Lee Nau

I am a big fan of Delicious and have been using it for about 7 years. Delicious was acquired by Yahoo a number of years ago and, in December, Yahoo decided to sunset the site. An outcry went out on the internet while the users scrambled to find a new home for their shared bookmarks.

I have almost ten thousand links in my delicious account. I was overjoyed to hear recently that the cofounders of YouTube had bought Delicious from Yahoo in April. Until yesterday, when I’d send my links to delicious, I would still see the Yahoo user interface. Last evening, my account switched over to the new AVOS delicious look and feel.

I’ve since bookmarked a few dozen links, mainly via Pukka, and wanted to make the following notes.

1. The new look is clean and really easy to use. Unfortunately, it doesn’t yet seem to have an option for viewing more than 10 links per page or getting a smaller view.
2. If I select a tag, I get the first 10 links, but can’t page back to see earlier items with that tag. I read a lot of RSS feeds that deal with lifehacks. The page back functionality is really important and I hope it reappears soon.
3. The old delicious would show me a complete list of the tags I’ve used. This version shows 50 of them in a sidebar without the option to see all. Again, this functionality is pretty important and I hope it makes its way back.
4. When tagging something via Pukka, whether I’m separating tags with commas or spaces, multiple tags get consolidated on the delicious website. In order to fix the tags, I have to come in afterward and manually edit the bookmark on the site. Until this is fixed, it’s clunky to use multiple tags on the same item, unless you’re using the bookmarklet.
5. I’m not sure how the new Stacks are better than narrowing lists of links through tag filtering (i.e.: awesome+useful+resources). I’ll probably use stacks as a “Best of My Delicious” feature.

Since I mostly use NetNewsWire to read RSS feeds and Pukka to post links to my delicious account, this multiple tag issue is pretty important to me. I also like to go through long lists, which sometimes involves scrolling through pages and pages of saved links in the same manner of going through the used bin at a record store. You never know what you’ll find in those stacks.

I’m really excited about a new Delicious. They’ve put a lot of work into saving this incredible service and reconstructing the old codebase into something that will attract an entirely new audience. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds, particularly as I approach my 10000th link. I just hope some of the five things above get addressed, or at least answered.

Thanks, Chad and Steve, for saving one of my favorite web sites.

I wrote 192 reviews on 50 Words in 2009. Of these, only 30 were reviews of things I saw, read, or listened to before 2009.

I’ll recap the year with four top ten lists, one bottom ten list, and a Nominee Project status. The books, TV series, and music I reviewed were all decent.

The Best Movies

1. Once (2006) – Grade: A+
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) – Grade: A+
3. Milk (2008) – Grade: A+
4. No Country for Old Men (2007) – Grade: A+
5. The Double Life of Veronique (1991) – Grade: A+
6. The Dark Knight (2008) – Grade: A+
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) – Grade: A+
8. The Spanish Apartment (2002) – Grade: A
9. Before Sunrise (1995) – Grade: A
10. Juno (2007) – Grade: A

The Best Music

1. India.Arie — Acoustic Soul (2001) – Grade: A+
2. Sonny Stitt — The Good Life (1980) – Grade: A
3. Norah Jones — Come Away With Me (2002) – Grade: A
4. Dizzy Gillespie — Dizzy Gillespie Jam: Montreux ’77 (1992) – Grade: A
5. DJ Sake1 — Fania Live 03 (2008) – Grade: A
6. Antonio Carlos Jobim — Live at Minas (2004) – Grade: A
7. Norah Jones — Feels Like Home (2004) – Grade: A
8. Take 6 — The Standard (2008) – Grade: A
9. Andy Caldwell — Late Night with Andy Caldwell (2005) – Grade: A
10. Aya — Strange Flower (2004) – Grade: A-

