Organization

My music library is organized by folders in the format Music/Artist/Album. Pretty simple.  Filenames are in the format <track> – <title>.mp3.

For multiple-disc albums, I still only have one folder for the whole album, and then the files are named <disc>.<track> – <title>.mp3.  This makes more sense (to me, anyway) than having separate folders for each disc – it’s all the same album, anyway.

I still don’t have any good way to take care of Various Artists albums, though.

There’s also a Music/Soundtracks folder, which contains a folder for each soundtrack I own.  This seems like a more logical way to organize these than by artist.

Tools

For collection of music, I use either Exact Audio Copy or Amazon MP3. Exact Audio Copy rips CDs with the highest accuracy possible.  I usually rip to 256 or 320kbps MP3s.  Amazon MP3 is great because it provides 256kbps MP3s with no DRM (both advantages over iTunes).  Even better, it’s not too expensive and you’re still supporting the artists.

Once I’ve obtained MP3s via any avenue (except Amazon MP3), I run the album through MusicBrainz Picard to ensure that all the ID3 tags are accurate.  Sometimes, though, I need to resort to fixing parts of tags manually.  (I don’t do this with Amazon MP3s because files from that service are already accurately tagged.)

I use ID3-TagIT to fix tags (especially adding the disc numbers to multi-disc albums) and rename files.  This program can rename files based on the ID3 tags, making renaming a bunch of music files super-easy. It can also organize files into a folder structure (like the one I described above) automatically based on the ID3 tags – great for taming an out-of-control music library.  This is a really great, powerful program, and I’m sad to see that it’s no longer being maintained…I’ll have to find a replacement eventually, I guess.  For now, though, it looks like it’s still available.

Before adding the files to my music player, one more step: I run them through mp3val to make sure there are no issues with the files which could cause skipping, etc. This isn’t usually necessary with files from Exact Audio Copy or Amazon MP3, but it can’t hurt, and it’s invaluable for files from any other source. (mp3val is a command-line program, but there’s a graphical interface available for Windows at the Web site.)

Finally, you can add the files to your media player of choice. For iTunes, I use the free version of iTunes Folder Watch.

A Note

I know this looks like it would take a long time, but once you get the hang of it, it really only adds a minute or two to the process of importing each album – a small price to pay for a well-organized and maintained music library.

The class now has many new features and more robust code with an improved interface.  It should be logical and easy to use.

By now, I’ve reached v2 alpha 2.5, and I think it’s sufficiently ready for users to begin implementing and testing in their applications.  See the project page for docs, downloads, etc.

• Christmas Bomber: Where Airport Security Worked
• Post-Underwear-Bomber Airport Security
• Matt Blaze on the New “Unpredictable” TSA Screening Measures

I also highly recommend that you follow his blog.  He’s a respected security guru, he knows what he’s talking about, and it’s usually very interesting to read his stuff.

You can find the updated information and instructions for accessing and using the calendar on the calendar’s page, here: University of Michigan Academic Google Calendar.

• I’d like to be able to back up files greater than 4GB.  This would be especially useful for people (like me) who work with large video files and would like to back them up somehow.  I’d also be interested in knowing the reason for this restriction.
• I’d like to be able to back up all types of files on my computer.  For example, if I master an ISO file of a DVD, I can’t back it up even if it’s under the 4GB limit.  Again, I’d also like to know why I can’t do this.
• The interface of your software could be improved.  A few points in particular are listed below:
  • The “How long will my first backup take?” link should change to “How long will this backup take?” after the first backup has completed.  (Mine completed a long time ago, yet I still see this text.)  Additionally, the Web page which the link points to seems to think I’m still on my free trial.  (I’m not.)
  • In fact, why can’t you display an estimated time right in the application?  That would be best.
  • The “What is being backed up?” link should have an option where I can view lists of files which are being backed up, or more importantly, exactly which files aren’t being backed up.  Right now, the link is essentially pointless.  Telling me my files over 4GB aren’t backed up is useless.  Give me a list of files which I need to backup manually!  (My ISOs, files over 4GB, and anything else excluded from backup.)
  • Hidden options like Alt-clicking “Pause Backup” are too well-hidden.  There should also be buttons for these functions somewhere, perhaps in an “Advanced” tab under Settings.
  • Links in the interface should give some indication (like a little hand mouse pointer) that they’re clickable.  Just as you can’t expect your users to Alt-click on everything to see what it does, you can’t expect them to guess at what is and is not clickable.

