Wednesday, June 08, 2005

The brain in my iPod

My iPod is sentient. I know it.

Why? Because it has musical tastes.

This has become apparent while using the shuffle feature in the past week. Let me explain: I have a 30-gig iPod Photo with about 13 gigs of music loaded in -- roughly 3,750 songs (and still six inches of CDs [without cases] to rip). According to iTunes, there's currently enough music in my iPod to run continuously 24 hours a day for about 10 days without any duplication.

So why am I listening to the same 20 songs over and over?

My first thought was that the songs were being scored and weighted, causing some songs to be played more than others. But (a.) I have not rated any songs, and (b.) the songs it's playing over and over aren't even songs I really like.

I commute around 35-45 minutes to work each way, so roughly an hour and a half total. And during that time, I do hear plenty of songs that the iPod hasn't played before. But for the last three days, at some point in that hour and a half, I have heard the following songs:
  • Juliana Hatfield's cover of Weezer's "Say It Ain't So"
  • Billy Joel's "I Don't Know Why"
  • The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
  • the karaoke version of Alanis Morissette's "Ironic"
  • Rage Against the Machine's "Take the Power Back"
There are several other songs that have played at least twice during the last three days. Paul says the shuffle feature is far from perfect; I say the iPod is thinking. Next thing I know, it'll be plotting my demise or worse!, trying to convert me to a Mac. (Okay, guys, I'll front: I've had a soft spot in my heart for Macs ever since I my first programming class -- I learned BASIC on a university Mac when I was like eight. ::grins:: AND Macs are all I worked on for years as a reporter, a designer and an editor. But, still, they're inherently evil ... right?)

So, I'm left with these questions: Does anyone with an iPod SDK think you could, you know, fix this little problem for me? And in the meantime, should I even bother ripping the rest of the CDs if I'm sure I'll be listening to the same songs in a different order tomorrow?

2 Comments:

Blogger StargazerGirl said...

*clears throat, starts singing*

It's like ra-a-ain
On your wedding day
It's a free ride,
When you've already paid
It's the good advice,
That you just didn't take.
And isn't it ironic...

Don't you think?


I have no advice on your iPod issues (except that perhaps it's possessed?), but I really love that song...

10:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

macs arent evil, just different.

with the recent switch to x86 based processors, and a OS X version coming to them, i cant wait until its hacked, then i can dual boot win xp and osx, itll at least be interesting.

9:49 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home


Click here for more info on Kate.


"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot



    Happy Birthday, Carrie! (plus some other stuff)
    Musical chairs
    Puzzle Donkey
    Saturday night, and you're still hangin' around......
    Cravings -- AMENDED
    Several comments, two poems
    Quaking
    ROAD TRIP (Part 4) Epilogue
    ROAD TRIP (Part 3) Notes from the road 2
    ROAD TRIP (Part 2) Notes from the road 1