Make Google and Yahoo better with new search tool

ChunkIt makes it really easy to improve the search results from any Web site or search engine like Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, AOL, Ask, etc. ChunkIt searches for the relevant “chunks” of information hidden behind the links and extracts them with the keywords highlighted. Save time by clicking on fewer useless links.

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The Break Out

As you can see from the last post (which was a while ago), I've had a bit of writer's block. And since I still have not found something to write about, I decided to go ahead and just start writing.

So our first topic of discussion will be the very disease that has been wracking my brain for the last couple weeks, writer's block itself. It really did take me by surprise, I wouldn't have thought that it could happen to me. While at work one day I realized I hadn't written anything for a while, and then found the reason was that I just had nothing to talk about. My sister (the wise woman she is), told me, "it might be an indication that you just have nothing good to say." So I took it upon myself to do what any good brother would do, prove her wrong (this is my pathetic attempt). But back to writer's block, I feel that it comes as a combination of two things. One, which I've already talked about, is the lack of ideas. But two (the harder one to admit), is pure laziness. My inner fire had been extinguished, my blogging passion vaporized. And even though I could feel it coming, I let it happen, as any novice writer would do. Like cigarettes, the longer you wait the harder it is to let go, and here I am now, struggling to come up with anything that you, my faithful readers, can read on your computer screen.

[By the way, I know that no one reads this, so in an attempt to stop the relentless comments, I just don't care]

But I feel like right now, as I'm writing this, that something inside is trying to get that inner fire back. Like an antibiotic fighting a infectious bacteria, I am washing over my writer's block with every keystroke. Like the many triumphant germans tearing down the Berlin wall in 1989, I am ripping off block for block what are the walls of writer's block. Like a....just kidding.

For every post I make on this website, I want to thank what must be the most bored people on the planet for reading this (no offense) by offering up what may be called, in a convoluted way, advice. If you ever find yourself having trouble writing, may it be an essay, speech, screenplay, or even a blog (I hope to god it's better than this one), that you just simply write. Take a piece of paper, or even the notepad on your computer, and just start writing your thoughts. And by thoughts I mean anything, anything at all. And I promise, that no matter how long it takes, that you'll find your hands and fingers start doing the talking by themselves. Profound, I know.

Writer's Block

I'm in the middle of it. Sorry faithful readers, but it may take a day or two.

Last.fm

So following the post I wrote yesterday about my new experience with the "Web 2.0", I've decided to write about my experience with one of the new sites I've been using, Last.fm. In a nutshell, it's a personal profile on the web that tracks what you listen to, whether it be on your computer or iPod (or other portable media player), and compares your music tastes to other users'. For someone that listens to music on their computer most of the day, I find it to be pretty cool, and even enlightening.

I created a username and installed the application on my computer, and it instantly loaded up all of my previous play counts from iTunes onto my online profile. I saw that my most listened artist was John Mayer with 477 plays, and in a close second Howard Shore (I love the LOTR Soundtracks) with 373. Something else that caught my eye was that 7 out of my top 10 tracks were from the Garden State soundtrack (alright, laugh it up). Since seeing that, I've strayed away from those artists and have started listening to some of my other music, to sort of build up my online music profile. And it's been real refreshing, I guess I forgot how much other great music I have to listen to. The "Neighborhood" feature gives you an idea of what other people listen to similar music to you, and from there you can friend them or give them a shout out. The site requires a few days of listening to music before you gain entrance to a "Neighborhood", but I'm really looking forward to it because I can start to explore others' tastes. There is a lot of different artists out there, and the only real way to find out about a lot of them is from word of mouth, and this site is perfect for that.

This site also holds stats across ALL of its users, showing Coldplay as the #1 listened to artist for the week, followed by the likes of Radiohead, The Beatles, and Metallica. It'll be interesting to see what it changes to in the coming weeks, and if something like a new album release boosts an artists' ranking. And I also find it really cool that The Beatles are still in the Top 5 artists listened to for the entire week, and I doubt that they will ever die off.

There are several other really neat features that the site offers, and there are several extras that you can explore and play with on the site itself, including complex music graphs (do a google image search of "last.fm graph", you'll see what I mean). So if you don't already have one, get a username, it's a lot of fun and I promise you'll enjoy it.

11 Things You Shouldn’t Leave For School Without

When you first arrive at college you will be introduced to problems that you never knew existed. While no list will ever include a solution to all of your ills, this one hits on some things that you may not have considered.

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