I had thought this might be a good excuse to buy an upgrade to the newer generation Zune 80 or 120, but I’d have to find my place all over again in the current audiobook I’m listening to (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”).  Arrrrgh!

Search around on the net and you’ll find no shortage of complaints and Microsoft bashing surrounding this recent development.  It’s a sad day, and ironic one too.  I had just poked fun at a friend recently who bought an iPod without thinking of the alternative.  To be fair, however, had she bought a current model Zune, she’d be unaffected by the problem.

*UPDATE* Microsoft has released a statement regarding the Zune 30 bug that hit all of us this morning. They’re essentially telling everyone to wait until tomorrow morning to turn on the Zune.  As of 7:00am for Eastern timezone folks, your Zune will magically begin working again; almost ass mysteriously as it stopped.

Though it’s not in their official release, the problem is most likely due to a bug in its ability to handle a leap year, which 2008 qualified.  The idea being that a leap year has around 366 days instead of the usualy 365.  As of January 1st, Greenwich Meantime, the device will be back on 1 of 365 – and working.  It’s a logical solution, but a very unfortunate goof for the Zune hardware team.  Maybe we’ll get a coupon toward the purchase of a new generation Zune in the mail for our trouble (ahem…are you listening, Zune team)!

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• Zune Hardware:
  • Alphabet ToC Navigation in addition to click-wheel
  • Ratings categories (so I can play 4-star or 5-star music only, for instance)
  • The ability to remove songs from my “quicklist”
  • Setting EQ attributes to a song or album uniquely
  • Inline normalization
  • New category…or put a recently added link at the top of each category
  • Make playlists of video files
• Zune Software:
  • Faster *My software has long periods of unavailability, though I realize I have an over-sized library
  • Automatic playlist creation
  • Support for OGG
  • Insight into the folder monitoring – some sort of progress or status on this
  • Better album art application – album art isn’t always displayed immediately after you add it
  • Without knowing any better, I wish the album art was embedded within the ID3 tag of the file rather than being added as a hidden file in the directory
  • Perhaps support for a real database back-end – I feel the need for enterprise class media management

There were also some real problems that needed attention:

• Crashing…the software crashes, the hardware crashes. Sometimes it’s solid, but then it goes into a fit and crashes consecutively all to often. **UPDATE – I found out that the hardware is most likely crashing due to an electrical protection feature. Static electricity is not the Zune’s friend.
• Renaming/hiding MP3’s. This could be related to crashing – I’m guessing that MP3’s were being indexed and something went wrong. Then, the Zune software went and renamed a *lot* of MP3’s to their cataloged GUID and hid them. The files won’t play until I rename them back to a .mp3 extension. It will annoy me when it comes up – so far only a few of these songs have come up in my shuffle list.

In the hardware category, Microsoft did exactly zero to fulfill my wishes. The closest they came was to introduce sorting by “date added” to the software. That’s actually very helpful, but it doesn’t help me find new music on my device after I’ve left the computer. The Alphabetical ToC thing would still be cool, but I will say that the click wheel seems to be spinning songs by faster than it used to. It hasn’t bothered me as much that I can’t jump to a letter in the alphabet quickly, though it would probably make me a safer driver if this feature were added. Depending on your attitude towards the “Ratings” debate, the new software either decimated your organization, or has drug you from Ratings procrastination. I’m somewhat in the middle on this. I’m adapting quickly enough, though I had finally figured out a decent way of rating my music along the 5-star basis that helped me managing my music. The new Zune uses only a “Heart” to signify the emotion a given song lends. You love, hate it, or are indifferent. Despite the change, there is still no way to play music on the device that you’ve “Hearted” unless you create a playlist first (static). Microsoft took away the “Flag” option in the Zune hardware. I was using it a little bit, but it was so unnecessarily slow and useless that I had stopped altogether. I had hoped that the new firmware would add much needed functionality to the flagging option, but now we find it missing in action. No love lost for the old function, but I would like to see the ability to flag a song for my review back at the software. I would primarily use it as a reminder to do something with that song (e.g. add to playlist, look up artist, etc.).

