Organizing large [music] collections

marco:

My advice regarding library organization is always unpopular and always ignored, but hear me out here: delete most of your music.

It’s a convincing argument — especially the external hard drive option.

This is good advice [that i need to follow] for an iTunes library, but it’s also good advice for most everything else.

  • get rid of the apps in your dock you don’t use
  • uninstall the programs you don’t use
  • trash/shred papers you don’t need [including sentimental stuff. i have recently been trying to keep only the more cherished items and just shred things like birthday cards]
  • get rid of equipment you don’t use
  • get rid of food you don’t eat
  • remove myspace/facebook friends; unfollow twitter accounts with tweets of lesser value

The dichotomy between having it all and throwing everything away is one I struggle with.

On one hand, you want to have everything, be prepared for any situation, be able to solve any problem with things.

On the other hand, you want to be free mentally of clutter to have the capacity to tackle any problem.

Physical [and digital] stuff creates mental clutter.  It seems wrong that you have to make the choice, but you do.  If you choose to horde everything, it’s going to limit you mentally, due to the mental distraction and physical processing time stuff takes.  On the other hand if you can learn to let go of things, it opens you up to possibilities that were prevented from existing before.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Farm in the mountains at night

Son on the beach.

Son on the beach.

Here is me again walking along the beach yesterday. It was cold! lol

Here is me again walking along the beach yesterday.

It was cold! lol

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Testing an audio post from iPhone Tumblr app.

“It’s cold as shit.”
Some random guy that walked by
Meat the beach as a storm rolls in.

Meat the beach as a storm rolls in.

post idea

Would anyone be interested in an article concerning Google sync for iPhone and syncing Google Contacts with Address Book on a Mac?

You can use either, or perhaps both, in a way, to manage your contacts.

I have been experimenting around, and have come up against some issues…
I was thinking it might be helpful to flesh out these issues, and come up with a guide on a no-data-loss way to set it all up… because I have had some data loss… Partly my own fault…. while Microsoft Exchange pushing sounds great for syncing your Google Contacts to your iPhone… in practice, there are some caveats.

I’m basically just making this post as a mile marker to encourage me to make the real post.

Recording audio on a Mac

Let’s say you want to get audio from a program running on your Mac.
What might you want to record?

  • movie played in Quicktime or VLC
  • audio from iTunes [DRMed]
  • audio from a flash animation on a website [songs from strongbad emails anyone?]
  • etc.

On most current Windows PCs, I knew how to do this.

Basically, you just open up the recording volume controls and select the items that has your PCs audio.  The title varies… something like “stereo mix” most of the time, I believe.

Then open up your audio recorder of choice, start recording, start the audio in the other program you want to record, and there ya go.

On a Mac, it is apparently not as easy.

There is no input to select that has the audio of stuff running on your Mac.

There are a few programs, that allow you to do this, but they cost money.  They are pretty cool audio editors etc, in their own right[I’m referring to WireTap Studio and Audio Hijack Pro ].  But if ya just wanna record a little bit of audio, isn’t there a simple free way?

Yes* **.
*if you have a patch cable with 1/8” stereo phone plugs on each end
**If you don’t have one, you can order one from the site linked above for about $5 including shipping in the US.

Here’s how:
Download Audacity, a great free multi platform audio editor.
It’s easy to record in this program.  After opening it, it automatically opens a new window.  Just click the Red Circle record button, and it will start recording on a new track. 

Now, just connect the cable mentioned above from the headphone, or out jack on your Mac to the Mic/Line In jack.  Now, make sure the input selected in Audacity is Line In*, and record away.  You may need to adjust the volume levels in Audacity, your audio source, or your Mac volume level.

[*if it is not set as Line In, go to the Audacity Menu, Preferences, and look in the Audio I/O section for “Recording” and select Built-in Input.]

One disadvantage.. since you have a plug in your headphone jack, it turns your speakers off [at least on my MacBook], so you can’t hear what you are recording.

Extra credit:
To fix* the disadvantage mentioned above, get this little doohickey instead of the standard patch cable.  It will still be under $5, and you can connect your headphones as well.

*if you do this your headphones can also act as a microphone, but it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as you are quiet. :)

PS I was inspired to discover this, because I wanted to hear what sounded like reversed speech audio in the second season of the TV show, Lost.  Audacity has a reverse function.  I just recorded the audio, reversed it, and voila, secret stuff that most TV viewers never hear[i assume..].

Rain

Rain