The latest post, part 1 in a series on Suffering and Worship, is well worth the read and should serve as a great encouragement to your soul. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series, and hope you find this blog as helpful as I have thus far! Enjoy!
The ROUGH
Below is the current condition of a tough but strategic neighborhood in Flint, MI. We have counted at least 10 homes in this condition that are owned by the city that we could purchase for 2,000 or less.
The DIAMOND
Below is the blessing on the street. This house is being sold for 2,500. The owner put 20,000 into the home and because of life circumstances he needs to sell asap. We would use this home as an outpost for Red Revolution’s vision to raise up indigenous disciples/leaders to help restore the city.
The FUTURE
Believe it or not what you see below is what they call a “HOOP HOUSE”. This is the future of bringing economy into urban places with a down economy, using natural resources. This Hoop house is 30×80 feet and they are built to produce vegetation year round in cold climates. Yes this “HOOP HOUSE” is in the middle of a “HOOD”, done by one of the members of our church and it’s producing as planned.
Vision
Our hope is to buy the one “DIAMOND” house for 2,500 and turn it into the hub of urban discipleship in this tough but strategic neighborhood. This neighborhood sits right on the main street that connects the Colleges, business, north (majority african americans) and south side (majority caucasians). We would then pursue the other ten homes at $2,000 in the neighborhood that need to be bull dozed. We would use two lots to put one “HOOP HOUSE” at 10,000 to produce what you see above, giving this neighborhood a since of pride and beauty. We would use the “HOOP HOUSES” along with the “DIAMOND” house to teach keys values that pertain to discipleship/leadership growth such as diligence, patience, hard work and economic literacy.
Summary
Step 1
“DIAMOND HOUSE” 2,500 cash, 1,500 in back taxes and 1,000 to close=5,000
Step 2
“THE ROUGH” LONG TERM-purchase 10 homes at 2,000=20,000 from the city. SHORT TERM-Start with at least two homes at 2,000=4,000
Step 3
“THE FUTURE” LONG TERM-Bull doze and use the 10 lots to put up 5 “HOOP HOUSES” at 10,000=50,000. SHORT TERM-Start with at least two lots to produce one HOOP HOUSE at 10,000=10,000
Invest financially and eternally into a city, a neighborhood and a people that many have written off.
Initiatives like this one by @redrev and company bring tears to my heart. Thinking about @amishobaraka's song "Rebuild the City," I always wondered how many times songs like that grow feet and move. This is a prime example of how solid Christology/Missiology can come together to produce ACTION that impacts ENTIRE communities. We need to make noise about efforts like these, and support through finances, prayer, and similar efforts in our own communities. I'd be the first to say it's much much easier said than done. I believe, Lord help my unbelief.
Recently I watched the Tribe Called Quest documentary and found out through it that Phife has Type 1 Diabetes. In a lot of ways, the disease has caused havoc in his life. My aunt has Type 1, my father-in-law has Type 1. It hasn't been unknown to me, yet I never understood EXACTLY what it is.
From the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation): Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. While its causes are not yet entirely understood, scientists believe that both genetic factors and environmental triggers are involved.
Here's the thing for me. I always thought of my aunt's injection of insulin as somewhat a cure. It's not. She'll have to do that every day for the rest of her life. Same goes for Phife, same goes for my Father-in-law, same for the millions of Americans suffering from this disease presently . Since I don't always see these injections happen, it's easy for me to take for granted the difficulty of a life lived needing to measure so many factors throughout a day just to survive. The chairman of the JDRF says that those with the disease "need to be mathematicians, physicians, personal trainers, and dieticians all rolled into one."
Since Type 1 can strike suddenly, it also means that none of us are exempt or immune. We need a cure. Right now there are as many as 3 million folks with Type 1, and about 80 people are diagnosed with it PER DAY! That's staggering. For more info visit www.jdrf.org. Meanwhile, support Diabetes research and get your fresh up at the same time by purchasing some gear from Type 3, featured in the commercial above.
