Rate the Playing Song in iTunes with a few Keystrokes

One of the useful thing of iTunes is the ratings. With that it will help you quickly create a smart list, or help you quickly delete the songs you never want to listen to. But the problem for me is that I never want to go back to iTunes’ interface to do this, or I want to lose focus to use a mouse to click on some interface no matter on menubar or somewhere my desktop. With the help of those quick launch apps, it is easy to do this with just a few keystrokes, and you will never lose focus of current job. With the help of Applescript, it is quite easy to do.

I list the applescripts I use to give the current playing song a rate from 1 star TO 5 stars. Because the rating system currently used in iTunes is 0-100, you will never see a star in my scripts.

Rate 1 star:

tell application "System Events"
    if (name of processes) contains "iTunes" then
        set iTunesRunning to true
    else
        set iTunesRunning to false
    end if
end tell

if iTunesRunning then
    tell application "iTunes"
        set rating of current track to 20

        next track  
    end tell
end if

Change the rating in the script to 40 for 2 stars, and so on.

A Tedious Long List to Report Text Message Spam to AT&T

Via TidBITS, never known it is such a long list of things to do

  1. Bring up the text message in Messages and be sure not to click any URLs embedded in the message.

  2. Tap Edit.

  3. Tap the empty circular (radio-style) button to the left of the unwanted message. The Forward button activates.

  4. Tap the Forward button.

  5. Enter 7726 (the numeric equivalent of the letters SPAM on a telephone keypad) and tap Send.

  6. AT&T responds with a message asking you to send the number from which the message originated.

  7. You can write down the number of the spam and then tap it in, but you can also use my uncle’s trick here too. Back at the spam message, tap Add Contact > Create New Contact, and either make that “Sir Spam-a-Lot” entry or tap Add to Existing Contact if you already have one. (If this number is already in an entry, tap Contact.)

  8. Now tap the number that was added (or is already there in the Edit screen), tap Select All, and tap Copy.

  9. Tap Done to close the Contact view.

  10. Navigate back to the message you received from AT&T, tap in the Text Message field, tap Paste, and tap Send.

  11. You will receive a response from AT&T that they “appreciate your assistance.”

Nostalgia

Childhood in summer

Mose of Mice

From New Yorker

From New Yorker

RIP Steve

No matter you use Mac or not, have any iThings or not, Steve Jobs and Apple changed the industry.

RIP Steve.

And watch Gizmodo’s tribute video and now classic Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

I can’t resist repost this

Sagan

Via Boingboing, Bad Astronomy

If you can’t get it, look here and here

TSA Officer Pleads to $30,000 in Theft

From The Philadelphia Inquirer

Via Daring Fireball

Every #1 Pop Single in 5-second sample

More than an hour long, so it is a little less than 900 songs.
Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 1 by mjs538 Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 2 by mjs538

Via Boingboing

Ronaldo retires

Is that mean the end of the era?

E-Ink device for notes

noteslate

NoteSlate is a E-Ink tablet just for writing with a price tag at $99.  Looks very promising.  If it would offer PDF display better than the Kindles, this device is perfect.

BTW, the main reason I chose iPad other than a Kindle is the PDF viewing experience, that’s a huge thing for me.

Via Kottke