Reconversion Update

Prior to shutting down the 3 devices that were used to rip CDs from Friday night until today (Sunday) at 1:10 PM, I ran a DIR command to get a count of the number of MP3s I created by ripping the CDs. The result of that DIR command is 2175 MP3s and 156 base folders. I made great progress but now it is time for me to shower.

Sweetness to the Ears

There's something about watching your son play drums that simply cannot be explained. The U of I drumline camp ended last night with a final concert. I recorded audio of it, with my phone, and Karen recorded some video. Alex played really well and I was happy to hear his instructors tell me he was a good kid. I think he's a good kid so it's sweetness to the ears when someone that has only known him for less than 7 days tells you that you have a good kid.

Another thing that is going on is that I have made considerable progress with the CD reconversion. On the Elkader PC, I've ripped 227 MP3s.
On the Toshiba laptop, I've ripped 173 MP3s.
On the work laptop, I've ripped 205 MP3s.

Doing the math, that's 605 MP3 files that have been added to the CD reconversion project. I'm working on Spindle #30 and "only" have Spindle #31 remaining of my spindles. Then I move on to the 200 CDs from Indy and the 990 CDs in the racks. I started ripping the CDs on the rack because the majority of those CDs are not CD-Rs so I don't have to do any manual work, like looking up artist and album information online because Windows Media Player is looking that up automatically and using the online database to fill in that information for me. I have 34 CDs remaining on Spindle #30 and three being ripped concurrently on the aforementioned devices.

I'm being summoned for breakfast.

Music Reconversion Status

As of Friday, June 20, 2014, my music count was
51844 File(s) 274,732,368,654 bytes
As of Friday, June 27, 2014, my music count is
52942 File(s) 279,323,192,282 bytes.
  52942
- 51844 
    1098 added in a week.

Stats and More

I was up until a little past midnight working on a DOS batch file to give myself an update on the files and folders that exist on the MyCloud drive. I have multiple partitions and now I have DIR commands to tell me information about the files / folders on each partition in a single batch file. The code is below, more for my future reference than anything else, but before I get to that, here's something interesting. The first file that was created by the code below has a date stamp of 12:10 AM and the final file that was created has a date stamp of 5:03 AM. This means that I will need to *not* expect to run this specific batch file and expect a quick response. What I may do is split it up into multiple files and then have a master batch file that will run individual drives. I haven't designed that yet so I have no further details about that.

My count for today is: 52339 File(s), but that number is somewhat misleading when I think about the cleaning up that needs to be done. Specifically, here's a random folder. The files in bold are duplicates and need to be removed.

Directory of y:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\NineDollarMelonBaller\I'll Give You Something To Cry About

06/11/2014  09:16 PM    <DIR>          .
04/13/2014  10:32 AM    <DIR>          ..
12/07/2013  12:50 PM         4,111,513 01 Fry the Bastard Tuna.mp3
12/07/2013  12:50 PM         4,111,513 01-Fry the Bastard Tuna-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:50 PM         3,367,168 02 Zen Book of Lyrics.mp3
12/07/2013  12:50 PM         3,367,168 02-Zen Book of Lyrics-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:51 PM         3,432,637 03 Ex.mp3
12/07/2013  12:51 PM         3,432,637 03-Ex-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:51 PM         5,988,847 04 Third Wheel.mp3
12/07/2013  12:51 PM         5,988,847 04-Third Wheel-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:52 PM         5,339,995 05 One Bedroom Apartment.mp3
01/24/2014  12:29 PM         5,339,995 05-One Bedroom Apartment-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:52 PM         5,623,138 06 His Evidence.mp3
01/24/2014  12:29 PM         5,623,138 06-His Evidence-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:53 PM         3,815,026 07 Paperthin.mp3
01/24/2014  12:29 PM         3,815,026 07-Paperthin-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:53 PM         3,968,065 08 Underwear.mp3
01/24/2014  12:29 PM         3,968,065 08-Underwear-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:53 PM         4,480,141 09 Celery Cap.mp3
01/24/2014  12:29 PM         4,480,141 09-Celery Cap-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/07/2013  12:53 PM         7,686,871 10 Hyde.mp3
01/24/2014  12:30 PM         7,686,871 10-Hyde-NineDollarMelonBaller-I'll Give You Something To Cry About.mp3
12/22/2013  12:35 PM            12,745 AlbumArt_{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}_Large.jpg
12/22/2013  12:35 PM             3,011 AlbumArt_{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}_Small.jpg
12/22/2013  12:35 PM             3,011 AlbumArtSmall.jpg
12/28/2013  12:54 PM                43 desktop.ini
12/22/2013  12:35 PM            12,745 Folder.jpg
              25 File(s)     95,658,357 bytes

