FarraigePlaisteach's recent activity

  1. Comment on “Rediscovering” the operating system (AKA: the desktop is the killer app) in ~tech

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    No, I don't believe it has any features remotely like that. Rich Text is as fancy as it gets, although I prefer the plain text option.

    No, I don't believe it has any features remotely like that. Rich Text is as fancy as it gets, although I prefer the plain text option.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on “Rediscovering” the operating system (AKA: the desktop is the killer app) in ~tech

    FarraigePlaisteach
    (edited )
    Link
    I had a very similar realisation recently too. I find the desktop metaphor more comfortable, and enjoyable. It has less cognitive load and reminds me of old times a bit too. I can share what I've...

    I had a very similar realisation recently too. I find the desktop metaphor more comfortable, and enjoyable. It has less cognitive load and reminds me of old times a bit too. I can share what I've managed to "de-app" so far.

    I've started saving browser bookmarks to a folder by dragging the URL to Finder. This doesn't work when there are multiple tabs so the first step is to drag/pop the tab out into a window of its own. Then drag the URL to Finder.

    Another thing is Calibre. I've actually started just adding epub files to a folder of books. The file manager shows the covers as thumbnails anyway and I use the option to hide file extensions to make it more legible. I do use Calibre to transfer wirelessly sometimes, or to convert, but that's it.

    I've started keeping my music albums as files and folders too, using Quicklook to play them. This only works while I don't need to use the file manager of course, but it's enough for me. I don't need a music app all the time. It does mean manually progressing each song but that suits me since I'm happy with silent periods between songs.

    Just a few days ago I started using TextEdit instead of Notes. I find having a few tabs open in TextEdit is more relatable because it's similar to browser tabs. I can keep switching back and forth between tabs as needed to update a note or retrieve something. I do have Sublime Text for occasional coding.

    Like yourself another commenter, my photos now go in folders. In the new year, I created a sub-folder called 2025 and put everything into it.

    Another thing I've started using is an additional file manager. Forklift, in my case. Having an additional one with more advanced layouts helps in some cases and means I can leave Quicklook playing music from Finder while still interacting with other files in Forklift.

    I still use Launchpad for applications, though. I have 130+ applications in subfolders, leaving three screens of commonly used applications. I can't imagine being able to achieve that kind of custom organisation and decluttering with Finder (or with macOS 26, which I'm not going to upgrade to).

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Which covers did it better than (or put a fresh twist on) the original? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link
    Nothing Compares 2 U was covered by Sinéad Ó Connor and became a bigger hit than the original it is based on (by Prince) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EF60neguk

    Nothing Compares 2 U was covered by Sinéad Ó Connor and became a bigger hit than the original it is based on (by Prince) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EF60neguk

    2 votes

  4. Comment on When $1.4 billion isn’t enough: ‘Avatar’ sequels under the microscope as Disney weighs franchise’s future in ~movies

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    I loved the first one. But the sequel didn't hold my interest past the halfway mark. It could have been subtitled: "how much war can you stomach?".

    I loved the first one. But the sequel didn't hold my interest past the halfway mark. It could have been subtitled: "how much war can you stomach?".

    2 votes

  5. Comment on I’m supposed to be visible today — but why? in ~lgbt

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link
    Thanks for posting this. I consider myself an ally and perspectives / reality checks like this are helpful.

    Thanks for posting this. I consider myself an ally and perspectives / reality checks like this are helpful.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    That sounds like fun. I’m happy to send you on what I have. I’m really just getting started, though. I haven’t rated the most important stuff yet. I’m sure there’s a way to query a...

    That sounds like fun. I’m happy to send you on what I have. I’m really just getting started, though. I haven’t rated the most important stuff yet. I’m sure there’s a way to query a subsonic-compatible server ands retrieve a list of ratings!

  7. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    In hindsight, it could have been a lot easier if I’d done what you did and just gave a binary rating for the songs and then scored the albums based on that. Thanks for sharing the insights. I know...

    In hindsight, it could have been a lot easier if I’d done what you did and just gave a binary rating for the songs and then scored the albums based on that.

