It’s Just Justin

My Massive iTunes Library

You might remember, since it was my last post, that when I updated my iTunes to 7.7.1, it crashed my iTunes Library.  I had to start from scratch.  One reader posted a question in my comments.  ZC asked, did I really have the music, why would I have that much media, is it all legal/illegal; etc etc.

ZC.

I most certainly do have that much music, or I did before the crash.  Some numbers have dropped but I retained about 95% of my media.

Why so much?  Well, I don’t pay for cable/satellite and I live in an area where picking up HD over the air is not very feasible.  I got tired of paying for HD-DVR Cable a few years ago and when the AppleTV came out, I was done with it.

Since I was in high school I had the habit of buying lots of CD’s from Warehouse Music.  The store near my house was going out of business, for four years, and I took advantage of its slow, slow death.

I had a great job working in a chemical company’s laboratory and doing IT work, since I only had classes half of the day, I spent the last year of high school working and really racking up a large library of music.

When iTunes was released for the PC, I went berzerk.  The first thing I purchased, sadly, was Mama Mia; I was hitting on someone who wanted a copy of the CD.

Anyways, the seed was born and I put about $100/month into my iTunes account though it wasn’t uncommon for me to buy 10 CD’s from a new/used music store in a day.

I did this not only to fulfill my love of music, I did it also because I lived with four to six other people who also loved music; I had money, they did not.  I would buy music and let them stream it onto their iTunes in our home.  We had large parties at least once a week, it was college after all, and those parties required vast quantities of high quality, popular music.

Later, I would tire of paying for cable and DVR.  The whole idea of paying to watch something once was stupid to me.  Almost worse was paying to record something only to have to delete it sometime later.

Remember that episode of The OC when what’s-her-face gets drunk and makes out with who’s-that-ho?

I decided I wanted to start buying my television shows and watching them on my schedule.  Going to school, working full time, watching tv, doesn’t work.

I got the AppleTV the day it came out.  I got an iPod video, the day it came out.  I watched my television at the gym, I listened to my music and podcasts in the car.

When the AppleTV finally arrived, I was able to put these movies onto our 46″ plasma screen and off of my tiny iPod screen or my 24″ iMac screen.  That was amazing to me.

I bought more and more television this week.  I considered my cable tv bill of $70/month to be my allowance for buying television shows on iTunes/AppleTV.

Eventually I filled up the 500gb hard drive of my iMac and bought two 1TB externals, one for Time Machine and one for iTunes.

Now I have a 55″ HDTV in my apartment and a 42″ HDTV at our condo.  The 55″ HDTV is powered by my AppleTV, the 42″ is done so by my MacBook Pro through DVI/HDMI.

I am never stranded without some form of entertainment from my iPod, my iPhones (Edge and 3G versions), my iMac, my MacBook Pro or my AppleTV.  It allows me to workout longer and harder.  It keeps plane rides and bus trips barable and to me is a worthy investment.

Friends come over all the time to watch old seasons of Weeds or Damages, just like you would if you had the series on DVD.  Only now we can just click through the AppleTV and don’t have to deal with CD’s and DVD’s all over the place.

Some might think I’m crazy and some people have hundreds and thousands of more titles than I do.  It is not a bragging thing, it is just me loving media and entertainment and consuming it on my time, on my rules when I want to do it.

I hope that explains it.

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Tags: Apple TV, Compact Disc, DVD, High-definition television, IPod classic, iTunes, Just My Music, Just My Nerdiness, Rant, Shopping, Television, Television program

iTunes 7.7.1 Destoys Library

Being the Apple fan boy that I am, when iTunes 7.7.1 came out yesterday, I hopped right on it.  Supposedly it fixed some bugs and stability issues.  I installed it through Software Update, went smoothly, usual, blah blah.

Then it started to sync my iPhone 3G.  It reinstalled every application, even those I had requested to not be installed onto the iPhone.

Then it said there were updates for all 24 applications.  I had them download and then install.

First off, let’s complain that iTunes keeps every version of every application, it never just deletes the old buggy ones.  So you end up with 1, 2, 3, 8+ versions of applications.

Oh and it loses them, or at least iTunes 7.7.1 did.  Do you see a problem here?

One hour later, still installing and then it froze.  I restarted the computer, then started the sync again.

Warning, 11 files could not be synced because they could not be found.

Warning, 100 files could not be synced because they could not be found.

Meanwhile, only 600mb+ songs synced out of the previous, um, 12gb of music.

Did a check…  Apparently some 10-90% of my music was moved to my Time Machine, as far as the library was concered.

10-90% because it would only show up if I tried to play or sync them and the vast majority of my synced songs didn’t sync…  So thinking that might extend throughout the Library… yeah…

Not only iTunes 7.7.1 “move” files from my 1tb MyBook external and into my other 1tb MyBook external which is my Time Machine, and not just to there, to inside of email account archives.  WHAT THE F*CK?!

So guess what I get to do?  I get to reload my entire iTunes Library.  Anyone that knows me probably knows that I have quite the iTunes Library of music, movies, television shows, applications, podcasts, games, audiobooks and then some; we are talking over 700gb of data.

Now I have no stats on my music, no play counts, skip counts, ratings…

Now I cannot sync to AppleTV or to my iPods or iPhones because I can’t do smart playlists.  I cannot say pick the newest 5gb, I can’t say choose the Top 1,000 Played, I can’t say pick the Top 5gb Top Rated…

I had stats on over 35,000 songs and over 1,400 television shows and 80 movies…

So now what?  Now I call Apple, first thing in the morning and bitch bitch bitch.

Never have I hated Apple, but this is really getting me close to that point.

Moreover, I have more stuff to bitch about.  iTunes refuses to Sync my Microsoft Exchange accounts from Mail to my iPhone 3G.  It also doesn’t store my iPhone Apps on the proper drive, they go to my Macintosh HD not my iTunes drive.

So much of this could be prevented by iTunes storing song ratings and play counts within the files just as MediaJukebox did.

It’s official, I’m pissed off.

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Tags: Angry, Apple, Apple Software Update, Apple TV, AppleTV, Damnit, iPhone, iTunes, Just My Nerdiness, Macintosh, Pissed, Rant, Software Update, Steve Jobs, Time Machine, WTF?

Starbucks AT&T Internet Stalls, Fails

For the last week or so I have been unable to log into my AT&T WiFi account at any of the three Starbucks here in Columbia. I have three ways to log into the new WiFi network; AT&T Uverse, Starbucks Rewards and my iPhone.

If any of these methods would work, that would be one thing, but for all mediums to be down, and for this length of time, that is crazy.

AT&T needs to get their act together.

Tags: AT&T, Internet, iPhone, Just My Nerdiness, Rant, Starbucks

The State of Television

We have all at one point been obsessed with a reality show, whether it was Real World (back when it was awesome), Survivor or Who Wants to Marry a  Millionaire.

Back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s I really loved watching MTV for two reasons.  First, Undressed which pretty much was my first porn though officially it was a…

sexy, late night soap opera Undressed, which gave viewers a peek behind closed doors at the intricacies of modern relationships. Each episode featured three different fictional stories and followed various characters to see what happened during their most intimate moments. No subject was too taboo.

No kidding.  They did everything and back then that was a big deal.  They took mixed race relationships, gay, lesbian, step siblings… in school, in the dorms, in the bedroom, in the car… they had sex everywhere and it was HOT.  I really can’t beleive it was on basic cable.  But boy howdy did I love it.

Now we have Gossip Girl, the new MTV Undressed but this time with lots of high style and much better dialog (well, it’s all relative).  While Undressed was made to appear like a reality show/soap opera, Gossip Girl is clearly a drama, but it’s got all the sex.

In fact, they are sexing themselves up, actually advertising the fact that many family groups are greatly opposed to their show.

I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of Gossip Girl, it’s so scandalous and sexy, how could you possibly say no?

The other night I was hanging with Ryan at his base watching television and eating some dinner I made for him at home.  We turned on the television to see what was on.

Disturbing things were seen.  First up, and most disturbing, The Baby Borrowers.

Yes… a show where people borrow other people’s babies and kids.  It is called a social experiment.  So was Dr. Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment and I’m sure we all know how that ended…  What the hell is wrong with us?  Borrowing babies?  I mean, come one, this isn’t an opium den in China!  Not yet at least.

Even more disturbing, on at the same time on another network, Super Nanny.  On this episode, there was a family of five; the oldest daughter was a goth punk girl who swore and screamed evil at her father, the middle child was wheelchair bound and greatly ignored by her father and the youngest was one hell of a bratty little bitch girl who beat the shit out the mom both physically and emotionally.  It was one hot mess and of course, put on television for all to see.

Why do people do that kind of shit?  Show off how they have been terrible parents, the most important job a parent can have.  That’s like having a show called, “Watch Me Suck at Everything I Do”… oh wait, that’ why we have VH1’s Celebreality.

We still have Jerry Springer too.  Last night I hung out with Jeremy, we watched Resident Evil (which I give a C-) followed by whatever was on TV at 1:00am.  Hillybilly fighting was on…  Well at least you can say he’s consistent.  WTF is wrong with these people?

And while I might be confused, upset, disturbed or down right pissed off at the quality of television these days, there are a few gems.  Damages is incredible, Saving Grace is rich with raw sex and emotion, Mad Men is terribly entertaining and shows like Burn Notice and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia make the summer television season quite bearable.

Oh yeah, and then we have the hilarity that is true reality television.  It is hard to find these diamonds in the rough where someone isn’t putting on an act, when they really are who you see on the screen.  Here’s a great example.  Don’t worry, it’s ok to laugh, she signed some sort of “I’m a fucking weirdo, jackass, dumbshit or otherwise” agreement.

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Ahhhh, crazy Asian girls and their love for COOOOOOKIEEEEEEESSSS!

This post dedicated to my good friend, Jonathan.  One of the best guides to today’s entertainment.

Tags: Baby Borrowers, Chase, Gossip Girl, HaHa, Hilarious, Jonathan, Philip Zimbardo, Rant, Real World, Ryan, Stanford Prison Experiment, Television, Video, WTF?

Travel Woes

I have always loved to travel.  Being able to put out a couple hundred dollars and travel across the country is awesome to me, and I’ve done it more than many people my age.  I have been flying since I was a little child from my yearly voyage to California, to trips to Europe, the Caribbean and Hawaii, to more continental trips to Missouri, Texas, Washington DC, Florida, Massachusetts, Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee…

I’ve been to pretty much every state, take the Dakotas, Montana, Alaska and Maine.

Today was the first time I’ve really been a prissy little bitch while traveling.

The plan was that I would take the MoExpress shuttle to St. Louis, fly to Baltimore/Washington International, have dinner with my best friend of all time Landon during my four hour layover and then finish my flight to Raleigh North Carolina where I would meet my grandmother and then head to our hotel to prepare for our presentation tomorrow night.

Well, I did take MoExpress.  I sat next to a guy stuffing his face full of McDonalds and taking up a good portion of my seat doing it.  Behind me there was a guy eating a ten piece fried chicken bucket with biscuits and gravy.  Oh, don’t forget the woman who some how managed to get actual movie theater popcorn at 10:30 in the morning.  Not a small bag, we are talking the refillable plastic bucket.  Finally there was the kid who had two trays of Chinese food, which he ate solo.

Missouri is  sloppy state.

We arrive at the airport as scheduled at 12:30pm, I went through security without any trouble and declared sanctuary.

Too soon.

