Some months ago, an automatic and effective way of obtaining music was described: no need to run any heavy graphical program; no need to select music (only sources of music of the desired genre); no limits on bandwidth or volume.

Taking this further, Dr. Scott Tobkes explains about his method of bringing commericals to a halt.

Something I’ve had fun doing lately is recording live of archived streaming audio from radio stations around the country

There are innumerable subjects and programs. I record it to mp3 or wav, and listen in my car or PC, while fast-forwarding through the commercials. I know that there are aggregators that will make this a seamless process like Ipodder.

I don’t like to call them podcasts. I use this program…

It wasn’t long ago that the Internet Archive was mentioned. This amazing, non-profit resource has been storing snapshots of the Web since 1996. It is now revealed that the entire system is Linux-powered. It can hold over a petabyte (1000,000 gigabytes) in volume and yet remain affordable.

here is a great deal of talk about AJAX recently. It is the new branch of development which makes real-time interaction possible. To take examples from Google, GMaps allow movement around the map without the reloading of a page; Google Suggest fetches possible completions from the server in real-time; GMail is another AJAX-rich Web application. The main advantage of this technology is that it one does not need to refresh entire pages, but just modify little bits whenever required.

There are simple ways of indicating change and increasing usability. The lastest release of the Horde project, for example, has plenty of subtle feedback for interaction. A few instances: the pointer changes to a finger when unfolding menus, “+” changes to a “-” and vice versa; Hovering will result in different background colours to indicate severity.

There are some very nice demos in the Open Source library named Rico. I was impressed at first, but I soon spotted a major drawback. The pages devour signals so mouse gestures, for instance, begin to misbehave. Also, browser compatibility is limited, which makes pages like that a bad choice for practical purposes. Another example of flexible designs shows the great powers of modern browsers.

There has recently been some gossip about Google’s project which involves 3D maps of San Francisco, as well as other cities. More details have been disclosed today (Kudos to Slashdot) including some pictures and related research papers (PDF).

An example of output maps, which can be generated by trucks with laser tracers

lpha trial of one excellent Web-based aggregator is on its way. Yet another Web-based feed syndication service? Definitely not. Feedlounge features AJAX, tags, keyboard navigation and an excellent overall integration. The user experience equates to that of a native program.

The world’s leading search engine breaks through boundaries and continues to expand, diminishing many smaller companies in its path. Google have already acquired many small companies; Among the list:

• Blogger
• Deja News (for Google Groups)
• Picasa (Photo organiser)
• Applied Semantics (for AdSense/AdWords)

Slashdot have just unveiled the fact that Google Maps now cover the entire world . There has been no formal announcement from Google, yet. Google Maps must already be gnawing at the share of giants like MapQuest, MapBlast or even more localised mapping sites like Streetmap in the UK. Google’s equivalent is simply by far better in terms of technology and hence its usability.

Only yesterday, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Google might put PayPal and eBay under threat by introducing Google Wallet.

Many of us are fond of Google, but it is worrying how much power they can gain so rapidly.

In the past two days, I noticed the Nazi analogy being used twice in two separate newsgroups in UseNet. That was when the point when members brought Godwin’s Law to everyone’s attention.

As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one…

…whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress…