Xi6.org

Uncategorized

Apple Iphone Shuffle not random

by on Jul.20, 2009, under Uncategorized

As the topic says it all… the shuffle or random mode in the iphone (or maybe even the ipods in general) are not random! You’ve noticed the same songs play in the same “random” order.. annoying I know.

I remember creating a random number generator back in school (in the C programming language), but to my surprise the rand function wasn’t actually random! Maybe the first time around it seemed random… but it was the same random every time you ran the program. You had to custom code the random to be truly random.

So I’m guessing there are just some lazy programmers working at apple that can’t write a proper shuffle program.

Though recently I’ve heard people say that it shuffles the entire play list when you start up (power on) or whatever… which may be the case… but that is also a very poor way to do it!

No one turns their phone off very often or at all if its not necessary. I leave my phone on until it starts to bug out and lock up.

I want my shuffle to be random for each song! wow that would be great! A shuffle program the way it’s expected to be? Whaatt? no way!

Most of my older mp3 players (and hell, even my portable CD player and car) have this button called “random”. When I press it, a random song plays. When I click “previous”, a random song plays, when i click “next” a totally new random song plays! It’s a surprise every time! I love it!

But unfortunately with the apple iphone I press back and it plays what I just listened to (ok not horrible)… but when i press next, i feel like i know what song is going to play next… and I do… and its sad.

I only have a modest library of around 1,000 songs on my iphone. But unfortunately every day I listen to the same hundred or so damn songs over and over and over. It’s annoying that I can’t get any variety in my ipod!

I’ve resorted to closing my eyes and picking songs from the song list with a few flicks up or down beforehand. It’s a better random than the iphone provides that’s for sure.

Update – Nexus One:

I’ve recently switched to Googles Nexus One phone and found the shuffle on this device works absolutely fantastic! I have the same songs, yet the listening experience is easily 2-3 times as good!

When listening to music, you can easily turn shuffle on or off from the currently playing song. (No need to go back a menu or two in, scroll up to the top of the list and select “shuffle”). Nexus One’s shuffle is right on the screen that’s displaying the current song; along with the option to repeat current song, or continuously loop your playlist.

Pressing the back button on the track, brings you to the last listened track (and pressing it again brings you to the track you listened before that one). Now at anytime you press “next”, even if you pressed the back button, it provides you with a RANDOM song! Imagine that! The people at google sure got this right.

It’s funny, while I have the same few hundred songs, I’m listening to ones I haven’t heard once on my iphone… wow :)

The nexus one media player also has the ability to drag a slider back and forth and skip to whichever section of the songĀ  you wish! Very cool. The only thing it doesn’t do out of the box is display the currently playing song on the lock screen. (Not a huge deal, and I’m sure there’s a widget for that).

3 Comments :, , , , more...

How to get FREE parking downtown

by on Jul.17, 2008, under Uncategorized

I was tired of paying $200 a month for parking (Which had just shot up another 50% to $300/month)… Daily parking spaces were about $150/month on a long term contract (And of course had a waiting list)… so like many – I’m forced to pay the $10 (now $15/day at most places) to park during the work hours.]

So one day I decided to park in a 2h parking spot and just move my car every 2h to a different spot. To my surprise parking in a different spot gets you a ticket! (apparently with the new systems they have, they do their rounds and scan the VIN/Plate of each car they pass) Each meter maid has their own method, some do it every 2nd pass on a particular walk of the city. And the electronic hand held will pop up and say “this vehicle has been parked since 00:00 and is in violation”. BAM ticket! (Granted I was on the same street, but parked 300meters away from the last spot).

$25 parking ticket later ($57 if not paid “early”) I decided I wanted to make up for this ticket and get free parking.

Luckily about 2 blocks from my office there is a casino! And guess what… they’re players rewards program has FREE PARKING! All I have to do is park at the casino (For as long as i want) and get my parking validated at the end of day.

Now these rewards programs have “points” that you collect by spending money and gambling. So far i’ve been lucky enough that I hand them my card and get my parking validated. If there are any issues with them saying “well you haven’t spend any money today”. — that’s easily solved by putting $10 down on a table game. Betting on red/black on a roulette table is pretty much a 50:50 shot. (minus the 0,00 odds of course). So via their rules all I have to do is bet $10 to redeem free parking (says nothing about losing!).

And I either walk out with $10 spent (which I would have paid for parking at some other place anyways)… or I walk out with an EXTRA $10 and FREE parking to boot.

Gotta love it.

Comments Off :, , , , more...

Looking for something?

Use the form below to search the site:

Still not finding what you're looking for? Drop a comment on a post or contact us so we can take care of it!

Visit our friends!

A few highly recommended friends...