Mary, Martha, and the Humanity of Anxiety | MockingbirdMary, Martha, and the Humanity of Anxiety. by LRE Larkin on Oct 5, 2011 • 1:30 pm No Comments. Anxiety is technically defined as: Noun: 1. distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or mi...
So, this morning I was rocked as I read a little book called "Who Will Deliver Us," by Paul F.M. Zahl. I was repeatedly amazed at the riches found in this book, especially since it's only 85 pages long. I couldn't get over how helpful the book is, and how many facets of the Power of Christ's death it addressed. Then I thought, "I'm sure there are tons of books as short as this that were as helpful and potent." Reading through an author's thoughts on a topic in a couple sittings can be very beneficial for a number of reasons. This is where I got this idea. What if I solicited some of YOUR favorite shorter books? What are the most helpful books you've read that fit the bill? One hundred pages or less? I'll start with a couple of my own, including the one that sparked this post. Won't you add to it for our mutual benefit? Pass this along to friends so they can join in as well. Happy Reading!
1. God At Work (Abridgement)-Jonathan Edwards, 94 Pages
2. Who Will Deliver Us?- Paul Zahl, 85 Pages
Hilarious......What's amazing is the guy taking the order actually getting it right LOL
Encouraged by the contents of this interview today. Praise Jesus for his finished work!
Great testimony of God's saving Pistol Pete.........
WHOA.........He's a Sophomore!
Yesterday afternoon, I was discussing with a few guys on Twitter how and where we spend our time working. When I came to Grace nearly three years ago, there was no “office” space for me at the church building, which meant that I was to do the majority of my work either at home or somewhere in the community. For me, this was a huge win because I’ve always struggled with the idea that a pastor’s ministry is to be confined to an enclosed office space. That’s not to say it is entirely wrong; it’s just not who I am and how I try to function.
Over the past three years, I have gone back and forth try to determine where is the best place to work for accomplishing certain tasks. With two young boys (3 and 1), my home office is not the ideal place to work, so I have ended up as a patron at various coffee shops and eventually landed at a local Panera Bread where I spend most of my “office” time.
I’ve ministered in churches which have a rather strict policy for where and when a pastor works (“office hours”). Needless to say, the confinement approach was less than appealing and effective, and fortunately for me I have the privilege of working on a pastoral team with a high level of flexibility and trust. In any case, I thought I’d post what my typical work week looks like, including the places, times, and purposes of each.
First, here’s the breakdown of times and places of my work:
Panera Bread (or various coffee shops) – 25 hours
Home Office – 20 hours
Church Office – 10 hours
Public Library – 5 hoursSecond, here’s the purposes of each workplace:
Panera Bread - administration, discipleship, counseling, coaching, communication, planning
Home Office – reading, writing, studying
Church Office – staff meeting, elders meeting, membership interviews, counseling, service planning
Public Library - sermon prep and teaching prepThirdly, the daily breakdown usually unfolds like this:
Panera Bread – Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 8-5
Home Office – Nightly 9-12
Church Office – Tuesday 9-5; Wednesday night 6-9
Public Library – Saturday morning 8-1PMYou may be wondering why I choose to work the majority of my time at Panera. Here’s a few reasons:
1. I want to live as a missionary. As I work, I want to be mindful that people around me are lost and need the gospel. I structure my work at Panera to encourage interruptions for everyday conversations and hear the stories of the employees. I learn my community by hearing their questions and find myself able to stay somewhat connected to the 94% of my neighbors who are unchurched and unbelieving. If I am exhorting our members to live evangelistically or missionally, then I should seek to live exemplary in that manner as well.
