For the (nearly) random discovery that radio used to offer there are two services that stand out to me for finding new tunes. The first is something that I’ve only played around with a little bit but is really pretty awesome: Pandora. Pandora is a project by the Music Genome Project who’s goal is to catalog all music using a very granular set of categorization and analysis that links similar types of music together. The way Pandora works is you put in an artist or song you already know and love and Pandora creates a streaming “radio station” made up of music that is in a similar vein. As new songs play you can skip, give a thumbs up or a thumbs down and the stream updates according to your feedback. Really works amazingly well.

The second service works in a similar way bit is a little less convoluted in its recommendation process. Last.fm works more as a community  submitted way in that you sign up for an account, download a plug-in for your music player of choice and listen to music already in your library. Over time it tracks your listening habits and aggregates it in a number of ways (which is a really fun thing to know in and of itself). You can then create a personal streaming station based on your tastes and it pulls in  music from people’s play lists that like the same kind of stuff you do. Again as it plays you can give instant feedback to hone in on what you really are digging and what falls a little flat. Last.fm also has the whole social networking thing going on in that you can see other users who have similar tastes as you and can hook them up as friends, join in discussion groups and send specific recommendations to your friends.

So you’ve just discovered your new musical obsession, where do you go to find out a little bit more about them? The first place I usually end up going is AllMusic. Think of it as an IMDB for music. They’ve got, what I think are pretty spot-on, album reviews, band bios and other essential information. It’s all a little clunky but the content is strong enough I can ignore some usability quirks.

The other service that just came out that REALLY has blown me away is the FoxyTunes Planet. FoxyTunes is a Firefox plug-in that I’ve used for a while now. Essentially it adds a little iTunes control panel in the status bar at the bottom of your browser. What they’ve just added is a search for their new FoxyTunes Planet search (you can also do a search directly on the website). What this does is if you click on the search button you will be taken to the site with an aggregated search of many of the music resources available on the webincludng some mentioned above specific to the song and artist you are currently listing to. Think of it as a Google Home Page for that particular song. You get a blurb from the band’sWikipeda entry, a list of relevant videos on YouTube, a list of related artists from Last.fm, lyrics and much more. It’s an amazingly helpful one stop shop, even for bands you are already familiar with.

So get out there find some new hot beats and if you find anything especially rockin’ drop us a line and let us know. There really isn’t ever too much new music…

Here’s the thing MySpace does a lot of stuff right. Its relatively easy for anyone to get a page up and with very little, or no knowledge of HTML. The ability to control nearly every aspect of the way your page looks is very satisfying and really makes it feel like you’ve made it yours. Users can create blog entries, keep in contact with friends, post pictures etc. all great things. The giant influx of bands, both large and small is a great way for people to find new music and for artists to interact with fans on a very personal level is extraordinary.

The problem is that the whole experience completely sucks from start to finish. The user interface is a nightmare. The customizability has led to what might be some of the worst eyesores the web has seen since the GeoCities days. God help you if you have your speakers on and land on a page with auto-play music. I’ll not even mention the over saturation of obtrusive, and often times offensive, advertising that blankets everything.

There have been many sites that have come along in the last few years that all have their own followings but haven’t managed to catch on quite like MySpace. Last week I discovered one that I truly hope will knock all of them off the top of the heap. It’s called Virb and it’s awesome!

As far as I’ve discovered Virb does everything MySpace does only bigger and better. You’ve got your friends lists, your blog postings, your profile settings, your photo gallery (with Flickr integration I should note). You’ve got your complete design control too which could be potentially be a hindrance as mentioned above but with one key difference (and this is what sold me on the site): at the top of every single page is a link that says “Remove Customization” and returns that page to it’s original “factory settings.” GENIOUS! They’ve even got the music thing going with an increasingly growing list of some pretty impressive artists. In addition to adding your favorite bands to your friend list you can create a personal playlist from songs they’ve posted, kinda like a mini personal sound track. They’ve also got a section that will keep you abreast of upcoming shows in your area. They’ve even upped the ante a bit with the addition of emphasis on photographers and fashion as well. All of this wrapped in a quite pleasing Web 2.0 shell that’s fantastically easy to use and does exactly what you expect it to.

just because it was It’s one downfall at the moment is the problem with all these social networking sites, EVERYONE is still on MySpace. None of the sites can really work until they hit a certain critical mass. I’ve been able to get in contact with many people that I haven’t seen in ages (for both good and ill) through MySpace. I have no idea what that crucial number is but hopefully Virb gets there soon.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must pick out the perfect color scheme, write a fittingly Emo blog post and add the Bloc Party to my friends list.

