is a full music notation product that is a free download.