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Favorite Site of the Week: Slideshare.net

Slideshare is a site where people post and share their Powerpoints. You can watch the powerpoints quickly with a little viewer widget that let's you click through them in your browser. There are some really interesting, creative, and informative presentations there. It's addictive, I've been looking at presentations all morning. Can't stop. (Thanks to Peter Royal for telling me about this).

LOST: My Newest Obsession

I know, I know. I'm several years late to the party on this one, but I have become quite obsessed with the television show, Lost. It's possibly the most addictive show on TV. Ever. You have to start from the beginning though. Sign up for Netflix if you haven't already, and be prepared to not leave your house until you run out of discs to watch...

Pandora is Great But...

The online music recommendation service Pandora is really cool in all ways but one. Due to what they report as a requirement of their music license the user is only allowed to skip a small number of songs per hour. This can be a problem since the whole point of Pandora is that you give it feedback as it plays songs for you and it learns what you like. If you're like me and you rate a bunch of songs and quickly skip ahead to keep rating more of them (while avoiding the songs you don't like), then Pandora's present rule is a bit frustrating. (Note: a workaround was suggested by a reader below -- but it's still kind of a pain.) (Note 2: See the extensive and informative comments added by CTO of Pandora, below, as well).

After you hit your skip-limit you have no choice but to sit through the songs you don't like because you can't skip them. Eventually the count is reset and you can start skipping again. This is an odd limitation and I can't quite understand why it makes sense for Pandora or the music companies -- it would seem that the more music a user listens to and rates the greater the chance they will buy something, which is how both Pandora and the record companies make money. So they should be encouraging all forms of use -- including skipping songs to find other songs you like. At least when users skip songs they still stay in the site -- if they are forced to sit through songs they don't like they are more likely to leave.

If it weren't for this one frustrating limitation I would really use Pandora all the time to discover and buy new music. There is one more feature of Pandora that I would like -- a way to pop the client into a small floating window, or even a desktop client so I don't have to keep my browser sitting there all the time.

I've already used Pandora to discover and buy music -- and I would use it even more if the above issues were solved in later versions. However, even with these limitations it is still one of the best and most enjoyable ways to discover new music that matches your interests. I think the potential of this app (and the Music Genome Project, that it's based on) is huge, and I can't wait for future versions.

The Time Fountain

This is a really cool art and technology project that creates an interactive timekeeping system out of a fountain of falling drops of water and a strobe light. You can interact with the drops. It has to be seen to be explained. Watch the video.

Colored Bubbles

After 11 years of painstaking research and inventor has finally achieved the "holy grail" -- colored soap bubbles that don't stain anything. But that's just the beginning -- his invention is based on a completely new kind of dye chemistry that could open the door to a wide range of new products. Read this excellent article, and also click here to view some pictures of these extraordinarily beautiful new bubbles.

A Cool Thingy...

This is cool Click to see why.  I think this idea has great value for viral, meme-based Web advertising. Just imagine: Advertisers could release really cool animations to add to sites, and site owners could add them into their sites for entertainment or humor. The animations could run ads within them as well. It's fun. Everyone wins, everyone's happy. And of course users can aim these animations at any other site so visitors who like it can spread it to their own sites. Very smart!!! Very Web 2.0.

An Incredible Flash Production -- Must See!

I was fortunate enough to wander across this amazing online Flash presentation that reveals the hidden meaning of the film, "2001." It's a thoroughly engaging, brilliantly produced, fascinating production -- one of the best uses of Flash animation that I've ever seen. It also makes some really interesting points about human evolution, our relationship to our tools, and the future. It's a must-see -- takes about 20 minutes to go through it, and well worth it! -- also make sure to answer their little survey at the end for a hint about their next production...

You've Got To Hear This Album...

My friend, Bari Koral, just released her new album, "Confessions of an Indie Girl." Bari is an incredible talent -- and this is her best album yet. She tours most of the year and has a large following, but she is still undiscovered by the mainstream. This review says it all:

"Confessions of an Indiegirl is A CLASSIC.  A sure bet to be one of the biggest releases of 2005.

Feels like it should be a blockbuster hit. Comparisons to such artists as Chrissie Hynde, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, Shelby Lynne and Fleetwood Mac, while inevitable, are in no way limiting."

--Al Muzer, The Aquarian

You can read the whole review, listen to clips of every song, and BUY A SIGNED COPY of the record now at: www.cdbaby.com/bari3

I really hope a lot of people hear this album -- it really is a "classic" -- I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

Her website is www.barikoral.com -- a new version of the site will be going up very soon.

Just Saw A Great Film

Today I saw The Motorcycle Diaries. This film is perhaps one of most beautiful, vivid, and emotionally powerful works of art to ever grace the silver screen. I knew nothing about this film before today -- it was a whim, at the suggestion of a very special person. I have seen hundreds of films -- and just about every significant foreign and independent film in the past several decades. This film is truly perfection in motion. It's a must-see.

Disclaimer: In case anyone takes issue with this film, or my review of it, let me just say that I personally know nothing about the life of Che Guevara, and the film does not delve into his politics or his later life as a revolutionary -- which I do not endorse or agree with. The film is really not very poltical in fact -- it is simply a great film about a road trip, the struggle to survive, and the strength of compassion. The cinematography, acting, writing, casting, direction and editing are amazing: That's why I like this film. It is a masterpiece of the medium. The film stands on its own as a great work of art and should be seen for what it is.