I have good news and bad news.
First, the bad. After starting this blog almost four months ago on June 4th as a way to chart my experiences in the all-too-familiar territory of Princeton after graduation, it’s time to move on. This will be the final post to Stuck in the Bubble. I’m unclear of the human-years to blog-years conversion to determine if this blog is still incredibly nascent or adequately developed, but the timing is appropriate and it’s time to move on.
Stuck in the Bubble was never intended to report ground-breaking news, make millions, or help me achieve internet stardom. Instead, it gave me the opportunity to get involved in the blogosphere and test out a new medium for writing. Undoubtedly, the most satisfying—and surprising—part of the experience was the constant feedback from friends and family when someone would tell me they had enjoyed something I wrote. I assumed I had a real audience of three (an occasional friend and my parents), but it was always encouraging to hear that someone had “thought that was really funny,” or “liked that thing” I wrote about. To know that people have been taking the time to read is extremely gratifying, and I could not be more thankful and appreciative.
The underlying theme of Stuck in the Bubble (being stuck in the “Princeton bubble”) no longer has the relevance it had this summer. I’ve moved on, and taken time to consider if it’s worth continuing with Stuck in the Bubble. I wrote about this before, and essentially stated that “life” is about moving from bubble to bubble; getting stuck just demonstrates an awareness of your situation, but isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It goes without saying that being “stuck” in Princeton was one of the best summers of my life. With that in mind, the idea of being “stuck in the bubble” could be expanded, and the idea of the blog could acquire newfound meaning.
One thing is clear: writing has always been something I’ve enjoyed, and since I don’t plan on landing a job that will involve producing massive amounts of text, keeping a blog is the best way to continue writing. Blogging forces one to consider audience and to maintain a high quality of content and subject matter in order to be confident in sharing with others. And because of that, I want to stick with writing and blogging, and that introduces the good news: I will be moving my writing to a new blog at a new site with a new title. It is called “Speech as a Second Language,” and is currently hosted by Tumblr, rather than Blogger. The inaugural (but not the first) post can be found here: Title Search, pt.1.
A emphatic thank you to everyone that has visited this site over the past few months, and I hope that I can continue to provide you with the same ground-breaking content on SaaSL that made SitB such a hit. This site won’t go away, but will join the millions of other inactive blogs on the Blogger network as a happy relic of past inspiration and experiences.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
A Big Day for Lala
Today was a big day for Lala.
The service is now officially serving Facebook's music needs, and Google will be using Lala's platform to stream music with the upcoming music search platform that is slated to be released next week. This will hopefully guarantee lots of new traffic and revenue for Lala, as well as solidifying the service's place as a major music vendor on the web.
On a side note, I was happy to discover that ShortFormBlog uses Lala's player. With more and more sites starting to use Lala's conveniently embeddable player, you might be signing up for Lala much sooner than you think, assuming you want to hear what everyone else is listening to.
More information on how the event unfolded, as well as what else we might expect, can be found at the following sites:
Lala's Big Day
Google to Partner with Lala and iLike for New Music Service
Google Music Service: The Screenshots
Google, MySpace, Facebook singing the same tune
The service is now officially serving Facebook's music needs, and Google will be using Lala's platform to stream music with the upcoming music search platform that is slated to be released next week. This will hopefully guarantee lots of new traffic and revenue for Lala, as well as solidifying the service's place as a major music vendor on the web.
On a side note, I was happy to discover that ShortFormBlog uses Lala's player. With more and more sites starting to use Lala's conveniently embeddable player, you might be signing up for Lala much sooner than you think, assuming you want to hear what everyone else is listening to.
More information on how the event unfolded, as well as what else we might expect, can be found at the following sites:
Lala's Big Day
Google to Partner with Lala and iLike for New Music Service
Google Music Service: The Screenshots
Google, MySpace, Facebook singing the same tune
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wired Magazine upgrades its advertising strategy with Kooaba
The November issue of Wired Magazine came in the mail yesterday. It's always a pleasure to read, incredible layout, typography, graphic design, and excellent features on news, technology and culture. If you've only experienced Wired on the web, it's certainly worth stopping by the newsstand and grabbing a copy.
