Engineering is drinking from the fire hose. Software is performance art. This week, we caught up with Robert McDonald: our resident software-developer-slash-tv-producer-slash-coder-slash-clown-academy-grad. Herewith, his story.

Tim Ferriss has been called the Superman of Silicon Valley; the world’s best guinea pig; a cross between Julia Child and Jason Bourne. With bestsellers The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body, he broke the traditional rule of great: that success = time spent. We’re working with him to break another rule. This one’s about publishing.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s 2005 debut was a killer album. (The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth: Still. So. Good.) But it was also a killer moment for Indie rock: a record that proved you didn’t need the traditional Label Machine to get heard. Pitchfork, in their 9.0 review, noted the beautifully rare thing…

This week, we got a visit from the Total Disruption crew (more to come, shortly, on the work we did with those fine folks) and listened to a Bob Dylan classic filtered through computer equipment. We also signed up for the free webcast of Future of Music Coalition’s Summit happening this coming Tuesday. In-depth discussions on how the…

This week, we talked to Mario Estrada about what makes for beautiful UI design, and what artists should be doing online. We welcomed decorative gourd season with this. And we’re standing with our Mo Bros. Get involved. Best weekend ever. Kick it off with three of the best free things on the Internet.