AllConsuming.Net makes great use of the amazon APIs, along with those provided by google, and various blog interfaces.
...its sort of like an All Music Guide for books.
did you hear the story about a dude, a photocopier, an attept by the dude to scan his ass, the photocopier breaking under the weight of him, and then the guy having to run and hide from fellow co-workers while pulling shards of glass from his bloodied ass......heard it from someone from years back, coulda been true I guess...wonder how often this happens:)
in context to enterprise/web development its common to develop in several languages (usually at each of the different tiers e.g. HTML/Javascript on client, Java/C++/etc on Business tier, some flavour of SQL as a backend).
In some cases it is useful to be able to debug across tiers...e.g. interatively debug starting from scripting in the client, when a call to the server is made, trace the call to the component in the middle tier, debug there, and then further trace into DB stored procs if needed.
Visual Studio has had these sorts of features for a while--granted they are often a bitch to setup (and as a result somewhat less than trustworthy)...but when you do have it configured correctly it works quite well and has saved me a lot of time (now if they could address the "bitch to setup" part)
I'm a bit MS centric in my dev experience but some that I like are:
Edit and Continue in VB: find a small stupid error while debugging? fix it right away and continue...this can generally only be done with very simple errors (e.g. change a value assignment to a variable)...but it saves the time of stopping and restarting a debug session to fix a dumb error preventing you from continuing.
they implemented this in VC6 as well..don't know how well it worked, because its the sort of thing that only works well if it is unobtrusive--sort of like code complete drop downs...great in VB (cause its lightening fast), pain in the ass in VC++ (and many other IDEs--cause it slows your whole machine down and just gets in the way).
some ideas that I think'd be useful but have never encountered:
Simple refactoring while debugging (e.g. find a badly named variable while debugging?, rename it on the spot (and have all other reference renamed) and continue debugging...imagine in some languages this'd be quite difficult to implement but in an interpreted scripting language probably doable)
Mark a function/module/library/component as "black box" so that the debugger knows NOT to step into any code in that portion of code. This would speed up pinpointing of errors where you have code linked to 3rd party libraries (e.g. writing C++ code and then ending up in nasty MFC code)...the errors could be in those libraries...but if you're pretty sure its your own code (cause its just your first cut on it) then this could save some time....you should of course be able to mark it "white box" just as easily--having this feature sort of extends the idea of "information hiding" to debugging by giving the dev the ability to focus on the specific area he/she is interested in
--this sort of feature could be expecially useful in code walkthrough exercises where you want to focus the code walkthrough on only specific parts of the code and ignore previously examined code/3rd party code you're not interested in.
actually you posted earlier indicating you liked Lamb, Hooverphonic, Sneaker Pimps, etc.
If that's the case you should check out artists/bands like Morcheeba, Moloko, Goldfrapp (their's a track of her's "Utopia" which is just beautiful...definitely download this to check it out), Esthero...which all feature strong female vocals over electronic backgrounds...of various tempos....the abstract beats channel on netscape radio (spinner)...features stuff of this genre often.
well maybe I can be of help...I have most of his CDs:
Adventures in Foam (Cujo) - his earlier more conventional work...its I guess more "playful", and borrows more from traditional jazz than some of his later stuff. Less experimental but I find I listen to this one the most
Bricolage - the one CD of his I don't have
Permutation - gets more experimental with very different styles in each song, my favourite track "nightlife" was described as Disney on Acid by allmusic.com...like a lot of Drum and Bass, or any type of experimental music its PERFECT when you're in the mood, but can get a little grating if you're not.
Supermodified - similar to permutation but a bit more "mellow"...I think the two are a bit too similar and probably wouldn't buy both--I'd get Permutation if I had to choose (I find that album more interesting)
Out from Out Where - just released a couple months back, probably his "funkiest" sounding album..definitely showing some growth from his earlier stuff. I really like this one as well.
some other artists I really like: Photek..a lot of his earlier stuff sort of blends japanese war drums into it...its very interesting and quite different.
Squarepusher known for his "drill and bass" style which sort of takes lots of different snippets of music/noise/sound and meshes them together like rapidly changing channels on tv/radio, but at the same time sounding musical....Amon Tobin kind of used this type of technique on one of the tracks on his latest album...
another artist Prefuse 73 (downtempo/turntable hip hop/breakbeats...sorry that's the best way I can describe him) uses his technique but the samples are a little less jarring.
anyway happy listening...I love talking about music--most people I know just think the stuff I listen to is noise (not just the electronic stuff either)...they should just stop listening to the radio and develop some taste:)
Mocean Worker would be considered drum & bass...but he's a bit more experimental mixing it up with some jazz and stuff...its a little different than just the straight beats......some other experimental drum & bass I like would be artists like Amon Tobin (also known as Cujo)...mixes drum & bass and brazillian beats together. Some more typical drum & bass would be artists like Roni Size, Goldie, Photek, LTJ Bukem, etc...I kind of feel that Drum and Bass kind of peaked in the mid 90s...most of the stuff that's come out of late is a bit repetitive and less interesting...but then I only know so much about this stuff
Lamb, Sneaker Pimps, etc are more "down tempo" and would probably be closer to "trip hop" than drum and bass...Brand New Heavies is generally considered "acid jazz"
I listen to all sorts of music...I like browsing the stations on Spinner.Com (which is now branded Radio@Netscape Plus)...they play lots of great stuff some of which is quite obscure and you'd never be able to find on your own short of having a full time job listening to this stuff.