As print publications continue to struggle to attract advertisers and raise enough revenue to stay alive, it is high time for magazines to rethink their strategy for ads and how to keep users interested. I have always appreciated Wired's candid disclosure of their decline in sales, and of the innovations they're introducing to hopefully keep the print version of the publication financially feasible.
This month, on page 17, "An Announcement from the Publisher" introduces the next evolution in Wired's strategy to keep print advertising relevant:
That's right; you take a picture of the ads in the magazine. The Kooaba application connects to the server, matches the photo to the images in its online database, and provides you with a list of options specific to that ad. As far as I can tell, every ad in the magazine are Kooaba-enabled. Unfortunately, most reveal nothing more than a link to the company's website, or a link to tweet or digg the item, but I think we can expect more interesting features in future issues.
I had never heard Kooaba before reading this, but they are a Swiss company that specializes in photo-recognition technology. Here is their video:
I'm really excited about this. I have no idea what kind of success it will have in this print advertising application, as Wired is test driving, but the idea couldn't make more sense: give readers an incentive to spend more time with the ads and have access to special deals only available through the ads in the magazine. If Wired works hard to get the word out, this could have huge potential. The biggest problem I can forsee is that if print is eventually replaced by digital readers, these devices will most likely have built in web-browsers to skip the photo step.
For me, I love the potential this technology has for the real-world (as opposed to online) shopping experience. I still buy physical music media, both CD's and vinyl's. Say I'm at a my favorite record store, Princeton Record Exchange in Princeton, NJ. I can browse the stacks, and when I come across something interesting, I can snap a photo, get a link to reviews and listen to song samples. I can test drive the music, and if it hits me the right way, I'll buy.
As the video says, Kooaba recognizes books and movie posters as well. In sum, Kooaba makes it easy for consumers the chance to make educated purchase decisions by simply snapping a photo. Sure, you could do this before with mobile search engines, but this is infinitely easier.
Let us know what you think if you've tried it.
MORE INFORMATION
NYTimes: For Wired, a Revival Lacks Ads
Chris Anderson, Wired's Editor in Chief, being given a hard time on Colbert:
As print publications continue to struggle to attract advertisers and raise enough revenue to stay alive, it is high time for magazines to rethink their strategy for ads and how to keep users interested. I have always appreciated Wired's candid disclosure of their decline in sales, and of the innovations they're introducing to hopefully keep the print version of the publication financially feasible.
This month, on page 17, "An Announcement from the Publisher" introduces the next evolution in Wired's strategy to keep print advertising relevant:
Each month, the pages of WIRED are jam-packed with what's new and innovative in the world — which is why we jumped at the chance to give our readers a taste of the future of advertising through Kooaba...Their app, which is available for iPhone and Android, lets you unlock digital extras by snapping a picture of select ads in this issue.
That's right; you take a picture of the ads in the magazine. The Kooaba application connects to the server, matches the photo to the images in its online database, and provides you with a list of options specific to that ad. As far as I can tell, every ad in the magazine are Kooaba-enabled. Unfortunately, most reveal nothing more than a link to the company's website, or a link to tweet or digg the item, but I think we can expect more interesting features in future issues.
I had never heard Kooaba before reading this, but they are a Swiss company that specializes in photo-recognition technology. Here is their video:
I'm really excited about this. I have no idea what kind of success it will have in this print advertising application, as Wired is test driving, but the idea couldn't make more sense: give readers an incentive to spend more time with the ads and have access to special deals only available through the ads in the magazine. If Wired works hard to get the word out, this could have huge potential. The biggest problem I can forsee is that if print is eventually replaced by digital readers, these devices will most likely have built in web-browsers to skip the photo step.
For me, I love the potential this technology has for the real-world (as opposed to online) shopping experience. I still buy physical music media, both CD's and vinyl's. Say I'm at a my favorite record store, Princeton Record Exchange in Princeton, NJ. I can browse the stacks, and when I come across something interesting, I can snap a photo, get a link to reviews and listen to song samples. I can test drive the music, and if it hits me the right way, I'll buy.
