Filed under: Audio, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Social Software
Last.fm gets a facelift
by Grant Robertson Jul 14th 2006
Web 2.0 music pioneer Last.fm has relaunched with a new look and dropped its "Beta" disclaimer. The new version of the site features a clean look, and a focus that would seem to put rival Pandora directly in its sites. They've even started promoting a new word, "scrobbling", to describe the process of listening to your music collection with tools that allow Last.fm to learn your preferences and thus make suggestions. Last.fm combines social networking with music to give listeners a Web 2.0 way to find new music they are likely to enjoy. Last.fm's method stands in stark contrast to competitor Pandora, which uses a complex set of characteristics and a closed categorization system to make recommendations based on music you are already familiar with.
Users of Last.fm install a special plug-in to their media player of choice (a wide range of plug-ins exist for all types of media players that support 3rd party add-ons) which uploads non-anonymous information on what they listen to. Using your actual day-to-day listening choices, Last.fm is able to identify other artists you may be interested in.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
