Itunes Idiocy

Microsoft finally "upgraded" (an Orwellian term) Windows Media Player so many times that it finally became useless. So a few years ago I switched to Itunes since Mac controls music now (as I painfully found out when I got an Ipod years back, before that hunk of junk broke in a few months). I'm very serious about my music collection and I was sad to see that Itunes isn't very good. Observe this list:

Things Itunes doesn't do that I really liked from WMP:
A. Enable deleting missing files en masse
B. Very easy to change song data en masse
C. Background process to consolidate and organize the music library.

I've been searching for a long time for simple fixes. Sure, the simplest would be for Apple - for an ironic twist - to copy what Microsoft does well, instead of the vice versa. I could buy third party software, but hell hasn't frozen yet. Recently I got fed up enough that I renewed my efforts to solve 'em with online advice. Here's what I found:

A. Finding and Deleting Files En Masse

I found online advice and it actually worked! How To Remove Broken Songs From iTunes Library It also clued me into the glory of "smart playlists" - which makes up for the very irritating itunes interface. Thanks intertube stranger!

B. Change Multiple Names at Once

You can change song titles, artists etc, but NOT THE SONG NAME. Why can't it be done? Hatred?

So here's my homemade solution which WORKS! Alert!

My solution is to use the powerful search function of Windows 7. I discovered that you can change song data in Windows via "Properties."

For example, I have a lot of bootleg albums of Led Zeppelin (which I've been assured is completely legal). And I want to change the song name from "Moby Dick" to "Moby Dick (Live)"

It helps if you have one Music folder (I did this even though itunes refuses to sort them easily, see below) but I guess it can be done if music is scattered all about.

1. In the search box (F3) of your folder, I entered: "album:live artists:zeppelin"
   
2. sort by song title
   
3. higlight the songs you want to change
   
4. right click for 'properties'
   
5. click on the 'details' tab
   
6. go to the field you want to change, in my case it's 'title'
   
7. insert new title
   
8. click OK or Apply
   
9. enjoy a milk bone in a commie free world

Addendum: Actually there's a slight glitch in that Itunes did not recognize the new file names until I played the song (or some other such modification). So my trick was to find all the files whose names I changed and then adjust their rating to 1 star (or whatever) and that updated the names.

C. Consolidate the Library There's an option in Itunes already to do this but it retains the original locations as well, which means you need to have space memory in the computer to have 2 sets of files. I'm not a fan of that, so I'll keep searching. UpdateHere's another version of the milkbone cartoon.

Peace in the Middle East?

I found this note I wrote to myself on Sunday, February 19, 2006 4:45 PM

Do you think there will ever be peace in the Middle East?

No.

Why?

Because of every reason why we have war in the first place.

Rabbi Akiva and his students

Recently, I commented on this this fellow's blog; his entry was:

Posted by Larry Lennhoff at 9:15 AM, Tuesday, July 31, 2007 A quick thought about Rabbi Akiva. It is out of season I know, but it occurred to me that 1000 pairs (couples?) of students died for each additional year Rabbi Akiva stayed away after from Rachel after he became a Talmid Chacham.

My response:

Hi Larry,

Just floated to your blog after seeing a comment you made on Hirhurim.

I gave a drasha on this topic. I think the answer to your question is seen in the Aggadata (TB Nedarim 50a) - when Rabbi Akiva returned after 14 years with his 24000 students, they repudiated Akiva's wife: "So she went to see him, but the disciples wished to repulse her. ‘Make way for her,’ he told them, ‘for my [learning] and yours are hers.’"(translation Soncino)

Hence I think the Gemara is telling us that the nature of the students' sin was related to Akiva's absence from his wife.

See this article for some more sources. Just to expand on the point I made in the Drasha: the fact that the original students - i.e. the ones who died - didn't get to see their Rosh Yeshiva in a human, loving, normal family relationship, they grew to believe that their Torah knowledge was more important than human relations. The fact that they would brush a woman aside - to treat her with disrespect - can be extrapolated to how they must have treated each other.