As the video says, Kooaba recognizes books and movie posters as well. In sum, Kooaba makes it easy for consumers the chance to make educated purchase decisions by simply snapping a photo. Sure, you could do this before with mobile search engines, but this is infinitely easier.
Let us know what you think if you've tried it.
MORE INFORMATION
NYTimes: For Wired, a Revival Lacks Ads
Chris Anderson, Wired's Editor in Chief, being given a hard time on Colbert:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Chris Anderson | ||||
| ||||
Friday, October 16, 2009
A great band changes it's name
I had the pleasure of discovering the band Starfucker this summer, and have really been digging their stuff ever since. It's got some serious groove-ability, but has plently of room for relistening and learning along the way. They've got two albums out, "Starfucker" and "Jupiter," and each offers something slightly different. Don't let the (former) name throw you off, it's pretty misleading if you're expecting offensive lyrics and harsh sounds; it's actually some straight ahead synth-pop, with a hint of disco (especially on the second album).
Well, turns out the band just changed their name from Starfucker to PYRAMID. I really liked the name Starfucker, but let's be honest. You can't sell something that has the work "fuck" in it. Maybe this is a sign of bigger things to come for these guys. Here's the article. And their website. And an interview with the band.
And their first album. First track is killer:
Well, turns out the band just changed their name from Starfucker to PYRAMID. I really liked the name Starfucker, but let's be honest. You can't sell something that has the work "fuck" in it. Maybe this is a sign of bigger things to come for these guys. Here's the article. And their website. And an interview with the band.
And their first album. First track is killer:
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Lala iPhone app: beta version released
It's here. Everyone on the list to test drive the beta version of Lala's new iPhone app got the email this morning announcing that it was available for download. Let's just say this: if Apple ever allows this thing to be available for download on iTunes, the online music world is in for a change. Big time.
Expect lots of buzz, hype, speculation, joy, outrage, disappointment, appreciation and genuine happiness as everyone enjoys streaming their entire music collection from their iPhone/iPod Touch, adding new songs for only $0.10 a pop.
And for those of you just jumping on the bandwagon: www.lala.com. Best thing to happen to music since the invention of the ear. Ok, slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.
Previously:
- Lala iPhone app even closer to official release?
- Top 5 Reasons why Lala beats Spotify and iTunes
Expect lots of buzz, hype, speculation, joy, outrage, disappointment, appreciation and genuine happiness as everyone enjoys streaming their entire music collection from their iPhone/iPod Touch, adding new songs for only $0.10 a pop.
And for those of you just jumping on the bandwagon: www.lala.com. Best thing to happen to music since the invention of the ear. Ok, slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.
Previously:
- Lala iPhone app even closer to official release?
- Top 5 Reasons why Lala beats Spotify and iTunes
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Top 5 Favorite Quotes from "High Fidelity"
Riverhead Books edition, © 1995 Nick Hornsy
1) Page 36, second paragraph.
2) Page 75.
3) Page 96, first paragraph.
4) Page 163, last paragraph.
5) Page 264, first line.
1) Page 36, second paragraph.
2) Page 75.
3) Page 96, first paragraph.
4) Page 163, last paragraph.
5) Page 264, first line.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
A brief thought on tweeting and retweeting those points of interest
Twitter skeptics would argue that most people have no "real audience" for their tweets. Users who don't have thousands, hundreds, or even tens of followers must just be shouting into an echo chamber when they're tweeting and retweeting links they find interesting, right?
Not necessarily. Over the past few months, Twitter has become a way to gauge mass popularity and interest in certain topics, highlighted especially by the big search box on Twitter's redesigned homepage.
If you feel as if your single little tweet about some funny thing you saw in the news will go unheard in the short-term, think of yourself part of a bigger picture. Real-time news aggregators like OneRiot and Delicious keep track of mentions, and if enough people feel compelled to tweet something, it shoots to the top of these lists, getting even more people to see it. Sure, maybe only a handful of your followers will get to read your tweet, but you sharing it demonstrates that yet another person found it worthy of sharing.
