Wolfram Tones

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What is the Wolfram Tones Application

I’m a big music fan. I’ve managed to max out my mp3 player and about 75% of my hard drive is music. I also relish every chance I get to make my own music and was very eager to play around with what the Wolfram Tones application had to offer.

I installed the application but had an initial problem playing some of the music. Luckily there was an easy to follow guide to set up Quicktime (which is a requirement to use Wolfram) to play MIDI files.

I don’t quite understand the science behind how the compositions work, but everything is based off on “scientific paradigm of Stephen Wolfram’s New Kind of Science, Wolfram Tones instantly generates unique, organic musical compositions based on algorithms called cellular automata. ”

It’s not hard to mess around and make your own music. I didn’t understand the rule or seed variations (instructions are provided), but basically they are template. I moved onto the instrumentation tab where I could select what instruments to include, and then onto pitch and timing.

After you have created a suitable song, you can save it to your online jukebox to share with others, or you can download it as a MIDI file onto your desktop that can be converted into an mp3 or WAV file that can be played on MP3 players.

Pros

• lots of variation
• ability to save your work
• lots of fun

Cons

• got a horrible screeching sound when ever I’d change instruments. It seemed like every time the project I was working on was reset it made this sound like a record being scratched.

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Tag Team Graffiti

  What is the Tag Team Graffiti Application?

Most of us are artists in some form, but if you ever wanted to earn some street cred without actually going out on the streets, then the Tag Team Graffiti application is for you.

Tag Team Graffiti allows you and friends to share in the join of painting together.  The tools are simple to use (paint gun, different types of brushes, spray paint).  Once you “run out” of paint, as indicated by the paint meter on the left of the screen, your turn is up and you share it with friends so that they can add their own touches.  It’s important to keep in mind that painting over someone else’s work on the street can get you killed, but it’s perfectly allowable on facebook.   Just don’t be upset if you start losing friends.

Pros

• Ability to browse your or other people’s previous art projects
• Can upload pictures from the internet or your own photos to graffiti

Cons

• Paint meter is kind of small, making it easy to forget how much paint you have left when you’re having too much fun

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FluxWord Facebook Application

What is the FluxWord Facebook Application?

FluxWord is an application that allows you to create stories and then share them with your friends and/or the world. The application puts a box on your profile page that displays your stories. Readers can then click on one of your stories, read it, and critique it. Readers can post feedback and comments on each of your story’s paragraphs. FluxWord is also a collaborative writing tool. You can begin a story and then friends can add to it, making a “neverending story.”

FluxWord Pros

• FluxWord is a refreshingly unique idea for a Facebook Application. It is both useful and fun. Many writers seek feedback for their work, but are perhaps too shy to ask. The FluxWord forum could make criticism easier to take for the writer, and make giving an honest assessment easier for the reader.

• The “neverending story” feature is a fun one. You can begin a story and then set a word count limit for your friends to add to it. When there are multiple contributors in a story you can click a highlight button which will show you who wrote what in different colors.

• You can easily rate friends’ stories with the 5 star ranking system.

• You can read stories submitted by writers from around the world.

• The creator of FluxWord has a forum for suggestions and problems and seems genuinely interested in feedback and improving the application.

FluxWord Cons:

• The design is rather plain and not that appealing to the eye.

• When you write a story it should show up in the news feed, announcing that your new story has been posted. It doesn’t, although if you rate a story or add to a story it does show up in the news feed. I think the creator is trying to fix this though.

• It seems that after you submit a story you can only delete it completely, but you can’t just edit it. But if the application is designed to have people critique stories, it would be logical to allow users to be able to go back in and tweak it in line with the feedback.

• There are no formatting buttons (bold, italics, ect) to use when you are submitting your story.

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iDescribe Facebook Application

What is the “iDescribe” Facebook Application?

The iDescribe Facebook Application lets you honestly describe your friends’ personality and attributes. And they in turn can describe you. iDescribe gives a list of descriptive words to choose from, and you choose the 5 that describe the person the best. The words are then displayed on your profile, so readers of your profile can see what others think you are like. iDescibe is not anonymous, users can see who chose each group of 5 words.

iDescribe Pros:

• It lets you know what other people think of you. The words choices are almost all complimentary attributes, so they can make you or a friend feel good and help them recognize their strengths.

• The words chosen most often for the person are listed first, and it also displays how many times each word was chosen.

iDescribe Cons-

• The display of your words on your profile could use a little more pizazz, it is kind of plain.

• Some people may prefer to describe their friends anonymously.

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Fresh Reviews Facebook Application

What is the “Fresh Reviews” Facebook application?

The Fresh Reviews Facebook application allows you to review almost anything and to share that review on your profile and with your friends. You can choose an existing category in which to write a review (books, movies, restaurants, CD’s, ect.) or you can come up with a new category (why not review your washer/dryer and let the world know how you feel about it?). Your review will appear on your profile, and you can also easily access the reviews of your friends.

Fresh Reviews Pros:

• A great concept! Everyone likes to throw in their 2 cents about things and let people know what they have or have not been enjoying.

• Seeing what your friends are or are not liking can help you make decisions about what movies to see or what new coffee shop to try.

• Leverages the social network aspects of Facebook very well. Posting your reviews is a great way to spark conversations and interact not only online, but in the real world as well (you love Tony’s Pizza? I love Tony’s Pizza? Let’s go there this Saturday!).

• Another nice touch is that personalized suggestions are displayed based on what your trusted friends liked and disliked. A good way to discover new music and movies that you might like.

• Even if you don’t feel like writing a review, can you simply rate the item from 1-4 stars. Quick, easy, and fun.