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DOS Batch Code

REM | 20131230
REM | Create date folder
cd\
e:
cd e:\music_shell
cd e:\music_shell\(_______Date
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~7,2%_%Date:~4,2%
mkdir %today%
REM | Begin commands for the entire music_shell folder
cd\
e:
cd music_shell
dir e:\music_shell\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\allfolders_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_shell_2TB.txt
REM | Begin commands for the music_reconversion folder
cd\
e:
cd music_shell\Music_reconversion
dir e:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od>e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\allfolders_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
REM | Begin commands for the music_youtube folder
cd\
e:
cd music_shell\music_youtube
dir e:\music_shell\music_youtube\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_youtube_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\music_youtube\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_music_youtube_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\music_youtube\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_music_youtube_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\music_youtube\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\music_youtube\allfolders_music_youtube_2TB.txt
REM | 20131230
REM | Create date folder
cd\
f:
cd f:\music_shell
cd f:\music_shell\(_______Date
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~7,2%_%Date:~4,2%
mkdir %today%
REM | Begin commands for the entire music_shell folder
cd\
f:
cd music_shell
dir F:\music_shell\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir F:\music_shell\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir F:\music_shell\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\allfolders_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir F:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_shell_2TB.txt
REM | Begin commands for the music_reconversion folder
cd\
f:
cd music_shell\Music_reconversion
dir f:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
dir f:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od>f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
dir f:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
dir f:\music_shell\Music_reconversion\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\allfolders_Music_reconversion_2TB.txt
REM | Begin commands for the music_youtube folder
cd\
f:
cd music_shell\music_youtube
dir F:\music_shell\music_youtube\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_youtube_2TB.txt
dir F:\music_shell\music_youtube\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_music_youtube_2TB.txt
dir F:\music_shell\music_youtube\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_music_youtube_2TB.txt
dir F:\music_shell\music_youtube\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >f:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\music_youtube\allfolders_music_youtube_2TB.txt
cd\
x:
cd x:\music_shell
cd x:\music_shell\(_______Date
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~7,2%_%Date:~4,2%
mkdir %today%
REM | Begin commands for the entire music_shell folder
cd\
x:
cd music_shell
dir x:\music_shell\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir x:\music_shell\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir x:\music_shell\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\allfolders_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir x:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_shell_2TB.txt
e:
cd e:\music_shell
cd e:\music_shell\(_______Date
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~7,2%_%Date:~4,2%
mkdir %today%
REM | Begin commands for the entire music_shell folder
cd\
e:
cd music_shell
dir e:\music_shell\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\allfolders_music_shell_2TB.txt
dir e:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>e:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_shell_2TB.txt
REM | Begin commands for the music_reconversion folder
s:
cd s:\music_shell
cd s:\music_shell\(_______Date
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~7,2%_%Date:~4,2%
mkdir %today%
REM | Begin commands for the entire music_shell folder
cd\
s:
cd music_shell
dir s:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s >s:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_shell_daughter.txt
REM | dir s:\music_shell\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >s:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\videofiles_music_shell_daughter.txt
REM | dir s:\music_shell\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >s:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\needtofix_music_shell_daugter.txt
