Is it bedtime?

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-10-12)

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:11:55 +0100

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-10-12):

It’s the simplest manifestation of what a day planner is all...

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:54:58 +0100

It’s the simplest manifestation of what a day planner is all about: time on paper. The clocks occupy a small amount of space on the page and rest is completely flexible. You can write in your own dates at the top of each page, and you can treat the rest of the space like a blank page.

The Chronotebook is a really cool idea.

(via)

Fear Factor

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:35:08 +0100

Tim Bray spoke to a packed room (highlights) about what best to do in times of financial worry in order to stay happy and prosper. It basically comes down to agility, and being able to quickly adapt. For companies, that means no large up-front expenditure, no long-term projects (with nothing to show until the end). For individuals, and in particular developers, it means not tying yourselves religiously to any particular technology or niche - in his words ‘web developer’ is enough of a classification, getting any more specific is dangerous.

He thinks that there will be a lot of demand for improved regulatory technology, as well as a continued (or even increased) need for apps that help people with the things they can’t help but do - their basic needs.

Tech. and Psych.

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:28:42 +0100

The first of the talks that had anything worth writing about was by Suw Charman-Anderson and gave a look into how psychology can be applied to technology and in particular things people do on the web. The highlights are online to watch, and Jemima Kiss at the Guardian has a short write-up that also links to an article previously by Suw in the paper on email compulsion.

The rewards offered by addictive sites, Lolcats are the example, are compared to the food presented to the rats in Skinner’s experiments. There’s a good summary of this here, and Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of versions of Behaviourism, and on Operant Conditioning in particular.

Back from FOWA

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:02:33 +0100

So, back from London. I made quite a few notes on the various talks, and have taken away plenty of little snippets of things to take a more detailed look at. The slides and videos for all the talks are going to be put online at some point, so I don’t see much sense in me just writing about what people said. There were, however, plenty of moments while listening where a point was made, and I’d think of something I’d seen or read previously that I thought of in a new light as a result.

So, I think I’ll have a go at adding some of the highlights, but then taking a look through my delicious links, and trying to find things that go with what’s been said.

To take away one word as to what people see as being the Future of Web Apps? Social. Still.

FOWA

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:21:43 +0100

I’m off to Future of Web Apps in London on Thursday and Friday of this week, quite looking forward to seeing what the different presenters have to say for themselves. Not looking forward so much to the travel there and back, so I hope it’s worth it.

Money Meltdown

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:49:39 +0100

Money Meltdown:

Everything you need to know about the global money crisis of 2007-?.

Looks to be a pretty comprehensive list. The first link is to the This American Life’s Big Pot of Money episode, which is really interesting and you should listen to it.

Related, over the weekend, I found myself going back to read the Interview with a Hedgefund Manager that I found a while ago (and part 2), I don’t see them on the list, but really worth a read.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-10-5)

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:51:36 +0100

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-10-5):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

A Cross the Universe

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:04:17 +0100

A Cross the Universe: Teaser of a forthcoming documentary of Justice, probably NSFW (swearing, brief nudity…) but, depending on how long it is, might be interesting. Band documentaries tend to be to long, in my opinion, wasting time with pointless background questions and ‘setup’, but the glimpses they offer into the world of touring can be interesting. We’ll see, the soundtrack will be good anyway.

Journalism / Coding

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:31:00 +0100

Twitterific last night presented me with an advert for scholaships available to coders wanting to study Journalism at Medill (somewhere in the US), it intrigued me and while what I read on their site sounded really good, the admissions process for International Students seemed like far too much work (and mentioned scholarships not being available…) so I didn’t think any more about it.

Then, this morning a few of the Guardian people I follow on Twitter made mention of it, and were asking if there are/why there aren’t any similar things in the UK. Jemima Kiss, Charles Arthur and Martin Stabe as well as Mark Ng and Dave Lee (that I’ve seen) have all had things to say on the matter, and the conversations are ongoing.

I don’t think I would like to be a journalist, but the process and end-results really interest me, and the things that go on to make news-reporting and -publishing fascinate me. I get excited when I think of some of the uses to which services like Daylife could be put, and of the long-promised APIs from the NY Times and the Guardian.

Portal’s Still Alive, with Typography. (via)

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:45:14 +0100

Portal’s Still Alive, with Typography.