I think these changes would make Backblaze’s service much better and much nicer to use.  I hope they implement at least some of these in the future.

• The  “Service Engine Soon” light (which is telling me about a minor transmission problem) hasn’t been lighted in a while.
• I haven’t had to add oil for about two months.  This is hugely unusual; over the summer I needed to add maybe a quart every month.
• My engine doesn’t overheat.  In the summer, it runs a little hot.
• My car’s A/C is broken, but the heat works just fine

Of course, there are some downsides:

• The ABS on the car died over the summer, making winter driving more interesting.
• I have to scrape ice off the windows every day.
• My fuel mileage drop sin the winter from about 25-26 mpg to around 22.

All things considered, I still like the summer better.

I just saw Avatar last night, and I wanted to share some thoughts with the world.

The short version: If you haven’t seen it yet, you should.  Just be ready for a little willing suspension of disbelief.

Note: there are some spoilers in this post. Watch the movie first.

Visually, it was stunning.  I don’t know exactly how the 3D tech worked, but it worked very well.  It was very convincing and stunning, but it wasn’t overused or overemphasized, either.  The world the artists created seemed entirely realistic, the lighting and coloring was beautiful, and all the effects were very well done.  While you’re watching, you won’t even notice what’s CGI and what isn’t; the colors, textures, and especially the lighting and other environmental factors are perfectly blended together into an entirely convincing picture.

(While I’m on the subject, I’d like to point out that the movie must have taken an extraordinary amount of computational power to render, even by today’s movie-rendering standards.  The sheer amount of power they had to have used for that is, in itself, amazing.)

I’m glad the movie ended happily for (most of) our protagonists.  I was worried about that right up until the conclusion.  I wish Trudy (the pilot who helps Jake & crew escape) had fared better, though.

I do, however, have some minor issues with the movie.  I’m entirely in favor of willing suspension of disbelief during a movie, but I still notice glaring logical/physical errors which would be problems even in the movie’s fictional setting.

You’ll note that the laws of physics changed between 2009 and 2154 (the year the movie takes place).  I’ll note just two of the physical problems that I remember (there were many, many more which I can’t remember offhand):

• Birds flying a few feet above a giant, spinning, helicopter-blade type thing will get sucked in, no question about it.  This was not the case in one of the first scenes in the movie.
• For an atmosphere where there’s supposedly very little oxygen, there were some pretty big fires and fireballs.  Fireballs need a pretty decent amount of oxygen to happen.

There were a few other issues which took away from the believability of the plot.

• At the end of the movie, when Jake is fighting the Colonel at the end of the battle, the Colonel made a major tactical error by chasing Jake around rather than just heading straight for the trailer.  Had he ignored Jake for just a little bit and begun attacking the trailer, he would have forced Jake into a defensive position rather than letting him take an offensive position and effectively control the battle.  A colonel with his experience would not have made that decision (he makes an intelligent choice in a similar situation earlier), and he could have won by choosing “correctly.”  Obviously, he had to lose the fight to move the story in the right direction, but perhaps Jake could have won it differently.
• According to the speech at the beginning of the movie, you’d lose consciousness after being exposed to the atmosphere for 20 seconds.  I didn’t time exactly, but there were several instances where I think people managed to be outside for significantly longer than 20 seconds.