REM | dir s:\music_shell\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >s:\music_shell\(_______Date\%today%\allfolders_music_shell_daughter.txt
REM | Begin commands for the music_reconversion folder
cd\
cd C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~7,2%_%Date:~4,2%
mkdir %today%
REM | Begin commands for the entire music_shell folder
cd\
w:
cd music_shell
dir w:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_shell_daughter.txt
REM | pause
REM | dir w:\music_shell\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\videofiles_music_shell_daughter.txt
REM | pause
REM | dir w:\music_shell\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\needtofix_music_shell_daugter.txt
REM | pause
REM | dir w:\music_shell\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\allfolders_music_shell_daughter.txt
REM | pause3
REM | dir w:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_shell_daughter.txt
cd\
c:
cd C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~7,2%_%Date:~4,2%
mkdir %today%
REM | Begin commands for the entire music_shell folder
cd\
q:
dir q:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_all_son.txt
dir q:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_son.txt
dir q:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_son.txt
dir q:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_son.txt
dir q:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_son.txt
r:
dir r:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_all_smartware.txt
dir r:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_smartware.txt
dir r:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_smartware.txt
dir r:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_smartware.txt
dir r:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_smartware.txt
s:
dir s:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_all_public.txt
dir s:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_public.txt
dir s:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_public.txt
dir s:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_public.txt
dir s:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_public.txt
t:
dir t:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_all_mom.txt
dir t:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_mom.txt
dir t:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_mom.txt
dir t:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_mom.txt
dir t:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_mom.txt
u:
dir u:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_all_kevin.txt
dir u:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_kevin.txt
dir u:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_kevin.txt
dir u:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_kevin.txt
dir u:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_kevin.txt
v:
dir v:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_all_hanson.txt
dir v:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_hanson.txt
dir v:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_hanson.txt
dir v:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_hanson.txt
dir v:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_hanson.txt
w:
dir w:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_w_daughter.txt
dir w:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_w_daughter.txt
dir w:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_w_daughter.txt
dir w:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_w_daughter.txt
dir w:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_w_daughter.txt
x:
dir x:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_family.txt
dir x:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_family.txt
dir x:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_family.txt
dir x:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_family.txt
dir x:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_family.txt
y:
dir y:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_y_daughter.txt
dir y:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_y_daughter.txt
dir y:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_y_daughter.txt
dir y:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_y_daughter.txt
dir y:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_y_daughter.txt
z:
dir z:\*.* /o /s >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_dad.txt
dir z:\*.flv *.mp4 *.web* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_videos_dad.txt
dir z:\*___* *-* *_* *___* *--* /s /od >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_fixers_dad.txt
dir z:\a* b* c* d* e* f* g* h* i* j* k* l* m* n* o* p* q* r* s* t* u* v* w* x* y* z* >C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_allfolders_dad.txt
dir z:\*.mp3 *.wav *.wma /s /od>C:\Users\Hanson\Desktop\Date\%today%\mostrecentcount_music_dad.txt