(via)

Johnson Banks’ latest Thought for the Week explores...

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:21:31 +0100

Johnson Banks’ latest Thought for the Week explores copyright and “inspiration” as it relates to logos and brands and is a really interesting article. The hedgehog balloon-dog (yes…) is awesome.

Dexter gets his own Newsstand

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:38:00 +0100

Dexter gets his own Newsstand:

A variety of magazine covers spoofed to advertise Dexter on sale as a Newsstand in San Francisco containing such features as “5 Signs You’re Dating a Serial Killer” and Dexter’s own sandwich recipe.

(via)

Reckoner

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:13:14 +0100

Reckoner: Radiohead have released the ‘stems’ to Reckoner for people to have a play around with, some are pretty good. The Diplo one is brilliant, others are, to put it nicely, lazy - doing little more than speeding up and adding drums.

Capital

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:47:36 +0100

Capital:

This occurs to me while I’m watching Star Wars for the 800th time. When the Millenium Falcon escapes from Mos Eisley, there are no TIE fighters. Three star destroyers, yes, but no TIE fighters. Why is that?

Read on for some speculation.

Mixtapes

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:06:24 +0100

Mixtapes: Courtesy of the New Yorker, two free mixtapes for our collective aural pleasure from Megasoid and Hovatron. I haven’t listened to either all the way through yet, but from a quick flick through if you like that kind of thing.

Singapore Grand Prix on The Big Picture

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:21:42 +0100

Singapore Grand Prix on The Big Picture: Awesome photos of the night-time Grand Prix, including tilt-shift, postcard-style cityscapes, flying cars and Alonso “doing it wrong” on a bike.

A Terror Campaign of Love and Hate

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:09:49 +0100

A Terror Campaign of Love and Hate: In recognition of the soon-to-be-released film telling their story (previously), the Observer today has a piece from someone who met members of the group before and during their infamous activities. The film is released here on November 14th.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-9-28)

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:19:29 +0100

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-9-28):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Music Online

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:18:26 +0100

This week saw the launch of Myspace Music, described as being a new, separate entity with the potential and opportunity to be as innovative as it would like to be. It has the backing of the big music labels and is selling music via Amazon; it’s not going to fail any time soon, I don’t think.

Unfortunately though, it’s only fully available in the US and there are complaints from smaller labels, and independents, that they’re not being given the same chance for exposure as the big four. Both of these things are a pretty big deal, for me at least, but neither are beyond solving. Pandora has never been any good for people in the UK, but as far as I’m aware, Last.fm manages to let people everywhere listen to the music, so it’s hopefully just a matter of time. Similarly, Last.fm makes it really easy for anyone to upload their own music to it, claim ownership and the (generally miniscule) royalties that follow. Last.fm then, surely, has to be something for Myspace to aim for if they don’t want to be an also-ran.

A few weeks ago, Waxy.org had an interview with Ethan Diamond regarding Bandcamp, a site that aims to make it really easy for bands to create good looking websites that let people listen to, and buy, their music. Like the new Myspace (music is all I’ve ever used Myspace for so, for me, this is as good as a replacement) it takes the approach of making entire albums streamable. This is a pretty big improvement over Last.fm or the old Myspace, where generally only a handful of tracks are made available. Bandcamp seems to be aiming very much at indie-label bands though, the kind of groups who have albums available but who rely on word of mouth and reccomendations rather than radio-play and labels’ advertising budgets to get themselves heard.

Then, yesterday (I think, that’s when I saw it) Muxtape filled their homepage with the chronicle of their attempts to get licensing with the labels sorted out. It’s worth a read, it’s not a particularly happy ending but the new plan is to re-launch Muxtape as a platform for bands to make it easy for them to have a web-presence, without the need for a developer. This is sounding familiar.

Is this the new big thing then? It’s exciting in a way to see what the different approaches will result in (if nothing else Bandcamp has shown that visualisations can work on the web, and don’t have to be boring) but at the same time, without the kind of aggregation that makes Last.fm (and Hype-Machine) so useful for the times when I want to find new things, being less specific in what I want to listen to, I don’t see myself being a frequent user. The people who actually seem to Get It don’t seem to be able to get the people who matter (the labels) onside, which is a real shame.