A Troubleshooting Challenge

Posted by on September 8, 2014 No comments

You have to love troubleshooting.

As a mentioned earlier, I’m doing a hard drive update on my Zune to bring it up to 120gb.  In the first chapter of this crazy process, I simply bought a 120gb 1.8” drive that was supposed to be IPod and Zune compatible.  I got the drive and prior to installing it, I erased the Zune completely, firmware and all.

After installation, the Zune wanted to be connected to the PC to install the new firmware.  After doing so, the Zune software registered a hard drive problem – not enough space on drive.  Hmmmmmmmm.  After thinking about it for a while, I considered that the base level of firmware back when the Zune 30gb came out might not support a 120gb drive, since they didn’t exist at that time.  So I thought I should bring the firmware up to the most recent, then install the new hard drive.

I put the old drive back in, upgraded the firmware, then put the new drive in and restarted.  Then I get a obscure (and yet common) error code.  So I think some more.  The new hard drive is a different brand – Samsung instead of Toshiba, and it uses more power – 4v instead of 3.3v.  Maybe it’s the drive that’s just incompatible?

So, I order a second drive, a Toshiba this time.  Without erasing the firmware, I install the drive.  The Zune boots to a “Please Wait” screen.  I wait for a few minutes and decide it’s not doing anything.  I power the Zune down, check the drive connections and start it up again.  Same screen.  I look online and the Internet says that that screen is shown during drive format and initialization (Do not disconnect or turn off the device).  Oops.  So I leave the Zune plugged in overnight.  The next morning, I left without remembering to check the status, so it ran all day while I worked.  When I get home, no progress.

I put the old drive back in and everything works just fine.  I put the new Toshiba in again and it doesn’t.  I put the old drive in, wipe out the firmware, put the new drive in and I get stuck at the “Please Wait” screen. Hmmm. The Samsung got past that screen but failed when writing the firmware.  The Toshiba doesn’t get past the drive initialization.  It’s actually a worse situation.

The next step of my troubleshooting is going to be at a lower level – the drives themselves.  One possible theory is that the drives can’t be formatted because they are not partitioned.  The company that sold me the drives may have run a diagnostic test that erased the drive’s file system.  So, I’ve ordered a ZIF to USB adapter so I can connect the drives to my computer and verify for myself.  Maybe I will need to create a partition and/or format the drives myself before installation.  As a side project, the adapter would let me see what kind of files are saved on the Zune itself.  That could be interesting information, too.

Running cost for this project: $70 for the two drives, $10 for the adapter.

Genres, Generalizations, and Generations

Posted by on September 4, 2014 No comments

Continuing my quest for ripping and metadata-izing my whole CD collection (currently midway though the D’s – getting through one letter a day).  And I’ve come up against the dilemma of assigning genres.

There seems to be 3 camps: don’t use genres at all, use a limited number, or go all in and use hundreds.  I’ve read a few interesting schemes as well, one being to use a limited number, then subcategorize using playlists.  That was going to be my plan, until I kind of realized something.

Looking at the Rock genre, there is a very large collection of sub-genres under it.  For example: Surf, Hard Rock, Hair Bands, British Invasion, Rock & Roll, etc.  Reading this list made me realize that the “genres” are actually few and far between, but the sub-genres can nearly be classified by release year.  Right?  Rock is different in the 50’s, the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and on and on.  Yet, it’s all Rock.  It’s the same with Heavy Metal.  The metal of the 70’s is nothing like the metal of today.  70’s metal is many times tamer than modern rock.

So I guess my plan now is the same as it was, keep a very limited number of genres and the classify things further with playlists.  But with my new insight, I can create smart playlists grouping by Year and get a pretty close approximation of a specific sub-genre.

In an semi-related topic, I had a hell of a time ripping one particular CD: The Digital Domain: A Demonstration.  This is one of those CDs that you almost need to have in lossless because its entire purpose is to demonstrate the capabilities of digital audio.  For some reason, every single track resulted in a read error when ripping with Exact Audio Copy.  I got the great idea that I could copy the disc to ISO as data instead of as audio, then mount the ISO and rip from that.  The first tool I tried, ImgBurn, hung during track analysis, so I ended up using Daemon Tools Lite, which I had installed already.  The rip from the ISO went off without a single issue, and it was fast.

Bits and Pieces, Scattered

Posted by on August 30, 2014 No comments

As my recent posts have indicated, I’m getting ready to do some serious work re-ripping and cataloging my CD collection.  It’s about a 600+ disc effort, so I want to do it as efficiently as possible.  One of the things I am having a lot of difficultly coming to terms with is whether to contribute my efforts to the public domain.

By public domain, I mean submitting highly-detailed metadata to an online database, probably MusicBrainz.  From what I’ve read and understood, this seems to be the workflow I’d have to perform:

  1. Search MB for album on website
  2. If not found, enter the new album on the website, if found, add additional data
  3. If new album, wait for submission approval
  4. Rip CD
  5. Use MB Picard to get DiscID for CD
  6. Search MB for album (hence the wait for approval) then submit the DiscID for that album
  7. Use Picard to update the metadata in ripped files from MB

The part that keeps nagging at me is the part where the metadata has to exist in the MB database before Picard can do its (only one) thing.  I am pretty sure Picard is supposed to be a database consumption application, tagging MP3 files from the MB database.  The DiscID and audio fingerprint features feel like they’re tacked on.

I was already resigned to the two-step process of ripping and then metadata cleanup, but I’m now looking at metadata entry, then ripping, then metadata refresh.  This is where I can’t tell if it’s worth the extra effort.  It’s probably worth something, because someone can use that metadata sometime.  After all, if I searched for the album and didn’t find it, someone else surely has, too.

There’s so many potential apps out there, but nothing does everything I want, and I don’t think there’s a lot I want.  The ideal application would:

  1. Look up metadata from MusicBrainz based on DiscID from CD in drive
  2. If data does not exists, prompt for it, otherwise display it and allow for editing
  3. If data changed, submit it to MusicBrainz. 
  4. Submit the DiscID if not already there
  5. Rip the CD and include the metadata in the files

Some apps do 1, 2, and 5, some do 4, some only do 5, none seem to do 3.

These are the times I wish I could have a clone of myself that would be able to do nothing but this task for a few weeks.  This is why sudden obsessions are so difficult for me.

… And I did some metadata editing on MusicBrainz.  I don’t think it’s for me.  There’s so much ambiguity, I don’t want to add any more confusion to what they have.  In my few edits, I came across a album they didn’t have – a classical compilation (damn it).  I entered the basic info and they said that my entry looks like this other album.  It was, so I copied the tracks.  Then after saving, I thought “Why didn’t I just edit the original after I learned it was there?  (and why couldn’t I find it in the first place?)”  I looked at the original and it may or may not have been the same album.  It might have been released by a different company.  So, on one hand, I could duplicate data; on the other hand, I could screw up another person’s release.  Yeah, not for me.

So I guess my decision is made.  My data is mine alone.  Selfish.  But cover art… that I can contribute, which is different post altogether.

Again, Not Thinking Ahead

Posted by on August 27, 2014 No comments

A post from 6.5 years ago (holy crap!) has come back to haunt me.  In the post, I was lamenting how I had taken a week to rip my entire CD collection to a lossless format, but then I didn’t have enough space to store it on my Zune.  I faintly remember the day I took the drastic step and deleted it all, keeping my standard-quality MP3 rips.

I’ve had a renewed interest in music again, and I was thinking about re-ripping my CDs.  Some of my rips have to be ancient, using imperfect encoding algorithms.  I’ve read a lot of advice lately and some of it I initially ignored, but now it’s starting to sink in.  I realize that I wasn’t thinking ahead before I started that forever-ago ripping process, and I wasn’t thinking ahead after the ripping either.

The first piece of advice that I shrugged off as dumb is proving to be the most important: Always rip to a lossless format.  Yeah, I did that.  It gave me a library too large to sync.  Dumbass, you transcode lower-bitrate versions for your portable devices from the lossless versions.  Well, that’s stupid, then I have two copies on my hard drive taking up space.  No you don’t.  The low-bitrate versions only exist on your portable device. 

(Insert lightbulb moment here)

In fact, the Zune software will do this for me completely automatically.  I just never gave it any consideration.  My thoughts were that I should have the highest resolution copies that the Zune could support on my hard drive.  Why would I ever need more if the device couldn’t handle it?  It’s a damn computer.  That’s the device that will.  Why, for any reason, should I limit my desktop to anything but the highest possible quality?  Now most people will rip lossless copies, then store or dispose of the physical media, but for many reasons, I won’t be doing that.

I’ve always told myself: I always have the physical versions, so I can re-rip them whenever I need a higher-quality version.  But, not thinking ahead, if I rip them at the highest quality possible, then make lower-quality versions as needed, I never have to rip again.

So, it looks like I’m going to have to start another round of lossless ripping, including a full round of metadata cleanup.  But it’s not so bad.  Encoding has become way more accurate, drive space has become plentiful, and CPU power has gotten insanely fast.  Over six years ago!

Oh, and also, I did decide to get a new hard drive for my old Zune 30.  It will be getting a 120gb replacement drive, so I should be able to hold my full collection at a better bitrate than what I currently have, even if it turns out to not be lossless.

The Next Big Thing

Posted by on August 24, 2014 No comments

Surprise obsessions are a difficult thing for me.  I started last week on a sudden quest toward a dual purpose.  Like many other inspirations of mine, it’s a race to finish the quest before the desire runs out.

I’m actually not sure where the spark came from, but it’s been something lingering inside me for a very long time.  The end result will be this: to own a complete collection of albums published under the MCA Master Series label and secondly, to create framed artwork of the album covers for my walls (copyrights be damned).

Let me explain the history of my experience with MCA Master Series.  When I was in my impressionable youth, I had acquired a home stereo, which had the new-fangled tech of the day – Digital Compact Disc – and I was building a CD collection of my own.  My stereo was monstrous, like most probably were at that time.  A full component system with receiver, dual tape deck, CD player, and the requisite 4-ft tall, 15”-woofer stereo speakers.

Around that time in my life, I was trying to figure out “who I was” and “who I wanted to be”.  One thing that I thought I wanted to be was “high-class”.  That didn’t necessarily equate to “rich” but more about appreciating art and music beyond the standard radio fare.  Let me quickly find an image that sums up my youthful vision…

…well now.  That was not a quick search at all, and this isn’t even what I think I originally had in mind, but:

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That’s more or less what I imagined, reclining on crazy-modern couches and listening to… what?  Something pretentious classy, sure, but what was that?  I hadn’t found it yet.

As luck would have it, around that time, the MCA Master Series was releasing albums, and because I lived in a tiny dump of a city, no one would ever buy that stuff, so it ended up in my music store’s bargain bin – my default shopping section.  The first album I bought was Edgar Meyer – Dreams of Flight.  I was incredibly attracted to the cover art, because it looked as modern and abstract as I imagined my future listening room would be.  The music was clean and clear, jazz/classical, and I grew very fond of it.

Also around that time, I had read some articles mentioning the band Acoustic Alchemy and I noticed they were on the same label as Edgar Meyer.  A nearby pawn shop supplied me with these and many more of the MCA Master Series catalog.  All were enjoyed (except Booker T Jones, which is the only one I now regret throwing away) and are in my current collection.

Fast-forward to recent days and I’m finding a nostalgic desire to have that innocent dream of what my future could be – relaxing in a modern sofa (which I do have, now), listening to New Age/Jazz/Classical on a high-end audio system, maybe reading some e-books.

