JTDimino.com

Anyone remember the good ole days when Facebook had the ability to search through profiles based on pretty much anything, including interests, activities, etc.?

Well, I do.  And I think it would be really cool to bring it back.  I fully understand that Facebook has had a lot of problems with privacy violations before, but with the way they have security set up now (you can customize security settings for many different facets of the site), I think it would work.  It just seems like a nice idea to me to be able to search to see who out of your friends, or who in your area (that gives permission for the information to be searchable, of course) likes a particular band, or has read a certain book.

The idea has many different applications and possibilities.  Since Facebook is pretty much the most-viewed website in the world, it’s a great tool to use to connect to people.  For those would be interested in using it as such, it could be a great way to find people who are similar to you in your area,  à la dating service (again, for the privacy-minded, it could be made into a separate branch of the site, with its own privacy settings).

Before tonight, I was also going to suggest that Facebook create a way for you to see which of your friends you have the most in common with (measured by number of similar “likes” on Facebook – granted, not a perfect system, but hey, you gotta work with what you got).  Well, I just discovered tonight, right before writing this post, that Facebook actually does have a page for that – the Page browser – which shows you interests you might be interested in (based on your own and your friends’, I guess) and shows you which of your friends has the most “likes” in common with you.  What would still be an interesting addition, however, would be for people to have the option to allow others to see how much in common they have with them.

Of course, no matter what the benefits may be, there will always been cynics and detractors that think it’s a bad idea due to security risks.  Well, it’s quite possible they’re right.  It’s unfortunate though that such a revolutionary and potentially useful social networking site like Facebook has to be ruined by those who seek to violate the privacy and security of others.  If only Facebook could remake its reputation as being a safe and secure social networking site, maybe it could happen.  I’ll be waiting till then.

Well, I was pondering what my next post was going to be about, and after my experiences today, I decided I’d do a post about something that I realized really bugs me: the way iPod playlists work (specifically on the iPhone).  Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think Apple has improved iPod playlists over the years; the most marked improvement was the ability to create and edit playlists straight on your phone.  However, there is still a major problem, in my opinion, with iPod playlists on the iPhone: there’s no way to sort, refine, or easily browse through playlists.

Now, this isn’t a very big problem with a really small playlist with twenty songs or less.  But if you are prone to making huge playlists like I am (just made a “Party” playlist of over 1300 songs – for variety during shuffle), the lack of any sort of ability to easily go through a playlist can be a major pain.  The most annoying part about it is how potentially easily it could be to resolve: Apple already has “Artists”  and ‘”Albums” tabs for the iPod, so why not add the ability to browse through all of the artists and/or albums within a given playlist?  At the very least, they could add an alphabetical quick-browse option on the right side of the screen like they have on a lot of their other tabs already.  It’s really a very inconvenient omission.

^Herein lies the problem.  Note lack of browsing options within playlist.

I don’t want to be too pessimistic however; as late in the game as it is for Apple, they have a pretty solid record for making necessary and important improvements, albeit very slowly and steadily.  My only hope is that they hurry up on this one – while I’m no programmer, it seems like it would be a fairly simple fix.

I recently realized that I’m not really that aware of the whole music scene. That kinda bugged me. So over the past couple of weeks I’ve undertaken a serious task: revamping my entire iPod. In short, I took a bunch of music that’s been carried over through the various generations of iPods I’ve owned (and haven’t listened to in almost as long), and went on a journey of discovering (mainly across Last.fm) to discover genres of music and specific bands that I might like. What I discovered was that there were a lot of bands that I had heard a song or two from but hadn’t listened to in-depth that I found that I really liked a lot; there were also quite a few bands I had never heard of but actually seem to be pretty popular or are picking up popularity; and finally there were those bands that were relatively obscure that I managed to find and enjoy anyway.

A couple new genres that I realized I’m fairly consistently into are Garage Rock Revival bands and Post-Britpop bands.

In terms of bands, some of my new musical fancies are:

Band from Glasgow, Scotland. Highly energetic and an interesting combination of modern rock with retro influences. I was surprised to find that I actually recognized one of their songs, “Chelsea Dagger”, even though I had never heard of the band before. A proud addition to the widely-respected genre of British rock. I can honestly say that I enjoyed every single one of their songs on both of their albums; the fact that they’re so good allows me to forgive them for adding an “s” to a word that is already plural in the original Italian.

Obviously a well-known band – I just hadn’t realized how much I liked them until I listened to more than just Seven Nation Army. Has the distinction of being considered one of the “saviours of rock and roll” by the BBC. A great husband-wife band (though now divorced). Jack White is the man: great voice, wonderful song-writing, extremely talented guitar-playing, and the somewhat quirky style of the music he writes; Meg White does an absolutely fantastic job on the drums, and the band wouldn’t be the same if she wasn’t a part of the team.

This is another example of a band I definitely would’ve loved had I bothered to pay attention to the music scene and listen to more music earlier on (i.e. listened to more than just “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”, which I had already known I liked a lot). The thing I love Jet for, in summary, is the distinctly 60′s and 70′s rock elements of almost all of their music. You just don’t see people playing that type of music for the most part, and I love the fusion of the old with the new. Makes me think of The Rollings Stones + The Beatles + AC/DC, etc.

Another great addition to my expanding musical horizons. Ever since I heard “Drunken Lullabies” I knew that I would like Flogging Molly; I just never had the opportunity to listen to any more of their music. But let’s be honest: how could anyone not like such an iconic Celtic Rock band? Maybe it’s because of the fraction of Irish blood coursing through my veins, but their music really pumps me up and makes me want to do a jig. Would also fare very well as background music for a drinking party.

There’s no way I could possibly feature every new band i’ve discovered and enjoyed, but I thought it would be nice to at least list and link many of the others:

The Raconteurs
The Greenhornes
Codeine Velvet Club
Vampire Weekend
The Strokes
The Vines
The Hives
Arctic Monkeys
The Pigeon Detectives
The Kooks
Angels & Airwaves
+44

Well, that’s it for now. By the way, if after reading this anyone has any suggestions for other bands I might like, please feel free to drop me a line and suggest them to me!

P.S.: Happy birthday, Jenna!

So, I am about to embark once again on an exercise that may ultimately prove to be a practice in futility: trying to post regularly on my blog. However, I don’t want to be too pessimistic, so I’ll just go on the assumption that this time it will all pan out.

A few days ago I was thinking about what it was exactly that might have led to the failure for me to keep a blog, and I think I figured it out: I had been working on the assumption that my blog should either be limited to a particular topic that I could share my insights and knowledge on, or that I should only post if there was something really important/interesting/non-private to tell people about my life (i.e. a regularly-kept, public journal).

I realize now that those assumptions were unnecessarily limiting, and so my goal for this new attempt at blogging are to share thoughts, feelings, etc., on a variety of different topics, ranging in various levels of importance to me; it probably won’t be a journal in the sense that I’m gonna chronicle my day, but if something happens that I decide would be fun to share, that could be a post. There may also very well be posts involving various ideas that I came up with (most likely formulated in either the shower or while driving alone in my car – two of my favorite times to do some serious thinking); maybe there will be some (semi-)nonsense posts as well.

Anyway, the point is that I’m gonna try my best to keep up with this. Hopefully my new strategy will allow me to regularly post without feeling restricted or inhibited. Thanks to any and all who end up reading