2. I want to be considered a pastor of third places. I have come to know the stories of most of the employees at Panera. J.J. is a young man who two months ago lost his brother in a tragic accident. As far as I know, there was no other Christian to minister to him. I was able to encourage him and pray for him during this time, which has in turn created an openness in him to the gospel. Audrey is a lady whose husband is like me–Assyrian and Iranian, both of whom are believers. Kyle is a mystic and seeker, being brought up with a New Age spirituality and almost weekly wants to engage in gospel conversations. Then there are the other regular patrons, many of whom like me are looking to connect with folks in the community for various reasons. I want to be on the frontline of pastoral ministry for the unchurched, and that means these people knowing that I care for them, living among them, and desire to minister to them (and not just be a drive-by Christian).
3. I want to maximize time management. Usually, a pastor will burn 1-2 hours in transit from home to church office to lunch appointments or other meetings. I take care of that all in one place. I have a four-seater table where I spread out when I need to work and pack up when I need to meet with others. Not having to drive to multiple locations allows me to utilize that time with greater efficiency. It’s my office, counseling area, lunch table, and planning center.
4. There are several other practical benefits. I get free refills on fountain drinks (including sweet tea!). I have free wireless internet. The ladies are always bringing me food they would ordinarily have to throw away, so I’m amply supplied.
I can counsel people in an environment that is both private and yet public (I don’t want anything I do to be unnecessarily hidden, so who I am and what I do is in full view). My wife and boys join me for lunch on occasion, too.
Now, I am not as open in the public library. In fact, I’m rather tunnel vision as I am there only to work in solitude to bring my teaching or sermon preparation to completion. It is more focused and disciplined, recognizing the nature of the work requiring my full attention. As you can see, the goal and functioning is completely different.
At home, I work in the evening time when my wife and kids have gone to bed, usually for 3-4 hours. This is the best time for me to read and write in the comforts of my own home and study without distraction.
That pretty much sums up the way I work. How do you work? If you are a pastor or church planter, how and where do you spend your time? I’d love to get your thoughts and experiences on this and how perhaps I might tweak the structure of my week with the wisdom you provide.
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This entry was posted on March 18, 2011 at 8:20 am and is filed under I Love the Local Church, Life With Grace, Missional. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Evangelism, Ministry, Missional, Pastoring
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I love it when people share aspects of their lives that are generally overlooked with regard to their potential helpfulness. This is one such post by Timmy Brister. In it, he details what a typical work week looks for him, and the reasons why. I find this both helpful and encouraging, because in it I see the type of thoughtful deliberateness that I pray God will grace me with. Believe me, I know that no plan for productivity/effectiveness is fool proof, but thinking through whats and whys is something we're all capable of to a degree. I suffer from "Spontaneousism," a condition that disallows me from properly planning and executing efficiently. (I jest partly, but mostly it's very true of me). Anyway, I'm really helped, primarily in thought process but also in practical living out my days by this. I hope you will be too.
This is a band I really love. This is one of the first vids of theirs I saw. Since this they have released another album called Let the Light In. It's an eclectic mix of dopeness. Check em out if you haven't already.
WOW. Thanks Justin Taylor for blogging this video (www.thegospelcoalition.org). This is simply amazing. The response of the people to having their first New Testament in their own language. I've got double-digit Bibles in my home. May the Lord warm my heart to His revealed Word so I would love it as I ought.
#heartwrenching
Whoa! I skipped a couple B3arfruit t's. With this Cool Grey jawn, I had to get back in the game! 3X, Let's get it!!
#copped
Just a quick reminder. The earth fits into the sun's volume 1 million times. God's mercy to us tiny creatures is nothing short of miraculous.
#carryon
I love it. Another chance to put Jesus in the limelight. Enjoy!
Since I've begun to use Chrome on my iMac, this is of value to me. Perhaps to you too? Enjoy..........
Reading is that one activity that we do every day but we don't really practice. Most people learn the basics of reading in kindergarten and never graduate to the next levels.
