Find unchecked songs in iTunes -- still need this workaround

Three years after this clever hint was written, there's still no other way to find all unchecked items in iTunes. You can't directly sort or filter on checked status.

This becomes important when your Library outgrows your iPod. Movies can do that to any iPod. (Note that the tip works up to 99,999 items and you need to first define all checked to find all unchecked.)

macosxhints.com - Use a Smart Playlist to see unchecked songs in iTunes

Part 1: Create a playlist with all checked songs in your library:

1. Create a new Smart Playlist in iTunes.
2. Uncheck "Match the following condition" in the new playlist dialog. This will cause all songs to be in the playlist.
3. Check the box by "Limit to" and fill it out with a very large number -- one that is much larger than the number of songs in your library (say, 300,000). Again, this will cause the playlist to include ALL songs.
4. Check "Match only Checked Songs" and leave "Live Updating" checked. This will only match songs that are checked.
5. Click OK and name the Playlist "Songs (Checked)".

This playlist now includes all the checked songs in your library.

Part 2: Create a playlist with all the unchecked songs in your library:

1. Create a new Smart Playlist in iTunes.
2. This time, leave "Match the following condition" checked.
3. As the condition, select "Playlist is not 'Songs (Checked)'"
4. Click OK and name the Playlist "Songs (Unchecked)".

Apple, please make the checkbox state a full fledged column/attribute.

PS. This tip surprisingly hard to find in Google. I first went through several forum posts that had no answers. Maybe this post will help. Comments also include an AppleScript alternative and some interesting workarounds to iPod management.

The problem with tabbed browsing ...

I'm used to applications containing related windows.

So at work Word has documents, Excel has spreadsheets, Outlook has email, Explorer has files, etc.

So I tab between apps, then navigate tabs within apps.

This breaks down in the world of tabbed browsers. Do I tab between browser windows, or click within a window between tabs? How do I mix browser tabs with applications outside the browser? How do I organize windows into OS X Space?

It doesn't help that even FF 3 hasn't learned from the OmniWeb example of hierarchical views of windows and tabs, allowing reorganization at least within a browser space.

I need a better conceptual model for organizing like this -- views of documents, views of spreadsheets, etc. The tabbed browser approach was a good start, but it's only a start.

There's nothing new here of course, but it really is time to think differently. I'm inclined now to think that we need to get rid of tabs and certainly, absolutely, get rid of the "application owns the window" model.

Just give me windows. Then let me use OS X spaces, and the ability to navigate and reorganize the windows within spaces. In any app I need to be able to see all windows owned by the app, to expedite finding and organizing what I'm interested in.

Moving Outlook/Palm contacts to the iPhone via MobileMe

iTunes reads in Outlook data (which can sync with a Palm PDA), then sends it to MobileMe. No mention is made of calendar, notes or task synchronization. iTunes by itself has some capability to browse calendar data, but I’ve never tested that.

TUAW Review: MobileMe - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

…Windows and MobileMe: Windows and MobileMe play surprisingly nicely together. MobileMe comes pre-packaged with iTunes 7.7 for Windows, and lives as a Control Panel item. You can then choose to sync contacts, email, and bookmarks. For bookmarks, you can choose which browser to sync with, and MobileMe works with Safari (of course), Firefox, and Internet Explorer 7. IE7, though, doesn't work a hundred percent with the web apps, so Apple recommends you use Safari or Firefox instead. For more information about how to connect your Windows computer to MobileMe, you can visit Apple's MobileMe support page.

I couldn’t find anything more on the MobileMe support page. I’ll update this post if I find more details in Apple’s kb or support. I’ve yet to purchase MobileMe – waiting until it’s been stabilized.

The best feature in Safari 3.1: drag and drop urls

There are a few features of Internet Explorer I really like.

Save as archive for example, which creates a MIME formatted version of a web page in a single .mht file.

Most of all though, I like the drag and drop URLs. Click on a title bar URL, drag it to an edit field, and IE creates a link using the title of the source page.

Every other browser, as best I can recall, simply displays the URL. (I just verified that Firefox 3 just copies the URL.)

Today, on a whim, I tried the drag and drop operation into a Blogger "compose" box. Here's an example of what I got: Gordon's Tech: iTunes library: recreate, move and more.

So Safari has adopted IE's behavior.

Did it always do that? When did this change?

Great improvement. Now if Firefox could only learn this trick ...

iTunes library: recreate, move and more

I've moved my iTunes Library a few times. As far as I can recall, whatever I did worked. I've even moved it from Mac to PC and back again.

Here are the official ways to move and, if necessary, regenerate your iTunes Library:

• How to move your iTunes library
  
• How to re-create your iTunes library
• Moving your iTunes Library via an iPod (new in iTunes 7 - archive)
  

Here are the unofficial ways I've done things like this in years past. I recommend the official route, but if you get stuck these resources might provide ideas:

• Moving iTunes Libraries: the SMB version
  
• Rescuing a wrecked iTunes Library -- one approach
  
• Merging or combining two iTunes libraries
  

If you want to do more with your iTunes Library, consider PowerTunes. I've no personal experience, but I've used iPhoto Library Manager from the same author.

So, lots of options. Which brings me to the inspiration for this post - a completely confused article on Mac OS X Hints. How can it be that genuine OS X geeks don't know to search Apple's knowledge base?

