User Error
December 24th, 2005 by EyeOnWinerDave throws a bit of a tantrum about iTunes. Again.
I find it interesting that despite his inability to work iTunes, I have a whole host of computer illiterate friends who use it with no problems whatsoever. But, because he doesn’t understand something, it’s “the worst piece of crap [he's] ever used.” Now, I’m no big fan of apple. I think most of their stuff is over-hyped and under-produced… but iTunes is a great piece of software, so let’s take some of Dave’s flames:
“Well, both [the Windows and Mac version of iTunes] are head-up-butt impossible to figure out.”
This is bizarre because of the sheer number of users who not only have figured it out but have done so on their own with no help. Then again, this isn’t the first time Dave hasn’t gotten something figured out quickly enough and then declares the software crap for his own failings. FWIW, iTunes is about a dozen times easier to use that the Outliner Dave recently wrote. Pot? Kettle.
The user model makes no sense.
…except to 90% of the planet, to whom it makes sense most of the time.
When is something on the iPod? How many copies of the music do I have? Where the fcuk are they?
Now, maybe I have a special “easy” version of iTunes… but when I plug my iPod into my computer, a little icon shows up in iTunes and if I click on it, it shows me what exactly is on my iPod. You have as many copies as you’ve told it to make… one on your HD for sure… maybe two if you’ve done some sort of conversion (MP3 -> AAC, for example) and then one on each of your iPods, should you so desire.
How do you delete something? Is it really gone?
Well, I’m not sure if this is just my “easy” version, but I generally hit the “delete” key. If you do that in a playlist, it deletes from there (and if the playlist is set to automatically sync, it’ll delete from the iPod if it’s not needed any more by other synced playlists) if you do it in the library, you can have it delete from the library or the whole system. If the latter, it’s really gone, yes.
Why does it wipe out the contents of the iPod when I don’t say it’s okay to?
In short? It doesn’t. As far as I can tell, Dave has implicitly said it was ok when he told two competing systems to sync automatically with two different sets of files. C’mon, Dave, that’s just dumb. From what I can tell, the sync is one-way only, though I could be wrong about that.
I buy the CDs and scan em in.
That’s one hell of a scanner. I guess $2 mil can buy you a lot of neat toys.
What did I do wrong? I swear, I have no idea, and I’m a professional software designer. What about the poor schnook who is just a user?
And now the ego reveals itself! “Well, if I can’t figure it out, how could anybody?” And, you know what? That’s probably true… except that Dave doesn’t want to know how it works or find out. He thinks it ought to be immediately obvious to him, and if it’s not, it’s poorly written software.
Just. Fucking. Ridiculous.