Once I find a track I like I look up the artist/album/song on AllMusic and find out more about them...from there I can find out about related artists as well. Allmusic is great because it notes key albums and songs of particular albums.
From there I usually go to Kazaa see if I can find a track or two to check out. If I like a few tracks I usually then go and buy the CD--I'll admit I don't always buy stuff, but if I really like the stuff I usually do end up buying if only becuase, its hard to find the rest of the tracks off the CD, I'm too lazy to burn it, or I genuinely want to support the more obscure artists I've found.
Here is a link to a Wired article from a few months back. It basically debunks a lot of the over-reaction to the dot-com bust.
The New Economy Was a Myth, Right?
perhaps a little too optimistic, but it makes a lot of very good points.
not much detail, some nice pics of a
new prototype CLIE device...looks a bit like a flip style cellphone like TREO, swivelling screen, and possibly a built in camera as well...
...,integrating the telephone with a home computer. I know a number of people who tried this years ago, but all are now using standalone answering machines or telco answering services....I can't imagine changing something that just works, to something that often doesn't, for some nebulous benefit of integration.
perhaps we should think out of the box a bit more here, you mentioned that a lot of people are foregoing integrated telephony gadgets in favour of using telco answering services.
why don't we take that idea a bit further? the interface to answering services is IVR which is awkward and annoying to pretty much everyone I know. Evolutionary solution? slap on a web interface--it is much more natural to peruse a list of items (e.g. voice mail messages) in a textual manner than having to "press 1 for the next message". A list of messages including time of call, caller phone # (or caller name if available), and a link to the recorded message would be far more usable (taking this further, having a consolidated view of other messages such as email would make sense here as well).
this type of solution of course would require buy in from the service providers, which would need a net saavy client-base to justify...it's pretty clear then that the big problem to solve would be social/cultural acceptance more so than technical complexity (I'm sure I've read of companies trying this sort of thing already)...time will tell...but I know plenty of people that log in to check email the moment they get home, why not check voice mail at the same time? why not be able to check voice mail from any web access device anywhere I want?
the main point I'm trying to make however, is that integration does not need to involve integrated devices...integration SHOULD mean taking seemingly disparate ideas...and finding how they can be used together more effectively.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.foundrydx.com/main.html this guy built lego models of Macross Valkryie's...that can actually transform
AllConsuming.Net makes great use of the amazon APIs, along with those provided by google, and various blog interfaces.
...its sort of like an All Music Guide for books.
did you hear the story about a dude, a photocopier, an attept by the dude to scan his ass, the photocopier breaking under the weight of him, and then the guy having to run and hide from fellow co-workers while pulling shards of glass from his bloodied ass... ...heard it from someone from years back, coulda been true I guess...wonder how often this happens :)
in context to enterprise/web development its common to develop in several languages (usually at each of the different tiers e.g. HTML/Javascript on client, Java/C++/etc on Business tier, some flavour of SQL as a backend).
In some cases it is useful to be able to debug across tiers...e.g. interatively debug starting from scripting in the client, when a call to the server is made, trace the call to the component in the middle tier, debug there, and then further trace into DB stored procs if needed.
Visual Studio has had these sorts of features for a while--granted they are often a bitch to setup (and as a result somewhat less than trustworthy)...but when you do have it configured correctly it works quite well and has saved me a lot of time (now if they could address the "bitch to setup" part)
I'm a bit MS centric in my dev experience but some that I like are:
Edit and Continue in VB:
find a small stupid error while debugging? fix it right away and continue...this can generally only be done with very simple errors (e.g. change a value assignment to a variable)...but it saves the time of stopping and restarting a debug session to fix a dumb error preventing you from continuing.
they implemented this in VC6 as well..don't know how well it worked, because its the sort of thing that only works well if it is unobtrusive--sort of like code complete drop downs...great in VB (cause its lightening fast), pain in the ass in VC++ (and many other IDEs--cause it slows your whole machine down and just gets in the way).
some ideas that I think'd be useful but have never encountered:
Simple refactoring while debugging (e.g. find a badly named variable while debugging?, rename it on the spot (and have all other reference renamed) and continue debugging...imagine in some languages this'd be quite difficult to implement but in an interpreted scripting language probably doable)
Mark a function/module/library/component as "black box" so that the debugger knows NOT to step into any code in that portion of code. This would speed up pinpointing of errors where you have code linked to 3rd party libraries (e.g. writing C++ code and then ending up in nasty MFC code)...the errors could be in those libraries...but if you're pretty sure its your own code (cause its just your first cut on it) then this could save some time....you should of course be able to mark it "white box" just as easily--having this feature sort of extends the idea of "information hiding" to debugging by giving the dev the ability to focus on the specific area he/she is interested in
--this sort of feature could be expecially useful in code walkthrough exercises where you want to focus the code walkthrough on only specific parts of the code and ignore previously examined code/3rd party code you're not interested in.
that's my 2c
that's my 2c.
glad to help,
...the abstract beats channel on netscape radio (spinner)...features stuff of this genre often.
actually you posted earlier indicating you liked Lamb, Hooverphonic, Sneaker Pimps, etc.
