Friday, December 19, 2008
Pandora and a rocket launcher

When you're desperate to find a way to drag yourself out of bed, you might look into this quirky alarm clock. It's sure to keep your mornings interesting.

When it's time to wake up you'll hear a count down and then the rocket will shoot into the air. In order to make the alarm stop going off, you have to grab the rocket and put it back. After rushing around to grab it, you'll likely be wide awake and ready to get ready for work or school. Luckily these are available in the UK as well as the US from two different vendors. You can get it in the US on Perpetual Kid for $24.99.

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Pandora has registered its 20 millionth user since they began offering subscriptions which allow unlimited listening. The three-year old music streaming service is trying to hold its own despite tough economics and recent layoffs.

Its music-recommendation engine pumps out personalized radio stations over the Web, and its iPhone app remains one the top free apps on iTunes (currently No. 21).

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Any ideas about this one?

Three of four undersea cables that route internet traffic from Asia to North America have inexplicably been cut, meaning that your international WoW server may be a bit slow this evening. The good news is that this fiasco clearly hasn't affected you yet. The AP has confirmed via Egypt's communications ministry that the cables have indeed been severed, causing massive outages in select portions of the world.

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Apparently a Japanese civilian group, The Campaign Against Surveillance Society, is asking Google to shut down its Street View offering. This is hardly the first time that people have complained about Street View, but, honestly, it's difficult to see how this is a "surveillance" issue or a violation of anyone's privacy.

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  • Written by: Christy"
    • | 4:05 PM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Sunday, August 17, 2008
    Day of the Week and the Death of Pandora

    Rule of thumb on calculating the day of the week...

    In any calendar year, the dates 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, and 12/12 (April 4th, June 6th, August 8th, October 10th, December 12th) all fall on the same week day. So does the last day in February. In 2008, these will all occur on Friday.

    But in the saddest news ever to grace my geeky, music loving ears...Pandora made a bold political statement on Friday, saying they'd likely shut down rather than continue to pay exorbitant fees to play music to listeners of its massively popular service.

    "We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision," said Tim Westergren, who founded Pandora. "This is like a last stand for webcasting."

    "We're losing money as it is," said Westergren, a former acoustic rocker. "The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we're doing is wasting money."

    Matt Nathanson, a singer-songwriter who has recorded for both major and independent record labels, said he is worried that the demands placed on Internet radio could "choke" the industry before it gets its footing.

    "Net radio is good for musicians like me, and I think most musicians are like me," he said. "The promotion it provides is far more important than the revenue."

    Well, this makes me want to cry. Pandora is all I listen to at work. I love it and have been an advocate for helping it stay alive. Westergreen sends out e-mails for help from listeners and I have always done what I can to save internet radio. I applaud his efforts and I hope he and his company can rise above this mess.

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  • Written by: Christy"
    • | 8:25 AM | 0 comment(s)! |