When Google Notebook first appeared as a beta product, I thought it was a good idea but I found the interface clumsy and unforgiving. It also lacked a quick and easy access method which is necessary to make it truly a “notebook”. I came back to it from time to time as it incrementally added features and design improvements never completely convinced of its ultimate usefulness.

I read today that Google Notebook leaves beta and gets a new interface. Indeed, the new interface is nice. Add in the Firefox extension, collaboration capabilities, and the ability to export to Google Docs and now this tool is looking a lot more useful. Notebook could still could use some RSS capabilities and maybe the ability to add notes via email or text message. Or how about the ability to use it as an organizer for my Google Docs & Spreadsheets?

With Google’s acquisition of JotSpot, the best-of-breed wiki provider, it’ll be interesting to see how Notebook develops in the future. Or, as another commenter puts it, perhaps it’s “just another ’service’ to mine your data.”

I share many of the more interesting items I stumble across on the web through the “recommended reading” sidebar which is powered by Google Reader.  I also include short snippets of the articles on my Read page and you can view the whole articles on my Google Reader Shared Page.

Here are some of the best from this past week:

Art + Entertainment

• Review of Japanese movie The Taste of Tea. [Uberdionysus]
• David Byrne experiences an LA suburb. [David Byrne's Journal]
• Great clip from new This American Life TV show with animation by the amazing Chris Ware. [Kottke]

Technology

• Adobe launches their new Apollo platform which promises to further integrate the web and the desktop. [TechCrunch]
• View census data in Google Earth. [LifeHacker]
• Too much overhead keeping the blog from being updated (like me)? Tumblr might be a good solution. [LifeHacker]

Let’s have an honest conversation about an important topic: blog bling¹.

I’m trying to keep mine from reaching purely indulgent levels and I need your help. I originally approached the site with an Minimalist aesthetic but have since deviated: Should I really include my flickr photos which I haven’t updated since September of last year? Do you really care who was on my “top 5 artists of the week” or what movies I want to see or what articles I recommend?

ThinkingOutLoudMoment: Maybe I could roll some of these items into an “About” page. I’ve already removed a couple virtually worthless widgets that I integrated more-or-less for the sheer sake of testing out the service².

So, kind reader, what I’m asking of you is to tell me what “blog bling” you find essential or useful to you. Is ye olde Modern Bizzle simply too flossed out? Or could it possibly stand further pimping?

1. blog bling = all the stuff on the right sidebar. Commonly called widgets. ↩
2. MyBlogLog and Root.net ↩

Yet another artifact from an incomplete website of mine, I hope you enjoy this philosophical guest essay by the aforementioned Matthew Bunn.

Continue reading ‘Guest Essay: Existential Loneliness, or the Laundry Dream’

Just in time for Black History month. Have a listen to these excellent speeches:

Frederick Douglass - What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? [mp3]

Martin Luther King - I Have a Dream [mp3]

(from learnoutloud.com’s Great Speeches in History podcast - listing of all their podcasts)

Up for more history? My friend Matt Bunn is currently teaching World History and American History at the local community college. Slideshow presentations he created for the classes are available online at slideshare.net; a sort of YouTube for Powerpoint. I also worked with Matt to create a quick website for the class using Wordpress.

Below, check out the newest “electronic masterpiece” from my brother Sean. I uploaded Sean’s previous song Creative Burst to the Podsafe Music Network and it was featured on an Israeli Electronica podast. So who knows, maybe he’ll be a big hit in Israel.

This time I didn’t want to leave out his equally talented twin, Michael. His self-potrait collage shown here was on display in the principal’s office of his high school. You can now see it on display at my condo (during normal visitng hours).

 

 Closer than the Sky: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Social music revolution. Ok, maybe their tag line is a bit of an overstatement but Last.fm keeps getting better. I first started using Last.fm back in April of 2005 when it was Audioscrobbler; not much more than a humble plug-in for logging the artist, album, and song title when you played an MP3 on your computer and a fairly basic accompanying web page for viewing your stats.

Over the last year and a half, Audioscrobbler was renamed Last.fm as the service was continuously tweaked, upgraded, and revamped into a feature-rich “social music” experience that’s more reminiscent of MySpace and the Book o’ Faces.

My favorite new feature is the “recommended events.” Simply enter in your Zip code and view a list of upcoming concerts in your area. Or Last.fm can give you a recommended list based on the music you’ve listened to in the past. Much like the new Trends feature in Google Reader, this is a simple but effective utilization of user Attention data.

You can see my stats or add me as a friend: madape.

For all you fans of Borat, Ali G, and Bruno: I really enjoyed Fresh Air’s interview with Sacha Baron Cohen. You can listen to it online (windows media or real player required*).

Bonus: check out his hilarious Golden Globes acceptance speech and the classic “in my country there is problem.” And since you’ve got so much free time, check out this interview with another [Leonard] Cohen.

*download “Real Alternative” if you don’t want to deal with the real player software

Over three years ago, my friend Matt attended school in Japan after dedicating many hours to learning the language. Several weeks ago, as I was mining the various documents on my computer for candidates to store on Google Docs and Spreadsheets, I stumbled across a short essay Matt had written while in Japan.

Now I do vaguely remember asking him to write some of his reflections about Japan, however I do not remember exactly what I intended to do with them. I’m sure it involved posting them to whatever website I was dreaming up at the time so perhaps now they are finally liberated from my dusty archives and are able to achieve their intended purpose.
Continue reading ‘From the archives: Matt in Japan’

Christmas was quite awesome this year. I can’t believe it but I got two new guitars: a Fender Stratocaster from my fiancée and a Epiphone acoustic from my cousin. And to top it all off, I got a great Vox amp from my brother. Some people will do anything to see me rock.
Many thanks again!

Sidenotes:

• As if to ensure order in the universe, my little brothers repo’d their lovely eBay-bought accordion and ganked my MIDI cable. I hope they are putting them to good use.
• Fiancée refers to the woman. Fiancé refers to the man. French lesson concluded.