When you burn a CD that has many contributing artists, it tends to automatically tag it like this...
Song: Song Name
Artist: Artist Name and Contributing Artist
Album Artist: Main Artist Name
To me, this is the way these tags are intended to be used. Unfortunately, iPods and Sonos do not seem to acknowledge the Album Artist Tag. When I'm browsing my 40k songs by Artist I see stuff like this...
Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre with Snoop Dog
Dr. Dre with so and so 1
Dr. Dre with so and so 2
I don't want to browse by "Artist". I want "Album Artist".
"Artist" is way to cluttered. I don't wan't my Dr Dre albums to show up as compilations, I wan't them under Dr Dre, and I don't want to loose contributing artist info, or bury it in a comment tag or in parenthesis of a song name. These are unnecessary work arounds.
I guess I just don't undertand what is so technically challenging about allowing users to browse collections by Album artist. It's just another tag.
I won't buy an iPod until this is a feature.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Plan for Microsoft Entertainment
Here is what needs to happen with Zune, Windows Media Center, Windows Live, Windows Home Server, Media Center Extenders, and XBOX.
Everything is controllable by the Zune:
Zune interfaces let you control your media center. This means schedule recordings, navigate content, select things to play or watch, etc. Similarly, it acts as a remote control for your extenders giving you all of the media center functionality at any TV with an extender.
Media Center should easily store things on Windows Home Servers:
Record TV, burn music, play Everything is streamable to the zune by wifi and cellular
Media Center needs to be easily cablecard compatible:
I want the full suite of comcast channels available in HD through my Media Center.
One tool should be used to manage all media, and everything should recognize when changes are made:
Song tagging, movie tagging, file names, what folders are automatically watched, etc. should all be managed centrally, with each device tapping this central location for indexing. I suppose you could have multiple tools for managing this as long as the data is shared, but why not invest time in one interface.
Advanced Tagging Included:
They need a better taggin too. I suggest looking at Tag and Rename for music and Open Media Library for Movies. ZUne needs to continue supporting the Album Artist tag. This is currently my biggest reason for owning a Zune.
Everything should stream to the Zune (Zune as an extender):
Essentially, the Zune should be able to function as a standalone extender, allowing you to access everything by wifi or cell, and also hook directly to a TV or Amplifier to serve up the movies, pics and tunes.
Zune should have card slot:
Cards are getting to be big. No need for huge storage, just make it expandable through card slots.
Add Video support to Windows Live Photo Galleries:
I love the one step publishing of photos to Windows Live, but I can't stand MSN Soapbox. Until they overhaul this, I'll just use the one click youtube.
Media Center and Extenders should play Multiple VOBs:
I want to backup my movies to Windows Home Server, preserve chapters and have it completely lossless. I don't want to convert it to DivX or anything else. I want one rip, and one format. Same goes for music. I want virtual limitless Codecs to choose from.
Zune Portable Gaming:
This doesn't interest me, and I hope there is an option for a gamerless Zune too, but why not make the Zune also like a Nintendo DS and dual as a portable gaming system. What about some sort of Xbox comaptability, I haven't thought this through. I think you can tell I don't do games right now, so my vision is not clear on this.
That's all for now.
Everything is controllable by the Zune:
Zune interfaces let you control your media center. This means schedule recordings, navigate content, select things to play or watch, etc. Similarly, it acts as a remote control for your extenders giving you all of the media center functionality at any TV with an extender.
Media Center should easily store things on Windows Home Servers:
Record TV, burn music, play Everything is streamable to the zune by wifi and cellular
Media Center needs to be easily cablecard compatible:
I want the full suite of comcast channels available in HD through my Media Center.
One tool should be used to manage all media, and everything should recognize when changes are made:
Song tagging, movie tagging, file names, what folders are automatically watched, etc. should all be managed centrally, with each device tapping this central location for indexing. I suppose you could have multiple tools for managing this as long as the data is shared, but why not invest time in one interface.
Advanced Tagging Included:
They need a better taggin too. I suggest looking at Tag and Rename for music and Open Media Library for Movies. ZUne needs to continue supporting the Album Artist tag. This is currently my biggest reason for owning a Zune.
Everything should stream to the Zune (Zune as an extender):
Essentially, the Zune should be able to function as a standalone extender, allowing you to access everything by wifi or cell, and also hook directly to a TV or Amplifier to serve up the movies, pics and tunes.
Zune should have card slot:
Cards are getting to be big. No need for huge storage, just make it expandable through card slots.
