The World According To Carp

I just love Hugh MacLeod’s drawings. From Hugh’s...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:28:02 +0100

I just love Hugh MacLeod’s drawings. From Hugh’s daily frickin’ cartoon’.

I’ve been using the Google Chrome extension Extension.fm...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:36:08 +0100

I’ve been using the Google Chrome extension Extension.fm for about 2 weeks now and it rocks. Check out the introduction video if you’re into online music. Basically, Extension.fm recognizes when an MP3 file is present on a web page and adds it to your personal library in the browser. This library is always playable, even when you are not on the original site anymore that contains the MP3. The extension is currently in beta. When I’ve got some new invitation codes I will tweet it out (@carpy).

Track from the new Gorillaz album which I like a lot. Gotta get...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:11:49 +0100

Track from the new Gorillaz album which I like a lot. Gotta get it when it’s released the 8th or 9th this month. Found through Hypem. Posted the MP3 because the supporting video won’t show on my blog. Don’t get the logic behind that decision.

Track from the new Gorillaz album. Love it. And a cool video...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:53:00 +0100

Track from the new Gorillaz album. Love it. And a cool video starring Bruce W. Found through Hypem.

UPDATE: Just noticed that they disabled embedding the video elsewhere on the web. You have to watch it on YouTube. Missed chance for promotion I think. I’m posting an MP3 in support of the artists: go buy their album if you like it - I am!

Music streaming versus downloads?

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:46:17 +0100

I think a lot about the future of online music lately. This morning I read this piece in Wired about Google’s supposed and suggested music strategy which basically states that going into the cloud with our music will solve a number of problems related to keeping files locally on your computer:

“But we’re approaching a major inflection point in the short history of digital music, a time when we stop administering our own music collections on local hard drives, and instead build them online, where they can be accessed on a multitude of connected devices — smartphones, netbooks, tablets, computers, televisions, bookshelf systems and cars — without the tedium of managing each and every file transfer by hand.”

Confront that vision with this one by Cory Doctorrow:

“People will go on using streaming services, of course. They may even pay for them. But people will also go on downloading.”

Cory then goes on to describe a number of arguments in support of his view. On one side, he claims that people are collectors - think Seth Godin’s souvenir theory: “People love souvenirs… a souvenir reminds them of the idea they’ve already been sold on.” - and on the other hand he mentions a number of technical issues that aren’t going to be solved in the near future like spectrum scarcity, coverage issues, and DRM.

I also believe in Cory’s vision that it’s going to be a combination of ways to enjoy music: locally and over the Net. What do you think?

Found this track posted by Fred thanks to Bijan who pointed me...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:08:53 +0100

Found this track posted by Fred thanks to Bijan who pointed me to Extension.fm. More on that later. This is a great song which made my feet stomp all the way. Read some raving reviews in Dutch national paper NRC last Saturday about Yeasayer’s album. And they are right.

fred-wilson:

O.N.E. - Yeasayer

i was thinking of posting this yesterday but went with a reblog of Bijan. Now I’m reblogging Mo. Those Spark guys sure have good taste.

bijan:

mokoyfman:

Yeasayer, O.N.E.

I’m pre-calling the new Yeasayer album as one of the best of 2010.

Reblogging from 30k feet. Thanks Mo.

Great track. This guy’s angry. fred-wilson: Drop The...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:25:17 +0100

Great track. This guy’s angry.

fred-wilson:

Drop The World - Lil Wayne and Eminem

Josh’s friend Max got me into Lil Wayne on a car ride back from long island a few weeks ago and I really must thank him for that. The rap Lil Wayne does in the JJ track I posted a few weeks ago is so awesome. And then watching him and Eminem do this track at the Grammys sealed the deal for me.

so “Weezy” is the artists of the weekend on fredwilson.fm

The first thing I thought when I saw this photo was: “What...

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:52:00 +0100

The first thing I thought when I saw this photo was: “What is the woman yelling?”. This really makes me want to know more. Pietro Masturzo, a great winner of the World Press Photo 2009.

"OTOH"

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:12:00 +0100

“OTOH”

- Must-have features for Twitter-killing. (Scripting News)

I just love Internet lingo. BTW the article about the shortcomings of Twitter is a good read as well.

"The group also have strong family values and aspire to traditional vocations rather than the pursuit..."

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:36:46 +0100

“The group also have strong family values and aspire to traditional vocations rather than the pursuit of fame, says the poll, despite the preponderance of celebrity coverage in the media. The top five future professions are vet, teacher, footballer, doctor and police officer.”

- Disney research unearths Generation XD | News | Marketing Week

One of the findings in a Pan European study by Disney under 8-14 year olds that surprised me. Another take away is that technology is used to strengthen existing social ties rather than to make new ones. This confirms research done by the Pew institute under American youth in 2009.

"When the default is private, you have to think about making something public. When the default is..."

