The Colors of Dreams - Eclecticism through digital media
About Me

Emergency physician with a passion for medical informatics and medical education.
http://LifeInTheFastLane.com
Trying to define, refine and rationalize the way we localize
http://HealthEngine.com.au

My Other Sites
             
Tags
Get Updates
Filed under

Review

See all posts on posterous with this tag »

Social Media Music Chart - We Are Hunted

 

We Are Hunted is an Online Music Chart born out of a collaboration between the semantic news service Wotnews and Native Digital Media. The site is driven by the same semantic search and aggregation technology that powers wotnews.com.au, the popular Australian news search engine and its US and UK equivalents at wotnews.com and wotnews.co.uk. The 'We are Hunted' team scour the social networks, forums, music blogs, Torrents, P2P Networks and Twitter to develop a daily chart of the 99 most popular songs online. The user can then effectively track the hottest sounds on the social-media circuit virtually in real-time. You can choose to review and listen to the hippest tunes for that day, week, month or year and sort by artist or song title.
In the physical world, charts are built on shipped albums. Online, traditionally, they have been a count of digital downloads. We Are Hunted is different in that it tracks sentiment, expression and advocacy. Visually driven, intuitive and simple, We Are Hunted seeks to be a daily destination for music lovers looking for their next favourite artist track or song. Through We Are Hunted, music fans can discover new music and more importantly, join the conversation about it. - WeAreHunted
  Richard Slatter from Wotnews explained the genesis of WAH to TechNation Australia:
It occurred to us there is no longer a single definitive chart. With the impact of the Internet over the last decade or so the old metrics have disappeared. We wanted to create a new kind of chart based on buzz and activity across social networks, forums, music blogs, Torrents, P2P Networks and Twitter. Using this unstructured disparate data we measure and determine what are the most popular 99 songs online… right now.
I love the site - it's clean, fresh and dynamic. The immediacy of response is awesome and the tunes are fresh and vibrant. WeAreHunted has brought  some great new artists and tracks to my attention and will be I will certainly be a frequent visitor.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  music   Review   Social Media  
Comments (0)
Posted 7 months ago

Where the Wild Things Are - Trailer (Video)

 

The official trailer for the Dave Eggers-penned and Spike Jonze-directed film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are'  has hit the net with Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" as the music behind the stunning-looking visuals. The film has been pushed back a lot (it's slated for October 2009 release) but given the great images in the preview - it will be worth the wait. [vodpod id=Groupvideo.2273971&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  Kids   Movie   Review   Wild Things  
Comments (0)
Posted 8 months ago

Leonard Cohen Concert in Perth

A magnificent and ethereal triumph of music and majesty. The Canadian poet/singer/songwriter - Leonard Cohen is still the King of Cool.

In the past five decades, I've been privileged to attend some fabulous concerts - from the sublime (Pavarotti) to the surreal - the Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison singing together with Gene Pitney playing organ. I've been to concerts vowing never to watch the artist again (Bob Dylan and Tom Petty). But I have never experienced anything like the Leonard Cohen concert at Sandalford last Saturday night. - Greg Ross
Sandalford Winery in Perth, Western Australia was the perfect venue to consume the vast talent of Cohen in his emotional and triumphant return to Perth - his first visit in almost 24 years. 
With the fading heat of the day, throngs of Cohen evangelists flocked to hear their messiah. Tingling with anticipation the crowd were treated to a fantastic performance by Paul Kelly ably accompanied by his Nephew Dan. The greatest Australian lyricist of modern times, bespectacled in an audience members sunglasses, enthused the growing crowd and intensified the palpable excitement.

Then, it happened.

The legend appeared on stage. 