    Thanks for sharing the insights. I know what you mean about being surprised by results. That’s giving me motivation to continue and it’s changing my listening. Parcels | Tieduprightnow is high up on my results too, with Shadows by Remy van Kesteren in top position as of now.

  8. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    That’s a seriously nice touch! I’m using a subsonic server and it doesn’t support that feature, but I might ping the dev about it. Thanks for the heads up. That would suit me perfectly.

    That’s a seriously nice touch! I’m using a subsonic server and it doesn’t support that feature, but I might ping the dev about it. Thanks for the heads up. That would suit me perfectly.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Queering the Map in ~lgbt

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link
    This is absolutely fantastic OP, thanks for sharing. I could barely find my country because it has so many pins in it. It’s delightful to read the messages.

    This is absolutely fantastic OP, thanks for sharing. I could barely find my country because it has so many pins in it. It’s delightful to read the messages.

    10 votes

  10. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    I’m going to go with something like that in future. I’ll use no star for anything I dislike instead of one star.

    I’m going to go with something like that in future. I’ll use no star for anything I dislike instead of one star.

  11. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    That's a really interesting take on this. In theory I should be doing it this way since I'm not a collector - I don't want to keep any material I won't listen to and enjoy. The only issue for me...

    That's a really interesting take on this. In theory I should be doing it this way since I'm not a collector - I don't want to keep any material I won't listen to and enjoy.

    The only issue for me is that if I like an album overall but don't like some of the tracks, I can't bring myself to delete them. For some reason I have to preserve the album integrity. The exception there is if there are just two or three good tracks: in this case I'd copy them to my folder of singles and remove the album from the application itself.

    I could use your system for movies, books or singles, though. Thanks for the suggestion. These answers are helping me see that the problem stems in part from unintentional accumulation of albums. I'll jettison many of these as I go and be far more conscious of what I keep from now on.

  12. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Thank you for re-introducing me to the mode. I haven't seen that since I was in school many years ago. It does appear to represent the albums better: Album A: 4, 4, 4, 2, 2 gives Mean: 3.2...

    Thank you for re-introducing me to the mode. I haven't seen that since I was in school many years ago. It does appear to represent the albums better:

    • Album A: 4, 4, 4, 2, 2 gives Mean: 3.2 (rounded to 3), Mode: 4
    • Album B: 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 gives Mean: 3, Mode: 3
    • Album C: 5, 5, 1, 1, 1 gives Mean: 2.6 (rounded to 3), Mode: 1

    That seems to give more meaning to the ratings of the tracks in an album. The other good thing about this is that it's easy to do without changing how I rated the tracks in the first place.

    If a balance between the two exists, that could be even better. Maybe something that uses the mean and the mode? but I think considering I'm looking to represent the dominant rating rather than just an average, this is an improvement. Thank you!

    Edit: I've just encountered a situation where the mode does the opposite of what I wanted, so I'll have to abandon it. But it was a very interesting experiment. Basically, raising the rating of a song on an album lowered the rating of the album itself. Here's the data:

    • value=1,5,4,4,3,2,3 gives mode of 4. But raising the first song by two points:
    • value=3,5,4,4,3,2,3 gives mode of 3.

  13. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    Actually, this is really interesting. For my system that would make it easier because I'd either like or not like a song (a binary) and rate the album based on that. I think you're right that...

    Actually, this is really interesting. For my system that would make it easier because I'd either like or not like a song (a binary) and rate the album based on that. I think you're right that there's something deeper that I'm not capturing using my current system.

    I'll continue as I am for the first iteration and use that to identify albums to delete (or archive). Then as I listen more recreationally next time around I'll give myself a bit more freedom to go by feeling. I'm avoiding it this time because I don't want to allow more music through that might be challenging at the moment (and might rank lowly) and see if a few more listenings might change my attitude. Thanks for the ideas!

    1 vote

  14. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    That makes a lot of sense, and I like the idea of defining a five-star album as one that I can listen to from beginning to end without skipping anything. I did find - eventually - a few five star...

    That makes a lot of sense, and I like the idea of defining a five-star album as one that I can listen to from beginning to end without skipping anything.

