Autodesk Labs: A Methodical Team

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The other Autodesk Labs team members make fun of me. They say I am too scientific. You be the judge.

I started buying CDs in 1983. So when I got my iPod in 2005, I had a lot of music to load. I painstakingly put every bit of my music on my iPod. It's all on there. My collection now consists of 7593 songs from 674 albums including 725 artists. I have not heard some of these songs since the time I originally purchased the CD. I eventually want to hear them all. I mean I took the time to load them onto the iPod, so I should get to hear them again. Right?

The iTunes software lets you make playlists. One type of playlist is called a smart playlist that is based on applying a set of rules. The playlists are considered smart because their content automatically updates based on the rules. So I made one:

I saved this as a smart playlist called "Unplayed."

So now when I select this playlist, the iPod randomly plays one of the songs I have yet to hear. As each song is played, its play count increments to 1, so the song is removed from the list. With the Unplayed playlist, eventually I will get to them all. It all seems very logical to me. Too scientific? With shuffle play, it's like listening to a radio station where every song is good enough for me to buy. Let me tell you about my plan to taste the 101 beers of the world at my local tavern. If I look at the beer's country of origin and start at the Prime Meridian...