Scrobble Anyone?

last.fm
Apple’s iPod changed the way we listen to music. The evolution continued with music recommendation sites like Pandora.com. Now, Internet radio site Last.fm has taken it a step further by adding social networking to the music mix.

Scrobble?

Last.fm users download a player that automatically logs or “scrobbles” any track played on the user’s computer and user-assigned searchable tags build an ever-expanding music database. In addition to access to millions of personal music collections, users have the ability to blog, chat, listen to each other’s stations, recommend music, and list music events in their area. It creates a forum for users to connect to each other based on common musical interests or geographic location.

While there are still limitations to this new medium, it’s the beginning of yet another gigantic step forward in the way we experience music.

Windy City Drama

Allstate ChicagoAgencies strive to develop campaigns that get noticed. Leo Burnett Worldwide created a cliff hanger that has Chicagoans looking up and taking notice. Watch the commercial that debuted during the Sugar Bowl.

Taking Good Photos

Receive a fancy SLR camera for Christmas? No idea how to use it? These easy tips can help turn snapshots into works of art.

Let’s start with the Rule of Thirds: As you look through the viewfinder, mentally draw a tic-tac-toe board through the viewable area—two lines vertically and two horizontally—to divide your picture into nine separate, equal portions. The Rule of Thirds says instead of centering your subject, bring interest to your photographs by placing the subject at any of the four points where the lines intersect.

Secondly, ensure proper exposure. Don’t trust your camera to do too much for you. Set your camera mode to Manual instead of Automatic. In the viewfinder, you’ll see an exposure meter range from “-2″ through “+2.” Typically, you want the meter to read “0″ for proper exposure. However, sometimes even when you shoot with a “0″ reading colors look too dark or washed out. To properly gauge exposure, put your hand up near the lens to fill the picture frame, making sure it’s in the same light as your subject and is not casting any shadows. Look through the viewfinder and turn the shutter speed setting until the exposure reads “+1.” Remove your hand, refocus and shoot. You should have a good range of highlights, shadows and middle values. If you like gadgets, you can get the same results using an 18 percent gray card (available at any photo store) instead of your hand and adjusting your shutter speed until the exposure meter reads “0.”

And finally, proper focus is key to great photos. If your camera has auto focus, use one of the camera’s sensing points to aim directly onto your subject. Press the shutter button down halfway to set the focus. Keep the button depressed, compose your shot using the Rule of Thirds, then press the shutter button all the way down to take the picture.

Remember, the way to take great pictures is to take lots of pictures; you only see a fraction of the shots professionals take. Enjoy your new camera!
Viewfinder

More Thought

RapidoStart (Mac)

Here’s a free Mac app allowing you to call up, via customized abbreviations, any text string you copy and paste frequently. Best of all the text is placed pre-formatted - returns, bullets and all. It’s become a staple here at Brainstorm. You can download your own at app4mac.

PimpMyNews

If you can get past the vapid brand identity and UI, PimpMyNews, the talking social news site, is an interesting concept. The site will read your RSS feeds to you over your mp3 player, iPhone, etc. or computer.
[via: PR-Squared]

The iPlanet

NPI’s personal cosmos transport. Like Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine Happiness Machine, the iPlanet, a holiday product parody, promises a “thoroughly self-absorbed social media experience.”

Twitter Unseat Email?

Robert Scoble explores the notion in this BusinessWeek piece re: the running debate over where we’re headed with aging, albeit ubiquitous, email paradigms versus spam-free Tweets.
[via: Scobleizer]

Track the Hive’s Buzz

Aggregate the aggregators at Popurls.com—simultaneously follow the most current posts from all the top sites like Digg, Newsvine, YouTube and Flickr. Or, “find your favorite thing,” over at Buzzfeed.

Fountain

Peter Bruhn’s Swedish type foundry is preparing a new freshet of fonts to flow forth and flourish among us—according to Typographi and Bruhn himself.
[via: Sheer Brick]

Design by Metaphor

A word from A List Apart about design based on simile.

