Asymmetrical Information

"If you only knew the effort it took me to type those words"
Are you kidding me? Those songs evoke suck great childhood memories. Wait until you have to type in "My Perogative - Bobby Brown" That's tough to type.

Unrelated to the content of your post - can you explain why Google reader is better than others - say Bloglines?

I just imported my subscriptions and must say that the Google reader is much less viewer friendly. I'm certain I'm missing something important or cool. Can you enlighten me?

AJ

Interesting experiment. Very interesting.

I took it an additional step further by comparing the random list with my hand-picked choices for that spot on the soundtrack. My only conclusion is that WinAmp is really on my side today.

And what's wrong with "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant"? One of my favorite songs ever.

I'm more amused by the fact that "She's Always a Woman" is your wedding song. Not sure whether it'd be better or worse if you were the guy, though...

No fair. How do I play this game with a stack of CDs?

Opening Credits
Iris, Goo Goo Dolls (reasonable)

Waking Up
Celebrity Skin, Hole

First Day at School
Reload, Rob Zombie

Falling in Love
Hello I Love You, The Doors

Breaking Up
Freshmen, The Verve Pipe

Prom
Black Balloon, Goo Goo Dolls

Life's Okay
Mutt, Blink-182

Mental Breakdown
Let's Get It Started, Black Eyed Peas

Driving
Daydream Believer, The Monkees

Flashback
Classical Gas

Getting back together
Drive My Car, The Beatles

Wedding
Natural Blues, Moby

Birth of a child
Everlong, Foo Fighters

Final Battle
The Way You Like It, Adema

Death Scene
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret, Queens of the Stone Age

Funeral Song
Bodies, Drowning Pool

End Credits
Paradise City, Guns and Roses

Aside from Rob Zombie, those were startlingly appropriate. I'm really impressed.

Oh, and it's easy to play with a stack of CDs. You know how to shuffle cards, right? It's like that.

Hey - I actually got F****n With My Head (Beck) for Mental Breakdown...

And the Overture from Phantom of the Opera for Falling in Love...

No fair. How do I play this game with a stack of CDs?

Step 1: Rip CDs onto MP3 format.
Step 2: Download WinAmp.
Step 3: Return to original directions.

Simple, really. Unless you're on a library computer. Then you might have a difficulty or two.

Opening Credits:
Johnny Come Home -- Fine Young Cannibals

Waking Up:
I'll Get Lucky -- The Plimsouls

First Day At School:
All the Critics Love U in New York -- Prince

Falling in Love:
Stuck in Time -- Barry Holdship

Breaking Up:
I Think You Know What I Mean -- Lyle Lovett

Prom:
Little Wing -- Jimi Hendrix

Life’s Okay:
When You Hold Me Tight -- John Hiatt

Mental Breakdown:
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) -- The Rolling Stones

Driving:
Someday, Someway -- Marshall Crenshaw

Flashback:
She's Already Made Up Her Mind -- Lyle Lovett

Getting Back Together:
Maybellene -- Chuck Berry

Wedding:
Bugle Call Rag -- Benny Goodman

Birth of a Child:
Man Out Of Time -- Elvis Costello

Final Battle:
Mary Kay -- Jill Sobule

Death Scene:
Naked -- Goo Goo Dolls

Funeral Song:
Blue Guitar -- Cowboy Junkies

End Credits:
Sick & Tired -- Eric Clapton

Nothing too embarrassing snuck in there (except maybe Fine Young Cannibals). I did throw out part 65 of Michel Thomas's Learning Italian discs -- I wasn't sure what the appropriate policy was on non-musical selections.

