I quite like last.fm's radio service and I listen to it often when I get bored of my music collection or when I am just way too lazy to set up a playlist. But there are obvious limitations the most essential of which is the simple fact that they don't have all the songs I'd like. Plus what if I just wanted to listen my own songs like a radio station?
Apple's answer was the Genius feature in iTunes. It is a good feature indeed, nevertheless I found myself not using it too much. The selection algorithm is OK, but there are still times when a completely unsuitable song somehow gets selected to the playlist baffling me how it got there.
This is why Boffin excited me from the very start: this tech demo beta from last.fm combines two excellent sets of data, firstly your own music collection and secondly last.fm's plethora of user tags.
The spartan UI has three play control buttons and a weighted tag cloud. Simply selecting the tags that suit your mood and hitting play would start a "radio station" of your own songs. I don't know much about the selection process but so far it has never disappointed. A great way to rediscover some rarely listened tracks or forgotten numbers as well.
It's worth mentioning that the initial scanning looked so awesome and interesting I would never have imagined the dull process could ever be like. To generate the tag cloud Boffin needs to run through your music collection and gather their metadata. While doing this the filenames complete with path are rolling up in a discreet shade of grey in the background adding a geeky effect. And for the coup de grâce Boffin quickly dowloads photos of the artists found and floats them fading in and out in the foreground. The end result looks so good I won't even post a screenshot: I think you should see it for yourselves.
Boffin only reads mp3 files yet but support for various other formats is promised. Hopefully even some user recommended features such as boolean combination of tags or more interaction with the track selection process will eventually be implemented as well.
The beta is currently available for Windows and OS X. Along with the prebuilt binaries the source is also downloadable and many claimed they've successfully compiled it under various linux distributions. To use it no other software is needed: just let it scan through your music and then hit play. If you have a last.fm account then you can use the official last.fm client to scrobble your playlist.
Most kaptam levelet a StartLogictól, hogy április elsejével lejár a tárhelyem bérlete. Tekintve, hogy nem vagyok túlságosan megelégedve a szolgáltatásukkal, azt tervezem, hogy váltok. Viszont abszolúte semmi tapasztalattal vagy információval nem rendelkezem a magyar / európai szolgáltatókról, így ezzel a bejegyzéssel kérek segítséget. Az alábbi igényeim vannak a tárhellyel kapcsolatban:
Kapacitás kevés is elég, hiszen jobbára csak egy WordPress installációt szeretnék ott tartani. Ebből következik, hogy a WP igényei (SQL, PHP, stb.) meg kell, hogy legyenek. Igencsak örülnék kivételesen SSH elérésnek.
A jelenlegi csapattal legfőképp az a bajom, hogy ha valami elromlik, akkor elég lassan és nem túl hatékonyan reagálnak. Valamint hogy az SQL szerverük valamiért botrányosan belassul nem egyszer.
Szóval ismer valaki olyan szolgáltatót, aki problémamentesen tudná a SeSam.hu hostingját ellátni? Ne adj' isten előre installált WorPress-szel is tud szolgálni.
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I just got informed by StartLogic that my hosting has to be renewed by 1 April. However since I am not entirely satisfied with their service I am planning to switch. I lack experience with or information about European hosting providers so I turn to you. My simple expectations are as follows:
I'm not terribly fussed over capacity since I'd be mainly just running a WordPress install. Consequently WP's requisites (SQL, PHP, etc.) have to be met.' I'd be very happy with SSH access for once as well.
With my current hosting the source of dissatisfaction is mainly their slow and inefficient response to malfunctions and the sometimes terribly sluggish SQL server they run.
Would anyone by chance know a service provider that could host SeSam.hu problem-free? Pre-installed WP would be a great advantage.
It was a great day outside - temperature above fifteen degrees Celsius and the sun was shining - so I set out to run a 10k. Instead of taking the turn to HAT Kobe however I just plowed (Safari underlined ploughed) on towards Sannomiya (三宮). I continued along my usual half marathon path: running through under the covered shopping streets of Center-gai (センター街) and Motomachi (元町) then passing by the landmark constructions of the Port Tower (ポート・タワー) and the Maritime Museum (神戸海洋博物館). I took the Route 2 (２号線) that connects Kobe and Osaka for a little while then made the circle around the seaside residential blocks of HAT Kobe (ハット神戸). I stopped three times at playgrounds to rehydrate a bit from the taps installed there. I always left the clock running. The whole run was 21.52 kilometers long and took 2:24" to complete. Considerably slower than my very first half marathon which I couldn't surpass ever since.
I'm happy about the fact that even though I feel a lot slower and less fit lately I am still capable of running a decent enough distance. It is debated by my family but I think I'd be better off losing about 5 kg of surplus around the abdominal region as well. Still - the way I see it - running any distance is about simply not stopping. There is a lot of truth to the just do it Nike slogan.
For the first part of the run I was listening to HINOIチーム, a truly silly J-pop group. They play high-powered eurobeat covers, taken from the italo-disco / eurodance style you might know from Vengaboys. They are extremely funny to listen to, and their songs provide for a good adrenaline rush. The only drawback is it's absolutely impossible to keep up with the speed of their songs during a longer run.
