From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jeremiah Dodds Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: OT: appropriateness of "random" for playlist generation (was: random doesn't feel very random) Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:45:43 -0400 Message-ID: <87boi08nm0.fsf@friendface.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> References: <876288yh72.fsf@kanis.fr> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1345812359 16609 80.91.229.3 (24 Aug 2012 12:45:59 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:45:59 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs devel To: Ivan Kanis Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Aug 24 14:45:57 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1T4tGu-0003YB-Fh for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:45:56 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47699 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T4tGs-0003yV-Qe for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:45:54 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:44212) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T4tGp-0003yQ-RX for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:45:52 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T4tGo-0002t5-IT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:45:51 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-iy0-f169.google.com ([209.85.210.169]:56908) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T4tGo-0002sm-Do for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:45:50 -0400 Original-Received: by iahk25 with SMTP id k25so3847893iah.0 for ; Fri, 24 Aug 2012 05:45:49 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=from:to:cc:subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id :user-agent:mime-version:content-type; bh=LCe64THYTL9cpN+fkbJRCz3o9EyD2JwcT1IgK/oA2qs=; b=q5z+okx0eifgXUv179EhfwpUD2rL+VXDJ/Jwh5STliyJoICQkwc4YWKvJwHvDX6HIF jnTWrkJiwVazj66ePA9KB59UjIfy3iLdIRa6xiZW2nJNzOtRy/XZDONYsdNJbc3YtkVY ++pSjnzWQtkqqPNIG9NisrjCuuoEjnvLT/S11uLY0HCw+jkAV8iOSRcnG12qs5x6ZFeu 2IgKyfW/0NPZTOI82ogfwzi6Vr+iKPLuauoxDDtbbyXbz7WE9yXpNSYtAr5kTax2wQoq R5EpWbERzsT1lNqBpHioEGoXp9Er23o9r8ZRvJqEyY46K5tp/EQvu2DDvVhsCYFoOAV7 P2bg== Original-Received: by 10.50.191.227 with SMTP id hb3mr2014699igc.45.1345812349245; Fri, 24 Aug 2012 05:45:49 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from friendface (cpe-184-56-72-181.neo.res.rr.com. [184.56.72.181]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id q1sm6482006igj.15.2012.08.24.05.45.47 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Fri, 24 Aug 2012 05:45:47 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <876288yh72.fsf@kanis.fr> (Ivan Kanis's message of "Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:47:29 +0200") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.2.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 209.85.210.169 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:152802 Archived-At: Ivan Kanis writes: > I am using random for generating music play list. I have found that it > is not random enough. It keeps playing the same tracks. > > I have even wrote a cache of recently played tracks so that it tries > harder. Obviously it's a band aid. > > Yes I am just talking about "feeling" here. I don't know how to prove > that random does not work. Is it even possible? > > On a side note are we using /dev/random? FWIW, I've never found even "good" random algorithms to be good for the purposes of playing music, especially when your collection is large. I like to listen to albums as a whole, and in particular I'd like to listen to random albums that I haven't heard before, if any are present. A lot of times, this can end up with you hearing multiple artists in a row. I actually went so far as to write my own little mp3 player that uses an algorithm that can be summed up as "play me a random album from a random artist that was not the last artist played", which sounds a lot more "random" to my ears, but is technically much more stable. -- Jeremiah Dodds blog : http://jdodds.github.com github : https://github.com/jdodds freenode : exhortatory twitter : kaens