Technology As A Journey, Not a Destination

I was surprised to a new little button in iTunes a few days ago called iTunes Match.  I have not heard much of this other than it being an add-on to the iCloud offering. I have not been one to jump on the bandwagon of storing music in the cloud, so that is probably why I have not paid much attention to it.  However, I have been sufficiently impressed with iCloud except that I did not read a warning message and deleted a bunch of my contacts by accident.  Luckily, I know most numbers and addresses so I was able to rebuild it.  That aside, the idea of syncing my music with iTunes quality, DRM-free tracks is appealing.

Back Story

The bulk of my music collection represents CDs we have ripped, most of which were not ripped all in the same month or year, let alone in the same format or bit rate.  In fact, we would do a song here or there, a whole album here, another song there and so on.  It’s also possible that it was done on multiple computers at different encodings and with different formats.  For instance, one song on an album may be AAC, while another is MP3, and yet another may be (shudder) WMA.  For quite some time we were a mixed OS household – a couple of Windows XP machines and Ubuntu.  It didn’t start out being on portable players, it was more of having a song available as we sat at the computer and didn’t want to hunt for a CD.

The same goes for purchased music.  Through the years I have purchased music from a variety of sources online.  Some has been shackled with DRM and some in mp3 format, again, all in different bit rates and volumes.

Through the past few years, we have been through a variety of mobile devices and eventually became a strictly iPod and Apple household.

The Apple Household

We are completely Apple, right down to an Apple TV and a pair of iPhones.  I know that some do not like the complete integration of everything media-related into iTunes, but I actually find it very useful.  In my past computing experience with other devices, it was a multi step process to get media onto the device. One of the aspects of iTunes that I love is that I can plug any of my devices into it and it will sync what I tell it to do.  Everything is in one place and I find that simple and wonderful.

The Conversion

I took some time to prep my library and made sure that everything was what I wanted to match and available in the cloud.  There were some tracks that I had downloaded from free samples, artist mailing lists and various other (legal) sources.  Some of those tracks are very good and I would like to have them available in iCloud, but not all.  If nothing else, this prompted me to clean out the junk in my iTunes library.

The experience of scanning my library was pretty simple and took only a few minutes.  It went through about 3100 songs and matched all but about 250.  Some of those were just not available in iTunes, but some of them did have corresponding tracks in the iTunes store.  I hit Google and found a variety of solutions, but this one in the Apple community forums offered the solution that worked for me for the majority of my match problems.  On the second page is a suggestion to convert to AAC for those that are simply not fixed by deleting and re-adding.

One thing that I noticed is that the meta tags seemed to make a difference in the matching.  From what I read on various sources before I started this, it seemed as though they didn’t make a difference so I didn’t pay a lot of attention.  However,  I had one album that just would not match and I realized that there was a typo in the album name.  Once I fixed that and added to iCloud again, it worked like a charm.

Getting back to my hodgepodge of track bit rate and format, I was particularly excited about the ability to re-download music in the higher bit rate in the AAC format.  It brings me back to the first time I was burned by DRM.  I can’t even remember which service it was – it’s long gone now – but it was in some Windows Media DRM format.  Long story short, I got an e-mail that my music was going to stop working unless I burned it to a CD.  So I did, and then re-ripped it to mp3.  As you can imagine, the tracks sounded like crap.  As luck would have it, this particular album was one that I could match and download in the original quality in DRM free AAC format.

I have a couple of CDs that were in 128 bit encoding, but I cannot re-rip them because the original disks have been damaged in one of our moves.  It’s not music I listen to frequently, so really not worth re-purchasing.  Again, this is going to be great to make the format of my music library more consistent and high quality.  That alone is worth the annual price and the time.  I am sure I will also appreciate it at work or when we are traveling to have access to our entire iTunes collection from our mobile devices.

All in all, I think this is a great service and will be sharing my thoughts as I use it more.

For the longest time while a Mac user over a decade ago, there was a definite boundary of “stuff” that one could do with a Mac.  I’ve tried to pinpoint my switch to Windows and I think it was just by sheer lack of “stuff” to do on my computer.  Couple that with becoming part of the corporate world, and I suppose that’s just what happens.  During my time as a Mac user, I dabbled with various flavors of Linux and always ran into the same thing.  If you were not a programmer or hardcore computer “techie” there was not much for you in Linux.  Web browsing, e-mail, basic word processing, and that was about it as far as mainstream applications go on a desktop computer.  It never lost its value as a server, and has increased in that regard even more so.  For this discussion, however, I’m talking about the desktop computer that you check your bank account, check Facebook and share digital media.

Fast forward to now.  Since it’s release, I have upgraded two machines to Ubuntu 10.04 and I am just blown away in how far it has come.  Every release of Ubuntu Linux is better.  I’ve even got a few friends and family running Ubuntu exclusively, and they have never even noticed that Windows XP is gone.  In fact, you tend to notice the OS even less with Linux.  And really, that’s the way it should be.  I guess that’s why I’ve fallen in love with my Mac.  It just does what I want and stays out of my way.  A few software updates here and there, but otherwise the OS stays out of my way.

