Last.fm has got a new player!

.. and I love it!

This is probably out for like centuries. But I have not been about that much lately. Last.fm has a new player out. The previous one was simple, minimalistic. And I loved it for that. The new one is slick, fully features and extra information on the current playing track and artist. And I love it for that.

I think it is a quite unexpected surprise to see something go from simple and minimalistic to something fully equiped and still appealing and easy to use. Like going from a simple mp3 player to a bigger thing that you can use also to call your friends and check your email and you still just need to have and show off in public. Not many companies can pull that off!

Go and get it! I say.

Why wait?

Tags:

• last.fm
• player

Where am I?

.. and how did I get here?

Well, my titles are probably not always the best. In this case I could not think of anything better quickly, sorry.

Our company has several branch offices scattered around the northern part of the country. So, where ever a (potential) customer lives an offices should be quite close. Still, the customer may not know. Therefore we have put the branch offices on our website and through a simple map of our country you get a list of offices close by. Then it should be relatively easy to select the right one.

We also give them the address of the office and show it on a map. As icing on the cake we can show them the route from their home to the office. We are still working on teleporting them to the office but we are struggling with health regulations. Oops, got carried away. A little bit too much Doctor Who and Star Trek.

Back to normal

Anyway, the map and routeplanner we purchase from a specialized company and well, uhm, it just sort of works. We have the map in a popup window and that means that people are leaving our site, at least a little bit. And we do not have full control on the look and feel of the map. It's simply not our design.

It works, but ...

Yes, it works and we do offer what we would like to offer, but it's just not completely what we want. So, being a Google fan I decided to give Google Maps a spin. That has an API and well having played with other Google APIs I know they are usually easy to implement.

Even, with these previous experience I was amazed at how quickly and easy it was to get things going. In two days I have now a good Proof Of Concept that shows the map with a custom icon for the office within our site. I have some tweaking to, but functionally that is complete.

How do I get there?

Leaves me with just one puzzle: the routeplanner. But I have found a site that has a solution for that one so I might be able to deconstruct that and re-use it for our site. Yes, I will include a thank you message in the code.

Onward, onward, onward

When all that is over we can end a contract for a service we do no longer need and have replaced by something better.

We can also change the map where we select the area and then let the user pick from a list of offices. That can be replaced with yet another Google Map with markers for all offices and we can zoom in each click or we zoom in using the adddress the user enters.

Finally: the icing on the cake

Along with all this I have introduced Microformats in the form an hCard for representing the address data for the branch offices. And using another favorite of mine: a Firefox extension, namely Operator I have tested the format and have found that it is very easy to add the data to my contact list in Outlook.

It has been a couple of days of fun at the office.

Tags:

• maps
• Google Maps
• routeplanner

The spam tsunami has passed

.. at least so it seems

Gmail is quite good at filtering spam mails. Only occasionally I find one in my Inbox. Then I can simply click the button report spam and I hope that that will make the filter even better.

Before the last holidays I used to have a little over 300 messages in my spam box. Just before Christmas that started to rise dramatically. Within a couple of days it had passed 1100! And still only every now and then one would make it to my inbox.

And since the New Year has begun it has slowly decreased again and I am now back again at a score of 485. Still well above the 320 or so I used to have until early December 2006, but way below the peak of 1150.

So it seems that the spam boys and girls have eased off a tad and are maybe spending their well earned money. And perhaps pondering the next wave of spam for the next season.

But still the number has risen considerably and I fear that I will see a flood in the not so distant future that will bring me above 2000.

Tags:

• spam
• gmail
• spamfilter

Disclaimer

Image via Wikipedia

.. just to disclaim

This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, albeit past, present or future.

In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time... I consider this a necessary consequence of having a brain. This blog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot and manifestation of the various thoughts and ideas that wander through my mind. As such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today.

WARNING!

This blogs contains:

• humor
• irony
• sarcasm
• carefully mispelled words
• NO sheep

I reserve the right to evolve my knowledge, thoughts, and viewpoints over time and to change them without assigning any reason.

Roho's Diary includes links to other sites and / or blogs operated by third parties. These are provided as a form of easy access to you, the much apreciated visitor to the information / opinion contained therein. I am in no way responsible for the content of any other sites or any products or services that may be offered through other sites.

Comments policy

Comments are welcome. However, note that, tasteless and insulting comments may be deleted. Any personal remarks and attacks may be deleted. The same holds true for off-topic comments. Any comments that are clearly link spam or marketing messages WILL be deleted. I can not be held responsible for the content in comments other than those made by me, or in blogs or other online content that I may link to.

STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY!

No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

Since this blog is written in English (not my first language) only comments in English will be allowed.

Tags:

• disclaimer
• sarcasm
• irony

Listen to the music

.. and dance a little

Yep, the little thing is back in blog. I have yet again discovered last.fm as a source of music and above all music that I did not yet know. Last.fm offers a great way of related music so you can start out with an artist you like and end up listening to music that are rated similar by other listeners. That is just great!

The thing is shown here and in the right sidebar (scroll down a bit)

Now, I am bombarded with obscure atists and I find myself listening to artists taht I would never ever listen to if I had a choice. But this social network makes me more music ware. Thank you everyone. Yo!

Tags:

• music
• last.fm
• social