Cross-posted to Athletics Nation...

Kurt Suzuki's 3 hits, including a long bomb, against the Devil Rays, were one of the few highlights in an ugly weekend. But his rookie season, thrust into the role of starting catcher for the A's, is hardly a walk in the park - every day providing a new challenge.


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With radio losing much of its value, thanks to the homogeneity of music from station to station, I simply don't discover new music while I'm in the car or listening at home the way I once did. Instead, the iTunes Music Store is my only source of new songs and albums from artists I already know well and new artists I'm just now getting to know.

While the total offerings on iTunes were once quite light, especially for those of us who don't worship Top 40 and R&B, the last few years have seen an explosion of available tracks. Now, I can safely assume my favorite bands' latest releases will be there, and they, in turn will lead me to similar music from other artists.

iTunes helps this process along in a few ways, most notably with "My Alerts", which tracks my favorite artists, and lets me know when new songs are out. Secondly, there is the "Listeners Also Bought" feature, which tells me that other people with similar tastes to mine also bought other albums. Sometimes, I may already have those albums, and other times, I'm delighted to find somebody I've never heard before. Additionally, should I hit a wall there, I can always go to the genre's main page (i.e. Electronic) and find new releases that 30 seconds later, just may become new downloads.

Some of my most recent purchases I'm most pleased with include:

Paul Van Dyk / In Between

Paul Van Dyk is one of the world's best DJs, period. This album marks his return to the fore, after a few years lower on my list. I simply can't get enough of the song Talk In Grey, and have been known to listen to it a second time just after it's been completed...

Ulrich Schnauss / Goodbye

Some of the best downtempo, ambient electronic music out there. I first discovered Ulrich Schauss thanks to Sasha's sampling of his work on a few tracks. A few iTunes searches later, and Ulrich Schnauss has himself risen to the top of my most listened to artists out there. His work is beyond listenable, and is the perfect complement to more traditional fast-paced techno.

The Chemical Brothers / We Are the Night

When I'm not in the mood for the calming forces of Ulrich Schnauss and want great beats to tap my feet and bob to, The Chemical Brothers sure know how to fit that need. My favorite off the new album? A track titled Burst Generator. Just outstanding.

Based on the above three albums, can you outdo iTunes and give some strong recommendations? Do you even buy in a "record store" any more?

Earlier this week, I got a call from a pair of former colleagues with whom I had worked at a small Internet startup right out of college, who I hadn't heard from for the better part of five years.

At the beginning of the decade, we had worked on some great Web-based tools that were seemingly years ahead of their time - online meetings, unified messaging and communication, Web OS's and the like, but as the market fell, so did our chances. Now, as the market for Web tools has heated back up, and the stock markets occasional hiccups haven't stopped innovation, they're actively thinking aloud - should we get back into the game?

So, in typical Silicon Valley fashion, we met at a cafe in Palo Alto this morning, and amidst the bustle of college students and working staffs grabbing lattés on a slow Saturday, we caught up, as friends, on where mutual acquaintances had landed, how they were doing in their new careers and catching them up on how my own life has changed, from when I was a green 22 year old out of Cal to my more seasoned 30 now - how my roles have changed in the office, as well as how I've handled life's constant change. We also traded ideas on where technologies were headed, where I thought there were holes, and how in a crowded market, one could differentiate through quality, ease of use, price or marketing.

Even if they don't start something new, and even if I'm just watching, I greatly enjoyed the discussion. I like the culture of pursuing new ideas in the name of bringing new products to market, and seeking solutions to every day problems, using advanced technology.

Many startups owe themselves to the bantering of ideas in restaurants and business models drawn up on the backs of napkins as waiters bustle to and fro. I just like being part of it and knowing I belong.

I must receive dozens of fake phishing scam e-mails a week, from spammers who think I'm dumb enough to log in to their fraudulent Web sites to enter my login and password, whether for eBay or PayPal, Amazon or Wells Fargo. I even get junk e-mail asking me to update my information for banks I've never had anything to do with, including Bank of America, Washington Mutual, and others. That's why when I received a note from eBay on July 31st saying my account had been compromised and locked down, I deleted it. Obviously spam.

So last night, I tried to log in to eBay and it didn't work. And it wasn't an issue with my memory. I've used the same login/password combination on eBay since 1998, and I was sure I had it right.

I hit the "Forgot Password" button, and eBay asked me to get two of three things right, my mother's maiden name, my zipcode, and my primary phone number. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Mother's maiden name I got right away, but if you keep in mind I registered my eBay account almost 10 years ago, I've moved a few times since, from my shared apartment in Berkeley to Belmont, Palo Alto and now, here in Sunnyvale. So I had to try a few zip code combinations, not to mention phone numbers. Those changed too.

Eventually, I figured it out, and luckily, the e-mail I had on file at eBay was current, or that would be yet another mess. Now back in eBay, I had a note that said "It appears the password for your eBay account may have recently become compromised. As a result of this, we have reset your password and secret question." That's why I had been locked out. But I didn't see any odd bidding, so I have no idea what triggered the issue.

Now, I have a new password. And now, unfortunately, this just may make me look at the phishing e-mail scams as if they might actually be real, and that's not an improvement. Although I have the utmost respect for Web leaders like eBay, Paypal and Amazon, I have to imagine the fraud business dramatically impacts their ability to do e-mail marketing and customer service, and that must be incredibly frustrating.