| Author |
Message |
    
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9504
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 9:42 am: | 
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http://www.last.fm
Coolest technology I've discovered in the last year or so. Up there with Google for usefulness for audiophiles.
Last.fm is a free site that learns your musical preferences while you enjoy free streaming radio or use the plugin to track your iTunes listening. I've hacked the message board to accept a Last.fm username and display a small icon to link to your recently played list. |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 3187
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 10:30 am: |
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How can we use our last.fm accounts here? I've been using it for a month or so, and it's ok. I find that the suggestions are getting closer to what I like all the time. Should be really on target soon. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9508
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 10:33 am: |
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Log into "my profile" and look for the new field for Last.FM username. Enter Last.FM user name and hit save. Welcome to MOL Audible. |
Rick B
Citizen
Username: Ruck1977
Post Number: 1106
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 12:24 pm: |
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Whats the difference between Last.FM and pandora?
i guess i will have to go see... |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9515
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 12:37 pm: |
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Probably the only difference is I found last.FM first. Down the road I'll look at integrating Pandora, too.
edited to add:
Looks like Pandora doesn't automatically maintain a list of last played songs. You need to manually click the cover of the album playing. Also, the don't have classical music and sometimes I want to hear The Thieving Magpie. And I don't see a means of tying it into iTunes in a way to create a feed. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2077
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 1:56 pm: |
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Well I'm new to last.FM and gave it a try when Dave suggested it with his new MOL hack.
So far the biggest difference seems to me to be that the player uses a stand alone application. I'm not sure I like the idea of the itunes hack. I'm not sure what it is doing exactly. It's supposed to track my song playing. Which I guess is fine. But does this mean I need to run iTunes to have this feature work? It's unclear to me. Pandora seems to be less feature rich in regards to alot of the back end functionality (like creating graphs and implimenting lists into websites) but the flip side to this is that it's elegantly simple to use. You go to the page and your songs play.
My initial reaction is that Pandora is a bit simpler and more pleasant to use all within my browser.
The flipside is, I'm enjoying hearing new music on LastFM. So I'm having fun regardless.
I'm not sure what the controls do (the algorithm) on LastFM. What is happening when I press LOVE THIS TRACK, SKIP THIS TRACK and BAN THIS TRACK. When I skip a track does it mean don't play tracks like this? or does it mean this track is fine just skip it? Similar issue with the other two buttons. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9517
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 2:06 pm: |
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Not sure what skip does, but clicking the heart/love or hate/x icon probably works through a Bayesian filter. |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3277
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 2:52 pm: |
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skip just skips, like when you don't want to hear the next tune on your iPod and you skip it,
ban, bans forever
heart, means you like it and want to hear more of it, rotate this song more frequently, play artist more frequently, etc.
While you are at Last.fm, join the MOL group, it's open for membership. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9523
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:13 pm: |
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cool |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2079
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:21 pm: |
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the lastfm site is soooo slow. It prevents me from wanting to explore the applications features.
I joined the group. But now that I have what does it do for me? |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9524
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:22 pm: |
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feel free. or invent one. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9525
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:27 pm: |
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Bloc Party
Talking Heads
Stan Getz
I'm liking this radio. It's ... oddly familiar. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2080
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:40 pm: |
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Does this mean my evil electronic music I listen to is going to infect your ears since I joined the group? Or will you guys just hit the Ban button and it will never be heard again? Does there need to be rules to how we use this group channel? Should we be skipping or banning songs we don't like?
Maybe I'm being short sighted, but I'm not sure I see the value of a group playlist. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2081
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:47 pm: |
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Ok, I hit the ban 3 times in a row on MOL Radio. Definitely NOT seeing the value of the group playlist, and I haven't heard anything even remniscent to anything I like. I think I should stop messing with it because I might be messing up the feature's value for you guys. I'll try the skip a few times more before I give up on it entirely. |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3279
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:50 pm: |
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I'm listening to Jimi at the moment, nothing wrong with that. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9526
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:54 pm: |
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Sounds like the playlist isn't monolithic. I'm listening to Coltrane while Monster is listening to Jimi. Now Bob Dylan just started playing. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2083
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:57 pm: |
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Yeah I'm listening to REM, which even I find inoffensive, but do my bans and loves affect the list overall?
But I will admit that I did have to ban that disgusting Aerosmith track. Yuck! |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3280
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:58 pm: |
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now Sue Foley?
Even though you have the chance to listen to the same songs/artists as other people in the group, you can still tailor it to your preferences. |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3281
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 3:59 pm: |
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TOOL!
your bans only affect you if I'm not mistaken |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2084
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 4:03 pm: |
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Ok, I'm done with the Group Playlist. Not working for me. Too distracting, and requires too much maintenance. Should I pull myself off of the group list so I stop infecting your guys music? |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3282
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 4:04 pm: |
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What is 'Group Radio'?
Last changed on Aug 6, 2005, 17:46
Group Radio plays you music of the members of a group. It creates a radio program by selecting songs from all member's profiles. In order for Group Radio to work a group needs at least 10 members.
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Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9528
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 4:07 pm: |
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a-ha! That makes sense.
Alleygater, it's just a radio station. Tune in, tune out. We're just having fun. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9531
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 4:11 pm: |
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OK, I'm listening to Garbage. It's good. |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3283
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 4:23 pm: |
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The MOL Last-fm forum is now open |
Rick B
Citizen
Username: Ruck1977
Post Number: 1107
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 4:40 pm: |
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The good news is, the web services are working.
I kind of agree about the standalone player, not as integrated as pandora, but i'll give it a shot. i noticed the last 2 podcasts I listened to are in there. now that is freaky deaky. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9533
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 5:00 pm: |
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This is the MOL last.fm forum  |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2086
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 5:31 pm: |
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One other HUGE difference between LastFM and Pandora is that on LastFM you hear much more songs from an album by any one given artist. On Pandora, sometimes (usually?) you only hear one song from an artist that matches your listening preference. This can be good or bad according to how you look at it.
I am finding that I prefer the Pandora way though in almost all aspects. Because I would rather hear the one song that BAND X does that matches the style of music I prefer. Because BAND X may for instance create mostly music in a style that I dislike. Pandora is sorting music by each individual song, not by band. And this makes the music, channels you create much more listenable. However, Pandora's strength can quickly feel like a weakness when you start to hear the same songs too often. Fortunately they are songs you like, and therefore warrant a few extra listens. I am guessing that LastFM doesn't have this problem because it adds more songs to it's total library. Unfortunately more isn't better if it plays lots of songs that you don't like. |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3286
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 5:43 pm: |
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well, just start liking more songs.... |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9536
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 8:04 pm: |
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lol |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2091
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 10:27 am: |
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Yeah, if I was more open-minded it certainly would help. But don't miss my greater point that LastFM and Pandora use radically different models for choosing music for you. |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 3206
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 4:08 pm: |
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Dave, I think the link to Last.fm is broken. Whenever I click on someone's playlist icon, I get nothing but the MOL wrapper to the playlist. No actual list. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9564
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 11:36 pm: |
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The lag was nasty.
I'm now cacheing playlists on our server. Posts older than 11:30p today will still link to slowwwwww or broken page. As of this post they link to updated page. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9565
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 11:37 pm: |
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Actually the old links seem to have updated. Whenever someone posts on an old page the links will update. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2112
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 11:01 am: |
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So why does my page say, "Cache is empty. User hasn't been listening recently." when I have been listening to music in iTunes for a while now. The stupid iscrobbler app is running and has like 10 songs listed. When does the cache on MOL get updated? |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9577
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 11:22 am: |
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I think that happens when last.fm reboots or its cacheing doesn't sync up amid their servers. The web services are fairly new, so I think it will clear up in time. |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3314
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 11:33 am: |
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sometimes you need to just restart iScrobbler |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2116
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 1:11 pm: |
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It seems that the MOL cache only likes the LastFM player, but not my itunes tracks. The iscroddler (what a horrible name) keeps track of both but my itunes tracks never show up on MOL.
Hinky is the word I would use. And I did restart the iscod software. |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3323
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 3:53 pm: |
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It worked fine until Dave decided to use the cache method, maybe there is something he can do to fix that
DAVE!! |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3324
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 4:02 pm: |
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I've had iTunes playing for the last couple of hours and my cache is empty, whereas before Dave started using this method it would show my ten most recently played tracks just fine.
 |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9592
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 4:17 pm: |
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Cacheing is tricky stuff and the web services are still in beta. Next time you get nothing, try clicking your name again in the member list.
 |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 2123
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 4:37 pm: |
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I have, tons of times Dave. Still nothing. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9594
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 4:55 pm: |
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Perhaps someone can offer insight. This is hacked together from a few sources in php with customizations for a multi-user system by your truly using some guesswork.
 |
Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 3329
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 9:01 pm: |
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I'll get right on that.... |
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