Melvina Reynolds - Little Boxes

My Tumblr as a mosaic →

Neat little app that lets you view your Tumblr as a mosaic.
h/t sarahcooley

I absolutely love this new video from OK GO

staff:

Now testing: Pages

You can now add static pages to your blog, with a few very useful options. Head to your blog’s Customize page and click the “Pages” menu to get started. There are currently three types of Pages you can create:

• Standard Layout. Create a simple page with a title and body using your current theme.
• Custom Layout. Create a page with a completely separate layout.
• Redirect. Forward a route to a page on another domain. Useful for maintaining links when moving your domain name over to Tumblr.

Developers: Check out the Theme Docs for instructions on implementing the new {block:Pages} tag.

DOH! I’ve spent the last two weeks making a portfolio-esque site using permalinks to individual posts like pages. Now Tumblr can be used properly as a CMS, and not in the hacked about way I’ve been doing it.

Thanks very much Tumblr, I just really really wish this had come along about three weeks ago!

(via mikearauz)

Really interesting talk which starts with some stats on Facebook and Farmville. I was amazed by the statistic that there are more Farmville users than Twitter accounts - Facebook is BIG

The most interesting point that is made - who is going to help us get to the point where our behaviour is dictated by marketing and interactivity with brands? I think Google will get their first, I mean, just look at Google Voice which lets you have all those cool services for free in the hope that you contribute to their databases

Achmed the dead terrorist

Drumsound & Bassline Smith Mini Mix - Annie Mac - BBC Radio 1

Action packed

London Meetup: Change of Plan, Next Meetup: Saturday 27th February 2010, 7:30pm @ Jerusalem, 33-34 Rathbone Place, London (Between... →

(Click here for a map.)

Sorry to do this to everyone but the last place just springed on us that they wanted 21+ only and for us all to arrive at the same time. So we’ve booked Jerusalem instead. The new start time is 7.30

Also; if you’re looking for food; Bentio’s Hat… a good Mexican…

There’s a Kent LUG meet that day too. Saturday 27th - the day of Meetups. Exciting stuff

dannahan:

Aziz (@azizansari) ACTUALLY answered my question!  Here’s a video of him scratching! Will post data results tomorrow!

Enjoy!

This is pretty much the response you get when you ask someone that works on Debian when the next release is out

Why is working in a school fun? Because kids are hilarious.

On Spotify

david-noel:

A few weeks ago, MSG asked me to write about the “awesomesauce around Spotify”. I’ve been sitting on Michael’s request for far too long.

So what can I say about Spotify other than it has become one of the (web) applications I use most? Not that much aside from: I use it every day, all day. It’s my go-to-place to listen to music I discover here on Tumblr or Hype Machine. To my surprise, 99% of my search queries have returned results, their catalogue keeps growing and you’ll find most of the newer and less-known music and a huge back-catalogue.

The three main features are Search, Browse and Playlists. Here’s how I use it:

Rather than pure playlists, I use them as folders:

• Albums: here’s where I archive albums that I have listened to for a while, just like your main iTunes
• To Listen: this is where I add albums that I come across but yet still to check out in more detail. Once I’ve done this, I move them to the Albums folder.
• Sweets: single tracks I enjoy. This is probably my only real playlist and it’s pretty long
• Tronics: all things electronic, a playlist for weekend nights
• Hardcore/Punk: where I collect albums and tracks I rediscovered from my teenage years.
• Classics: a place for the old-timers
• Steel: if you remember Pedal Steel Week you’ll know I have an obsession for steel guitars and banjos. This is where it’s at.

Additionally, I saved two collaborative playlists with classical music from my co-worker Matas, who knows everything about classical music.

So that’s it, you ask?

At this point, yes that works for me. Spotify has integrated some social features (like sharing links to Twitter, Delicious and Facebook), the most native feature being the ability to create playlists together with other users. Set up a public playlist and let your friends drop your tracks in there, updated in real-time.

Now, Spotify hasn’t officially launched in Germany so at this point I don’t miss the social aspect at all. I’m curious to see if and what way that will change once my trusted musical allies (yes, you Tumblrs!) get to join the awesomesauce (love that word).

The Home screen is where Spotify feature album and artist suggestions but I barely use it. It’s one of the weaker elements of the service but I don’t mind since I don’t use the home screen to discover music.

They offer an offline version which, in theory, is awesome - if you have an iPhone. I’m still on a Nokia E71 and even tough their Symbian app is pretty damn solid, I use my iPod instead.

Recently, they’ve rolled out their recommendation engine ‘Related Artists’. This is pretty cool. I haven’t used it much yet - instead, I’ve been using a cool app named Find The Band that was built during Music Hack Day in Stockholm. Type in an artist name and based on its data on last.fm, it suggests similar artists and links right into Spotify.

All that said, I am a huge fan and even though I received a free “beta” account, I was happy to pay 120€/$160 right after getting the invitation. It has yet to be seen if Spotfiy can scale its business model globally and compete with other cats like Mog or Grooveshark (which I’ve never used) but until then, I am a happy subscriber and want to see them succeed.

If you ask me, anyone who wouldn’t lay down $160 for a year full of unlimited online & offline music is crazy.

Update: hot-linked into some of my folders. If you have Spotify, you can now access the playlists.

Spotify is really excellent on Android phones too