Okay, so it's certainly been a while since I last updated my muxtape... May.

I've been using the site since that time however, listening to others, finding new music, and following links...just not updating my own. I've had ideas though, playlists and tracks i've wanted to put up but then changed my mind later. As with Last.fm, I think I may me subconsciously afraid of music snobbery. It's silly I know, but i'm weird like that. All the same, the good news is that i've finally gotten round to updating the tracklisting!

Some are songs i've been enjoying for a few months now, others are regular favourites, and some are by entirely new artists that I wouldn't have known about a few months previously. It is rock, it is dance, it is instrumental and It's a mash-up of all these things, and of the playlists I tried to make over the summer and yet never upload. If you think there's a problem with the pacing or song order, well, that's probably the reason why... oh, and there's twelve songs too, instead of the ten that I'm used to.

August : [Stream Here]

• Alamos- Number Cruncher
• The National- Mistaken By Strangers
• Radiohead- Treefingers
• Arcade Fire- Black Wave / Bad Vibrations
• Innerpartysystem- Heart of Fire
• Boys Noize- & Down
• Royksopp- Someone Like Me
• ...Trail of Dead- Another Morning Stoner
• Swervedriver- Duel
• Motorcycle- As The Rush Comes
• Team Sleep- Princeton Review
• Nine Inch Nails- Lights In The Sky

I'll try and get it updated again in a month's time, promise. If not, you can certainly expect to see another update towards November. Just in time for Christmas either way...

Version 5 of Squarespace launched this past Monday.

I've been using Squarespace as both a blogging and photo-hosting platform for just under six months now, and after mere days of the 30-day free trial, it was a service I was more than happy to continue using and happily pay for. Things seemed as if they couldn't get any better, but V5 introduces a wealth of new features and options to the core platform. Regardless, it was only this week that I realised i've yet to expand on exactly why I moved to Squarespace full-time all those months ago, so here i'm hoping to do a review of sorts of some of the additions, along with some exposition on why Squarespace is my platform of choice.

The first reason is...well, Squarespace is incredibly easy to use. Okay, so that's something touted by all the other blogging sites, but here it is undoubtedly true. That's not to say Squarespace is simplistic or lacking in features, because it's a service that caters to users of all experience. If you have no idea about coding or design you can let SS worry about it; if you know a little you can apply your knowledge into editing or modifying what you've been given, while if you're even more advanced you can create your own theme, muck around in CSS and set up an all manner of domian forwarding and security options. Squarespace can be as easy as you like or can be the equivilent of building your own site from scratch and hosting from home, whichever your most comfortable with or want it to be.

The most enticing aspect of Squarespace for me was this ease of use, but SS can be a lot more than just a 'blog platform'. Galleries can be created, forums and message boards added, guestbooks integrated and online shops built. The added benefit is the ability for numerous administrators meaning your site can be a solo-effort or a team-run operation depending on the site's aim and function. Best of all was the storage- you can have anywhere between 0.5 to 20Gb, and you can increase or decrease your bandwidth accordingly. In retrospect I think I took too much of both, but it's nice to know they're variable. The prices obviously reflect your choices and the features you choose when you register, but no contract means you can change them, upgrade or downgrade whenever. Traffic and Subscriber counts are displayed in-house with the site's own Statistics page, while RSS feeds are generated from day-one. No need for Feedburner, Stat Counter or the rest, it's all here.

So that's Squarespace in a neat summary basically. V5 doesn't make any effort to deviate or alter from the site's and service's purpose, rather, it adds lots of new features to make the experience better. The interface is alone, one of my favourite things about the service. Navigation is now easier than ever with fast java script switching- buttons along the top of the page are there for easy clicking, Content, Structure, Style and Preview with fast links to the Help section (complete with video walkthroughs) and the overall management of your site for things like comment moredation, domain forwarding and audience permissions. V5 also has a re-designed content editor (Again, the main focus is the option of WYSIWYG -what you see is what you get, real-time editing etc) but site architecture is easily configured with drag and drop modules, and the ability to add, build, style or preview thanks to the constant presence of the four previously mentioned buttons.