That's a driving force behind the idea of the "social web," because it's the users and readers, not the editors and executives—who are constantly deciding which content "really matters" and is "worth reading." Most news sites, like the New York Times, for example, show their "most popular" and "most emailed" stories, so readers can see what's hot at a glance.
This kind of model, where popular links get the most attention, means that we're trusting the taste of lots and lots and lots of other people. Often times, that really funny link isn't so funny, or just really annoying. But you can't deny that a lot of the time, you can StumbleUpon (get it?) some very cool stuff.
So do not tweet and retweet in vain. But for the sake of finding what's relevant and popular and worthy of my click, try talking about yourself less, and what's happening around you more.
Not necessarily. Over the past few months, Twitter has become a way to gauge mass popularity and interest in certain topics, highlighted especially by the big search box on Twitter's redesigned homepage.
If you feel as if your single little tweet about some funny thing you saw in the news will go unheard in the short-term, think of yourself part of a bigger picture. Real-time news aggregators like OneRiot and Delicious keep track of mentions, and if enough people feel compelled to tweet something, it shoots to the top of these lists, getting even more people to see it. Sure, maybe only a handful of your followers will get to read your tweet, but you sharing it demonstrates that yet another person found it worthy of sharing.
That's a driving force behind the idea of the "social web," because it's the users and readers, not the editors and executives—who are constantly deciding which content "really matters" and is "worth reading." Most news sites, like the New York Times, for example, show their "most popular" and "most emailed" stories, so readers can see what's hot at a glance.
This kind of model, where popular links get the most attention, means that we're trusting the taste of lots and lots and lots of other people. Often times, that really funny link isn't so funny, or just really annoying. But you can't deny that a lot of the time, you can StumbleUpon (get it?) some very cool stuff.
So do not tweet and retweet in vain. But for the sake of finding what's relevant and popular and worthy of my click, try talking about yourself less, and what's happening around you more.
Monday, October 5, 2009
A healthy musical mantra for our world today
Since graduation, the future seems scary. No longer does fall mean the beginning of a new school semester, and no longer does summer mean a short internship that you can brag about later on. This is the real deal.
And while it's scary, it's exciting. Maybe that's why this song has held a special place in my ear for the past few months. It's the first track called "The Rain" off Calvin Harris' new album "Ready for the Weekend." Undoubtedly, it's got one of the healthiest musical mantras you could ever hear, especially for someone like myself who's in the process of making "big decisions."
You just get this line:
And while it's scary, it's exciting. Maybe that's why this song has held a special place in my ear for the past few months. It's the first track called "The Rain" off Calvin Harris' new album "Ready for the Weekend." Undoubtedly, it's got one of the healthiest musical mantras you could ever hear, especially for someone like myself who's in the process of making "big decisions."
You just get this line:
These are the good times in your lifeover and over. And if that doesn't make you happy, then there's nothing else I can do for you. Listen and get all jazzed up.
So put on a smile, it'll be alright
Saturday, October 3, 2009
January's going to be a good month: New RJD2 and Vampire Weekend albums
If you're wondering why RJD2's standout track "Ghostwriter" lots of RJD2 tracks are resurfacing on Hype Machine, it's because news recently broke that he's got a new album coming out in January.
If you're familiar with RJD2's work, you know that his third album, called "The Third Hand," was a tangential departure for the sample-heavy work that made "Deadringer" and "Since We Last Spoke" so incredible. Looks as if "The Collosus" is a return to that scratching vinyl vibe, something we were all hoping for when we heard "The Third Hand." For the latest interweb blogosphere news, check this.
And don't forget that Vampire Weekend's second album, entitled "Contra," is slated for release in January as well. Check out this interview with Pitchfork to hear Ezra's take on it.
Lots to look forward to.
If you're familiar with RJD2's work, you know that his third album, called "The Third Hand," was a tangential departure for the sample-heavy work that made "Deadringer" and "Since We Last Spoke" so incredible. Looks as if "The Collosus" is a return to that scratching vinyl vibe, something we were all hoping for when we heard "The Third Hand." For the latest interweb blogosphere news, check this.
