Music Software
You know, I fucking hate iTunes. I hate i-fucking-Tunes for much the same reason that I hate fucking Macs in general. They are designed for people who don’t fucking know how to use Explorer, for Christ’s sake. Or Finder or whatever the bastard is called on a Mac.
It drives me nuts. If you import photos using iPhoto then you cannot find those files in Finder. It’s fucking ludicrous. You have to use the search function and then when it tells you where they are you can’t actually reach that path conventionally through Finder, it will only show you the bloody things through search. Basically, you have to use iPhoto, which I would frankly prefer not to do because then your old, imported photos end up in a different place from your new ones. “Ah, but they’re all on iPhoto”, say the smarmy, gurning Macintosh twats. Well I don’t fucking like i-fucking-Photo and I would like to be able to choose not to fucking use it.
iTunes is the fucking same. It’s a spectacularly stupid program, and it refuses to let you organise your music properly. It loses files, it won’t watch a folder properly, there’s no Explorer functionality in the left-hand sidebar, it’s fucking dreadful. All my music in a great big long list, are you fucking joking? Do you have any idea how much music I actually have? I’ll get RSI in my bloody scrolling finger, you fucking turkeys.
The worst is the watch folder situation though. Basically, everything I buy or I get sent to me goes into a folder called On Trial, which is always changing as things either get deleted or moved to another folder, for the keepers, called Music Library. Winamp and Mediamonkey are both capable of keeping an eye on both of these folders and updating accordingly. iTunes is incapable of doing that. Most music fans like to organise their collections and keep things where they want them, but what use is software that can’t keep up with that. Mediamonkey can’t be installed on a Mac at all, and I am raging because it’s brilliant software, and I want to use it.
Basically, Macs seem do be designed for people who don’t want to use computers and I fucking despise them. I will organise my own files thank you very much, you fucking keep your playschool cartoon kiddie computer hands off the bastards.
Marc Carroll – Idiot World
Elvis Costello – How to Be Dumb
Close Lobsters – Just too Bloody Stupid
I’m out. You lost me at “You know”………
Don’t worry, that was the highlight of the post – it was largely downhill from there.
Still having trouble then?
I use Windows Media Player to synchronise my iPod and my PC. I had to download a little widget off the interweb to allow them to talk to each other, but it’s a fuck of a lot easier to get your head round than iTunes.
Getting my head around iTunes isn’t the problem. It just doesn’t do the shit I want it to do, and because Mac are so fucking precious, I can’t use Picasa or Mediamonkey for stuff they’re adamant I should use their rubbish to do. This is because they are a big wriggling bag of cunts.
At least a wriggling bag of cunts offers at least one evening of drunken, missus-away experimentation, though…
Quite. This has occupied several evenings of wench-less experimentation, but without any of the associated fun. The worst part is that Vista, instead of showing some conviction, seems to be trying be more like a Mac, which is disastrous. Mac’s just have the worst, least intuitive, most fucking condescending operating system I have even seen. I detest the fucking things.
You know, for my Trial stuff, I just use playlists. Create a playlist and rather than dragging your files into the library, then into a playlist, drag them directly into your playlist. If you want to delete them, rename the band “DELETE ME” before you remove them from your playlist. Then, you can go back to your library and search for the “Delete Me” files and delete them (be sure to move the files to the trashcan). Sure, it’s convoluted and stupid, but it works.
Or you could be like me and become a digital pack rat and never delete anything, even if it’s garbage and you never listen to it. I was a stanch iTunes holdout for years, then jumped on the wagon from WinAmp about 4 years ago. I think the key is to let it organize everything on it’s own. It takes a little work on your part to make sure the Album name and artist name are correctly formatted, but now, I just drag shit into my library and iTunes keeps everything organized for me.
Now, I’ve got to mention I use a PC. I’m not entirely sure how it works on a mac.
I didn’t mean it was boring. I mean I don’t know what the fuk you’re talking about!
Ha! Macs! They’re the Lord’s interpretation of a vagina in a work place. No matter how much you fiddle, it never knowingly maintains the same responsive performance.
As for Shysta, it’s nothing but a fucking lame donkey dragging a 100ton weight up a steady incline. It uses up as much as 3 times the amount of data to do the same job XP did using only a single amount, it has serious issues with IE & Outlook (Firefox conspiracy, anyone?), it has no logical filing system, its aesthetic scaffolding is incorrectly aligned & erroneously spaced out + too clinical so that the mind overloads trying to take in everything at once & as a result you’re forever fucking forgetting where any decent function is, & its wonderful spacey gloop in & out windows graphix use up so much running memory any other application stutters rather than merges into life. Oh, & Word / Excel 7 don’t work with fuckin anything but it.