My flight is delayed 30 minutes.  I decided to take this extra time and explore the airport terminal.  To my surprise, the E terminal now connected to the D terminal, and so on all the way to A.  This is a new thing.  Southwest’s terminal has always sat as it’s own with no connection to the other terminals beyond using a shuttle.

I walk, and walk, and walk.  There are half mile markers through the terminal.  I guess the city of Saint Louis is trying to remove the negative health stigma attached to the state?

I walk all the way to terminal A, find nothing too exciting and head back to terminal E.

At The Great American Bagel and Bakery I order a veggie sandwich on an asiago bagel.

“That’ll be an extra $0.99 you know”

“Yes I understand that”

“What do you want again?  Turkey?”

“Veggie on asiago”

“Oh, yeah.  The asiago is an extra $0.99”

“Yes, that’s what I hear”

“What would you like on it?”

“Well, what veggies do you have?” (they don’t show the makings of the sandwich which makes me a bit nervous)

Pointing to her right, “Look at “Condiments”

I look to her left, where I see “Condiments”.  Is lettuce a condiment?  Ok, I bite, “Lettuce, tomato, red onion, cucumber, peppers and light mayo”.

“Want cheese?”

“Yes, provolone”

“Alright, do you want any cheese?”

“Yes… provolone”

“Oh, yeah.”

It’s over $9.00 for this sandwich.  I hand her my debit card as a man walks up and says, “I need a large coffee”.

The register attendant cancels the transaction to process his coffee order.  Mind you, there is a line about ten deep behind me and this bloke walks up and cuts in front of us all, and she cancels my transaction for a $2.50 cup of coffee.

Then she picks up the phone, apparently “Char-ease” has called in sick, again.

“Oh no!  You tell Char-ease she can’t be calling in again.  She called in yesterday, no way, nuh uh.”

This continues, my transaction is processed.  I leave, unwrap my bagel and am met with one piece of lettuce, two anemic tomato slices and vinegar.  So that’s how the sandwich got so greasy, the oil and vinegar she poured all over it.  Did I order that?  No.

So I took apart the sandwich and treated it as a half side salad with stale asiago bread on the side.

Needless to say it wasn’t very good and it definitely wasn’t worth $9.00+.  I would have been better off getting the caesar salad from Wolfgang Puck for $8.99 in the other terminal.  Lesson learned.

I get to the gate, flight delayed another ten minutes.

Flight delayed another 30 minutes.

Flight has arrived… ?  Huh?  It was at least forty minutes away and now, magically, it is here. We board the flight.

We sit on the the runway 20 minutes.  We start to take off, we stop.  We sit on the runway 30 minutes.  We return to the gate where we deplane and I plug in my laptop to charge a bit more.

The air traffic controllers in Baltimore are saying there is at least another hour before we can take off so I get myself comfortable, cancel my plans with Landon and hop onto the internet.
Ten minutes later they are calling us back onto the plane.  So much for an hour, but I won’t complain.

We get back on the plane.  We sit on the runway.  We sit some more.  We finally take off.

During the entire thing, everyone kept a positive attitude, thank the lord.  I mean, I was pessimistic and bitchy and pissy but I made sure to keep that to myself.  The flight attendants were so nice, the pilot kept us up to date as best he could and gate workers did their best to keep us comfortable with the entire situation.

That is why I love Southwest Airlines.  They put customer service as a top priority and had this been another airline, I am certain there would have been some pretty vocal people on the plane.

I only wish they had Midwest Airline’s cookies.  Never ending supply of warm cookies would keep any Missourian happy, especially the ones I met today.  Holy shit.
UPDATE:

We have

Tags: Annoying, California, Crappy, Delayed, Pitchfork Music Festival, Rant, Southwest Airlines, St. Louis, St. Louis Missouri, Travel, Ugh, United States, Washington DC, Wolfgang Puck, WTF?