My adult sense of appreciation enjoys this music label for another reason.  When you put all the albums together, you have a incredibly cohesive marketing design.  There’s really something to be said for that, and it’s something that I feel might be lacking today.  Because I know the MCA Master Series is all high-quality, I can scan a rack of CDs looking for their consistent design and find something in a flash.  Using the same fonts on every album, with a dash of color for uniqueness, was a genius move.  You can see the same marketing technique if you are a Telarc or Rykodisc fan – just scan for their logo in the spine.  Windham Hill is another example, as well.

Back to the story, I’ve been hammering online sources and local sources for these really old, out-of-print CDs (yes, 30 years!).  I don’t want any reissues, if they exist.  I want these albums for the original artwork as much as the music.  Less than a week into my mission, I have purchased six missing albums.  Right now, I have 13 out of out of 43, with 4 en route, leaving 26 left to find and purchase.  I’m estimating at least $150 to finish out this collection.

What will that mean?  I’ve talked about collections again and again in my blog.  And the truth is still there.  This collection will mean nothing to anyone else but me.  But let’s discard that fact and think about phase two of the plan.  Scanning the album covers and getting them printed and framed as artwork.  Granted, some of the covers aren’t really suitable for framing, but many of them are.  Framing 43 covers?  Gah!

I’ll have to post some updates as I progress through this collection growth.

We Believe

Posted by on August 16, 2014 No comments

Today I saw a funny video on a forum.  I thought to myself, “this is going to explode”, so I went to YouTube to see what the play count was.  400k.  Not bad.  I’ll have to check it later.  I noticed something really peculiar in the video description:

“For licensing/usage please contact: licensing@jukinmedia.com”

Huh?  This was supposed to be someone’s funny personal video.  Did this person have the foresight to actually license their personal video?

I visit the website and this statement jumps out at me:

WE BELIEVE CONTENT CREATORS SHOULD BE REWARDED FOR THEIR WORK.

What the hell?  Further:

JukinVideo.com has the world’s largest selection of short-form, viral video content available for licensing.

Ok.  I am feeling totally ripped off now for even watching that and considering sharing it.  “Viral video content” – I don’t even know how to describe this.  I was under the impression that “viral” was something that happened to a video, not something that was premeditated.  How naive I am.

But let’s jump back to that first statement.  I do believe that people who become viral sensations are rewarded in some way for their work.  They do get lots of media attention, then it’s up to them to parlay that into something of lasting monetary value.  This site is not needed.

This site’s statement should read: “WE BELIEVE WE DESERVE A CUT OF YOUR SUCCESS.”  Because that’s what they’re doing, injecting themselves between your work and the world, buffered by a team of legal experts that will “protect your (they really mean their) content rights.”  This is a company that is intent on taking everything wrong with the entertainment industry and applying it to the free internet.

I am curious how this works, because they do have examples of honestly homemade videos.  Do they seek out funny videos, then approach the owner and say, “Let us license your video and we’ll pay you a percentage of the licensing fees we get. Why not, you won’t make anything on your video otherwise.”  But is that true?  If this company owns the right to that video and it goes viral, what are your rights for show appearances, travel and reimbursements?  Do they own you?  I know enough about the entertainment industry to know you are not the one who will profit from this deal. 

You can be assured that the rights will be in perpetuity, which means they can resell your video over and over forever, to TV shows, DVD collections, or even Time-Life greatest hits.  The video isn’t yours anymore.  Depending on how the contract is written, you may not see any “royalties” after a certain period.

I am disgusted.

Lewis N Clark Urban Gear Duffel Review

Posted by on August 9, 2014 No comments

I have two fetishes and I’m not exactly shy about them.  The fetishes are office supplies and luggage.  Both center around the concept of organization.  Like when I go to Staples, I fantasize about owning all this office equipment which necessitates the need for organizational supplies like binders and filing drawers and stands and on and on.

And luggage, well, I just appreciate a well-designed bag that holds just what you need.  Because of this, I am constantly trying to find the right size bag for what I need at the time.  And style has to be considered of course.

