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Time for another edition of Big Pile o’ Links, where I feature some of my favorite links and groups of articles from all over the wonderful world we call “The Internet”:
Ah, Evernote. It’s one of the most useful and versatile programs/cloud storage ever, and yet so few Cooler People use it. It’s not just for tech bloggers and people with lots of crap to write about – it’s also incredibly useful for normal people in their day-to-day lives. I use mine every day, and I can’t tell you how useful it has been at the office, at home, or even running around. Here are some great links from recent times that list a bunch of great, easy ways you can start using Evernote more often in your life:
Job got you down? Feel like you’re headed the wrong way? Here are a handful of great articles (and one AWESOME documentary!) to help you make some changes:
It makes the world go ‘round. Here’s a quick handful of resources to further your knowledge on the subject:
Phew! There you go! Another Big Pile o’ Links for your pleasure. If you have an article or site or tool or whatever that you want featured in the Big Pile o’ Links, send it my way at tom@thepracticalnerd.com (it doesn’t have to be yours either, just something you like!).
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In today’s podcast, I discuss the awesome “Delete Song” button on my new Sansa Clip Plus, and how the simple approach to life flies right in the face of fads like GTD, “debt reduction systems”, and our economy. Have a listen and leave a comment!
(If you can’t see the “play” button, click the title of the post!)
Is there anything more frustrating than the local radio? Never is this more evident than at Christmastime. In Milwaukee, the only two Christmas songs available are that “Canon In D” thing with the boys’ choir, and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by freaking Mariah Carey. Yes sir, nothing gets me in the spirit like Mariah Carey. Ugh.
I love Christmas music, but this was killing me. Even better, at nighttime when they might play a few different ones, we have an annoying DJ named Delilah who intersperses each song with over-the-top mushiness and “inspirational” messages. Pandora came to the rescue, and here I am, still using it more and more.
Pandora Radio is a little web application where you tell the service an artist you like and it plays music by that artist and others like it. You can give the ol’ thumbs-up or thumbs-down to songs, and it will adjust your playlist accordingly. The more you rate, the better it gets at picking music you’ll like. You can even add more artists to a radio station for variety and even better chances of getting music you like. For music lovers like me, this service is a Godsend, as it is free and easy to use, and it helps me discover new music. But why else is it so great?
You can make as many stations as you want in Pandora. So I can make a country station if I want by just adding a few country artists I like. As you can see above, I added a Rockapella station to listen to a cappella covers of songs any time I want (I never said I was cool). What about Christmastime? Pandora had a couple Christmas stations created, and you can create stations with your favorite artists singing holiday songs, too. Bye-bye, Mariah, hello Straight No Chaser!
My biggest beef with local radio is the commercials. First, they take commercial breaks like every five minutes. We have a station here called FM 106.1, which is an all-country station, and they actually advertise the “No-Talk Triple-Play” where they play, wait for it… THREE whole songs in a row! WOW. And I think there’s something written in the laws of radio that every station has to take commercial breaks at the exact same time. It bothers me. A lot. If I’m in the car for 10 minutes, I don’t want to listen to commercials for 8 of those minutes.
Yes, I love my Zune with all my heart. But what about the days when I just want to sit back and let somebody else pick the music for me? That’s why Pandora comes in handy. When I’m in the car, some days I’ll just plug the adapter into my Blackberry and let Pandora entertain me. Most are hits, there are a few misses occasionally, but it’s nice to have a variety without dealing with all the crap of local radio. I even get (a limited number of) skips (per hour) that I can use for songs that drive me nuts.
Is there anything more pointless than the radio DJ anymore? I understand if you are on talk radio. For example, I’m a huge fan of Dave Ramsey’s radio show. But in those situations, I want to hear the guy talk, not play music. Delilah kills me. At Christmastime, I was listening to a local station during the day while I ran some errands, and they decided to spend 10 minutes in an interview with Ray Romano. *siiiiiiiiggghhhhhh*… With Pandora, it’s computer-generated and analyzed. I don’t have to listen to anybody explain any garbage to me about anything. I don’t have to listen to people winning money and big giveaways. I just get the music.
If you’ve got a pair of headphones, you can listen to Pandora anytime. First, it runs in a web browser, so if you are near a computer, just plug the ol’ headphones in and start listening. Or, if you’re at home, crank up the speakers! As you can see above, it’s available on almost any type of smartphone. I use the Blackberry app myself, and I love it. Plug that bad boy into the cassette adapter or FM transmitter, and it feels like you’re just listening to regular radio. [Bonus feature: when you get a call or a text, it pauses the station for you to take care of it, and then unpauses when you’re done automatically. Cool!]
Have other needs? Well, some boombox-type devices support Pandora music, and Pioneer has announced plans to bring Pandora to more cars in 2010. In addition, I have recently discovered Jamcast, which streams your audio to different supported devices, including my XBox 360 (see link for full list of supported devices, including PS3 and various DVD players), so that I can play Pandora on my computer and listen to it in my living room on my TV. Slick!
Yup. There’s no better argument than this one. It doesn’t cost a dime. You can pay for it if you’d like, and Pandora One offers some nice features, too. But if you want to stick with free, there’s nothing stopping you. The limitations aren’t ridiculous like some services out there, and you can still enjoy it fully.
Yeah, Pandora isn’t big news to anybody who’s been online for the past few years. But if you’re not all that tech-savvy, this can be a great new discovery for you. Check it out today!
If you are on Twitter and not following musician John Mayer, you’re doing it all wrong. Mayer continues to have some of the funniest tweets, but last night he had a beautifully-done series of tweets on how stupid the 2000s decade was as it draws to a close. Here’s a screenshot of the tweets:
Now, they are in reverse-chronological order, so they start at the bottom. Also, please try to ignore the side picture of him wearing a t-shirt with a plunging neckline and looking deep into your eyes. Unless you’re a lady, because I think that’s what he’s going for. What’s your view on the 2000s?
In 1996, a group of 10 guys from Indiana University put together a little a cappella group called “Straight No Chaser”. They had some fun, sang some local gigs, mainly doing cover songs of contemporary hits and well-known classics.
In April of 2006, one of the original members of the group posted a 1998 recording of them singing a comical version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” on YouTube, which incorporated various Christmas songs, “I Have a Little Dreidel”, and “Africa” by Toto. It rapidly became popular, scoring almost 10 million hits. One guy who saw it was the CEO of Atlantic Records, Craig Kallman.
Now they have a five-album deal. From a ten-year-old video.
They’ve put out two Christmas albums: “Holiday Spirits” and “Christmas Cheers”, which are both incredibly catchy, and also a quick bunch of songs called “Six Pack”, with a few contemporary radio hits combined with throwback classics.
I’m a sucker for great a cappella music – music that has no instruments – and Straight No Chaser is a new discovery for me. That said, I am already huge fans of theirs. So today, kick back, enjoy some holiday music mixed in with some catchy covers, and crank up the Straight No Chaser. You gotta love these guys! Here are some great covers, courtesy of Lala.com:
And here’s some of their holiday hits to put in the seasonal mood, including their bread-and-butter, “The 12 Days of Christmas”:
