Table 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't existTable 'zpwpxdnj_myblog.blog_comment' doesn't exist
|
| 18 Sep 2006 11:26:18 pm |
 Reprint: 15 ways to get more out of Pandora |
|
|
This originally comes from Technophilia, but I liked it so much I've decided to repost it.
Original Article
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/pandora/technophilia-15-ways-to-get-more-out-of-pandora-201072.php
Pandora system tweaks
* 1. New browser window: In Firefox, open Pandora in a new browser window instead of a Firefox tab. You won't use up as much memory this way. For example, my CPU usage shot up to 39% with Pandora in a tab; Pandora in a window? 16%.
* 2. Shut it down: Turn Pandora completely off about once every two hours. The player tends to get, for lack of a better term, stuck, and doesn't do as good a job finding your stuff the longer it plays. Turning it off and on every once in a while seems to resolve this issue.
* 3. Put Pandora in your system tray: Another way to streamline your Pandora playin' is the PandoraBrowse, a free Windows only app that sticks Pandora in your system tray for easy access. Just right-click on the icon to bring Pandora up if you need to tweak your stations.
* 4. Pandora standalone: Again, Windows only; download the free OpenPandora and have Pandora run as a standalone interface on your desktop; it hides in your system tray when you're all done. I've used this successfully to listen to music AND have about 27 Firefox tabs open, and haven't had any serious browser crashes and/or memory drains yet.
Pandora music tweaks
* 5. Rate 5 every 60: One thing I've found that works well in teaching Pandora to play your faves is take just five or ten minutes an hour to rate songs, yay or nay. You'd be surprised at how much better your playlist will come back.
* 6. Share your music. Take advantage of the shared songs feature. I have found my best radio stations this way.
* 7. Request one song. Get more music added to one particular station by requesting one particular song. Adding just one song will add over a hundred songs (on average) to each Pandora station. For the tightest adherence to the kind of music that you want, just try adding five songs to a new station and then listen to it for at least a week before adding any more music.
* 8. Add an artist's name. For a broader range of music, you can create a Pandora station with an artist's name. This can add hundreds of songs to your station, especially if the artist has a varied body of work.
* 9. Edit your stations. If you change something in your station and then later find out that these changes have caused your station to, uh, suck, just click on the triangle next to the station name. That will allow you to go in and edit any changes you've made.
* 10. Pandora RSS feeds. Take advantage of Pandora's RSS feeds to find even more music and share your favorites. Your Internet friends can sub to YOUR feeds and then you all can trade your favorite Pandora songs, artists, and stations. You can also find more music by subbing to the Top Rated feeds in your feed reader of choice; this is a great way to find music you might not have ordinarily thought of.
* 11. Backstage. Use Backstage to find even more music you might like. Just type in a song title or an artist's name, then click on one of the songs that comes up.You'll see that you have the ability to create a station from that song, listen to it, buy it, bookmark it, and even explore similar songs. Backstage is a good way to play before you create a station; to have more editorial control over it, so to speak.
* 12. Search Pandora profiles. Personally, I love seeing what other people are listening to, because most of the time they have such better picks than I do. Try this query in Google to search Pandora user profiles: site: pandora.com inurl: people. Then just click on any profile that comes up and start browsing their selections. You can add whatever you like to your profile from each individual profile page. A similar query is site: pandora.com inurl:artist, which enables you to look through all of Pandora's databased artists, or site: pandora.com inurl:song, which lets you browse through some of Pandora's humungous database of indexed music.
* 13. Search for entire albums. Another Google query: site: pandora.com inurl:album. This takes you directly to artist's complete albums, where you can sample songs and save them to your own stations. This is just another way to access Backstage; but I like the Google route better because I can sample artists I've never heard of before.
* 14. Search for specific types of music. And yet another Google query for youse guys: site: pandora.com inurl:album intitle:acoustic. Now, this doesn't work as well as I'd like it to, since you're only searching for the word "acoustic" (or whatever kind of music you're interested in) as it occurs in the title. However, this last tip has a way around that....
* 15. Search for what you feel like listening to. What if you're in the mood for some romantic music, but just can't think of what might fit the bill? Try using Pandora's musical classification index to find what you need. Use this query in Google: site: pandora.com inurl:song "romantic lyrics" "major tonality". I got some really good results back this way; Ella Fitzgerald, Hill Street Soul, Louis Armstrong, etc. You can combine any of Pandora's musical attributes to find exactly what you want.