So, this bag came up on Woot:

And I really liked it.  I’ve been using the bag for a while now and I still really like it.  But one thing I never got around to testing was the bag’s capacity.  I assumed I could use it for a week’s vacation, but would that really work?  I mean, it’s only one bag.  But then again, I am a guy.  Guys don’t pack like women, am I right?

Therefore, this post is now the inaugural ManPack Experience.

You can see the empty bag above.  First thing I’m going to pack is t-shirts.  I am an advocate of the “rolled” packing style, so if you pack differently, you may get different results.

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Nine t-shirts on layer 1.  That also includes sleep shirts.  I also expect I will buy a shirt or two on vacation.  Next up, shorts – because I’m not going to go somewhere that’s cold, duh.

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Five pairs of shorts and one pair of jeans.  I could probably swap out a couple of the shorts for pants. Next up, Shirts, socks and underwear.  These fill in the front.

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Two button-down shirts, six pairs of socks, eight pairs of underwear.  Next, toiletry bag, shoes and a belt.  Of course, I’ll have the shoes and belt I’m wearing, too, so adding extra shoes is just an example.

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A pair of sandals, a pair of loafers, and a belt.  There is still room for more, too.  Probably another pair of pants or a couple shirts.  Now, will the bag close?

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Sure it closes, and there’s more room on the outside.  On the left, I keep a laundry bag for dirty clothes.  On the right, I have my Kindle keyboard in its case.  It’s shown vertically, but does fit horizontally.  Front pocket holds a small tablet, which does fit horizontally.  And I couldn’t think of what else to put in the front.  So fully loaded, what’s the weight?

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It’s 17 pounds loaded pretty full.  You could stuff it further if you wanted.

So, this is a great travel bag for multi-day trips.  If you had two bags, you could go for quite a while.  But I don’t travel for long periods, so I am glad for another nice feature of the Lewis N Clark Urban series.  I also bought their laptop bag, and it is a perfect fit inside the duffel.

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The laptop bag fits my 15.6” Toshiba laptop just right.  The interior of the bag is very sparse, with just one zippered mesh pouch that I use to hold the power cords.  There is room in the bag for a legal padfolio, which I make use of.  The front pockets hold cables, pens, and a flash drive.

Overall, I think the Urban Gear line of bags from Lewis N Clark is great stuff.

Can You…

Posted by on August 9, 2014 No comments

…be any more of a victim? – Chandler Bing

I get a call yesterday from a number I don’t know.  I don’t answer it and the person leaves a voicemail.  It’s a relative of a neighbor – I guess I’ve met him a few times.  He needs help with his computer.

Still in voicemail, he relays the whole situation to me.  He thinks his email was hacked.  Yahoo Mail, maybe?  So he “called Yahoo” and these guys “went in a did a bunch of stuff.”  They charged him like $190 for this work.  Unsurprisingly, it didn’t fix his problem.  But, surprisingly, they called back and said they wanted to refund his money, but first he would have to wire $300 to a place overseas.  Luckily at this point, he cut his losses and gave up.  But that wasn’t the end.  He shut down his computer and when he started it back up, he was prompted to log in and they had changed the password on him. 

I call him back and offer to copy his files off the hard drive and reinstall the OS.  He asks how much that’s going to cost because he’s not working and he’s on disability and he’s currently at an AA meeting (and I guess he’s already paid almost $200 so far).  Oh boy.  I told him not to worry about it.  I know that I can fix this, but there’s a lot more wrong here and this certainly isn’t the end of the problems.

As I’m mulling over how much seems to be wrong: AA, disability, jobless, hacked, taken for a scam, it made me think about my persistent thought about how the PC revolution almost had something; how it almost brought enlightenment to humanity.  This case was a stark reminder that some people just can’t handle a PC.  These people need simpler devices like tablets.  And yet, among the downloaded files on the laptop, were utilities for rooting Android phones.  Just enough to be dangerous, indeed.

A Good Week So Far

Posted by on July 30, 2014 No comments

A couple of shoutouts for a couple of good actions by a couple of businesses I’ve dealt with.  These were cases where I could have been out a little bit of money, but they absorbed the cost in a show of goodwill.  For this, they deserve a good mention.

