Friday, July 31, 2009

Pandora Whining

I listen to Pandora a LOT.  Several hours a day, every day.  In July they added a limit to their ad supported service limiting "free" listening to 40 hours a month.  I got an email saying "although this change affects only 10% of our listeners, you are one of them!"

Once you reach the 40 hour limit, you have two options.  You can pay $1 to continue to use the ad supported service for the rest of the month, or you can pay $36 for the year to upgrade to the premium, non-ad supported service.  I actually think this is a fairly nice way to deal with generating more revenue while keeping the service affordable.  BUT I'm annoyed with two things about this arrangement.

First, Pandora has made the interface for the $1 a month option cumbersome.  You have to wait until you actually run out of time for the month and then enter your credit card number.  It enters it as a one time payment, which means you need to type in your credit card number every month.  This is obviously intended to steer you to the $36/year premium service.

Which brings me to my second gripe.  I feel like I am absolutely paying enough for my ad-supported Pandora already.  Somehow from my music taste, Pandora's ads can divine my needs and desires more readily than even I can.  So far, I have purchased Dove deodorant with matching body spray, renewed my passport, and purchased Venus Spa razor blades, pretty much all based off Pandora advertising.  They know about my secret shame, enjoying Bud Light with Lime, and are trying to get me to buy some of that too.

As it turns out, I ran out of Pandora credit yesterday, so I'll be using other free services for another day until it starts over.  It's probably worth it for me to just upgrade to the paid service, but it will take me a bit to feel like it's not being imposed on me.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Quinoa, Black Bean, and Corn Salad

Quinoa is a South American grain that holds its shape nicely in salads. It's nutty and full of protein. I made this recipe up pretty spontaneously, because I knew I had quinoa and black beans in the pantry and limes in the fridge. I love bean and grain salads, especially in the summer.

I think next time I'd adjust the proportions a bit (more quinoa!) and add some chopped cilantro. I also don't think the roasted corn makes that big a difference. Also, the dressing proportions are made up. I don't measure.

1/2 c. dry quinoa, rinsed
1 c. water
1.5 c. canned black beans, rinsed
1.5 c. frozen corn kernels, thawed (I used Trader Joes roasted corn)
1/2 c. chopped red bell pepper
1 serrano pepper, seeded and chopped
juice of one lime
2 T. (?) olive oil
dash of hot sauce
1/2 tsp. oregano (Mexican if you have it)
1/2 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Add the quinoa and water to a pan, bring to a boil, turn down to low and let simmer until water is absorbed, 10-15 minutes. Transfer quinoa to a bowl and let cool. Add beans, corn, and peppers. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add dressing to salad, stir, and put in the fridge to chill. Enjoy!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Web Browser ABC Meme

I just discovered the "Page Info" stuff in Firefox 3.5. I'm not sure if this is new or not, but it allowed me the opportunity to see how many times I've visited certain domains. Apparently I reload Facebook an average of 57 times a day.1 Oops!

And with that in mind, I now bring you the ABCs of my AwesomeBar.

(Instructions: type the letter ‘a’ in your browser location bar and choose the first match from the dropdown. Repeat for each letter of the alphabet.)

A: http://asitebyanyother.name/
B: Blind Pig Music
C: Chalk, Cheese, and a Beard
D: Delicious
E: Etherpad
F: ubiquity-firefox | Google Groups
G: Troubleshooting Ubiquity Interface Problems
H: ubiquity-firefox: log
I: isoHunt - the BitTorrent and P2P search engine
J: Jonathan Coulton
K: Pulling it Together: 19.7 - Kaiser Family Foundation
L: Mozilla Labs » Ubiquity
M: Ann Arbor, MI to Monson, Massachusetts
N: NYTimes
O: Orbitz Travel: Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare, Hotels, Vacations, Car Rentals & Cruises
P: planet ubiquity
Q: Twitter / Search - ubiquity
R: Recovery.gov
S: Songza
T: The Ride - Ann Arbor Transportation Authority
U: ubiquity-firefox | Google Groups
V: How We're Releasing Ubiquity 0.5 on Vimeo
W: Wowhead: You'll be back.
X: xkcd - A Webcomic - Form
Y: YouTube - Hey Paul Krugman (A song, A plea)
Z: Shoes, Clothing, Handbags, Sunglasses | Zappos.com Free Shipping

Only surprise is that Pandora didn't show up, although the URL of planet ubiquity is filled with Ps. Other than that, it looks just like my life. Music, ubiquity, nerding. I guess I feel like I read a lot more health news and a lot more wikipedia than this list would indicate.

1: Is it wrong that I want to put a methodological note here? I've had this Firefox profile for 305 days, which I guessed with terrifying accuracy and then actually checked with a date calc.