Off Topic:

Tony, when you capture the CarTalk stream, what program do you use and does it allow you to setup a schedule so you don't have to remember to record CarTalk everyday? I use a program called Super mp3 Recorder to capture a radio show too (Phil Hendrie), but I have to remember to record it or I'm screwed. It would be nice if I could set it up to record at a certain time everyday without me having to be around.

No, my software doesn't do scheduling. It's a rather intensive manual labor process, in fact. Perhaps that Super MP3 Recorder of yours will take command line parameters which will allow you to schedule it with the Windows scheduler software?

Sorry to bring up an old topic, but something just ocurred to me:

On the insert sub-menu (Enque, Append, Replace) would anyone ever want these to Enque, Append, Replace shuffled? (The way it currently operates) It seems to me that if you're Enqueing tracks, you probably have a reason for listening to them soon, and that you probably want them in order. The same goes for Appending (though I don't know why you'd do this at all while listening to a random shuffle). So for those two at least it seems to me like a good solution is for "Enque" and "Append" to always insert non-shuffled, even if the player is in shuffled mode. This would fix Tony's problem, and even allow Bitt to enque the albums he wants to hear in order. (Though it doesn't solve the reverse problem of wanting to to insert a shuffled playlist when the player isn't in shuffle mode). However, if the "replace" command were to always insert as non-shuffled (since it's already a duplicate command it could be reasonable be altered to work this way) then Bitt could essentially leave the player in shuffled mode and use the sub-menu for times when he wants to replace with a non-shuffled list.

So to recap: what I think would be cool would be to make the insert sub-menu options always insert in order. I don't know how technically feasable this is, or if perhaps I'm missing a reason why someone would want to enque/ append in shuffled order, but it would be a simpler interface than adding another sub-menu or something else because it utilizes the current setup. Just an idea anyway.

In reply to:

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On the insert sub-menu (Enque, Append, Replace) would anyone ever want these to Enque, Append, Replace shuffled?

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Yes, I actually use that functionality. For instance, if I've shuffled a whole bunch of tracks from artists X, Y, and Z, and I then decide, "hey, I'd like to get a few tracks from artist Q into this mix as well", I don't want to re-listen to tracks I've already listened to. Shuffling the tracks in makes sense in this case. It also basically makes sense from a UI standpoint, in that you've got shuffle selected as a global option, so it should apply globally.

Yes, I actually use that functionality. For instance, if I've shuffled a whole bunch of tracks from artists X, Y, and Z, and I then decide, "hey, I'd like to get a few tracks from artist Q into this mix as well", I don't want to re-listen to tracks I've already listened to.

Oh, well there you go then. So you'll want to hear all of the tracks by Q shuffled before you hear any more tracks by X, Y, and Z. If so I stand corrected then, which I thought I might. There are so many creative uses for this player!

It also basically makes sense from a UI standpoint, in that you've got shuffle selected as a global option, so it should apply globally.

Not sure that I totally agree here, as enquing non-shuffled sounds intuitive to me because I wouldn't have a use for shuffled enquing the way you do. Shuffeling the sub-menu basically makes it useless for me because if I'm ever listening to a shuffled playlist I want to hear a mix of the songs in random order, and putting a large block of an artist into the mix is something I'd never want to do, unless I was wanting to hear a specific album and then return to my mix (which I often would like to do, but cannot). If I want to have artist Q mixed in, I'd have to enque or append and then re-shuffle (which admittedly gives you the songs you've already heard again). I could actually see an additional feature for "shuffle in", but that's a different subject.

This whole thing could be made an option in emplode ("Shuffle Insert Sub-Menu") to handle different ways of using the player without further cluttering the runtime UI. Just a thought anyway.

If I want to have artist Q mixed in, I'd have to enque or append and then re-shuffle (which admittedly gives you the songs you've already heard again).

Does it? If so, that's a bug. Unshuffling and reshuffling in that situation is meant to do exactly what you're looking for: leave you part-way through the playlist with, coming up, all the Q songs and exactly those X, Y and Z songs you haven't heard yet -- all shuffled together.

Peter

Oh, well then I'm wrong.

I just assumed unshuffling and reshuffling would reshfulle the entire list (you can see I've only begun to user the shuffle feature recently). That's really cool! You guys have really have thought of everything.

Still, if it does work that way then that makes the case for what I'm proposing even better, as you'd have the ability to either insert a playlist in order in the middle of your current shuffled list or shuffle the new playlist into the remaining tracks. The only thing you'd lose is the ability to insert/append a block of shuffled tunes, which admittedly some people might want (or actually, do want it seems).