Pandora's Box

About six months ago, I read an article about a company called Pandora that had built an online music recommendation service. But instead of using collaborative filtering like most sites use (e.g. Amazon's "Customers who bought this books also bought..."), Pandora had built an algorithm that measured the tone, pitch, rhythm, beat, etc. of the music you listened to and went and found you music that sounded similar. Not music that might be found in the same bin at your music store, but music that actually sounded the same.

Six months later (today to be exact), I was getting caught up on my sister-in-law's blog and came across a post she made about Pandora so I decided to try it out for the first time. "Wow!" is all I can say. It is amazing. And it's not that often that I say that about some new internet service.

My first five channels:

• Chemical Brothers
• U2
• Ludacris
• The Killers
• Pink Martini
• 50 Cent

I think I may be shizophrenic.

And speaking of cool internet services, I find myself using Wikipedia more and more each day. I love having a one-page summary on anything in the world. And I do mean anything. I'm hard pressed to find a subject that isn't on Wikipedia.

Skyline on the Sea

This past weekend, Kerri and I flew to Panama City for the weekend with our friends John and Janna and Bruce and Rebecca. We were there to celebrate (or mourn, depending on how you look at it) our good friends John and Janna's last weekend living in Costa Rica. Panama is quite a skyline right on the sea! We stayed at the Real Intercontinental downtown, had dinners out in the city, and hit the big casino at night. Quite a weekend and only a 1 1/2 hour flight away!

Panama Skyline

Dinner in Panama

John and Janna

At Italian Dinner

Bruce and Rebecca

John and the Mariachi Band

Flora or Fauna? I Can't Remember

Is this flora or fauna? I can't remember. Either way, Costa Rica sure is beautiful. Kerri took all of these photos, had them blown up large, framed, and has hung them in our new house in Costa Rica. They look fantastic.