First, PNC Bank.  Under most circumstances, I would be giving them a rant post.  Consider this.  I’m on the board for a small non-profit organization.  We went to PNC last October and signed up for the free business checking.  Everything was just great.  Fast forward to two weeks ago and I got an email saying that August 1, there’s no more free checking and we would start getting charged $12/month.  We’re a really small organization, so $12/mo is significant.

That was enough to irk me, but after some research, I discovered that the PNC’s decision to end free checking was made before we had even opened our account.  So, our account rep sold us on an account knowing that in 10 months, we’d start getting hit with a fee.  That’s not fair.

I just closed the account on Monday.  The account rep was very understanding and didn’t give me any hassle.  Later on that evening, I made the awful realization that I never printed off my online statements.  Shame on me for not doing it each month.  So, I check PNC’s fee schedule and it looks like it’s going to cost me $5 per statement, or $50 total.  I take it on as a personal cost, since it was my screw-up.

I visit the bank Tuesday and sheepishly explain that I just closed my account and didn’t print my statements.  The rep didn’t even bat an eye and said they’d print them out right away.  And they did, for free.  My sum impression of PNC is that the local branch service is very good, and they want their customers to be happy, but maybe the higher-level execs are a little disconnected and are just looking at the numbers, hence the discontinuation of free accounts.

Second kudos go to AdoramaPix.  For the afore-mentioned organization, I had a need to print off a bunch of photos.  Shopping for price proved that AdoramaPix was substantially cheaper, and I wasn’t worried about using them because I’d previously dealt with Adorama and they are highly respected.

I order the photos at 10pm on a Thursday with an estimated delivery next Friday.  The next morning, I wake up to see my order has been shipped already  and my delivery estimate is now Wednesday.  I check the delivery tracking on Tuesday and discover the photos were delivered on Monday.  Damn.

Then I go out to get my mail.  No photos.  Oh my god.  I hate my mail carrier.  He or she is always misdelivering mail.  I’ve gotten valuable, important, and sometimes embarrassing things sent to me for my neighbors.  I either hand-deliver them or put them back to be redelivered.  This time it’s my turn.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot of faith in my neighbors.  So I send an email to AdoramaPix and file a claim on USPS’s site.  In the meantime, I’m wondering who just got $55 worth of pictures for free.  A few hours later, I get an email from Adorama.  An apology and a note that they’re reprinting my photos and resending them.  It was that simple.

So yeah, it’s been a good week.  Thanks to PNC and AdoramaPix whose personal service saved me unwelcome expenses.

Stranded

Posted by on July 25, 2014 No comments

Today, I got in my car to go to work today and I took note of the gas gauge.  I have enough to get to work and I can get gas at lunchtime.  So I head off to work.  Out on the interstate, there’s an accident.  Great.  Still doing good on gas, though.

It was a delay of about 10 mins.  I’ll be fine.  I decide to stop for breakfast.  At the Dunkin Donuts just down the road from my office, I get out of the car and something immediately feels odd.  Just as I realize what it is and my hand moves to my pocket, I have a flashback of the previous night.

I’m leaving my office and heading to bed and I look down at my desk.  I say to myself, “I have to remember my wallet tomorrow morning.  It’s not in its usual place.”

It’s still there on the desk.  How am I going to get breakfast?  Lunch?  Gas?  I have to go back and get it.  but I’m going to be late for work, like almost 2 hours late.  Nevermind, I’ll have to deal with that when I get back.

I jump back in my car and it hits me.  I don’t have enough gas to get back home to get my wallet.  My mind starts racing trying to figure out how to resolve this.  My only option is to continue to work and borrow some money to get me back home.  But what a ridiculous reason.

Ridiculous or not, that is what I did.  I went to my boss and explained the whole situation and he lent me the money to get the gas to get home and get my wallet.  I have a real issue accepting help from other people, so I took this a little harshly.