The Best Books

1. Daniel Coyle — The Talent Code (2009) – Grade: A+
2. Twyla Tharp — The Creative Habit (2005) – Grade: A+
3. Richard Bode — First You Have to Row a Little Boat (1993) – Grade: A+
4. Cormac McCarthy — The Road (2006) – Grade: A
5. Steven Pressfield — The War of Art (2003) – Grade: A
6. Pavel Tsatsouline — Enter the Kettlebell (2006) – Grade: A
7. Jim Johnson — The Sixty Second Motivator (2006) – Grade: A
8. Josh Waitzkin — The Art of Learning (2008) – Grade: A-
9. Karen Salmansohn — The Bounce Back Book (2008) – Grade: A-
10. Pavel Tsatsouline — Power to the People (1999) – Grade: A-

The Best TV on DVD

1. John Adams (2008) – Grade: A+
2. Carnivàle, Season 1 (2003) – Grade: A+
3. Roswell, Season 1 (1999) – Grade: A
4. Long Way Round (2004) – Grade: A
5. Roswell, Season 2 (2000) – Grade: A
6. Heroes, Season 1 (2006) – Grade: A
7. Californication, Season 1 (2007) – Grade: A
8. Long Way Down (2007) – Grade: A
9. Heroes, Season 2 (2007) – Grade: A
10. Roswell, Season 3 (2001) – Grade: A

The Worst Movies

1. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008) – Grade: F
2. Treasure Island (1999) – Grade: D-
3. A Delicate Balance (1973) – Grade: D-
4. A Boy and His Dog (1975) – Grade: D
5. Nowhere (1997) – Grade: D
6. Darkon (2006) – Grade: C-
7. Timeline (2003) – Grade: C-
8. True Stories (1986) – Grade: C-
9. 10 (1979) – Grade: C-
10. Pizza (2005) – Grade: C

Nominee Project Status

• Total films: 2512
• Viewed: 740 (29.46%)
• Unavailable: 312 (12.42%)
• Left to see: 1460 (58.12%)

Review Stats

• Movies: 138 (GPA: 3.21 – B+)
• Music: 24 (GPA: 3.65 – A-)
• Books: 13 (GPA: 3.77 – A-)
• TV: 17 (GPA: 3.76 – A-)

• Total: 192 (GPA: 3.35 – B+)

Between January 1 and August 1, I wrote 128 reviews on 50 Words. Most of them are things I’ve seen, listened to, or read for the first time. Here are the highlights:

The Best Movies

1. Once (2006) – Grade: A+
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) – Grade: A+
3. Milk (2008) – Grade: A+
4. No Country for Old Men (2007) – Grade: A+
5. The Dark Knight (2008) – Grade: A+
6. The Spanish Apartment (2002) – Grade: A
7. Before Sunrise (1995) – Grade: A
8. Juno (2007) – Grade: A
9. Cloverfield (2008) – Grade: A
10. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – Grade: A

The Best Music

1. India.Arie — Acoustic Soul (2001) – Grade: A+
2. Sonny Stitt — The Good Life (1980) – Grade: A
3. Norah Jones — Come Away With Me (2002) – Grade: A
4. Dizzy Gillespie — Dizzy Gillespie Jam: Montreux ’77 (1992) – Grade: A
5. DJ Sake1 — Fania Live 03 (2008) – Grade: A
6. Norah Jones — Feels Like Home (2004) – Grade: A
7. Take 6 — The Standard (2008) – Grade: A
8. Aya — Strange Flower (2004) – Grade: B+
9. DJ Rumor — Fania Live 01 (2007) – Grade: B+
10. John Tejada & Arian Leviste — The Dot and the Line (2004) – Grade: B+

The Worst Movies

1. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008) – Grade: F
2. Treasure Island (1999) – Grade: D-
3. A Delicate Balance (1973) – Grade: D-
4. A Boy and His Dog (1975) – Grade: D
5. Nowhere (1997) – Grade: D
6. 28 Up (1985) – Grade: C-
7. Darkon (2006) – Grade: C-
8. True Stories (1986) – Grade: C-
9. 10 (1979) – Grade: C-
10. Pizza (2005) – Grade: C