pyrosarco

On Twitter’s blog yesterday they have listed Twistori, calling it a “social experiment based on Twitter.”  I would like to think of it more as Twitter’s focused stream of conscious.  For those of you that don’t know what a stream of conscious is or don’t use your Twitter as one already (like me), it is the idea of writing whatever comes to your mind at that moment.  For example: hot dogs are pretty tasty, but I had pork for dinner.  Why is that girl talking to me on AIM?  I really wish that she was hotter, then I would go out with her.  Jellyfish are nice… et cetera, et cetera.

As you can see, it can go in any direction.  Twistori has focused this stream of concious in to several categories.  I noticed that this was also done at WeFeelFine; probably because the creator over laps.  However, WeFeelFine, explores more than just the six or so emotions that Twistori does; making it a much deeper, more satisfying stream of conscious.

So if you have a few minutes or are just nosey about what other people are feeling, then check both the sites out.  Here is a brief preview of Twistori - I stole the image off the Twitter blog.

I came across this piece a day or so ago and thought it worthy of sharing.  The artist is Daniel Schuldi and here is the direct link to the picture.

Here is a compilation of eight music sites that I frequent.  Each of them has its own unique feature that allows them to fill a musical void. All are based around streaming music. Enjoy!

1. Songza: Operates like a music search engine with a built in player.

Navigate while listening: Yes
Download songs: No
Recommends songs/artists: Yes
Make playlist: No
Community: No

2. Radio.blog.club: Allows users to upload songs or link songs from other users to make playlists anyone can listen to. This site is currently under construction but was excellent before.  Check it out.  Here are the features it offered before it went down.

Navigate while listening: No
Download songs: No
Recommends songs/artists: No
Make playlist: Yes
Community: Forum based

3. Muxtape: Create online mix tapes.  Do this for your girlfriend because you don’t know how to with cassettes.

Navigate while listening: No
Download songs: No
Recommends songs/artists: No
Make playlist: Yes
Community: No

4. Pandora: Like an online radio.  Allows you to listen while you go with your Sprint phone.

Navigate while listening: Sort of - on your phone
Download songs: No
Recommends songs/artists: Yes
Make playlist: Sort of - you make “radio stations”
Community: No

5. Imeem: Allows users to share musical tastes and videos.

Navigate while listening: No
Download songs: No
Recommends songs/artists: Yes - socially
Make playlist: Yes
Community: Yes

6. The Sixty One: Allows for users to bump songs to promote them amongst the community.

Navigate while listening: Yes
Download songs: Some
Recommends songs/artists: Yes - socially
Make playlist: Sort of
Community: Yes

7. PureVolume:  Allows for band exhibitions, users to become fans of bands, and a community away from Myspace.

Navigate while listening: No
Download songs: Some
Recommends songs/artists: Yes - socially
Make playlist: No
Community: Yes

8. Deezer: Operates similar to Pandora’s radio and PureVolume’s community.

Navigate while listening: Yes
Download songs: No
Recommends songs/artists: Yes
Make playlist: Yes
Community: Yes

I am writing this post because when my iPod would no longer be scrobbled, I had to dig through lots of pages in the Last.fm forum to find an answer.  One of the solutions was to download a Java based program that would access the Audio Scrobbler that Last.fm has running on your computer.  I could not acutally get the program–a link timed out–but if you would like to try it, it can be found on Last Pod.

However, the method I used was easy enough that almost anyone can do it.

1. Plug your iPod into your computer.
2. Exit Last.fm.
3. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and run Task Manager.
4. Exit out LastFM.exe and LastFMHelper.exe if they are running.
5. Close Task Manager.
6. Run Last.fm.
7. The scrobble box should pop up with a list of songs that need to be scrobbled.
8. If this didn’t work.  Try doing this again and closing all processes that have to do with iTunes also.

So there you have it.  Enjoy all your scrobbled songs.

You can buy beef, pork, ham, chicken, rabbit and various other meats in the super market.  What’s next?  I’ll show you whats next.  US Design Studios gives you the Whole Human.  If you liked the Whole Human, definitely check out this really cool detergent shirt, it will blow you away.

Being a Pennsylvania resident over the age of eighteen, I could have voted in Tuesday’s primary.  However, there seemed to be little point in doing so.  The evening before the primary, I began flipping through the voters guide.  A few minutes of reading showed me that in my district there was virtually no one to vote for.  Besides the lack of people up for election in my district, I am registered as a Republican.  I mean who am I going to vote for?  McCain was really the only option; well him or Ron Paul.  Personally, I know very little about where McCain stands on any issues, and from what I have seen, Ron Paul would not make a good president.

I guess what I am saying, is that it would have been a waste of time for me to vote.  Not only because I have no choices, but because I do not know about McCain’s stance on politics.  I feel that this years election is going to be less of a race between Democrats and Republicans, and more of a race between Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.  I don’t know that either one of them will pull out of the race when the Democrats give a nomination.  We will have to wait and see.

In the mean time, look at this:

Here are two very clever ads for items that seem very ordinary.  I guess not.  Found at Calle 13, however the site is in Spanish.

I was stumbling through some music tonight and it reminded me that I wanted this one song by GG Allin.  I heard the song originally in a skate video that I downloaded for free.  Try as I might, I couldn’t the version of the song I wanted anywhere.  So I began thinking, how would I go about getting this song out of the video.  My first thought was that someone would have a tutorial online or something.  So I searched Google quickly, only to find multiple programs that will convert .mov to .mp3.  I really wasn’t in the mood to download a spyware infested program, so I began poking around in Quicktime.

Now for this to work, I believe you need Quicktime Pro, so go get that.  Alright, do you have it now?  Good.  So open up your .mov video and go into the menu ‘Window.’  From here click ‘Show Movie Properties’ or for those of you who love short cuts, just type CTRL + J.

Alright, so now you have the window with all the audio and video listings open.  This is where it can be a pain in the ass.  If the video is big, and they didn’t lable each individual song, or the tracks are huge, you could have problems finding what you want.  But if your looking at skate videos like me, at four minutes a pop, then the audio is probably a single track.  So click the which audio you think it is (look at the duration, it can help give you a hint of which track is yours), and then click on the extract button in the upper left.  Another Quicktime window should pop up.  Do a File > Save As, and save it somewhere where you will find it, like your desktop.

If you don’t already have file extensions showing, go into Windows Explorer (Windows Key + E) and click on Tools > Folder Options.  Select the View tab and uncheck ‘Hide extensions for known file types.’  This should show you ‘whatever.mov’ instead of just ‘whatever’.  With that in mind, right click on your movie and select Rename.  Rename it to ‘whatever.aac’, this should keep it as a Quicktime file, but will change it from video to strickly sound, which you already did, sorta, by exptracting it.

Now that you have this double click it to open the file with Quicktime and go File > Export.  Change your Export type to a .wav and say save.  This may take some time depending on the file size.

Once you have your file, ‘whatever.wav’, drop it into  iTunes and right click and select convert to mp3.

That’s that.  Easy?  Sort of, but you didn’t have to download any programs.  This is good if you only want to do it for a few songs, otherwise, get a program.  Please don’t use this to do anything illegal because I will take no responsibility for it.  The song I am getting is a cover.

Sometimes in life you come across something that is too funny and you have to share it.  This is one of those instances.  Introducing the USB Bra: Unplug and Play.  Found on dialog05.  Check it out for many other creative USB ideas.

I stumbled across this today and really thought about doing it because I have some big rolls of paper that I have saved for something like this.  The artist is Christiaan Postma.