A wave of sheer emotion washed through the crowd and exploded onto the stage igniting the most humble and generous smiles on Cohens face. This enthusiastic surge of energy propelled Cohen and the band to arguably one of their finest shows of their world tour. From their very first exultant gasp to the very last standing ovation the crowd synergized as one - united in the presence of greatness; united through the emotional roller-coaster of every song; united in empathy with every lyric and united in appreciation of the poetic genius of Cohen. It was without doubt, the most intense feeling of cohesive embodiment I have ever felt. 
With no range to speak of, Cohen practically speaks the words - but he does so with alluring command. After more than 40 years as the butt of jokes about creating music to slit your wrists to, he still has the ability to show the difference between Leonard Cohen the writer and Leonard Cohen the performer. In a near three hour performance last night, he took back Hallelujah from Jeff Buckley, took back Bird on A Wire from Joe Cocker, took back Suzanne from Judy Collins and reclaimed First We Take Manhattan from Jennifer Warnes - Perth Now
If his voice is a simple tool, the same can not be said for his band, who were so good Cohen introduced them twice. His frequent collaborator Sharon Robinson delivered an unforgettable rendition of Boogie Street and combined magnificently with the Webb sisters in vocal trio. 

Leonard Cohen with Guitarist Javier Mas

Review more photos from the concert of a lifetime here and here. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0YsSWveCJA]

More videos form the Perth show can be found here

With twisted arm - to define a musical highlight in this historic performance I could not go past the ephemeral and spellbinding rendition of 'If It Be Your Will' by the Webb sisters on acoustic guitar and harp. Cohen recited the first two verses, then the Webb Sisters produced the finest rendition I have ever heard of this masterful work. Gripped by emotion; locked in a trance and unable to fully inhale I joined 5000+ other souls on a journey to a higher musical plane - an extraordinary performance.
If it be your will That I speak no more And my voice be still As it was before I will speak no more I shall abide until I am spoken for If it be your will

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RygLzY2xOVA]

 

Leonard Cohen the legend

It is hard work having to put this concert in to words so I'll just say something I have never said in a review before and will never say again: this was the best show I have ever seen.
Leonard Cohen Concert Set:
  1. Dance Me to the End of Love
  2. The Future
  3. Ain't No Cure for Love
  4. Bird on a Wire
  5. Everybody Knows
  6. In My Secret Life
  7. Who By Fire
  8. Chelsea Hotel
  9. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
  10. Ring the Bells
  11. Tower of Song
  12. Suzanne
  13. The Gypsy Wife
  14. The Partisan
  15. Boogie Street
  16. Hallelujah
  17. Democracy
  18. I'm Your Man
  19. A Thousand Kisses Deep
  20. Take This Waltz
  21. So Long Marianne
  22. First We Take Manhatten
  23. Famous Blue Raincoat
  24. Anthem
  25. Democracy
  26. I Tried to Leave You
  27. Wither Thou Goest

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  concert   leonard cohen   Perth   Review   Western Australia  
Comments (0)
Posted 9 months ago

Blogging Heaven

Welcome to the One-Stop shop for all your literary needs!

Acronyms, abbreviations, conversions, quotations, definitions and synonyms - Abbreviations.com has it all. Smart and uncluttered page design coupled with intuitive search functionality makes this series of collated sites a pleasure to use - and a vital resource for all bloggers, writers and renaissance beings Thanks to STANDS4 LLC - this tremendous literary resource is now available from a single web portal.

Abbreviations.com is the world's largest and most comprehensive directory and search engine for acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms on the Internet. Abbreviations.com holds hundreds of thousands of entries organized by a large variety of categories from computing and the Web to governmental, medicine and business and it is expanding daily.
Convert.net is an online conversions calculator for a variety of such as unit measurements, time zones and number systems - featuring natural language queries. You can use Convert.net to sum up a list of numbers, convert from pounds to kilograms, or evaluate any other mathematical expression. Convert.net can evaluate mathematical expressions involving basic arithmetic, advanced math and logic, and conversions of a large number of unit measurements in different fields.
Definitions.net is an Online dictionary providing instant lookup and translations of word and phrase definitions, complete with images. To use the dictionary, simply type a word in the search box that appears at the top of every page and click the 'Search' button.
Quotes.net provides thousands of famous quotations from many authors that can be browsed, searched, heard and translated to several languages. Search for your favorite quote by author or keyword or use the facility to browse thousands of quotations based on words or phrases - Magic!

