inthedorm

Monday, November 13, 2006

Pandora vs. Last.fm

I recently learned about a website that helps its users find new music that is related to artists that they already know and love. This was perfect for me because I am always looking for good recommendations, and now there is a website that allows me to find them. Last.fm is a website where users rate, tag, and recommend different artists and songs to other users. The feedback is not given by professionals, but is given by other music fans. I like this website because it allows me to see what other people who have similar interests as I do think of certain artists. The site allows you to listen to the music, and click on tags that will direct you to other songs/artists that were tagged into the same category. It is very user-friendly and I have always gotten good results.The website is easy to navigate, and there are links that direct you towards exactly what you are looking for. Everything is straightforward and comprehensive. You get to pick the categories of music to ensure that you are only getting information that you want.

Last.fm

There are other websites that are similar to Last.fm. For example, Pandora is a website that allows users to find music similar to music they already enjoy. You type in a song, artist, or album and the website comes up with a list of similar music. A board of professionals worked together to rate songs on aspects such as tone, style, type of sounds used, and vocals. When a user types in a song, the site comes up with songs that use the same techniques and have similar sounds. The website is even more comprehensive than Last.fm because there is a tutorial that pops up to explain what the website is doing each time a user does something. The process is much faster than Last.fm, and since it is done by professionals there is no vandalism or mistagging of music.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Thanks

I would like to thank Jake Schwartz, Emily Amaranta, and Kealin McCormick for posting my blog link on their blogs.

Thank youuuu.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

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Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Companies

I chose Harley Davidson & Reebok International because they are interesting companies that I would not connect in my head. I thought they were unrelated enough that it would be interesting to see how they connected and how long the path was. There were 7 nodes in between the two companies, which isn't that short but still much shorter than I had originally expected. They were connected through companies like Coca Cola, Kroger, and Federated Department Stores. The individual companies were connected by people.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Popular Bookmarks

The first website I bookmarked was Overheard in New York. I added it to my list because I thought it was an interesting idea, and some of the quotes were pretty funny. As human beings we tend to eavesdrop on conversations, and this website is a good example of a collection of random clips of conversations that were overheard in the streets of New York City.

The second website I bookmarked was 43 Things People Want to do Before They Die because I felt that it was kind of fun to look at the things people think are important to do before they die. I compared some of the answers with my own list and sometimes it matched up, sometimes it didn't. I also thought it was interesting because it can give you good ideas of things to do if you're bored.

Here is an example of 10 Things I Want to do Before I Die:


  1. Travel around the world
  2. Sail for an entire summer
  3. Get married on the beach
  4. Go sky diving
  5. Go to one of those places where you float around like you're on the moon
  6. Be notorious for something
  7. Go to a modern version of Woodstock
  8. Own a monkey
  9. Start a magazine
  10. Learn how to surf


Creative Commons License

A little bit about my Creative Commons License...

The license I chose for my blog is the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5. I chose this because I do not want people to copy, change, or use any of my information for commercial use. I would like to take credit for any writing/imaging/whatever that is on my blog, and if other people use my stuff and change it slightly, I should be attributed. It's not that I'm writing any ingenius ideas or anything on my blog, but I think copywriting is an interesting issue and I would like to protect my page.




To see an example of the license, click below:


click here

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

elevator dynamics

there are a lot of elevator rules that no one talks about but everyone (hopefully) respects. my friends, of course, do not really play by these rules. I won't name any names, but yesterday one of my friends told me that when he and his roommate are in an elevator and the door opens for someone else, they block the doorway and pretend that the elevator is full. we've also told people that the elevator is going up when it was really going down. That was awkward...especially when we ran into that same person as we got off the elevator on the first floor..One thing that sucks is when you're in the elevator and someone who was in the elevator before you had smelly food. On a random note, if anyone has some sort of game system like xbox or whatever, you are OBLIGATED to leave your door open so that other people can play. That's just how it works. I figured this website would go along well with this blog..so enjoy..

http://www.collegehumor.com/

and this website practically sums up everything that I think about elevators so I'm not even gonna bother writing about it.
http://www.elevatorrules.com/rules/going-one-floor/

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Random

We all know that some seriously wacky stuff happens in college dorm rooms. One of my first interesting experiences was when my neighbor's smoke detector went off. None of us had any clue what to do as we sat there for 20 minutes staring at it wondering why it was beeping. Eventually someone came over and brought a dustbuster to "suck the dust" out of the smoke detector. This happened to be a great way to meet people on the floor. Another good way is by exploding something in the infamous microfridges that nearly every dorm has. People love disasters. I've seen kids get duct taped to walls, stuck in cabinets, and an attempt at making a "foam party". As I write this post I'm looking around my room at some of the random things like the chocolate water experiment and the weak attempt to hang a shower curtain from the ceiling with packing tape. Sometimes all you can do is laugh at the weird and unbelievable things that you can see by walking through a college dorm.