Starbody

One of my favorite products of the social hotness has to be LastFM. If you spend most of your day listening music and you given it a try, you really should. How does it work? Register on the site, download the app, enter some of your favorite artists and voila! a radio station is generated with similar artists based on your and thousands of other peoples preferences. It’s pretty damn accurate. For example: I entered in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the Cocteau Twins. Check out what was played for me:

Joy Division - A Means
PJ Harvey - You Come
Cocteau Twins - Evangeline
The Durutti Column - No More Hurt
Lush - Untogether
Low - The Plan
Love Spirals Downward - Rain, Drops, Sea
Bauhaus - St. Vitus
Slowdive - Celia’s Dream

Fantastic so far.

Other bits?

:: I’m quite excited that Writely has been acquired. I work in interactive advertising and although it would seem that our paper pushing is minimal, we do have a challenge in converting the process through which copywriters distribute their decks for review online. We tried Writeboard, which worked well, but besides being far too basic for our needs, there were bugs we couldn’t get around. I had beta tested Writely briefly before, but it was not stable enough to use. Now that Google will most likely put some money behind it, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for improvements and a release date.

:: Itching to make stuff? Try Instructables, where not only do people show off what they can make, they show you how to make it too. Everyone is invited to collaborate in sharing their trials and tribulations in building projects.

:: Do you know who Matthew Haughey is? I bet you do. His name is attached to Blogger, Creative Commons and Metafilter. His site, Whole Lotta Nothing continually manages to deliver interesting tech content. For instance, this link to an article on the development by Google and Volkswagen of a new navigational system.

:: USHMM put together a standout site on the genocide in the eastern Congo. Put aside any feelings you have for Angelina Jolie and enjoy the fact that the information is poignant but delivered in an interesting way (seemingly inspired by a page from Peter Beard’s notebook).

Goodnight.