Synonyms.net is an online synonyms thesaurus reference resource. Synonyms.net is the web's most comprehensive synonyms resource. To use Synonyms.net, simply type a word in the search box and click the 'Search' button. A list of synonyms for the different word senses will be returned followed with images and translation options. This Definitive Abbreviations Directory of the Web is looking for assistance to build the largest human-edited acronyms and abbreviations directory of the web! Like any community, you get what you give. Abbreviations.com provides the opportunity for everyone to contribute. So sign up and get editing!

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  Abbreviations   Blog   Dictionary   Quotations   Review  
Comments (0)
Posted 10 months ago

BrownBook Open Data Business Directory

Having some great fun with BrownBook.net having stumbled on the twitter profiles of @DaveIngram and @Marc_Lyne the CEO and COO of BrownBook.net which started in May 2008. Fantastic overview and interview with Robert Scoble is the best way of really understanding the key principles behind BrownBook.net (hosted below) Brownbook.net is a free GLOBAL business directory that ANYONE can edit.  Users can find, review and add businesses in any country in the world (240 countries to date). Currently there are 27 million listings worldwide, primarily focussing on UK, Australia and the US and growing at 35% each month! The website is crisp, simple to use and highly functional. The ethical model behind BrownBook relies on Open Data, community participation and individual ownership. My favorite features: 
  • Anyone can add a business, anyone can review a business, and anyone can update a business listing
  • Free to use Brownbook.net to find businesses
  • Free to list any business 
  • Free to update and edit your business listing 'dynamically' (see Video)
  • Business operators can claim a listing for $10 and for $22 can fully customize their listing
  • Business owners can create their own website within BrownBook
  • Even better - once a business is 'claimed' the last person to have edited the business prior to the claim...gets paid. The more businesses that are added the better Brownbook becomes and the more people contribute then the more people will be rewarded for contributing. 
  • 'Open Search' Data Structure - NOT a centrally controlled service. Data can be used by to create local search or vertical searchvia xml query (and take advantage of reviews)
  • Looks great on a mobile phone m.brownbook.net
 Search is simple and business listings can be found by name, location, or type of business anywhere in the world!  Businesses which claim their listing can edit with a WP-like WYSIWYG editor and upload logos, videos, photos and additional content. With an exponentially growing number of places to promote themselves online - BrownBook.net provides a simple, cheap and safe additional resource for business promotion with dynamic editing options.

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/6118/286131&tbid=k_946&premium=true&height=500&width=425]

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  BrownBook   Directory   Review  
Comments (0)
Posted 11 months ago

Searching Shakespeare

Shakespeare Searched is a fantastic resource for reviewing Shakespeare's texts. It is a search engine designed to provide quick access to passages from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Search results are clustered search by topic, work, and character to make it easy to find exactly what you're looking for. The search engine [powered by Vivísimo Velocity] is easy to use and great for finding Shakespeare related information as simple as 'identifying the speaker of a particular quote' to 'discovering the underlying thematic elements across works'. This website is not a replacement for a copy of the text and provides no analysis or footnotes. Instead it is meant to supplement a traditional reading of a work.  Search To get started, enter a search term(s) or phrase into the search box and click "Search Shakespeare" or hit Enter. To locate an exact phrase, use quotation marks.
Limiting your search To search the text of a particular play, or the speech of a particular character, use the drop-down menus below the search box to make your selection and click "Search Shakespeare." To see all of a particular character's speech, an entire play, or all of Shakespeare's work clustered, make your selection, leave the search box blank and click "Search Shakespeare." The default setting searches all plays and sonnets. Viewing search results When you have completed your search, you can use the clusters to view and navigate your search results by topic. By clicking on the tabs above the clusters, you can also see your search results arranged by work or character. Beneath the title of each search result is a link for "Surrounding text" which will display the text immediately preceding and following the selected passage. There is also a "Citation" link which will display detailed information about the source and location of that particular passage.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  Quotations   Review   Shakespere  
Comments (0)
Posted 11 months ago

Posting to posterous

Simple way to start sharing your thoughts, inspirations and photos. If you can use email, you can have your own website to share thoughts and media with friends, family and the world. If you attach one photo (of any size, even direct from your camera!), it is resized by the posterous team to a web-friendly size and then posted. If you send more than one photo in the same message, they are automatically collated into a fantastic gallery of images. Each image can be enlarged in an on screen lightbox and the reader is then given the option to download the full size image or the whole gallery as a zip file. Great for sharing events and images with family and friends.

