November 2008

iTunes Library hell

I’ve written before about my problems managing my iTunes library and it’s just getting worse and worse so I’m posting again in hopes that someone has figured out a solution or something that can help make it a bit less sucky.

So here’s my problem, I have a huge iTunes library. Easily 100 gigs. My main computer is a laptop, which doesn’t have the HD space to hold 100 gigs of MP3s. Moving it to an external HD was my original solution except if for some reason iTunes was launched without the HD being plugged in (by clicking an iTunes link, plugging in my iPhone, or any number of other reasons) then iTunes would not see the external HD, redirect the music links to the internal music folder which of course didn’t contain anything and then break all the links. Upon plugging the HD back in, iTunes would not look at it and the songs would remain broken and would need to be fixed by hand one at a time, or reimported creating duplicates. Argh!

My follow up solution was to have my full library at home, and a separate library, much smaller and mostly newer, on my laptop. Occasionally I’d dump the new stuff on to the old larger library and keep fingers crossed that this synced. Well it never did and I’m back with two different libraries both with tons of duplicates and missing songs, even though the files are there.

This really sucks.

6 best ways to get into conferences free

It’s web conference season again and being someone who goes to a ton of conferences, sees a lot of value in talking to the people who also attended a lot of conferences, sees little value in most of the panels at conferences and hasn’t paid for a conference in recent history, I thought I’d pass on a few tips to all you whippersnappers looking for ways to check this out. First off, let me take a second to note that I’ve talked to a lot of people recently who have relayed massive sob stories about not being able to afford conferences so therefor not going. Let me tell you, back in my day we didn’t let silly things like “not having the cash for admission” stand in our way! Anyway, here’s a few tricks to add to your jelly bean bowl that might help you get a seat for free that someone else had to con their company into paying for.

  1. Just walk in. Seriously, you’d be surprised at how often this works. The guards at the doors are supposed to be looking for badges but I suspect they are greatly underpaid and most don’t really care. Just act like you know what you are doing when you walk by. If for some reason they do stop you and ask, tell them you left it in your bag which is already inside and you just walked out a moment ago, don’t they remember?? You’ll be in in a heartbeat.
  2. Don’t want to risk having to BS with a guard? Get yourself a lanyard. A little known secret is that most conferences have unique sponsor branded lanyards that are just as good as a pass. Offer a real attendee $10 for their lanyard and put it around your neck, but tuck the end where a badge usually would be into your sweater or jacket – the guards will see the lanyard and assume you have a badge and waves you right past.
  3. Still worried about having your bluff called? Get a real badge. Doesn’t matter what name is on it, the guards aren’t checking IDs. If you have a pass from last year chances are it’s the same, if you don’t hang around at the end of day one and ask people who are leaving, ESPECIALLY speakers, if they are coming back the following day, and if not can you have their pass? I walked into an O’Reilly conference one year with Tim O’Reilly’s badge and the security didn’t even question it.
  4. Go as press. Finally you are official. After you’ve been to a few of these things chances are you’ve developed some kind of opinion about it. Write something up, and offer it to a few websites that cover these kinds of events/issues. If you don’t sound like a toolbox they might just take it and then presto, you’re a tech journalist. Apply for a press pass next time and maybe you can move up to “topical expert.”
  5. Get an invite. This takes a little more work than you might be up for, and might require doing a few of the above first so that people start to know who you are, but once you have a contact for the conference organizers and have some value you can offer them, most will be happy to slide you a pass.
  6. Be on a panel or present something. The logical next step, stop attending and start contributing. You know you have some scary insight by now right, so go for it.

New Day Rising

Wow. I really don’t know what else to say about this. Last night when I was heading out to an election party I was still pretty convinced that no matter what the polls were showing we’d all soon be living under a McCain/Palin Whitehouse. The last 8 years have been full of “that couldn’t possibly happen” leading into “omg how did that happen” so even with so much support for Obama in my immediate circle, I wasn’t convinced.

My first clue that something might be different this time was Ohio going for Obama with no struggle at all. I was kind of in shock, I’d gotten used to the returns being super close until the last minute so that getting pegged early on was not what I was expecting. Follow that up with everyone, including FOX News calling it for Obama before the polls even closed in some places and I was blown away. I’d forgotten what it was like not to have weeks of recounts and disputed votes. I’m in SF right now and the town was going insane. Seriously, look at this:

19th & Valencia @ Midnight

That was happening in the Mission. 19th and Valencia. One of the last places in the country I would expect a crowd of people waving American flags. But sure enough it happened. I talked to people today who said for the first time in their lives they hung flags in and out of their houses and finally understood what patriotism is all about. That’s kind of a big deal if you think about it. But this isn’t just impactful to previously skeptical Americans. There’s massive global impact here as well.

As you know I travel a lot and a good chunk of that is outside of the US. I’m constantly faced with people from other countries saying “well, you are cool enough but obviously you are the exception, the rest of your country must be idiots to have voted for that Bush guy.” When I try to tell people that not everyone voted for him, and even people who did vote for him aren’t 100% down which his actions over the last several years they usually scoff and point out of the country didn’t like him he’s get kicked out, so clearly people are behind him. General disgust aside, that has lead to deeper discussions about how great the US used to be, and how the Bush presidency is clearly a sign it’s going down the tubes. That’s not something I heard from one person in one country, it’s a feeling I got repeatedly all over the world. The US electing Obama over McCain is a clear message to everyone else on this planet that the US isn’t happy with the leadership we’ve had and we want something to change. This is good for all of us. Joi posted about this as well and it’s worth reading his take. Ian’s take is also worth checking out.

But let’s talk about McCain for a second, as I said I wasn’t convinced until he walked out and started his concession speech that it was really happening. And that speech was one of the best I’d ever seen. I’ve mentioned before that I was previously a McCain supporter (even at one point calling for a McCain/Hillary ticket) but his actions in this election turned me away. His choice of Palin as VP totally backfired and I lost count how many die hard republican friends of mine voted against their own party for the first time in their lives just to ensure she stayed out of the Whitehouse. If McCain hadn’t played politics and had been giving speeches like that one for the rest of this election he probably would have won, or it would have been a much closer race.

Obama’s speech was exactly what a President-elect should have said. I haven’t been a huge fan of Obama either and disagree on a few points but even I cheered as he spoke. That is what a leader should sound like, and for the first time in my life I see a US president that people actually want to rally behind, that they want to support and not just point out how much the other guy sucks. I saw people voting for someone instead of against someone, and that is truly remarkable. What happens now is going to be interesting, but I think we as a country are taking the first steps towards making things better rather than worse.