No time for music? Apply some technology to that problem

Playlists are great, but who has the time? Outsource the creation of playlists I say

I don’t have nearly as much time to spend listening to and enjoying music and selecting it according to my own tastes and needs for the music, such as for relaxation or for upbeat workout music. However, I recently discovered that iTunes has pre-selected song lists full of workout music! There’s a great running mix that starts out with a few warmup songs and even has cooldown tunes at the end of an approximately 45 minute play list. Plus, the song lyrics are running- or racing-themed, such as “Counting Blue Cars,” “Run” by Snow Patrol, and “Drive.” I had already manually created a few running play lists, and even took the suggested songs from a Runner’s World magazine article and created my own iTunes list then published it for others to use as well. Runners World has a Long Run Mix and a Tempo Run Mix with different speeds of music to run to.

Here’s my version of their Tempo Run list:

• Out of Control: U2
• What Difference Does It Make?: The Smiths
• Run: Snow Patrol
• The way You Wear Your Head: Nada Surf
• Breaking the Law: Judas Priest
• Capital Radio One: The Clash
• Third Uncle: Brian Eno
• Disorder: Joy Division
• Jenny: Stellastarr*
• Thick as Thieves: The Jam
• Evil: Interpol
• Alright: Supergrass

My version of a Long Run list:

• Diamond Dogs: Beck
• Take California: Properllerheads
• Olsen Olsen: Sigur Ros
• Champagne Supernova: Oasis
• Run: Snow Patrol
• Politik: Coldplay
• The Scientist: Coldplay
• This Is the Last Time: Keane

Now, get out and actually run. With shoes if you prefer.

Now, along that same line of technology blended with iTunes and iPod, I have been looking into the Nike iPod Sport Kit. As it turns out, the Nike+iPod uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), and it transmits a unique ID in the 2.4 GHz band. So there is no accelerometer to measure your pace, instead, it just monitors how long your foot holds your weight (running faster means less time spent on each foot). The people at SparkFun discovered all this and wrote this fun article about the underlying technology. http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=Nike_iPod-Internals

Now this Wired article, Nike + iPod = Surveillance, feel the device makes it a little too easy to track someone while they’re wearing it. On the flip side of that, I’d imagine one could feel safer on a run if a trusted friend knew your path and estimated return time.

iTunes concert calendar trick

I also found out about iConcertCal at http://www.iconcertcal.com/ which lets you see local concert dates and times in a calendar in iTunes. Now that is a wonderful iTunes trick, especially if you’re like me and need to plan babysitting far in advance. (One of our sitters here in Austin was booked for New Year’s night four months ahead, I’m not kidding.) You install the iConcertCal application, then open iTunes and click View->Visualizer->iConcertCal so that there’s a checkmark next to it. Next, click View->Show Vizualizer and a monthly view of all upcoming concerts fills your iTunes screen. Works on Mac and PC, whee.

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Merriam Webster’s Pocket Dictionary on your iPod

Found this iPod Pocket Dictionary on my Gizmodo feed yesterday, and thought I’d pass it along. Since it’s the pocket version of the Merriam Webster dictionary, it’s only about 40,000 words. Interestingly, it appears that the interface doesn’t make you spell out the word by scrolling through letters, instead you select the first letter, then scroll through the choices. Sounds like the right design balance (limit the lookup choices, but ensure the interface isn’t frustrating to the user.)

Now, an additional feature that would really combine the audio power of the iPod with the dictionary would be a pronunciation guide that speaks the word aloud on demand. I really appreciate that feature in the online version of Merriam Webster at www.m-w.com. I’m usually a decent speller but can really butcher word pronunciations. The example word on the product site, abstract, has different pronunciations for the verb and the noun. Seize the opportunity for the technology mashup when you can, I say.

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How many songs are on your iPod?

I read on collision detection the other day that on the average, people only have 375 songs stored on their mp3 device, with iPod owners having a slightly larger average at 504 songs. While it’s still impressive that about two hundred CDs fit in a tiny hand-held device, it’s still a small percentage of the number of songs that could be stored on the bigger capacity mp3 players and iPods. With an upper-end 20,000 song capacity, don’t you think most people would have at least 2,000 songs on the average, or about 10% filled? Not so, according to this report where they surveyed 1,062 people who own digital music players. Fascinating!

Along these lines, it sounds like our forecast about infrastructure monitoring using BMC Performance Manager is on track. You don’t necessarily want to monitor everything under the sun including whether the kitchen sink is draining properly. You only want to monitor a set of parameters that matter to your business. Like the “most played songs” marker on your iTunes library, a “most monitored parameter” marker is what you seek when you set up your library of infrastructure and application monitoring parameters. What do you think? Simpler, fewer, and more targeted seems to be the way to go. Plus, connect the monitoring activities to business services and business applications that matter to your bottom line.

From the iPod to the Infrastructure and Application Management Route to Value and back again in two paragraphs. I’m no James Burke but I sure admire his Connections. Although I had a really hard time reading Twin Tracks, where the book layout has one story line written on the left-hand pages and the other story line written on the right-hand pages.

So, how many songs are on my iPod? I have the 512K iPod Shuffle, and it contains over 100 songs, which puts it at “full.” Based on capacity, I’m making the most of my investment, right? Or perhaps I just don’t have time to listen to more music than that.

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