It is a torn cunt of a thing. It truly is.
Wow.. you must be truly stupid.. There are absurdly simple ways to do everything you are talking about in OSX.. If you can’t figure that out, stick with Windoze because you’re clearly not ready for anything more advanced.
That was helpful. I’ll figure it out for sure now.
Macs are hilarious. Saying they’re shit is almost as guaranteed to get some smitten acolyte piping up and farting about as criticising the most pseudo-profound of indie bands. Honestly, I can’t imagine Mr. ApparentlySmarter could have come across more as having sulky hurt feelings if I had told him his wife wasn’t very attractive or his child not very clever.
They’re shit, mate. Live with it. You’ll be okay, honestly.
A bit of a Google implies that it is perhaps not as enormously simple as you might imply, my wonderfully handsome, intelligent and talented friend.
But then again, I am probably not using Google correctly either, seeing as it’s a bit advanced an’ all.
Ok, so I think iPhoto is a bit messy, confusing and even inconsistent with the rest of the programs (why does the program close when you close the window?!)
But!
iTunes! Come on! It has changed the way I listen to music. For the better. The stuff I like best about it is the stuff you hate Mat-toad. My music in a big long list. Yes, it is perfect. If I want to listen to a certain band I scroll down the artists alphabetically / type in the first few letters of the band name / type the band name into the search thingymajig.
I did stop downloading updates a while back when I thought Apple were not improving iTunes but simply trying to flog more stuff and shove the music store down my throat. I think it got to a stage when iTunes couldn’t be improved*. And they came up with Party Shuffle. That was pointless.
I find the ‘last played’ function useful to select stuff I haven’t played for ages. And the kid in me likes to see what is at the top of the ‘most played’ chart.
On the subject of deleting songs, Apple key and delete gives you the option of trashing the music, doesn’t it?
I know nothing about mediamonkey. I may be missing out, but,
iTunes: Fun AND functional. Good enough for me
* Sentence included because I thought it would be fun to see Toady’s blood boil.
“On the subject of deleting songs, Apple key and delete gives you the option of trashing the music, doesn’t it?”
Ignore my little sentence above. Now I have re-read you’re talking about ‘On Trial’, which I know nothing about.
It’s a separate folder. I like to keep the stuff I’m evaluating for the site separate from my actual music library, because otherwise I’d have the biggest music collection in the world, and a lot of it would be shit.
Ahh, right, so this is just a folder you create yourself, right?
You could play your on trial stuff through Finder, stick it in your iTunes library if it is a keeper.
Although Harry’s idea sounds good.
I also really like iTunes. I used to keep everything on Windows Media Player and it made me sad. Now I’m happier. Could also be the prozac though. Oh! And ASTY needs a good fisting.
I suspect he’s miffed ’cause you used his photo for your previous post.
>Mediamonkey can’t be installed on a Mac at all, and I am raging because it’s brilliant software, >and I want to use it.
These any use (I haven’t tried it):
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/30056
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/MediaMonkey-Download-20426.html
I’ll have a try. The description looks a little unfamiliar, but I’ll give it a try. Thanks Gav.
Yes! Totally agree. Hate Macs. Hate iTunes. Hate how when you rename a file, iTunes can’t even remember where it came from originally and you gotta go looking for the bloody thing. Also hate how it keeps asking me if I want to update to the newest version, and I always say no, and I click the ‘don’t ask me again’ buton and what does it do next time I plug my iPod in? Asks me the same bloody question again. You suck, iTunes.
At least Agnes doesn’t think I’m stupid. Bless you, my dear, and yah, boo, sucks to Apparently Smarter. Big meanie.
iTunes is a bucket of yeasty fermenting wank.
I want Apparently Smarter Than You to come back – he was funny! I mean, isn’t Mac supposed to be more intuitive than Windows, not more advanced? Donkey.
He? Are you sure?
Does it mean, though, for him/her to stumble across your ill-educated ways, that he/she was searching the web for mentions of MACs? To feed his/her habit? The very mention, in print, live, in the inter-ether, at any time, gets him/her all wonky & sticky in the knickers/knickers?
Must have time on his/her hands, I suppose, after completing The Sims 2.
