Archive for April, 2011

How I Jam

See that picture? I was in that crowd during Saturday night at Bonaroo 2008. Pearl Jam was about to take the stage. I think I listen to music that most people think it weird.  The truth is, I listen to just about everything with the exception of popular country tunes.  I just never got into twangy country artists. Sorry. My regular audible delights of choice are typically fast. I love anything electronic and spent a ton of times at dance clubs and raves when I was younger, seeing some of the best DJ’s in the world including Paul Okenfold, DJ Tiesto, George Acosta and probably more than I’d like to admit. I’m also a huge fan of bluegrass and jam bands – both of which I saw at Bonaroo.  For the hard stuff, I’ve always been a big fan of Tool, Metallica and even Pantara on occasion when I’m feeling especially intense. I’ll sometimes balance that with a little Vivaldi, Mozart, Handel and my special appreciation for choral renaissance music. And then there’s the jazz and blues. Since my recent trip to New Orleans, I’ve been digging the down and dirty sounds of Brian Lee.  I’ve always liked Johnny Coltrane, Miles Davis and Buddy Guy and they are all a regular part of my iTunes collection. Away from iTunes But sometimes you need a break from the usual.  Today, I think most of us are familiar with Pandora. The music Genome project started about the time Napster was shutting down and has since brought on millions of global users by touting an algorithm that introduces new music suggestions based on the listening preferences and behaviors of each individual user. It’s pretty cool, but there are other ways to expand your own ability to jam out. Here are a few that I know about and can share. Please, add yours to this list in the comments so that we can all [...]

Read This Post

9 Ways to Use EdgeRank to Rule Your Facebook Experience

So, we finally have something to call it. Facebook’s magic behind the news feed and our real life social graphs has been revealed. A few of the secrets behind the algorithm that Facebook engineers’ Ruchi Sanghvi and Ari Steinberg call “EdgeRank” we’re unveiled earlier last week at the f8 developer conference. This article in TechCrunch is probably one of the best summaries of presentation: At a high level, the EdgeRank formula is fairly straightforward. But first, some definitions: every item that shows up in your News Feed is considered an Object. If you have an Object in the News Feed (say, a status update), whenever another user interacts with that Object they’re creating what Facebook calls an Edge, which includes actions like tags and comments. Each Edge has three components important to Facebook’s algorithm: First, there’s an affinity score between the viewing user and the item’s creator — if you send your friend a lot of Facebook messages and check their profile often, then you’ll have a higher affinity score for that user than you would, say, an old acquaintance you haven’t spoken to in years. Second, there’s a weight given to each type of Edge. A comment probably has more importance than a Like, for example. And finally there’s the most obvious factor — time. The older an Edge is, the less important it becomes. The article goes on to summarize and solidify what has been apparent if you looked closely enough: “…an Object is more likely to show up in your News Feed if people you know have been interacting with it recently.” So, now we know.  But, what do we do with this sacred IP now that you and I been entrusted with it? Hmmm…  Shall we play? 9 Ways to Use Facebook EdgeRank to Rule Your Facebook Experience Trust me, the folks in the valley will never [...]

Read This Post
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8