So I’m about a week into using Google+ and I have to admit that I’m a big fan, bordering on fanboidom. While everything is not perfect with the service, there is a whole lot that I really like so far.
Thoughts on Google+ So Far
Category Archives: Internet
XKCD’s perspective on Google+
If you haven’t heard yet, Google is wading it’s way into the social network scene with Google+. Find out more about the service here and check out this really cool Wired.com article on how the new venture was born.
Now, I’m totally geeked about G+. I’m not certain why since I don’t use Facebook near like I used to, but I’m giddy to get an invite (thanks to my brother for continuing to try to hook me up). I think part of what makes me want to use G+ is that it isn’t Facebook. No more Farmville or daily horoscope notifications from people is a really nice possibility.
As with many things in life, no one can express this sentiment better than XKCD can. Yes, they are that freakin’ smart and funny.
Totally Digging Pandora Radio
Apparently this has been around for a while and I just didn’t know about it, but if you’re in to music and you like finding new stuff you should definitely check out Pandora Radio. Pandora Radio is an Internets radio station created by the Music Genome Project, where they’ve identified some 400 characteristics to describe music at its most basic level, and use a really complex algorithm to group songs and artists together.
The beauty of Pandora, in my limited use so far, is that you just punch in the name of a song or artist that has the kind of music you’re in the mood to listen to and it will use its magic to play songs that fit right in with that mood. So far my experience has been that its extremely accurate in the selections that it makes for you to listen to.
By creating a profile for free, Pandora will also remember the stations you’ve created based on your song or artist searches so that you can cue a past request right up when you get back to the page. I don’t know how many different stations you can have. I only have three at this point, but I would have to assume that it would be quite a few more than that.
There are a couple of limitations in functionality that people will probably dislike, but they’re understandable given licensing rules Pandora has to deal with from the the publishing companies. You can’t hear any song you want at any time. You do get a limited number of song skips per hour and you can sample pretty much everything they have, but you don’t get on demand songs. The record companies just won’t let that happen. So if you want to hear a specific song immediately, try your luck at YouTube.
My only other complaint that I have at this point is that some of the technical stuff doesn’t seem to want to play nice with Chrome. Some of the layout/CSS stuff doesn’t seem to want to agree with Chrome. Also, you have the ability to get more information about whatever artist is playing at the moment or additional information about the song your listening to. The problem comes in that the site provides this information in a pop-up, which Chrome blocks everytime, forcing me go through my pop-up blocker to get to the additional information I want to read. Not a huge deal, but kind of annoying.
Like I said before, if you’re looking to hear a specific song right away, this isn’t the place for you, but if you want to listen to the kind of music you want to hear, and maybe find a new artist or two along the way, Pandora is a great place to do that. Without a doubt, its an improvement on crappy radio stations that play the same songs over and over and make you sit through commercials all the time.
How This is a Green Site?
Got the question from CK on how my site is “green.” If you don’t know what I’m talking about look over there —>.
Basically, the reason I have the pic/link on my site is because my webhost is a carbon neutral company. I like the fact that they’ve worked to reduce their use of limited resources and reduce their impact on the environment, and, though I’m not often prone to involving myself in causes, this is one I can get behind.
I wouldn’t consider myself an environmental junky, but I have a strong awareness that the fossil fuels that we’re completely dependant on to get by aren’t going to last forever and as time goes on our dependence on them will be generally harmful to our life situation. Additionally, I like clean air. It was amazing to me how clean and fresh the air in the highlands of Scotland was in comparison to the air in the cities where I grew up and lived.
I think people in general should be better stewards of the Earth and take care of the environment we have. I like to breath clean air and I like to have clean water and the quality of both is going to deteriorate if we don’t change the way we do things.
Okay, hopping off the box. If you’re looking for a webhost and you’re interested in using someone that tries to help take care of the environment, check these guys out. And I just saw that they’re offereing a ridiculous deal on their hosting.
I Don’t Get Twitter
I consider myself a tech savvy guy. I like gadgets, I read a tech news blog daily, and I’m always into looking for the new Internets tech coming out. That being said, I just don’t get the whole Twitter thing.
From the talk around town Twitter is the bee’s knees, but I just don’t understand its appeal. You get 140 characters to update people one what you’re doing. What can you put in 140 characters? Not a whole lot. So I’m wondering what kind of updates you’re supposed to put on there. Am I supposed to keep everyone up to speed on what TV show I’m watching or what I’m eating at each meal? I just don’t think things like that are all that interesting.
Maybe my life just isn’t interesting enough for a Twitter account. And for that matter, I don’t think I want people all up in my business like that. Hell, I have a hard time remembering to update my status on my Facebook account. Maybe someone can enlighten me on what its all about. TJ, if you read this, I’m looking at you because you’re the only one I know with a Twitter account.
Polymeme.com
So one of the tools that you have to help you manage WordPress blogs (and probably a lot of other blog engine blogs) is the ability to see what websites are linking in to your site. Whenever I find that a site has linked to my blog I’m always curious to see who’s linking to me so I usually go check their site out. The other day I got a really random link from a site called Polymeme.com and I think it might be one of the more interesting sites I’ve come across lately.
First let me try to explain the term meme. I’ll probably fail horribly because I’m not totally comfortable with the definition myself, but here goes. Basically, a meme is a “thing” that gets propagated through society in a viral manner. It can be anything from an idea to a theory to a behavior, but the key is that its passed from person to person, sort of like a virus. In Internets terms, a meme is usually a video or blog article or web article that gains a great deal of popularity through people linking to it or sharing it with friends through email.
There are a number of websites out there designed to aggregate the hottest memes of the day, many of them leaning heavily in the technology direction. Some of the more well known are Buzz and Digg.com. I’ve messed around on Digg a little bit, but honestly I haven’t found it all that helpful in finding articles that I’m interested in reading. What I’m finding about Polymeme is that it works hard to aggregate articles on topics that may not get as much attention on Digg or Buzz, such as economics, science, or law.
I haven’t spent a ton of time on the site yet, but I’ve already found a couple of articles that I thought were interesting. In reading articles about Polymeme and what it was about, a common comment was that it got outside of the typical “echo chamber” of aggregators where they’re all talking about the same thing, and I think that’s one of the best aspects of the site. I look forward to investigating it more to see what I can find.