Jeff Hoy, American » microsoft

Zune track sorting failure

Jeff Hoy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:39:57 +0000

The Zune software allows you to assign disc numbers to your individual tracks. This is useful if a particular track came from a multi-disc release. In these examples I’m using Dethklok’s “The Dethalbum” Deluxe Edition which came on two discs. You can see this feature in these first two screen shots. Click them to embiggify for the illustrations.

In this next screen shot you can see that in the software’s track list it uses this info to properly group tracks by their disc number, and then each group is sorted by the track’s number.

On this screen shot of my Zune 80GB, you can see that the track list is only sorted by track number. So each track one from each disc is paired together. This problem is made worse by the more discs an album contains. Some of my albums have as many as four discs, so my track list will have four track ones right at the start, then four track twos, and four track threes, and so on.

I was hoping this would be fixed in the newest firmware update, just released with the new version of the Zune software and Zune HD hardware, but it has been overlooked. Of course, there are work-arounds for this issue, but it would be nice if the software and hardware worked in the same way. I really wonder why they would work to create the feature in the software to begin with, only to leave it out in the hardware. And considering how rare firmware updates for the Zune are, it’s probably going to be a long time before this changes, if it changes at all.

If there’s one thing Microsoft knows…

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:01:00 +0000

…it’s innovation.

The Microsoft Zune sucks.

Zombiefox

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:01:00 +0000

So PC World says Firefox May Already Be Dead. The headline is a bit sensationalist, but I can’t say that I totally disagree with the story. I started using the Mozilla browser package before Firefox came about. When Firefox was released it was supposed to be the sleek, minimalist, fast alternative to the big and bloated Mozilla browser and I immediately jumped over to it. But Firefox has grown over the past few years to the point where it’s starting to resemble Mozilla in that it’s eating up more memory, taking longer to load, and rendering slowly. I kicked Firefox to the curb a while ago in favor of Internet Explorer 7 which loaded faster and rendered pages quicker than Firefox did at the time. And now I’ve stepped up to IE8, which was just released this past week.

The article above is mostly about Google’s Chrome browser, which I tried for a few months after it was first released, but I was left unimpressed. Of course this article is partially based on some comments posted on Slashdot. Just because the nerds at Slashdot don’t like Firefox anymore, doesn’t mean Firefox is bad. Slashdorks don’t like anything.

Electrodepository resuscitation

Jeff Hoy — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:26:36 +0000

As a follow up to my recent flaming of the Zune, I got mine to finally accept a charge. I was given hope by a few forum postings on various Zune sites about people with similar problems and getting them solved. For me it took two different sync cables, a car charger, and a Zune A/V dock. I ditched my original sync cable and tried a new one with no effect. So I tried a car adapter and, joy of joys, it worked, it just took forever. After getting a full charge (and burning a lot of gas in the process) I once again tried the sync cable, but there was no love. My Zune was identified and could sync just fine, but was not receiving a charge again. So I figured I’d give the dock a try and it’s working beautifully not to mention giving me a neat place to store my Zune when it’s not in use. So I’m glad I didn’t have to send it back in again for another repair or replacement and I’m really glad to finally have a working Zune.

The Microsoft Zune sucks.

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:27:43 +0000

The Microsoft Zune is a worthless piece of garbage. Let me spell it out for you. I bought a Zune just prior to leaving for Iraq back in February of this year. I was pretty happy to have all my music and porn videos available to me on the long flight to Iraq and for my down time while over there. I thought the Zune was one of the coolest devices I had ever owned… way better than all those iPods everybody else had. It had a bigger screen, a built in radio tuner, and wireless sync to name a few of the cooler features. But it was only a month and a half in before the thing decided to die. I figured it was the hard drive based on the error message and the fact that I couldn’t restore it as outlined on the Microsoft support site. So I packed it away until I could get home and return it. At the time I bought it (from Circuit City, another fine company, but I won’t get into that here) I also bought the extended service plan because I figured an accident could happen while I was over there and I wanted to be able to replace it. No accident does happen, it just dies on it’s own before I even have a chance to drop it or sit on it, or any of those other problems that could be deemed “accidental” damage and therefore not covered by the normal warranty.

Well, fast forward five months and I finally get home. I go through the process to have Circuit City’s extended warranty take care of my Zune. I sent it in, they decided to replace it, and I wait… and wait… and wait… finally it’s returned to me via USPS (with NO signature required I might add, what the hell is that?) after they required me to ship it via UPS. I tear open the box, excited that I’ll finally have my hundreds of hours of music at my disposal again where ever I go. I plug it in, update to the latest firmware and wait for it to sync. It takes a while, but not a problem, I have a lot of music. Finally it’s done and I unplug it. But wait, there’s a problem, the battery’s nearly dead. How can this be? It was just plugged in to my computer for damn near two hours. It should have been charging that whole time and the battery should have been full. Then, it shuts down on me after flashing the dead battery icon. So I plug it in again, the charging icon comes up. *phew* It’s charging ok from the looks of it. I let it sit for a bit and come back to it later. It had booted itself up and connected to my computer once it got enough juice. So I look at it… why isn’t the battery indicator showing that it’s charging and still completely empty? Has it not been charging at all? Why did it charge just long enough to boot up? What the hell is wrong with this thing?! And then, it winks off again.