Logoorange branding and identity has put togethera famous brands glossary (http://www.logoorange.com/logodesign-A.php).  It showcases a number of very famous logos with some of the history and evolutions of said logos.  It’s pretty amazing what has happened to the logos we take for granted.  Most of the histories are pretty boring, but some.. well, I won’t spoil the surprise.  I’m sure they’ll be adding more and hopefully people will help broaden some of the histories.

After searching for a font a client needed, I stumbled upon FontShop’s blog post ona Flickr post showcasing the Logos of Web 2.0 (http://flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/101793494/in/set-72057594060779001/).  Now we all know that if you put and “e” before something, it will fail in a dot-com style 90′s disaster.  But this is the new millenium (or is it still Willenium and when will that joke get old?) and all you need to do these days is add an “i” or “2.0″ before or after respectively.  Or actually, not respectively…would Phonei work or 2.0 Web… hmm… a new trend? No. Yes respectively.  So making your logo 2.0 is a surefire way to get rich or get your brand noticed in this new landscape.

A number of the logos are highlighted and you can get some more info or larger versions, but if you really want the full effect, download the full image.  This shows the way a trend can be disseminated to all sizes and realms of businesses.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing and I am recently quilty of creating “2.0ish” imagery and logos, but it could be the new design crutch with which we are stuck with.

Logos show trends in design both good and bad, but they also show what the public wants.  If a logo gains a certain amount of fame, then others will follow and create similiar logos in attempt to garner some residual attention.

The best we can hope for is another innovative design strategy soon and then we’ll all look back fondly on those cute lil’ 2.0 logos.

How is it that one can loose a good hour surfing the web on any given work day (of course I’m speaking hypothetically here I’m a productivity ninja at the day job) but when there’s nothing else to do it seems that all there is to do is sit and refresh your RSS reader in the hopes that SOMEONE has posted SOMETHING in the last 10 minutes.

Sure you can stumble around YouTube in the hopes that you find that one gem but mostly you’re just going to find a bunch of boring crap. And while Digg gets updated quite often over the weekend, for some reason nothing that rises to the top is all that interesting. Well here are a few tips to get your lazy unproductive Sunday afternoon more efficiently unproductive.

My first suggestion is what I’ve come to call Wiki Roulette. It’s really very simple, just head over to Wikipedia, look up some random thing. It’s best to start with something you’ve maybe been interested in finding out a little more about but haven’t really put too much effort into actually tracking down. Next step is, as you read, any link that you find yourself being even remotely intrigued by, click on it but open it in a new tab (you are using FireFox aren’t you??). Hopefully by the time you’ve finished reading the first entry you will have a tab or four open. close your current tab and repeat step one. I’ve found that by the time I hit the fourth or fifth tab I re-discover something that I had forgotten that I had followed and the “learning” kind of takes care of itself. The whole process, and why it’s great, is probably best illustrated by this diagram.

If you’re of a more artly mindset I would suggest heading over to Drawn! It’s whole goal is to simply point out the cornucopia of amazing art portfolios scattered across the web. I check this site every day but never at a time that I can really delve in to the amazing work that is highlighted here. There is some truly beautiful work being done out there and you’re doing yourself a disservice not to check it out.

The last, and maybe the best, thing to do is just rummage back through your bookmark collection. How many times have you saved something thinking “I’ll check back on this later when I’ve got a little more time” and never saw that particular site or story ever again. This is a great way to rediscover some gem of a video or finally get back to that awesome site you found a year ago. Hey at the very least you might be able to delete a few of those dinosaur links that are just adding to the mess that is your bookmark folder.

These are just a few afternoon killing suggestions that work great for me. What’s your favorite weekend webby timesink?

There are a myriad of things about the Internets that warm the cockles of my geeky little heart. One is the inherently collaborative nature of the whole thing. Hell, it’s what the whole Web 2.0 business model is based on (and yes, that term drives me nuts too). Unfortunately, this is also one of the things i absolutely HATE about the current state of the web. While the whole instant feedback/conversation thing has been around pretty much since the web’s inception, it’s something that I haven’t really followed for very long. I’ve got ZERO Usenet cred.