To be fair, I tried a Google search on the topic and the results were pretty bad. Then I tried iTunes Help, and that was useless. Searching Apple's knowledge base worked though. This should really be in Apple's Help file, so I'll give my fellow geeks a bit of slack.

Maybe this post will help Google do a bit better ...

Update 8/16/08: I tried again today, and now Google's search works just fine. Coincidence, I'm sure.

New Blogger bug with attaching labels

There's a brand new Blogger bug with labels.

The drop down for attaching new labels to existing posts shows"Publish" where it should show "create new tag".



The Publish really publishes -- I unwittingly published some old draft posts.

I'm seeing this on only one of my blogs, it was fine on another.

The workaround is to first add the label to one post by editing the post, then apply it to the selected group.

Evernote's import/export test (updated)

[see update - as of Sept 2008 Evernote has reformed]

Palm to iPhone migration is hard. In particular, what do we do with Tasks and Notes?

On the Task side we're waiting to see if either Apple decides to support Tasks (I guess their engineers are too young to have complicated lives), Google adds Tasks and iPhone sync, or OmniFocus supports import/export.

On the Notes side I took a look today at Evernote. Evernote follows the new model of web service, desktop app, phone support, and synchronization.

That's a tough development challenge, but it comes with a great business benefit. If customers don't keep paying, they lose access to their data.

I'm cautiously supportive of this model -- it means good developers can get predictable income without having to constantly obsolete existing software. On the other hand, there's a terribly powerful temptation to never quite build export capabilities. This produces Data Lock (see also: Data Lock search), an outcome that has sustained many a software empire. (To it's credit Google has been recently resistant, but maybe being ad supported and wealthy makes virtue easier ...)

The software as service solution means users need to examine and test export capabilities before they sign up with a service, and to retest regularly as the service evolves. If export starts to fail, bail.

So how does Evernote do?

I created a free account and downloaded the OS X desktop app to find out.

Sure enough, there's no import/export for OS X users. So that's a total fail.

Support has more information ...

Questions and Answers | Evernote Corporation

... Yes, you can import notes into Evernote for Windows in Evernote 2.x database (.enb), Evernote 2.x XML (.enx), and (in a future release) Evernote XML (.enx3) formats using the Note Import menu in Evernote Beta for Windows. There is also a Note Import Wizard menu for importing selected image, text, and HTML files. To get imported databases onto a Mac, first import the database into Evernote Beta for Windows, synchronize with the service, and then synchronize the Mac client with the service...

...you can export one or more notes from a notebook as an HTML formatted document from within Evernote for Windows using the Note > Export... menu. You can also export via e-mail using the Note > Send by Email... menu. This feature may be added to the Mac version in a future release....

That's a total fail, even on the better supported Windows platform. The minimum requirement would be a tab delimited export (this would require some data loss since Evernote attaches binary data) and a comprehensive XML export from the Evernote database.

So Evernote is not an option for my Palm to iPhone conversion, and I'd say it's not an option for anyone on any platform until they demonstrate Data Freedom.

Update: Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, responds in comments. Quote:

Data Freedom is vital to our plans. We're serious about Evernote as an "external brain" and that means users have to have confidence that their memories will always be accessible. Part of that accessibility is making sure that users can import/export Evernote data in standard formats with no restrictions. Our current limitations on import/export capabilities are due to developer resource constraints, not any philosophical or business reasons; we can't afford to do import/export poorly because that could muck with your data and flood our support lines. Doing it well takes time.

We're currently testing a full set of Evernote APIs that will give people a lot of options for getting data in and out. We'll roll these out publicly later in the summer. We'll also be expanding the structured import/export capabilities on the local clients, though I don't have a specific date on that yet. We're doing this because data freedom is good for more than just peace of mind - it'll let us build lots of great functionality that we couldn't accomplish with a "walled garden" approach.

I'm glad you like Evernote enough to try it and I hope you take a look at our import/export capabilities once we launch them.

--
Phil Libin

Ok, I'm impressed. I revised the title of my post to "fails ... for now".

If Evernote really does deliver on their Data Freedom promises, I'll be a happy paying customer.

Update 7/27/08: I'm warming to Evernote as I make my painful adjustment to the iPhone. In fact, I expect to become a paying customer it it continues to work as well as it has today.

Evernote appears on initial iPhone tests to have significant value as a transient repository. I send things there I'll process later, including voice notes that may turn into tasks, notes, etc. Thing's I'd have once scrawled on my Palm screen as "ink" work better as Evernote sound fragments with optional metadata.

As a transient repository data lock is not an issue, and if Phil is able to deliver on his data freedom promises it will have more value. The key for me is that it has real value now.

Update 8/17/08: I find this post from 2005:

Laura
Mar 14, 2005 at 12:09 pm

I, too, was waiting eagerly for the web clipping function to be enabled for Firefox. Wait no longer ..

..Now, I’m waiting (im)patiently for some kind of export feature! Evernote obviously is a database, so I’m thinking an export to a comma-delimited file, or a spreadsheet would be nice.

That was three years ago. Phil Libin has no credibility when he talks about data freedom.

Update 10/3/08: Evernote has reformed, and Phil Libin has credibility again. They have an API and XML import/export. It's not the simple tab delimited format anyone can use, but that format is a poor match for Evernote's data complexity. Full credit for turning the corner!

Update 12/27/09: I took a look at Evernote again. The OS X manual still doesn't reference any import tool other than using Evernote's own XML format.