Doug Van Pelt

A NEW rock and roll

That's right... I've recorded a new album. Enough of this writing about rock and metal music. It's time to make some! What I've done is combined doomy, gothic metal with a vivid imagination... Okay, stop! I'm kidding. I wish I had musical talent and could create art, but with my lack of skill, we are all better without it. Trust me on this!

Seriously, I have something VERY COOL to announce. I've been waiting on this for awhile, but didn't want to talk about it too much until it was ready to go.

Now,

you,

GO!!!

here, that is:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11520





This is an HM branded browser.
First I must stop again...
I'm sorry.
Why do I always spell the word browswer like that? My fingers want to hit that w key again. What is wrong with me? Am I cursed? Browser! Browser! Browser! I trained myself to write 5's and 4's differently when I worked at a bank years ago, since my numbers needed to be written fast and legible for others.

I'm back.
This HM browser is stinkin' cool!
"Why are you so excited about it, Doug?"
I'm glad you asked!
Before I answer, however, I must remark that this new Tumbledown album has a hidden bonus track as track 13. It's not really a hidden bonus track, but tracks. The whole entire album replays in that track!?! Either that or my CD player is going bizonkers.

I am stoked about the new HM "boom" (as the folks at brandthunder like to call the browser skins) because of the obvious HM logo branding/imaging aspects, of course; but also for the buttons and functions it brings to the hmmag.com website all of a sudden. You like the way it looks?

Here's what the genius behind the browser had to say: "Brand Thunder is excited to bring the BOOM to HM Magazine!" (Yes, they're fans of P.O.D.)

Now we have a "media" button, which opens a sidebar on the left side.
This sidebar has three buttons at the top: News | Video | Podcast.
The news takes the RSS feed from our "Internet Exclusives" and puts them in a convenient spot. I plan on coding all future "News Updates" with a "headline" code next to each of the 12 News Update items, instead of just a single page of 12 items being one RSS feed. When that happens, the RSS feed in the upper right of the browser, which currently toggles through several of my most recent tweets, will start scrolling through the latest news.
That's hot right there, huh?
I agree. Thanks for your enthusiasm.

Next, there's the Video button (which has been selected in the image above). Here you click on the button and the sidebar fills with thumbnails from a dozen or so videos. This playlist will update with new videos all the time. I'll keep the HM commercial spots in there, too, cuz who doesn't want to laugh along to those funny spots?
Oh! You don't? Really? No? Okay. Good.
(do I sound like Will Farrell? I hope so. Kinda like the cheerleader skits, where you only hear one half of a conversation...)
Having a video player on the website? Killer.

The Podcast button places ALL of the HM Podcast episodes into the sidebar. Most of them have a description of what's on each episode. I plan on getting that updated. Who wouldn't want to know which episode had the Chris Cornell interview on it? Or Paramore? Or The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus? Anyway, it's a cool place to get the Podcast right there on the site.

Hopefully, now it will give more people more reasons to stay at our site. I best better get busy updating content, huh? Before I go to GMA, I plan on posting the "Internet Exclusive" interview with Jeremy DePoyster of The Devil Wears Prada. Be looking for that soon.

Another thing I'm working on setting up with be a "Music" button, which will appear soon (Lord willing). We're looking for a good online radio station to partner with on that...or maybe I'll do a playlist type feature. I dunno yet. We were gonna hook up with one internet radio station, but the hangup there was people had to register to listen, and that is a hiccup in the process. We want it to be kind of instantaneous, ya know?

Another thing I just figured out is how to send text messages from an email program. So, what that means, is you can sign up for text message updates. I'm tweaking how this will be formatted, but my plan is this: When I get some hot news, I'll code it so that the RSS feed will recognize the headline. I'll send that, along with a "click here for more" link that will take the person to the News Page on our site. This will be a convenient and quick way to get breaking news. How cool would it have been to hear that The Crucified were playing Cornerstone Festival this year if you first heard it in a short text message? I agree.

Two pieces of advice:
1. Get unlimited texting on your phone. You'll love it.
2. Sign up to get new, breaking HM News on your mobile device by emailing me at news@hmmag.com with your 10-digit mobile number, and I'll start sending you news alerts as I get this rolling. (Unlike my twitter account, where I obey no rules and sometimes post what I'm eating, this will be breaking news and cool "glad I signed up for this" information.)

P.S. I just checked my mail and, wouldn't you know it, the new issue of HM arrived. I have to tell ya, I have no plans of posting the May/June issue on hmmag.com while I'm in Nashville, so this'll be one of those times where the print bird gets the early worm (or something cute and fun like that).

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at April 17, 2009 12:42 PM