If that's the case you should check out artists/bands like Morcheeba, Moloko, Goldfrapp (their's a track of her's "Utopia" which is just beautiful...definitely download this to check it out), Esthero...which all feature strong female vocals over electronic backgrounds...of various tempos.
well maybe I can be of help...I have most of his CDs: Adventures in Foam (Cujo) - his earlier more conventional work...its I guess more "playful", and borrows more from traditional jazz than some of his later stuff. Less experimental but I find I listen to this one the most Bricolage - the one CD of his I don't have Permutation - gets more experimental with very different styles in each song, my favourite track "nightlife" was described as Disney on Acid by allmusic.com...like a lot of Drum and Bass, or any type of experimental music its PERFECT when you're in the mood, but can get a little grating if you're not. Supermodified - similar to permutation but a bit more "mellow"...I think the two are a bit too similar and probably wouldn't buy both--I'd get Permutation if I had to choose (I find that album more interesting) Out from Out Where - just released a couple months back, probably his "funkiest" sounding album..definitely showing some growth from his earlier stuff. I really like this one as well. some other artists I really like: Photek..a lot of his earlier stuff sort of blends japanese war drums into it...its very interesting and quite different. Squarepusher known for his "drill and bass" style which sort of takes lots of different snippets of music/noise/sound and meshes them together like rapidly changing channels on tv/radio, but at the same time sounding musical....Amon Tobin kind of used this type of technique on one of the tracks on his latest album... another artist Prefuse 73 (downtempo/turntable hip hop/breakbeats...sorry that's the best way I can describe him) uses his technique but the samples are a little less jarring. anyway happy listening...I love talking about music--most people I know just think the stuff I listen to is noise (not just the electronic stuff either)...they should just stop listening to the radio and develop some taste :)
Mocean Worker would be considered drum & bass...but he's a bit more experimental mixing it up with some jazz and stuff...its a little different than just the straight beats... ...some other experimental drum & bass I like would be artists like Amon Tobin (also known as Cujo)...mixes drum & bass and brazillian beats together. Some more typical drum & bass would be artists like Roni Size, Goldie, Photek, LTJ Bukem, etc ...I kind of feel that Drum and Bass kind of peaked in the mid 90s...most of the stuff that's come out of late is a bit repetitive and less interesting...but then I only know so much about this stuff
Lamb, Sneaker Pimps, etc are more "down tempo" and would probably be closer to "trip hop" than drum and bass...Brand New Heavies is generally considered "acid jazz"
I listen to all sorts of music...I like browsing the stations on Spinner.Com (which is now branded Radio@Netscape Plus)...they play lots of great stuff some of which is quite obscure and you'd never be able to find on your own short of having a full time job listening to this stuff. Once I find a track I like I look up the artist/album/song on AllMusic and find out more about them...from there I can find out about related artists as well. Allmusic is great because it notes key albums and songs of particular albums. From there I usually go to Kazaa see if I can find a track or two to check out. If I like a few tracks I usually then go and buy the CD--I'll admit I don't always buy stuff, but if I really like the stuff I usually do end up buying if only becuase, its hard to find the rest of the tracks off the CD, I'm too lazy to burn it, or I genuinely want to support the more obscure artists I've found.
Here is a link to a Wired article from a few months back. It basically debunks a lot of the over-reaction to the dot-com bust. The New Economy Was a Myth, Right? perhaps a little too optimistic, but it makes a lot of very good points.
not much detail, some nice pics of a new prototype CLIE device ...looks a bit like a flip style cellphone like TREO, swivelling screen, and possibly a built in camera as well...
perhaps we should think out of the box a bit more here, you mentioned that a lot of people are foregoing integrated telephony gadgets in favour of using telco answering services.
why don't we take that idea a bit further? the interface to answering services is IVR which is awkward and annoying to pretty much everyone I know. Evolutionary solution? slap on a web interface--it is much more natural to peruse a list of items (e.g. voice mail messages) in a textual manner than having to "press 1 for the next message". A list of messages including time of call, caller phone # (or caller name if available), and a link to the recorded message would be far more usable (taking this further, having a consolidated view of other messages such as email would make sense here as well).
this type of solution of course would require buy in from the service providers, which would need a net saavy client-base to justify...it's pretty clear then that the big problem to solve would be social/cultural acceptance more so than technical complexity (I'm sure I've read of companies trying this sort of thing already)...time will tell...but I know plenty of people that log in to check email the moment they get home, why not check voice mail at the same time? why not be able to check voice mail from any web access device anywhere I want?
the main point I'm trying to make however, is that integration does not need to involve integrated devices...integration SHOULD mean taking seemingly disparate ideas...and finding how they can be used together more effectively.