So, I’ve long suspected iTunes of being not truly random when put into any kind of shuffle especially Party Shuffle mode. This morning, though, something happened that I can’t believe.
To preface this, here’s a screen shot of the details of my iTunes library:
So, you can see with almost 30,000 songs and 87 days worth of music that chances of two even remotely related songs coming up next to each other should be relatively slim.
But, check this out shot from my iTunes Party Shuffle window:
The same song played twice in a row! Now granted, it’s a great song that should be played multiple times, but still. I guess the odds of the same song playing twice are about 1 in 29,029 (the same as any specific song playing right after the first Karen), but still very surprising.
In iTunes preferences under the Playback tab, there is an option for “Smart Shuffling” that supposedly reduces the chances of songs from the same artist or from the same album being played sequentially. I have that setting all the way to “less likely” but not only did we get the same album and the same artist, but the same song too.
The fact that I’ve just written this much about the occasion probably means that I spend a little too much time obsessing about my music collection (or maybe that I Party Shuffle a little too often).
Music, Tech
After 561.88 miles of running spread across 151 separate runs, the sensor in my Nike + iPod Sports Kit has bitten the dust. It gave me a warning before beginning my last run.
It didn’t say “I’m dead, don’t use me.” It just said, the sensor’s battery was very low and replace it soon.
Well, I didn’t replace it soon enough, because it didn’t even make it through that run. Is there any worse feeling of futility as finishing a good run and finding out that it will not become part of your Nike+ running log?
If it weren’t for the nagging pain behind my right kneecap, it would be like the run never happened.
Spring can’t get here soon enough; I hate the treadmill life.
Personal, Tech
I just can’t excited about the Amazon Kindle.
My gadget addiction really wants to, but I can’t convince myself. I think that the reason is the idea of buying a book and not getting . . . an actual book.
I was able to make the jump a lot easier when it came to music. For me, the “physical aspect” of music has been shrinking my entire life. I grew up in the vinyl age which is just about when music packaging peaked. From there it shrunk down to cassettes and finally CDs. Now 80% of the music that I buy is digitally and it doesn’t bother me at all. It somehow seems like a natural progression (unless you want to talk about music fidelity, but that’s a whole other conversation).
Unfortunately, I just mentally can’t get to that place with books. I’m not ready to give up the physical thing to throw in my backpack, to put on a bookshelf when I’m finished.
I’d be far more likely to already own a Kindle if Amazon offered something like “Buy the book, get the Kindle version for a $1.00″ or something like that.
Another difference is that with music is that I can create the physical CD if I ever need to. The same can’t be said for books. It’s not like the Kindle has a Print or even better Print & Bind button.
Of course the one thing that the Kindle can offer that buying books at Amazon can’t is the instant gratification factor. Those “get the book in less than a minute” tags when browsing books are might effective. For now though, at least there is Schulers when I need it now.
Tech
Career Cruising has purchased the Futures For Kids platform. Here’s the full release. Rock on!
Career Cruising