Master’s Color Palettes

Looking for a digital color scheme that will last the ages? Colour Lovers explores masters inspired color schemes.

Visualizing Volumes

Can’t see how your two soda bottles a day are impacting the environment? Chris Jordan’s images will help you visualize it. View his amazing statistical depictions at Running the Numbers, An American Self-Portrait.

Steve Jobs Unveils the Apple iRack

Regardless of your geopolitical views you’ll likely appreciate the satirical humor of this product parody sketch run amok.

Qbesq

Okay this would just be a goofy flash-based Spirograph-esque toy if it didn’t generate downloadable .svg (Scalable Vector Graphic) files—which it does. Pattern enthusiasts, meet Qbesq.

Those Funny Googlers

Here’s Google’s take on the phrase, “Across the pond.” Visit Google Maps, enter New York to London in the search field, scroll to step #24.

Tip: Reducing Firefox Memory Usage

How to reduce Firefox from a memory hog to a piglet. Caught this Firefox usage tip over on Ade Olonoh’s blog (see comments).

CSS Developments

If you’re a developer or just interested in CSS, check out this article entitled, #IEroot — Targeting IE Using Conditional Comments and Just One Stylesheet,” over on the PIE site.

The History of Branding

An iconic-rich, one-click site on how hundreds of the planet’s most noteworthy brands came to be. Updated daily.

The Hexafluoride Float

From the Bonn Physikshow—A lesson on YouTube regarding the denser than air properties of hexafluoride (likely sulphur hexafluoride) gas.

Worst Website Design, Ever?

Enter at your own risk. A proof of concept that design does matter. Havenworks.com hailed on Digg recently as perhaps, “…the most poorly designed website in the world!”

50 Essential Bookmarks

Originally published in Communication Arts November Design Annual 2006, here’s their list of 50 essential bookmarks. Conspicuously missing, sites such as Delicious, Technorati and Lifehacker.

Greetings Earthling

Sure to appeal to the megalomaniacal extraterrestrial in all of us. World, meet geoGreetings. When you care enough to send a satellite image.

A Modern Medium

An interactive glimpse into the the random and spontaneous feedback Jackson Pollock once realized in his medium—sans the clean up.

Impressive Product

Pressed toast with panache. From the, “Table Manners Collection,” Delfts Toast Pan by Minale Maeda. As seen on “ohmygooshness.”

Other Thoughts

Items we find compelling, of late.

Our latest top 20 list of inane musings from the Brainstorm office white board: Top 20 Thoughts on What No.15 Means

(at right)

.think Flickr

Objects of interest, engaging designs, diagrams, downloadable visuals and any other imagery we felt worth sharing.

Top 20 Top 20 Things to do (we did)
on the 4th of July

  1. Enjoy an apple pie in a Chevrolet…or a nutrition bar in a Smart Car
  2. Wax my upper lip
  3. Overdose on televised sports
  4. See Wall-E
  5. Midnight Parade – Anderson
  6. Read the Declaration of Independence (first part anyway)
  7. Blow off steam, or digits
  8. Enjoy the neighbors’ fireworks, late at night, for weeks
  9. Populate FunctionFox
  10. Rest my dogs
  11. Wax the car
  12. Wax nostalgic
  13. Watch fireworks…Just a thought
  14. Groove to the sounds of Baghdad (try Quantum Sonic Orchestra…or the Bamboos–nostalgia circa 1977)
  15. Fret all night that Homeland Security doesn’t run a keyword analysis and cough up #16
  16. “Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it”
  17. Grill some burgers & dogs cats
  18. Hope it doesn’t rain cats, burgers and dogs
  19. Grill the Burgher – and his dog – get to the bottom of this “independence”
  20. Join the kids in the bike parade
  21. Celebrate with the Katzenbergers
  22. See the entire board