Ubuntu started out as a very polished and commercial-looking flavor of Linux.  I have been regularly using it since 5.10.  Each version brings us closer to even more freedom in our desktop computing needs.  I kept a virtualized copy of Windows XP and Windows 7, just in case.  Since leaving one of my customers that had a VPN that wouldn’t work in anything other than XP, I have not booted up those virtual machines since.

Where once I was dependent on the applications in Windows XP, I find that I no longer need it for anything.  I’m at a point where I’m surprised that Microsoft products are completely irrelevant in my personal life, and increasingly less relevant in my business role.  Do I love Office for Mac?  Not really, I could switch to something else if I had the ambition to learn it.  Could I live without it?  Absolutely.   That makes me happy.

If suddenly my Mac went away, I would have not trouble switching to Ubuntu exclusively.  The Mac is still obviously a commercial release and the hardware/software integration is second to none.  I doubt they have much to fear from Ubuntu, but the other player in this business sure does.  What I don’t understand is that probably significantly more development and resources went into Windows 7 and it wouldn’t even be a consideration for me if my Mac self-destructed.  If you haven’t yet, go get Ubuntu.  It’s free and easy.  You just might find yourself surprised.

So I have two Acer AspireOne netbooks that I have tried, unsuccessfully, to auction on ebay.  One is running Windows 7 Home Premium that I upgraded via a USB flash drive.  The other is running Ubuntu Netbook Remix.  The more I use them, I realize that the size of these netbooks is not particularly great.  There was a time when I really enjoyed taking them into bed or sitting on the couch with them for just web browsing.  Before I got a macbook, I always had bulky laptop computers that were just too big to sit comfortably with.  The Macbook changed that, but then made me crave smaller.  The size of the Macbook 13″ is just perfect for portability, but sometimes you need something smaller.

Taking a laptop into bed to read is a hassle and an annoyance for your spouse.  Whether that is a full-size laptop like my Macbook or the Acer Aspire netbook, it’s still a pain.

It had been a while since I even turned on either of the netbooks, so I decided tonight to grab one and try to work on some learning in Moodle that I am woefully behind in finishing.  The Windows 7 machine, for some reason, decides at the most inopportune time to install updates and restart.  Then it decided that it couldn’t  update anyway, but that’s a rant for another time.

As I was working on those, I realized that the size of the screen just wasn’t right for reading the tutorials.  I was forever scrolling and moving and it just irritated me to no end.  So I grab the iPad to see if that would work.  Well, some of the tutorials were in flash format, so that scratched that idea.  However, the size of the iPad was perfect for what I needed.

In the end, I needed to use my Macbook, but I was left annoyed by the fact that the two devices I wanted to use wouldn’t work for me.  And then I realized that this whole iPad type device is still the first of its kind.  As it progresses and people try to outdo each other, I’m sure in about five years these devices will see as archaic as the floppy disk.

This whole game of Mac vs. PC is really a game that takes a lot of energy, but yields no results.  I, myself, have been sucked into this game and really it has served nothing but waste time.  Both sides think theirs is better and, really, there’s no changing minds.  It’s one of those divisions that people become emotionally invested in for some reason.

In my position, I find that I must remove myself from that and try to find the right tool for the job.  There’s no sense buying shovels if you need rakes.  Sure, you can do some raking functions with a shovel, but wouldn’t it make more sense to buy a rake if you need to rake?  But what I see in this paradigm is people arguing why rakes are better than shovels and vice versa.

If you step back and look at your task, either you need a rake or a shovel.  I know, my analogies are odd, but I think it’s relevant.  If we’re editing spreadsheets and word processing, give me a PC with a huge monitor any day.  If I’m creating something other than an Office document, give me a Mac any day.  It all depends on the task at hand.

So as I investigate technology for our school district, I find that these tired old Mac vs. PC debates start up. What I attempt to do in every aspect of my job is to find the right tool for the job.  I ask questions, I see what works and try to avoid what doesn’t.  Networking in today’s world is excellent.  Lots of people blog about what works and what doesn’t.  It’s just a matter of seeking out that information and using it.  There really is no sense in repeating the same mistakes someone else has already made.

I think what bothers people more than anything is change.  Change is both difficult and wonderful.  What is becoming more and more apparent is that in the years ahead, it’s not going to matter one bit what camp you live in.  Whether it be Mac, PC, Linux, or whatever else, it’s all just a different way of getting to the same place.  Google doesn’t care what I use to search, nor does most of the web for that matter.

I just get frustrated arguing over whether we should buy shovels just because everyone else rakes with a shovel.

The grant was finally decided.  After weeks of discussion, the district made the decision to purchase Macbooks for teachers.  It seems to be a mixed bag of responses.  One of the things about Macs that I’ve found, however, is that they speak for themselves.  You can’t use one and not see the improvement in usability and reliability.

The last few weeks have been spent getting them set up and ready to go to teachers.  Our support staff in the schools got to have theirs over the Christmas break and get familiar with them.  A couple of the teachers now have them and are using them, both with very positive feedback.  Tomorrow is another day of bringing them to a couple of the other schools.  It’s fun to bring new technology to the ones that are excited about it.

So far, the Macbooks have lived up to the expectations I have.