In Greek mythology, Pandora was name of the first mortal woman. Entrusted with a mysterious box, she was commanded not to open it. Unbeknownst to her, it contained all of the ills that could plague mankind. Being a mortal, her curiosity got the best of her and she opened the box, inadvertently releasing all the evils contained inside.

I’m going to assume that Pandora named their company after the literal meaning of the Greek word, which is “All gifts”. That makes at least some sense to me. The mythology thing? Not so much.

For the life of me, I’m unable to come up with a definitive origin for the word SONOS. What’s probably a completely inaccurate origin is an obscure Frank Zappa reference that I found relating to Sardinian music. What’s more likely is that it’s an informal reference to, or a take-off of the word sonogram. That’s at least a reference to sound waves of some sort. Even without a well-known meaning, it’s still a cool name. As I mentioned before, it’s not only a palindrome, but it reads the same upside-down as rightside-up.

The reason I’m writing about this is because the two companies with the above mentioned names have produced something cool and new. I was able to review this with an preview of their new software update. Soon SONOS will roll out the updated software (V2.2 for those to whom it matters) to everyone. The update includes native support for music from Pandora.

To be honest, I’ve ignored the hype about Pandora up until now. That’s not to say that it’s been ignored by everyone; to date they have 6.5 million registered users. They must be be onto something.

Upon receiving the new software update to my SONOS system, I noticed a new option under Music Services for Pandora. Pandora when used through SONOS is not a free service but they offer a free 30-day trial. Should you wish to continue using Pandora past the end of the trial period, it costs a very reasonable $36/year.

What is Pandora exactly? It’s a music service that’s based on their own research known as The Music Genome Project. Follow the link for a more detailed description, but to sum up their research: they analyzed music and defined what qualities about songs people liked and then classified all music by these classifications. So in theory, if you said that you liked the song Straight Up by Paula Abdul, they should be able to suggest other songs with similar qualities that in theory you would also like.

To use Pandora, you create a channel (you can have up to 100) by entering the name of a favorite song or artist. Based on that information they will create a custom playlist and play a continuing stream of music that you should like based on the song or artist you entered for that channel.

In practice, it seems to work about 70% of the time (meaning that 30% a song is played that I don’t like). Up until now, you’ve only been able to use Pandora via their website; meaning that you have to be within earshot of your computer. Their web-based interface is like a simplified version of TiVo’s thumbs-up and thumbs-down system. For each song that is played, you have the option of rating it with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or not rating it at all. I haven’t been able to find technical details of their technology, but I assume that somewhere there is a heuristics engine that uses your rating information in conjunction with other users’ information to determine patterns in peoples musical likes and dislikes. This is the information used to generate your stream of music.

When using Pandora through SONOS, channels are created via an onscreen keyboard (as well as displaying the channels you’ve created via the web). The onscreen keyboard is utilized by highlighting to desired letter with the scroll wheel. It’s not an optimal input system, but it works. The easiest solution is the create channels via Pandora.com or through the SONOS controller software. After a channel has been created, you’re ready to listen to music using it. Instead of the thumbs-up and thumbs-down rating metaphors that are used on Pandora.com, from the SONOS controller you use the options I like this song and I don’t like this song.

The sound quality is not great, but more than adequate for whole-house audio. To my ears, it’s on par with an MP3 encoded at 96 or 128 Kbps.

To sum up, this added capability is a cool addition to the SONOS system. One of the things that’s great about SONOS is their continued support of the platform through software updates. It certainly makes the system even more usable than before.

Today it’s been exactly 7 years from the day I bought our first TiVo. It’s amazing (and sad) to me that there is still no better DVR interface. Windows Media Center comes closest.

Guy Kawasaki posted an interview with author Penelope Trunk the other day. My favorite question and answer is #12:

Question: What should I do if I work for a jerk?

Answer: Leave. I know there are classic Bob Sutton examples of revered jerks like Steve Jobs, but I wonder about the people who put up with him. Can they not find another visionary to work for who is not such a jerk?

Staying in a job like this makes you look bad. People wonder why you put up with it. And, frankly, you should too. It’s like being an abused wife. The wife who stays always defends the relationship by how much she gets out of it, but to everyone else it is obvious that she should leave. The problem is a loss of personal perspective.

People who don’t quit those jobs sound like some people that I know.

Today is my sister-in-law’s birthday. I’ve know her since she was 8 and now that it’s 20 years later, she may finally be moving out of that stage where she feels the need to bite everything (the cat) and everyone (me).

Happy birthday to the biter!