The Tunnel Shortens

When I checked the status of the copying of files from the MyCloud drive to the new external hard drive last night, I noticed that Windows Media Player is rearranging folders based upon its settings. Since it's too late to change those settings now, I plan to use a utility to compare the source folder on the MyCloud drive to the destination folder on the external hard drive. Easily, this copying will be done when I get home as there were less than 300 folders remaining when I checked its status before I came in to work.

After the files have been copied to the new external hard drive, and prior to resuming the actual ripping of CDs, I will run a DOS batch file to get an updated count. Because of Uncle Rico rehearsal on Monday night and Alex's baseball game last night, I haven't done any actual ripping of CDs since last week. I guess you could call it a break from the conversion as a focus on the administrative task of copying files.

Yeah... about that.

I kicked off copying files to the new external hard drive on Friday morning at 6 and though that by today it would be done copying. Nope. Last night, when I returned home after Uncle Rico rehearsal, it was barely over 33% complete. There was bad weather last night so it pained me to cancel the copying with 1000 folders copied out of a total of 2770 folders. Today, I kicked off the copying job again with the hope that it is done by, oh, Friday.

Thus, what I thought would be news I could share this morning or even last night is not present.

More details forthcoming as they develop.

Music Piracy

Byron Stephens makes sense. Who is that? He is the author of the following comment in response to this article:

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There is another side of this coin as well, back in the old days before Napster, we would trade tapes that were recorded from a original recording and that is how metal got it's start in America, especially Thrash. Hell, Metallica owes their entire career to tape trading because Johnny Z got a copy of their demo from a friend that found it at a flea market. (There is absolutely no irony there) We would get a demo from a band that handed it out for free then it would be copied hundreds of times and passed out to an entire network of fans connecting through ads in fanzines (the internet before there was an internet.) at parties, between friends, and at shows, etc. We have always had technology that allows us to share music, from tapes, to CDs to file sharing, it's really all the same thing. Is it right or wrong? That is up for debate and your own moral compass. I am just pointing out it's nothing new and the technology to copy music has always been available. Is giving your girlfriend a mix CD pirating? It's technically illegal but everybody does it. Also if you do explore the torrent sites you can find stuff that is out of print and rare stuff like imports, b sides, etc. Stuff that is not available on any of the pay outlets. The only place you can get Pantera's back catalog pre Phil is on the torrent sites because they don't want to admit to even being a band before 1991. So if you want to support your bands, go to shows and by their merch, and most likely they will have their CD available for sale and I would imagine the sale of that CD will bring more money to the band than buying it at the big box store or net outlets. So bottom line is as long as there is a free internet. blank CD's and a way to copy music there will be piracy and most of us will partake. We know how to support our favorite bands and should do so, but if I can get another rare Kyuss B side that is not available anywhere else then I'm gonna do it.

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I write about ripping my 4,884 CDs to MP3 or converting my 1000 cassettes to MP3 on this blog. I have an enormous music collection. Why? The three most common ways I have ever come across new music are:

1. Received music for the purpose of writing a music review. I did music reviews for well over a decade. Since I don't actively seek out music to review, this method has rapidly declined.
2. Borrowing a CD and ripping it / trading music. This has been done since back in 4th grade with JR when we would put our cassette players speaker to speaker to get "the latest" songs. Since then, I've traded cassettes as well as CDs. The latest example is when I ripped Margaret's CDs last month.
3. Purchasing / receiving music as a gift. The sub-categories I immediately think of are garage sales, buying music at Slacker's in St. Louis, and buying music during NCYC in Indianapolis in November 2013.

So, I get it.

Moving Forward

I did purchase the 2 TB external hard drive yesterday for $80 and at midnight, I started the copy job from my network folder that stores all of my music to the new external hard drive. I checked the status of the copying this morning at 6 AM. According to the time stamp, it took Windows XP 18 minutes to actually begin copying files because the "created date" for the earliest / oldest created folder is 12:18 AM. There were 129 folders created. I am not overly confident that it will be done copying when I get home tonight. There are at least 2700 folders that are in the source directory.

As I mentioned, I have an issue with duplicate files in my music folder. I ran some DOS batch files to get numbers that further clarify the issue.

2s = 39
3s = 1902
4s = 1165
5s = 516
6s = 217
7s = 74
@s = 2590
     6503 these are duplicate files that include duplicate .ini files, duplicate .jpg files
- 52627 this was my count yesterday - HOWEVER, it does not include .ini files or .jpg files.
  46124