This Week in Video

I’ve been lazy posting recently because I’ve been going back in time and re-categorizing and tagging all my old posts.  I did some work on my MySQL database and deleted one extra table too many… oops.  So I lost all the categories for posts.  So, slowly I am putting categories and tags to all my posts.  I’m 10% done.  Seems like I should be closer to finished.  Ugh.

So, in leu of an actual post, here are some videos that caught my fancy this week.

First we have the Skittles Chocolate advertisement.  If all advertisements were this entertaining, I wouldn’t “Tivo” past them.  It’s so simple, yet so hilarious.  Maybe just to me, you be the judge

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Next up is a documentary that calls out the coffee companies on their bean purchasing practices.  That really irks me about this movie, is how misleading it is.  [Disclaimer: I haven't actually seen it, but if it is as the preview advertises and most of these stories go, I think I know what's going on]

They act like companies, say… Starbucks, pay pennies on the dollar for the beans as compared to the price at the store.  What they neglect to mention is the fact that when the beans get to the beaneries, they are raw.  No treatments have been done beyond maybe some washing and curing in the sun.  They haven’t been roasted, flavored, QC’d, packaged and shipped.  It is the price at the scene.

It’s like calling out Chick-Fil-A for selling a sandwich for $2.59 when the breast they used for it cost them $0.65.  There were so many things that happened between the death of the chicken and the serving of the sandwich.

Now, I can’t say much for bulk coffee companies like Folger’s and Maxwell House, they are both notorious for poor practices.  Either way, the movie looks interesting.

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And finally… No wonder the Sharper Image has filed for bankruptcy.  How stupid is this thing?  I mean, it looks fake it’s so bad.  haha

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Tags: Erg, Funny, LoL, Money, Rant, Starbucks, Stupid, Video, WTF?

Which is it?

I was a beta tester for FileMaker’s Bento software, one of 250,000.  To thank us for our efforts (cough) they are allowing me to enter a competition (drawing) to win something.

The email says a 16gb iPod touch (sweet)!

The survey says “Prize to be determined” and the end of the survey says a 16gb iPod touch.

Meh, I entered anyway.  I’d love that touch though, make it so.

Tags: Apple, Rant, Skitch, Software, Win

Kitchen Aid is sucking…

I bought a Kitchen Aid hand mixer to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and it broke after like 15 minutes.  I bought a Kitchen Aid can opener, and tested five more at Target, and they were all defective, less one, which I exchanged for a broken one.

Now they can’t even properly label their products.

Thirteen dollars for that?  Is it a whisk or is it a serrated sandwich spreader?  Who can tell… who can tell.

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Tags: Crap, KitchenAid, Kohl's, Rant, Shopping, Target, WTF?

Calibrize - It’s Not for Macs

If your software features ONLY Apple product displays on your website, shouldn’t it actually work with Macs? What idiots interesting choices.

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Tags: Apple, Microsoft, OSX, Rant, Software

600 watts of LOUD

I got myself an Oster 4242 “Now With 600 watts of Power” today. I needed it to replace my Starbucks Barista Blender which ate itself. It did, really it did.

Anyways, I unpacked the blender ($59.99 at Target), washed it out and proceeded to make my protein shake.

Some fat free soy milk, a scoop of Muscle Milke Lite and a handful of ice cubes.

So what can I say about the results? Well, it sure did blend well. That ice was abliterated.

But what of my hearing? This thing was fucking LOUD! So loud that I dug out my SPL meter and turned this thing back on.

• 108dB running with just the motor, no ice, no liquid, no blender top at all!
• 112db blending ice and liquid.

Some might not know how loud 112dB is. How about this chart from Galen Carol Audio.

That’s a little too loud for me. And despite its efficient ice chopping abilities and nice looks, this guy is going back to Target tomorrow. What good is a blender when it is so loud, you can’t even be in the same room when it is turned on?!

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Tags: Annoying, Appliance, kitchen, Rant, Review, Ugh