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:36:30 +0100

“When the default is private, you have to think about making something public. When the default is public, you become very aware of privacy. And thus, I would suspect, people are more conscious of privacy now than ever. Because not everyone wants to share everything to everyone else all the time.”

- apophenia: Facebook’s move ain’t about changes in privacy norms

I often have discussions with family and friends about my behavior of sharing a lot of stuff online. Thoughts, photos, videos, you name it. The usual reaction is that I probably don’t care about privacy. Quite the opposite is true. This excellent post explains how. Via Umair Haque on Twitter (@umairh).

"The Mac touchpad is great. The best feature is the two finger page scrolling. Dragging two fingers..."

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:45:16 +0100

“The Mac touchpad is great. The best feature is the two finger page scrolling. Dragging two fingers across the touchpad makes browsing web pages sooo much easier. One of my favorite Windows features was “right click”. I used it all the time for everything. Finally someone tipped me off that the Mac does many of the same “right click” function by holding two fingers on the touchpad and clicking. Eureka!! I’m sure there are lots of other tricks and controls I need to learn, but just mastering the touchpad made the experience much more enjoyable.”

- Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: From MSFT evangelist to Mac enthusiast - the other side of the road

By far my favorite MacBook feature as well.

"John Doerr [the venture capitalist] sold me on this idea of O.K.R.’s, which stands for objectives..."

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:33:00 +0100

“John Doerr [the venture capitalist] sold me on this idea of O.K.R.’s, which stands for objectives and key results. It was developed at Intel and used at Google, and the idea is that the whole company and every group has one objective and three measurable key results, and if you achieve two of the three, you achieve your overall objective, and if you achieve all three, you’ve really killed it.”

- Corner Office - Mark Pincus - Every Worker Should Be C.E.O. of Something - Interview - NYTimes.com

Via Fred Wilson. Lots of interesting management techniques in there, very inspiring. Which one do you already apply? I counted one for myself ;-)

Dedicated digital entertainment devices

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:04:00 +0100

Just returned from a week in Morocco with the family. And I learned something about digital content which is probably interesting to share. I wrote the main points of this post in a draft 5 days ago on the pool side using the Tumblr iPhone app. So this was before the launch of the iPad last Wednesday. I just finished the remainder of this post on my phone.

This was our iPhone entertainment week. The little boys were having fun with some recorded TV shows on EyeTV that I prepared for the iPhone which was great to watch. Little hands holding the phone and using the touch screen. It was dead easy for them.

And I call it my Instapaper vacation. No email, no Twitter, just reading a few months of collected, favorite ‘read later’ articles using the Instapaper pro app on my phone. What a brilliant app. Elegant and simple. The pro app stores 200 articles locally in a text only version which makes it possible to read them without an Internet connection. And it remembers where you left of in an article upon exiting. I read more on my phone than in the book I brought.

I was skeptical before our holiday, but our experience makes me bullish on dedicated devices for consuming digital entertainment such as photos, movies and reading. If it’s that entertaining on an iPhone, an Apple tablet with a screen 3 times as big should be even better.

Finally, my Tumblr blog is ranked higher in Google than my old...

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:54:44 +0100

Finally, my Tumblr blog is ranked higher in Google than my old Wordpress blog. Due to my personal domain, probably. Love it.

"…while streaming music from Last.fm is a great way to listen to music you haven’t..."

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:23:46 +0100

“…while streaming music from Last.fm is a great way to listen to music you haven’t discovered yet, there’s no reason to believe that people will lose the urge to collect music.”

- Streaming will never stop downloading | Cory Doctorow | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Check out this brilliant article by technology maven Cory Doctorow if you’re into music - and who isn’t? Again, something I can acknowledge from my own experience. I am listening more and more to online streaming music services like Last.fm, Spotify and the Hypemachine lately. And last year I bought more CD’s and went to more concerts than the year before.

"Shriram also believes that advertising will grow less important: “Users tend to pay on the..."

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:17:58 +0100

“Shriram also believes that advertising will grow less important: “Users tend to pay on the mobile internet for premium services.””

- The Guardian - Interesting article on the future of the Web. I totally agree with this statement from Google’s Shiram. It’s what I am doing right now.

Waarom kan ik de adviezen van onze Nationale Mental Coach niet...

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:08:19 +0100

Waarom kan ik de adviezen van onze Nationale Mental Coach niet delen op ons Nationaal Leidende Sociaal Netwerk?

"If you are like me, you are seeing links to videos in email, twitter, facebook, blogs, etc all day..."

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:42:20 +0100

“If you are like me, you are seeing links to videos in email, twitter, facebook, blogs, etc all day long. It’s time consuming to stop what you are doing to watch them. Now you can simply click on the boxee bookmarklet and watch them at home on your TV set after dinner while you are winding down from the day. It’s a killer concept. Thanks Boxee.”

- Boxee Beta and Bookmarklet - Love this feature as well.

Is this one geared towards women?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:12:43 +0100

Is this one geared towards women?