Slacker Radio Redesigns Its Look to Entice the Pandora-Weary

Welcome to the Slacker's Cafe. To day we talking about Slacker Radio is Internet radio by people not drones. That's the pitch anyway. It's got some 250 DJ curated stations plus a slew of specialty and genre channels. The idea is that regardless the on-demand offerings of services like Spotify and Rdio, users don't really want to think too hard about listening to music most of the time. They want radio—and radio in the truest sense, which means you put on a station you like and let a DJ who knows what they're doing take care of the rest. Slacker thinks it can deliver a satisfying experience where all you need to do is press play.

Pandora is the leader in streaming music mostly because it got there first. But use it for a while, and you realize the service's catalog—not to mention its features—are limited. On paper, Slacker Radio is superior, and today, the five-year-old service is launching an overhaul aimed at proving it's superior.

In large measure, the site's overhaul is cosmetic. The old outdated look, has been replaced by a fresher design in blue and grey. The navigations of the apps and web interface is intuitive and easy. There are also some new additions including a "Fine Tune" feature that allows you to skew what you're hearing using sliders and some instantly intuitive tag-cloud logic.

As with Pandora, you can favorite songs, create stations based on certain artists. There's a free, ad-supported radio membership that allows you six skips an hour as well as a $4 per month plan that lets you cache your radio for offline play, and does away with the ads. As with Spotify, there's an on-demand music plan so that you can listen to whatever you want for $10 a month. Where's Pandora's on-demand option, anyway?
I've been using the new Slacker for about a week now, and so far, it's the best internet radio experience I've tried. Specialty stations like "Dive Bar Jukebox" that mix up contemporary indie, with soul classics and 80s new wave are just way more fun than anything Pandora, Spotify, or anyone else has to offer. But we'll see how it holds up after some long-term use. More importantly, we'll see whether it's enough to sway people from the comfortable experiences they've already got.

Source : http://gizmodo.com/5983907/slacker-radio-redesigns-its-look-to-entice-the-pandora-weary-masses

Romeltea Media

The Slackers' Cafe Updated at: 08.34

University - Can You Really Be Arsed ?

From the early 1990s on Higher Education in the UK has steadily become less of an attractive proposition. The Tories converted a whole swathe of substandard Polytechnics into Universities simply by substituting one word for the other, and introduced students loans to replace maintenance grants. Everyone's favourite war criminal, Tony Blair, increased the number of Uni places available to the point where it seemed that anyone not actually dead could go, and at a stroke devalued the whole HE system.

Since then things have got progressively worse resulting in the current scenario where Universities are free to charge whatever they like by the way of tuition fees - to be paid directly by the students themselves, naturally.

University - Can You Really Be Arsed ?

Given that Higher Education is now little more than a business - a sausage factory churning out graduates in all kinds of useless disciplines at huge expense to the students themselves - there seems little point in playing this particular game. Unless you plan never to get a job paying a level of wages that would trigger off the repayments then three years of (admittedly enjoyable) hedonism suddenly looks an expensive way to stay out of the job market for a while.

So, if you're opting out of this scam of all scams and really feel that you need something to hang on your toilet wall then, at no expense whatsoever, The Slackers' Cafe can offer you this fine certificate of non-achievement, completely free of charge!

Simply cross out the irrelevant bits and write in your own details as required. Granted, it's completely worthless and probably not worth the paper it's printed on, but then so is a degree in Leisure Management from some 3rd division Polyversity. Agen Poker

Source : http://theslackerscafe.blogspot.com/2015/10/university-can-you-really-be-arsed.html 

Romeltea Media

The Slackers' Cafe Updated at: 02.30

Interview with the Slacker #1

The first in another occasional series... this time it's interviews with other folks who have eschewed the rat race in favour of a life of tea drinking and talking bollocks. First up, it's Tim. Say hello, Tim...

Tim: Hi, I'm Tim. I'm one of four members of The Band With No Name, along with Slacker here.

S: So what do you avoid doing for a living then?