And don't forget that Vampire Weekend's second album, entitled "Contra," is slated for release in January as well. Check out this interview with Pitchfork to hear Ezra's take on it.
Lots to look forward to.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
MagCloud and HP: Fantastic customer support
I recently ordered some additional copies of my Penn Station MagCloud I put together this summer.
When the package arrived in the mail, I was frustrated to find that the two copies were creased, bent and unpresentable. They had been shipped in a soft bubble-mailer, seen below, and as you can tell from the picture, the package seems to have been crushed and run over by numerous vehicles before arriving at my house.
I emailed MagCloud and told them what happened. They responded the same day and told me they would be resending the magazines, but this time with the new "velvet glove" shipping option they are beta-testing. I received two follow-up emails asking if I had received the new copies yet, asking for feedback on the condition. The package just arrived today, and MagCloud has completely redeemed themselves for what happened before.
The new copies were shrink-wrapped inside two pieces of cardboard inside a cardboard box with packaging peanuts. A shoddy reenactment of packages opening unfolds below:
When the package arrived in the mail, I was frustrated to find that the two copies were creased, bent and unpresentable. They had been shipped in a soft bubble-mailer, seen below, and as you can tell from the picture, the package seems to have been crushed and run over by numerous vehicles before arriving at my house.
I emailed MagCloud and told them what happened. They responded the same day and told me they would be resending the magazines, but this time with the new "velvet glove" shipping option they are beta-testing. I received two follow-up emails asking if I had received the new copies yet, asking for feedback on the condition. The package just arrived today, and MagCloud has completely redeemed themselves for what happened before.
The new copies were shrink-wrapped inside two pieces of cardboard inside a cardboard box with packaging peanuts. A shoddy reenactment of packages opening unfolds below:
1) The package arrived via UPS in a cardboard box.
2) The box was filled with packing peanuts.
3) Buried within was this shrink-wrapped piece with cardboard on both sides.
4) Inside the cardboard, inside a paper sleeve were the two magazines, in perfect condition.
I couldn't be happier with the way MagCloud handled this. Thanks to their team for caring so much about making sure I got copies of the magazine without any issues.
Previously: Another MagCloud zine: Passing Through Penn Station, 123 John: A Graphic Memoir
Previously: Another MagCloud zine: Passing Through Penn Station, 123 John: A Graphic Memoir
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
More Miike Snow remixes!
Uber techno but still a cool take on the original.
http://fancysounds.blogspot.com/2009/09/black-blue.html
Side note: The remix is by Tiga, who is also also responsible for this outstanding, bizarre and memserizing video music experience:
Via Fancy Sounds via Hype Machine
http://fancysounds.blogspot.com/2009/09/black-blue.html
Side note: The remix is by Tiga, who is also also responsible for this outstanding, bizarre and memserizing video music experience:
Via Fancy Sounds via Hype Machine
Lala iPhone app even closer to official release?
On September 23, the following message was posted on Lala's Beta Feedback discussion forum:
Access to the Beta Feedback discussion forum, which allows users to comment, receive feedback and suggest new features, is available to registered Lala members who have requested to be a Lala Beta tester. Being a Beta tester works a lot like Gmail Labs: you get access to a special tab in your profile settings that allow you activate features that haven't been implemented globally. Right now, this includes features like Last.fm scrobbling and keyboard shortcuts for playback.
What do you think? Is this a major selling point for Lala's service? Will it help them bring in lots of new business? Would it be overshadowed by a US release of Spotify, or—hypothetically—if Apple was savvy enough to release an "Lala-esque" version of their iTunes software?
Previously: Top 5 Reasons Why Lala Beats Spotify and iTunes
If you would be interested in beta testing a Lala iPhone app, please post back and let us know. We're keeping a waiting list of interested members.This is an official Lala employee (we are able to tell by the blue "Lala" badge next to her name), and the post *hopefully* confirms that the Lala iPhone app is getting even closer to an official release. This comes months after TechCruch released this video of the app in it's earlier stages.
Thanks!