The style editor has also been given a significant reworking, and like the content and post editor things are displayed entirely in real-time. Colours can be changed, fonts chosen, letter spacing increased, and most excitingly, sidebar and content wrapper width adjusted thanks to a nifty little slider. For the more experienced again, these things can be coded or manually decided, or ignored completely, if you want to make your own theme rather than edit one of the pre-existing ones. New functionality has also been added to how the site works- items displayed in your sidebar can only be displayed on certain pages for example, e.g the blog archive widget won't display when users are browsing the gallery. I found this incredibly handy, especially in the instance i've just mentioned, but with audience permissions it's nice that sections can be customised more individually now rather than a collective whole. Regarding Blogging, Tags can now be added as well as Categories, and "Share This" options with links to Digg et al are there if you want them, without any work required from yourself. "Publish this post on/enable comments on day X" have also been tweaked.

I realize i'm gushing (bet that makes a change, huh?) but Squarespace is seemingly the complete opposite of Blogger, and is exactly the kind of hosting/content platform I was looking for when I decided I wanted change, without taking the time out to learn 'how to build a website'. As a service it's easy to use, it's fun and exciting, and most importantly, it works great. Regarding V5 naturally there's been a few problems (and i've encountered one myself- sorted now thanks to support!), but the update itself completely reinvigorates and refreshes  the service, and thankfully as a whole, Squarespace remains a web service that i'm more than happy to continue paying for.

Screens

 
 

MOO Minicards 

I wrote a little about Muxtape last month- new site, upload twelve songs and share, internet excitement all round- and with the site still online (and thankfully seemingly devoid of any legal rambling), I've decided to update the songs to keep the page fresh.

 

There's no artist or band continuations, but again, the current line-up is once again a list of 'songs I like at the moment', rather than being focussed on something specific like genre or a letter of the alphabet, though those mixtapes may be coming eventually. That said, there's one or two more elusive acts listed this month that last- if you listen to the playlist and discover someone new anyway then that's great, I guess the site really works.

Here's the May listing: [Stream Here]

1. Jane's Addiction - True Nature
2. Hell is for Heroes - Kamichi
3. Nshwa - By Your Side
4. The Longcut - Holy Funk
5. Radio 4- Enemies Like This
6. Röyksopp - Sparks
7. Sufjan Stevens - All the Trees of the Field Will clap Their Hands
8. Computerman - Spies on You
9. Portishead - The Rip
10. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - So Divided

Muxtape Post and April listing

 

Muxtape is the new thing. Like Flickr, Digg, Facebook and Twitter before it, it's the new site that everybody seems to be buzzing about. It's loosely similar to Last.fm in that at it's centre is a fan population of music love, but muxtape makes things altogether more simple and minimalistic. From you're music folder on your hard drive you're allowed to upload 12 songs (under 10mb each), put them together, and link them to everyone else for them to stream- a digital revolution of the physical mixtape.

 

The idea's fun, and it's execution is even better- you can leave your questions behind, because you won't be needing to ask any. Small niggles arise in the fact that the site currently only accepts the mp3 file format-if you've got your entire music library on something like Windows Media or ITunes, obviously you're going to run into some problems until -if- the site allows their respective file types. But that aside, it's still relatively easy to get those songs into mp3s for uploading.

There's no better way to try it out than actually create one of your own. I made a playlist earlier today with ten songs all of the rather loose theme of 'songs I like at the moment', but for compilations of a certain genre the site feels it was made for that kind of thing, and presumably i'll be following with those following compilations in the coming weeks/months/years. For now though, here's what i've got:

1. Rilo Kiley- Spectacular Views
2. Band of Horses- Is There A Ghost
3. Bat For Lashes- Bat's Mouth
4. Union of Knives- I Decline
5. LCD Soundsystem- All My Friends
6. Damien Rice- Delicate
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Mysteries
8. Arcade Fire- Une Année Sans Lumiére
9. The Chemical Brothers/Flaming Lips- The Golden Path
10. The Secret Machines- It's A Bad Wind That Don't Blow Someone Some Good 

You can stream 'The RichardAM Muxtape' here, and i'll be changing it in a few weeks time- so go give it a listen!