{2009 Update: Pic of Hadrian and Rabbi Akiva from here.}

Craze-dar

There are those who claim they have a 'gay-dar:' a secret skill to determine if a stranger is a homosexual. This skill - born from extensive watching of musicals, living in New York City, being in a High School band, or living in the closet - is largely a crock. Skill is developed only through testing for outcomes and since strangers don't ever reveal their sex-lives, there's no way to confirm a positive or negative test. Many of the gay-dar operators are the same type who claim they are 'an excellent judge of character.'

The absurdity of the Dar system is seen in this great Onion piece (I Can Instantly Tell Whether Someone Is African-American With My Amazing 'Blackdar').

All that said, I think I have developed a special skill along the same lines as the vaunted Gay-Dar and the mysterious BlackDar: a Craze-Dar. I have a highly trained sense for who's nutty as a fruitcake. As a communal professional this comes up often and has a real-world effect because most people just don't seem to know when they are dealing with a nut-ball.

Suuure, the obvious crazies are no contest. Most people can spot the looney if said nut wears stinky denim, carries his wallet in a plastic bag and screams regularly at squirrels. But only a well-trained Craze-dar operator like myself knows the yellow-flag difference.

I Wish I Did This

I had totally forgotten about this link! This perfectly elaborates my previous post (rant) about information technology. Bravo to the author, Justin Kahn: Powerful Stories Made Impotent by the Introduction of Cellphones.

Backpost finished 4/11/08. I had just the link.

That's My Idea!

I've had this idea for a while - that Election Day should be a national holiday. First of all, it would make it much easier for people to vote. But also because Election Day is greater than even the Fourth of July to demonstrate what America is all about.

Now I see that Hillary has the same idea and is sponsoring this in the Senate (Sen. Clinton Pushes for Voting Holiday). Well, that's the *perfect* way to kill it.

Thunder & Lightning

My thunder & lightning theory of babies crying:

Just as you wait after seeing lighting, counting the seconds before the thunder, to see how far away the storm is. Well, that works with babies too - when you hear the first little "weh" you wait for a few seconds, each second will tell you if it's a cry of wet or tired or aliens from planet zoombah.

Asymmetry Crush

My brother (Shlita) has emphasized in his unpublished philosophy that a key to understanding success through life is to recognize and use asymmetries. First developed in recognition of traffic patterns, it applies to all game-playing/political ventures of everyday life. You win by exploiting asymmetries, you lose by being caught in the opposite end of the ratio. Be a numerator, not a denominator.

That said, I am now caught in the pincers of a nasty asymmetry. While this happens every year after the chagim, this year is particularly onerous. Basically, the chagim are time-consuming for everyone and people with secular jobs find themselves having to makeup lost work. This is nothing compared to the burden of the workingman pulpit rabbi. We all know it, we call it our "busy season" (like April for CPAs) but who else has a busy season of hammerlike repetition where you can't write/record or relax?

Normally, after Shabbat, I try to take some time to recall the things I said/sermonized/taught. The crush of 3 three-day yom-tovim - all those ideas! - one after another and then Shabbat Bereshit!

Ya see, this year there's a happy happenstance in the Jewish calendar - every parsha has its own week. The combo of the holidays not being on Shabbat plus a leap year makes that possible. So I pledged this year to take the time a develop a workable preliminary commentary on the Torah. Then Bereshit - the largest parsha for a commentary - becomes inaccessible! Argh!

The chagim asymmetry combines with the other crushes - the Moving Houses, the Baby, the Intro to a New Community - all piled on each other making repair and review arduous and nearly inaccessible.

I was hoping to take part of this week off. Won't happen. Firstly, I've had to put off all outside requests and demands so I could concentrate on the chagim. And, sadly enough, a beloved member of the community passed away on Simchat Torah - which means shiva minyanim… and as the only clergyman, I can't take off.

Asymmetries - respect them.

{2009 Pic Update, of the Archimedes lever, from here.}

Tikkun Olam

For you medical/chemist types out there: why don't they put 100% of your daily Vitamin requirements in a candy bar? People (and by people I mean Americans, and by Americans, I mean me) consume junk food quite a bit. Why can't we combine a "Centrum" with a "Snickers"? (Centrickers? Snicktrum?)