Archive for 2:34 pm

Young Geeks

When I find out just how young some of the web site developers are out there I shudder in my decrepit old age, and wonder how long I can hang on to my job. If I understand correctly, the creator of this site is still in high school. I’m sure there are even more creative sites out their by even younger artists (yeah artists, because while I can code, I can’t get’em to look perty), but the fact that he’s got flash and an integration to paypal still makes me take notice.

Nice job Peter!

UPDATE: Got an email informing me that he’s in his first year of college. Now I feel so much better…. NOT!

Pandora

OK, this has to be one of the coolest things on the internet right now and I have to give the hat tip to my boss Aaron for this one.
Pandora - minimized screen shot
Pandora is a free online radio of sorts.
From their FAQ:

Q: What is Pandora?
Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music that you’ll love. It’s powered by the Music Genome Project, the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we’ll launch a streaming station to explore that part of the music universe.

Q: How do you decide what to play?
We take your input (artists, songs) and feedback (“I like this”, “I don’t like this”) and use the Music Genome Project to create stations that play songs that are musically similar to what you’ve told us. That’s it; only the music counts. We don’t care how popular the artist is, who’s backing them, and we don’t care which genre bin they usually belong in. Only the music matters.

If you look closely you can see the stations that I’ve created. ‘War Radio’ is based off the group War and pulls in other psychedellic funk groups. I’m currently listening to my Ian Anderson station – so why are they currently playing Lisa Loeb? When I click on the ‘Guide Us’ button I can select ‘Why is this song playing?’ Below is a screen shot of the answer.
reason for playing Lisa Loeb
Needless to say you need Macromedia Flash Player and a solid broadband connection but WOOT this thing is fun. Have a blast!