 

MOO, as their site suggests, "love to print".

Using photos direct from your Flickr, Live Journal or Facebook stream as well as some of the other inferior social/photo sites out there, they can print your shots onto something nice such as greeting cards or stickers, for whatever use you intend. Intrigued -and dazzled- I ordered some of their MiniCards recently, and they are rather nice.

The cards have a matte-laminate finish, and despite their seeming small 28 x70mm dimensions, photos look great on them. The site doesn't designate any one use for the cards, and instead offer a handful of ideas and creative options for you to decide from or to get started with. With the option of text on the back of the cards i've made mine into mini-calling cards, or rather, personal hand-out url cards to anyone interested in seeing some of my photos, reducing the need of a pen & paper or an awkward follow-up email later in the day.

Obviously some photos will work better than others, but the small size means that bright/colourful photos will look neater than something laden with detail. The end result, a photo distinctly abstract and fun is a nice outcome. The added bonus, obviously, is the dual-function of the cards- this is not mere tedious numbers and names, but rather, a teaser of the rest of your gallery. Best of all, it's finally a chance to print photos... just for fun.

After months of wondering why, earlier this week I canceled my Facebook account.

Like MySpace previously, I had registered simply out of curiosity and media buzz (honest), but again, like MySpace, the site is a horrible mess of popularity and pointlessness. Sure, the site says it's a "social utility that connects you with the people around you", but I don't need that anyway- i've already got email, a phone, the internet, it's basically just adding another step to what should already be a completely easy process. Finding old friends i've lost touch with similarly is also of no real benefit- hence the very reason they're not my friends anymore, something that should be blindingly obvious. Eh, I don't even know why i'm justifying myself.

Facebook's growing in popularity every day, but if anyone wants me, i'll be here. I know already that Blogging has provided me with a far more social experience than Facebook could ever provide.

I know that, you know that.

Or, if you are American (and silly), perhaps you prefer your spelling without the 'u' and therefore simpler?

Either way, don't vote for the latter.

bestuff.com is one of those ever so frequent websites to be found nowadays, consisting simply of everyone's current favourite buzz word combination, "Web 2.0" and "social-networking". That it is without a doubt, as it's a site that, as expected, allows for a greater focus on user-created-content and information, much like the Wikipedia technology. But technobabble aside, it's the concept that's the most enticing aspect of the site.

As the name suggests, the site is a compendium of all the best thing that makes life and living great, be it TV shows, cheese, colours, feelings or experiences, all of which can be added to your profile where presumably, "the social-networking" aspect comes into play. From here people find you and the stalking process can begin with the usual lark of private-messages and such, but once again, the best thing about the site, as is always the case, is the original idea rather than all the bells and whistles (and morons it's soon to attract). As a site it allows you to list all the things that you think are fantastically great under your profile and comment on them, in what is, for now, the most "no ranting allowed" site there is out there. It's all about the love, the passion, and the positive emotions and feelings evoked from these things, again, as wide a selection like Nikon D40s to walking on walls as a kid, and hey, even Anne Hathaway, with the ability to add pages yourself you find something that makes you happy missing.

The whole process can become surprisingly addictive and certainly a lot of fun, but lasting appeal can be pretty minimal. For now, that's the main problem with the site in that beyond the web 2.0 experience it's not something that's going to remain fun forever, admittedly a lot like many of it's peers. Regardless, and for the time being however, this is pure romanticism in an unusually unwelcome place, the internet, and if there's something you love, it's time to tell the world all about it.

*the best stuff in the world