Some useful links I’ve stumbled upon recently.

• Lyrics Plugin for Winamp - Bloody amazing how the lyrics just load up instantly. There is a Windows Media Plugin as well if you use the Microcrap player.
  
• VLC Media Player -  VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. I’ve loaded it, and it’s awesome!.
  
  

Why not to get Vista just YET?

I know a few people who have rushed out like muppets and bought the new Windows Vista expecting to get this wonderful new operating system, only to discover some of it’s obvious limitations or problems. It begs the question, why someone would buy something without testing it first (through the beta stages, get to know the bugs, the limitations, the likes and dislikes) or waiting to read what others have to say first. I guess it’s because there is a sucker born every day.

Anyway, here are some reasons "Why not to get Vista just yet?

• Because CNET says so.
• ZDNET: Don’t buy Vista for the security.
• Switch to Apple Mac - That’s a good reason… NOT!
• Digit - Windows Vista: The best reason why to buy a MAC.
• Apple has confirmed that their software products, iTunes, QuickTime, Airport For Windows, Bonjour For Windows, iDisk utility, and AppleWorks for Windows does not work with Windows Vista. Sh12, that is quite a lot of key programs. Oh dear.
• Why you should wait to buy it? (does this sound familar?).
  
• APC has 10 good reasons why not to buy it. (below is the best reason).
  

Desktop backgrounds.

I stumbled upon a really cool Vista / XP / Mac website called "wstaylor.net" that had some awesome desktop backgrounds. There are some amazing backgrounds here, well worth a visit. Simply click on some of the examples below, then if you are running XP or Vista, right click and click on "Set as desktop background…", otherwise why not visit wstaylor.net.

What’s next from Google?

A good question to ask, considering Google has released Google Page Creator (Beta). If you have a Google account then you will be able to login and create your own custom web page. Google offer some templates and some layouts, but everything else is up to you. They give you 100MB space which is more than enough for even a complex web site.

Last.fm Player

I came across this brilliant radio community called Last.fm - It is free to join and once you download the player or the plugin for your music software, you are able to listen to CD quality music. The best thing is, you are able to customize it according to your taste of music, so if like me, you like Bon Jovi, U2, Bryan Adams, The Killers, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, Matchbox Twenty to name but a few, you just tell it what you like, or pick your music genres or music tags, and the station will play similar sorts of music randomly. It also cleverly keeps track of everything you have listened to, so if you want to reference it at a later date you can.

I’ve even added a plugin (called Scrobbler) to my web site that shows you what I have been listening too. (see my sidebar). It’s really cool. And it looks like these guys are quite dedicated because they have just updated the whole package with a bunch of extra features. Have a look. It’s highly recommended.

Use Google Reader for tracking cool sites.

Google Reader makes it easier to keep up with your ever-expanding reading list of content from across the web. You can:

• Automatically get the latest news and updates from your favorite sites.
• Sort your reading list based on what’s most relevant to you.
• Organize what you read with labels and stars.
• Quickly share interesting items with friends via email or by blogging them, directly from Reader.