I move it to a different computer, thinking maybe my laptop’s USB ports aren’t working properly. I plug it in to my recently rebuilt desktop, a beast of a machine I might add, and again, the initial charge icon comes up. After a few minutes it boots itself up and connects to my computer and… IT’S STILL NOT CHARGING! I frantically move it around from USB port to USB port, computer to computer, trying, feverishly to get a charging icon on the screen! But nothing! Nothing at all. It will charge just enough to boot up, then if I unplug it, it’s dead within a few seconds. I was going to try to restore it, but the battery doesn’t have enough charge in it to go through the process.

My Zune is hosed. Again. I’ve “owned” it for nine months and I’ve gotten one month of use out of it. I’m the proud owner of a $250 paperweight. Thank you Microsoft for creating another fine product, and thank you Circuit City for replacing my broken Zune with another broken Zune (I actually had a personal boycott of Circuit City going for other customer service infractions, the only reason I bought the Zune from them was because they were the only place that had it in stock the day I wanted to buy it.). You both are champions of customer service and satisfaction in my book. It’s still technically under warranty, and I still have the receipt, so I’m going to send it back to you Microsoft, and I hope you do right by me because I know Circuit City won’t.

Well, I gone and done it.

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:00:18 +0000

I bought the big Zune. I love the thing. It’s better than the iPod and a lot of people that own an iPod agree with me. The only advantage the iPod has is in the iTunes music store. The Zune marketplace is missing video purchasing right now, but it’s coming.

I've made my decision…

Jeff Hoy — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:08:17 +0000

I was trying to decide which portable media player to buy, a iPod classic or a big Zune. Well, I’m getting a Zune. My mind is made up and it’s not changing. Here’s why:

While we know that these XNA titles can be developed for Windows or the Xbox 360, but Chris Satchell showed off a real-time demo of gameplay on a Microsoft Zune. It was basically just a tech demo that Microsoft whipped up, but the touchpad seemed to provide decent control. XNA allows full development for this music player, and its wireless capabilities even permit multiplayer action.

Friggin’ sweet.

More Vista love…

Jeff Hoy — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:08:51 +0000

I’ve talked in the past about some of the new features of Windows Vista that I like. They were great usability enhancements that make using Vista a better experience than previous versions of Windows. Now I’m going to talk about something else that I’m loving about Vista. Vista is still new, and as such still has some bugs and instability issues. Not a big deal, that’s always to be expected with new versions of software. What I’m liking about Vista is it’s graceful recovery from those instability issues. Any time a driver crashes, or Explorer (the default Windows shell) crashes, Vista quietly kills the process and restarts it without so much as a hiccup. Vista even tells you when it accomplished such a feat. It’s like Vista is saying “look, I screwed up, I’m sorry, but here I fixed it again, so we’re still friends right?” Then I’m all “yeah, we’re still friends, it’s alright.” And Vista is all “thanks buddy, I love ya, here’s a cool new feature to play with.” And I’m all “thanks bro, you rock.” But anyway, I don’t think I’ve yet to have a real hard lockup that Windows wasn’t able to get itself out of. And I still haven’t experienced a BSOD.

Another Vista feature I like.

Jeff Hoy — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:19:45 +0000

I’ve recently started putting to good use another smart new feature in Windows Vista, the application based volume mixer. It replaces the old volume control in previous versions of Windows. I’ve used it to basically mute Internet Explorer full time to keep all those stupid Myspace songs that are set to auto-start from interrupting my beautiful noise.

This new feature basically lets you set the sound levels based on which application is creating them. So I can have Windows Media Player sounds cranked up full blast while having pSX sounds muted completely. Or I can keep ads in Internet Explorer from talking over my favorite podcasts. Basically this new feature let’s you finally shut up all the sounds you don’t want to hear without having to mute everything. It’s a fantastic idea and a great new feature of Windows Vista.

I can't live without it now.

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:01:38 +0000

I’ve been using Windows Vista exclusively for a few months now, and at first glance there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot different from Windows XP. Yes, Vista supports DirectX 10 and it has a nicer looking UI in the Aero Interface, but basically it’s the same. Similar Start menu, similar Windows Explorer, a reorganized Control Panel and a few other things might be what you focus on.

But there’s one addition that I’ve made extensive use of without even realizing it. That’s the new Search interface that comes with Vista. With it you can search directly from the start menu, and when it does that it’ll show you just the icons with that word or phrase, acting kind of like a command line interface. You can click the “See all results” link and it will open the search window with everything on the computer. Or if there isn’t a program in the start menu it will show the search results directly in the start menu. It’s a great idea. Prior to this I very rarely used the search feature in Windows. Now I use it almost every time I need to open a file. It’s quicker than opening up the Windows Explorer and browsing for it. It also searches the contents of documents and emails and returns those results also.

If you haven’t tried the search feature in Windows Vista then get to it. It alone is almost worth the price of upgrade.