Carole
Access to the Beta Feedback discussion forum, which allows users to comment, receive feedback and suggest new features, is available to registered Lala members who have requested to be a Lala Beta tester. Being a Beta tester works a lot like Gmail Labs: you get access to a special tab in your profile settings that allow you activate features that haven't been implemented globally. Right now, this includes features like Last.fm scrobbling and keyboard shortcuts for playback.
What do you think? Is this a major selling point for Lala's service? Will it help them bring in lots of new business? Would it be overshadowed by a US release of Spotify, or—hypothetically—if Apple was savvy enough to release an "Lala-esque" version of their iTunes software?
Previously: Top 5 Reasons Why Lala Beats Spotify and iTunes
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Miike Snow — Glad we're all on the same page
FLASHBACK: It's the third week in July 2009 and I've got a Last.fm station playing. A song by "Miike Snow" plays, I like what I hear, and I start listening to the group's self-titled album. Actually, I start listening to it a lot, as I tend to do when some new music is good enough to keep my attention.
I do some research and find that Miike Snow's song "Animal" is oft-remixed track and there are already tons of versions floating around. And their own remix of Vampire Weekend's "Kids Don't Stand a Chance" is super-slick.
Good for me, I find an artist that I like, and get over the fact that everyone else isn't as into them as I am.
FLASH-FORWARD: It's the third week in September 2009. I get the weekly Hype Machine email in my inbox, and what's the "most popular" track? Miike Snow's "Silvia." Over 550 people "loved the track" on Hype Machine, and the linked blog post even has a video of their song "Black and Blue."
Glad to see they're getting some attention, their album is awesome. I dig the mix of acoustic and electronic instruments, and there's lots of complexity in every song. Check them out if you haven't already.
RELEVENT LINKS
- "Silvia" on Hype Machine
- "Animal" remixes on Hype Machine
- "Kids Don't Stand a Chance" remix on Hype Machine
VIDEOS
Miike Snow - "Animal" from Downtown Music on Vimeo.
MIIKE SNOW - Black & Blue from vincent haycock on Vimeo.
Miike Snow "Burial" from Downtown Music on Vimeo.
I do some research and find that Miike Snow's song "Animal" is oft-remixed track and there are already tons of versions floating around. And their own remix of Vampire Weekend's "Kids Don't Stand a Chance" is super-slick.
Good for me, I find an artist that I like, and get over the fact that everyone else isn't as into them as I am.
FLASH-FORWARD: It's the third week in September 2009. I get the weekly Hype Machine email in my inbox, and what's the "most popular" track? Miike Snow's "Silvia." Over 550 people "loved the track" on Hype Machine, and the linked blog post even has a video of their song "Black and Blue."
Glad to see they're getting some attention, their album is awesome. I dig the mix of acoustic and electronic instruments, and there's lots of complexity in every song. Check them out if you haven't already.
RELEVENT LINKS
- "Silvia" on Hype Machine
- "Animal" remixes on Hype Machine
- "Kids Don't Stand a Chance" remix on Hype Machine
VIDEOS
Miike Snow - "Animal" from Downtown Music on Vimeo.
MIIKE SNOW - Black & Blue from vincent haycock on Vimeo.
Miike Snow "Burial" from Downtown Music on Vimeo.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"Sex" is now an adjective
I missed where this happened. According to Comment #4 from this post on Pretty Much Amazing's blog, "sex" is a verb that explains extreme joy and approval.
Once upon a time, to express extreme excitement, satisfaction or pleasure, it was appropriate to use descriptions like "bad, filthy, disgusting, or dirty" (or sometimes "duuurty"). It could almost be deemed insulting to say something "was super," and everyone knows you're underwhelmed when you say "yeah, it was great."
But there's something at work here bigger than my obliviousness to a linguistic development. With this change, the Adjective Superlative Circle, which measures how words will accurately express the desired level of excitement, has experienced a complete inversion. Where it was once better to "insult" something to express approval, now giving superlative praise demonstrates legitimate enthusiasm. The graphic below demonstrates this phenomenon visually.
