I’ve been spending a fair bit of time with my music lately. Re-ripping everything I own in lossless format, and also trying a bunch of new stuff via lala. The amount of data involved now is substantial enough that I would be sad if I had to rerip everything. And we are a multi-listener, multi-ipod household, so I need to provide access to the music for multiple users. Here is what I currently do.

• Acquisition. I rip everything in flac lossless format using dbpoweramp using accuraterip to insure quality. I used to use exactaudiocopy, it is a fine program too, but I find the dbpoweramp interface a little cleaner. From this effort, I get an ever-growing store of flac-encoded content as I rerip all my cds.
• Conversion. Unfortunately the iPod doesn’t speak flac, and the ipod hard disks aren’t big enough to handle flac. So weekly I downconvert all my new flac content to mp3 using dbpoweramp again. works pretty well in batch mode.
• Library-ization. I take the converted mp3 content once a week and add it to iTunes on one machine, and I let iTunes rename/reorg the files on this machine only. Because I am replacing old mp3s from previous rips, this sometimes creates some cleanup work for me – dupe files, etc. I’ve tried various strategies to limit he cleanup work but none of them work well.
• Fanout. To get the library on all machines, I currently use beyondcompare. It seems pretty fast and has an intuitive interface for me. I can save my various configs, it is pretty quick and painless to get everything in sync. this gives everyone a copy of the mp3 lib, and on their machines they can keep their own ratings, etc. Oh one key thing I also use – on my mac mini I have just started using sharepoints – makes it easy to share an arbitrary directory for network use by pc clients.
• Archiving. I also use beyondcompare to make a couple copies of the underlying flac storage, even though no one really uses those versions directly. I did install a flac filter on one machine so I could play the flac versions directly in WMP but I rarely do that.

The next two things I intend to do are:

• add in another hard disk to the fanout/archiving mix, and rotate it to my office, so that I have offsite storage.I’ve already done this informally but I need to make it a core part of the process.
• look into how to export the itunes ratings from one machine to another. I personally use two machines and I’d like to keep the ratings in sync on those two. I’ve seen articles on how to do this, just need to dig in a little.
• I also need to start thinking about how to integrate multiple ipods for my own use. my music collection in mp3 format far exceeds the storage of the biggest ipod. so far I’ve been able to keep on top of this by rating songs and dumping all the 1-stars off the ipod automagically at sync time. but with all the lala-provided discs I am trialling, I have way too much music – I want to carry around all the songs I know I like, plus all the ones I have yet to listen to. Not sure what the right strategy is here yet.

I love google maps and mapquest, but if you are planning a multi-leg road trip – say for instance visiting 8 colleges and universities over 4 days – AAA triptiks are still pretty darn useful. They make it easy to specify multiple stops, save your plans and try variants, and they print out pretty well. I joined AAA for other reasons, I’m not sure I would pay the fee just for triptiks, but if you are already a member, worth trying.

Been a while since I had time to play with any software.

* Beyond Compare 2.4 out. What I’ve been using to keep machines in sync… * …but I hear good things about syncback as well * Hamachi -- a lightweight VPN solution. Rich pointed me at this. I am a little nervous about putting a VPN server on the home network. * Wikicalc latest version. Now that Google has purchased writely i guess we will see a feeding frenzy around online spreadsheets and presentation packages. * Pocketmod. Low tech but decidedly useful. * Rich on backing up game cds. It is a lot of bother. * Siteadvisor plugin. Nice. * Why Reboot? A handy little doohickey for the curious. Another handy little thingee – Brutus -- easy shutdown and restart. * Phil on structured blogging plugin. I think edgeio is going to be easy for me to adopt. * Rich on video screensavers. Tried one and got hung up on not having the right codecs, grrr. Nice idea tho. * Hyperwords plugin. Not sure it is that helpful.

Fanblogs points to all the spring practice schedules for all the div I schools.

Gosh this is cool – mpire researcher. Web2.0 mining of the ebay transaction activity. In this case for ipod sales. Wow. Disclosure – we are an investor in these guys. But it is still cool.

* “Cities in the Wilderness : A New Vision of Land Use in America”:amazon by former interior secretary Bruce Babbitt. I alternate between hate and love for this book. Love the goals of better protecting and restoring our natural landscapes. Bruce is clearly smart and experienced. Hate the general bias towards big expensive governmental mechanisms. Love his willingness to repurpose existing agricultural entitlements to achieve his goals – seems pragmatic and efficient. Again tho hate the general bias towards massive government. I’d argue that the best government is a a very light, deft touch, with great leverage of the marketplace – for instance the Federal Reserve and its management of the economy. Sure wish smart policy thinkers would come up with an analog for managing our natural resources. Whatever, an interesting read by a smart guy. * “Tell No One”:amazon byt Harlan Coben. My second by Harlan, what a great twisty thriller. This guy can engage you. Stud. * “The Turn Of The Screw”:amazon by Henry James. Did I review this before? Good little horror tale. Never quite clear who is seeing what, what is real, what is imagined. Fairly stilted language but still does the job. * “Martian Time-Slip”:amazon by Philip K. Dick. Doesn’t age well. You are going to be more intrigued reading Bradbury (ages well) or reading more current authors. * “Cell”:amazon by Stephen King. Not up to the best of his “classic” period (It, Pet sematary,…). But a good modern scare. * “Life with Jeeves”:amazon by P. G. Wodehouse. Delightful. Plots for a dozen light romances in here. A joining of 3 books – a little long. But in small doses, marvelous. This would be a great book to leave sitting in a cabin – great for idle reading.