You are probably using the same basic rudimental tools and techniques that you learned when you were 6. The average American person reads at an average speed of 180 to 240 words per minute and has done so since he was 16 years old. Does it make sense that we hit our best performance at age 16 and that we don't improve much after that? Keep in mind less than 10% read at 400 words per minute and less than 1% faster than 600.
Have you ever wished you could take one of those costly speed reading courses? The problem with those courses is that you have to keep practicing those techniques until they become second nature. That's the goal of this site.
We are here to keep you focused and to help you improve your speed reading everyday.
Using this tool will help you eliminating sub-vocalization. What is sub-vocalization? Sub-vocalization is that voice that you hear in your head as you're reading this text. In many cases it manifests itself as your vocal chords actually engaging as if you were reading out loud. Regression is also a common reading problem fixed by eyercize. Regression happens when you read the same sentence more than once.
Many people experience this problem where they kinda go into a loop and read the same phrase or paragraph multiple times without noticing it. On the left there are the controls of this neat application. You can increase the speed of the pacer just press the letter "i" on your keyboard. Conversely to decrease the speed you would just press the letter "d". If this text is too small to read you can increase the size with the handy slider on the left. Try different settings, I personally love page mode showing 20 lines at the time.
Read faster and get more things you care about done. In the era of information anxiety it's easy to get overwhelmed. Even if you were just to use only this reading pacer you'll probably learn how to read 2-3 times faster than you do right now. So what are you waiting, install our bookmarklet on the left and start reading you website faster. Many new things are coming out from eyercize so stay tuned.
I've always wanted to know. Just not enough to actually google "how Google works." You too? Well now you don't have to worry, it's all here. This is a great interactive that gives the details of the inner workings of our favorite search engine. Press "start the search" and watch the magic.
Enjoy
5 Sources for Free and Legal Images
Filed as Guides on October 6, 2008 9:01 am
Everyone knows that almost any blog post is better with images. However, getting them can be a difficult matter. With a maze of licensing and fair use issues making it hard to decide what is and is not legal to use, many bloggers don’t wish to use images that they have not taken themselves.
But while using your own images is always the best way to go, there are several great sources to help you find and locate images that you can use as part of your blog posts. In fact, there are some very neat tools designed specifically to help you correctly license and use other people’s photography, art and more.
The best part of all is that these tools are free. They will not cost you a dime to use and, if used correctly, can let you fill up your blog posts with as many images as your heart desires.
Photo Dropper
Photo Dropper is hands down one of my favorite WordPress plugins. Not only does it make excellent use of Creative Commons-licensed photos, but it solves one of the biggest problems with CC licensing, incomplete compliance with the terms of the license.
Photo Dropper is extremely simple to use. Simply install it in your WordPress plugins, activate it, set your options and then, on the “Write Post” page you can either click the “PD” icon next to the other media items or scroll down below the post entry box.
From there, you’ll be able to search for keywords related to your post. Photo Dropper will then search Flickr for Creative Commons-licensed works that might fit with your description. When you find one you like, you select the size you want and Photo Dropper inserts it into your post, complete with a CC-compliant attribution line.
Photo Dropper may take some fiddling to get relevant images and you might have to tweak the HTML to get it to fit well in your posts. However, it is still by far the easiest way to insert legal images into your posts.
Zemanta
Zemanta is a Firefox extension/IE plugin that integrates itself with most major blogging platforms, including both self-installed and hosted WordPress blogs, Blogger accounts, MovableType and more. When the user pulls up their blog’s editing interface, they are presented with related links, stories, tags and images that they can use with the post.
The advantage of Zemanta is that its images come from a variety of sources including public domain sources, Creative Commons sources, including Flickr, and other sources that license their images for use at low resolution. This provides a much greater variety of images to the user and it automatically performs a license-compliant insertion of the image into the post.
The drawback to Zemanta is that it can make modifications to the post beyond what is selected. You may need to go through your post’s HTML code thoroughly after insertion to be certain that nothing unwanted was inserted.
