Tag Archives: WebSites

Last.FM Has Best Listening Prediction

last.fm

It is by no means a new service, but I’ve only just started using it.  Which is odd because, while I’ve heard of it many times, it took a certain Tweet to send me testing the service.  And before I get all into praising the greatness that is last.FM, I want to first say that I have tried Pandora Radio.  It was the summer of 2007 and I had just been introduced to Pandora by a close friend, so I loaded it up and tried it only to find disappointment.  I had, and still have, a subscription to Sirius Radio which Pandora couldn’t compete with, especially since Sirius comes with an online service.  I let Pandora ride a full week before writing it off, and that was only out of respect for the person suggesting the service.

Before we get carried away comparing things that aren’t at issue, like personal preferences, let me say that if you enjoy Pandora or some other web 2.0 music service, then by all means, please, continue with it.  It’s not going to hurt my feelings if you think last.FM isn’t the awesomeness I’m about to rave forth with.  So be it.  Go.  Listen and enjoy the noise that is your happiness.  (Music.)

It took me three hours and some two hundred plus favorited artists with last.FM before reaching into my wallet to support the service.  That’s right, I’m paid member — because I want it to stick around — and if they come up with a way for me to stream the music to my car then I will probably ditch my satellite subscription.  (At the very least, my land subscription is gone at the next renewal.)

Why is last.FM so great? It doesn’t base it’s computation on what you say, it works off what you do.  Very smart.  I can say all day that I like listening to Herbie Hancock, but if I spend all my listening minutes tuned into the latest HipHop vibe, it’s more likely that I want to hear more HipHop.  Right?  Exactly.

This service takes into account that I lack the necessary cognizance to know what music I actually enjoy.  Sounds strange to admit, but they’ve done a better job with the psychology side of it than any other service I’ve encountered. I may add a certain artist to my favorites but if I continually skip those tracks while listening, last.FM takes note and updates its recommendations accordingly.  Very very smart.

It’s more than that, though.  They also make an effort to connect me with others of similar listening taste, not exact listening taste.  I’ve yet to find anyone with a compatability rating higher than “low,” but I like that.  I can’t imagine a scenario where, if when listing all music honestly enjoyed, two people are perfect matches.  We’re too humanly different for that sort of nonsense.  I’m not interested in finding someone who is exactly like me becuase I do just fine talking to myself.  I want the people who will introduce me to sounds with which I am unfamiliar.  Last.FM is just the service to find me those people.  Best of all, there’s a stand alone player for my linux ride.

Listen online and stream yourself.

Socialbrowse – Twitter For Firefox?

I’m a huge fan of using humans over computers and algorithms to filter search results.  Sure, information retrieval (IR) has come a long way, but it’s still missing something and the search folk know it.  Precisely why Google is attempting to incorporate a digg-like rating system in its search results .  (Rumor has it that Google is offering up to $200MM to acquire digg .)  And Google’s latest rival Mahalo, human powered search, is hear to help. Humans are still better interpreters than computers.  No Surprise.

Anyhow, the point being Socialbrowse, a Firefox addon , does just what you’d expect it to do if you can read the name — browse socially.  (Think StumbleUpon and del.icio.us, but more intrusive.)  Socialbrowse is similar to Twitter in that you select whose browses you want to follow.  It’s public information when someone tags a page into one of a variety of categories.  A notice pops up in the lower right of your browser every time a new page is tagged by someone you’re following.  (This is where it can get annoyingly distracting, so don’t install the addon to a work machine.)  You can click through to the page, or ignore it.  I typically ignore all the popups and use the sidebar option when I’m ready to see what folks have recently enjoyed.

The idea here is to let other people surf the web and filter through the trash.  You don’t have time for that.  And if you don’t like the pages someone is suggesting, unfollow him.  It’s as easy as that.  I’ll admit that I’m not the greatest at tagging pages  (last one was July 15th).  For some reason, knowing that people are going to know I approved the page makes me far more selective of the pages I’m willing to suggest.