Anyways, the conversion project for CDs is quite possibly going to be less important as Karen and I talked about scanning our photos in preparation for Megan's graduation party. We talked about how to approach it. I would like to scan the photos for an entire photo album. I haven't gone further than that to plot out what it will take to get all of our photos to digital. I don't even have a count for how many photos we have because they are all in bins in the storage room. I think what we should do is scan each photo, regardless of who is in the picture. I thought Karen made a good point in that we will be further ahead if we consider that in 3 short years, we will have Alex's graduation as well. That plays into the idea of scanning every photo we have and, somehow, tagging the .jpg file so that we can locate the appropriate picture. I don't really know if it is going to be practical to separate pictures into separate folders by who is in the photo. Say there's a folder for Karen, a folder for Megan, a folder for Alex, and a folder for me. The next picture to be scanned is a photo of Karen, Megan, and Alex. What folder does it go into? You're thinking, "Ah! Create a folder called "Family" and put the photo in that folder. That would work, temporarily. The next photo is of Karen, Megan, and Megan's friend. Does that go into "Family" or does a new folder get created called "Friends" to store that folder?

That's why I think it's probably going to come down to assigning tags to each photo. There can be a code assigned to each photo album, like P-1, P-2, etc. and there can be a folder for each photo album, but it's really going to come down to how well are the pictures tagged. I'm not really interested in spending a lot of time renaming files. I don't really give a damn if the file name is really odd or that it is impossible to say who is in the picture by looking at the file name. It's going to be so much easier to add the following 18 tags to a photo of Karen's family:

1. Alex
2. Karen
3. Megan
4. Paul
5. Louis
6. Jean
7. Barb
8. Danny
9. Anna
10. Dave
11. Chris
12. Emily
13. Rachel
14. Adam
15. Mark 
16. Susie
17. Jonathan
18. Tyler

I cannot imagine a file name that would have those 18 names in it. Then it would get even more complicated because there would be more than one picture with all of us in it and because you can't  have the same file name in the same folder, what then?

That's why I'm thinking I need to better research the freeware for adding tags to photos.

Farewell WMP?

In additional conversion news, I have my eyes set on Media Monkey as a replacement for Windows Media Player. I'm also cautiously looking at Tag&Rename - music files tag editor as a way to get my file names in some sort of order. In the past, I discovered that if I didn't have values in the tag fields, like Artist or Album, this type of tool would use a blank. Now, if it would have added text like "Need Artist Name" or "Need Album Name" as a visual cue that work needed to be done, I'd have been happier!
Editor's Note: As of 2/1/2017, I continue to use Windows Media Player.

Replaceing the Deceased

Today, I am picking this up for $80. It was posted on the Iowa City Craigslist site 2 months ago and I intend to use it as an additional external hard drive for the conversion projects.

Brand New (sealed) WD My Book Essential 2TB USB 3.0/2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

Ask for $80
Cash and local only.


PRODUCT DETAILS
Western Digital External Drive with USB 3.0 Connectivity - Stream movies and Internet video to your HD TV

Put your digital life on the sleek, high capacity My Book® Essential™ external hard drive. With WD quality and USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity, this drive is designed for today with tomorrow in mind. Visual backup software and password protection with hardware encryption ensure your data is protected. Lightweight and easy to carry, this drive is ideal for fast storage to go.

2TB
Dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility
Up to 3x faster transfer rates with USB 3.0
Protecting your data with automatic, continuous backup
Password protection and hardware encryption
Dimensions 6.5"L x 5.3"W x 1.9"H (2.6lbs)
2-year limited warranty

Every 8 Days

I keep a hard copy journal. It is a 10 year project that began on 1/1/2012 and ends on 12/31/2021. Its duration is 120 months. I divided up the 120 months into 24 5 subject 200 page spiral notebooks. Each section of each notebook is assigned a month/year combination. For example, I am currently writing in volume 21, section 4. This volume has the following month/year combinations:

1. Section 1: 9/13
2. Section 2: 9/20
3. Section 3: 8/20
4. Section 4: 6/14
5. Section 5: 7/18

The reason I am writing about this project on this blog is that yesterday, I was talking to a co-worker, Jay. He and I were looking at examples of technical documentation and we happened to come to a math website where you could enter equations and have the website give you the answer. I said, "I wonder if it could figure out every 8 days from a starting date to an end date." Jay looked at me with a puzzled look and said, "Every 8 days?"