GumGum
While the sources above are great for those that need abstract photographs or just something quirky to go with a story, finding an image to go with a news or politics story can be very tricky. Fortunately there are also a series of services to help with that, including GumGum.
The service allows publishers to search through related images and then embed interesting photos as a line of JavaScript code. Why JavaScript? Because that is how GumGum provides the service for free, using the JavaScript to both protect the image and display ads on top of it.
This use of ads is what may upset many. Where Photo Dropper and Zamanta don’t display ads, GumGum does.
Also, the use of JavaScript may prevent the image from showing up in some RSS readers. These drawbacks, along with the need to apply for an account, are but a small price to pay for high-quality images.Update: GumGum has clarified this article and said that they only require a one-time JavaScript insertion and then grant access to the full images, this negates many of these drawbacks. There is also a pay-per view model that allows you to skip the ads and just pay every time the image is displayed.
PicApp
Similar to GumGum, PicApp lets you search through newsworthy images to find ones that might interest you and then lets you embed the one that works best as a JavaScript. However, PicApp also lets you search for “creative” as well as “editorial” images, giving you a slightly wider variety.
PicApp comes with many of the same concerns and drawbacks as GumGum and uses a similar advertising model to pay for the free service. PicApp, however, does not require you to register for the service and you can begin embedding images from the very first time you visit.
Whether you use PicApp or GumGum will likely be a matter of personal preference as the two sites largely fill the same niche. It comes down to which site has the best images for your content and which embeds you prefer.
Voxant Newsroom
Voxant Newsroom is another service that functions similar to GumGum or PicApp, letting users embed content, this time as a Flash app. But this service, unlike the former two, get their images exclusively from major mainstream media outlets including the Associated Press, CBS News and more.
As neat as Voxant is, I previously covered it in my broader article about getting free content for your site, there is not much flexibility regarding the layout of the embedded images. However, the site does offer a variety of content, including video and articles, all from major news sources.
Once again you and your visitors will be putting up with advertisements over the media, at least in many cases, but what is more likely a deal breaker for many is that the layouts of the images may not fit in many blog layouts and are often too large to go neatly with posts.
This is definitely one to consider though and see if it can work for you.
Conclusions
The bottom line is this, content licensing is hard, even with Creative Commons. Fortunately though, there are a series of sites that have come up to do the hard work for you and let you easily and legally use images with your blog posts.
In addition to these sites, there are also a slew of stock photography sites that let you download and use photographs and images for free or a small license. However, they generally provide no help with the insertion process and, if there are licensing terms, provide little help in complying with them.
A solution such as these tools can help not only keep your site legal, but speed up the writing process dramatically, saving you time and money.
Tags: copyright, creative commons, gumgum, images, licensing, photo dropper, Photos, picapp, semanta
As a micro-blogger, sometimes I need pictures to enhance my posts. I admit, using posterous makes that easy, since the pics in my blog usually come from what I'm blogging. There are times, however, that I need to find a pic to go along w/ a specific topic. That's when I typically turn to www.everystockphoto.com. Maybe you have a service you like for accessing free and legal photos for your blog. Here are 5 for you that you might try out. After all, a picture is often worth 1000 words. Let these images speak for you.
Web applications have come a long way. They used to be amateur imitations of their desktop counterparts, with only one or two functions and not at all practical. But my, have these web apps grown. Web apps these days have become so powerful and useful that in some cases, they’ve begun to replace desktop software.
Desktop programs are great and all, but they don’t provide the same benefits as web apps that make use of cloud computing. With most web apps, you only need a browser and an internet connection to access all your data online. That beats having to install annoying programs any day. To give you a better sense of how useful web apps have become, I’ve compiled a list of web tools and apps that can very well replace some desktop programs. I hope you take the time to try them all out. You’ll be surprised how well they work.
Without further ado, here are some great web alternatives to the popular desktop programs we all love.