Socialbrowse is beta and requires an invite code.  (I have a few left if any of you Firefox users are interested in giving it a try.)  They are still in the process of creating a logo for their product, which is why I’m missing a graphic for this post.  But you can win $125 by entering the create new Socialbrowse logo contest. If you’re a regular web surfer then this is an addon you’ll enjoy.  Get it early, get it often.  Socialbrowse!

Laughter Ahead, Leave Your Milk At The Door

I’m an active RSS subscriber, using Google Reader to keep up with some one hundred differnent feeds, and of those hundred I have about fifteen to twenty web comics that I follow.  (I actively add and remove feeds based on the creators’ upkeep and my reaction to the content.)  I took some time and thought about all the comics I read (in the feed reader and elsewhere) and I came up with my top ten web comics, which I’ve listed here for you.

Some of these aren’t for everyone, which is to say they may not be work safe (NWS), and may cover material with which you’re unfamiliar.  Don’t be alarmed.  Find a quiet spot in your home and read through some of their previous entries until you get what’s going on.

Honorable Mention to Decorum .  I enjoyed some chuckles from this comic, but it hasn’t been updated in a while, so I can’t rank it.  Hopefully the author will return when school starts up in the Fall.

10.PennyArcade! — One of two on the list that makes any attempt to actually draw a comic that doesn’t involve stick figures.  These guys lean heavily toward the gaming community, so a lot of their stuff doesn’t make sense if you don’t follow the geeked-out gamer crowd’s love for role playing.  The artists/writers are creative, and maintain a blog that often helps explain what is going on in the comic.

9. Indexed — If ever a real world were to exist, Jessica Hagy would be the one to provide the social commentary.  Her comics are clear, direct, short, and spot on.  A mathematician’s true love.  They also love her over at the freakonomics blog .

8. Buttersafe — I won’t try to explain this one, you’ll just have to check it out.  I will say that it gets a lower ranking because it’s only updated twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) even though there are two contributors.  Just a little left of bizarre.

7. Manic Deranged & Pictures for Sad Children — I don’t like throwing in a tie, but I want to get both these comics on the list.  Sometimes they’re both too far out there to make you laugh, even if you get the joke.  (It’s just nice to know there are some creative and crazy people out there.)  These are questionable for work, but not if you work with people who won’t get the jokes.

6. The WAREHOUSE — This is right in there with those ranked number seven, except it’s just a tad more clever and the posts are regular.  You can count on them to show up, and if I had to count laughs, I’d say this one has made me chuckle more often, so it’s earned its spot here.

5. Savage Chickens — Long time favorite.  Drawn on standard-size post-it note paper.  (He’s in there with Hugh MacLeod – business cards, and Jessica Hagy – Index Cards.  Maybe one day I’ll finally get my napkin-art up and running.)  Completely work safe, and posted everyday.  Worth a spot in your feed reader.

4. A Softer World — I can never tell if this one is real.  It’s neither full-blown art drawings nor stick figures.  No. It’s photography with words.  Very well put together, and shockingly frightening.  This one isn’t afraid to write the words so many others think but never share.

3. Cyanide and Happiness — This is not one you can show at work.  EVER.  It’s actually the only one on the list blocked at my day job.  Which is to say, it goes out of its way to be offensive and crude.  I won’t try to explain it, you’ll just have to click through.

2. Questionable Content — This is the other comic on the list that draws anything more than a few stick lines and loose colors.  It’s also the only comic on the list that actually has a story line.  Strange.  It’s better than PennyArcade! (obviously).  I still need to read some of the older posts to catch up with the full story, but I’ve been reading long enough to get most of the jokes.  (This one requires more effort on your part than all the others.)

And, of course, it goes without saying

1. xkcd.com — "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language."  Let’s not forget physics and computer science.  The only stick-figure comic that requires my having to visit wikipedia on occasion to get a punchline.  It’s as educational as it is humorous.

