By Simon & De Smet

After a long period of no new releases we decided it was time for some action. It took too long to come up with bugfixes and rewrites so we decided to make Doppler open source and ask the community to help us to make Doppler even better.

Che, Cienfuegos.

Ernesto Che Guevara, Cienfuegos.

Until today, I was listening to the “Neighbour Radio” mode.

Neighbours Radio is a radio mode in which it (last.fm) will tune into a station made up of all people listed as a neighbour to that person (any user on the system). With Neighbours Radio, it’s easy for a user to discover some music that may be similar to the music they like, and as such help broaden their music tastes (last.fm FAQ).

Yes, I do like to broaden my music taste, but I want to listen to some specific tracks (the music I like) as well. But can I listen to a specific track on Last.fm? The answer is no, unless the label has specifically enabled the track for full-length preview.

Last.fm is licensed as a radio station, and so we can’t legally provide on-demand services (last.fm FAQ).

If I want to listen to the music I like and see this reflected om my profile, I will have to install their software.

With Last.fm on your computer you can scrobble your tracks, share your music taste…

Scrobbling a song means that when you listen to it, the name of the song is sent to Last.fm and added to your music profile.
(last.fm FAQ).

Installing the last.fm software takes only 2 minutes. iTunes and Windows Media Player plugins are available during set-up, other players can be added later.

This screenshot (click to enlarge) shows Windows Media Player playing a song. The last.fm software shows the artist, the track, the album, the tags used by other users to label the track, an “about the artist” + “similar to” this artist information.

“My Profile” gives an overview of what I recently played, loved and banned, my tags, my friends, my neighbours and a few radio modes.

Playing the song in Windows Media Player and scrobbling it with the last.fm software gets immediately reflected in my online last.fm profile:

By installing their software my online profile will be more up-to-date. Installing this soft is also required if you want to play your own Loved Tracks and Personal Radio.

Loved Tracks Radio is a radio mode which is a Subscriber benefit, much like the Personal Radio. Tracks that will feature on this radio station are tracks that the user manually marks as “loved”. To mark tracks as loved, a user must be using the Last.fm Application.

Personal Radio is a subscriber only feature that gives you an insight into a user’s entire profile. This station’s content is built up based upon every song that the user gets scrobbled to their profile, via a plugin or the radio service (last.fm FAQ).

I paid a monthly subscription (2,5 euro) and by doing so I created my own radio station. Smetty’s radio is born (!) and you can listen to it for at least one month. Another advantage: subscribers can listen to the Personal Radio of anyone, but non-subscribed users may only tune into the Personal Radio of someone that is subscribed.

My own radio station for only 2,5 euro/month. I like the idea.

Being responsible for my own radio station now, I will try to be a good DJ. Smetty’s Radio (Personal Radio and Loved Tracks Radio) is a mix of what I hear on last.fm and the music I like. I’ll try to make it a lovely, not-too melo and 70-80′s based, radio station. Hope you like it.

[tags]social music, lastfm, last.fm, personal radio[/tags]

Er stond op Gentblogt, naar aanleiding van de ‘week van de smaak’, een recept over ‘gestreken mastellen‘. Mastellen zijn een soort sandwich (niet de Engelse) in een specifieke vorm. De gestreken mastellen worden verkocht tijdens de Patersholfeesten (midden augustus in de Patersholwijk te Gent) en maken deel uit van de Gentse folklore (niet pejoratief bedoeld).

Dit ingeweken Denderkindje had er nog nooit over gehoord, maar voedsel strijken leek mij wel leuk. Gisteren kwam ik toevallig voorbij een bekende Gentse bakker (de geprezen Bundervoet) en het mastellen strijken kon beginnen:

Stap 1: je hebt mastellen nodig (ik kocht er met kaneel), aluminiumfolie, boter, suiker en een strijkijzer.

Stap 2: snijdt de mastellen doormidden en smeer er de boter en suiker op.

Stap 3: bedek met zilver papier en strijk de mastel plat.

Stap 4: bewonder het resultaat.

Stap 5: ga door met bewonderen.

Na de actie komt de smaakproef. Ik proef in eerste instantie vooral de kaneel (het moet gezegd, ik ben zwaar verkouden). De mastel is nog wat soppig, dus ik ga de 2 overige exemplaren laten uitdrogen.

Ik ben bij het koken altijd zuinig met boter en suiker. In de gestreken mastellen heb ik meer dan mijn maandelijkse dosis verwerkt (maar toegegeven, ik ben een slecht referentiepunt op dat gebied).

Gestreken mastellen zijn onderdeel van het collectieve Gentse geheugen (aktie foto tijdens de patersholfeesten). Voor de smaak en je gezondheid moet je het niet doen, maar het is een leuk verhaal om te vertellen. Eten strijken is nu eenmaal… niet gewoon?

About the package: the clock comes with 2 wristbands and 2 sensors.

About the technology: “Body movements are monitored through the wristband and sent to the clock. By computing these movements, aXbo calculates your personal ideal wake-up time within a time range of 30 minutes prior to the alarm time set.”

About the Smetty test (last 2 weeks, only on the moments I had to wake up early):

• The one with the clock on the furniture against the wall (opposite of the bed): no sleep phase function, only the basic alarm worked (IEP-IEP-IEP instead of some nice birds singing)
• The one with the clock in my bed: sleep phase function works! Really great to wake up on a moment that seemed to be perfect.
• The one with the clock near the bed on the floor: no sleep phase function.
• The one with the clock in bed again: sleep phase function works perfect again.

The Smetty conclusion:

I don’t mind to wear the wristband and I really like the idea of waking up on the right moment, but it seems like I do have a small problem with my gadget. This is the first clock that I need to take IN bed with me before it works. Maybe it just wants to stand alone on a special piece of furniture against my bed. Some more tests will be required in the coming weeks.

Quite a character, that clock of mine…

A few weeks later, after adding another 40 pictures to that post and more than 80 to my Flickr account, I decided to close the post. It’s been a great pleasure for me and it was really exciting to follow the boat trough Europe. But after all, this blog and the blogsoftware aren’t really set up for that many content and comments. Besides the technical aspects, it takes to much time for me as well. My holiday is almost over, so it is time to start plan B.

That’s why I created a Samar yacht group on Flickr. The story can continue there (or might be taken over by someone/somewhere else).

Spending that much time on pictures, It really made me a heavy Flickr user (but not that heavy I would call myself a Flickr whore like Lama proudly does). It was fun, but it’s time to move on.

More info on the Samar yacht: Samar yacht group

That’s why I won’t stop blogging now.
It’s just so much fun.