Sliderocket
Replaces: Microsoft PowerPoint
Sliderocket is a fully functional presentation web app that allows you to create, manage, edit, and share presentations on the fly. It offers many of the same features present in PowerPoint and then some. Sliderocket is an awesome tool and if you want to read more about it, take a look at our in-depth review of Sliderocket.
Acrobat.com
Replaces: Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat
Acrobat.com is a suite of web applications by Adobe that replaces your office suite. The online suite includes services like Buzzword, Tables, and Presentation which replace Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint respectively. Acrobat.com also offers other features, allowing users to convert files into PDFs, hold online meetings, and collaborate with one another. All of its services are free (with some limitations), but users can subscribe to different plans for more features. Check out the pricing section for more details.
Aviary
Replaces: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Soundbooth
We have already covered a list of online image editors, and of that list, my favorite would have to be Aviary. The Aviary web suite offers powerful tools that allow you to edit images, vectors, and even audio! Take a look at the huge list of the tools included in their suite:
• Phoenix: Image Editor
• Toucan: Color Editor
• Myna: Audio Editor
• Peacock: Effects Editor
• Raven: Vector Editor
• Falcon: Image Markup
• Roc: Music Creator. Check out our in-depth review of Roc.Mint
Replaces: Quicken
If you’re still using Quicken to manage your money, it’s time to toss it out and move on to the better solution: Mint.com. Mint is a very popular personal-finance tool that allows you to keep track your credit card transactions, balance your budget, and create charts or graphs to help you visualize your spending. Mint is the free and secure way to manage your money online. In fact, Mint has been so successful that the makers of Quicken and TurboTax purchased it in 2009. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and sign up!
Kongregate
Replaces: Desktop Gaming
Forget about your desktop gaming – why waste space when you can play awesome games online? Kongregate is an online gaming community with a library of over 30,000 flash games. Not only do you have access to a variety of games, but you can also gain points, chat, and unlock achievements for the games you play. Developers can upload their own games and even make money off ad revenue for their games! If you’re looking for more online games to replace desktop games, take a look at our game roundups.
JayCut
Replaces: Video Editing Software
JayCut is a very easy to use and powerful online video editor. With Jaycut, you can create videos with the same tools used in desktop programs. Add clips, transitions, audio, effects, and more with their simple UI. When you finish editing a video, you can choose to download it or export it directly to YouTube. Export up to 20 videos a month with 2GB of storage under a free plan, or pay monthly for a better plan.
WobZip
Replaces: Unzipping Software
Have you ever tried to open a compressed file only to find out you don’t have the right unzipping software to do the job? In comes WobZip, an online tool that helps you uncompress your files. It supports a variety of compression formats, including the popular ZIP, RAR, and 7z formats. You can upload a zipped file from your computer or direct WobZip to a URL. The best part? WobZip will scan the files using BitDefender to make sure there isn’t a nasty virus lurking around.
Zamzar
Replaces: File Conversion Software
Instead of downloading dozens of different programs to convert a file, you can always use the Zamzar, the free online file conversion tool. Can’t open a crucial .docx or .pptx file and your boss is screaming in your ear? No problem, just upload and convert your files using Zamzar. Zamzar supports dozens of image, document, video, and music formats and is the only tool you will ever need to convert files.
Hulu
Replaces: TV Tuner Software
I’m a cheap guy who spends all his time on the computer. How could I watch my favorite TV shows without leaving my computer? Well, I could purchase a TV tuner and install their lame software or I could head to Hulu.com and watch my favorite shows for free. Hulu is a website that offers streaming video of popular TV shows and movies in the US. It is ad supported, but allows you to watch your favorite shows from the comfort of your computer. Although Hulu is a U.S. only website, there are ways to access Hulu from outside the U.S.