Another great feature is the simplicity with which embedded videos from websites can be uploaded and embedded into online players for YouTube, Google Video, Hulu, Omnisio, MixWit, Justin.TV, Fliggo, Vimeo, motionbox, TED Talks, Viddler, Dailymotion, Blip.tv, Revver, TeacherTube, GodTube, seesmic, and Brightcove...and probably many more soon! Simply email the URL to posterous and they do the rest... Posterous.com also allows limited editing of your posts once published using a simple WYSIWYG editor and the user can also write posts directly in this editor and publish to Posterous 'without' having to email to Posterous
  Managing posts is also simple and effective. I really like the simple way to monitor how many people have viewed a post, commented or added as a favorite. The 'manage' section also allows the user to edit or delete posts.
 

Things I like about posterous.com

  • Simple to use
  • Great way to get started with a blog
  • Autoposting to twitter, facebook or other blogs by simply changing the email address to which you send your blog posting
  • Subscribing to other posterous bloggers and seeing a great selection of short, humorous and colorful posts on a daily basis - simple to subscribe to other bloggers, review RSS feeds of your favorite blogs, add comments and 'favorite' those special posts
  • Sense of positivity
  • Great aesthetics
  • Inspires me to post regular short posts for my family and friends
Things that frustrate me
  • Adding video or pictures to an already published post - I submit a new post, copy and paste the generated html into the original post and then delete the 'new post'
  • Unable to add captions to individual photos
Favorite Posterous Bloggers of the moment include ReflectionsOf.Me, Garry, and Nicholas Patten. For a detailed and comprehensive FAQ list visit the posterous.com help section or visit the blog.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  Post   Posterous   Review  
Comments (0)
Posted 11 months ago

Sanitized search for Catholics

The best way for good Catholics to surf the web

CatholicGoogle is a search engine built by eBizWebPages just for Catholics. They strive to provide an easy to use resource to anyone wanting to learn more about Catholicism. This site is powered by Google using “safe search” technology, it produces results from all over the internet with more weighting to given to Catholic websites and eliminates the vast majority of unsavory content, such as pornography.
The site is not associated or affiliated with Google.com but the site owners work closely with Google to help ensure that the adverts are not objectionable in nature and remain in line with Catholic doctrine. Similar results can be found in the Catholic Encyclopedia at Catholic Online. Interesting search results for 'creation' 'evolution' 'genesis' and 'pedophilia'

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  Catholic   Google   Review   Search  
Comment (1)
Posted 11 months ago

Google Calender Popup for Firefox

GCal Popup

GCal Popup is an experimental Firefox 3 extension which opens Google Calendar in an overlay over any web page, giving you quick access to your agenda without leaving the page you're already visiting. To access the calendar, simply click the Google Calendar icon in the corner of your status bar. 

Read more about the extension at Benjip.net or comment on the GCalPopup Greasemonkey script. I find this Google Calendar PopUp very useful and an aesthetically pleasing overlay which allows me to update my Google Calender without ever leaving the web page. I find it more useful than the Better GCal extension.  Source

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  Calender   Google   Review  
Comments (0)
Posted 11 months ago

FireStatus Firefox addon

FireStatus is a Firefox 3 extension. It is a status update utility for multiple social networks including Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and Delicious. FireStatus lets you send simultaneous updates to multiple social networks and also displays your friends' updates through notification pop-ups for "live" communication with your friends (uses Growl in OS X). An additional feature of great benefit is the integration of a URL shrinking source - TinyURL. This allows the user to post the 'shortened' URL of the webpage they are reading as a status update.  
  Great FF3 add-on with much potential. For more details check out the full description here.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //  Firefox   FireStatus   Review   Twitter  
Comments (0)
Posted 11 months ago