Music Social Network sites

Last.fm confuses the hell out of me. Maybe it's because I am refusing to download their software and I'm only willing to use it as a web app. Sure I can find songs and artists that I like, and I guess I can add them to my play list, except sometimes las.fm doesn't have the song, but I can still add it to my playlist, and then...what??

What I want to be able to do, without really thinking about it, is go there and say "Play me all the Louis Prima songs you have." There's probably a way to do it, I want, need it to be just that easy. Click, click play. I'm not asking to own them, just streaming is fine.

I'm sure there is something fundamental here that I'm missing.

Now, a music site that I really do like, but would not appeal to everybody is thesixtyone. This site is for independent, unsigned(??) musicians and some folks who are just regular people like you and me. (heh.) The site is dead simple to use and understand, and has a fun points and reward system that is actually more addictive the more you use it.

And the folks who designed made the genius move of allowing you to play a song or three and still move around and do stuff on other parts of the site. Sounds simply, but that's a big plus for me.

Anyway, check it out, there's all kinds of fun cool stuff that you will never, never ever hear anywhere else. Some of it you can even download for free.

The way I use the web, lately

My default way of using the web, the tubes, the internets, has changed slightly in the past few months. I now, as a rule, have a minimum of about a dozen tabs I keep open at all times, with every social network and feed site going, plus my mail and maybe google docs, and at least one video sharing site ready to grab a quick and boring Web Cam O' The Mundane, or whatever. Seesmic, Friendfeed, Twitter, Socialthing, delicious, Viddler, Pownce, Blogger, Google Reader. And on and on. A blank tab ready to go for quick lookups on wikipedia or imdb. And twitlive, if that's happening. Or ijustine.

This does not make me unique in the world of the digerati, in fact compared to that world it makes me pretty much a peon. A n00b. They've been at this for years and usually have several machines running at once.

But in the world I travel in day to day: no one I know lives like this, and few understand why it's attractive. I'm not sure I understand why it's attractive, but it is. Maybe it's just the growing social need to be connected to all things at all times. Maybe it's just having the digital distractions cranked up to eleven. Maybe that's all the same thing.

Healthy? Unhealthy? An aberration or a growing change in how society functions? I don't know, and I'm not really going to judge, or (apart from this post) over think it.

Just a change I noted in the way I interact with my own personal digital world. Note updated links at right, please.

Geek Gear

I can't afford to buy toilet paper, but I am real tempted to scoop up as much spare change as I can and get me both of these beautiful Objects De Geek:

Darth Vader (Dark Vador) USB Hub
Uploaded by AkihabaraNews

For the full story, click here.

Friday Night Dude 2

Friday Night Dude

I just felt like vlogging some mundane stuff.

Job Search

hooky

Generator Fun

Every now and again, when I am avoiding important tasks at work, I like to check in with The Generator Blog.

I find these things endless entertaining. Because I am a sad lonely little immature man. Here's some samples:

I used The Endorsement Generator to get this written testimonial full of outright lies:

I worked with Vidsaw on a major IT project and was impressed with the depth of knowledge he possesses. Vidsaw was fantastic to work with. Vidsaw is responsible, professional, intelligent and hard working manager, a person you can trust when you want to be sure that important tasks will be completed in a systematic and precisely way. For Vidsaw the job is always the most important thing to do. Is able to work in a fast-paced environment.


From the What's YOUR Problem? generator I get this:

My personality problem is "I'm a chain-smoking con-artist with ice-water running through my veins!".

Take What's YOUR Problem? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Accompanied by a picture of Tony Soprano. Kinda disturbed by that.

Being an Anglophile, I got a big kick out of THIS ONE. But maybe you need to be an Anglophile. Or English.

And speaking of English, being one of those old guys who is ever nostalgic for his youth and therefore shoves 80's English pop music videos down your throat (aka A Tool.) This:

Strange Dress
What's Your Depeche Mode Name?

And maybe my favorite, the most fun for a comic nerd like me: THE SPEECH BUBBLER
(also, here's another chance to prove that I have the sophisticated and subtle humor of a 12 year old.) Click on the pictures to see them larger.

Hair Hats

Just when I think the internets and the world can't be any weirder.

Hair Hats in the shapes of animals.



Created by Nagi Noda. Wowza.

Passive Aggressive Anger Machine

I want to put this in the staff lounge at my office. I could retire by Fall.

More Spam Please

I mentioned email spam subject line phraseology some time back. I have received two missives today with subject headings that I believe represent the very hight of automatic random computer generated poetry. Or maybe I just like them 'cause if you read 'em right, they could be dirty.

fast and stable in minutes that morning

only continue performing it or shed more calories

I will. I surely will.

iPhone Lust

WANT.

WANT.

WANT.

Actually I really want the 8GB Nokia N95, but I'd happily take an iPhone.

And also, many millions of dollars. And a helper monkey.

A Random Memory

This was one of my favorite songs in Junior High (I'm old)



Read into that what you will.

I still like it. Read into that what you will also.

Gloucster Cheese Rolling

This is pure awesome. I didn't even realize this was a real event, and I would've been doubtful if I hadn't seen it. I'm going to Gloucester and doing this one day. Yes I am. Rolling down a big muddy hill chasing a wheel of cheese? Oh yes. Yes I am.

What a wonderful world...

This is funny, I originally found this link on Laughing Squid, Google News from an alternate world where all problems have been solved:

http://www.fugue.com/pics/goodnews.html

As you read it, hear this:



This is the way life should be...

iPhone rumors

Well, let me jump into the fray. There have been rumors about the next generation of iPhone. Possibly, probably, well actually, pretty much for sure it's going to be announced at at the WWDC
this coming Monday.

Lots of pics and rumors have been spewing forth the past few weeks (months?) Most of them just fakes.

Here's some new ones, from CrunchGear. We are so close to the actual event, could these be real? Who knows?

Either way I want two.

I think this is me

xkcd by Randall Munroe click the image to embigen and link!

A Map

In case you get lost, here is a map. CLICK THIS.

Note: It really needs a "You are here" sign. And maybe a listing of Howard Johnson's locations.

FreakAngels

Warren Ellis is a writer. Warren Ellis is a comic book writer. He is known by many as Internet Jesus.

He has a weekly free web comic called FreakAngels. It's free. It's weekly. It's on the web. It's cool. It's not for little children. You should give it a try. Again: it's free. Here's a handy link to episode 1.

Warren Ellis has a website, a mailing list and a message forum full of active and creative people.

Warren Ellis has written many wonderful things.

Warren Ellis is probably smarter than you and I put together.

Know you know.

Oh, so that's where it is.

I found The End.

thanks to Justin Ellis for the link.

On the way to the beach...

Having some "getting dressed" frustrations with my son. :)

New Words for 2008

I received this email from my dad. Not sure where this originated from, but I like to share:

NEW WORDS FOR 2008:

1. BLAMESTORMING Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline
was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2.SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise,
craps on everything, and then leaves.

3.ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success
and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard

4.SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming
upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.

6.PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a
cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's
going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8.SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What
Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working
to stay home with the kids.

9.STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10.SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless
because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11.XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12.IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying
but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of
an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just
above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are
often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were
designed to solve.

15. 404 : Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error
Message '404 Not Found,' meaning that the requested sit e could not be
located.

16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the
same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls,
and subdivisions.

17.OHNOSECOND : That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize
that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an
email by mistake).

18.WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.