RasterWeb!Didn’t I recently mention that I’m not a fan of Microsoft?
That said, the Windows Home Server actually looks cool. I mean, the concept is cool, but from what I can see so far, it’s (get ready) only of any use to you if you use Windows. So, for a home network consisting of computers running Mac OS X and Linux, it has no place…
But for folks running Windows and nothing else, hey, it looks pretty nifty!
Just a reminder folks, the next Web414 meeting is this Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 7PM. (Also listed on Upcoming.org)
I haven’t had much time to work on the Web414 site lately, but hopefully I can find a bit of time, or spur some folks into action before the February meeting. (Who knows, maybe Mike can even kick out a logo or two by then.)
I also need to work on promotion, and getting in touch with people in Milwaukee about the new group. Oh, here is what I came up with for a mission statement:
Web414 – Milwaukee’s Web Community: The Web414 group consists of amateurs and professionals interested in building and improving the web today and in the future. We are a diverse group including designers, programmers, publishers, and entrepreneurs – all with a common interest in creating the new web.
If you know any folks in the Milwaukee area who might be interested in this, please tell them about the group, or just pass them on to me. Thanks!
I was thinking about music recommendation sites/engines (which seem to be all the rage nowadays) as well as the proliferation of iPods (and iTunes users) and the fact that the Zune thinks it so cool because it does some sort of simple sharing (which is supposedly “social” in nature.)
So if it really is “all about the playlist” (I think Lucas Gonze said this once, so I’ll give him credit) why doesn’t Apple follow through… Here’s my thought:
If you’ve got an iPod, chances really good that you use iTunes. iTunes does playlists. It can even do things like make a smart playlist of tracks you have recently played, and feed them back to a service like last.fm, which can show you neat stuff like what you listen to the most, what your friends are listening to, who your musical neighbors are, etc. last.fm doesn’t really feed back to iTunes or your iPod though – here’s where Apple could step in…
Let’s say that your iPod feeds back to Apple’s iTunes Music Store the tracks you’ve played, and does the “people who like X also like Y” thing, but then also provided samples (low bitrate, 30 second preview, whatever) back to you as downloads in iTunes (heck, they could be automated, podcast-style) which then get synced to your iPod. So each day you sync and get something new, of which you might want to purchase.
This is just a rough idea, I’m sure Apple could create a good experience for sharing playlist data, and recommending music.
I know there are sites that do somewhat similar things for podcasts (AmigoFish, GigaDial) but they require some sort of manual labor on the user’s part. Automation and simplicity would be the key though, provide benefits to the users without forcing them to do any/much work.
Thoughts?
Drew posted this thing and said I was supposed to do the same… So, eh, why not?
Now tagging: Michael Raichelson’s, Mike Rohde, Jordan Arentsen, Justin Kruger, Vinny Carpenter.
(See Also: Jeff Pulver, The Blog Tag Tree…)
It’s been over a month now since I got an iBook. I’ve had old PowerBooks before, but they were never that portable (meaning they had almost useless batteries, and no wifi.)
So, having a working laptop is an interesting thing. I know, some people live by their laptops, but I’ve always been a desktop guy. These are my observations so far on carrying around and using an iBook.
Those are my notes so far. I’m sure I’ll have more as I go.