- When someone is driving and they are checking the lane they want to change into, they inadvertently drift into the opposite lane (not sure if this has anything to do with spatial distortion)
- People instinctually/subconciously slow down when starting to drive on an overpass/bridge (I read this in a study somewhere, but now can’t find it)
Me and my iPod
Yes, I recently purchased an iPod. Yes, that means I am a big music nerd. Yes, that means I will further bore you with iPod minutia:
- I would really like it if, after I sync my iPod with iTunes, it would submit any unaccounted playcounts to Audioscrobbler. I would suspect alot of people’s music consumption happens on their iPod instead of iTunes…
- I would be a much more studious tagger if it wouldn’t keep switching away from the “rating” mode. I very rarely change the volume or fast forward into songs. All I do is rate. I want it to never leave that screen.
- This is more of a product design thing, but I would really like to have the a more tactile option than the touchwheel. Sure, it’s nice and smooth, but I might favor a knob or thin disc with a little finger indent like on a home stereo. The main benefit would be to have it notched so that you “feel” the equivalent of a click as you browse menus or rate things. (I often select something wrong if I don’t squarely lift my finger off the touchwheel.) Success would mean being able to navigate/rate without ever having to look.
Tracking has-been celebrities
Now that I have comments, I can ask questions and actually get replies, so here goes…
This story about the little blond kid from “Family Ties” getting busted for a DUI made me wonder: How does someone pick a seemingly random police blotter item and match the person’s name to figure out that the person is/was a celebrity (and thus making it “news”)? Is there some sort of very large database of people (which includes their birth names!) so that when their names show up in a police report, the media gets alerted to it? Inquiring minds want to know.
Mixmatcher rolling along
Mixmatcher is rolling along quite smoothly. The Belgians and Brazilians have begun to take over. Playlists are being made, and descriptions are being written. The XML feed of songs is isn’t showing every new song added in Bloglines, although the XML file has all of them in there. (Anyone know why? What is it checking to tell if there were changes? Is it reading a particular date? Is it expecting a certain type of date?)
Mixmatcher open for business
I don’t know if I’m feeling masochistic or something, but for some reason I am going to open up Mixmatcher to you all, right now. Possibly for only a limited time, possibly forever. We’ll see how it goes. (Sorry, no circa 1998 launch party.)
What is Mixmatcher? Mixmatcher is part mixtape database, part playlist generator, part contextual music metadata database, part new way to discover new music, and part human collaborative filtering. Mixmatcher is a collaborative playlist environment, where people give meaning to songs by adding them to playlists. The more playlists that a song gets added to, the more meaning, contexts, and potential uses it gives that song. You’ll see when you get there. All comments and such should go to ben@magnetbox.com.
Apple iMixes
I won a Peabody
Personal note: I just won a 2004 George Foster Peabody Award at work. I only have so much shelf space, so goodbye Edward R. Murrow Award!
The Playlist Meme
The Playlist Meme (load entire library, shuffle, list first 20 songs no matter how embarrassing):
Pussycat Trash – Tattoo
The Halo Benders – On A Tip
Fugazi – Recap Modotti
The Beatles – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Tegan & Sara – Underwater
Hey Mercedes – St. James St.
Sparta – Echodyne Harmonic
Killsadie – 1000 Deaths
Walls of Jericho – Moment of Thought
The Ramones – She’s A Sensation
Avail – Swing Low
Ugly Casanova – Pacifico
Modest Mouse – BMX Crash
Murder City Devils – Dance Hall Music
Elton John – Bennie and the Jets
Tracy Chapman – Behind the Wall
The Weakerthans – My Favourite Chords
Rocket From the Crypt – Ball Lightning
Weezer – Space Rock
Converge – Shingles
I guess one thing I can say is that I’m not embarrassed by any of my music. There are several music “party fouls” in my collection, and I am quite proud of having them.
HP ScanJet 4670 See-Thru Vertical Scanner
HP ScanJet 4670 See-Thru Vertical Scanner: I was purchasing a scanner last night, and was terribly intrigued by this scanner that stands up vertically on a wire easel, is see-through, and can basically be lifted off and placed on top of anything to scan it. I almost purchased it, but I had no idea of how well the concept really works in practice. The reviews are lukewarm, so maybe it was a good decision not to get it, but it still intrigues me.
Posting purgatories and the public transparency and cross-pollination of links and sources
I am beginning to enjoy my array of available posting purgatories, along with the public transparency and cross-pollination of links and sources. Now I can have multiple levels of filtering, yet I (and everyone else) can see the original sources, such as my personal editorial process: scan all the content sources (bloglines.com/public/magnetbox), filter out the interested portions (del.icio.us/magnetbox), and decide what the general public gets to see (magnetbox.com).
I can’t help but think it would be amazing if content sources (news organizations?) did sort of the same idea, so that people could decide for themselves what level of news/filtering fits them best.