Tim: I'm currently a supply teacher. I got made redundant a couple of years ago when my old school converted to academy status, and all the staff's employment rights co-incidentally got thrown out of the window. I don't suppose being the Union rep helped my case any... I currently work in a complete shithole of a school whose catchment area is the sink estate from hell. Not the greatest prospect, I know, but then expectations are conveniently low. I gave up on any notion of actially teaching a long time ago - what I do now begins and ends with crowd control.

S: Sounds fucking awful. 

Tim: It is. Things are set to get even worse though, as it's now possible to get a job teaching in a school with no qualifications. So nowadays the latest fad is to get anyone who isn't actually dead and call them a Cover Supervisor, paying them about half what a qualified supply teacher would cost. So pretty soon I won't have any work at all.

S: Any idea what you're gonna do next?

Tim: The school system is pretty much finished for me. I'm going to keep doing the supply stuff as long as I can stand it and look for something working outside. I do some volunteering with the RSPB at a local reserve, conservation stuff and I'm thinking of re-training to get into that sort of work.

S: Sounds good... hard work though?

Tim: Well, yeah but if it's something you enjoy... I can only stand teaching because of the holidays, I've long since stopped seeing them as a great bonus or anything.

S: Do you have any strategies to share for getting through the stress of having a shitty job like that?

Tim: The biggest one for me is the band! (laughs) It means a lot to be able to hang out with a group of like-minded people and make a sound that's exactly how we want it to be. It's the idea of having something that's completely under our control, you know? There's no-one to censor it, we can do whatever we like. Agen poker

S: I know what you mean. I even think it would be a compromise to release recordings or play gigs, because that would be an acknowledgement that the sounds we create are for the benefit of someone other than us.

Tim: You just don't want to lug the equipment about! (laughs)

S: Busted. Anyway... for the benefit of anyone thinking of doing supply work, how do you manage to cover the bills when you may not have regular work?

Tim: Well, you either need an understanding landlord - and good luck finding one of those - or you need some sort of alternative accommodation. About 10 years ago, when I was a bit more flush than I am now, I bought a canal boat. It needed a fair bit of interior work, and 10 years on it's nearly done. So now I just have mooring fees, bottled gas and food to pay for. Boat dwellers are generally liable for Council Tax, but if they don't know where you are...

If I don't get any work for a couple of weeks or so I sign on. There's no problem with short periods of unemployment like this, as you're not on the dole long enough for them to hassle you, and when the money eventually arrives it's a handy bonus. They make it as hard as possible, naturally, but once you've done it a couple of times you'll know the procedure better than the drones themselves!

S: Any thoughts for the future?

Tim: It's a tricky one that, I try not to think about it too much as today is what's important. Today is the only day we're sure we going to have. At the same time I know a lot of people in my situation (i.e. without a decent pension) may face an uncertain future. That said... if I do have to work on into my dotage, at least if I'm doing something I enjoy then it could be worse. A full-on teaching career would probably see me dead long before retiring age anyway!

 

Source : http://theslackerscafe.blogspot.com/2015/10/interview-with-slacker-1.html

Romeltea Media

The Slackers' Cafe Updated at: 16.37

1% for the Shirkers, but 32% for us MPs please...

Hot on the heels of the condemnation of the unemployed to a three-year reduction in their benefits comes the frankly unbefuckinglievable news that a YouGov poll of MPs has shown that these self-serving bastards believe that they should receive not only a 32% pay rise, but also keep their final salary pension scheme untouched.

Conservatives were the most likely to believe they were underpaid, with 47 per cent saying that was the case. Some 39 per cent of Labour members and nine per cent of Lib Dems held the same view.

On average, Tories said their salary should be £96,740, while Lib Dems thought the right amount was £78,361 and Labour £77,322. Other parties put the figure at £75,091.

If you were ever in doubt that all scumbag politicians were exactly the same once you look beyond the colour of their tie, then this should nail that lie once and for all. A flamethrower is too good for these vermin.

Romeltea Media

The Slackers' Cafe Updated at: 16.27