A Personal Blog
General
Screwing with Pandora
Sep 12th
I started checking out Pandora early last week. Basically, Pandora is a cheap rip-off of Launchcast. It apparently uses some complicated algorithm to find the base types of songs you like – transcending musical genres.
Sometimes it’s genius, other times it’s thick-headed useless. I really shouldnt’ say it’s a rip on Launchcast. It’s quite cool.
Basically, you go to Pandora.com, put in an artist you like, and then it breaks that artist down to its base musical characteristics (type of rhythm, melody, type of music, syncopation, politicalness of music). It then finds similar music, across genres. For the first 20 minutes or so, it was working great. I picked Evanescence as the music I liked and it found Creed, Staind, Kelly Clarkson, Nickelback, etc, all of which is music I liked. But it was all a bit poppy, so I added an “artist I like” right into the mix: Eminem.
Ever since, 90% of the music it tosses my way is crappy hip-hop or R&B. I like, maybe, 8 such artists, so I’m constantly fighting Pandora’s recommendations.
So, I’ve given up. Launchcast’s way of actually rating artists may be more manual, but I actually get music I like after spending 20 minutes rating music. With Pandora, it either works great or it sucks. For the last half hour I’ve been “I hate this”‘ing hardcore hate rap, and I’ve now given up on Pandora.
Friends Getting Married
Sep 10th
One of my best friends, Jonathan Puddle, is now getting married. I’m watching it online, because it simply couldn’t work out for me to go. I was very tempted to say “screw it!” and hop on a plane last night, though…
Jonathan and I first became friends four or five years ago, and I’ve been honoured to know him ever since. Even at 16 he was an incredibly mature young man with a heart after the things that mattered. Now he’s found someone who shares his same passion for going after the important things, and it’s exciting and tear-jerking to watch.
To Pudd and Maija, may your marriage last as long as the things you treasure, may your love grow every day, and may your ability to talk to each others’ hearts never shrink. All the best you two!
My New Drumkit!
Aug 31st
Hmm… What's This?
Aug 26th
Hmm… What could the above be? Super-secret project #1, hopefully being released into the wild in the next 2-4 weeks?
It’ll be a soft launch for this one, but we’re expecting it to become the 3-4th biggest project in its field by the end of September. For all the others involved in this, feel free to post this on your blogs as well.
For those who are wondering, this isn’t a final logo. It’s my first shot at one. I’d ask for thoughts, but since I can’t show you all of it (would kind of give it away), you’ll have to do with this for now ;-)
Update: Here’s a second image, to do away with the swastika imagery (hopefully):
w00t @ New Video Card!
Aug 19th
I know, it’s silly, but going from a 32MB card to a GeForce FX 5600 256MB card is exciting for me. I’ve just downloaded the demo for Battlefield 2. If it goes well, I’ll likely pick it up. So far it looks like a fantastic game, and the card’s taking everything I can throw at it (and then some) :-D