Damn, I must have really struck a nerve to attract such colorful responses from you and your cronies. My comment was only intended to accomplish what this post clearly set out to do.. provoke an emotional response. That being said, I am somewhat ashamed of myself as I don’t usually ‘feed the trolls’ (or toads and toadies as the case may be here).
If you don’t like an operating system, a piece of software, or any other product or service – don’t use it. It’s really that simple.
Since I eat my own dog food, don’t expect me to return to this worthless armpit of the internet. There are too many more constructive, useful sites out there for me to waste any more time here.
[ If you are confused and don't understand this comment, simply take out the big words and sprinkle the words 'fuck, fucking and fucker' in liberally while making references to fisting, beastiality, and miserable EA video games and it should start to make sense to someone at your level of education. ]
You’re absolutely right. I should just take the hit and throw away a grand or so’s worth of computer. No sorry, you meant load up that Bootcamp thingy and run Windows on it, and then have to log in and out depending on whether or not I want to either listen to music or deal with pictures on proper software, or edit videos on Mac software. Yes, what a good idea that would be.
Feed the trolls? Look up what a troll is mate, you are the troll, by definition. Whoring for attention by making deliberately and needlessly annoying comments on a site where you have nothing to contribute.
And why is it that people trying to show how incredibly well-educated they are suddenly start using really clipped, static sentences and making very pointed reference to the long words they are using, as if that sort of infantile pomposity is something that was going to pass anyone by.
Look, I am sure you are very well-educated, and I am sure that you are very clever. Congratulations, you must be very proud. I am not sure why the fact that I hate Macs seems to upset you so much, but assuming you don’t design the things I really would suggest you take it less personally. They are just computers. My not liking something you really, really like is not a personal insult.
You cannot deny however, that Macs are designed to work best when people comply exactly, and work exactly how the software tells them. If you are not used to this then they are really fucking frustrating things to use. Now take your pills and have a lie down before you sprain something.
Oh, he’s lovely!
I want one!
We should have this conversation again in 6 months and see if Mister Toad has grown to love his Mac and iTunes.
I’ll take bets.
I love how reasonably clever people sometimes vastly over-estimate the importance of their cleverness. Say Apparently Smarter is in the cleverest 0.5% of humanity, which is pretty fucking clever, just how special is that? Well given that there are five billion people on the Earth that means that there are at least twenty-five million people as clever as or cleverer than you, which is quite a lot really.
Then of course, being the cleverest person within your own circle of friends is not that hard – how many people do you actually know? The internet of course gives us access to an awful lot more people, and given that you only tend to get in a tantrum with people on the internet who can actually string a sentence together then you are stacking the odds further that you are talking to people every bit as clever as you are. So basically, even the cleverest of people are just not that fucking exceptional.
So I am sure Apparently Smarter is very clever. There are no obvious typos, and the sentences are put together properly and so on, so the signs are decent. But cleverer than me? Well I am bound to say that I doubt it, because I’m a cocky fucker, but of course we’ll never know. But even if one of us wins some sort of imaginary intellectual pissing contest, then what? There are a still a good few million people almost certainly cleverer than either of us, and it would be very silly to try and pretend that makes either of us in any way exceptional, so good luck to the fella, but seriously, grow the fuck up.
Wow, “How to be dumb” – a GREAT song, off a GREAT album, by a GREAT artist…. BRAVO!!
.. can i just say
MACS FOREVER & WINDOWS NEVER.
:D:D
sorry but i love all this (pretty useless) i-Stuff. Dashboard is a work of art for the simple minded like me. photoshop. quark xpress. adobe illustrator. designing heaven. everything just looks so good on screen. you’ll fall in love eventually (maybe).
Matt, you are right. I apologize for calling your blog an armpit. I can only assume that you wrote this post in frustration, as your later responses are much more sensible and composed. I understand perfectly well that these machines can piss us all off from time to time. I hope you get your software issues resolved.
Jesus Christ, Apparently Smarter, is that for real? In the absence of the chance to spot a smirk on the internet, I will have to assume that it is sincere and say don’t worry about it mate, you wouldn’t be the first person to find my over-enthusiastic frothing objectionable. The most frustrating part about the whole changeover has been the really simple things, actually. The banal little things that I know there must be an easy way to achieve but, because I haven’t been raised in the Mac mindset, I just don’t make the right basic assumptions about how to do it.
Cheers for the apology though – I too will calm down, look at my shiny box and try and work with it. Who knows, as Gav pointed out, we may end up being friends eventually.