Opening Credits: Chemical Brothers - One Too Many Mornings
Waking Up: Nirvana - About a Girl
First Day at School: Ben Folds Five - Don't Change Your Plans
Falling in Love: Rammstein - Rein Raus
Breaking Up: Queen - A Kind of Magic
Prom: Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians - Nothing
Life's Okay: Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes
Mental Breakdown: Q-Unit - Crazy Little Pimp Called Love
Driving: Verve Pipe - Cattle
Flashback: Vangelis - Main Title and Prologue (Blade Runner sound track)
Getting back together: July For Kings - Normal Life
Wedding: Soundgarden - The Day I Tried to Live
Birth of a child: Big Jack Johnson - We Got to Stop this Killin'
Final Battle: Matthew Good Band - Radio Bomb
Death Scene: Incubus - New Skin
Funeral Song: Hoobastank - Running Away
End Credits: Jimmy Eat World - Your House

"1 If you only knew the effort it took me to type those words"

heh, honesty... is such a lonely word... but at least you get a bottle of red, a bottle of white. Candor is appreciated, and it could be worse [older], it could be streetlife seranade, or pianoman :bigdamngrin:

er, off colfax?
"Step 1: Rip CDs onto MP3 format."
There is a reason they remain CD's... even my old man ears can tell the difference, plus, why spend all the time converting 400 cd's WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE THEM? At least those are the reasons I have... YMMV :D

I got some pretty good ones (starred):

Opening Credits: Devil Inside - INXS

*Waking Up: Sunday Morning Coming Down – Johnny Cash

*First Day At School: Kodachrome – Paul Simon

Falling in Love: Pride (In the name of Love) – U2

Breaking Up: Inside Out – Sountrack from the film “Everything is Illuminated”

*Prom: Jack the Ripper – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Life’s Okay: Heartbreak Beat – Psychedelic Furs

Mental Breakdown: Still in Love – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Driving: All Day and All of the Night – The Kinks

Flashback: (I’ll Love You) Until the End of the World – Nick Cave (from the Soundtrack of the film “Until the End of the World”)

Getting Back Together: Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own – U2

Wedding: Riders on the Storm – The Doors

Birth of a Child: Plastic Man – The Kinks

Final Battle: Links 234 - Rammstein

Death Scene: Session Man – The Kinks

Funeral Song: Perfect Love … Gone Wrong - Sting

End Credits: 1,000 Kisses – Will Smith, featuring Jada

The only one I'm embarrassed to have to write is the Sting (I've been meaning to pull him from my iPod); The Kinks showing up a lot is reasonable (I have every one of their albums, from their 30+ year career); too much Nick Cave (left over from my "angry young man" stage of life).

Pip.

This brings up an interesting issue. Personally, I believe the shuffle on every device (ipod included) I've ever owned is broken. It always seems like it selects the exact same songs or exact same artists way too much considering the amount of music available for it to shuffle. I have a pretty big musical collection (12 days of music), yet time and again it seems to select from certain artists far to often to be chance.

Now, a shuffle program would seem to be fairly easy to make pretty random. I assume that after 20 years of the shuffle option, you could prove mathmatically that the shuffle program is totally random and really is working as advertised.

Yet I keep seeing patterns, Jane sees patterns, a lot of people keep thinking that the shuffle has non-random elements.

Are we suffering from some perceptual bias or is the program badly designed?

This brings up an interesting issue. Personally, I believe the shuffle on every device (ipod included) I've ever owned is broken.

Actually, what's broken is your sense of randomness (and mine, too). If you ask people to give you a list of random digits, they'll make the mistake of NOT including enough duplicates. The result 'looks' more random but mathematically speaking, it isn't.

That said, there's no reason why a random shuffle algorithm couldn't be improved by, say, not playing another song from an artist you'd heard recently.

It depends on how the random shuffle is supposed to be "random". If it's a random pick from the whole list after every song, then you're going to get an annoying amount of duplicates. Or it could shuffle the list into random order then go down it; this would play everything once before repeating anything. I think I'd like that better. Best would be the shuffled list with the capability of manually inserting repeats.

On my iPod, and I suspect most other people's iPods, too, "random" is a random shuffle.

I've noticed a tendency for mine to have clusters of songs by the same artist near the beginning - and I'll run 200 to 300 into a shuffle before adding more songs or deliberately picking out a song (both of which destroy the previous shuffle).

If anyone more statistically minded wants to check, I'll provide some numbers.