Add Video support to Windows Live Photo Galleries:
I love the one step publishing of photos to Windows Live, but I can't stand MSN Soapbox. Until they overhaul this, I'll just use the one click youtube.
Media Center and Extenders should play Multiple VOBs:
I want to backup my movies to Windows Home Server, preserve chapters and have it completely lossless. I don't want to convert it to DivX or anything else. I want one rip, and one format. Same goes for music. I want virtual limitless Codecs to choose from.
Zune Portable Gaming:
This doesn't interest me, and I hope there is an option for a gamerless Zune too, but why not make the Zune also like a Nintendo DS and dual as a portable gaming system. What about some sort of Xbox comaptability, I haven't thought this through. I think you can tell I don't do games right now, so my vision is not clear on this.
That's all for now.
Monday, April 20, 2009
How to refinance your loan
I used Lending Tree again.
If you have an Alaska Airlines mileage plan, use this link
http://www.lendingtree.com/alaska/?sourceid=27355
If you don't have a mileage plan you should get one. I earned one free flight to Europe (45k miles) just for closing my loan.
It's great if you know exactly the loan you want. It's a bit irritating because the lenders are like vultures. Plan on letting your cell phone go to voicemail for a while. The results through lending tree are a little bogus, so you have to follow up with the lenders to get the real scoop.
Then, this is what I did...
Email every lender asking for a Good Faith Estimate (GFE), providing them the exact loan criteria. In my case I told them
-my exisiting loan payoff amount
-how much extra I wanted as cash back
-roll the closing costs into the loan
-30 year fixed, 0 points
-estimated appraisal amount
-excellent credit
Most will provide exactly what you ask for, but some will put points in there so you have to remind them. Some of them are very pushy, and some will ask you to call them so they can get more info. They will ask you the same stuff you already entered into lendingtree.
Now comes the tricky part. Their GFE's will use different line items and numbering systems. I plugged them into a spreadsheet to compare. I think the most important figures are the rate and the 800 costs. The 1000 costs are also important, but those are third party costs and are usually similar from lender to lender.
Estimated prepaids will also be in the GFE, but those are irrelevant because I believe those are the same no matter who you go with. I threw my current lender into the mix and she was very close, but the rate was 1/8th higher. She tried to tell me her closing costs were lower, but she actually just estimated lower prepaids. Basically, she lied to me. That was very disappointing. Many of them seem to be very deceptive, but they all tell you they are the only ones who can be trusted.
Also, rates constantly change, so you can only compare them if you get updates rates at roughly the same time. The closing costs should remain the same, so once I pin them down on their GFE's I ask them for updated rates all at the same time. This will let you know where they stand.
It takes a little patience, but I think it works very well.
If you have an Alaska Airlines mileage plan, use this link
http://www.lendingtree.com/alaska/?sourceid=27355
If you don't have a mileage plan you should get one. I earned one free flight to Europe (45k miles) just for closing my loan.
It's great if you know exactly the loan you want. It's a bit irritating because the lenders are like vultures. Plan on letting your cell phone go to voicemail for a while. The results through lending tree are a little bogus, so you have to follow up with the lenders to get the real scoop.
Then, this is what I did...
Email every lender asking for a Good Faith Estimate (GFE), providing them the exact loan criteria. In my case I told them
-my exisiting loan payoff amount
-how much extra I wanted as cash back
-roll the closing costs into the loan
-30 year fixed, 0 points
-estimated appraisal amount
-excellent credit
Most will provide exactly what you ask for, but some will put points in there so you have to remind them. Some of them are very pushy, and some will ask you to call them so they can get more info. They will ask you the same stuff you already entered into lendingtree.
Now comes the tricky part. Their GFE's will use different line items and numbering systems. I plugged them into a spreadsheet to compare. I think the most important figures are the rate and the 800 costs. The 1000 costs are also important, but those are third party costs and are usually similar from lender to lender.
Estimated prepaids will also be in the GFE, but those are irrelevant because I believe those are the same no matter who you go with. I threw my current lender into the mix and she was very close, but the rate was 1/8th higher. She tried to tell me her closing costs were lower, but she actually just estimated lower prepaids. Basically, she lied to me. That was very disappointing. Many of them seem to be very deceptive, but they all tell you they are the only ones who can be trusted.
Also, rates constantly change, so you can only compare them if you get updates rates at roughly the same time. The closing costs should remain the same, so once I pin them down on their GFE's I ask them for updated rates all at the same time. This will let you know where they stand.
It takes a little patience, but I think it works very well.
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