Any comics I’m missing?  What’s your favorite?

Feed The Animals, Save The Planet

Latest Girl Talk Album

Pop Lovers Anonymous, get ready for another smashing good time with the latest mash-ups from Girl Talk!  Feed the Animlas is the follow-up album to the 2006 release Night Ripper (which we all know and love) on the illegal art label.  This new release is well worth the “you-name-the-price” price.  I opted for the ten dollar version plus shipping.

To put this in some kind of perspective, it’s been a long time since I’ve paid for a CD or paid to download music.  Not because I’m off downloading pirated music files, but because I’m a Sirius Radio subscriber, and I don’t usually have an interest in CDs or music files.  So that should help you understand how huge this is for me to spend any amount of money on an album.  Not only spend the money, but then come here and recommend it to you.

Briefly, I’ll say this isn’t exactly what GT was pumping on his last release.  While it’s still definitely a mix of pop music from every genre (that sounds funny,) he’s moved on and up to change his style just a little.  Clips are played just a bit longer, and more care and detail is given to the transitions between mixes.  It’s the right mix of being up-up-and-away for dancing and then mellowing out just enough to rest and catch a breath before the next fast mix hits.  The whole time keeping your interest in the party.

I’ve had the album less than 48 hours, and I can honestly say it’s all I’ve listened to on the home and car systems.  (Huge speakers aren’t required, but they help with the “getting pumped up feeling”.)  I’ve caught myself dancing at home, and bopping my head in traffic.  (Now if I can just figure out how to make my way to one of the concert dates.)

Fine, maybe you won’t be saving the planet if you buy the CD, but you’ll definitely feel an urge to get up out your seat and move your feet.  That leads to happiness, and we can all agree that happy people are good for the planet.  Right?

Do your thing.  Play your part.

Blog Cards by Street Cards

It’s time to start marketing the blog out in the real world, and I figure what better way to do that than with business cards.  Small, easy to pass out, people are familiar with it and its purpose, and you can put whatever you want on it.  I decided to go through Street Cards because they offer a line of cards with cartoon art from Gaping Void blog author, Hugh Macleod.  There are some 90+ different cartoons to choose from, but I finally settled on this one after some brief discussion with thompology and that other guy.

Business Card

The back of the card shows the web address for this blog.  We’ll see how things go.  Should be a decent way to get traffic I wouldn’t otherwise have had.

Oh My Goosh.org

This is probably only really neat and fun for anyone who has ever maintained a computer from the shell, and I don’t know too many folks that still work regularly at the command line.  I have three linux machines (Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu) myself, and only on one of them (Fedora) do I work in the shell environment, and not very often.  (That’s pretty good considering it doesn’t have the GUI installed.)

Goosh.org gives you a command line-like interface in your web browser.  I came across it while reading the blog of Emily Chang and I started tinkering with it immediately.  Loaded up my blog, and ran all the commands just to see what they did.  Typing help is probably what you’re going to want to enter first so you can get a list of commands.  If you want more information, check out Emily’s post.

Like I said, this is probably only fun for a few folks.  Ha!  I’m not sure why I’d ever use this app, but I like knowing that it’s out there. I’ll throw a bookmark on it, and keep it around.

Enjoy.

FireFox 3 Reachers Farther Faster

Maybe that’s true.  I don’t know.  What I do know, is Mozilla had a record day with the release of its latest version of Firefox.  I don’t know what the official count is for the opening day, but I’ve read that it’s upwards of eight million.  That’s a whole lot of simultaneous downloading going on in the first 24 hours.

I took it three times, and still have two computers to upgrade.  How does that affect the counting they’re conducting?  I’m only one user, but I have many machines.  Not to mention those I maintain for others.  (I’ll get the upgrades done soon enough.)