The Zune software; that is, the part installed on a Windows machine for interaction with media and the device itself, is a piece of work. I mean that in two very polarized ways. Piece of Work: 1) Quality craftsmanship, exemplary; 2) opp. The worst, poorly demonstrated – syn. Piece of Shit. I may sound a little harsh, but this new software encourages me to use Microsoft’s new “Heart” ratings to express my emotions. This brings me to my earlier comment regarding the product’s shift in direction. I really get the feeling they threw the old software out and started fresh. On the love side of things, I really like the new look. While I prefer the technical features of an app to let me do all matter of evil to it (i.e. preferences, customizations, tweaks, etc.), I really do like the slimmed-down simplicity of the new Zune software. The previous software left me feeling like I should see more options, but didn’t. This software, on the other hand, gives me the impression that what I see is what I get. It took a little while to get used to – I’m still a little unfamiliar in its kid-gloves aesthetics – but I’m gaining proficiency. I also like the fact that this software appears to be running faster with fewer crashes. I haven’t had any MP3′s get renamed (and hidden) to GUID replacements. While file monitoring still doesn’t lend any insight as to the percentage complete, it does seem to run faster and more consistently.

On the negative, the functionality of the software has been grossly gimped. I am no longer able to do something as simple as edit my own ID3 tags in a simple form-based interface like before. I can’t seem to update an album against a web lookup – it happens automatically, but I don’t have finite control over the process as was given in the previous software. While I love the addition of the podcast category, I don’t much care for the level of experienced interaction given to users here. I prefer the more technical feel when it comes to podcasts. They tend to vary wildly in format and compatibility, so it seems best that I have the option of modifying URL’s, identifying what URL’s are being used, and possibly see the actual error message for a given RSS URL when the Zune software rejects it.

Ultimately, the Zune software direction has the potential of being good. I feel more like I’m using an Alpha product than something released for public consumption, but the good stuff is really good. With the negatives going against my my expectations of software for this type of work, I would actually rather use a third-party application to synch to the Zune. As I’ve stated before, MediaMonkey is my favorite (in case their developers are reading).

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I maintained a “Help” page on my personal blog for a long while. It was a practice in earnest to fight the good fight. I tested browser compatibility and noted errors with specific browsers. It helped me…never my audience. I think I gave up after reading “Don’t Make Me Think.” Ultimately, that is really the mindset and the answer. If I have to provide a help page, perhaps I’m doing something wrong. Perhaps I’m not making that personal connection with people because I’m ostracizing them through some personal elitism. I remember when DHTML was really cool and working with the DOM in unique, arcane methods was more a resemblance to the occult than anything Web 2.0 represents today. We’ve all grown up on this stuff. Internet adolescence is over and it’s time to get a real job; move out of your parent’s basement (no offense to you 30-somethings living in your parent’s basement). So I don’t have a “Help” page anymore. I try to offer help in more constructive ways – ways that a “Help” page can only make excuses for. Besides – who actually takes the time to read a manual, let alone my blog manual?

In many ways, the Internet is like a beloved child which the world is rearing. Sometimes carefully, sometimes irresponsibly. This child of ours is also, at times, a bit unruly. I could dig that further into boredom, but I think you can continue the similes on your own. At any rate, it’s an apt comparison when speaking of the web development practices used on the Internet over time. I used to be one of those elitist programmers that sought out the most obscure uses of the DOM or unknown HTML tags. Hell, I used to only use VBScript, and throw out angry comparisons of my pure VBScript solution to a JavaScript one. I’ve also visited sites where you are completely stumped as to how to use it. You have to mouse over a bunch of slick graphics in order to find out where they go. So you can understand my conclusion that the Internet’s adolescence has come and gone. We all had fun, now it’s time to get serious about [Internet] life and create things that matter. Things that provide value. Things that don’t make other people feel stupid.

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The update went through with no problems, though I had some issues with incompatible plugins that weren’t actually generating errors. To make a long, technical story more easily digestible, I can summarize by saying you need about 16MB of memory allocated to PHP’s script execution in PHP 5.2 and WordPress 2.2.2 (including WordPress 2.3). You’ll also want to update plugins that hit deprecated tables in WordPress such as the Google Sitemap Generator and the WordPress Database Backup. Both of these have current versions that address this problem. I also migrated over from the Ultimate Tag Warrior to WP 2.3′s integrated tag management features. It’s not quite as slick as what UTW had put together, but it’s working and I have great expectations for its extensibility with additional plugins. At any rate, it probably goes without saying that you should not keep UTW enabled with the new version of WordPress – I had heard some people didn’t have any problems with it, but I don’t see how as it makes calls to non-existent (deprecated) tables (e.g. post2cat).

