This guy let the nerves get to him and locks in the wrong answer to the very first question in “Who wants to be a Millionaire”.<br />
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Whilst reading the <a href=”https://dave.shakenmartini.net/serendipity/exit.php?url_id=336&amp;entry_id=216″ title=”http://www.time.com/time/2006/50coolest/index.html” onmouseover=”window.status=’http://www.time.com/time/2006/50coolest/index.html’;return true;” onmouseout=”window.status=”;return true;”>Time Magazine’s 50 coolest web sites of 2006</a> I came across an interesting website <a href=”https://dave.shakenmartini.net/serendipity/exit.php?url_id=337&amp;entry_id=216″ title=”http://www.pandora.com” onmouseover=”window.status=’http://www.pandora.com’;return true;” onmouseout=”window.status=”;return true;”>Pandora</a>. Unlike <a href=”https://dave.shakenmartini.net/serendipity/exit.php?url_id=338&amp;entry_id=216″ title=”http://www.last.fm” onmouseover=”window.status=’http://www.last.fm’;return true;” onmouseout=”window.status=”;return true;”>Last.fm</a> its primary function is not as a social bookmark of songs. Rather you type in the music that you like and it uses the Music Genome project to categorise what other music that you may like whilst playing it like a streaming radio. It is like a constantly shuffling streaming audio experience. Some songs I know, some I don’t. The ones that I don’t and I happen to like I will bookmark so that I can look them up at a later date. It’s a great idea though I am not sure how they get around the legalities of it all (at the moment it is supposed to be only open to USA only residents). Some things are restricted like rewinding/fast forwarding through a track, playing previously played tracks (unless it comes up in your queue again).<br />
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At this stage they don’t have the advertising model working yet so it is blissfully ad free. You do get popups but the way I listen to it is that I only switch to the Pandora window when I want to rate it or skip the song.<br />
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One of the other neat features is that it gives you the playing criteria for the currently listed song. For example, I am currently listening to “Tarantula” by “Faithless” and the reason it is playing is “Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features electronica roots, a rhythmic intro, use of modal harmonies, a tight kick sound and trippy soundscapes” - which is the kind of music that I like to listen to when I am concentrating on something else <img src=”https://dave.shakenmartini.net/serendipity/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png” alt=”:-)” style=”display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;” class=”emoticon” /><br />
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Examples of the user interface follow - I like the cover art and the ability to have different radio stations depending on what you specify as the base for your music taste. For example, if you liked classical music you could create a station that plays “Beethoven” and it would find artists that have created similar works.<br />
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<img width=’644′ height=’252′ border=’0′ hspace=’5′ src=’/blog/uploads/Pictures/pandora1.gif’ alt=’Looking at Pandora options’ /><p><br />
<img width=’644′ height=’252′ border=’0′ hspace=’5′ src=’/blog/uploads/Pictures/pandora2.gif’ alt=’Why are you playing this?’ /><p><br />
<img width=’644′ height=’252′ border=’0′ hspace=’5′ src=’/blog/uploads/Pictures/pandora3.gif’ alt=’Tracks’ /><p><br />
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The UI is all in flash and some of the other neat features are the ability to buy off iTunes and/or Amazon and the ability to share your playlist.<br />
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Hopefully this site will stick around - it may even be worth subscribing to!

With the WWDC, Steve Jobs also gave a preview of Leopard and some of the new apps that will make it into that release - Time Machine, iChat 4 and Spaces. However this impacts some of the developers of applications that will be superceded by this latest release of Mac OS X.<br />
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This <a href=”https://dave.shakenmartini.net/serendipity/exit.php?url_id=335&amp;entry_id=215″ title=”http://phillryu.com/2006/08/08/7-apps-on-leopards-hit-list/” onmouseover=”window.status=’http://phillryu.com/2006/08/08/7-apps-on-leopards-hit-list/’;return true;” onmouseout=”window.status=”;return true;”>article</a> has a list of 7 affected apps and some comments from their developers.

<img width=”704″ height=”528″ border=”0″ hspace=”5″ src=”/blog/uploads/Jokes/54-Billboard2.jpg” alt=”" /><br />
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On a similar vein watch what happens when this guy’s wife dumps his belongings in the middle of the street! Goodbye laptop, but manages to save the TV.<br />
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Something my wife could relate to - parking fines!<p><br />
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