I just created a website with auto-updating Google Buzz widgets to put on your website! Make sure you try it at

buzz-stats.com

Am I the only one experiencing loading problems in Google Reader after adding LOTS of new contacts in Buzz? Google Reader loads very slow or doesn’t load at all (only the top bar shows up). If there is anybody else with the same problem – I hope my solution will be a temporary help for you. Well, to be completely honest – there is no good way to avoid Reader slow downs. But at least, there is a way to see the elements of particular feeds/folders. I noticed that trying http://www.google.com/reader/view/?page=trends (in fact, any site on Google Reader without friend-shared items) works a lot faster (still takes about half a minute in my case).

Considered as “one of the loudest bands on earth”, Sunn O))) was invited to perform on the last day of Unsound Festival in Krakow. It was an uncommon experiance to attend such an event.

The crowd was provided with earplugs and it was certainly a good idea to wear them. The sound was so loud that we didn’t miss a single voice – even with our ears covered. The floor vibrated from low bass tones, one could feel it with his whole body. The slow, drone ambient music was very impressive live, making an unforgettable experiance.

Compared to a typical rock concert, the show was more like a theatre spectacle – the crowd stood still, contemplating the music. It lasted for about 75 minutes, and I doubt anyone could stand more – it was very exhausting.

I’m very glad that I decided to see it – it was a very uncommon evening.

A few months ago, I was a successfull participant of Google Highly Open Participation Contest, a challenge for students helping Open Source organisations, such as SilverStripe. This CMS, developed in New Zealand, was one of the most important tools I’ve been working with recently. I decided to improve the SilverStripe user experiance by creating a theme browser. You can check it out here.

I used WordPress with a special gallery themes and a few plugins borrowed from Smashing Mag – the effect seems satisfying for me. I’ll try to keep it up to date with the latest theme releases!

If you’re interested in IT news and my new projects, follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/wojtekszkutnik

I would like to present one of my recent projects: OMR (http://omr.musiqum.net). It is meant to analyse last.fm users’ profiles, and calculate the diversity of one’s music using our database.

Athough there is still a lot to improve, OMR gathered over 45,000 users, our database gathered information on almost 800,000 bands and 300,000 tags. For more information visit the OMR last.fm site.