[rfu-automation] Re: D'oh!

Sat Jun 24 14:00:27 CDT 2006

Joe et al.:

This all sounds very promising.

However, as we are now proposing a major change to our automated music
operation, i.e., including explicit materials to be played during safe
harbor hours, I think we should probably get approval from the general RFU
membership at the next general meeting before we go ahead with this.

Whaddyall think?

--Gary

On 6/24/06, Joe Futrelle <futrelle at shout.net> wrote:
>
> Sounds like a plan.
> When I put together the software that reads the Zara logs to report what
> song is playing at any given moment, I can have it check for the explicit
> label during non-safe-harbor hours and we can have it instigate some sort
> of emergency action (shutting down Zara and restarting with a safe
> playlist, sending out email alerts to specific people, etc.)
>
> --
> Joe Futrelle
> Person
>
>
> On Jun 23, 2006, at 8:27 PM, Gary Cziko wrote:
>
> Joe:
>
> I'd go along with adding the label to the titles as you suggested.
>
> None of the other options will work with ZaraRadio because the "explorer
> window" of ZR only shows the title. And since ZR playlists are made from the
> explorer window, we have to have the label in the title.
>
> --Gary
>
> On 6/23/06, Joe Futrelle <futrelle at shout.net> wrote:
> >
> > I concur with some sort of labeling. But Gary I'm not sure which kind of
> > labeling in iTunes you're talking about. There are a bunch of different ways
> > we could do it, here are some as examples:
> > 1. We could use the "grouping" field and use a code indicating whether
> > something is unchecked, safe-harbor-only, or safe.
> > 2. We could use the "genre" field for the same purpose (advantage: you
> > can browse by genre; disadvantage: there's only one genre per track so this
> > would destroy existing genre information on tracks, FWIW)
> > 3. We could modify the title and put some indication in the title.
> > (advantage: if Zara or any other component in the automation system reports
> > or logs the track names we will know exactly when what kind of music is
> > played; disadvantage: it's hard to sort on, unless you put the code before
> > the title).
> > 4. We could create three playlists in iTunes, one for each category
> > (advantage: we can put a track in more than one category; disadvantage:
> > there's no way to tell given only the file  which playlist it's in)
> >
> > I don't really like any of these options, but thinking about them in the
> > context of all our recent discussions it seems to me the safest strategy is
> > to modify the title--like Jenn suggested but not using caps. Here's what I
> > would propose. If I have the following CD:
> >
> > artist: Joe's Risque Lounge Act
> > album: Steppin' Over the Line
> > track 1: The Parental Advisory Tango
> > track 2: Butterflies and Unicorns
> >
> > lack of notation on the titles means the tracks are unchecked. Now we
> > check them and find out track 1's safe-harbor only, but track 2 is safe, so
> > it's indicated this way:
> >
> > artist: Joe's Risque Lounge Act
> > album: [explicit] Steppin' Over the Line
> > track 1: [explicit] The Parent Advisory Tango
> > track 2: [clean] Butterflies and Unicorns
> >
> > what I'm proposing is twofold:
> >
> > 1. we put the code *first*, so when we sort any playlist by title it'll
> > be sorted into the three categories.
> > 2. we label an album "explicit" if any track on it is explicit
> >
> > The downside of putting the codes first is that the titles are gonna
> > look pretty ugly. But it would certainly call lots of attention to the
> > status of each track to anyone casually looking at a playlist or album in
> > iTunes, and even if all someone could see was the title of the track they
> > would be able to tell its status. We could also analyze Zara logs and
> > determine when what kind of music is playing, what percentage of it is
> > checked/unchecked, etc.
> >
> > --
> > Joe Futrelle
> > Person
> >
> >
> > On Jun 23, 2006, at 10:52 AM, Gary Cziko wrote:
> >
> > Lynsee:
> >
> > I would prefer explicit labels, as someone not knowing or observing such
> > a convention involving upper- and lower-case letters could lead to errors.
> >
> > We could go with just two labels as used on iTunes: "clean" and
> > "explicit" as anything without a label would be obviously unchecked while
> > obscene is not put on the computer in the first place or removed immediately
> > if discovered.
> >
> > --Gary
> >
> >
> > On 6/23/06, Lynsee Melchi < lynseemelchi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > I liked Jenn's suggestion of putting a certain type of album/artist in
> > >
> > > all capital letters.  For example:
> > >
> > > Lynsee's Band (local)
> > > with the albums HOME ON THE STRANGE
> > >                        Doggy Dog
> > >
> > > HOME ON THE STRANGE is not checked or explicit
> > > Doggy Dogg is safe.
> > >
> > > Or something like that.
> > >
> > > Lynsee
> > >
> > > On 6/23/06, Gary Cziko <g-cziko at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> > > > Joe:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >  So there are really four tiers that we're talking about here.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > 1. Unchecked: starts on the safe-harbor playlist
> > > > > 2. Completely unplayable: is removed from the automation computer