Fresh Reviews Cons:

• When I first downloaded Fresh Reviews I was given an error message which made me think something had gone wrong. But when I clicked on the link in my profile, it was fine.

• Your profile picture can be displayed next to your review. But the resolution isn’t very good, and made me look drunk and weird.

• I wrote a quick review for testing purposes. I then tried to delete it. After, if I clicked on the link under my profile picture the review was nowhere to be found. But the link still said “Reviews (1).” The review was also still displayed lower on my profile page. And when you clicked on that link is said “Warning: Unknown Review.” This definitely needs to be fixed. We’ve all given something a review we reevaluated later, and we should be able to delete it completely from the page.

 

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Friendly Search Facebook Application

What is the “Friendly Search” Facebook Application?

Friendly Search is a new way to find, sort, and filter your Facebook friends. Instead of having to scroll through everyone to find the person you are looking for, Friendly Search brings up the thumbnail pictures of each of your friends’ profile pictures. From here you can filter the pictures by name, networks, country, and sex. You can view the pictures as small with no names, a little bigger with names, or even bigger with name, network, and hometown. When you click on a picture it brings up a “mini-profile” of the person with the option of going to their complete profile.

Friendly Search Pros:

• A simple, very clean, very cool interface. Quite an appealing design.

• Easy to use. Makes it easier to find friends, especially for people who have many of them.

• When you bring up Friendly Search it starts out by showing all of your friends, and you can filter them from there. This is an improvement over Facebook which if you just click on the general “Friends” button only brings up those in the “Recently Updated” category first.

• Watching the pictures get filtered and sorted is really strangely fun. I recommend giving it a try.

Friendly Search Cons:

• Admittedly, using the regular old Facebook way to find friends is not that hard. So this is fun, but not completely necessary.

• The network filter drop down box lists all the various networks your friends belong to. However the list was longer than the screen, and I couldn’t figure out how to scroll past the last entry on the bottom of the screen.

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Quit-O-Meter Facebook Application

What is the “Quit-O-Meter” Facebook Application?

The “Quit-O-Meter” Facebook Application is a fantastic app designed to help you quit smoking. The app tells you when you quit smoking, how long you’ve gone without having a cigarette, and (I think this is the best feature of all) tells you how much money you have saved by ditching your smokes. These stats can be posted on your profile, and you can check the stats on your friends’ profiles as well.

Quit-O-Meter Pros:

• It is well known that keeping a record of things is one of the best ways to stay motivated for a goal. Seeing your smoke free days and weeks add up and watching the amount of money you save grow could help you stay on track.

• Accomplishing a goal is also easier when you are held accountable for how you are doing. By posting your smoking stats on your profile, your friends can watch your progress and support you. And watching your friends’ stats can help you keep each other accountable.

• Each day “Dr. Ciggy Butts” shares a health fact with you about how quitting smoking is good for your bod. Again, this could help you stay motivated, by reminding you of the very real benefits of quitting.

Quit-O-Meter Cons:

• Who can say anything bad about an app that helps people quit smoking? This is a great app and might really aid people in keeping their goal of going cold turkey.

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Your Neighbors Facebook Application

What is the “Your Neighbors” Facebook Application?

Your Neighbors allows you to see which Facebook users live in your neighborhood and in your vicinity. This allows you to network and make friends with local people who live near you. Within this network you can meet people, start groups, and post messages about local issues.

Pros

• This is a great app, and really maximizes what Facebook is all about-social networking. Widen your social circle, and foster a sense of community right where you live. Helps facilitate friendships, romances, and neighborhood groups based on common interests.

• Allows you to share local information. Post messages about local issues like crime or neighborhood initiatives. Ask questions, like where is the best pizza place around here? Post announcements about things like garage sales.

• Allows you to plan local activities. Trade services (“I’ll change your oil, if you make me dinner”), share belongings (why not share a neighborhood lawn mower?), start activist groups, organize a neighborhood clean-up, throw a block party…the options are many!

Cons

• While your actual address remains completely confidential, the app will tell users how many miles or even feet you are from someone else. There is something rather creepy about a stranger knowing your name, what you look like, and that you perhaps live in the same apartment complex. You can participate anonymously (without revealing your name, picture, or Facebook ID), but still, people should use caution and common sense when using this app.

• You can only see Facebook users who have also signed up for “Your Neighbors.” It will take awhile to build up the network enough to really get things going (there were only 3 people within 5 miles of me).

• Occasionally while trying to display a page, an error message would appear. But the creators of the app are ironing out the problems.

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Tetris Tournament Facebook Application

What is the Tetris Tournament Facebook application?

There’s nothing more annoying than getting a high score in Tetris and losing any record of it when you turn off the Nintendo. Those days are over now that Tetris Tournament is here. Not only is this a great recreation of the historic puzzle game, it also allows users to post their high scores to their profile and compare them with friends! It even keeps a list of the top ten scores on Facebook, so you can see how you compare to even the best players (and they can get pretty good). Highly recommended to any fan of the game.

 Tetris Tournament Pros

• Great recreation of the original game
• See your friends scores and beat them
• Global ranking

Tetris Tournament Cons

• No share feature

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iPetition Facebook Application

What is the iPetition Facebook application?

iPetition allows its users to create any number of petitions that other users can virtually sign. You can invite your friends to sign your petition and it will remain open for other users to see and sign as well. Each petition comes with a text box where information about the petitions cause can be entered and the number of signatures is displayed. You can browse through the latest petitions or see the ones with the most signatures. Currently iPetition seems to be having some organizational problems when viewed in IE 6.

 iPetition Pros

• Create petitions for both serious and amusing causes.

 iPetition Cons

• Does not work well with Internet Explorer 6 (thanks Greg)

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