On one hand, iTunes crashes all the time when I use it at home. On the other, it is completely awesome for use as an iPod content manager.
I just have one little problem: it uses its default sort rules too often. I have a few playlists that, when used together, make my life better.
Regular Music: genre is not X for qw(musical noise sfx ...)
Good Stuff: playlist is Regular Music, rating > 3
Four-Star Mix: playlist is Good Stuff, limit to 16 hours, choose by least recently played (yes, this gets five-star, too)
Three-Star Mix: playlist is Regular Music, Rating = 3, limit to 8 hours, choose by least recently played
Radio RJBS: playlist is Four-Star Mix OR playlist is Three-Star Mix
So, this makes Radio RJBS an awesome playlist for every day. It's mostly music I rated 4-5 stars, with a lot of 3-star songs. At the end of the day, everything I heard gets circulated out until I've cycled through everything. I used to just have the 4-5 star music, but it wasn't enough and I was getting a little tired of it. So, I added the three-star stuff and immediately noticed it was all NOTHING BUT TORI FREAKING AMOS. I was going to castrate myself in a fit of man-hate.
Then I realized that there was so much three-star music, even after sorting by least-recently played, that it was going to a next level of sorting. Since I can't specify that second level of sorting, it used its default: by artist, then by album. I had to redefine the list to have a hard limit on last play: never played to completion, then limit to eight hours randomly. For now, that's fine. Eventually, I'm going to have to start futzing with the definition again.
I need a setting that says, "limit to X units by SORT, then randomize." Still, Radio RJBS is a darn rocking station. Now, if only I could mix in unrated songs and have the iPod glow blue when they were playing, so I could rate them...
