February 11, 2007
Pandora Internet Radio - Helping to find new artists
For my first blog, I thought I'd talk about a website that I have been using on and off for about a year now, but have recently become a huge fan of. The website is
The basic premise of the site is that you enter several songs you like (in a certain genre) and they analyze your choices for common music melodies, instrumentals, and lyrical content, to name only a few of their criteria. From the data they gather, they play different artists on your "radio station," and there you are, discovering artists no one else has even heard of. If you dislike a song, you just give it a thumbs down. If you especially like a song, give it a thumbs up.
After a few sessions of fine tuning your station, you are listening to songs that you have never heard before, but you somehow find yourself enjoying.
Among the things I enjoy most about the site is the instant feedback that you can give the Pandora program, which can instantly shift the focus of a certain station. A thumbs up will open up a whole new box of music. Also, the website draws from almost a century of music, so there are probably hundreds of thousands of artists and songs that they draw their data from.
It's a great site, and the more time I spend on it, the better suited to my personal tastes the music is. If you want to go a little further, you can buy a personal Pandora.com player, a bit like a more specific Sirius or XM mp3 player.
Posted by kiwesley at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2007
How to Build Your Own Website
Setting up your own website can be a fairly easy and extremely rewarding process. To help you along, I have collected a few resources and laid out a step by step to creating your own website. This post represents a great deal of research; please use it in good faith.
Be sure to add this page to your favorites - many of the links I provide will lead you away from this site!
Step 1: Find a Host
The first thing you need to do is find a host that suits you. I suggest Brackmann Custom Web Creations (my company...). Every plan provided by BCWC comes with free domain name registration!
Step 2: Build Your Site
Building a site is fairly easy using the HTML editor offered in BCWC’s (and many other) hosting platform(s). It works just like any other text editor! For a more professional look, you might also want to check out templates online (search for “website templates” on any major search engine). Many of these templates can be edited using the same HTML editor.
Step 3: Make Money - Advertise On Your Site
The best way to make money on a new website is to advertise! Google's AdSense program has made the process of gathering advertisers extremely easy - check out the following link.
Step 4: Gain Users - Advertise Your Site
For these go getters looking to actively build their user base, I suggest Google’s AdWords program (see link below).
Step 5: Build a (Basic) Online Store
The more experienced users may want to try and build an basic online store. You can sell almost anything you want. I suggest using PayPal’s services to develop an ecommerce solution that works for you. I have found that PayPal offers the most services at the lowest cost - in many cases, only a per transaction free applies. The following link will provide more information.
Step 6: Tell Me Your Story
Once you've set up your site, please tell me about it! Leave a comment here and I'll visit to see what you've done. (If you want to, you can also link back to this blog to show your support and encourage others to start their own sites!)
Posted by brackme at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2007
How to Make Your Computer More Cool
I bet a lot of people sit around, scavenging the Internet for ways to make their computer cooler. With great new programs coming out all the time, however, there is just no way to keep up with our fast-paced global insatiability for DOWNLOADS!!!!
I have the solution, and, moreover, am willing to share it with you. This secret website will enable you to shut down your brain and turn on your clicking finger, because not only will it give you everything you want to download, it will tell you what to download. No thinkers need apply!
So after searching through the site a little and catching up on some good ol' programs, you should have no problem convincing yourself that you are cool. Have a great day!
Posted by kiwesley at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2007
Holy Google
I hate to talk more about Google's awesomeness, but as I am wearing a black leather jacket with a U of M shirt on underneath, I thought it would be alright to talk about the sexiest company to have ties to Ann Arbor in. the. world.
I was stumbling around the information highway and I "stumbled upon" a little website that a lot of people like to call Google Labs. After looking at what the site has to offer, all of my life questions have been answered; foremost "Does Google have a ride finder?"
Maybe it is just me and I don't sit around thinking about this kind of stuff, but I had no idea Google was so busy with their own pet projects. I had them pegged as a company with an itchy trigger finger; using their monopolistic guns to shoot down competitors/buy their ideas. But I'm not saying Google is a monopoly, I'm just saying they have so much money on hand the business world is just a game to them.
Alas, they still have the cojones to do their own work. Who knew Google would come out with "Google Transit" or "Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac?"
Not me.
Posted by kiwesley at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2007
DHTML & Dynamic Drive
My favorite "tool" in developing websites is dhtml (dynamic html). According to Wikipedia, dhtml is
"a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (Cascading Style Sheets, CSS), and a Document Object Model. (DHTML, Wikipedia)"Breaking this definition down:
- HTML is the language that makes things bold or a certain color in a website
- Client-side scripting languages make websites interactive
- CSS is similar to HTML and usually performs the same function (although it is better and more efficient way to create websites - many sites created today are heavily CSS based)
- DOM is a standards/navigation issue - click here for more information
Now on to the website review... Dynamic Drive is a website that offers dhtml codes and examples for FREE! They have codes to dress up your forms; images; and menus, display RSS feeds, build buttons and FavIcons and so on… In addition, it’s simple navigation makes finding things really easy. I simply love it. In fact, I check the site every few days to see the newest script and ponder how I can use it! I highly recommend checking it out.
Posted by brackme at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2007
Are You Not Entertained?
My dream, since I have a projector and a computer hook-up to go with it, is to be able to watch both TV and movies without ever having to leave my room. Thanks to several of my new favorite websites, I think my dream may have just come true.
For Movies and TV shows played in the last couple years, go to:
For streaming TV, with hundreds of channels, go to:
I would have to say that I prefer VideoHybrid, because they have a great selection of movies, some of which haven't even come out to rent yet. I think it is so true that we live in a wonderful world, and websites like these just prove it. I'm not sure how legal they are, but hey, you aren't downloading anything. Delve deep young ones...
Posted by kiwesley at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)