That led into a description of the second element of this 10 year project. I have a separate spiral notebook that has a page for each month of each year in the project. At the end of the 12 pages for a year, there are empty pages for me to write a summary of that year. I wanted to have a set schedule for when I would write in this volume so I came up with the idea of every 8 days. In this way, I am not writing in it the same day of every week. I started with Monday, January 2, 2012, and most recently wrote in this volume on Sunday, June 8. The next scheduled entries are

• Monday, June 16
• Tuesday, June 24

Then, in July, the scheduled entries are:

• Wednesday, July 2
• Thursday, July 10
• Friday, July 18
• Saturday, July 26

Then, I skip a week and write on Sunday, August 3. So, when I said I wanted to figure out "every 8 days", I wanted to do that so I could put the dates in this volume on each month's page. I write on the front and back of the page and I write roughly a 1/2 page for each day. There are never more than 5 entries per month so it works out well. For some months, like this month, there are 3 entries and then I write a full back of a page for that last entry.

All of this windy prose is leading to a point. Jay mentioned Google Calendar and wondered if setting up a recurring event that is scheduled for every 8 days would get what I wanted. I opened it, created a new event, scheduled it for every 8 days and set an end date of 12/31/2021. I now have what I want and can enter each month's dates in my summary volume.

When I write about having a lot of projects going on in my busy life, this journal project is one of them. It doesn't mean I am not stopping / continuing with my other projects. For example, I just finished another spindle of CDs. One of them, from the death metal band Hypnos, has a track called "I am the Wind" buried as track 8 of 9. I have always loved this song. It has such an awesome tempo and structure. The drumming is interesting, especially at the 3:57 mark when the growly vocals kick in, followed by the guitar solo that isn't trying to cram a bunch of notes down the ear - it's quite melodic.

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As for a count of how many music files I now have as a result of the conversion, I don't have that number. I have been dismayed by the number of duplicate files that exist from the effort to consolidate my files from multiple directories into a single directory. In some directories, like for Metallica's Black album, there are 72 files when there should be 12. I know that the number of these files is artificially inflating the count of files in my music directory. Additionally, I have also noticed that I have a lot of files with @(random numbers) appended to the end of the file. Those files are a result of copying from the other directories into the main music directory. I also want to eliminate those files as well to avoid inflating my progress.
I wrote some DOS commands to locate these files similar to these next lines.

Dir *(2)*.mp3 /s >2s.txt
Dir *(3)*.mp3 /s >3s.txt
Dir *(4)*.mp3 /s >4s.txt
Dir *(5)*.mp3 /s >5s.txt
Dir *(6)*.mp3 /s >6s.txt
Dir *@*.mp3 /s >at_files.txt

After I review the list from these commands, I will use more DOS commands to delete them. I don't want to blindly do that now because I don't really know whether I will be deleting files that legitimately have those characters in the file name. I suspect most of them are legitimately duplicate files, but I don't know that for sure.

There is a lot going on in my life that I hope to address in future posts. None of the things I want to write about are awful / bad news. Life is pretty damn good, especially after a conversation last night about a former employer with a parent of one of Alex's teammates. The parent I spoke with still works there and the more we talked, the more I felt that God truly does make things work out for me.

Update on the Reconversion

I was able to get a little work done on the reconversion over the weekend. I finished my 27th spindle so I am actually a little ahead of schedule.

I just messed around with my Excel file that I use to track my progress and, as of right now, it says the following:

Total CDs to convert	Total CDs converted	Total CDs left
4684	3003	1681

So, roughly, this project is 65% complete with 182 days until its target completion date of 12/1/2014. If I were to work on this project each of the next 182 days - which I know I will not because of prior commitments - I would need to convert around 9.23 CDs a day. That would presume my total number of CDs left to convert is 1638 CDs. If I round (incorrectly) up, and use a base estimate of 10 CDs a day, that would presume my total number of CDs left to convert is 1820 CDs.

I will keep working on the reconversion and pay more attention to my progress than the statistics that are tracking my progress.