NCScene.com returns once again with a new streamlined website. We have removed some sections of this website as well as added some things. I’ve always said that I was going to keep this website alive as long as I had a server to put it on.

I think I have fixed the spam issue that has plagued the forum for a long time now. Currently new registrations are no longer moderated, you just have to use a valid email address to validate yourself in order to sign up. If you have signed up previously and can no longer login, please create a new user or contact me to reset your password.

Becoming a member of the forum allows you to join in discussions as well as post your upcoming shows to our events calendar and also post your information in our local directory. We have purged everything from our directory as much of the information was outdated to begin with. The directory is now a part of the forum and as a member you have the ability to add and edit your own information as you need. Before I had to manually approve and edit all links posted to the old directory.

We kept the metalfest & upcoming movies section, as well as added a new travel section, which lets you search for hotel reservations in any city that you may be venturing to.

You will also notice links on this site to our new free social interaction network, RockDate.com, which we are catering to musicians, music fans, bikers, tattoo freaks & more. I have always owned this name and originally planned to develop a dating website on it, but I think it works better like this. Signing up allows you to post your music, videos, blogs, classifieds, create groups based around your interests, & more.

We are working on our EastWave Products network at this time…
When completed, the main website of this network will be our main website at www.eastwave.com.

We will soon be rolling out a new shopping network consisting of multiple niche retail stores based on product lines such as beach gifts & decor, camping supplies, grilling sauces & equipment, pet supplies & much more.

We have made strategic partnerships with a few quality suppliers & distributors and are really excited about taking on the world of internet retail.

EastWave Media is now available to be followed through your favorite social interaction network such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn & more.

Social interaction networks can bring a ton of visitors to your website, that possibly would never even hear of your company.  The catch is you will only get out of this venture what you put into it.  If you just set up an account and leave it sitting there, then you will get very little if any results from your new venture.  The positives of utilizing social interaction networks is that mostly of of them are free for limited use.

The web has changed tremendously in the last few years…
Internet users no longer just go to Amazon or use Google to find a product to buy,   studies have shown that a large percentage of today’s internet traffic is on the social networks communicating with friends.  A good percentage of users use Myspace & Facebook as their primary means of internet communication.  Twitter is a phenomenon in itself and has seen near instant adoption from a large percentage of internet users.  With the recent advancements in smartphones such as the iPhone and other means of mobile computing, this trend should only increase in the future.

Successful companies stay on top of trends and adapt to fit the ever-changing world of the internet.  The Darwin concept of “survival of the fittest” rings true today, just as much as it ever has.

All things change in time, and this year brings many changes with EastWave.
The web design & internet consulting division of our company will now be located at www.eastwavemedia.com.  We are also rolling out new media services & development packages which can also be found at the following new websites:

www.eastwavemedia.com

www.eastwavehosting.com

www.appsdesigner.com

www.customsigndesigner.com

www.ecommerceturnkey.com

www.dropshipcontacts.com

www.monetizations.com

www.promotionalbears.com

Goodbye Windows,  great COC song also (legendary national metal band from NC)…
That is Corrosion Of Conformity if you didn’t know from the initials…

I made the switch…  My main computer is now a new Apple 24” Widescreen iMac, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, 650 GB hard drive, etc…

I have been an Apple devotee all my life, and Steve Jobs has been a huge role model for me for years.  It’s actually amazing that I waited so long to make this change to begin with.

My first computer experience came back in middle school in the eighties with an Apple II.  The first real computer I purchased was an Apple IIc from a pawnshop in the late eighties.  My next computer was a used early Macintosh, which I think I bought out of a local classifieds magazine.  In college, my mom & dad bought me a brand new Macintosh Performa model.  That was one of the models made during the years that Steve Jobs was not at Apple, and in hindsight, it shows.

Once I went to work for a web hosting company, I realized that due to all the support calls, I had to switch to PCs (or Windows based PCs anyway) just so I could have some real experience with the problems many of our customers were having.  My first PC was a Sony Vaio laptop, which was truly a workhorse and still runs to this day, although it’s creepingly slow now.  I then went through many other Windows based personal computers as well as servers once I branched out to my own company and through the early part of 2009.

I got to the breaking point with Windows after endless problems with spam, viruses, crashes, OS reinstalls & everything else that comes along with using Windows.  When my main hosting server & my main workstation crashed (both Windows machines) within a month of each other, I started to think that there must be a better way.

I already knew that there was a better way as far as web servers go, as I was running a Linux based server for mostly all of the servers that ran my own websites and other customers’ internet stores.

When my own personal computer crashed though, I decided that I was going to go back to Mac.  After experiencing the amazing evolution of the iPod and then the iPhone, I realized that maybe Steve Jobs had brought something back to Apple that was definitely not there on my last Macintosh.

I was right…

What a wonderful experience my new iMac is…  I had never used OSX at all when I purchased the new machine, but the night I turned it on, it was like saying hello to an old friend.  MANY things have been changed though, so it definitely took a month or so to get used to everything.  I can already see improvements in all areas of work that I have completed since then.  I can definitely say that this is the best operating system I have ever used on a computer.   After getting a new Mac, I started to realize that it just helps streamline all aspects of my life.   Everything works like I want it to, and instead of fighting the operating system, I’m using the computer to actually get work done.

Another thing that made me want to go back to Mac was the idea that I wanted get into doing a lot more audio recording & video production type projects.  Everyone knows that Mac has always been the computer of choice for these type applications.
What surprised me though, was realizing just how “pro” some of the FREE applications that come installed on the Mac were, such as Garage Band & iMovie.

Garage Band basically turns your Mac into a multi-track digital recording studio…  In the past, I have paid more money for a standalone multi-track digital recording workstation than I paid for the iMac, which has this as an afterthought.  iMovie gives you a limited version of a digital movie editor that for most users will be the only digital movie editing software that you will ever need.

I have upgraded to more pro versions of each of the above-mentioned programs, but I have to say that the free “consumer” versions work very well and would be fine for a good majority of people out there that use a computer in their daily life.

Oh…
By the way…
That first computer that I purchased in a pawnshop (Apple IIc) still runs to this day, complete with its monochrome, two-color, green letters on black screen.

I wonder if my new iMac will still actually boot up in 2029???
Something to ponder…