Via gadgetopia, Hidden Passageway – secret doors, etc, for your home. Awesome.

The Sports Economist discusses today’s NY Times article on the evidence for point shaving in NCAA basketball. Really, is it any surprise that 18-21 year olds can be swayed by a few thousand bucks, when they are working in an industry which generates hundreds of millions in revenues, none of which goes to them? Can you blame them?

Until the adults involved in college sports (the networks, schools, the ncaa, the sponsors) quit stuffing their own pockets and start sharing the revenues equitably with the people creating the value, leakages like this will happen.

Rant off.

OK I have no idea if this is the best of Yakima but it is what I found in 4 days there:

* Where to stay – we stayed in the Hojo’s, it was merely adequate. Locals tell me that the Red Lion and the new Marriott Courtyard are nicer * Dining – Zesta Cucina was great! The find of the trip. Great atmosphere, and they handled our huge group (45+) well. We also dined at the Olive Garden – it was yet another Olive Garden – and at Tequila’s – standard chain Mexican but in converted railroad cars downtown so kind of fun. Both the Garden and Tequila’s also did a good job with our mob. In all cases, do the restaurant a favor – have one person pay and figure out how to break it up later. * Lunch – El Grullense (near the Sundome) is a fine little taqueria. And Miner’s (also near the dome) is classic burger drive-in fare. * Recreation – well of course if you are there for a high school state tournament or a state fair then you will spend a lot of time at the Sundome. Note that they have some fairly restrictive rules about fan behaviour for high school events so you might want to dig into it before you go - signs, bodypainting, too much standing, boomboxes – all prohibited. As is outside food of any sort. * Other recreation – the riverwalk along the Naches and Yakima rivers is a pleasant walk. And you can get into the Cascades to the west in a half hour for hiking etc. The Naches Ranger Station on Route 12 is a great place to stop and get current condition info, maps, etc. Based on my experience - bring snowshoes if you are heading out in early march, because there aren’t many trails clear yet.

To match my new sli pc, i updated to gaming-optimized input devices – the g5 mouse and g15 keyboard. The keyboard is cool – the little lcd display during games is very cool. I’ve seen this keyboard in action for months and finally had to get one. The mouse is also cool – the adjustable weights are awesome – i am running in the heaviest config right now but will see where i end up.

One huge beef tho – the lack of certified drivers. Not that I am anal about certification, it is just that install is a PITA as you have to wade thru a sea of warnings from MSFT that these drivers will make your PC break out in hives. Logitech is a big company, MSFT is a big company, why can’t they get their heads together and get this solved?

* Congrats to the Judy’s Book team on their site relaunch. A new look – the new page for nonmembers is great. The ability to simultaneously post to JB and to your blog is awesome – rich has been doing a lot of. I’m way behind Rich on posting volume but working to ratchet my rate up. (I’m on the board of directors). * Congrats to the Qiming team for the launch of their first fund. An Ignition partnership, some of my partners will be spending a LOT of time there. John discusses, Rich discusses.

Nice post on radio shack’s increasing irrelevance to most consumers. As a make-magazine kind of guy,i tend to only go into radio shack when i need some part or cable to interconnect things. And I always wonder why radio shack prices all the little parts i buy so low. They are certainly leaving money on the table in my transactions.

Reading Jason’s post on 8 things to craft your career and john’s on “can you tell me what your job is in 3 seconds” caused me to reflect back on some lessons I learned early in my career.

A very smart colleague at Booz-Allen gave me two simple rules to help me in guiding my career:

* Work on a business that is critical to the enterprise in which you work. Read the annual report of your company – does it talk about your business a lot, does it care about your business, does your business contribute a substantial profit to the enterprise? If so, the company will invest in and protect the business, and you will personally get support and challenges. If on the other hand the company doesn’t really care about your business – then you will be under-resourced, under-supported, and you may very well find your business shut down or sold some day. * You can either make things, or sell things. These are the two sources of enduring value in a business. And I am using a broad definition of “make” – i mean you have to be involved in creating the core value of the business – whether that be making products or providing a service. These are the functions that have to happen no matter what in a business. Every other function is subject to the vagaries of internal politics, bureaucracy, cost-cutting pressures, and other unpredictable forces – and thus is it hard to control your career path.

Following these rules always presented me with opportunities, challenges, responsibilities, and chances for career mobility. A whole separate discussion can be had about whether you want an aggressively upwardly mobile career-building job at all points in your life – you probably don’t – but if you do, these are reasonable simple guidelines.

I drink coffee. I am addicted to crosswords. Hence the perfect contest for me – win a cup of coffee a day for 50 years. I finished today’s first puzzle – not very hard – the equivalent of a monday or maybe tuesday NY Times puzzle – I wonder if they are going to ramp up.

The original operating manual for the Haunted Mansion, via Rob Fahrni. Nice.