Though the visuals were for the most part great, I did have a few problems, particularly with the first few scenes.  The shots in a white/gray spaceship, where everything was very evenly lit and there was plenty of depth of field (that is, everything was in focus), were very confusing pictures.  Your eye looks for visual cues when it’s deciding what to pay attention to.  These cues are things like brightness/darkness (contrast), color (or lack thereof), and selective focus (your eyes go to whatever’s in sharp focus).  Some shots at the beginning of the movie removed all these visual cues, and as a result viewers’ eyes and brains get very confused, especially when they’re exploring a 3D space instead of a 2D picture.  I spent the first 5 or 10 minutes of the movie just being confused simply because all my brain was devoted to looking at everything in a big, 3D space in detail and processing it to try and find out what was important.

All in all, these small issues don’t detract much from the film; it’s a good story, and the visuals are stunning. Go watch it.

Oh, and one more thing: Papyrus? Really?

Overall, it works pretty well.  There are several issues, though, which are quite annoying and which make me question the entire “Apple stuff just works” paradigm.

iTunes – no useful log of sync issues

iTunes will helpfully tell me that 66 of my tracks can’t be synced to my iPod because they can’t be found.  It will even list these tracks in a dialog box for me.  The problem is that it doesn’t let me save this list or even copy it for future reference.  For anything more than 2 or 3 songs (which you can feasibly write down or remember), this dialog box is completely useless.

iTunes – no folder monitoring

iTunes can’t monitor my Music folder for changes.  Seriously, Apple, this is 2009, and every other music player on the planet can do this.  Is it so hard for you to believe that I might obtain music via methods other than the iTunes store or ripping CDs with iTunes?  (I am a devotee of the Amazon MP3 store, for example.)

Crashes while syncing

I have synced my iPod probably eight or ten times now in total.  Two of those have resulted in my computer completely crashing; once to a gray screen which required me to press Reset and once to a black screen from which Windows automatically restarted.  Obviously, this is a huge issue; I lose everything I have open (usually, many applications) and risk corrupting both my hard disc drives and my iPod.

I’m using 64-bit Windows 7 and the latest version of iTunes 9.  I’m sure I’m not the only one using this combination.

iPod skips songs

I only noticed this with one of my albums, but I’d bet it happens with a few others I haven’t yet listened to as well.  My iPod will consistently skip several songs when I try to play them.  It happens with specific songs from one album.  I tried restoring the iPod, which didn’t work; the only solution was to re-rip the CD (using iTunes, of course).  iTunes could play these files, as could my old MP3 player and any other music player software I’ve ever used.  Really, Apple?

iPod has no FM radio

I knew this going in, but it would really be nice to have, and it’s not rocket science. Still, since I knew this going in I can’t really hold it against Apple.

iPod has no custom EQ

I did expect the iPod to let me create custom equalizer profiles.  I was disappointed to find that the only EQ the iPod provides are some preset profiles.  Apple really does adhere to their “you get what we think you should have and NOTHING more” philosophy, don’t they?

And that’s basically it.

There are some other, smaller things, but those are my main points.  All in all, I have to say that as a new Apple customer I have not been very impressed at all.

(This said, the iPod’s interface does work pretty nicely.  That’s one thing Apple seems to do well.)

Experimenting with a cool out-of-production [film] emulsion is like cruising for chicks in a hospice–you’re just gonna to get your heart broken.

Found this quote while idly cruising one of my favorite photo forums: thread here.

(On an unrelated note, I’m still around, and I apologize for the lack of new content here.  I’ve been quite busy with my photography, my internship, and a few personal projects.  Look for new, more active versions of this site and chrisdzombak.com in the not-too-distant-future!)

I hope you find this 6,000-word epic useful. It is found here: Guide to Buying Your First Digital SLR

Note that right now, it’s not quite done.  I have some tidying-up to do, and one small section to add (about memory cards).  But most of it is there, and any feedback is greatly appreciated!