This is a short review this week of a small application that is simple, easy to use, and extremely useful. Everyone is familiar with the PDF document format, which is a reliable way to transfer documents and maintain the same appearance. But unless you buy the rather expensive Adobe software, you can’t create a PDF document.
Enter Cute PDF Writer, a simple program with a creative and simple way to create PDF documents of anything you can imagine. Read the rest of this entry »
I initially said my series on Internet radio would have two parts, but a recent service has come to my attention that is too interesting not to mention. If you’ve used an advanced search engine before (like Altavista or Yahoo! search) you know that you can search for certain types of files, like audio, video, or images. A new service called Blogmusik.net has just launched that provides a slick, iPod-like flash interface for your audio searches and plays the music in your browser. The service doesn’t actually host any of the music; it just tells you where you can find the songs. If you register, Blogmusik.net even lets you email a link to yourself where you can download the song. As the name suggests, the idea is for you to blog about the songs you like.
The series on Internet radio continues with a look at Last.fm. Last week I reviewed Pandora, which is a light-weight player built into your browser that learns what kinds of music you like and suggest new songs and artists. Last.fm takes a very different approach; whereas Pandora is like one friend giving you recommendations, Last.fm is like playing music with a bunch of friends at a party.
One area I’ve neglected to cover so far has been music, but that’s about to change. This is the first of two articles about free Internet radio that helps you discover new music. This week we’ll look at Pandora, which is part of the Music Genome Project. This ambitious project set out to categorize every song by its most basic elements, such as melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, etc. They then connected all of these similar elements together, mapping out the “genes” of each song. The Music Genome Project doesn’t focus on bands or genres; it looks at each song individually. To date, they have cataloged over 10,000 artists and many more songs. All of this work is at your fingertips with Pandora.
Last year I broke free from my land line completely. We got a family plan for our cell phones and haven’t looked back since. Other companies like Vonage and SunRocket have popularized VoIP (Voice over IP) phones, but they still charge a monthly fee. Now there are a few companies beginning to provide free calling services through your computer. Not all of these services are free, but they can be extremely inexpensive alternatives to conventional phone plans.