Now, the trick with this is that you have to have the list of attributes up in front of you. It would be exceedingly simple (hint hint, Pandora) to plug all the attributes into a database with corresponding "moods"; for example, I'm in the mood to get jiggy with it, so I'd pick the mood "Get Down", which is linked to "Danceable Grooves", "Flat Out Funky Grooves", and "Insistent Backbeats". Just an example. |
|
| |
Category : Neat Websites
| By : James |  Comments [] |  Trackbacks [] |
|
|
| 27 Aug 2006 06:46:39 pm |
| CryptoQuipper Released |
|
|
| I have decided to simply release the CryptoQuip program I wrote to help solve these kind of puzzles. You can get that software in my projects section. I was going to transfer the code to Java, but have decided against it. I still released the source code, it's just in VB6. (Because that was what was quickest at the time) |
|
| |
Category : Programming
| By : James | Comments [] | Trackbacks [] |
|
|
| 27 Aug 2006 04:20:23 pm |
| Sort Start Menu Alphabetically |
|
|
Do not do this tip if you do not feel comfortable with the registry.
1. Open regedit (Start -> Run. Type regedit)
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu\Menu OR HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu2\Menu
3. Remove the order key by right clicking and going to delete.
4. Log out then back in. |
|
| |
Category : MS Tech Tips
| By : James | Comments [] | Trackbacks [] |
|
|
| 27 Aug 2006 03:52:12 pm |
| Amazon is a crazy company! |
|
|
So... those of you who think that Amazon is just a place for music cds, books, and movies; yeah, you're wrong. Very wrong.
Check this out:
Amazon Web Services
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=smm_sn_aws/102-2218228-8378567?node=3435361
There you will see a number of bizzare, yet EXTREMELY facinating, services.
Amazon EC2
Described as "elastic computing" this service allows a user to create a virutalization image of an operating system and upload it to them. They then initializate that image (much like a virtual private server). Here is the difference: If you outgrow your server, they will automatically initialize another server to handle the load. Ergo, it's an inifinate need-based cluster of computers!
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Described as "artificial artifical intelligence" this service allows humans to perform trivial tasks that computers have difficulty with (such as identifying if a picture contains a human) for a small amount of money [1-5 cents]. The programmer simply creates tasks using Amazon's API and sends it to the public to achieve. (Amazon handles the transactions) You can send more complicated tasks (such as transcribing) but you have to pay more so people will do the task.
This service's name is based off the turk playing chess "machine" that baffled people in the 1700's with it's ability to play chess. Turns out there was a midget inside the machine. For more info on this ruse, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk
Amazon Historial Pricing
This service gives access to four years of Amazon's pricing on it's various items. This includes average, minimum, maximum, and median prices. The power of this is when you can interface it with other databases and play with the information. For example, use eBay's interface to find where DVD's or CD's sell better. Or use IMDB to find a pattern between Gross Box Office and power of reselling DVDs. (Eg. See how much value is retained in DVDs, which helps distrubters order the right amount of movies)
Amazon's E-Commerce Service
Probably their most famous web service, this allows the user to sell their merchandise through Amazon. You can even write short stories or compose music on CDs and they will handle all the rest. |
|
| |
Category : Neat Websites
| By : James | Comments [] | Trackbacks [] |
|
|
| 27 Aug 2006 03:29:56 pm |
| War Chalking |
|
|
Based upon hobo symbols, people have started war chalking. What this means is that someone will war drive until they find a wireless network. They then stop the vehicle and mark the site with chalk symbols that identify the wireless network type, ssid, speed, etc. The idea is to allow people to simply identify a site, whip out their laptop/pda, and surf the internet.
I have to say that I think this is uncessary as many coffee shops, restaraunts, hotels, town centers, etc. have free wireless access that is meant for the public to use. Many even advertise it on their main signs.
Anywho, to learn more about war chalking, check out the Wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warchalking |
|
| |
Category : General
| By : James | Comments [] | Trackbacks [] |
|
| |
| 1 2 3 ...11 12 13 Next |
|
|
