Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners » Pandora

Pandora Internet Radio – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:03:58 +0000

Pandora.com qualifies for yet another Web 2.0 application. Pandora started as a project to find the similarities in music and why we like certain music and why we don't. The Pandora folks eventually made all their study of music into an amazingly customizable and accurate music service. To sign up is free although I recommend paying for the service if you use it a lot. Once you sign up, you start by building your own radio stations based on your favorite songs or artists. After you build your first station, Pandora starts to play songs related to the song or artist you started with when you built the radio station (which entails that you simply type the name of a musical artist or a song name and click Create).

As the songs play, if you tell Pandora whether you like the selection or not (via a click on a thumbs up or thumbs down icon), it will continue to more accurately pick music for you. You must see the short video below to see how it works, and better yet, give it a try to see why it is such an exciting and useful Web 2.0 application!

Treo, what Treo?

Rick — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:42:26 +0000

After two solid months of using my iPhone 3G, I decided it was time for a short update. As many of you know, I used a Palm device for many years, ending with the Treo from 2003 through this August. When the first iPhone came out, I was intrigued, but thought Apple missed the boat, for me, by not utilizing the fastest cellular data network and not allowing 3rd party applications. When they announced the new iPhone last January and finally released it this summer, they had added the fast cellular network service and opened the system for third party development. It caught my attention in a big way this as it has 7 million other new iPhone 3G owners since its release in July.

Overall, the iPhone has performed wonderfully and with the exception of no cut, copy and paste (when Apple? when?) it has performed admirably. I have been able to duplicate all the functions I used the Treo for, and added many new capabilities. I use the phone the most...after all, it is a cell phone. The visual voice mail system that lets you pick which message to listen to first or have the ability to visually pause, rewind or fast forward voice mail is stunningly implemented and makes managing voice mail much easier.

For extra applications, I settled on SplashID to manage my passwords, Grocery Zen to create shopping lists (I get through the store in at least 25% less time now), Now Playing to look up movie times, Pandora for listening to music (don't have much time to do this, but it works well), Woot On! to check the daily Woot, but especially helpful when there is a Woot Off, WeDict for a dictionary, Wikipanion for great mobile access to Wikipedia, SportsTap keeps me up to date on sports I follow, Units application for converting volume, length, weight, etc. I also downloaded and occasionally use Word Warp, Sudoku, Tris (tetris clone), reMovem, and Blocks Classic for quick games. For future travel, I downloaded the mobile versions of Yelp and Hotels.com.

The built-in email application works well, and I use it daily in addition to browsing the web. The iPhone truly has exceeded

Beijing Olympic Coverage on the web

Rick — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:51:55 +0000

My name is Rick, and I am addicted to watching the Olympics. Since 1976 with Bruce Jenner, I look forward to the Olympic games. My favorite events to watch include weightlifting, swimming, gymnastics (although I abhor the subjective judging), rowing, and bicycling (track and road).

However, being a working stiff and having family obligations means and with the Olympics being held half a world away, I need to find a way to catch some coverage in other ways beside my DVR.

The web is starting to feel that gap, but only if you have a super fast Internet connection. NBC is offering nearly 2000 hours of coverage on their web site, but most of it is raw video and little audio with no commentary. I have the medium speed DSL (1.5mbs) at my home and it can barely keep up with the video stream...especially if my kids are watching YouTube or streaming Pandora at the same time.

If you have a cable or fiber Internet connection, you should have no problems watching the Olympics online via NBC's site. You can also try watching some video at the official Beijing Olympic web site or the China Central Television web site. Interestingly, because of contractual and legal problems, YouTube cannot show their Olympic coverage in the United States. Hve you found any other reliable sites for streaming video from Beijing?

CNET Web 2.0 Awards

Rick — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:05:43 +0000

Get used to me writing more articles about Web 2.0 applications...applications that run in your web browser. I've written many already, but today I'm writing about the CNET people's choice awards for best Web 2.0 applications in ten categories ranging from productivity to entertainment. This is CNET's second year compiling the awards. This year almost 2 million votes were cast for over 300 Web 2.0 applications.

Many of my own favorites won awards including Zoho, Netflix, LogMeIn, Wikipedia, Gmail, Woot, Firefox, and Pandora. Click over to the article and read about some of these amazing applications.

Computing power is truly leaving the desktop and moving to the Internet. I personally think web computing makes perfect sense for a majority of computer users. Let me know what you think of Web 2.0 or what online applications are your favorites by leaving a comment below!

Listen to music online customized for your tastes

Rick — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:53:43 +0000

This past week I learned about an incredibly convenient and useful web site that allows you to listen to unlimited online music for free. The site is Pandora Radio. Sure there are other web sites and radio stations that let you do the same thing, but this one also customizes your station based on your musical tastes...for free...and without commercials.