> > > as soon
> > > > as we discover it
> > > > > 3. Indecent/profane: kept on the safe-harbor list and safeguarded
> > > in our
> > > > procedures from being played at any other time
> > > > > 4. Safe: copied from the safe-harbor playlist to the safe playlist
> > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > So we would play only  no. 4 between 6 am and 10 pm and play nos. 1,
> > > 3 and 4
> > > > during safe-harbor hours. I wouldn't want to exclude Safe music
> > > during
> > > > safe-harbor hours.
> > > >
> > > > We would then need to add descriptors after the album and/or  track
> > > titles
> > > > on iTunes so we could easily create the two ZaraRadio playlists
> > > using labels
> > > > such as "clean," "explicit" and "unchecked." (there would be no use
> > > for an
> > > > "obscene" label as these tracks would be deleted as soon as
> > > discovered to be
> > > > obscene--actually people should know enough about the music and
> > > artist so as
> > > > not to put such music on the system in the first place).
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > If the label applied to every track in an album, the label could be
> > > added to
> > > > the album title (this is visible in the ZaraRadio explorer windows).
> > > > If the label applied to some tracks and not others on an album, no
> > > label
> > > > would be put on the album title and an appropriate label would be
> > > added to
> > > > each sont track. If all this is acceptable, then we have to figure
> > > out who
> > > > is going to do this work. I am willing to show people how to do
> > > this, but I
> > > > am not going to be listening to and labeling albums and tracks
> > > myself.
> > > >
> > > >  --Gary
> > > >
> > > > P.S. I am still testing out the ability of getting ZaraRadio to
> > > > automatically switch from one playlist to another at the right time.
> > > So far
> > > > it looks posssible, but need to test a bit more.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Tune in to More Fire! on Radio Free Urbana 104.5FM.  More Fire! is a
> > > crazy music extravaganza on Monday nights 11pm-1am (or later).  Check
> > > us out online at: www.wrfu.net.
> > >
> > >           ***************************************************
> > > "Trust can never be a fortress, a safe enclosure against life.
> > > Trusting is dangerous.  But without trust there is no hope for love,
> > > and love is all we have to hold against the dark."
> > >        -Creina Alcock-
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > ---------------------------------------------------
> > Gary Cziko
> > Professor
> > Educational Psychology & English as an International Language
> > University of Illinois
> > 1310 S. Sixth Street
> > 210F Education Building
> > Champaign, IL 61820-6990
> > USA
> >
> > Telephone +1-217-333-8527
> > Fax: +1-217-244-7620
> > e-mail: g-cziko at uiuc.edu
> > Web: http://garycziko.net
> > Skype: garyjazz ( http://www.skype.com)
> > Google Talk: gcziko
> > Amateur Radio: N9MJZ (IRLP 4280; EchoLink 8231);
> >
> > Founder, Station Manager, Program Director, Chief Engineer and Announcer
> > The Latino Radio Service of La Casa Cultural Latina
> > 1660 AM on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois
> > (http://latinoradioservice.org )
> >
> > Founder and Major Contributor
> > ATALL Wikibook for
> > Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning
> > ( http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ATALL)
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Gary Cziko
> Professor
> Educational Psychology & English as an International Language
> University of Illinois
> 1310 S. Sixth Street
> 210F Education Building
> Champaign, IL 61820-6990
> USA
>
> Telephone +1-217-333-8527
> Fax: +1-217-244-7620
> e-mail: g-cziko at uiuc.edu
> Web: http://garycziko.net
> Skype: garyjazz (http://www.skype.com)
> Google Talk: gcziko
> Amateur Radio: N9MJZ (IRLP 4280; EchoLink 8231);
>
> Founder, Station Manager, Program Director, Chief Engineer and Announcer
> The Latino Radio Service of La Casa Cultural Latina
> 1660 AM on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois
> ( http://latinoradioservice.org)
>
> Founder and Major Contributor
> ATALL Wikibook for
> Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning
> (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ATALL )
>
>
>

-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Gary Cziko
Professor
Educational Psychology & English as an International Language
University of Illinois
1310 S. Sixth Street
210F Education Building
Champaign, IL 61820-6990
USA

Telephone +1-217-333-8527
Fax: +1-217-244-7620
e-mail: g-cziko at uiuc.edu
Web: http://garycziko.net
Skype: garyjazz (http://www.skype.com)
Google Talk: gcziko
Amateur Radio: N9MJZ (IRLP 4280; EchoLink 8231);

Founder, Station Manager, Program Director, Chief Engineer and Announcer
The Latino Radio Service of La Casa Cultural Latina
1660 AM on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois
(http://latinoradioservice.org)

Founder and Major Contributor
ATALL Wikibook for
Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning
(http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ATALL)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/rfu-automation/attachments/20060624/e840a9ad/attachment.htm