Prediction | Audio search engine

Ever heard of a song, but had no possible way of finding it? Like a non-vocal, totally instrumental song you couldn’t even remember the lyrics to, a song that doesn’t have even a single word based on which you can google it up.

Me, I’m the zen master of finding music even when the only frame of reference I have is a single word in that song or its time and place in, say, a movie or TV show (sure, the likes of IMDb and YouTube help a great deal here cos’ there’s usually people asking the same questions as I am and luckily there’s other people who know the answers to them). I SherlockHolmes that stuff down with a 100% success rate, but when it comes to finding instrumental music my knowledge dwindles and shivers away.

Sure there’s web-based tools like Songtapper that try to help people find music with the help of the space-bar and the predisposition that you actually know how the song you want to tap sounds. How accuarate their current results are I don’t really know, but a year or so ago their range only covered mainstream music.

So there’s gotta be something better than song-tapper, right? Well, atm the best I can find is VidtoMp3. When even YouTube comments can’t give me the answer I want I can now at least easily download the video’s audio as an .mp3. It’s also handy if you can’t download the audio file anywhere else…if a video with that song exists, that is. And don’t expect solid bit-rate quality either.

But I have a feeling that I’m not the only one thinking of an universal audio search engine to which I could stream that YouTube video and this search engine would go through it’s ever-growing audio database and find me the result I want. Heck, it could even distinguish between certain versions of that song, like mixes and remixes which are a dime a dozen in electronic music. Since there’s so much music going around it’s really a shame that some of it is so hard to come by. And where would this audio beast feed you ask? Well, ever since web 2.0 sites offer online music databases. The likes of Last FM, Deezer, Songza, TheSixtyOne only to name a few. Their range has well passed the mainstream and if the web has something to offer, that’s everything! Literally, EVERYTHING:) We need a Technorati for music. What you want, when you want.

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Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [IT] Some much needed improvements (Watch Seth Godin’s video below to get a better idea of what I mean)
• [Eco] Should They be Generation E?
• [Nature] When under attack, plants can signal microbial friends for help (amazing stuff)
  
• [Man-made] 3D Virtual Heart So Real Doctors’ Own Hearts Go Pitter Patter
• [Man-made] Seth Godin’s Tribes (great presentation on video…I really can’t describe in words how much I feel exactly, EXACTLY(!!!!!!!!!!!!!)  like Seth on this one:). Of all the futurists, he is easily the most pragmatic one!)
• [Sociology] [Psychology] Does the use of hand gestures slow language learning? (I drool over this type of empirical research data)

ENTERTAINMENT

• Not Photoshopped: Li Wei’s Astounding Action Art
• Dolls and Toys that Creep us Out
• That’s Worlds Highest Bungee Jump @ Helicopter @ 500m/1640ft
• Tuttuki Bako (after seeing the video…spechless!)
• When Robot Programmers get bored
• Improv Everywhere Creates Epic Balloon Battles Using MP3 Players (IE still rocks)

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to PBwiki. I’ve tried a couple of online wiki’s, and this one’s price-performance (for personal use, cost-zero!) is by far the best I’ve seen and used thus far. The interface is incredibly slick and easy to use and is a big time-saver. They also put strong emphasis on back-up (which you can also manually download onto your pc) and guarantee that loss of data will not occur on their watch (how much that can be trusted is of course up to you). What’s also pretty sweet is the ability to invite guests and have them look only at a particular page of your wiki and not the whole thing (so personal info and to-do lists of celebrity hotties are safe from prying eyes). Other cool features: RSS (comes in handy if/when many users update pages), downloading pages as .pdf’s, interface flexibility…

My personal thought is that every single company (even a one-man band) MUST have a personal wiki (or anything that allows fluid and user-friendly knowledge-transfer that will be put to good use) to handle the abundance of info they deal with.

One of those things that simply make my life so much easier and better! Simply a must:) For more on IT that I think is really practical and useful, click here.

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)

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The future of designing buildings and other man-made structures

Oh its at least a couple of years away (mildly put) from becoming mainstream, but  the video after the jump gives a surprisingly detailed and thought-out idea of an efficient (again, mildly put) work environment and indisputably shows how technology can be an architect’s best friend. And an engineer’s, designers, you name it!

Hod do I know this? I just do…for I have been to the mountaintop:

On a lighter side, let’s look at it from a different, albeit still important perspective. A mirror of the not-so-distant future, if you willl…

Do you wanna be the I-have-a-serious-long-term-relationship-with-my-desktop-computer,-my-mouse-is-bigger-than-my-erect-penis-and-my-idea-of-exercise-is-opening-a-new-jar-of-mayonnaise bald fat fuck:

Or do you want to be the I’m-actually-psycho-but-still-take-care-of-myself-because-I-predominantly-do-my-work-standing-or-at-least-move-my-arms-and-upper-body-a-whole-lot wholesome, good looking guy like Tom Cruise:

I crossed the line with ‘wholesome’, but the question was rhetorical…or was it?

