Goldilocks Time

After reading this Coolest Gadget article on bed sheets that can tell you what time it is via a braille like touch, I have to agree with the author that it is an interesting idea, but nothing more.

Taking the time to feel your way around the numbers on your bed is probably way more work then just opening your eyes to read the clock.

With that said, I am still looking for new ways to make a clock's output more readable for those of us who have trouble reading clocks in the dark without our glasses.

I currently use a SharperImage clock that projects the time on the ceiling in large digits, which I can actually read, but the clocks alarm functions are less then optimal so I am always on the lookout for something better. I have my eye on HP's new DreamScreen 100 which would probably be a very nice step up, but is certainly overkill as an alarm clock and most likely suffers from "first-generation" issues based on the early reviews I have read. Though if HP would like me to review one I am more then happy to do so :)

So for now, the bed sheets clock is too light, the DreamScreen is probably too heavy, so I will stick with my current clock until I find the just right clock to tell me it is Goldilocks time.

How not to use social networking

There is a local BBQ restaurant in my area called Uncle Bubs and they do make a very nice BBQ sandwich, but they don't really understand how to use social networking.

They are trying to become part of the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives program and are offering a free "party" if they get selected to all of the people who voted them onto the show.

So far so good, however, their efforts thus far to publicize this idea have consisted of doing a story with the local newspaper, who didn't even get the story onto the papers web site.

The Uncle Bub's website contains no mention of the effort either, which leaves the folks who read the local paper to create their own viral process to get the word out. It doesn't help that the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives website only contains a mail link to submit your favorites and no web forms that would make it so much easier.

I did do my part and posted the information to my Facebook profile and hope that my friends tell their friends and so on, but things would have been much easier if Uncle Bubs and the local newspaper had just posted the information in a shareable manner. Uncle Bubs even has a Facebook page, but did not take advantage of that outlet.

Don't get me wrong, I am not picking on Uncle Bub's, and I have never watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, but just wanted to point out that how your business can do better and take advantage of the many benefits of social networking. If your company doesn't understand how to do so, there are plenty of professionals out there that can assist.

Am I being too harsh on Uncle Bub's or do you need help with your social networking efforts, let me know with your comments to Technology Plumbing.

Music to my ears

I enjoy listening to music and the web has been a huge help with filling my ears with the music I already like as well as a constant flow of new music.

Like many of you I started with iTunes and still use iTunes with my iPod today, but Apple's model is a bit locked down for me and I have been exploring other services, many of which integrate with iTunes.

At this point I have tired and rejected Rhapsody, which started out nicely, but their upgrades have made the product so unreliable that I gave up on them. They also lock you down to select MP3 players none of which work as well as the iPod.

I am a big fan of Pandora and use it on the web as well as on my Blackberry (and via my Blue-Ray DVD player) and it works for my casual listening times where I want to hear a certain type of music or don't want to bother picking what music I want to listen to letting Pandora take care of it for me.

Recently I have been using Lala, which is a mix between all of the other services as companies continue to try and find the right combination of services and pricing. In the case of Lala you can listen to any song they have in its entirety once for free. This feature allows you to determine if you really want to hear it again or if hearing it once satisfy the need for that song. If you decide to purchase it you can do so as a web purchase or as a MP3 purchase. A web purchase means you can listen as often as you want to the song via Lala's web portal for just $.10 a track. A MP3 purchase is DRM free meaning you can listen to it anyone including iTunes. Lala even provides nice integration with iTunes meaning that songs you download via Lala are automatically added to your iTunes library (if you want).

Finally, a nice feature of Lala is that you can upload songs you already have (at least the ones that are not DRM protected) which gives you the ability to listen to them on Lala as web songs providing nice portability to your music collection.

I have not found a way to integrate listening to Lala outside of the web client yet, but hopefully a Blackberry client is in their plans.

While this is a never ending journey, I have summarized my findings so far in yet another Google Docs spreadsheet. As I update the spreadsheet this blog entry will also update, so check back often.

As always I look forward to your thoughts and comments on the music services you like or want to learn more about via Technology Plumbing.