A few weeks ago, Des sent me an invite for Spotify, a music streaming application. In contrast to prior efforts I’ve seen, there is both a free (advert-supported) version and a subscription version for £9.99 which leaves out the adverts. Even better, there seems to be a good selection of artists on it.

The way it works is very simple. There’s just the usual play/pause/skip buttons and a search box. The homescreen has a top albums list and a small set of recommendations—I see plenty of ways they could improve the recommendations, like eMusic they seem rather lackluster. Last.fm really kicks their ass here.

In an unusual event of my actually finding Facebook useful in potentia—I added a friend to find out their email address—I discovered Facebook’s public search listing feature. From this stems my publicly available Facebook page which is indexed by search engines.

This page lists my status updates, my friends and allows people to send me a message. I wonder how many Facebook users realise this page exists. For me it isn’t a particular bother, I’m used to information about me being publicly available and rather think it’s a good thing. For others, however, this isn’t the case.

Every so often I have to sit back and reflect on how amazing the world is because of all the technological advances computing has brought, to recharge my batteries and convince myself what I do is worthwhile.

I can sit on my sofa with a video on my desktop which has travelled thousands of miles, including through space, talking to one of my best friends whilst they sit at a desk in Tokyo. I can walk down the street talking to my parents who are a hundred miles away like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Indeed, I can be directed through a city I’ve never visited before as if I’m a native who’s lived there all my life and knows all the shortcuts, all through a small hand-held box.

What bothers me most about Facebook Connect, which has gone live today after being announced earlier in the year, is its unfairness toward those sites which adopt it. Facebook gets the lion’s share of the benefits of the program, much like I’ve mentioned before. I worry Facebook is attempting to use its large user base to bend others to its own ends, which is not good for the future of the Internet.

The latest posts from Merlin Man of 43Folders have resonated with me. Creativity is not something that comes magically, but must be worked on day after day, week after week. The lack of posts recently on the site point toward a waning in my effort. I’m not sure how to rectify this. Part of this is the need to do rather than merely comment. For now, however, comment.

At work, amongst my day-to-day duties, I paint a picture of the cloud as the future, which is rewarding. Now the phenomenon has a name, most have heard of it, which was not the case a year ago. Like Web 2.0, “cloud” is a vague term, but a name provides a way to set a frame of reference. It does sometimes feel, however, like one’s voice gets lost in the cacophony present inside any large company.