I’ve been listening music more or less exclusively as MP3s since sometime probably in 1998. Through that time I’ve been obsessive about metadata, all the additional information stored in files that gives them context and makes them searchable by existing tools. One thing that always bothered me was when an artist was sorted by their first name instead of their last name. So, in a fit of iconoclasticism* I decided that I’d gradually change the artist tags in all my MP3s to be last name first where appropriate.

This is a textbook lost cause.

So I hereby cede defeat. I never browse anymore anyway, I’ve just got too many songs and unique artist names. Either I listen on full random or use the iTunes search field to find songs.

Organizing by single genre still frustrates and baffles me, with few exceptions I largely ignore them.

* According to Google, this post is only the 107th use of the word ‘iconoclasticism’ on the web. Whenever this page gets indexed, I’ll have a Googlewhack for ‘iconoclasticism mp3‘.

Did I get ripped off?

Me, May, 4, 2003:

iTunes Music Store Player

Not me, May 30, 2003:

iTunes Music Store Player also here iTunes Music Store Player

It could just be a coincidence, but…

While answering an email recently, I couldn’t find a simple introductory CSS tutorial to link to. Here’s a good one: Wendy Peck’s CSS Primer

The declassified transcript of David Kay’s First Interim Progress Report to several Senate Intelligence committees seems to be completely different from whatever the NY Times article was talking about. Read the actual transcript, there’s a lot more being discovered in Iraq than is being reported. Actually most of the media accounts I read verged on willful negligence, these people don’t seem to be doing their jobs very well.

The last paragraph in the NY Times article does concede one astounding fact; of 130 known ammunition storage areas, 120, 92% have yet to be searched. Reading the Kay Transcript further emphasizes how enormous a task searching those areas will be, several are reported to exceed 50 square miles each. Even at a very conservative estimate, they’re still faced with searching several hundred square miles, a moderate estimate goes over a thousand square miles very quickly. They’re finding things like whole fighter jets buried in the sand: photo 1,
photo 2,
photo 3,
photo 4. Considering that a bunch of fully armed and fueled Luftwaffe fighter planes were discovered under Berlin’s Schönefeld airport in July of this year, 58 years after the city fell, jumping to conclusions about hidden weapons, either way, seems foolish.

Update: Andrew Sullivan posted a worthwhile summary of the Kay Report.

Imagine if everyone who was sued by the RIAA was able to collect double the damages. Trading files would be like playing the lottery. Since I’m no longer buying new CDs (downloads, used CDs or direct from artists), I suppose I can spare some of the money I’m saving. Lorraine Sullivan – Sued By The RIAA

Someone tell the NY Post about this.

Pretty soon I’m going to have to stop saying “I’m no good at math.” But then figuring this out took way too long:

Graphs thanks to Graph-O-Matic. Well worth the $20. (Yes, this is filter related)

A few days ago, ‘Chief Wiggles‘, a US Army officer working in civil affairs in Iraq, wrote about giving a few toys to a young Iraqi girl who was momentarily separated from her mother.

She was obviously very poor, in her tattered old dress, totally worn out plastic flip-flops, her hair matted against her head indicating she hadn’t had a bath in a long time and her skin blistered from the dirt and weather.

Once I saw her I quickly told the MP’s to move the barbed wire back to let her in to join her mother. Her crying stopped as she darted in to grab a hold of her mother’s long black dishdasha, torn and frayed from years of use. As she stood by her mother’s side, grasping her dress, I moved over slowly to brush her stringy hair away from her eyes and to pat her gently on the head, as I told the guard to make sure they don’t leave before I could return.

I quickly loaded up the sources in my car and returned them to my office in the palace. I told them to wait for a moment, while I rummaged through my FedEx box full of toys sent my by my teammates back home. I grabbed a comb, a brush, a pair of new flip-flops, a whistle, a stuffed monkey whose arms hang around your neck, and a new toothbrush and tooth paste and dashed out the door, telling my interpreter to come along.

As I made my way back over to the front gate, I saw the little girl and her mother waiting patiently anticipating my return, not knowing why I had asked them to wait. Bending down I handed her the items one by one, as I explained what each item was, to insure she knew what I was giving her, especially as I gave her the toothbrush, asking her to be sure to brush everyday.

Her eyes lit up with such joy as I put the monkey arms over her head. She was so excited to receive everything, being somewhat shy though, not having dealt with an American before. She was so precious as her big brown eyes looked up at me, causing me to almost breakdown into tears as I walked away quickly so as to not bring too much attention to the little girl from the on looking crowd.

My eyes started to tear up just reading that.

A few days later, he’s basically running a toy drive for Iraqi children. I’m going to put something together for this. Hopefully word of this will inspire some toy manufacturers to donate a few crates.