Jelli is 100% user-controlled radio℠, enabling users to take over a radio station using their web browsers. Leveraging the power of the web to reinvent traditional broadcasting, Jelli empowers the community to interact with the broadcast in real-time and determine dynamically what plays on the air. - http://www.jelli.net/about/

Today I am going to take you through how you can start using Jelli and enjoy all that musical goodness. I will be covering how to create a account, how to tune into a radio station, how to control the radio, and how to add some detail to your profile.

Clicking any image will make it bigger.

Create an account

The first time you visit the site you get the landing page. From here you can create an account or login. Setting up an account is just as easy as any other website, just click on the I WANT IN button that is in the green box to the right.

You will be presented with two options. With Facebook and without Facebook. This is totally up to you. If you select the Facebook option then you will enjoy the options to post to your wall and also a quick login with the login with Facebook option on the landing page (if you are already logged into Facebook).

Jelli won’t ask for anything private from you during the creation process. The closest thing to anything private is your Zip/Postal code and your birth year. And these are just to find out where their users are coming from and the approximate age of their users to help form the site better in the future.

Tuning In

Once you are done with all of that account creating then you are ready to dive in and start listening.

When you login for the first time you should see the Tuner page

You may see some popup messages giving you the tour, you can read through them if you want or just close them, I will be talking about the same stuff and more here.

On the left column you have the stations that you can tune into. There are the basic Jelli stations (Green, Orange, Red) then you have the broadcast stations (Choose the Hits, Live 105). These stations are broadcasted on over the air radio stations either 24/7 or at specified times.

In the middle you have a lot of stuff so starting from the top you have the tune in button, clicking this will take you to that stations page. Below that is the now playing and to the right of that is either an advertisement or the allowed genres in that station. Below that is the last played songs and to the left of that are the current genre trends. At the bottom is the activity meter.

To go to a station you can double click on the station in the left bar or click the tune in button.

I will get to showing you around the station page soon but we want to get that music playing first.

To listen to the station click the Listen button. You should be prompted to download a .m3u file. You can save it or open it with your default media program. If you are having problems opening the file or your media player dosn’t support .m3u then you can download VLC Media Player as it will play the file with no problems.

After opening the file in your favorite media player you should be listening to the live stream and you will be ready control the radio.

How To Control The Radio

NOW PLAYING (1) – Songs currently playing have rating systems. If you like a song you can click the Rocks (3) button, and if you don’t then you can click the Sucks (2) button. When the rating bar (4) is full to the sucks side then the song is taken off the air. If someone (5) rocketed (see power-ups) the song currently playing and the rating bar (4) is full to the rocks side then that person gets an extra rocket as a reward for picking a song that everyone loves.

WHO’S NEXT – To the right of the screen is the Who’s Next section. Each song has its own ranking (3), the more people that check (4) a song the higher it is on the list (2). Checking the song adds +1 to the song ranking and clicking the cross adds -1 to the ranking. The top part (1) has the top 3 songs, these songs are usually in a tie for first so the site keeps shuffling the songs around until it is ready to play and will play the song that is closest to the left. A song that has been rocketed (5) is shown in green with a rocket icon on it.

CHAT BOX (1) -This is very similar to other chat boxes on the web. You have the chat window, message bar, user list (2), and emoticons(3). Self explanatory really, type a message, hit enter, and everyone can see it. You will not show up in the user list (2) if you don’t type anything. Once you send a message then others can see that you are participating in the chat. If you leave the page or close the window then you will be removed from the list.

FAVORITES – The Favorites Box (1) shows all of the songs you favorited (see song drawer to favorite). You can sort your list (2) and also mark all or your favorited songs with a check (3) using the top bar. If you have lots of favorites then your songs will be shown in pages and to move from page to page use the bottom navigation bar (4).

SONG DRAWER (1) – The Song Drawer is show when clicking the Nuclear icon (2) on a song. The icon only appears when you hover your mouse over a song. You can access this area on any song in any section of the site. From this panel you can Favorite (3), Rocket (4), and Bomb (5) the selected song (see power-ups for Rocketing and Bombing). You can also see how may Rockets and Bombs you have.

