Time to make this blog more personal so I’ll talk and empty my mind here a bit for is this not where random lies?!

I finally updated WordPress from 2.3 (yeah, it’s been a while) to 2.8.4. Never thought WordPress could get any better than before; the dashboard is much more pleasing to the eye and it looks like there is a bunch of useful new features like the Media library. Can’t wait to play around with the GUI and get used to everything. Unfortunately, the custom WordPress theme I was using wouldn’t cooperate with the new upgrade so I’m going to use Thematic for now and perhaps customize it heavily over the next little while. We’ll see.

Hmm. It seems as though I haven’t done anything web-related in a while. Like web design. Kinda itching to crack open Photoshop and work off the rust. Maybe hit two birds with one stone by entering some contests at 99designs. A little extra cash wouldn’t hurt.

I brainstormed some interesting blog material on paper over the months and I’ll probably start posting some of them up here. Topics mainly on technology and the internet. Maybe I’ll even start up a little portfolio of my digital works here.

I’ve also returned to an idea I wrought up nearly 3 years ago which I’ve been planning (something I love to do) on and off (more off then on). It has to do with ‘web 2.0′ and folksonomies and the like. I hope posting about it here will motivate me to actually polish it off and shift it into development mode. Haha, who am I kidding?

There are many things that I have grown interested in over the years and one of them is hockey. Today, I assembled a hockey net which was 45-minutes of fun (I love building things, it goes back to when I played with my first Lego set). I probably took longer than normal as the weather started off uncomfortably sunny and then started to drizzle). Now, I can practice wrist shots and the like in the comfort of my backyard. I will need to buy some plywood or something so that I can handle the puck more smoothly (rubber and concrete don’t mix). Before, I have been using one of those smart hockey balls, the kind Vincent Lecavalier supposedly uses in the off-season, but I’d rather get used to a puck since nothing can mimic a puck better than a puck. Of course, I still need to learn the nuisance of skating – my new Bauer 22s are barely worn in – which I’ve done only a few times the past winter in a nearly outdoor rink, but I’ll worry about that later. On a hockey-related note, I can’t wait for the NHL season to start! Canadian football just isn’t enough in this long and boring off-season.

That’s all for now.

A playlist in Windows Media Player

I frequently turn on the Shuffle option when listening to playlists. But sometimes I don’t want it totally randomized. I’d like it if some songs were grouped together – if song 1 was played, I’d like to hear song 2 and song 3 played right after. Then after this group is played, the rest of the songs would continue to be shuffled until another group is played.

So how do we group songs in a playlist? I believe that media players can create a feature similar to the Link option found in Adobe Photoshop.

The link option in Photoshop

Photoshop layers link option

But how do we create more than one group?

Again, we can turn to the brilliant engineering of Photoshop. When you press the Link button next to a layer, it is hidden when the linked layers is unselected.

For example, if we take a look at the image above, we can see that both Layer 1 and Layer 2 are linked. However, the Link icon would not be displayed if both these layers are unselected – such as by selecting Layer 3 or 4.

This means that if we currently have an unlinked layer selected (Layer 3 or 4), then Layer 1 and Layer 2 from the first group would not be selected, and thus no Link icons would be visible.

Then, if we check the Link icon on any other layer (Layer 3, 4, etc.), the layers from group 1 are not part of this second group since their link icons are not visible.

You should note that a layer cannot be linked in more than one group.

Application to media players

Media players can adapt apply this link feature to their own playlists by allowing users to tick off songs. All the ticked songs would then be grouped together. So whenever Shuffle stumbles upon a song that is part of a group, the entire group is played before the media player continues to randomly select another song to play.

What I’ve learned from studying business plans is that what works for one thing (company, software, etc.) can successfully work for a completely different thing. But the opposite can be true too. As an innovator, I think that media players can really use this feature if it’s implemented properly.