    I did find - eventually - a few five star results for albums. I thought it was never going to happen. This was based purely on the calculations. But one problem I still have is that the rating of 3 represents a relatively wide range of personal feelings towards those albums. So I think when you say that things fall apart by my averaging the song ratings to rate the albums, you're correct.

    I'm starting to think I'll do a few passes in this case. For news stuff I'm listening to blind, I'll use the calculated method. And when I start to bond with the album a bit more (sounds cheesy but hopefully you know what I mean) I can tweak it either with a better formula as whbboyd mentioned, or on more personal criteria that yourself and others suggested.

    I think the difficulty is that so many of the albums are unfamiliar to me. Half of them are albums I bought because I really liked them, but half are random ones I ended up with while DJing. I haven't got a feel for them yet and I might be rushing it. Thanks for the comment!

    2 votes

  15. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    Thís is great. When I do my averages on the calculator, I do get varied remainders that just get rounded up. I could use those variances to renormalise, or pick a different function than mean. One...

    Thís is great. When I do my averages on the calculator, I do get varied remainders that just get rounded up. I could use those variances to renormalise, or pick a different function than mean.

    One thing I could do is instead of representing something I don't ever want to hear again with 1 star, I could represent that with 0. I didn't want to do that this time because since my library is currently unrated, everything is currently 0. So by going no lower than 1 I can tell which tracks haven't been rated yet.

    So I think when I'm finished my first iteration I'll do that as well as taking your suggestions on board and spreading out the meaning of the values further. That way I won't have a load of albums with a rating of 3 that actually hold varying levels of appeal.

    1 vote

  16. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    That's a good system. I think if I'd been more intentional with my collection (I was a DJ for a few years and amassed all kinds of nonsense) I could go with a system like that based on personal...

    That's a good system. I think if I'd been more intentional with my collection (I was a DJ for a few years and amassed all kinds of nonsense) I could go with a system like that based on personal connection to the music. I might try that after I've finished my first iteration.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    Yeah, music has various purposes like ambience - just like you said. I was good at vibes-based sorting/rating when I had a much smaller collection years ago (max 30 albums). But now instead of a...

    Yeah, music has various purposes like ambience - just like you said. I was good at vibes-based sorting/rating when I had a much smaller collection years ago (max 30 albums). But now instead of a small intimate collection I have a huge library with some stuff I don't even recognise haha. The plan now is to start deleting and get back to that, so maybe I can get back to simplicity and feeling again soon.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    That's relatable. That's why this is so difficult I think. I've decided to be consistent for reasons I'm not fully sure of. But the result aren't what I expected. A three-tier system might have...

    That's relatable. That's why this is so difficult I think. I've decided to be consistent for reasons I'm not fully sure of. But the result aren't what I expected.

    A three-tier system might have simplified things if the apps supported it by default. I might not need to rate individual songs, but rather albums. But I'm enjoying the admin aspect of it, oddly enough.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    That's absolutely valid. And I think that's why I'm not entirely happy with my approach. But it was the only way I really know how to do it. How do you decide how to rate albums: vibes? That's...

    That's absolutely valid. And I think that's why I'm not entirely happy with my approach. But it was the only way I really know how to do it.

    How do you decide how to rate albums: vibes? That's generally how I decide what to favourite since for me music is first and foremost about vibes.

    It's tricky when some music I listen to is not because I love it, but because it's a good palette cleanser (such as certain jazz or classical). So I end up needing to rate those higher because they're important, but not necessarily music that moves me the way I wish it did.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music

    FarraigePlaisteach
    Link Parent
    Honestly, I agree so much. Music applications have had this 5-star rating facility since the early 2000s at least and I always thought it was for masochists! As you say, moods change and what...

    Honestly, I agree so much. Music applications have had this 5-star rating facility since the early 2000s at least and I always thought it was for masochists! As you say, moods change and what might score highly now might not in a month or a year. It just seemed so pointless.

    I'm lucky(ish) to have the time so I'm using it as an exercise to make the days pass more quickly and get more intimate with my admittedly gluttonous collection of albums gained over the decades. Maybe in a year I can do a retrospective here and say if it was worth the effort or not. Hey, maybe it would make a good retirement project for you :)

    2 votes