I guess my first experience with reader feedback started when I began following a few comic book news sites/forums a couple of years ago. While a particular story or press release might have only seemed slightly interesting to me, the conversation from the users that followed was almost always just as compelling, if not more so.  And then a funny thing happened. It wasn’t a sudden thing, it just kinda crept up slowly. It started with nearly every new story having the first few responses simply say “First Post!” or “*** creator sucks!!”. Eventually I discovered I was much happier just ignoring the comments altogether. Nearly every other site I’ve frequented has reached this point for me at some point. For Digg, it was last week.

When I first started reading Digg on a regular basis, it did have casual dipshitery to deal with. Constant cries of “Dupe!!” drove me up the wall, but could (for the most part) be ignored. I’ve consistently learned more from the comments on any given story than anything from RTFA . When they implemented the user administered commenting system, i was elated. It pretty much took care of those minor annoyances and let me get to the good stuff. Alas, not any more. I think the site has finally reached a critical mass in which any amount of decent, well thought out discussion has been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of idiots. While the comment moderating might block the most offensive comments, it doesn’t prevent the whole train of discussion from coming of the tracks. It only takes one ignorant, racist comment on a Barack Obama story to plunge the whole conversation into a flame war that has nothing to do with what the actual article was about. And as tremendously satisfying as it may be to hit that “block user” button, it still feels like slapping a band-aid on a severed limb.

What’s the solution? I really have no idea. Maybe a more active “official” moderator in addition to the user-policed system. Maybe, like in the happy-fun-fairy-land-that-only-exists-in-my-head, if people would just take a few moments to think about what they are about to type we’d all be a lot happier. Oh, and maybe some actual accountability for what is said,that’d be nice too.

All that being said, I, myself, am necessarily helping to add to the intelligent discourse on any of the sites I frequent. I’m a bit of a serial lurker but when I do get around to adding my voice to the conversation I make damn well sure I’ve got something to actually add. And maybe that’s the problem, it’s just too easy to drop in a quick “u rteh sux 0r” and be on your merry way… or maybe I’m just getting old. And even though it can be exhausting, I still believe the conversation to be incredibly vital and I think I speak for everyone here at SilentTalkie when I say we want to hear what you all have to say, just make sure it’s something worth saying.

VALENTINE’S DAY

Valentine’s Day aka Hump Day is defined in the Interfaith Calendar as a:

Christian celebration of the love of God presented in Jesus and in the lives of Christian believers. St Valentine was a 3rd century martyr. This day is widely observed in the USA as a secular celebration of love.

But it is so much more than that. I stand before you today to make this a vacation day all across Canada. It ought to be an official religious holiday. Let me show you why…

Once upon a time mankind’s population was a mere fraction of what it is now. The number of human beings on the earth back then numbered in the hundreds of thousands instead of the billions. Before our society became the rich, vibrant mosaic of cultures we see today, humankind was a lowly group of pathetic, dirty, barbarians. We rarely lived past thirty and we suffered under the cruelty of equally barbaric gods.

Religions and superstitions brought certainty to these peasants. Everything important to survival that could not be controlled directly was given a personification – a godlike quality that could be prayed to or worshiped. The sun, the moon, the rain and the harvest and of course, fertility. Fertile crops, fertile cattle, fertile wives – these things were important. Fertility could not be left up to chance. Sacrifices had to be made – sometimes even your first born or virgin daughter. In Genesis 22:

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” v1-2.

Now, God sent an angel to prevent Abraham from following through. However, because Abraham was willing, God promised him:

LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

Human sacrifice was required for the fertility of Abraham’s seed. This is when Valentine’s Day truly began. This is why Hump Day must be an official religious holiday.

In fact, phallic symbols can be found even in places of worship today. In opposition to Yahweh, it was  was forbidden to worship the god Baal.

King Jehu said to the guards and to the officers, ‘Go in and slay them; let none escape’. And they smote them with the sword; and the guards before the king threw their bodies out, and went into the inner dwelling of the house of Baal. They brought out the obelisks [pillars] of the house of Baal and burned them.” 2 Kings 10:26

These obelisks were four sided pillars with a pyramid at the top. They appear on every church steeple in every town. They are also a symbol for a very large penis. If religion began as rite of fertility, why did we deviate from this path? Might the masses be missing out on a taste of the divine? Should we not bring back the temple prostitutes?

Genesis 38 shines some light on what used to happen back in the early periods of civilization.