Meebo
Replaces: Desktop Chat Clients
With Meebo, you can chat with your friends from anywhere as long as you have a browser and an internet connection. Meebo is an online tool that allows you to login to any major IM network, including AIM, MSN, GTalk, and Facebook. You don’t even need to create an account, just input your IM information and you’re ready to go. If you take the 20 seconds to set up a Meebo account, you can login to multiple accounts at once. This sure beats downloading and managing three IM programs at once, doesn’t it?
TokBox
Replaces: Video Chat
TokBox is an online video chatting app that enables you to chat with up to 20 people for free. There are no downloads required, just sign up and start a video chat! Invite your friends via social networks or IM and set up a chat in just minutes. TokBox is free to use, but if you’d like more options, you can sign up for monthly plans. TokBox may be free, but you’re going to need your own microphone and webcam.
Moof
Replaces: iTunes
You may have a huge iTunes library, but what happens when you go out and forget to bring your iPod along? Moof is the solution. Moof is another web app that streams music online, but I think of it as an iTunes alternative. You can export your entire iTunes library as an .xml file and upload that to Moof, so you can have a full backup of your music online. Where does Moof get all its music from? Youtube. Yeah, I know, it’s a little disappointing, but the quality isn’t that bad. Don’t like Moof? Check out our roundup of the top apps for music streaming.
ESET Online Virus Scanner
Replaces: Anti-Virus Software
While the ESET Online Virus scanner is a great alternative to Anti-Virus programs, you shouldn’t literally replace your Anti-Virus program. Think of this tool as a backup tool, in case your Anti-Virus software malfunctions. Made by the folks that brought you NOD32, the ESET online scanner uses the same threat signatures as NOD32 and allows you to scan your computer from your browser. It may take a while, but after the scan, suspicious files will be quarantined for you to restore or permanently delete. A great tool for your security toolbox.
Bitlet
Replaces: BitTorrent Client
When you don’t have access to a BitTorrent client on your computer, you can use the BitLet app to download your torrents. BitLet is a Java based file sharing protocol that allows you to download torrent files from your browser. Just upload a .torrent file from your computer or direct BitLet to the torrent URL and it’ll do the rest for you.
iCloud
Replaces: Operating System
We’ve already covered dozens of web alternatives to desktop software, but why not go a bit further and include a web app that replaces your entire operating system? Meet iCloud, the future of operating systems. iCloud is a very slick web operating system that gives you access to hundreds of built in applications, including an office suite, a media player, a chat client, nifty games, and much more. You have 3 GB of free storage and can opt to buy more if needed. You can get everything you need in this web OS. For those of you interested in Web OSes, be sure to read our article about other operating systems that utilize cloud computing.
Conclusion
As the world turns to cloud computing, we’re only going to see more and more web apps that function like their desktop counterparts. I’ve only listed a few of the web alternatives to desktop software, and I’m sure there are many more out there. As these web applications become more powerful and appeal to the masses in terms of functionality, we may soon see a decline in desktop programs as we all move towards the web and the cloud. Is this the end of desktop software? Who knows, we’ll have to wait and see.
Do you use any web apps in place of desktop programs? What do you think is going to be the future for desktop programs? Share your comments below!
Like the intro. image? Get the high resolution vector at GraphicRiver.net by author iqbalbaskara.
Some of these I didn't know about and seem useful. Knowing's half the battle.
This is probably not a new site, but it's new to me. I've often had to copy text from pages, then paste it into a Word doc. just to get a clean print. Not anymore. With this Print Friendly site, it gives you a clean copy to print quickly. I like this.
7 Alternatives to Pandora and Last.FM
on Oct 12, 2010 in Other by Nick | 47 Comments »Whether you are annoyed by the ads on Pandora, the limited number of skips, or the abyss of cruel 30-second song teasers from Last.FM, many online listeners are growing weary of mainstream methods of hearing new music. While the Pandora algorithm is strong, and the Last.FM related artists tool is pretty useful, don’t fool yourself in to thinking that there aren’t other great ways to expose yourself to new music in the depths of cyberspace.