Further information on building Information modeling (BIM), especially the last paragraph of ‘BIM in the USA’.

For more ideas for the future subscribe to Geekofriendly.

It seems I’ve come across my first obstacle…

It was merely a week ago that I vigorously promoted Cradle to Cradle, and with it its founding father William McDonough (a household name in this blog), whom I’ve admired and respected since the first time I saw his inspirational TED Talk…it was him who convinced me that the Next Industrial Revolution is just around the corner, it was him who showed me that a great idea has answers and solutions to more than just one question or problem (an incredible and rare feat in every respect), and it was him who truly made me realize that a mindset like his is far more potent and productive than most dare dream of.

On a side-note, it was him who singlehandedly made me strive for the same causes…

That is why it saddens me deeply to have read the following article yesterday.

Arrogance, deception, hubris, voracity …need I go on?!

As it turns out (if the article stands on firm ground, that is), Mr. McDonough is his own worst enemy, meaning that his own actions have – on more than one occasion-  cost him business deals, potentially impressive credentials/references/networking and worst of all, have set him back from his goal to ‘cradelise’ the world for the better.

I leave you with the lengthy article, which you can find here (Diigoed), I am still slightly shaken-up and have a hard time coping with the conception that the man I look up to (notice the present tense) just might have some very serious problems of his own. There’s a saying you should never meet your heroes (for these very reasons, I suppose) and I’ve always considered it healthy advice. So how should this man therefore be worth my attention and respect? Well, because I still want to pursue a life where sustainability is obtained, controlled and in the end sustained, to the point of hopefully eradicating bad design and replacing it with good intent. Bill McDonough gave birth to that pursuit of mine.

(via: TreeHugger)

Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [Eco] A green New Deal can tackle depression
• [Health] Scientists uncover new gene link to male pattern baldness
• [Health] TED Talks – Dr. Dean Ornish: Healing and other natural wonders
  
• [Economy] The End of Suburbia (worth a view, especially the last 5 minutes or so!)
• [Economy] ‘We need slaves to build monuments’ (Dubai is under a lot of fire lately, more here, here and here)
• [Man-made] Long Overdue GPS Upgrade Could Save Airlines $10 Billion a Year

ENTERTAINMENT

• The Indonesian Mimic Octopus
• The Sun (mesmerizing photography)
• Flesh Eating Mutant Fish Invades Nepal
• What Is The Sport Of Kiiking? (dedicated to my beloved Estonians)
• The Aquaduct Bicycle (brilliant idea!)
• Chinese deaf girls mystical dance (how the **** do you train deaf people anyways?)

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to autumn.

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)

For more random stuff subscribe to Geekofriendly.

Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts)

USEFUL STUFF

• [Eco] Chicken Manure to power 90,000 Homes in the Netherlands!
• [Future] Automated Construction System To Change Face of Home-Building (mental note: it’s fun to be right:P)
• [Nature] [Astronomy] Bill Stone: Journey to the center of the Earth … and beyond! (from caves to cosmos or how this man’s favorite color is definitely black!)
• [Economy] [Politics] When the wind doesn’t blow (ups and downs of wind power)
• [Man-made] [Nature] Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos (physics galore…really fun stuff:))
• [Psychology] Banned Self Hypnosis Video (had to repeat it to get it and just ‘let go’…surprising and impressive)

ENTERTAINMENT

• The Faces Behind The Simpsons
• Gait may be associated with orgasmic ability (forget make-up, ladies! Learn to, khm, walk properly:))
• Rare banned Bush speech
• Insane Stretchable Skin Man
• 70 Amazing Houses from Around the World (great stuff with a lot of effort put into it)
• Racism in the Elevator

WEEKLY TRIBUTE
A small tribute to relevant issues (2) and quality journalism (2).

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(via: all the usual and unusual blogs and sites that I’ve got in Google Reader)

Gesture-based interactive shop window

The Alternative and Orange have teamed up to provide a differentiated and seamless experience to engage consumers passing-by one of Orange’s London stores.

Further reading here.

Chris Anderson talks about his yet-to-be-published book “Free”

Chris Anderson, writer of The long tail and the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine gives an interesting lecture talking about his not-yet-released-book entitled “Free”. He gives food for thought with new business concepts that just might change a thing or two.

P-Per Cellphone Concept is too Perfect to be True

A slick conceopt from Nokia that just might make it from the drawing boards to reality (well, at least if the buzz around it is worth a damn, that is). Till then, I’ll just drool and hope for the best:)

Further reading here