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Tangents aside, the 16 tips that John Pozadzides offers are decent enough, if not mostly well known. I did find one real error in John’s ideas. It doesn’t take into consideration those afflicted with Pudding Brain. I hit Thoof on his list of aggregators to read – one I hadn’t seen before – and got really stuck. It’s one of those new-fangled aggregators that automatically load more items as you get closer to the end of the scrolling page. You can waste a lot of time there!

There’s something to be said for focus. Hitting the hot spots on the web for news is well and good, but it’s probably more productive to focus on those places that can offer you something to comment on, rather than simply steal your attention away from what you came there to do. Sites like YouTube, Thoof, and even Digg (though less so for me) are real time sinks. When it comes to blog idea hunting, I have more success trusting my own RSS aggregation. It may have a lot of the same stuff, but it’s interspersed with other sources and is slightly less accessible because RSS is abstracted from the website. I also like the idea of hitting the unpopular sites our there with very specific information to get ideas. It’s more likely to be original and it’s probably something you’re very specifically interested in.

Now, that said; I haven’t been inspired to write about much lately. But it’s not so much about my sources as it is my own intentions. The number one tip for blog idea brainstorming is this:

Take an interest in what you have to say.

If you have no interest, you have no story. You can see right through a post that is paying lip service to its readers by reposting content someone else has written. John mentions in his tips that he goes the extra mile to do some research on topics he is reposting. That’s exactly the right idea in my mind. He’s taken an interest and is providing original commentary on a popular topic.

So in between original content I fill in with interesting things I find elsewhere, or current news events. But I don’t just re-post other people’s content.

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Aside from the obvious frustrations of this type of mess, there is also a back story on this event. Not one that I’ll get into a great deal, but understand that a tennent owns that kiln and may or may not take full liability for its use. On the other hand, someone else in authority must have approved the use and location of the kiln in the first place. It wasn’t in an incredibly safe place, though the most notable error in judgments were the lack of a proper ventilation hood (firing glazes and pottery can emit toxic gases) and the fact that it was placed directly beneath a sprinkler head and thermostat for the fire system. At 180°, the thermostat popped and as much water as could be dumped gushed down upon a 2000° furnace. Kilns aren’t especially dangerous by themselves – considering their imense heat – but coupled with a narrow hallway, wood floors, and cold water, you’ve got the potential for a serious problem.

It may not seem like it, but The Mainstreet Market avoided a bigger disaster tonight because the building was occupied by all the right people to act as fast as humanly possible on the event. Everybody did their job and I think they’ll recooperate. I can’t say as much for the kiln. I’m betting we’ve seen the last of it within the confines of the building. Hopefully the Fire Marshall will go easy on the owners.

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Mark – 12:31pm

That’s painless enough (and slower because I got to reading some documentation instead of watching the upload status). We’re now 2.0.4 and glorious because of it! Sorry if anyone reached an error page during the 5 minutes of updates. There’s actually a more fault tolerant method of doing this, but the time necessary to set it up surpasses the actual downtime.

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If you’ve become a radiation mutant with a deformed hand, remember to close the window. No one wants to see that shit.

The U.S. government wants to teach its citizens about the threats and remediation measures necessary during a terrorist attack. To do so, they’re built Ready.gov to help out the American people. I can dig it, and besides the fact that most of the real meat of the site is obscured within downloadable PDF documents, the site looks pretty nice. A friend of mine, Amanda, delivered to me a “farkin’ hilarious” joke regarding this site. I investigated briefly and found no evidence of the truth in a relationship between the contents of the joke and the actual site. Maybe it was a previous attempt or maybe it was just a blatant attempt to fabricate a joke with believable basis that no one would actually check out the story. Either way, I don’t really care because the joke is farkin’ hilarious. If you’re not familiar with Darren’s Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness, you should fast become aware if you like this humor. In looking around at the Ready.gov site, I found the peculiarity of the Kids’ area kind of funny. The whole Mountain Lion family thing is just funny to me. Maybe it’s because the mom’s name is Purrcilla when we all new it should have been Cheetara.

**UPDATE:
I did eventually find the pictures used in this joke. They’re obscured within various PDF’s regarding America’s visual guides to biological, chemical, and other threats. It’s perhaps even funnier to see them used officially, because all you can think of is the humorous context.

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