16 Jun 2008, Posted by Paul M Davis in politics, tech, 3 Comments

Net Neutrality For The Masses

Net neutrality is more than confusing tech-speak. It’s a battle for the only vestige of free media.

31 Mar 2008, Posted by G.M. Levinson in pop culture, tech, 0 Comments

Origins of our Communication: William Bastone

The man behind The Smoking Gun recounts his first experiences online

14 Mar 2008, Posted by G.M. Levinson in pop culture, tech, 0 Comments

Origins of Our Communication: Rob Schrab

The man behind Channel 101 speaks about becoming Internet famous

18 Feb 2008, Posted by Leland Cheuk in tech, 4 Comments

The Book of Jobs That People Won’t Read

Steve Jobs’ declaration that nobody reads anymore is on one level correct, and on another, absolutely bonkers.

06 Feb 2008, Posted by G.M. Levinson in literary, tech, 1 Comments

Origins of Our Communication: Mister Quickly, Amazon Epicurean

For the second edition of the Origins of Our Communication series, Gabe Levinson interviews Amazon Epicurean Mister Quickly about the Internet and James Coburn.

01 Feb 2008, Posted by Paul M Davis in essay, tech, 0 Comments

Lego is our Rosebud: Recursive Nostalgia and the Web

Has there ever been a time during which adults gazed at their own navels and tried to recapture their youth as the Internet era?

21 Jan 2008, Posted by G.M. Levinson in literary, tech, 1 Comments

The Origins of Our Communication: BibliOdyssey’s Paul K.

In the first in a series, Gabriel Levinson interviews BibliOdyssey curator Paul K. about how the Internet has affected his life.

13 Dec 2007, Posted by Paul M Davis in tech, 0 Comments

Can’t Tie a Bow Around A Pile Of…

Let the story of Microsoft’s doomed Plays For Sure be a cautionary tale to those who support DRM.

04 Dec 2007, Posted by Paul M Davis in tech, 2 Comments

How do you map your community or your life?

Maps, maps and more maps–the many different types of maps, and the many different stories they tell.

03 Dec 2007, Posted by Paul M Davis in music, tech, 0 Comments

Songbird: So Much Potential, So Far To Go

There’s a lot to want to like in permanently-in-pre-release-beta audio playlist software Songbird, an open-source challenge to iTunes that includes all the post-iPod expected functionality and interfacing, along with a robust mp3 blog searching engine that’s built on top of Firefox. Songbird holds a ton of promise–being able to head over to Fluxblog or the Hype Machine and listen to the tracks as if they were a radio, for example, is pretty cool–and then being able to integrate those mp3’s into a playlist along with music on my hard drive. In concept it’s seamless and brilliant–in fact, the built-in Firefox functionality enables you to scroll through any website, and the mp3’s embedded on it, like you scroll through your own personal mp3 collection. Brilliant.

The bad? Like Firefox, with which I am quickly losing all patience, the software feels like you’re navigating an Abrams Tank: it’s slow, cludgy, and prone to crashes. Like Firefox, you love all the functionality, but can’t help feeling like you could be doing everything you want to be doing much quicker if the code was a ton leaner. Firefox’s unresponsiveness has been driving me increasingly to Safari (even the buggy XP version), which is quick and clean despite far less functionality (the lack of del.icio.us plugin and Gchat support has always been a big dealbreaker for me with Safari.) All the same, Firefox’s behemoth system footprint on both my PC and Mac is growing all the more frustrating, and the thought of using an audio program that somehow is built on Firefox and is even less responsive makes it a tough sell for now.

I have a lot of hope for Songbird–it’s the kick in the ass iTunes desperately needs. iTunes was innovative in its simplicity and usability in its first three or four iterations, but has only grown more maddeningly slow and weighed down by unwanted features. What Songbird needs to do is tighten its code up a ton, and focus on the two things people want: an intuitive audio database for their mp3 collection, and a way to surf audio online, within the same application. Cut out the dross, make it fast and responsive, and the developers will have an open-source iTunes killer on their hands.

Check out Songbird