POWER-UPS – Now to the all mighty power-ups. When you or someone rockets a song it jumps up to the top of the list, giving that song a better chance of being in the top 3. When you or someone bombs a song it is removed from the list and sent to the bottom with a rating of 0. It is very bad Jelli etiquette to bomb a song that someone else has rocketed. You have a number next to your rockets (1) and bombs (2) at the top of each page, this represents the number of each that you have. If you run out don’t worry, you get more each day. You also get more if a song you rocketed gets a full rocks rating when played, so don’t be shy to rocket, it may pay off. You are allowed to stockpile up to 11 rockets and 5 bombs.

Make Your Profile More Personal

You can change your picture to anything you want like on other sites. Just click on your username at the top of any page to get to your profile then click upload picture. Browse your computer for a good picture then upload it. Remember that this is a public site and anyone can see it so keep it appropriate.

While you are on your profile you can add a little message describing yourself and link to your website. You can also see your favorites here and if you look a little further down the page you can see your messages.

Change your Username and Password

If you don’t like your username or T_Bone isn’t saying your name right then you can change it. At the bottom of your profile click Edit Settings. This will bring you to a page that will allow you to edit your username, password, email, and Facebook connection.

Thats about it… If you want to know more then see Jelli’s FAQ page.

I am always in Jelli green so if you see Syntax_Error_Geek in the chat it’s me.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention how to change stations. This is simple at the top of every page on the left you have the navigation bar. Clicking home will take you to the station page (if you are on another page). Clicking Tuner will take you to the station list page, from here you can select another station. You can also select another station by clicking Change Station, this is in the Now Playing box to the top right of the chat. This will bring up a popup list for quick changing.

I could have put together a bunch of parts from old broken down systems that I have sitting in the basement to make a cheap tower server that would be loud and take up a bunch of space. But that was just the problem. I don’t have much space for it and my parents would complain about the noise, trust me I have tried. Then there would be the issue of network wires to get to the server.

I remembered that I had a old laptop that nobody would use. In fact it was so old it wouldn’t be the effort to sell. Just clean it up with a new OS and install some software, it was perfect.

Now it is small, it is quiet, it has WiFi and built in battery backup. I can store this thing almost anywhere. Under or behind a couch, under a bed, behind the TV, strapped to the underside of a table behind your current computer. The options go on and on.

My Setup

• Old acer laptop that took 5 minutes to load Windows
• External 320 GB HDD
• xubuntu
• wine
• utorrent (with web gui enabled)
• PS3 media server (because I have a PS3 connected to my TV)
• SSH

I hid mine behind the couch and also decided to put the rest of the network gear there so I can free up some space on my desk.

My hidden network

With the couch pulled out you can see my network. On the left is the laptop server with the external drive in front then the wireless router, modem, and power bar. I decided to wire the laptop up direct with the router since it was right there, this way I don’t have any loss in performance because I am going to be using it for media. Also because this laptop gets hot fast I tilted it against the wall so more air can get to the vents in the bottom. I am considering removing the bottom cover for even more coolness.

I can easily log into the torrent web gui to add movies, it will automatically download and add them to the media directory. And if I am having any problems I don’t need to pull the couch out to fix it. I can just use Putty and login to the server via SSH.

UPDATE – Feb 6 [7:53 AM]

I just wanted to add in here that my media server failed. I ran into a lot of software problems and just decided to can the whole thing, plus the laptop was really slow and took some time to turn on. The idea of a laptop server is still a very good one, its just that I’m not very good with Linux yet. Maybe in the future if I have a better laptop and the proper software I will attempt this project again.

For now I just formated that external hard drive to Fat32, made the correct folders, copied my movies, and plugged it in directly to the Playstation (details). At least this way I don’t need to worry about network lag while watching a movie, and I can also have my photos and music on it too. Only downside is I need to connect my laptop to the hard drive any time I want to add a new movie, but at least its only a 30 second transfer and I can watch it in full HD.

Jazmin Latter

This months local talent is none other then Jazmin Latter. I found her on Facebook when a friend was tagged in an album, I looked through it and found some amazing photographs.

I asked Jazmin some questions through Facebook so you can get to know her more.

Ben: Have you lived in Oshawa your whole life? Where did you live before?
Jazmin: I was born in London Ontario and have lived in ontario my whole life, but i have been living in oshawa since about 3rd grade or so.

