Check this out. Sometimes when I’m using iTunes, listening to an mp3 track that is numbered as track X of Y (where X is the track number, and Y is the total number of tracks on an album), as soon as it begins playing (or whenever iTunes accesses it at all, as when I right-click to change some info in its tags) iTunes clears the “of Y” file information. In other words, where it used to look like this:

It now looks like this (where I have bolded the song iTunes has accessed):

This doesn’t happen every single time I play a song whose track # is in the “X of Y” format, but for a given album if it happens with one track it will happen with all of them. If I select the album and manually change the info for all of the files to include the “of Y” info, it fixes the problem (and those files aren’t vulnerable to it later).

Does anyone out there have an explanation (or even a fix!) for this problem?

Sidenote: This is a much less annoying version of another issue I had with iTunes a few versions back, in which playing or accessing a song cleared all of the tag information, leaving me with a file named “[whatever the track number was] [whatever the track name was, limited to something like 12 characters].” I’ve got a couple thousand songs stuck in this ugly limbo and haven’t had much luck with fixing them, short of manually figuring out and inputting the rest of the info. So thanks a lot for that, Apple.

The “surprising” win over a strong opponent once you’re already eliminated from playoff contention is a Redskins special. I saw this one coming a mile away. All it means is now some people will say that this win shows that we shouldn’t make any drastic changes over the offseason. WHICH IS INCORRECT. We need a new offensive line, a new defensive line, a new secondary, a new kicker, a new veteran backup quarterback, and probably a couple more wide decent receivers while we’re at it–and a fluke win over an actual playoff contender shouldn’t distract the decision-makers from realizing that.

So…

A highly superior being from another part of the galaxy presents you with two boxes, one open and one closed. In the open box there is a thousand-dollar bill. In the closed box there is either one million dollars or there is nothing. You are to choose between taking both boxes or taking the closed box only. But there’s a catch.

The being claims that he is able to predict what any human being will decide to do. If he predicted you would take only the closed box, then he placed a million dollars in it. But if he predicted you would take both boxes, he left the closed box empty. Furthermore, he has run this experiment with 999 people before, and has been right every time.

What do you do?

On the one hand, the evidence is fairly obvious that if you choose to take only the closed box you will get one million dollars, whereas if you take both boxes you get only a measly thousand. You’d be stupid to take both boxes.

On the other hand, at the time you make your decision, the closed box already is empty or else contains a million dollars. Either way, if you take both boxes you get a thousand dollars more than if you take the closed box only.

Well, without reading the analysis, I’d go ahead and take the closed box. A thousand bucks is nice and all, but I’d rather just take the inexplicably-strong odds of getting the million the safe way.

Thanks, Boing Boing.

My dear friend Molly posted this video today and, well, it’s amazing.

Word on the street is a sequel, entitled Blazin Hazen. Or maybe this is the sequel. I don’t know. It’s all a mess. A beautiful mess.

Deadspin interviews John Rocker (and his girlfriend):

And you two met when she was interviewing you? Because I want to make it clear that I’m not hitting on either one of you.

Yeah, all of her questions were, “Do you have a girlfriend?” “Would you like my number?” I just looked down her shirt, saw what I needed to see and moved on. (Laughs.) I took a leap of faith, because she had a long coat on, and she could have had big birthin’ hips or something.

…

Alicia, I have to ask: Do you agree with all his political views?

Alicia: Well, there are many things we disagree on, yes, but at least I see where he’s coming from. I feel like part of my job with him is to help people get past this whole “He’s John Rocker” thing, because anything that comes out of his mouth is going to be misconstrued, no matter what he says. I want to help facilitate that.

Rocker: Well, it’s not like it’s her job or anything. It’s not like I said, “Well, I need to hire a black girlfriend to make me look better.”

People have said that.

It’s almost hard to believe this guy’s career went in the toilet because he made horrifically-offensive statements!

Full interview here. Believe it or not, I haven’t even posted the craziest parts.

Just go Ms. Dewey and search for “blockbuster video.” Isn’t that a charming rant? I’m not even sure what she means, but I don’t think she’s a big fan of P. Diddy. Another fun search is “how to hold hands,” which, well, betrays a fundamental confusion about Texas Hold ‘Em (i.e. that you have to deal all the cards before determining a winner). I also enjoyed “how to catch alligators.” Anyway, this strange and choppy site has been brought to you by Microsoft.

Try your own searches and let me know if you come up with anything cool.

If I hear Al Michaels call them the “New Orr-lee-uns Saints” one more time, I’m going to explode. What is wrong with this guy? New Orleans! NEW ORLEANS! This is America, not La France. Everyone knows how to pronounce New Orleans. NEW ORLEANS!

The Redskins are so frustrating. On every level–individual players, individual plays, individual games, whole seasons, multi-season rebuilding plans–they manage to throw huge heaps of money and effort at their problems without putting any serious consideration into coherent goals or consistency. We can’t put together a complete game against our mediocre opponents; how on earth are we supposed to compete for a championship? We deserve to be 4-9.

I’ll probably be more optimistic next weekend.

This is a work of art.