Jamila – I do use these programs, and the latest (CS3?) versions are very smart indeed, and I now have to use Final Cut a lot as well, as I stumble my way through self-education as a video editor. Macs are undoubtedly beautiful things, but I haven’t used one since I was about sixteen (longer ago than you might think) and I can’t get over how incredibly resistant they are to you not doing things exactly their way.
Does ASTY like Newton Faulkner by any chance??
Bloody hell Euan, don’t start that. Things simmer down, and you go throwing scurrillous accusations like that around.
Twat could still use a fisting.
Sorry, sorry! I’m sure ASTY is just a grand chap in every conceivable way.
FUCKING HELL, PEOPLE!
C&B, go to sleep. It must be well past your bedtime over in Virginia.
Actually, I just woke up to go to work. I’ve got a two-hour commute ahead of me, though, so I’m a bit cranky. Please pardon.
I’m the cleverest person round here.
A two hour commute?? Good grief man, whoever is the cleverest person around here, you are not it. That sounds horrendous.
I was only asking. Was not acusing.
I really need to write a new post, quite urgently. I feel that collectively, we all need to move on from this as soon as possible.
A two hour commute in the states? That’s nothing to them.. Americans will drive two hours for breakfast!
Sitting on a number 22 bus for an hour and a half in order to travel five and a half miles as the crow flies – now that’s stupid.
You’re all mad. One of the best things about moving to Edinburgh was swapping my hour-long London commute for a fifteen minute (if I sauntered) walk.
That’s the same fucking reason I don’t work in London. All my mates I grew up with in Essex get on a train each morning and commute for an hour and a half into the city. I got out because that prospect was so unappealling to me.
I moved to Edinburgh and had a ten minute bus journey or a pleasant half-hour stroll in and out of work.
Then poxy shysters I work for moved the office to this godforsaken post-apocalyptic wasteland on the furthest edge of the city, and I’m stuck with the same journey time as if I’d stayed in London.
Anyone hiring?
Hmmm… Would that be South Gyle by any chance Dylan? That was the first place I ended up working when I lived in Edinburgh (many moons ago): not quite the historic ambience I was anticipating. I still remember the expressions of near-suicidal gloom on the faces of my fellow bus commuters… plus, I don’t know if they’ve changed, but Edinburgh’s bus drivers must be among the hardest SOBs around.
Well, I made it. The commute isn’t so bad actually. I take the train for about 75 minutes of it, and so I can read, listen to music, etc. Also, I am fortunate enough to work in an office that allows telecommuting, so I actually work from home half the time. On those days, the commute is from my bed to the kitchen to my little office, and I get to kiss the kids goodbye as they get on the school bus, etc. It’s just that two days every week I have a four-hour round trip commute. So you see I really am shockingly intelligent, if not an outright genius.
That’s not a bad arrangement at all actually. Although if I worked from home we’d see a schedule along the lines of Song, by Toad: eight hours, Proper Job: thirty minutes or less.
Whereas when you’re at the office it’s, what, Song, by Toad: seven hours, Proper Job: 90 minutes?
Something like that, if I’m feeling conscientious.
Which I usually am not.
Hello all. I’m an American. At the risk of sounding ignorant and bigoted, I must say that I find nothing more amusing than a ranting Brit!! Keep up the great work!!!
We exist for your amusement.
(Actually, it is quite fun)
Yes, Nic, South Gyle it is.
Or the seventh circle of hell as I think it’s more appropriately known..
Toad, I have a quick techie question, which I know I’d be able to sort out myself if I had the time…
I hadn’t heard of Media Monkey until you posted, so I thought I’d give it a go especially as I just tiodied up my entire music collection on the hard drive & transferred everything to an external HD (a little under 10,000 tracks, by the way!).
Since I’ve downloaded the Monkey & installed it (full version) everytime I download an MP3 now, or create an audio file of any description, it comes with a .mp3 in its actual title e.g. How To Be Dumb.mp3 When I remove the .mp3 the audio file simply reverts to a data file & won’t play until I re-add the .mp3 in the title. (Same with all other extensions, .wav etc.).
How the fuck do I revert the whole system back to simply being able to download or create audio files MINUS the .mpe etc as part of the title? Podbean will only take alphanumeric characters & so I can’t actually upload any podcasts at this time, so it’s a bit of a pissing headache.
Cheers, guys.
DC
Panic over – I settled down, employed my brain & have sorted it.
Cheers anyhows.