Last.FM

One of NPH's coolest friends recently awakened him to Last.Fm, the social networking tool based entirely on your music listening habits. And while the website is one of those technological innovations that has the ability to covertly steal away large portions of one's time and energy, it also may not be that. Much of what the tool does it does on its own, while you're simply doing what you do.

What's cool about last.fm is the creation and constant updating of your personal profile based on the music that you're listening to on your computer or iPod. It's called scrobbling. Once you've got the free software installed, every track you play gets sent to the last.fm website and fed into your profile. From this are generated charts that display your music listening habits: who are you most listening to? What tracks? Then the site develops your own personal radio station, makes recommendations of things you might like, and connects you to other users with similar music tastes. Best of all, it allows you to invite and add "friends," and then allows you to see what they're listening to.

Check it out. Then search for NPH under the email address rocky.meredith@gmail.com to be added as his friend.