The oldest member is 18 and the tallest of them is barely 162. Absolutely frivolous.
With this run I also took the time to map the route with the Nike+ built-in mapping tool. I found it really easy to use: I just had to click point-by-point on a Google map and the software did the distance calculations. Apparently the Nike+ device really is accurate as well since the map ended up to reach the 21.5k point almost right where I remembered I stopped.
There is one big drawback with using Nike's tool: the window they let you do the mapping in is extremely small. It's OK during the drawing phase when I'd want to see as much street detail as I can. However when I'd like to see the whole run I have to zoom out so much almost all the detail disappears. While I understand that this way the mapping tool is in harmony with the rest of Nike+ site a pop out or full screen feature would help a lot with being able to view the routes properly.
For today I embarked upon a new project: I looked for interesting routes in Kobe crafted by other Nike+ users to run. Luckily for me the city seems abundant in runners in the immediate vicinity and the Japanese are apparently keen on playing with the Nike+ site's extra features.
For today I chose a simple 5k circle around Oji Koen mapped by ドラ. I printed the screen from the website to guide my lightweight orienteering. I started at the Oji Koen train station (王子公園) and the run really did surprise me with the exceptionally steep uphill climb right after. The rest of the run turned out to be pretty casual with a gradual slope down to Shin-Kobe Station* (新神戸) and then with the occasional climb back to the zoo.
At least this way I'm not running the same routes all the time and I might even occasionally bump into some other runners as well.
* Fun trivia: Shin-Kobe Station got its name from the fact that the Shinkansen stops there. Usually the Shinkansen makes a stop at the main station named after the city, with Tokyo Station as a prime example. However with the position of Kobe Station there was just not enough space to lay the Shinkansen tracks there so the Japanese had to build a whole new station for it. The same is true for Osaka: there is a Shin-Osaka Station.
Besides being the cutest thing ever EVE (short for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) is said to be influenced by the latest Mac designs. So it is only appropriate if she appears on the Dock, which is exactly what this EVE icon set for Adium by mxmln offers:
Disconnected she is in "plant mode" and upon message reception she gets the smiley eyes. My only woe is that there is no indication whatsoever for the away status. Nevertheless this is a minor issue compared to the sheer awesomeness of the whole thing. Download it here.
What bothers me more is this Adium bug: the dock icon keeps reverting to the default green bird when I quit. I've tried everything: restarted the dock, removed and reapplied the icon, reinstalled Adium, to no avail. I opened a ticket on in the trac system, but until now it's been pretty quiet.
Update: I managed to fix the icon! Apparently I used the wrong approach to remove and re-add. Removing then using Spotlight to start the program then pulling the icon to place would not work. I had to remove the icon then pull the app bundle from the Applications folder to the Dock to fix. Hope this helps.
I woke up frustrated and depressed - I don't really know why, it's just like this often.
But then as I went through my Reader feeds I found this new Röyksopp video and I couldn't help smiling at the space invaders shot down by a Trabant. So insanely 80s cool.
I am guilty as charged of 3, 7, 8, 13, 15, 19, 21, 24, 28, 47, 57, 62, 73 (of course) and 87. 14 out of 99. I'm not entirely sure if this is good or bad.
I have been patiently waiting for the Last.fm iPhone App to appear in the Japanese iTunes Store but I guess the local mobile music lobby is way too strong to allow it any soon. All the mobile providers here offer some kind of music streaming service after all.
The Last.fm App for the iPhone is currently only available in the US, the UK, Germany, Spain, France and Canada. If you don't happen to live in these countries you are basically shafted - in theory.
So I decided to hack my way into the US iTS. It is surprisingly easy with the introduction of the free applications since formerly the biggest issue was to somehow acquire a valid credit card number of the target state.
And as an address you need to specify a valid US location for which I used the San Francisco Apple Store's. Remember to register a different email as well if you already have an iTS registration. Piece of cake. Note that this works for any free iPhone Application you'd want to get from the US iTS.
Very elegantly the iPhone can feature Apps from different stores. At least I managed to retain all my previous applications exactly the way they were and simply had the Last.fm App transfer over as if it was from the J-Store as well.
As for the Last.fm App itself: I went shopping with my phone in my pocket tuned to my recommendations and I was on cloud nine. Bless my limitless 3G data plan now I can listen to Last.fm stations anywhere with adequate reception. (To my great disappointment mountains are blocking some of the Kobe-U classrooms.)
One weird issue I have encountered using the app is that it is prone to run out of buffer constantly using my WiFi network. This is quite strange since it never ever had such a problem on the obviously much slower 3G network. I suspect it is some coding quirk in Apple's networking implementation or in the Last.fm App's streaming code. For now I just disabled WiFi entirely since 3G is fast enough for anything anyway.
'I'm from the NHK and I came to collect the television fee.'
'I don't watch TV, I don't have one.'
'On your computer then?'
'I don't watch TV.'
'OK, so on your mobile.'
'I don't watch TV.'
'Oh.'
