Color Consumer Electronics

I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising to me to read in Digital Music News that Crayola is broadening out into electronics; most others companies are doing the same thing. But, it is a little harder for me to think about Crayola, the company whose crayons every child has grown up with over the past 100 years, now offering a line of electronics including a portable boom box, digital music player, portable AM/FM radio and a clock radio.

GPX has designed the products for Crayola, which are supposed to be “kid-friendly,” able to withstand the rough treatment of children, and range in price from $9.99 to $39.99. Known for products that encourage creativity and self-expression in children and adults, Crayola has carried this feature over to the boom box which features a dry-erase board and dual headphone jacks so you can share your music with a friend.

I guess it really makes a lot of sense that music would now be a part of the resources for artistic expression on which the company’s reputation has been built. It is probably just my age telling on me that, to me, “Crayola” means brightly colored crayons and markers and not consumer electronics.

Music & Migraines

I have been listening to the music of music2work2 for a long time. Being a friend of the composer/performer, I was listening to it long before the music2 work2.com venture began. I have used it as background music while doing all sorts of things - working at the computer, cooking, playing Scrabble, writing documents, and even recently used it to calm down after hours of a very frustrating and anger producing session with a companies' technical support in trying to get a new phone system set up.

Yesterday, I had another of my many migraines. Any change in weather causes me to have one for the past couple of years. Preventive medication only partially works and medication that I have been prescribed to take for the migraine often doesn't work as well as it should and has to be taken a second time. So, I decided to test the benefit of music on a migraine. Ordinarily sound, light and movement increases the pain for me.

There are many articles dealing with studies that show that music is beneficial for relieving pain following surgery, or has other medical benefits. I can now attest to the fact that music2work2 music does have a beneficial effect on my migraines. The music playing softly helped me relax; I only had to take the medication one time to get relief from the pain; and the time waiting for the medication to take effect was more pleasant.

I will definitely try this again with my next migraine, but I do feel that music2work2 sessions playing softly in the background made a difference in this one.

Stalking goes digital

Digital Music News reports that “the art of stalking has now gone digital.” A 27 year old fan of Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington was able to acquire phone numbers and photographs by hacking into his mobile phone. The woman had apparently also been able to get into Bennington’s personal email account and made threats against his wife.

This woman is said to have used a computer at her former employer Sandia National Laboratories, a nuclear weapons research and testing laboratory, to carry out her acts.

Being the subject of stalking by a fan, I am sure is unnerving enough for celebrities. The addition of yet another means of stalking and the breaching of ones security is even more cause for concern. However, it is disturbing to me to think that this woman worked where research and testing of nuclear weapons was taking place.

Lab spokesman Michael Padilla said that the woman’s computer “wasn’t connected to classified data.” That is little comfort to me - it also wasn't connected to Chester Bennington's mobile phone and email! I feel for Chester Bennington and his wife and anyone subjected to stalking, but it concerns me that a person such as this woman would be hired by a company dealing with such sensitive matters and that this part of the story seems to be of so little concern to anyone.