Wednesday, April 27, 2011

7 Online Music Streaming Services With No Restrictions culled from my feeds this one from the folks at make use of dot com


Posted: 25 Apr 2011 12:30 PM PDT
free streaming musicThere are lots of free online streaming music services, but as you come to use them, you’ll find that the services do come at some sort of price. One common, and annoying restriction is loading the page only to find that you can’t access the site from your corner of the world, due to copyright restrictions. And that’s not the only kind of restriction you’ll find on these sites – there’s a limit to how many songs you can listen to, or the selection of music for free accounts is very small. We’ve put together a list of online services that offer premium quality music for absolutely no price whatsoever, without any compromises.
These sites all serve as decent and, in some cases even superior, alternatives to Spotify, the latest in a long line of sites that have restricted their services even further, along with Last.fmPandora and other popular music sites you might not be able to access.

FineTune

With FineTune, choose one of your favourite artists and listen to a radio station that plays their music, and similar artists, or add all of your favourite artists to your list, and listen to a radio station that caters to your personal taste in music. If you’re looking for something a little more varied you can also listen to popular radio stations on FineTune stations that play pop, rock, easy listening and more.
free streaming music
A great way to take advantage of FineTune’s great music selection is to use the simplified Wii version of their website. The Wii interface is actually a lot more appealing, easier to use, and you can still benefit from the main features of the site.
free online music streaming

8Tracks

Create your own playlists on 8Tracks, and listen to those created by others. To create your own playlists, you have to upload your own mp3s and mp4s meaning you can put pretty much add any song you want to your playlists.
free online music streaming
Mac users can benefit from the uploader, dragging songs directly from iTunes to the desktop app to upload mp3s. Each playlist must consist of at least 8 tracks, a throwback to mixed tapes.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark needs no introduction, and is possibly one of the best services currently available with unlimited playback and playlist creation capabilities. Best used when creating your own playlist, Grooveshark also provides a few playlists of their own, with the most popular music of the moment.
free online music streaming
If you really want to take Grooveshark to the next level, be sure to check out this list of ways to enhance your Grooveshark listening experience. Grooveshark is, however, somewhat controversial as the way that they collect their music is in fact a copyright infringement in the US.

TheSixtyOne

TheSixtyOne is another unique option as far as how it presents the music to you. You have very little control over the playback, limited to listening to music according to popularity, mood or after you’ve used the site for a while, according to your own personal taste.
free music streaming

We Are Hunted

We Are Hunted is the ideal streaming music service for people want to stay on top of the latest trends. The constantly updated 100 song playlist consists of the most popular songs at any given time on the net.
free music streaming

Aupeo

Aupeo lets you stream music by genre, mood, artist, personalised stations and much more. While they do have premium accounts, the main differences are higher quality music files, and playback intermittently interrupted with short adverts. Aupeo has similar features to Last.fm, with the ability to love, ban and add songs to your favourites.
free music streaming

Musicuo

Musicuo’s interface may not be in English, but when it comes to listening to music, it’s easy to get past any language barrier – and if your Spanish isn’t any good, you can always use an online translator to access the site in English. The Spanish site’s interface is reminiscent of iTunes, cover flow and all. Listen to music by genre, search for specific artists, and create playlists. Create a playlist using the Add Playlist button at the bottom of the menu, and drag songs from your search results to the playlist.
free streaming music

Monday, April 25, 2011

Perception

Perception

  
    

 

 THE SITUATION 
  
 In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.  During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.
About 4 minutes later: 

The violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw
money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. 
 At 6 minutes: 
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. 
 At 10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly.  The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time.  This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly
 At 45 minutes:
The musician played
continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.
 After 1 hour:   
He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  There was no recognition at all. 


The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.  He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.  Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.


This is a true story.  Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. 
 This experiment raised several questions: 

  • in a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we          perceive beauty? 
  • If so, do we stop to appreciate it? 
  • Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

 If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . .. 
  
 How many other things are we missing as we rush through life? 

   

Enjoy life NOW .. it has an expiration date

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Office 2010 Tips tricks from make use of dot com

MakeUseOf.com - Office 2010 Tips & Tricks

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Mother Hips at GAMH from SFSTATION.com

Senator Feinstein response to my letter re Patriot Act abuses by FBI

Dear Mr. Armstrong:

I received your letter and want to thank you for sharing your views about the USA PATRIOT Act.  I recognize that this is an important issue to you, and I welcome the opportunity to share my point of view with you.

Three provisions of the USA PATRIOT ACT – known as "roving wiretaps," "lone wolf," and "business records" – are currently set to expire on May 27, 2011.  It is important to note that all three of these authorities can only be used after being approved by a federal judge. For your information, these provisions do the following: 

o   Roving wiretaps – before this authority was established, warrants could only be issued for a specific phone number.  In the modern age of telecommunications, terrorists were able to evade surveillance simply by switching phones, which is easily done with throwaway cell phones.  Thus, the "roving wiretap" authority simply authorizes a judge to issue a surveillance order that is specific to the suspect terrorist, rather than specific to a particular phone number. 

o   Lone wolf – the lone wolf provision allows for court-ordered surveillance of foreigners who engage in international terrorism but for whom an association with a specific international terrorist group has not yet been determined. 

o   Business records – finally, the business records section allows the government to obtain business records relating to a suspected terrorist if it receives a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

As Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have seen how the United States intelligence and law enforcement agencies have used these expiring provisions and I have come to believe without them, they would lack important tools to protect this nation.  The United States remains a target for terrorists, and good surveillance is critical to prevent attacks.  For this reason, I have introduced legislation, the "FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011" (S. 149), to extend the three expiring provisions until December 31, 2013. 

 
As you may be aware, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has also introduced legislation to extend the expiring provisions until December 31, 2013.  In addition, Senator Leahy's bill, the "USA PATRIOT Sunset Extension Act of 2011" (S. 193) would amend the law to improve congressional oversight of these three provisions and impose a sunset on the National Security Letters section of the PATRIOT Act. 

On March 10, 2011, I voted for the "USA PATRIOT Sunset Extension Act of 2011" when the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which I serve, approved the bill by a vote of 11 to 7.  I voted for this bill because it would provide appropriate oversight over PATRIOT Act authorities and civil liberty protections, while also giving intelligence and law enforcement agencies the certainty and predictability they need to safeguard national security. 

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me.  Please know I will keep your thoughts in mind as this debate continues.  If you have any additional comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841.


Sincerely yours,

  Dianne Feinstein
          United States Senato