They’re both good, but Last.fm wins.  How can this be? Last.fm’s amazing powers are put on display after the break.

Last.fm can perform these amazing tricks:

Tag (and Multitag) radio.  If you want to listen to ‘piano’ music on Pandora, you have to select a song or artist that exemplifies ‘piano’, then vote up/down songs until Pandora figures out what you want.  On Last.fm, you can simply tell it to play a radio station made up of music that has the ‘piano’ tag.  Multitag stations are particularly powerful because you can further refine your selection, i.e. ‘piano’ and ‘happy’.

More variety.  After listening to similar radio stations on both Pandora and Last.fm for 8+ hours, I noticed a lot of repeated songs on Pandora, but no repeated songs on Last.fm.

Apps (and API).  Google’s vision of the future puts the browser at the center of the universe, so call me a luddite, but I still prefer desktop apps for a lot of things.  Last.fm has a spiffy Flash-based player, but there are also a lot of desktop apps that are more pleasant to use (more stable, nicer looking, etc).  Pandora, it appears, is an entirely closed system without a publicly available API.  While developers have still found ways to wrap the Pandora Flash widget in apps that add some features (like Growl notification), they leave a lot to be desired.

Monthly subscription.  Want to try Last.fm out for a month, no commitment?  Its easy to do.  Pandora, on the other hand, only offers their premium service in 1-year chunks.  It’s only $36, but I still prefer Last.fm’s bite-sized, 1 month for $3, offering.

Want to buy a blu-ray movie, but not interested in paying full price?  Search on CamelCamelCamel for what you want then subscribe to the associated “3rd party used price” RSS feed (look for the RSS icon: ).  You’ll get an RSS update each time the price changes.

The mess of cables behind your computer sure doesn’t look safe. And this probably won’t make it any safer, but it sure makes it easier to see what’s going on. It’s all about taking up the slack.

Ziploc freezer bags help keep your cables untangled and easy to sort through.  There’s even space for you to write the date when your cable goes bad, in case you are good at predicting that sort of thing.

If you’re tired of your keychain poking holes in your pockets you may want to consider investing in some protection.

In the ’80s all the cool executive-type people carried around small tape recorders for capturing ideas any time they had them. Today we can record notes in ’00s style and have them sent straight to our email. Turns out its pretty handy to be able to quickly taking notes anytime, anywhere. You know…until you can afford a personal assistant like the really cool ’80s execs.

Directions leading to note recording bliss:

1. buy Note2Self ($2)
2. sync your iPhone
3. launch Note2Self
4. click in the middle of the screen to bring up the settings button
5. click the settings button (upper left)
6. set both “From Address” and “Default To 1″ to your email address
7. set the “Audio Fromat” to “Smaller File (IMA4)”
8. set “Auto Record” to “Bring To Your Ear”
9. set “After Recording” to “Email Default 1″
10. click on “Done” (upper right)

Now each time you launch Note2Self, all you need to do is bring the phone to your ear and once you feel it vibrate, start talking. Bring the phone down away from your ear when you’re done recording…it will vibrate again to indicate that it’s done and then it will make a <em>wooshing</em> sound once it has successfully emailed your recording to you.  Pop open your email and listen to your note.  Cool huh?

WHAT IF you could subscribe to your favorite websites and automatically be sent any new articles they post instead of checking back a couple times a day or week to see if there is anything new? Wouldn’t that be great?  The future is now! Head over to Google Reader, sign up for an account, then click the ‘add subscription’ button.  Type in the URL of the website you want to subscribe to and if it supports subscriptions (aka RSS) you’ll be reading their articles in seconds. Try it on all sorts of sites: works with this blog, newspapers, interesting discussions in forums, and plenty of other webpages.

So you sold your used book on Amazon, you’re basking in the glow of your success, and then it dawns on you that the buyer is expecting you to send them the book. No worries, here’s how you do it: 1) print the packing slip from Amazon; 2) put the book in a padded envelope with the packing slip; 3) address the package to the buyer; 4) weigh the package; 5) look up the postage; 6) put the right postage on there; 7) write ‘media mail’ beneath the stamps on the package; 8) stop by your local post office and drop it off in person. Easy.

FAQ…or at least, PAQ—predicted to be asked questions:

Q: Why ship USPS rather than UPS or FedEx or DHL or courier pigeon?
A: USPS is usually cheaper for books (and other “media”) because they offer a special rate for them.

Q: Why do I have to write “media mail” underneath the stamps?
A: That’s how the post-office knows to charge the lower, “media mail” rate rather than the higher “first class mail” rate.

Q: What if the book gets lost in the mail?
A: Then you’ll have to refund your customers money. The vast majority of items arrive without any problems…I only consider buying insurance on shipments worth more than $20.

Q: What if someone fibs and says the item never arrived, but it really did?
A: Then you are out of luck. A high rating by your buyers dramatically improves the amount you earn and the speed with which your items sell, so its in your interest to refund their money and keep them happy no matter what you suspect. The vast majority of buyers are honest folks, this is so rarely an issue—it’s usually not worth protecting yourself with insurance on the package but you always have that choice if you want to pay in order to reduce your risk.

Q: Why buy the bulk package of envelopes linked to in this post?
A: Padded envelopes are typically 2-5x more expensive from Office Depot or your local postage supply store. Unless you only plan to sell a couple books, buying in bulk will save you a good amount of money.

Q: Why buy the big envelopes linked to in this post?
A: An envelope that is too small isn’t any use, but one that’s too big can be folder over and used. Buying in bulk, rather than buying small quantities of various sized envelopes saves you money.

Q: Why should I drop the package off in person? Why not just put it in a nearby mailbox?
A: The post office will return any package that weighs over 13 ounces unless it’s dropped off, in person, at the post office. Blame all those crazy people shipping bombs and poison through the mail.

They do look good on your bookshelf, but are you really ever going to read them again? You can free up space in your home, save the environment, and spread knowledge throughout the world by getting that book off your shelf into the hands of an eager reader. One of the easiest ways is through Amazon: do a search for your book, click on the ’sell yours here’ button, and you’re on your way. If you are feeling philanthropic you can sell your book for as little as $0.01 plus shipping. Or charge what it’s really worth and you’ll earn some dough for something new to read.  Works great for old games too.

It’s easy to run out of power outlets with all the must-have gadgets in our lives.  Some self-important power adapters sprawl over 2 or more outlets, luxuriating without a thought for the other devices. Huge, Dubai inspired, power strips are one way to find more space, but these plug extenders leverage your existing power strip to offer each of your diva adapters their own luxury suite.  Just don’t tell them that you only paid $9 for a pack of 3 (before tax+shipping), let them think you splurged.