what i'm looking at on the internet lately roundup
In no particular order:
Pandora - Most people already know about Pandora, but if you're one of the holdouts, then check it out immediately. It's an internet radio station run by The Music Genome Project that plays music that's "genetically" like the music you already like. Cool flash-based player.
Pixoh - Don't have photoshop, but you need to make a LiveJournal thumbnail image, or crop and adjust a photo to send in email? Upload it to Pixoh and get a pretty amazing set of image editing features right in your web browser.
The Falling Sand Game - This curious little java applet has entranced me, Zan's 8-year old kid, and about a third of the internet. It's not a game, it's a toy. Make up your own puzzle and then solve it. Watch time pass before your eyes as the sand, salt, water and oil fall right before your eyes. (More about falling sand for the truly obsessed.)
Writely - Writely is a cool word processor that runs in a web page. There's other ones, but this one imports and exports word documents, pdf's and other formats. It's also lightweight and pretty. Unfortunately, Google bought it, and it's in closed beta now while Google works its magic hoo-ha on it. There's others, but I haven't found one as cool as writely. The others are: Writeboard, AJAXWrite, GOffice, WideWord, ZohoWriter.
LifeHacker - This is a blog about lifehacks. A lifehack is basically a "hack" for some problem or frustration in life, or a way to streamline your workflow in life. Lifehacker is a pretty high-volume blog, and in any given day you're almost sure to find something useful or interesting.
Damn Interesting - Speaking of interesting, this is a consitantly interesting blog that finds scientific or historical factoids and presents them in quite a compelling way.
Ta-Da List - I now use Ta-Da list as a part of my everyday workflow. It's indespensable for me, since I usually have about 4 web projects going at a time with about a dozen discrete tasks each. Ta-Da list couldn't be simpler. It's just a web-based to-do list. You add items, you reorder items, you check items off on a list. But somehow having a collection of to-do lists I can access from anywhere and easily edit is making my life a lot more efficient.
MySpace - Bitch about MySpace if you want, but right now every web company except Google wants to trump MySpace. Why? Because whatever flaws it has, it has the critical mass of real people. Go and try searching for your 10 best friends. I bet you find quite a few. They're on MySpace, which makes it a great tool for finding your friends, finding chicks, finding a job, finding new avenues to get spammed and finding...whatever you want.
Biznik - The tagline of BizNik is, "Business Networking that doesn't suck." and as far as I can tell, it's true. It's one of the most innovative web/real life concepts that I'm actively involved in. If you're a microbusiness, I think it's genuinely useful to be a BizNik member.