Here are 7 alternatives to Pandora and Last.FM that will infuse your day with an uninterrupted stream of music that large record companies haven’t managed to squash under their thumbs yet.
StumbleAudio
StumbleAudio has a killer recommendation engine that works better for me than Pandora’s. Instead of “genomes”, StumbleAudio uses listeners’ favoritism as well as buying pattern data from online music stores to make suggestions. Even better, for every track that comes up in the player, you can choose to explore the entire album – a great feature for music snobs. Unlike Pandora, a listener can choose very specific genres in which to listen – within the ‘Blues’ category alone there are 14 sub-types. No skip limit, at least not that I’ve ever reached and I’m notorious for flying through my Pandora skip limit.
Songza
Songza uses a recommendation engine that runs for each ‘channel’, but unlike Pandora, channels are not tied to specific listeners and rather are community property. Anyone can listen to anyone’s station and add suggestions for tracks or artists that belong there. Powered by the Emergent Discovery recommendation engine, Songza is in beta version and makes streaming music a very community-based activity – this is bound to gain a strong footing in the music community during this social networking renaissance we are all living in.
Musicovery
Elegantly, Musicovery boils down songs to a location on two scales: Energetic-Calm and Positive-Dark. These attributes may be more meaningful in targeting music for a listener’s mood than the hundreds of music genomes that Pandora uses. When you click a location on an X-Y graph of these two scales that fits your mood, Musicovery builds a playlist. Complimented by the ability to disable “hits” and a decent recommendation algorithm, the only limitation here is that you’ll need a paid account to skip songs.
Stereomood
Ah, the power of the ‘tag cloud’. Stereomood crawls the music blog scene and extracts any posts with an embedded .MP3 file as well as associated tags. Users can select channels based on their mood or activity. Chillout, beautiful, melancholy, calm, dreamy, happy, summer, sad, electronic, ambient, cool, and sexy are among the dozens of popular tags that users can select which spurs an ongoing playlist of tunes that fit the listener’s mood. Of course, users can suggest new tags and improve the database, making this a very groovy place to lurk on the web.
8tracks
If you are in the mood for a personalized gift from an anonymous friend, you can find a slew of carefully hand-crafted mix tapes ready to listen to on 8tracks (over 100,000 currently). Based on user uploads, you can find mix tapes for every occasion, from the simple to the bizarre. With a pretty decent tag engine and a deep collection of B-sides, there only two limitations: your imagination and the number of skips (though the point of a mix tape is not to skip, have some respect, son).
Grooveshark
Supported by millions of user uploads, Grooveshark is an online music player without limitations and virtually every song you could ever want to hear. It is the only service on this list which has the capability to play a specific song of your choosing, free from the confines of DMCA licensing and recommendations. Between its extensive library, its radio stations and its limitless playback, if you have a song in mind that you need to hear, drop the YouTube music in the dumpster and stumble over to Grooveshark.
The Hype Machine
Similar to Stereomood, The Hype Machine is a blog-crawling service that finds new music in the music blogging community, but in contrast, THM is focused around the writing rather than just listening alone. THM is a giant catalog of high-quality music blogs that also aggregates embedded music from its sources directly on the site, so you can crawl around for hours of listening and reading about your favorite artists, concert and album reviews and emerging talent without ever leaving the site; a great alternative to the feverish Wikipedia crawler who happens to be a music snob.
Final thought: Life is too short to listen to cruddy music – especially with all of these ways to find new material. Go enhance your snobbery, my pretentious loyal subjects!
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Tags: Pandora, snob, streaming music
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Nice list. I do note that there is at least 1 missing. That is the new (to me anyway) www.mflow.com
It's pretty cool and brings a social aspect that may actually work. Thanks to @joeholland for putting me on to it. Enjoy this list and get your music game up!