Once upon a time, to express extreme excitement, satisfaction or pleasure, it was appropriate to use descriptions like "bad, filthy, disgusting, or dirty" (or sometimes "duuurty"). It could almost be deemed insulting to say something "was super," and everyone knows you're underwhelmed when you say "yeah, it was great."
But there's something at work here bigger than my obliviousness to a linguistic development. With this change, the Adjective Superlative Circle, which measures how words will accurately express the desired level of excitement, has experienced a complete inversion. Where it was once better to "insult" something to express approval, now giving superlative praise demonstrates legitimate enthusiasm. The graphic below demonstrates this phenomenon visually.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
How to see all the songs no wants to be caught having listened to
Last.fm is an awesome online internet radio and internet music community. They've been around for a while now and are a great resource for getting info on bands, artists, tracks, album, etc. Last.fm provides a service to keep track of what you've listened to, which they call "scrobbling." When a track is "scrobbled," it gets added to your list of plays in their database. You can add scrobbling functionality to iTunes (and iPod), Lala, Hype Machine, and lots of other music services so you can keep track of your listening habits and trends from whatever you use to listen to music.
Scrobbled tracks are added to your online library, but get this: you can delete any record that you've listened to a track. That means that if you snuck a listen to Lady Gaga's new release or got your secret fix of Coldplay's Viva la Vida, no one has no know. But surprise! That deletion will get recorded by Last.fm and contribute to their list of most unwanted, "unscrobbled" tracks.
What does this mean? We get a record of all of the tracks people heard but didn't want to get judged for having listened to. The results are exactly what you'd expect:
http://playground.last.fm/unwanted
And get this: armed with a Last.fm username, you can see anyone's list of life-time scrobbled tracks. The cool thing is that there are tons of web-apps to get stats on your listening habits, as well as getting recommendations for new music, and all you need to do is put in the user name. That means you should either guard your username safely, or just not give a shit who sees what you listen to. See the different things you can do here:
http://lastfm.emoportal.de/
My Last.fm username available by request only.
Scrobbled tracks are added to your online library, but get this: you can delete any record that you've listened to a track. That means that if you snuck a listen to Lady Gaga's new release or got your secret fix of Coldplay's Viva la Vida, no one has no know. But surprise! That deletion will get recorded by Last.fm and contribute to their list of most unwanted, "unscrobbled" tracks.
What does this mean? We get a record of all of the tracks people heard but didn't want to get judged for having listened to. The results are exactly what you'd expect:
http://playground.last.fm/unwanted
And get this: armed with a Last.fm username, you can see anyone's list of life-time scrobbled tracks. The cool thing is that there are tons of web-apps to get stats on your listening habits, as well as getting recommendations for new music, and all you need to do is put in the user name. That means you should either guard your username safely, or just not give a shit who sees what you listen to. See the different things you can do here:
http://lastfm.emoportal.de/
My Last.fm username available by request only.
Monday, September 14, 2009
A Closer Look: Piles of random crap
As I've mentioned previously, I have a ton of stuff in my room. Apparently, all this "stuff" can check in any time it likes, but it can never, ever leave.
The breaking point came when unpacking from this summer. After the car was unloaded and everything was upstairs, I paused and looked around. The situation was more dire than I had thought: everywhere I looked, there were piles and groups and messes of random crap. Thankfully, my camera was in my pocket so I documented the experience, and have annotated the pictures to communicate the severity of the situation. I identified many problem areas, but here are four in particular.
The breaking point came when unpacking from this summer. After the car was unloaded and everything was upstairs, I paused and looked around. The situation was more dire than I had thought: everywhere I looked, there were piles and groups and messes of random crap. Thankfully, my camera was in my pocket so I documented the experience, and have annotated the pictures to communicate the severity of the situation. I identified many problem areas, but here are four in particular.
Friday, September 11, 2009
The internet claims its victims, too
It's unfortunate that this project didn't get the funding it needed to be completed, but shows how the internet is not always an immediate recipe for success. Makes me wonder, was the problem with the idea, or little bit of execution that we see here?
Check it out: Health Reform: A Visual Explanation
via Information Aesthetics
Check it out: Health Reform: A Visual Explanation
via Information Aesthetics
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