color theory applied

Ghostly has categorized their album library by colors which correspond to different mood states in an effort to help you ‘discover’ new tracks and playlists according to how you feel.

I am so happy to see a cutting edge electronic music label elegantly implementing these concepts to further investigate the mind-body-technology relationship further, ultimately to put us in the mood we want to be in:-)

This cutting edge project was probably conceived in Ann Arbor Michigan, home to Ghostly. I would like to have been a fly on wall during the planning stage meetings.  I feel as if Ann Arbor has always been somewhat of a Silicone Valley for techno. It is so close to Detroit, how can it not be.  Those brainy students who like to party will rule the world someday…wait we already do.

The parameters are quite simple as you can see below.

Ghostly Discover iPhone App choose color mood

Choose your desired ‘hue,’ I was feelin’ yellow, then you choose your rhythm type fast/slow, organic/electronic  - pretty well thought out.  Click ‘ DISCOVER’ to get your results (click to link to the song to preview):

I do think this result matched the mood, and the other songs that followed in the suggested playlist also rocked.

The app has a monetization plan, everything is well though out. In the end this is a different experience towards finding and purchasing music. Put a boy tie on this, nice job.

You can choose to buy the track, rate it or get an artist bio.

In conclusion, this is a true holistic approach to music discovery.  If you love the Ghostly label I suggest you download this immediately.  Good job to the creative minds at Ghostly.  SV4 and the bunch.

Now go eat some cake.

Anyone who was there will remember their immaculate pre-race video and legendary race, but little did most know that this Death Star came with a Palin bumper sticker:

And I thought I was cool for having a “Chewbacca is my Co-pilot” sticker on my laptop.

My entire goal was to arrive by 2:00 pm for the unveiling of the applications built by teams of developers who in most cases met the day before for the first time. Many great applications were developed, each presentation was a few minutes long. You can read about it all from Andrew Mager who was there live blogging the event both days.

My personal highlight was performing 10 push ups during Jon Bardin’s demo of his Push-Up Counter app. I get an applause at the end which was actually for the application but it might have all helped because Jon’s app ended up winning a category. I’d like to think that my “interactive” demo influenced the judges decision.

Other highlights: I had a very pleasant time hanging out cross-legged on the floor of a side room with most of the Medialets team. They built an ad-network for native iPhone applications. Their blog is a sensational read I believe. They sponsored the huge amounts of beer for the event, this Marin Brewing Co. Peach Beer was amazing. It was also great to briefly hang with 15 year old blogger/entrepreneur Daniel Brusilovsky who launched Teens In Tech on the following Monday morning.Video is courtesy of Andrew Mager.

Call it 8th grade humor, or just plain tipsy on cheap book-signing-wine, but upon looking at the signature table I couldn’t help to point out the admitted “dummies” all around, getting their Dummies book signed. Yes me included, but I ended up there by chance that night, I swear. It was held at my favorite club Temple.

It is typical that a green book signing would also take place in a club deemed to become the worlds first green nightclub. But they are not alone in this pursuit, a club in the Netherlands is making waves.

It is the green nightclub race of the decade. Temple’s club’s sustainability director, Mike Zuckerman also has plans install a power generating dance floor next year. He feels confident that they have found the person to do it. In the meantime, he is starting with something a little less ambitious which he calls a vertical garden shown here:

Elsa Wenzel at Cnet.com, whom I met outside of this book signing beat me to this story because it is her full time job to do so. She deemed this club the Chia nightclub in her Cnet Crave blog story. Look at the future vision of Temple nightclub in her entry and it will make sense.

This green night club business is great and all but it does nothing to offset the pollution created by those dj’s that fly millions of miles around the world year after year. Techno demi-god Richie Hawtin decided to do something about this problem and made an environmental pledge to his fans with this press release (PDF): Minimize Your Impact – by Richie Hawtin. I have not read any articles suggesting that others are following his footsteps, then again, Richie is always ahead of the curve on most things.

It is only a matter of time until we will all need to dance to keep the lights on.

“We have proved our world-class ability in cloning animals that have modified characteristics,” said Kong. “We found that the red fluorescent protein in all the organs of the dead kitten, which means we have established an efficient way of cloning gene-modified cats.’‘

you must understand the 4th dimension requires a 4th coordinate and the structures around it are too complex for the human mind to comprehend because we don’t process information that way. However mathematicians can make models that represent something about th:

update – as I watch diggnation’s live taping. I am learning that this product now costs $399 – Now I will consider it..

This idea is not new however and it will likely not be Joe Smoe in a Cupertino garage who builds this technology, rather it might be our friend, or foe, Google.

Several industry folks are discussing this topic after learning that Google is closely looking at H3TEC, a company that is working on detection technology designed to locate “anything, anywhere.” It is out of a sci-fi book because the inventor got the idea from the “Tricoder”, a detection device in the old Star Trek series. He built his own. Check out some of the applications suggested:

• Homeland Security (all over the world)
• Medical Applications (cancer and tainted food)
• Natural Resources (oil and gas, and minerals; currently, we are very active in this field)
• Military Theater (mapping battle grounds, patrolling, and base safety)
• Intermountain Bomb Removal Squad (currently testing)
• Airborne Sensors (flying over hazardous and remote areas, including HAZMAT)
• Shipping, Airport Security
• Peace Officers (officer safety, drug detection, and detection of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine)

How do you locate drugs and bombs? Apparently this technology can track atoms. NO JOKE! This could change our world quickly.

So, ask yourself, is Google your friend or your foe. At least ask yourself “what do they want to do with this?” Either way, I suppose I would rather have Google own this than the Department of Homeland Security, but they will get their hands on it anyway. Oh boy.

On a more lighthearted note, today someone revealed plans Google has to help you find your keys. They want to use RFID technology to track your possessions. Although I hate loosing keys, something about this makes me feel uneasy. It is a step closer to the “Idiocracy” idea. I think I would rather rant and swear as I try to find my keys. It is more human.