Ben: Is photography a major hobby of yours or is it in the background compared to something else (sports, dance, chess…)?
Jazmin: I wouldnt say that it is a major hobby of mine, simply because my personal camera isnt great and its way expensive, but i do love photography as an art form and i appreciate it a lot, when not a lot of people acknowledge photography as a true art form. It isnt in the background though, more like in the middle next to collecting monkey stuff, which is sad lol but its working its way up there, my dad is a photographer so i guess it runs in the family.

Ben: What do you do in your spare time?
Jazmin: In my spare time i like to do anything remotely artistic, mostly painting, but i do have this new affinity for sculpture

Ben: What career are you currently pursuing?
Jazmin: I am actually applying to colleges and university right now to major in animation for tv, movies and video games, another personal affinity! i absolutely love video games, and i have always wanted to work on one so i thought this would be the perfect line of work for me. Also, i am absolutely enthralled by the new technology coming out for both games and movies (like Avatar and MGS4, etc..) and i would love to get my hands on Motion Capture some time in my life.

You can follow Jazmin on DeviantArt and on Twitter.

Below are some of her photos. You can see all of her work, including her art and sculptures, on her DeviantArt profile.

View More Local Talent.

My new year resolution is to lose about 100lbs of fat to get into that healthy BMI area and also before I join the navy.

If you need a countdown clock for your new year party I made one for you. Just go to this page and put your browser in full screen (pressing F11 or view->fullscreen). You can adjust the font size using the dark menu in the top left corner.

OK I’m off to the party.

Me Holding The Torch

Sorry for the big delay in getting this here.

I went down to the GM Center for the Olympic Torch Relay on Dec 16th. I took lots of pics and vid so here it is.

Before I show you I want to let you know that you can follow everything to do with the Olympic games on twitter. Just follow the list @agnivohneb/the-olympics-2010. If you know any other officials or partners on twitter then tweet me @agnivohneb and I will try to add them.

Click Through to see video and photos.

Here is the photo album or view it on Facebook.

Here is the video of the torch arriving.

Here is another video of the coke team playing the drums.

The great thing about this list verses all of the other 2009 top lists is everything on this list is free. I like free and a lot of other people do too.

This year I have been concerned about keeping things as simple as possible. What most people don’t realize is that when you keep your computer as simple as possible then it runs a lot faster, something my father still hasn’t figured out. Keeping it simple will not only improve computer performance but also is simpler to use and that could make your performance faster also. What I mean about keeping it simple is, if you know that you don’t need it then don’t install it. Or if you need a program but know that half of the features that are included in that program will never be used then try to find a simpler alternative, a program that you know has only the features that you need. I will talk more about keeping it simple throughout this post and many other top 2009 lists.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is the fastest, securest, and simplest browser that I know. The reason that this browser blows the others out of the water is that it is very minimal. Internet Explorer is just a slow insecure browser but Firefox gets slow and has problems when you install extensions. Chrome looks a lot different then IE or FF but the speed and security of having  simple, minimal and basic browser is worth getting used to a little bit of change.

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org is not just the name of the website but also the name of the program. This program is not simple compared to its expensive competitor Microsoft Office (newer versions) but this program is free and works with a large array of file formates. OpenOffice.org is a free open-source office suite that includes program to write documents, manage spreadsheets, create presentations, organize databases, and even a drawing application.

VLC Player

VLC Media Player is an all in one media player. This very small program is a very powerful player that is still simple to use. This little program can read almost any audio and video file standard available. No need to mess around with codecs and different software for different media types, this program will do it all. Talk about simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials is the most basic antivirus program there is. It is quick and doesn’t slow down your system when it loads, gets updates or scans. It is lacking in some features that a computer expert would prefer to have access to but being basic is perfect for the average joe looking to get some easy to understand security. And I don’t mind that some features are not there, I would never use them anyway.

I could go on with all of my favorite programs but these are my top favorite. I might continue later on in the new year with some more that I like.

Bare Feild

This is a very bare field about 200 m south of purple woods.

Click the image to download.

Puff

Just had to take a photo of this puffy plant. Not sure what its called.

Click the image to download.

Thanks @frankferragine for telling me “it’s the seed pods of milkweed!!“

Back Off

Got this nice picture of this baby tree.

Click image to download