jeffchin.com

Finding new interesting music can be hard if you don’t know where to look. I stand by the statement that I went to college during the best four years for discovering new music. Everyone was using Napster to discover songs from people across the country as well as finding MP3s out on our school’s network. Times have changed, and widely available free paths to music have been shut down for the most part. The common person is limited to the 15 songs that are in rotation on the local terrestrial radio stations, paying for satellite radio, or whatever song is featured on the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. The internet has really opened up a lot of opportunities for a more interactive way to find music such as Pandora, or LastFM. I prefer Pandora because of it’s super simple interface.

There is a new interesting site that just hit the streets called MuxTape. It’s a site where you can upload songs out of your personal collection (up to 12 tracks, each <10MB) to share as an online mixtape. This has potential to take off, because while you can personalize and share “stations” with Pandora and LastFM, you can’t share a specific group of songs. The interface is simple and huge and very easy to use, but I would like more ability to customize the mix. Like giving it a name (Summer Mix ’96, or something else cheesy like that), uploading an image, or a directory of muxtapes to discover. Bands can use this as a simple place to send people to listen to their new releases. I’ve already found a sweet band called MGMT from this muxtape that I never would have found otherwise.

Check out my muxtape @ jeffchin21.muxtape.com. Leave me a comment to your muxtape if you end up making one.

I need TWX to do better within the next 30 days so that I can take advantage of my stock options before they expire! It hasn’t done too hot since I quit (or the past year for that matter)…I should probably just pull the trigger before it gets any lower. The picture below also makes me sad. TWX was the only stock that’s down of the few that I follow. Even the pathetic Blockbuster was trending with the market.

Oh boy, my most favorite website ever, Netvibes, has gone social. While only a couple of my friends actually use Netvibes, I wish that everyone did. It really would change the way that you interact with the internet. I’ve said it before (here) and I’ll say it again – Netvibes will change your life. If you’re stuck using iGoogle, MyYahoo, or MyAOL, you’re really missing out.

new drop-down menu bar

Your customized interface stays the same, but now there’s an added toolbar at the top with links to see your public universe (here’s mine), your contacts, your contact’s recent activities (links from their feeds that they star), your profile, and finally a not yet activated link to your new Netvibes drive. A little digging around and it looks like we’ll all get a more integrated 2GB online filing system provided by Steek (from Steek blog). This alone will be great for sharing files and having files accessible anywhere you have an internet connection. Currently I use Box.net intermittently because it was a recommended widget with Netvibes, but with this more integrated solution, I will definitely be switching to this.

All the other familiar features are still available but with a more glossy finish. I for one am a fan of the new interface. There are a few features I would like to see still – the ability to directly share a starred story directly with a friend/contact rather than sending it to your public universe and also e-mail notifications if anyone signs your wall. I don’t expect anyone to write on mine, but I figure eventually these might get spammed. I’ve snapped a few screenshots in case you wanted to see what I’m talking about. Anyways, add me as a contact or start following my activity and favorite widgets on my public universe. For a few more details, check out Chris’ post here.

new widget selector

More Ginger coverage:
ginger.netvibes.com
netvibes blog announcement
Mashable: First Look at Netvibes Ginger