If you’re looking for an actual review of the product, you’ll have to do a google search for one.  Otherwise, just make good and get your shiny new copy of Firefox 3 today!

I will note that a few of my addons have been disabled due to compliance issues, but I’m sure they’ll be updated soon enough.

Please comply.  Thank you.

WordPress or MovableType

These days, if you’re going to blog, or if you are already blogging, then you’ve probably come across at least one, if not both, these names.  Based on my own searches, I’m guessing these are the top two cms products available right now, but which is really the top?  And does it matter?

I have this blog running WordPress 2.5, and I have a second blog running MovableType 4.1 (but I don’t maintain that blog, I just use it for testing different software.)  I can say that the install was much quicker and probably, from the average user’s view, simpler to install and setup with WP than with MT.  WP just about set itself up completely once the process started, whereas MT required a bit more user input including creating the database myself.  (Not horribly complicated, but could be an intimidating step for some users.)

Both systems provide a dashboard for creating and managing content, which are fairly easy to use and navigate through.  Although, I personally prefer that of WP, I can’t say that one or the other is superior.  I think it’s a preference for look and feel, which varies day to day.  You’ll have to load each and decide if it matters to you.  They are both done well enough that this probably won’t be your limiting factor.

WP and MT allow addons, or plugins.  So this is probably a toss-up as well.  Although, some may argue that MT comes loaded with certain features that would require a plugin in WP.  To which I would aruge, again, that this is only an issue of preference and isn’t a final determining factor since features in one system are available in the other system.

Spam filtering, is probably one of the biggest issues after ease of use and installation.  I haven’t had much experience with the MT spam filter since I don’t actively blog with it, but I have had quite a bit of use with WP, and I can say that it has caught quite a bit of spam.  WP clearly sorts out the spam and labels it for my review and removal.  It’s a breeze.

Overall, I like them both, but probably will not switch this particular blog from WP to MT.  MT is a worthy blogging software, but I couldn’t find an easy migration tool.  If I decide to maintain a new blog in the future, I’ll revisit the issue and possibly switch to MT.  MT does appeal to my geek and tweak style, so it has that going for it.

Update: After snooping around each platform a bit more, I found that it is pretty easy to migrate entries from one system to the other using the import/export feature.  I did lose my formatting when going from WP to MT, but I guess if you don’t have a ton of entries, you could easily go in and fix that.  Although, there may be a way to keep the formatting.

Shopping At The Speed Of Now

It’s today, and I’m probably still out camping, hence another video post. I guess I could have just skipped it all together, but I’m getting a kick out of it. Anyhow, that’s not the point. I mean, it’s not the point that I’m off fishing, hiking, and cooking beneath the big open sky miles and miles away from all the nonsense.  No.  The point is, I have another video for you, and you should maybe, probably, if you have a few minutes, and aren’t too busy, watch it. Got that, chief?

It’s not that it’s a super hilarious clip or anything wacky like that, but it’s the folks from Improv Everywhere, and if you don’t already follow them, you may want to consider it. They put together some pretty interesting projects. I’d like to some day show up to one of their improvs, but I don’t know if I have it in me to figure out when and how they set up the meeting places and times. It sounds like more work than I’m willing to put up with, especially since I’m out camping. Camping. Ha!

Happy Friday the 13th, by the way. It could be any day, I’d still be away from anything electronic on a camping trip. Today, at least. That’s what I mean. What? You’re mad!

Enough. Here it is.

Lisa Nova is a Twitter Whore

Who isn’t, right? Becoming a Twitter Whore.  I mean, if you’re doing it right, then of course you are and you have to be.  Who wouldn’t want to share with the world every little thing that’s happening as it happens?  I know I can’t help myself.  OMG! And on the off chance you’re a little confused as to how it actually works, Ms. Nova was kind enough to provide some instructional video. It’s kind of what she does, in case you didn’t know.  (You should know who Lisa Nova is.)

Part I

Part II

Genius, my man — pure genius.  WTF!