Judah sent the goat by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman; but he could not find her. So he asked the men of the place, “Where is the temple prostitute, the one by the roadside in Enaim?” But they answered, “There has never been a temple prostitute here.” v20-21

But what do we gather from this passage? Not only was the god-fearing man Judah open to having sex with temple prostitutes in exchange for wealth (the goat), it was seen later in the chapter as a wise thing for this woman to do.

Somewhere in history we’ve lost this rich breath of life in religious ceremonies. Dan Brown, a most learned and well-spoken author focused on this in his latest book The Da Vinci Code. A sect of Christianity was constantly in fear of being destroyed by the Catholic church for worshiping the female persona of God. The deviant sect also used sex as part of their religious rituals, and in viewing the Catholic church (specifically Opus Dei) as wrong in the end, we can only conclude from the novel that we too ought to be having sex in the foyers and worship rooms each and every Sunday.

Now since there may be a small amount of push-back or resistance to this idea, I feel we ought to instead institute St. Valentine’s Day as an official religious holiday, to make our own personal sacrifices for the fertility of mankind in the privacy of our own home.

Call your MP today.

While trying to find space on my incredibly choked-full hard drive for some precious bits to download the current episode of The Daily Show I realized I had over 4 gigs worth of content in my iTunes Podcast directory.

4 GIGS!!!

This is a problem. Like so many things I get temporarily obsessed over, I tend to go a little overboard and bite (hehe, computers.. bite…) off more than I can chew. While podcasts are freaking great, I also have a variety of other pointless wastes of time I enjoy engaging in (books, comics, movies, etc.). Also due to a recent move, my daily commute was cut from around an hour a day to about 10 minutes so I’m just not keeping up with my internet radio fix. Some tough choices had to be made. In the spirit of spring cleaning I culled the heard, cleared the cache and didn’t look back.

I have recently self-enforced an expiration date on DVD’s from NetFlix (if I have a disc for more than a week I really didn’t want it in the first place: send it back) and figured that was a pretty good rule for my podcast library as well. I cleared out a significant space on my ‘puter knowing full well that I could always go back and re-download a given file if I needed to even as my inner packrat screamed in pain.

So, moral of the story? Get out there find new stuff, absolutely, but don’t get bogged down too much, besides, the discovery of the next cool new thing is way more interesting than the boring paperwork and study that comes later. Or something…

Of course what I am talking about is the very tool we use to access the wonderful world of the World Wide Web: our browser. The enemy? The nearly soul-crushing 88% majority that are STILL FUCKING USING INTERNET EXPLORER!!! What the hell is wrong with you people??

As a web developer nearly all complications / frustrations / exacerbations of my day start with someone saying “looks great in FireFox but seems to be broken on my PC’s IE.”

I realize that since this is my personal obsession and must always be on the bleeding edge of technology that I’m going to be ahead of the run-of-the-mill web surfer out there. I would hope that people would start to realize that they do have alternatives or at least would start to look for them after their 8th crippling virus and 8 millionth pop-up ad. But then I remember that there are still people using the AOL browser and I spend the rest of the day in a corner weeping.

The problem isn’t just with ignorance of the greener side of the road, I work with people who just “haven’t gotten around to switching over.” I can talk ’til I’m blue in the face of the advantages (I’m pretty sure that God worked an extra 8th day to invent tab browsing…) of nearly any other browser than IE and get nowhere. It’s time to take this fight to the next level.

I had a coworker espouse the idea a few years back of writing a benevolent virus that would go into peoples computers, install FireFox, upgrade to the newest Flash plugin and destroy any remnant of the dreaded IE on their hard-drive. I still think this is a brilliant idea but since I feel like prison and me wouldn’t really “gel” I’m proposing another solution.

While I haven’t seen any actual statistics on the subject, I get the sense that the general Silent Talkie reader is generally pretty “with it” as the kids say and probably already knows what a good web browser can do for one’s internet experience so I kinda feel like I’m preachin’ to the choir. What I need all of you to do is, next time you’re at your parents/grandparents house over a holiday (Easter’s coming real soon!) install a real browser for them. See an untended laptop at the local Starbucks? Use that WiFi hotspot for some good use and give the obviously careless owner a gift that keeps on giving.

Guerilla tactics aren’t just for revolutionary armies and savvy film promoters any more. Take back the web! You’d sure as hell be making my work day a whole lot easier…