Whoa, just discovered SongMeanings an hour ago. Excellent idea (add criticism to lyrics), clean interface (several ads notwithstanding), massive execution (Artists: 25,245 | Lyrics: 295,933 | Albums: 11,073 | Members: 228,392 | Comments: 723,538). Can’t believe never heard of it before.
Perhaps most intriguing is how clearly it shows the possibilities (instant participation, individuality, the work is the history, evolution is visible, filtering by time is easy, contributions are isolated) and limitations (signal-to-noise ratio, self-healing’s hard or impossible, the work is the history, lack of structure, lack of pruning, parallelism, unnecessary repetition, digressiveness) of criticism based on sequential comments. Reddit’s comment pages are good examples of how simple voting can advance the medium (because though we lack a name for it, “sequential comments/notes” is a medium, just like comics is the medium of sequential images), but, fuck, for the purposes of criticism my bets for medium still go to collaborative-writing, wiki, (my)WikiCriticism. (If only I could fork myself into better, harder-working, single-minded mes…)
The weird thing about fetishy picsELZR like the one below is they’re so beyond-words good if you were actually on the look for them you wouldn’t find any. This one, for instance, I found yesterday (here) while looking for pictures of sakuraWP, cherry blossoms, on Imagery.
Overall I don’t think it’s that good a presentation, but there’s one true (outrageous) gem worth repeating from Seth Godin’s recent talk at Google:
There is a belief among a lot of companies, especially in the valley, especially on this road, Amphiteater RoadWP, that technology wins.. I don’t think it does. I think what technology does is it gives you a shot at marketing.
..I believe that.. what made Google work were some brilliant—maybe not intentional—marketing decisions. And those decisions have allowed you the freedom to do some really cool technology.
Well, ok, here are two more highlights:
[To Googlers:] You guys have built something for the ages.
Hummer and the Mini. The Mini small enough to put in the trunk of the Hummer—but they had a lot in common. For four years they sold at full retail, for four years they made a profit, for four years they had a waiting list, because they were on the edges. General Motors loses money on every mid-sized car they sell, because if you want to buy a mid-sized car, just buy a Toyota or a Honda, the cheapest one. It’s at the edges that people wait in line; it’s at the edges that people will notice you.
(Oh and this is also the first online video with captions I’ve watched. They’re really cool, even if buggy.)
Is a translator who doesn’t believe linguistic intercommunication problems should or could be remedied as ridiculous as a doctor who doesn’t believe that diseases should or could be remedied? Or put another way, is a translator who believes that linguistic intercommunication problems can or should only be palliated as ridiculous as a doctor who believes diseases can or should only be palliated, not cured?
I frankly don’t know. But those who know me can see on which side I’m leaning. The thought came to me tonight and am still grappling with what it would mean.
KinKey is now running in the background (and will run itself at every startup unless you uninstall it). At any2 text-editing place you want, you can now, say, press E and ^at the same time(in the same way you press Ctrl and C to copy) to get French’s e circumflex, ê. The order doesn’t matter, you could just as easily have pressed ^ and E to get ê.
Here’s a list of the characters you can type with KinKey:
Example:
Pressing A and / results in á.
Pressing Shift (or with CapsLock on), A and / results in Á.
To uninstall KinKey, close first the program by right-clicking its traybar3 icon, , and selecting Exit. Now just delete KinKey.exe itself and Kinkey’s gone. Similarly, if you want to move KinKey.exe close first the program.
1 Groupie-ly stolen from Instiki. 2 There are two known exceptions where KinKey won’t work: Vim and Adobe Photoshop. 3 The traybar is the area on the bottom-right part of your screen, right next to the clock, where many system-state icons are located.
KinKey es una mini-aplicación para facilitar la escritura con un teclado Estadounidense de los caracteres especiales del
-Español
-Francés
-Alemán
-Portugués
-Italiano
-Catalán
Funciona en Windows XP/2000/Vista.
KinKey está corriendo ahora en el fondo (y correrá automáticamente cada vez que inicies tu computadora a menos que lo desinstales). En cualquier lugar 2 para ingresar texto puedes ya, por ejemplo, presionar E y ^al mismo tiempo(de la misma forma que presionas Ctrl y C para copiar) para obtener la e circunfleja del Francés, ê. El orden de las teclas no importa, presionando ^ y E también obtienes ê.
Aquí está una lista de los caracteres que puedes escribir con KinKey:
Ejemplo:
Presionando A y / obtienes á.
Presionando Shift (o teniendo CapsLock activado), A y / obtienes Á.
Para desinstalar KinKey, cierra primero el programa haciendo click con el botón derecho en su icono a la derecha de la barra de tareas (al lado del reloj) y seleccionando Exit. Ahora simplemente borra Kinkey.exe y Kinkey ha sido desinstalado. Similarmente, cuando quieras mover el archivo KinKey.exe cierra primero el programa.
Tiempo de lluvias. Estas en tu camioneta, aburrido, esperando que toque verde, cuando un hombre en un overol rojo brillante con el logo de MerkabastosELZR y una clara leyenda de “servicio de cortesia” se acerca: “Buenas tardes, me permitiria limpiarle su parabrisas? Cortesia de Merkabastos.” Asientes sorprendido y el hombre sonrie, planta enfrente de tu camioneta un tripie que no habias percatado y que sostiene un letrero mediano anunciando que esta noche es la venta nocturna de Merkabastos, con papas y nabos a mitad de precio—y procede a limpiar tu parabrisas religiosamente. El vidrio queda impecable, tu apurado procuras unas monedas y se las ofreces al hombre pero este sonrie: “Gracias, pero este servicio es cortesia de Merkabastos. Que pase usted una buena tarde” te responde—y se marcha.
Esto me vino a la mente esta tarde, en el cruce de Periferico y Tutelar cuando un limpiaparabrisas se me echo encima a pesar de mi clara y categorica renuencia. Cuando termino no le di nada, lo ignore de la misma estudiada forma en la que el me ignoro cuando le gesticulaba que no, que no queria que limpiara mi parabrisas, pero despues me senti algo mas mal que de costumbre al darme cuenta que habia hecho un trabajo inusualmente bueno y mi parabrisas eran unos ojos recien llorados. Me molesto que algo que podia ser un servicio agradable decayera en algo a rehuir y al buscar una forma de evitar ese empobrecimiento se me ocurrio esta excentricidad mercadotecnica. Quien sabe, se antoja raro pero interesante. No seria memorable que por una vez en vez de solo robar tu atencion hicieran algo por ti?
I guess it’s such an obvious rebusWP scores of people must have had it already, but I’d never seen it before, it just occurred to me this morning, and am quite fancying it right now. (Pretty cherry from Kainoatec)
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, and selecting Exit. Now just delete KinKey.exe itself and Kinkey’s gone. Similarly, if you want to move KinKey.exe close first the program. 
