Friday, March 27, 2009

Scrobbling iPod touch way more complicated than it needs to be

So, ever since I learned about the possibility of scrobbling my iPod, I have wanted to do it. Even when I had a nano. And ever since then there have been obstacles in the way of me scrobbling my iPod. Most of the ones I've come across in the past have been overcome, but it's taken a lot more effort than it should have. How hard is it to write a program that sends two lines of text to Last.fm from the iPod (the song name and title)? Apparently it's very difficult, if my past experience is any judge. I won't get into all of the problems I've had because that would take far too long.

For the iPod touch, when I first got it, it had firmware version 1.1.1 on it, which allowed me to jailbreak it and install MobileScrobbler which is a wonderful application that allowed me to scrobble my iPod with out any problem whatsoever. In fact, it even submitted tracks through wifi, so I didn't have to do anything! But somewhere between now and then, someone, either Last.fm or Apple, decided that allowing this to happen was unacceptable (for some fucking stupid reason) and decided to remove support for this. It was probably Apple since they're the ones who have pissed me off since the iPod was brought out, and they're the ones who keep updating the firmware (and trying to charge $10 for it). Instead of purchasing this firmware upgrade (to 2.1.1 or whatever it is now) I got a free version online (more proof those at Apple are a bunch of tards). I was under the impression that when I "purchased" this firmware upgrade that the world of simplicity would open up for me. I was certainly wrong. I was aware that there was a Last.fm app and I was under the impression, logically, that this application would scrobble the tracks you listen to on your iPod, just like MobileScrobbler, maybe even better. Once again, I was wrong. Apparently it only scrobbles internet radio. Why?? Why the hell can't it scrobble the songs I listen to on my iPod? What the fuck is the point in that?

So basically, my only option was to use the Last.fm plugin on my computer to scrobble the tracks on my iPod. Even that is harder than it should be. I would have thought that the plugin could simply parse the iTunesDB file on the iPod (or whatever the iPod touch equivalent is). That is what it does, but not without it's own difficulties. First of all, I absolutely HAVE to open iTunes first, and then the Last.fm plugin. Secondly, the library HAS to be available on the hard drive in order for the songs to scrobble (which is a fucking bitch since my music collection is on an external hard drive which isn't always on). Third of all, when I add new songs to the iPod, I have do disconnect it and then reconnect it for the songs I added to scrobble the next time I listen to them. And even then that method doesn't work. I added a couple songs last time I connected my iPod to the computer, disconnected, and reconnected, and this time the songs still didn't scrobble. It wasn't a huge deal since it was only two songs I added, but if I add a few albums worth of music, that can be a huge problem.

I guess my main point of contention would be with the iPod. The fact that the iPod is tethered to the shitty piece of software called iTunes. I fucking hate iTunes with a passion. The only use I have for it is internet radio and it organizing my music collection. And there are other pieces of software for that. Why does the fucking iPod have to be connected to iTunes? Why can't it just allow for drag and drop compatibility? It would make my life a whole lot simpler. I lost a lot of respect for Apple when they designed this piece of shit iTunes. Not to mention the difficulty I had making an iTunes Store account without a credit card. That pissed me off to no end. Fucking money whores. All they need is a little fucking application that scrobbles my iPod tracks like MobileScrobbler... is it so much to ask?

Monday, March 2, 2009

Deliberate difficulty?

I am trying to uninstall this Microsoft Office shit from my computer (which isn't even the full version, it's only a 60 day trial). I downloaded OpenOffice instead for obvious reasons (one of them being it's like $300 cheaper). Apparently uninstalling Office is going to take an hour, plus it's going to freeze my computer every once in a while and make it stutter. Microsoft products are the only ones that do that (since I am cleaning some crap off the computer). My CPU load isn't even, on average, past 75% on either core. Is this a deliberate ploy to magnify the frustration and irritation that Microsoft products cause users? Is it a lame attempt at preventing people from uninstalling their cheap, rip off of a program? Some might call me paranoid, but I don't think it's that entirely outlandish.