Subsonic: Your Very Own Personal Media Server

There are many commercial services that allow you to stream music over the internet. Yet, many of these services place limits on how you can access that music.

You negate these limitations when you stream music through Subsonic, an application that turns your computer into a personal media server.

Subsonic is an open source application that gives you full control in how your music collection is accessed over a home network and the internet.

Limitations of the cloud

We relinquish certain rights when we allow Cloud providers to be the gate keepers to our music collections.

Services like Google Music Beta and Amazon Cloud Music are hindered by the need to upload your personal collection to the host server. Furthermore, once it is uploaded, a degree of control passes from you, to the provider. Including a cap on the number of files you are allowed to upload and a limit on who can access your content.

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Guy Kawasaki on Twit’s The Social Hour

Two weeks ago, Guy Kawasaki was a guest on The Social Hour with Amber MacArthur.

Guy is the author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. He is a longtime writer who has amassed a loyal following in the tech community.

The interview is an enlightening discussion about Google+, and using social media to promote brands and products.

Check it out at The Social Hour

Mindmeister – Essential Apps

Category: Productivity

Mindmeister – www.mindmeister.com

Among the many similar applications on iTunes, Mindmeister distinguishes itself because it delivers a consistent experience on both the mobile and desktop platform. Allowing you to easily create Mind maps on the phone and then sync them up for online editing, or vice versa.

While many may not be familiar with mind mapping, the “brain storming/flow chart” technique has seen a rise in popularity with the tech savvy productivity and creative types who have found a home on sites like Lifehacker.com.

Created by educational consultant Anthony Buzan, mind mapping attempts to mimic the natural process used by the mind to make connections and access concepts. From a central idea, a web of branches expands from one concept to another.

A traditional mind map relies on using different colours, explicit pictures and large expressive branches to express the author’s thought process. However, newer examples of mind mapping relies less on aesthetics, and use a simpler format.

While I prefer the simpler format, there is “official” mind mapping software available in mobile and desktop versions that stay honest to the original model.

Apart from creating the framework for this article, mind maps have almost unlimited uses.

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